Hradetzky Organ

The gallery organ of St. Paul’s was built in 1985.Its design was a collaborative effort by Karel Paukert and the internationally renowned Austrian organ builder, Gerhard Hradetzky. This generous gift to the church by one of its parishioners provides a unique contrast to the large chancel organ. Placed in the rear gallery, this organ, for its size, incorporates a generous variety of sound possibilities in a single baroque-style case, presenting a unified visual and aural experience for all to enjoy. Based to a considerable extent on late eighteenth-century organs from the Pistoia region of Tuscany, with some South German and Austrian admixture, this specially designed organ offers a rich palette of tonal colors, designed, in the words of the builder, “to produce sweetly sounding harmonies,” in its varied accompaniment and solo roles.

It utilizes mechanical action, but, unlike most Italian organs of the late Renaissance and baroque periods, it has a second manual and an independent Pedal Division of three stops. Its two manuals contain twelve ranks on the lower “Organo” manual and seven ranks on the upper “Positive.” Typically, Italian organs have few reeds; in this instrument, just two of the ranks are reeds, the remainder are all flue pipes. It also includes some very unusual stops for special effects: the Timpani (an acoustical drum), Usignoli (birdcall), Campanelli (Tuscan- style bells), and a Tremulant for all manual stops. It is interesting to note that the dedicatory concert of this instrument by Stefano Innocenti, on April 6, 1986, appropriately featured solo works from the early baroque period through the high baroque and beyond to the end of the eighteenth century. In the words of the builder, “it develops the greatest variety of tone colors while introducing a seamless ‘sound pyramid’ with a natural development of partial tones, from the largest pipe to the smallest.”

Stop List