“The Spooky Science of Pipe Organs”

 On Saturday, Oct. 24, the National Music Museum (NMM) hosted a Halloween-themed event featuring songs performed on a 200-year-old pipe organ. 

     The event included a chance to discover how pipe organs work through the NMM’s “Organ Experience,” showcasing how a miniature, fully functional pipe organ is assembled by Anna Van Kley. Van Kley is the Museum Educator who led the hands-on workshop session of the event.

     “We planned this event because we wanted to do a fun Halloween related program for October. When we think of spooky music, organs are common in a lot of Halloween music or movies, and we have a playable pipe organ on display, so we decided to host a special event for the holiday,” Van Kley said.  

     The NMM will typically does an organ-related event each year, but it hasn’t always been Halloween themed.

     Songs including Hear Bach’s “Toccata in D Minor” and “Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette” were performed by Tommy Gress.

     “He was a natural choice for us,” Van Kley said. 

     The NMM chose Gress to play the organ with his previous experience as an intern working on the Myron Floren collection at the museum. He also plays an organ at a church in Vermillion. 

     The organ was originally installed in Zion Lutheran & Reformed Church, Orwigsburg, PA and was dedicated on Oct. 16, 1808. The organ was used in the new church until 1940 when a new organ was purchased. The Dieffenbach organ was saved by collectors and purchased in 1990 by the NMM.

     Visitors were able to learn about the parts of organs and how they are made, and then even get to play on the miniature organ they helped build. 

     Mira Weber is a second year medical lab science major at the University of South Dakota who attended the event with Grant Kirk, a music education major from North Dakota State University. 

     “Honestly we had no idea this event was happening and we just stumbled upon it. It was a happy accident,” Weber said. 

     Weber liked the history about the event, specifically how the churches in Switzerland were mentioned and how the churches managed the organs.

     “That [building an organ] was an awesome way to teach, especially an audience that’s not familiar with music, about how an organ works,” Kirk said. 

     Van Kley had volunteers come up to the front to help put the organ together. 

     The next NMM event will be on November 6 at noon where Mariachi Los Caballeros will perform traditional mariachi music. 

Photo Credit: Colton Tolly