Long before rock concerts became social events where friends could enjoy music, religious observance served as the center for melodious enjoyment.

In the Middle Ages, church choirs needed an instrument to keep them on pitch. Out sprung the organ.

The complex instrument began as a simple device to provide notes of guidance to musical worshipers. The organ grew as the method of choice for producing religious music.

"The early Christians were looking for an instrument that was non-secular," said Ron Crowl, organist at Wicks Organ Co. "They wanted something that was completely different than the usual stuff you found in bars and brothels."

During the Protestant Reformation, when hymns became hallmarks of prayer, the organ's capabilities grew with congregations' needs. Hitting one key produced up to six sounds simultaneously. And pipe organs grew, with their ranks sending music soaring in Protestant and Catholic churches, as well as concert halls for classical works.

Fast forward hundreds of years, to an age when a Dave Matthews Band concert fills Busch Stadium. Note that a keyboardist has long played with DMB, and many rock bands have used Hammond or digital organs. Pipe organs are not limited to churches. See, for instance, the Wurlitzer at the Fox Theatre. But the organ remains an important part of religious life in St. Louis, and Gov. Matt Blunt has joined the American Guild of Organists in proclaiming 2008-09 the International Year of the Organ.

Basilica of St. Louis, King

Photos by Rachel Heidenry

The pipe ranks stand out amid the white of the Old Cathedral.

 As musical styles grew, a lot of Christian congregations started using contemporary music, employing keyboards and electric guitars. But large, wonderful pipe organs remain in use at such classical buildings as the Old Cathedral and such contemporary churches as the Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens. Indeed, many say that 2008 is not a bad time to be an organist.

People who work with pipe organs as a vocation say they love their jobs. "To people who come here, there is a fascination with an organ in some point of their lives," said Mark Wick, president of Wicks Organ Co . "We have a voicer who left for a year, missed it and came back. They say your blood turns to varnish once you work in the organ business." Wick said his mother keeps a 1,700-pipe organ in her basement.

By choosing a career working with organs -- on the business or musical side -- one enters a lineage of devotees. For example, the musical director at the New Cathedral, John Romeri, graduated from Westminster Choir College. So did Max Tenney, assistant music director and organist. Meanwhile, as Tenney described the history of that church's organ, David Ball, 16, practiced on a smaller organ in the church's basement. Romeri handpicked Ball, the church's organ scholar, and as his two mentors did, Ball - a junior at St. Louis University High School - plans to attend Westminster.

The grand scale of the New Cathedral's breathtaking arches and mosaics allows for a large organ with 118 ranks, or sets, of pipes. Some pipes date back to the building's beginning in 1915. Some pipes are more recent acquisitions, including ranks from New York's Carnegie Hall. (To find out about the Cathedral Concert series, which includes a performance on Oct. 19 y the Cathedral Basilica organists), click here .)

Wicks retooled the organ, built the console (keyboard piece), and now services the instrument. "Wicks is a very reputable firm in terms of the quality," Tenney said. "If you look at the console, it doesn't look like it was bought at Kmart." Building that organ from scratch would cost $3.5 million.

Because some pipes are a city block away from the console, a full second passes between pressing the key on the console and the pipe's voice sounding. That chamber, which houses a section of pipes, lies above the chapel out of site, reachable by climbing a tall ladder. Only a few pipes appear to a worshiper.

Many organists grew up dreaming of playing the instrument for a living. "I think you always know it's what you want to do," Tenney said. "I know I wanted to do it since I was 8. ... You certainly don't want to do anything else since you've done it."

Bruce Ludwick Jr., music director and organist at St. Gabriel Archangel Catholic Church, felt the same way. Ludwick, 25, hails from West Virginia. Like many organists, his connection with the instrument began by playing piano. When Ludwick was 14, his church's organist quit. "I was a decent pianist, and they told me they would pay me if I could start playing the organ, so it was totally mercenary at first. Then I got to know the instrument and its music, I really enjoyed it a lot."

"Once you get the bug, I think it's like anything else," Ludwick said. "You really get interested in it and then you go to school, you get interested in choral things, hopefully get a good background in a lot of different kinds of music."

At St. Gabriels, the organ was built in 1961 by the St. Louis Pipe Organ Co.   and rebuilt, as at the New Cathedral, by Wicks, which built the console. Ludwick said he was ambivalent about the fare of organists contemporarily. "In some ways it's been bad because certainly there are fewer options for organists. The style of worship has changed in a lot of places so there's not the need," Ludwick said. "But there are very good programs."

Still, remember, this is the International Year of the Organ. "Now is a wonderful time to be an organist," Tenney said. "New instruments are being built all the time."

To see the Beacon story and slideshow on the Wicks Organ Co., click here .