The Pipe Organ in China Project Website: Updates for November 2020.

29 November 2020

We have received word that the 1908 Hinners pipe organ Op. 839 (NBO2018) that was moved to Ningbo in 2018, was badly damaged during the passage of Typhoon Mitag in early October 2019. This storm caused water leaks in the bell tower of the church that ran down to the organ gallery, dissolved the glue in the windchest table, and which then dripped into the key mechanism. At present the organ is unplayable and has been dismantled, but it is hoped that over the next several years the time and money will be found to repair it.

A most interesting, not to say unique, video about this organ, its remarkable move from the USA to China, and the 2019 catastrophe, “A Walking in Love Story”, can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG1kXs6F630&t=12s

Prof. Urrows’ lecture on François Ravary SJ and his development of a Sino-European musical culture in mid-19th C. Shanghai, was delivered via Zoom on 11 November to the Macau Ricci Institute at the University of St. Joseph in Macau. It has been recorded and can be seen here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhXNUZ1i9rw&feature

A link has been added to the Links for the web page of the Japan Organ Society. This is not actually the journal of the Society, orugan-kenkyū (オルガン研究, Organ Research, est. 1973), but an occasional list of meetings, concerts, and organ events in Japan reported by the Society. It has not been updated since the summer of 2019, perhaps due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Organs in the Census: 192

One year-to-date hits: 11,308

Hits since launch (June 2108): 23,008

Father Jaroslav Duraj moderates the Zoom lecture given from Manila by Prof. Urrows on François Ravary and the Jesuit Musical Culture of Mid-19th C. Shanghai, University of Saint Joseph, Macau, 11 November 2020