Buzard organ project

by R. E. Coleberd

R. E. Coleberd is an economist and petroleum industry executive.

In the March, 1997, edition of this journal we published
"Is The Pipe Organ A Stepchild In Academe?" The purpose was to call
attention to the perilous status of the King of Instruments in many
institutions of higher learning and to suggest concrete ways to shore up its
uncertain future. We closed the article with a call to action, a plea for
concerned friends of the organ--faculty, students, alumni and laymen--to take
determined action. We cited two examples of what is required: "Friends of
the Northrop Organ" at the University of Minnesota and alumni tours of
Woolsey Hall at Yale University, and we mentioned a followup article spotlighting promising developments.

The purpose of this article is to review the nature of the
problem in the context of the current complexion of higher education and to
discuss several auspicious programs in some detail.  The wholesale neglect, abandonment, and sell-off of organs
in colleges and universities which, sadly, threatens to continue, is perceived
as a nationwide phenomenon. This situation is attributed to the emergence of a
pervasive market-driven mentality in academe. Ill-advised budget officers and state legislatures are today preoccupied with student numbers and credit hours as the overriding criteria for funding. Policy and operating decisions by
administrators are based upon a frantic search for "hot buttons"
(computer science and genetic engineering, for example) to bolster enrollment
amid intense competition for students who are increasingly vocationally
oriented in their choice of school and curriculum. This short-sighted pragmatic
approach threatens the distinguishing features of a campus setting and its
time-honored mission as the repository of our culture, and the harbinger of our
future as a cultivated society.

In preparing this article the author has talked with a score
of music professors in all types of schools, public and private, large and
small, coast to coast. He has discovered some remarkable programs, which are
attracting institutional and community support leading to increased student
enrollment and funding. If the bold and imaginative initiatives taken by many
schools are adopted by others, the pipe organ has a bright future in academe.

Invaluable Goods

We repeat our premise that a pipe organ is not merely an
appliance or teaching device, but is a campus jewel along with the telescope,
the book collection and the art gallery. So recognized, these treasures should
be impervious to cost-cutting, down-sizing and departmental budget allocations
based upon enrollment. They should be classified as "invaluable
goods," a concept eloquently articulated by Professor Kenneth Arrow of
Stanford University, an internationally renowned economist awarded the Nobel
Prize in economics in 1972.  The
occasion for his commentary is his review of Margaret Jane Radin's seminal work
Contested Commodities in which her fear is that "actions which are
essential to personal identity fall under the sway of the market and are
measured by its criteria." Arrow's concept of invaluable goods rests upon
the belief that certain aspects of human life are so essential to whole
personhood that their existence and ultimate value cannot be measured in
dollars and cents. They are not--and should not be--bartered in the marketplace
and their value should not be judged by a monetary payoff. He acknowledges that
this concept is symptomatic of  a
failure of economics (and of the market mentality): "One of the oldest
critiques of economic thinking has been its perceived disregard of the deeper
and more sacred aspects of life" he writes.1 In short, when we begin, or
insist on, valuing the fundamentals of human life in terms of money, putting a
price on them and, without hesitation, buying and selling them based on this
criterion, we are asking for trouble. One example Arrow gives of invaluable
goods is children. No matter how poor or desperate a family might be, the idea
of selling the children is utterly unthinkable. Is it time that we invoke the
spirit of invaluable goods in our colleges and universities and declare the
pipe organ and other jewels of the campus as integral to the deeper and more
sacred aspects of the higher learning, and thereby untouchable?

We continue with the admonition that the trancendent
three-dimensional sound of a majestic pipe organ, as heard in an auditorium
convocation or chapel service, can evoke emotions which contribute immeasurably
to a vital sense of identity and community in the collegiate experience. One
striking, if novel, example of the lasting imprint of this experience is in
Robert L. Duffus's delightful little book The Innocents at Cedro. It
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  recounts the year 1907-08 when Duffus
and his brother William kept house for Thorstein Veblen in their sophmore year
at Stanford University. The publisher described the book as "an
unforgettable evocation of American college life in the early 1900s."
Written in 1944 near the close of a distinguished career in journalism as a
member of the editorial board of the New York Times, Duffus recalled what,
nearly four decades earlier, were his most cherished memories of college life,
the experiences that meant the most to him. Among them was joining fellow
students for a sack lunch on the quadrangle and listening to Professor Blodgett
practicing on the chapel organ. "The music would rumble along, formless in
the distance, but pleasant and tranquil" he wrote. 2

Auditorium Organs

We noted in the previous paper that the auditorium and its
majestic pipe organ have all but disappeared as a centerpiece of campus
activity. Too small for many functions or pre-empted by the drama department,
the auditorium often stands anonymously as a symbol of the vast increase in
enrollment and of specialized curricula, which together with other forces, have
compartmentalized student life into various "schools,"
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  i.e., engineering, business, nursing,
agriculture and others. We are happy to have discovered two exceptions.

Mansfield University

Mansfield University in Pennsylvania is one of fourteen
former state teachers colleges which now comprise the "University
System."  Its two organs are a
25-stop three-manual Austin, Opus 297, 1917, in Strawn Auditorium and a 27-stop
three-manual Moller, Opus 10652, 1970, in the Stedman Theater wing of the
Butler Music Building.

  These
instruments are the pride and joy of President Rod C. Kelchner, a graduate of
the school, who says: "You would have to drag me across the campus kicking
and screaming to get rid of our organs." He calls them significant symbols
in the ambience and character of the school and its history. He laments that
with the many changes in academe in recent years, history fades and is
forgotten; hence the need for reminders and recognition. Just as furniture
makes a house livable, hospitable to visitors and complements the personalities
of the occupants, so too do the treasures of a campus give it definition and
persona and bridge the generations, he asserts.

President Kelchner's office, not the music department, has
contracted for five maintenance visits per year for these instruments. This is
particularly significant because it illustrates the role the top administration
must play in the recognition and preservation of campus instruments. His
loyalty and devotion are especially noteworthy because Mansfield has not been
immune to organ enrollment trends. When the organ professor retired two years
ago he was not replaced, there are currently no organ majors on campus, and he
has had to go off-campus to find people to play the organ for commencement.

In another gratifying endorsement of music and its place in
the history of Mansfield, which will gladden the hearts of musicians
everywhere, President Kelchner chose Carl Ruck, a graduate of the school, as
commencement speaker two years ago. A well-known keyboard performer in the
Washington, D.C. area, Mr. Ruck also performs frequently on campus and is a
member of the alumni board. Kelchner toyed recently with the idea of a "non-traditional"
commencement, calling for the speaker, a musician, to be seated at the organ
console in Strawn Auditorium, playing and narrating classical music and its
place in time-honored liberal education, providing an alternative to the customary remarks to graduates.   

Boston University

The John R. Silber Symphonic Organ in the George Sherman
Union at Boston University is an eloquent example of the role of a pipe organ
as a distinctive jewel in a campus setting This instrument originated from gifts
of two residence organs to the school by prominent trustees who recognized the
lasting value of them in America's musical heritage and whose resources and
devotion to the school found expression in creating this one-of-a-kind campus
jewel.  The first organ was a small
Skinner in the home of Percy Rockefeller in Greenwich, Connecticut. The second
was a larger Aeolian from the Winchester mansion of William E. Schrafft, the
Boston candy-maker. Meticulously restored and greatly enlarged by organbuilder
Nelson Barden, this spectacular instrument resides in Metcalf Hall in the
Sherman Union, and was dedicated in October, 1994, in honor of Silber, the
Chancellor of Boston University.

This majestic instrument not only replicates the prominence
of an auditorium organ at the turn of the century, it goes a step further in
defining the institution and making a lasting impression on the students. With
102 ranks and 6,815 pipes, displayed prominently with the entire mechanism, the
latter behind plate glass windows, it becomes a commanding presence in the
ambience of student life. As Jonathan 
Ambrosino remarks: "From the start, the instrument was designed to
be a living display of art and technology, restored to perfection and open to
the public.  Whether playing or silent, the organ makes a statement on many artistic levels."3 As students pass through the building daily to and from classes, and as alumni gather for
special occasions,  the visual
presence and glorious sounds of this organ, linking past to present and transcending the cares of life, will evoke a lasting memory.

Promoting the Pipe Organ

In the economic realities of higher education, the market
mentality of administrators and state legislators who view a school today as a
business is here to stay, like it or not. In the final analysis, the best
guarantee of preserving faculty positions, maintaining instruments, and
budgeting scarce resources for tuning and periodic restoration and updating is,
first, never to miss a chance to call attention to the instrument. Second, is
to "shake the bushes" and aggressively recruit students from
traditional sources on campus and non-traditional sources within the community.
The type of missionary zeal required is found in Prof. William Kuhlman of
Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, who says proudly: "I have done everything
but stand on my head to bring about organ awareness and appreciation."
Indeed he has:  organ crawls after
church, summer organ camps for local grade school children, demonstrations for
faculty and board of regents spouses, family camps, church heritage workshops,
Halloween "monster concerts" and presentations to the local Rotary
Club.

In research for this paper the author has surveyed all types
of schools across the nation. He has come upon some enterprising and
imaginative faculty who are "pulling out all the stops" to promote
their departments, programs and instruments with gratifying results.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  For purposes of analysis and
discussion, it is useful perhaps to divide the landscape of higher education
into three categories: small liberal arts colleges, state colleges including
urban branches of state universities, and major music schools and universities,
particularly those noted for professional and graduate study.

Liberal Arts Colleges

The liberal arts colleges were historically church
affiliated and many retain strong church ties today. The Lutheran schools, in
particular, enjoy a rich legacy of liturgical music in the heritage of their
denomination, and churches of all denominations traditionally reflect the
prominence of music in the experience of corporate worship. Thus, the church
connection augurs well for maintaining pipe organs as integral to campus
resources and central to the music program. These schools benefit from an
articulate and active alumni and the corresponding sensitivity of the
administration and trustees to alumni concerns in budgeting decisions. The
choice of liberal arts as an initial course of study is perhaps indicative of a
lesser concern with the vocational job-market payoff in selecting a school and
a curriculum. The church-going life style of students enrolled in these
schools, particularly those students having a musical background and interest,
may cause them to contemplate making a musical contribution to parish life and
to prepare for organ and choral opportunities. Therefore, although these
schools are not totally immune to the market-orientation mind-set, and have
adjusted curriculum to broader trends, they have never suffered such a loss of
organ enrollment as to justify ending the curriculum and liquidating the
instruments. The challenge of these schools is to continue to insure the
rightful place of music in the philosophical and operational image of the
liberal arts and to affirm organ study in music programs, resources and curriculum.

Marylhurst College

Practical Outreach

One of the most imaginative and innovative programs in a
four-year undergraduate curriculum is the one developed by Nancy LeRoi Nichol
at Marylhurst College, a Catholic women's school in Portland, Oregon. Acutely
aware of the precarious position of organ studies in her school and elsewhere,
where faculty are constantly admonished to "double our enrollment"
and to be "accountable" in matching revenue with cost, she has taken
giant steps to expand the student base far beyond the traditional BM and BA
degree programs in organ performance and sacred music. Her efforts benefitted
from a rich tradition in sacred music in the order which founded and operates
the school, and from the George Bozeman rebuild of a vintage Hutchings-Votey
tracker instrument installed in the auditorium in 1995.

Cornerstones of the new format at Marylhurst are two new
classes, a one-semester "Meet the Organ" and a one-year "Basic
Training in Organ." The first class is a semi-private group of three to
four students who, in recent enrollment, have ranged in age from 24 to 74. They
are seeking primarily a general introduction to the instrument. The class may
include non-organ music majors, non-music students from other departments and
music aficionados from the community. It sets its own course of study such as
service playing knowledge and skills, a specific repertory area, or perhaps,
depending on the students, preparation for an AGO exam. The goal of this course
is to foster a love of the instrument and its music, to recognize its singular
historic prominence in the spectrum of music and to promote the contemporary
role of the organ on campus and in the community.

The "Basic Training in Organ" class meets
two-hours a week in three ten-week terms, for a total of 60 hours of
instruction. Enrollment is limited to eight participants who are solicited
through a letter to local clergy of all faiths. It reminds them of the chronic
local, as well as national, shortage of organists and points out that this
economical and efficient program will fulfill their needs. Churches also are
encouraged to subsidize all or part of the students' $1242 per year tuition as
a wise and minimal investment that will pay rich dividends for many years in
the worship life of the congregation. Results have been most encouraging, with
interest coming particularly from piano teachers who welcome the opportunity to
broaden their keyboard experience and to increase their income potential by
becoming part-time church organists. In the class they learn fundamentals of
technique, registration, practical repertoire, and begin each class playing
church hymns.

The new programs more than meet the cost-revenue guidelines
mandated by the administration at Marylhurst. The semi-private group
instruction has been particularly successful in increasing productivity of
faculty resources without any decrease in quality. In Professor Nichol's
experience, the group format, with its collegial and supportive atmosphere for
learning, is far more advantageous to students at this juncture in their
careers than are individual studio lessons. In addition, the group format makes
lessons financially attractive for many students. At the end of the
introductory year the students can choose private lessons or continue in
semi-private instruction in groups of three. The school also has established a
Certificate in Sacred Music option, a two-year program in which one-half of the
curricula is in theology and the other half in music. The success of the
Marylhurst programs can be explained, in part, by the fact that it is primarily
a commuter school in an urban setting. Community outreach and the role of
continuing education is an established factor in its educational philosophy.
Thus, it has long been accustomed to probing the surrounding area for special
educational needs and the corresponding potential for enrollment.

Dordt College

Church Music Training

Dordt College in Sioux Center, (northwestern) Iowa,
illustrates the importance of a strong denominational and cultural tradition in
providing a prominent instrument on campus, and in keeping vibrancy in its
organ curriculum. A comparatively new school, founded in 1955, Dordt is
affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church of Dutch heritage.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Most students are from Christian high
schools where music programs are strong. Many students, including 150 from
Canada, are first or second generation immigrants from Holland where the organ
is a centerpiece of their culture. When these families visit the campus they
ask about the pipe organ. The large Casavant tracker instrument in the
auditorium makes a statement (see photo). Thus, music and the organ program,
established in 1967 by Dr. Joan Ringerwole, are a priority in the mission of
the school. The auditorium platform and instrument are reserved for organ
students from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm, after which it is available for choir, band,
orchestra, and other ensembles. As in many other church-affiliated colleges, a
number of non-music majors take organ lessons, seeking to become good hymn
players and build a repertoire of church music, perhaps in anticipation of
strong church ties as adults and an active role as a musician in the local
parish.

The place of organ in the achievements and image of the
school were recognized in an alumni magazine article, "Playing the organ
is their occupation," featuring four graduates from the 1980s who have
gone on to graduate study and to choice positions in the profession. These
include Dr. Christian Teeuwsen, professor of music at Redeemer College in
Ancaster, Ontario; Dr. Laura Vander Windt, organist and choirmaster at All
Soul's Church in Oklahoma City;  
Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, university organist and music professor at
Eastern Michigan University; and Dr. Martin Tel, chapel organist and lecturer
in church music at Princeton Theological Seminary. "They're a passionate
group. Each of them speaks with warmth and intensity about the organ, its
repertoire and the joy of playing it," the alumni magazine columnist
wrote. Another organ graduate of Dordt, Brent Assink, president of the St. Paul
Chamber Orchestra, was named outstanding alumnus two years ago. A current
student, Bonnie Runia, a senior from Melvin, Iowa, won first place in her
junior year in the National Federation of Music Clubs competition. These people
speak with glowing praise for their teacher, Dr. Ringerwole, who inspired them.
"She was a gentle spirit, always pushing us to pursue excellence but never
hard on us. At the same time she expected a lot from us," said Vander
Windt.4

University of Evansville

Musical Anchor for Liberal
Arts

The University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana,
affiliated with the United Methodist Church, enjoys a rich tradition in organ
which dates back to 1919. The relocation of the school from Moores Hill,
Indiana to Evansville that year coincided with the installation, in the
Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial Colliseum, of a large Moller concert organ.
James Gillette, the first chairman of the music department at the school, was
also the municipal organist. He was succeeded as organ teacher on campus by
Ralph Waterman, who served many years. The program made giant strides in the
1960s under the leadership of Carl Staplin, the nationally-known keyboard
artist now at Drake University, who guided the selection of Holtkamp
instruments for the concert hall and the chapel. Staplin was succeeded by
Robert Luther, who moved to Carleton College in 1975 and he was followed by the
present incumbent, Douglas Reed.

The program also enjoys active support
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  by the administration.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  The president, Dr. James Vinson, a
physicist by training who has a special affinity for organ music, says:
"The presence of the organ at significant ceremonies greatly enhances the
event." The two visiting artists in the annual recital series, in addition
to Reed's faculty recital, are funded by the administration. The college
chaplain, Dr. John Brittain, also an organist, is equally enthusiastic for the
organ program and its place in the school, as are the comparatively large
number of musicians in other departments.

A distinguishing feature of the Evansville liberal arts
philosophy and of the place of music in it, is the three-semester World
Cultures Curriculum. Here Reed presents a lecture on baroque keyboard music and
plays the harpsichord and the two Holtkamp organs. The organ is used
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  during noontime chapel recitals and was
part of a successful "Music at Midnight" event. Another popular event
in recent years was a "Handel with Care" program endowed by an
alumnus. On tours of the campus for visitors and prospective students, student
guides are instructed to call attention to the instruments.

Other attractions at Evansville for prospective organ
students are the Neu Chapel Organ Scholarship, awarded to a freshman, selected
by audition, each year. Also, the community's unusually rich organ resources
represented by Fisk, Jaekel, and Taylor & Boody tracker instruments.
Students are welcomed at performances and in master classes at the First
Presbyterian Church (C. B. Fisk, Opus 98, 1991) funded by the church's Sacred
Arts Series.

Organ Study and Other Curricula

If liberal arts students also are sensitive, ultimately, to
the employment outlook (i.e. the absence of well-paying positions in church
music), a majority of organ students are likely to be part-time while wisely
acquiring marketable skills in other departments. Nonetheless, part-time
non-music degree students are quite enough to support a program and to justify
the security of organ faculty and resources. This is the experience of Dr. John
Behnke of Concordia College in Mequon, Wisconsin. The majority of his students
are in accounting, business, physical therapy and other majors. They welcome
the opportunity to pursue a personal if not a primary career interest. His
appeal to them is based on his fervent belief that the future of the organ and
its role in a liturgical setting 
(where it is the most effective musical vehicle for leading group
singing) is in training grassroots organists. "Playing hymns well, playing
exciting uplifting hymn preludes are of equal importance to the organ
masterworks," he says, adding "I believe training an organist
exclusively for a career as a concert performer is unrealistic." The
importance of a church focus is echoed by Professor John Ferguson at St. Olaf
College who asks: "Why should a church invest in a college or university
trained organist if that person leads congregational singing no more creatively
than an amateur?" His experience suggests that students are interested in
developing skills as church organists as well as performers of the literature.
"They know that most of the professional opportunities are in
churches." The dual focus upon literature and church music at St. Olaf
perhaps explains why the organ department remains strong with 12 Bachelor of Music performance or church music organ majors out of a total of 26 organ students this year.

Much recruiting of high school students for future organ
study is indirect, as Davis Folkerts of Central College in Iowa explains. That
is, it begins with  the admissions
office soliciting applicants in the entire spectrum of music: band, orchestra,
vocal and keyboard. John Hamersma of Calvin College in Michigan finds music
students often are persuaded that organ study wisely complements their basic
program; such as in fulfilling the keyboard requirement in music education, or
as part of a combined degree, perhaps in music and religion. He observes
that  the organ holds a fascination
for students, once on campus, because of its size, visual appearence, range of
pitch, volume and color. Karen Larsen of Wartburg College in Iowa notes that
the flexibility of combined degrees, and of a broad curriculum in music, is
especially appealing to students due to uncertainties of the job market. And as
W. N. Earnest of  The Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, Virginia notes: "Schools of all sizes and the AGO should recognize that churches aren't looking just for organists anymore; they're looking for ministers of music."

In the church affiliated liberal arts colleges, organ
teachers are accustomed to teaching courses as well as studio lessons and, in
fact, they welcome this broad approach to music as integral to their
philosophical approach to education. Professor Rudolf Zuiderveld of Illinois
College considers himself a professor of music, not just
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  of organ. He views himself as an
advocate of the liberal arts and its cosmopolitan approach to learning, a
curriculum he much prefers over a conservatory education at the undergraduate
level.

Drake University

At Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, a regional
privately-supported school, promoting the pipe organ is, in large measure,
maintaining the momentum of its sterling reputation. Drake is an eloquent
example of a thriving private school in a large metropolis (Washington
University in St. Louis is another) which is a focal point of the artistic and
cultural life of the community. It enjoys high visibility and widespread
community financial support. This in turn fosters administrative resource
priorities in support of its image.

Drake is well-known and highly regarded in the organist
profession,  particularly for its
excellent preparation for graduate study. This mirrors its emphasis on
performance. The bachelor's degree curriculum in church music requires the same
number of performance hours as a performance degree. The school's reputation is
also based upon its faculty and resources. The former began with the venerable
Frank Jordan in the 1940s , continued with the legendary Russell Saunders, and
is represented today by the well-known Carl Staplin. The resource attraction is
anchored in the 1972 Fine Arts Complex featuring a 50-rank three-manual
Holtkamp recital  instrument, a
three-manual Reuter studio organ and two modern practice organs. Mechanical
action instruments by Phelps and Dobson in nearby churches are also used for
teaching and recitals. Total organ enrollment of 39 students in 1997-98 attests
to the vibrancy and competitive position of  the school. Drake has recently launched a certification in
church music program encompassing seven courses in church music and eight hours
of studio instruction scheduled in weekend classes and to be completed over two
years.

State Colleges

In our second category of schools are former state colleges,
many of them now universities, which began as teachers colleges, located
regionally throughout the states, and new schools. Grand Valley State
University in Michigan is 
representative of large public institutions which emerged in response to
population growth and voter demand for higher education. It also reflects the
crucial role of private funding in adding essential resources to the base of
public support. Founded only thirty years ago, it enrolls thirty thousand
students, and aggressively recruits from the region with an ever-expanding
array of courses and programs. The Cook-DeWitt ecumenical center and concert
hall, the gift of two families, houses a 27-rank, two-manual Reuter organ. This
instrument permits organ instruction as the initial step in the future development of an organ curriculum.

In this classification we also include branches of state
university systems located in metropolitan areas, schools that are
predominantly vocational in orientation, offering myriad programs for part-time
and full-time day and evening students of all ages. These schools are the
quintessential examples of mass higher education focusing on transmitting
knowledge and skills and on training students for opportunities in the world of
work.

With their emphasis on career preparation in certificate and
degree programs, these publicly-supported schools are expected to bear the
brunt of the projected tidal wave increase in enrollment in the next several
years (400,000 in the next eight years in California alone), placing a premium
on facilities and bringing enormous pressure to increase faculty-student
ratios. The urban campus perhaps will end up resembling Grand Central Station,
with legions of students funneling in and out, moving anonymously through their
huge classes with scarcely any attachment to the school. Adding to this
prospect is the anticipated revolutionary impact of the Internet which in the
long run may diminish seriously the role of the campus in the educational
process. 

Yet sheer numbers and the clamor for low-cost education
should augur well for a minimum number of students in organ. Although campus
facilities may be crowded, the proximity of church instruments nearby, many of
them large and up-to-date, should fill the needs.  These schools will be able to capitalize on nearby
off-campus resources because churches, desperate for revenue, will be only too
glad to rent their faciliies. 

Central Missouri State

Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Missouri,
is symbolic of the transition of a school from having an auditorium organ as a
campus centerpiece to a much larger campus with specialized department
facilities. In 1923 the school installed a three-manual Austin organ in the
auditorium as a memorial to alumni casualties of World War I. Its prominence in
the image of the school was indicated 
by the photograph of the console in the college viewbooks of this era.
Heavily used until after World War II, the organ and the auditorium were
largely abandoned as a music facility when instruction and performance relocated
to a new music building with a McManis organ (see photo) which now services
department needs.

CMSU reflects some developments in state funding which in
their experience have worked to the detriment of organ enrollment. Formerly,
students paid a flat tuition fee per term which covered every type of
instruction, including studio organ lessons at no extra charge. This encouraged
students, many with strong church ties, to study organ as an academic interest
apart from their major field of study. Beginning in 1985, however, the school
moved to a fee schedule based upon number of credit hours. With the rising cost
of higher education, coupled with the premium placed on graduates with
marketable skills, the result of this "pay by the drink" mentality
has been to force students to concentrate on their major and degree
requirements, and to forego organ lessons because of the additional cost. In
Professor William McCandless's judgment, this has caused a noticable reduction
in organ enrollment, omitting those who had looked forward to beginning or
continuing an interest in organ with the resources on campus.

In another far-reaching development in Missouri, perhaps to
occur sooner or later in other states, the legislature has stipulated that each
of the five regional state colleges specialize in a particular curriculum,
ostensibly tied to vocational preparation; one in technology, another in public
service, another in teacher training, etc. The purpose is to foster economies
of scale in educational resources and to stem the tide of rising costs to the
taxpayer. The implications of this development are ominous for the fine arts in
general and music in particular. The legislature has mandated that all future
capital expenditures be channeled into these narrow specialties, and if capital
funds fall short of need, existing resources be converted, without hesitation,
to the newly-concentrated programs. This, in effect, seriously diminishes the
American tradition of liberal higher education and moves these hapless
institutions one step closer to becoming trade schools.

Promotion of the organ by interested people outside the
music department and the school is illustrated by the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.  When Michael
Ferris, the organ teacher, resigned to accept a position at the Eastman School
of Music, the chairman of the music department dragged his feet in appointing a
successor. Clergy at campus churches and thoughout the two cities called and
wrote to the dean pleading with him to replace Ferris, which he did in the
person of Michael Keeley. Steve Shoemaker, pastor of the McKinley Foundation
and Presbyterian Church, observes that In the March, 1997, edition of this
journal we published "Is The Pipe Organ A Stepchild In Academe?" The
purpose was to call attention to the perilous status of the King of Instruments
in many institutions of higher learning and to suggest concrete ways to shore
up its uncertain future. We closed the article with a call to action, a plea
for concerned friends of the organ--faculty, students, alumni and laymen--to
take determined action. We cited two examples of what is required:
"Friends of the Northrop Organ" at the University of Minnesota and
alumni tours of Woolsey Hall at Yale University, and we mentioned a followup article spotlighting promising developments.

The purpose of this article is to review the nature of the
problem in the context of the current complexion of higher education and to
discuss several auspicious programs in some detail.  The wholesale neglect, abandonment, and sell-off of organs
in colleges and universities which, sadly, threatens to continue, is perceived
as a nationwide phenomenon. This situation is attributed to the emergence of a
pervasive market-driven mentality in academe. Ill-advised budget officers and
state legislatures are today preoccupied with student numbers and credit hours
as the overriding criteria for funding. Policy and operating decisions by
administrators are based upon a frantic search for "hot buttons"
(computer science and genetic engineering, for example) to bolster enrollment
amid intense competition for students who are increasingly vocationally
oriented in their choice of school and curriculum. This short-sighted pragmatic
approach threatens the distinguishing features of a campus setting and its
time-honored mission as the repository of our culture, and the harbinger of our
future as a cultivated society.

In preparing this article the author has talked with a score
of music professors in all types of schools, public and private, large and
small, coast to coast. He has discovered some remarkable programs, which are
attracting institutional and community support leading to increased student
enrollment and funding. If the bold and imaginative initiatives taken by many
schools are adopted by others, the pipe organ has a bright future in academe.

Promoting the Pipe Organ

In the economic realities of higher education, the market
mentality of administrators and state legislators who view a school today as a
business is here to stay, like it or not. In the final analysis, the best
guarantee of preserving faculty positions, maintaining instruments, and
budgeting scarce resources for tuning and periodic restoration and updating is,
first, never to miss a chance to call attention to the instrument. Second, is
to "shake the bushes" and aggressively recruit students from
traditional sources on campus and non-traditional sources within the community.
The type of missionary zeal required is found in Prof. William Kuhlman of
Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, who says proudly: "I have done everything
but stand on my head to bring about organ awareness and appreciation."
Indeed he has:  organ crawls after
church, summer organ camps for local grade school children, demonstrations for
faculty and board of regents spouses, family camps, church heritage workshops,
Halloween "monster concerts" and presentations to the local Rotary
Club.

In research for this paper the author has surveyed all types
of schools across the nation. He has come upon some enterprising and
imaginative faculty who are "pulling out all the stops" to promote
their departments, programs and instruments with gratifying results.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  For purposes of analysis and
discussion, it is useful perhaps to divide the landscape of higher education
into three categories: small liberal arts colleges, state colleges including
urban branches of state universities, and major music schools and universities,
particularly those noted for professional and graduate study.

Liberal Arts Colleges

The liberal arts colleges were historically church
affiliated and many retain strong church ties today. The Lutheran schools, in
particular, enjoy a rich legacy of liturgical music in the heritage of their
denomination, and churches of all denominations traditionally reflect the prominence of music in the experience of corporate worship. Thus, the church connection augurs well for maintaining pipe organs as integral to campus resources and central to the music program. These schools benefit from an articulate and active alumni and the corresponding sensitivity of the administration and trustees to alumni concerns in budgeting decisions. The choice of liberal arts as an initial course of study is perhaps indicative of a lesser concern with the vocational job-market payoff in selecting a school and a curriculum. The church-going life style of students enrolled in these schools, particularly those students having a musical background and interest, may cause them to contemplate making a musical contribution to parish life and to prepare for organ and choral opportunities. Therefore, although these schools are not totally immune to the market-orientation mind-set, and have adjusted curriculum to broader trends, they have never suffered such a loss of organ enrollment as to justify ending the curriculum and liquidating the instruments. The challenge of these schools is to continue to insure the rightful place of music in the philosophical and operational image of the liberal arts and to affirm organ study in music programs, resources and curriculum.

Conservatories and Universities

Our third category of schools comprises the nationally known
professional schools and universities including:  Eastman, Oberlin, New England Conservatory, Westminster
Choir College, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Texas and Yale. We are also happy
to note that, contrary to the report in the previous article, Syracuse
University, long a member of the elite group, is again prospering and
attracting students under the dynamic leadership of Katharine Pardee. The
curriculum of these schools is centered on career preparation as a performer or
teacher and, with the exception of Oberlin, focuses primarily on advanced
degrees. 

These prestigous schools enjoy a level of recognition and
support not found elsewhere among private and public institutions. The organ
faculty, with advanced degrees from top-drawer schools, are well-known and
highly esteemed in the profession, by virtue of their recital appearences
before American Guild of Organists gatherings as well as from their
well-publicised recital tours in this country and abroad. Their accomplishments
and high visibility contribute to the luster of the programs, are a key factor
in attracting highly qualified students, and, most important, guarantee vital
institutional support. Status-conscious administrators acknowledge that recital
performances and offices in professional organizations are, in terms of
institutional recognition, almost the equivalent of a Nobel Prize.

In addition, these institutions frequently are beneficiaries
of substantial private funding by wealthy individuals and families who identify
with the school as alumni or as benefactors in the arts. A striking example is
the $50 million 1973 endowment of the School of Sacred Music at Yale University
by Clementine Miller Tangeman, based on the Cummins Engine Company fortune
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  A more recent illustration is the $18
million Simon Music and Library building at Indiana University, now awaiting a
52-stop Rosales tracker organ. This building was funded exclusively by private
subscriptions to the University Foundation, not an appropriation by the
legislature of state tax dollars. 
The University of Iowa music department has also been privately endowed.
The prominence of these schools, in recent times, has hinged significantly on
private funding and their continued prosperity will depend on these sources.

These schools represent what Martin Trow defines as elite
higher education which centers around high ambition and the resources required
to nuture it. This paradigm reflects a close and prolonged relationship between
student and teacher, and the social and physical setting in which this kind of
relationship can exist, i.e., low faculty-student ratios, excellent physical
plant and other resources. It makes high demands on students in the severity of
the curriculum and because of these demands it does not encourage or admit
older or part-time students. It is most likely to be residential, highly
selective and richly staffed. Clearly these schools are in a class by
themselves. As Trow notes: " . . 
. elite higher education is too costly; . . .  only a fraction of students and teachers have the interests,
motivations and ability to profit from the intense and demanding personal and
intellectual relationships that mark it."5

Oberlin College

No discussion of the pipe organ in academe would be complete
without reference to Oberlin College which stands preeminent in the history of
music in colleges and universities in America. The nation's first conservatory,
founded in 1865, Oberlin is internationally recognized for its faculty and
facilities offering world-class musical training. With its rich tradition,
legions of distinguished artists and performers among its graduates,
unparalleled facilities, and uncompromising ideals in the higher learning, it
is clearly the exception to other schools. A leitmotif for excellence in
American higher education, the school has been blessed with the resources
required to maintain its gold-plated image. The luster and status of organ
study at Oberlin is confirmed by the spectrum of instruments beginning with the
1974 Flentrop in Warner Concert Hall embracing the 18th-century North German
style. It continued with the Brombaugh organ in Fairchild Chapel as an exquisite
example of the late Renaissance period. To complete the rainbow the school has
contracted for a $1.2 million Fisk organ, scheduled for installation in Finney
Chapel in 2001. A symphonic organ, made possible by the initial bequest of Kay
Africa, it will be well-suited for music of the 19th and 20th century. Styled
in the paradigm of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, this Tiffany instrument will
reinforce Oberlin's image as progressive and up-to-date in the world of organ
pedagogy. In  the Fisk Opus List it
joins the company of Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Rice and Wellesley, among
others, in the gallery of this prestigous trophy builder.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  North Texas University has also
selected Fisk to build the recital organ for its new concert hall, as yet
awaiting funding.

Yet despite its lofty status, and the preferred position of
its graduates in the music marketplace, Oberlin has addressed the legitimate
aspirations of students who seek flexibility and potential employment options
outside music performance. The answer is a double degree program; a fifth year
program established thirty years ago for conservatory students who then receive
a Bachelor of Arts degree. This "Double Degree" program now includes
one-third of the 550 students enrolled in the conservatory. Officially described
as a program to produce a more broadly educated person, it undoubtedly reflects
a recognition by the school, and by the students, of the need to explore many
possibilities at this juncture in their budding careers. Oberlin's challenge is  to continue to command the financial resources needed to attract top talent, which means the generous scholarships required to bid them away from  competing schools.

Westminster Choir College

The staggering financial requirements of private higher
education today were dramatically illustrated in the recent history of
Westminster Choir College whose phalanx of prominent graduates have made it a
household word in American church music. According to Professor Eugene Roan,
the merger with Rider College (now University) three years ago was a godsend in
the fortunes of a school that, despite its sterling reputation, could not have
survived as a stand-alone institution 
For Rider, a college little-known outside New Jersey, the Westminster
acquisition gives them an instant nationwide visibility and prestige that no
amount of money could buy. As for Westminster, it gained the necessary
resources in scholarships and bricks and mortar to continue its storied
tradition. The organ program counted a total enrollment of 51 in the Fall of
1997 including 22 graduate students. The standards of admission and levels of
performance are the highest on record, according to Roan. An excellent
placement program features a subscription-only job newsletter circulated every
two weeks. With a preferred position in an uncertain nationwide job market for
church musicians, Westminster should continue to attract students who can
reasonably expect to find employment in their chosen profession upon
graduation.

The so-called elite institutions under discussion are
indicative of the fact that nationwide there is a core of highly qualified and
professionally ambitious students who actively pursue quality education in
high-profile schools, but who are increasingly selective in their choice of
school and are actively shopping for the best financial package. Therefore, the
financial challenge is one of obtaining scholarship money in ever increasing
amounts to attract the top talent and to compete successfully with other
schools which are seeking the same students. This is the economic price one
must pay for being an elite institution.

Summary

We have argued that the pipe organ is a jewel of a campus
setting, imparting definition and meaning to the collegiate experience.
Unfortunately, this fact has not been adequately acknowledged by the majority
of decision-makers. We have shown that if the organ is not to continue to fall
victim to enrollment criteria as the basis for funding, it must be aggressively
promoted on campus: to trustees, alumni, visitors, townspeople, in special
programs and to today's generation of students.  It should be featured in campus publicity, on tours, in the
alumni magazine, and in the recognition of organists among prominent alumni.
Marylhurst, with its enterprising community outreach, Dordt capitalizing on
church ties, and Evansville emphasizing the core of the liberal arts, are
showing the way. The innovative approaches of these schools, others we have
noted, and, no doubt, many more, can be adopted and applied successfully by
schools everywhere. The costs are minimal and the potential rewards are great.
Undeniably, the potential is there--in group study, combined curricula, and
untapped student sources within the community.

Organ professors in academe are a very close-knit
professional group who communicate with each other frequently and who are eager
to find ways to bolster the immediate prospects of their school and the
fortunes of their colleagues elsewhere as well. They should be encouraged to
exchange ideas in regional and national gatherings of organists and music
educators and on the Internet. The professional media should be admonished to
publicise program details and achievements. Perhaps the AGO should contemplate
establishing awards to individuals and programs that demonstrate innovation and
leadership in advancing the profession and the instrument.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      

For critical comments on earlier drafts of this paper the
author gratefully acknowledges: 
Byron Arneson, Nelson Barden, Jack Bethards, Charles McManis, Albert
Neutel, Jack Sievert and Haskel Thomson.

For research input the author thanks:
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  John Behnke, Margaret Cries, George
Damp, Delbert Disselhorst, W. N. Earnest, John Ferguson, Davis Folkerts, Lee
Garrett, John Hamersma, Rod Kelchner, William Kuhlman, Karen Larsen, William
McCandless, Thomas Murray, Nancy LeRoi Nichol, Dale Peters, Douglas Reed, Joan
Ringerwole, Eugene Roan, Larry Smith, Carl Staplin, Herman Taylor, James
Vinson, Chris Young, and Rudolf Zuiderveld.

Notes

                        1.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Arrow,
Kenneth J., "Invaluable Goods," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol.
XXV (June 1997), pp. 757-765.

                        2.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Duffus,
R. L., The Innocents at Cedro, New York: 
Macmillan, 1944, p. 25. 
Reprint Augustus M. Kelley.

                        3.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Ambrosino,
Jonathan, "The John R. Silber Symphonic Organ at Boston University",
The New England Organist,Vol. 7, No. 3, May & June, 1997, pp. 8-11.

                        4.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Jongsma,
Sally, "Playing the organ is their occupation," The Voice,
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Dordt College, Vol. 42, No. 4, May,
1997, pp. 12-13.

                        5.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Martin
Trow, "Aspects of Diversity in Higher Education" in Gans, Glazer, Gusfield
and Jenks, eds, On The Making of 
Americans:  Essays in Honor
of David Riesman, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, pp. 171-270.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        

Part 2

by Philip Gehring, Martin Jean, William F. Eifrig, and Dr. John

The Reddel Memorial Organ at Valparaiso University: the first 30 years

As plans were being made in the middle 1950s for the
construction of a new chapel on the campus of Valparaiso University, the
administration was determined to provide an organ suitable to the size of the
building and of a  character to
carry forward the tradition of fine Lutheran church music already
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  established at the university. Dr. 0.
P. Kretzmann, university president; Dr. 
Theodore Hoelty-Nickel, head of the music department; and Dr. Heinrich
Fleischer, university organist, conferred with Dr. Paul Bunjes. The chapel
building, modern in dress but traditional in its long nave, elevated chancel,
and high ceiling, was originally conceived with a bridge across the nave on
which the organ would be placed, but saner counsel prevailed and the organ was
placed in the rear gallery.

In the 1950s the tracker revival was still some years in the
future. Tonal designs in the 50s usually included independent principal
choruses in each division, with the addition of some Romantic stops; voicing
was clearer and more forthright than that of Romantic organs. But electric key
and stop action was still the norm, and free-standing pipework was advocated.
Valparaiso University turned first to one of the preeminent organ builders in
this so-called "American Classic" style, Walter Holtkamp. Disputes
about tonal design and architectural features resulted in awarding the contract
to another builder, also known for his own particular brand of American Classic
organs: Herman Schlicker, of Buffalo, New York. The organ, designed by Dr. Bunjes
in collaboration with Mr. Schlicker, was completed and installed in the summer
of 1959. The dedication of both chapel and organ occurred on September 27 of
that year; E. Power Biggs played the opening recital to an overflow audience.

The principal donor for the organ was the Reddel family, of
St. Joseph, Michigan, and the instrument has since been known as the Fred and
Ella Reddel Memorial Organ. Originally planned as an instrument of 4 manuals
and 101 ranks of pipes, including an antiphonal organ in the chancel, the organ
at its dedication consisted of only 67 ranks and no antiphonal division. Over
the ensuing years, other donors, notably Kenneth Merrill of South Bend,
Indiana, and the Gaertner family of Farmington, Michigan, enabled a few
additional ranks to be added. The organ did not reach its planned size,
however, until the major renovation of 1995. The idea of an antiphonal division
was abandoned. However, the Valparaiso organ is an instrument of luxurious
size, allowing the player a widely varied palette of tonal colors. And even
more important, the designer and builder achieved the unity of character and
blend of stops that are the hallmark of the best organs.

In its first thirty years, the Reddel organ was host to many
of the world's leading organists. And generations of students, their parents,
faculty, and visitors have experienced the dimension that the Reddel organ has
added to Sunday and daily worship.

--Philip Gehring

Professor Emeritus of Music

University Organist, 1958-88

Behind the scenes of the organ renovation

"The organ should have sounded better," we all
thought that balmy fall afternoon during our guest organist's recital. The
playing was superb, but in spite of the fact that the organ was freshly tuned,
it was becoming clear, especially to some of our alumni present in the audience
that day, that the organ's voice was showing signs of age. One particularly
devoted alumnus, Michael Friesen, 
was thoughtful enough to bring this to the attention of the president of
the University. Likewise, in his typically efficient manner, Dr. Harre asked
the organ faculty to look into the matter. Prof. Gehring, Eifrig, Bernthal and
myself recommended that two consultants be brought to campus to evaluate the
organ's condition. Jack Bethards, president of Schoenstein Organs in
California, and Lynn Dobson, who later was hired to do the work, both announced
that the organ was in need of serious attention. Because of heavy use during
the school year, mechanically speaking the organ had aged three to four times
faster than a normal church organ. Tonally, pipes had become dirty and had
fallen off speech. Visually, the organ was in need of a good cleaning. Finally,
with the development of technology in the last decade, it would improve the organ's
usefulness and flexibility to update its systems.

The latter issue was the easiest to deal with. Solid State
Logic was asked to design the new relay system and combination action and
provide MIDI and playback capabilities for the organ.

Mechanical issues were also relatively straightforward. The
swell boxes had never worked properly, so the very latest, state-of-the-art
Peterson motors were installed. An elegant new console was built, copied after
the old one. While the organ was disassembled, it seemed financially prudent to
restore all the leather.

The tonal nature of the organ was doubtless the most
delicate issue to deal with and the one which required the longest
deliberation. Extra funds had become available to complete the organ, but we
also needed to consider what voicing could be done on the Schlicker pipes. Our
first priority was to keep the original nature of the organ intact. Here was an
excellent example (and one of the largest) of Herman Schlicker's innovative
work. All of the original scales (save for slight modifications to the the 8';
and 4'; principals on the Great) remained untouched. Selective voicing was done
to the flue pipes, not to change the nature of their tone, but rather to give
it more bloom in the chapel. Reeds were cleaned thoroughly and new tongues were
inserted in many, thus improving speech and tonal production.

A related concern was the organ specification. In 1959, the
funds did not exist to build the fourth manual. A Brustwerk and selected stops
from the other three manuals and pedal were left off. The committee thought
that since the essence of the original Brustwerk stops existed elsewhere on the
organ, and that several other stops, such as a two-rank celeste at 4'; pitch,
and two 4'; regals would not be as useful, we recommended some modifications be
made. There seemed to be a need for more 8'; pitch and string tone on the
organ, which caused us to add two 8'; principals (Positiv and Solo) and a
Salicional in the Swell and strings in the Solo. The battery of reeds in the
Great were completed as planned, but new reed colors were added to the other
divisions--a French Chalumeau, Vox Humana, Clarinet and English-style Trumpet.
Since it was clear that the new fourth manual would not be a Brustwerk and, in
fact, would include a set of strings, the decision was made to enclose the
stops and include Harmonic Flutes 8'; and 4'; and 4'; Principal. A cornet was
mounted on top of the box. A Schreipfeife (13/5'; and 11/7';) which was on the
original Bunjes specification, was installed on the Swell. Electronic 32's
would prove much more economical than the 12 wood pipes called for in 1959.

The organ was re-dedicated in a liturgy on Sept. 15, 1996.
John Scott, Organist/Master of Choirs of St. Paul's Cathedral, London played
the afternoon recital.

--Martin Jean

Associate Professor of Organ

The School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale
University

The process of restoration and enlargment

The approach of 1985, the Bach tricentennial, encouraged the
university organists to propose finishing the incomplete Schlicker organ. Not
only did the instrument lack almost one-third of the original stoplist, but
twenty-five years of constant use with only minimal repairs had left the organ
in need of major rehabilitation. The university, however, had other capital
projects underway; no large donor could be courted for the organ project. That
would wait for another decade.

The program for 1985, however, was the basis on which the
1995 project was conceived. By the mid-eighties the university organists had a
quarter-century of experiencing the Schlicker organ in the acoustics and
worship programs of the chapel.

The chests of most divisions were set up to receive the
prepared-for ranks, but there were neither chests for the Brustwerk division, nor
did Schlicker or Bunjes have any idea where such a division would be located.
There was also the need for larger sounds, not the miniatures of the specified
Brustwerk.

In 1985 Professors Gehring and Eifrig proposed an
alternative to the Brustwerk, a division that was not an independent chorus of
stops but rather a supplement to the Great. Not wanting to violate the
Bunjes/Schlicker concept, the university organists called this "the Cantus
Firmus Division," with additional horizontal trumpets and a set of
Principals to which the other divisions could be coupled. Such a plan would
enable the organist to lead the singing of 1500 voices in "packed
house" worship, soloing out hymn melodies above full organ accompaniment.
The 1985 plan waited for a later project, and the Bach year was celebrated on
the incomplete Schlicker organ.

By the 1990s Valparaiso University had attended to the
several building projects that had earlier taken precedence over the organ
rehabilitation and completion of the center for the arts. Now a new
administration was in a position to let an arts building represent its
accomplishments. Planning such a building for the music department of necessity
included plans for organ performance and instruction. At an early stage of
conceptual planning thought was given to a moderately large organ for a concert
hall. Budgetary restrictions as well as recognition that the Schlicker in the
chapel would always be the locus of organ performance left the concert hall and
its instrument out of the concepts for the Valparaiso University Center for the
Arts. In that center, dedicated in 1995, practice rooms for four organs were
provided and the Bauer Organ and Choral Room gave the Schlicker teaching organ
a happy environment for teaching, rehearsals, and small recitals or master
classes.

Martin Jean's appointment as University Organist coincided
with planning and construction of the arts center. The chair of the music
department and Jean reminded the university administration and the public that
the organ at the chapel is very much a component of the arts center as well as
a prominent voice for the musical arts in Lutheran worship. A turning point in
this campaign occurred when the Vice-President for Finance understood that the
Schlicker organ, suffering twenty-five years of neglect, was not serving
students well in their organ education. Her appreciation of this fact set in
motion the renovation, completion, and expansion of the Schlicker/Bunjes organ.

Funded by the Vice-President's office, the organists and chapel
staff of the university first drew up a list of builders from whom to solicit
interest in the project. Those interested were asked to state their
expectations for the renovation/completion, proposing a specification that
would modify the original Bunjes stoplist while respecting the Schlicker
character of the existing instrument. The organists and chapel staff
recommended that the Dobson Organ Company be contracted to refurbish and
complete the chapel organ. The University Office of Institutional Advancement,
while engaged already in a major capital funding drive, undertook to secure the
funds needed by the project. The Eickhoff family were generous supporters of
the almost half-million dollar capital investment.

--William F. Eifrig

Professor Emeritus of Music

Teaching organ students on the renovated Reddel Memorial Organ

It has indeed been a joy to teach organ students on the
Reddel Memorial Organ at the Chapel of the Resurrection. The clarity of the
ensemble, the presence in the room of individual stops, and the color and
balance afforded by the completion of the organ have been noticeable to members
of the campus community and visitors alike.

For students, the renovated organ offers a greater tonal
palette from which to choose registrations. The addition of the 16'; and 4';
chorus reeds on the Great increased the brightness and gravity of this
division; the extension of the 16'; Fagott from the Great into the Pedal and
the addition of an independent 8'; 
Trompette in the Pedal increased flexibility in this division. Various
divisions have been "filled out" by adding ranks "prepared
for" but not included in the original construction. Thanks to the addition
of a 13/5'; Großterz on the Great, II Schreipfeife on the Swell, and mounted
Cornet on the Solo we now have the luxury of Cornet combinations available on
all four manuals. The Pedal division now includes a 51/3'; Quinte (from the
16'; overtone series) and an 8'; Flötenbass for more versatility. The new
Solo division, which is enclosed, has greatly expanded the tonal possibilities
of the overall instrument. In addition to providing new colors available as
solo stops--8'; Harmonic Flute, large-scale Cornet, Clarinet, and Trumpet--the
Solo division augments the resources for playing 19th and 20th-century organ
literature. Other additions have made it possible to register organ music of
certain composers or schools more effectively. For instance, the addition of an
8'; Principal on the Positiv and 8'; Vox Humana on the Swell has greatly
enhanced the registration of Franck's organ music. The French 8'; Chalumeau on
the Positiv has likewise enhanced the playing of French Baroque music.

The sophisticated technology now available has made it more
convenient to store and retrieve registrations used by a variety of students.
Solid State Logic offers the capability of storing 40 general registration
combinations on each of 256 memory levels. The MIDI technology allows students
to record music which they are studying for playback in "real time."
Also, the Positiv, Great, Solo, and Pedal have two MIDI channels available
which can play sounds from a MIDI synthesizer, thus adding to the tonal
resources of the organ.

Organ students at Valparaiso University study church music,
particularly service-playing, which includes the playing of hymns,
congregational songs, liturgical service music, and accompaniment of choral
music. All of these areas have been positively impacted by the availability of
new tonal resources on the chapel organ. For instance, the accompaniment of
hymns at worship would formerly require the use of the Great principal chorus
including the mixture. This was due to the large acoustic space of the chapel
which needed to be filled with sound even when the chapel was not filled with
worshipers. After the renovation, the situation is much improved as the Great
Principals 8';, 4'; and 2'; provide sufficient clarity and strength to support
congregational singing. The tenor range of the ensemble is also more audible
and distinct in speech. The addition of the 8'; and 4'; Harmonic Flute (Solo)
and 8'; Holzflöte (Great) have proven very useful for choral
accompaniment.

Finally, the completion of this major renovation has sparked
new interest in the organ and organ music both from students on campus and from
students in elementary schools in the area.

--Dr. John Bernthal

Associate Professor of Music

Associate University Organist

 

by R. E. Coleberd

R. E. Coleberd is an economist and petroleum industry executive.

Pipe organs advertised for sale by colleges and universities raise serious questions about the vitality of the King of Instruments in institutions of higher learning.  Organs that are abandoned or replaced are routinely advertised in the classified columns of The Diapason and The American Organist, an economical and efficient way of reaching potential buyers. However, until now, solicitations by schools have clearly been the exception.

In discussions with active and retired organ faculty and
music department personnel across the country, the author has discovered what
he finds to be a disturbing nationwide phenomenon symptomatic of a paradoxical
trend in higher education.  The
advertised sales seem to be the tip of an iceberg. Many organs, having too
often been systematically neglected and abandoned, are now being sold off at an
increasing rate. The experiences of the schools cited below, together with
comments by faculty who, all too often, have watched the sad spectacle of the
pipe organ fading into the sunset, demonstrate that we are witnessing a crisis
with profound implications for cultural life in America.

The purpose of this paper is to create awareness of the
gravity of the situation. We will analyze causes of the phenomenon and give
examples to illustrate the scope of the problem in both auditorium, concert
hall, practice and studio instruments. The reader will, no doubt, be aware of
similar examples elsewhere. Each one differs but there are common threads
through all of them.  We will offer
recommendations on how persons who are deeply distressed by these ominous
developments--because their lives are so closely connected to the instrument:  faculty, students, alumni and concerned laymen--can protect and promote the pipe organ in an academic setting. In retrospect, we believe the S.O.S. should have been tapped out thirty years ago.

Background

We begin with the premise that a pipe organ on a college
campus is an integral part of the intellectual, cultural, artistic and musical
resources of the school, standing alongside the telescope in the observatory,
the paintings and sculpture in the art gallery and the book collections in the
library. These time-honored treasures of a campus setting constitute the raison
d'être of institutions of higher learning, traditionally the trustees of
our culture and the guardians of our future in science and the arts. They make
possible its mission and accomplishments, and define its status and recognition
among its peers.

We continue with the admonition that a pipe organ is
symbolic of the achievements of western civilization and the legacy of our
European origins. It embodies the collective experience of generations in its
recognized prominence in the creativity and expression of music as well as in
architecture, technical developments and craftsmanship. Without the King of
Instruments, the great music it made possible would not have been written, and
without this rich tradition the instrument would not have enjoyed its glorious
position in history. The pipe organ embraced the finest craftsmanship in
Europe, just as precision workmanship survives in organbuilding today, symbolic
of the artistry of hand-crafted objects. In technical strides, the instrument
was the equal of any developments in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the
turn of this century, the pipe organ was perhaps the most complex mechanism
ever developed. The combination action and other features of the console,
particularly the unrivaled Austin combination action, were an example of binary
algebra and an immediate predecessor of the computer. The Skinner player
mechanism on residence organs employed a pneumatic/mechanical computer to
decipher the rolls; in retrospect a further development of Charles Babbage's
difference engine dating back to the 1820s.1

Therefore, a pipe organ is not merely an appliance or
teaching device. Its value and contribution, along with other cornerstones of a
campus setting, are in the perpetuation of an atmosphere of excellence in
learning and human aspirations in culture and the arts. Sadly, these timeless
elements have gone largely unnoticed today by college administrators and state
legislatures who fail to recognize the stature of the instrument in their
budgetary deliberations and who base their decisions on square feet of space
required, number of credit hours generated and dollars of support necessary.

The fate of the instrument and the crux of the problem is,
in many ways, a manifestation of the unique characteristics of the pipe organ
which set it apart from other campus resources. The pipe organ in an
institutional setting suffers from a spatial, temporal and what some might call
an existential problem. In comparison with other musical instruments it is
quite large, requires considerable space, is fixed in location and, therefore,
its musical delivery is confined to the proximity of the instrument. In
contrast, violinists and pianists perform in a variety of venues the world over
thereby fostering a close symbiotic relationship between themselves, their
music and the instrument. Moreover, as Will Headlee points out, because of the
nuances and complexities of the pipe organ, requiring a close interaction with
the performer, music making on the organ is akin to chamber music which
necessitates a chamber music mentality versus a soloist mentality.2
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  The linkage between organists and the
instrument is not so close in part because they play many different
instruments. The problem is exacerbated when the music-going public think of
themselves as deciding first to go to hear an organ, and second, to hear a
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  particular organist.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Sadly, they don't go very often.
Furthermore, those interested in organ music per se have available compact
discs of the world's great instruments, and in the course of listening to them
they become less interested--and less supportive--of instruments of lower
quality and reputation.

The pipe organ is no longer a priority item with music
school deans and department chair persons, who must compete for students and
who struggle to maintain their share of a diminishing campus budget in an
atmosphere of financially strapped institutions. Tragically, pipe organs are
too often considered expendable. As Western Washington's Albert Smith explains:  in contrast to other musical instruments, a pipe organ is a "terribly expensive musical medium to purchase and maintain."3 In physical and dollar terms it is rather like
comparing an ocean liner to a rowboat. 
A violin may require a new string or two, an oboe a reed.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  But Smith doesn't have funds in his
budget for a routine service call.

The instrument is also the victim of the pronounced secular
trend in policy decisions in the upper echelons of university administration.
In all but the few remaining traditional church-related liberal arts colleges
which enjoy a very close and continuing denominational affiliation, religious
beliefs are intellectually suspect in the quest for "truth" and
perhaps nothing is more "politically incorrect" on campus today than
organized religion. Religious faith and corporate worship are sometimes viewed
as a sign of personal weakness and dependency. Perhaps because the pipe organ
is so closely tied to the church in the layman's mind, it is perceived as an
antique or museum piece and is, therefore, irrelevant to the pursuit of
knowledge in our time, particularly in the frantic search for "hot
buttons" such as computer science and genetic engineering to generate
publicity and garner public and private financial support.

The declining fortunes of the pipe organ in academe are
also, without doubt, a reflection of the waning interest in high culture in the
baby boom generation. The prior generation, the war babies, were deeply
involved in cultural pursuits, as measured by attendance and financial support.
But their offspring, as surveys show, are two-career families who are often
pre-occupied with television, movies and pop culture, and who frequently spend
their limited time working out at the health club or surfing on the Internet.
Baby boomers' education levels, though higher than their parents, differed
significantly:  fewer chose liberal
arts degrees with the corresponding affinity for the arts; more chose business
and engineering. Judith Balfe, author of a forthcoming study comments:
"For their parents' generation, those who had higher education and higher
income, the arts were far more important to their understanding of themselves
and their civic responsibility." Today, audiences are segmented and
targeted by advertisers, and "the sense of a culture--at least a popular
culture--which transcended generations" is gone.4

In the economic and political exigencies of state
legislatures and often their private school counterparts as well, cost-benefit
analysis has emerged, in this era, as the overriding criterion for the
allocation of funds in higher education. Under these mandates, the pipe organ
is acutely vulnerable to changing patterns of student enrollment and facilities
use. One conspicuous development in this trend is the designation of professional schools as "stand alone" enterprises (the law school at the University of Virginia and the business school at Duke University are examples) with sole responsibility for their financial well-being. Presumably they can be funded adequately by tuition, alumni giving, endowments and continuing education fees, all a manifestation of the economic fortunes of these
professions in our society. In contrast, these sources of support are decidedly
limited for the arts.  It is
difficult to imagine that the income of a church musician would ever endow a
pipe organ let alone a music department or school.

We must emphasize that there are decided limits to the
market-driven mentality which so pervades our colleges today. An institution of
higher learning is not a consumer products business, like detergents or
toothpaste, in which products (curriculum) are changed to suit every whim of a
fickle public. It is not a middle eastern bazaar in which the travelers
(students) shop in passing for rugs and brass (courses). If a college or
university "sells out" to the marketplace and surrenders every
vestige of intellectual rigor and vitality, it risks becoming a trade school.
Over time, the application of cost-benefit analysis in the funding of state
supported schools erodes the distinction of an institution of higher learning
from any other state agency (prison, mental hospital, orphanage, etc.). The
resulting minimum level of funding substantially diminishes its unique and
time-honored function.  Can an
academic institution, let alone a pipe organ, survive in such an atmosphere?
The well-known social critic Thorstein Veblen  in his polemic The Higher Learning in America: A
Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men
style='font-style:normal'>, identified what we now term the market mentality;
the prevailing emphasis on "practical or useful" curricula as
measured by the payoff in the job market. If Veblen's acid critique was
premature in 1918, it couldn't have been more prophetic of the sad situation today.5

Auditoriums and Concert Halls

In the earlier decades of this century, the college
auditorium was customarily a focal point of the campus landscape, and often an
architectural masterpiece.  As a
convocation center it symbolized the collegial atmosphere of the institution.
No auditorium was complete without a large pipe organ, often a superb
instrument by a renowned builder such as George Hutchings or E. M. Skinner.
This was also a period in which the university organist enjoyed high visibility
and a prominent position in the faculty hierarchy beyond his appointment in the
music department, in part because, frequently, he had studied in Europe, a mark
of distinction and status in the professoriate of that era. Presiding at the
auditorium console, his heroic and inspiring music welcomed student and faculty
gatherings for convocations, and he accompanied the singing of the national
anthem and the alma mater. He played the processional and recessional for
commencement, and accompanied the glee club. The auditorium and the pipe organ
thus served as a unifying force in the undergraduate experience, contributing
to that vital sense of community, identity and the search for meaning so
tragically lacking in many schools today. No more! In our time campus speakers
are specialized and appeal only to certain disciplines and departments. Schools
have become too large for campus-wide convocations, and commencement has been
moved to the football field to accommodate the crowd. Moreover, in the
politicized atmosphere of a college campus today, there is too often no common
culture or purpose, no collective embrace of the universal values of an
institution of higher learning. Instead, each self-serving school or department
has become "privatized," looking out for its own interests and
grasping aggressively for its share of the diminishing public and private
funding. Whereas in earlier times the pipe organ was an integral part of the
auditorium and its function, now the instrument is too often underutilized and
dismissed as redundant. In the current use of the building it is merely in the
way, something to be ignored or cast aside.

The rebirth of the tracker organ in the 1950s, first with
widely-publicized European imports, and then with instruments by small domestic
builders, polarized the academic community and called into question the
efficacy of the American classic organ and its romantic and orchestral
ancestors. Music departments philosophically and functionally moved toward
earlier instruments, including the harpsichord. Large auditorium organs were
suddenly deemed out of date and expendable. This was also a time when budgets
allowed for obsolescence and replacement. But not today! Gone are the times
when instruments could be changed every generation in compliance with
nationwide fads and fashions, or to suit the demands of the teaching profession
who argued that a tracker instrument was necessary to attract students and who
were most likely expressing their desire to emulate their peers. Not that
obtaining a tracker was any assurance of protecting the status of the organ in
the school. True, they are smaller and require less space. But because of the
fundamental connection of the organ with church music, there is still the risk
of its being alienated by the deeply entrenched secular outlook on campus.

James Madison University

James Madison University, named for our fourth president, is
a school of 12,500 students in Harrisonburg, Virginia, southwest of Washington,
D.C. In 1937, the then Madison College, one of three teachers' colleges or
"normal schools" in the state, installed a landmark four-manual
fifty-two rank Möller pipe organ in Wilson Hall, scaled and voiced by the
legendary Richard O. Whitelegg. 
According to the late John Hose, Möller tonal director, this
instrument was one of the first four-manual Whitelegg Mollers.6 The dedicatory
recital was played by the nationally known keyboard artist Charlotte
Lockwood.  In a Möller
advertisement in the January, 1937 edition of The American Organist, the
builder stated that the instrument ". . . has already been adjudged as
definitely outstanding among the best organs in the East."7 This
pronouncement was validated by Senator Emerson Richards, who, reviewing the
instrument in the September edition of the same journal added: "Organ history has begun a new chapter and M. P. Möller Inc. is to be congratulated upon having written one of the first verses."8 Apart from its place in the resources of the university,  this instrument is an important milestone in the organ reform movement, and in the history of the Möller Company, for decades one of the premier companies in the American organ industry and now defunct. It is a signature instrument in the career of Whitelegg, an important figure in the twentieth-century legacy of the pipe organ in America. Yet tragically, these factors were overlooked when Wilson Hall was renovated in 1986. The stage was extended to accommodate a variety of venues, but no thought was given to the future of the organ. During remodeling the console was disconnected and stored in an unheated construction trailer which turned out to be its death sentence. As is well-known among organbuilders, a console stored under such conditions will deteriorate; in this case, it disintegrated. A local newspaper story soliciting community support to restore or replace the console of the now-forgotten organ fell on deaf ears. The university administration has made it known that campus investments in the arts will, at the present time, most likely depend upon private funding. In locked chambers today,  this majestic instrument stands mute, perhaps never to speak again.

The events at James Madison illustrate another common
problem in the academic fortunes of the pipe organ:  the conflict between the music and drama departments in
multi-purpose facilities. In 1968, the university built a fine arts center and
installed a three-manual Möller organ, a welcome sign that the
administration recognized music and the place of the organ in its concept of
the arts. However, as a result of poor space planning and failure to anticipate
overlap in facilities use, the music department soon tangled with the drama
department for use of the performance area. In due course, the music department
lost the turf battle and the Möller organ was taken out and sold to a
church in Ohio. A large four-story building to house the music department was
built in 1989, but budget limitations prevented the inclusion of a recital
hall, which precluded the addition of a pipe organ as an integral and visible
part of the resources of the facility. The only hint of a pipe organ on campus
today is the two practice instruments in the music building. The faculty uses
five instruments in town churches for teaching and student performances.

New England Conservatory

The sad situation in Jordan Hall at the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston, is the result of discontinuities, conflicts
and budget priorities, beginning in many cases several decades ago, which are
seemingly endemic to the fate of concert hall instruments today. Built in 1902,
Jordan Hall featured a three-manual Hutchings organ which was a notable
addition to the cultural and musical resources of the city. It symbolized, no
doubt,  the importance of organ
study in the musical philosophy and mission of the Conservatory, as well as the
significance of a recital and instructional instrument in a concert hall.

Rebuilt and enlarged by Ernest M. Skinner in 1920, this
renowned instrument was widely used and well maintained, with a new console in
1928 and further work by Aeolian-Skinner in 1947. As tastes changed in the
1950s, the organ fell out of fashion and other demands for the hall took
precedence. In 1957, its status was seriously diminished when George Faxon, an
icon figure in the New England organ fraternity, left the Conservatory. His
successor, Donald Willing, ordered two European trackers (Metzler and Rieger)
to define the "new look" in pipe organs for the school. By the
mid-1960s, the Jordan Hall organ was passé and neglected; ten years
later it was was unplayable. In 1995, in an all too familiar policy decision,
the instrument was omitted from a $12 million renovation of Jordan Hall on the
grounds of expense and limited use--the busy hall schedule allows no time for
organ students.  One wonders if it
is only a matter of time until the instrument is sold. When an organ is both
unplayable and inaccessible, the chances of its survival are slim indeed.

University of South Dakota

At the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, the
twenty-eight rank, four-manual E. M. Skinner organ of 1928 was put in the dock
two years ago, a victim of deteriorating leather and wind leaks. The school
administration, under pressure to conform to enrollment and credit hours as the
overriding criteria for budgeting, and answering the call of the state
legislature to cut expenses, is uninterested in restoring the instrument. This
experience, common in publicly supported institutions, illustrates the fact
that there are seemingly no appropriations for maintenance, a situation which
is especially devastating for the pipe organ which requires scheduled routine
maintenance, as well as major expenses in the periodic renewal of chest
leather, and today in an electrical upgrade of the console. Today the "Why
do we need it?" reasoning asserts itself as well as the "Look what we
can do with the $100,000 (or more) required when only a few students play it
and hardly anybody listens to it."!

Western Washington University

The 1200-seat auditorium at Western Washington University in
Bellingham, houses a 1951 three-manual Möller organ, which fell into
disrepair and has been unplayable for twenty years. Campus politics have
dictated that the auditorium be used primarily for drama productions. Albert
Shaw, former music department chairman, estimates it would require $100,000 to
restore the instrument to its original condition, an outsized figure as
maintenance budgets go and a sum virtually impossible to justify given the
primary use of the building.

In 1978 Western Washington constructed a 700-seat concert
hall and installed a two- manual tracker instrument to complement three
practice organs. Then, in a familiar story, the theory professor who taught the
handful of organ students retired and was not replaced. Organ instruction was
then terminated only to be resumed after three years and then discontinued
again. Because a service call from Canada, two days at a minimum of $350-$500,
is prohibitive under current department budgets, neither the concert hall
tracker nor the three practice organs are maintained on a regular basis.

The University of Indianapolis

The University of Indianapolis, formerly Indiana Central
College, a United Methodist affiliated school, is yet another example of how
changing priorities and the economics of space use impact the fortunes of an
auditorium organ. It also illustrates the decision to consign the organs on
campus arbitrarily to a music facility and view them primarily as a teaching
and performance vehicle in a specialized and exclusive curriculum.

The recently-sold three-manual Möller organ was
installed in 1963 when the auditorium was used for convocations and chapel
services, campus-wide functions that were discontinued years ago. With the
auditorium now assigned to the drama department, the instrument was deemed
redundant and expendable.  The
possibility of enlarging and relocating the Möller was briefly considered
some years ago, but  the idea ended
when a new Fine Arts Center was built with a 500-seat recital hall to house a
new tracker instrument yet to be installed.

The evidence to date at James Madison University, the
University of South Dakota, the New England Conservatory, Western Washington
University, The University of Indianapolis and perhaps countless others,
strongly suggests that unless determined action is taken, auditorium pipe
organs may be doomed, especially if the building is the only performance
facility on campus.

The provision of a separate "Jewel Box" recital
hall for the pipe organ, as for example at the universities of Arizona and
Iowa, is viewed by some observers as a mixed blessing. On one hand, it would
appear to guarantee a permanent position for the instrument, insulating it from
the competition for space elsewhere in the building. On the other hand,
removing the organ from the mainstream of the music department, as well as the
rest of the campus, threatens to isolate it and erode the much-needed support
of the university community.

The greater use of off-campus organ resources by music
departments is an emerging trend that is viewed positively in certain quarters
of the teaching profession. At the University of Washington, Carole Terry
considers contractual arrangements with Seattle churches to be one of the
strengths of her program. These instruments, of various periods and tonal
design, complement the Paul Fritz tracker on campus, and afford the students a
much broader orientation to the pipe organ and to the spectrum and
interpretation of its literature. They also offer attractive teaching and
performance opportunities. 

This is the position of Frostburg State University in
Maryland which recently sold a 1970 Tellers organ, an instrument that had
suffered from a poor location and whose installation had never been
satisfactorily completed due to budget limitations. The faculty have long used
two excellent and recently updated Möller organs in Cumberland, within
walking distance of the campus, for teaching and performances. That this is
viewed as a permanent solution to the organ resource needs of the school is
reflected in the fact that the recital hall in the recently completed
multi-million dollar fine arts center omitted any space provision for a pipe
organ. A small, five-rank portable organ, to be used largely for accompaniment,
will be the only hint of a pipe organ on campus.

Arrangements between schools and local churches bodes well
for the pipe organ by reinforcing the linkage between the instrument and its
music in a liturgical setting. Yet it also suggests a lack of commitment to the
organ program in resource and curricular decisions of the school and a tragic
neglect of organ music as a foundation for a high quality education in music.
In the tenor of this paper, it ignores the place of a pipe organ in the broader
cultural dimensions of an institution of higher learning. A small portable
instrument to accompany other music offerings is indicative of a very minor and
largely supportive role for the instrument.  The absence of a recital instrument in a prominent campus
gathering place ignores the time-honored place of the pipe organ in the visible
(and in this case articulate) jewels of a college or university.

Practice and Studio Instruments

The sale of practice and studio organs by Concordia
(Nebraska), Cornell University, Frostburg State (Maryland), Kent State (Ohio),
Stevens Point (Wisconsin), Syracuse, and UCLA among others, with more to come
no doubt, is the final phase in the lockstep sequence of events that marks the
diminishing fortunes of the pipe organ in academe. Step one, declining
enrollment, began with economic forces impacting the organist profession in the
1970s. Wolfgang Rübsam of Northwestern University explains:
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  "When it became generally known
that the poorly paid church organist market would no longer justify parental
tuition investment in an organ education, organ enrollment collapsed."9
This was especially true if the degree was to be financed by loans which could
never be repaid on a church organist's salary. Graduate degrees, frequently at
comparatively costly yet highly visible and quality private schools or conservatories, were likewise unattractive because the academic market had dried up.

Step two was idle instruments, and the emerging
"opportunity costs" of the space which clamored for other use.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Step three was to sell the instruments.
To appease penurious state legislatures, campus budget officers liquidated the
under utilized resources and converted the space to a current "hot
button" at the school, perhaps a computer lab.  With budget officials breathing down their necks, the music
department meekly acceded to the cuts, hoping to save what they could in a
campus-wide scramble for funds. Step four is to not replace the organ professor
when he retires (Corliss Arnold at Michigan State and Will Headlee at Syracuse
are examples). The final step in this sad progression is the
"outsourcing" of organ instruction; i.e, to contract with a local
organist to teach the few students on a per diem basis with no benefits.

Concordia College

Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska is one of numerous
Concordia schools in the Lutheran denomination, whose traditional purpose was
to train teachers for their parochial schools. The school master or his
associates were also expected to be the parish musician, a tradition dating
back to colonial times; for example, with Gottlieb Mittelberger in the 1750s in
Pennsylvania.10 The teaching-and-parish-musician position reflected, no doubt,
the influence of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, founder of Lutheranism in America
and an ardent champion of the pipe organ.11 Every student at Concordia was
automatically enrolled in organ lessons, which necessitated fifteen
instruments, most of them practice organs, to service a student body of 600. In
recent years, the number of students preparing for church vocations has fallen
to 40 percent of the enrollment, resulting in "excess capacity" in
pipe organ resources. The decision to sell five instruments was prompted in
part by the desire to convert one practice room into a piano studio and another
into a computer lab. This example is perhaps exceptional in view of the high
percentage of the student body using the instruments. Nevertheless, it
underscores the close relationship between enrollment and resource needs, and
how swiftly an adjustment occurs when need declines.

Kent State University

Kent State University, a public institution in northeast
Ohio, with 22,000 students, including 300 enrolled in the music department, dropped organ instruction in the spring of 1981. The number of students in the combined degree program in sacred music and applied organ performance had dropped to six, far below the number needed to justify a tenured faculty position and to continue practice room space begging for other uses.  Ironically, the school had formerly counted as its organ instructors two of the most promising young keyboard artists and teachers in the country in John Ferguson, now at St. Olaf College, and Larry Smith, now at Indiana University. The enrollment collapse was the direct result of the dismal outlook for organ graduates in the marketplace. This was confirmed in an informal survey by Dr. Walter Watson, then head of the music department, which revealed that the number of full-time organ positions in the greater New York City area, had fallen from 600 in the 1950s to between 150 and 200 in the 1980s, a situation thought to prevail throughout the country.12

The absence of supporting curricula at Kent State in
philosophy and theology to augment the sacred music degree added to the
rationale for discontinuing the program. Two small practice organs were sold to
churches and some thought has been given to selling the 20-rank studio organ
and using the proceeds to update the auditorium instrument, now in need of
restoration. In recent years the financial fortunes of the school were severely
impacted by the statewide budget crunch, which forced the music department to
cancel the marching band temporarily, to remove telephones from faculty offices
and require faculty to pay for photocopying materials for their classes. A
small foundation stipend carried them over until budgets were restored but the
organ instruction situation has not changed. This may be an extreme example of
the financial indigence of music departments, but it is certainly not an
isolated one.

University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point is a striking
illustration of the predicament of public institutions which are acutely
sensitive to enrollment shifts and budget constraints.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  When organ enrollment collapsed and the
organist retired, the faculty position was eliminated and the decision made to
sell the four pipe organs and channel the diminishing resources elsewhere. The
plan now is to also sell the Ronald Wahl tracker instrument and use the
proceeds to rebuild the Steinway concert grand piano. Organ programs in the majority of schools in the state university system, not including the University at Madison, are reported to be severely curtailed or defunct.

Syracuse University

In view of its stellar position in postwar graduate organ
study, the experience of Syracuse University is revealing and particularly
significant.  The Syracuse program
rose to prominence under the leadership of Arthur Poister, a much-admired
teacher and an eloquent spokesman for the organist profession, together with
his colleagues and successors Will Headlee and Donald Sutherland.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  With the University of Michigan and the
Eastman School of Music, Syracuse shared the distinction of being three premier
graduate schools for organ study in the country. In the 1950s, the programs
benefited enormously from "degree inflation," as Headlee calls it,
which was then capturing the profession: the DMA supplanted the MMus as the
terminal degree in organ performance and became the "union card" for
an academic appointment.

The halcyon days at Syracuse were a manifestation of
promising academic job opportunities for organists, the attraction of the
trophy Holtkamp instruments in Crouse Auditorium and Hendricks Chapel, the
magnetism of Poister and his staff, and the all-important pipeline from Oberlin
to Syracuse where Poister had earlier taught. But Poister knew it couldn't
last. He often said to Headlee, "When will the bubble burst?"13 When
it did, in the late 1970s, the university moved swiftly to drastically curtail
the organ program.  Four of the six
Holtkamp "Martini" practice organs were sold.  When student credit hours plummeted to near zero, the administration elected not to replace Headlee upon his retirement and to outsource organ instruction with a part-time teacher, Katherine Pardee. She was the director of music at Hendricks Chapel whose funding is totally separate from the instructional budget of the school. The experience at Syracuse is an all-to-frequent example of how rapidly a once proud program that educated a generation of prominent teachers and performers can decline and virtually disappear.

The linkage between the initial investment and now
disinvestment decisions in pipe organs as a function of student enrollment
(demand) is an expression of the "imputation" theory of value
(zürechnung) propounded by the eminent Austrian economist Carl Menger
(1840-1921) wherein the demand (bedarf) for and value of an economic good
echoes backward into its resource base. In a market analogy, if the demand for
cigarettes falls, the demand and price for leaf tobacco declines and then the
need for and rent on tobacco growing land recedes.14

Within the music department curriculum and faculty, the
organ teacher is often odd man out. 
This sad situation is attributable to more than the decline in students
and credit hours. It is primarily a reflection of what Arthur Birkby of the
University of Wyoming calls the "softening" or "dumbing
down" of the pedagogical approach to music education.15 The contemporary
emphasis upon country, gospel, jazz and rock-based music means students have
decided that it is no longer necessary to be well-grounded in classical
precepts. Thus the core curriculum in theory, counterpoint, analysis and
composition, where the pipe organ and its music would be recognized, has been cast aside.16 Given this mindset, is it any wonder the organ is viewed today as a "fuddy duddy" instrument, as Birkby laments?  Rübsam adds that with organs and pianos being pushed into the corner in churches in favor of of electronic keyboards and all manner of audio-mixing devices, a career in church music is no longer attractive to the serious musician.

A Call to Action

In the foregoing analysis we have demonstrated how
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  economic and political realities in
higher education together with the indifference of campus leaders and state
legislatures, with their slide-rule mentality (and without shame), have
resulted in a tragic loss of recognition of the pipe organ's time-honored place
in academe. These examples of the liquidation of pipe organs are perhaps logical
and defensible in view of the vice-grip economics overshadowing our
institutions of higher learning today. Yet the impression lingers that the
decisions are based primarily on expediency and without proper recognition of
the place of the instrument among the "untouchables" which would
certainly be true of other campus jewels. One cannot imagine, for example, that
if enrollment in astronomy courses declined, the school would sell-off the
telescope and turn the observatory into a laboratory for genetic engineering.

The following are suggestions that can and must be
implemented to stem the tide of indifference, neglect and abandonment, and to
protect and promote the King of Instruments in institutional settings.

The first step is an awareness of the urgency of the problem
and the need to take determined action. Pipe organ aficionados--professors,
alumni, organists and concerned laymen--must be ready to "lie down in
front of the bulldozer" (so to speak) to stop the carnage. This begins
with periodic inquiries on the status of the organs on campus and expressions
of ongoing interest in their well-being. The "Friends of the Northrop
Organ" at the University of Minnesota, described by Charles Hendrickson in
an article in the March, 1996 edition of The Diapason, is a fine example of the
type of organization that should be established at every school.17

The organ professor must be visible, articulate, and
proactive in promoting the instrument. 
In short, he or she must become an evangelist with fire in the belly, or
as one observer said:  "The
organist has got to come out of his hole, and fight!" They must interact
more frequently with the faculty and campus at large, and use every opportunity
to make sure the organ and its music are included in applicable courses. For
example, to advance the organ as an intellectual and cultural resource to the
larger campus community the organist, in cooperation with professional
organizations, could develop a slide lecture for presentation to classes in
history (western civilization), philosophy (aesthetics), architecture,
engineering and others.

The organist should solicit a firm commitment from the
university administration to recognize and maintain the instruments on campus.
To protect the fine Holtkamp organs at Syracuse, Will Headlee orchestrated a
celebration of the Centennial of Crouse Auditorium. The Organ Historical
Society citation for "an instrument of historic merit worthy of
preservation" was read to the gathering which included the chancellor on
the platform. In responding the chancellor gave assurances that the organ was
recognized and would continue to be honored. Headlee cautions that every time
there is a changing of the guard one has to go in and sell the situation all
over again.

Yale University, under the inspired leadership of Thomas
Murray, university organist, and Nicholas Thompson-Allen and Joseph Dzeda, the
two associate organ curators, has reached out to various constituents on
campus. In a well-conceived effort to promote high visibility and awareness of the pipe organs at Yale, these men have encouraged music students, technology
classes, and other university organizations to schedule tours and
demonstrations of the instruments. Undergraduates expressing an interest in the
pipe organs and occasionally using them as a topic for a class term paper are
welcomed and given full co-operation.

During Alumni Reunion Weekend each Spring, Friday morning
and afternoon tours are conducted of the trophy Hutchings-Steere-Skinner organ
in Woolsey Hall for alumni and their families. Murray demonstrates and plays
the instrument and then the curators guide the visitors on a brief walk through
the chambers. This creates in the alumni a sense of "pride of
ownership" in the instrument and they recognize it and the other fine pipe
organs on campus as an integral part of the heart and soul of Yale University.
This effort was rewarded two years ago when an alumnus, who had joined the
group, was moved to finance the restoration of a rank of pipes which had been
taken out of the organ more than sixty years ago. 

The music department should work closely with other
departments to establish maintenance funding in the budgetary process and
encourage the administration to persuade the state legislature of the
legitimacy and necessity of maintenance allocations. At the University of
Washington, the organ professor, Carole Terry, can submit a requisition for
tuning or repairs but bureaucratic guidelines have thus far ruled out a service
contract. In an effort to confront the realities of the budgetary process and
yet find a way to work within the system, Larry Schou, at the University of
South Dakota, is attempting to consign the Skinner auditorium organ to the
music instruments museum budget to promote its restoration.

Pipe organs should be given maximum coverage in campus
publicity. This includes descriptions and photos in promotional material and
catalogs, post cards for sale in the bookstore (now at University of Wyoming),
and descriptions and comments in campus tours for visitors and prospective
students. The campus radio station could be requested to play classical organ
music every week.

The instruments can be promoted to non-music students
throughout the campus, encouraging them to sign up for lessons, perhaps by
student teachers, and practice 
time. This might include "open console," periods when
students, under the supervision of the faculty, can reserve time to play at
their leisure. Who knows, perhaps some engineering student who elects to relax
at the organ a couple of hours a week, will come back in twenty years, having
made a fortune in computers or genetics, and endow the whole department!

Given the realities of diminished funding, organ teachers
may well have to perform routine maintenance, primarily tuning but perhaps also
minor repairs. In their devotion to the instrument, they must do everything
possible to keep it playing.  When
a pipe organ is no longer playable, it is half way out the door.

As a last resort, schools may come to rely on volunteers to
keep organs playing. This has worked successfully at the University of
Minnesota where the devoted service of Gordon Schultz is well recognized.
Professional organ technicians throw up their hands at this prospect, but it
may be the only re-course. The American Theater Organ Society has been notably
successful in harnessing the skills and energies of enthusiasts. Many of their
members play a major role in the restoration and preservation of these period
instruments.

Workers and community leaders now speak of themselves as
"stakeholders" in the fortunes of the businesses and community where
they work and live, with a vested interest that transcends the exigencies of
competition and profit. Perhaps this concept should be applied in a college
setting with professors, students and alumni viewed as stakeholders in the
cultural jewels of the campus.

In a followup article the author will explore promising
developments in the academic fortunes of the pipe organ.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Research for this paper has disclosed
several situations where institutional recognition is encouraging, endowments
are forthcoming and student enrollment is growing. Readers who know of such
illustrations are encouraged to reply to the author on his e-mail:
[email protected]                

For research input and critical comments on earlier drafts
of this paper, the author gratefully acknowledges: Corliss Arnold, Nelson
Barden, Jack Bethards, Dean Billmeyer, Arthur Birkby, Joan DeVee Dixon, Joanne
Domb, Joseph Dzeda, John Ferguson, Laura Gayle Green, Yuko Hayashi, Will
Headlee, Herbert Huestis, Dale Jensen, the late Stephen Long, Richard
McPherson, Charles McManis, John Near, Albert Neutel, Charles Orr, Katherine
Pardee, Robert Rosen, Wolfgang Rübsam, Larry Schou, Steve Shoemaker, Albert
Smith, Larry Smith, John Chappell Stowe, Carole Terry, and Walter Watson.

Notes

                  1.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Campbell-Kelly, Martin ed., Charles Babbage: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994, Introduction and Chapter V and VII.

                  2.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Telephone interview with Will Headlee, July 9, 1996.

                  3.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Telephone interview with Albert C. Shaw, October 1, 1996.

                  4.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Proffitt, Steve, Interview with Judith Balfe,  "Is Support for the Arts Literally Dying Off?", Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1996, p. M-3.

                  5.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Veblen,
Thorstein, The Higher Learning in America:  A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business
Men,  New York:
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  B. W. Huebsch, 1918.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  See also Joseph Dorfman, Thorstein
Veblen and His America, Seventh Edition, Clifton, N.J.: Augustus M. Kelley,
1972, pp. 234, 395-410.

                  6.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Interview
with John Hose and Adolph Zajic, 1964. Another was the four-manual sixty-rank
instrument for Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania with a stoplist
designed by Virgil Fox. The famous Whitelegg diapason chorus on the erecting
room floor in Hagerstown was purchased by Trinity Methodist Church in
Youngstown, Ohio in 1942, and later incorporated in the great division of the
four-manual eighty-nine rank instrument completed in 1947. Whitelegg died in
1944. See The Diapason, August, 1937, p. 1, June, 1943, p. 22, August, 1947, p.
1.

John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois

Opus 31: St. Bede Catholic Church, Williamsburg, Virginia

This new instrument was just installed this spring, the tonal finishing completed during April and June. This is the 31st new pipe organ built by John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders of Champaign, Illinois, and
the first of two new Buzard organs to be installed in Williamsburg churches. Williamsburg Presbyterian Church will receive Opus 32 next spring for their new Georgian style building at the entrance to Colonial Williamsburg.

The organ at St. Bede Catholic Church is the result of eight
years of planning and dreaming, hoping and praying. St. Bede’s
communicant strength is about 3,000 families, formerly located in a small
landlocked building close to Colonial Williamsburg. The former site simply could not accommodate the parish’s phenomenal growth, nor could the entire parish worship together. When planning the new building, St. Bede’s pastor, the Rev. Monsignor William Carr, insisted that the new
church include a pipe organ, and that the organbuilder be commissioned to work with the architect from the beginning. The new building, designed by architect Tom Kerns, seats 1,500 and is expandable to seat 2,000.

The then music director, and later consultant for the project, Steve Blackstock, formed a musical instruments committee to select the
organbuilder, as well as other musical instruments for purchase. The musical instruments committee directly communicated with the parish’s building committee (called the core committee) as the new building was planned, to make sure that the organ’s requirements were supported throughout the process.

Even though this church is not located in the Colonial District, there was great concern on the part of the core committee that the building relate to the area’s Georgian architecture--no small feat for a big round room--and that, since the organ case would be the significant visual element in the church, it must reflect appropriate features of Georgian design. A great emphasis was placed on the importance of art and
music as direct participants in liturgical expression, and the organ had to
appeal to all the senses in this surprisingly intimate--although rather
large--space. 

As the building’s design process unfolded, and the cost estimates exceeded projections, significant “value engineering” of the building was undertaken to allow the church to be built. The organ project was shelved and its estimated cost applied toward the building. It became apparent that an organ, whenever it would be installed, would need a small antiphonal division at the opposite end of the church to assist in congregational singing, due to a change in building materials.
Certain stops in the organ were prepared for future addition, to lower the
initial price. The music personnel changed, and the parish concentrated upon building the church. 

Once the building was up, Monsignor Carr’s passion for building the new pipe organ was rekindled. His love of fine art and artistic liturgical expression is infectious. It was through his inner fire that he established the notion in the minds of the parishioners that the church was simply not finished until the pipe organ was installed. Although at the time the church did not have an organist, our contract was signed the week following
the new building’s dedication. 

As the organ’s installation date approached, the parish hired organist Neil Kraft of Ohio to be their new director of music. He has already established himself in the Tidewater area as a musician of high
caliber, and the perfect person to develop an inclusive parochial music
program, with the organ as the principal musical instrument. A concert series to celebrate the dedication of this new instrument is being organized. The opening recital was played by Erik Wm. Suter on Sunday, September 30, and John Scott will play in June of 2006. The church is working on sponsorship of a concert featuring the Virginia Symphony, but this is currently in the planning stage. The new pastor, the Rev. John Abe, is committed to making St. Bede known for beautiful music, both in liturgical and concert contexts, for Williamsburg and the greater Tidewater area.

The organ case stands three stories tall and is made of 11/2-inch thick solid white oak and white oak veneers. Walnut is used for the pipe shades and accenting trim details. This is truly heroic cabinet making! The façades incorporate pipes of the Great 16’ Double Open
Diapason (the low 20 notes of which are shared in the pedal), the Great First and Second 8’ Open Diapasons, and the Pedal 8’ Principal. The
16’ Pedal First Open Diapason of wood stands behind the organ case and is stained and finished in a dark walnut color. Resonators of the low octaves of the Pedal 32’ and 16’ Trombones are made of beautiful, clear pine, continuing upscale in thick 52% tin pipe metal as this stop becomes the manual Tromba, voiced on 7” wind. The big Tuba stands vertically in the Choir box just behind the shutters, and is certainly the Tromba’s big brother, being voiced on nearly 30” pressure!

The Procession Organ’s case is also of white oak, to match the Main Organ case. Its pipe shades are carved basswood. Celtic crosses
have been cut into the tower tops and are enameled in rich, dark purple (the manufacturer’s color name “Monsignor” led to the whimsical
decision to incorporate it into the case in honor of Monsignor Carr), and
outlined in gold leaf. When played with the Main Organ, the Processional
Organ’s two Principal stops have the effect of “pulling” the sound out of the Main Organ’s case and surrounding the listeners with an
incredibly inescapable, voluptuous tone.

The console of 11/2-inch thick white oak is attached to an easily moved platform. And it’s a good thing, because the organ is heard in its best balance starting about 15 feet away from the case. We utilize
AGO radiating, concave pedalboards for their superior ergonomics. In a modern, eclectic pipe organ, the pedalboard’s shape should not limit an
organist’s ability to play in styles other than that which a flat pedalboard
dictates.

Those who have followed our work know that our instruments
are liturgical organs that play literature remarkably well. Our style is in
direct response to the need for an organ to function liturgically and
musically, but not at the expense of a particular historical, national, or
idiosyncratic musical style. Only a classic concept of organbuilding can truly accomplish this, and I think only an organist-trained organbuilder has the ability to empathize with modern American musical requirements, reconcile these to classic organbuilding practices, and know how to achieve the intended results. 

Slider windchests keep the tonal design physically honest,
and offer speech, voicing, and tuning advantages (as well as virtually no
long-term maintenance). Our proprietary Slider Pedal Chest allows us to play a single rank of pedal pipes at several pitches--without giving up slider chest speech, tuning stability, and repetition characteristics. Because they’re pedal stops, and usually only one note is played at a time, we can scale these individual ranks to be appropriate for two or three tonal contexts and save the client some money. 

Although we were one of the first American organbuilders to
reintroduce the Tuba into modern practice, in 1991 at the Chapel of St. John the Divine in Champaign, our tonal innovations are often of a subtler (and quieter) nature.  For example, in this organ we have specially developed Dolcan-shaped pipes for the metal top octaves of open wood ranks; they sound like wood pipes, but stay in tune. We have perfected Walter Holtkamp’s Ludwigtone as our Flute Cœlestis, its plaintive and gentle celesting tone evocative of something heavenly, which
explains the pun in the nomenclature. We have refined the 18th-century French Flûte à Bibéron (“Baby-Bottle Flute”) to be a colorful chimney flute tone suitable for solos, the foundation of a flute chorus, or secondary foundation for a principal chorus.

The sound of the organ is warm and rich, filling the space
nicely with a generous foundation. Each chorus has its own distinctive color, so there is no redundancy within each family of sound. The organist is able to lead congregational singing with a wide variety of color, at many different volume levels. And, recitalists won’t be disappointed in the tonal
resources and the informed manner of their disposition and execution. 

Everyone seems to have found “favorite” stops in this instrument. Of course the Pontifical Trumpets titillate the eye and ear, and most visitors want to hear them right off the bat. However, my 16-year-old son Stephen, already an organist of greater accomplishment than his father, fell in love with the Choir 8’ English Open Diapason while preparing a recital for the Tidewater POE held last June. “It has something to tell you,” he says. What higher compliment can an organbuilder receive? After all, shouldn’t pipe organs have a strong emotional appeal, so that when played they grab you and don’t let go? yes"> 

Henry Willis once said that truly great organs are only created when 90% of the project’s effort is expended upon the last 2% of perfection. After the organ is built, installed, and voiced, it’s that last step of careful, time-consuming, painstaking tonal finishing that imparts a living soul into the instrument. That you feel “connected” while listening or playing is no happy accident, but the result of careful listening and exacting craftsmanship on the part of the voicer working on the pipes. It is only when one is working at this level that organbuilding is truly an art.
And, it is only when clients have the sensitivity and sensibility to know the
difference that truly world-class pipe organs are commissioned.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

It has been a tremendous honor to build this instrument, and
to work with Father Abe, Monsignor Carr, Steve Blackstock, Neil Kraft, and the wonderful people at St. Bede’s Church. We look forward to many years of wonderful music-making and musically inspired liturgies at St. Bede’s.

Deepest thanks to the staff of Buzard Pipe Organ Builders who have made this instrument so much more than the sum of its parts:

Charles Eames, executive vice-president, chief engineer,
general manager

Brian K. Davis, associate tonal director, head voicer, director, tonal department

Phillip S. Campbell, business manager

Keith Williams, director, service department

Shayne Tippett, shop manager

Stuart Martin, cabinet maker

C. Robert Leech, cabinet maker

Bob Ference, cabinet maker and service technician

Lyoshia Svinarski, wind system construction

Kenneth McCabe, wind system construction

Ray Wiggs, console, electrical systems, wind chest
construction

Evan Rench, pipe maker, voicer, racking, tonal associate

Stephen P. Downes, pipe preparation, racking, tonal
associate

Todd Wilson, service technician, installation

Stuart Weber, service technician

Jay K. Salmon, office manager

JoAnne Rench, receptionist

--John-Paul Buzard

43 straight speaking stops, 54 ranks, across three manuals
& pedal

GREAT ORGAN (4” wind)

16’ Double Open Diapason (tin in façade)

8’ First Open Diapason (tin in façade)

8’ Second Open Diapason (1–8 from 16’)

8’ Viola da Gamba (tin)

8’ Claribel Flute (open wood)

4’ Principal

4’ Spire Flute

22/3’ Twelfth

2’ Fifteenth

13/5’ Seventeenth

2’ Fourniture V

V Cornet (tenor C, preparation)

8’ Trumpet (preparation)

8’ Tromba (Ped)

4’ Clarion (from Tromba)

8’ Major Tuba (in case)

8’ Tuba Solo (melody coupler function)

8’ Pontifical Trumpets (polished copper, horizontal,
over entry door)

SWELL (4” wind)

8’ Violin Diapason

8’ Stopped Diapason (wood)

8’ Salicional

8’ Voix Celeste

4’ Principal

4’ Harmonic Flute

2’ Octavin

22/3’ Full Mixture V

16’ Bassoon (full length)

8’ Trompette

8’ Oboe

4’ Clarion

Tremulant

8’ Major Tuba (Ch)

8’ Pontifical Trumpets

CHOIR ORGAN (4” wind)

16’ Lieblich Gedeckt

8’ English Diapason

8’ Flûte à Bibéron

8’ Flute Cœlestis (doubled open wood)

4’ Principal

4’ Suabe Flute (open wood)

22/3’ Nazard

2’ Recorder

13/5’ Tierce

11/3’ Mixture IV

16’ English Horn (preparation)

8’ Clarinet

Tremulant

Cymbalstern

8’ Major Tuba (30” wind)

8’ Pontifical Trumpets (51/2” wind)

PROCESSIONAL ORGAN

(4” wind, housed in a case over the entry doors)

8’ Open Diapason (tin in façade)

4’ Principal

PEDAL (various pressures)

32’ Double Open Diapason (1–12 digital)

32’ Subbass (1–12 digital)

32’ Lieblich Gedeckt (1–12 digital)

16’ First Open Diapason (open wood)

16’ Second Open Diapason (Gt, tin-façade)

16’ Bourdon

16’ Lieblich Gedeckt (Ch)

8’ Principal (tin-façade)

8’ Bass Flute (ext 1st Open)

8’ Bourdon (ext 16’)

8’ Gedeckt Flute (Ch)

8’ Spire Flute (preparation)

4’ Choral Bass (ext 8’)

4’ Open Flute (ext yes">  8’ Bourdon)

32’ Contra Trombone (from 16’, wood)

16’ Trombone (wood)

16’ Bassoon (Sw)

8’ Trumpet (from 16’)

4’ Clarion (from 8’)

8’ Major Tuba (Gt)

8’ Pontifical Trumpets

The organ has a full set of inter- and intra-manual couplers. These have been omitted from this specification for brevity and ease of reading.

by John Walker

On June 9, 2002, John Walker delivered the keynote address at the gala Open House at the Reuter Organ Company, Lawrence, Kansas. The following article presents the text of these remarks, in which Mr. Walker responded to Albert Neutel's request to envision the future of the pipe organ in America.

 

When Albert Neutel asked me to address the topic of the "future of the organ," I was somewhat dumbfounded.  At this point in my life I have experienced a lot of past, but I have minimal experience with the future. "Change is inevitable; growth is optional," as our minister William Jackson described in a recent sermon. Indeed, there has been phenomenal change in the organ from the hydraulos to the large medieval Winchester organ, the split keyboards of Italy and Spain in the 17th century, the German Baroque organ, the French Baroque organ, the English Cabinet organ, the double pedalboards of 19th- century Germany, the innovations of Cavaillé-Coll, Ernest Skinner, the "Praetorius organ" and its descendants, the theater organ, and digital sampling, to name just a few metamorphoses of the organ. We have experienced change. And I anticipate confidently that we shall encounter more change in the future.

Happily the organ has demonstrated astonishing flexibility and adaptability to accommodate great changes. Instruments which have not been flexible in this manner have become artifacts of history, museum curiosities--the aulos, the shawm, the Bible regal, the serpent, the viol da braccia, the pedal piano. We thank our ancestors that they preferred change over death. Now in our time we will face the same challenge. Certainly some innovations will not prove themselves ultimately to be worthy; but we must make that determination from experience, not from fearful resistance to the new. "Change is inevitable; growth is optional."

Throughout history the fate of the organ has depended heavily upon its integral connection with religion. When religious culture has been strong (i.e., Germany c. 1700) the organ has thrived. When religion has been threatened (i.e.,  France c. 1800) the organ has suffered. Indeed, had Pepin the Short not donated his acquisition of an organ to a religious order in the 8th century, thereby initiating the relationship between the church and the organ, we might possibly not have the organ today and we would not have had this wonderful dinner!  Variations in style of worship have been appropriately reflected in varied organ design (i.e., 17th-century German Lutheran, vs. 17th-century French Catholic, vs. 20th-century American Protestant worship styles and the organs germane to each epoch and country). When the organ has adapted to and accommodated the requirements of changing religious ritual, the happy marriage between the church and the organ has continued.

Now we find ourselves immersed in a sea-change of worship practices in America. For better or for worse, new musical repertoire has emerged in churches throughout America and abroad. Because organs, and organists, have been perceived as incapable of handling and unwilling to address this repertoire and shift in worship pattern, one guru has even predicted the quick demise of our cherished instrument. I believe that we face a challenge similar to that of organ builders and organists in France in 1800, when traditional religious practice was abolished. Those clever organists who learned to play patriotic tunes saved many organs in France from almost certain destruction. The challenge for the church musician, and the builder of church organs, has never been greater than it is today. The way in which we respond to that challenge remains to be documented. But I believe that simple logic would indicate that an organ designed in Germany in 1700, no matter how wonderful that instrument may be, and a comparable strict diet of German Baroque music, would not serve effectively the requirements of today's American church.  We must summon our greatest artistry and creativity to respond to the liturgical challenge of our generation, to build instruments with the flexibility to respond to the demands of the best current repertoire as well as traditional sacred music literature. By analogy to French organists 200 years ago, perhaps we all need to learn how to play patriotic marches until this present cultural storm blows over. We must build instruments capable of performing our entire organ solo repertoire, accompanying the widest range of choral and solo vocal literature, supporting and encouraging congregational singing, and moving and exalting the human spirit. A very tall order!

We frequently lament that during our generation we have lost the audience for the organ. Could it be that this tragic decline of interest in our instrument has been occasioned in part by our creation of some instruments which are just "plain ugly" and our insistence upon playing Titelouze when the people want to hear "What a Friend We Have in Jesus?" I recall from more than 30 years ago the lecture of a composer who said that modern composers had retreated into the universities, where it did not matter to them if their compositions ever reached a large audience. In some ways, we organists and builders of organs have sought that same shelter from the demanding reality of public taste and the dynamic opportunity to engage that large public. We have entertained ourselves with magnificent duplications of historic organs and academically sanctioned performance styles. We have sought to replicate the past in an effort to find the future. And the American musical public has lost interest in our pursuit of historicity, while we frequently have neglected the dictates of musical aesthetics and functionality. Now to survive and to thrive we must respond to the needs of the church, the worshipper, the participant, the listening public. We must relocate that dynamic which drew thousands of Americans to frequent organ recitals early in the last century. In short, we must imagine the future rather than copy the past; we must pursue aesthetic beauty, not confusing it with historic authenticity; we must energetically seek new beauty rather than to repeat the beauty of another time and place. In the words of James Russell Lowell, "Time makes ancient good uncouth."

In San Francisco, Michael Tilson Thomas has undertaken a bold and daring venture to create a new audience for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He has actively courted those young persons who normally would not be seen at a concert of classical music. He has implemented innovative programming, including his own piano improvisation with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. He has featured many works which challenge the traditional envelope of symphonic repertoire. Now he finds that packed houses grace his concerts, drawn by the creative vitality of his adventuresome programming and repertoire. He then takes the golden opportunity to introduce this new audience on the same program to the wonders of Beethoven!  And it is succeeding brilliantly! Last February I had the privilege to perform the world premier of Stephen Mackey's "Pedal Tones" with this orchestra. The composer, whose own performing instrument is the electric guitar, infused this score for orchestra and organ with the idiom of the rock band. It was 30 minutes of sheer sonic extravaganza. Countless young persons from three capacity audiences commented "Wow! I've never heard a real pipe organ before! It was awesome!" These people were attracted by the visceral power of the organ, by its multitude of colors, by its capacity to respond on an equal basis to a huge orchestra, by its flexibility, the fascination of its console and its façade.  They were not concerned with its historic authenticity but purely its sonic splendor.  I challenge organ builders to focus upon that sonic and visual splendor, seeking to invent even more beautiful and diverse timbres and to expand the palette of available sonorities while retaining the best tonal designs of our heritage; I also challenge performers and composers to "push the envelope" of repertoire to reach and to create a new audience.

In this post-modern era, in which the secular world often appears to engulf the sacred arena, those who would preserve and promote the organ must look beyond the traditional church for a new audience. Although I believe firmly that the ultimate fate and design of the organ are inextricably tied to the church and its worship practices, I also believe that we must engage the entire populace with our instrument. A growing number of major concert halls now house pipe organs, and an expanding number of Americans is initiated to the instrument in secular concerts, thereby discovering the majesty and mystery which first attracted each of us to the organ. Could we devise an agreement whereby every organ builder would resolve to sponsor one concert hall instrument somewhere in America (with enthusiastic cooperation from the local concert administrators!) and assist with underwriting the cost to present and publicize concerts and recitals on that instrument? Just imagine what that could do to introduce, educate, and motivate a new audience (who in turn will purchase new organs!). This pattern would be "out-of-the-box," but "Change is inevitable; growth is optional."

Of all performers, we organists are the only ones who regularly play instruments of varying dimensions and measurements. We deal with flat pedalboards, radiating pedalboards, flat manuals, tilted manuals, French-style consoles, American-style consoles, tilt-tabs and stops, and a wide range of spatial arrangements. Would any pianist or violinist be willing to cope with such challenges to muscle memory? And it is now well documented that organists as a group tend to suffer specific long-term physical maladies from the constant encounter with their beloved console. Some years ago, my doctoral student, Catherine Burrell, now also a doctor of medicine, based her dissertation upon the design of an ergonomically structured organ console. Basing her research upon findings from computer workstations, Catherine envisioned a console which wrapped around the player, enabling the performed to access every control with complete ease and facility.  My own physician suggests that we organists need lumbar support at the console, such as those used by secretaries and computer operators at their desks. He envisions a flexible lumbar support invention, one which would respond to movement of the torso while maintaining therapeutic support to the lower spinal column. He also suggests a circular manual and pedal configuration patterned after the newer computer keyboards which encircle the operator. Another challenge, which organists constantly encounter, deals with the distance between the surface of the bench and the pedalboard.  Since organists are created in varying sizes, there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution to this ideal distance. Therefore, we have invented hymnals to place under the bench and, more lately, adjustable benches, some of them even motorized! But a high bench, necessary for those with longer legs, places the arms at a disadvantaged angle to the keyboards, thereby creating additional problems of its own. Also a high bench frequently places the performer's knees in undesirable proximity to the lower frame of the manuals, potentially even trapping the performer! If the question involves distance from seat to pedalboard, the obvious solution would appear to be an adjustable pedalboard, such as the one created for the organ at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Why has this concept not been generally applied elsewhere? I would suggest sincere study of these concepts, which could eliminate the skeletal problems which many performers encounter. Could some clever and insightful engineer design such an ergonomically sensible console? Could such an ergonomically designed console ever become the industry standard?

More than 20 years ago Jean Guillou published his fascinating and challenging book L'Orgue: Souvenir et Avenir, in which he details the history and his vision of the future of the organ. He describes in detail his idea for an "Organ of Variable Structure," an instrument which would be constructed in several separate mobile chambers, which could be transported with ease to performance locations where no permanent organ would be feasible. Such an instrument would go far to extend the impact of the organ to a vast and expanded culture. Who will build such an instrument and make it available? "Change is inevitable; growth is optional."

Much has been written and said about the last century's innovation of digital technology, and frequently there has been more heat than light generated by this conversation. While the larger musical world has accepted the legitimacy of "electronic music" for almost 100 years, with composers of the stature of Messiaen and many others writing serious compositions in this medium, we organists have been loathe to accept this expansion to the resources of the pipe organ. I would suggest that the secret of the organ's longevity has been the ability and willingness of builders and performers throughout history to accept and to adopt the best of every innovation throughout 2250 years of history.  Now the former National President of AGO, Dr. Philip Hahn, has written: "I have opened my ears to the latest technology. My soul has been stirred." (The American Organist, February 2001) I believe that the time has arrived for us to catch up to our musical colleagues and to think openly and creatively about the fascinating opportunities which are available to expand our tonal resources and to bring a vital new era to the noble history of the organ. Might we please evaluate the aesthetic worth of this new sonic resource from experience rather than from obstinate fear? Might we postpone writing the review until the performance has concluded?

So, what will be the future of the organ?  To be sure, the future will not be the past, although it must be informed by the spirit of the past. It has been said that "If we fail to evaluate ourselves historically, we shall be condemned to evaluate ourselves hysterically!" And what is that spirit of the past? I believe that it has always been a readiness to adapt to innovation, to serve changing liturgical and cultural needs, and to emulate the finest aesthetic concepts of every era. By this means our ancestors have given to us an instrument which encompasses stylistic innovations and changes from the original genius of Ktesibios in 250 B.C. through the onset of the 21st century. Let us summon the courage to continue the noble pattern of our forebears to accept, adopt, adapt, modify, and utilize every creative opportunity. We have been given an instrument which universally encompasses the history of our musical heritage. May we continue the open-minded creativity which has characterized the greatest names among our forebears! May we create yet a new and even grander era for the organ, so that ever more people may be inspired by this instrument, and so that in the 22nd century our descendants may know that we saved, expanded, and delivered this noble heritage to them!  

by Bruce B. Stevens

Some 250 lovers of pipe organs and pipe organ music gathered in Michigan in early August for the 40th Annual National OHS Convention. They came from across the entire United States, Canada, and such faraway places as Finland and Australia. The elegantly comfortable Campus Inn in the heart of the University of Michigan served as headquarters for a busy week of recitals on 37 old and new organs, four lectures, a carillon recital, and the customary camaraderie and fun that always accompany OHS events.

 

Sunday

The events of the opening day took place only a short walk from our beautiful headquarters. It has become a tradition to include one vintage theater organ in the lineup of each OHS convention, if possible. Kicking things off this year was an enjoyable program by Scott Smith on the brash and sassy 1927 Grand Barton Theater Organ, located in the restored opulence of the Michigan Theater. To those expecting the sumptuous, booming warmth of a Wurlitzer of the same period, this keen, edgy instrument without booming bass was a surprise. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating and versatile organ, full of intriguing effects. Beginning with The Victors, "the most well-known song associated with the University of Michigan," according to the program notes, and ending ever so cleverly with the encore Another Opening, Another Show from Kiss Me, Kate, Mr. Smith's leisurely program and relaxed style nicely demonstrated the numerous resources of the restored instrument.

The fine carpenter Gothic-style interior and sympathetic acoustics of the First Congregational Church several blocks away provide an agreeable setting for a 1985 three-manual Karl Wilhelm organ, one of two Wilhelm organs featured during the week. Recitalist Larry Visser played a program of works by Bach, de Grigny, Pepping, and his own compositions with ample facility and energy. His own Four Chorale Preludes on "Lobe den Herren," imitating specific well-known organ chorales of Bach, was a hit with the audience and served to demonstrate this mild and pleasant eclectic tracker instrument. OHS conventions are noted for the exceptionally robust, bass-dominated congregational singing of a hymn with every organ. It was unexpected that the light tonal palette of this large, perfectly placed but polite instrument was all but obscured by the forceful rendering of "All Creatures of Our God and King." Having released this initial burst of pent-up energy, the group later evidenced some degree of sensitivity to just how each organ and player "invited" them to sing.

Following the short stroll back to the Campus Inn, the group enjoyed air conditioned relief from the heat and humidity while listening to a fascinating lecture by Professor James O. Wilkes. A colorful Renaissance man, Wilkes is a professor of chemical engineering at the University, an organist and Associate of the Trinity College of Music in London, and the author of the notable book Pipe Organs of Ann Arbor. In much too short a time, he regaled us by zipping through a wide variety of information on pipe construction and sound production, including along the way several imaginative visual demonstrations of the movement of the air in pipes. Utilizing pipe, cardboard, and candle, Professor Wilkes showed us that air does not come out of the top of an open pipe and that initial speech involves air being sucked into the mouth momentarily, before being blown out.

The First United Methodist Church directly across the street from the tall, glass-fronted lobby of the Campus Inn was the site of our next recital, where we found a large 1958 Reuter organ which incorporates ranks of pipes and other parts from the church's 1940 Kimball. Mary McCall Stubbins, organist of the church for 53 years (!), put this congenial instrument through its paces with a program of Couperin and Bach transcriptions and original organ pieces by Sowerby, Titcomb, Doane-Whitworth, and the comic Pantomime by Harry Benjamin Jepson. For the hymn Ms. McCall Stubbins selected words by T. Herbert O'Driscoll, set in 1971 to the great old marching tune Ebenezer (Ton-y-Botel). It was a curious occurrence indeed when this assembly of highly "traditional" church music enthusiasts and practitioners blithely belted out, "Let my people seek their freedom in the wilderness awhile, from the aging shrines and structures, from the cloister and the aisle." Would this not include seeking "freedom" from traditional churches and their pipe organs? Good heavens!

After dinner we purposely sought no freedom from the evening recital, gathering resolutely in the pews, not the aisle, of the First Baptist Church for what turned out to be an electrifying performance by the "aging shrine's" organist Janice Beck. At the outset we experienced a slight mishap with the hymn: Ms. Beck was only one of several performers during the week whose version of the hymn did not match the one printed in the conventioneers' "Hymnlets." (Future convention committees, please take note.) Nevertheless, this gifted and experienced artist continued unfazed and opened her recital program with a secure and compelling performance of the Bach E-flat major Fugue. For this reviewer the most riveting and memorable moments came in Night Song and Ostinato Dances by Pamela Decker, a long and involved work ending in a frenzied Stravinskyesque dance demanding the utmost in energy, precision, and virtuosity, qualities Ms. Beck possesses in abundance. Three of Rayner Brown's airy Papillons, depicting specific butterflies, contrasted nicely with the Decker, as well as with William Bolcom's sweet Just As I Am and the closing three works by Vierne. Ms. Beck is to be congratulated on programming one of the more interesting and appealing of the convention's 37 recitals. The organ for this recital is a large 1966 Robert Noehren instrument with precisely 26 ranks of mixtures and a bass "foundation" consisting of one light 16' Subbass. Yet it still makes sense and works well in many contexts.

Monday

At the annual business meeting of the Society, Executive Director Bill Van Pelt announced that the Allen Company had recently given all the historical records of the M. P. Moeller Organ Company to the OHS for its American Organ Archives. This enormous acquisition contains information about one-tenth of all the organs built in the Western Hemisphere! An appeal was made for special funds to help deal with storing these materials properly and safely. Convention Coordinator Alan Laufman called our attention to the 1996 Convention in Philadelphia and the 1997 Convention in Portland, Oregon, and then announced the 1998 Convention in Denver.

Following the meeting, organ historian Michael Friesen began turning our thoughts to the past with his admirably articulate lecture on Michigan organbuilders of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Utilizing a good variety of slides, he covered much ground in the short time allowed and displayed his diligent research on the subject.

Then we boarded our fleet of four comfortable, modern coaches for the hour-long trip into Detroit and the first of what OHS conventions are principally about: recitals on antique instruments. At our first stop, the Martyrs of Uganda Roman Catholic Church (formerly St. Agnes), Susan T. Goodson played a solid program of standard repertoire by Zipoli, Franck, Vierne, and Mendelssohn on the intelligible and civilized Casavant of 1924. The large, handsome, Gothic-style building, with its magnificent, jewel-toned windows and generous acoustics, proved to be only one of many such churches we would see in Detroit: what a delightful surprise for those of us from more "mundane church" areas of the country! And it was good to see the areas around this and other churches coming back to better health following the riots of 1968 and the subsequent decline. These grand and venerable architectural treasures are being preserved, in some instances are being gorgeously restored, and especially are being used. The lunch prepared by our hosts at the church, featuring "African-Detroit" cuisine, was a veritable banquet, resoundingly applauded.

Not far away we entered Sweetest Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church with gasps of awe. This splendid building, with its rows of grandiose marble columns marching into the horizon while supporting an ever-blue "heaven" above, is breathtaking. The first order of business was the first of the week's presentations of Historic Organ Plaques. The OHS presents these plaques in recognition of an organ's exceptional historic merit. The plaque is intended to be held by the organ's owner in trust for the OHS as long as the owner preserves the organ in a manner compatible with the guidelines of the Society. Through the years this program has encouraged the proper preservation of hundreds of worthy historic organs. In Sweetest Heart of Mary Church the instrument is an 1894 Clough & Warren which has the distinction of being the second organ (indeed, the first extant organ) to employ Mr. John T. Austin's invention, the Austin Universal Wind Chest System. Recitalist Kathleen Scheide presented careful, sensitive readings of less familiar repertoire by Liszt, Sowerby, and Paine, and included her own Partita on "Old Hundredth." The forceful instrument, with its "big room of air" under the pipes, served these pieces well.

Following a brief ride over to St. John-St. Luke Evangelical Church, the group came upon yet another fantastic sight: an "illuminated light-bulb church." The fanciful carpenter Gothic-style interior of 1874, together with the front-and-center G. F. Votteler organ of the same date, was wired for electricity "in a state-of-the-art fashion" in 1916 under the direction of a parishioner who was an executive with Detroit Edison. Hundreds of light bulbs outline balconies, arches, pulpit, and even the pipe flats and pinnacles on the elaborate Gothic-style organ facade. This carnival atmosphere was heightened by the momentary dimming of the whole shebang every so often, as well as by one bulb on the organ facade that kept blinking in apparent response to vibrations within the case! The instrument has a surprising steely and thin sound for the period, but organist Stephen Schnurr, a last minute substitute for another recitalist, made us forget this fact with his amazing prowess: within two weeks' time he learned the previously scheduled organist's entire program, including Dudley Buck's formidable Concert Variations on "The Star-Spangled Banner." None of these pieces had he ever played before, yet he learned and performed them for us with aplomb. This feat did not go unrecognized by the appreciative crowd.

From this "enlightened," yet cold sounding instrument, we were taken to what was one of the more lovely, cohesive organs of the week: the 1867 Andreas Moeller (no relation to M. P. Moeller) in Most Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, another beautifully restored Gothic-style edifice with kindly acoustics. The organ has undergone much rearrangement and restoration throughout its history and is undeniably lovely in its present form. Recitalist Dudley Oakes began his engaging program with a charming duet (with organist and conductor Joanne Vollendorf) by the obscure 19th-century composer Josef Labor. Following the premiere of the gentle Reflections by our Australian/ Canadian/Floridian OHS colleague Gordon Atkinson, who shared the week with us and performed for us on our Saturday tour, Ms. Vollendorf conducted a quite competent string quartet for a performance of Handel's Organ Concerto, Op. 4, No. 4. Mr. Oakes found suitable and delightful sounds to balance the four strings for a festive, uplifting conclusion.

From here we bused to Ste. Anne's Roman Catholic Church for dinner and our evening recital. Just when we thought we could not possibly see another church larger and more breathtaking, we entered into this huge, "High Victorian Gothic" nave, dazzlingly decorated with much gold gilt, the enormous stained glass windows splashing their late afternoon rainbows over myriads of white and gold pinnacles and carvings. After dinner, organist Barry Turley presented the 25-stop 1887 Granville Wood & Son/1940 Casavant rebuild organ, an instrument of coolly aristocratic, even suave nature, in a varied program of Bach, Pinkham, the lovely Dubois Offertoire, Stanley Weiner, and Reger. Turley's secure, expressive, well-paced playing, together with the dignified instrument speaking optimally into such wonderfully reverberant acoustics from the rear gallery, combined to create a most moving performance of Reger's profound Fantasie on "Wachet auf." The traditional afterglow in the Campus Inn back in Ann Arbor gave the energetic a convivial time to chat about the wondrous sights and sounds of the day, as well as to browse through the astonishing selection of CDs for sale from the OHS shop.

Tuesday

Westward, ho! Our coach convoy through this green and pleasant land soon arrived in attractive Battle Creek, where the group headed for the Art Moderne W. K. Kellogg Auditorium with thoughts of breakfast cereal uppermost on many minds. However, after another Historic Organ Plaque presentation, organist Larry Schou very soon got our attention with his program on Ernest M. Skinner's 1933 "last showcase instrument built at Aeolian-Skinner." Unfortunately Mr. Schou chose to play a straight program very straight, using basic prescription registrations for various French and American 19th-century romantic pieces, rather than using the huge and wonderful organ in its intended, highly colorful orchestral manner to present appropriate repertoire. It was only in Edwin H. Lemare's transcriptions of two popular songs, albeit rather mundane works in Lemare's enormous output, that the true magic of the organ began to shine through. The unique performance practice associated with the fantastic orchestral organs of 60-75 years ago has been largely ignored and forgotten in most organ teaching departments. It takes the likes of such modern orchestral organ poets as Tom Murray, Fred Hohman, Lorenz Maycher, or Tom Hazelton to remind us of what we're missing. Generally, knowledge of and appreciation for such organs and the enchanting style of performance that they facilitate are now waxing, which is good news. But it is a style still very rarely taught and mastered. This style requires of the player an imagination at once soaring and tasteful. It also demands courage to deviate from historic registration prescriptions and well-known rules. These are not classic instruments, and they rebel at being treated as such, keeping their unique magic a secret to be unlocked only by those whose vision encompasses that uncommon territory.

Next we headed out to the town of Hastings for a visit with the 1867 J. H. & C. S. Odell in Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The instrument, once located in and voiced for another church where it stood nobly free in a rear gallery, is now severely impacted in a chancel chamber behind a heavy, three-foot-thick arch; consequently it sounds imprisoned and remote. This aural effect works strongly against the listener's involvement in all but the dreamiest of music. Here it served to detach many of us from William Lee Elliott's apparently stylish performance of Bach's Partita on "O Gott, du frommer Gott" and Dubois' Toccata. What to do with such an installation? Aside from soft nocturnes and meditations, chamber music collaborations with other instrumentalists or singers could have been a path to success.

Lovely Ionia was the site for the next three recitals. The spacious, resonant Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church is a perfect home for the mellow yet clear and balanced Lyon & Healy organ of 1900. This little organ makes a big sound, and it served Marijim Thoene's program based on medieval chant extremely well. It was enthralling to hear the chants sung by a good ensemble of women's voices before the Codex Faenza and Tournemire organ selections. After these and the beautiful Prélude au Kyrie from Hommage à Frescobaldi by Langlais, it came as a jolt that our hymn was Dan Schutte's ever so pop and ubiquitous "You Are Near" before Ms. Thoene continued the recital with eloquent works by Petr Eben and Persichetti--sort of a Tootsie Roll between the Duck à l'Orange and the Baked Alaska!

Moving to the First Christian Church, surely our most colorful venue thus far with its yellow and green windows, teal carpet, red choir loft curtain and upholstery, white-gold-back facade pipes, and a very blue ceiling over all, we heard the chipper playing of Dennis Janzer. Here the hearty 1893 J. W. Steere & Sons organ, generous in scale and full-bodied in tone, is most successful in the dead acoustic. Although this Steere seemed to buck the player a bit in some of the quicker movements, the premiere of Janzer's Suite No. 1: Celebrations and Reflections for Organ (Op. 9) was quite impressive. The last two movements: Exultant Dance--"Heaven be Praised!" and Soliloquy are standouts.

At the First Baptist Church we encountered one of the more elegant and patrician of the convention's organs--Hook & Hastings Op. 1538 of 1892. Hearing this little instrument reminded us of the preeminence of this great Boston organbuilding company. Matching the organ in style was young Justin Berg, a sophomore at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids where he studies with William Elliot. Mr. Berg played a varied program of eight short and appropriate pieces beautifully, including Thomas P. Ryder's amusing The Thunder Storm amongst works by Zeuner, Bach, Bristow, Brahms, Zundel, Ritter, and Thayer. Hearing such budding talent demonstrate so very well such a fine old organ was one of the more encouraging events of this, or any, convention.

For the evening recital we traveled to University Lutheran Church in East Lansing, where organbuilder and convention chairperson Dana Hull has installed a most successful version of an S. S. Hamill organ of 1866. Greatly rebuilt and enlarged, it still tonally evokes its heritage. And it looks spectacular! Here we were treated to the finished, international concert-quality playing of Deborah L. Friauff. Using largely standard repertoire, she wove appropriate musical magic in works by Pachelbel, Franck, Mendelssohn, Alain, and Bach, displaying her ample virtuosity and mature control of rhythm, phrasing, and musical style. Her performance of Jiri Ropek's Variations on "Victimae Paschali Laudes" was a highlight of the convention, as was her gripping Bach G minor Fantasy and Fugue. This last was only slightly marred by a dominant-note cipher during the last 10 or so measures--a most lucky note indeed, if it had to happen, for the final measures of a long and great work and performance!

Wednesday

This was our North/Northeast day. After riding through the idyllic countryside north of Ann Arbor, we came to Lapeer, where we were warmly welcomed to the Church of the Immaculate Conception and heard local public school and church Music Man Joseph Dobos demonstrate the 1905 Hinners organ. This little ten-stop instrument, with its truly liquid, lovely flutes, its crisp, bold principals, and its smooth string (no reeds) is a paradigm of successful organ design for a small village church at the turn of the century (and still today). Mr. Dobos' energetic playing was quite convincing in Ballet des Matelotz by Praetorius and later in collaboration with the very gifted student trumpeter Brock Blazo.

After more rural touring, we found in the Cass City Presbyterian Church a gentle, silvery, absolutely elegant little one manual and pedal organ assumed to have been made by Henry Erben in 1865. Fortunately for us the greatly talented organist and pianist Thomas Brown was selected to play this gem, and he provided us with a memorized recital containing some of the more masterful playing of the convention. His Haydn clock pieces and his Arne Introduction and Fugue from the First Concerto reflected the 18th-century lineage of this organ exactly, while delighting us with his profuse musical inventiveness and brilliant technical acrobatics.

Another gem of a later and different sort charmed us in St. John's Episcopal Church in Sandusky. For those familiar with the work of M. P. Moeller only during the last 40 years or so, this little 1898 M. P. Moeller tracker of 4 manual stops and one pedal stop was a surprise. The instrument is at once hefty and gentle: it fills the room with clear, warm, supportive, embracing sound that never tires the ear. Throughout the diverse, engaging program by organist Anita Hanawalt and flutist Karen Cahill, parishioner and "organ curator" Alex Paladi calmly and silently watched the wind indicator on the side of the  case and gently raised the bellows as needed, providing ample, living wind. Thanks again go to Dana Hull for the loving and lovely restoration.

Following a long trip to Marine City and dinner at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, we gathered with great expectation in the church to hear the evening recital on the opulent and grandiose 1861 E. & G. G. Hook Op. 300, as devotedly and carefully renovated and enlarged by George Bozeman in 1976. Organist Timothy Huth, having not the best of nights, succeeded in showing off the exceptionally transparent yet cohesive plenum for counterpoint in Bach's B minor Prelude and Fugue. The gorgeous, unsurpassed Hook flutes, the august, classic rosiny diapasons, the exquisite, piquant Oboe, the full-bodied yet radiant chorus reeds, and the awesome Pedal Open Diapason 16' that imparts incomparable grandeur to the whole, did not fail to thrill those who have come to love the work of the Hook brothers. What we all suspected is unquestionably true: the Marine City Hook is a great organ.

Thursday

As a welcome relief from bus travel, James Hammann opened Thursday with an incisive and entertaining lecture on the "Development of the Orchestral Organ." Terming the orchestral organ "a homophonic cul-de-sac on a long polyphonic highway," Dr. Hammann set his listeners straight on the nature and importance of this much misunderstood and maligned type of organ. This heightened our anticipation for hearing another E. M. Skinner masterpiece on Friday at the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit, where Dr. Hammann was once the organist.

In the vicinity of Ann Arbor we soon arrived in the village of Dexter to hear Mary Ann Crugher Balduf perform on the truly exquisite little 1857 Henry Erben at St. James' Episcopal Church. This multi-talented lady matched the elegant nature of the organ with a well chosen and arranged program of miniatures impeccably suited to the instrument and lovingly and expertly dispatched. Then with a gentle word and the clever ploy of asking the treble voices to lead off, she also succeeded in getting these normally overly-energetic hymn singers to tone themselves down to match the dulcet tones of this five-stop instrument: consequently the tiny instrument and gifted player could guide and support us wonderfully throughout "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night" sung to Aberystwyth.

From this precious, delicate experience, we were whisked off to the University of Michigan School of Music for an expert performance by John Brock on the celebrated Fisk 1985 "copy" of the 1718-1721 Silbermann/Hildebrandt organ in St. George's Church, Rötha, Germany. As one prominent conventioneer put it, "At first I thought that it really wasn't too loud after all, but then he turned on the mixtures!" Overly aggressive mixtures and chiffing, clicking principals or not, Mr. Brock very ably and stylishly displayed a great variety of sounds in Baroque works by Muffat, Böhm, and Bach. Having played the original Silbermann (Can we possibly be certain that it sounds "original" today, especially following the 1833 repairs, the 1935 repairs, the war damage, and the 1947 restoration by Eule?) in the rather intimate, carpeted, pew-padded, non-reverberant Rötha church a few years ago, this reviewer distinctly remembers his surprise and delight at the absence of chiff in the principal and flute ranks: subtle tonguing attack, yes; chiffing and chonking, no. Thankfully today we're again seeing a trend amongst leading organbuilders towards more refined pipe speech than was the practice during the 1960's, 70's and 80's.

The afternoon was given over to hilarity as the inimitable Jane Edge and her Victorian Nonet Songsters donned costumes for a program of Victorian Gems. The Victorian interior of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Ypsilanti, with its 1949 Holtkamp incorporating parts of an 1875 E. & G. G. Hook and Hastings, was ideal for this event. Shall we ever forget the above-mentioned Madame Crugher Balduf, in enormous antique hat and flounces, leading off in Harry Rowe Shelley's heart rending anthem Hark, Hark, My Soul? There was scarcely a dry eye as later the histrionic Madame, in deep throated contralto, over enunciated the telling, yet poignant words "o-f    s-i-n" in Mrs. M. S. B. Dana's pathetic Flee as a Bird. As expected Mrs. Edge provided witty and perfect organ accompaniments.

From this we emerged to hear Vance Harper Jones on the bold Barckhoff organ of 1905 in the First Congregational Church several blocks away. Though housed in a chamber, the modest instrument sounds full and big, smooth and clear in the intimate, dry room. The bluesy Balm in Gilead by Joe Utterback was only one of six utterly unknown works played, the last involving a little routine with a comic Uncle Sam hat. Whether the frivolity of these programs was the result of careful calculation or happenstance, it was the perfect tonic for the traditional Thursday-afternoon-slump that invariably occurs in OHS convention weeks.

After the delicious evening banquet at the beautiful Michigan League on campus, we and everyone else on campus were treated to a carillon recital by Margo Halsted and Donald Traser on the great carillon in the university's Burton Tower. A quick trip up the elevator brought many of us into direct contact with this enormous instrument as it was being played. And we organists think our instruments are big and powerful!

Then followed what was for many the highlight of the convention: Professor Robert Glasgow's masterful performance on the famous Aeolian-Skinner behemoth in Hill Auditorium. Recently refurbished and provided with a new combination system, reliable key action, and a piston sequencer (liberally used throughout the recital), this organ can certainly astonish and satisfy those in love with the biggest. The program of four works, Marche Funèbre et Chant Séraphique by Guilmant, Arioso and Pageant of Autumn by Sowerby, and Fantasia and Fugue on The Chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" by Liszt showed the best of everything: a superlative, mature, world-class performer on an enormous and superior instrument he thoroughly understands, performing fine, appropriate literature with consummate insight and virtuosity, poetry and passion. Although excessive heat and humidity in the un-airconditioned hall may have taken a minor toll on note accuracy in some of Liszt's more treacherous passages, the audience was effusive in its resounding praise. Thankfully personal preferences of taste and style, as well as petty comparisons and fault-finding, largely disappear at such a grand event; the eminent artist communicated the music in an extraordinary way, and the audience realized it was the fortunate recipient of something quite special.

Friday

By this time in the week the troops began to shake down to the intrepid and ardent, but the Friday and Saturday crowds were gratifyingly large this year. Agnes Armstrong, an authority on Félix-Alexandre Guilmant, gave an interesting lecture on this great concert artist, composer, and teacher, leading nicely into her mid-morning recital of Guilmant works at Cass Community United Methodist Church in Detroit. In this much-stressed structure exists the largest unaltered nineteenth-century organ in Michigan, a three-manual Johnson & Son instrument of 1892. Although barely playable, Ms. Armstrong succeeded in showing its present "dark brilliance" in a program including three works played by Guilmant himself on this very organ in 1898. OHS members in the Detroit area, including organbuilders Dana Hull and David Wigton, announced that they have "adopted" this great instrument for further care and love. It is a treasure, and it was exciting to see the OHS at work once more making a struggling congregation aware of the worth their neglected organ.

From here we were taken to the immense and imposing Old St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church to see builder Wigton's magnum opus. David Hufford's expressive and virtuosic playing was a more than able match for this massive and most impressive French-style instrument. The inclusion of a small chamber choir singing the entire Fauré Requiem with organ accompaniment as the major portion of the program resulted in a small disappointment in this particular venue, for it meant that Mr. Hufford had time for only two short organ works, the Hymne d'Action de grâce, "Te Deum" by Langlais, and the opening movement of Widor's Sixth Symphony, to show off what must be a myriad of riches in this organ. Regardless of the pleasant choir and the splendid playing of Mr. Hufford, one was left with a sense of frustration at not hearing much more of this impressive, unusual organ.

We then bused out to Grosse Pointe Farms, only a few miles distant but in reality a world away, to hear an elegant Klais organ of 1989 at The Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (Presbyterian). David Wagner, one of seventeen of the week's recitalists who studied at the University of Michigan's organ department, managed to give us a good sampling of the colors in this large, first-rate German tracker, unfortunately set in a dry and unflattering acoustic. Immediately after this we moved down the road where Mr. Wagner gave us a too short demonstration on the 1986 Wilhelm organ at St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, an organ more satisfying than the Klais to many, probably due to the fine, lively acoustics. Here great excitement ensued when one of our coaches got stuck halfway into the church driveway and half out into a busy, four-lane roadway. There being no immediate remedy for this predicament, despite some amusing antics involving a Jeep and a chain, we consolidated and went on our way with one-third of the group standing in the aisles of the remaining buses.

The imposing Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church welcomed us for a delightful dinner and a concert on the famed 1925 E. M. Skinner masterpiece in the soaring Gothic-style church. After a miscue to the audience as to when to begin singing the opening hymn, organist JanEl B. Gortmaker proceeded to play the entire Vierne Third Symphony without an audible wrong note. Such perfection is so unusual that it is satisfying in itself, but when it is coupled with an intelligent, rhythmically controlled, beautifully phrased, polished projection of the musical ideas behind the notes, it becomes really memorable. The only negative aspect here was the intense disappointment felt by some that the anxiously awaited organ demonstration did not fully materialize: that the magical orchestral effects inherent in this celebrated organ went largely unheard. By-the-book registration of standard European organ literature did not begin to explore this wonderful organ thoroughly. Even worse, it led to some abuse of the high pressure/high decibel reeds, with concomitant abuse of the audience's ears. Whether an organ comes off as beautiful, magical, poetic, mighty, and grand, or whether it is perceived as overbearing, opaque, crass, or vulgar is perhaps more dependent on the organist's refined sense of sound and registration with such an orchestral organ than with possibly any other kind of organ. One of the week's lessons, that orchestral organs demand a special and non-traditional approach, was now thrice taught.

An hour later we were back in Ann Arbor for James Kibbie's recital on the brand new 1995 Orgues Létourneau tracker at St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church. This large, modern "worship center" has recently been redone to feature an admirable acoustic for worship and music which compliments this rather bright, pleasing, essentially neo-Baroque organ nicely. Even the chiffy flutes are convincing in such an environment. Dr. Kibbie, the organ consultant for this project, must have liked it, for he played to the large crowd, including many parishioners and other townspeople, in the stifling heat from memory with confidence, fine style, and, in the main, musical success. His program of great standards was spiced by the inclusion of the beautiful Nigerian Prayer: "Oba a ba ke" by Fela Sowande, an African musician who lived and worked in this country for many years before his death in 1987.

Saturday

Nearly a week after the start of the convention, three busloads of us were still going and going. This year's convention was atypical in its inclusion of so many modern organs, and this day we were treated to four more. Our first stop was St. John Neumann Roman Catholic Church in Canton, another modern "worship center" that unfortunately is not a pleasant home for the David Wigton 1993 "rebuild and enlargement" of an 1885 Carl Barckhoff organ. Enough of this instrument has been altered so as to make the original not readily recognizable. Nonetheless, it is an affable organ with a contemporary sound and visual appearance. Organist Brian DuSell's program of Bruhns, Bach, Gigout, Albright, and Vaughan Williams exercised the instrument completely, especially the pedals in Albright's ever popular Jig for the Feet.

Our next stop at Zion Lutheran Church in Detroit, home church of our convention chairman Dana Hull, served up a host of delights. Many of us were amazed at the rich English Gothic-style interior and the scent of incense of this "High Lutheran" parish. Sitting in a transept was a current Hull project: the ongoing restoration of a mid-nineteenth century Robjohn chamber-size organ in an absolutely exquisite rosewood case. Finally, from the rear gallery, it was a great treat to hear the crystalline and surprisingly refined 1932 Vottler-Holtkamp-Sparling organ, including its mysterious Ludwig Tone 8', a uniquely beautiful flute celeste. Gordon Atkinson played an unusual program, including Little Suite for Organ by English composer Martin Ball, which was commissioned for this recital.

At St. James' Episcopal Church in Grosse Ile we were graciously hosted by a large group of parishioners to a lovely picnic on the grounds, with the refreshing river views and park-like setting reviving our flagging spirits. Inside the old chapel building organist Edward M. Schramm played an unexpected program on the 1987 Charles Ruggles tracker, a little organ with a big, big sound. The successful realization of Reger's Introduction and Passacaglia on this 13-stop instrument caused no small degree of astonishment.

It was fitting that the two final scheduled events of the convention featured two venerable and "grand" instruments from the past. At Pilgrim Church back in Detroit Elgin Clingaman offered a well-played recital on an 1889 Granville Wood & Son organ, a very grand sound indeed in a very dead acoustical environment. Bless them, they didn't let dead acoustics deter the creation of true grandeur way back then in the olden days! Just start with a huge 16' Double Open Diapason of wood in the pedal, and the rest would follow naturally. Fascinating parts of this recital were the three works of the Belgian nineteenth- century composer Joseph Callaerts. The increasingly wearied, even jaded, group appreciated particularly his winsome Scherzo, Op. 31.

The opulent, mellow, smooth, rich tonal magnificence of the 1892 George Jardine and Son organ down the street in Trinity Episcopal Church then beckoned, and ignoring tired ears, off we trotted. This wonderful organ, installed far from optimally in a chancel chamber with a small facade and the key desk in the transept, gives the lie to the mandate that rather low-pressure trackers must be free-standing to be successful. Again, those good old guys really did know how to fill a room with sound, whatever the challenge! Here Joanne Vollendorf appeared for the second time and gave an engaging program of music by women composers, from Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn to Frances McCollin. Ms. Vollendorf's musical playing brought a fitting conclusion to a truly outstanding week for many of the participants.

But not to let the evening "go to waste," an extra post-convention tour had been organized only a week or two previously, and an amazing two bus loads of dauntless enthusiasts plowed forward. Were we ever hugely rewarded! Two glorious churches, two scintillating organs, and a superb recitalist awaited us.

At Fort Street Presbyterian Church, a superb Gothic-style building with a true wonder of a hammer-beam truss ceiling, the organ is plastered across the entire front of the building in an exuberant fantasy of black walnut pinnacles and white, gold, pink, and taupe painted pipes. Here we were met by recitalist Thomas M. Kuras, a formidable organ artist. His program, prepared rather last-minute, included virtuoso works by Bossi, Dubois, and his own Postlude on "Vigiles et Sanctae" on the impressive Odell

/Wangerin-Weickhardt/Möller/McMan-us/Price/Robertson/Helderop composite organ.

However, greater delights awaited. After dinner we rode over to what is certainly one of the most wondrous and awe-inspiring Gothic-style interiors in the country. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is an absolutely glorious, highly colored, many statued, German-built edifice with equally fabulous acoustics. It is reminiscent of the marvelous Cathedral in Freiberg, Germany, where a great Gottfried Silbermann organ resides. It is the only Detroit church listed on the National Register of Historic Places, primarily for its extraordinary German stained glass windows. Here Mr. Kuras has played the organ and led performances of weekly choral Latin Masses and regular orchestral Masses for several decades. And this night, play he did. Masterfully! The program included his own extensive Partita for Organ on "Austria" and an utterly charming Berceuse on "O Sanctissima." A thrilling improvisation on not one but three submitted themes brought down the house. The organ here is a 1973 two-manual tracker, modest in size when compared to the building, but generous in tone. Built by local builder William Worden, it incorporates some once-butchered but now restored pipework from the original 1873 Odell organ, including the handsome stencilled facade, as well as some other old pipes. In essence, however, it is a versatile, eclectic instrument of impressive musical value whose stoplist and sounds closely resemble those of organs being built by leading American tracker builders right now rather than those being built 22 years ago. We went out into the night on a genuine high.

This convention was at once extremely well-organized and relaxed, with a beautifully-planned pace, easy flow, and relatively few snafus. Chairman Dana Hull and her committee, as well as Convention Coordinator Alan Laufman and the OHS staff in Richmond, deserve high praise and deep appreciation for an excellent week. The huge variety of beautiful instruments and churches, the discovery of some exciting, unfamiliar players, the opportunity to hear some old favorite players, the unusual yet appealing programs, the luxurious accommodations, the sumptuous meals and frequent refreshments throughout each day, the comfortable, clean transportation, the customarily reasonable OHS prices, and the genuinely friendly and open crowd all combined to make one terrific week.

The focus of these yearly gatherings has gradually (and gratefully) expanded from an interest solely in eighteenth and nineteenth century trackers to include serious interest in and appreciation for significant electric action organs from the past and a refreshing look at top-notch, artistic modern organs. Naturally, this has served to attract a larger and more diverse crowd with a wider view of things. The conventions have expanded to a very full six and a half days which increasing numbers of people enjoy without missing one single event. Based as these conclaves are on a sincere interest in experiencing as many fine organs, fine players, and fine recitals of organ literature as possible in a given week, they are unique in our country and, perhaps, in the world. (For a serious concert organist with awareness enough to notice and process what is going on, just the chance to hear 37 different recitals by 37 different players on 37 different organs in one week, played to the same audience, is an incredibly valuable lesson in what works and what doesn't in terms of planning and playing recitals. For a serious, artistic organbuilder, the chance to hear and compare the degree of success of that many organs in that many American churches in one week is unparalleled.) How fortunate we are to have the OHS producing such events for our edification and enjoyment as a part of its mission. The Society deserves accolades as it continues to support the cause of genuine pipe organs at this time in America of mounting threat to the use and even existence of such marvelous and noble instruments, whether they are old or new.

Next year the OHS conventioneers will gather in Philadelphia for what will certainly be an exhilarating week, Sunday, June 30 through Saturday, July 6. On the Fourth of July we'll be enjoying a dinner cruise on the river, watching the fireworks over the city where our nation was born. From 18th-century Tannenberg and Dieffenbach trackers to the world-famous monumental organs in the Wanamaker store and Longwood Gardens, we'll hear them all. Plan to join us for a week that is unlike anything happening elsewhere.