THE PREMISE
When The Memorial Church at Harvard University was erected in 1932, it joined the company of several religious buildings recently constructed on the campuses of other great universities. Yet, as Princeton, Chicago, and Duke built in towering neo-Gothic forms, Harvard instead remained true to its New England roots and built a grand new meetinghouse in a modified Georgian style. To provide a more intimate space for the University's daily services of Morning Prayers, a tradition since 1636, a smaller chapel was grafted upon the front of The Memorial Church, separated by a beautiful screen and bathed in morning light.

The unusual architecture of these joint, yet distinct, spaces reflects a unique response to the nature of worship at Harvard, with its emphasis both on daily and weekly worship. With this configuration, however, comes an interesting musical challenge.

Music has long been central to worship at Harvard, with choirs and congregations led by notable pipe organs. The original 1932 Æolian-Skinner instrument, located in side chambers above the Appleton Chapel pews, had a difficult job, needing to be delicate enough to lead Morning Prayers in the Chapel but somehow powerful enough to turn a considerable corner and reach into The Memorial Church.

When the need for large-scale repairs of the 1932 instrument invited consideration of a new organ in 1963, it was hoped that this new instrument might be placed in the rear gallery, from which it could speak directly into the Church, with a second, smaller organ in the Chapel for Morning Prayers. Such was not to be, however, and the impressive new 1967 C.B. Fisk Organ, Op. 46, found a home in Appleton Chapel. Musically and mechanically a pioneer — at the time, the largest tracker organ in the United States — the instrument found an enthusiastic audience, yet to accommodate the freestanding Fisk instrument, the Chapel arrangement was reversed and the new organ was placed in front of the Palladian window. Formerly awash in light, Morning Prayers services were now cast in shadow.

THE PLAN
As the Church's seventy-fifth anniversary approached, The Reverend Professor Peter Gomes and his colleagues began to reconsider the situation, allowing decades of experience in both Chapel and Church to inform new thinking. Central to this notion is that two organs are necessary; one in the gallery to lead the congregation (as Charles Fisk had always hoped for his 1967 instrument), and another in the original Appleton Chapel chambers.

From this premise emerged a straightforward plan of restoration and renewal. A three-manual 1929 E.M. Skinner Organ, Op. 793 (originally located at Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Hartford, CT) was purchased. It will be restored by Foley-Baker Inc., and installed in Appleton Chapel's organ chambers during the summer of 2010. To accompany Sunday congregation and choir, a new three-manual mechanical-action organ will be designed and built by C.B. Fisk of Gloucester, Op. 139, and installed in the church's rear gallery in Summer 2011. Poignantly, this instrument will be named in memory of Charles Brenton Fisk '45: built by his own company, crafted by those he trained, and placed where he had always hoped his own instrument for his alma mater might go.

These two forthcoming organs allow The Memorial Church to offer musical accompaniment of unprecedented flexibility, clarity and elegance. Moreover, these instruments — one old and the other new, complementary in scope yet different in temperament — expand musical options at Harvard, offering valuable alternatives to the distinctive Flentrop organ in Adolphus Busch Hall.

THE CELEBRATION
The 2009–2010 academic year features a host of activities during which the current Fisk organ, Op. 46 will be celebrated before it is moved to a newly designed home in Austin, Texas. A yearlong series of recitals and master classes by organists of Harvard — past and present — will showcase the instrument in performance and instruction. The organ will be at the core of the University's 100th Annual Carol Services in December; and it will continue to lead daily and Sunday worship majestically throughout the upcoming academic year.

Please join us in the celebration. All events are free and open to the public. Please go to the "celebrations" page for a list of events.

Original Sketch of Op. 46 by Charles Fisk