Pipe Organ Database

...At the opposite end of the room, over the entrance, a substantial gallery accommodates the choir and supports the Canadian Pipe Organ Company organ, below the rose window. This organ is entirely original and is one of the few remaining examples of tubular-pneumatic action in Toronto. In 1967 the leather pouches of the Great and Swell were re-leathered and the organ cleaned. Tuning was discontinued in 1970, when the so-called guitar-and-drum era commenced. Maintenance resumed after 1979 and the reservoirs were re-covered in 1988. The organ was cleaned again in 1998, and the pipes and action were newly regulated.

There are some remarkable features in the St. Anthony organ. First, the Pedal Echo Bourdon 16ʹ has a device designed to keep the pipes in tune when the pressure is changed. When the Bourdon 16ʹ is engaged, long rails rise to shade the mouths of the pipes and flatten the pitch. When only the Echo Bourdon is on, the rails drop down to sharpen the pitch and compensate for the low pressure. The system aimed to keep the same wind pressures for both stops but to provide a wide windway for the Bourdon and a very narrow windway for the softer Echo Bourdon.

Second, the Great division houses a so-called Labial Trumpet. The name implies that the pipes do not have the usual shallots and brass tongues. In fact, these pipes are very hardblown flues of the Gamba family. The tone is robust enough to play a solo line, but there the comparison ends. A loud string sound is not a trumpet tone. Labial reeds were constructed also by S.R. Warren and Estey.

Finally, the placing of five of the Great stops under expression is novel. A similar arrangement was used for the larger S.R. Warren gallery organ in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, King Street, in 1884.