Johann Sebastian Bach: Past, Present, Future: SEHKS and MHKS Meet in DeLand, Florida, March 3–5, 2005

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON.

Two concerts featuring harpsichordists Skip Sempé and Olivier Fortin provided ample reason for making the trip to Michigan's Grand Valley State University to attend the 2004 annual meeting of the Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society. Slightly fewer than 50 members did just that from May 20-22; they were rewarded with a carefully calibrated schedule of events, beautifully organized and efficiently administered by program chair and host, Grand Valley State's University Organist Gregory Crowell.

The opening duo-harpsichord recital featured an all-French program comprising works by Chambonnières, Lully, le Roux, and François Couperin, symmetrically framed by six compositions of Jean-Philippe Rameau: a keyboard transcription of Air pour les esclaves africains from his opera Les Indes Galantes, and five individual movements from the Pièces de claveçin en concerts. These included an especially arresting performance of La Forqueray, one full of verve, agogic surprises, and unexpected accelerandi, all contributing to a characterization of the gambist-composer more willful than usually encountered, but fully in keeping with Sempé's reputation for innovative interpretations. Displaying a splendid partnership, the duo drew rich sounds from two harpsichords by Douglas Maple, optimally heard in the resonant acoustic of the University's Cook Dewitt Center--a high, narrow white plaster hall with a wall of glass windows affording a view of tall trees and spring greenery.

For the closing concert the harpsichordists were joined by violinist Olivier Brault and gambists Susie Naper and Margaret Little from Sempé's ensembles Capriccio Stravagante and Les Voix Humaines in works by Buxtehude (Sonata in G, opus 1/2 and two overly-fleet organ works transcribed for two harpsichords, Ciaccona in e and Passacaglia in d); Schenk (Ciacona in A and a Sonate for two violas da gamba); Biber (the virtuoso Passacaglia for solo violin); Kühnel; Reinken (Bach's transcription of an Adagio from his Hortus Musicus, additionally transcribed for two harpsichords); and a culminating Germanic "hoedown," the exhilarating Fechstschule [Fencing School] by Johann Schmelzer, replacing a second Buxtehude Sonata listed in the program.

The meeting's topic, Music of the Netherlands and Scandinavia, gave focus to the well-paced events of Friday and Saturday. Judith Conrad, in gentle affirmation of Greg Crowell's rhetorical query "What could be better than to begin a morning with clavichord music?," opened the morning events with her well-chosen and lovingly played program of post-Reformation music from the Baltic trade routes, performed on her new triple-fretted clavichord by Andreas Hermert of Berlin (based on a Swedish instrument of 1688). At the harpsichord Helen Skuggedal Reed presented Buxtehude's dance suite on the chorale Auf meinen lieben Gott (BuxWV 179), convincingly relating its five movements to the five stanzas of the chorale, as both words and music progressed from darkness to light. Asako Hirabayashi followed with a program of unfamiliar Swedish harpsichord music by Gustav Düben (a dance suite), Johann Agrell (whose Sonata IV began well with a virtuoso, Scarlattian Allegro, but became less interesting in the succeeding three movements), and Hinrich Philip Johnsen (Sonata V), with its expressive Adagio sensitively rendered.

The day's first violent thunderstorm pummeled the roof of the recital hall, making it a challenge to hear all of John Koster's informative illustrated lecture on harpsichord making in the Low Countries before and after Ruckers. We all appreciated the forethought of the planners, however, when all was dry enough for open-air enjoyment of Julianne Vanden Wyngaard's carillon concert, graciously played for the group shortly before she was scheduled to leave for another recital in Washington, DC.

Calvert Johnson gave a useful introductory talk on English and Dutch psalm accompaniments for congregational singing, a topic taken further both practically and lustily in the evening program, a Genevan Psalter Sing, with organists Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra and Christiaan Teeuwsen skillfully evoking jolly sounds from the splendid 1981 Noack tracker instrument of Grace Episcopal Church. Non-congregational psalm settings were interspersed, courtesy of the Calvin College Alumni Choir, conducted by Pearl Shangkuan. A thunder crash and an exceedingly-near lightning strike prefaced Nature's second cloudburst of the day, giving percussive accent to the choir's first notes of Sweelinck's Psalm 65. At that point there were no somnolent singers or listeners in the church!

MHKS founding president Nanette G. Lunde presented a well-played sampling from Arietta con 50 Variazioni per il Clavicembalo by Israel Gottlieb Wernicke and a Sonatina by Johann Daniel Berlin in her Saturday morning program of early keyboard music from Norway. The "Gottlieb Variations" occasionally seemed to attempt emulation of the masterful Goldberg Variations of J. S. Bach, but save for two charming double counterpoint movements (22 and 23) and a March in French Overture Style (number 42) there would be little reason to hear them again.

The program Passion and Repose: an Italian Musical Tableau gave a welcome opportunity to share the fascinating and revelatory repertoire played by the ensemble La Gente d'Orfeo (Daniel Foster, violin; Kiri Tollaksen, cornetto; Debra Lonergan, cello; and Martha Folts, organ and virginal). Splendid works by Scarini, Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, and Giovanni Picchi were elegantly articulated and lovingly presented. Of special poignancy was Folts' dedication of Picchi's Toccata to the recently departed builder of her virginal, Peter S. O'Donnell. A second, if even gentler, highlight of the afternoon was Gregory Crowell's program on his newly acquired Dolmetsch-Chickering clavichord (number 6, built in 1906), which he shared with soprano Kathryn Stieler. Together they created true chamber music as she scaled her attractive voice to the instrument's dynamic, remaining seated as she sang. Johann Krieger's Es ist mir von Natur gegeben was particularly apt, with its rapturous three-stanza expression of appreciation and love for the clavichord.

Todd Decker's brilliant exploration of Domenico Scarlatti's School of Virtuosity: the Essercizi per Gravicembalo proceeded from his viewpoint that these thirty published sonatas are best understood as a methodical progression of technical challenges. His lucid handout supported this thesis, and his competent ease in demonstrating even the most technically challenging of the Essercizi at the harpsichord certainly impressed this listener. A doctoral student in historical musicology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mr. Decker is a gifted younger scholar-performer, whom I hope to hear again in the very near future.

David Pickett's humorous and interesting talk on some of the ways a composer's notation may affect our understanding of the score began with a quotation from British comedians Flanders and Swann, proceeded through Telemann's graphic scribing of a Lilliputian Chaconne (in tiny notes) and his contrastingly 24/1 metered Brobdingnagian Minuet, concluding with a short foray into the works of Brahms, and the composer's brief use of the alto clef in the opus 122 organ chorale prelude O Gott, du frommer Gott.

Beside concerts and papers during this varied two-day meeting we heard a panel discussion on practical matters in current early music performance, with comments from Skip Sempé and David Sutherland; many of us enjoyed walking through the forested landscapes and seeing the well-chosen and abundant outdoor sculptures on the relatively-new Grand Valley University campus; and we benefited once again from sharing communal meals, included in the low registration fee. Many of us chose to lodge in a campus dormitory (for a very reasonable amount). The only disadvantage to this arrangement was the unavailability of a nearby campus breakfast spot. To remedy this problem Chairman Crowell delivered bagels and cream cheese to the dorm before Saturday's schedule began--a much appreciated and thoughtful gesture.

In addition to the concert harpsichords by Douglas Maple, builders Ben Bechtel and Ed Kottick displayed examples of their work. Numerically, pride of place went to a bevy of bonny clavichords: instruments by Thomas Wolf, Doug Maple, David Sutherland, Roger Plaxton; and, just arrived from England, Crowell's newest acquisition, a double-fretted clavichord by Peter Bavington were all available for trying out.

At the Society's annual business meeting MHKS President Bruce Glenny announced that the Midwesterners would meet with the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society in 2005.  The next gathering is set for March 3-5 at Stetson University, in Deland, Florida.

Traveling to Grand Rapids, planned as a simple (if early) direct flight from Dallas to Michigan, became more complicated when storms over the Great Lakes forced the cancellation of that non-stop flight. Twelve hours and an additional airport later, slightly groggy and very hungry, I made it. On the plus side, however, my luggage was already there. You win some, you lose some, but this MHKS annual meeting of 2004 was worth the trip.

From Thursday March 7 through Saturday March 9, 2002, two concurrent events at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania vied for the attention of early-keyboard enthusiasts. In one of them, the fifteen semi-finalists of the fifth international harpsichord competition organized by the Southeastern Historic Keyboard Society competed for a place in the final round and more than $9,000 in prize money.

Throughout the competition the absence of the fifth judge, Kenneth Gilbert (who withdrew only days before the event began), may have accounted for several seemingly-split decisions. Rather than three finalists, four were advanced to the finals, resulting in a four-hour harpsichord-playing mara-thon. Each contestant was heard in Couperin (Ordre 25 or 27), Bach (Partita in A minor), Scarlatti (Sonatas K 298-299 or 435-436), plus a work of choice (pieces by Buxtehude, Milán, Cabezón, Froberger, or additional works by Bach and Scarlatti). Judges Arthur Haas, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, Davitt Moroney, and Jacques Ogg deliberated for quite a long time to determine the order of prizes.

For this auditor, Michael Sponseller's canny ability in producing particularly beautiful sounds from Willard Martin's Saxon-style harpsichord elevated his playing to a higher plane. While there was little doubt about the musical gifts of young Martin Robidoux, his playing had far too many technical glitches for a prizewinner in this competition.

The second event, a joint meeting of the Southeastern and Midwestern Historical Keyboard Societies, began Thursday evening with a bi-sited, festive recital. Fortepianist Richard Fuller started the evening in Moravian College's Peter Hall, playing a "fuller-sounding" instrument by Keith Hill in Sonatas in d and f-sharp of Moravian composer Christian Latrobe and Italianate Londoner Muzio Clementi.

Continuing the program (in Foy Concert Hall), Funaro gave rhythmically-irresistible performances of dance-inspired pieces by Stephen Dodgson, and, from prize-winning Aliénor Competition works by Timothy Brown, Dimitri Cervo, Sally Mosher, and Kent Hollday, who additionally had been commissioned to write a Toccata as the required new work for the semi-final round of the Jurow Competition.

As a highlight of Friday's banquet at the 1758 Sun Tavern (graced with original engravings of "His Excellency" George Washington and "Lady" Washington, as well as a truly historic straight "bent-sided" Zuckermann kit harpsichord), Bethlehem native Willard Martin, one of America's most insightful and important harpsichord builders, was honored with career achievement awards from both societies.

SEHKS past-president Karen Jacob included two hymns to be sung by the audience in her aptly-chosen organ recital, which began a very long evening of Moravian music. The hard benches in Peter Hall (former chapel of the Women's Seminary) made one admire both physical stamina and patience of Moravians past. Pennsylvania chamber music ensemble Satori, using modern strings, flute, and guitar, gave devoted readings of an interminable number of works by John Antes, Haynack Otto C. Zinck, Johann Christian Till, and Johann Baptist Wendling, interspersed with Paul Larson's readings from early Moravian church diaries.

Another 18th-century organ, a single-manual instrument built by David Tannenberg in 1776, was heard in a short program played by Philip Cooper during a Saturday morning excursion to the George Whitefield House Museum in nearby Nazareth. This gentle four-stop instrument, almost surely originally built for the Moravians of the Bethlehem Brothers House, is an unaltered example of a Moravian organ, used primarily for hymns and as "continuo" with other instruments. The Thuringian-styled 8-foot Viola da Gamba, wooden 8-foot Flauto Amabile, 4-foot open wood Flaut, and 2-foot Principal played individually and in various combinations, showed the full range of the instrument's capabilities.

Many papers and mini-recitals overfilled all remaining time slots, with concurrent sessions programmed for Friday afternoon, and a further double booking necessitated by one presenter's late arrival early Saturday afternoon. For the complete listing of all events, see the SEHKS website <www.sehks.org&gt;.

A few presentations that stand out in memory include two clavichord programs (Bach beautifully rendered by Harvey Hinshaw, Moravian devotional music played by Judith Conrad); Geneviève Soly's fleet-fingered and enthusiastic presentation of harpsichord works by the Bach-contemporary Christophe Graupner; David Chung's brilliant performance of Buxtehude's Praeludium in g as example of the stylus phantasticus; Edward Parmentier's insightful session on formal structures in Bach's second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier. (He surely deserved an audience prize for the largest-sized handout!) And yes, there was considerable interest in my presentation on Richard Strauss' Capriccio Suite for Harpsichord, especially at the opportunity to hear a (non-issued) recorded performance by the work's dedicatee, Isolde Ahlgrimm.

Providing historical background and considerable insight into important early examples of piano making in the Pennsylvania Moravian communities, Laurence Libin and keynote speaker Michael Cole detailed the construction of several instruments from the collection  of the Whitefield House during the group visit there.

With so many fine, well-prepared harpsichordists on site for the competition, it seemed almost perverse not to utilize the non-finalists as demonstrators of the instruments during the builders' showcase time slot. If the Societies hope to enroll a new generation of players as members in their organizations every effort should be made to involve these younger talents. In yet another instance of how two concurrent events seemed to have little congruence, there were no scheduled public presentations from members of the competition jury (although they were available for comments to the competitors). With artists of such distinction, this was a decided disappointment to many, especially since Moroney and Ogg were making their first visits to a SEHKS or MHKS event.

At another level of involvement, members of the Societies' executive boards scurried to meetings, often during meal times, and drafted resolutions at all hours of the day and night. At separate annual business meetings, SEHKS elevated Ardyth Lohuis to its Presidency with Dana Ragsdale assuming the Vice-Presidential post; MHKS  retained President Nina Key and Vice-President Martha Folts in their positions.

Bethlehem, a small city with a well-preserved 18th-century core, provided an engaging historic setting for early music events. Several outstanding restaurants were situated within this central core. Staying at the downtown Radisson Bethlehem Hotel, conveniently only a block from the Moravian College music venues, meant that all events were within easy walking distance. We were not the only conventioneers at the Hotel, however: collegiate wrestling teams from Harvard and Lehigh were in town, providing muscle to complement our music. (Too bad the planners hadn't known in advance: potential harpsichord movers, perhaps!)

As an especially appreciated gesture, multiple copies of The Square Piano in Rural Pennsylvania 1760-1830, the catalog from a 2000 exhibition, were provided to attendees by Paul Larson, editor of the volume.

A stroll on Sunday morning (made somewhat challenging by the sudden return of a blustery cold wind) took me past the Moravian Book Shop (established in 1745) to walk by the offices of the Bethlehem Bach Choir, founded in 1898 (quite modern, though, in relation to Moravian College, dating from 1742!). An historic marker at the edge of the campus remembers John Frederick Wolle (1863-1933), "organist, composer, and conductor, born and raised in Main Hall [of Moravian College], founder and conductor of the Bach Choir, 1895-1905 and 1911-1932."

Also observed, a 1911 fountain at Main and Market Streets, with this inscription:

Drink, Pilgrim/ Here And if/ Thy Heart Be/ Innocent/ Here too shalt/ Thou refresh/ Thy spirit.

Even for those of us long past innocence, there was nourishing musical refreshment to be found in Bethlehem.

Martha Novak Clinkscale is the author of Makers of the Piano: 1700-1860, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993 and 1999). She is Adjunct Professor of Fortepiano at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Beautiful weather and a warm welcome greeted the nearly 100 registrants for the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society's conclave, held March 11-13 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Those interested in the early piano found a wealth of historical pianos in the G. Norman and Ruth G. Eddy Collection, and the University also boasts the Franz and Willemina de Hen Collection of Musical Instruments.  Many of these treasures were attractively, if compactly, displayed, in the lobby of the Music Building.

Brenda Neece, curator of the entire Duke musical instrument collection, opened the proceedings with a description and short history. Edwin Good then described his adventures in preparing the first checklist of the Eddy Collection. He pointed out that, besides the thirteen Eddy pianos (eleven of which are now at Duke), collector Norman Eddy owned a number of other instruments, including several horns, a tuba and an ophicleide. Among the Eddy acquisitions displayed are an upright grand piano by William Stodart (ca. 1810-18), a small Broadwood square "playing-card piano," and a splendid square by Alpheus Babcock. To illustrate the beautiful, singing tone of the Babcock, Ted played the two-movement Haydn Sonata in D major (Hob. XVI:51). Following Good's presentation, Maria Rose described and demonstrated the "singing tone" of the early French Romantic piano with works by Hérold and Boëly--electrifying discoveries--on a Clementi grand (ca. 1805-10). Although written in 1816, the Hérold sonata already shows the rhapsodic melody and rippling virtuosic style of French opera arias of the 1820s. These fluid and expressive pieces are dramatic, yet sensitive, and immediately suggest that they and pieces like them had a powerful effect on the young Chopin. Maria explained the similarities between the Clementi's English action and the mécanisme à étrier (repetition action) of the 1808 Érard grand piano. Indeed, Sandra Soderlund, in her presentation on pianist-composer Ignaz Moscheles, stated that even he preferred Clementi's pianos to those of  Érard for their "more subtle mechanism," although Moscheles later admitted his admiration for the Érard 1822 double escapement action.

To close this first session Gail Olszewski played a program of piano music by late 18th- and early 19th-century English women composers. She proved that these works possess irresistible charm and vivacity, especially noted in the Sophia Corri Dussek (1775-1847) sonata movement and two movements from a sonata by Cecilia Maria Barthélémon (ca. 1770-after 1840).

Friday afternoon's events took place at the inner-city home of instrument collector Steve Barrell. The host himself introduced the instruments with amusing accounts of his start as a collector of instruments and early keyboard music. Playing several of his antique clavichords, Steve demonstrated their differences as well as the sweetness of their tone. His presentation was followed by a vigorous and technically impressive program of fortepiano music by Haydn, C. P. E. Bach, and Mozart played by Kristian Bezuidenhout on a 1794 Dulcken instrument. Bezuidenhout's ornamentation of the repeated sections was imaginative and engaging, and sometimes even whimsical.

For the Friday evening concert, John Pruett, classical violin; Brent Wissick, classical cello; and Randall Love, fortepiano, gave an all-Beethoven program: a sonata for piano solo and duo sonatas with violin and cello, ending with a spirited performance of the "Ghost" Trio. Love played a replica by Thomas and Barbara Wolf of a six-octave Nannette Streicher piano from 1815.

Saturday morning's session began with Margaret Hood's introduction of her own handsome replica of the six-and-a-half-octave Nannette Streicher grand at Yale. Interestingly, Margaret pointed out that in all pianos that she has seen containing both bassoon stops and moderators, the bassoon stop is coupled to the moderator; this phenomenon convinces her that it may have been the norm to use them together. The Eddy Clementi was brought into play again by Karyl Louwenaar and her colleague, violinist Karen Clarke, in stunning performances of two sonatas by Clementi, the G major, op. 2, no. 3, with "the accompaniment of a violin or flute," and the solo piano sonata in G minor, op. 14, no. 2.

Andrew Willis was next with a tour de force presentation of the Chopin G-flat Impromptu (op. 51, 1842), which he played--with the help of computer editing and merging--on six different mid-19th-century Pleyel grands from European collections. An ultimate surprise was the inclusion of Andrew's own recently acquired instrument: the Willis-Greensboro Pleyel (1848).

Harpsichords and organs also were a spectacular part of this conclave. Duke University Organist Robert Parkins opened the conference on Thursday evening with a thrilling program of Frescobaldi, Bruna, Cabanilles, Guilain, and Bach works played on the Italianate meantone Brombaugh organ (1997) in a small side chapel and the monumental, soaring Flentrop organ (1976) in the nave of the Gothic-style Duke Chapel.

Before an elegant Saturday lunch in the University Faculty Commons, David Chung's glowing recital of works by Froberger, Weckmann, Reincken, and Böhm in the stylus phantasticus rang out on a splendid William Dowd Mietke harpsichord in the same small side chapel that houses the Brombaugh organ.

Saturday afternoon offerings included Joseph Butler's paper entitled "Grigny, Bach, and Walther: Revision of the Premier Livre d'Orgue." Bonnie Choi followed with a smattering of virtuoso 20th-century harpsichord works by Ligeti, Hakim, Penn, and the outrageous and hilarious Bird-Boogie (1973) by Franspeter Goebels. Larry Palmer, never to be outdone, gave a lecture-recital comprising some of his many "Sins of Commission," including Neely Bruce's Nine Variations on an Original Theme (1961); Glenn Spring's Images after Wallace Stevens (2003), in which he was joined by violinist Kathleen Spring; two movements from Serenade 15 (1987) by Persichetti; and Gerald Near's Triptych (1982). This program included brief recorded excerpts from works by Rudy Shackelford, Ross Lee Finney, and Rudy Davenport. The entire afternoon served as a stimulating warm-up for the Aliénor Competition finalists' concert that evening.

Five prize-winning solo harpsichord works had been selected by judges Joyce Lindorff, Keith Paulson-Thorp, and Max Yount as finalists in this year's competition. Three additional monetary awards were to be bestowed by vote of the audience. The program began with two exceptionally attractive and engaging suites, Idée Prix Fixe by Kari Henrik Juusela of Stetson University and Trifles by Glenn Spring of Denver. These were followed by multi-movement works by Stefan Thomas and Stephen Francis Yates, the Bulgarian Dance and Fantasy by Paul Whetstone, and the Sonatina No. 2 by Asako Hirabayashi, whom the audience selected as the top winner (several men in the audience were overheard to admit voting for her startling attire).

In a Chamber Music category, new to this competition, second prize went to Robert Greenlee's intriguing and inventive Sonata Rondo, while Andriy Zymenko's over-extended and occasionally whimsical Happy Spider was awarded third place. Jukka Tiensuu's interminable--and boring--Lots was inexplicably given first prize. This piece expanded minimalism to the maximum and diminished this listener's patience to sub-zero. One sympathized with the players.

In addition to composers and presenters, the event planners deserve accolades, especially for the magnificent Saturday meals. The luncheon banquet tempted eye as well as palate, and the final reception, a triumphant buffet, was prepared by sixteen-year-old Eric Love, son of Elaine Funaro and Randall Love. Eric already enjoys a wide local reputation as a master chef; for the celebratory reception he shopped, cooked, baked, and served--all to great acclaim.

Congratulations go to program co-chairs Elaine Funaro and Randall Love, and their local arrangements committee members for one of the best SEHKS conclaves ever.

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON.

A Harpsichord Christmas

Deck your music rack with a Christmas carol or two from A
Baroque Christmas—-Carols and
Counterpoint for Keyboard (traditional carols arranged for piano,
organ, or harpsichord by Edwin McLean),
published by FJH Music Company, 2525 Davie Rd., Suite 360, Fort Lauderdale, FL
33317-7424; e-mail

<[email protected]>.

Harpsichord-savvy composer McLean has provided interesting
and texturally-pleasing settings for eleven Yuletide favorites, among them a
rousing Adeste Fideles, a gently-moving Silent
Night (with pungent added-note final
chord), a theme and two variations on Good King Wenceslas
style='font-style:normal'>, a longer variation set for We Three Kings
style='font-style:normal'>, fugue on God Rest Ye Merry
style='font-style:normal'>, and a most attractive setting of Greensleeves
(What Child Is This?).

These settings are all playable on a single-manual
instrument, although McLean provides suggestions for more colorful
registrations for the organ, or when playing on a two-manual harpsichord. The
arrangements work well on piano, too.

FJH Music also publishes McLean’s two well-conceived and
attractive Sonatas for Harpsichord. Both
have been recorded by harpsichordist Elaine Funaro: the first is the opening
selection of Gasparo GSCD-331, Into the Millennium
style='font-style:normal'> (The Harpsichord in the 20th Century); the second
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> appears on Overture to Orpheus
style='font-style:normal'> (Music Written for the Women Who Gave Wing to the
Muse), Centaur CRC 2517. Either disc, or both, would make fine stocking
stuffers for discriminating musical friends.

Intended for Christmas Eve music making are various baroque
pieces titled “Pastoral,” a type of pictorial shepherd music (as in the Pastoral
Symphony from Handel’s Messiah
style='font-style:normal'>). One of these specifically intended for performance
by solo keyboardist is the Sonata (Pastorale) in C Major
style='font-style:normal'>, K. 513 by Domenico Scarlatti. Here we
find the traditional siciliano rhythm
suggesting sheep (baroque ones usually move in 12/8); a drone bass (molto
allegro) evoking “shepherds’ pipe” music;
and a concluding 3/8 presto that
could be either a representation of their joyful return “wondering at what they
had seen and heard,” or, possibly, some dramatic exit music for those angels
returning to the heights. This charming work may be found in any of the several
complete editions of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas, or, specifically, in volume
two of Sixty Sonatas, edited by Ralph Kirkpatrick, published by G. Schirmer.

Music for the New Year

Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) composed a keyboard
suite for each month of the year (Monatliche Clavir
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Früchte, Darmstadt 1722). January, in the pristine key of C,
comprises a Praeludium and twelve
additional short dance movements; February (in G major), ten individual pieces;
and March (G minor), eight. These are now available in a handsome volume edited
(with no unfamiliar clefs) by Jörg Jacobi for Edition Baroque
(www.edition-baroque.de). The other three-quarters are expected to follow.

Another volume of great interest from Edition Baroque is
titled Labyrinthe,
comprising harmonically adventurous works for keyboard: Benedetto Marcello’s Laberinto
musicale sopra il Clavicembalo, Gottfried
Heinrich Stölzel’s Enharmonische Claviersonate
style='font-style:normal'>, and Georg Andreas Sorge’s Toccata per
omnem Circulum 24 modorum fürs Clavier.
Fasten your aural seatbelts and try the challenges hidden in these unusual
musical traversals.

Early Instruments: Some Random Citings

The New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2005: from Edmund White’s personal
history My Women (Learning How to Love Them
style='font-style:normal'>): “The art-academy students across the street, who
were usually graduate students, had beards and long hair or, if they were
women, sandals and no makeup and unshaved legs hidden under peasant skirts.
They listened to records of Wanda Landowska playing Bach on the harpsichord
(God’s seamstress, as we called her) . . . [page 126].

The New Yorker, October 10, 2005: Jeffrey Eugenides’ eight-page short
story Early Music tells the sad
story of a clavichordist, replete with many composer references (only
noticeable error, a transposed “ei” in Scheidemann) and an evocative print by
Richard McGuire [pages 72–79].

Dieter Gutknecht presents a reasoned, musical example-filled
overview of conflicting styles in his major article “Performance practice of recitativo
secco in the first half of the 18th
century,” Early Music XXXIII/3 (August 2005), pp. 473–493.

Correspondent Robert Tifft reports:
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

No lack of live harpsichord music in Budapest . . .

Since fall 2004 the Hungarian Radio has sponsored a cycle of
Bach’s solo harpsichord music with monthly recitals broadcast live from the
Radio’s Marble Hall. The recitals have occurred with even greater frequency
this fall, with performances by Zsolt Balog on September 26, Miklós Spányi on
October 10, Dalma Cseh on October 24 and Csilla Alfödy-Boruss on November 21.
Each concert features a different soloist, all of them Hungarian, all of them
one-time students at the Liszt Academy where János Sebestyén founded the
harpsichord class in 1970. Soloists last season were Anikó Horváth, Borbála
Dobozy, Ágnes Várallyay, Angelika Csizmadia, Ágnes Ratkó, Rita Papp, Péter
Ella, Szilvia Elek, Anikó Soltesz and Judit Péteri.

In celebration of her 25 years as a harpsichordist, Borbála
Dobozy performed a tour de force concert on October 13 as soloist in four
concertos. The program included Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
style='font-style:normal'> (BWV 1050), C.P.E. Bach’s Concerto in G
minor (Wq. 6), Haydn’s Concerto
in F major (Hob. XVIII: 3) and Martinu’s Concerto
for Harpsichord and Small Orchestra. The
sold-out concert was broadcast live over the Hungarian Radio and Internet.
Together with Anikó Horváth, Dobozy established a Hungarian harpsichord
foundation, Clavicembalo Alapítvány, in 2004. The foundation’s goal is to
provide master classes and instruments of the highest quality for students of
the Liszt Academy and to promote appreciation of the harpsichord through
recitals and competitions. There is a website at
<www.clavicembalo.fw.hu&gt;.

Looking Ahead

Make plans to attend an early keyboard meeting: the Southeastern
Historical Keyboard Society meets March
9–11, 2006 at Shorter College, Rome, Georgia, with the dual purpose of celebrating
Mozart and honoring the first 25 years of the Society’s history. (More
information is available on their website <www.sehks.org&gt;).

The Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society
style='font-weight:normal'> will gather in Notre Dame, Indiana, June
15–18, 2006, presenting a program featuring the music of Diderik
Buxtehude. (Website: <www.mhks.org&gt;).

Send news items or comments about Harpsichord News to Dr.
Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
75275;

<[email protected]>.

March 16-17, Charlottesville, Virginia

The main site of this year's Southeastern Historical
Keyboard Society Conclave was the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Appropriately, then, many presentations were centered around the musical and
intellectual life of our third President, Thomas Jefferson.

The first session, Thursday, March 15, opened with James
Holyer's presentation of "A Survey of the Literature on Thomas
Jefferson and Music" in the University of Virginia's Alderman
Li-brary. Representing a new generation of scholars, Holyer is pursuing a
master's degree in sacred music at Southern Methodist University where he
studies organ with Larry Palmer. He provided us with a complete bibliography of
publications on Jefferson and music, and guided us through a review of this literature,
describing the extent to which individual biographers discussed
Jefferson's musical life.

Following this session, University of Virginia librarians
Jane Penner and Heather Moore showed items from the Special Collections
Department. The ninth edition of the Bay Psalm Book, published in the
seventeenth century, was of particular interest since it represents the
"earliest printed music in Colonial America." We were also able to
view portions of the Jefferson family's Monticello Music Collection.
Unfortunately, the music composed by Thomas Jefferson has been lost. On
Thursday evening, the conferees enjoyed a private tour of Monticello.

The Friday morning sessions on March 16 opened with a
presentation by Karen Hite Jacob--"Thomas Jefferson: Finding
Inspiration Beyond Our Borders." In her paper and accompanying handout,
Dr. Jacob focused upon Jefferson's lifelong interest in learning. While
he always took an active part in his family's and friends'
education, Jefferson became interested in public education only later in his
life.

It was great to see harpsichordist and musicologist David
Chung again; we missed him at the SEHKS Conclave 2000 in Greensboro, North
Carolina. Having completed his doctoral work at Cambridge University a couple
of years ago, David returned home to Hong Kong where he is currently assistant
professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University. "The Development of French
Overtures in French Keyboard Music c. 1670-1730" was the topic of
his paper. Composers such as d'Anglebert made transcriptions for
harpsichord of Lully's overtures, including the "Ouverture
d'Isis" and the "Ouverture de Cadmus." An extensive
handout showed the progression of d'Anglebert's various methods of
arranging a Lully overture. Chung also discussed post-Lully (original)
overtures for harpsichord by Dieupart, Siret, Dandrieu and François
Couperin. In summary, he noted several important elements in the French
overtures for keyboard: the union of French ornamentation and Italian harmonic
progressions and counterpoint; the art of accompaniment from a figured bass;
and composers' incorporation of virtuosic writing.

Joyce Lindorff, associate professor of keyboard studies at
Temple University, presented a lecture-recital: "Perfect Vibrations:
Pasquali's 'Art of Fingering' and the New Keyboard Aesthetic."
Pasquali's compact treatise (Edinburgh, 1758), published after the
composer's death in 1740, dealt with fingering, ornamentation, technique
and tuning; it reflected the newly emerging keyboard aesthetic--namely,
the preference for legato performance.

The ideas of Domenico Alberti (1710-1746), one of the
first composers of keyboard music to adopt the new Classical texture, impressed
Pasquali. He agreed that, in order to produce a full tone on the harpsichord,
one must not release the key too soon; further, the harpsichordist must play
with legato fingering. While C. P. E. Bach still re-ferred to the detached
style as the usual one, Pasquali insisted that it should be used rarely. Dr.
Lindorff rounded out her lecture-recital with selected passages from Handel's
Concerto, op. 4, no. 1, and Alberti's Sonata I; she played each example
twice, first in a more detached style--secondly, in the newer legato
style. Most of the audience concurred with Pasquali that the harpsichord gains
power of sound when played with more legato.

Friday morning's second session started with Sarah
Mahler Hughes (associate professor of music at Ripon College in Ripon,
Wisconsin) who presented a paper on "Two 18th-Century Keyboard Settings
of 'Adeste Fideles' from London and Philadelphia." After
tracing the origin of the tune "Adeste Fideles," which turned up in
Portugal, France, and later in London, Dr. Hughes contrasted two settings by
Veronika Dussek Cianchettini (1769-1833) and Rayner Taylor
(1747-1825). The former, a Bohemian pianist/composer, was the younger
sister of well-known pianist/composer Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812).
Both Dusseks moved to London where they taught and performed; Veronika
eventually married the publisher Cianchettini. Rayner Taylor (1747-1825)
emigrated from London to America in 1793. Taking the post of organist and music
director at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, he was also a
composer and teacher and one of the founders of The Musical Fund Society. Dr.
Hughes found both Cianchettini and Taylor's settings of "Adeste
Fideles" "pleasing and diverting," but noted important
differences between them. While Cian-chettini's version, composed for a
pianoforte with an expanded range, is more technically demanding than Taylor's,
the latter's setting was meant to be played in church, on the organ with
a limited compass.

Once again, Dr. Larry Palmer (Southern Methodist University)
amused, entertained and educated his audience by taking a fresh new ap-proach
to historical material. Assuming the role of French organist and composer
Balbastre (1727-1799), he sent us an E-mail message in the form of a
memoir --"Claude-Benigne Balbastre: From Dijon to Citoyen."  In keeping with
the Jeffersonian theme of this SEHKS Conclave, Palmer à la Balbastre
recounted his meeting Jefferson's wife Martha and daughters Patsy and
Polly during their stay in Paris. In fact, Balbastre owes his fame not only to
Charles Burney, who also met him in Paris, but largely to Polly Jefferson, an
accomplished harpsichord pupil. And Mrs. Jefferson, also a devotée of
the harpsichord, copied out the composer's pieces "La Canonade" and "War March," as well as Rameau's "Les Sauvages." Dr. Palmer informed us that these pieces by
Balbastre can be seen on microfilm at the University of Virginia Library.

Balbastre reminisced about the turbulent cultural, political
and musical changes he witnessed in the late eighteenth century, including the
waning and subsequent eclipse of the clavecin by the new pianoforte. The
composer endured the worst insult--seeing his Pascal Taskin
clavecin's innards re-moved and replaced by a pianoforte mechanism! Dr.
Palmer's lecture was enhanced by tape recordings of his performance of
several of Balbastre's clavecin pieces.

On Friday afternoon the conferees enjoyed an excursion to the
Hebron Lutheran Church in Madison, Virginia, for more presentations and
concerts. Judy Ann Fray, docent of the historic church, told us about the
historical background of the building and the organ. The original organ, made
by David Tannenberg in Lititz, Pennsylvania, was hauled by ox cart to Madison
and installed in 1802; it has been in use ever since. In 1970, when the organ
was refurbished by George Taylor and Norman Ryan, all parts were documented.

MANUAL (54 notes) (Stop names perhaps not original.)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Principal
dulci (#1-12 quintadena                                                                basses)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Gedackt
(All stopped wood)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Octave
(All open metal)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Flute
(All open wood)

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>     Quinte (All open metal)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Octave
(All open metal)

                  13⁄5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>     Terzian (breaking to
31⁄5' at middle c)

                                    Mixture
II (#1-24: 19-22; #25-54: 8-12)

We were then treated to a recital on the Tannenberg organ by
Joseph Butler (associate professor and associate dean of the College of Fine
Arts, Texas Christian University). His program included works by Froberger,
Pelham, Handel, J. S. Bach, Böhm, Brahms and Muffat.

Andrew Willis, immediate past president and current
secretary of SEHKS, then introduced George Lucktenberg, founder of SEHKS almost
21 years ago. In his address, entitled "The Southeastern Historical
Keyboard Society--An Idea Whose Time Had Come," he looked back over
his career as a harpsichordist and founder of SEHKS and pondered the future of
our organization. "We're at another turning point," stated
Lucktenberg. Now that the specialty of early music has established itself, he
cautioned against undermining its progress with an "earlier than
Thou" attitude. He shared his many thoughts about how SEHKS can continue
to be a significant force in the musical world. SEHKS President Peter Dewitt
then presented an award to Dr. Lucktenberg.

After the group was treated to a wonderful catered buffet in
the Hebron Lutheran Church Parish Hall, Peter Dewitt presented awards to Karyl
Louwenaar Lueck and Karen Hite Jacob, past presidents, for their many years of
significant contributions to the organization. The evening's concert of
German Vespers was provided by Zephyrus, a Charlottesville-based vocal ensemble
directed by Dr. Paul Walker, professor of organ and harpsichord at the
University of Virginia. Joined by Brad Lehman at the Tannenberg organ, Jennifer
Myer and Eva Lundell, violins, and Sarah Glosson, viola da gamba, Zephyrus
performed music by Böhm, Schütz, Buxtehude, Scheidt, and Praetorius.

The Saturday morning session opened with John Watson,
conservator of instruments at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, whose paper
ad-dressed "America's Only Surviving Harpsichord and Other Glimpses
of Jefferson's Keyboard Milieu." Although Jefferson was neither a
harpsichordist nor a composer, he sought the best available keyboard instruments
for his wife and two daughters throughout his life.

Vera Kochanowsky and Thomas MacCracken, duo harpsichordists
and forte-pianists from Washington, D.C., then performed Mozart's only
sonata for two fortepianos, K. 448 in D Major. MacCracken played an instrument
made by John Lyon in 1986, modeled on a Walther; and Steve Dibbern made
available a fortepiano he constructed from a Zuckerman kit (Stein replica) for
Kochanowsky.

The next presentation, "Once Again: Expressive Devices
on Eighteenth-Century Harpsichords," was given by Edward Kottick,
musicologist and retired professor from the University of Iowa. He challenged
the widely-held opinion that the devices added to harpsichords by late
eighteenth-century French and English builders, in order to accommodate the
growing desire for dynamic gradations, were "accretions or
encrustations." Builders created devices such as machine stops, swells
and the peau de buffle, not to compete with fortepiano makers, but rather to
meet the needs of a changing aestshetic. 
Perhaps it is only the twentieth-century
viewpoint--"anti-pedal and anti-dy-namic," even with regards
to late eighteenth-century keyboard music--which misunderstands the raison
d'etre of these "improvements."

Judith Conrad, an active keyboard performer and technician
from Fall River, Massachusetts, evoked "Tranquility at Home" in the
late eighteenth century with "A Bit of Musick upon the Fretted
Clavichord." She performed music by Handel, Balbastre, Alexander
Reinagle, John Snow and William Boyce on a clavichord made by Steve Barrell
(Amsterdam, 1990).

Stan Pelkey, an assistant professor of music at Gordon
College in Wenham, Massachusetts, presented a paper on "Approaches to
Sonata Procedures in British Keyboard Music from 1760-1820." He
focused mainly upon the contributions of Samuel Wesley and Charles Wesley.

Conferees were able to rotate among three
"No-fear" instrument repair workshops Saturday afternoon: Edward
Kottick, changing a plectrum; Ted Robertson, changing a string; Ed Swenson,
leathering a hammer. At the annual Builder's Instrument Showcase,
conferees had a final opportunity to view and hear instruments exhibited by
Steve Dibbern, Ted Robertson, Ed Swenson, Steven Barrell, Richard Abel, and
Willard Martin. Joyce Lindorff's demonstrations were all the more
effective because she selected repertoire appropriate for each instrument.

The afternoon session concluded with a performance of Madame
Brillon's "Trio en Ut Mineur a Trois Clavecins" (1780) by
Virginia Pleasants, David Chung and Joyce Lindorff. Intended for one English
fortepiano, one German fortepiano and one harpsichord, Brillon's Trio was
played in 2001 on a fortepiano made by Steve Dibbern from a Zuckerman kit, a
harpsichord built by Willard Martin, and an 1855 Erard grand pianoforte restored
by Ed Swenson.

The beautiful Dome Room of the Rotunda at the University of
Virginia was the site of the Conclave's final event. This building, like
many others on the campus, was designed by Thomas Jefferson. Harpsichordist
Charlotte Mattax Moersch played an unmeasured prelude by Jean-Henry
d'Anglebert and three pieces by Lully arranged by d'Anglebert.
Karyl Louwenaar Lueck performed harpsichord pieces by An-toine Forqueray, four
of which were arranged by his son Jean-Baptiste Forqueray. Andrew Willis, fortepianist,
played works by J.G. Albrechtsberger, C.P.E. Bach and Georg Benda. After
enjoying J.S. Bach's Concerto in C Major for Two Harpsichords (BWV 1061),
played by Mattax and Louwenaar, the audience was treated to a hilarious
performance of "Das Dreyblatt" by Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, a
grandson of J.S. Bach. All six hands negotiated, or attempted to negotiate,
their way around a single fortepiano!

The SEHKS Conclave 2001 was successful in all respects, from
excellent presentations and recitals to terrific hospitality; the experience
was enhanced by the rich historical setting of the Charlottesville, Virginia
area. Thanks to Vicki Dibbern for making all the local arrangements, to builder
liaison Steve Dibbern, to the program committee (Ardyth Lohuis, Ed Kottick and
Andrew Willis), to Karen Hite Jacob for the program book, and to Dr. Paul
Walker for making arrangements at the University of Virginia.

Dana Ragsdale is professor of harpsichord and piano and
director of Southern Arts Pro Musica at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Having played her New York debut harpsichord recital in 1977 in Weil Recital
Hall, she has also been a guest artist on the Winterfest Concerts and with the
Fiati Chamber Players in New York City. A participant in the Performing Arts
Touring Program, Dr. Ragsdale has also made numerous appearances at Piccolo
Spoleto USA in Charleston, South Carolina. Promenade, the Baroque ensemble in
which she performs, can be heard on a compact disc, "Music from the Court
of Versailles."

Homer Ashton Ferguson III received his bachelor of arts degree with a major in music from Illinois College in May 2000, studying organ with Rudolf Zuiderveld and piano and conducting with Garrett Allman. In May 2002, he completed his master of music degree at Arizona State University under the direction of Kimberly Marshall, where he is currently working on his doctoral degree in organ performance. He is also the organist and music associate at Central United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

Joyce Johnson Robinson is associate editor of The Diapason.

Bach and Beyond: Bach and Bach Reception in the 19th Century

November 7-8, 2003, scholars and performers gathered for the organ symposium “Bach and Beyond--Bach and Bach Reception in the 19th Century,” sponsored by Illinois College (Jacksonville, Illinois), under the direction of Dr. Rudolf Zuiderveld, professor of music and college organist, and co-sponsored by MacMurray College (Jacksonville, Illinois), First Presbyterian Church (Springfield, Illinois), and John Brombaugh (Eugene, Oregon).

Day One: by Homer Ashton Ferguson III

Rammelkamp Chapel at Illinois College and Annie Merner Chapel at MacMurray College were the venues for the first day. Registration began at 1:00 p.m. in the foyer of Rammelkamp Chapel, and James Dawson, owner of Oberlin Music in Oberlin, Ohio, set up a sales booth for conferees to peruse various publications concerning the organ.

After a warm welcome by Dr. Zuiderveld and Dr. Axel Steuer, president of Illinois College, the symposium began with the keynote lecture given by Russell Stinson, the Josephine Emily Brown Professor of Music at Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas. Stinson’s lecture, “Bach’s Organ Works and Mendelssohn’s Grand Tour,” revealed some new insights into the reception of Bach’s organ music during the nineteenth century, the era of the so-called Bach revival, through the examination of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The address gave conference participants a preview of Stinson’s recent research which has been codified in his latest book, The Reception of Bach’s Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms, scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in late 2005. The book will contain four rather hefty chapters on four major figures of 19th-century music (Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms) and will investigate how they responded to Bach’s organ music, not only as composers but also as performers, critics, theorists, and teachers.

Mendelssohn was the ideal figure for the “rediscovery” of J. S. Bach’s genius. He composed over thirty works for the organ, often using the organ music of Bach as a model, his editions of Bach’s organ chorales were among the first ever published, and as a concert organist he introduced Bach’s music to the general public. Stinson dwelled on one particular time period in Mendelssohn’s career, his self-named “big trip” of 1830-32, the longest Bildungsreise ever undertaken by a musician in modern times. His travels took him through Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, and England as well as many German cities.

Mendelssohn’s journey began as a Bach pilgrimage, with stops in Leipzig and Weimar, where he was presented with manuscript copies of two Bach works by the publisher Breitkopf and Härtel. His time was also spent with Goethe, who owned six Bach manuscripts, two of which contained organ compositions. Goethe, a long-time fan of Bach, requested that Mendelssohn visit the local organist. Upon doing so, Mendelssohn reported that he played the “D-minor Toccata.” Stinson continued at some length in establishing that the “D-minor Toccata” reference was definitely a reference to the infamous BWV 565. This conclusion stems primarily from a letter sent from Paris to his family in 1831 in which he requests to be sent copies of six different Bach organ works, including a “Prelude and Fugue in D Minor,” which he identifies by notating the first two beats of the Dorian toccata. This eliminates the Dorian as a possibility because Mendelssohn knew that piece as a prelude, not a toccata.

In late July 1831, Mendelssohn arrived in Switzerland. In need of practice, he began to work on his technique using Bach’s organ works as his pedagogical tool. A letter Mendelssohn wrote to his family while stranded in the village of Sargans revealed that even at this point in his career he still lacked, at least according to his standards, the pedal technique necessary to perform Bach’s big organ works.

Upon his arrival in Munich several weeks later, Mendelssohn continued to focus his attention on mastering his pedal technique. Again, he found himself struggling in his conquest, only this time the organ he had to practice on was partially to blame. Mendelssohn wrote in a letter to his family, “I also play the organ every day for an hour. But unfortunately I cannot practice as I wish because the pedalboard lacks the five uppermost notes.” He did marvel at the beauty of the organ, though, and commented on finding the perfect registration for the famous setting of Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele.

As Stinson continued to demonstrate the influence of Bach’s music upon Mendelssohn, he touched briefly upon Mendelssohn’s sense of profundity in sharing Bach’s organ works with his family and friends. In an account regarding BWV 740, Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, Vater, Stinson remarked upon the popularity of playing Bach’s organ works as keyboard duets on the piano. Within a rather emotional letter dated November 14, 1831, Mendelssohn sent this chorale to his sisters Fanny and Beckchen to play as a duet, noting, “Now play this chorale with Beckchen, as long as you are together, and think of me while doing so.” Stinson further illustrated this by quoting Fanny in a letter she had written to Felix two years earlier, apropos of Bach’s organ preludes that: “Beckchen is pounding out the pedal part with virtuosity, and it does my heart good to hear her. Old Bach would laugh himself to death if he could see it.” At this point in the lecture Dr. Stinson and his student, Skye Hart, resurrected an old performance practice by playing BWV 740 on the piano, in duet form.

On April 22, 1832, Mendelssohn sojourned back to London, regularly playing the postlude at Sunday morning services at St. Paul’s Cathedral, even as he had done to great acclaim in a previous visit in 1829. The organ at St. Paul’s proved to be the ideal instrument on which to perform Bach’s music, due to its larger compass in comparison to other instruments in London. Mendelssohn’s organ playing there is well documented and Stinson went into detail to support the fact that Mendelssohn’s Bach playing was revolutionary for the English organ scene. It was in London that Mendelssohn achieved the level of mastery that he had sought in the performance of Bach’s organ works.

Within this discussion one of Stinson’s most remarked-upon assertions concerned the Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533, the so-nicknamed “Cathedral.” Stinson believes that it was Mendelssohn’s introduction and repeated performance of this work to English audiences at St. Paul’s Cathedral that led to its nickname. All of the conference participants, including Christoph Wolff, could not think of any evidence to contradict this assertion and were in agreement that this may very well be the forgotten source of this often-quoted moniker.

Stinson concluded his stimulating opening to this conference, noting, “(Mendelssohn) would continue to occupy himself with Bach’s organ works his entire life--as a performer, composer, editor, antiquarian, pedagogue, and ambassador-at-large. Without question, he was the most influential champion of this repertory during the early Romantic era.”

The conference continued with a recital by Jay Peterson, professor of music and college organist at MacMurray College. Performed in Annie Merner Chapel on the MacMurray College campus, the recital featured the historic 1952 Æolian-Skinner Organ, Opus 1150, of four manuals and 64 ranks. This organ, installed under the auspices of Professor Robert Glasgow, then a member of the music faculty, has been dutifully guarded and maintained by Peterson. He recently completed a compact disc recording of this organ featuring American organ music in celebration of the fiftieth birthday of this landmark.

Dr. Peterson readily showed off the colors of the organ through his performance of 19th-century organ music, demonstrating his ability as a commanding performer. The program: Sonata in B-flat, op. 65, no. 4, Felix Mendelssohn; O World, I Now Must Leave Thee, My Heart Abounds With Pleasure, Blessed Ye Who Live In Faith, O God, Thou Faithful God, My Heart Is Ever Yearning, op. 122, Johannes Brahms; Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Franz Liszt.

Day one of the symposium concluded with a recital by Douglas Reed, professor of music and university organist at the University of Evansville, on the Hart Sesquicentennial Organ in Illinois College’s Rammelkamp Chapel. This recital attracted a large audience from the surrounding community as it was the November event on Illinois College’s McGaw Fine Arts Series.

Building upon a theme set earlier by Jay Peterson at MacMurray College, Dr. Reed played a program dedicated solely to the masters of the 19th century. His program construction was well-conceived as he “book-ended” his recital by opening with the first movement of the Symphonie Romane by Charles-Marie Widor and then closed with the Final. Originally premiered in 1900 in Berlin, Widor received his inspiration for this symphony from plainchant. Reed continued with a performance of Robert Schumann’s Six Studies for the Pedal Piano, opus 56 (1845). The remainder of his program consisted of Brahms’ Prelude and Fugue in A Minor and Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 5 in D Major.

The evening ended with a reception in Kirby Rotunda on the campus of Illinois College; organ scholars socialized and expounded upon ideas new and old. The inaugural kickoff of Illinois College’s biannual organ symposium was indeed a success. Events are currently being scheduled for November of 2005 and November of 2007, with focus in ‘07 on Dieterich Buxtehude in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of his death.

Day Two: by Joyce Johnson Robinson

All of Saturday’s events took place at First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, home to John Brombaugh’s 3-manual, 70-rank Opus 35.

The day began with an organ demonstration, “Music around Johann Sebastian Bach,” by Rudolf Zuiderveld, organist of First Presbyterian and professor of music at Illinois College in Jacksonville. The program comprised works by Bach’s predecessors, contemporaries, and successors, from Frescobaldi through Brahms, and included a hymn, “If You But Trust in God to Guide You” (Wer nur den lieben Gott), whose verses were preceded by organ preludes of Bach, Krebs, and Böhm. The Sonatina in d by Christian Ritter showcased the full organ, including the 16’ and 32’ pedal Posaunes. The organ is robustly voiced for a full congregation, and the room has a lively acoustic. Yet even with a sparse population in the church, the full organ was loud but not unpleasantly so. The instrument is essentially north German/Dutch, but can capably handle music of other styles as well. In Dandrieu’s variations on O Filii et Filiae, the organ’s French capabilities were highlighted, including récits de nazard, tierce, basse de trompette, flutes, larigot (siffloete), cromorne (dulcian), cornet, cimbel and Grand Jeu. The reeds offered just enough bite, the flutes were clear and full. The organ most definitely possesses gravitas, as demonstrated in Louis Marchand’s Fond d’orgue (Deuxième Suite), in which the 16’ Praestant enriched the plenum without detracting from its clarity.

Next, organists, including students of Douglas Reed (University of Evansville), Russell Stinson (Lyon College), Dana Robinson (University of Illinois), and graduates of MacMurray College and Illinois College played for the masterclass led by Robert Clark, organ professor emeritus of Arizona State University. All but one played Bach works. Dr. Clark’s suggestions reflected the concerns of making music, as well as matters of technique and registration. In order to accommodate all the students who wished to play, the masterclass continued after the lunch break. Participants in the class and in the subsequent recital were Zach Guenzel, Tim Weisman, Cecilia Bogowith, Alicie Zeilenga, Skye Hart, Jeremy House, Nicole Eyman, Luba Tkachuk, Alison Lewis, Scott Montgomery, Jin-Kyung Lim, and Kirk Rich. See Tsai Chan and Alison Lewis played in the masterclass although not in the recital; Robert Horton and Christine Smith played in the recital only.

Following the masterclass, Christoph Wolff of Harvard University delivered a lecture on the authenticity of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Prof. Wolff outlined the claims against Bach’s authorship, which are primarily based on interpretations of sources and on stylistic grounds. His remarks focused on a Berlin Staatsbibliothek manuscript; he considers this source, copied by Johannus Rinck, to be correct in its attribution to Bach. Wolff also discussed details of notation and stylistic traits (such as the arpeggiando figures) which would place the work early in the eighteenth century, and explained the octave doubling at the opening of the toccata as a way around the lack of a 16’ stop on a smaller organ--a way of achieving the effect of a North German plenum.1 Having been reassured that our beloved warhorse was indeed by Bach, we returned to the sanctuary to hear the masterclass participants present their pieces at a recital that capped off the afternoon.

The symposium concluded with a re-creation of Mendelssohn’s “Bach Concert” of August 6, 1840, at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The concert began with a full organ introductory work by A. W. Bach, followed by Johann Sebastian’s Fugue in E-flat (BWV 552b), Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (BWV 654), Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV 543), Passacaglia and Thema fugatum (BWV 582), Pastorella in F (BWV 590), Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565), and closing with Mendelssohn’s Choral and Variation on Herzlich tut mich verlangen, and Allegro (Chorale and fugue) in D minor. Robert Clark, Russell Stinson, Rudolf Zuiderveld, Douglas Reed, and Jay Peterson collaborated with stirring playing; for those who had immersed themselves in details of these works’ histories, stylistic details, and performance practice, the concert was a satisfying ending to the weekend’s events.2