Cameron Carpenter nominated for Grammy Award

Is it real?
Fifteen or twenty years ago there was an ad campaign for Memorex® cassette tapes in which various setups were created to compare “live” music with recorded music to see whether both would break a piece of fancy stemware. A popular singer would be featured offering a terrible, powerful high note, and inevitably the glass would shatter.
What did it prove?
I’ve heard some singers who could make me cringe, but how plausible is it that the actual, acoustic human voice would break a glass? Conversely, I wonder if any other recorded sound played back with enough wattage would break the glass—a hummingbird’s wings for example or a cat on a hot tin roof. I think the Memorex demonstration was at least a little bit disingenuous, and of course we heard the whole thing through whatever speakers came with our television set. Television advertisements for televisions imply that what you see on the screen may be better than real life, but again, your appreciation of the ad is limited by the quality of your present TV.
The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000) defines the word virtual: “1. Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name . . . ” and “2. Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination.”
I introduce the word virtual in this context of what I might call the “unreality of reality.” In recent years we’ve been given the phrase virtual reality, defined in the same dictionary as “a computer simulation of a real or imaginary system that enables a user to perform operations on the simulated system and shows the effects in real time.”
An oxymoron is not a person addicted to painkillers, it’s a “rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined.” To my ears, virtual reality is an oxymoron.

Let’s be real.
We might imagine that Bach would have stopped at 175 cantatas if he had been subject to phone calls from the clergy, or Mozart’s 30th symphony would have been his last had he been distracted by television, or—God forbid—video games. But simple things like hot water in the house and electric lights are taken for granted, and more complicated things like computers have become something close to necessities. I’m in favor of technology. The other day I stumbled over a box of detritus stored in an organ chamber by a long-gone organist. I was amused to see a 56K compact disc. 56K? How Stone Age. There’s a half-used 100-pack of 700MB CDs on my desk. Big deal. I replaced my previous 2GB laptop with a 60GB job because of the number of photos I carry around. There’s a 2GB memory card in my camera. What’s next? Remember NASA engineers using slide rules during Apollo flights? (I know that’s true because I saw it in a movie.) With a $400 GPS we have more navigation ability in a 20-foot motorboat than the entire British Navy had during the Napoleonic wars. How much more computing speed or data-storage capacity do we need?
Apply that same question to cameras (mine has more mega-pixels than yours), automobiles (mine has more horsepower than yours), or cell phones (mine’s a camera, a calculator, a calendar, an alarm clock . . . ). How much more can they offer before they stop getting better?
Many of us in the organbuilding world are devoted to the pipe-organ-technology of the early 20th century—what Ernest Skinner considered adequate console equipment should be good enough for anyone. But let’s remember that hundreds of terrific Hook organs were replaced by Skinner’s new-fangled electric things where the organist was 40 feet away from the instrument. What makes the early electro-pneumatic pipe organ the ideal? How many organbuilders and organists disdained Skinner’s innovations as superfluous or unnecessary? “If God had intended us to push pistons we would have been all thumbs.” At what point in the development of any technology does one take a snapshot and declare the ideal, after which there’s no need for further development?

Electronics in the worship space
It’s more than 50 years since churches began purchasing electronic organs to replace pipe organs. I think many, even most of us will admit that the 30- and 40-year-old models that are still laboring along are pretty poor. While they have pipe organ names on their stop tablets, they never did sound like organs. They were cheaply made and not durable. A church I served as music director had a 20-year-old electronic in the chapel that wasn’t in tune, according to the technician couldn’t be tuned, and needed parts that weren’t available. Have you ever tried to get a three-year-old computer repaired?
While it’s always risky to generalize, it seems to me that the average church that was once proud of owning a modest pipe organ is inclined to buy an electronic console that emulates a 60- or 70-stop “real” organ. What sense does it make to have an “organ” with 32¢ sounds, batteries of reeds, and secondary and tertiary choruses in a sanctuary that seats fewer than 200 people? Is it so you can play music that was intended for buildings ten times the size? It’s a violation of scale, an anomaly, and artless expression. As I wrote a couple months ago, “the Widor” doesn’t work in every church.

The Virtual Pipe Organ
Trinity Church (Episcopal), Wall Street, New York, is a prominent, beautiful, historically significant edifice that houses a large and vibrant parish with an extraordinary music program. According to the church’s website , the parish was founded “by charter of King William III of England in 1697.” The present Gothic Revival building, designed by Richard Upjohn, was consecrated on May 1, 1846. The website includes an Historical Timeline that tells us that some of the church’s vestrymen were members of the Continental Congresses, that the parishioners were divided politically as the Revolutionary War progressed, but that the clergy sided with the crown. An American patriot, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Provoost, was appointed rector in 1784, and the New York State Legislature “ratifie[d] the charter of Trinity Church,” deleting the provision that asserted its loyalty to the King of England.
In 1770, just 28 years after Georg Frederick Handel’s Messiah was premiered in Dublin, Ireland, it received its American premiere at Trinity Church. Today’s spectacular and highly regarded Trinity Choir is heard on many recordings. Their annual performances of Messiah are legendary throughout the city. Bernard Holland of the New York Times wrote, “All the ‘Messiah’ outings to come in the next two weeks will have to work hard to match this one.” And in 2005, the Times called Trinity’s performance of the great oratorio, “the ‘Messiah’ to beat.” (Now there’s an image!) What a wonderful heritage.
On September 11, 2001, Trinity Church assumed an essential national role by chance of place. Located adjacent to the World Trade Center, the church and its people were thrust into the center of that tragic story. St. Paul’s Chapel, part of Trinity’s “campus” and located a couple blocks away, became an inspiring comfort station for firefighters and other emergency workers. Through the ensuing months, as the rubble was unraveled, the chapel was staffed by the people of the church who provided food, refreshment, and a resting place for the rescue workers. The response of the clergy, staff, and parishioners to that national catastrophe was as inspirational as it was essential.
At the moment of the attack, a service was in progress in Trinity Church, the organ blower was running, and the great cloud of dust that filled the entire neighborhood found its way into the organ. It was later determined that the organ could not be used without extensive cleaning and renovation. A temporary solution was offered. Douglas Marshall and David Ogletree, dealers of Rodgers organs in New England, had been developing the “Virtual Pipe Organ,” using a technology they named PipeSourced® voices. A large instrument using this technology was installed at Trinity Church as a temporary solution while the church researched the condition of the Aeolian-Skinner.
A year or so after the Virtual Pipe Organ was installed, I attended a service to hear the instrument and was impressed by the volume and intensity of the sound. The massive building was filled with the sound of an organ. There was no distortion. People were singing, and I’m willing to bet that many of them were well satisfied, even thrilled by the sound. I had not expected to be convinced that the Virtual Organ would really sound like a pipe organ. In fact I’m not sure how I could eliminate the bias of a lifetime as an “acoustic organ guy.” As full and intense as the sound of the Virtual Organ was, it was not the sound of a pipe organ. It lacked the essential majesty of presence, the special physicality, the particular “realness” of the sound of a great pipe organ.
The experience of listening to the Virtual Organ might be compared to listening to a recording of a great pipe organ, as the sound of both comes from speakers. I understand that sampling technology is not the same as recordings, and I expect that proponents of the virtual organ will object to my analogy, but it’s those speakers that make the essential difference. Sound coming from a speaker will always be distinguishable from sound coming from organ pipes.
I can recall the depth of my impressions when as a young teenager I first heard the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing in Symphony Hall. I think I expected the huge volume of sound and the intensity of the differences of the timbres, but I had no way of anticipating the presence, the majesty, the physicality of all that acoustic sound as enhanced by the magnificent room. Oh, those double basses!
There are few musical presentations more expensive than a symphony orchestra (except opera and ballet in which the symphony orchestra is combined with the theater). A hundred serious musicians on stage in a 300-million-dollar concert hall require important organization to sustain, but we don’t hear a move to replace that experience with digital sampling. We want to hear the real thing. The symphony orchestra and the pipe organ are special in our culture because they’re so expensive. I don’t mean that the money itself is impressive—but that the money represents how majestic the expression is.
In conversations with church members I frequently hear people say that the sound of a digital instrument is “good enough” for the untrained ear. One might respond, unless your fiancée is a jeweler, why bother with a real diamond? She’ll never know the difference.
I don’t want to eat a chemically produced substitute for lobster. I want the real lobster, and for goodness sake, don’t mess with the butter!
I read on Marshall & Ogletree’s website (www.marshallogletree.com) that they sample complete pipe organs: “PipeSourced® sounds, which are skillful note-by-note, stop-by-stop recordings of famous pipe organs (90% of them vintage Aeolian-Skinners), contribute unprecedented virtual reality to Marshall & Ogletree instruments, as well as to its combination organs and custom additions for new and existing pipe organs.” That’s a long, long way from the previous generation of sampling techniques, and proverbial light-years from the early rounds of tone-generators on which the development of the electronic instrument was founded.
There have been a number of articles written in praise of the Virtual Pipe Organ, including Allen Kozinn’s review of a recital played by Cameron Carpenter published in the New York Times on July 7, 2007, with the headline: “A ‘Virtual’ Organ Wins New Converts at a Recital.” And Dr. Burdick has written an apologia defending the church’s decision to sell the dismantled Aeolian-Skinner, retain the Marshall & Ogletree Virtual Organ, and to commission another virtual instrument for St. Paul’s Chapel, which concludes,
Trinity Church is proud of its role in developing the “virtual pipe organ,” which could only exist in this new century because of the continuing exponential growth of computer speed and memory. Without the brilliance of Douglas Marshall and David Ogletree, whose research began in 1997 to develop an entirely new approach to the digital organ, we could never have achieved an instrument such as this. Furthermore, without Trinity Church having taken advantage of its historic opportunity by daring to consider such an interim instrument, the music world would not now have this dramatic new 21st century success: like an automobile with horsepower but no horses, a virtual pipe organ with musical potentials beyond anyone’s imagination.

There’s little doubt that Trinity’s Aeolian-Skinner organ was not as distinguished as many other instruments produced by that firm. (It’s at least a little ironic that there’s agreement that Trinity’s Aeolian-Skinner organ was less than great, but it’s replaced by something based on sampling “vintage Aeolian-Skinners.”) There’s no doubt at all that the Virtual Pipe Organ represents but a fraction of the cost of commissioning a Real Organ. After all, we live in the age of the seven-figure organ. There’s no doubt that Trinity Church has realized a significant short-term economy by eliminating the immense maintenance budget required by a large pipe organ. In fact, Dr. Burdick reports that they had been spending $56,000 annually to care for the Aeolian-Skinner—a specious argument in that there are many much larger and much older organs that are maintained effectively for less money. The organ world rumor-mill, that most active of subcultures, has reported many different numbers representing the cost of the Virtual Organ. I don’t know what the actual price was, but it’s safe to guess that it was a significant number of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Is it true stewardship of a church’s resources to spend such a volume of money on artifice? For centuries, Christians have given their all trying to make their worship spaces approach their respect for their faith. Huge treasures were spent in 12th-century France building cathedrals that still inspire us. Fortunes have been spent on stained-glass that fills church interiors with magical, mystical light. Trinity Church Wall Street is a spectacular edifice with beautiful vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows, carved wood architectural elements and furniture. Hundreds of important preachers, humanitarians, and politicians have spoken there. To walk inside is to respect the care and vision with which the place was created. To walk inside is to find respite from a frenetic city and inspiration from all that has happened there. To walk inside is to worship. This is not a place for artifice.
As I’ve spoken about Trinity Church, I encourage you to read about St. Paul’s Chapel at www.saintpaulschapel. org/about_us/. Built in 1766, it’s the oldest public building in Manhattan that’s been in continuous use. Here’s an excerpt from that website:

George Washington worshiped here on Inauguration Day, April 30, 1789, and attended services at St. Paul’s during the two years New York City was the country’s capital. Above his pew is an 18th-century oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States, which was adopted in 1782.
Directly across the chapel is the Governor’s pew, which George Clinton, the first Governor of the State of New York, used when he visited St. Paul’s. The Arms of the State of New York are on the wall above the pew.
Among other notable historical figures who worshiped at St. Paul’s were Prince William, later King William IV of England; Lord Cornwallis, who is most famous in this country for surrendering at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781; Lord Howe, who commanded the British forces in New York, and Presidents Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and George H. W. Bush.

St. Paul’s Chapel stands as a shrine for all that happened in that neighborhood and to this country on September 11, 2001. This is also not a place for artifice.
In his Apologia, Dr. Burdick reports, “Because of insurance matters after 9/11, there was no question that we’d have to wait five to seven years for a decent replacement pipe organ, during which time I felt that we’d be starving for good organ sound.” Fair enough. That’s why the purchase of the Virtual Pipe Organ for temporary use was a good solution. But I am sorry that such a church in such a place with such a history would miss their opportunity to add not to the virtual world, but the real world of the pipe organ.

Joel H. Kuznik visited Dresden in 2003 and 2004 while attending the Leipzig Bachfest, once on a daytrip and once on festival excursion to hear Silbermann’s last organ in the Hofkirche or Cathedral, which was completed after his death by his one-time apprentice, Zacharias Hildebrandt. In same years Kuznik also went on Bachfest excursions to hear the two Silbermanns in Rötha. In the past several years he has had over twenty articles published in four journals, including The Diapason. Recordings of the organs are available through OHS.

Dresden has a new Frauenkirche with a new organ. The original “Church of Our Lady” was a striking architectural achievement by Georg Bähr, city architect and master builder, whose design dominated the Dresden skyline for over 200 years. It was Germany’s largest Protestant (Evangelical-Lutheran) church, seating 3200, and popularly known as the “stone bell” because of its enormous dome rising over 320 feet. The organ was built by the renowned Saxon builder, Gottfried Silbermann, and played by Bach in a two-hour recital on December 1, just days after the dedication in 1736.1
The new Frauenkirche was dedicated almost 270 years later on October 30, 2005. The old church had collapsed in 1945 after a two-day Allied bombing blitz created an inferno that incinerated the church’s interior. The ruins, tons of stone, lay like a grim memorial pile until the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany made fund-raising and rebuilding a possibility. The cornerstone was laid in 1992, and thirteen years later the monumental reconstruction at a cost of $210 million was dedicated with three days of celebratory services, as The New York Times announced, “A Symbol of War’s Horrors Is Reborn in Dresden as a Testament of Hope and Healing.”2 See the church’s website in English: .
The new organ was intended to be part of that healing process. A reconstruction of the Silbermann was considered, but in the end the church’s Organ Commission asked Daniel Kern of Strasbourg to present a proposal for a new organ that would not be a copy of Silbermann, but for which Silbermann would serve as a model. Kern’s plans and concept raise questions, which are best answered in his own words, outlined in an informative commentary on the organ’s design at .
When he visited Dresden in 2003 to get an impression of the church, which was still shrouded in scaffolding, Kern was struck by the sign “Creating Peace—Building Bridges.” He writes, “In that moment it was clear to me [that my mission was] to create a musical, cultural, and peace-making bridge—to build a work in which the Saxon (via Gottfried Silbermann), Alsatian (via Andreas Silbermann) and Parisian organ culture (via Cavaillé-Coll) could be united in sound.”
Kern has never been inspired by the strict reconstructions of Gottfried Silbermann except for his great organ at Dresden’s Hofkirche (Court Church) and Kathedral, a short walk from the Frauenkirche.3 So instead of another reconstruction, Kern proposed “to offer the musical life of Dresden [an organ that would bring] new horizons and possibilities.” The Organ Commission agreed and chose Kern in February 2003. The organ was installed a little over two years later in May 2005 at a cost of $2.1 million.
Silbermann’s organ had three manuals: Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, and Brustwerk. Kern has added a fourth: a Récit Expressif after Cavaillé–Coll. The two specifications look almost identical—compare the stoplists—with Kern adding a few stops here and there and a Récit that increases the organ from 43 ranks to 65. The placement of the divisions within the new organ case, a replica of Bähr’s original plans, is also close to Silbermann’s layout: the Brustwerk and Pedal at the bottom, the Hauptwerk high in the façade with the Oberwerk above that and the Récit directly behind it.
The suspended tracker action for all four manuals was built in the “classical” style and with solely “classical” materials. [Where Kern uses the word classical, we might understand historical.] The manuals can be coupled mechanically, but an assist can also be used, especially in the large Romantic pieces where many stops and couplers are needed. For the Brustwerk there is a mechanical transposer that shifts the pitch to 415 Hz to accompany older music. The Silbermann was tuned in meantone, while the Kern is in equal temperament.
The pipework for the three historic manuals (HW, BR and OW) and pedal is made according to the “classical models and scales” of Gottfried and Andreas Silbermann. The principals and reeds are of 87.5% tin, while the flutes and Gedackts contain more lead. For the pipes of the Récit, Kern used Cavaillé–Coll’s scaling and alloys. The principals and reeds are 75% tin, the Bourdon and flutes 33%. The Swell is modeled after Cavaillé–Coll’s organ of St. Sernin in Toulouse.4 The organ is tuned at 442 Hz at 18° Celsius (64.4° F), whereas Silbermann used chamber pitch 410–415 Hz.1
In voicing the organ, Kern has given himself a complex, challenging balancing act of creating “a classical brilliance in the mixtures for the plenum, a singing strength in the principals, gravitas in the reeds and bass stops, color and poetry in the mutations and reeds, and subtlety and clarity in the flutes and strings.”
This builder has great confidence in his ability and the success of the Frauenkirche organ. For Romantic and 20th-century repertoire, Kern believes it is possible to integrate a large Swell without compromising the historical core of the organ. By providing principals, wide flutes, narrow strings and a Voix Celeste, he feels it is possible to create a stylistic breadth that also embraces the Romantic and symphonic repertoire. The results draw not only on the inclusion of the Récit, but also “on our experience with scaling and voicing” in creating a comprehensive tonal palette.
“The instrument is, structurally and tonally, in decisive respects (including wind supply from six bellows, internal layout and intonation), closely based on the Silbermann organ. It has, however, been modified to meet contemporary requirements . . . . The Kern organ combines numerous virtues of a historic organ with technical advantages of a modern concert instrument. Thus an organ has been created which meets both the new and the historic requirements for church music in the Frauenkirche.”5
The Kern Company was founded in 1953 by Alfred Kern, whose work was warmly supported by Dr. Alfred Schweitzer. The company is internationally known due to its restoration and reconstruction of many instruments by Clicquot, Cavaillé-Coll, and Andreas Silbermann. They have also new instruments in France, Germany, Japan, and one in the USA at University Park United Methodist Church, Dallas. In 1977 Alfred Kern’s son, Daniel, who had apprenticed in other firms, took over the company.

Frauenkirche Dresden—Organ Music: Bach & Duruflé. Samuel Kummer, organist. Hybrid Multichannel Surround-Sound. Carus CD 83.188, ©2005. Available through Albany Music Distributors, 800/752-1951 or online at ; also available from the Organ Historical Society, 804/353-9226; .
Bach-Vivaldi Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596; Trio on “Herr Jesu Christ,” BWV 655; Pièce d’orgue, BWV 572; Partita on “Sei gegrüßet,” BWV 768; and the Duruflé Suite, op. 5.
The proof, they say, is in the pudding, here the sound—and also in the playing—in this debut CD of the Kern organ and the Frauenkirche organist released on the day of its dedication, October 30, 2005. The organ was commissioned in February 2003 and installed a little over two years later in May 2005. This recording was made last September.
Performer. Samuel Kummer won the post as organist of the Frauenkirche over a field of 38 applicants. A native of Stuttgart, he studied organ and improvisation there at the Hochschule for Music and the Performing Arts and upon graduation in 1987 received an award in improvisation. He has been a prize-winner in international organ competitions, taking First Prize at the “Concours l’Europe et l’Orgue” at Maastricht.
He has performed recitals in Germany, the Netherlands, the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, Guatemala, and in the USA at the Mormon Tabernacle. He has appeared at the European Organ Festival (Maastricht) and the International Bach Festival (Warsaw). Before his appointment at the Frauenkirche, he served as district Cantor at St. Martin’s Church, Kirchheim/Teck. He began his duties in Dresden on July 1, 2005. Performance. Kummer’s program reflects two roles of the Kern organ—Silbermann and Cavaillé-Coll, Bach and Romantic. He presents four Bach genres: concerto, chorale prelude/trio, chorale partita, and JSB’s “French” piece, a favorite among Germans. The room has a reverberation of 71?2 seconds, but Kummer’s Bach is nonetheless brisk, energetic, and articulate with a straightforward rhythm that could benefit from a dash of Viennese warmth. By contrast, his Duruflé has a musical sweep and unfolding shape that engages the ear. As much as he may love Bach, his heart, his passion, seems to be French Romantic.
Registration./ Registrations are carefully documented,6 and Kummer strives to meet the composer’s expectations with interesting results and by the idiomatic inclusion of tierces to enrich Saxon plenums and of flutes to mellow French solo reeds. For Bach, Kummer uses the transparent, bright resources of the Silbermann HW/OW, whereas the Cavaillé-Coll Récit dominates and richly colors the Duruflé, proving the organ to be something of an ingenious, ingratiating chameleon. “A program rich in stylistic contrasts demonstrates the amazing tonal versatility of this organ.”7
Production. Carus has presented an attractive, well-engineered multi-channel surround-sound SACD/CD that will delight audiophiles and rattle bass woofers, making it possible to count the beats of the 32' Fagott at the end of the Bach Pièce. This issue by Carus is distinguished by a clarity of ambient sound and a brochure with beautiful photos, informative essays, and helpful notes. Refer to the German or French text for full comments with a structural diagram on “Sei gegrüsset.” Overall—splendid contribution and an admirable debut for the Frauenkirche organ and organist Samuel Kummer.

Joel H. Kuznik visited Dresden in 2003 and 2004 while attending the Leipzig Bachfest, once on a daytrip and once on festival excursion to hear Silbermann’s last organ in the Hofkirche or Cathedral, which was completed after his death by his one-time apprentice, Zacharias Hildebrandt. In same years Kuznik also went on Bachfest excursions to hear the two Silbermanns in Rötha. In the past several years he has had over twenty articles published in four journals, including The Diapason. Recordings of the organs are available through OHS.

Dresden has a new Frauenkirche with a new organ. The original “Church of Our Lady” was a striking architectural achievement by Georg Bähr, city architect and master builder, whose design dominated the Dresden skyline for over 200 years. It was Germany’s largest Protestant (Evangelical-Lutheran) church, seating 3200, and popularly known as the “stone bell” because of its enormous dome rising over 320 feet. The organ was built by the renowned Saxon builder, Gottfried Silbermann, and played by Bach in a two-hour recital on December 1, just days after the dedication in 1736.1
The new Frauenkirche was dedicated almost 270 years later on October 30, 2005. The old church had collapsed in 1945 after a two-day Allied bombing blitz created an inferno that incinerated the church’s interior. The ruins, tons of stone, lay like a grim memorial pile until the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany made fund-raising and rebuilding a possibility. The cornerstone was laid in 1992, and thirteen years later the monumental reconstruction at a cost of $210 million was dedicated with three days of celebratory services, as The New York Times announced, “A Symbol of War’s Horrors Is Reborn in Dresden as a Testament of Hope and Healing.”2 See the church’s website in English: .
The new organ was intended to be part of that healing process. A reconstruction of the Silbermann was considered, but in the end the church’s Organ Commission asked Daniel Kern of Strasbourg to present a proposal for a new organ that would not be a copy of Silbermann, but for which Silbermann would serve as a model. Kern’s plans and concept raise questions, which are best answered in his own words, outlined in an informative commentary on the organ’s design at .
When he visited Dresden in 2003 to get an impression of the church, which was still shrouded in scaffolding, Kern was struck by the sign “Creating Peace—Building Bridges.” He writes, “In that moment it was clear to me [that my mission was] to create a musical, cultural, and peace-making bridge—to build a work in which the Saxon (via Gottfried Silbermann), Alsatian (via Andreas Silbermann) and Parisian organ culture (via Cavaillé-Coll) could be united in sound.”
Kern has never been inspired by the strict reconstructions of Gottfried Silbermann except for his great organ at Dresden’s Hofkirche (Court Church) and Kathedral, a short walk from the Frauenkirche.3 So instead of another reconstruction, Kern proposed “to offer the musical life of Dresden [an organ that would bring] new horizons and possibilities.” The Organ Commission agreed and chose Kern in February 2003. The organ was installed a little over two years later in May 2005 at a cost of $2.1 million.
Silbermann’s organ had three manuals: Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, and Brustwerk. Kern has added a fourth: a Récit Expressif after Cavaillé–Coll. The two specifications look almost identical—compare the stoplists—with Kern adding a few stops here and there and a Récit that increases the organ from 43 ranks to 65. The placement of the divisions within the new organ case, a replica of Bähr’s original plans, is also close to Silbermann’s layout: the Brustwerk and Pedal at the bottom, the Hauptwerk high in the façade with the Oberwerk above that and the Récit directly behind it.
The suspended tracker action for all four manuals was built in the “classical” style and with solely “classical” materials. [Where Kern uses the word classical, we might understand historical.] The manuals can be coupled mechanically, but an assist can also be used, especially in the large Romantic pieces where many stops and couplers are needed. For the Brustwerk there is a mechanical transposer that shifts the pitch to 415 Hz to accompany older music. The Silbermann was tuned in meantone, while the Kern is in equal temperament.
The pipework for the three historic manuals (HW, BR and OW) and pedal is made according to the “classical models and scales” of Gottfried and Andreas Silbermann. The principals and reeds are of 87.5% tin, while the flutes and Gedackts contain more lead. For the pipes of the Récit, Kern used Cavaillé–Coll’s scaling and alloys. The principals and reeds are 75% tin, the Bourdon and flutes 33%. The Swell is modeled after Cavaillé–Coll’s organ of St. Sernin in Toulouse.4 The organ is tuned at 442 Hz at 18° Celsius (64.4° F), whereas Silbermann used chamber pitch 410–415 Hz.1
In voicing the organ, Kern has given himself a complex, challenging balancing act of creating “a classical brilliance in the mixtures for the plenum, a singing strength in the principals, gravitas in the reeds and bass stops, color and poetry in the mutations and reeds, and subtlety and clarity in the flutes and strings.”
This builder has great confidence in his ability and the success of the Frauenkirche organ. For Romantic and 20th-century repertoire, Kern believes it is possible to integrate a large Swell without compromising the historical core of the organ. By providing principals, wide flutes, narrow strings and a Voix Celeste, he feels it is possible to create a stylistic breadth that also embraces the Romantic and symphonic repertoire. The results draw not only on the inclusion of the Récit, but also “on our experience with scaling and voicing” in creating a comprehensive tonal palette.
“The instrument is, structurally and tonally, in decisive respects (including wind supply from six bellows, internal layout and intonation), closely based on the Silbermann organ. It has, however, been modified to meet contemporary requirements . . . . The Kern organ combines numerous virtues of a historic organ with technical advantages of a modern concert instrument. Thus an organ has been created which meets both the new and the historic requirements for church music in the Frauenkirche.”5
The Kern Company was founded in 1953 by Alfred Kern, whose work was warmly supported by Dr. Alfred Schweitzer. The company is internationally known due to its restoration and reconstruction of many instruments by Clicquot, Cavaillé-Coll, and Andreas Silbermann. They have also new instruments in France, Germany, Japan, and one in the USA at University Park United Methodist Church, Dallas. In 1977 Alfred Kern’s son, Daniel, who had apprenticed in other firms, took over the company.

Frauenkirche Dresden—Organ Music: Bach & Duruflé. Samuel Kummer, organist. Hybrid Multichannel Surround-Sound. Carus CD 83.188, ©2005. Available through Albany Music Distributors, 800/752-1951 or online at ; also available from the Organ Historical Society, 804/353-9226; .
Bach-Vivaldi Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596; Trio on “Herr Jesu Christ,” BWV 655; Pièce d’orgue, BWV 572; Partita on “Sei gegrüßet,” BWV 768; and the Duruflé Suite, op. 5.
The proof, they say, is in the pudding, here the sound—and also in the playing—in this debut CD of the Kern organ and the Frauenkirche organist released on the day of its dedication, October 30, 2005. The organ was commissioned in February 2003 and installed a little over two years later in May 2005. This recording was made last September.
Performer. Samuel Kummer won the post as organist of the Frauenkirche over a field of 38 applicants. A native of Stuttgart, he studied organ and improvisation there at the Hochschule for Music and the Performing Arts and upon graduation in 1987 received an award in improvisation. He has been a prize-winner in international organ competitions, taking First Prize at the “Concours l’Europe et l’Orgue” at Maastricht.
He has performed recitals in Germany, the Netherlands, the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, Guatemala, and in the USA at the Mormon Tabernacle. He has appeared at the European Organ Festival (Maastricht) and the International Bach Festival (Warsaw). Before his appointment at the Frauenkirche, he served as district Cantor at St. Martin’s Church, Kirchheim/Teck. He began his duties in Dresden on July 1, 2005. Performance. Kummer’s program reflects two roles of the Kern organ—Silbermann and Cavaillé-Coll, Bach and Romantic. He presents four Bach genres: concerto, chorale prelude/trio, chorale partita, and JSB’s “French” piece, a favorite among Germans. The room has a reverberation of 71?2 seconds, but Kummer’s Bach is nonetheless brisk, energetic, and articulate with a straightforward rhythm that could benefit from a dash of Viennese warmth. By contrast, his Duruflé has a musical sweep and unfolding shape that engages the ear. As much as he may love Bach, his heart, his passion, seems to be French Romantic.
Registration./ Registrations are carefully documented,6 and Kummer strives to meet the composer’s expectations with interesting results and by the idiomatic inclusion of tierces to enrich Saxon plenums and of flutes to mellow French solo reeds. For Bach, Kummer uses the transparent, bright resources of the Silbermann HW/OW, whereas the Cavaillé-Coll Récit dominates and richly colors the Duruflé, proving the organ to be something of an ingenious, ingratiating chameleon. “A program rich in stylistic contrasts demonstrates the amazing tonal versatility of this organ.”7
Production. Carus has presented an attractive, well-engineered multi-channel surround-sound SACD/CD that will delight audiophiles and rattle bass woofers, making it possible to count the beats of the 32' Fagott at the end of the Bach Pièce. This issue by Carus is distinguished by a clarity of ambient sound and a brochure with beautiful photos, informative essays, and helpful notes. Refer to the German or French text for full comments with a structural diagram on “Sei gegrüsset.” Overall—splendid contribution and an admirable debut for the Frauenkirche organ and organist Samuel Kummer.

James G. Chapman, retired University of Vermont Choral Union conductor and longtime music professor, died February 8. He was 83. Born and raised in Manistee, Michigan, Chapman studied at the University of Michigan, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music in 1949 and master’s in 1950. He began as a church organist while a teenager, and later taught at Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, North Carolina, but was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951. Though trained in cryptographic work, he was assigned as an organist and assistant choir director for the Far East Command Chapel Center in Tokyo (1951–53). He served from 1953–59 as the organist and choir director at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Forest Hills, New York.
Chapman taught music at Middlebury College from 1959 to 1963 and was one of 40 music teachers selected for a Danforth Teacher Grant in 1963–64. In 1964, he finished his Ph.D. in musicology at New York University. He also served as a guest conductor for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and led tours to Europe.
In 1968, Chapman was the founder and director of the UVM Choral Union. Chapman teamed up with UVM English professor Betty Bandel in February 1973 to release the record album “Vermont Harmony” that featured music by Vermont composers between 1790 and 1810. Three years later, Chapman and Bandel released “Vermont Harmony II” with the works of Hezekiah Moors and Jeremiah Ingalls, and “Vermont Harmony III” appeared in 1986. Chapman—along with Mel Kaplan and Bill Metcalfe—helped create the Vermont Mozart Festival in 1973. Chapman was selected to perform the inaugural recital on the Vedder Van Dyck memorial organ in the new St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Burlington in 1974.

Musician, scholar, and philanthropist Roy Frederic Kehl died at his home in Evanston, Illinois, on February 12 at the age of 75 after a valiant 24-year battle with cancer. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Kehl was a member of the Bishop’s Advisory Commission of Church Music of the Diocese (Episcopal) of Chicago. He also served as a member of the Hymn Music Committee of the Episcopal Church, making many contributions to The Hymnal 1982.
His generosity was extensive, benefiting his chosen interests: the American Guild of Organists and the North Shore University Health System, where he endowed the gastroenterology laboratory. At considerable personal expense, he conducted exhaustive research at the Steinway piano facilities in New York and became the world’s foremost authority on the history of Steinway & Sons piano production. Outside of his musical interests, Kehl was also a train and mass-transit enthusiast, and maintained a significant collection of historical documents and photographs of the mass transit systems of Chicago and St. Louis.
The only child of F. Arthur and Eleanor McFarland Kehl, he was born on November 22, 1935 in St. Louis. He was educated at the St. Louis Country Day School, Oberlin College, and Ohio State University, and he completed advanced musical study at Syracuse and Northwestern universities. His organ teachers included Grigg Fountain, Leo Holden, Wilbur Held, and Arthur Poister. He taught organ at Houghton College (NY), served as director of music at Kenmore Methodist Church (NY) and as organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension in Chicago.
He leaves no immediate survivors, but his gentle spirit was infectious, resulting in a multitude of friendships from all walks of life. As a mentor to young musicians, he became an icon of caring, always offering encouragement and concern. He was a prolific letter-writer, known to friends all over the country for his distinctive prose.
A memorial celebration of his life was held at the Church of the Ascension, Chicago, on March 5. Memorial gifts may be made to the Endowment Fund of the American Guild of Organists, 475 Riverside Dr., Suite 1260, New York, NY 10115, or to North Shore University Health System Foundation, 1033 University Place, Suite 450, Evanston, IL 60201.
—Morgan Simmons
Evanston, Illinois

Richard Torrence, promoter and manager, died February 6 following a stroke. With his colleague and life-partner Marshall Yeager, Torrence promoted Virgil Fox’s “Heavy Organ” initiative back in the 1960s and 70s. He guided the career of Ted Alan Worth, collaborated with the Rodgers and Ruffatti organ companies, commissioned Fox’s “Black Beauty” touring organ, co-authored the irreverent biography, Virgil Fox: The Dish, shepherded the “Virgil Fox Legacy,” godfathered the ‘virtual organ’, and encouraged Cameron Carpenter.
Richard Torrence earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1958. He moved to New York and established a concert management in 1963, representing Virgil Fox and other leading artists. He worked with Rodgers Organ Company and Fratelli Ruffatti, handling marketing, public relations, advertising, product development, and sales until 1976, when the concert management grew into a production company. By 1983, Torrence was developing high-visibility fund-raising events for such clients as UNICEF, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City Opera, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). Celebrities he worked with included Elizabeth Taylor, Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Eartha Kitt, Van Cliburn, Madonna, William F. Buckley Jr., Ted Turner, Jane Fonda, and Michael York.
During a trip to Russia in 1992, Richard Torrence became acquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, Mayor of St. Petersburg, and became Advisor to the Mayor of St. Petersburg on International Projects, 1992–96, facilitating cultural projects and investment opportunities in the Petersburg region. During his tenure he helped raise $1.3-million for city dental programs, and attracted the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to St. Petersburg to build a $70-million factory. Vladimir Putin was Torrence’s immediate superior during this time. Torrence had twice produced the St. Petersburg Festival of American Films, and in 1998 he designed and marketed Le Club, a business and professional complex with two restaurants and special events facilities.