Chapel Organ
The first College organ was installed in 1850 in Seabury Hall, a building constructed on the original campus of Washington College (now Trinity College). This organ was located in the Chapel room on the ground floor of the building. After Trinity moved to its current campus and the Trinity Chapel was constructed in 1932, Boston-based organ company Aeolian-Skinner constructed the first organ for the Chapel. This organ was designed by G. Donald Harrison, the leading organ architect and tonal designer of the day. The organ was designed such that most of the pipes were located in the area behind the large opening in the north wall, and only the largest and tonally lowest pipes were located in the nave of the Chapel. These lower pipes would eventually be incorporated into the current Chapel organ, constructed by Hartford-based Austin Organ Company in 1972. The Trinity Chapel also houses a mechanical organ by Nicholson & Co. in its Crypt Chapel.
The current organ has three manuals, 66 stops, and 4,781 pipes of 79 ranks. Clarence Watters, Professor of Music and Trinity’s organist from 1932 until 1969, oversaw the design and construction of the Austin organ. It operates on low air pressure, which is thought among organ experts and appreciators to be one of the reasons for the tonal magnificence and transcendent clarity of 17th and 18th century organs. At present, all the pipes of the organ are located in the nave along with the pipes preserved from the original Aeolian Skinner iteration. They range from the size of a tree to the size of a pencil. In 1982, the Trompette de Jubilé was installed, a rank of 61 reed pipes chosen specifically because of its bright tonal quality. Given to the College in the year of the Chapel’s jubilee by Alfred M.C. MacColl ‘54 and designed by David Broom of Austin Organs, Inc., the Trompette adds even more tonal range to the organ. As a result, the Trinity Chapel organ contains the best innovations of organ construction of the past three centuries within its elegant and awe-inspiring form.
Throughout the academic year, the Chapel hosts an organ concert series presented by the Trinity Department of Music. All of these performances are free and open to the public, featuring several talented organists from the Trinity community and beyond. Trinity offers the unique opportunity for students to study organ music under the direction of Christopher Houlihan ‘09, the College Organist and Adjunct Professor of Music. Students who study organ music at Trinity are often featured in the organ concert series.
Sources
Chapel Music: Trinity Organ Series
Chapel Music: Studying Organ Music at Trinity
The Chapel of Trinity College (2007) by Peter Grant, pp. 62-63.
The Trinity Reporter, Spring 1983.