1838 Henry Erben Organ - Grace Episcopal Church - Galena, Illinois

Brent Johnson explores the Henry Erben pipe organ at Grace Episcopal Church in Galena, Illinois.
OHS entry for organ: pipeorgandatab...
Grace Episcopal Church: www.gracegalen...
Henry Erben: organhistorica...
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[@michaelmeyer7426]

Thanks for showing this instrument! I knew it well in 1974 when I lived in Galena--though the organ was NOT in good shape at that time. So glad work has been done to save and protect it!

[@alexross_organ]

Oh those bathroom organs! Thank you for sharing. This organ is just lovely! Lengthened chimneys are pretty common when the organ has been re-pitched to be lower -- also evidenced by the fact that the tuning ears are really closed. If the ears can't get you all the way down to A=440, you can cheat by lengthening the chimneys. Adding tuning slides to the open pipes also is pretty common on high-pitch organs that were brought down to A440. I can't stress enough how much the character of the sound changes (for the better) when the organ is restored to its original pitch!

[@RayWillard]

What a joy to hear this Erben organ. It reminds me of an 1835 Jardine organ in St. Mary's Episcopal church in Galena, Kansas. The Jardine is likely the oldest organ in midwest.

[@matthewray7065]

What a lovely instrument. Outstanding voicing.

[@Tracy-s2c]

Thanks for sharing love them pipe organs

[@05Forenza]

Old pipe organs like this are fascinating. There aren't many other things that were made almost 200 years ago that are still in use and being enjoyed by multiple people on a normal basis.

[@BenZuzelski]

Love the video and the “bathroom organ” and of course the “organ blower graffiti” 😂 What an interesting little organ!

[@agogobell28]

Oh wow, an old English-style GG-compass organ in Illinois!

[@danielmkubacki]

The Henry Erben Organ is so cute.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

I grew up in St Peter's Church in NYC, which had a three-manual Erben organ dating to 1838. Unfortunately, it was a wreck by the time I knew it in the 1960s, but it's great to get some sense of how it would have sounded, even though it was much larger than this instrument. It was a G-organ, with long-compass Great and Choir manuals, but the Swell division only went down to a tenor-C, as I remember. The Pedel was short compass as well with a 16-foot Open Diapason, but otherwise I think everything in the Pedel was played by coupling it to the Great or Choir. The Swell was originally operated by a hitch-down mechanism, but that was apparently converted to a balanced Swell pedel sometime in the 1870s. The organ went out of use in 1892, when a Roosevelt organ was added to the chancel to accompany the new vested choir. It was much smaller than the Erben, but it had an electric blower, which made it very popular with subsequent organists. The Erben case still survives, and the chests are still in place, along with some of the key action, but the console is long gone. The only complete rank of pipes remaining is the 16-foot Open Diapason in the Pedel. What other pipe work remains is scattered around inside the case.

[@tony_2024]

Your content is beyond awesome

[@andrewclark4673]

The organ was restored by Lansing Michigan organ builder Brian Fowler in 1995.

[@paulh5293]

Amazing. Would love to see the detail of just how that keyboard action works, never seen that before. And hearing "The Angel Gabriel" at 6'36 reminded me that Christmas is just around the corner. Generations of choirboys in the UK have no doubt sung the alternate lyrics to the "chorus"... during practice only of course ;) Thanks for posting.

[@organist1982]

Neat little gem of an organ! Why didn't organs like this have at least pull-down pedals back then?

[@earthlightsmusic2743]

With its greater downward range this could be played three or four-handed, allowing pedal lines to be performed. The principal-scaled 2-foot rank adds some real brightness, so I could see it playing some Bach, with some imagination.

[@roberttassone7676]

Galena is the great tragedy of Hellinois. So close yet so far from being founded on the other side of the river.

[@keyplayer123]

Galena was founded on the mining of lead. The location would seem inevitable.