St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha to mark anniversary of Pasi organ

Fifteen years ago parts for an organ made specifically for St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha were trucked from Washington state and assembled in the mother church of the archdiocese.

 

At 3 p.m. Oct. 14, Marie Rubis Bauer, the archdiocese’s director of music and the cathedral organist, will play the Martin Pasi Opus 14 Dual-temperament organ in concert to celebrate that anniversary. She will be joined by seminarians and priests from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton,

Neb., singing Gregorian chant and the St. Cecilia Cathedral Choir singing several pieces as well.

 

The organ is named for its manufacturer, Martin Pasi, who grew up in Austria, was an apprentice in Germany and now lives in Roy, Wash. The organ was chosen for the cathedral as one way to reflect the spirit of St. Cecilia, 

patroness of the cathedral and a patron saint of musicians, who is associated with fidelity to and unity with God, Rubis Bauer said. The organ also is important as a wind instrument, relying on a bellows and pipes, knit together with leather and wood, that is something like the human voice, she said.

 

“It really requires breath to make sound,” Rubis Bauer said, “just as we humans need to take in breath and exhale to make sound.”

 

The free concert will feature an organ and Gregorian chant Mass setting by Baroque composter Francois Couperin, and five motets, also in Latin, performed by the Cathedral Choir and written by French composer Maurice Duruflé.