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Precious pipes

Broadcast Date: Jan. 3, 2003

At seven storeys tall and 5,811 pipes, the organ at St. Joseph's Oratory is an impressive instrument. For Philippe Bélanger, playing it is a privilege he's been waiting for since he was nine years old. At age 28 he's become the oratory's official organist, coaxing beautiful sounds from a machine he says is like an orchestra. Bélanger says he's there to stay. "I see myself dying at this organ," he tells CBC Montreal.

Precious pipes

• The organ at the oratory was designed and built in Germany by renowned organ maker Rudolf von Beckerath. Two years in the making, it took seven months to install and has been at the oratory since 1960.
• The mechanical organ weighs 42 tonnes. Its tallest pipe reaches almost 10 metres high.

• As large as it is, the pipe organ at St. Joseph's Oratory ranks 62nd in the world, size-wise. The largest is the Wanamaker Organ, a behemoth bearing 28,482 pipes. It's at the Lord & Taylor department store in Philadelphia.
• The largest pipe organ in Canada is the Casavant Organ at the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto. It has 7,840 pipes.

• At age nine Philippe Bélanger became the organist at his local church in Aylmer, Que.
• Bélanger is an employee of the oratory, not a member of the religious order that runs it.
• Bélanger replaced organist Raymond Daveluy, who was the oratory's official organist from 1960 to 2002. Daveluy was an accomplished musician and teacher who also appeared on CBC Radio's French service on a program called Récital d'orgue.

• Visitors can hear the organ Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings in summer.
• Music can also be heard on the oratory's 56-bell carillon, an outdoor bell tower that chimes songs twice a day Thursdays to Sundays.
• St. Joseph's Oratory also hosts special concerts. In 1999 it held a multifaith celebration of music and dance called Ora 2000.

Precious pipes

Medium: Television

Program: Canada Now

Broadcast Date: Jan. 3, 2003

Guest(s): Philippe Bélanger

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Duration: 3:34

Last updated:
Sept. 28, 2004