Interview with Dean Fletcher in Riverside, California: The event that we are dealing with on this Sunday is actually a combined event. It is at the Catholic Cathedral in Los Angeles and we are just part of a thousand member choir and our part is probably the largest choir that is involved in the multi-denominational event. We are 80 and are the largest of the groups.
How did I get involved in singing? I’ve been singing since I was in high school. That was at Highland High School. What attracts me in singing with the choir? The camaraderie and the fact that we have an opportunity to sing for LDS congregations as well other congregations. There was a Baptist church that we did last year in Central Los Angeles but most of our opportunities are involved with ecclesiastical units of the church which are called Stakes. It’s like the Riverside Stake. We perform about twice a year for about nine months during the year. I’ve been involved with the choir for about 15 years.
The event at Lady of the Angels is at 7PM at the Cathedral downtown. There are about 14 songs we are singing and some of them have been commissioned by people who are well known and last year when we did it we did the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came down and this year there are many conductors and if you are talking about a thousand member choir it’s a big group and there is lots of music. Basically it is a non-denominational selection and the Cathedral is large. Our next event after Sunday night will be in the Santa Clarita area and we have another concert in Los Angeles at the Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in South Central Los Angeles. All of these concerts are a way to share our religion through music and it is a way to develop talents. This a regional choir and isn’t associated with any particular congregation of the church. It is similar in nature to the Mormon Tabernacle choir an there are congregations in each of the local units but this is diverse and they come from as far as Big Bea, Victorville and Ventura and Orange County and we meet once a week and practice in our building in Arcadia.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE CONCERTS COMING UP:
All concerts start at 7pm and are open to the public with free admission unless otherwise noted
More concerts and information will be added as plans are finalized.
Please check back prior to any concert for last minute changes.
- Sunday, February 12 - Festival of Choirs - Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels - 7pm; Mark Hayes and Stephanie Edwards, guest artists.
- Saturday, March 17 - Santa Clarita Stake Concert
- Sunday, April 1 - Santa Monica Stake Concert - Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church
- Sunday, April 8 - Easter Sunrise Service - Forest Lawn Covina
- Saturday, May 5 - Menifee Stake Concert
- Saturday, May 19 - Rancho Cucamonga Stake Concert
- Saturday, June 30 - Arcadia Stake Patriotic Concert - 614 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, California
Of course when they are singing at the Cathedral they will have an organ almost as powerful as the one in Salt Lake City but not quite. The Tabernacle organ is considered to be one of the finest examples of the American Classic style of organ building. Inspired by the design of the Boston Music Hall organ, the original organ was built in 1867 by an Australian, Joseph Ridges. Ridges' instrument contained some 700 pipes and was constructed of locally derived materials as much as possible. The pipes are constructed of wood, zinc, and various alloys of tin and lead. When it was initially constructed, the organ had a tracker action and was powered by hand-pumped bellows; later it was powered by water from City Creek. Today it is powered by electricity and has an electro-pneumatic action.
Though the organ has been rebuilt and enlarged several times since 1867, the original, iconic casework and some of Ridges' pipes still remain in the organ today.[4] The current organ is largely the work of G. Donald Harrison of the former Aeolian-Skinner organ firm. It was completed in 1948 and contains 11,623 pipes, 147 voices (tone colors) and 206 ranks (rows of pipes).
HOWEVER THE ORGAN AT OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS IS A CLOSE CONTENDER
The pipe organ of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels was commissioned from Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., of Lake City, Iowa. According to one authority, it is the 89th largest pipe organ in North America and the 143rd largest in the world.
Lynn A. Dobson, owner and president of the company, collaborated with Cathedral architect Rafael Moneo in the visual design of the organ. It needed to be to a scale that complemented the immense space of the nave and sanctuary. The top of the organ case is about eighty-five feet from the floor. "For an organ builder in America," Dobson explains, "that is almost unheard of to have this kind of height."
The massive organ, with one hundred and five stops and a total of six thousand nineteen pipes, includes vintage pipes from the organ in the Cathedral of St. Vibiana. The original organ was built in 1929 by the Wangerin Organ Company of Milwaukee and rebuilt by Austin Organs, Inc., in 1988.
The new organ utilizes slider chests with electric pulldowns for all manual divisions except the Solo and Pedal, which have electro-pneumatic action. These divisions are conceived of in the spirit of Isnard's 1772 Resonance division at St. Maximin: the Solo is a division of powerful voices, many of which are made playable in the Pedal, which has few independent voices of its own.
The organ is controlled from a moveable console that has four keyboards, or "manuals". Unlike older organs, it uses a computerized system to connect the keys to the valves under each pipe. The system uses a cable of only six wires to connect the console to the organ.
The front pipes are made of burnished 83% tin. "This is the largest facade in the United States made of polished tin," Dobson says. In addition to the large vertical pipes, there are horizontal trumpet pipes, some as long as sixteen feet, which also are the largest of their kind in the United States. The biggest pipe inside the organ is twenty-four inches square and is made of wood. While many of the larger pipes are made of wood, the majority of them are made of alloys of tin and lead. They are arranged in six divisions, Great, Swell, Positive, Solo, Fanfare and Pedal.
The forty-two ton organ is supported on a steel structure built into the wall. In the Cathedral basement are three blowers totaling twenty-seven horsepower, which supply the organ with wind pressure ranging from five inches to twenty inches water column. A twenty inch wind pressure is very high for an organ. "The reason for such a high pressure is that the Cathedral itself is so large that to generate enough sound to fill the room adequately, we had to go with higher wind pressure," Dobson explains.
The organ is encased in solid cherry wood, unusual in that most organ cases are built out of less expensive lumber, such as oak, or in Europe, painted pine. "It must be the biggest cherry organ case in the world," Dobson exclaims. Although the type of wood has little to do with sound quality, Moneo's design called for cherry woodwork throughout the Cathedral.
Dobson's company was chosen to build an "eclectic" organ, one that could as easily play different styles of music, from the 1500s to the present day. They are experts in the history of organ building from all different periods and understand the requirements the various musical styles make of the organ. Dobson has taken their knowledge of each period and has blended it into a new style of organ, allowing the Cathedral instrument to sound convincing in various musical styles. "We've made a new organ for a new Church," he declares.
To ensure the instrument's success in the vast nave, the voicing and tonal finishing of the organ was performed in the Cathedral. The process, which took approximately six months, was carried out by Dobson personnel under the direction of Lynn Dobson and John Panning, the firm's tonal director, in consultation with Frank Brownstead, Director of the Archdiocesan Music Office and Manuel Rosales, president of Rosales Organ Builders and technical consultant for the project.
The power of the organ makes the room vibrate enabling the assembly to not only hear the music, but also feel it, making the experience all the more powerful, emotionally, as well as physically.
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MORMON TABERNALE CHOIR
In 1846, the Mormons were searching for a place where they could freely worship God. On their westward trek across the vast American continent, the pioneers often broke the prairie's stillness with the sound of their voices. Singing hymns around the campfire became a nightly custom.
On July 24, 1847, when the first group of Mormon pioneers had crossed the rugged Wasatch Mountains into the wide valley of the Great Salt Lake, their leader, Brigham Young, looked long and earnestly at what he saw. Then he said, "It is enough. This is the right place." It was here, a month later, that the Tabernacle Choir had it beginnings.
A Mormon Tabernacle Choir (= MTC) was officially formed in August 1847, one month after the pioneers entered the valley. The choir has since grown to be one of the world's most respected musical organizations. The MTC has garnered numerous awards including a Grammy for its rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," five gold records and one platinum record.
The MTC has appeared at five presidential inaugurations, in several films and performed with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestraof London, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Utah Symphony Orchestra.
The MTC made its first phonograph record in 1910. Since then, the choir has produced more than 150 recordings. The choir's first network radio program (with organ, choir, and announcer sharing a single microphone) was transmitted on July 15, 1929. Today, after more than 65 years and 3,425 broadcasts, "Music and the Spoken Word" is the oldest continuous nationwide network broadcast in America. The "Spoken Word" has also been televised since the early 1960s. The show is now released worldwide every week through some 1,500 radio, television, and cable stations.
Choir Members
The MTC is comprised of 325 men and women. For many, choir membership is a family tradition. There are husband-wife combinations and many families boast two or more generations of choir membership. Choir members do not receive any monetary compensation for their performances.
Members of the MTC are selected on the basis of character and musical competence. A large cross section of occupations is represented. In the choir's ranks are representatives of nearly every trade and profession, including contractors, secretaries, physicians, homemakers, school teachers, nurses, salesmen, and accountants.
MTC members sing because they love to share truth and the beauty of music with people everywhere. Some of them commute as far as 164 miles round-trip two or more times weekly, not only for the regular network broadcasts, but for rehearsals, conferences, and other events. All contribute their talents and time without compensation, except for the joy they receive in service.
The web site for the Southern California Mormon Choir is http://www.socalmormonchoir.org/
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