20th-Century Church Music in Germany: An Overview

Gordon and Barbara Betenbaugh

Gordon and Barbara Betenbaugh are organists/choirmasters at First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, as well as directors of Cantate, the Children's Choir of Central Virginia. Mrs. Betenbaugh is also chapel organist and assistant choral director at Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg. Last summer they completed a 13-week sabbatical in the UK, visiting Cambridge, Oxford, London and Salisbury. See previous articles from their sabbatical: "London Chats #1: Michael McCarthy," October, 2003, p. 18; "John Tavener's The Veil of the Temple," November, 2003, p. 17; and "Cambridge Chats #1: Timothy Byram-Wigfield," December, 2003, pp. 16-19.

We had a delightful interview with the charming Patrick Russill on June 24, 2003, in his office at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is Head of Choral Direction and Church Music, following a weekend of attending services and rehearsals of his choir at the London Oratory. The Oratory's weekend schedule was one of the busiest we had seen on our trip. The professional all-adult London Oratory Choir supports the Latin services (Mass and Vespers) while the Oratory Junior Choir (boys and girls aged 8 and upwards) serves the English Family Mass. In addition, the Oratory School Schola sings for the Saturday Mass. The newly released CD of Patrick's choir has recently received a favorable review in the August 2003 issue of The Diapason. Our chat began with a discussion of the various types of music programs in the UK, more specifically the Church Music program now available at the Royal Academy.

 

PR: You've seen for yourselves that there is now a wide range of different choirs in English church music: all-professional; adult central London church choirs (like the Oratory); the traditional, historic boys and men's choirs (in the cathedrals and at Oxford and Cambridge); and the all-choral-scholar choirs with young women and men (at Cambridge colleges such as Trinity and Clare in particular). These different types are all central to the current state of professional choral culture in this country.

 

GB: What about church music in the Royal Academy of Music?

 

PR: Well, historically, the London conservatoires always trained church musicians very often either in a gap year or a couple of gap years before students went to university or sometimes at post graduate level after university. This was nearly always through the medium of their organ courses. There would be choir training classes as well. But there was no specific vocational training, nothing in a liturgical context or with theological understanding at all. There was nothing which had a real church music label in any of the British conservatoires until 1987 when the Principal here, who had been my tutor in Oxford at New College, Sir David Lumsden, decided that he was going to have a church music course here in the Academy--and he asked me to set it up. It was to be a contextual, supporting course, predominantly for organists, but also for singers and composers, taking a broader view of church music issues and to fill in gaps. I didn't have church music students as such, and students didn't actually graduate as church music students. They'd graduate as composers, singers, organists or whatever. That was the situation for ten years. No other conservatoire was offering anything like this at all. Of course, at Oxbridge the sort of training you get in church music is entirely based on the liturgical experience of the chapel in which you're working--very often, a rather narrow perspective. I was giving students the experience of going to the local synagogue, of Orthodox music, and giving them an understanding of Catholic church music, and from that basis the European tradition in particular--in addition to the traditional Anglican experience. I was very much aided in that by the Academy's head of organ, Nicholas Danby, who'd been my organ professor when I was at Oxford. He was also organ professor at the Royal College of Music. He, like me, was Catholic but he had great love for and insight into the real essentials of the English tradition.

 

BB: So how did your church music career start?

 

PR: Well, that was thanks to Nicholas Danby. He insisted I make myself known at the London Oratory (which was where he thought I ought to work). The organist there was Nicholas's own old organ teacher, the legendary Ralph Downes, who designed the organs both at the Oratory and at the Royal Festival Hall. Downes showed interest in me and engineered that I became his assistant. He wanted to retire and shortly after I arrived he nominated me to be his successor as organist--a kind of apostolic succession! I have to say I felt very ill prepared. In retrospect I think I should've studied a year or two abroad before going into that job. I did a lot of learning on the job, and I think a lot of my work there initially was very callow.

 

GB: We can all say that, can't we? (laughter)

 

PR: Yes, true, but at age 23 going into a job like that without hardly any previous experience is quite tough. That was in 1977. I then started teaching harmony and counterpoint here at the Academy in 1982 and did some history classes. And then in 1987 I initiated the Church Music program. In 1995 the current Principal, Dr. Curtis Price, who is an American and a former professor of music at King's College, London, was appointed. He felt that we couldn't keep on running a Church Music Course without first-study students, without majors. So, we decided what we had to do was to fill a real gap in British conservatoires: choral direction. Incredibly we were the first Choral Directing Department in an English conservatoire. Things are now beginning to change. The Royal College of Music now has a Master's course for choral conducting. And I understand that there are developments at the Birmingham Conservatoire, which may well be linked with the Royal College of Organists' move to Birmingham. Paul Spicer, conductor of the Finzi Singers, is in the driving seat for this.

 

GB: We heard his concert at the Royal College of Music with the all-volunteer Whitehall Choir and the Brandenburg Sinfonia.

 

PR: We decided at the Academy that we would have to have a primary stylistic focus. So I decided to hang on to the church music context so I could define the repertoire, the stylistic base we're working from--that is, the English experience of the repertoire in English and Latin in a fairly broad-minded view, not peddling any one particular viewpoint. That understanding of style--the importance of ensemble, tuning, clarity, also the function of church music--has really got to be heard in the daily service, because that is where the culture of corporate discipline and style springs from. But even if you take church music out into the concert hall or onto CD, you need an understanding of what that's about. Rather than "church music with some choir training" the course became "choral direction, contexted within church music." Most of my students end up with a Master's degree.

 

GB: Is there usually a problem with an American transferring here?

 

PR: No. They can't bring any accreditation, but they don't need to. In the Academy as a whole we have a lot of Americans--and even an American Principal!

 

GB: Dr. Price studied at Southern Illinois and Harvard?

 

PR: Correct. He said to me, "Can you get the students?" I said, "Yes, fine. How many can I have?" They said, "two a year." Two! Actually this exactly matches the intake of the Academy's Orchestral Conducting course, which is highly sought-after and has a tremendous record. In addition to the choral direction specialists, I also work with the organists. The Head of Organ, David Titterington, and I have a very good, close working relationship. The Academy now has organ courses not just at the bachelor's level and postgraduate level, but we also have a foundation course which doesn't have large numbers, but significant individuals coming on who may be headed for an Oxford organ scholarship. They come here for a year's conservatoire experience of London professional standards, intensive solo organ training which you typically don't get at Oxbridge. The organ scholars there often haven't the time for it since they have to be so focused on the accompanimental arts. Here they get "choir training" training, which at the moment they still don't get at Cambridge, though influential figures in Cambridge such as David Hill and Timothy Byram-Wigfield (at Jesus College, and shortly to move to St. George's, Windsor) are hoping to start building a choir training course. GB: Some of the well known English choir trainers and conductors would not pass the first year conducting course at Westminster Choir College. (laughter)

 

PR: Was that your alma mater?

 

GB: Yes, I also went to Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. With many English conductors the musicianship is there, the skill and knowledge is there, but they can't communicate with their hands. The American way is big on conducting technique. PR: This is a major issue. I only started thinking about conducting technique when I started teaching the choir training class here. I learned on the job, because there had been no tradition of courses in the UK.

 

GB: The Choir College had 3 years of conducting classes at the undergraduate level.

 

PR: I was a singer for a while as a male alto. The physical contact between singing and the conducting technique was something that interested me from watching my Oratory predecessor John Hoban who also was a singer. Also from watching other people work like John Eliot Gardiner. That I found interesting, so then I started to try and quantify what I thought and felt, in terms of relating conducting to breathing and relaxation--actually opening a door for singers rather than putting them in a constricting box. New students who come here are often quite surprised by the emphasis on gestural technique-- though the Americans not so much! One of my important contacts is with the Leipzig Hochschule and their head of choral direction Roland Börger, who is a good friend. We have an ongoing formal professorial exchange arrangement. I was fascinated to see his work. His whole training had been through gestural command. He is a very elegant, economical conductor indeed. He does great work with my students here. Though we very much speak the same musical language, our strengths lie in different areas. When I've gone to work with the Leipzig students, I've had to deal much more with handling singers' morale within a group dynamic and with visual technique: mimicry, questions of enunciation, verbal color, reinforcing pulse and phrasing through the face.

 

GB: I worked with Helmut Rilling many years ago. Of course, he's not a choral man as such, but a wonderful conducting scholar. Basically the Germans, at least the ones I know, are not vocal colorists, are they?

 

PR: It depends where you look. I think they would say they are, but they use a different area of the spectrum, a darker one. My German visitors seem to find the English choirs, the boy choirs, somewhat underdeveloped as regards vocal color. There are exceptions of course. They always seem to respond to the current New College, Oxford choir. Edward Higginbottom there gets a great sense of color and relaxation. There's a wonderful freedom of not just interpretive expression but actual technical expression from the boys. He's had a great record of encouraging young men as well.

 

BB: Of the three different places we were in Oxford, the camaraderie between him and his boys was the best--talking back and forth, chatting with the boys about what they did that day, whereas the other two places were pretty much straightforward.

 

PR: Yes, he clearly has a really interesting mind. The reason why he gets such response from the boys is because he engages them intellectually. Nevertheless, in England we need a greater emphasis on the old adage: "What they (the singers) see is what you (the choral director) get."

 

BB: Yes, exactly.

 

PR: Now in the London professional church situation you actually don't have to show everything. You've got to come to an assessment of how much your singers are able to absorb visually, because they are working under severe time restrictions, very often with music they are seeing for the first time. The singers are always very helpful. The two most commonly asked questions are 1) breathing and 2) dynamics. They want to know that you've got a unified idea and can communicate the simple general shape of a piece. Once they are happy with the essentials, then the more sophisticated aspects can be conveyed by visual and eye contact once you come to the performance--there generally isn't time in the rehearsal to do more.

 

GB: Phrasing?

 

PR: If the singers know how long the breath is then they'll take the phrasing, the actual shaping, from you. They are generally extraordinarily responsive, because, let's face it, most of them are highly experienced interpretative artists in their own right. If there is a fault here, it's that the restrictions on rehearsal time can lead to a very generalized approach to interpretation--favoring choral regimentation and the development of one choral sound over interpretation. But that is the fault of the directors rather than the singers. I'm sure you've come to your own conclusions about those choirs that generally have developed one interpretation, which essentially is the unvarying choir sound, where every piece is made to fit that concept.

 

GB: Yes, several of the top American college choirs work that way. More choirs back in the 1960s used the technique first and then the music superimposed on the technique. However, these days more American college choirs are into correct performance practice and trying to achieve different sounds for the different periods of repertoire, especially in the last 15 to 20 years.

 

PR: I'm glad to hear it. In my teaching I try to encourage the students to be as creative and as quick as they can about developing appropriate sound both through gesture, using their own voices and by the different sounds that they hear from choirs in this country.

 

GB: What sort of students do you take at the Academy?

 

PR: Well, you have to bear in mind I only take postgraduates for a two-year course with two students in each year. Currently I have two Americans, one who is already active as a period instrument orchestral and choral conductor, and the other from a Midwest Lutheran college background--both men. And then there are two women, one English (she's from Oxford) and one Irish (from Dublin). And only the English student is a church musician.

 

GB: When your students graduate, are they going to be able to get a position or positions in this country that equals a full-time wage?

 

PR: It varies. Unless you are working in a cathedral you won't get a full-time post. But most students gradually build up a portfolio of freelance casual work and regular work, often combining church, secular choral and academic teaching work. Even I'm doing something similar--I'm working for the Academy in a half-time post and also working at the Oratory half-time. That suits me fine.

 

GB: The English church choral system seems male-dominated, at least as far as directors are concerned. Do you see that changing in our lifetime?

 

PR: I don't know--it'll certainly take time. But because of the expansion of opportunities for girls in the cathedral and college choirs there will inevitably be more girls coming through the choirs who have ambitions to be directors. One major factor is--how vital is the linkage between organ playing and choral directing? I am a choral director and I'm an organist, but I'm not necessarily the choral director that I am because I am an organist. And the same can also be said for so many English choral directors (though on the other hand there are English organists who direct choirs because they are organists and not because they have a gift with singers!). At the moment there are a handful of women working in the English cathedrals: Louise Marsh at Guildford (a former student of mine), Rosemary Field at Portsmouth for example, but only one director of music, and that at a small Catholic cathedral at Arundel.

 

GB: Patrick, I'm interested that you're holding an influential teaching post here in the English tradition but you are a Catholic. Would you comment on the ecumenical climate for church musicians in the UK?

 

PR: I think the students find me quite an interesting animal, because my education was certainly through the Anglican system, but my background as a child and my working venue now is Catholic. I can happily conduct an Anglican Choral Evensong if I want. The same is true of James O'Donnell (a Catholic) and David Hill (an Anglican). They will find their way around the Latin Mass with Gregorian propers and a Victoria setting as easily as an Anglican Evensong with Smith responses, a Walford Davies Psalm and Dyson in D.

 

BB: Sounds like what we love!

 

PR: That is very much the English culture at the moment--in church music at least there's a very good inter-denominational understanding. I think the thing about Catholic centers like Westminster Cathedral and the Oratory is that they are seen as being just as much part of the London church music as the Anglican places. We're regarded as quite central, largely because of the international repertoire that we perform and because there's an improved perception of Latin as part of European culture rather than as a Roman Catholic emblem. And the recovery of the Latin tradition by the Anglican choirs has had a liberating effect on choral sound, from George Guest's choir at St. John's College, Cambridge in the early 1960s onwards. There is far more emphasis now on the color of choral sound than on perfection of ensemble. Though of course a better understanding of vocal technique by conductors actually makes it easier to achieve a natural musical ensemble of course. Nevertheless, that's not a quality you will hear and see in all choral directors in England.

 

GB: No. At many of the places we visited there were ragged entrances, just from the fact that the culture here is not to breathe for the choir. In first year conducting at Westminster Choir College, if you couldn't breathe and bring the choir in on the downbeat, you got an F. That was the first thing to do. Of course, that was with the choir right in front of you. In a divided chancel without eye contact it's harder.

 

PR: But even in that situation it still works the same way though. The whole point is one should be able to bring in the choir without doing much at all with the hand. Just breathe and come in. I have to say I've not really seen much of what goes on in the States. By and large in England we're all feeling our way as to how to deliver technical teaching. Here at the Academy I do virtually all the technical teaching. Of course there are masterclasses which can be very valuable for the practicalities of how to rehearse. Stephen Cleobury did a fine class with the BBC Singers (organized by the BBC) a couple of days ago. Stephen was wonderful in saying, "What does the choir need to look at--how do we look at it--do we need to do that once more--or do you think the singers will get it right the next time anyway?"--pragmatic things rather than matters of gestural technique. James O'Donnell is also wonderful, very economical indeed. Getting people who are really expert in teaching gestural command that will always get the result, either the first time or at least the second time, is not so easy. One of the members of staff here, Jeremy Summerly (director of the Oxford Camerata), has one of the most vestigial gestural techniques I've ever seen. It's extremely small, yet, coupled with what goes on with the face and diaphragm it's totally explicit, very relaxed, very vocal, very disciplined.

 

GB: That's the way I was taught.

 

PR: Exactly--it's all done on the breath. And then you can control the horizontal melodic line at the same time as the vertical pulse. And that's essential in the polyphonic music which is the heart of the English tradition. Polyphony seems to be one area where I'm conscious of a cultural difference between the Americans and the Brits. There seems to be a different way of analyzing the score. I find that American students find it very difficult to absorb polyphonic scores, to see the wood from the trees. All the entrances are marked, they try to give every single entrance. So, of course, the gestural preparation tends to be too late. Other problems then follow on: how do I indicate the character of the lead? If many leads, which one should I give? Do I mouth each one? But the English tradition is based on the conductor presuming that his singers (even youngsters) already have an informed understanding of the polyphonic concept. People like James O'Donnell and David are very good at that: leading the singers through and trusting the singers to do it.

 

That leads on to another essential characteristic of the English tradition. There's a really different mind-set between chorus-mastering and choral conducting when you've actually got an instrument that already has a built-in intellectual and physical motor. You don't have to do much actually to call that forth, you've got to do other things. That can be very difficult for inexperienced students when they're presented with musical singers. At Academy auditions many candidates come in and just don't know what to do. They've been used to drumming the music into their choirs and so haven't actually started to think about the essence of interpretation. Questions of appropriate tempo, elegant articulation, verbal color and intensity--very often there has been no background in these considerations at all. Fortunately now we have singers in the Academy who are already expert choralists (many of them already working professionally), so my conducting students can experience the truth of "What they see is what you get"! I place much more emphasis on actually showing what you want and not just rehearsing what you want. The initiative needs be taken by the choral director, rather than the old English way of simply listening to the choir's performance and then making a reactive comment. Even though I only have two students a year here, I think there is a growing feeling in England that choral direction is something which can and should be taught and that naturally gifted young directors still need to learn. Of course, you can't instill talent if there's no talent in the first place, but you can help refine it and hone it with technical training. There's not been a sea-change yet in attitudes towards the choral director's training in England, but things are definitely starting to change.

 

GB: Super! This has been great! Would you chat about the deputy system in London?

 

PR: Yes, all the main London choirs with the exception of the BBC Singers are part-time or are to a greater or lesser extent ad hoc, even though conductors are always going to use their favorite singers. If, for example, you are a lay clerk at Westminster Abbey or Westminster Cathedral the job is permanent, but not full-time, even though actually it is well-paid pro rata. Even in St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey the singers will either need to do solo work or they will do consort work outside. You'll find them working with all the concert groups you've heard on CDs and others as well. The only full-time professional choir working 9 to 5, 5 days a week, is the BBC Singers (24 singers). The London singer needs to have the liberty to take on freelance work, even if he or she has got a base in the church. The work of choirs like The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, even the Tallis Scholars, is part-time work, paid pro rata by appearance and by rehearsal session. The only way that you can staff that sort of thing, since you're working around people's diaries, is by working with a pool. The deputy system in London is essentially this pool of professional singers whom you need to ring up to fill the balance. This happens with all choirs, particularly the church choirs since they are at the bottom of the heap because their rates are the lowest.

 

Nevertheless, it's surprising how many singers make great efforts to keep their contact with the church even though the rate of pay is less attractive than working with other choirs. If one of my singers is on a 3-week tour with the Monteverdi Choir or The Sixteen, then I won't see them at the Oratory and they will need to send in an approved deputy; but when they get back it's like the return of the Prodigal Son--personal relationships are very strong, and many of them go back to student days or even further. Most choral directors will have their own list of approved "deps" from which the regular singer must provide a deputy. And many of the "deps" are familiar members of the choir "family". Here's my own current list for the Oratory and you'll see I've also made additional private comments [We were shown the list.]--it's my most important tool as a choral director. If I'm away I may need to get a deputy for myself. And there are deputy organists and directors. And I have an orchestral fixer (contractor) for when we have an orchestral mass (generally 3 times a year).

 

BB: You do get vacation from your position at the Oratory?

 

PR: Theoretically, yes! We sing 52 Sundays a year. There is no actual designated holiday period at the Oratory within the year. I'm entitled to 28 days holiday a year including four Sundays.

 

BB: Do you take it?

 

PR: Just about. I don't always take my Sundays off as holidays, actually. Some of them have been when I'm in Leipzig doing my exchange work, because I have to go there once a year to teach.

 

GB: What are the fees for the singers?

 

PR: The Oratory is near the top, it appears, but it's not right at the very top. For a typical Sunday morning at the moment we pay £45, a typical Sunday afternoon £38.

 

GB: Even with all that outside processing around you did last Sunday afternoon? (laughter)

 

PR: They got £45 for that. Weddings go up to £62. The rates are higher for other major liturgical celebrations, especially over Holy Week, when we do the full Latin schedule consisting of Tenebrae on Wednesday night, Mass of the Lord's Supper on Thursday night, Tenebrae on Friday morning, Afternoon Liturgy on Friday afternoon, Tenebrae on Saturday morning, Easter Vigil on Saturday night, Sunday morning Solemn Mass, and Sunday afternoon Solemn Vespers. Those are very long services. I have to say, actually, I think the program at the Oratory is bigger than anywhere else. Generally, the quality of the music is such that the choristers are prepared to do that. Also they like the fact that the liturgy itself is enduring.

 

GB: Good word!

 

PR: It's not "here today and gone tomorrow." Whatever they may think about it theologically, I think many singers find the service to be very traditional, pastoral, cultic, and essentially eternal. It's a sort of musical and cultural bedrock for them.

 

GB: There was no trouble after Vatican II with the music at the Oratory?

 

PR: Actually the Oratory Fathers always wanted to keep it as pre-Vatican II as they can.

 

BB: That's wonderful!

 

GB: Great!

 

PR: I'm interested you take that view.

 

GB: With the altar on the back wall?

 

PR: Oh, they wouldn't move the altar! Interestingly, in scholarship and re-reading the original Vatican documents, you find this idea of westward-facing celebration is actually not in the original conciliar documents. It was something that was produced much later. The Oratory Fathers have never gone along with that. While they are absolutely loyal to the authority of the Pope in the modern Catholic Church, they're deeply traditional, very retentive, very consistent, quite insulated and deliberately so.

 

GB: That can be a good or bad problem.

 

PR: Well, it can make some problems for me. For example, the approach to music from the modern era is extremely cautious, but the positive aspect is that I am never asked to do anything that is less than a five-star masterpiece. I can do all the Victoria, Palestrina, Gabrieli I want, and the bigger the better. I'm not being asked to do John Rutter-- perhaps I should complain? (laughter)

 

BB: We enjoyed hearing the Latin Mass.

 

PR: Well, what I really value (and so the singers) is that I'm dealing with something that is central to the European tradition, above all at Easter. I think that the Easter services at the Oratory are the finest representation of the classic Latin liturgy you'll find anywhere in the world wherever it's available in the new rite. It's not the Tridentine rite. It's the new rite in Latin, which is actually the normative form of the new rite, though many American bishops, and even some English bishops, don't admit that. At Westminster Cathedral at 10:30 every morning there is a Latin mass. The only mass the Cathedral choir sings which is in Latin from beginning to end is Saturday morning.

 

BB: Martin Baker invited us to come on Saturday.

 

PR: You're probably going to that and then going to the boys rehearsal afterwards. That's the way my students normally dip their toes into that system.

 

GB: Right, this has been great. Thank you so much for visiting with us. We're late for the Mozart Requiem rehearsal.

 

Prior to our interview that day, Patrick gave us a tour of the Royal Academy of Music, where we also had lunch in the dining hall. Following our interview we sat in on a rehearsal with the Academy Choir and Period Instrument Orchestra as they prepared for a concert the following day of the Mozart Requiem (edition--Robert Levin) conducted by Sir Roger Norrington. Patrick had been a kind and gracious host to us for several days, and we were most appreciative of the opportunity to get a first hand peek from an insider's perspective of both the Oratory and the Royal Academy.

Gordon and Barbara Betenbaugh

Gordon and Barbara Betenbaugh are organist/choirmasters at First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, VA. They have recently returned from a 13-week sabbatical in the UK. They also direct Cantate, the Children's Choir of Central Virginia, and Mrs. Betenbaugh is chapel organist and assistant choral director at Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg.

Tim Byram-Wigfield has been the music director at Jesus College in Cambridge since 1999. A former chorister at King's College, he was organ scholar at Christ Church Oxford before he moved to Winchester Cathedral to be sub-organist in 1985. For eight years he was Master of the Music at St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh before taking up his present appointment. He combines his work at Jesus College with a busy schedule as an organ recitalist, and has played in France, Australia, Belgium, the USA and Canada. He conducts the Northampton Bach Choir, is organist for the Millennium Youth Choir, and regularly gives workshops for amateur choirs. He is also active as a pianist, arranger and composer. He broadcasts frequently on BBC Radio 3, and has recorded on the EMI, Hyperion, Argo, Priory and Herald labels.

The chapel at Jesus College is the most ancient college building in Cambridge, begun in 1140. We had occasion to speak with Tim over tea prior to his afternoon rehearsal on Friday, May 23. We had previously attended a week's rehearsals and Evensongs at Jesus. The program is distinctive in maintaining two choirs. During university term there are five choral services each week. The Chapel Choir sings three and the Mixed Choir sings two. The alto, tenor and bass voices are common to both groups and are sung by the choral scholars, who each receive £100 per term plus a nominal payment for all the services they sing.

Tim Byram-Wigfield has recently been appointed director of music at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The chapel runs a conventional cathedral-style set-up of boy choristers and twelve professional men, singing daily services. The building is one of the finest examples of English 15th-century architecture, with fan vaulting, fine stained-glass windows, and a marvelous Harrison and Harrison pipe organ.

BB: Your boy choir doesn't have a choir school like King's College or St. John's, do they?

TB-W: That's right.

BB: Do they pay tuition?

TB-W: No, the college provides it. In fact, the college also pays them a small stipend of £35 per term which is put into a savings account for them. It can accumulate until the time that their voice changes. We also provide some instrumental bursaries for them.

BB: How does that work?

TB-W: An instrumental bursary is a small donation that the college would make to the parents directed toward the cost of their instruments.

GB: Suzuki is not taught much over here, is it?

TB-W: It is in some places and certainly at very young ages. It used to be very popular for children who wanted to learn the violin in large classes. I daresay in London it still happens. I don't know of a class in Cambridge, but there might be one.

GB: Actually, from a choral standpoint it only helps the ear. It doesn't help the reading skills which is paramount.

TB-W: Yes, that's true. When I first came here four years ago there were only 13 full-time choristers, and only about half of them were reading on their instruments. Maybe it's just been through luck or because we've been tapping a different vein, the caliber of chorister we've been getting in terms of their musical ability and literacy has appreciated a bit. Going back to what you were saying, ours is a very different set-up from King's and St. John's. We operate on a part-time basis and can only be on that part-time basis, because the activity is essentially taking place after school at the end of the choristers' day.

BB: In the auditioned children's choir we have at home, the parents pay tuition. We've found that when parents pay tuition to the choir just like they do for soccer or other sports and activities, they feel more inclined to insure that their child attends rehearsal.

TB-W: Yes, that's like having lessons. That's less of a problem with us, because in a sense we're asking them to do us a favor by having the boys come and sing the services for us. In return, of course, we're providing them with a certain element of musical education and other aspects of education as well. Commitment being what it is these days, the amount of things the parents want their children to do affects the choir. We had a full house on Wednesday evening, and then we had less than 2/3 yesterday. This morning I got several e-mails that children would be absent for this, that, and the other reason. You get the idea.

GB: Yes, we have the same thing with church volunteer children's choirs at our church.

BB: Do you teach the boys in a separate theory class?

TB-W: No, it has to be done in the context of the music that we teach them. The only time I get the chance to teach them anything in that vein is when they're probationers and come to their probationers' class, which is on Tuesday afternoons. We only have an hour.

GB: Did you start the mixed choir of boys and girls in Edinburgh at St. Mary's Cathedral?

TB-W: No, my predecessor Dennis Townhill did. That works for them very successfully because they operate like a choir school. We had rehearsal in the morning and a service in the evening. Also, because it's in Scotland, where the tradition is not so firmly embedded in the society, it wasn't seen quite so much as a heresy to introduce boys and girls together, although for a while it was not without its difficulties. One of the strongest arguments there was that it was the only choir school in Scotland, and also because the choir school operated like a specialist music school like Wells Cathedral or Manchester. The argument was that this was a golden opportunity for a child to sing in the choir, so boys and girls should have the same opportunity. That's a pretty strong argument, really! It was for those reasons that they introduced the boys and girls. They kept an eye on the balance, which never really got beyond a third, boys to girls. Here it is a different situation, because this is a volunteer boys choir, just a club really. It could be swimming or it could be football.

BB: Do you have auditions?

TB-W: Oh yes, they are auditioned, and they have to pass that audition. They also have to pass an informal audition having done their probationary training before they become full choristers.

BB: Explain that, please. The earliest we take choristers in our auditioned children's choir is third grade, which is age 8. What age do you start the boys?

TB-W: I take them earlier at age 6, because I want them to get the bug early and get them used to using their voices and get them to understand something of the single line of music in front of them. They come and sing with the older boys once or twice a term.

BB: How often do you meet with these boys?

TB-W: Just once a week for a half an hour on Tuesday for singing with a bit of theory thrown in. It's really learning how to use the voice, and they learn some chorus songs and some easy hymns. They have a little test every term, so they have to learn something from memory, and they have to count rhythms. It's predominantly based on the singing rather than on instruments. That gives them the bug. They get their own cassock in the vestry and have something to aspire to. By the time they're 8 or 9 they are old enough to join the big guys.

GB: I understand that the college has done this for about 150 years.

TB-W: Yes, in 1849 when the stalls were put in and that lovely ancient organ case with the angels painted on it. [Author's note: In 1849 the "Sutton Organ" was built by J. C. Bishop and restored by Mander in 1967.] There was a rededication of the chapel, and we still have the manuscript for an anthem which was written by Thomas Walmisley for four boy choristers to sing. The names of the four boys are on the front of the manuscript. It's really very touching. They clearly were one of the porter's sons or one of the cook's sons or that kind of thing. Ever since 1849 there's been this tradition of getting volunteer boys to come sing in the chapel. That is, I daresay, one of the reasons why Jesus College is distinctive among other college chapels, because they've had the boy trebles, and a number of very distinguished church musicians have cut their teeth by being organ scholars here. There's James O'Donnell, Peter Hurford, Richard Lloyd, Malcolm Archer and a whole host of others who've gone on to work in schools as well as cathedrals. I think we've got four, maybe five, ex-Jesus organ scholars who are now assistants in cathedrals, which is very encouraging. It's a pretty worthy record. So, we don't have as long a tradition as King's or St. John's. One of the reasons that it wasn't as developed was because they never had a director of music to develop the program. The organ scholars were responsible for running it. In days gone by when academic pursuits weren't so pressurized, it was probably possible. In these days what with children's protection, the experience of teaching them, never mind the time it takes to go around to the schools and recruit them, the energy and time you need to devote to the program, you can't expect an 18-year old organ scholar to do that and do his degree also. That's why they created this post.

BB: How do you recruit?

TB-W: I go around to the schools where we already have choristers, and ones which I know are sympathetic. I do know some colleagues in other cathedrals where they have a similar situation where the headmasters won't allow them across the threshold because they think that it's peddling Christianity. This is becoming a real issue of political correctness in this country. You get parents who will refuse to allow their children to sing Christmas carols. I hate to say it, but this has emanated from the other side of the Atlantic. It's very sad in a way, because it undermines and makes us question everything about the oral tradition that we have in this country. In that context, it's actually in some places very difficult to sustain any kind of Christian choir at all. In Cambridge we're lucky because a lot of the people we're appealing to are educated enough to understand about the tradition; secondly there is a huge reservoir of parents who are employed by the university and therefore can understand what's being offered and thirdly, although they might send their child to a state school, they still want their child to be a chorister. Those three things give us an extra edge, but I think in other places it's rather different.

GB: We're going to the Southern Choirs Festival in Salisbury on the Saturday that you'll be there accompanying the Millennium Youth Choir. What kind of commitment do you have with them?

TB-W: Two courses, one at Easter and one in the summer.

GB: You don't accompany them each week then?

TB-W: No, because they come from all over the country. It's drawn from parish church choirs. The whole rationale behind the Millennium Youth Choir is that the RSCM designed this for young people between the ages of 16 and 23. It's for "A" level and university singers who wouldn't otherwise get the opportunity if they sing in their parish church choir to sing to that level of excellence.

GB: We have a chorister, a rising senior, who just e-mailed us that she'd been invited to sing at a new RSCM course at Washington National Cathedral this summer. She was delighted.

BB: She had been to two or three RSCM camps.

TB-W: Right. The RSCM has a number of summer courses as you've probably seen. The Millennium Youth Choir is relatively new as its name might indicate. It's only been going for three years. It was first conducted by Martin Neary. He did it for about 18 months to two years. Now Gordon Stewart conducts it.

GB: Where's he from?

TB-W: He hails from Dundee, but he's operating in the North. He was organist at Blackburn Cathedral and taught in Manchester for a long time. He's now the borough organist of Huddersfield Town Hall. There's a very fine Willis organ there. He does a lot of work with the BBC. He conducts both Daily Service and Songs of Praise as well as The Millennium Youth Choir.

BB: The Millennium Choir basically sings only twice a year?

TB-W: Yes, but there are one or two other opportunities that come along. For instance, they sang on the BBC Songs of Praise which is a television program on Sundays. Generally it's just twice a year, but I'm happy to go and play. It's nice to be able to do that.

GB: The 1971 Mander organ in the chapel is certainly eccentric!

TB-W: Oh, yes. It's really on its last legs now.

GB: Are you going to renovate it?

TB-W: Thirty years ago English organ builders were only just discovering or re-discovering about the principles of German Werkprinzip and tracker action. This was their brave first attempt to build something with tracker action and bold German choruses. That's what it is! It's very much a product of its time. It has the eccentric things like the reed en chamade (laughter, and a nasal YYENT). It's a very strident sound. Everything is starting to wear. It's always been very heavy to play. As I say, it's one of these curiosities that is, in many ways, a pioneering experiment. People recognize that now. There are those that say we should keep it because it was pioneering. That's fine if you don't have to play it every day.

GB: I understand.

TB-W: The college recognizes that something's got to be done. In fact, our strategy has been not to replace it with a new organ, but to replace it with a worthy Victorian instrument that needs a home. We found a 3-manual Hill up in a Baptist church in Portsmouth. It didn't start out there. It came from another church in South London. The Baptist church is closing, so we've purchased the organ, and it's being taken down and put in storage. The next stage now is to finalize how it will fit in the Mander space and whether we want to enhance the specifications at all. We'll then put forward proposals to the college. That's been our strategy rather than to build a new tracker action organ. Also we need some liturgical sounds to do the accompaniments. We need an oboe, a harmonic flute, a swell to choir, just those kinds of basic things.

GB: It will be a 3-manual?

TB-W: Yes, at least a 3-manual.

GB: With pistons and memory?

TB-W: It will have pistons, but it won't have a stepper. I'm not into those sequencers. It will have some memory. A lot of the accompaniment skills relied on in this country is being able to use the manual and the pedal pistons together. There's a coupler that I don't think you have very often in the states called the great to pedal pistons coupler. For many years organists would learn to accompany using great pedal pistons. When you press the great thumb piston, it operates the pedals as well. The idea is that you would use the great and the swell. People like Howells, Whitlock and Ireland learned their craft of organ management by using this skill. That's something which is fast disappearing, because everybody uses sequencers these days to change one of the stops.

GB: I have on my instrument Great 1 and 2 pistons which affect the pedal also. I wired it in mainly for the cadential 32's and accompanying. It's easier than a toe stud, of course.

TB-W: Yes, it is. Our organ will be quite a modest specification, probably about 49 stops. We deliberately decided to go down this route, because a lot of the new organs being built at the moment in Cambridge are of a particular type. Selwyn's having a Létourneau built now.

BB: We'll be there week after next. Létourneau does excellent work.

TB-W: Gerton College has a new Swiss organ by St-Martin. It is a very clever 4-manual with about five stops in each manual. It's a particular style of instrument which does lend itself very easily to turn of the century style music. There are very few romantic symphonic organs in Cambridge--King's is a modest example. St. John's is not really one, but it pretends to be. You should go and see the one in Our Lady and the English Martyrs.

GB: We went down there and saw it, but we haven't heard it yet. I understand it is used in Sarah MacDonald's CD of Howells' Evening Canticles with the Selwyn College Choir.

TB-W: Yes, it's a very fine romantic organ, and they restored it very well.

GB: I love the sound of the crescendo "build up" while accompanying at King's.

TB-W: It's fine up to about mezzo-forte I think. 

GB: I was surprised to see that bass flute inside the organ screen in the staircase to the console.

TB-W: Yes.

BB: Do you ever get to play other instruments in town?

TB-W: I played that Harrison on Monday. The King's Voices (mixed voices) sing the services on Mondays.

BB: Did you play last Sunday for Evensong or was it an organ scholar?

TB-W: Yes, I played.

BB: We were there and have been attending rehearsals of the Men and Boys choir and Evensongs for several weeks.

TB-W: What did we do? The Mathias--the Jesus service, and the Hadley My Beloved Spake. Well, it's quite a nice thing to do and no pressure for me. It's nice not to be in charge and to be at the steering end.

GB: It's quite a room.

TB-W: Yes! What kind of church do you work in?

GB: Presbyterian. It's about 1200 members. We have an adult choir of 40 people, a Youth Choir of about 40+, children's choirs of about 50 and three handbell choirs. We have an auditioned choir called Cantate, the Children's Choir of Central Virginia consisting of two choirs from 3rd-7th grade and 8th grade through high school. I direct the younger choristers, and a colleague does the high school singers. Barbara accompanies one choir and directs a third group called the Cantabile Singers, which is an all-girl choir in grades 8 through 12.

TB-W: Both boys and girls together?

BB: Yes. The original concept was just to be children. The girls could stay until age 15 or 16, and the boys were supposed to leave when their voices changed. They wouldn't go away, so we just changed the concept. The older group sings SATB, and the younger ones all treble.

TB-W: In some cathedrals where there are volunteer choristers, like Carlisle and St. Alban's, they occasionally arrange for the ex-choristers whose voices have recently changed to come and sing with the existing choristers, so that they don't feel that they've been thrown out on the scrap heap. Of course, we are desperate for altos, tenors and basses.

GB: Well, are you playing Monday at King's?

TB-W: Yes, I think so. It's extraordinary, isn't it, that there's so much activity in a radius of about three miles. Most churches in this country are gasping for decent resources. The real sadness of this training is that most choral scholars, especially at Trinity where they have girls, unless they want to make a career as a professional singer, they don't tend to carry on singing in church choirs. It's a real shame. Then, of course, we have a dearth of organists.

GB: I was going to ask you if you have problems like we do in the states.

TB-W: It's getting bad now. Early this month we had the open day for prospective organ scholars, those who would like to apply to Cambridge to be organ scholars. We had 24, which if you consider that we have 22 colleges in the scheme isn't very much.

GB: So the university will have to take everyone?

TB-W: That wasn't the actual competition. That happens in September, but it's indicative of how things are. Last year I asked the question of how many of them were expecting to go on to be a professional organist. I think only two were.

GB: Are the organ scholars at King's going to continue in the profession?

TB-W: I think Daniel Hyde is staying on another year as a postgraduate student, because there are hardly any openings at the moment.

BB: What about Ashley Grote?

TB-W: Ashley still has another year, so he's set there. The really high fliers like the idea of going to London perhaps and maybe being an organ scholar or one of the assistants at St. Paul's or Westminster ABBey. They don't like the idea of going somewhere in middle England and subsequently doing scout mastering or something.

GB: Since you have two choirs, do you have a lot of administration work?

TB-W: I spend a lot of my time dealing with administrative things to do with the choristers and the interaction with child protection monitoring procedures. A lot of administrative work is generated just by having the choristers. If we want the choristers to take part in a concert, either we or the person promoting the concert has to be responsible for getting licenses for those children to take part in that concert. Technically, that means filling in 12-page forms, getting passport photographs and doctor's certificates for the kids to take part.

BB: That's just for them to leave the country?

TB-W: Yes.

BB: Do you take your choir on tour every year?

TB-W: Yes, we do, but we don't undertake concerts for which people are charged, so that problem doesn't arise. There was a story I heard about Wells Cathedral. Wells took their choir to the States about three years ago. They had not only to work out a schedule which corresponded to legislation concerning rehearsal time, sufficient bathroom stops and this sort of thing. They then had to keep a diary about how the actual tour went, so they could compare the two. They had to have something written down in case somebody made any allegations, or wanted to pursue litigation or complained about being tired, became ill, etc. They would have a record. Things are going berserk. Of course, most places take the easy way out and don't want to deal with that. It's hard enough to get choristers in the first place and yet, there is still this much trouble.

BB: What about your mixed college choir? Do you tour with them every year?

TB-W: Yes, we do. We try to have each choir have a project of going away once a year. It's sometimes nice to take the mixed choir away to the Continent whereas the boys choir might go to a cathedral. They've done a lot of touring in the last eighteen months or so. We've taken them to Paris and Copenhagen. In the new year we'll be going to Edinburgh to sing services for Epiphany. One thing I'd like to ask you actually is what's your view of church music in this country coming from the States.

GB: Well, we always said that God lives at King's College! (laughter) The first time I heard a recording of the King's choir was in the early 1960s, and it was the most in tune singing I'd ever heard. I didn't know it was possible to sing like that. I got the bug as an undergraduate and through the years we learned to love the wonderful music making at St. John's and other colleges and cathedrals as well.

BB: We think church music here is wonderful with performances to uncompromising standards in many places.

TB-W: The world even in this country has moved on a great deal since 1960 to 2003.

BB: Oh, sure.

TB-W: Have you seen a copy of the magazine Cathedral Music?

GB: Yes, we take it. It is excellent.

TB-W: In there is an article by the organist at Guilford Cathedral trying to defend a very difficult situation. Guilford, as you probably know, is a post-war cathedral. Barry Rose was the first organist, and he recruited the kids. They started from nothing. He managed to get scholarships at the local schools. 40 years ago it was possible to do that. In a changing society and the way that parents run children's lives these days, it isn't possible to do that nowadays. One couldn't start a cathedral choir from nothing in the way that Barry was able to do in the 1960s. In Guilford, his successors have had to cope with and deal with that legacy. It's been very difficult. In that situation they've decided to scrap the Saturday services, so the boys will have one day of the weekend free. I can see that in some cathedrals that will happen more and more. I do think that things are different. In places like King's and Westminster Abbey where the resources are rich you will always have the tradition continued. When you get to places where they operate on a part-time basis you have trouble even getting an alto at all. When I first went to the cathedral organist conference, it was very obvious some people are having difficulty securing lay clerks. However, they wanted to pretend that they were doing as well as their colleagues were. I think now that organists are beginning to be much more vocal and frank about their experiences in recruiting boy choristers and adults. In trying to persuade parents of the commitment involved, I think we are seeing the start of fragmentation. Maybe in King's and Westminster Abbey it will continue for years and years, but I don't think it's going to continue everywhere. Even if you try and take those kinds of things into account. you then throw in the changing liturgical demands and the more informal stances that the clergy likes to take who perhaps question the need for having such regular formal services. Even initiatives like Common Worship dilute what the Book of Common Prayer offers in terms of musical opportunities. They would say otherwise. They point to all the resources that they produce. Actually it's a dilution of a music that used to be so rich. They are encouraging to ditch 400 years of music and use theirs instead. Their music simply isn't in the same division. Then you're caught in a problem because clearly there are questions of whether Evensong is just a time warp and are you just presenting music that was written 400 years ago. But what else is being offered?

GB: Dumbed down rubbish.

TB-W: It is dumbed down. Some people are just taking the position that you just have to go with the flow.

BB: Any difficulties or problems you may face over here are more than doubled in the States.

TB-W: I think you are further down the track than we are. The only thing we've got that saves us really is the tradition and the history of the buildings that we happen to be in.

GB: I was commenting to Barbara as we walked here today that I think that educated people here in the UK are more cognizant of the arts because of the long tradition. Our parish is an unusual congregation in that almost all are professionals and world travelers, well educated and at the top of their profession. We are very fortunate to have much support for all our endeavors and concerts. However, educated people in the states in general are not usually musically cultured or supportive of the arts. I think that the vast majority of professionals in the states still listen to pop music on the radio for entertainment, and a small percentage support the symphony and community concerts, etc.

TB-W: Certainly. One can't talk of a more superior tradition--you can't talk about the western tradition of classical music as being superior to ethnic musicology or even studies in popular music and jazz music which has over 100 years now. It isn't really possible to talk of Beethoven, Brahms and Bach in the same reverential tones we used to and get away with it. So, the times they are a-changing!

BB: It's not as scary for us in our position.

TB-W: Again, you're further down the track. I've been very lucky to have the opportunity both in Edinburgh and before when I was at Winchester to be able to deal in music which I love and was brought up on. I count my lucky stars that I'm still in a job which allows me to do it.  I'm not quite sure that in another ten years time it will still be there. It's only a trust fund that keeps things going and pays for my salary. That's a big part of my fortune, really. For as long as the college wants it to happen, that's fine. I can see a time, even here, where the dean might retire and the college might say, "Oh, do we really want a dean? Do we really want to have Evensong?"

GB: A turnover of ministers in any church could greatly change musical things. The stories are legion.

TB-W: Of course, the decline in churchgoing is becoming very alarmingly rapid in this country. It's slightly higher in Scotland. Perhaps we should leave for rehearsal now.

Author's note: As we left for that day's rehearsal of men and women and walked through the beautiful grounds of Jesus College, the mood of our philosophical discussion greatly changed. Tim is a high energy, easy-going person who smiles a lot and encourages his choristers in the joy of music. He is also an excellent, natural pianist who plays with much ease and joy. His choristers obviously enjoy making music with him. We look forward to visiting Jesus College again and attending Evensong after the Hill organ is installed. We also look forward to meeting up with Tim at Windsor Castle.

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'>        

Hannah Koby

Hannah Koby is an organ/church music major and German minor at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, where she is also a member of Christ College (Interdisciplinary Honors College), the University Chorale, and the student chapter of the American Guild of Organists. At the university’s Chapel of the Resurrection, she serves on the Morning Prayer planning staff, is organist for the weekly Matins service, and serves as pianist and on the planning team for the weekly Candlelight service. Koby is also organist and choir director at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Chesterton, Indiana. After her studies at Valparaiso, she plans to pursue graduate work in sacred music and to maintain German connections.

We have probably all heard that studying in a foreign culture is life changing, that one will learn a lot and grow as a person. After spending spring and summer of my sophomore year of college in Germany in 2016, I can say that those are all true. Yet as musicians, we seek musical as well as personal growth. My time abroad left me with stronger musicianship, broader understanding of German organs and their history, greater appreciation for and knowledge of liturgical worship, and a network of colleagues, friends, and mentors on the other side of the world. I believe that studying in Europe and experiencing the instruments, churches, history, and culture for oneself is an unparalleled opportunity for organists. As I played Schnitger, Silbermann, and Sauer organs last spring (to name a few), I knew I was learning for myself the aural ideals of each builder, place, and era.

A unique partnership between Valparaiso University, where I study, and the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik (Church Music Conservatory) in Rottenburg am Neckar, Germany, provides church music students with an opportunity to study abroad while continuing music studies and gaining a new perspective on sacred music and the church. This program was part of what led me to study at Valparaiso University. I believe studying abroad is an opportunity that student organists should seek out, because the benefits of seeing, hearing, and playing historic and modern European organs in their context cannot be overestimated.

 

Rottenburg am Neckar

Most of my time in Germany was spent in Rottenburg am Neckar, in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg. There is not much to set Rottenburg apart from any other small Swabian town, except that it is the seat of the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Because of this, Rottenburg is home to a Catholic church music conservatory and to St. Martin’s Cathedral—the smallest cathedral in Germany. The conservatory, or Hochschule für Kirchenmusik, is on the edge of town, providing an idyllic setting for study. It is housed in one building, with residential floors above the classrooms/practice rooms, which means no excuse for not practicing in bad weather! The size of the school—about 35 students, including bachelor’s, master’s, and one-year certificate students—lent a very personal dimension to my experience. I got to know all the students and could learn from nearly all the professors, even those I didn’t officially study under. Since all the classes and lessons are taught in German, I appreciated that small class sizes also allowed for language-related clarification when necessary!

One aspect I value most from my semester in Rottenburg was the different perspectives I got from each teacher. I studied organ literature with Herr Heinrich Walther, a concert organist and professor. While it was difficult for me to get used to a teacher very different from others I previously had, he imparted much musical and life wisdom to me in the short semester we worked together. One focus of my work was playing with more nuanced articulation. Herr Walther helped me bring out much more detail than I previously had, which was possible since we were working only with tracker-action organs, as is the norm in Germany. The lessons from that semester still impact how I think about articulation and the shape of individual notes and phrases, even though I don’t often perform on tracker instruments now that I am back in the United States.

In addition to the seven small pipe organs housed at the Hochschule, students have occasional access to organs in local churches. I had the privilege of performing in one of the weekly “Music for the Market” concerts on the four-manual 1979 Hubert Sandtner organ in Rottenburg’s St. Martin Cathedral. I also heard this instrument often, with the masterful improvisation of cathedral organist Ruben Sturm during Sunday Mass. The other Catholic church in town, St. Moriz, has a three-manual instrument built in 1976 by Winfried Albiez, which provided many registration options for an improvisation lesson there! Both of these churches regularly hosted the conservatory’s guest artist and faculty recitals, giving me a chance to hear the breadth of color and texture on each instrument.

 

Difference in curriculum

One surprise for me in Rottenburg was that organ improvisation is a main subject in the German church music curriculum, taken every semester. I encountered many surprised looks when I shared that it is not required in many American programs. I think that for the first couple of weeks, even my teacher was not quite sure what to do with me! While I struggled to understand my lessons, my teacher, Herr Peter Schleicher, was a patient instructor. He worked with me on the basics of improvisation, a skill that has already proven very helpful for service playing upon my return.

The most striking difference in church music studies at Rottenburg is the choral and conducting curriculum. In the United States, church music studies largely focus on organ, and choral conducting training is often minimal. In Rottenburg, organ is a primary component of studies, but the church musician’s role as choral director is taken very seriously. Each student at Rottenburg has private or small-group lessons in choral conducting every semester, and the whole school takes part in a weekly praxis seminar. In addition, there are classes in choral/vocal pedagogy, and orchestral, chant, and children’s choir conducting. I think I had as much education in choral leadership in one semester in Rottenburg as many American church music students receive in four years!

Prior to my time in Germany, I had only taken one semester of basic conducting, in a class of about a dozen people. What a difference it was to work one-on-one with a professor! I worked with Herr Peter Lorenz, cantor of St. Martin’s Cathedral. I learned so much from him about physical preparation for conductors, score study, and rehearsal preparation, as well as the conducting itself. Because we had half an hour every week just to focus on my conducting, rather than dividing the time between students in a class, Herr Lorenz was able to correct much more than I had previously experienced. My conducting has become significantly more fluent because of these lessons.

Every Tuesday morning at the Rottenburg conservatory is devoted to the choral conducting practicum. Students work with their professors in lessons to prepare a choral work, and on their assigned Tuesday, lead a rehearsal of the piece. The professors will assist the student when something is not going well, and always provide feedback at the end. In addition to rehearsal leadership experience, the practicum also serves as weekly sight-singing practice for all the students.

Usually in the first year, students must also take a set of choral pedagogy classes. This set consists of studies of body and breath, choral warm-up practicum, and choral voice building. Studies of body and breath focuses on physical exercises both for the students as musicians and performers and for choirs. We learned everything from relaxation exercises for musicians to activities to physically prepare choral singers. Each new technique or exercise was practiced as well as discussed.

This class led directly into the warm-up practicum, a half hour in which a student leads a 20-minute choral warm-up, both physical and vocal, followed by 10 minutes of debriefing. This gives each student a chance to try out new vocalises and learn about their particular issues in leadership. In Germany, it is considered unprofessional to lead warm-ups from the piano, so each student has a tuning fork and vocally gives pitches. Working in that system was one of my challenges. For example, I tended to have my singers vocalize higher than necessary or comfortable because my own vocal range is high.

Following the practical courses, we had choral voice-building class, which is essentially the theory behind what we were practicing in the other courses. We focused on individual sounds—for example, learning which vowels best reinforce different vocal qualities or what sorts of exercises can be used to bring out certain consonant sounds in singing. We also learned about vocal register and experienced an introduction to the physiology of the voice. The theory was always demonstrated through vocalises (and sometimes tricky German tongue twisters!), and was reinforced through paired themes for the warm-up practicum. All these classes operated as a set, providing a holistic education for future choral leaders.

 

Organ to organ: 

Traveling Europe

Supplementing all my studies in Rottenburg, I took advantage of the vast organ riches within traveling distance. A highlight for me was traveling to Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Lübeck over Pentecost break. Particularly impressive was the number of organ concerts and other events in Hamburg in the half week I was there (prompting my Hamburg grandmother to suggest I continue my studies there; but that is another story). One of the many opportunities was a demonstration of the famous Arp Schnitger organ in Hamburg’s St. Jacobi Church. Upon learning that I was an organist, the intern leading it invited me to play while he demonstrated some registrations. Afterward, he asked if I would like to come back the next day, leading to a glorious hour and a half with the church to myself, exploring the grand sounds of this historic instrument. Now, I try to remember these sounds as a standard for North German Baroque registration for my work here in the United States.

Another memorable instance was in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the St. Petri Church, home to a German-speaking congregation. I was studying what I could see in the façade when the organist arrived. I asked to see the console, and he offered that I could play for a few minutes. When he saw me pull out my organ shoes and music from the bag I always carried, he realized I was a serious student and invited me to come back once he was finished with his rehearsal. I was allowed to explore this late Sauer organ from the 1930s until the church closed for the day. While it is not as old or distinguished as many I saw, playing this instrument gave me a taste of the aural ideas from that era in northern Europe.

Professional connections

Along with the experience of playing historical organs, the examples above illustrate a few of the invaluable connections I made with church musicians in Europe. I am considering graduate studies in Germany, and the connections I already have may lead to mentorships or other opportunities then. Some of my best friends are students from Rottenburg who are involved with the Valparaiso exchange. Knowing a few people made the transition to Rottenburg so much easier than it could have been. In the future, these friends will also be my colleagues. There is no telling how the friendships might lead to international opportunities for our research or future choirs or students.

Personal connections with German church musicians have already led to an amazing opportunity for me. While I was abroad, I learned through a Valparaiso connection about a potential internship at the Castle Church in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther is said to have posted his 95 theses. Having been identified as a bilingual church music student, I was put in contact with the cantors there, Thomas and Sarah Herzer. Since I was in Germany at the time, it was possible for me to travel to Wittenberg to interview for the position. In the summer of 2017, I served as church music intern at the Castle Church, playing for and helping host some of the many worship services and concerts taking place as part of the 500th anniversary celebration of the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation. I don’t know if this would have happened without the personal contact I was able to make while in Germany for a semester.

 

Learning from difference

As a Lutheran student from a Lutheran university, I was well aware of the fact that I was going to study at a Catholic conservatory. However, I learned that I did not need to be so concerned about it, because Catholics and Lutherans truly have much in common. The pattern of the liturgy meant that I was rarely lost in worship, even when I could not figure out all the responses. For me, this underscores the value of a universal liturgy practiced by Christians all over the world. While the language may be different, we know we are singing the Kyrie or professing our faith through the creed. Interestingly, in Rottenburg I actually felt more at home at High Mass in the cathedral than in Protestant worship. Because the Protestant state church in Baden-Württemberg is “Unified,” which was explained to me as a cross between Lutheran and Reformed traditions, the local Protestant church did not follow a strictly liturgical pattern of worship. This made it more difficult for me to follow and drove home how much I rely on the liturgy to shape my experience of worship.

Another difference for me in Rottenburg was the strong focus on the chant repertory. I participated in the conservatory’s Schola in which all second-year to graduate students sing—but for which I was completely unprepared. Prior to that semester, I had sung some chant, but always in modern notation. At Rottenburg, we sang from medieval square notation with neumes—neither of which I knew how to read. Realizing my deficiency in this area, I chose to take their intro-level chant course.

This class, Gregorian Chant and German Liturgical Music, was an incredible mix of subjects. We learned the basics of understanding, singing, and leading chant, and got a crash course in Latin and German musical resources for the seasons and festivals of the church. I am glad to say I now have a basic understanding of neumes and can read historical chant notation. Beyond that, the course also drove home the deep connection that German Catholics have to their musical tradition. They regularly sing Medieval chant without a second thought, which I have not encountered in American Lutheran circles. While acknowledging the importance of vernacular hymnody, they nonetheless keep strong the Latin song tradition as well. It was impressed upon the students in this class that as church musicians, it is our responsibility to respect these traditions.

 

Closing thoughts

Perhaps for organists more than other musicians, the benefit of experience cannot be overestimated. Actually being in European churches and playing historical instruments gives an incomparable context for the work that we do as organists. Many times since my semester in Germany, I have worked on registration or encountered a new organ and noted that it sounds like a certain instrument I played in Europe. From that relationship, I know I have found an authentic sound for works of that time and place. When working on registration, there is no substitute for knowing firsthand the sounds that composers had at their disposal.

The traditions I studied and participated in while in Rottenburg showed me the importance of both the historical and universal planes in which we as musicians work. I hope that my experiences encourage others to seek opportunities to be challenged as musicians by other cultures and traditions.

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.

by William Kuhlman

William Kuhlman is Professor of Organ at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa where he has taught since 1969. He is a graduate of Saint Olaf College and received his advanced degree from Syracuse University. His major instructors have included David N. Johnson, Arthur Poister, Grete Krogh and Harald Vogel. He has previously written an article for The Diapason entitled "Andrew Carnegie and the Organ," and an article in the July 2002 issue of The American Organist reviewing "Sacred Music 2002" at the University of Iowa. He recently recorded a new compact disc of organ and brass music for Telarc with the Empire Brass at Luther College. He performs five days a week for services of the campus community on the 3-manual, 41-rank Robert Sipe organ at the 1500-seat Center for Faith and Life. Kuhlman is represented by The Concert Artist Cooperative.

 

Small liberal arts college teaching is an area rich in challenges and creative possibilities. Having taught in the field for the past 34 years has prompted me to reflect on its rich opportunities as well as its perils for those desirous of a walk down similar paths. Few students in graduate studies working toward career paths in college or university teaching can anticipate the realities awaiting them upon successfully joining this guild. In the paragraphs that follow I will share a few of my experiences in hopes that the information will benefit those seeking to pursue an academic career.

 

Henry Adams once said, "A teacher affects eternity; one can never tell where one's influence stops." At this very moment, graduate students throughout the many fine programs around the country are honing their skills as performers and becoming the best players they possibly can. Their influence on organ students of the future will undoubtedly manifest itself in many positive ways. When the young Arthur Poister was teaching in Sioux City, Iowa, he had no idea that he would later be quoted over and over again and regaled as one of the great seers of organ pedagogy in the 20th century. Likewise with Russell Saunders when he was a young man teaching at Drake University: he never realized how far-reaching his influence would be as a scholar, a student of the instrument and its literature, and as an extraordinary "teacher of teachers." For those unfamiliar with these two names, Arthur Poister at Syracuse University and Russell Saunders at Drake (and later, the Eastman School of Music) were surely considered two of the giants of organ teaching in America from the 1950s through most of the 80s. They would undoubtedly agree with the quote attributed to the English music critic/musicologist Ernest Newman, who said: "A good teacher is slowly discovered. The bad teacher is quickly found out!" For those aspiring to this wonderful profession, the rewards are many, the diversity of experiences enjoyable and a great pleasure at times. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

But a few caveats would well-serve those aspiring to academia. Organ teaching and playing in America has undoubtedly reached a level unparalleled in history. The instruments we play and teach on are of a caliber unrivaled anywhere in the world. Top-flight preparation through superb teaching continues to produce competition winners and wonderful young artists. One wonders, however, whether playing skills alone will suffice to prepare graduates from our excellent conservatories, colleges and universities for the few teaching positions that become available each year. Perhaps a few musings from personal experience will be helpful.

When I was in graduate school studying at Syracuse with Arthur Poister, my interest in theory, history, pedagogy, church music and service playing was secondary to the pursuit of my performance skills. I had assimilated a reasonably good feel for liturgical organ playing growing up in the atmosphere of St. John Lutheran Church and Grace Lutheran Church in the western Chicago suburbs, where an excellent brand of church music was being espoused by the likes of Gerhardt Becker, Carl Schalk, Paul Bouman, Paul Bunjes, Richard Hillert and other giants of Lutheran church music. By the time I left high school I had played a fair number of church services (which I enjoyed immensely) and adored playing hymns both on G. Donald Harrison's Aeolian-Skinner at church as well as on our Model 45 Baldwin at home. When my parents bought our Baldwin on South Wabash Avenue in Chicago, the demonstrator was none other than the inimitble Reginald Foort, the staff organist at the BBC in London prior to the war. I was privileged to have lessons from him for about two years while I was studying with our local Lutheran church musicians Becker and Bouman. Reggie taught me technique from the "Stainer Method Book." Later on we worked on the E-Flat Trio Sonata of Bach and assorted chestnuts from the orchestral literature such as his transcription of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld and some glorious renditions of tunes such as "Night and Day" and "Dancing on the Ceiling."

All of these eclectic experiences helped to kindle my passion for playing the organ and served me well in college and university and my first organ-ist/choirmaster position at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in the idyllic town of Cazenovia, New York. However, like my colleagues in the graduate program, most of my energy was expended in preparing memorized organ recitals and studying a narrow range of literature. Our primary goals were to hone our skills to become the best teachers and players that we could become. In this respect, "Mr. Poister" was the paragon of the "model teacher/performer."

When I decided to track into academe in the late 1960s, the opportunities were plentiful. Many good jobs were open in both church music and college work. However, when I was hired into my first full-time position at Jamestown College in North Dakota in 1967, I quickly experienced a "wake-up call" when I found myself on committees, teaching and advising non-major students and thus having to know and understand the college catalogue and all its nuances. I was required to play for college celebrations and chapels, conduct the touring a cappella choir, teach piano and harpsichord, music history, church music, a January term course on "The Fine Arts in Chicago" and assorted other duties I had never dreamed I would be undertaking. Once over the initial shock, I dug in and started shoveling.

Teaching in a small town at a small liberal arts college with students that were either beginners or low intermediate players presented a new set of challenges. As the only professionally trained organist in the region, I felt like I was stranded on a wind-blown oasis at times. My two departmental colleagues were a band director and a flower-child composer/theorist with whom I maintained splendid relationships, but whose direct interest in my own field was, to put it mildly, limited. I missed the interchange and compatibility of the Syracuse classmates in Mr. Poister's last studio at the University. I longed to commune once again with wonderful organ colleagues like Wayne Leupold, John Strege, Bill Neill and Larry Smith and to chat endlessly about notes inégale, interpretations of the Reubke Sonata or whatever other subtle nuances of performance practice that may have been subjects for nattering as we met in the halls and coffee shops at the time.

It was fortuitous that when I went to Luther College, Decorah, in 1969 with a few years of college teaching under my organ shoes, I was a little less naive than several years before. I reveled in the opportunities afforded by the rich organ culture that Gerhard Krapf had cultivated in the State of Iowa. I delighted in the collegial relationship which I formed with both Gerhard and his superb colleague Delbert Disselhorst and later on Delores Bruch at the University of Iowa. I found great inspiration in the work that Gerhard and the university organ technician Carroll Hanson had done to introduce great new organs into the state. My work was cut out for me to emulate their model in both teaching and bringing much-needed new instruments to my "quadrant" of Iowa.

The reality of my first years at the new position came as somewhat of a shock to this idealistic young savant, eager to make his mark at his first college job. A number of smaller shocks hit me straight on:

* Luther College conducted non-compulsory daily plus Sunday chapel services. A lot of literature had to be covered in a given week with a dozen voluntaries and hymns to be played, and numerous choral and instrumental accompaniments to be learned.

* I was given about a dozen liberal arts students per semester to advise. A few were music majors, but many were pursuing majors in biology, classics, French and other areas outside my field of expertise.

* I served on a variety of committees--the curriculum committee, (which I also served as chair), social committees (for Christmas parties, faculty retirement fetes and the like) and on planning committees for extra-curricular events such as college anniversaries, celebrations like the Martin Luther 500th anniversary, the Bach celebration in 1985 and three visits by the King and Queen of Norway. There were convocations featuring Vice-President George H.W. Bush, Attorney General Edwin Meese, Crown Prince Harald of Norway, and later on, his son Prince Haakon.

* I had to find concertatos as we planned Homecoming worship services, Baccalaureates, Christmas concerts and other festival services. I discovered that I really needed to do my homework here and ended up writing many of my own. This too was a new experience for me.

* I was required to teach theory and ear training to fill out my load--areas  which I never dreamt I would have to master. In the process I had to become conversant in Sibelius, Finale and various software programs such as MacGamut and C.A.T. I felt like a fish out of water much of the time!

* I found myself attending more required meetings than I thought possible. A typical week: Monday afternoons, Sunday worship planning with campus pastor A; Wednesday mornings, full college faculty once a month, and the Humanities Division every other week; Wednesday afternoon's meetings with Campus Pastor B to choose hymns and plan daily chapel services; Friday mornings three times a month, full music faculty meetings; other days--meetings of ad hoc committees of various kinds. In short, a lot of time that I once thought I would spend in a practice room.

* As an apparent result of having attended another "liberal arts" college as an undergraduate (Saint Olaf), I found myself teaching courses in the general humanities. I learned that there are certain perils resultant from conversations at social occasions with English faculty. Indiscriminately dropping authors' names or titles of recently read books can lead one down yet another dark alley such as becoming the discussion leader in sections of the core program for first year students with topics like "Greek Mythology" or "Maoist China"!

Despite having resisted and often eschewed past parental advice, I find myself having saved a few chestnuts of my own to pass on to the next generation of prospective small college pedagogues:

Music appreciation. Sometime your organ load may be too small and you'll be asked to teach this or a similar introductory course populated by Physical Education or Science majors wishing to fulfill their fine arts requirement. Even though this is not your specialty, you will be asked to be a good scout and to pitch in. Know your Grieg Concerto and Peter and the Wolf and you will have a jump-start! Ear training and sight singing are other favorite courses which department chairs like to pass around to fill applied teacher's loads, the general assumption being that these are courses that anyone can teach!

Politics. You will want to get your own agenda across, but you will want to do so in such a way that you keep your fellow colleagues' diverse needs in mind as well, and find ways of working within your department without alienating your co-workers. You may for example want to initiate an organ project, which I have had the opportunity to do on four different occasions at our college. It will be very important for you to diplomatically nurture this idea with your colleagues without forgetting that they too may have needs important to them. The eternal problem is how to strike a balance and be a good department member at the same time as having your agenda realized at some point in time.

The draft. I was fortunate not to be drafted into the armed services back in the 60s. But in the 70s, I found myself drafted in my college job into other similarly rigorous duties by befriending one of our theater directors and finding myself joyfully conducting orchestras for musicals like Kurt Weill's Three Penny Opera and playing one of the two piano parts for a production of The Fantasticks.

Developing an audience for organ music. I did not immediately find the same receptive and interested audience for organ music we experienced at graduate school. You will undoubtedly have to build an audience for organ music in the community. The organ journals have had exhaustive articles on this subject over the years and so this turf does not need to be re-seeded. The surest way to kill an uncultivated audience would be to play a dry, academic recital right off the bat, or to have a guest who does so. Be sensitive to the tradition and level of musical sophistication or lack thereof.

New instruments. You may have the wonderful opportunity to procure a pipe organ sometime in your career. A whole host of creative ideas about who the best builder might be for the task, about how to raise funds, and about how to engender enthusiasm and excitement for the project will have to be thought through. Back in the 70s, long before Pipedreams was so much a part of our lives, I hosted a half-hour program each week on our local radio station called "The King of Instruments." I scripted and narrated the program myself, and would play organ recordings from the station's library and reel-to-reel tapes from my own performances and that of my friends and colleagues. This was one of several techniques I thought would engender some interest in attaining new organs at our college. It worked!

Hosting recitalists. You will have to get to know the ins and outs of "presenting." This means finding appropriate recitalists either from your pool of acquaintances or from the management rosters. It can also involve seeking funding through various sources, selling tickets, promoting the recital through your church or college newsletter, radio, TV, posters, church bulletins, newspapers and so forth. How much or how little hosting needs to be done? Donor dinners, AGO and student guild chapter sponsorship are all avenues worth pursuing.

*

In order to achieve promotion and tenure commensurate with your degrees and years in service, several things are necessary. You can read all about this in a college's faculty handbook, but here is the Cliff Notes summary:

Practice time. Many times in schools of music and colleges with strong programs such as ours with 50 faculty and staff in our department, recital and performance work will suffice instead of research. However with a full teaching load, practice time is often precious to find and the first thing to go. I set aside "untouchable" hours from 7:30 until our chapel service begins at 10:00 am and work on recital, church, chapel and accompaniment music during that period. One would be wise to set aside a part of your day in your life as church musician or academic, and make this time sacrosanct. No calls, no interruptions, no make-up lessons!

Contributions to the department. You will be asked to be on calendar committees, library acquisition committees, building committees, departmental publication committees, ensemble committees and a host of other arcane bodies within your department, which set policy, curriculum and other functions of the program. You must do this willingly and cheerfully if you ever expect to receive the requisite glowing evaluations from the colleagues who will review your work. The hiring and review process now as compared to 30 years ago is thoroughly analytical, precise, regulated and organized. Many of us opine that we probably never would have risen through the ranks to full professor if the current rubric had applied when we were climbing the "tenure ladder."

Contributions to the college and the community. A young faculty member with aspirations toward tenure gladly, willingly and eagerly serves on various strange "task forces" and ad hoc committees in order to be noticed by deans and department heads. Directing and/or playing at local churches or synagogues, becoming a participant on school or hospital boards and service organizations are small but integral factors in the tenure mix.

Writing skills. We think so often in music that writing is secondary or maybe not at all important relative to what we will do in a college job. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am constantly writing: grant proposals, proposals to committees, drafts of ideas, reports, minutes of meetings, articles for newsletters and magazines, and a variety of diverse documents such as letters of recommendation for graduate study, letters supportive of Fulbright and Rhodes scholarship applicants and the like. I also am constantly being asked to write evaluations for colleagues in the department who are up for promotion and tenure, or are applying for other jobs. Being able to write clearly is not a luxury but a prerequisite of the job.

Speaking skills. You are frequently required in an academic position to speak at faculty meetings, to introduce speakers, to give talks to local organizations, to do workshops of various kinds, to be a consultant for organ projects, to speak at AGO and church body conventions, conferences and workshops. Speaking confidently with a modicum of good grammar and syntax, and presenting oneself in a professional manner is paramount.

Corollary Issues

As College Organist at a relatively small (2800 students) but important college in the region, I am often called upon to give advice to churches on finding organists, and in replacing or restoring a variety of organs out and about. Be ready to willingly help out, or have access to people who might be able to give the needed advice. You will find yourself the "caretaker" of organ and perhaps church music in your area and will be called upon to be the local resource for a variety of strange and interesting requests, often hilarious, sometimes bizarre. A few examples:

a. "Where can I find replacement tubes for my Hammond B-3?"

b. "How much is my Estey reed organ worth? Would you appraise it for me?"

c. "Where can I find an organ arrangement of The Battle Hymn of the Republic?"

d. "Would you play a recital on our 1920 Hinners for our church's 100th anniversary celebration? You might want to tune it first!"

e. "Would you be willing to go through my late Aunt Minnie's organ music and tell me what it's worth for tax purposes?"

f. "Would your music library like my late great-uncle's collection of revival hymnbooks?"

g. "Could the College use a pair of Leslie speakers?"

h. And, of course, the perennial questions: "Do you have any students that could play for services this year at West Paint Creek Presbyterian Church in rural What Cheer? Our council just raised the fee to $20.00 per service."

If you are teaching as I do, in a small college atmosphere, you will soon find that a five-day workweek is impossible for the most part. You may spend part of your weekend supporting colleagues' lectures and performances, attending your students' junior and senior organ recitals or those of students and instrumentalists enrolled in your classes. When your own students present recitals there will of course be the attendant hours of extra coaching and rehearsal. Many of your "free" Saturdays may be usurped by admission department requests to meet with prospective students who can only visit the campus over a weekend. You will want to become better known in the community by helping your colleagues in the area with recital and workshop programming. Become active in the local AGO and regional denominational associations. Attend lectures by colleagues in other departments and show interest in areas beyond your own program and agenda.

Recruiting. You may be surprised to discover that dozens of talented organ students are not automatically going to come knocking at your studio door. You have to find clever ways to encourage the good ones to enter your studio. Scholarship support from your administration is critical. Sponsoring workshops in organ and church music, summer organ camps and keyboard festivals are all part of the game we have to play to get good students to come to an expensive school and study organ as one of their academic subjects. We may fall into a few great students with little or no effort but most frequently will have to work hard to convince them of the benefits of our program versus that of our competitors. Read your magazines. Be an activist in the perpetual campaign to interest young people in our instrument. Find out how to sponsor a Pipe Organs and Pizza event for young keyboardists, invite youngsters in church choir programs up to the organ loft, invite school groups to come in and have a fun, entertaining 30-45 minutes hearing the sounds and experiencing the wonders of the pipe organ. Our future as teachers and performers depends on energetic new ideas and creative approaches.

Studio teaching. I was absolutely certain when I started my teaching career that all of the pieces I had labored on during my college and university studies would be within easy access of most if not all of the students whom I would teach. Sowerby, Reubke, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Bach, Buxtehude, Bruhns, Lübeck, Böhm, Sweelinck, Scheidt, Hindemith, Langlais, Messiaen--no problem! And then, of course, there'd be the ever-reliable Gleason and later on Stauffer and Ritchie, Soderlund, and Davis, for those few beginners who needed a little retrofitting or tune-up. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Many, if not most of the students enrolled for lessons at small liberal arts colleges are either taking lessons for the first time, or for only a year or two. Many will be non-music majors. In counting my student load of 16 lessons in the spring semester, four were education majors, four were applied music majors, and the rest from other departments with history, nursing and/or undetermined majors. From amongst these diverse groups, many will end up giving junior and senior recitals at the point at which they are prepared and interested in doing so. Others take lessons simply because they want to be prepared to play a competent church service. The dilemma in a liberal arts program is whether to accept only high-potential students with great keyboard ability or to accept most or all of those who enroll and teach to their level. On the one hand, it's more interesting and professionally fulfilling to accept only a few "superstars." On the other hand, one's teaching load may, as a result, be filled with duties outside of your expertise or general interest.

Be prepared to teach entry-level pieces such as Dupré's 79 Chorales, Keller's 80 Chorale Preludes, Pachelbel and Walther manualiter, easy trios by Krebs, Hudson, using method books such as Roger Davis or the new series that Wayne Leupold has developed. Accept every promising pre-college age student you can lay your hands on. This is our future as organ pedagogues if our instrument is to survive. Isn't it ironic that in the present day, we're experiencing a level of organ building in the country unprecedented in history, while in many quarters, organ music in many churches is being relegated to the dust heap in favor of the praise band!

Coda

Bring to your job applications and your vitae as diverse and well-rounded a background as you can manage within your graduate programs. Deans and department chairs that are looking at dossiers are rarely looking for a candidate qualified to teach only to their specialty.

The diversity of experiences which include living life in a bucolic college town with diverse cultural and physical attributes, interesting colleagues and the rich opportunities available, all serve to  make a career in college teaching well worth considering. Perils and pitfalls exist, but in the end, the rewards are abundant.

This article was developed from a lecture presented at the University of Iowa on November 11, 2001.