BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'St. Andrew's opts to close downtown church indefinitely after fire,' published Nov. 14.
I read the story about the decision to abandon downtown Barrie’s St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church with great sadness.
I wonder what will happen to the church’s old and superb Cassavant organ.
This Canadian company, established 144 years ago in Quebec, is well known in North America and in Europe for their traditionally built “tracker organs.”
In these organs, the keys are mechanically linked (tracker rods) to the organ pipes. More modern organs are actuated by electrical valves.
With a tracker organ, a skilled organist can modulate the way notes “build” and “fade” by touch. Organs with electrical valves don’t allow a similar level of control.
I sincerely hope that the organ will not be destroyed — that it will be dismantled and installed elsewhere, hopefully in Barrie.
It would be a great pity if this organ leaves Barrie.
Peter Bursztyn
Barrie
