Some Time at the Museum

Last month, in November, Norine (my wonderful wife) and I went to the Memorial Art Gallery here in Rochester. In our travels of the different exhibits, we came upon a beautiful Italian brogue organ from 1600s – 1700s era. I wondered what the organ would have sounding like in a church setting. A few weeks later, I receive an e-mail at work regarding this very topic. The Memorial Art Gallery is having a mini-Christmas concert on Sunday 23rd at 1:00 and 3:00 lasting 25 minutes. We marked our calendars and planned to attend the event.
The big day arrived and all the stars were aligned for us to go (you know how thing go sometimes). I was very excited about the whole thing. I know, I know; wow how exciting, 1700 classical music played on an ancient organ. My musical taste is very wide; you know the saying from Bach to Rock. Sunday morning we went to our usual mass at 10:30. We then went to get a bite to eat before heading out to the Art Gallery. Arriving at 1:15, we proceeded to the check-in counter. After completing the check-in procedure (you know how long that takes), we spotted a beautiful Christmas tree in the main lobby. Here is a picture of us in front of the tree.

We were informed that the 1:00 performance was under way and that there was a 3:00 showing that we can catch, if interested. So we had some time on our hands. Early on in our viewing there was an Egyptian exhibit featuring a mummy and authentic Egyptian artifacts. It was a fascinating display; there was a very well preserved mummy and the coffin belonging to this mummy. One piece of knowledge that I learned about the times is that the process of mummification and elaborate painted coffins was not reserved for royalty. If you had money, you could have this done as well. The geologist believes that this particular coffin was made prior to this person’s death and was generally made by a merchant. At the head area was a blank space left for the name of the person how would buy it in the future. The geologist even speculated that the painter initial incorrectly spelt the person’s name because it appears to be corrected with markings over the original spelling.

After viewing some more modern paintings it was time to head for the Christmas concert. There were three rows of folding chairs in front of the organ. The organ was massive; standing (I would say) two stories tall. There are about 600 pipes in the air powered organ. The keys were orange and white in color and looked out of place. Two people are required to play the organ; one to work the bellows which bring air to the pipes and another to actually play the music. The organist introduced the different music pieces but I did not catch the names since we were in the back (I most likely would not have remembered even if I was in the front row, but anyway). He played music from the 1700s including German, French and Italian pieces. The sound was varied; from bold and loud German compositions, to one piece that sounded similar to a flute. The stop knobs changed the dynamics of the sound. The organist is a student from the Eastman School of Music and actually the organ is owned by the school which is on loan to the museum.