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Views from the Choir Loft

Leo Abbott to Rededicate Landmark E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Organ, Opus 801

Richard J. Clark · September 6, 2019

NE OF AMERICA’s landmark pipe organs, the E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Organ, Opus 801 in Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross has been silent for over two years. Affectionately known as “801,” this organ with over 5,300 pipes and 101 ranks was protected from construction dust during a nearly two-year renovation of the Cathedral. It was last heard in concert in May of 2017.

Leo Abbott, Music Director and Organist Emeritus of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross will play the first post-renovation concert on Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 3:00pm. He’ll perform works by Langlais, Bach, Mendelssohn, Franck, Guridi, Vierne, and Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (1995) by Naji Hakim, commissioned by Leo Abbott.

• Admission is Free. Donations are gratefully accepted for the ongoing maintenance and restoration of the Cathedral’s historic E. & G. G. Hook and Hastings Opus 801

• Download the concert poster here.

• Click here for concert program and specifications of the 101-rank E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Organ, Opus 801

• Click here to read an historic review of the Organ Dedication concert (1876) published in “THE GRAND ORGAN.” Boston Daily Advertiser, February 24, 1876.

With the removal of carpeting and installation of marble and stone floors, the acoustic of the cathedral has been transformed. As such, the instrument will be heard as it has never been in our lifetimes.

URING THE CATHEDRAL RENOVATION, some key ranks of pipes were cleaned and restored—Great reeds 16’, 8’, & 4’ and 8’ Tuba. However, the vast bulk of the organ’s restoration occurred before the Cathedral’s renovation under Leo Abbott’s tenure and direction.

In 1986, when Abbott was named Director of Music and Organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the pipe organ was essentially unplayable. Abbott nearly singlehandedly raised all the funds over a period of many years. His work has been a tireless labor of love. He generously invited so many organists to perform. I am personally grateful, having lost track how many of my compositions were premiered at the Cathedral. Leo was of enormous personal support. I owe him an eternal debt as do all of us who are devoted to sacred music.

• You can read a fascinating article by Josiah Fisk about Abbott and his tireless drive to renovate this instrument here.

CONSIDER DONATING TO THE CATHEDRAL ORGAN RESTORATION FUND!
You can now donate online to the Cathedral Organ Restoration Fund here. You will receive an automated letter for tax purposes. You may also set up regular giving to assist with maintenance and tuning. Even $10 per month is a big help! This Fund was established by Leo Abbott in 1987 in memory of his father, Arthur J. Abbott.

EO ABBOTT is a graduate of the St. Paul Choir School, Cambridge, and the Chaloff School of Music, Boston. His teachers include Theodore Marier, George Faxon, Clarence Watters and Flor Peeters, in organ; Naji Hakim in improvisation, and Julius Chaloff in piano. He holds the Fellowship and ChoirMaster Certificates of the American Guild of Organists, has won first prize in several international and national competitions, and was a finalist at the “Grand Prix de Chartres” in 1984.

In 1986 he was appointed Music Director and Organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston. After nearly 33 years, Mr. Abbott retired from the Cathedral, and was given the title of Music Director and Organist Emeritus. Mr. Abbott has performed for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society, and at the Basilica of Sacré Coeur, St Sulpice and Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, St. Ouen, Rouen, Westminster Cathedral, London, Galway Cathedral, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Portland City Hall, Harvard University, Grace Cathedral and St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City, and Sacred Heart Cathedral, Newark. He is an active member of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Pipe Organ Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“The idea that the Roman basilica is the ideal design for a Christian church building because it made it possible for the priest and the people to face one another is complete nonsense. That would have been the last thing that the early Christians had in mind.”

— Father Louis Bouyer

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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