The Gober Organ
The soaring, magnificent, 1317-pipe organ located in Holy Angels Catholic Church was
handcrafted by organ builder Halbert Gober in 1997 and acquired by our parish in late 2020. This magnificent instrument was custom-designed for another church with architecture substantially similar to that of Holy Angels Catholic Church. The organ was dismantled and moved here from its former location by Organ Clearinghouse. Following the reassembly of the organ case by OCH, Hal Gober himself is completing the assembly process. This gives him the opportunity to update, refresh, and ‘tweak’ things as needed, something an organ builder rarely has the opportunity to do. Parish volunteers helped wash each pipe so that with the help of doctoral student David Casun, Hal can painstakingly “revoice” the organ for perfect resonance in this church. A “back” for the organ – not needed in its original location – is being designed and crafted by parishioner Tim Jones with the assistance of other artisans.
Named “Hal Gober’s Opus 5,” this mechanical tracker pipe organ continues in the construction tradition of the great cathedral organs of the 1700s and 1800s in Europe. Its central walk-through arch perfectly frames the altar, crucifix, and tabernacle as you enter the church sanctuary; its wood tones resonate with the architectural beauty of the church interior.
Apart from the commercially made screws holding the organ together, every single part of this instrument is custom hand-made, from the biggest pieces down to the very tiniest of parts – thousands and thousands of parts. Its lead pipes, ranging in size from 16 feet to pencil-size and smaller, are very soft and malleable and must be carefully handled to avoid dents or damage.
The Opus 5 came to Holy Angels Catholic Church in November 2020, after the church for which it was designed dissolved and the property offered for sale. While there have been many pipe organs “orphaned” in recent years because of similar circumstances – especially in the eastern United States – only rarely does an instrument of such quality become available for relocation.
Distinguished Instrument
Pipe organs are expensive, but a well-crafted organ made to last centuries, is among the most economical and ecological artifacts human beings have ever made. In addition, they are singularly useful for the praise of God and so given pride of place in the Church’s sacred music.
A good quality electronic organ is also expensive but, has a lifespan of only decades, and is incapable of recreating the rich sounds of air moving through the pipes of a traditional mechanical tracker organ such as the Hal Gober Opus 5.
Consulting on the design and commission of the Opus 5 in 1997 was David Boe, former dean of the renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Professor Boe was instrumental in commissioning several of the finest organs in North America, and this instrument stands among this elite field of hallmark instruments.
To Holy Angels Catholic Church from Good Shepherd Lutheran
This Gober organ is unique in its physical layout – an ingenious design solution for Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, Ohio, which is a very tall A-frame church with no room for a choir loft and inadequate height for a pipe organ along the walls. In its original installation, the organ straddled the entrance of the church, taking advantage of the center height of the building.
As ingenious as this solution was, the unique, custom design made relocation of the organ difficult when the original church closed.
As it happens, Holy Angels Catholic Church architecture also features a gabled entrance, as well as a grand central height coupled with a low wall height, so that the Gober Opus 5 appears to built for our own unique circumstances. What the parish could not have dreamed of acquiring on its own by custom design was made possible by purchasing, relocating, and rebuilding this remarkable, orphaned instrument.
Faced with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a singular, world-class organ designed and built specifically for worship space similar to our own beautiful church, a group of Holy Angels parishioners formed the Holy Angels Music Guild and privately raised the funds needed to purchase and move this beautiful instrument from Brooklyn, Ohio to Basehor, Kansas.