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Vital Organs
July/August 2009
The Newberry is Yale's most famous pipe organ, but the university has several other instruments that are used for practice, lessons, recitals, and worship services—each with its own voice, strengths, and character. The Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) maintains the varied instruments to give the 14 students studying the organ each year a chance to match the right music to the right instrument.

H. Frank Boyzan Memorial Organ
The
organ in Dwight Memorial Chapel was built by Rudolf von Beckerath in
1971, who was inspired by the Baroque organs that were then being restored in
Europe. It is especially well suited for playing Bach and German and French
Baroque music.


Battell Chapel Organ
With
3,691 pipes, Battell's organ, which was built in 1951 by the Holtkamp
Organ Company, is Yale's second largest. Unlike the Skinner Company organs in
Woolsey Hall and Marquand Chapel, Battell's organ pipes are exposed, giving it
a bright and transparent sound that is good for contrapuntal music.


Marquand Chapel Organ
The
Divinity School's chapel has had a 1,647-pipe Skinner organ since it
opened in 1931—essentially a smaller version of Woolsey Hall's American
romantic organ, but without the orchestral voices. It is ideal for hymn playing
and choral accompaniment.


Marquand Chapel Meantone Organ
Since
2007, Marquand's Skinner organ has had a roommate: a 2,184-pipe Baroque-style
instrument built by Taylor & Boody Organbuilders. The organ employs
the "meantone" tuning system of the seventeenth century; it is one of the few
meantone organs in North America.  |