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Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians Conference XXIX, Columbus, Ohio, January 9–12

Donald Fellows

Donald Fellows is Director of Music/Organist of St. Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh. He has been a member of CRCCM since 1984, and has served Roman Catholic cathedral churches in Buffalo, Chicago, Ogdensburg, and now Pittsburgh since 1999.

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Monday, January 9

The 29th Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians took place January 9–12 at St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio. The conference began with the traditional greeting and introduction of members, which took place in the undercroft of the cathedral. A warm and gracious welcome was extended by host Paul Thornock, Bishop Frederick Campbell, and the Very Reverend G. Michael Gribble, rector of the cathedral. CRCCM Chair Peter Latona introduced the week’s agenda. The reception included the usual conviviality in addition to champagne and hors d’oeuvres. The evening concluded with Solemn Compline sung by the Men of the Cathedral Choir. 

 

Tuesday, January 10

The first full day began with Morning Prayer in the cathedral apse, which was preceded by an elegant prelude of music of Frescobaldi, Couperin, and Bach performed on the cathedral’s harpsichord (on loan from Columbus’s First Congregational Church) by Marie Rubis Bauer of St. Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha. Morning Prayer for Tuesday of the first week in Ordinary Time followed. 

Matthew Peattie of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music presented “The Sight and Sound of the Gregorian Propers: Medieval Chant in Nuance-Rich Manuscripts.” This fascinating presentation traced the origins and development of historical notational methods, which helped propel that which began as oral transmission. The Catholic Foundation served as the location for Peattie’s presentation (and others throughout the week). 

Lunch in the cathedral undercroft followed, sponsored by Peter’s Way Tours. Peter Bahou presented a sneak-preview of the possibilities for CRCCM XXX, which will take place in Rome, Italy. 

Organbuilder Paul Fritts presented “Building a Cathedral Organ,” in which he detailed the history of his own organ-building principles and experience, and how they contributed to the design and development of the St. Joseph Cathedral organ.  

Kevin Vogt presented “Striking the Tonic Chord: Mission, Vision and Practice in Church Music Ministry.” His interactive session detailed a model and structure for long-term prioritization for music ministers, as well as suggested steps for achieving those goals.

The week’s first business meeting was then held. Business agenda items included the nomination/election of steering committee members, a description of the newly restored CRCCM website, and discussion on the 30th anniversary conference to be held in Rome in 2013.

Participants found dinner on their own, which preceded the day’s concluding event, a stunning concert sung by the St. Joseph Cathedral Choir. The exciting and demanding performance included music of Wood, Tallis, Guerrero, Cornysh, Pärt, Mendelssohn, Briggs, Wisniewski, Howells, and Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir

 

Wednesday, January 11

Morning Prayer was preceded by the prelude, performed by member Ricardo Ramirez of Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral. Movements I and II of Suite for Organ, op. 5 by Maurice Duruflé were followed by Morning Prayer for Wednesday of the first week in Ordinary Time.

The Most Reverend Frederick F. Campbell, Bishop of Columbus, addressed the conference at the Catholic Foundation. His insightful presentation gave members a glimpse of worship through the eyes of a bishop. He spoke of the challenges of managing the liturgical life of an entire diocese, while detailing the essential role of the cathedral and its impact on the community. 

The afternoon session began with a “Liturgical Improvisation Workshop” led by David Briggs. Briggs related many stories of his own study of the art of improvisation, particularly those surrounding his time with Jean Langlais and Pierre Cochereau. Many agreed that the art can take as long as fifteen years of study before one can consider oneself a master of improvisation. Briggs concluded with an elaborate and dazzling improvisation on Pange Lingua Gloriosi.

Following a break sponsored by Peebles-Herzog Organ Builders, the conference continued with Richard Sparks presenting “Erik Ericson and the Swedish Choral Sound: What Can a North American Choir Learn from That Tradition?” Sparks provided examples of how to adjust choral tone and vowel placement. Consideration of this technique offered a greater variety of vocal tone for the participants. The second half of Sparks’s presentation included a rehearsal with members of the St. Joseph Cathedral Choir, by which his technique of vowel modification was demonstrated within their performance of choral literature. The excellent singers worked hard to adjust their technique in order to show the possibility of tonal variety. Repertoire included O Thou, the Central Orb and the Frank Martin Mass for Double Choir.

The concluding event of the day was a solo organ recital by David Briggs. Briggs was a featured performer in the dedication of the Fritts organ and was back by popular demand. His program included works by Bach, Haydn, Franck, Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Duruflé, and a multi-movement improvisation on submitted themes. Briggs demonstrated the versatility and the tonal variety of the cathedral organ, and was very well received by the appreciative audience.

 

Thursday, January 12 

The day began with the Morning Prayer prelude, performed by Phillip Brisson of the Cathedral of the Assumption, Louisville, Kentucky. Bach’s Sonata in C Minor, BWV 526, was right at home in the hands (and feet) of Brisson and on the cathedral’s organ. Morning Prayer for Thursday of the first week in Ordinary Time followed. In addition to the elegant nature of the manner of prayer was the presence of Fr. James Moore, O.P. of the Western Province of the Dominican Order. Each Morning Prayer celebration of the week included a homily by Fr. Moore. A musician himself, he expertly offered timely reflections for the unique assembly.

The annual CRCCM Composers Reading Session was held in the cathedral choir room. Facilitated by Brian Luckner of St. Joseph Cathedral, La Crosse, Wisconsin, the session included new compositions of Ordinary texts of the Revised Roman Missal, in addition to several Christmas carol arrangements. The reading session provided many high-caliber compositions that will undoubtedly make their way to the repertoire lists of many member cathedrals. 

The afternoon was devoted to a tour of several important institutions and their facilities. Visits were made to the beautifully preserved Church of St. Mary, German Village, and its historic 1902 Wm. Schuelke/J. W. Muller (2001) organ. The instrument was demonstrated by Scott Gregory Hayes. Columbus’s First Congregational Church is the home of two historic instruments: the 1972 Beckerath and the 1931 Kimball. Resident organist James Bobb performed the demonstrations on these two unique and vastly different examples of organbuilding. St. Agatha Church houses the Opus 75 Bedient organ, 2006, built in Cavaillé-Coll style. Cathedral organist Robert Wisniewski performed works by Messiaen, Guilain, and Saint-Saëns. The final stop of the tour was at the Pontifical College Josephinum. Resident organist Jason Keefer performed music of Reger to demonstrate the recently relocated 2003 Beckerath organ in the seminary’s St. Turibius Chapel.

Solemn Eucharist was celebrated in the cathedral with Bishop Frederick Campbell presiding, the cathedral choir under the direction of Paul Thornock, organist Robert Wisniewski at the Gober organ, and improvisations by David Briggs at the Fritts organ. Music included Propers from the Roman Missal, Kyrie & Agnus from Mass for Five Voices by William Byrd, Psalm 44 by Robert Wisniewski, Gospel Acclamation by Kevin Vogt, Eucharistic Acclamations from the Mass in Honor of St. Cecilia (commissioned by St. Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha) by David Hurd, A Fair and Delectable Place by Richard Webster, and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence by Edward Bairstow. Following Eucharist, the conference concluded with the closing banquet at the Sheraton. Fitting gratitude was expressed to CRCCM Chair Peter Latona; conference host Paul Thornock; the Very Rev. Frederick Campbell, Bishop of Columbus; and the Very Reverend G. Michael Gribble, rector of the cathedral.

 

 

 

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Jehan Alain—The American Festival: Wichita State University

Thomas F. Froehlich

Thomas F. Froehlich graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he was a student of Miriam Clapp Duncan. He earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University, studying with Wolfgang Rübsam. Other teachers have included Anton Heiller and Jean Langlais (improvisation). During his second tenure in Paris he served as organist/choirmaster at St. Michael’s Anglican Church, where he oversaw the installation of their Kern organ and subsequently administered a recital series. He has served as organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas since 1977.

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The Rie Bloomfield Organ Series 2011–2012 presented Jehan Alain, 1911–1940: The American Festival at Wichita State University, September 28–30, 2011. The following is a personal reflection.

In January 2009, the church where I have been the organist for 34 years had a 20th birthday party for the organ in our chapel. It was built by Dan Jaeckel and inspired by the choir organs of Cavaillé-Coll, and we discovered quite accidentally that the stoplist is nearly identical to that of the choir organ at the Alain family church in St. Germain-en-Laye. That being the case, we decided to make the 20th-anniversary concert an “Alain Family Evening,” with music composed by, and in honor of, the Alain family. Organists participating were Lynne Davis, George Baker, Jesse
Eschbach, and I, all former students of Marie-Claire Alain.

The next morning, basking in the afterglow of what had turned into a magical evening, Lynne Davis commented, “You know, 2011 is the centennial of Jehan Alain’s birth—somebody ought to do something.” I replied, “Why don’t you?” Instantly Jehan Alain—The American Festival was born. After an hour of brainstorming, the entire symposium was planned! 

Flash forward to 2011, and the festival took place nearly exactly as we had envisioned. Our host was the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series in its 2011–2012 season on the campus of Wichita State University, home to a magnificent four-manual Marcussen organ. The room, Wiedemann Hall, around which the organ was built, was an inspiring venue for the concerts and recitals. Both were built exactly 25 years ago in 1986—another anniversary to celebrate. Across the street, the lectures and dialogue among festival participants took place in the Grace Memorial Chapel. The small room provided an intimate setting for these events without the need for any amplification.  

 

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

The first event of the celebration was the brilliant opening recital—and a festival highlight—on the 1986 Marcussen by Lynne Davis, Associate Professor of Organ at WSU, who holds the Ann & Dennis Ross Endowed Faculty of Distinction in Organ Chair. The substantial program, entitled “Jehan Alain and the Evolution of the French Tradition,” was physically and musically demanding, but one that Ms. Davis handled with great ease. It opened with the Vierne Toccata, followed by Franck’s Pastorale. The first half ended with Jehan Alain’s Trois Danses. After intermission was the Alain Suite pour Orgue and, in closing, the Dupré Variations on a Noël.

 

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Keynote speaker for the conference was Aurélie Decourt, niece of Jehan Alain and daughter of Marie-Claire Alain, and a noted musicologist in her own right. Her opening presentation, “Jehan Alain: Musician and Poet,” part 1, dealt with biographical details as well as personal reflections on the Alain family and of their home life in St. Germain-en-Laye. After a break, part two of her talk centered on Jehan Alain’s multi-faceted personality and how this influenced his creative output in music, drawings, and writings.  

After lunch, Lynne Davis gave a presentation on the Alain family’s organ, now housed in Romainmôtier, Switzerland. She started by showing the DVD on the organ produced by Guy Bovet and the Alain Association, and then opened the floor to a general discussion, questions and answers, and general comments. 

The next event was a musical one, the first of two recitals featuring the complete works of Jehan Alain, played by former students of Marie-Claire Alain on the Marcussen organ. Organists participating were James Frazier, Jesse Eschbach, Ronald Wyatt, and Thomas Froehlich. Following the recital was a gala cocktail reception at the WSU “Ulrich Museum,” which houses the famous mural by Joan Miró. The campus of WSU is home to one of the most important outdoor sculpture collections in the world.  

The gala recital that evening, “Autour de Jehan Alain,” featured students and faculty from the WSU School of Music, and included vocal, choral, and instrumental music of Jehan Alain. Of greatest interest to the organists were the original version of the Intermezzo for two pianos and bassoon (followed by Jehan Alain’s own arrangement for organ) and an arrangement of Litanies by Olivier Alain for two pianos (followed by a performance of the original organ version). Organists for the concert were Lynne Davis, James David Christie, Jesse Eschbach, and Thomas Froehlich.

 

Friday, 30 September 2011 

The morning began with another lecture by Aurélie Decourt, “Jehan Alain: His Creative Musical Inspiration,” which expanded on the two presentations made the previous day. Time was spent discussing sources, looking at manuscripts, etc. This led beautifully into a spirited dialogue between Norma Stevlingson and Jesse Eschbach entitled “New Editions, Critical Notes, and Anecdotes,” and also opened up the floor to seminar participants.  

After lunch was another former-student recital, this time featuring James Higdon, Robert Bates, Wim Viljoen, and Charles Sundquist. The afternoon ended with a panel discussion centered on understanding Jehan Alain through the teaching of Marie-Claire Alain. Panel members were several of her close friends and former students. Lynne Davis was the moderator for the panel, which included Thomas Froehlich, James Higdon, Norma Stevlingson, John Grew, and James David Christie. Aurélie Decourt also participated. 

The evening concert took place at Century II, the Wichita convention center, which houses the famous Wurlitzer organ built for the Paramount Theatre in New York. Resident organist James Riggs presented a program of music celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tin Pan Alley and the Big Band Era.  

Sincere thanks go to James David Christie for his invaluable help and insight in organizing the Thursday night concert as well as to Rodney Miller, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at WSU, for his invaluable support. Hearty congratulations and thanks are due to Lynne Davis, who had both the vision and stamina to organize a symposium that was incredible in every detail. The lectures were both fascinating and informative, and the music was memorable, inspirational, and at times even spiritual. Not only were we nourished musically, but there was also plenty of good food and time for socializing! Certainly all who were present left having had an intimate encounter with Jehan Alain, with his music, and with the legacy of the entire Alain family.

 

 

 

Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians Conference XXXV: Kalamazoo, Michigan, and South Bend, Indiana, January 2018

Brian F. Gurley

Brian F. Gurley is director of music and organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, New York. He currently serves as membership chair of the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians.

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The Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians (CRCCM) met in Kalamazoo, Michigan, January 8–11 for its thirty-fifth annual gathering. Thomas Fielding, director of liturgy and music at Saint Augustine Cathedral, designed and directed the gathering with help from Francis Zajac, director of liturgy and music emeritus at the cathedral; the support staff of the cathedral; and the CRCCM steering committee: Michael Batcho, director of music, Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Teri Larson, director of music and arts, Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Ezequiel Menendez, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Hartford, Connecticut; Joseph Balistreri, coordinator of music ministries, Archdiocese of Detroit, and director of music, Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit, Michigan; Crista Miller, director of music and organist, Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston, Texas; and Christoph Tietze, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco, California; with Gerald Muller, Leo Nestor, and James Savage, advising.

 

Monday, January 8

Conference participants gathered at Saint Augustine Cathedral for Vespers.  Reverend Thomas McNally, Vice Rector of the Cathedral, celebrated Vespers, and liturgical music was provided by Thomas Fielding and the Cathedral Choir. Choral music included Unto Us is Born a Son, arranged by David Willcocks; Christmas Lullaby by John Rutter; Tollite hostias by Camille Saint-Saëns; Awake and Arise and Hail the New Morn by Fielding; O Virgin Theotokos, Rejoice by Roman Hurko; Transeamus usque Bethlehem by Josef Ignatz Schnabel; Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon; and Magnificat by Giuseppe Pitoni. Francis Zajac welcomed all conference participants and gave a thorough history of the cathedral, including its various renovation projects.

Saint Augustine Cathedral was dedicated in 1951. It was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Ralph Adams Cram of Boston and originally served as a parish church in the Diocese of Lansing. In 1970, Pope Paul VI created the Diocese of Kalamazoo from portions of the Dioceses of Lansing and Grand Rapids, at which time Saint Augustine Church was consecrated the diocesan cathedral of Kalamazoo. The cathedral is home to a three-manual, forty-two-rank Nichols and Simpson organ of 2002.

Following dinner in the cathedral hall, all of the participants introduced themselves. New members and first-time conference participants for 2018 included: Adam Brakel, director of music, Saint James Cathedral, Orlando, Florida; Bruce Croteau, director of liturgy, Saint James Cathedral, Orlando; Felipe Delsart, director of the polyphonic choir and adjunct organist, Metropolitan Cathedral, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Terri Dunn, conductor at Saint Michael’s Choir School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; James Grzadzinski, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, Joliet, Illinois; Mark Loria, principal organist, Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bruce Ludwick, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Paul, Birmingham, Alabama; Matthew Meloche, director of sacred music, Cathedral of Saints Simon and Jude, Phoenix, Arizona; Andrew Motyka, director of archdiocesan and cathedral liturgical music, Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana; Charles Nolen, director of music and liturgy, Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Richard Siegel, assistant organist, Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, Joliet, Illinois; and Richard Skirpan, Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

 

Tuesday, January 9

On Tuesday morning, conference participants gathered for Morning Prayer at the cathedral. Prelude music was performed by David Jonies, associate director of music, Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois. Jonies played Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, opus 60, movements 2 and 3, by Max Reger. Thomas Fielding played all service music for Morning Prayer, as well as Procession by William Mathias for postlude.

Following Morning Prayer, Reverend Bradley A. Zamora, director of liturgy and instructor in the Department of Liturgy and Music, Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois, delivered a keynote address on the spirituality of the cathedral musician. Fr. Zamora exhorted conference participants to maintain active prayer lives, since cathedral musicians are to be disciples. He also reminded his audience of the distinction between “working for Mass” and “attending Mass” and described his own spiritual enrichment whenever he attends Mass “as a parishioner” in the assembly.

Prior to his appointment at Mendelein Seminary, Fr. Zamora served as associate pastor and director of liturgy at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. Formerly a parish music director, he maintains active membership in the National Associations of Pastoral Musicians, the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, and the Patron of the Arts in Vatican Museums.

Following the keynote address, conference participants turned to the first of two CRCCM business meetings. Christoph Tietze, chair of the steering committee, led the business meeting and described the nomination and election processes for new members of the steering committee. Scott Eakins, treasurer, presented the financial status of the organization. Brian Gurley, membership chair, discussed the ongoing efforts to involve new cathedral musicians in CRCCM, and Marc Cerisier proposed technological options for much needed modernization and automation of membership initiations and renewals.

After lunch, conference participants then gathered at the Waldo Library Rare Book Room of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Elizabeth C. Teviotdale, assistant director of the WMU Medieval Institute, delivered a lecture, “The Illustration of the Music of Christian Worship in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.” Teviotdale presented a fascinating array of illuminated chant manuscripts and offered possible theological, liturgical, and musical interpretations of the illuminations as paired with their antiphons and feasts. She also called attention to a trend in manuscript illuminations, in which they became less detailed and less obviously religious in nature. This trend probably resulted from an increase in the number of illuminations carried out by lay tradesmen and women rather than religious monks and nuns. Following the lecture, conference participants were able to view selected illuminated manuscripts in the Medieval Institute Library.

Elizabeth Teviotdale received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her main research interests are early medieval Christian liturgical manuscripts and their illumination, as well as the history of collecting.

Conference participants returned to the Radisson Hotel for a composers reading session. The reading session is a forum in which conference participants have the opportunity to sing through new compositions from their colleagues.

Conference participants then moved to Saint Augustine Cathedral in the evening for a choral concert performed by the choir, Audivi. Works included Advent Responsory by Richard Marlow; Steh Auf by Christoph Demantius; The Holly and the Ivy, arranged by Reginald Jacques; Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming, arranged by Michael Praetorius; Ave Maria by Robert Parsons; Tota pulchra es à 12 by Heironymous Praetorius; Gloria and Sanctus from Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin; Once in Royal David’s City, arranged by Arthur Henry Mann; Sanctus from Missa Et ecce terræ motus by Antoine Brumel; Away in a manger, arranged by David Willcocks; A Spotless Rose by Herbert Howells; In the Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst; Magnificat by Arvo Pärt; Good Christian friends, rejoice, arranged by Charles Winifred Douglas; Hymne à la Vierge by Pierre Villette; and Silent Night, arranged by Malcolm Sargent. Audivi is a professional vocal ensemble founded in 2013 and based in Detroit. The ensemble specializes in lesser-known Renaissance choral music, but also performs choral music from all eras (www.audivi.net). For this performance, Audivi was under the direction of guest conductor Kimberly Dunn Adams, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The concert was presented as part of the Sacred Music at the Cathedral concert series of Saint Augustine Cathedral.

 

Wednesday, January 10

On Wednesday morning, conference participants traveled to South Bend, Indiana, for a day trip to the University of Notre Dame. Once on campus, Paul Thornock conducted an open choral rehearsal in the Gail L. Walton Rehearsal Room of the Coleman-Morse Building. The rehearsal repertoire included Sicut cervus and Sitivit anima mea by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; Come, let’s rejoice by John Amner; and Abendlied by Josef Rheinberger.

Following the open rehearsal and lunch on campus, conference participants gathered in the newly constructed O’Neill Hall for a lecture given by Peter Jeffery, who discussed chant and psalmody in the reformed [post-Conciliar Roman Rite] liturgy. Jeffery spoke about the relationship between Gregorian psalm tones and various vernacular adaptations (e.g., Anglican chant, Gelineau and Guimont psalm tones, and Meinrad psalm tones). He proposed the increased usage of psalmody in Christian sacramental preparation. For example, psalm refrains—set to music and relevant to any of the Sacraments—could be taught to children and adults. Upon completion of their formation, the candidates and assembly together could sing the psalm refrains as acclamations within the celebration of the particular sacrament.

Peter Jeffery holds the Michael P. Grace Chair in Medieval Studies and is professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Notre Dame.  He earned his Ph.D. in music history from Princeton University and received a “Genius Award” Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1987–1992).

O’Neill Hall is the new home of the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Music, the Sacred Music Program, the Music Library, and new recital and rehearsal spaces. It is part of Notre Dame’s Campus Crossroads Project.

Following the lecture, conference participants enjoyed free time to explore Notre Dame’s campus, as well as open bench time on two of the university’s three Paul Fritts organs (Opus 24 of 2004, a two-manual, thirty-four-stop instrument in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and Opus 37 of 2016, a four-manual, seventy-stop instrument in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart).

Following dinner, participants returned to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for an organ concert given by Craig J. Cramer. Repertoire included Toccata in D minor, BuxWV 155, by Dieterich Buxtehude; Partita sopre diverse: Sei gegrüßet Jesu gütig, BWV 768, by Johann Sebastian Bach; Batalha de 6. Tom by Anonymous (seventeenth century); three Noëls by Jean-François Dandrieu; and Le Mystère de Noël by August Fauchard.

Craig Cramer is professor of organ at the University of Notre Dame. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree and the Performer’s Certificate from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. The concert was given in memory of Gail L. Walton, director of music and organist emeritus of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and initiator of the Basilica organ project.

 

Thursday, January 11

Conference participants gathered for Morning Prayer at the cathedral. Prelude music was performed by Chris Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stroh played the Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547, by Bach. Thomas Fielding played all service music, as well as Dialogue sur les grands jeux by Louis Clérambault for postlude.

After Morning Prayer, conference participants returned to the hotel for an update from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) given by Reverend Andrew V. Menke, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship. Fr. Menke described the work of the Secretariat, which includes primarily the preparation of liturgical books and the review of publications containing excerpts from liturgical books. He also elaborated on current projects, namely an updated Rite of Exorcism, excerpts of the Roman Missal (also referred to as the Book of the Chair, as it contains collects and Mass texts not prayed from the altar), the nearly completed edition of a Spanish-language Roman Missal for the United States, a new translation of the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar, a new translation of the Rite of Blessing and Consecration of the Oils and Chrism, a Formulary for Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, a Spanish-language Book of Blessings, a new translation of the Rite of Baptism of Children (with an option for celebration during Mass), the new translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, a review of hymnody from the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), a new translation of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), and a new translation of the Rites of Ordination.

The morning sessions continued with the second business meeting, during which nominations to the steering committee were submitted for the upcoming election.

After lunch, Marc Cerisier delivered a presentation, “Technology for the Modern Cathedral Musician.” He highlighted the value of consistent music engraving and attractive service leaflets as visual aids to liturgical prayer. Cerisier then discussed types of software available for desktop publishing and music notation, and he demonstrated ways to prepare scores for display on tablet screens, as well as MIDI functionality for capturing organ registrations, recording, and playback.

Following the presentation, conference participants enjoyed free time to explore Kalamazoo and later gathered at Saint Augustine Cathedral for Mass. Most Reverend Paul J. Bradley, Bishop of Kalamazoo, was the celebrant and homilist. Choral music was provided by the Cathedral Choir, and repertoire included Kyrie from Missa L’hora passa by Lodovico da Viadana; Soul of Christ by Lance A. Massey (director of music at Saint Augustine Cathedral from 1984 to 1988); and Cantate Domino by Giuseppe Pitoni. Thomas Fielding played all the service music, as well as Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 552, by Bach, for the prelude; and Sonata Eroïca, opus 94, by Joseph Jongen, for the postlude.

After Mass, conference participants enjoyed an elegant closing banquet at which time appreciation was extended to Thomas Fielding, Francis Zajac, the Cathedral’s administrative staff, sponsors, and the CRCCM steering committee for organizing such a successful and enjoyable gathering.

The 2019 meeting of the CRCCM will take place in Seattle, Washington, in conjunction with the Cathedral Ministries Conference. It will be hosted by Saint James Cathedral.

 

56th OHS National Convention

June 27-July 2, 2011, Washington, D.C.

Frank Rippl

Frank Rippl holds a BM degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he was a student of Miriam Clapp Duncan and Wolfgang Rübsam, and an MA degree from the University of Denver. He has been organist/choirmaster at All Saints Episcopal Church in Appleton since 1971, is co-founder of the Appleton Boychoir, and coordinator of the Lunchtime Organ Recital Series. Photos by Len Levasseur

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In the immortal words of Charles  Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Now, please don’t be alarmed by those words, because the convention itself was really wonderful: terrific organs, organists, many and varied venues displaying the remarkable depth available in and around our nation’s capital—from the National Cathedral to a former convent chapel. The hotel, the food, the displays and the well-researched Atlas were just fine and highly commendable.

The only bad thing, that “worst of times,” which nearly brought the convention to its knees, was an inept bus situation that seemed to conspire against us each day by being hours late, not showing up at all, sending buses with not enough seats, or by being utterly confused as to how to get from point A to point B. It was frustrating, and many an oath was uttered. But we still had a good time in spite of the craziness. Because of the buses, I did miss one of the recitals on the last day, and I truly apologize to the performer. But enough of that. Let’s get on to the good things and the music!

The convention headquarters was at the Holiday Inn at Reagan National Airport—not far from Crystal City and Old Town Alexandria, and near the Pentagon. Coming in for a landing at Reagan Airport gives one a stunning view of the National Mall with the Capitol, the White House, and all the famous monuments. But, for organists, it is probably the sight of the National Cathedral that causes the heart to skip a beat or two. Checking in at the hotel, greeting old friends, and visiting the displays are familiar rituals of these conventions. It made it all seem very comfortable.

 

Opening event 

The first event of the convention was the recital that Monday night at the National Cathedral by Nathan Laube. The buses were hopelessly late with inadequate seating, so some of us jumped into cars and raced across town to the cathedral, which stands on the city’s highest hill, Mount St. Alban, making it easy to find. It never fails to impress. I sat in the Great Choir just in front of the console and enjoyed the view in this massive Gothic church. I was surrounded by pipes on three sides. Cathedral organist Scott Dettra greeted us and introduced the performer. Laube began with Cathedrals from Vierne’s Pièces de Fantaisie, op. 55, no. 4. He plumbed the depths of the huge stone space and the massive
E. M. Skinner foundation stops in a wonderful piece well suited to the occasion. Next was Pierre Cochereau’s Berceuse à la mémoire de Louis Vierne, transcribed by Frédéric Blanc. Like the first piece, it moved through the vast room at a majestic pace—quietly at first, then bringing in the gorgeous Skinner strings. Laube slowly added the reeds, culminating in a solo on the Tuba Mirabilis. He pulled back to the strings, along with what I believe was an 8 flute and a nazard in the right hand, and clarinet in the pedal. It was a brilliant demonstration of this organ’s huge range of orchestral color.

Laube then explored the neo-classic sounds of this instrument with Two Fantasies by Jehan Alain. He closed the first half of the program with a wild, neo-classic-style piece Dupré wrote in memory of his father—a Tutti that was astonishing in its power. Following intermission he offered salutes to two gentlemen associated with this cathedral: Leo Sowerby and Richard Wayne Dirksen. Sowerby’s Requiescat in Pace used the “subtle colors” of Skinner’s “Sowerby Swell”—lovely strings, solo stops, and chimes. The hymn was Rejoice, ye pure in heart to the tune Vineyard Haven by Richard Wayne Dirksen. Our “Hosannas” made a joyous roar that matched the organ. 

Laube ended with his own transcription of Liszt’s Les Préludes. Great salvos of sound were hurled through the arches of the cathedral. The familiar melodies, both loud and soft, fell on our ears like the voices of old and dear friends. We heard the Trumpet-en-Chamade (which is mounted above the reredos) and the 32 Bombarde for the first time. At other times, the Harp “plucked” away. For an encore he played Messiaen’s L’Ascension: II – Alléluias sereins—a perfect end to a truly extraordinary recital.

 

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The first full day of the convention dawned bright and sunny with an amazing blue sky, making the sight of our first stop in Alexandria, Virginia, even more outstanding than it might have been. Standing atop Shuter’s Hill was the George Washington Masonic Memorial—a massive, tall, white stone structure, designed to resemble the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt. The tower, completed in 1932, is capped with a pyramid. Inside was a great semi-circular hall lined with columns behind amphitheater-style seating. A large portrait of George Washington, dressed in his Masonic apron, hangs at the back of the stage. The three-manual Möller, Opus 8540 from 1953, was designed by Ernest White and Richard O. Whitelegg. The Atlas stated that White’s contribution was a Choir division with independent mutations and a Cromorne. The console was on the floor and against the stage, while the pipes were in the ceiling, speaking through an elaborate Art Deco grille.

Charles Miller, organist at National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., opened with Marche aux Flambeaux by Frederick Scotson Clark, complete with trumpet fanfares. Next came Introduction and Fugue in D Minor by John Zundel. The introduction had alternating ff and mp sections, and the fugue moved along with zeal. I was struck by this organ’s strong bass sounds. Then Sowerby’s Chorale Prelude on Picardy showed off the softer side of this organ, especially the lovely Möller strings and flutes, and a rather thin Cromorne. 

Miller then played Mendelssohn’s Sonata II in C Minor. He drew dark and ponderous sounds for the Grave section, and the Adagio featured many opportunities for solo stops. The Allegro maestoso was brought off with just the right amount of style, as was the fugue. Dudley Buck’s Scherzo (from the Grand Sonata in E-flat) worked very well on this organ, as did Buck’s Variations on the Star Spangled Banner. The hymn was O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, a very moving song to sing in our nation’s capital. 

We were divided into two groups because the next venues were small. My group went to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Collington, Maryland, where we heard Phillip L. Stimmel, an authority on Estey organs, play an Estey: Opus 655 (1908), two manuals, eight ranks, with tubular-pneumatic action. The Praeludium in A Minor by Clarence Eddy was a nice demonstration of the warm foundation stops. Ballade in D Minor by Joseph Clokey began on the Swell Stopped Diapason plus tremolo, with alternating passages on a particularly sweet Great Dulciana. An agreeable solo on the Swell reedless Oboe preceded a buildup to full organ; it then came back down to the opening sounds. In Beach’s Prelude on an Old Folk Tune, “The Fair Hills Of Eire, O,” Stimmel explored all the colors and registrations of this eight-rank organ, making it seem like a much larger instrument. Next was a favorite, Will o’ the Wisp by Gordon Balch Nevin. The hymn was O holy city, seen of John (Morning Song). Stimmel closed with Gardner Reed’s Once more, my soul, the rising day (Consolation, same tune as Morning Song), another good choice for this organ.

 

My group then went to St. Paul Moravian Church in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to hear the church’s E. & G. G.
Hook & Hastings Opus 702 (1873), which has been enlarged and rebuilt by David M. Storey, Inc. between 1985 and 2010. Built for the temporary home of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, it was used until the present sanctuary was constructed. At some point it was moved down to the D.C. area. St. Paul’s first church was dedicated in 1972, and a second in 1985. The Hook organ was purchased in 1986. It sits in a transept of sorts to the right of the altar in this smallish modern red brick church, whose proud members welcomed us warmly.

Kevin Clemens, of Aberdeen, Maryland, opened with Tone Poem in F, op. 22, no. 1, by Niels Gade. Next was Arioso in the Ancient Style by James H. Rogers, which used the Oboe with tremolo. Then came Caprice by Cuthbert Harris, charming and well played, and Elevation from Messe Basse by Louis Vierne, in which we heard the rather nice Celeste, which was actually the former Great Dulciana. Next, The Cuckoo (Scherzino) by Powell Weaver, which featured the Oboe and the Melodia. The hymn was Sing praise to God who reigns above (Mit Freuden Zart). We were asked to sing harmony on the middle verse, but alas, our printed harmony was not what was played; we sang out with gusto, nonetheless. Clemens closed his program with Sousa’s Liberty Bell March

 

The next stop was St. John’s Episcopal Church, Broad Creek, King George Parish, Fort Washington, Maryland to hear Peter Crisafulli play the beautiful little Jacob Hilbus organ from 1819. Hilbus, born in Westphalia, Germany, was the first organbuilder in Washington. I would encourage the reader to see Michael Friesen’s excellent article in this convention’s Atlas on Hilbus’s work, and on this particular organ, as well as the fine article by convention chair Carl Schwartz. It is a lovely instrument to behold, with delicately carved pipe shades, one manual and no pedal. The sound was sweet and gentle. Crisafulli began with General Washington’s March by an anonymous composer. Cornet Voluntary by John Travers followed. We heard the Principal 4 (played an octave lower) for the first time. Crisafulli is also an excellent composer, as we heard in his next selection: Greensleeves (from In Sweet Jubilee—A Suite of Carols for Harpsichord), played on the lovely 8 Stopped Diapason. He next played Adagio by Mozart on the Flute 4′, which alternated with the exquisitely soft Dulciana Treble. We then heard the first Samuel Sebastian Wesley works of the convention: Choral Song—elegant, graceful music—followed by the livelier Prelude and Fugue. I enjoyed his adding the Sesquialtera in the fugue, giving a bit of bite. The hymn was From all that dwell below the skies (Old 100th). A wonderful recital on a beautiful and very historic instrument—Crisafulli did a masterful job demonstrating its many charms!

Late in the afternoon, we arrived at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, Virginia, for a recital by Samuel Baker, director of the D.C. AGO Foundation. The 1849 one-manual (no pedal) Henry Erben organ stands at the front of the church behind the pulpit. In the Voluntary by William Croft, the 8 Open Diapason alternated with a bright solo combination. Next, Festival Overture from Cutler & Johnson’s American Church Organ Voluntaries (1856). The hymn was As with gladness men of old (Dix), followed by David Dahl’s Variations on the Hymn Tune Dix. We heard a clear 4 flute, flutes 8 and 2, a lovely Dulciana, a jaunty 8 and 4, and a fine Trumpet 8. Stephen Schnurr presented the church with an OHS Historic Citation to encourage the preservation of this very good organ. Baker then went to this church’s other organ, which stood in the rear gallery: a Lively-Fulcher (1997) of two manuals and pedal, with mechanical key action and electric stop action. He performed Gerre Hancock’s beautiful Air (1963)—lovely sounds played with great feeling. The program ended with another hymn: Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns Erfreuen).

The evening concert took place at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church. The building is modern in style, tall and narrow with red brick walls. It stands on the site of the birthplace of J. Edgar Hoover—the large “west end” window commemorates that historic fact. The organ, a large and sumptuous 1936 Möller, was built for Covenant-First Presbyterian Church, which later became the National Presbyterian Church. David Storey is the hero in the restoration of this priceless gem, once considered old fashioned. The organ originally had been voiced by Richard O. Whitelegg, who came to Möller from England, where he worked for Harrison & Harrison, August Gern, and Henry Willis. The Atlas states that he voiced the powerful flue stops for the Liverpool Cathedral organ. 

The organ is in the front of the church, with chambers on either side of the chancel and a smaller chamber in the left wall of the nave for the solo division. The walls of the brick nave are windowless at the clerestory level, but a large window in back has the image of the risen Christ in chunks of colored glass embedded in concrete. 

Ken Cowan began his recital with Marche héroïque by Herbert Brewer. A gutsy opening gave way to a majestic and expansive tune; at the close, the melody was played on full organ. The Soul of the Lake, op. 96, no. 1 (Pastels from the Lake of Constance) by Karg-Elert followed—a marvelously impressionistic piece, deliciously played. Next came a thundering reading of Mozart’s Fantasia in F Minor, K. 608. The hymn was Songs of thankfulness and praise (Salzburg). Cowan leads and supports in perfect proportion—ever aware of the text, the music, and the singers. The first half closed with Prelude to Act III, Parsifal, by Wagner in an arrangement by Frederic Archer. The Solo division’s French Horn stop got a workout. Cowan is a master colorist.

The second half opened with Henry Martin’s Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, a piece commissioned by Michael Barone. This was fairly tempestuous music. The fugue began in the pedal and quoted the theme of the prelude. Next was Schumann’s Canon in B Minor, Canon in A-flat Major, and Fugue on B-A-C-H. We heard the variety of reed and foundation tone on this fine organ. I especially enjoyed the A-flat Major, the end of which employed the large Tromba 8 on the Solo, and then pulled back to the lovely Swell strings. 

We then heard Cowan’s transcription of Danse macabre by Saint-Saëns. The whole church seemed to sway back and forth to this wonderful music. Cowan made good use of the percussion on the organ: Chimes, Harp, and Celesta. He closed with Dupré’s Deux Esquisses, op. 41—totally virtuosic and muscular playing. He treated us to an encore: Roulade by Seth Bingham, a perfect bonbon to follow a concert that was like an incredibly rich and hearty meal.

 

Wednesday, June 29

We began the day on Capitol Hill at the towering St. Joseph R.C. Church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1868. It was intended to be used by the German-speaking Catholics of Washington, D.C., and architect Michael Stegmeier used his hometown’s cathedral (Cologne, Germany) as its model. The neo-gothic structure has a very high ceiling painted blue with gold stars. But the real gem for us was the magnificent three-manual, 29-rank Hook & Hastings organ, Opus 1491 from 1891. It has been restored/rebuilt many times, most recently by Bozeman-Gibson, Inc. in 1986. David Storey now tends to this highly regarded instrument.

George Bozeman Jr. entitled his program “Christmas in June.” He began with Reger’s Weihnachten, op. 145, no. 3, which began softly with the strings. The church’s air conditioning, though welcome, was terribly noisy, making much of the music nearly inaudible. The piece incorporated four different carols, ending with Stille Nacht. Bozeman played with a wonderful sense of feeling and sensitivity. Dudley Buck’s attractive Prelude (from The Coming of the King, Cantata for Advent and Christmas) incorporated “Silent Night” and “Adeste fideles.” The hymn was Adeste Fideles, which we sang powerfully in the resonant acoustic of this beautiful church.

Next was a wonderful Allegro by Katherine E. Lucke (1875–1962), which demonstrated the light and agile flute sounds of this fabulous organ. Bozeman closed with his own fine transcription of Four Fleeting Pieces, op. 15 by Clara Schumann. It was a good tour of the organ’s solo stops, and he played all very well; each musical line was beautifully shaped and controlled. We all enjoyed this recital and were quite smitten with this fantastic organ.

The second recital of the morning was at St. Martin of Tours R.C. Church, an attractive building completed in 1939 in the Florentine Renaissance style. A sign was tied between the two pillars on either side of the central door: WELCOME ALL SINNERS. I didn’t know what to make of that, but I certainly felt accommodated. The organ—Möller Opus 6809, three manuals, 22 ranks—stands in the rear gallery and speaks into a most favorable acoustic. There is reason to believe that Möller’s Richard O. Whitelegg worked on this organ. The Atlas states, “Most pipework was old and of unknown origin.” The Clarinet stop was terrific!

Carolyn Lamb Booth opened with a strong reading of Guilmant’s Grand Triumphal Chorus in A Major, op. 47, no. 2. The powerful sounds of this organ filled the space evenly; I liked the Trumpet. Next, Edward Bairstow’s Evening Song, registered perfectly. The hymn was “Christ, be our light.” Organ and organist led it convincingly. After that, the beautiful Elegy by George Thalben-Ball showed the many lovely solo stops and was nicely played. (I noted the Catholic Church in its current state of transition: the confessionals were used to store old kneelers.) The closing piece was Saint-Saëns’ Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major, op. 99, no. 3, perfectly suited to this fine organ and organist.

The final stop of the morning was at the lovely St. Gabriel’s R.C. Church in Washington, D.C., to hear its Lewis & Hitchcock, Opus 165 (1930) of two manuals and pedal, 21 ranks. It stands in a divided case on either side of the rear gallery of this English Tudor-style building, whose cornerstone was laid in 1930. We were greeted with the sound of bells—extra points! Upon entering, we encountered the smell of good incense—more extra points! Stephen J. Morris began his program with a hymn, Sing to God! Lift up your voices (Alchester). Robust OHS singing matched the organ very well in that great acoustic! 

Morris’s first selection was Mendelssohn’s War March of the Priests, which showed the strength of this organ’s sound as we enjoyed this cruciform church with its beautiful glass and elegant appointments. Next was Andante ‘Choeur de Voix humaines’, op. 122, no. 7, by Lefébure-Wély. The Great’s very beautiful Gross Flute made bubbly sounds against the Swell’s equally fine Vox Humana. Then Seth Bingham’s Rhythmic Trumpet (from Baroques, op. 41), followed by another character piece, The Squirrel by Powell Weaver—an entertaining bit of whimsey played with good humor. 

Next was Liszt, Introduction and Fugue (after Johann Sebastian Bach, from Cantata 21, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis), played with broad authority and featuring the organ’s fine plenum. That was followed by a little composition that featured the Oboe: Allegretto in E-flat, op. 17, no. 2 by William Wolstenholme (1865–1931)—cute music. Then came the beautiful Claire de Lune from Karg-Elert’s Trois Impressions, op. 72—lovely music well chosen for organ, space, and audience. Morris played it exquisitely right down to the last ppp on the Aeoline. The recital ended with the March upon a Theme of Handel, op. 15, no. 2, by Guilmant. A fine performance and concert, which demonstrated the organ most admirably.

Following a box lunch, my group made its way to the Armed Forces Retirement Home, founded in 1851. It sits high on a hill overlooking the city of Washington. Abraham Lincoln spent a lot of time there escaping the heat of summer. The rolling grounds are extensive, tranquil, and very green with lots of trees and grass. The organ was in Stanley Hall, a facility built for recreation and entertainment, but now used a chapel. The organ, a two-manual and pedal instrument built by Stevens & Jewett (ca. 1855), is interesting for its 18-note pedalboard. The 16 Double Open Diapason has only 12 pipes. The Atlas states: “From second C the pedals simply repeat the pipes in the bottom octave.” The instrument was acquired through the Organ Clearing House, having come from the former Universalist Church in Mechanics Falls, Maine. David Moore did the restoration. 

Rosalind Mohnsen opened her program with Allegro moderato maestoso by Mendelssohn, which had a fine majestic march feel to it. Then came John Stanley’s Voluntary in A, op. 7, no. 1, Adagio—Allegro. The Adagio was played on the Great Open Diapason—a warm and widely scaled sound. The Allegro used some lovely softer but bright stops on the Swell. Next, Gavotte Pastorale by Frederick Shackley (1868–1937). The Swell alternated with the Great Diapasons, then some of the Swell 8 stops with tremolo—a good piece that showed some of the many colors of this organ. The hymn was, appropriately, Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord (Battle Hymn of the Republic). Mohnsen always chooses hymns and pieces with great care so that they are well suited to the instrument and place at hand. Her next selection was Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral March, op. 7 (1865), “In memory of a Country’s Martyred Father” by William Wolsieffer. Paul Marchesano hand pumped the organ. The piece showed more of the organ’s color, the fine reeds in particular. 

Next came Melodie (Homage to Grieg) by George Elbridge Whiting (1840–1923), which carefully demonstrated more solo stop combinations. Mohnsen closed with Marche militaire by Scotson Clark (1841–1883), a snappy number in which we heard more of the reeds. 

 

We next visited St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Riverdale, Maryland, which possesses a sweet little Jardine organ, originally built in 1853 as a one manual, and enlarged to two manuals in 1890. After several church “homes”, it had been purchased by OHS member Carolyn Fix, who sold it to St. John’s in 1988, and was rebuilt and enlarged by James Baird. It stands at the rear of this smallish cement block structure. Lawrence Young began with four selections from The Green Mountain Organ Book by Charles Callahan. In Prelude and Fugue we heard the lovely 8 foundation stops. Rondeau used Great 8 and 4 in the A section, while the B sections used the Swell 4 and 2 with shades closed. It ended with Procession, which closed quietly. The next selection was Mendelssohn’s Prelude and Fugue in G Major, op. 37, no. 2, which started on the Great 8 and 4 Principals. The fugue was solidly played. Following that, Young played Daniel Pinkham’s Be Thou My Vision: Partita on Slane, a good demonstration piece. We then sang the hymn on which the partita was based. It was all very enjoyable.

 

For the afternoon’s last recital, our buses climbed up the hill to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Crypt Church, to hear the 1987 Schudi organ (two manuals, 23 stops, 25 ranks) built in the style of Gottfried Silbermann. The organ stands in a wide transept to the right of the altar.

Peter Latona, director of music at the shrine, began with Buxtehude’s Praeludium in F-sharp minor, BuxWV 146. In that acoustic, the effect was splendid; clean, clear sound, emanating from the polished tin pipes, filled the space. It was a superb performance, full of life, grace, and vigor. Then the Andante from Bach’s Trio Sonata IV, BWV 528, using an 8 flute on each manual and 16 and 8 flutes in the pedal—a warm and inviting sound. Next, O Gott, du frommer Gott, op. 122, no. 7, by Brahms, showed the rich 8 foundation stops. Then Latona played Joseph Jongen’s Petit Prelude, soloing out the tune on the Swell Schalmey, showing more of the romantic side of this organ. 

Then came a special treat: a series of improvisations creating a Suite on Rendez a Dieu. I. Trompette en taille; II. was the hymn itself, which we all sang; III. was a trio with the Cornet in the left hand; IV. was a Grand jeux complete with a duo in the middle. Very skillful improvisation founded securely in the French Baroque style. Latona made me wish that I lived in Washington, D.C. so I could hear him play every Sunday. 

Following a most tasty buffet dinner at the Pryzbyla Center, Catholic University of America, buses took us to Immaculate Conception Church in Washington, D.C. to hear Bruce Stevens play the evening recital on the church’s 1879 Steer & Turner organ, Opus 131 (two manuals, 25 stops). The church is a large sort of Tudor Gothic with tall windows. The program opened with Festive Prelude on the Chorale ‘Lobe den Herren’ by Niels Gade (1822–1890), which started with long chords and then led into a more “festive” reading of the melody going from manual to manual. That led to the hymn, Praise ye the Lord, the almighty (Lobe den Herren). Our “Let the Amen!” in that acoustic was something to hear!

Stevens then played Partita sopra Aria della Folia da Espagna by Bernardo Pasquini (1637–1710). I was amazed at how well this very 19th-century organ could sound in this music. Next, an Allegro by João de Sousa Carvalho (1745–1798).Then Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543. The fugue was especially fine—masterful and profoundly musical playing! We then heard George Shearing’s setting of Amazing Grace, which was not in the program. Next was Saturnus (from The Planets: Suite of Seven Pieces for Organ) by Bent Lorentzen (b. 1935); lots of repeated chords accompanying a melodic line—wild music! 

Stevens then closed this fine program with Rheinberger’s Sonata No. 9 in B-flat Minor, op. 142. I especially enjoyed the second movement, Romanze, which was a good demonstration of the exquisite flutes on this instrument, as well as the quiet foundation stops. Movement three, Fantasie und Finale–Fuga, showed the clarity of the plenum. This is a very fine organ. The Fantasie contained Buxtehude-like runs, and the very well-conceived Fuga was performed with clear and refined style that comes with a long association with this music. It was a glorious evening!

 

Thursday, June 30

Lorenz Maycher began this day for us on a nearly mint-condition E. M. Skinner, Opus 744, from 1928, at the Church of the Pilgrims (Presbyterian) in Washington, D.C. It has three manuals and about 30 stops and stands in the rear gallery divided on either side of the window. Maycher is a specialist with Skinner organs. He played an entire program of music by Richard Purvis, beginning with Toccata Festiva. It was exciting music and playing—the organ filling the space nicely. The hymn was There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (In Babilone). He then played the popular Melody in Mauve, which sounded wonderful on this beautiful organ. Next was another popular piece, Les Petites Cloches, which featured the chimes and harp. Then, Idyl, with the lovely Flute Celeste II accompanying the Concert Flute, followed by the Vox Humana. 

Repentance was the next piece and showed the softer foundation stops, followed by the strings and then the larger foundation stops; the Tutti came on, but the piece ended with the softest strings. Maycher ended this lovely program with Thanksgiving, which began with the Great Tuba blasting out a fanfare in dialogue with the Swell reeds. A quiet B section, featuring the Clarinet, led us back to the beginning. Wonderful music, brilliantly played on a gorgeous American organ! 

The next stop was Epiphany R.C. Church in Georgetown to enjoy its two-manual, 11-stop Hook & Hastings, Opus 1623. Built in 1894 for a music room in Boston, it eventually found its way to this small and charming church. David M. Storey Inc. restored the organ in 2003. It stands in the rear balcony, its pipes painted in warm yet bright colors. Convention chair Carl Schwartz described this organ brilliantly in the Atlas: “This musical instrument reveals its charms in subtle ways, much like a fine wine unfolding before the senses. As with most Hook & Hastings organs of this modest type, it proves to be far more than the sum of its parts.” 

Kimberly Hess opened with Buxtehude’s Toccata in F Major, BuxWV 157, which worked very well on this 1894 organ. The hymn was I sing the mighty power of God (Mozart). She then played no. X from 23 Préludes liturgiques by Gaston Litaize. We heard the beautiful and careful voicing of the smaller sounds on this lovely organ; each stop is satisfying in every way. Then C.P.E. Bach’s Sonata in D Major, Wq 70/5, which showed refined 8 and 4 sounds in the Allegro di molto. In the Adagio e mesto she used the Swell Stopped Diapason with tremolo to good effect. The Allegro was cheerful and bright with good dialogue between the manuals. Hess ended her fine concert with two selections from Arthur Foote’s Seven Pieces for Organ, op. 71. Cantilena in G featured a solo on the organ’s gorgeous Oboe. The melody was spun out for us with warmth and just the right amount of flexibility. Toccata moved well in the opening A section, coming to a restful B section. It finished big, using the sub and super couplers from the Swell. First-rate playing on a first-rate organ. 

The last stop of the morning was at the sprawling and beautiful Washington Hebrew Congregation, begun in 1856. The present building was completed in 1955. The organ, a large three-manual Aeolian-Skinner, Opus 1285, was installed in 1956. The organ stands in front of the room, although the pipes (and organist) are hidden. There is beautiful tone and balance within the divisions. Two well-known organists have served this congregation: German composer and scholar Herman Berlinski, and B. Michael Parrish, a student of Herbert Howells and George Thalben-Ball. Mr. Parrish began with very soft flute sounds in Sabbath Eve by Robert Starer (1924–2001). Next a piece by one of his teachers: George Thalben-Ball’s Elegy—a great piece that built to a fine roar. Then a piece by another of his teachers: Herbert Howells’s Master Tallis’s Testament, with a beautiful solo sound from the Choir. Next was a very moving In Memoriam by Herman Berlinski (played in memory of Sina G. Berlinski). That was followed by “Rosh Hashana” from Funf Fest-Preludien, op. 37, by Louis Lewandowski, and then the hymn The God of Abraham praise (Yigdal). A very beautiful and meaning-filled program.

We then made our way to Washington’s National City Christian Church, a building designed by John Russell Pope, who also designed the National Archives, the Jefferson Memorial, and the National Gallery—so one can imagine that it is indeed an imposing structure fronted with a huge sweeping staircase. It opened circa 1929. The first organ was by the Skinner Organ Company, Opus 824 (four manuals, 55 ranks). Like many of those grand old E. M. Skinner organs, it was deemed old fashioned by mid-century, and in the 1960s it began to be greatly enlarged by the Möller Company and others until it reached its present size of five manuals and 141 ranks, including a large Antiphonal division in the rear of the church. The main organ stands in the front of this basilica-like structure behind the apse and four huge granite columns—all of this in a building smaller than several of the larger Catholic churches we had visited. It is the third largest organ in the city, but it is in a building smaller, it seemed, than of one of the National Cathedral’s transepts. Perhaps E. M. had the right idea about proportion for the space. This is a very loud organ, and too big for the church.

The legendary and brilliant organist, composer, and teacher John Weaver gave a terrific program. He opened with Bach’s Wir glauben all an einen Gott, S. 680 (Clavierübung Part III). It was a bit of a shock to hear this Möller with its 1975-era mixtures after two and a half days of more subtle mixture sound. Next was Mozart’s Adagio and Allegro in F Minor, K 594. The Adagio was lovely, but the Allegro was a bit over the top with the power and aggressiveness of the registration choices. Weaver played it very well with good attention to detail, but it was just too loud. I found myself wondering if he had trouble judging the level of the sounds as the pipes spoke over the player’s head, sending all the sound into the nave. 

Then Karg-Elert’s Five Chorale Improvisations from opus 65. 1. Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern used the lovely strings and soft foundation stops. 2. O Gott, du frommer Gott used several levels of foundation tone. 3. Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend was quite loud and seemed to demand Christ’s presence among us—brilliant playing with a wild pedal part! 4. Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr—gorgeous music with a gentle echo after each phrase; we heard the famous Handbells stop on this organ—interesting, but I wasn’t crazy about them. 5. Nun danket alle Gott was the well-known piece often played at weddings. It was another case, however, of over-use of the loud sounds. This organ is simply too big for this room.

Next came one of Weaver’s own compositions, Carillon (2002), which used the Handbell stop. The bells were accompanied by gurgling flutes—very nice music. The hymn was Surely the Lord is in this place to the tune Madison Avenue by Weaver. He then played a piece he wrote based on his hymn tune Meyers Park, following by the singing of the hymn. Weaver closed with his famous Toccata for Organ (1958). It was very exciting, but, with this instrument, it was painfully loud. One longed for the old E. M. Skinner organ that first graced this church.

The bus caravan deposited us at the lovely All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. The congregation traces itself back as far as 1815, but the present church, styled after St. Martin in the Fields, London, was built in 1923. The organ was built by Rieger in 1969, a tracker of four manuals, 60 registers, and 96 ranks. It was an important instrument in its time and attracted quite a bit of attention, with a Rückpositiv and an enclosed Brustwerk that has glass shades. It also was the first, it is said, to have computerized combination action with multiple memory levels. To our ears it sounds dated, but in its day I’m sure it was a revelation. There is still much to admire in this instrument. 

Eileen Morris Guenther opened with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 547 (“the 9/8”). I would have liked to hear more articulation in the playing, which seemed rushed with many dropped passing tones. All the drama in that wonderful fugue was lost. Next, Prelude for the Organ in G Major by Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn-Bartholdy). The mid-20th century mixtures got in the way of an otherwise good performance. Then Robert Schumann’s Sketch in D-flat, which used the 8 foundations and flutes. Staying in the Schumann family, we heard Clara’s Prelude and Fugue for Organ, op. 16, no. 3, played very well. Two spirituals by Joe Utterback (b. 1944) followed: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (blues for manuals) and Balm in Gilead. I enjoyed her fine performance of them, which showed the pretty soft string sounds. The hymn, a new setting of “A Mighty Fortress” by Emma Lou Diemer (Reformation), was not the easiest thing to sing. This was an instructive recital that showcased the transitional state of organ building midway through the last century.

The evening program was Solemn Evensong and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, K Street in Washington. D.C. My bus got lost and we barely made it on time. Since all the pews were occupied, I got to sit in a row of chairs set up in front of the front pew—a great view of all the proceedings. The church was founded in 1866, but the present building dates from 1948. It is very traditional, with all the high church trimmings, great acoustics, and a four-manual Schoenstein & Co. organ of 52 voices and 65 ranks. The organ and choir are divided on either side of the chancel, and there is a Tuba Mirabilis mounted on the liturgical west end (the pipes stand vertically). The volunteer choir was superb in every way, led by director of music and organist Robert McCormick, and accompanied by assistant director of music John Bradford Bohl

The pre-service voluntary was Rhein-berger’s Introduction and Passacaglia from Sonata No. 8 in E Minor. It was marvelously played, but I could not tell by whom. The responsory was by Hancock, the preces were by Philip Radcliffe, and the psalms were sung to Anglican chants by Stanford and Thalben-Ball. The organ was perfect for the proper accompaniment of Anglican chant; amazing effects could be created by the swell boxes within swell boxes. Each line of the psalms was carefully prepared by the organist, and the choir sang with proper style and grace. 

The office hymn was All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (Engelberg). Now, if you have never been to an OHS convention, the hymn singing is amazing. So it was with a certain amusement that I noted a few of the choir members looking out at us with widened eyes as if to say “Who are these people?” We fed each other as congregation, choir, and organ raised the song from our collective hearts to amazing heights—it was an unforgettable moment! The Magnificat and Nunc dimittis came from Evening Service No. 2 in E-flat Major by Charles Wood. It was a powerful sound—McCormick drew astonishing sounds from his forces. After the prayers, they sang the Salve Regina, and then one of my favorite anthems, Te Lucis ante terminum by Henry Balfour Gardiner. That was followed by Benediction. The closing voluntary was a stunning improvisation. It was an unforgettable evening, both musically and spiritually.

 

Friday, July 1

Our day began at the beautiful National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. with a recital by that church’s organist, William Neil. The church was established in 1947, but has connections dating back to 1780. The present building was opened in 1969. The organ was one of the last Aeolian-Skinner organs, and has been altered many times since then. A Solo division was added in 2010 using several E. M. Skinner ranks. The organ has four manuals and seven divisions. It was featured at the AGO convention in 2010 in a concert by Nathan Laube. I was eager to hear the Skinner Solo division ranks, as they were not playing for that recital. Neil’s fine recital began with Mendelssohn’s Sonata in F Minor, op. 65, no. 1. In the first movement we heard the clear and never overwhelming plenum, with echos on an 8 reed. The beautiful Adagio showed the lovely strings along with several excellent solo stops including the French Horn. The Andante used the Antiphonal 8 and 4 flutes against a reed chorus on the main organ in front. The Antiphonal is at the back of the room, while the main organ is behind a screen on the front wall. The Allegro assai vivace burst forth with extraordinary energy and power. This was one of the most exciting performances I’ve ever heard of this piece. 

In Elgar’s Nimrod (from Enigma Variations, op. 36), the organ’s gorgeous and lush strings were on full display; the clear Clarinet uttered its plaintive cry. The marvelous crescendo began building seamlessly to full organ, then tumbled gently back down to a breathless ppp—it was brilliantly achieved. Next came J. S. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. Neil began on quiet flutes. His trills were flawless, and the calm pedal was unruffled by the increasingly busy manual parts. This was a fabulous performance of one of the great monuments of western civilization. My only criticism of this concert was that there was too much loud music. Our ears needed more variety. Stunning though this performance was, we had a long day ahead of us. The hymn was O Lord, You are my God and King (Jerusalem).

 

We made our way through the tree-lined streets of Washington, D.C. to St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in a quiet neighborhood. A handsome church, it looks as though it would be right at home in an English village. Built in 1926–1927, its first organ was a Lewis & Hitchcock that was replaced in 1981 by the present organ, a two-manual, 25-rank Flentrop that the company enlarged in 2003, adding three stops to the pedal. It stands majestically in the liturgical north transept. 

Mark Steinbach began with Philip Glass’s Mad Rush (1981), which worked well on this organ. Next, Bruhns’s Kleine Praeludium in E Minor, played freely and skillfully. This piece provides good opportunity to vary registration—a plus at an OHS convention. There were a few inner rhythmic patterns that were hurried, but he got the big overall shape of this piece quite nicely, and the organ was lovely. Then came Buxtehude’s chorale prelude on Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland in a beautiful demonstration of the Hoodfwerk Cornet—played with wonderful sensitivity and flexibility. Keeping with that same chorale, the hymn was Savior of the nations, come. The organ held its own leading our vigorous singing—good playing!

My teacher in college, Miriam Clapp Duncan, was Anton Heiller’s second American student. So I was eager to hear the next piece, Nun Komm’ der Heiden Heiland—Eight Variations (1972), by Anton Heiller. (Steinbach has recorded a forthcoming CD of the music of Anton Heiller’s music.) He used the full range of this organ. I especially liked the Borstwerk 4 Roerfluit, which seemed to chirp. Steinbach closed with more Philip Glass: Satyagraha, Act III, Conclusion (1980). While it was interesting to hear, for me, at least, it soon wore out its welcome. He did build a fine crescendo. This is a very good organ, and Steinbach gave an excellent tour of it. 

The next organ was a major historic treat: a nearly intact three-manual Henry Erben organ from 1850—very rare, and very exciting for us OHS’ers. This was at Trinity United Methodist Church in McLean, Virginia. The congregation can trace its beginnings back to 1820. They built their present Georgian-style church in 1961. The organ was originally built for Monumental Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. In 1926 they replaced it with a Skinner, keeping the Erben façade, which was silenced. The Erben pipes went to another church. James Baird managed to put the Erben back together between 1975 and 1997. It now stands rather proudly in the front of this sanctuary. Nearly all the pipework has been restored, with three rare Erben reed stops. The organ has a painted white case with gold trim. There are dentils adorning the tops of the towers. The capitals at the tops of the towers have carved flowers painted colorfully. The church created needlepoint kneelers using the case designs. Convention chair Carl Schwartz, in introducing the concert, called the organ “a national treasure.” 

Before the recital began, we had the annual meeting, which included the introduction of the four E. Power Biggs Fellows to this convention. The Fellows get an all-expense-paid trip to the convention. Many eventually become performers at subsequent conventions and go on to great success in the organ world. We also had a delightful preview of next summer’s convention in Chicago.

Kevin Birch began his program with Concerto in G Major, BWV 592 (after Ernst) by J. S. Bach. In the Allegro he used the Great 8 4 2 in alternation with the Swell. The second movement, Grave, used flutes 8 with tremolo, a beautiful sound. The Presto was played with secure rhythm and nicely shaped phrases. Next, William Boyce’s Voluntary I in D. The Larghetto featured the very attractive 8 Open Diapason; the Vivace featured the delicious Great Trumpet; I loved that sound—full bodied and true. Next, Muffat’s Aria sub elevazione (aria, three variations, aria), which worked quite well on this organ. Then, Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 1 in F, op. 65. I especially enjoyed the fourth movement, when he added the thrilling 16 Trombone in the Pedal. It was all good, solid playing on a really fine and certainly historic instrument! 

The hymn was Ye servants of God (Hanover). Guilmant’s Prière et Berceuse followed the hymn, beginning on a very quiet string. The Berceuse began with a solo on the Oboe. It was a gorgeous call from the past that made one long for the many organs that are lost. Thanks be that this one has come down to us virtually intact. The piece ended with the sweet sound of the Swell Dulciana and tremolo. Birch ended this marvelous recital with Grand Choeur in G Major by Théodore Solomon. After a sturdy beginning, a fugue started, using 8 foundations and the Oboe, sounding very French. The Mixture came on with full organ, bringing the piece to an end—very good playing on a remarkably versatile organ!

And so we came to the final evening recital of the convention. Following a delicious meal at the American Indian Museum, we walked to St. Dominic’s R.C. Church, just a few blocks off the National Mall. It is a large gray granite church completed in 1875. It has seen several fires in its history. The church’s Hilborne Roosevelt Opus 290 dates from 1885: three manuals and 47 ranks. Originally a tracker, after various fires and rebuilds it is now on electro-pneumatic action. It enjoys a fantastic acoustic, is just the right size for the building, and stands in the rear gallery. 

Thomas Murray began with Rheinberger’s Sonata in G, op. 88, no. 3. The first part featured the fine plenum. Later we heard the beautiful Cornopean on the Swell. The closing movement was all fire and bravura. Then, Bossi’s Ave Maria, showing the lovely strings and flutes with tremolo, and Bossi’s Divertimento en forma de Giga—immaculate playing. Next, Guilmant’s Communion on Ecce panis angelorum on quiet 8 and 4 flutes, then the soft 8 foundations. Guilmant’s Caprice in B-flat was a nice contrasting bit of whimsey, with chords tossed out into the great nave of this church—a charming sense of fun. Then, Grand Choeur on “Benedicamus Domino” (1934) by Guy Weitz. The Great and Swell reeds called back and forth. A fugue followed on the very good plenum—all very lively and yet grand. The hymn was There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (Blaenwern). 

Following intermission, Murray played Alfred Hollins’s Concert Overture in C Minor (1899). Bold, strong, and large chords were flung through the nave. The Swell reeds had a solo or two before returning to the Great. The piece gave voice to several solo stops and a fugue before returning to the opening material. Liszt’s Epilogue (from Années de Pèlerinage, Suisse) worked very well on the organ. Murray closed with Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, op. 7, no. 3, which made one want to get up and dance. It was a brilliant performance! 

 

Saturday, July 2

This was an “extra” day, with just three recitals. About half the convention attendees chose to go home following the Friday night recital. A few elected to stay, wanting to hear the Pomplitz organ that was on the schedule. However, the buses confounded our best intentions. The company only sent one bus, but we needed two. We all lined up in the usual manner behind the hotel. The first ones in line got on that bus. The rest of us waited for nearly two hours. It really was frustrating. But finally one came after several frantic phone calls. We missed the recital at St. Patrick’s in the City R.C. Church with its large three-manual 1994 Lively-Fulcher organ built in a French manner. The recitalist was Ronald Stolk. My apologies to all concerned that I was unable to review that recital. 

We did get to hear the August Pomplitz organ, No. 140, built in 1869 for Grace Episcopal Church in Alexandria. The organ was believed to have come to St. Vincent de Paul R.C. Church in Washington, D.C. about 1905—two manuals, 16 ranks with mechanical key and stop action. Carl Schwartz called it “a lovely instrument and a survivor.” It stands in the rear gallery of this little church. Philip T.D. Cooper started with Voluntary VII in G Major (from Ten Organ Voluntaries, op. 6) by John Stanley. Next, Flute Piece in F by William Hine. The flutes on this organ possess a rare beauty. Cooper handled the sounds with deftness and clarity. In Voluntary in A Minor by Lucien H. Southard (1827–1881), we heard the foundation stops, which ended in a fine fugal section.

Cooper’s own Fuga I tertii tone was a hit with the audience. The hymn was Jerusalem, my happy home, sung to Cooper’s tune, Kenny Dawson’s Mighty Hymn. We then heard this organ’s elegant strings in Tantum Ergo by John Henry Wilcox. The program closed with Postlude in A Major by George J. Webb.

The final concert of the convention was at St. Mary Mother of God R.C. Church in Washington, D.C., founded in 1845 for the German-speaking Catholics. The organ, which is in the rear balcony, is George S. Hutchings’ Opus 239 from 1891: two manuals, 27 ranks; it is nearly intact with its original tracker action. Timothy Edward Smith began with Bonnet’s Fantasy on Two Noels. A hymn followed: Sing of Mary, pure and holy (Raquel). Next, two selections from Seth Bingham’s Sixteen Carol Canons in Free Style. In Gabriel’s Salutation, which had  six canons, he demonstrated all manner of sounds small and great. Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabelle had three canons. These were great organ demonstration pieces, with many refined colors.

Next was Myron Roberts’ Improvisation on God Rest You Merry. I loved the sweet little 8 Dolcissimo stop on the Great. Then, Harvey Gaul’s The Christmas Pipes of County Clare. The flutes had their day in this charming and wonderful music. Get this music—your congregation will love you! A second hymn followed: Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn), then Balbastre’s Joseph is a good husband. The fine reeds on this organ were well displayed making a mighty Grands Jeux. The final piece, and the finale to the convention, was Fantasy on Two English Carols. The First Noel was nicely articulated. Good King Wenceslaus was heard on the Swell reeds, and then on the soft flues and flutes. The First Noel returned triumphantly! A grand conclusion to a grand convention.

This was another outstanding OHS convention. Carl Schwartz and his committee are all to be congratulated for an exceptional effort. The organs were in great shape, the venues were spectacular, the scholarship we saw in the Atlas, the Convention Handbook, and the Hymn Book evidenced their thoroughness and affection for the organs of the communities in which they are so blessed to live. And, of course, the beauty of our nation’s capital seemed to grace and welcome us at every turn. 

The 2012 OHS national convention takes place July 9–13 in Chicago. For information: www.organsociety.org.

 

Organists of Yesteryear in the World’s Largest Village

Cathryn Wilkinson

Cathryn Wilkinson holds an Associate certificate from the American Guild of Organists and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa School of Music. She has published articles on opera and hymnody of Slovakia, where she worked as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, and most recently on American and Slovak hymnody in Companion to the Lutheran Service Book (Concordia Publishing forthcoming). From 2004–2011, she was the organist at First United Church of Oak Park, in the 1917 building of First Congregational Church on land from the Scoville family of Oak Park.

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A musical village on the edge of a metropolis

From 1920–1940, the organists at churches in Oak Park, Illinois distinguished themselves, certainly by talent, but also by hard work and a vision that went beyond playing hymns for their congregations. With the resources of Chicago just a few miles away, Oak Park might not be classified as a typical town. But recounting the contributions of a generation of Oak Park’s organists shows the extent of the opportunities that were open to professional musicians of this era. In small ways, their legacy lives on in today’s churches; in larger ways their musical accomplishments are an inspiration for our generation.  

In the mid-nineteenth century, visitors journeying across Illinois by horse and wagon often overnighted in Oak Ridge, about 15 miles from Chicago’s bustling commercial district. At this crossroads, on the site that grew into the village of Oak Park, the welcoming home of Joseph Kettelstrings had served as an impromptu tavern and hotel from the mid 1830s. Beginning in the 1840s Chicago emerged as a mecca for city dwellers, who could obtain the latest innovations from the east coast on the edge of the prairie via the city’s burgeoning freight networks. In a pattern that retraced itself all across the Midwest, the Kettlestrings family gradually divided and sold off property to new settlers. In the case of Oak Park, sales were restricted to those “people who were against saloons and for good schools and churches.”1 By 1851, the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad line connected Chicago southwest to Joliet and soon extended on to the Mississippi River. Hospitality and convenience steadily attracted more residents with a can-do spirit to Oak Park, with the population reaching 4,600 in 1890.   

In the early years of the 20th century, Oak Park mirrored the progress that swept across the quickly industrializing North American landscape. By 1940 the village population had reached a high of 66,000, growing more than 100% in the years between the wars. The former settlement earned the nickname “The World’s Largest Village,” and it could have been, in political jurisdiction and in mindset. However, these villagers were not a common lot; among them are counted many innovative and enterprising scions: Frank Lloyd Wright, Ernest Hemingway, Doris Humphrey, and Ray Kroc. In the economic recovery after the Great Depression, a euphoria of success seemed to waft all across American society, spurring innovation and business growth. The aura of achievement was embodied in Chicago’s centennial celebration in 1933 with a hugely popular and privately financed world exposition, “A Century of Progress.”

Chicagoans formed and supported an extensive variety of professional and amateur musical organizations. Some were based on ethnic identities, such as the Chicago Welsh Male Choir, and others on business connections, such as the Illinois Bell Telephone company chorus. Organists were connected through the Chicago Choir Directors’ Guild, the local Organists’ Club, the Chicago Club of Women Organists, and the Illinois AGO chapter, founded as the Western Chapter in 1907.  

Although overshadowed by Chicago’s museums, cultural centers, performing arts, and industry, Oak Park developed a significant cultural identity in its own century of progress. The Scoville family donated land along the main thoroughfare and funds to construct a public library in 1888. William Corbett conducted a village orchestra in the 1880s, and at about that time, the Congregational Church hosted concerts by the Rubenstein Club. Dr. Methven, as president, and Mrs. Clarence Hemingway, conductor and mother of Ernest, produced concerts with the Oak Park Choral Society in 1897. Oak Park and its eastern neighbor Austin formed a local chapter to support the vision of Edward and Marian MacDowell’s newly conceived colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. By 1935, 100 years after its settlement, Oak Park boasted a semi-professional Civic Symphony Association, the Warrington opera house, several movie theaters open even on Sundays, and a Civic Music Association organizing local concerts.   

 

Home to good churches

Central to Kettlestrings’s vision and the community-building ethic that shaped the village was the establishment of churches. The first makeshift church building was an unassuming 1855 frame structure known as “Temperance Hall,” shared by several dozen worshippers of varying denominations. Dora Kettlestrings, the daughter of Joseph, led a cappella singing for services in this hall. A memoir of early days recounts that Mr. Blackner ran a New England-style singing school in Oak Park and his wife played a parlor organ in Temperance Hall.2 The first denominational building constructed in Oak Park was Emmanuel Lutheran Church in 1867, a German congregation. 

With the construction of the landmark stone edifices of First Congregational Church in 1873 and First United Methodist in 1874, several congregations anchored Oak Park’s central commercial district, just two blocks from the train line to Chicago. The saying went, “When you get where the saloons stop and the churches begin, you are in Oak Park.”3 Modeled on European cathedrals, these buildings accommodated several hundred worshippers and symbolized the key role that religion played in the village. By the 1930s, at least seven congregations in the village registered memberships above 1,500. Perhaps largely due to the immigrant population, which in the 1920s and 30s hovered around 50% non-natives mainly from northern Europe, a commitment to maintaining churches in the European style was unquestioned.  

Fine pipe organs were de rigueur in these churches. E. M. Skinner, Austin, and Casavant each installed large showcase instruments in Oak Park in the first decades of the 20th century. Many of these organs served well into the 1980s. The organists who played them, along with school and private music teachers, provided musical experiences for the whole village. Some of the organists were heard nightly at Oak Park’s movie theaters as well as Sundays at the church.  

 

Radio is king for the 

King of Instruments

Edwin Stanley Seder (1892–1935), First Congregational Church

Seder served as organist at First Congregational Church in Oak Park from 1921 to 1935. This congregation built on the site of the Scoville family’s apple orchard in 1873 and in the 1890s they hosted the MacDowell Society’s concerts. By Seder’s time, the first church had been replaced with a spacious English Gothic revival building.  

Seder held a music degree from the University of New Mexico, where he also taught before moving to the Chicago area. His musical accomplishments show him to have a broad command of organ and choral repertoire. At First Congregational, he maintained a choir skilled and balanced enough to present Bach cantatas and Messiah. He also accompanied the Chicago Bach Chorus in many Bach cantatas. With this group he performed the Christmas Oratorio at Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue. In one program of extreme dimensions, the Chicago Bach Chorus performed the Magnificat, five cantatas, and the Actus Tragicus, according to the Tribune’s Douglas, “both ardently and with respect.” Seder played Bach’s Prelude in E-Flat and the St. Anne Fugue at one Bach Chorus concert. For the Chicago
Singverein he accompanied Bruch’s Das Lied von der Glocke, op. 45. He frequently accompanied his wife, soprano Else Harthan Arendt, in recitals of Baroque music, both in Oak Park and throughout Chicago venues. Upon Seder’s untimely death in 1946, Arendt became the music director at the church.    

A regular feature of The American Organist in the 1920s and 1930s was a listing of service music submitted by members. There is no indication on what basis these lists were selected; many of the submissions are from the same organists on a regular basis. They worked in congregations with some of the country’s better-known music programs, such as Lynnwood Farnam at Holy Communion in New York and Ray Hastings at Temple Baptist Church in Los Angeles. From a review of several of the service music submissions, character music and opera excerpts from concert venues were quite commonly heard during worship services, and hymn-based voluntaries only on occasion.

In 1922, Seder reported having played Festival Toccata (Fletcher), Allegro in F (Guilmant), Largo from the Ninth Symphony (Dvorák), Grand Choeur Dialogué (Gigout), Sunset and Evening Bells (Federlein), and “March” from Tannhäuser (Wagner) at First Congregational Church. On Palm Sunday in 1923, he performed “The Palms” (Faure), “Jerusalem” (Parker), Prelude to Parsifal (Wagner), and “Palm Sunday” (Mailly). He performed these works on the church’s 4-manual Skinner organ (Opus 274) of 69 ranks, which was situated in the front of the nave high above the altar with the console hidden by a carved wooden screen.    

Seder played, not only behind this screen on Sundays, but also out of sight for many radio listeners. The advances in broadcasting and electronic technology in early 20th-century America strongly impacted the organ world. Chicago radio station WLS, funded by Sears, Roebuck (the World’s Largest Store), began broadcasting in 1924 and from day one employed theatre organist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Early rival WGN (the World’s Greatest Newspaper) was financed by the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune’s reviewer Elmer Douglas wrote a daily review of radio broadcasts, which were the new sensation. The public considered musical broadcasts on the airwaves just as much a performance as a live concert. Douglas was particularly enamored of the playing by organist Edwin Stanley Seder, who began playing for WGN radio broadcasts in 1924. Douglas wrote in great detail about each work—for example, singling out some of Seder’s improvisations and the beautiful Sanctus from Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, presumably transcribed by Seder for organ. On nearly any given day at 6:30 p.m., listeners throughout Chicago could tune in to WGN and hear a live organ recital by Seder.  

Seder performed upwards of 1,000 concert broadcasts, first on an Estey organ at the station, and later on a Lyon & Healy organ constructed specifically for the WGN live broadcast studio in Chicago in 1924. The radio organ was played in a studio designed by acousticians with walls covered in silk brocade to provide optimal tone quality. Reportedly in December 1925 Seder reached the mark of having broadcast his 1,000th piece without ever having repeated a work on the air.

His radio presence certainly brought recognition. He had gained the post of professor in the organ department at Northwestern University in Evanston in 1919 and also taught at Chicago’s Sherwood Music School. In 1934, he joined the music faculty at Wheaton College Conservatory, in the far western suburbs of Chicago, where he taught history, organ, and conducting.   

In addition to his teaching, broadcasting, and service playing, Seder earned the FAGO certificate and became president (dean) of the Chicago AGO chapter. During his tenure he led the chapter in planning for a series of weekly noonday recitals in Chicago venues. He concertized frequently in Oak Park and Chicago. He was once presented by the Chicago AGO chapter in recital at St. James Cathedral. He was invited to perform at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, home to a 4-manual Skinner, Opus 327, and at the dedication of the 121-rank Kimball organ at New First (Union Park) Congregational Church of Chicago in 1927. Two representative recitals at First Congregational in Oak Park reveal that much of his repertoire showed off the orchestral organ through recent character music and opera transcriptions:  

 

Concert Overture in B Minor (Rogers)

“Allegro” from Sonata I (Guilmant)

Danish Song (Sandby)

March of the Gnomes (Stoughton)

Serenade (Rachmaninov)

Rhapsody (Cole)

A second program opened with a repeat performance of Stoughton’s March of the Gnomes, followed by:

 

Overture to Der Freischütz (Weber)

Minuet (Zimmerman)

Bells of St. Anne (Russell)

Brook (Dethier)

Concert Overture (Hollins)

Seder’s concerts often featured complex works by Bach, such as Komm Gott, Schöpfer from the Leipzig chorales, which he played along with one of the few works he composed, The Chapel of San Miguel, on a program in Winnipeg in 1929.4  

 

Music for the masses

Edgar A. Nelson (1882–1959), First Presbyterian Church

Philip Maxwell of the Chicago Daily Tribune wrote often about Edgar Nelson’s many performances for very large audiences in Chicago. He mentions that one of Edgar Nelson’s favorite passages in the Bible was “Sing unto him a new song:  play skillfully with a shout of joy” (Psalm 33:3).5 Maxwell did not document Nelson’s shouts of joy, but Nelson’s skillful playing is well documented. His career was centered around First Presbyterian Church in Oak Park, in the “church corridor” of the city’s commercial district, but his impact went far beyond.  

Nelson was born into a musical family of Swedish heritage and followed in his father’s steps as a church musician. Beginning in 1909 and continuing for 47 years, he was music director at First Presbyterian Church, playing an organ by the Hall Company, with whom he may have consulted on the design. Hall had also installed an organ for the Bush Temple of Music, a well-known piano store in Chicago.  

While he was working at First Presbyterian in Oak Park, Nelson was also a student at the Bush Conservatory in Chicago, one of several prominent private music schools established in the early 20th century. Nelson later joined the faculty there. As church music director, he presented organ concerts and conducted musical revues, such as a musical arrangement of The Thurber Carnival. He also directed children’s and adult choirs and composed incidental music for the church’s Christmas pageants, which were remembered later by church members as being fabulous. The church music budget provided for a paid quartet of local professional singers, which Nelson conducted for Sunday services. Not until the early 1950s with new pastoral leadership was a volunteer choir and a handbell ensemble formed.  

Dr. Nelson played Sunday mornings in Oak Park for a congregation of 1,600 and then for 40 years headed into Chicago each afternoon to Orchestra Hall, where he conducted a choir of 125 voices at the Chicago Sunday Evening Club until 1956. The club was a source of pride for the greater metropolitan area and eventually drew a national audience through radio broadcasts. Every Sunday night local businessmen and travelers would fill the 2,000-seat concert hall for a nondenominational Christian service featuring prominent religious speakers such as Henry Sloane Coffin from Union Theological Seminary and W.E.B. DuBois from Atlanta University. Founded in 1908, the Chicago Sunday Evening Club still produces a weekly cable TV broadcast. “30 Good Minutes” is aired on WTTW, where production moved from Orchestra Hall in the 1960s.

The club’s leaders, who included Rev. Clifford W. Barnes, an internationally known church activist and Chicago philanthropist, offered an additional level of status to the CSEC, as did Daniel Burnham’s beautiful Orchestra Hall venue from 1904. Dr. Nelson played the Lyon & Healy organ there, Opus 164 also from 1904, which at 4 manuals and 56 ranks was reported to be the largest instrument the Chicago-based company ever built. The CSEC services included performances by the club’s own chorale, which pre-dated the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s resident chorus by several decades.    

Dr. Nelson was respected and well known in Oak Park through his long tenure at First Presbyterian Church. Also, due to his post as conductor, and from 1938 until shortly before his death, general choral director for the annual Chicagoland Music Festival, his reputation extended much further. Beginning in 1930, the Chicago Tribune Charities sponsored this event annually for 35 years, reportedly attracting more than 10,000 singers at a time to Soldier Field. The outdoor stadium was usually home to the Chicago Bears football team, but for a few days each August, in Chicago’s sweltering summer heat, a musical crew headed by Nelson organized singing contests and performances for choral ensembles from as many as sixteen states. On one occasion, more than 80,000 people were expected in the audience, purchasing tickets at $1.50 each. Participating choirs were auditioned because the number of choirs that wished to perform was far greater than the organizers could accommodate. The festival presented not only classical choirs, but also represented Chicago’s varied ethnicities with African-American gospel choirs, accordion ensembles, and popular country vocalists as well.   

When he was only 28 years old, Nelson was honored by King Gustaf V of Sweden with the Order of Valhalla, during a tour of Scandinavia with the Swedish Choral Club of Chicago, which he directed.6 In 1930, he became president of Bush Conservatory of Chicago. Two years later, when the Bush Conservatory was subsumed under Chicago Musical College, Nelson continued on as president of the merged school. His legacy was such that the Chicago Conservatory of Music dedicated a concert hall in his honor after his death, naming it the Edgar A. Nelson Memorial Hall.  

In addition to his teaching and administrative roles, for 44 years Nelson conducted the 200-voice Marshall Field Chorus, associated with Chicago’s landmark department store on State Street. For more than ten years, Nelson was the accompanist for the prestigious Apollo Musical Club. This independent auditioned chorus of about 80 voices sold standing subscriptions to its concerts of oratorios, cantatas, passions, and other large choral works such as Bach’s B-Minor Mass in Orchestra Hall. A Chicago Tribune reviewer referred to Nelson’s accompanying there and for numerous vocal recitals as consistently ideal. The Apollo Musical Club’s director in the early 20th century was Harrison Wild, notably also a founding member of the American Guild of Organists in 1896 and the Chicago (originally the “Western”) chapter in 1907. When Wild retired from the Apollo Club in 1928, Nelson took on the role of conductor and held that post until 1951.  

In 1937, living in the technological age that followed the century of progress, Nelson was among the musical experts chosen by the Federal Trade Commission for a panel to review the issue of a new organ. The panel was to advise on the validity of claims by the Hammond Clock Company of Evanston, Illinois that its electronic instruments were organs. No doubt many organists saw the clock company’s invention as a threat. Nelson joined the majority opinion of the panel, which concluded that the so-called electronic organ did not meet the accepted definition of an organ. This verdict did not hold back the Hammond Clock Company, nor did it intrude on Nelson’s indefatigable musical activity or impeccable musicianship.

 

Casavant makes their mark 

in Oak Park

George H. Clark, Grace Episcopal Church

In the early years of the 20th century, Mrs. Linda Holdrege Kettlestrings, who married into Oak Park’s founding family, served as organist at Grace Episcopal Church. The building was a gracious English Gothic revival structure completed in 1905 on the “church corridor.” Mrs. Kettlestrings also accompanied silent movies at Oak Park’s Lamar Theater two blocks away.7 In 1922, just a few years after the firm of Casavant Brothers of St-Hyacinthe, Quebec celebrated their 40th anniversary, they installed Opus 940, a 65-rank, 4-manual organ for Grace Episcopal Church. Chicago was already home to a dozen organs by Casavant, but this was only their third in Oak Park, and by far the largest in this village, which The Diapason had declared to be a prominent organ center. The Chicago Tribune reported the cost of Grace’s new instrument at $50,000.8 In 1947, Marcel Dupré performed a solo recital to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the instrument. 

At the time of its installation, the church’s organist was George H. Clark. Born in England, Clark was raised in the English choirboy tradition of London’s smaller parishes. He studied with Joseph Bonnet—for how long and where is not known, but Clark often included works of Bonnet on his recital programs.  

Clark kept good company. He was chosen to be one of three organists performing for a festival AGO service on April 24, 1928 in celebration of the new Möller organ, Opus 5196, at nearby Austin Congregational Church. The other performers were William H. Barnes, the noted author, organ designer, and past dean of the Chicago AGO chapter, and Harold B. Simonds, organist of St. Chrysostom’s Church in Chicago.  

Clark had a 2-manual organ installed in his Oak Park home in 1926. Opus 1162 was the fourth Casavant organ in Oak Park and featured a 16 Bourdon in the pedal division. Whether Clark was duly impressed with Casavant’s work or due to some other circumstance, he became Casavant’s Chicago sales representative in 1932. His first instrument was purchased by Saint Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church in Oak Park. This was Opus 1467, a 3-manual instrument of 24 ranks. Clark played the inaugural organ recital featuring repertoire that frequently appeared on concert listings of the period: an excerpt from
Tannhäuser, Borodin’s “At the Convent,” an unnamed work by Guilmant, and a transcription of the “Hallelujah” chorus. 

 

A dean and director from 

Chicagoland’s best  

Raymond Allyn Smith and Theodore Kratt, First Baptist Church

Just two blocks from the principal church corridor of Lake Street stand the First Baptist and First United Methodist churches. The Methodist congregation was Oak Park’s first, formally organized in 1872 as the First Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1925 the present building, designed by noted Oak Park architect E. E. Richards, was completed and the Skinner organ company installed a pipe organ in the same year. This was Oak Park’s third Skinner, Opus 528, with four manuals and 43 ranks—all three organs within three blocks of one another.  

The nearby First Baptist congregation housed the second Skinner in the village, a 4-manual organ of 38 ranks, Opus 358, dedicated on April 25, 1923. This organ replaced the small pump organ that had been donated to the Baptist church by the pastor in 1882. In 1922, the congregation, which had grown to a membership of nearly 1,600, called Raymond Allyn Smith as organist. Smith was a graduate of the University of Chicago and conductor of glee clubs at both Beloit College and the University of Chicago. A native of Ohio, he studied organ, piano, and composition, first at Oberlin College and then with organist Robert W. Stevens in Chicago.9 Smith most likely would have been close to the installation of Skinner’s gargantuan 110-rank organ in Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. He consulted with William H. Shuey, who had preceded Edwin Stanley Seder as organist at First Congregational Church and knew its 1917 Skinner organ well, on the specifications for First Baptist in Oak Park.  

According to the account of the organ’s installation in The American Organist, First Baptist Church completed its red brick building with English Gothic features, purchased the organ, and installed ten tower chimes, all without carrying forward any debt.10 The chimes were a memorial in honor of George H. Shorney, some of whose descendants are still active in this congregation today. Smith planned a series of recitals and choral events throughout the year to celebrate the acquisition of the new organ. He collaborated with Theodore W. Kratt, the church’s music director. Kratt had graduated from the Chicago Musical College in 1921, later joining the faculty at Maine Township High School, and serving First Baptist Church until 1928. He conducted a Sunday choir of sixty voices at First Baptist. He founded an Oak Park choral society of 100 augmented with approximately fifty singers from a junior choral society for special concerts, given in the sanctuary that seated nearly 1,000.11 The choir’s repertoire included cantatas and oratorios, one example being Elijah by Mendelssohn.  

A celebratory program one month after the organ’s installation, most likely with Kratt conducting and Smith accompanying, included a mix of vocal, choral, and piano repertoire by contemporary composers (Amy Cheney Beach, Sergei Rachmaninov, Camille Saint-Säens), chorus excerpts by Gounod and Sullivan, an organ work by the ever-popular Pietro Yon, and the “Hallelujah Chorus,” which frequently appeared on concerts during this era. The final work was an organ transcription of the March from Verdi’s Aida.  

Smith not only performed in the Chicago area; he was invited elsewhere as a soloist. His program in 1923 for the ongoing recital series at the University of Illinois, home to a 4-manual, 59-rank Casavant, follows:

 

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Bach)

Sonata No. 4 in D Minor (Guilmant)

Echoes of Spring (Friml)

Notturno (Mendelssohn)

Am Meer (Schubert)

Au Convent (Borodin)

Toccata from Symphony No. 5 (Widor)12

 

Smith’s colleague and music director at First Baptist, Theodore Kratt, completed his Mus.D. at the Chicago Musical College in 1932. He moved on to other positions, first as orchestra conductor at Miami University of Ohio, incidentally a position organist Joseph W. Clokey had formerly held, and then as Dean of the School of Music at the University of Oregon. Later music directors at First Baptist of Oak Park were Herbert Nutt (1930–34) and Robert MacDonald (1935–39).  

 

Let the organist do it!

Miss Etta Code (d. 1953), St. Edmund’s Catholic Church 

This Catholic parish, one of two established in 1907 in Oak Park, was served for 49 years by its founding priest, Monsignor John Code, with the help of his sister Etta Margaret, who played the organ. Miss Code, after 46 years as organist, was remembered at her funeral for her love of God and her zeal for His church. She is quoted on her guiding philosophy as having said, “The purpose of church music is to pray in song, not to entertain. It is an office once entrusted to priests. To make it an occasion for mere artistic display is to insult the God who is on the altar.”13 

As a child, Etta grew up with John and five other brothers in a musical family in Chicago’s St. Columbkille parish, one of many Irish enclaves that yielded generations of successful Americans. The matriarch of the family was Mary Code. With her children, she formed a family ensemble in the home, playing mandolins, harps, and guitars for the neighborhood.  

Miss Etta Code studied piano, harp, and organ at the Chicago Musical College. After graduating, she moved to Oak Park in 1907 to help her brother John nurse along the new Catholic parish in the village’s commercial district. The congregation first met in a barn on the old Scoville property in the center of town and then in 1910 moved into a stately English Gothic building about three blocks from Oak Park’s “church corridor.” Miss Code’s duties included managing the parish office, teaching at Chicago’s historic Ogden School, directing the catechism classes for the parish school, and helping the needy callers who appeared at the rectory. In a more unusual role, at an outdoor parish fundraiser on the lawn of one of Oak Park’s baron-era mansions, Miss Code was described as one of the “Oak Park beauties” who set up the “cigar booth” for entertainment on the lawn.  

The parish Mass schedule found Miss Code at least once a day in the organ loft, playing for the liturgy and singing the solo parts while accompanying herself on the church’s Casavant organ, and sometimes on harp. The size of the parish, which grew beyond 2,000 in the 1930s, dictated that there would be frequent named Masses and on many weekdays the organist had to accompany as many as three of them. When the church acquired a 16-rank Casavant pipe organ in 1913, Miss Code most likely consulted on this project. That year the church made a partial payment of $1,155 on the instrument. Casavant installed two instruments in Oak Park in 1913. The other, at 53 ranks, was built for the First Congregational Church but sadly lost when lightning struck the church’s steeple four years later. St. Edmund’s Casavant, now the oldest remaining in Oak Park, was refurbished in 1952, just one year before Etta Code’s death.

Miss Code organized a number of ambitious musical celebrations to commemorate events in the parish’s life. She was frequently noted as an accompanist and organ soloist outside of regular Masses. In honor of a parish member who donated extensive decorations for the building’s interior in 1920, she arranged a sacred concert, featuring William Rogerson and Vittorio Arimondi, soloists from the Grand Opera Company (later the Chicago Lyric Opera). Other performers came from the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in Chicago (later the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and St. Edmund’s choir of 34 voices. Miss Code accompanied and played a “Finale” by Guilmant, presumably from an organ sonata. The male chorus of the Catholic Casino Club sang sacred excerpts in Latin by Gerasch and Kreutzer. The repertoire spanned from Mozart and Haydn to Gounod. A reviewer in the local Oak Leaves reported that the church was packed that evening, and “not the least convincing contribution was Miss Etta Code’s organ accompaniment of the intricate and exacting scores and her rich and voluminous interpretation of Guilmant’s organ recessional.”  

Miss Code seemed to show an affinity for opera, having directed at the Warrington Opera House in Oak Park, where there was a resident orchestra. The Warrington billed itself as “the only legitimate theater outside of the Chicago Loop” and it was large enough to seat 1,500 people. The following year, since the first sacred concert was so well received, Miss Code organized a repeat performance, again with Messrs. Rogerson and Arimondi of the Chicago Grand Opera Company, and noted Chicago organist Adalbert Hugelot. Hugelot played Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon, many of whose works are frequently found on recital programs of this era. Several vocal solos from Handel (“Where’er You Walk”) to Verdi (Ave Maria) contrasted with Grieg and Tchaikovsky transcriptions played by a string quartet from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  

The sacred concerts did not continue on this scale in future years. The church’s annual expense for parish music was $415 in 1921, on a par with the amounts given for European sufferers and Irish relief. This was sufficient to sustain a choir, which met regularly every Friday night, even throughout Oak Park’s hot summers. During the school year, students at the parish school presented musical plays and concerts by the student band. Miss Code served both students at the school and friends throughout the parish and the village. Father Code referred to her as his “first assistant” at St. Edmund’s. At her death, 95 parishioners and local church and community groups requested memorial masses for her. 

 

Value added

The careers of Edwin Stanley Seder, Dr. Edgar Nelson, George Clark, Raymond Smith, Theodore Kratt, and Miss Etta Code spanned an era in which the organ’s standing was as solid as the pillars surrounding their churches. In spite of economic hardships and the staggering scale and speed of world events from 1920–1940, these musicians held on to a constant discipline of planning, practice, and performing that enriched their communities with live music. They may have worked in a village, but they worked at a level that rivaled larger urban centers like Chicago. Their legacy shows that the society that heralded the era of radio, streetcars, Gershwin, and Guthrie also valued the centuries-old tradition of organ-playing in its churches.

 

 

A Conversation with Wilma Jensen

Andrew Peters

Andrew Peters studied with Wilma Jensen while serving a church outside of Nashville, Tennessee. He holds degrees from St. Olaf College and the Cleveland Institute of Music and is Pastoral Musician at Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. He plays recitals and released a recording in 2008 on the Schoenstein organ in Franklin, Tennessee. For more information, go to www.andrewjpeters.com.

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Wilma Jensen is heralded as an outstanding recitalist, church musician, and teacher. Her extensive concert career has taken her throughout the United States. She has played on countless well-known instruments, including those at First Congregational Church in Los Angeles, the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Riverside Church in New York City, St. Paul’s Cathedral in St. Paul, St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta, and the West Point United States Military Academy. Having played for several regional conventions and three national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, she is in demand as a recitalist, lecturer, and clinician for choral workshops, church music workshops, and organ masterclasses. Numerous European tours have taken her to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, and England. In addition, she has made a recording for West German Broadcasting, Sender Freis Berlin.

Dr. Jensen earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she was a student of Catharine Crozier and Harold Gleason. During that time she received the Performer’s Certificate in organ. She received an honorary doctorate from Piedmont College in May 2004. Recognized as a successful teacher, Wilma Jensen has served on the faculties of Oklahoma City University, the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt University, Scarritt Graduate School, and Indiana University, where she was a tenured professor.

In addition to two professional solo recordings—Mors et Resurrectio (Arkay label) and Sketches and Improvisations (Pro Organo label)—Wilma Jensen also made two recordings conducting the St. George’s Choir on the Pro Organo label. She has given numerous masterclasses around the country at sites including the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College, Eastman School of Music, and many others. She has a full upcoming schedule of recitals and masterclasses and will present a pre-convention recital for the 2012 AGO National Convention in Nashville. Additionally, she will teach two workshop masterclasses. For more information, go to www.wilmajensen.com.

 

Andrew Peters: You’ve had a lengthy career in the organ world. What first interested you in the organ?

Wilma Jensen: My father was a Methodist minister in south central Illinois. By the age of ten, I wanted very much to try the organ, having started piano lessons at age five. Of course I was in church every Sunday and could play many hymns on the piano at a very young age, as well as do some playing “by ear.”

 

AP: You’ve had experiences in three aspects of the organ world: church music, teaching, and performance.  Can you talk a bit about your experience with service music and hymn playing?

WJ: When I was twelve, I had a regular job on a two-manual pipe organ in my father’s church, since there seemed to be no one else to play. I have no memory of what I might have used for voluntaries. They were probably poor, but I did enjoy working out the hymns with pedal, although at this point I was self-taught. I was extremely proud of my salary of $1 per week! A well-known organist, Dr. Frank Collins, gave a recital in my hometown, and my parents asked him to hear me play. He suggested I should study with a good teacher and recommended Ruth Melville Bellatti at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. She was a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, having studied with Harold Gleason, and was a classmate of Catharine Crozier. She insisted I play every note of the first edition of the Gleason Method. Also, she was instrumental in my attending Eastman for undergraduate and graduate study.

 

AP: You had a long tenure at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Nashville. Did you have a choral background before serving there? 

WJ: Unfortunately, no. I conducted only one other church choir for a short time before coming to St. George’s. I realized I was in no way ready for the position, so I sought out excellent teachers to help me with conducting, diction, and repertoire. (This happened over a number of years.) Lois Fyfe and her staff at Lois Fyfe Music in Nashville provided invaluable assistance for the selection of choral music. An associate priest at St. George’s spent hours helping me each week in the study of the church year and planning appropriate music for the specific Sunday lessons from the Lectionary. Also, I listened to and studied numerous recordings of choirs from all over Europe and the U.S.

 

AP: Did studying choral skills in your mid-life give you a unique perspective on choral music and the voice?

WJ: Yes, it certainly did. Conducting makes one so conscious of the “time and dynamics between the beats,” the shaping of the musical line, and the timing of consonants for perfecting ensemble. Unifying proper vowels contributed more to the beauty of the sound than I ever previously could have imagined.  

During my tenure at St. George’s, the choir made two recordings and was chosen from an audition tape to sing for the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in 1989. By that time, I had been choirmaster/organist for seven years and had been studying and growing as a musician. That summer, the choir made an extended tour of Europe, singing in England, Austria, and France. Our tour concluded at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, where we sang a pre-service a cappella program prior to singing the Vierne Messe Solennelle at Sunday morning Mass. (I also played the afternoon organ recital.)

 

AP: You’ve played recitals on organs of various historic periods throughout the United States and Europe. Out of the hundreds of recitals you’ve played, do any stand out in your mind? 

WJ: I am very grateful for the experience of playing so many diverse instruments, both electro-pneumatic and tracker. Some have been in large cathedrals with much reverberation and some have been small historic instruments. I appreciated being able to play the first Cavaillé-Coll of 1850 in Paris at the Cathedral of St. Denis, as well as later instruments of the same builder. At St. Denis, because the pedal pipes are so far from the console and there is no Barker lever for the pedal, I had to stand on final long notes with all the weight I could manage in order for all the pipes to sound! I enjoyed playing an Åkerman instrument in Uppsala, Sweden (Åkerman was a pupil of Cavaillé-Coll), a Schnitger organ in Germany, St. Paul’s in London, and many small tracker instruments in the Netherlands. I must admit I love a reverberant cathedral sound. This wide variety of experiences helps in my understanding of the overall repertoire and my ability to communicate appropriate registration to students. I do enjoy spending time planning the registration.

 

AP: You’re continuing to learn new repertoire. Do you have a particular style, period, or composer in which you specialize? 

WJ: I especially enjoy learning, performing, and registering the Romantic and contemporary literature. Additionally, I keep exploring repertoire for voluntaries for services, both for myself and students, and occasionally substitute for services at St. George’s and other churches. I have been given some out-of-print repertoire, which I later performed and recorded. As a result, several of these compositions now appear as archival editions. I am so looking forward to playing soon the newly renovated 1932 Aeolian organ at Duke Chapel. I have just learned all three of Eric Delamarter’s Nocturnes and will use the Chimes, Harp, Celesta and many solo stops as indicated in the score.

 

AP: You have current and former students across the country. Are there students with whom you are still in touch?

WJ: There are too many to name! Some are high-profile professionals. I am equally proud of many other students who are making invaluable contributions in their current positions. I stay in touch with many former students and enjoy hearing about their teaching, church positions, and performing. You might say talking on my cell phone to former students is my hobby!

 

AP: Do you still teach a monthly masterclass in Nashville? 

WJ: Yes, I did teach a monthly masterclass for many years for anyone who wanted to attend. This season, however, I am so busy with recitals, classes, and other commitments that, at least for the moment, I am taking a break.

 

AP: You recently released an extensive teaching video and booklet, “Organizing Notes in Space.” Why did you start this project?

WJ: This project was important to me to help communicate some of my teaching concepts as part of my legacy. After considerable study of the physical aspects of keyboard technique, I have developed an approach to help students overcome problems and develop a facile technique. And, of course, one arrives at a satisfactory musical result only through a controlled technique. As a result, I wanted to demonstrate these ideas by teaching former students in a video.

 AP: Is it true that you once played in a masterclass for Bonnet?

WJ: Yes, I played in a masterclass for Joseph Bonnet when I was twelve. I thought it was a recital, not a class. Since I was the first to play, I was humiliated that he stopped me for his suggestions.  At the conclusion of my playing, I went to a corner in the back of the room and shed many tears.

 

AP: Besides being a past dean of the Nashville AGO chapter, have you served in other AGO positions?

WJ: In addition to being Dean-elect and Dean for the two-year period, I have served on many program, executive and education committees through the years. Also, I have judged competitions, taught at Pipe Organ Encounters—both beginner and advanced—and taught masterclasses throughout the U.S. I am on the workshop committee for the Nashville 2012 AGO national convention. 

 

AP: What are your thoughts on the need for piano study before studying organ?

WJ: I think piano study is essential at a young age for developing a natural, flexible, facile technique. In mid-life, I had developed some wrist tension, too heavy thumbs, and resulting weak fourth and fifth fingers. I sought the coaching of Ernestine Scott, an incredible piano teacher in Oklahoma City. This study and extensive readings she recommended have changed my approach to technique and resulting musicianship. My new teaching video is dedicated to her. Sometimes when we are young we have a natural, facile technique that may change with lack of continued piano practice. Finding those skills again is a truly valuable gift at any age.

 

AP: Would you like to tell us a bit about your family? 

WJ: I have two children, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. I frequently visit my daughter and her family near Chicago. The oldest two of three girls attend Indiana University School of Business, and I was able to visit them in Bloomington while attending conferences last year. My son lives in Orlando. His three girls and one boy are rather scattered geographically, but we all manage to meet in Orlando. 

My daughter played the piano well and was fortunate to study with my teacher, Ernestine Scott. When she was in junior high, she was the registrant for my first European tour in Holland. She thought it was not as glamorous as she had expected! All seven grandchildren stomped their feet and said, “We are not taking any more piano lessons!”

 

AP: What changes in organ design have you seen during your career?

WJ: I recall experiencing the Orgelbewegung; then later Romantic organs including trackers, which became larger and larger; again more small historic trackers into the mix; and back and forth we go. I love it all!

 

AP: What do you perceive are the challenges of music in the contemporary church?

WJ: Just as we cannot seem to make up our minds about what kind of organ is best for each church, we seem to be having issues in choosing a traditional service with classical music or a contemporary service thought to be more appealing to young people. This issue has just come to the forefront at St. George’s in Nashville. The first modern liturgical service was just held a few weeks ago in a secondary worship space, which has been created with an altar, screens, microphones, etc. I attended the first service, and it was very successful and well done. I am pleased it was held in a place other than the main worship space. I believe it is essential to make the traditional service as beautiful, moving, and exciting as possible. The music of this new service was sensitive, set in a liturgical context, and still within the form of this modern style of worship. If that happens, there will be a place for both services to exist peacefully “in harmony.”

As for positions for church musicians, I believe if you can develop a really fine program that has meaning musically and spiritually, as well as make yourself invaluable to the program, there will be a good job for you.

 

AP: Thank you so much, Wilma!

 

 

 

Nunc Dimittis

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Dutch organist and conductor Charles de Wolff died on November 23, 2011 in Zwolle, the Netherlands, following complications from a fall in his home in Vierhouten. He was born on June 19, 1932 in Onstwedde near Stadskanaal in the Dutch province Groningen, where his father was a minister of the Dutch Reformed church.

De Wolff studied piano, organ, and music theory at the Utrecht Conservatory. When his organ teacher George Stam ‘moved’ to the Amsterdam Conservatory, de Wolff followed his teacher to the Dutch capital, later continuing his studies with Anthon van der Horst. Van der Horst—whose students had also included Piet Kee, Albert de Klerk, and Bernard Bartelink—was perhaps the most influential Dutch organist of the twentieth century and also an important composer and conductor, especially known for his annual performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Dutch Bach Society.

After completing his studies in Amsterdam in 1954 with the Prix d’Excellence (the highest distinction possible), de Wolff continued his studies, on van der Horst’s suggestion, with Jeanne Demessieux in Paris. From her, de Wolff learned to ‘only accept one’s very best’, as he said in an interview in 2008. Demessieux inspired de Wolff to go hear Olivier Messiaen at the Ste-Trinité on Sundays. Along with Bach, the music of Messiaen became a constant in de Wolff’s career. In 1965, he won the Dutch Gaudeamus competition for contemporary music with a performance of Messiaen’s Livre d’orgue

That same year van der Horst died, leaving ‘his’ Bach Society in the hands of de Wolff, who had already gained significant experience as a conductor following studies with Franco Ferrara and Albert Wolf. A year later, de Wolff was appointed music director of the Noordelijk Filharmonisch Orkest, based in the city of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. De Wolff would stay with the orchestra for a quarter century. In Groningen, he also led the choral society Toonkunstkoor Bekker (1961–1989).

A difference of opinion about artistic matters between the Bach Society and its conductor in 1983 led to de Wolff’s leaving and the vast majority of the semi-professional choir following him. De Wolff and his choir continued their annual St. Matthew Passion performances—as well as their regular performances of Bach’s other major choral works—elsewhere as ‘Holland Bach Choir’, while the Bach Society started a new, smaller choir and an orchestra with period instruments. De Wolff stayed with ‘his’ Bach Choir until 1998, returning briefly a few years later.

As an organist, de Wolff was strongly associated with the Schnitger organ (1721) at Zwolle. One of the first of the large Dutch city organs to be restored with historic awareness (Flentrop 1954), the organ was regarded very highly by organists at home and abroad, especially in the 1950s and ’60s. The instrument was very dear to de Wolff, not only for the music of Bach, but also for Reger, Messiaen, and other contemporary organ music, much of which he premiered in Zwolle. A minor stroke forced him to give up organ playing in 2005.

Although a thoroughly passionate and in many ways single-minded musician—who could easily practice for eight hours a day and study orchestral scores in the evening—he was also a down-to-earth person, who enjoyed playing bridge with friends, driving large classic cars, and was never able to give up smoking. Seemingly secular on the outside, he always kept a connection with the Reformed Church and in later years played for weekly services, assisted by his son Franco, a geriatrist.      

After a simple ceremony, de Wolff was buried in Enschede on November 28, 2011.

—Dr. Jan-Piet Knijff, FAGO

 

Arlyn F. Fuerst died December 26, 2011 in Fitchburg, Wisconsin at age 69 from CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia), with which he lived since 2001. Born on May 25, 1942 in Holdrege, Nebraska, he received a Bachelor of Music degree in church music at Wartburg College in 1963 and Master of Music degree in church music and organ from the University of Michigan in 1964. In 1971 he received a Lutheran World Federation scholarship and was granted a leave of absence from his position at Trinity Lutheran Church for further studies at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, Germany and the University of Iowa. His teachers included Warren Schmidt, Robert Glasgow, Uwe Röhl, Kurt Thomas, and Gerhard Krapf. 

Fuerst was minister of music at Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Madison, Wisconsin, from 1964 to 2006. He organized and directed an annual Renaissance Festival for Advent and Christmas on the First Sunday of Advent for 25 years from 1977–2001. The Trinity Choir toured Europe under his leadership in 1979, 1986, and 1996. He represented the city of Madison together with musicians from Trinity at the Madison Fair in Freiburg, Germany in 1994. He taught as a presenter from 1974–88 for the University of Wisconsin Music Extension Series, and from 1979 to 1988 as a presenter for the UW Series on Church Music on the Statewide Communication Network. Arlyn F. Fuerst is survived by his wife, Carolyn Fuerst née Wulff, three sons, nine grandchildren, and a brother and a sister. 

 

Gerre Hancock, one of America’s most highly acclaimed concert organists and choral directors, passed away peacefully on January 21, surrounded by his family, in Austin, Texas. The cause was coronary artery disease. A gifted artist, teacher, and composer, he was considered by many to be a giant figure in twentieth to twenty-first century American sacred music. He was known not only for his artistry, but also for his energy, optimism, and love of the people he taught and for whom he performed.  

At the time of his death, Dr. Hancock was Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught along with his wife of fifty years, Dr. Judith Hancock. Prior to this appointment in 2004, he held the position of Organist and Master of the Choristers at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City, where for over thirty years he set a new standard for church music in America. Previous to his time at St. Thomas, he held positions as organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, where he also served on the artist faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and as assistant organist at St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City.  

A native of Lubbock, Texas, Gerre Hancock began to hone his legendary skills as a child, taking piano and organ lessons in Lubbock and playing in a local church. He went on to study at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree, and from there to Union Theological Seminary in New York for his Master of Sacred Music degree, from which he received the Unitas Distinguished Alumnus Award. A recipient of a Rotary Foundation Fellowship, he continued his study in Paris, during which time he was a finalist at the Munich International Music Competitions. His organ study was with E. William Doty, Robert Baker, Jean Langlais, Nadia Boulanger, and Marie-Claire Alain.

A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Dr. Hancock was a member of its national council, and was a founder and past president of the Association of Anglican Musicians. As a noted teacher, he served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Institute of Sacred Music of Yale University, and the Eastman School of Music.  

Dr. Hancock was appointed a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music in 1981 and of the Royal College of Organists in 1995. He received honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Nashotah House Seminary, the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, and from Westminster Choir College in Princeton New Jersey. In 2004 he was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree (Honoris causa) from the General Theological Seminary in New York, and was presented with the Medal of the Cross of St. Augustine by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a ceremony at Lambeth Palace, London. He is listed in Who’s Who in America. His biography appears in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, and the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists named him International Performer of the Year in 2010. 

Gerre Hancock’s consummate skill was clearly apparent in his concert appearances. Possessing a masterly interpretive style, he was an artist of taste, warmth, perception, and style—and a master of virtuosity in his improvisations. Considered for decades to be the finest organ improviser in America, he was heard in recital in countless cities throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, Japan, and Great Britain. He also performed on occasion with his wife, Judith, including a recital at Westminster Abbey.

Compositions for organ and chorus by Dr. Hancock are published by Oxford University Press, as is his textbook Improvising: How to Master the Art, which is used by musicians throughout the country. He recorded for Decca/Argo, Gothic Records, Koch International, Priory Records and Pro Organo, both as conductor of the St. Thomas Choir and as a soloist. In addition, the American Guild of Organists produced a DVD about him, volume IV of The Master Series.

Gerre Hancock is survived by his wife, Dr. Judith Hancock of Austin, Texas, his daughters Deborah Hancock of Brooklyn, New York and Lisa Hancock of New York City, as well as his brother, the Reverend James Hancock, of Savannah, Texas. A memorial service took place February 4 at St. Thomas Church, New York City. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the University of Texas at Austin Organ Department with an emphasis on Sacred Music.

—Karen McFarlane

 

Alice Yost Jordan died January 15 at the age of 95 at the Bright Kavanagh House. Born in Davenport, Iowa, December 31, 1916, she moved with her family to Des Moines, where she attended Hubbell, Callanan, and Roosevelt public schools, and graduated from Drake University. She pursued graduate studies at Drake, Columbia University, and Union Theological Seminary. Drake honored her during their centennial year as “One in a Hundred.”

In 1986, Grand View University conferred the honorary degree, Doctor of Letters, upon her, and in 2006 Drake bestowed the honorary degree Doctor of Fine Arts. Mrs. Jordan was listed in the first edition of Who’s Who in American Women, and in Women in American Music. She was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002.

As a composer, she was best known for more than 250 published choral and organ works; one of her best-known arrangements, “America the Beautiful,” was sung many times by the Iowa All-state Chorus. Sherrill Milnes of Metropolitan Opera fame, and Jon Spong, his accompanist, chose her “Take Joy Home,” as a closing work on many of their worldwide concerts, including a White House concert. Over 40 of her works had been commissioned by churches, universities, and other organizations across the United States.

Alice Jordan served on the boards of the Des Moines Symphony Association, the Des Moines Women’s Club, and the Drake Alumnae Association, and was president of the Des Moines Civic Music Association when it had 4,200 members. Memberships also included ASCAP, Kappa Alpha Theta, PEO, and Mu Phi Epsilon, which honored her with the Orah Ashley Lamke Distinguished Alumni Award at its triennial national convention. For many years she was a member of the Des Moines Club. A long-time member of First United Methodist Church, she was also an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

Alice Jordan was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Lawrence, and her husband, Dr. Frank B. Jordan, an accomplished organist and a longtime Professor of Music and Dean of Drake University’s College of Fine Arts.

—Robert Speed

 

Dutch harpsichordist, organist, and conductor Gustav Leonhardt, a pioneer in period instrument performance and Baroque performance research, died January 16 at his home in Amsterdam. He was 83. Born in the Netherlands on May 30, 1928, Leonhardt began studying piano at age 6, and the cello when he was 10. His parents and his brother and sister were avid chamber music players, and when he was a teenager his parents bought a harpsichord for Baroque music performances; he made it his specialty. In 1949 he enrolled at the Schola Cantorum, in Basel, Switzerland, to study organ and harpsichord with Eduard Müller, moving the following year to Vienna to study conducting and musicology, where he made his debut as a harpsichordist in 1950, performing Bach’s Art of the Fugue. He also met Nikolaus Harnoncourt and began playing with his group. 

Among his first recordings were collaborations with the countertenor Alfred Deller on music by Bach, Purcell, Matthew Locke, John Jenkins and Elizabethans. As a keyboard soloist and founder and director of the Leonhardt Consort, Leonhardt made hundreds of recordings in the 1950s and ’60s that helped establish historical performance practice. He founded the Leonhardt Consort in 1955, for performance of Baroque repertoire, first concentrating on then little-known composers like Biber and Scheidt, and later including works by Rameau, Lully, Campra, and other Baroque composers. The group collaborated with Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien to record, beginning in 1971, all of Bach’s church cantatas for the Telefunken (later Teldec) Das Alte Werk series. The recordings took nearly two decades to complete, and were released in boxed sets that included full scores of the cantatas. Leonhardt also recorded Bach’s keyboard music, sometimes revisiting works—he recorded the Goldberg Variations in 1952, 1965, and 1979.

Leonhardt taught harpsichord at conservatories in Vienna and Amsterdam, and also taught at Harvard in 1969 and 1970. His students included Richard Egarr, Philippe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, Bob van Asperen, Alan Curtis, Pierre Hantaï, Francesco Cera, Andreas Staier, and Skip Sempé. He was also the founding music director of the New York Collegium. In Amsterdam, Gustav Leonhardt was appointed organist of the Waasle Kerk and later the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), both of which have historic instruments. He continued to teach, and he edited the Fantasies and Toccatas of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck for the complete edition of Sweelinck’s works, published in 1968. That year he also portrayed Bach in Jean-Marie Straub’s film Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, a non-speaking role that required him to perform, in period costume and wig, in locations where Bach worked. He gave his last public performance on December 12, 2011 at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris.

Gustav Leonhardt is survived by his wife, Marie Leonhardt, a noted Baroque violinist and concertmaster of the Leonhardt Consort, three daughters, and a sister, the fortepianist Trudelies Leonhardt.

 

Kay Arthur McAbee died January 8, after a month-long illness. He was born in Joliet, Illinois on November 17, 1930, and had been a resident of Albuquerque since 1986. He started his professional career as staff organist for the W. W. Kimball Company in 1952. After completing his musical education at the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, he went on to become a featured soloist in at least five national conventions for the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS), and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1985. He was a pioneer in the theatre organ world and well remembered for the series of concerts he performed at the Rialto Theater in Joliet, Illinois and the Aurora Paramount in Aurora, Illinois, and more recently at the Phil Maloof Roxy Organ at the Albuquerque Ramada Classic, Fred Hermes residence organ in Racine, Wisconsin, and concert series for the St. Louis Theater Organ Society. 

McAbee taught up to fifty students per week in Joliet for years at the World of Music. He was member of the American Guild of Organists for 50 years, choirmaster and organist at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Frankfort, Illinois for 23 years, and most recently organist for Covenant United Methodist Church.

—Larry Chace

 

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