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Editor's Notebook

Jerome Butera
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100 years and counting
One can only wonder if The Diapason’s founder, Siegfried E. Gruenstein, envisioned the day his magazine would turn 100. The fiftieth anniversary issue, December 1959, noted:

Siegfried E. Gruenstein, a rare combination of competent organist and professional newspaper man, founded The Diapason in 1909 against the advice of his elders among organists, builders and well-wishers. That it grew and prospered under his forty-eight years guidance was due wholly to his skill, his impartiality and his taste.
Mr. Gruenstein listened to all of the advice offered, and did not follow any of it. He persisted in going ahead, and the initial issue, all of eight pages, made its appearance. A few leaders in the organ profession offered encouragement (Clarence Eddy, William C. Carl, Peter Lutkin, and Harrison Wild). Others gave the paper three to six months to live. At the end of the first year, the record showed a net profit of $15, a paid circulation of 200, and accumulated assets of a desk, a file cabinet, a wastebasket, and much goodwill. We have reproduced the first issue as part of this 100th anniversary celebration (see pages 23–30).
When The Diapason was launched, electro-pneumatic action was new, and tubular-pneumatic and tracker-action organs were still being built. The electric fan blower was still new and water motors were being made, while the human blower was not extinct. The Diapason has documented the trends in organbuilding over the last hundred years, from the orchestral/symphonic organ to the American Classic organ, the clarified ensemble, the Organ Reform movement, historically informed organ building, historic replicas, and a rediscovery of Ernest Skinner, Cavaillé-Coll, and Henry Willis.
The Diapason has served as a mirror of the organ culture in this country, documenting the work of builders, players, teachers, and composers. To read through the issues of The Diapason from 1909 to the present is to read the history of organ building, performance, pedagogy and composition in the United States for the last century. What have we learned from the last 100 years? Perhaps that the organ can exist in many forms, can be beautiful and expressive in many different ways, and inspire and uplift us in its numerous incarnations.
Dare we imagine the world of the pipe organ 100 years from now? What will the next 50 years, the next 25 years, or even the next decade bring? If the past is any indication, the pipe organ will continue to be built, played, and enjoyed, perhaps in ways we cannot envision. There will always be a need and a market for the quality, beauty, and artistic expression that the organ represents. Keep reading as The Diapason embarks on its next hundred years.

A word of thanks
That The Diapason has not only survived but flourished over this first century is due to its many faithful subscribers and advertisers, especially during the current challenging times. The Diapason continues because of the generosity and dedication of its authors and reviewers. Among our many contributing editors who regularly provide columns and reviews, our harpsichord editor Larry Palmer is celebrating his 40th year of writing for The Diapason. James McCray has been writing his reviews of new choral music since 1976. Leon Nelson has written reviews of organ music and handbell music since 1982. Brian Swager has served as carillon editor since 1991. More recently, Gavin Black continues to write “On Teaching” and John Bishop presents “In the wind” every month. And many more writers provide reviews of books, recordings and organ music each month.
Here in Arlington Heights, Illinois, associate editor Joyce Robinson proofs and edits every item, in addition to compiling the calendar and organ recitals, managing classified ads, scanning all the images, and maintaining our website content and electronic newsletter. And I must honor the memory of Wesley Vos, who served as associate editor from 1967–2001 and was largely responsible for bringing me onboard and serving as my mentor.
It has been an honor to serve as editor and publisher for more than 25 years. Every day I feel fortunate to guide this magazine, blessed to work with authors, advertisers, and subscribers who love the The Diapason as I do. I hope you enjoy this 100th anniversary celebration. In addition to images of the past on the cover and the reproduction of volume one, number one, this issue includes reflections on The Diapason and the last hundred years.

Diapason history
December 1919 – founded by Siegfried E. Gruenstein (1877–1957), who served as editor and publisher through December 1957
1919 – official journal of the National Association of Organists
1929 – official journal of the Hymn Society of America
1933 – official journal of the Canadian College of Organists
1935 – official journal of the combined National Association of Organists and the American Guild of Organists
Frank Cunkle – editor, February 1958–September 1970
Robert Schuneman – editor, October 1970–August 1976
Arthur Lawrence – editor, September 1976– March 1982
David McCain – managing editor, April 1982–August 1983
Jerome Butera – editor and publisher, September 1983 to present

Longtime Diapason subscribers
As part of The Diapason’s 100th anniversary celebration, I have noted, in my “Editor’s Notebook” column, our longtime subscribers—those who have subscribed for more than 50 years. The longest subscription is that of Malcolm Benson: 70 years! We salute these subscribers for their many years of faithful support. Our most up-to-date list includes the following:

Fred Becker, Crystal Lake, Illinois, 1959
Bruce P. Bengtson, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, 1958
Malcolm D. Benson, San Bernardino, California, 1939
Gordon Betenbaugh, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1957
Byron L. Blackmore, Sun City West, Arizona, 1958
Gene Boucher, Annandale, Virginia, 1957
George Bozeman, Deerfield, New Hampshire, 1951
John M. Bullard, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1953
Merrill N. Davis III, Rochester, Minnesota, 1955
Douglas L. DeForeest, Santa Rosa, California, 1955
Harry J. Ebert, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1946
Joseph Elliffe, Spring Hill, Florida, 1956
Robert Finster, Canyon Lake, Texas, 1954
Henry Glass, St. Louis, Missouri, 1957
Antone Godding, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1952
Will Headlee, Syracuse, New York, 1944
Charles Huddleston Heaton, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1947
Victor E. Hill, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1953
Harry H. Huber, Salina, Kansas, 1943
Lance Johnson, Fargo, North Dakota, 1959
Richard Kichline, Alliance, Ohio, 1953
Christopher King, Danbury, Connecticut, 1952
Bertram Y. Kinzey, Jr., Blacksburg, Virginia, 1945
Allen Langord, Poinciana, Florida, 1950
Arthur P. Lawrence, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1953
Michael Loris, Barre, Vermont, 1956
William (Bill) Mollema, Scotts, Michigan, 1957
William H. Murray, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1959
Mark Nemmers, Dubuque, Iowa, 1954
Barbara Owen, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 1951
David Peters, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, 1954
Patrick J. Rafferty, San Pedro, California, 1950
Thomas Schaettle, Springfield, Illinois, 1949
Robert A. Schilling, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1949
Ronald T. Severin, Orange, California, 1956
Richard A. Smid, Yaphank, New York, 1955
Francis M. Stone, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1953
Frederick Swann, Palm Springs, California, 1946
Rodney Trueblood, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, 1944
Charles J. Updegraph, South Orange, New Jersey, 1953
John Weaver, West Glover, Vermont, 1947
Robert Webber, Phoenix, Arizona, 1947
Harry Wells, Pullman, Washington, 1954
The Rev. Bruce McK. Williams, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1946
Charles Woodward, Wilmington, North Carolina, 1953
—Jerome Butera
Editor and Publisher
The Diapason

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THE DIAPASON: The First Hundred Years

M. Barone, J. Bethards, M. Friesen, O. Ochse, B. Owen, F. Swann, and J. Weaver

Michael Barone, a native of Kingston, Pennsylvania and graduate (Bachelor of Music History) of the Oberlin Conservatory, has been employed by Minnesota Public Radio since 1968. His Pipedreams program entered national radio syndication in 1982. Jack Bethards is president and tonal director of Schoenstein & Co. Organ Builders, San Francisco, California. Michael Friesen, of Denver, Colorado, is an organ historian who specializes in the history of organbuilding in America in the 18th and 19th centuries. He was president of the Organ Historical Society from 2003 to 2007. Orpha Ochse is Professor of Music Emerita at Whittier College, Whittier, California, and author of several books on the history of the organ and organ playing. Barbara Owen is Librarian of the AGO Organ Library at Boston University and author of several books on the organ and its music. Frederick Swann has been a church and concert organist for nearly seven decades. He is the immediate past president of the American Guild of Organists, and although semi-retired he maintains a full schedule of teaching, recording, and performing activity. John Weaver lives in West Glover, Vermont, having retired from three long-term positions as Director of Music at New York’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and head of the organ departments at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. He has honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Westminster College and the Curtis Institute.

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Centennial Celebration:
A new beginning

Early in the 20th century, the organ functioned as a community resource. Municipal instruments proliferated, organ concerts were attended by throngs, and competition for popular attention was relatively minimal. Organ installations garnered plenty of press, people enjoyed the effects of which the organ was capable, and famous recitalists (Lemare, Guilmant, Dupré, Bonnet) drew huge crowds.
But things change, always, and for the organ, the post-war (WWII) cultural shifts were monumental. Radio and television offered easy ‘entertainment’, and, along with the proliferation of symphony orchestras, undercut the civic organ’s necessity as a musical means and medium. And an increasingly intellectual direction in concert-giving (and music appreciation) stratified audiences.
Even when some of us were growing up (1950s-plus), the organ had two pivotal superstars whose prominence (and PR savvy) positioned them prominently in the minds of the general population. In those days, players still were the focus, instruments second, and the music simply the conduit.
But the fascination with organ history, period instruments, repertoire, and performance practice has taken the focus off of the virtuoso, and while we have learned a great deal about many things organic, along the way the cult of the performer has faded, and with it the audience.
Still, it could be argued that at this present time we are in a ‘golden age’ for the organ. The number of astonishingly talented young players is amazing, with more skilled youngsters on the way. New instruments of superb quality, in an incredible array of styles and venues, are being built, while historic organs representing every possible era and nationality have been carefully refurbished. We know more about and play more repertoire than ever before, and contemporary composers continue to be attracted to the instrument.
Yet the general public seems uninvolved. Even concerts on the big, new organs in our concert halls generally do not generate crowds of a size in any way comparable to their counterparts in the 1920s and ’30s.
So, unlike 50 years ago when the scene was lively and fun and the person-in-the-street was engaged by organ activity, these days we struggle to demonstrate relevance and can’t simply go along for the ride. Though in so many ways the situation is better than ever, the challenges for the future are as great as they have ever been (and there have been plenty of challenges in past centuries).
As one colleague recently reflected: “We must enhance the quality of life of our listeners, and reach out to communicate the emotional aspects of our music to our audiences, or else all just becomes more noise pollution, something of which we have too much already.”
I expect and hope that The Diapason will be an active participant in, conduit of, and catalyst for those processes that will keep the organ alive in the 21st century, as it has for the past 100 years. If so, this Centennial Celebration will be a new beginning.
Anyone who is interested in the pipe organ has, at some point or another, been introduced to The Diapason. The combination of this magazine’s sleek, non-standard proportions and its efficiently packaged and engaging content proved irresistible, particularly to the young neophyte.
But once the curiosity value had faded, The Diapason—this rare and informative ‘inside passage’ to the realm of the King of Instruments—continued to beguile with its news (and gossip), the important discoveries, and the thoughtful musings on historical and philosophical organ-related topics.
I first subscribed to The Diapason while still a teen, but then let the subscription lapse (money was tight and I could access the journal at the library). Sooner than later I wanted to reinstate my connection, and have been a regular reader for longer than seems comfortable to confess.
Obviously, others are in the same boat, else we’d not be celebrating a centenary here. Heaven knows that the organ, which itself has enjoyed the passage of numerous centennials, generates more copy than any one publication can embrace. I applaud The Diapason for doing its part while maintaining its quality of reportage—and quirky but charming format—with élan and grace through these many decades. Bravo! Now, bring on the second hundred years!
—Michael Barone

Reflections on The Diapason
I wonder how many others were as guilty as I of spending far too much study time in high school and college poring over old issues of The Diapason? Those pages, filled with news of the ups and downs of the organ industry and all of the colorful characters in lofts and factories, were an irresistible lure to daydream about the past and what the future might hold for a young man who also spent far too much time sketching stoplists during lectures. When I joined Schoenstein & Co. in 1977, the opportunities for such fun increased: the company archive started with the April 1911 issue.
What I liked then, and still do today, is that the format of The Diapason has changed only slightly over all these years (not even as much as The New Yorker)! What other magazine in business since 1909 can say that? In fact, how many magazines that old are still in business? The constancy of The Diapason, which stuck to its guns through the great boom of factory organ building during its first 20 years, the tough times of depression and war, the second big boom in the 1950s, and then the controversies that occurred about all aspects of organ design, while the structure of the industry changed from predominantly large manufacturers to a mix of large and small—a kind of cottage industry turning out every kind of tonal and mechanical style imaginable—gave me the feeling that no matter how much things changed, there would always be a pipe organ culture in America.
A delightful recent aspect of The Diapason is its mixture of serious and silly. The Diapason makes room (literally) for both. It is a place for lengthy, academic articles on arcane subjects and also for lighter fare—just check out the classified ad section! [See examples from the whimsy file, page 14.]
I hope The Diapason will continue to stay the course, amid shifting currents, in its second century. As our culture evolves more and more quickly, the organ world will value a familiar friend—The Diapason.
—Jack M. Bethards

Siegfried E. Gruenstein’s success
When Siegfried E. Gruenstein began publication of The Diapason in Chicago in December 1909, he was the first person to create a general-purpose journal devoted to the organ since Everett E. Truette’s effort in Boston in the 1890s. Truette’s journal, The Organ, unfortunately lasted only through two volumes, from May 1892 to April 1894. Truette’s precedent, in turn, was Eugene Thayer’s The Organists’ Journal and Review, itself also a short-lived publication issued in Boston from March 1874 to January 1877. (Both the Thayer and the Truette have been reprinted in complete sets, which are available from the Organ Historical Society.)
The Diapason, however, was to have a different fate. Here it is, still being published a hundred years later, a feat that has been matched by only a handful of journals throughout American history. Publishing is a hard business, and one fraught with constant tension over printers’ deadlines, obtaining and editing copy from multiple contributors, keeping advertisers and subscribers happy, and the like. It is also not usually highly profitable because of the relative mismatch between overhead and operating expenses versus what advertisers and subscribers are willing to pay for distribution and content, respectively. Cost issues were the factors in the demise of the above-mentioned journals, undoubtedly also affected by the fact that the organ world was, and still is, very “thin” compared to circulation numbers possible for mass-market publications.
However, Gruenstein’s effort was timely. The organ market in the United States was reasonably affluent and growing, and by 1909 was entering a period of significant technological change, with increasing demand for instruments built with forms of electric action to replace traditional mechanical-action organs. (Tubular-pneumatic action, a transitional form of technology, had obtained a foothold in the market beginning in the 1880s, but it was not destined to survive much longer.) Thus many organbuilding firms entered the field, and existing ones grew substantially, in the decade after The Diapason was founded. (To give some sense of numerical perspective about this period, M. P. Möller, Inc., for one example, gradually expanded its factory to the point that it could produce an organ every day; the combined annual output of the ten largest manufactories in peak years before the Great Depression began has been estimated at around 1,000 instruments.) Soon there was plenty of publicity about new organs and the activities of organbuilders to go around.
The Diapason became known as the journal where one could find multiple stoplists, descriptions, and pictures of new organs each month, and of course for organists, reading such material is almost akin to an addiction. Usually, an instrument was guaranteed publicity twice—when a contract was announced, and when it was installed and dedicated; often, readers could find snippets of work-in-progress news as well. The journal also promoted the activities of organists, publishing summaries of recital programs, and tracking their careers and travels. To amass such detail, and then publish it regularly every month, must have been a herculean task for Gruenstein, but he did it. Advertisers and subscribers flocked to The Diapason in droves, and he effectively was able to “corner” the market, because no other general-purpose organ periodical exerted significant competition. The American Organist, in its original incarnation as the “house journal” of the American Guild of Organists, was no match for The Diapason until T. Scott Buhrman’s editorship from the 1940s to the 1960s. Regardless, even in spite of the lean years of the Great Depression and World Wars I and II, The Diapason has held its own to the present.
That Gruenstein’s business model was successful is shown by The Diapason today, which still largely follows the format he established. In general, as readership demographics change, periodicals must adjust in order to survive, but a loyal following by organists, organbuilders, and friends of the organ has continued to ensure The Diapason’s success. And of course, today’s “gossip” becomes tomorrow’s “primary source material” for historians, and in that sense, The Diapason’s rich store of back issues, which is often plumbed for information about the twentieth-century organ, is priceless. With adaptation to changes in technology and electronic publishing, here’s to hoping that it will continue to be published indefinitely, and therefore also prove to be a gold mine for information about the organ in the twenty-first century as well.
—Michael D. Friesen

Celebrating a Centennial
The Diapason—what a treasure trove of American organ history! I have leafed through all its pages, discovering not just the facts I was particularly interested in, but also the broad contexts surrounding those facts. For the person who really wants to understand the “ups and downs” of the past century’s organ world, I suggest a decade-by-decade prowl through old issues of The Diapason. Of course, such a process is by its nature leisurely, but it compensates for inefficiency with its revelations about the evolution of style, and changing opinions regarding the essential nature of the organ.
Facts are also there in abundance. One particularly thorough example of journalistic reporting is a blow-by-blow description of the 1936–1937 Federal Trade Commission trials to determine if the electronic instrument developed by the Hammond Clock Company was indeed an organ, and if it could produce effects equal to those of a pipe organ. At one point in the trials, block and tackle were used to raise a Hammond instrument to the top of a pole for some outdoor acoustical tests. Well, you’ll just have to read the whole story in those old Diapasons. Then in the 1940s there were the chronicles of World War II: young organists and organ builders drafted into the armed forces; organ shops converted to war work; restrictions on the use of materials essential for the war effort. So many stories!
One wonders how our own time will appear to the reader half a century or more in the future. However complex and uncertain our present time may seem as we experience it, that lucky reader will be able to see the big picture—where we’ve been, where we’re going—by leafing through the pages of volume 100 and succeeding volumes of The Diapason’s Second Century.
—Orpha Ochse

The Diapason at the century mark
I first encountered The Diapason as a teen-aged baby-sitter. The youngsters were the offspring of my organ teacher, and I minded them in exchange for organ lessons. The latest issue of The Diapason was usually on her coffee table, and after the kids had been tucked into bed, I would read it from cover to cover, soaking up all that arcane information about organ recitals, organists, and the latest new organs in each monthly issue as only a young person newly introduced to the fascinating world of the organ could. By the time I was off to college I had my own subscription, which continues to this day.
While various general musical periodicals had carried news and occasional articles pertaining to organs and organists during the 19th century, it was only near the end of that century that any English-language journals dealing exclusively with the organ made their appearance, the earliest in North America being Eugene Thayer’s Organist’s Quarterly Journal and Review, 1874–1876. Others, equally short-lived, would follow. But it would appear that it was not until the first decade of the 20th century that a large enough potential readership had evolved to sustain a substantial national organ periodical. Thus in 1909 Siegfried Emanuel Gruenstein, a journalist for the Chicago Evening Post and organist of the Lake Forest Presbyterian Church, melded his two professional interests and established The Diapason, the first issue of which appeared in December 1909.
Over the years, The Diapason has served at various times as the official journal of the Organ Builders Association of America, the National Association of Organists, the Canadian College of Organists, the Hymn Society, and the American Guild of Organists. Eventually these organizations either ceased to exist or produced their own periodicals, and for the last several decades The Diapason has stood on its own feet. Today, having outlived various later competitors, it still stands as the only independent organ-related periodical still published in America. And, having reached the century mark, it is also the oldest, and still going strong.
To browse through back issues of The Diapason is to watch the entire history of the American organ in the twentieth century unfold in print and picture. The lives of numerous organists, well known or obscure, are chronicled from their debut recital or first church position to their obituaries. Organ builders come to prominence, change leadership, merge, and fade away or close. Organs for major churches, colleges and cathedrals are featured, many of them to be later replaced by newer organs that are likewise featured. Changing tastes in organ literature are reflected in reviews and recital programs, and contemporary composers of every period critiqued or interviewed. We can trace the rise and fall of residence and theatre organs, and the evolutionary history of the orchestral, American classic, neo-Baroque and eclectic movements in tonal design through stoplists and commentary, as well as opinionated give-and-take in the Letters to the Editor. Even the advertisements (including the classifieds) have a story to tell. And this tradition of chronicling the American organ scene continues into the 21st century.
Read any book about an organist, organ composer, or organ builder of the 20th century, as well as many books and articles concerning organs, organ music and organists, and one is more likely than not to find The Diapason cited in footnotes and bibliography. Researchers (including this writer) love its inimitable resources—and earnestly hope that all 100 years of it will one day be digitized in keyword-searchable form. But we read it too as the denizens of our little organ world have always read it, to keep up with what is going on among our contemporaries and to benefit from their scholarship in worthwhile articles. And yes, I still read every issue cover to cover when it arrives!
—Barbara Owen

The Diapason:
100 years and counting

My sincere congratulations on the 100th anniversary of The Diapason! This historic journal—the longest-lived of its type in the world—has faithfully chronicled the history of organs, organists, church music, and related fields in an informative, interesting, and educational manner. Further, it has done so fairly and without bias as ideas and fads of organ culture have changed over the years.
I received my first issue of The Diapason in 1946 when, as a young teen-ager, I joined the American Guild of Organists. To me, at that age, the primary benefit of AGO membership was the monthly arrival of this fascinating publication, which was then the official journal of the Guild. It immediately enlarged my view and knowledge of a profession that was to become the focus of my life. I devoured every word of each issue, and over this period of nearly 63 years have saved all 750 copies, thinking that someday when I was old I’d sit on the porch and reread them. That hasn’t happened yet, but I have on numerous occasions consulted back copies for news and specific articles.
Soon after I entered Northwestern University in 1948, I was introduced to S. E. Gruenstein, the founder, editor and publisher of The Diapason. He was a kindly gentleman, interested in all matters related to the organ world, and was especially encouraging to young organists. Over the years his successors have continued to update and enlarge the journal. The look and the content have continued to grow and have reached a high standard of excellence.
The longevity of The Diapason affirms that it continues to reach many organists and enthusiasts who believe in the quality and value of its offerings. I am certain that others join me in expressing the hope that the advent of a new century of publication will herald its indefinite continuation.
—Frederick Swann

Recollections of The Diapason
When I started reading The Diapason I was about 10 years old—it was probably 1947. I remember the many pages of tiny print listing dozens of organ recital programs from around the county. I assume that they were all set by hand with individual pieces of type. I also recall that there were lots of advertisements for organ pipes for sale. I responded to several of these with letters, which I hoped would not reveal my age or inability to pay. I had visions of buying some ten ranks and building an organ with them. Congratulations on 100 great years.
—John Weaver

Nunc Dimittis

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James Leslie Boeringer, born March 4, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died January 12 of pancreatic cancer. He earned a BA in organ performance from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1952, an MA in musicology from Columbia University in 1954, a doctorate in sacred music from the former Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York, in 1964, and completed post-doctoral studies at New York University. Boeringer received associate certification from the American Guild of Organists in 1953. He presented recitals in organ and harpsichord in 20 of the United States, and in England and France.

Beginning with his first church position, as organist of Homewood Baptist Church in Pittsburgh in November 1947, he served churches in Ohio, New Jersey, New York City, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and London, England. He moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1992 and served as organist at Church of the Pilgrims (Presbyterian) Washington, Messiah Lutheran Church in Germantown, and Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, in Georgetown, playing his last service December 29, 2013, just two weeks before his death.  

Boeringer served as executive director of the Moravian Music Foundation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as university organist and on the faculty at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee; at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, he was a professor and chair of the music department. A Phillips Distinguished Visitor at Haverford College, he founded the Krisheim Church Music Conference in Philadelphia, and directed the Creative Arts Festival at Susquehanna University from 1972 to 1975, and the Moravian Music Festival in 1981 and 1984.  

As a composer Boeringer wrote 23 published original works for chorus and organ, organ solo, chamber ensemble, and other combinations, including a cantata and a song cycle; and about 50 unpublished pieces, including an oratorio with full orchestra. He wrote more than 25 hymn tunes and hymn texts, some of which appear in Baptist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Moravian, and ecumenical hymnals. Selected works are available through the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) website (imslp.org).  

He authored the three-volume Organa Britannica: Organs in Great Britain, 1660–1860, as well as other books on hymnody and biographies of organists and composers of church music. His essays were published in periodicals and books. 

A widely published arts critic and scholar, he wrote numerous articles and reviews, which appeared in the Journal of Church Music; Moravian Music Journal; Music, the A.G.O. Magazine; The Organ Yearbook (Netherlands); The Musical Times (London); The New York Times; The American Organist; The Diapason; and The Tracker. He was the editor for the Society for Organ History and Preservation.  

Boeringer published fiction under a pseudonym. A member of Equity, he has a long list of theater credits in a variety of roles including actor, singer, director, music director, composer, narrator, and chorus arranger. He had an abiding interest in historic buildings and moved and restored two log cabins in his lifetime, and was an avid gardener.  

James Leslie Boeringer is survived by his wife of 58 years, Grace, and children Lisa Stocker, Greta, and Daniel, and a brother David.  

 

Peter Rasmussen Hallock died April 27, 2014, in Fall City, Washington; he was 89. A composer, organist, liturgist, and countertenor, among other activities, he was long associated with St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral of Seattle. Hallock began organ study with Clayton Johnson of Tacoma. He enrolled at the University of Washington, but was drafted into the United States Army, serving from June 1943 until February 1946 as chaplain’s assistant and sharpshooter in the Pacific theater during World War II. Returning to the University of Washington, he studied organ with Walter Eichinger and composition with George McKay, then studied at the College of St. Nicholas at the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) in Canterbury, England, becoming the first American choral scholar at Canterbury Cathedral, under the direction of Gerald Knight. He completed the RSCM program and received a bachelor of arts degree in music from the University of Washington in 1951 and master of arts degree in music from the same institution in 1958.

Peter Hallock became organist/choirmaster of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, on October 28, 1951, a position he held until retirement in 1991. At St. Mark’s, he founded a chant study group in the mid 1950s that became known as the Compline Choir, which remains in the forefront of the resurgence of interest in the Office of Compline. He was instrumental in the cathedral’s acquisition of a four-manual Flentrop mechanical-action organ in 1965. At the cathedral, Hallock also introduced Advent and Good Friday processions as well as liturgical drama. He was named Canon Precentor, the first lay person in the Episcopal Church to hold this title, named an associate of the RSCM, and was honored with an honorary doctor of music degree by the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. In 1992, he became organist at St. Clement of Rome Episcopal Church, Seattle, remaining until March 2013. Hallock was also well known and respected for his countertenor concerts, with performances throughout the United States. As a composer, Peter Hallock created more than 250 works, from occasional church music to extended anthems, dramatic works (sacred and secular) to music specifically written for the Compline Choir. Among his many publications was The Ionian Psalter.

Peter Rasmussen Hallock is survived by his sisters, Matilda Ann Milbank of Los Altos, California, and Barbara Hallock of Kent, Washington, as well as several nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. Memorial gifts may be made to the Compline Choir of St. Mark’s Cathedral or to the Cathedral Foundation of the Diocese of Olympia, Seattle.

 

Robert Burgess Lynn, 83 years old, passed away February 11 in Houston, Texas. A native of Colorado Springs, he studied organ and piano with Roy Harris, Frederick Boothroyd, and Joanna Harris while in high school. In 1952, he earned a BA at Colorado College (where he studied with Frederick Boothroyd and Max Lanner, and was chapel organist), and a master’s in organ from the Juilliard School of Music, received Honorable Mention in the AGO Young Artists’ Contest in Organ Playing in San Francisco, and married Elaine Steele, also a musician. In 1956, Lynn received a Fulbright Scholarship to study organ playing and construction with Finn Viderø under the auspices of the University of Copenhagen. His studies were briefly delayed when the family’s ship, the Stockholm, collided with the Andrea Doria, which subsequently sank. During his time in Copenhagen, he saw and played several great organs, including the organ at Sweden’s Malmö Museum, built in 1520, and at the Royal Chapel in Copenhagen, built in 1827. Lynn became a Fellow of the AGO in 1964, receiving the highest marks of any candidate in Section I of the FAGO examinations. 

Robert Lynn taught from 1954 to 1971 at Allegheny College as an assistant professor of music. In 1973, he received his PhD in musicology from Indiana University; his dissertation was entitled “Renaissance Organ Music for the Proper of the Mass in Continental Sources.” From 1971 to 1997, he served as professor of musicology at the University of Houston where he also directed the Collegium Musicum and the graduate studies program. His monograph, Valentin Haussmann (1565/70–Ca. 1614): A Thematic-Documentary Catalogue of His Works, was published by Pendragon Press. In 1997, he was named professor emeritus. 

Lynn also enjoyed visiting professorships at Rice University, Indiana University, and the University of Siegen. While a resident of Houston, Lynn was well known for his organ recitals in addition to his role as harpsichord soloist, playing in many concerts associated with the Houston Harpsichord Society (now Houston Early Music). From 1982 to 2004, he was the founding director of the Houston Bach Choir and Orchestra at Christ the King Lutheran Church. Lynn served as director of music and organist at St. Francis Episcopal Church for 25 years, and also as long-term interim organist at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church. Memorial contributions may be made to the Bach Society Houston, 2353 Rice Blvd, Houston, TX 77005, or to the Christ Church Cathedral Music Program, 1117 Texas Ave., Houston, TX 77002.

 

Fred S. Mauk died on April 7, two weeks before his 83rd birthday, after a short illness. Mauk did his undergraduate study at Stetson University and Rollins College, where he earned a degree in music, and received his master’s degree in 1958 from the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He held church music positions in Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida, his last position being director of music for 33 years at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Altamonte Springs, Florida, where he retired in 2011; at St. Mark’s he installed a pipe organ (purchased from a church in North Carolina) in the sanctuary.

An active member of the Central Florida AGO chapter, Mauk served in many chapter positions, including dean, and was instrumental in coordinating the 1993 regional AGO convention in Orlando. He was also known for his encouragement of young musicians, his sense of humor, his organizational skills, his many interests, including old cars and antique car shows, and his ability to work well with everyone. 

 

Mary Lou McCarthy-Artz, age 78, died at her home in Plymouth, Indiana, on May 7. Born November 18, 1935, Mary Lou Smith graduated from high school in 1953, marrying her first husband, Joseph L. Merkel, two years later. She studied piano at the Jordan Conservatory of Music, Butler University, in Indianapolis. After her husband’s death, she married Rodney Evans and moved to Covington, Indiana, where they lived for more than twenty years. It was there, while holding down a full-time job as an executive secretary, that she began working part-time as organist at nearby Catholic parishes: St. Joseph, Covington; St. Bernard, Crawfordsville; and Holy Family, Danville, Illinois. In 1993, she began full-time ministry as organist and choir director for the motherhouse of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, Ancilla Domini, in Donaldson, Indiana. A long-time member of the American Guild of Organists, she had served as chapter dean and had recently earned her CAGO certificate. Mary Lou McCarthy-Artz is survived by her husband, Donald Artz, two daughters, Nancy Merkel Starkey of Jacksonville, Florida, and Janet Evans Snyder of Georgetown, Illinois, as well as two grandchildren. ν

Nunc Dimittis

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Elise Murray Cambon died December 30, 2007, at Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Cambon received a B.A. from Newcomb College in 1939, a Master of Music in organ from the University of Michigan (1947), and a Ph.D. from Tulane (1975). For 62 years she served St. Louis Cathedral as organist, music minister, and director of the St. Louis Cathedral Choir and Concert Choir. She was named Director Emerita in 2002.
A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Cambon studied in Germany in 1953, attended Hochschule fur Musik in Frankfurt-am-Main, and continued her studies in organ with Helmut Walcha, harpsichord with Marie Jaeger Young, and conducting with Kurt Thomas. She also did post-graduate work at Syracuse University, Oberlin College, and Pius X School of Liturgical Music in Purchase, New York. She spent a summer at the Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes, France, studying Gregorian chant.
Dr. Cambon was a professor in Loyola’s College of Music (1961 to 1982), founding their Department of Liturgical Music, and also taught music at the Louise S. McGehee School and Ursuline Academy. She was one of the founders of the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She received the Order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government for encouraging French music in New Orleans. She led the St. Louis Cathedral Concert Choir on five pilgrimages to Europe, where they sang at St. Peter’s in Rome, Notre Dame de Paris, and other famous cathedrals and churches. In 2004, she made a gift of a new Holtkamp organ for the cathedral. Dr. Cambon was interviewed by Marijim Thoene for The Diapason (“Her Best Friends Were Archbishops—An interview with Elise Cambon, organist of New Orleans’ St. Louis Cathedral for 62 years,” October 2004).

Anita Jeanne Shiflett Graves died September 16, 2007, at age 86. Born September 20, 1920, in Lincoln, Illinois, she attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned a master’s degree in music at Northwestern University. She had worked as a church organist, choir director and funeral home organist, and taught at Drake University and San Jose State University. A funeral service was held at Campbell United Methodist Church in Campbell, California.

Kay Wood Haley died July 10, 2007, at age 90 in Fairhope, Alabama. Born March 26, 1917, in Sumner, Illinois, she began playing for church services in Flora, Alabama, at age 14. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and then transferred to the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Harold Gleason and graduated in 1938. From 1939–1983, Mrs. Haley was organist at Judson College in Marion, Alabama, and at First Baptist, First Presbyterian, and St. Paul’s Episcopal churches, all in Selma, Alabama. She helped found the Selma Choral Society and the Selma Civic Chorus, and helped lead the Alabama Church Music Workshop.

Gerald W. Herman Sr. died August 25, 2007 at age 81 in Gainesville, Florida. Born November 9, 1925, he began his 61-year organist career on April 28, 1946, at Rockville United Brethren Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and played for several other churches in the area. A job transfer with Nationwide Insurance in 1979 brought him to Gainesville, Florida, where he served as organist at Kanapaha Presbyterian Church and then at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Archer, Florida. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Charlotte, a daughter, and a son.

Theodore C. Herzel died September 28, 2007, in York, Pennsylvania. Born October 10, 1927, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, he held church positions in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Detroit, Michigan, and served as organist-director of music for 28 years at First Presbyterian Church, York, Pennsylvania, retiring in 1988. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Westminster Choir College and a master’s at the Eastman School of Music. He was an active member of the York AGO chapter and the Matinee Music Club.
H. Wiley Hitchcock, musicologist, author, teacher, editor and scholar of American as well as baroque music, died December 5 at the age of 84. In 1971 he founded the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College of the City of New York, and in 1986 he edited, with Stanley Sadie, the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He retired from CUNY in 1993 as a Distinguished Professor, but maintained a consulting relationship with ISAM until the end.
Born on September 28, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, Hitchcock earned his B.A. in 1944 from Dartmouth College and served in the military during WW II. After the war he studied music with Nadia Boulanger at the Conservatoire Américan and at the University of Michigan, from which he earned his Ph.D. in 1954. His dissertation was on the sacred music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
He started teaching in 1950 at Michigan and in 1961 moved to Hunter College in New York. A decade later he went to Brooklyn College and became founding director of ISAM. In his honor, the ISAM is to be renamed the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music. In addition to his work on Grove, Hitchcock edited numerous publications. His last book, Charles Ives: 129 Songs (Music of the United States of America), was published by A-R Editions in 2004.

Everett W. Leonard died June 9, 2007, in Katy, Texas, at age 96. Born March 4, 1911, in Franklin, New Hampshire, he began piano lessons at age nine and organ lessons in high school. He worked for 40 years for the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, DC. In addition, he served as organist at Central Presbyterian Church and Mount Olivet Methodist Church, both in Arlington, Virginia, and at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Punta Gorda, Florida, and at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, Port Charlotte, Florida. A longtime member of the AGO, he served as dean of the District of Columbia chapter.

W. Gordon Marigold, longtime author and reviewer for The Diapason, died November 25, 2007, in Urbana, Illinois. Born May 24, 1926, in Toronto, he earned a B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and earned an M.A. from Ohio State University. He also studied in Munich, Germany. Dr. Marigold taught German at the University of Western Ontario, Trinity College Schools, the University of Virginia, and at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. At Union College, he was a department head, division chairman, and college organist, and he supervised the installation of a new organ by Randall Dyer in 1991. He retired as professor emeritus of German in 1991, and moved to Urbana, Illinois.
Dr. Marigold received his musical training in piano, organ, and voice at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and in Munich. He served as organist at churches in Toronto, at First Methodist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he gave an annual series of recitals, and churches in Columbus, Ohio. He was heard in radio organ recitals broadcast by station WOSU in Columbus, and played on the annual Bach recital at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Champaign, Illinois.
Professor Marigold was an internationally known scholar of German Baroque literature and music, and author of five books, countless articles in scholarly journals (including The Diapason, Musical Opinion, and The Organ), hundreds of reviews of German literature for Germanic Notes and Reviews, and countless reviews of recordings and books for The Diapason. He was a recipient of many research grants for study and research in Germany.
Dr. Marigold is survived by his wife Constance Young Marigold, whom he married on August 22, 1953. A Requiem Eucharist was celebrated on December 1 at the Chapel of St. John the Divine in Champaign, Illinois. Linda Buzard, parish organist and choirmaster, provided music by Bach, Purcell, Byrd, and Willan, along with hymns Lobe den Herren, Austria, Slane, and Darwall’s 148th.
In addition to numerous reviews of new recordings and books, Dr. Marigold’s Diapason bibliography includes:
“Max Drischner and his organ writings: a neglected modern,” Oct 1955;
“Austrian church music experiences extensive revival,” May 1956;
“The organs at the Marienkirche at Lübeck,” Dec 1969;
“A visit to Preetz, Germany,” April 1971;
“Some interesting organs in Sweden,” May 1971;
“Organs and organ music of South Germany,” Oct 1974;
“Organs in Braunschweig: some problems of organ placement,” Aug 1982;
“18th-century organs in Kloster Muri, Switzerland,” Feb 1986;
“Organ and church music activity in Munich during the European Year of Music,” Aug 1986;
“A variety of recent German organs,” April 1989;
“Dyer organ for Union College, Barbourville, KY,” Dec 1991.
(Dr. Marigold continued to write reviews to within weeks of his death. The Diapason will publish these reviews posthumously.—Ed.)

Johnette Eakin Schuller died September 21, 2007, at age 66 in Brewster, Massachusetts. She earned degrees from the College of Wooster, Ohio, and the Eastman School of Music. She and her husband, Rodney D. Schuller, served for 31 years as ministers of sacred music and organists at the Reformed Church of Bronxville, New York. Johnette Schuller also held positions at Andrew Price Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee; the Presbyterian Church in Bound Brook, New Jersey; the Post Chapel in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland; and Calvary Lutheran Church in Verona, New Jersey.

Nunc Dimittis

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Noel Goemanne, Catholic Church musician and composer, died January 12 in Dallas. He was 83. Born in 1926 in Poperinge, Belgium, Goemanne was a graduate of the Lemmens Institute of Belgium, and studied organ and improvisation with Flor Peeters, and at the Royal Conservatory of Liege. During World War II, he refused an offer from the Nazis to become a composer for the Third Reich; he was later arrested for playing the music of Mendelssohn during the Nazi occupation of Belgium.
In 1952 he and his wife Janine immigrated to the United States, settling in Victoria, Texas, where he was organist at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. In response to the liturgical changes brought about in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, he composed the first Vatican II-approved Masses in English. During that time he gave sacred music workshops on college campuses; he also established the sacred music program at St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana.
Goemanne held organist and choirmaster positions in the Detroit area, at St. Rita’s Catholic Church and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church, and in Dallas, at St. Monica’s Catholic Church, Holy Trinity Seminary, and Christ the King Church, where he served from 1972 until this past summer.
His compositional output includes over 200 sacred compositions, with over 20 Masses. His organ work Trilogy for Dallas was the first work commissioned for the Lay Family Organ at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Goemanne’s many honors include an award from the Institute of Sacred Music in Manila, Philippines in 1974; the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross from Pope Paul VI in 1977; honorary doctorates from St. Joseph College in Rensselaer in 1980 and Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan in 1999; and numerous ASCAP awards. Goemanne was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Directors Association, and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. He is survived by his wife Janine, daughter Claire Page and husband Mike, son Luc and wife Candy, and three grandchildren.

John B. Haney, longtime Canon Organist and Choirmaster of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, South Carolina, died February 13 at age 77. Born in Illinois, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ from the University of Illinois, and received the Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
In 1970 he moved to Columbia, South Carolina, to become organist and choirmaster at what was then Trinity Episcopal Church, where he served for the next 33 years. Prior to that, he held positions at Reveille United Methodist Church, Richmond, Virginia; Central Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey; and Temple Emanu-El, New York City.
While at Trinity, he began the cathedral choir’s periodic residencies at English cathedrals and developed the Wednesdays at Trinity concert series. Haney was a member of the American Guild of Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians.

John Wright Harvey died December 31, 2009. “Organ—my hobby, my work, my play, my vocation, my recreation. Recital work a specialty.” So wrote Professor Harvey on a faculty information sheet dated October 26, 1961. He went on to list “Carillon—(and bells of all sorts)—a lifelong interest.” These dual interests defined John’s 24 years as professor of music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a career which began in September 1960, and ended with his retirement in June 1984. In 1962 the UW Memorial Carillon received 27 new bells and two claviers, enlarging it to a total of 51 bells. On February 2, 3, and 4, 1970, John gave identical recitals initiating the Austin Organ Company’s Opus 2498 in the University’s Eastman Recital Hall. John taught organ and carillon to students from freshman level to doctoral candidates. Announcements of his carillon recitals appeared regularly and often.
John Harvey was born in Marion, Indiana, on June 15, 1919. He began piano study at age 8, trombone at age 14, and organ at 15. He completed a Bachelor of Music degree in organ from Oberlin Conservatory in 1941. The degree was awarded in absentia since John was by then stationed aboard a destroyer participating in the Battle of Midway. While in the Navy, John served as a musician, a signalman, and a quartermaster. He survived the loss of the USS Atlanta, sunk off Guadalcanal in November 1942. Following the war, John received a bachelor’s degree in music education from Oberlin in 1946 and a master’s degree from the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in 1952. His master’s thesis was on the history and development of the organ in the chapel at West Point. Before coming to Madison, he served the First Presbyterian Church in Englewood, New Jersey; Webb Horton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Middletown, New York; Central Union Church in Honolulu, and National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C.
Beginning in 1947, John was active in the American Guild of Organists. In 1952 he organized the Northern Valley chapter in Englewood, serving as dean for its first three years and scholarship chairman for two years. In 1958 he was secretary of the Washington, D.C. chapter. In Madison he was dean of the AGO chapter from 1964–66. In 1953–56 John contributed to The American Organist, including a three-issue story on the West Point organ.
In Madison and beyond the university, John was active as well. He was organist at First Congregational Church. He also served as organ consultant and advisor to many congregations, including St. John’s Lutheran, Luther Memorial, Bethany Methodist, and Mt. Olive Lutheran. He was particularly involved with the design of the Austin organ at First United Methodist. An instrument of interest was the Hinners organ at St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff. John gave recitals statewide, in venues large and small, including several on the Casavant organ at St. Norbert’s Abbey in DePere.
John Harvey’s interests extended well beyond music. Pictures of Clarissa, his 1932 Chevy roadster, appeared in the newspaper, as did pictures of his model railroad. He also collected disc recordings from the early 1900s.
John married Jean Cochran on May 25, 1945, and was the father of three daughters, Ann, Carol, and Jane. John suffered from Alzheimer’s and died on December 31, 2009. Survivors include his wife, Jean, his daughters, and a brother.
—John R. Krueger
Madison, Wisconsin

August “Ed” Linzel, Jr., died January 19 in Arlington, Texas, at the age of 84. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, he attended the Princeton School of Music, and served as organist and choirmaster at St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in New York City for 16 years. He was active in the American Guild of Organists, performing as organist, harpsichordist, and conductor at national (1948, 1950, 1952) and regional conventions. Linzel also served as dean of the New York City AGO chapter from 1956–59. In 1964 he served as organist-choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1972 he served in that same capacity at St. Boniface Episcopal Church in Sarasota, Florida. He later returned to Little Rock, where he was organist at Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church, Christ Episcopal Church, and First Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Arkansas. August Linzel, Jr. is survived by his sons Ted and John, daughters Patricia and Jennifer, and brothers Milton and Jesse.

William Bernard MacGowan, concert organist, choir director, and college professor, died December 15, 2009 in Gainesville, Florida. He began organ study with Nelson Brett in Jacksonville, and during the 1940s studied organ with Robert Baker and piano with Percy Grainger at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Palmer Christian, Robert Noehren, and Maynard Klein. A naval communications officer during the Korean War, MacGowan established choirs and singing groups on the ships where he served. When in port, he studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw and musicology with Julius Herford.
His many positions included those at St. Philip’s Church in Durham, North Carolina; Old North Church in Boston, Maple Street Congregational Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Tanglewood Music Center, in Massachusetts; All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California; and Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in High Springs, and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Gainesville, in Florida. As a recitalist, he performed at important venues in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and in Assisi, Italy, and in Germany. MacGowan was a member of the American Guild of Organists, Society of St. Hubert, Phi Gamma Delta, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia; his hobbies included scuba diving and snorkeling.
William Bernard MacGowan is survived by brothers Bradford and John and their wives, two nephews, and two nieces.

Richard Thornton White died on December 8, 2009, in Memphis, Tennessee, in his home across the street from St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he served for 36 years. He was 95. His first organ study was with Adolph Steuterman; in 1935, he was awarded the William C. Carl Scholarship to the Guilmant Organ School in New York City. In 1937, he won a gold medal in performance from that school. The Diapason (July 1, 1937), in reporting the event, noted that “Guilmant graduates have built up an enviable reputation for brilliancy, interpretative power, and poise in their playing, and the class of this year sustained that reputation.” White also studied with Frank Wright and Frederick Schlieder. He held organist-choirmaster positions in New York City and New Jersey, served in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific during World War II, and in 1950 returned to Memphis to serve at St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he led the music program until his retirement in 1986. White was also active in the Sewanee Church Music Conference, which he served as a faculty member and secretary/registrar.
He earned Associate (1938) and Fellow (1940) certifications with the American Guild of Organists, of which he was a member for 74 years, serving the Memphis chapter as dean several times, and also as chapter examination coordinator.
Richard Thornton White is survived by his wife Anna, whom he married in 1938, sons Richard White, Albert White and his wife Betsy, two grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.

Robert Noehren: In Memoriam

December 16, 1910-August 4, 2002

by William Osborne, J. Bunker Clark, Haig Mardirosian, and Ronald E. Dean

J. Bunker Clark is editor of Harmonie Park Press. He taught organ and theory at Stephens College (1957-59), was organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Cranbrook (1959-61), taught music history and harpsichord at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1964-65), and music history at the University of Kansas from 1965 until retiring in 1993.

 

William Osborne holds three degrees from the University of Michigan. He serves Denison University in Granville, Ohio as Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, University Organist, and Director of Choral Organizations.

 

Haig Mardirosian is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Music at American University. He is also Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes, Washington, DC, and a recitalist, recording artist, writer, and consultant on organ building.

Ronald E. Dean is on the faculty of Centenary College, Shreveport, Louisiana.

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Robert Noehren died on August 4 in San Diego, California, at the age of 91. (See "Nunc Dimittis," The Diapason, September 2002, p. 8.) International recitalist, recording artist, author, scholar, professor and university organist at the University of Michigan, and organbuilder, Noehren enjoyed a long and remarkable career, and was clearly one of the major figures of our profession in the 20th century.

His many recordings and recitals evidenced a special kind of organ playing: the highest standards of musicianship, devoid of superficial excesses, quiet and controlled console manner; indeed, his technique seemed to become quieter and easier the more difficult and virtuosic the music became. He continued to practice the organ daily and record up until his death, carried on extensive correspondence, had plans for another commercial recording on his organ in Buffalo, was preparing a talk for the AIO convention this month, was working on a cookbook of his favorite recipes, and continued to enjoy music, art, fine wine, good food, and friends from all over the world.

Below follow tributes in Noehren's honor, by William Osborne, Bunker Clark, and Haig Mardirosian, and a review by Ronald Dean of Noehren's Bach CD which was released last year, in addition to a listing of his articles and news releases as featured in The Diapason. Requiescat in pace.

--Jerome Butera

Robert Noehren: A Remembrance

When Jerry Butera, Ron Dean and I shared a meal during the Organ Historical Society gathering in Chicago on the final day of June, we regaled ourselves with tales about and from the man who had had such a seminal influence on us and a host of others, assuming that he would endure virtually forever, little anticipating the shocking news of his sudden death only weeks later. He had suffered the loss of his devoted wife only months earlier, but on the evidence of telephone conversations had seemed quickly to reconcile himself to this new phase of his incredibly rich life, determined to get on with his latest passions, energetically practicing daily at age ninety-one on his electronic [sic!] house organ, wrestling with what he could possibly say to a conclave of pipe organ builders in Los Angeles during an upcoming invited lecture, listening intently to CDs drawn from his immense collection, having been recently attracted particularly to the playing of pianist Ivo ogorelich.

A consummate man of the organ, he was nonetheless not preoccupied with the instrument, always fascinated by a wide range of human understanding.  For example, when the Noehrens made the decision to relocate to suburban San Diego after a particularly harsh Ann Arbor winter, the significant tragedy of their transfer was a wayward moving van stranded in the desert heat of the Southwest, a delay that turned the man's substantial and valuable wine collection to vinegar. I suspect that in retrospect he might have preferred to express himself through a medium other than the organ, since he was constantly dissatisfied with so many examples of the instrument, especially his inability to make music on them to his satisfaction. In fact, he suggested that his students could learn more about elegant music-making by observing a fine singer, violinist or pianist, and, when time permitted, he practiced Chopin or Debussy at the piano, although never in public.

It seems a bit incredible that he retired from studio teaching at the University of Michigan more than four decades ago, and that at least a few of his students have preceded him in death. I, for one, found him a rather reluctant pedagogue. When provoked, he could be enormously enthusiastic and insightful, but one had to work to attract his attention. He loved to tell a story that he attributed to George Faxon, but which I suspect was meant to mirror his own predicament. Supposedly Faxon had in his Boston studio a very comfortable upholstered chair where he ensconced himself as he directed a student to play straight through a big Bach prelude and fugue. As the piece proceeded, he would brush the lint off his jacket, adjust his shoelaces, settle back, and gradually fall completely asleep. The student, having finished his performance, would turn expectantly, at which point Faxon would suddenly rouse himself and blurt out: "Bravo! Play it again!"

Robert Noehren also frustrated and even infuriated many in a profession rife with calcified credos by remaining in a constant condition of quest. I joked that it was impossible to ride a Noehren bandwagon because, as his would-be disciples were clambering on one side, he had already jumped off the other and moved on to some new position. Recall the man's seminal role in the organ Renaissance in this country. He was one of the first to study the classic European instruments to the extent that he was able to understand and explain what made the instruments of Schnitger and Cavaillé-Coll tick. Those of us privileged to experience his organ design course can vouch for that wisdom. It was also Robert Noehren who was crucial in bringing to this country in 1957 that groundbreaking von Beckerath instrument in Cleveland's Trinity Lutheran Church. I can remember driving from Ann Arbor to Cleveland in a snowstorm to experience the incredible revelations that it offered. So, how did a man devoted to the principles the Beckerath manifested become a builder of instruments based on direct electric action and incredible amounts of borrowing and duplexing? Hard to say, except to acknowledge that he later pretty much disavowed that facet of his career, although expressing annoyance over those attempts to redress some of the mechanical problems he bequeathed the instruments' owners. He did assert that his foray into organ building resulted from his failure to find an established builder who was willing put his ideals into practice. Recall also that the best of his instruments were and are ones of distinction, and that he was a pioneer in considering the possibility of computer-driven combination systems, even though the clunky, punchcard system that he and a Michigan Engineering colleague devised seems hopelessly antiquated now.

Even though he has left us physically, his legacy will surely survive in the form of his immense discography and the many provocative, sometimes quixotic writings published in this journal and elsewhere.

What will survive as well for those of us privileged to know him is the memory of a man with a generous sense of humor (I will never forget the look on his face when asked in a studio class by a pompous doctoral student how one properly mounts the bench); an immense, eclectic repertory (e. g., as I recall, virtually nobody on this side of the Atlantic was aware of Tournemire when Noehren began to champion the man); an intense musicality at his chosen instrument that nonetheless refused curtailment by any of the various performance "isms" by which the profession lives (Furthermore, I, as one who was privileged to assist him often, for example in the series of sixteen all-Bach programs he played in Hill Auditorium before such marathons became fashionable, was always amazed that, while he advocated marking scores extensively, he always seemed to play from pages untouched by a pencil.); an incredible range of experiences (e. g., as a young church organist in Buffalo being asked to play the two existing Hindemith sonatas for their composer, thereby indirectly provoking the writing of the last of the trilogy); a man of immense principle who retired from active teaching prematurely when confronted with a Michigan dean who asked him to create the country's largest organ department (he seems to have been prescient enough to have anticipated the future state of the profession and thus suggested as an alternative the country's finest, albeit compact organ program); and, last, but hardly least, the sense that organists are all too often insular in their perspective, encouraging all with whom he was associated to seek out and embrace the full  range of human experience.

RN, we will miss you.

--William Osborne

From his editor

"Gee, it's hard to play the organ, isn't it?"--cliché by Robert Noehren after hearing a student trying to play a difficult piece.

"Gee, it's hard to produce a book about the organ"--my cry in the process of working with Bob on An Organist's Reader.

Bob had been talking about doing a book for some years, but I'm proud of persuading him to begin in earnest in 1995. He sent a box two years later, and after two more years of phone calls and letters concerning the details, the box was sent to Harmonie Park Press in February 1997, and the result appeared in November 1999.

I'd known Bob since going to Ann Arbor in 1950, but after my piano days unfortunately never took organ with him. Nonetheless, I was lucky to audit several of his classes on the history of the organ--which, in retrospect, helped considerably in checking details of historic instruments. Even then, it was embarrassing to both of us to have a good friend point out the omission of thirteen pedal stops from the 1576 organ of  the Georgenkirche, Eisenach. (Harmonie Park Press has an errata slip, or get it at .) But this omission had not been discovered when that article had previously been published in the Riemenschneider Bach Institute's Bach no fewer than three times, 1975, 1985, and 1995! It's only logical that an organ associated with Bach would have more than two pedal registers, no?

He correctly defended Grobgedackt, against my proposal of Großgedackt. As for another detail, does one use the modern German "K" for Katharinenkirche, or the original spelling Catharinenkirche, Hamburg? (we used the latter). Lüdingworth has an umlaut; otherwise it would seem to be a village in England. So does the composer Jean-Jacques Grünenwald, even though he was French. The foregoing represents a survey of some 54 pages of letters on my computer, which also has comments on a trip to Italy; Eloise's new hip, fall 1997; and his bout with cancer, early 2000.

I had attended many of his Ann Arbor recitals, and have seen the two-story end of the Noehren living room in Ann Arbor which housed his Hausorgel. But Lyn and I really got to know Bob much better when he taught at the University of Kansas, fall 1975; we had Thanksgiving and several other similar occasions together. What a wonderful human being! I already miss our more recent phone chats, in which he described his interest in a proper diet (indeed, published as an article in these pages last year), in our mutual enjoyment of a pre-dinner drink, his interest in audio equipment and recent recordings (usually not of organ music), and in a joke. And I miss his Christmas cards (the design of one is on the cover of his book).

Bob Noehren was very modest--but a hard worker when preparing a recital. He was not vain, but I'm certain he was very proud of the discography and recitals (a representation of programs appears in his book). Above all, in spite of and perhaps due to, his quiet and unassuming manner, his playing never highlighted the performer, but always the music, as if to say "I've studied this piece hard, and here is what I found out."

--J. Bunker Clark

Letters from Noehren

I never met Robert Noehren, yet I am humbled to be able to call him a friend. In the last three years of his life, Noehren and I had corresponded regularly through a series of letters, a thread of correspondence initiated somewhat coincidently.

In my academic administrative capacity, I was at work during 1997 with a project team charged with drafting a self-study report to my university's regional accrediting agency. Our member from the university's publications office, Trudi Rishikoff, saw to the style and editing of the finished document. At some stage of the process, Trudi mentioned that she had learned that I was an organist. Did I know her Uncle Bob?

Uncle Bob, it turned out, was Robert Noehren. With what must have been obvious mirth at this serendipitous news, I told Trudi of my high esteem for Noehren, the thrill of having played a recital on one of his instruments, the honor of having reviewed several of his recordings for both The American Organist and Fanfare, but even more, of the inspiration that I had derived from listening to him perform, both on disc and live, early in my career. I asked Trudi to convey those sentiments and my kindest respects to her uncle.

About the same time, my editors forwarded for review a CD comprising reissues of various Lyrichord recordings by Robert Noehren. These amounted to seminal performances on several of his instruments (as well as others) and an assortment of repertoire attesting to the performer's all-embracing musical interests. The disc merited its title, "A Robert Noehren Retrospective."

Months later, a long letter arrived from Robert Noehren, the first of many in which we discussed issues of mutual interest--musicians, repertoire, organs. Noehren's beautifully composed and printed texts (for openers, I marveled at the deliberate care in writing these and his obvious fluency at computing, something quite remarkable for a man about to turn 90). The composition and printing mirrored what one heard in his meticulous musicianship and performance. His critical but calculated opinions about music matched his gifted and insightful interpretation of music. His thoughts about the music and musicians of his early years in particular bespoke his own deference to tradition, origins, and lineage in composition, organ building, and pedagogy. In sum, these letters represented valedictory notes to a new friend, but they were frank, surprisingly modest, and very generous in tone and spirit. Noehren, it turned out, had wanted to contact me for some time and he had done his research too. He had gone out and found recordings by his correspondent and he had closely read any number of reviews of books and recordings. He was sizing me up!

I had just released a recording of the Suite for Organ, by Paul de Maleingreau. I had not known that Noehren regularly played the toccata from it back in the 1930s. He clearly missed the piece adding that " . . . since it is no longer in my head I am glad to be able to hear it again . . ." Of our mutual interest in Maleingreau, he observed that "it [the toccata] is such a fine work and no one else seems to be interested in Maleingreau." A second little coincidence had sealed a friendship. With that our correspondence grew more personal as well with talk about his wife Eloise, and illness, and aging. He was very sympathetic and supportive at my family's story of senior care, and the intellectual and physical changes brought on with age.

A major part of our conversations concerned organs. For two years, Noehren and I exchanged many words on organ design, organ building, and organ builders. I had made the analytical (but not malicious!) observation in my review of his Lyrichord recording that certain of the organs he built were idiosyncratic. My observation was based on experience. I had played a recital at St. John's Cathedral in Milwaukee where, in preparation, I had spent hours punching out registrations manually on the IBM data cards that comprised the combination action's memory. I had also remarked on the various subunison registers that played only to tenor C. Noehren graciously observed that "It was right for you to comment on the design of my organ in Milwaukee." He continued with a treatise on the economics of organ building, tight budgets, and resource maximization. It may have been a musician/instrument builder speaking, but it was also the voice of someone who had taught at a university and worked for the church!

Noehren tempered economic exigency with art. "I designed the organ [at St. John's Cathedral] always thinking how it was to be used musically." Saving the cost of the bottom twelve pipes of the Great 16¢ Principal on that 1965 organ allowed Noehren to add a string and some mutations to the specification. "If . . . you look at the music of Vierne, you will often see that the Gambe on the Great Organ is required in many pieces. . . . Look at most American organs. There is rarely a string on either the Great or Positiv (or Choir) organs. Indeed, there is usually an Unda Maris set. To be sure, a beautiful sound, but not very useful in much serious organ music." He questioned both his own tonal choices and those advocated by others. Robert Noehren had taken this critic earnestly, drew no offense from the opinions in print, and used the opportunity to engage in a dialog on the merits of respective tonal choices.

I later asked Noehren about Paul Hindemith, adding that my own conception of the organ sonatas was formed mainly through Noehren's recording of them. That prompted a meticulous response concerning Noehren's association with the composer. He outlined meeting Hindemith in Buffalo, where the composer lived after arriving in the United States before going to teach at Yale University, and where the organist played at a small Episcopal parish. Because Hindemith would sometimes visit the church, Noehren eventually got to know the composer well. They spent many hours together discussing interpretation and registration of the then only two sonatas, for Hindemith had just begun composing the third.

I had commented about the respective merits of romantic, colorist and dryer, abstract interpretations of the sonatas. In fact, I told Noehren that I had rebelled against my own teacher's insistence on an orchestral approach to these scores. That rebellion led to my  willful imitation of Noehren's old LP recording. He replied, "Like your teacher, I had been playing them in a rather romantic way, and I have to thank Hindemith for helping me with my musicianship during those early days. I still remember how dissatisfied he was with my performance of the last movement of the first sonata."

Noehren also voiced curiosity about instruments on which I had recorded and consulted. I had asked him about a couple of stoplists on which I was working and received immediate, candid, and helpful responses. At the time, the new organ at my own parish, the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes in Washington, was under construction by Orgues Létourneau. I had confided in Noehren that our hope was for an instrument reflecting English tonal heritage and had sent him specs and scalings. In the end, when I sent him a recording of one of the opening concerts, his approval overjoyed me.

What was most remarkable about Robert Noehren in his last few years was the zeal with which he still played the organ on a daily basis. He had been hard at work revisiting the Orgelbüchlein, a book he felt "appropriate at my stage of life." He had just been diagnosed with serious illness and seemed to find particular comfort in the brief movements. But, he acknowledged their musical difficulties. "I might feel a bit safer in the great G-minor fugue than in the prelude on 'Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn' with that wicked pedal passage at the end!"

While he missed access to a good pipe organ near his home in San Diego, he did own a custom electronic organ, and his curiosity and aptitude with technology had led him to electronically revoice that instrument and add several MIDI sound modules to it. This fulfilled both his need to play on a daily basis and his ongoing instinct to build "better" organs. He was carefully apologetic, but not defensive about this instrument. "I fear that you might be one who believes we have been poisoned by the advent of the electronic organ!" But, he added, that this instrument "assuages some of my frustrations." As proof--extraordinary proof--he enclosed a cassette recording of some Bach, Karg-Elert, and the Roger-Ducasse Pastorale as recorded on his house organ. Of the dazzling and poetic performance of the latter piece, made when Noehren was in his late 80s, he commented, "it is perhaps the most difficult work I have ever encountered, and it has been a constant challenge. It is technically difficult and choosing and executing the registration is no easy task." Of the thousands of organ recordings in my collection, this one, performed by an octogenarian on an electronic organ in his living room and recorded on his little cassette machine, is the most prized.

Robert Noehren had also published a book of memoirs that I had reviewed, and some of the letters to me may have well been an elaboration or gloss on the book. At one point, Noehren sent a long list of all his teachers--piano, organ, theory, composition. This early 20th century Who's Who of our profession contained several names that interested me greatly.

One of these was Charles Courboin for, as a boy, I would sit in the choir loft at St. Patrick's Cathedral and watch Dr. Courboin play for the 11:30 "organ mass." In those pre-Vatican II years, the Cathedral maintained the tradition of a low mass (rendered mostly silently by the priest at the east end) accompanied by organ music (rendered not at all silently by the virtuoso at the west end). I would, on my own, take the bus and the subway and travel down to 5th Avenue on Sunday mornings in order to hear the Solemn Mass at 10 o'clock. I would always remain for Courboin's organ mass at 11:30. It was a splendid dessert to the sung mass. Courboin would graciously welcome me to the gallery and even ask me what I would like to hear. Courboin's phenomenal memory was legendary and I don't ever recall naming a piece of repertoire that he could not simply rattle off.

One of the reasons that Courboin fascinated us both was his atypical profile for an organist. He loved fast cars and boats. He was dashing and, in Noehren's terms, "could have been mistaken for a government ambassador." While a student at the Curtis Institute during the early 1930s, Noehren had coached with Courboin. One morning, Noehren and his friend Bob Cato, Lynnwood Farnam's favorite student, were walking downtown. They ran into Courboin. "He behaved at once as if we were his best friends and suggested we all have lunch at Wanamaker's. It was then about 11:00 o'clock, and he invited us to meet him at noon at the front of the store. When we finally entered the dining room it became apparent that the luncheon had turned into a big party in a private room with at least 15 people. All I can remember of the food is that for dessert there was a great flourish as the party was presented with a huge baked Alaska prepared for the occasion."

Robert Noehren also recalled his meetings with Fernando Germani (with whom he became friends and who introduced him to Italian food and garlic), André Marchal (who influenced him musically but was "distracted by the ladies," such that, in a meeting along with Marilyn Mason, Marchal paid no attention to Noehren), Gaston Dethier (who had the most formidable technique of anyone and whose pedaling was "really phenomenal" although he eventually no longer took the organ seriously), and Lynnwood Farnam (whose playing "simply put everyone I had ever heard in the shade"). These reflections were all the more vivid as several of these legendary performers were still active in my own youth. As Noehren put it about our swapped recollections, "what a difference a generation makes!"

How does one summarize the enormous range and analytical insights of Robert Noehren? It is difficult task to be certain. His musical life spanned East Coast and West, with a long stop in between. He could be, at once, a Classicist and a Romantic. He studied old music and old organs, built modern instruments capable of playing the old, and championed scores by composers of his own day. He was the recitalist who built instruments to overcome the defects he perceived in the instruments upon which he had to play. He studied with the legends of his youth and passed that tradition on to generations of fortunate students in one of the country's most important universities. He agglomerated seemingly far-flung and inconsistent concepts, all the while making sense of their synthesis. His world was expansive and never shrank, for his all-embracing curiosity disclosed an adroit mind that slowed little even in its ninth decade. Robert Noehren zealously coveted the truth--truth as discovered, revealed, debated, or developed in theory and creativity. He grappled with and reconciled art and technology decades before such would become commonplace. He generously communicated his remarkable journey to a large audience in his writing and teaching, and even to a grateful correspondent late in his days.

Can all of this, then, amount to anything less than the absolute and comprehensive definition of professional and personal intellect, art, and, above all, integrity? I would argue not. Integrity, furthermore, takes courage, the courage to pursue truth and to assert the convictions to which one's work leads. As such, Robert Noehren was nothing less than a genuine hero. I thank God for having had a moment to know him. Requiescat in pace.

--Haig Mardirosian

Robert Noehren bibliography in The Diapason

Robert Noehren is organist and choirmaster of St. John's Church, Buffalo. November 1940, p. 22.

Robert Noehren takes up new work in Grand Rapids. September 1942, p. 3.

"Organ Building an Art Not to be Limited by Definite Styles." February 1944, p. 12.

Robert Noehren leaves Grand Rapids for war duty. March 1944, p. 23.

Famed Dutch Organ Used in Broadcast by Robert Noehren. November 1948, p. 2.

"Poitiers Cathedral Has Famous Cliquot Organ Built in 1791." June 1949, pp. 28-29.

Noehren appointed to post in Ann Arbor. September 1949, p. 4.

"Historic Schnitger Organs Are Visited; 1949 Summer Study." December 1949, p. 10; January 1950, p. 10.

Bach recitals by Noehren in Ann Arbor and Buffalo. June 1950, p. 40.

"Famous Old Organs in Holland Disprove Popular Fallacies." March 1951, pp. 8-9.

"Organ Cases Objects of Beauty in Past and Return Is Advocated." June 1951, pp. 14-15.

Michigan "U" course reorganized to make all-around organist. November 1951, p. 38.

"Schnitger Organs That Still Survive Teach New Lessons." December 1951, p. 24.

Robert Noehren on fourth tour of recitals in Europe. September 1953, p. 17.

Robert Noehren is winner of prize for his recording. November 1953, p. 1.

Robert Noehren to play in Duesseldorf. June 1954, p. 1.

"Commends Opinions of Dr. Schweitzer to Organ Designers." February 1954, p. 22.

Robert Noehren is awarded doctorate. June 1957, p. 1.

"How do you rate? Test yourself on this final exam." July 1959, p. 16.

"Music Dictates Good 2-Manual Organ Design." September 1960, pp. 12-13.

Robert Noehren . . . Northwest regional convention. April 1961, p. 16.

Noehren to act as judge at Haarlem Competition. December 1962, p. 3

"The Relation of Organ Design to Organ Playing." December 1962, pp. 8, 42-43; January 1963, pp. 8, 36-37.

Robert Noehren to give dedicatory recital on the Schlicker organ at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. March 1963, p. 24.

"The Organ and Acoustics." March 1964, pp. 26-27.

"Architectural Acoustics as related to Church Music." November 1964, pp. 40-41.

"Taste, Technique and Tone." April 1965, p. 49.

"Schnitger, Cliquot and Cavaillé-Coll: Three Great Traditions and their Meaning to Contemporary Organ Playing." November 1966, pp. 40-41; December 1966, p. 28; January 1967, pp. 48-49; February 1967, pp. 44-45.

Robert Noehren appointed Rose Morgan Professor of Organ for the fall semester of 1975 at The University of of Kansas. September 1975, p. 18.

Robert Noehren, professor of organ at the University of Michigan, retired in January 1976. June 1976, p. 2.

Robert Noehren named professor emeritus. January 1977, p. 5.

Robert Noehren elected Performer of the Year by New York City AGO. May 1978, p. 19.

"Squire Haskin--a tribute." February 1986, p. 2.

"The discography repertoire of Robert Noehren." March 1990, pp. 12-13.

"Robert Noehren at 80: A Tribute." December 1990, pp. 12-14.

"Organ Design Based on Registration." December 1991, pp. 10-11.

"A Reply to the Tale of Mr. Willis." January 1997, p. 2.

Robert Noehren celebrates his 90th birthday. December 2000, p. 3.

"Enjoying Life at 90." September 2001, pp. 15-17.

"Reflections on Life as an Organist." December 2001, pp. 17-20.

 

Johann Sebastian Bach: Organ Works. Robert Noehren, Organist. Previous unreleased recordings from 1980 issued in celebration of Robert Noehren's ninetieth birthday. Noehren organs of The Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and The First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, New York. Fleur de Lis FL 0101-2. Available from The Organ Historical Society, P.O. Box 26811, Richmond, VA 23261; 804/353-9226; $14.98 plus shipping;

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Program: Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542; Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein, BWV 668; Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 646; Partita: O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 767; Partita: Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig, BWV 768; Fugue in G Major ("Gigue"), BWV 577; Prelude and Fugue in D Minor ("Violin"), BWV 539; Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543.

This new issue, like the previous Robert Noehren Retrospective produced by Lyrichord (see this journal, December, 1999, p. 11), is the result of expert remastering by Hal Chaney of analog recordings done on tape many years ago. As in the CD mentioned above, this issue features organs designed and built by Robert Noehren.

For those who are familiar with Noehren's tasteful and flexible organ playing, this issue should come as a welcome addition to his already considerable discography. Noehren was never one to endorse or follow "trendy" or merely currently fashionable playing ideas; instead, he always makes the music come alive through thoughtful application of scholarship and study of the scores to determine both just the right tempos and appropriate registrations for convincing musical communication. These features are in abundance on this new issue.

Another important facet contributing to the pleasure of this CD is the fact that the same person is both the artist and the organ builder. His clearly articulated philosophy of organ tone (see An Organist's Reader, reviewed in this journal, September, 2000, p. 10) is demonstrated here all the way from gutsy and brilliant (but never strident) principal and reed choruses to subtle smaller ensembles and solo combinations appropriate to the musical requirements. One can imagine that Noehren was able to bring forth the very sounds that were in his "mind's ear" by performing on these two rather large instruments of his own design.

All the pieces except for the two chorale partitas are performed on the 1966 organ in the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, while the partitas show off the varied smaller ensembles and solo combinations of the instrument in The First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, built in 1970. Both instruments are of similar size, with the Buffalo instrument (somewhat larger) notable by its frequently pictured hanging Positiv division.

Seasoned players and students alike will be inspired by the apparently effortless execution of the more demanding works and should take note of the way Noehren uses subtle rubato to point up the structure of the various forms. His elegant approach to trills and other ornaments reveal that the artist regards these items as integral parts of musical expression and not simply as whimsical and mechanical additions to the musical line.

Blessed with both an astounding playing technique and impeccable musical taste, Robert Noehren's playing as revealed on this CD should bring feelings of recognition to those who have head him in past years and should also serve as a revelation to the younger generation. Highly recommended.

--Ronald E. Dean

Centenary College

Shreveport, Louisiana

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