American Institute of Organbuilders, San Jose, CA, October 8-11, 1995

New York City, September 28-October 1, 2004

Sebastian M. Glück

Sebastian M. Glück is president and tonal director of Glück New York, Pipe Organ Restorers and Builders, and is editor of the Journal of American Organbuilding, the quarterly publication of the American Institute of Organbuilders.

Tuesday, September 28

Wall sconces taking the form of artillery shells line the nave of the Protestant Cadet Chapel of the United States Military Academy at West Point, home of what began as M.P. Möller’s Opus 1201 of 1911. Now IV/380, it incorporates pipework provided by a list of builders from George Edgar Gress to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. The sheer size of this instrument may very well be its most American characteristic. Since pipework and divisions are added to this organ, not replaced, the organ is a growing compendium of trends. As an agglutinated scheme built up over the past century, an organ of this size must struggle to put forth a distinctive and identifiable character.

Army Chaplain Scott McChrystal (Colonel) spoke about the organ’s history and role at the academy before introducing organist Craig Williams, organ curator Gary Ferguson, and associate organ curator William Chapman.

Mr. Williams’ opening selection was “The Turning on of the Blowers,” a work for eight switches, featuring over 100 horsepower of turbines. The remainder of his program ran the gamut from a Dvorák symphonic transcription to Georgian miniatures. Following the demonstration-recital, a buffet dinner, complete with carvery, was served at the Officers’ Club overlooking the Hudson River.

Wednesday, September 29

AIO President Charles Kegg presided over the opening of the convention, marked by the first session of the Institute’s annual business meeting. The routine nature of the early morning meeting was offset by a sumptuous breakfast buffet, the first of many lavish and healthy meals planned by this year’s convention committee (Timothy Fink, Sebastian M. Glück, Allen Miller, chairman Edward Odell, Holly Odell, and F. Anthony Thurman).

Historian, musician, and Organ Historical Society Archivist Stephen Pinel’s history of New York organbuilders, “The Orchard in the Apple,” was a polished, well-researched presentation. It was reminiscent of a Burns documentary, the text so focused and the materials so pertinent that one forgot that the images were still, not moving. Pinel’s access to archival material combined with uncompromising production values set a benchmark for future historical lectures, yet it would be difficult to find something more titillating than the nude image of Ernest Martin Skinner that revealed the legend in a most human light.

Mr. Pinel closed with a requiem for our historical organs, imploring us to help preserve what remains. Few heritage instruments survive unaltered in New York City, despite its nearly unrivaled reign as a center of organbuilding during the Industrial Revolution.

Mike Foley, a champion of the service sector of the organbuilding field, captivated attendees with a dynamic presentation that was at once a business lecture, an ethics seminar, and a motivational gathering. “Minding Your Own Business” mixed life lessons with business advice: fix your mistakes before others find them; voice pipes, not opinions; love every pipe organ you see and hear, and your telephone shall ring. Get to know your clients; make sure that they know you, not just your bid. Above all else, eschew cynicism--or find another calling.

Be as precise in the writing of your contracts as in the keeping of your books, no matter how daunting the prospect. Audit your firm, insure your assets, motivate your staff, and enjoy yourself, and surely thy business shall thrive. More organs are serviced and tuned in a year than are built.

As do so many Europeans, AIO member Didier Grassin has such a subtly poetic grasp of the English language that it leaves this writer envious. His engineering degrees retreat to the background as organists and organbuilders alike marvel at the exquisite beauty of the organs he has designed. “The Canon Rules of Good Organ Case Design” explained the emotional/artistic response as essential to the success of the organ case. Neither frivolous nor luxurious, but necessary, the well-dressed pipe organ must embody architecture beyond utility as a critical component of the complete æsthetic experience of seeing, hearing, and touching The King of Instruments.

The shape of the case, its position within the space, and the breaking of planes in the massing are as important as the desired elements of vertical thrust and a strong focal point. Texture and color, from the grain and hue of the timber, to the play of light on carvings and façade pipes, must invite the observer to touch such a creation. Movement, tension, relief, and proportion--the elements of fine painting, sculpture, and architecture--make a great organ case.

Organist and organbuilder Sebastian M. Glück, editor of the Institute’s Journal of American Organbuilding, ended the lecture cycle with “What Goes Where and Why,” an analytical prescription for organ design based upon the demands of the literature we play. Many organs, even very large ones, are ill-equipped or incapable of accurately performing entire segments of the organ literature because consultants, organists, and organbuilders ignore historical treatises, the musical score, and the instruments for which the music was written.

American organ design continues to be plagued by stops at the wrong pitches in the wrong locations, and in some sectors has yet to recover from the misinterpretations of the “Organ Reform Movement” of the last century. The American “Bach organ” of the mid-1960s is strikingly dissimilar to the organ that Bach might have played in the 1730s, and sadly, the average American organ cannot handle French music of any era with real accuracy. The lecture exposed the pitfalls of grab-bag eclecticism, and outlined the elements of scholarship that are contributing to the success of today’s polyglot masterpieces.

Thursday, September 30

The Bedford Presbyterian Church, a carpenter Gothic 1872 building on The Village Green, is home to Martin Pasi’s 2001 II/29 Opus 13, a freestanding, encased organ with mechanical key action. The demonstration-recital was performed by John Lettieri, AAGO. The two manual divisions are of equal size, the Swell essentially an Oberwerk with the addition of an undulant and shutters. With a warm and generous ensemble, punctuated by two differently pungent tierces, the instrument convincingly handles large portions of the literature. The opportunity for AIO members to tour the instrument revealed meticulous craftsmanship and fine materials throughout.

Back in the mid-1960s, when no American organbuilder was good enough for the nation’s most famous concert hall, a very wealthy woman donated a Flentrop organ to New York’s Carnegie Music Hall. Ultimately rejected by a board of experts, the organ languished in storage for a decade before its adoption by The State University of New York at Purchase. There it languishes today, in an immense storage shed at stage left, its “Moderne Neo-Aztec” casework surrounded by acoustically annihilating drapes. Built on an air caster platform, a crew of ten can, in several hours, move it to the main stage for its annual appearance at a Christmas event. 

Robert Fertitta played small fragments of various organ works, and we were informed that the organ had been tonally altered by pressure changes, substitution of some stops, and revoicing after taking up residence at Purchase. The instrument’s curator, Peter Batchelder, served as historian, narrator, and supplemental combination action, and it is his quiet diligence and dedication that has kept that instrument working, in tune, and available to students.

Virgil Fox, Frederick Swann, William Sloane Coffin, Robert Hebble, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Richard Weagly, Anthony A. Bufano--the list of associations is long when it comes to The Riverside Church. Timothy Smith, DMA, now presides over the V/204 instrument, front and back, that still retains much of the flavor of Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1118 of 1947, the famous instrument from which it evolved. The interior surfaces of the large room, in a squatter-than-accurate version of French gothic, have been sealed to provide a fiery acoustic, adding reverberation and a telling upper end to the original sound. Dr. Smith knows this impeccably maintained organ well, and his technical and musical abilities provided a fine demonstration of its capabilities.

A drive down sumptuous Fifth Avenue along Central Park brought us to Temple Emanu-El, the world’s largest Reform synagogue. Our first stop in the large complex was the 270-seat Beth-El Chapel. Sebastian Glück’s 1997 III/34 Opus 5 in the west gallery was demonstrated by one of the temple’s staff organists, Pedro d’Aquino, as a prelude to the panel discussion, “Metropolitan Marvels: Conservation and Curatorial Practices for the Large Urban Pipe Organ.” Panelists were Joseph Dzeda of Yale University and the Thompson-Allen Company, Gary Ferguson of West Point, and Curt Mangel of the Wanamaker (Lord & Taylor) Store in Philadelphia. Mr. Glück, whose firm maintains some of New York City’s large instruments, served as panel moderator.

Our move into the breathtaking sanctuary provided many attendees’ first visit to a synagogue. This vast, mystical space, a blend of Art Deco and Byzantine æsthetics filled with carving, polychrome, mosaic, and stained glass, can be overwhelming. A rare visual treat was the congregation’s famous Succah, erected on the bimah for the festival of Succot. Sebastian Glück’s demonstration-recital included repertoire of all cultures and eras, including two short works he had written specifically for the instrument. The 2003 IV/135 is Glück’s Opus 7, featured in the November 2004 issue of The Diapason, which retains 66 ranks from the temple’s 1928 Casavant Opus 1322. The largest of three pipe organs in the complex, the symphonic instrument’s style can best be described as Anglo-French Romantic Neoclassicism, using special scales and mixture compositions to overcome the acoustical stone that lines the 2,500-seat room.

With nearly 20,000 restaurants in New York City, conventioneers were set free for dinner on the fashionable Upper East Side before returning to the buses.

Friday, October 1

The second half of the Institute’s annual business meeting always includes a presentation on the state of the pipe organ industry by Dr. Robert Ebert of Baldwin-Wallace College. Based upon surveys filled out each year by the AIO membership, trends are tracked in areas ranging from the number of rebuilds, to number of electronic organs replaced by real pipe organs, to the number of new ranks built, to which denominations are investing in pipe organs.

This year’s Open Forum touched upon the AGO’s new Task Force on Digital Inclusiveness. One issue discussed was the pipe organ builder’s responsibility for making the pipes as beautiful as possible, and not leaving the pipe complement of these hybrid instruments to untrained sales agents with no voicing or tonal finishing experience. Many questions arose, especially about whether craftsmen in the Institute should combine their art with short-lived, disposable imitations.

“First Do No Harm,” a panel moderated by Laurence Libin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, stressed both procedure and ethics. Pipe organ conservators Scot Huntington (OHS Vice President), Joseph Dzeda, and Richard Hamar discussed documentation, techniques, and the increasingly focused ethical mindset of the worldwide restoration community. An instrument’s age is no longer the sole criterion for historical significance. Restorations and alterations must be evident and reversible, and we must learn to stop “fixing” problems that do not exist. Preservation does not equate to paralysis, but we must end the process of ruination in the name of fashion by removing our personal judgments from the project.

Respected consultant and engineer Richard Houghten served as moderator for “Command and Control,” a highly technical panel discussion of advances in the technology and application of solid state pipe organ control systems. Engineers Scott Peterson, Duncan Crundwell, Arthur Young, Allen Miller, and Henry Wemekamp delivered individual presentations before a moderated discussion and questions from the floor.

The convention formally ended with Craig Whitney of The New York Times speaking of “A New Age for the Concert Hall Organ.” Following a summary of some of the material in his recent book, All the Stops, he spoke hopefully of the new concert hall organs being built in America, notably the visually and tonally stunning pipe organ in Walt Disney Concert Hall. With the contemporary church losing interest in the organ, will we have to create a new type of organist geared toward secular audiences? Or will each of these new concert hall organs stand as a mute reredos to the orchestra?

Saturday, October 2

Each AIO convention is followed by a one- or two-day post-convention tour. This year’s offerings began with a demonstration-recital at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola (1993 Mander IV/91), followed by a recital at the Church of St. Thomas More (1998 II/26 Lively-Fulcher). A demonstration-recital followed at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church (1967 III/55 von Beckerath), which included an “open console” for participants, as well as the opportunity to climb carefully through the instrument to examine it. The Church of St. Mary the Virgin (1932 and following IV/91 Aeolian-Skinner and others) ended the day, and although the organ has been changed so much as to bear little resemblance to the original, bits of G. Donald Harrison’s soul floated down the acoustically stunning nave when some of the least-altered, original voices were used.

The annual banquet included a presentation on “The Cinematic Organ” by historian Jonathan Ambrosino, with wonderful archival material assembled by California producer Vic Ferrer. After this fun, informative, and sometimes irreverent glimpse of the organ’s portrayal by Hollywood, Mr. Ambrosino spoke of the life and work of Donald B. Austin who died on September 17. Although his passing marked the end of an era, his achievements and driven work ethic serve to inspire the next generation of organbuilders.

Sunday, October 3

St. Thomas Church (IV/138 conglomerate and 1996 II/25 Taylor and Boody) was the choice for worship services on Sunday morning. Following the distinguished tenure of Gerre Hancock, the parish has chosen John Scott, formerly of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, to assume the mantle. A recital followed at Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights (2001 III/69 Austin), and the day ended at the Church of St. Charles Borromeo (1880 III/35 Odell), also in downtown Brooklyn. AIO members attended the service of installation for the incoming officers of the Brooklyn AGO chapter, and were welcomed at a reception following the program.

The conventions of the American Institute of Organbuilders are not restricted to organbuilders or AIO members, and attendance by musicians and other interested parties is encouraged. Convention information is always advertised in this and other journals well in advance, so make future conventions part of your autumn plans. For information: www.pipeorgan.org.

What do organists really know about organbuilders?

David Lowry

David Lowry, DMA, HonRSCM, is Professor Emeritus of Music at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina, and the Parish Musician of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Columbia, South Carolina. 

The American Institute of Organbuilders held its 40th annual convention October 6–9, 2013, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The AIO is an educational organization dedicated to advancing the art of organ building “by discussion, inquiry, research, experiment, and other means.” AIO members are professional organbuilders, service technicians, and suppliers who subscribe to the institute’s objectives and its Code of Ethics. There are over 400 members. 

Begun in 1973, the AIO continues as a vital organization with a fine board of directors, a quarterly journal, and a consistent pattern of annual conventions. The AIO awards certificates for Service, for Colleague, and for Fellow, based on tests of knowledge and understanding of organ building, similar to the AGO certifications for organ playing. 

At this 40th convention, there were some 180 registrants, including 110 members. About 80 elected to stay for a post-convention trip to Durham and Raleigh. There were 21 exhibitors, five of whom were from outside the United States.

Many organists in church and/or education positions inevitably know a few pipe organ service people, some of whom are actually builders of pipe organs. Many become friends and are often of great value to organists, who must defend their instruments by educating their congregations and colleagues on why an organ has to be “fixed” and why it “costs so much.” 

A few organists actually become adept at making a quick and safe fix to a problem without calling the organbuilder or maintenance people. Some higher-education institutions actually offer a course in how to take care of that one trumpet pipe that is out of tune before an important liturgy, or how to pull a pipe safely if it is ciphering, among a host of other little maladies. At the same time, plenty of service people can tell you horror stories of organists mutilating pipes with duct tape or bending them hopelessly out of shape. 

When organists gather in conventions, the focus is almost always on performances of music, plus workshops on everything from fingering to phrasing, or the intrepid pursuit of performance practice, or the history and analysis of music. 

How many organists know what organbuilders regard as important in their conventions? The difference in the two types of conventions—organists vs. organbuilders—is remarkable and encouraging. Despite feeling somewhat like a spy, this writer received a formal invitation to observe the 40th anniversary activities and report them to the organ-playing world. (I once enjoyed being an employee of an organ-building firm when I was a senior in high school. I learned to solder cable wires to junction boards, tune pipes, releather pouches, deal with Pilcher chests, and meet the famous consultant William Harrison Barnes! That did not make me an organ builder, but at least I understood some basics. All that was long before the computer chip.) The AIO may well be responsible for making “organbuilder” a single word. 

The 40th annual convention took advantage of some remarkable historic venues in central North Carolina, in addition to superb hotel accommodations with fine facilities for meetings, exhibits, and food. What is immediately obvious is that an AIO convention is not about organ playing. Little music is heard. When visiting organs, members listen to brief sounds of individual stops. They also sing a hymn during each organ inspection.

There were some pre-convention activities in Winston-Salem. On Saturday, some members visited the 1918 Æolian Company Opus 1404 in the Reynolda House; the organ’s restoration, by Norman Ryan and Richard Houghten, is in progress. On Sunday there was a visit to the organ shop of John Farmer, followed by choral Evensong at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church with its four-manual, 50-stop Skinner organ, Opus 712, 1928, restored by A. Thompson-Allen Company. In the chapel at St. Paul’s is the two-manual, 17-stop, 2004 C. B. Fisk Opus 131, built in collaboration with Schreiner Pipe Organs, Ltd., Opus 8. That visit included looking at Fisk’s borrow actions. The pedal department of this organ has just one pedal stop and five borrowed voices from the Great manual. 

On Monday and Wednesday there were a total of eight lectures in the hotel lecture room.

 

Scott R. Riedel & Associates

“Working with a Consultant”

Scott Riedel discussed issues in dealing with church committees—from the tensions of committees saying “too much money for music,” “fear of fundraising,” “most people go to the contemporary service and never hear the organ [not true, they go to weddings and funerals]”—to the matters of contacting builders and reviewing how to achieve the best builder for the situation. 

 

Schreiner Pipe Organs, Ltd. 

“Pedal Borrows on Mechanical Actions”

For those committed to mechanical action, John Schreiner supplied video details on how to design borrowing manual stops to be played in the pedals: “Either/Or” is one way; “And” is the other way. Those deeply engaged in mechanical-action organs found
Schreiner’s acumen most valuable.

 

Joseph Rotella

“Saving Green by Going Green”

Joe Rotella of Spencer Organ Company, Inc., has great interest in keeping green, thereby saving “green” money. He explored energy conservation including government subsidies, electricity, vehicles, energy audits, waste and toxicity reduction, as well as personal health, gardening, and thinking “local first.” His logo signifying “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a powerful consideration for all builders. 

 

Charles Kegg of Kegg Pipe Organ Builders, and C. Joseph Nichols of Nichols & Simpson, Inc.

“When the Client Asks . . .” 

In response to the question “How many here have employed electronic sounds in your organs?” numerous hands were in the air. (As the English language changes, the use of “digital” and “electronic” is still in flux.) One of the two panelists of the discussion agreed to use electronic sounds for the bottom 12 notes of a 32′ stop; the other agreed to be judicious about electronic stops, but “the organ needs to still be an organ when you pull the plug.” The discussion was unquestionably a sensitive one across the room, and it remained frank, polite, and quite ethical. 

A curious question sparked more commentary: for electronic sounds that are sampled, is there a warranty question about who owns the sound? The electronic-sound issue remains a very serious and sensitive question among organbuilders, for which there will be no immediate answer.

 

David Pillsbury

“Hearing Protection”

The guest lecturer was David Pillsbury, retired director of audiology and speech pathology, Wake Forest Baptist Hospital. Organ technicians must be able to hear critical things in the way an individual pipe sounds, and how they relate to each other within a rank—whether tuning or voicing. The discussion included video examples on how the ear is constructed, plus important cautions on protection, and information on the various products that provide protection. 

 

Bryan Timm and Randy Wagner, Organ Supply Industries

“Scales and Why We Use What We Do”

Timm and Wagner provided a scholarly paper on “Scales and Why We Use Them, or, Starting with Grandma’s Meatloaf,” a fine academic analysis of how the modern organ industry has come to use the measurements of pipes, or just as importantly, how we alter those measurements. They promised to continue in the future to present the obvious next chapter: how pipe mouth dimensions are measured and employed. 

 

John Dixon

“Portable Technology for Business”

John Dixon is a representative from ComputerTree, Inc. of Winston-Salem and Atlanta, a technology professional services corporation. He reviewed a surprising amount of information about the advantages of digital communication that lightens the load of toolboxes and contributes to meeting needs while on the job and/or maintaining the business aspects of organ technology. 

 

Greg Williams

“Wood Finishing Techniques” 

Greg Williams, a private consultant to the wood finishing and refinishing industry, presented a two-hour lecture on waterborne (not water-based) wood finishing products and detailed procedures in wood products, for organs that include pipes, cases, façades, and consoles. The discussion included the production of new wood parts as well as the frequent need for touch-up techniques when rebuilding or restoring organs. 

A visit to Old Salem

On Tuesday, a short bus trip to Old Salem began in the Old Salem Visitors’ Center, a pleasant 2003 building in which an auditorium houses the 1800 David Tannenberg organ, restored by Taylor & Boody in 2003. John Boody, making use of excellent videos, talked about the restoration. Boody was most articulate and engaging in this fascinating project. 

He was followed by Lou Carol Fix, who read from her publication, “The Organ in Moravian Church Music,” outlining the significant influence the Moravians had in helping establish the use of the organ in Moravian worship. Following was a Singstunde (a Moravian Song Service), for which Fix played the 1800 Tannenberg as AIO registrants sang several hymns. 

Free time walking around Old Salem allowed the AIO into the Single Brothers’ House, where Scott Carpenter demonstrated the David Tannenberg 1789 one-manual and pedal, five-stop organ, restored by Taylor & Boody in 2007. Then in the Single Sisters’ House, Susan Bates demonstrated the Henry Erben 1830 one-manual, five-stop organ, restored by Taylor & Boody in 2008. 

Finally, we visited Home Moravian Church, where the 1800 Tannenberg was once housed, to hear the 3-manual, 43-stop, 1959 Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1340, with commentary by John Farmer. 

Some readers of this report who know Old Salem are aware there is a fine 1965 Flentrop organ in Salem College. The convention could not book the space because the Flentrop firm was contracted to be revoicing the instrument. As it happened, the work had been completed just before the convention, but the schedules could not be changed for the AIO to hear it. 

 

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church

Our fascinating visit to this fine modern building with a remarkably warm, resonant acoustic found the restored 1898 Hook & Hastings Opus 1801 (three manuals, 34 stops) being installed in the west gallery by John Farmer of J. Allen Farmer, Inc. The late director of the Organ Clearing House, Alan Laufman, brought this organ to the attention of Farmer, a member of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Farmer removed it from a church in Massachusetts where it had been dormant for decades and was about to be destroyed along with the building. Farmer stored the organ in his home. Progress was slow—another decade—before the church embraced the concept of restoring the organ in St. Timothy’s. Despite not hearing an organ, the AIO sang a hymn anyway to enjoy the wonderful acoustic. This promises to be a remarkable installation, with completion perhaps by Easter 2014.

 

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

An optional jaunt over to the School of the Arts drew only a few registrants to hear the 1977 C. B. Fisk Opus 75 in a concert by four students and their professor, Timothy Olsen. The students came back early from their fall break to play on this notably aggressive Fisk. It was striking to think of the positive future of the organ world with such well-prepared talent. Performers were: high school junior Raymond Hawkins, undergraduates Pat Crowe and Christopher Engel, and graduate student Daniel Johnson. 

 

Post-convention trip to Durham and Raleigh

On Thursday, the first stop, an hour-and-a-half away, was on Chapel Drive at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where the Duke Chapel remains one of our nation’s most thrilling architectural sights. There were four organs to inspect—count them—four. 

First was the recent organ by Richards, Fowkes & Co. Bruce Fowkes talked about the instrument and the space it is in, the Goodson Chapel of the Duke Divinity School, a remarkably fine room with a superb acoustic. Also on hand for the demonstration of the four organs were no less than Andrew Pester and Dongho Lee (they are husband and wife), who provided excellent contributions from the four consoles. 

Next was the two-manual, 21-stop, 1997 John Brombaugh Opus 34 in the small chapel, entered from the north transept of the chapel. The bottom manual is of Renaissance Italian design, and the second manual is Germanic, all in meantone temperament. 

The third demonstration was on the famous four-manual, 66-stop, 1976 organ by Flentrop Orgelbouw standing proudly in the gallery at the west end of the chapel. The chapel itself was built with the infamous Guastavino sound-absorbing tile that, at Flentrop’s suggestion, was sealed with a silicone sealant. Thanks to that, the chapel indeed sounds the way it looks: idyllic. 

The fourth event was the long-awaited hearing of the 1932 Æolian Company organ, Opus 1785, restored in 2008 by Foley-Baker, Inc. (See “Cover feature,” The Diapason, April 2012, pp. 25–27.) The organ has a new four-manual console to control the 6,600 pipes in five divisions, all in the chapel’s east end chancel. Once the demonstration of the stops was complete, Dongho Lee put the Dupré Prelude in B Major on the rack and thrilled the heck out of everyone. 

David Arcus, who for some 30 years was Chapel Organist and Associate University Organist, left Duke University at the end of 2013. Dr. Arcus was not present for the AIO visit as he was playing a recital elsewhere.

The final part of the post-convention activity was a visit to three recent organs in nearby Raleigh. 

The first stop was the Church of the Nativity, where the 2007 Andover Organ Company, Opus 115, two manuals, twenty stops (eight prepared), was demonstrated in the small worship space. 

Our second stop was at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, where Kevin Kerstetter proudly demonstrated the three-manual, 47-stop 2012 Nichols & Simpson, Inc. organ. 

The last visit was to the Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, where the 2010 three-manual, 43-stop Buzard Pipe Organ Builders Opus 39 is installed. The demonstration and singing of a hymn was led by no less than the builder’s son, Stephen Buzard, assistant organist of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. Following that, Stephen Buzard rendered a stunning performance of Edward Elgar’s Sonata in G Major, op. 28, featuring the organ’s symphonic character. 

That the AIO is 40 years old and clearly a valuable asset to the organ building industry calls for celebrating this milestone. Matthew Bellocchio of the Andover Organ Company and AIO President steered the banquet festivities with great sensitivity. His faith in convention chairman Stephen Spake, of the Lincoln Pipe Organ Company, was a mark of genius. Spake carefully and lovingly steered all the matters of keeping the convention on schedule, counting heads on buses, handling Q & A sessions with a portable microphone, and constantly remaining calm, contributing to a successfully run convention. He also played an important role in the planning committee. 

One might wish that the AIO would approach matters of the performance of organ literature more seriously, but then when one thinks what organists really want to know about pipe metals, leather, how pipes are measured, etc., the argument becomes nebulous. The two professions are individual art forms with totally different schools of knowledge required. The goal is for the two to meet in agreement of making sounds that convert souls and enhance the artistic excellence that humans are capable of creating. ν

Photo credit: Harry Martenas

by Libby Codd

The topic of the twelfth San Anselmo Organ Festival was
“The Organ in California: Successive Styles and Changes.” The
underlying premise of the conference was that change is inevitable, as seen in
;the relatively short history of California since its first settlement by
Europeans. Linda Clark, Director of the Master of Sacred Music program at
Boston University School of Theology, provided sociological and theological
insight into each successive era. She emphasized that we “stand on the
shoulders of people who have faced similar situations and have inherited
practices from them.” “Practices” she defined as “a
complex set of culturally specific ways of accomplishing something of enduring
importance to people.” We have been formed by practices. Clark developed
her subject in brief daily “meditations” which were followed by
five minutes of silence and then the performance by Michael Struck of an organ
work relevant to the subject matter of the day.

Monday: Spanish/Mexican California

The entire conference was in the form of a giant organ
crawl. The first excursion was to Mission San José, which was founded in
1797 as the 15th in a series of Franciscan missions in California. Although an
organ had been ordered in the 19th century, it was not installed due to the demise of the missions when California became part of the United States. Therefore, its first organ is the new instrument installed in 1988 by Rosales Organ Builders. It is historically faithful to the early 19th-century Mexican organs, with a split keyboard, and is tuned in 1/4 syntonic comma meantone. Robert Bates of Stanford University played a recital which illustrated the poignancy of the tuning.

Juan Pedro Gaffney delivered a lecture on the music of the
Franciscan missions, pointing out that the rich musical life of the missions
was based on the mature tradition of musical practice in Mexico City, where
many of the friars had studied. The indigenous Californians adapted easily to
traditional western music as singers and instrumentalists.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Mission San José, for instance,
had a resident orchestra in the early 19th century. The friars also provided
Christian texts in native language and recorded historical narratives from
Aztec nobles.  Gaffney directed his
Coro Hispano de San Francisco in a vespers for the feast of St. John the
Baptist using music almost entirely from the great polyphonic choirbooks of
Mexico City Cathedral and other great Baroque Mexican churches.

Tuesday: Anglo Settlement of California

The first part of the 19th century under the Franciscans was
relatively stable politically and economically, and the arts flourished. But
beginning in 1840 the missions were secularized, the great rancheros began to
disappear, and non-Hispanic pioneers began to infiltrate the culture. The 1849
gold rush brought hordes of new settlers from around the world. San Francisco
grew into a city overnight. The miners found that the capriciousness of fate
was the central fact of existence; there was a wide chasm between religious
practice on the west and east coasts in that the pioneers’ commitment to
traditional values was not as widespread or deep. Moreover, the climate and
natural beauty of the region furnished transcendent experiences outside of
organized religion.

A remarkable collection of photographs of 19th-century
organs in California was shared by Jim Lewis. Most of the organs shown were
destroyed in the great San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. Of particular
interest was a seventeen-section panorama of San Francisco in 1878 showing a
profusion of churches. A prolific Bay Area organ builder of the time was John
Bergstrom, one of whose organs was heard at Christ Episcopal Church in
Sausalito where David Farr conducted the members of the Ragazzi Boys Chorus and
David Farr Chorale in a 1905 Victorian Matins.

After proceeding to San Francisco by ferry, we heard three
pre-fire organs played by students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
and their teacher, Wyatt Insko. At the First United Lutheran Church (the first
English-speaking Lutheran church in San Francisco), Frederick DeBoer played a
short program including Dudley Buck’s Concert Variations on the Star
Spangled Banner. The Woodbury & Harris organ (1899), in its third home, was
restored by Manuel Rosales, and has a flat 27-note pedalboard and mechanical
key and stop action. We then heard Franck’s Pièce
Héroïque played by Jung Ran Lim on a 1906 Pilcher organ at Central
Seventh Day Adventist Church. The Philadelphian Seventh-Day Adventist church
has a tubular pneumatic organ built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company,
successor to Murray M. Harris. The blower was electric from the start. Yishiu
Chen performed Conrad Susa’s “March for a Joyous
Occasion.” 

The 1904 Möller organ in the Church of St. John the
Evangelist has been modified extensively. For example, the 16¢ Lieblich
Gedeckt has been reconstituted from four different ranks from other builders,
but the sound is seamless. Wyatt Insko played J. S. Bach’s transcription
of a Concerto in G Major by Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. The day concluded
with a wine-tasting and tour hosted by Jack Bethards of the historic
Schoenstein organ factory, founded in 1877.

Wednesday:  San
Francisco after the 1906 Fire

Wayne Leupold argued that transcriptions are now
respectable, citing arrangers from 1300 to the present—including, among
others, J. S. Bach, Boëly, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Widor, and
Novello.  Some of the compositions
emerged “new and improved” with the transcriber’s own opus
number.  In the early 1900s Edwin
Lemare brought transcriptions to a new level of sophistication, as demonstrated
by Frederick Hohman, who played Lemare’s transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture at a “1924 Concert of Organ Music” on the Skinner organ in Trinity Episcopal Church, which was installed in that year.

Christian Elliott accompanied a screening of Buster
Keaton’s film “Steamboat Bill Jr.” on the Wurlitzer organ at
the Castro Theater, performing his own score. His synchronization with
Keaton’s “singing” of the Prisoner’s Song and also with
the impact of various falling objects was faultless.

Civic organs were discussed at the Palace of the Legion of
Honor by John Fenstermaker, Ed Stout, and Jonathan Ambrosino. The
museum’s Skinner organ was installed with the premise that great music
should accompany great art. Ed Stout is currently restoring this 63-rank 1924
organ, rebuilding the console and adding a computerized combination action. The
organ has many unusual features, including an Arch Clarion and Chimes which are
designed to be heard in the courtyard. 
Another unusual aspect of the organ is that there are no obvious
“grills” or means for the organ to be heard in the museum. All of
the openings were originally covered in muslim and painted to imitate the stone
walls which surround them. Over the years, the paint had become so thick that
the sound of the organ was severely compromised. The restoration will include
the installation of a more suitable covering.

The First Church of Christ, Scientist in San Francisco has a
splendid example of the orchestral style of organ building —a 1924
Kimball that has been virtually unchanged. All the pipework is enclosed so that
“one can accompany the Aeoline with the Tuba Mirabilis,” according
to organist C. Thomas Rhoads, who demonstrated the tonal families and then
played a program which included his own transcription of the “Serenade of
the Doll” from Debussy’s Children’s Corner Suite.

Thursday:  The
American Classic Organ and The Early Organ Reform Movement

Jonathan Ambrosino showed how pipe organs were everywhere
during Victorian times—not only in churches but in private homes and even
yachts. If there was no resident organist, music was played from rolls; it was
the home entertainment center. There was—and still is—an Austin
organ in Balboa Park in San Diego where Edwin Lemare gave a concert series in
1902. Ambrosino  gave an absorbing
account of Murray M. Harris’ ups and downs, E. M. Skinner’s falling
out with three prominent California organists (Moore, Sabin and Allen) and the
ascendancy of G. Donald Harrison. Between 1930 and 1965 organs underwent swift
and dramatic change, but Harrison never rejected the romantic organ; he just
wanted to make it better. He looked backward for authentic organ sounds that
would serve previous periods of music, not imitations of orchestral sounds. He
never lost sight of the organ’s purpose, which was accompanying choirs.
He believed that all sounds in an organ needed to work together. A small
Æolian-Skinner organ (1939) at St. Boniface Church demonstrated this
emerging neo-classical trend with only eight ranks plus Plein Jeu. Other
builders reacted against the perceived sentimental excesses of the romantic
organ.

One of Harrison’s crowning achievements was the organ
at Grace Cathedral where we heard Evensong. Christopher Putnam gave a rousing
performance of Searle Wright’s Lyric Rhapsody for the prelude and John
Fenstermaker conducted the men’s choir in a setting of Psalm 126 by
Sowerby.

A concert of “Organ and Chamber Music for the American
Classic Organ” was performed at First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo
by three organists. Layten Heckman’s portion included Hovhaness’
Dawn Hymn and Three Pieces for a Ceremony by Michael McCabe with the Festival
Brass Ensemble conducted by David Farr. Wilbur Russell played Wilbur
Held’s Music for the New Year, recently commissioned by the host church.
In Theme and Variations on “The Old Year Now Has Passed Away”
Russell showed the varying colors of the 1966 Æolian-Skinner.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  John Pagett accompanied Susan Rode
Morris on the piano for Prayers, Songs and Praises by David Clark Isele. The
evening ended with a hilarious rendition of “The King of Instruments: A
Parade of Music and Verse.” The Ogden Nash-like text, by Albright and
Eugene Haun, was delightfully hammed up by Chandler Stokes, the pastor of the
church.

Friday: 
Latter-Day Reform Movement; The Tracker Revival; Historical Copies

The 1910 Hutchings organ at Old First Presbyterian Church
was a victim in 1950 of the trend toward neo-baroque voicing. Shrill upperwork
was added and important 8¢ ranks discarded. Visscher Associates has just
rebuilt and greatly enlarged the organ, keeping it faithful to the
organ’s original tonal purpose while expanding the instrument’s
versatility.  George Becker played
a historically diverse program including Franck’s Choral in B Minor in
which the Vox Humana was particularly effective.

At Stanford University Robert Bates introduced us to the
three magnificent organs at Memorial Church. A brand new addition is the
Katherine Potter-Brinegar cabinet organ built in Renaissance style (after
Compenius) by Paul Fritts and Company. 
It is tuned in 1/4 comma meantone temperament with suspended mechanical
key action, and easily movable to other locations in the church. The size of
the instrument is deceptive; the sounds, some pure and sweet and others
surprisingly sonorous, carry through the church with ease. The oldest organ in
the church is the large 1901 Murray M. Harris instrument which has been
reworked by Johnston Organ Company (a successor to Murray Harris), Ernest
Skinner, Æolian-Skinner, Rosales, and in 1995 by John DeCamp and Mark
Austin.  The 1984 Fisk-Nanney organ
epitomizes the tracker revival and can be played either in well temperament or
in one-fifth comma meantone by moving a lever.

We visited the home of Jacques Littlefield, in which there
is a large Fisk organ (1987) showing mixed French and German influences.
Noteworthy are the Dom Bedos Tremblant Doux and the harmonic flute which
changes greatly in character as it gets higher, demonstrated by Matthew Dirst
with D’Aquin’s Noël Étranger. Ewert (“Red”)
Wetherill gave an overview of  the
acoustical revisions of  Memorial
Church. He noted that the mosaic work on the walls provides superb
reflectivity, but that the jointed, lightweight plank ceiling is absorptive
especially in the lower registers. Improvements included removing a thick layer
of hair-covered felt from the entire ceiling of the church. The afternoon ended
with a typical Sunday morning service of Holy Communion at All Saints’
Episcopal Church where Gwen Adams is the music director. It is the
parish’s custom to print a large quantity of music directly in the Sunday
program, thereby encouraging maximum congregational participation. The parish
sings the same setting of the liturgy for the whole of a given church season so
that the congregation can learn it; they sing new hymns three or four weeks in
a row for the same reason.

The final event of the 1996 Festival was a concert with the
three organs at Stanford entitled: “Five Centuries of Transcriptions for
Organ.” Particularly effective was Paduana Lachrimae by Dowland,
intabulated by Sweelinck and played antiphonally by Robert Bates on the
Potter-Brinegar at the front of the church and Matthew Dirst on the Fisk in the
rear top gallery.  A rousing end to
the evening and the Festival was provided by Frederick Hohman with the
“Ride of the Valkyries” complete with Brunnhilde’s portamento
up to the high note, played on the Murray M. Harris.

In a follow-up conference in October titled “A
Changing Profession:  Embracing the
New Century,” the common thread of need for more education persisted.
Drawing on his article in the February 1996 edition of The American Organist,
“Leonard Bernstein, a Lodestar for the American Church Musician,”
Steve Pilkington urged us to “lighten up” in dealing with the gap
between the organist’s traditional musical orientation and the
congregational comfort level. We must educate congregations more and make music
accessible and inclusive the way Bernstein did in his young people’s
concerts. Harriet Nelson noted that shared traditions hold institutions
together while generational differences work against this. To confront this
trend we should be willing to adapt, have integrity, seek quality and develop
competence.

During research for her book Music in Churches, Linda Clark
studied the style of three Methodist congregations. The style of the first, a
rural congregation, was characterized by energy and hubbub; the second, located
in a suburban neighborhood, was formal and dignified; the third, a downtown
Boston African-American church, was characterized by rhythm, power, and a
call-and-response culture. She feels that conflicts over popular musical style
involve two separate issues:  the
quality of the music and the style in which it is performed.

John Pagett advised us to rededicate ourselves to aggressive
education, keeping aware of the pervasiveness of popular culture.

Jack Bethards, Manuel Rosales and Jonathan Ambrosino
discussed developments in organ design. Electronic organs have taken over the
cheap market. With the reduced volume of work there is less feedback and less
opportunity for development, but builders still get excited about reproducing a
sound they hear inside their head.

In an upbeat sharing session attendees contributed various
suggestions:  improve your
publicizing skills; play a congregant’s favorite hymns on their birthdays
(perhaps for donations to the music fund); write articles in the bulletin about
the organ music performed that day; investigate new electronic sounds (not
duplicative ones); improve acoustics of the church as much as possible; include
everyone possible as ‘extras’ in your music programs.

The Festival fully explored its subject matter and this
reviewer came away more aware of the debt we owe to those who came before us
and the responsibility we have in handing on to succeeding generations their
and our own “practices.” Change is endemic to every period and
provides the stimulus for a thoughtful determination of what our own
“practice” will be.

by Herb Huestis

One of the leading events to make news on the OrganNet--technical name, PIPORG-L--was the 1995 convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders in San Jose, California. Dave Schutt, a founding member of Piporg-L, lives in San Jose and, with several members of the list, gave play-by-play descriptions of events as they occurred. High points included presentations on San Francisco Bay area organbuilding, including a visit to the Schoenstein Organ Shop, hosted by Jack Bethards. Robert Bates' presentation of the three fabulous organs (Fritts, Murray Harris and Fisk) at Stanford University was unforgettable. E.M. Skinner organs played a prominent role in the presentations with Nelson Barden's humorous  presentation of a serious subject--"Secrets of Successful Restoration." A riveting lecture, followed with a video presentation of the "demystification" of pitman chests by Joseph Dzeda and Nicholas Thompson-Allen, curators of the organ at Yale.

This was high powered stuff.

As various secrets and suggestions were let out of Pandora's box, they soon hit the net, often the same day they were presented. Once on the wire, they mushroomed into "threads" or lines of discussion. One of the most interesting topics was that of tuning, always good for many points of view.

For example:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:49:47 -0500

From: Eugene Blackstone

Subject: AIO Convention (Day Three)

Dave Schutt reports:

Bill Visscher talked about the tuning of mixtures. He had some little felt cones that had been fabricated to keep some pipes in the mixture from playing. They seemed to be very effective, and you don't end up with cotton all over the place. Bill had a 7-rank note that he tuned and a big scale Cornet that he tuned (one note).

Dave: while we have been using felt cones for tuning mixtures at home, when it has come to tuning the V Cornet, felt cones stuck in the top of the pipes have  been ineffective in preventing the pipes from speaking (off pitch, of course). So we have used cotton wads on sticks. I gather there must be something special about  Bill V.'s felt cones that silenced the large scale Cornet? If so, I'd like to try it. (And I presume that others of you use felt cones, too, and could tell me in what way they are constructed to silence a wide scale Cornet).

A quick reply came in:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:58:19 -0700

From: Peter Schmuckal

Subject: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three)

I was also at that talk. Bill was using bushing cloth, not felt to construct his cones.  They were a lot heavier than felt.

And another.

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 21:04:21 -0700

From: Jim Tyler

Subject: Tuning Mixtures (Was: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three))

Another approach is a handful of tuning "mops." These amount to a bundle of short pieces of string or yarn taped to the end of a long thin rod. They can be gently lowered into the pipe, where the mop effectively interferes with the pipe's speech. The ones I've used have been thin metal rods, but I should think thin acrylic (perspex) rods would be lighter and perhaps less likely to damage the languid if accidently dropped into the pipe, rather than gently inserted. You have to have quite a collection of these mops, in a variety of sizes, but they last quite a while if  carefully made. They don't "shed" the way cotton does. Cones are, however, better for the *really* tiny pipes near the top of the compass.

Hope this helps!

Another reader was concerned for the health of languids:

I am personally fearful of placing anything that has any weight on the languids.  I use bushing cloth cones. They can be placed on the top of the pipe or inverted. The largest one that I use will fit over a 2¢ pipe (the lowest pitch mixture I presently tune is a 2-2/3¢). The smallest ones are about 3/8≤ dia by 1≤. There is something strange about the conical shape that stops the pipe from speaking. They are also very light weight and only rarely move the tuning slide. During tuning seasons I carry them nested in my shirt pocket (try that with your paint brushes and rods!).

Lanny Hochhalter

And another:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:06:26 -0400

From: Cullie Mowers

Subject: Mixture-tuning caps

The "felt" (actually heavy bushing cloth) caps for Tuning mixtures are *great,* and I've used them for years. I've also presented sets of them to organ maintenance colleagues after seeing bits of cotton, slivers of paper, etc. scattered on the walk- and rack-boards of organs they service!  The last set I bought (1989, under the name "K-D Kaps") cost $15.00; they were made by Kathy Foley. The address at that time was: K-D Kaps, PO Box 9223, Bolton, CT  06043. These are cones very professionally sewn out of heavy red bushing cloth. Each set contains several sizes; I forget just how many, and how many caps of each size, but they do the job on virtually every mixture I've encountered. Only exceptions have been the lowest-pitch rank of one Pedal mixture, and one bizarre mixture we ran onto which had slotted pipes in the lower pitch ranges. I hope that Ms. Foley or her heirs and assigns are still in business; *everyone* oughta have these gadgets in the tool box.

I could not resist sticking in my two cents:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 23:26:03 EDT

From: Herbert Huestis <[email protected]>

Subject: Tuning Mixtures

For what its worth, I have found that the most effective "mop" for tuning high mixture pipes is a very small artist's paint brush--or two for bigger pipes and mops for the biggest. They completely silence the pipe as well as clean the dust from the languid. Artist's brushes are invaluable when tuning coned pipes, since the removal of the dust is often all that is necessary to "tune" the pipe.

This "cleaning" of the languid tends to return the pipe to its original tuning. And if the brush is carefully inserted, the tuning mechanism will not be altered.

These tuning procedures are the mark of the most careful and sensitive technicians--for example, Robert and Richard Lahaise, who take care of the famous Hook organs in the Boston area. Of their work, Thomas Murray wrote:

The First Church of Jamaica Plain (where the Hook brothers are said to have been members) is a superb Hook instrument of 3 manuals and 31 speaking stops, built in 1854 and surviving in virtually unaltered condition. The smaller pipes, most of which are still cone tuned, are well preserved thanks to careful tuning procedures employed over the years.  The writer recalls watching with great interest as the Mixture and Sesquialtra stops were "tuned" prior to our recording sessions by the removal of dirt from the pipes with a tiny camel's hair brush, a practice which significantly reduces the risk of damage to the pipes by the use of tuning cones. (Liner notes from Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas, Sheffield label.)

Could there be any better recommendation for this technique?

Well, there you have it. That's how a "thread" works on the OrganNet. To follow threads, you log on and read all the messages on a particular subject. Often it will start with some inoccuous comment and balloon into a full-fledged discussion that may take you well into uncharted territory.

Let's hope you don't have to navigate through any storms, or get "burned" by a "flame."  And who knows what you will find?  There is so much to learn!

Many thanks to these volunteers who have typed specifications or made other contributions to the Osiris Archive! Thanks to these efforts, there are more than 1100 organ specifications and other data housed at this World Wide Web site.

Martin Chalton                  England

Walter Davis     United States

Albert Falop      United States

Glen Frank         United States

Richard Greene                United States

Kernin Ilkka      Finland

Carl Kishline     United States

Kenneth Matthews        United States

Ian McClelland                 Ireland

David Lowry    United States

Peter Rodwell  Spain

Richard Sedcole               New Zealand

Jonathan Tan    Singapore

Timothy Tikker                United States

Herb Huestis, Editor

The Osiris Archive, housed at the Vienna University of Economics, Austria

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/pub/earlym-l/organs

Sidebar

Subject: Some Tuning Humah....

Date: 14-Oct-95 at 05:58  

From: Edward Peterson

INTERNET: [email protected]

TO: 70771,1047

----------------------------

REEDTUNE.EXE

----------------------------

Ed's Practice-Makes-Perfect Tuning Program   (c)1995

This program is not guaranteed in any way and works only for reed organs. For tuning pipe organs get Ed's Practical ComputerChromoTune Your Pipe Organ v2.7b.

Please check your Autoexec.Dingbat file before running this program;

It must contain the line "SET Tongue-in-cheek"!

Start:

Tune_Organ:

                  if "out-of-tune badly" run subroutine1;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Tune_Reed;

                  if In_Tune leavewellenoughalone;

                  if "flat" GoSub2Flat;

                                    Sub2Flat:

                                                      withdraw - scrape, scrape;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      play - assess;

                                                      if "nowsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "stillflat" GoSub2Flat;

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      else goto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                  if "sharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                    Sub2Sharp:

                                                      withdraw - file, file;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      listen;

                                                      if "stillsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "nowflat" GoSub2Flat; 

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      if "error" returnto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                 

                  expect "InTune"

                  ifandwhen In_Tune goto Next_Reed;

Next_Reed:

                  goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

                  if Not_In_Tune loopback else;

                  when "temperamentbad" gosub4 Find_Wolf;

                  if "temperamentgood" find Distrust_Ears_Anyway;

                   expect "In_Tune"

                  quitif In_Tune;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Find_Wolf:

                  gosub1 Set_Temperament;

                  endif "In_Tune";

                  next;

[Subroutine1]:

                  Set_Temperament:

                                    if "bad" goto Start_Over;

                                    else goto Call_Tuner;

                                    ifgood Thank_God;

                                    if "UknowwhatURdoing" proceed;

                                    then goto Tune_Organ;

                                    endif "notknowwhatURdoing";                                                   endsubroutine1;

                                    next;

                                    quit;

Call_Tuner:

                  goto Call_Number;                          wait;

                  wait months;

                  wait manymonths;

                  iftuned pay handsomely;

                  else goto Start_Over;

                  quit;

                  next;

 

Pull_Hair_Out:

                  then goto Start_Over; 

                  ifnot hairy gosub1;

                  quit;

 

Start_Over:

                  call Subroutine1;

                  ifgood loopback Tune_Organ;

                  else goto Pull_Hair_Out;

                  if "understandthis" goto ITT Tech;

                  if "notunderstandthis" goto music school;

                  failquit;

                  quit;

                  endif "last resort":

                  call Call_Tuner;

                  end

                  end

June 25-30, 1995

By Samuel Douglas

Samuel Douglas is Music librarian at the San Francisco Public Library and Organist, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Mill Valley, California.

"Cathedral Organist: A celebration of Louis Vierne at 125" was the theme of the 1995 San Anselmo Organ Festival. The Sunday evening opening concert was performed by Olivier Latry, Titular Organist of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris. First Presbyterian Church, the "host" church, was filled to capacity, even though the temperature had soared to a record 100+ degrees. Latry offered works by Bonnet, Dupré, Barie, and Vierne's Symphony no. 1 in d minor, op. 14. He closed his program with a brilliant improvisation on two themes from the collection Vierne himself had prepared for his students at the Paris Conservatoire. At the concert and subsequent concerts, the symphonies were introduced by Rulon Christiansen, who has published articles on Vierne and Widor in The American Organist.

Monday's events began with a keynote address by John
Pagett, which provided a historical and musical context for the events to
follow. Late in the morning Robert Bates of Stanford University's Memorial Church presented Vierne's Symphony no II in e minor, op. 20. Monday afternoon Karen Hastings-Deans presented a lecture on the development of the organ symphony and organ mass, contributing greatly to the understanding of the context within which Vierne lived and composed. Latry held an interesting
improvisation demonstration from which all gained some very useful "tips." The festival then walked up the hill to the beautiful campus of the San Anselmo Presbyterian Seminary, with its magnificent views of Marin County's Mt. Tamalpais, accompanied by piper Merritt Robinson. Susan Landale, organist at the Church of St. Louis des Invalides, Paris, talked about her exciting days as a young student of Marchal's in Paris. The National Improvisation Contest was held Monday night. The theme, submitted by Festival Director David Farr, was the hymn tune "Kedron" as in Pilsbury's United States Harmony (1799). It can be found in the Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 121. Judges Ron McKean, Susan Landale and Olivier Latry did not award a first prize this year. John Schwandt of Wisconsin was awarded a second prize and Chris Putnam, assistant organist at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, was awarded third prize.

Tuesday morning began with an improvisation lesson for the
beginner presented by Latry. The morning lecture was by organbuilder Manuel
Rosales, sharing slides and recordings of Cavaillé-Coll and other organs
he had visited on a study tour of France. During the morning break John Pagett
played some recordings of Vierne performing at Notre Dame and St. Sulpice. What
a treat to be able to hear the master himself! Paul Jacobson, organist at San
Francisco's First Unitarian Church, presented Vierne's Symphony No. III in f sharp minor. In the afternoon, Rulon Christiansen, director of music at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Ogden, Utah, lectured on the piano music of Vierne. He then performed a selection of the works, showing that Vierne had a first-rate idiomatic understanding of the piano. Tuesday evening's program "Virtually Vierne I" included music for a variety of instrumental ensembles, as well as music by Widor and Dupré. The Soirs Étrangers, op. 56, for cello and piano, the Rhapsodie, op. 25,
for harp, and the Largo and Canzonetta, op. 6, for oboe and piano, show the
wide range of Vierne's interests. The performances by Bay Area musicians
were of the highest quality. Wyatt Insko of the San Francisco Conservatory of
Music organized the evening's performances.

Wednesday's events took place in the East Bay. Oakland's
First Presbyterian Church, with its marvelous new Rosales organ, was the venue
for Latry's improvisation lesson 2 for the advanced student. Following an
open console, host organist Ron McKean presented Vierne's Symphony no. IV
in g minor, op. 32. Then on to the Walnut Creek home of Eric Walling, where he
has installed the 3-manual Moller organ removed from Trinity Cathedral,
Portland. The organ is in a large music room having a very warm acoustic,
allowing the sound to "bloom" quite nicely.

Thursday began with a masterclass on the works of Vierne and
other French composers by Latry. The morning lecture, "Vierne and his
students: Vierne the teacher" was presented by Landale. It was an
interesting look at organ pedagogy at the turn of the century. Following the
lecture Christiansen performed Vierne's Symphony No. V in a minor, op.
47. The afternoon was devoted to the harmonium and its music, with a lecture by
Jim Tyler, Regional Counsellor for the U.S. West, Reed Organ Society. The
instruments were demonstrated by James M. Bratton, Professor Emeritus,
University of Denver. An open console followed. The evening concert,
"Virtually Vierne II," consisted of choral and vocal music by 20th-century French organists, featuring the David Farr Chorale, organists John Pagett and Paul Jacobson, and other Bay Area musicians. Works by Dupré, Guilmant, Fauré, Duruflé, and Messiaen were presented. The evening closed with a rousing reading of Vierne's Missa Solenelle, op.
16.

Friday morning's lecture by Christiansen emphasized
that the stylistic performance of Vierne's music depends on an understanding of Cavaillé-Coll's organs and an awareness of Vierne's own performing style as reported by his pupils. San Francisco organist Josephine Bennington hosted a dinner for the Festival at her Presidio Heights residence. Grace Cathedral was the site of the closing recital by Susan Landale, who played Vierne's Symphony No. 6, op. 59, and works by Tournemire and Messiaen.

This year's Festival was highly successful in many
ways. Musicians of the highest calibre performed. Guest artists were charming,
approachable, and affable. Vierne's music is, of course, magnificent, and
hearing so many of the instrumental, vocal, and choral works revealed him to be
a composer of enormous skill and breadth.