Taiwan Church News
3797 Edition
Dec 2nd ~ 8th, 2024
Weekly Topical
Overcoming Kinds of Challenges, A Grandiose Pipe Organ Dedicated at Fong-Shan Church to Praise God
Reported by Lin Wan-ting from Kaohsiung
To thank God for his blessing and guidance for decades, a thanksgiving service to dedicate a pipe organ at Fong-Shan presbyterian church of Sho-Shan presbytery was held on December 1. The first phase of the pipe organ installment was completed in 2001, and the second phase of installment was completed in October in 2024, with a total of 2006 pipes and 28 stops.
Professor Liu Hsin-hung, serving in Tainan Theological College and Seminary and as chair of Taiwan Chapter of American Guild of Organists, was specially invited to play many musical pieces, together with two musicians Ms Lin Hui-ping and Fong-Shan church deacon Ms Hsih Ya-hui. Remarkably, as the date was the first Sunday of Advent, the audience were also invited to sing the Christmas carol “Silent Night” in chorus.
Rev Pan En-hseng, pastor of Fong-Shan Church, said that although the pipe organ has been already played in church service and musical concerts for years, church members with professional music trainings still preferred to install an un-abridged set of pipe organ. So the church decided to raise a three-years-fund of NT$ 9.7 million (about USD 3 hundred thousands more) to install a full-scale pipe organ. “And, this year 2024, we have entered into the second phase installment,” Rev Pan said.
Mr Chen Wei-yi, manager of ZingMore Music Instrument Corp and a pipe organ tuner himself, expressed that the main challenge of the pipe organ installment came from a bankruptcy of the original Dutch supplier, Pels & Van Leeuwen. “Fortunately, a Philippine company, Diego Cera, is recruited to finish the job, “ Mr Chen said.
He especially pointed out that the outlook of the pipe organ is grandiose and congenial to the milieu of church worship, making the musical beauty and peace easily conductive to to the audience. “In addition, as the sound of the pipe organ is very similar to the natural voices of people, matching the pipe organ with the chorus is the most beautiful sounds to be heard,” Mr Chen said.
In the first phase of the pipe organ installment, according to Rev Pan, Fong-Shan Church built a complete air-room for pipe organ, an attached console, a grand-rogue manual(ten stops), and a foot pedal (one stop). However, from 2002 to 2022, various kinds of challenges, including funding hardships, financial difficulties, supplier-factory closures, inflation and others, made tumultuous the second phase of the pipe organ installment, he said.
In the second phase installment, Fong-Shan church and ZingMore Music Instrument Corp signed an extended contract, including oberwerk manual, pedal, manual air-room, blower, venetian blinds, updated electronic console, electronic control system of stops, as well as pipe organ’s exterior polishing, waxing and painting, and maintenance etc.
Because one half of pipe organ’s components are very heavy and over-sized, which could not be easily moved into common elevator, a transfer by human labor became inevitable to the church’s main hall located at the fourth floor of the building, Rev Pan said. The whole installment project was originally expected to be finished in the end of December, 2024, but it was amazingly finished very early in October.
The second pipe organ concert at the Fong-Shan Church will be held at 3 p.m. on December 22. Ms Yu Hsiao-yi, whose pipe organ album had won the 30th Golden Melody Award and had been commissioned as artistic director of the “Formosa Virtuoso Organist”, is scheduled to perform for the public.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
