Knox-Metropolitan United Church celebrates half a century with its organ

CTV Regina: The history of the Knox Mets pipe organ Watch: Cally Stephanow gives us a close up look at the pipe organ at the Knox Metropolitian Church, and the man who cares for it.

REGINA -- Inside the sanctuary of the Knox-Metropolitan United Church, among the stained glass and oak pews, music from the Casavant pipe organ fills the room as it has for the last 50 years.

"The organ is like a big symphony orchestra that you have at your fingertips,” Hart Godden said. “You can play whisper soft to quite loud and it’s just thrilling to play and to listen too."

Godden is the director of music and the organist at the church. He's been playing, tuning and caring for this organ for 25 years. Inside the instrument there are more than four thousand pipes.

“It’s a really beautiful instrument and I just love looking after it and playing it,” Godden said.

This pipe organ is a three manual instrument. It has three keyboards as well as one played with feet.

"We regulate the volume and the sound of the instrument to match this room,” Godden said. “We're very fortunate that we have a wonderful acoustic here and the organ just fills the space so it's a great match."

A member of the congregation donated the organ to the church 50 years ago. Back then, the organ was valued at $69,000, now it's worth a $1 million. The congregation is holding a special concert this weekend to celebrate 50 years with the organ.

As for Godden, he knows many of the nuances of this grand instrument, but said he still has a lot of learn.

"The organ is something that each day you play it you find something new about it because there are just so many different possibilities of combinations."

The exterior of Knox-Metropolitan United Church is filled with a rich history of the century old building. The original building was built in 1906 but was destroy when the Regina Cyclone tore through the city’s downtown in 1912. The church was rebuilt in 1913, and the exterior contains some brick from the original building.