The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius
The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius
The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius
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New <strong>College</strong> Organ<br />
Excitement is beginning to grow amidst <strong>the</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
community, as <strong>the</strong> new chapel organ is due to arrive from<br />
Canada soon. <strong>The</strong> container with its precious cargo<br />
travelling via <strong>the</strong> Panama Canal is expected at <strong>the</strong> <strong>College</strong> in late<br />
March. <strong>The</strong> various components of <strong>the</strong> instrument will <strong>the</strong>n be<br />
unpacked, littering <strong>the</strong> chapel with metal and wooden pipes, <strong>the</strong><br />
wooden casework, bellows, two 58 note keyboards, a 32 note<br />
pedal-board, an electrical blower, lots of intricate wooden parts<br />
of <strong>the</strong> mechanical action plus numerous electrical bits and pieces.<br />
Construction will <strong>the</strong>n begin. Final installation, which includes<br />
tonal balancing and adjustment of <strong>the</strong> voicing of <strong>the</strong> pipes,<br />
should be completed <strong>by</strong> early July.<br />
<strong>The</strong> blessing and<br />
dedication toge<strong>the</strong>r<br />
with a Spring Concert<br />
Series featuring <strong>the</strong><br />
organ alone and with<br />
choir and o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
instruments is currently<br />
being planned for early<br />
September. Please keep<br />
Sunday afternoon<br />
September 1 free in your<br />
diary.<br />
Our new organ was<br />
built <strong>by</strong> Orgues<br />
Letourneau of Saint-<br />
<strong>The</strong> new Chapel Organ in its<br />
former home, <strong>the</strong> Basilica of<br />
<strong>St</strong> Joseph in Edmonton, Canada<br />
Hyacin<strong>the</strong>, Quebec, and<br />
was <strong>the</strong> 22nd organ<br />
built <strong>by</strong> that firm.<br />
O<strong>the</strong>r instruments, <strong>by</strong><br />
Letourneau, to be found<br />
in New South Wales<br />
include <strong>St</strong> Alban’s<br />
Anglican Church,<br />
Epping, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, a private residence in<br />
Turramurra, <strong>St</strong> Mat<strong>the</strong>w’s Anglican Church, Albury, <strong>St</strong><br />
Andrew’s Ca<strong>the</strong>dral and <strong>St</strong> Mary’s Ca<strong>the</strong>dral, Sydney. This firm<br />
boasts one of <strong>the</strong> best-equipped factories in North America with<br />
state-of-<strong>the</strong>-art machinery making possible many multi-skilled<br />
operations necessary for large-scaled designs, construction and<br />
assembly.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new instrument for <strong>St</strong> <strong>Aloysius</strong>’ <strong>College</strong> chapel was<br />
originally built <strong>by</strong> Letourneau in 1989 and installed in <strong>St</strong> Joseph’s<br />
Ca<strong>the</strong>dral Basilica, Edmonton, Alberta, as <strong>the</strong>ir second organ<br />
designed to accompany <strong>the</strong> choir in <strong>the</strong> sanctuary. It became<br />
redundant due to <strong>the</strong> major remodelling and refurbishment of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Ca<strong>the</strong>dral, which is currently being undertaken. <strong>The</strong> new<br />
organ is visually quite impressive and imposing, standing 9.6<br />
metres high - with its splendid case of North American oak and<br />
shiny façade pipes of 70% polished tin.<br />
<strong>The</strong> original organ in our chapel, built <strong>by</strong> J. P. Eagles of<br />
Sydney in 1969, boasts a mere 320 pipes. <strong>The</strong> Letourneau organ,<br />
being a larger and much more complete musical instrument, has<br />
1,366 pipes. It <strong>the</strong>refore has <strong>the</strong> capacity for many different tonal<br />
colours and a much greater dynamic range than does <strong>the</strong> former<br />
instrument. It will provide greater animation of liturgical music<br />
and promises to be an instrument on which students can learn,<br />
practice and be examined for HSC organ music examinations.<br />
We all look forward to seeing and hearing this marvellous<br />
addition to our musical and liturgical resources.<br />
Our thanks go to Mrs Jo Lonergan and <strong>the</strong> <strong>College</strong> Council<br />
for <strong>the</strong>ir support in this project. To Reverend Fa<strong>the</strong>r Smith SJ,<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>College</strong> Bursar, Mr Laurie Byrne and <strong>the</strong> Director of<br />
Music, Mr Michael Hissey for guiding <strong>the</strong> project to fruition. To<br />
Mr Peter Kneeshaw (principal organist at <strong>St</strong> Mary’s Ca<strong>the</strong>dral)<br />
for acting as our organ consultant in a difficult process of<br />
international negotiation and to Reverend Fa<strong>the</strong>r David Rankin<br />
SJ for inspecting <strong>the</strong> instrument in Edmonton on our behalf.<br />
David Molloy<br />
Music Department<br />
<strong>The</strong> Jazz Combo performing at <strong>The</strong> Basement<br />
<strong>St</strong> <strong>Aloysius</strong>’ <strong>College</strong> Junior Jazz Combo<br />
<strong>The</strong> Summer Jazz Festival<br />
After a lot of rehearsing and hard work on Friday 22<br />
February 2002, <strong>the</strong> <strong>St</strong> <strong>Aloysius</strong> Jazz Combo, conducted<br />
<strong>by</strong> Miss Ruth De Rosa was ready to participate in <strong>the</strong><br />
Summer Jazz Festival at <strong>The</strong> Basement (a popular Jazz Club at<br />
Circular Quay.)<br />
We started <strong>the</strong> weekend on Saturday with workshops <strong>by</strong><br />
Mr Maynard Ferguson and his Big Bop Band. This famous<br />
group from <strong>the</strong> United <strong>St</strong>ates taught us a great deal about<br />
Jazz and certainly inspired us all. A high point of <strong>the</strong> day<br />
was when Mr Ferguson and his band gave us an exclusive show!<br />
We loved it!<br />
On Sunday <strong>the</strong> groups and ensembles who were attending<br />
gave performances before <strong>the</strong> critical ears of <strong>the</strong> visiting<br />
professionals. <strong>The</strong> <strong>St</strong> <strong>Aloysius</strong> group performed first. We<br />
presented two songs, ‘Afro Blue’ and ‘Little Sunflower’. After we<br />
played, a member from Maynard’s band came up and talked<br />
about how we performed and how we can improve our music.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y seemed pretty impressed and said some really encouraging<br />
things to us. <strong>The</strong> rest of <strong>the</strong> day was great, with many superb<br />
bands playing.<br />
On behalf of all <strong>the</strong> boys I would like to thank Miss De Rosa<br />
and all <strong>the</strong> teachers involved for working so hard to make our<br />
band sound fantastic!<br />
I’m sure all <strong>the</strong> boys enjoyed <strong>the</strong> experience and learnt a lot<br />
from it.<br />
Findley Hipkin<br />
Year 8<br />
24