4Ambassador 44 WWW.NIAF.ORG NO PIPE DREAM Erben Organ Historic 19th-Century Saving NewYork’s The MasterOrganist O the 20-ton pipe organ builtbymaster craftsman the 20-tonpipeorgan conducting thechoir,services, andcaringfor are choosingthemusicfor all ofthechurch’s church, andamonghismany responsibilities 30pedals. instrument’s the sametimethathisfeetdancedacross on roundknobsaboveandbesidethekeys,at keyboards or“manuals,”twicepausingtopull hands begantosweepacrosstheorgan’s three Suddenly,took hisplaceatthepipeorgan. his Lower Manhattanbasilica,Ilookedonashe forJaredLamenzo. my apartment—and halfthesizeof the choirloft,toaninstrument me unpreparedforthewindingstaircase up to the subwaytoSt.Patrick’s OldCathedral,left occupied withthesethoughts,asIwalkedfrom thantobeenvelopedbymusic?Pre- harmony sion ofnearbyfireworks.Whatbetterfeeling itisliketheexplo- presence ofapipeorgan, the body. us,asinthe Andwhenitsurrounds Lamenzo isMusicDirector attheNolita inthe afternoon On thatfrigidJanuary listens with the heart. Musicisfeltin listens withtheheart. no sophistication,astheuntrainedear musicalonerequires forms, f alltheart and that’s whatwe’rehearingnow. Very few Lamenzo says.“Thiswasdone 150yearsago soundsintheroom,” to produceparticular resonance. “Thebuilderregulates thepipes overall of eachpipebutalsotheinstrument’s “voicing,” thesound refer totheinstrument’s because itpossessesitsoriginalacousticsbase.” Lamenzo says.“TheErbenhasauniquesound components. “That’s acurse and ablessing,” 1860s, theErbenhasnearlyallitsoriginal listening tothepast.” Lamenzosays,“youare you hearthisorgan,” in LatinAmericaandacrossEurope.“When ondozensofhistoricpipeorgans performed Italian Americanmusicianrecalls.Hehas andbeautiful,”theaccomplished was different “The momentIgothere,knewthisorgan quirks, itishardtoimagineasinanimate. The soundissublime. expandinginwinter.wooden parts Nomatter. zo explains,issensitivetothechillyair, its Erben(1800-1884).TheErben,Lamen- Henry When describing an organ, musicians When describinganorgan, builtinthe Unlike otherpipeorgans Listening tohimspeakabouttheErben’s St. Patrick’s OldCathedral. acoustic spaceattheBasilicaof 1868 pipeorganinitsoriginal Jared Lamenzopracticesonthe

Courtesy of Jared Lamenzo Joshua South/Sidewalk Productions

nave whereworshipersare seated. gan becausetheyarebestheard inthechurch’s pipesinthefacade oftheor-uses stopsforlarge be heardorfeltintheroom. Lamenzooften ments, andotherscontrolwhere thesoundwill mimicthesoundoforchestral instru- organist (like blowingintoawhistle);somestopsletthe a stopclosesoropenspipestopressurizedair timbre.Pullingon each possessingadifferent tocontrolthe“ranks,”orsetsofpipes, organist vocalandgrand.” gan, andtheErben’s iswarm, oftheor- of stops.Stopsaretheprincipalchorus withoutafullplenum, afullcomplement organ thing inhimthattoldyoucan’t havean for thetime,”Lamenzosays.“Therewassome- Erben’s designwasconservative because Henry plicate. “IcanplayBaroquemusiconthisorgan Erben producesasoundthatisdifficulttodu- andthe says theblendingofthatlongertrumpet paniment oftheErben.Askedwhy, Lamenzo totheaccom- to rehearsehisBaroquetrumpet ofitssize.” is theonlyintactErbenorgan fromthatcentury, andthis survive instruments Lana Krakovskiy/Friends of the Erben Organ (College), withstudentsShannonMurphyandHannahLingenChen. Nagem, InstructorofOrganImprovisation/Literature/ServicePlaying of Music:AndrewHenderson,OrganDepartmentChair, andRaymond Jared LamenzohostspipeorganvisitorsfromtheManhattanSchool Stops aretheknobsandleversthatallow aEuropeanmusicianarrives That afternoon, family’s parish.Thebasilicaanditsgrounds 1940s, whenSt.Patrick’s OldCathedral washis called listeningtotheErben asaboyinthelate since the1860s. Street,asithas the lovelycathedralonMulberry ment that,despiteitscondition,ringsthrough raise $2milliontocleanandrepairtheinstru- Thenon-profit’sthe ErbenOrgan. goal isto which isthereasonheco-foundedFriendsof needed repairs,bothexceedLamenzo’s talents, attended. attheConnecticut church hisfamily the organ from theageof4.Hefirstbecameenamored a boy,” saysLamenzo,whohasplayedpiano was tinkeringoncarswithmydadwhenI neering degreefromHarvard. repairs madebyLamenzo,whoholdsanengi- in workingcondition,andsomehavetemporary cracked. NotalloftheErben’s are otherparts is “windchest,” onwhichthepipesarearrayed, has about2,500pipes,manycoatedindust.Its At arecentfundraiser, Scorsesere- Martin As fortheErben’s dustyinterior, andits “My degreehelpsalittlebit,butmostlyit theErben Originally amechanicalorgan,

Lana Krakovskiy/Friends of the Erben Organ

Cathedral. of St.Patrick’s Old cathedral, theBasilica New York City’s first Background: Inside with ivorycoveredstops. the 1868pipeorgan manual consoleof The originalthree- Lamenzo pullsthestops. U.S. tourwhileJared Erben organonhis2019 Donner performsonthe Austrian recitalistStefan Lana Krakovskiy/Friends of the Erben Organ Ambassador 45 WWW.NIAF.ORG was at Antietam, and probably was a different man afterward.” Charles’ signature is visible on some of the Erben’s pipes. “There is a magnif- icence to this instrument, a trium- phalism and sophistication, and then there is its unmistakable melancholy sound.” No visit to the Erben is complete without inspecting its pipes that are housed in a space of about 500 square feet behind the facade. Fifty Lana Krakovskiy/Friends of the Erben Organ thousand visitors have peered inside Jared Lamenzo with summer music campers. the organ in the last year. Lamenzo climbs up several steps in the dimly lit interior and points to a spot on one I love the Mendelssohn and Brahms of the taller pipes. “That is wax from symphonies. I just love early music,” the people who used to go up there to says Lamenzo. “As a child, music was tune it by candlelight,” he says. “Just connected for me to the voice of the like listening to the past when I play, divine. That has remained—I think I encounter it every time I have to music itself is divine.”

Joshua South/Sidewalk Productions adjust something.” To donate to Friends of the Erben View from the church floor: The three-story-high pipe Just then, there is a fleeting Organ, please visit https://erbenorgan.org/. organ, its 2,500 hand-crafted wood and metal pipes glimpse inside this husband and signed by the immigrant craftsmen who made them. father of two of the boy who was first Maria Garcia is a New York City-based captivated by the beauty and symme- author, writer and Ambassador magazine’s served as settings in three of his films. try of pipe organs—and classic cars. Cinema columnist. Her reviews and feature Celebrated for his film preservation As he brushes off dust from the articles also appear regularly in the Los work, Scorsese serves as honorary pipes, Lamenzo talks about his favorite Angeles Times and Cineaste. Her book, chair of Friends of the Erben Organ. pieces of classical music. “It’s hard to Cinematic Quests for Identity: The Cleaning and mending a pipe get started because, for me, this goes Hero’s Encounter with the Beast, was organ are tasks not easily undertaken. back to my dad,” he says of his beloved published in 2015. Visit her Facebook page, While all of these instruments have father, who died recently. “We used MariaGarciaNYC. See Maria’s Cinema components in common, in terms of to listen to Bach’s Magnificat in the column Four New Films by Italian sound design, no two are alike. “We car. We listened to a lot of Bach, but Directors, on page 56. want to conserve the organ, so first we need to do forensics when it is taken apart to learn how the builders did what they did,” Lamenzo says. Altogether, Lamenzo estimates that the Erben has 100,000 compo- nents. “A restoration like this means that the organ gets moved to a facility outside the city,” he says. “After spe- cialists do the cleaning, the organ is reassembled. It’s all very expensive.” For Lamenzo, who has played the Erben for the past 17 years, the instru- ment possesses a particular character. “The beautiful thing about this organ is the way it’s voiced, and it was voiced for this space,” he says. The Erben was built shortly after Jared Lamenzo speaks the Civil War, and Henry’s two sons, to children from Henry and Charles, the latter an or- St. Brigid’s School gan builder, fought in that war. “They about the Erben organ. were saying something with their WWW.NIAF.ORG

craft,” Lamenzo explains. “Charles Lana Krakovskiy/Friends of the Erben Organ

46 Ambassador