Music at St. Matthew’s
Several exquisite instruments – unique to our church – contribute to the masterful music at St. Matthew’s.
The C.B. Fisk Pardee Memorial Organ
Commissioned in 1979 and installed in 1985, the Fisk Organ (Opus 86) was commissioned from C.B. Fisk following the fire of 1978 and was given to the church and community by Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt S. Pardee, Mr. and Mrs. J. Douglas Pardee, Mr. and Mrs. George M. Pardee Jr., and Marjorie Pardee Farrand, in memory of their mother, Mary Alice Swift Pardee.
The organ was installed and dedicated in a series of recitals in May and June, 1985. Thomas Neenan, David Britton, and David Craighead played the dedicatory recitals.
The Phillips Bitting Memorial Harpsichord
On the death of beloved parishioner, William Faulkner Bitting, in October 1995, a fund was established to remember him in a permanent expression of love, which would recall many aspects of Will’s artistic personality. For centuries, one way of combining several art forms has been in the building of finely crafted and decorated keyboard instruments, particularly harpsichords.
The Phillips Harpsichord (Opus 73) brings together many aspects of Will Bitting’s personality:
Painting – The beautiful lid and soundboard decorations incorporate mementos from Will’s life and work
Poetry – A scroll and writer’s quill on the soundboard containing the name “William Faulkner Bitting”
Music – The superbly crafted, two-manual harpsichord was custom made in the tradition of the fine Parisian Franco-Flemish instruments of the late 17th and early 18th centuries