The Organ as Artifact

What does an organ tell us about the society in which it was designed, crafted, and assembled? We will soon find out. The Humanities department is a co-sponsor of a university-wide project "The Organ in Society: Culture and Technology." The project will coincide with the installation of a precise replica of the rare Casparini organ built in 1776 in Lithuania. The new instrument has been painstakingly reproduced by international experts in Sweden and will be installed in Rochester's Christ Church during the 2007-08 academic year. Faculty and students drawn from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Eastman School of Music will combine forces with authorities from around the world to explore the ways in which the pipe-organ provides insight into the culture of both eighteenth-century Vilnius and twenty-first century Rochester. We will consider the physics and engineering of these instruments, their function in the lives of those who heard them, the music played on them, and their significance for those who built and restored them.

For more on the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), visit http://www.esm.rochester.edu/eroi/

For information on the "Organ in Society: Culture and Technology" humanities project at the University of Rochester, visit
http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/?organ