By Paula Day

It has been called both a one-man orchestra and a box of whistles.

It may fill an entire room or fit in the corner of a study.

The pipe organ ranks with the harp and drum as one of the most ancient instruments still in use. There are accounts of one powered by water in 250 B.C. Egypt. In 400 A.D. St. Jerome complained of an organ in Jerusalem being so loud it could be heard nearly a mile away at the Mount of Olives. The Second Vatican Council in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy says the organ is “to be held in high esteem” as an instrument for liturgical use.

For Dr. Timothy Wissler the centuries-old pipe organ could be a “first computer.” Using its buttons and knobs, pedals and levels of keyboards, a musician can mix an “almost endless combination of sound,” explained the organist for the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta.

Anyone familiar with a whistle will understand the basic premise: blowing air through a cylinder with an opening notched into its circumference creates a sound. Making the cylinder longer, its circumference wider, using wood instead of metal, all can change the quality and pitch of the sound.

But playing a pipe organ is far more complicated than blowing a whistle. For one thing, both the hands and feet of the musician get into the act. Wissler says he continuously works at the challenge of coordination.

Then there are the more personal challenges. An organist can’t tuck his instrument under his arm and go off to practice in a private place where his mistakes are heard by him alone. Wissler cringes at the thought of how many people have dropped into the Cathedral for a few moments of quiet prayer only to be jarred by his mistakes while practicing.

“You have to go where the organ is, and that means your mistakes are always public mistakes. Maybe that means we just have to ask more for forgiveness,” he mused.

The newly renovated Cathedral organ to be dedicated Feb. 20 is a 66 rank, 3,616-pipe instrument. Some of the pipes were part of the original organ installed in the Cathedral when it was built in 1930. Others come from its 1971 replacement. Some are new.

An organ rank is a set of pipes that produce a specific sound quality. These sounds can differ from one another as much as the sound of a flute differs from that of a trumpet.

The length and width of the pipe determines the tone. The longest pipes in the Cathedral organ stand 16 feet high. They produce the lowest tones. The organ’s highest pitches come from pipes the length and circumference of a pencil. Pipes can vary in size from 32 feet in length and 18 inches in diameter to only ¾ of an inch in length and 1/8 of an inch in diameter.

The Cathedral organ has elicited a lot of controversy over the years, according to Wissler. “People either loved it or they hated it. Rarely did anyone stand on the fence.” It has always been known for its power and brilliance, but with the renovation its tones have been altered so as to meet the broad demands placed on an organ used in a cathedral setting, according to the musician. Now it will be easier to play the music appropriate to the celebration of the Chrism Mass with its centuries of tradition, as well as contemporary music selected by a couple for their wedding.

“For those who like high decibel thrills, the instrument still can provide them,” Wissler explained, “but our tonal resources have been enriched to provide us with more warmth and at the same time infinitely more clarity.” By altering the diameter of pipes and moving the openings up or down, there are now more tonal colors to choose from and the organist can select less aggressive tones. Wissler feels the improvements enhance the role of the Cathedral as “the flagship (church) of the diocese.”

The renovations involved building a new console, replacing the organ’s mechanical apparatus, redesigning, rebuilding and rearranging all the 3,616 pipes. With this rearrangement the choir now has space to sit, a welcome “luxury” after standing through services over the years. The rearrangement produced an added bonus: the stained glass windows above the choir loft are no longer hidden by pipes.

Organ building has developed over centuries with the instruments identified by sounds characteristic of composers in the country where they were built. Organs built in Germany reflected the distinct music of J.S. Bach; those built in England had the distinctive G.F. Handel sound.

On the other hand, a typical American organ is built to be eclectic. “We look to design an instrument that would allow us to play the century-spanning repertoire written for the organ while still meeting the contemporary needs of the Church in its liturgy,” explained Wissler. Organ music can range from 12th century Gregorian Chant to 20th century music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

No one organ is exactly like another, which poses still another challenge for the musician. Stops, those knobs placed near the keyboard to control the flow of air to a rank of pipes, may have the same name but a different sound, or be located at a different place on the console. When Wissler is asked to play in another setting he prefers having a couple of hours to get familiar with the instrument. This sometimes surprises people, he noted. They assume playing an organ is much like playing the piano.

Wissler took his first organ lesson when he was in the 10th grade. A Pennsylvania native, he earned the bachelor of arts degree at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pa., and the master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees in organ performance at the University of Michigan. In July 1985 he was one of 50 Americans to participate in the first Cambridge Choral Studies Seminar at Cambridge University, England. He was appointed organist of the Cathedral in 1987. He is also a member of the organ faculty of Georgia State University.

The 42-year-old musician credits his choosing music as a ministry to the importance of the Church in the life of this family. He sees his role as a pastoral musician as one of service, and defers to the wishes of those who plan a liturgy for special occasion, such as a wedding or funeral.

“If someone says to me, ‘We’re very traditional,’ I translate that to mean, ‘We don’t want loud organ music,’ and the organ is supposed to ‘purr’ in the background. As a musician I wouldn’t be in church music if I didn’t want to serve.” Obviously dedicated to and loving his vocation, the organist expressed the hope that the sound of the newly-renovated organ would inspire other young people to think about a ministry in church music.

Cathedral musicians spend considerable time planning what Wissler calls a “balanced diet” of music. “Everyone approaches prayer differently, so they are going to approach music that supports that prayer differently.” He admitted not all the music pleases everyone all the time, adding with an engaging grin, “I save my loudest music for the dismissal.”

The organ has never been prescribed for use in the Church by Church law, but it apparently has been used consistently in the liturgy since the 9th century. Wissler hypothesizes that no other instrument could have filled with music the vast expanses of the medieval cathedral. The pipe organ was the musical complement to the magnificent architecture, stained glass windows and marble statuary created “to give glory to the Creator.”

Perhaps the best summary of the place of the organ in the liturgical prayer of the Church is the comment from the Second Vatican Council in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy: “The pipe organ adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies, and powerfully lifts up men’s minds to God and to higher things.”