Music Ministry/Choir

If you are looking for something new and feel like lifting your spirits, then join the choir.  

Contact: Mr. and Mrs. Ray and Mary Anne Braun [email protected] or call the parish office at 314-352-8100.

The Wicks Organ Company started in the early 1900's on the second floor of a jewelry and watch-making store in Highland, Illinois. The local Catholic priest had asked John Wick to study organ and become the church organist. Soon the parish wanted a new pipe organ to replace their aging reed organ, so John Wick, with the help of his brothers, Louis and Adolph, started to work. Using their talents as a watchmaker, a cabinet maker, and a jeweler, the three Wicks created a small mechanical action instrument that successfully met the needs of their church.

It wasn't long before nearby churches heard of their work, and wanted the same for their growing parishes. The Wicks created more of their instruments, and interest in organs built right here in Illinois grew. By 1908, the three Wicks incorporated the Wicks Organ Company, and began producing pipe organs for homes and churches in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and eventually almost every state in the country.

The Wicks initially used all mechanical action, but with the advent of electricity and electric blowers, began to experiment with electro-pneumatic actions. There are surviving examples of their work today, but John Wick thought that surely an organ could be operated purely electrically, avoiding the difficulties of pneumatic actions. Such pneumatic actions require frequent total releathering, and are susceptible to dirt, air pollution, changes in weather, moisture, and the winding and layout of the organ must be designed with the action in mind, not the pipework, or the amount of space available to the organ. When difficulties do occur in these actions, repair and service can be incredibly difficult.

Wick’s Organ – 1968
Highland, Illinois
11 Ranks – Opus 4753

2 Manual and Pedal Pipe Organ
Manual Compass CC to C4 – 61 notes
Pedal Compass CCC to G – 32 notes
Console: Draw knob – built to AGO requirements
Great (Exposed)
8’ Principal
8’ Bourdon
4’ Octave
4’ Nachthorn
2’ Flachflöte
II Mixture (1⅓) (19 & 22)
8’ Trompette (Swell) 

12 Pipes
61 Pipes
61 Pipes
61 Pipes
61 Pipes
61 Pipes

Transept – Blank (North Wall) Incomplete

Chimes – North and South Walls of Sanctuary

Swell (Expression)
8’ Rohrflöte
8’ Viola
4’ Gemshorn
2 ⅔’ Nasat
2’ Blockflöte
8’ Trompette
Tremolo

61 Pipes
61 Pipes
61 Pipes
61 Pipes
24 Pipes
61 Pipes
Pedal
16’ Spitzprincipal
16’ Lieblich Gedeckt
8’ Spitzprincipal
8’ Gedeckt (Great)
4’ Choral Bass
2’ Hohlflöte (Great)
16’ Posuane
8’ Trompette (Swell)
4’ Clarion (Swell)

12 Pipes
12 Pipes
32 Pipes

12 Pipes

12 Pipes
Couplers
Great to Great 4’
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Swell to Great 16’
Swell to Great 8’
Swell to Great 4’

Swell to Swell 16’
Swell Union
Swell to Swell 4’
Transept to Great
Transept to Swell
Transept to Pedala
 
Combination Pistons
Four General Pistons
General Cancel