Notes

St. Mary’s Seminary Chapel is an elegant yet eclectic space nestled within a campus built in the 1950s by architects Maurice and Charles Sullivan, cleverly combining a Romanesque envelope and some ornaments reminiscent of the Art Deco era. Though its walls are lined with beautiful marble, the chapel’s original acoustics were limited by extensive sound-absorbing panels installed in the ceiling and across the back wall. Seating is arranged in a collegial format for approximately 250 people.

Prior to the renovation, the chapel housed a modest second-hand organ consisting of just a few ranks, awkwardly tucked behind a non-functional display of pipes. This configuration left a narrow 8-foot corridor between the pipes and the gallery railing, with the console positioned at the far end. Access to the gallery was via a staircase that opened directly toward the nave.

The objective of the new project was to create a two-manual organ that would serve the Seminary’s liturgical needs, including its three daily services. One of the key constraints outlined in the brief was that the rose window had to remain fully visible.

Embracing the vision for improved acoustics, the Seminary retained the Clayton Acoustics Group’s service. Eight of the eleven ceiling bays were reinforced, and the sound-absorbing tiles on the back wall were removed. Additionally, the original solid wood railing was replaced with an open iron-and-wood model, and a particularly noisy electrical transformer at the base of the staircase was relocated outside. These changes achieved a much-improved reverberation time of approximately two seconds, with notably enhanced bass support.

Respecting the visibility of the rose window led to a split-case design—an approach that we try to avoid but which proved necessary here. The main manual division and pedal were housed on the right-hand side, while the enclosed division was placed on the left. Accommodating the existing staircase was a design challenge; the final steps were redirected to exit at the back of the gallery. This solution not only preserved access but also opened up the center of the gallery, making it a far more suitable space for the schola.

The gallery’s shallow depth complicated the tracker action. A direct mechanical connection between the console and the two manual divisions was unfeasible, necessitating the addition of two rollerboards beneath the platform to guide the tracker runs effectively.

Further complicating the design was the relatively low ceiling height, interrupted by a prominent truss. The casework was carefully crafted to maximize vertical space—ducking under the truss at the front and rising behind it. The windchest layouts follow this same geometry, with chromatic bass chests positioned at the rear and diatonic treble chests at the front.

Tonally, the organ offers a warm and rich sound, aided by a generous number of 16′ and 8′ stops. The stoplist, presented in French, reflects the instrument’s strong French roots, even if the organ is not a strict replica of the French tradition. The swell box is particularly expressive, enabling a variety of tonal combinations—for example, using the 16′ Basson (also available in the Pedal) in nuanced ways. The result is a full organ sound that is powerful yet never overwhelming.

One of the most distinctive aspects of this instrument is its symmetrical layout. With the Grand-Orgue and Récit divisions placed on either side of the rose window at the same elevation, symmetry was both a constraint and a design principle. We made the conscious decision against boosting the Grand-Orgue’s prominence to maintain the traditional manual tonal hierarchy; instead, both divisions were allowed to speak on equal footing. While this may seem unorthodox to some players, the resulting tonal balance proves highly effective for the Seminary’s unique musical and liturgical demands.