John Hollins was entranced by the pipe organ from a young age. He recalled trying to mimic the sounds, low or high, that he heard during Sunday church services in South Carolina.

His childhood church’s musician, Dot Cantrell, took note. Hollins said during the postlude, he would make his way to sit next to her on the bench.

“I’m waiting like the Pavlovian dog for the finger to show me the note,” Hollins said. “When she got to the final chord of the piece, then she let me put my finger on, and I was playing the last note with Ms. Cantrell on the big organ.”

Now, Hollins plays the last note each week at St. Paul’s on the Plains Episcopal Church, where he has played the pipe organ for 20 years. Hollins is also an associate professor of music at Texas Tech University.

He described the 1963 pipe organ in the church as modest, compared to others. Its pipes jut out over the entry door. The console, where Hollins sits to play, has two rows of keys. Below, he gently moves his feet across the pedals.

“It’s been years since I’ve thought about augmenting this, because I’ve discovered that it’s complete as it is,” Hollins said. “There’s something very satisfying about exploring the infinite possibilities still.”

The pipe organ breathes, Hollins said, and is designed to live in its room.

There are around a dozen of these intricate instruments in Lubbock, with many being played joyously in churches across the community on Easter Sunday.

Conveying a ‘sense of the eternal’

Often, pipe organs are an integral part of regular worship services dating back centuries.

The pipe organ is one of the oldest instruments still in use, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. When operated by the player’s hands and feet, air produces notes through the pipes that can also sound like other instruments. Large pipe organs are typically custom to the buildings that house them, with special attention paid to the room’s acoustics.

The instrument can complement a chorale or reverberate through a congregation, creating an experience of not just hearing the music, but also feeling it.

“There is something that conveys the sense of the eternal in the organ,” Hollins said. “An otherworldliness of longevity, not just antiquity, that is very spiritual.”

In tune with the message

Clint Barrick said he also feels that spirituality when playing the organ each week at St. John’s United Methodist Church, where he has served for over a decade.

“I love to lead in worship,” Barrick said. “I feel like those are gifts that I’ve been given and that I should use those gifts. Because of that, I’m fulfilled.”

The music team at the church is in tune theologically with each sermon. Barrick said the music played on Easter, one of the most attended services at any church each year, is far more joyous than what is played during the season of Lent.

“The sound of an organ together with brass and drums on an Easter Sunday morning can be thrilling,” Barrick said. “That all is intended to help people become celebratory. It’s all part of the experience of Easter.”

The organ at St. John’s was installed in the 1990s, according to the church’s website. The console features three rows of wooden keys and more pipes than are visible from the pews. All together, it has 2,357 pipes, some only accessible by climbing a wooden ladder in a room behind the pulpit.

A sacred sound

The organ at First United Methodist Church has 4,233 pipes.

“It’s definitely the largest in Lubbock,” said Bradley Vogel, the organist and associate director of music at the downtown church. “I might be biased, but I think it’s the best one within two hours of here.”

When Vogel was searching for a full-time organist position, he said he wanted to play somewhere with a first-rate instrument that was not digital. He found it at the “Cathedral of the West.”

Pipes are in all four corners of the sanctuary, with some framing one of the largest stained glass rose windows in the world. It has four rows of keys, under which Vogel wears special shoes to maneuver the pedals. He said many people do not know an organ can sound like this one.

“I think if people had the opportunity to hear an organ like this more consistently, to train their own ear to know what that’s supposed to sound like and what it’s supposed to be like singing with in a congregation, they’d have a better appreciation for it,” Vogel said.

Playing the organ and singing hymns - a church ritual that has been around for centuries - is a powerful part of worship for Bradley, especially on holidays like Easter. He said he enjoys all kinds of music, and understands that some churchgoers prefer a contemporary sound. Still, he said he has seen a growing number of people return to traditional sounds, like those of the organ.

“Sacred literally means set apart,” Vogel said. “The music should be set apart. It should sound different. Hymns, organ music, chants - there’s no question to anybody who hears those things that that’s church music. I think it’s important that when you go to church, you get what the church has to offer.”

Sarah Self-Walbrick

More than music. How pipe organs bring sacred sounds to Sunday services