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LP in LA: The 47th National Convention of the American Guild of Organists July 4-9, 2004--PART TWO OF TWO

Larry Palmer and Joyce Johnson Robinson

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON. Joyce Johnson Robinson is associate editor of THE DIAPASON.

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JR's Journey:

AGO Convention, Los Angeles, July 4-9, 2004

Over 2,000 organists from all 50 states and 17 foreign countries attended this meeting in Los Angeles. Blessed with fine weather, and shepherded to the various venues via comfortable, well-organized bus travel, attendees were able to experience the architecture and the instruments in many famed locations: the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles with its new 105-rank Dobson, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, and of course the new Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. My personal impressions were of consistently high caliber playing (everyone got an A; there were a few A-pluses, and some A-minuses), fine instruments and amazing spaces, and some interesting new compositions.

Monday

Mary Preston's program took place at Claremont United Church of Christ. Playing the 1998 Glatter-Götz/Rosales op. 2, the vivacious Preston showed spectacular energy as she bit into Jean Guillou's Toccata, a multi-textured wild ride of a piece with its bombast and staccato. Preston did a fine job bringing out the melodic line, which required frequent hopping between manuals. In the more lyrical Duruflé Scherzo, she displayed the beautiful colors of the organ's flute and string choruses. Preston joined forces with narrator Kathie Freeman (an actor, singer, and presently a manager of the Los Angeles Master Chorale) for the world premiere of George Akerley's whimsical and witty A Sweet for Mother Goose, a winner of the Holtkamp-AGO Award in Organ Composition. Based on selected Mother Goose nursery rhymes, the work combines rhythmically notated narration with the organ providing text illustration. Preston then demonstrated muscular playing in Jongen's Sonata eroïca, putting into play the full organ, with its weighty 32' Untersatz.

Ken Cowan played on the 66-rank C.B. Fisk Op. 117 (2002) in the Bridges Hall of Music at Pomona College. The room, with its highly ornamented ceiling, lacks a lively acoustic when filled to capacity. Cowan played his program from memory, beginning with David Conte's moody, cerebral Prelude and Fugue (In memoriam Nadia Boulanger). The Vierne works--Scherzo from Symphonie VI and Clair de Lune--showcased the Fisk's flutes and its assertive strings. Cowan closed with the first salvo in the convention Regerfest, the Fantasie on "Wie schön leucht' uns der Morgenstern, demonstrating the choruses (principal, flute, reed), and unleashing the organ's full power.

In Bridges Auditorium, which reminds one of an old-style movie palace (complete with zodiac images painted on the ceiling), Millennia Consort presented their program; they were at a disadvantage from the acoustic. The room and stage have great depth and width as well as height and length, and the sounds were quickly swallowed up--even the brass seemed underpowered in this great space. Alison J. Luedecke played a Rodgers Trillium 967, which also seemed unable to dominate the space. Its sound was most successful in solo passages; individual colors (particularly flutes) sounded well. But combined with the brass and percussion, it either was drowned out or the sound had a flatness to it.

John Karl Hirten's Variations on Auld Lang Syne presented the tune in various meters and key centers using techniques such as ostinato, inversion, and fugue. In Erica Muhl's Fleet, for percussion and organ, percussionist Beverly Reese Dorcy used a full complement of percussive color--small bells, marimba, vibraphone, drums, hanging cymbal, sheet of metal, and chimes--in varying textures such as percussion against an organ ostinato, and an organ and drum rhythmic onslaught.

Mary Beth Bennett's Preludes to the Apocalypse (like Fleet, a world premiere of an AGO commission), for two trumpets and organ, was inspired by biblical text relating to the Second Coming, the Transfiguration, and the Rapture. David Ashley White's Hymn (from Triptych), commissioned by Luedecke, was a lovely and lyrical movement centering on a hymn tune played by a trumpet offstage, a very striking effect.

Monday afternoon I attended two workshops. My general reaction to the convention workshops was disappointment of two kinds: either they were so well done that you were disappointed they could not have continued and gone into greater depth, or you were just disappointed. The latter type (fortunately, only one instance of this) will receive no further discussion here.

Elmo Cosentini presented a workshop on creating orchestral transcriptions for the organ. Cosentini first gave a bit of history of the transcription and then presented techniques for creating transcriptions. Most helpful were tips for successfully making a transcription that is idiomatic to the organ, such as using registrations that will place lines in the proper octave, and not repeating inappropriate figures from other instruments. The allotted time was insufficient for Cosentini's presentation, and this caused some consternation.

Monday evening, a choral concert was presented at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The combined choirs (of the cathedral, and the churches of St. Charles Borromeo and St. Cyril of Jerusalem) performed the world premiere of Byron Adams' Praises of Jerusalem, heavily influenced by American (southern Protestant) hymnic style. Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, a five-movement work, is set to Latin texts, including from the Requiem Mass and Veni sancte spiritus; this is a thematically and texturally rich work that centered on references to light. The final work was Parry's I Was Glad. It was dismaying to hear the choirs, nestled under the overhang formed by the base of the organ case, indirectly through amplification. This also made for balance problems with the organ.

Martin Jean's recital was one of the convention high points. He played Duruflé's transcription of Tournemire's Improvisation sur le Te Deum, followed by Dupré's Symphonie-Passion. It was also the first chance to hear the cathedral's new Dobson instrument on its own, and it did not disappoint. This work (especially the Crucifixion movement), on that instrument, in the great space, along with Jean's cool and collected performance, all combined to form a sublime experience.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning's first stop was UCLA's Royce Hall, to hear UCLA University Organist Christoph Bull play the 1930 Skinner op. 818 (V/104). Not one to waste a minute, Bull strode on stage, slid onto the bench, and immediately struck the opening chord of Reger's Introduction and Passacaglia in d (round two of Regerfest). The full organ is a big sound--almost painful when heard from the balcony. Bull is a visibly passionate and energetic player; he bit into the dissonances of the Reger, and executed an exciting rendition of his own transcription of De Falla's Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo (displaying the reed chorus, which sounded from the back of the chamber and then front, providing spatial as well as coloristic contrast). Guitarist Scott Tennant then joined him to play the Ian Krouse's Renaissance-flavored Chiacona (after Bertali) for Organ and Guitar (world premiere of this AGO commission), an amplification, both in the volume and technical senses, of Antonio Bertali's work for violin and continuo. (This was the only piece Bull did not play from memory.) Bull closed the program with two more of his own transcriptions. First was Charles Mingus's jazzy Ecclusiastics; Bull is a natural for this type of music and he played with relaxed ease. He then segued into the finale to Mozart's "Jupiter" symphony.

On to St. Cyril of Jerusalem to hear the 1998 Rosales op. 23 (III/45). George Baker, clad in a white shirt and tie, began with the Vierne Third Symphony. His playing expressed the anguish and turmoil in the first movement, was lovely and sweeping in the Cantilène, danced through the scherzo-like Intermezzo, displayed the incredible beauty of the Adagio, and through waves of crescendo and decrescendo built up to the big finish of the Final. Baker made the changes between manuals--and textures--so seamless. The Rosales has powerful bass sounds--full, rumbling, and visceral. Baker's playing in the final passages of the Symphonie almost made one's hair stand on end. The "Lent" movement from Cochereau's Symphonie Improvisée had been  transcribed by Baker (a student of Cochereau's) from a recording. The movement's themes showcased a rich cornet and solo reeds. Baker concluded with his own composition, Tuba Tune Ragtime, a fun-house ride of Joplinesque idiom mixed with trumpet tune style--add the Zimbelstern and references to familiar pieces (including some Vierne and Widor), and you have a slightly wacky, very fun piece.

Robert Bates presented a very fine workshop on new sources and interpretations for early French registrations. This was an update on Fenner Douglass's guidelines as found in his 1969 book The Language of the French Classical Organ. Bates illustrated his talk with a handout of musical examples, and played recorded clips of French--and French-style--organs.

Craig Whitney's workshop entitled "The Organ and its Organists in America" focused in part on winning back audiences for organ music, and "proving the conventional wisdom about organs is wrong." Whitney, a New York Times editor and author of the book All the Stops, is an engaging speaker and his part history, part pep talk lecture was laced with anecdotes and fascinating facts (case in point: Dupré's Passion Symphony was first improvised at Wanamaker's). Whitney emphasized the need to do sufficient publicity for events: "Don't be afraid to be a pain." While the need for publicity may seem self-evident, we see countless examples of too-late publicity notices, or none at all, and the empty rooms that result from such neglect.

Tuesday evening I attended the Evensong service at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, home to the 1935 Skinner op. 856, a massive collection of organs that, combined, total V/339.  The evening began with Lynne Davis's wonderful playing of Vierne's Toccata in b-flat minor, Marchand's Grand Dialogue in C, and Franck's Choral in E. The All Saints' Choir and the Choir of St. James' were directed by Dale Adelmann and James Buonemani. The service itself began with Adelmann's setting of the spiritual Steal Away to Jesus, heartbreakingly lovely in its crescendi and its hushed whispers of "steal away." There were settings of psalm and canticle settings by Craig Phillips and Herbert Howells, an anthem by Patrick Gowers (composer of the music for the Sherlock Holmes series seen a few years back on public television) and a wonderful homily by the Very Rev. Canon Mary June Nestler, herself a musician who really understands organists. Ladd Thomas capped it all off with that hot fudge sundae of pieces, the Widor Toccata--sweet, rich, and fun.

Wednesday

Back at the same church Wednesday morning, Judith Hancock, assisted by Gerre, began with Mendelssohn's Allegro (Chorale and Fugue); her playing was solid yet flowing, with beautiful articulation. She tackled one of her signature pieces, Petr Eben's challenging Nedìlni Hudba (Sunday Music), exhibiting deft handling of the many manual changes and hand crossings. In the Moto ostinato and Finale movements, through the use of different divisions she created a spatial melody, with sound jumping around the room. The pedal 'drumbeats' in the Finale were wonderful--her quietly disciplined technique made her fancy footwork all the more exciting.

Westwood United Methodist Church is home to a 1995-96 IV/153 Schantz, augmented with 85 digital voices, by Walsh & Tidwell. This is an enormous amount of instrument but it has to fight the acoustical brakes of heavy carpet and pew cushions, among other things. Paul Jacobs (who was at the side door of the church greeting conventioners as they entered!) played his program from memory. He began with a work by John Weaver (Jacobs' teacher and mentor), Toccata for Organ, an aerobic workout that nonetheless was very lyrical and lovely. Margaret Vardell Sandresky's The Mystery of Faith (world premiere and an AGO commission--one of my favorites of the new works) is a beautiful piece, sensitively played by Jacobs, utilizing various colors of the organ as it grows in complexity and volume, then reverting to quiet as it began. Jacobs' playing of the Handel Concerto in g minor was clean, crisp, well-articulated, and nicely ornamented. By now he had worked up enough steam to doff his jacket before playing Reger's Chorale-Fantasy 'Hallelujah! Gott zu loben,' in which Jacobs showed off his blinding technique. He brought out the chorale clearly, through the minefield of tempo and figurational changes (Round 3 of Regerfest).

At Wilshire United Methodist Church, Namhee Han played a program (not listed in our 1-lb. program books) of 'Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes Sohn' from the Orgelbüchlein (the only Bach I heard in the convention!), Brahms' O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, and Litaize, Prélude et danse fuguée. Then entered ensemble amarcord, five former choristers of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. They would have pleased just as a change of pace, but more than that, the purity of their singing, the varied and interesting program choices, even the opportunity to hear Tallis' If Ye Love Me sung one to a part, made this performance another one of the convention's high points. Especially fine was their interpretation of Poulenc's Laudes de Saint Antoine de Padoue, and John Tavener's The Lamb.

The Wednesday night banquet featured actor David Hyde Pierce (star of stage and screens both big and small, including his role as Niles Crane in Frasier, seen by those who didn't have their rehearsals on Thursday nights). Mr. Pierce has studied the organ and served as a church organist, and his anecdotes of his organ-playing days were hilarious; he opened by displaying his organ shoes, and brought down the house with his opinion of mastering the details of ornamentation ('I don't care'). As if that weren't enough, Hector Olivera then dazzled the crowd with his fiery playing on the mighty Roland Atelier AT-90S, which was programmed with sounds that went way beyond the Spitzenundchiffenwerk we had been gorging on all week. He played the Flight of the Bumblebee, with the melody on the pedals at breakneck speed, and channeled Virgil Fox with his breezy interpretation of the Jig Fugue.

Thursday

The buses left early this day for a trip to Garden Grove. Attendees were able to enjoy a bit of the outdoors while strolling around the grounds of the Crystal Cathedral campus. Christopher Pardini, the cathedral's senior organist, demonstrated the 1951 Aeolian-Skinner.

Fred Swann presented a stunning program that opened with Robert Hebble's Heraldings, commissioned for the Cathedral, a fine splashy opening in 'stereo' (more for a truly quadraphonic, really, as it exploited the east and west chamade organs, and full organ of all the divisions). During all this there was racket from numerous noisy birds who seemed to take even the strongest crescendo in stride! In Franck's Choral II, the full organ passages really showed the power of the instrument; and when Swann drew the tremolo, one could feel one's own body trembling. After the Introduction and Passacaglia from Rheinberger's Sonata VIII came another rarely played work, Sowerby's Requiescat in pace, the performance of which was dedicated to the memory of Catharine Crozier. When Swann closed with the Final of Widor's Symphony VI, one of the cathedral's window panels was opened and the birds seem to have vacated the area. Perhaps it was due to the final six chords or so, with the en chamades in full volume.

In the evening was the event everyone had been waiting for: the concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the premiere performance of the 4-manual, 109-rank Glatter-Götz/Rosales op. 24, which some have come to refer to as the 'French fry organ,' based on the design of its façade pipes. Voiced assertively enough to stand up to an orchestra and an orchestral hall's acoustic, it had been reputed to be loud, but I found it to be just right. Cherry Rhodes, playing the movable console onstage, and the Philharmonic, led by Alexander Mickelthwate, opened the program with James Hopkins' Concierto de Los Angeles--Visión escondida y Visión revelada, another world premiere/AGO commission; here the organ functioned as ensemble player, and it was up to the task. Organ solo passages in the Concierto demonstrated the various colors of the organ. Next Joseph Adam played from the permanent console, beginning with the last Reger work of the convention, Fantasia über B-A-C-H, then Vierne's Naïades, and Naji Hakim's Hommage à Igor Stravinsky. Here the organ stood on its own, and displayed its wonders full throttle; it dominates the room, in an acoustic that is properly calibrated. Robert Parris and the orchestra then treated the audience to Sowerby's Concerto I in C Major, and the organ, hall, architect, acoustician, and organ builders received the standing ovation that was very much their due.

The spaces and surfaces of the building echo the sweeping, billowing shapes seen on the exterior; even the shape of the curved organ pipes is echoed, with what looked like a stub of a 64-foot pipe (curved, of course). One had the feeling of being on a large sailboat (Gehry, it turns out, is a sailor . . . )

Friday

All the attendees returned to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The last organ recital was presented by Samuel S. Soria, cathedral organist, playing Alec Wyton's Fanfare, Howell's Psalm Prelude, Set 2, No. 1, and Sowerby's Fast and Sinister (if there was this much Sowerby in Los Angeles, what will be left to hear in Chicago in 2006?). We had previously sat right in the line of fire of the organ; this time we were on the other side, with the pipework aiming past us to the left, yet the organ sounded much louder and clearer than it did before. The annual meeting included an improvisation (with references to the tune of Chicago, Chicago, That Toddlin' Town) by Peter Krasinski, the 2002 improvisation competition winner. The closing concert was presented by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, directed by Grant Gershon and with William Beck at the organ. The chorale stood front and center and was not assisted by microphones. Their wonderfully varied program included Byrd's Sing Joyfully, Billings' Beneficence, Jordan, and Chester, Michael Bedford's Psalm 96 (winner of the AGO/ECS Publishing Award in Choral Composition), with trumpeter Roy Poper, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, the sublime Duruflé Ubi Caritas, Pärt's Solfeggio and The Beatitudes, Thompson's Alleluia, Roger Wagner's arrangement of Alleluia (The Old 100th), and Finzi's God Is Gone Up.

It could not have been a more satisfying conclusion to a week that was exhausting but enjoyable, at times even inspiring--an opportunity to hear marvelous new instruments in visually and acoustically awesome spaces, and a feast of new music to boot.

Congratulations, Los Angeles!

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LP in LA: The 47th National Convention of the American Guild of Organists July 4-9, 2004--PART ONE OF TWO

Larry Palmer and Joyce Johnson Robinson

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON. Joyce Johnson Robinson is associate editor of THE DIAPASON.i

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LP in LA: The 47th National Convention of the American Guild of Organists July 4-9, 2004

More than 2000 organ enthusiasts spent an exhilarating week in the City of the Angels, enjoying a well-paced, well-organized schedule of high-quality musical events. Los Angeles weather, cool and sunny, was a joy after a month of unusually abundant rain in Texas.

In a sense, each person experienced a unique convention, since many of the morning programs were given two or three times in order to accommodate the number of attendees, and afternoon activities had been pre-selected from the more than 60 workshops and competition rounds offered. Evening events usually accommodated the entire convention, the exception being Tuesday's three concurrent services of worship. Perception and reception of particular events, thus, were influenced by the particular sequence in which they were experienced. For instance, Monday morning's "green group" progression of three recitals provided a satisfying order, while Wednesday's schedule did not. 

Rather than a chronological, day by day report, here are some high points from "my" convention choices.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall and the first public performances on its Glatter-Götz/Rosales organ

Architect Frank Gehry's landmark building, new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, is a striking and beautiful creation, immediately taking its place among America's most exciting concert halls. This 274 million dollar project pays apt tribute to American film maker Walt Disney with its decidedly whimsical and non-traditional architecture, and Gehry's organ case satisfies Lillian Disney's request that the organ not suggest a church. The controlled chaos of the pipe façade is the visual focus of the concert room; it is, however, well integrated into the hall, largely due to the use of the same wood, Douglas fir, for pipes, wall, and ceiling.

The 109-rank, four-manual organ is equipped with two consoles. In traditional case placement, the mechanical-action one was utilized for Joseph Adam's solo performances of Reger's Fantasia on BACH, Vierne's Naïades (played fleetly with impressionistic bravura), and Danse and Finale from Naji Hakim's Hommage à Igor Stravinsky. A movable, electric-action console, placed in front of the orchestra to the left of conductor Alexander Mickelthwate, allowed proper soloists' positions for organists Cherry Rhodes, in the program-opening premiere of James Hopkins' Concierto de Los Angeles, and Robert Parris, for the rarely-heard Concerto I in C Major of Leo Sowerby.

Architect Gehry was in attendance; so was the acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, and the organ builders. A pre-concert stroll through Melinda Taylor's stunning gardens allowed an opportunity to view Gehry's rose-shaped fountain created from 8,000 hand-broken pieces of blue and white Delft china--his "Rose for Lilly," in honor of Mrs. Disney.

Solo Organ Performances

Mary Preston at the Glatter-Götz organ opus 2 (1998) in Claremont United Church of Christ

Dallas Symphony resident organist Mary Preston played a perfectly constructed program on a splendid mechanical-action organ in a church with sympathetic acoustical environment. At her third performance of the morning Ms. Preston elicited spontaneous (and forbidden) applause with a compelling opening work, Jean Guillou's dazzling, difficult, and complex Toccata; left us spellbound with the magical gossamer conclusion of Duruflé's Scherzo; showed both charm and considerable comedic ability in George Akerley's A Sweet for Mother Goose (six movements for organ and narrator based on familiar nursery rhymes); and displayed an absolutely magisterial rhythmic control in Jongen's Sonata eroïca. Program notes by Laurie Shulman pointed out a musical connection between Jongen and Messiaen, an analogy strengthened by the happily chirping birds heard through open windows on the right side of the church.  Human auditors were equally ecstatic at this stellar performance.

Martin Jean at the Dobson organ in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Yale University's Martin Jean gave a riveting performance of the complete Dupré Passion Symphony as conclusion to the second half of the first concert attended by the entire convention crowd. Spanish architect Rafael Moneo's massive cathedral, dedicated in 2002, seats 3,000 people in a spacious contemporary edifice of restrained elegance. The four-manual, 105-rank Dobson organ fills this space with noble and powerful sounds, as expected from its impressive 32-foot façade principals and dominating horizontal reeds. The organ performance was all the more appreciated coming as it did after a choral performance of works by Byron Adams, Morten Lauridsen, and C. Hubert H. Parry horribly amplified through the Cathedral's public address system. (Seated in the last row, we heard the choral sounds through crackling speakers positioned in the downward pointing, trumpet-shaped central posts of the chandeliers; any hope of a balance with the accompanying organ was thereby destroyed.)

Samuel Soria at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Cathedral organist Samuel Soria played a prelude-recital before the Friday morning business meeting of the American Guild of Organists. Wanting to hear the Dobson organ from the best possible vantage point, we eschewed bus transport, walked the few blocks from the convention hotel to the cathedral, got there before the crowd, and chose an optimal seat in the left transept, diagonally across from the organ case. There the organ had splendid presence, character, and all the fullness one could want, qualities well illustrated in the playing of this talented young man. An appreciated tie-in to AGO history, his opening piece, Fanfare by past-president Alec Wyton, displayed the organ's horizontal reeds to fine advantage.  Atmospheric impressionism was equally well served in Herbert Howells' Psalm Prelude, set 2, number 1 ("De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine") with its steady crescendo from the softest stop to a mighty full organ climax, and the corollary retreat to near silence. But it was in Sowerby's fiendishly difficult middle movement from his Symphony in G ("Fast and Sinister"--listed in the program as "Faster") that Soria best displayed his formidable technique and sense of the work's architecture, giving a sensitive, secure reading of this quintuple-meter tour de force.

Christopher Lane at the NYACOP Finals in St. James Episcopal Church

One of three finalists to compete in the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance, Lane, a student at the Eastman School of Music, gave the only playing of the required Roger-Ducasse Pastorale to realize both its delicacy and forward sweep. With no lack of virtuosity in the culminating mid-section "storm" music, Lane also limned the delicate contrapuntal writing in this unique organ work from the French composer.  Judges Craig Cramer, Bruce Neswick, and Kathryn Pardee, deliberating at length, chose Yoon-Mi Lim (Bloomington) as first place winner. Dong-ill Shin (Boston) was the third contestant.  Additional required repertoire played by all three contestants included Deux Danses (Le miroir de Meduse and Le Cercle des Bacchantes) by California composer James Hopkins, and Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C, BWV 654, the only organ work by the master included in the published convention program book. (This final competition round was heard by approximately one-tenth of the convention registrants.) One additional Bach piece, a chorale prelude from the Orgelbüchlein, Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes Sohn, BWV 601, was played simply and stylistically by Namhee Han, a guest organist who gave the pre-concert recital before ensemble amarcord's program at Wilshire United Methodist Church. Ms. Han holds the Ph.D. in applied linguistics and is currently studying for her MM in organ at UCLA.

Paul Jacobs at Westwood United Methodist Church

Young Mr. Jacobs, playing from memory, had no technical or musical limitations during his noontime playing of the monumental Reger Chorale-Fantasy on Hallelujah, Gott zu loben. It was refreshing to hear Handel's G-minor Organ Concerto (opus 4, no. 1) as a representative (albeit in transcription) of the conspicuously absent baroque organ repertoire. Jacobs' attractive program also included John Weaver's Toccata and the premiere of Margaret Vardell Sandresky's The Mystery of Faith. With four manuals and 153 pipe ranks, the Schantz organ could have recused the added 85 digital voices to the advantage of the whole.

Lynne Davis at First Congregational Church

American organist Lynne Davis has spent much of her distinguished career in France. For her pre-service recital before Evensong she played three works from the French organ repertoire: Vierne's Toccata in B-flat minor, opus 53/6, Marchand's Grand Dialogue in C, and Franck's mighty Choral in E Major on the immense composite organs of First Congregational Church, comprising five manuals, 339 ranks, and seven digital voices for a truly "surround sound" experience. It was playing of intensity with a distinctly personal approach; especially in the Franck, Ms. Davis presented a nuanced, individual, and ultimately satisfying reading of this Romantic masterwork. In the Marchand, the organ certainly provided commanding reeds for a classic French Grand Jeu, but seemed to be lacking a Cromhorne of sufficiently aggressive character to assure a proper balance for the accompanying voices.

Choral Performances

ensemble amarcord at Wilshire United Methodist Church

The five-man vocal ensemble, all former members of the St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig, filled several unique categories at this convention: they were the only Europeans engaged for the program, and they gave the only ensemble presentation of a work by J. S. Bach, a two-stanza chorale from the Kreuzstab Cantata, BWV 56, "Du, o schönes Weltgebäude." It received an especially eloquent performance, with words perfectly articulated, and the almost-painfully beautiful suspensions viscerally calibrated for maximum tension and release of the piquant harmonies. The particularly welcome program alternated early music (stark and athletic organum, supple Byrd motets, the familiar Tallis anthem If Ye Love Me, elegant in its noble simplicity) with 20th (and 21st) century choral works.  The concluding Gloria (2001) by Sidney Marquez Boquiren was performed with the singers in a circle.  Long-held dissonant chords built around an ostinato pitch, were sustained throughout with nearly-unbelievable breath control. Repeated text phrases swirled like incense to create an unforgettable shimmer of sound. From start to finish this was virtuoso music making, with not a microphone or speaker to mar the sound.

Dale Adelmann's setting of the Spiritual "Steal Away to Jesus"

Heard as the Introit for the Service of Evensong at First Congregational Church, this, and the equally exquisite singing of Herbert Howells' St. Paul's Service by the choirs of All Saints' and St. James' Episcopal Churches, conducted by Adelmann and James Buonemani, proved to be the full ensemble choral highlights of the convention for this listener. Of course, choirs need to be superb at these services to compare with the hymn singing of a thousand, or more, organists, most of them paying attention to punctuation, pitch, and proper vocal production. It makes for participatory experiences that remain in the memory.

New Music

David Conte: Prelude and Fugue (In Memoriam Nadia Boulanger) for Organ Solo. E. C. Schirmer No. 6216.

What a way to begin the first solo organ recital of a convention! A single pedal B-flat sang out gently. Then a theme, beginning with the opening intervals of Raison's (and J. S. Bach's) Passacaglia was spun into a 14-measure cantilena, after which the solemn five-minute Prelude built slowly, always above the continuing pedal point. The ensuing Fugue, its memorable subject carefully shaped by Ken Cowan at the recent Fisk organ in Bridges Hall of Music at Pomona College, fulfilled the promise of the Prelude, moving inexorably from duple to triple accompanimental figurations, and building to a full climax with pedal flourishes. A work worthy of Maurice Duruflé or Gabriel Fauré, and a fitting tribute, as well, to Boulanger, the great French teacher with whom Conte studied for three years early in his career.

George Akerley: A Sweet for Mother Goose for Organ and Narrator. Hinshaw Music, Inc. HPO3009

Winner of the 2004 Holtkamp-AGO award in organ composition, this charmer of a suite weds appropriately pictorial music with rhythmically notated texts for the narrator in a pleasure giving work that should find its way into many organ recital programs. (It is music for young persons of all ages.) "Little Bo-Peep" allows the organist to take off on an extended pedal cadenza, to be halted only by the irritated shout of the narrator. The head of a school instructs her charges on good behavior in "The Clock." There's Irish musical color aplenty in "The Cats of Kilkenny," and, after a recitation of the poetry, the organist plays a solo tone poem to illustrate the "Tale of Miss Muffet." Mathematical note groupings provide comment for "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe;" while the concluding movement ("The Fiddlers") provides chuckles of recognition with its ritornello based on the famous Widor Toccata. That it was so well presented by Mary Preston, with the ebullient Kathy Freeman as narrator, made for a memorable premiere indeed.

Denis Bédard: Duet Suite for Organ and Piano (Details: www.majoya.com)

Duo Majoya (Marnie Giesbrecht, organ; Joachim Segger, piano) gave a most unusual recital at Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. Two Canadian composers provided commissioned works for the Duo; each had some interesting musical ideas to communicate. The more accessible work was this Suite, comprising an Introduction, Fughetta, Menuetto, Romance, and Final, full of wit, good humor, and memorable melodies, many reminiscent of Poulenc's catchy and romantic voice. Three movements from Jeffrey McCune's Crossing to Byzantium, and his arrangement of Stravinsky's Danse infernale de roi Katschei from The Firebird, plus Joe Utterback's brief Images: A Jazz Set completed the program, which would have benefited from more textural variety, perhaps provided by a solo offering from each of these fine players. The Bel-Air organ, reconstituted from a Casavant instrument heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, now consists of 60 pipe ranks plus 91 digital voices, including both Cherubim and Seraphim hanging speakers: not a particularly happy marriage of sounds for this hilltop-sited church.

Other newly-commissioned and prize-winning works heard at convention events I attended included anthems by Byron Adams and Michael Bedford, works for instruments with organ by Mary Beth Bennett, Ian Krouse, and Erica Muhl, plus the Hopkins and Sandresky works mentioned previously, as well as an anthem by Williametta Spencer, premiered in the Ecumenical Protestant service, not on my schedule. 

Workshops

Organ Recordings from the Past, David McVey's self-effacing session on gems from the audio history of organ playing, was a model of effective, well thought-out presentation. All the requisite citations were listed in a spacious 8-page handout. The motto "Res ipsa locutor [The thing speaks for itself]" was borne out as McVey kept comment to a minimum in order to allow complete performances of works recorded by Widor (Andante sostenuto from his Gothic Symphony, committed to disc in 1932), Tournemire (Chorale-Improvisation on "Victimae paschali," 1930), Thalben-Ball (Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, 1931), Sowerby (his Carillon, 1946), Schreiner (Vierne's Naïades, 1959), Biggs (Daquin's Noël grand jeu et duo at the 1936 Aeolian-Skinner organ of the Germanic Museum at Harvard), Fox (Bach's Passacaglia at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, 1963), and Crozier (Dupré's Prelude and Fugue in G minor, opus 7/3, 1959).

Panel Discussion on the Disney Hall Organ, ably moderated by Jonathan Ambrosino, with organ builders Caspar von Glatter-Götz and Manuel Rosales, architect Craig Webb from Gehry Partners, and organ consultant Michael Barone.

An overflow crowd of 500 assembled to hear the whys and wherefores behind the inspiration and evolution of Gehry's unusual organ design for the new hall, and the challenges posed during the installation of the instrument. 

Extra-musical happenings

Television personality and actor David Hyde Pierce (of Frasier fame) brought along the necessary props: his organ shoes, a book of registrations copied down at some early lessons (numbers only, no stop names), a tattered copy of the Gleason Method. Pierce, who really did study organ with several noted teachers, took his audience through a quick course on ornamentation ("I don't care"), temperament, and various other organ-specific arcana. The huge crowd responded with almost-constant hilarity.

The Very Rev. Canon Mary June Nestler's sermon at Evensong moved with quiet humor from her own experiences as a voice student through some of the shared vicissitudes of the organist's profession (especially vis-à-vis relationships with the clergy) to a sound theological conclusion, and a prayer for peace.

Class Acts

Frederick Swann: organist and AGO president extraordinaire

Both for a very fine recital at the Crystal Cathedral, his "home base" during the years 1982-1998, and for his deft, unpretentious handling of the American Guild of Organists presidency, Swann deserves high accolades. Always in command of the music he played, never pompous or overbearing in his official actions, Fred serves as an exemplary leader for the national organization, and he represents the profession well with his high musical and personal standards.  Who would not love him for his one-sentence disposal of the listed "Presidential Remarks" at the national meeting? Kudos, as well, for his service as performances chair of the convention. The artists selected for the program were consistently top-notch.

The Convention Committee

To Dr. Robert Tall and his legions of hardy workers for the stellar planning and smooth organization of a first-rate convention, especially noted in the efficient and on time management of the necessary bus transportation. Mailing the convention program book (itself a work of art) more than a month before the actual event allowed attendees the opportunity for advance preparation and orientation. Bravi tutti!

Additional Observations

It was my first experience to see two hotel elevators (in the headquarters hotel, the Westin Bonaventure) marked with historic plaques, noting their use by actor (now Governor) Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1993 movie The Terminator.

Crystal Cathedral organist Christopher Pardini's fine performances of The Joy of the Redeemed, composed by AGO founding member Clarence Dickinson, not only showcased the Aeolian-Skinner organ in the Cathedral's Arboretum, but served as an effective aural connection to an important figure in the Guild's history.

What a savvy idea to present this year's AGO President's Award to Craig Whitney, an assistant managing editor at The New York Times and author of the best selling book All the Stops. His enthusiastic and engaging writing about the world of organ music and its personalities has provided  some much needed popular awareness for the profession.

Peter Krasinski's masterful organ improvisation at the AGO annual meeting was based on the song "Chicago, Chicago," a theme selected and presented to him by improvisation committee chair Ann Labounsky. This served as a not-so-subliminal aural advertisement for the next national convention, to be held July 2-6, 2006.

 

Organ Historical Society Convention, Buffalo, New York, July 14–20, 2004, Part I

PART ONE OF TWO

Ronald E. Dean
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For its forty-ninth annual convention, the Organ Historical Society met in Buffalo, the land of Bills and Wings, with headquarters at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, close to the waterfront marina. Nearly four hundred people were in attendance. The Organ Handbook, which included a daily schedule and information on the events and performers as well as historical background on the churches visited and instruments featured, was dedicated to the memory of Farny Wurlitzer, Herman Schlicker and Robert Noehren, all of whom contributed significantly to the history of organ building in Buffalo. There were examples of instruments from all three builders heard during the week.

Wednesday

The events began with an optional tour to Niagara Falls and a buffet lunch at the new Seneca-Niagara Casino in downtown Niagara Falls, New York. There was ample time for those who wished to try their luck at the casino and perhaps recoup some of their convention expenses.

Fred Swann played the opening recital that evening on the reconstructed 3-manual Johnson & Son, Opus 797 of 1893 in the vast and beautifully appointed St. Stanislaus R.C. Church. After a welcome by the pastor (who is also auxiliary bishop of the diocese), Swann played the following program: Sonata 8 (op. 132), “Introduction and Passacaglia,” Rheinberger; Woodland Flute Call, Dillon; Fantasia in A, Franck; the hymn “Holy God, we praise thy name” (sung lustily by all) to the tune, Grosser Gott; By the Waters of Babylon, Huston; Petite Suite, Bales; the Symphonic Chorale, “Ach bleib bei deiner Gnade,” Karg-Elert; Meditation, Duruflé; and Fantasia and Fugue in G, Parry. Swann’s own delightful transcription of an Allegro of Corelli served as an encore. His expert programming and playing displayed the dignified and powerful sounds of the organ as well as the more delicate ensembles and solo colors—all enhanced by an acoustical environment favored by the church’s high vaulted ceiling and a octagonal dome at the crossing. After a well-deserved and enthusiastic standing ovation, the audience, which happily included many parishioners, went across the street to the parish hall for a reception. As people left the church, the tower bells pealed their joyful sounds. This event was certainly an apt beginning for a week of convivial celebration.

Thursday

The convention’s first full day began at the hotel with a lecture by Donald Ingram, who presented an enlightening and often humorous recollection of his association with Herman Schlicker (1902-1974) and the Schlicker Organ Company. The presentation dealt primarily with an overview of Schlicker’s tonal and mechanical innovations. At its height, the firm employed a work force of approximately forty-seven persons.

A short bus trip brought us to the sumptuous Delaware Avenue Baptist Church located in an area noted for the monumental beauty of many of its residences. The church building is a feast for the eyes with its Richardsonian design and attention to decorative detail. A particularly ornate baptistery set off by six marble columns with Ionic capitals and featuring a symbolic shell design immediately draws one’s eye to its inset location behind a coffered arch. Floating above in the curve of the domed church are representations of ten winged figures illustrating the text from Psalm 91: “He shall give His angels charge over thee.” On a balcony over the baptistery and thus completing a central focal point in the large auditorium is the 3-manual Johnson & Son, Opus 827 of 1895 (with later reworkings by both Viner and Schlicker) on which James Hammann played fourteen examples from Dudley Buck’s Studies in Pedal Phrasing (op. 28), followed by the hymn, “All glory be to God on high” sung to the tune  Allein Gott in der Höh. Hammann can always be relied upon to supply an unusual program well-suited to the organ at hand.

The fourteen Studies selected for this program displayed three important characteristics:

(1) the fact that these technical studies can be lovely little pieces in themselves thanks to Buck’s musical and melodic creativity;

(2) the various colors, solo stops and ensembles of a fine instrument can be featured effectively;

(3) in the hands of a fine artist such as James Hammann and his registrational sensitivity coupled with his flexibly shaped phrasing, music can be made out of what are basically pedal studies over which Buck wove attractive counter melodies. Hammann also provided a handout showing the registration for each study.

The 1896 Hutchings organ, Op. 465, at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church offered an interesting contrast to the approximately contemporary Johnson (1895) just heard. Whereas the Johnson was originally supplied with mechanical action, the Hutchings had an early version of electro-pneumatic key and stop action and may have been the first organ in Buffalo to have had this “modern” action. Later additions and modifications were made by Wurlitzer, Viner and Schlicker (console). After remarks by both the interim pastor and the former music director, Derek Nickels played the following program: Sonata 5 in D (op. 65, no. 5, 1845), Mendelssohn; “Harmonies du Soir” from Trois Impressions (op. 73, 1911), Karg-Elert; “Scherzetto” from 24 Pièces en style libre (op. 31, 1913), Vierne; Elegy (1916), Brewer; the hymn, “Guide me O thou Great Jehovah,” sung by the entire assembly to the tune, Cwm Rhondda; and the “Finale and Fugue” from Sonata 7 in F (op. 127, 1881), Rheinberger. Even though the acoustically treated barrel vault plus the substantial grille work (added later in front of the original Hutchings case) prevented clear projection of the organ’s sound, the usual firm and distinguished basic Hutchings tone emerged quite well under Dr. Nickels’ expert playing. He wisely chose a very effective group of pieces to display the instrument’s colors and its highly expressive enclosed divisions.

A short bus trip brought us to the former First Church of Christ, Scientist, recently purchased by David and Marsha Karpeles of Santa Barbara, California. After renovation, it will become yet another venue for their extensive collection of original documents and manuscripts. We were served a box lunch as we sat in the pews and listened to a demonstration of the ex-church’s 1913 3-manual Möller, Op. 1500, rebuilt by Möller in 1956. David Blazer’s short and eclectic program included the Prelude from Duruflé’s Suite; a transcription of the theme from “The Young and The Restless,” and Bach’s Schmücke dich and Prelude in C Minor (BWV 546). The loud, somewhat boomy and opaque sound of the Möller successfully covered up munching and paper-rattling sounds produced by the hungry conventioneers. Blazer deserves our plaudits for putting up with what must have been a less than congenial performance situation on a difficult instrument.

The First Presbyterian Church, across from Kleinhans Hall, home of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, was the next stop for two demonstrations. The first was by Timothy Smith who presented a short program on the fine 1957 Schlicker in Hindman Chapel. The well-balanced 2-manual organ contains some pipework from the chapel’s previous ten-stop Roosevelt organ installed in 1889 as that firm’s Op. 426. Since we arrived at First Presbyterian early enough, many people chose to wander around and enjoy the richly decorated interior of the church including its Tiffany windows. Incumbent organist David Bond played the following program on the church’s landmark 4-manual Noehren organ of 1969-1970: the hymn, “Ye watchers and ye holy ones,” sung to Lasst uns erfreuen; Prelude in C (BWV 547), Bach; Noël Etranger, Daquin; “Humoresque” from L’organo primitivo, Yon; and Chorale No. 1 en mi majeur, Franck. The organ, situated in the rear gallery with its often-pictured suspended Positiv, was one of Noehren’s largest instruments and said to be his favorite of all the ones that came out of his atelier. It features broadly intense principal choruses, commanding chorus reeds, wide-scaled flutes and piquant and colorful baroque-style solo reeds. A bit of whimsy is reflected in the inclusion of a stop control (knob only) for 4/5’ Chivas Regal, evidently intended for eventual subtle Celtic blending characteristics. Bond performed brilliantly, showing that the instrument has ample broad support for a room full of OHS hymn singers and featured the delightful baroque color reeds against a plenum in the Daquin, the lovely Great Rohrfloete (with just enough chiff) in the Yon, and the massively voiced Great 8’ Principal at the beginning of the Franck. Since the console is located in close proximity to the pipes, the organist undoubtedly has to take into account problems of perceived balance and make adjustments for proper perceptions in the room. The organ has benefited from a recent thorough cleaning, re-regulation and some re-voicing by the Niagara Organ Works who thoughtfully provided complimentary copies of a newly produced CD in which one could hear another recital program and also a “before-and-after” example of some reed work.

Later that afternoon, Scot Huntington, organ builder and restorer as well as OHS Vice-President, presented the following program in Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary R.C. Church: Organ Motet, Tallis; Prelude in C, Thayer; Minuet in A, Smart; Maria Zart, Schlick; Violin Sonata #5, Bach (with Allison Alcorn-Oppedahl, violin); and Allegro maestoso, Roseingrave. The lovely instrument, apparently originally built by Hall and Labaugh in 1853 and moved to Buffalo later in the nineteenth century, stands proudly in the rear gallery of the lofty sandstone Gothic church. The church interior has been tastefully restored and is in a fine acoustical and visual setting for the seldom-used organ. Even though it needs a thorough restoration, Paul Marchesano, Joe McCabe and Kevin Gilchrist together with Scot Huntington provided many hours to give the instrument enough of a voice so that many of its colorful and delicate tones were able to sing through the vaults and accompany the violin to give a tantalizing taste of what a future restoration might produce.

The evening event was a demonstration and concert of appropriate music played with verve and enthusiasm by Scott Foppiano on the large and restored 1925-1926 Wurlitzer (Op. 1206) in Shea’s Buffalo Center for the Performing Arts. The vast and ornate auditorium was originally Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, one of the nation’s premier entertainment palaces built for the presentation of both stage shows and motion pictures. Foppiano demonstrated many of the organ’s solo and ensemble effects, both with and without the characteristic generously pulsating tremolos. In addition to playing music usually associated with this outstanding example of theatre organ building, he accompanied the showing of the 1922 silent film, “The Cops,” starring the hilarious and athletic Buster Keaton.

Friday

The morning began with Jonathan Ambrosino’s lecture on Robert Hope-Jones, the infamous, quirky, often misguided and personally haunted genius of the organ building world. The theme of his illustrated talk was centered on Hope-Jones’s ideas on “radical change.” Included were appropriate remarks on the ups and downs of the often stormy relationship between himself and the Wurlitzer firm, then located in nearby North Tonawanda, New York. As usual, Ambrosino, well-known for his combination of articulate delivery and depth of scholarship, seasoned with affectionate good humor, did not disappoint the conventioneers who filled the room with resounding applause.

There followed a short walk to St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Church for a short recital presented by Donald Fellows on a more-or-less “stock” model Hook & Hastings 2-manual tracker, Op. 1429 of 1889. The instrument had been moved to St. Anthony’s from Plymouth Methodist Church in 1911. The interior of this elegant and beautifully maintained church had been restored in 1991 and reflected the subtle care taken to emphasize the many architectural features of this Italianate Classic room. A high coffered ceiling and hard surfaces in the building helped to supply an ideal acoustical ambiance for the following program: Prelude and Fugue in d (op. 37, no. 3), Mendelssohn; “Stèle pour un enfant défunt” from Triptyque, Vierne; the hymn, “If now, thou seekest miracles,” sung to the tune Si quarus miracula; “Adoro te devote”—Prelude with Four Variations, Near; and Te Deum, Reger. The pieces were well-played and displayed the firm and distinguished tone of the Hook, which, in spite of some minor tuning problems, acquitted itself well.

Following a catered lunch at St. Francis Xavier R.C. Church, organist Tom Trenney presented the following short memorized recital on the church’s very early example of the work of Herman Schlicker: the hymn, “I sing the mighty power of God,” sung to the tune Forest Green; Bishop’s Promenade, Coke-Jephcott; Variations on “The Last Rose of Summer,” Buck; and “Prelude,” “Scherzo” and “Toccata” forming a three-movement improvisation on submitted themes. The 2-manual, largely enclosed organ of 1933, located in the rear gallery of the high and tastefully decorated room, does not sound as one’s “mind’s ear” might expect of a Schlicker. It has a warmth and breadth of tone more typical of that of a previous generation. The instrument is provided with two consoles, one in the gallery and one on the floor of the nave. It was from this floor console that Trenney played his program. The submitted themes, which Trenney had not seen prior to the performance, were Jerusalem (the wonderful Parry tune), “Come thou fount of every blessing” (Nettleton), and the inevitable Harry Warren show tune, “Shuffle off to Buffalo” (it had to happen sometime during the week!). Trenney achieved the unbelievable task of combining these disparate melodic concoctions into an entertaining and surprisingly unified musical offering. Here is a fine young artist who combines technical security and fire with a fine and sensitive lyric awareness.

Because of limited seating for the next two events, the conventioneers were split into two groups, which then exchanged places and thus heard a repeat of the program. This report will follow the order given in the official Handbook.

Stephen Roberts gave a short demonstration on the Church of the Ascension (Episcopal)’s 3-manual Kimball, K.P.O. 7129 of 1934, which is undergoing restoration. Since much of the organ is currently unplayable, Roberts chose pieces that would work on what is available. His program opened with the lusty singing of The Royal Telephone (“Central’s never busy, Always on the line”) followed by Four Versets on Ave Maris Stella (op. 18, nos. 6-9), Dupré; Vision, Rheinberger; and Variations on “America,” Ives. Roberts, with the aid of a student console assistant, was able to give us more than a few hints of what will eventually be the resurrection of a really fine Kimball.

After a refreshing reception in Ascension’s Parish Hall, the group walked the short distance to Holmes Chapel in Westminster Presbyterian Church for a  demonstration played by Lorenz Maycher on what he calls his favorite instrument, the beautifully balanced 2-manual Aeolian-Skinner, Op. 1136 of 1951. The organ features a floating Positiv division, which is hung on the rear wall of the chapel, thus creating a stunning visual effect as well as a source for antiphonal effects, and, when desired, an enveloping sound for singing support. His program: How Brightly Shines the Morning Star, Telemann; Fugue in d (“Fiddle”), Bach; the hymn, “Holy, holy holy! Lord God Almighty,” sung with plenty of support from the organ to the tune Nicaea; Whimsical Variations (1950), Sowerby, and Fugue in C (op. 36, no. 3), Dupré. As usual, this young artist played with a total “no nonsense” command of the instrument, allowing his technical control to serve the organ and its music.

The previously split groups then met in the main church for Felix Hell’s full recital on the 4-manual Aeolian-Skinner, Op. 1249 of 1959 located in the rear gallery. His program: Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H; Reger; Chorale No. 2 in b (1890), Franck; the hymn, “Praise to the Lord,” sung in a good, broad “Anglican” tempo to the tune Lobe den Herren; and Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos ad salutarem undam,” Liszt. For an encore, he played the last movement from Trio Sonata 1, Bach. Hell has the distinction of being the youngest person (at age 18) to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. Last  fall (at age 19), he began graduate work at the Peabody Conservatory where he studies with Donald Sutherland. The charming and totally unaffected young virtuoso possesses an impressive technique, and it will be revealing to observe his increasing musical sensitivity as his career develops.

Central Park United Methodist Church was the site for a relaxing catered dinner followed by ample time for a post-prandial stroll in the lovely neighborhood. The handsome limestone church houses the Ward Memorial Organ, a 4-manual Skinner, Op. 356 of 1922-1923. The instrument’s layout is somewhat unusual in that the console and part of the Pedal division as well as the Swell and Choir are located in a transept, while the Great, Solo and the Pedal reed are in the central ceiling of the nave and over the crossing. These latter elements are concealed (very effectively) by a grille cloth colored to blend into the ceiling. This is certainly a clever arrangement, but one can only imagine the tuning and balance problems such an installation can create.

The artist for the recital was Thomas Murray who presented the following program, which he interspersed with highly appreciated and helpful comments: Introduction and Passacaglia in d  (1899), Reger; Fantaisie in D-flat (op. 101, 1895), Saint-Saëns; a group featuring “Four Americans:” Hommage to Perotin (1956), Roberts; Novelette (1908), Parker; Reverie (1962), Still; and Ride on, King Jesus, Greenlee; followed by Notturno (1942) and Impetuoso (1933), Wiedermann. After intermission, we all sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to the tune Vision; the program concluded with Rhapsody (op. 17, no. 3, 1919), Howells; Overture to Ruy Blas (1839), Mendelssohn (arr. Lemare); and three movements from the Byzantine Sketches (1920): “Rosace,” “Noël,” and “Toccata: Tu es petra,” Mulet. Murray received a richly deserved standing ovation for his expert playing and was able to bring out the best from this somewhat unusually designed and very fundamental-toned organ. The controversial John A. Bell was the consultant for this particular project and may have been largely responsible for some of its odd tonal characteristics. One cannot help comparing this instrument with the earlier Skinner of 1922 (Op. 327) in St. Luke’s, Evanston, played by Murray at the Chicago OHS Convention in 2002. The Evanston installation, even allowing for the vastly different architectural and acoustical setting, gives the impression of being a much more cohesive and “modern” instrument.

Saturday

The day’s events began with a lecture by organ builder Charles Kegg on the topic “Pipe Organ Restoration,” subtitled “more than you really wanted to know.” His basic tenet is that a true restoration is “ . . . bringing back what was lost.” Much of his talk dealt with specific problems involved in the continuing restoration of the 1934 Kimball heard in the Church of the Ascension the day before. He emphasized the fact that the Kimball’s original materials and design were of very high quality indeed. Among the points he raised were the fact that water damage in organ chambers is sometimes due to inherent building design flaws and that “ . . . falling plaster is not our friend.”

The first recital of the day was held on the landmark 1954 Schlicker in Trinity Episcopal Church with Stephen Schnurr presenting the following program: Fantasia super Komm, Heiliger Geist (BWV 651), Bach; Toccata in d (BuxWV 155), Buxtehude; Balletto del granduca, Sweelinck (attrib.); Concerto del Sigr. Meck, Walther; the hymn, “Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor,” sung to the tune Bryn Calfaria; and Variations de Concert (op. 1), Bonnet. The organ, situated in the rear gallery, features a tight and well-balanced plenum together with perky small ensembles and colorful solo registers. As usual, the multi-talented Schnurr demonstrated his sure technique and subtle musical sense.

Will Headlee played the final recital of the morning on a thoroughly grand and somewhat altered Kimball of 1903 located in the high rear gallery of the equally grand St. Louis R.C. Church. This was one of several highlight programs with the organ, organist and restored church creating an overall magnificent experience. Headlee thoughtfully provided a sheet of written commentary done up in his usual entertaining style and gave information on both the music and his registrations. His program: two of the Trois Préludes et Fugues (op. 7, 1918), B Major and F Minor, Dupré; Air for Organ (1963), Hancock; from the Partita on “Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig” (BWV 768), Bach (Choral, Variations, I, VII and XI); Introduktion und Passacaglia in d (1899), Reger; and the rousing hymn, “Round the Lord in glory seated,” sung to the tune Rustington. Following Headlee’s superb performance, which was justifiably acknowledged with a standing ovation, the departing audience of parishioners and conventioneers was treated to the celebratory ringing of a bell located in a beautiful and lofty tower, which, together with the tower of the First Presbyterian Church, can be seen from many points in the city of Buffalo.

The next locale was Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (located diagonally across the street from the historic Anchor Bar, home of the original “Buffalo Wings”). After a catered lunch we took part in a hymn festival with the redoubtable James Bigham in charge. The main church houses the largest organ in western New York, the 5-manual Margaret L. Wendt Memorial Organ of some 152 ranks, originally a 1949 Möller (Op. 7852) with many changes and additions made by others over the years. Charles Kegg, who rebuilt both the massive console in the chancel as well as the one in the gallery and who was also responsible for most of the recent tonal work, explained some of the features of this remarkable instrument’s layout. Its divisions emanate from a variety of locations in the attractive room, and it is amazing that all of the spread-out portions of the organ worked cohesively and were in fine tune. To say that the instrument has room-filling potential would be an understatement as we were to find out later during the program. Bigham, widely known for his creative improvised hymn accompaniments, expertly played one division against another during the singing of the hymns, effectively demonstrating both large and small ensembles and colorful solo effects. Unfortunately, the creative muse overcame a sense of balance and soon proved how loud an organ can go to swallow up the sound of a room full of singers, several of whom were seen quietly replacing the hymnals in the racks or, in at least in one case, frantically waving a white handkerchief signifying sonic surrender. As a giddy postlude to this event, several people on the buses transporting conventioneers to the next recital pointed out the location of St. Mary’s School for the Deaf just a few blocks away.

The final event of the afternoon took place at the Jordan River Missionary Baptist Church with Randy Bourne playing the following program: “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mendelssohn; “Adagio sostenuto” from Moonlight Sonata (op. 27, no. 2), Beethoven; “Air (on the G-string)” from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D (BWV 1068); “Little” Prelude and Fugue in G Minor (BWV 557), Bach; Song on an Old Negro Melody, Deep River (1917), Burleigh; and the hymn, “I’ve just come from the fountain,” the African-American spiritual, which was done up “in the style” by the room full of singers. The organ, a Votteler-Holtkamp-Sparling, Op. 1343 of 1919 and obviously in great need of a total restoration, created multiple challenges for Bourne who lovingly struggled to make the organ sound as well as it could. It is a rare example of a small original and unaltered essentially 8-foot instrument by this important midwest builder. A curious feature of the console is its use of color-coded stop tabs. Congratulations are due to the church for not replacing the organ and to Randy Bourne for his considerable efforts to elicit sounds from it.

St. Paul’s Cathedral (Episcopal), just a short walk from the headquarters hotel, was the locale for the evening events—a choral evensong and an organ recital. The evensong featured the Men and Girls of the Cathedral Choirs under the direction of its recently appointed organist-choirmaster, Andrew Cantrill, with Andrew Scanlon, assistant organist-choirmaster, providing the accompaniments. After a short interval, Scanlon played the following program of three sonatas: Sonata No. 3 in A (op. 65, no. 3), Mendelssohn; Sonata II (1937), Hindemith; and Sonata Eroïca (op. 94, 1930), Jongen. The organ is an interesting one in that the chancel portion was built by Schlicker in the 1950s with more recent rebuilding by Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes. The gallery division’s magnificent case, originally by Hope-Jones, houses the remains of a 1908 Hope-Jones unit as the Solo. Over the years, further work was done by Wurlitzer to the gallery and chancel divisions, both of which had been of Hope-Jones design. It is a rarity to find vintage Hope-Jones pipes and unit chests existing together with Wurlitzer and Schlicker and later tonal and mechanical material all available in a single effective instrument.

American Guild of Organists National Convention 2014

Boston, June 23–27

Jonathan B. Hall and Joyce Johnson Robinson

Jonathan B. Hall writes frequently for The American OrganistThe Diapason, and The Tracker. He teaches music
theory and music criticism at New York University, and is music director of Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey. He serves on the American Guild of Organists’ Committee on Professional Certification. Hall is the author of 
Calvin Hampton, A Musician Without Borders  (Wayne Leupold Editions).

 

Joyce Johnson Robinson is editorial director of The Diapason.

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The American Guild of Organists 2014 National Convention met in Boston, Massachusetts, June 23–27. The weather gods smiled favorably for the most part and the city was a delight. This was a walking convention, so it was possible to get sufficient exercise from transport on foot (and climbing stairs to use the metropolitan trains). The convention daily details (and program notes, written by the artists) were nicely packaged, with each day’s itinerary in a single booklet (all the booklets came packaged in a cardboard slipcase). Information on venues, organ specifications, and photos were presented alphabetically in a separate booklet (which one would have to remember to bring). Though we hoped to review all performances, we did not completely succeed—given the vast array of choices at our disposal, this ambition was unreasonable, but entirely understandable. 

 

Monday, June 23

James David Christie, 

Symphony Hall

Monday evening’s opening concert presented James David Christie along with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Wilkins, in a program of five works for organ and orchestra, at Symphony Hall in Boston. The 1949 Aeolian-Skinner organ, Opus 1134, was rebuilt by Foley-Baker in 2004, during which 32 Diapason and Bourdon registers were added and the Bombarde division strengthened. The organ asserted itself wonderfully along with the orchestra; it added marvelous color and presence, and Christie used it to full advantage, presenting its range from whisper to roar, as both solo instrument and orchestral collaborator.

The program opened with Guilmant’s Première Symphonie, known to many of us as an organ-only sonata. It was enjoyable to begin the evening with a familiar work in a less-familiar guise, allowing us to hear well-known themes from the colors of different instruments. Christie’s deft use of the Swell pedal was noteworthy in the softer passages, and he withheld use of the Vox Humana until the end of the Pastorale. In the fiery finale, the organ’s upperwork was on display, along with great brass and percussion fanfares—quite a treat. 

Marie-Louise Langlais was then introduced from the audience; her husband Jean Langlais’ Thème, variations et final, op. 28 from 1937, was next on the program. It began in the low strings, with chordal punctuation from the upper strings, and a chantlike theme from the organ. The variation techniques included descending, sliding scales (which, admittedly, stringed instruments accomplish better than the organ does), fugal passages, and presentation of the theme by the pedal and brass. The work grew ever more fevered and exploited the powerful sound that an organ with an orchestra can produce.

After intermission, a medallion was presented to AGO President Eileen Guenther, by Vance Wolverton, marking the official induction of the AGO into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. (Besides the AGO, other recent inductees include composer Aaron Jay Kernis, educator and choral conductor Weston Noble, pianist André Watts, and the Guarneri Quartet.) How positive for the AGO to receive such recognition from the wider musical world!

Boston-area native Daniel Pinkham’s 1995 Concerto No. 2 for Organ and Orchestra opened with an Overture Concertante, which featured much percussion and a good dose of spiky and angular themes that are a feature of Pinkham’s work. The lovely Adagietto was both lyrical and insistent, and the final Rondo alla burla included a crescendo with full organ and full orchestra, brass and percussion a-blazing. Next was Walter Piston’s 1943 Prelude and Allegro; the Prelude was hauntingly beautiful, melancholy yet sweet, in which Christie sensitively blended the organ with the string section of the orchestra, while the Allegro featured lively counterpoint. The concluding work was Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva from 1960; from the opening thunderclap of percussion to the lyrical and lovely themes to the pedal cadenza, Christie delivered the goods in this magical work. His playing was skillful and responsive and was enhanced by his elegant console demeanor.

Programs with multiple works for organ and orchestra (rather than merely a bit of Saint-Saëns) are rare; this was indeed a feast. 

 

Tuesday, June 24

Opening worship,

Cathedral of the Holy Cross

The convention’s opening interfaith worship service took place at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. I arrived late (having stopped with some others to assist a conventioner who had fallen), and so missed the prelude (Carol Barnett’s March to Glory: ‘Draw me nearer,’ a convention commission, in its premiere performance), the opening hymn (with Richard Webster’s descant), and AGO Chaplain Don E. Saliers’s invocation. Colin Lynch, organist for the prelude and the service, played solidly throughout, in both hymns and the imaginatively registered anthems. 

Libby Larsen’s new hymn tune (another commission and premiere), for the text “Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round,” was solid, simple to sing—all within an octave range—and yet still contained enough harmonic surprise to be fresh. Matthew Martin’s anthem, Jubilate Deo (also a commission and premiere) was a stirring setting of Psalm 100, and exhibited fine text painting. It was followed by the chant hymn The Great Forerunner of the Race (Ut queant laxis). 

Rev. Barbara Cawthorn Crafton spoke of how artists working in faith communities must deal with being competitive, and how to work to be the best you can be while still containing your ego. She also addressed the challenge of striving for higher quality—if a congregation will “allow access to their foundation, we can raise their ceiling.” Crafton also touched on an issue that resonates with many of us: “Tell me that what I gave my life for was not a mistake.”

Paul Halley’s anthem, Jesu, the very thought of thee, was simply stunning; based on the hymn tune St. Botolph, it offered both a bubbling-brook accompaniment (for flute stops) and a cappella writing. The majestic concluding hymn, Coe Fen (“How shall I sing that majesty?”), with alternate harmonization and setting by Richard Webster, stirred the soul. The postlude, Daniel Roth’s Fantasie sur l’hymne à Saint Jean Baptiste (a commissioned work for this service, based on Ut queant laxis), played by Leo Abbott, covered a range of emotions, textures, and sound; it ended quietly on a small tone cluster, and we departed to begin a big day.

 

Tuesday morning

Scott Dettra,

Trinity Church

Scott Dettra’s recital at Trinity Church was a filling meal of meaty compositions, ably presented on the Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner organs. Healey Willan’s Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, op. 146, was a seamless release of energy throughout. Évocation II, a 1996 work by Thierry Escaich, was a delightful, colorful composition. The piece opened with a pedal ostinato (of a single note in octaves); chords of many colors then spoke from various locations in the room, like birds in dialog amongst the trees. The work ended with a surprise chord at the end. Dettra’s use of the organ, in all its locations (and stamina in playing those ostinato pedal octaves), was masterful. 

Herbert Howells’s Psalm-Prelude, Set 1, op. 32, no. 2 (inspired by Psalm 37:11, “But the meek-spirited shall possess the earth”), was a quiet contemplation, sweet and comforting, that displayed the organ’s strings. In Seth Bingham’s Passacaglia in E Minor, op. 40, Dettra once again exploited the spatial elements of the organ’s divisions, as well as its colors, and offered the quietest of endings, with the audience holding its collective breath. The expressive Prière from Joseph Jongen’s Quatre pièces pour orgue, op. 37, was a contemplative whisper on the strings; the concluding work, Maurice Duruflé’s Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain (played faster than I have ever heard it, but with absolute control) was an exercise in rhythmic propulsion and a spirited conclusion to an excellent recital.

 

Tuesday evening

Christian Lane,

Memorial Church, Harvard

Christian Lane presented his recital at Harvard University’s Memorial Church twice in a row (with but a 25-minute break) on this warm Tuesday evening. He began on the 1930 Skinner organ, Opus 793, now comprising 45 ranks. Lane offered a swashbuckling opening with Leo Sowerby’s Comes Autumn Time, in which the themes were made wonderfully clear through the full texture. Ned Rorem’s Magnificat from Organbook II and “There is a Spirit That Delights to Do No Evil” from A Quaker Reader were sensitively played; the latter work’s final chord was topped with a single note on the chimes. 

The mid-section of the recital included trumpeter Chris Gekker, professor of trumpet at the University of Maryland School of Music, and soloist on more than 30 recordings. Gekker played from the back balcony, first on Alan Hovhaness’s Prayer of St. Gregory, op. 62b, a lovely dialogue between organ and trumpet, and then the solo work Solstice Prelude by Carson Cooman (here in its first performance), a graceful work whose melodic structure featured thirds (mostly), on the heels of Christian Lane’s muscular reading of Max Reger’s Introduktion und Passacaglia d-moll

The C. B. Fisk Opus 139 (2012) in the gallery was used for the remainder of the recital. Another convention-commissioned premiere by Carson Cooman, Solstice Sonata, now combined trumpet and organ. Take Flight featured rapid passagework by the organ topped by the trumpet, then each instrument echoed the other. The Dream of Peace offered a smooth trumpet line over thick and complex chords, while Glittering, Aglow ended the work with a frenetic and splashy 3+3+2 rhythm. 

Lane then presented Jehan Alain’s Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin, its modal melodies sounding well on the Fisk; it was for me a highlight of the recital. Lane concluded with Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, in a seamless performance that changed colors throughout but never let its energy lapse—a fresh approach to a familiar piece and a wonderful ending to a rewarding recital. 

 

Wednesday, June 25

Rosalind Mohnsen,

St. Joseph Parish

St. Joseph Parish, Boston, is home to an 1883 Hook & Hastings organ, Opus 1168 of two manuals, which includes a 16 Open Diapason on the Great and corpulent, mellow reeds. The room, with its beautiful stained-glass windows and generous acoustic, provided as much pleasure as did the organ and player.

Rosalind Mohnsen displayed the organ’s many colors in a creatively registered program of mostly shorter works, many of them unfamiliar to me and many by composers with a Massachusetts connection. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Prelude in F Major offered sweeping, singing  lines; Mohnsen displayed the rich flutes in Tournemire’s S. Joseph Sponsi B.V.M: Prélude à l’Introït, from the Easter cycle of L’orgue mystique, op. 56. I especially enjoyed hearing the beefy Pedal division get its due in Everett Titcomb’s Toccata on ‘Salve Regina.’ 

Mohnsen did a fine job with two smaller works of Max Reger: Benedictus from Zwölf Stücke für die Orgel, op. 59, with a marvelous fugal section and harmonic detours, and Scherzo, from Zwölf Stücke für die Orgel, op. 65, in which the Cromorne took a turn. 

The works of four Massachusetts composers came next—all either born in or otherwise identified with the Bay State, and all from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries: George Elbridge Whiting’s Melody (Homage to Grieg) from Twenty-Four Progressive Studies for the Pipe-Organ, which displayed the flutes and Oboe; George Whitefield Chadwick’s Postlude from Ten Progressive Pedal Studies; Frederick N. Shackley’s delightful Gavotte Pastorale, with its gapped registration; and Horatio Parker’s Fugue in C Minor from Four Compositions, which featured the massive pedal reed stop. (Parker, the Yale professor and Ives’ teacher, was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts.)

Next followed German works: Johann Kirnberger’s Herzlich thut mich verlangen, a lovely chorale setting featuring the oboe with tremolo; Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Abstraction (alla Schönberg) from Dreiunddreissig Portraits, jumpy and dissonant, over a higher-pitched drone by the flutes; Johann Krebs’s Trio in F, recalling a trio sonata of his teacher Bach. 

Mohnsen ended with W. Eugene Thayer’s Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, featuring a sweet Andante, and a closing set of variations based on Austrian Hymn, the final variation containing a formidable pedal cadenza to introduce the tune’s last phrase. This was a full-bodied close to Mohnsen’s ably played and satisfying recital. 

 

Wednesday evening

Lutheran Vespers, 

Joan Lippincott & Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble

The service, held in the lively acoustic of the modern, brick-walled First Lutheran Church of Boston, was entitled “A Praetorius Organvespers for Pentecost.” It was led by Rev. Ingo Dutzmann, with organist Bálint Karosi, and the vocal ensemble Canto Armonico, conducted by Ulf Wellner and Cheryl Ryder; brass players were placed in the side gallery. The service was designed by Cheryl Ryder, Canto Armonico’s executive director. The opening pieces were all based on Come, Holy Ghost: the chant version of Veni Creator Spiritus in the Hieronymus Praetorius organ prelude, an antiphon by Franz Eler [from Cantica Sacrae, 1588], motet Komm, heiliger Geist by Michael Praetorius, and the lustily sung hymn Come, Holy Ghost (Enchiridion, 1524). Then followed choral psalmody (Psalms 113 and 104, the latter set by Schütz), readings and a responsory, the Magnificat (alternatim between chant and organ, with hymn interpolations by Michael Praetorius), and a Hieronymus Praetorius setting of Te Deum Laudamus. In the concluding organ postlude, Michael Praetorius’s Nun lob, meine seele, Bálint Karosi inspired awe with the work’s marvelous scalar passages and fiery finish, topped with a Zimbelstern.

All this made me wish that those who clamor for simplistic worship music had been present, to experience how soul-stirring traditional worship can be (even traditional from a century or two before the American Revolution!). It was so well performed and so satisfying to experience. Bravi (or wunderbar) and thanks to all.

Joan Lippincott then presented a program of three 18th-century concertos, accompanied by the Boston Early Music Chamber Ensemble, an eight-member string group led by concertmaster Robert Mealy, who stood near the keydesk for ease of interaction with the organist. The Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ spoke exuberantly into the room and put the nuances of Lippincott’s articulations and phrasing clearly on display. In Handel’s four-movement Concerto in B-flat Major, most enjoyable were the ornamented repeats (which included sweeping scales). The first movement of C. P. E. Bach’s Concerto in E-flat Major ended with a marvelous cadenza, and the second movement demonstrated the empfindsamer Stil with the melody played by flute and tremolo. Lippincott ended with a familiar friend, J. S. Bach’s Concerto in D Minor, wrapping up a satisfying evening of stylishly played works in a splendid acoustic.

—Joyce Johnson Robinson

 

Tuesday, June 24

Craig Cramer,

Old South Church 

I hurried back from the opening service to find a spot in Old South Church, to hear Craig Cramer’s recital. The organ, at its core Skinner’s Opus 308 from 1921 (originally installed in St. Paul, Minnesota), was reworked by Casavant and Hokans-Knapp, and later by Nelson Barden. The church previously housed Skinner’s Opus 231, installed in a still-earlier Hutchings case. (For the entire complicated story of the organs in this church, see the convention booklet. Better yet, visit www.oldsouth.org for an exhaustive account.) The organ’s most notable features include its rich String division, and its 32 Bombarde (the organ’s thirty-twos are “dotted around the landscape,” as the convention book has it—notably lining the side balconies).

To this rich, intertexual organ landscape, Craig Cramer brought excellent technique and musicianship, as well as a highly original and well-chosen program. He began with a symphonic work by August Fauchard (1881–1957), titled Le mystère de Noël. This work is in the form of variations on the plainsong hymn “Jesu Redemptor Omnium.” Each variation is also a tone-poem on a verse of the hymn, or a sentence of scripture, or a scene from the Nativity. At times brilliant and at times simply competent and assured, the work was always executed with great perspicacity by Cramer, whose registrations were always exactly right, and whose sense of phrase, tempo, and rhythm were quintessentially French.

An interesting unpublished work followed, a tribute by Toni Zahnbrecher to his wife Beate. Titled Introduction, Scherzo under Fuge über B-E-A-T-E, its soggetto cavato is B-flat, E, A, D, and E. The closing material recalled the opening. Zahnbrecher is an organist and music director at St. Willibald’s Church in Munich. The next piece on the program, a Prelude and Fugue on ‘O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid,’ by English composer Ethel Smyth (1841–1924), was perhaps the most conventional work on the program. Hard either to object to or wax enthusiastic over, it was nonetheless executed extremely well by the performer. I may not have been converted to the cause of Ethel Smyth, but I was certainly impressed with the quality of the performance.

The final piece on the program, Reger’s Second Sonata in D Minor, op. 60, was an exhilarating conclusion to an excellent recital. Cramer made the entire work accessible, communicating the music rather than simply presenting it. The recital ended on a most satisfying high note, as it were.

Overall, the only nit I found I could pick with this recital was a minor registrational one: I felt the 32 Bombarde, “dotted around the landscape,” to be exciting once or twice, but eventually a little tiresome. The stop is enormous, Brobdingnagian, on pressures varying from 13 to 20; and of course de rigueur at an AGO convention! At least once, though, it detracted a little, with an effect like unto jackhammering. Cramer is an empathetic, gifted registrant, and an admirably conservative and well-grounded artist; surely he chose to use the stop because, well, it was there! And honestly, who wouldn’t? It’s an understandable decision; many an enthusiast in the audience was visibly excited by the high-pressure cannonade. I include this observation only in the interest of balance, and to make clear that my admiration for Cramer, while profound, is not facile. Kudos to Craig Cramer for presenting one of the highlights of the convention.

 

Wednesday evening

Evensong and John Scott recital,

Church of the Advent

The preludes began at about 7:12 for a 7:30 service. Organist and Choirmaster Mark Dwyer played the prelude, and all hymns and service music; Associate Organist-Choirmaster Ross Wood played the psalms, Mag and Nunc, and postlude. We first heard the C. Hubert H. Parry Fantasy and Fugue in G, op. 188. It was played extremely well: note-perfect, with excellent registrations and pacing. It was just the right piece to open a high Anglican evensong in honor of St. Botolph, patron saint of Boston. The David Lasky “Prelude on Picardy” was a meditative work that hewed fairly closely to the hymn tune; a nice contrast to the Parry. It was a commission for the convention, and this was its first performance. The choir sang beautifully; the Introit (by Byrd), the Preces (by Bernard Rose), and the psalms (67, by Bairstow, and 96, by Thalben-Ball) were executed with balance, blend, clarity of diction, and a tone at once straight and warmly vibrant. The hymns, needless to say, were “belted out” by a motivated congregation. The “Mag and Nunc”were from Howells’ Gloucester Service—composed, as the program book reminded us, for the Cathedral Church of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity, Gloucester.

After Evensong—which surely thrilled every heart in the building, Anglican or not—John Scott gave an equally thrilling organ recital. He opened with Wild Bells, a piece composed in 1986 by Michael Berkeley. This piece, especially as it settled into its thrilling Vierne-ish body and conclusion, was a great opener. It was followed by the Stanford Fantasia and Toccata in D Minor, op. 57. Scott made this formidable work sound easy; right from its soft opening, the piece was infused with a certain lyricism, even amidst its moments of tumult. It was an even-keeled, gracious reading, and even at its most passionate, it was presented devoid of ego or excess showmanship. This was followed by the Frank Bridge Adagio, in a confident and convincing reading.

Next we had a premiere by a young American composer, Nico Muhly. His suite, Patterns, was another AGO commission, and this was also a premiere performance. I was delighted to discover this young composer, who is (like your reviewer) an English major turned musician. His own comments on Patterns are a joy to read, laced with vivid expressions. We have “clumsy cousins” in the pedal; a “perpetual motion machine on its highest setting”; “hiccoughs” and other colorful turns of phrase. Mr. Muhly should write an opera! His work, which offered fascinating rhythmic whirligigs, impressions of crickets (for this reviewer), and a somewhat more orthodox toccata to finish, was well received. In a word, nifty.

The final three pieces were the Fantasie-Chorale No.1 in D-flat from 1931, by Percy Whitlock; the Peter Fricker Pastorale (1959) and the Mathias Recessional, op. 96, no. 4 (1986). The Whitlock featured beautifully-managed registrations; I heard new sounds from the organ, always a thing I listen for in a recital. The use of expression was faultless; the piece grew elegantly, inexorably. The Fricker began on a spooky (for me) note, yielding to a quieter ending. And the Mathias was a perfect light finisher. Similar in style and spirit to his well-known Processional, the piece alternates a very lively solo line with a darker middle section with new material.

Overall, John Scott played a thoroughly professional and thoroughly enjoyable recital. It was an ideal blend of old and new, centered on English organ culture and yet reaching outward. This evening’s worship/concert pairing was as perfect as one could hope for.

 

Thursday, June 26

Jonathan Ryan,

Christ Church Cambridge

On Thursday morning, I gave a paper at the convention hotel. I hope that future conventions will continue to offer the option of participating this way; it offered a new, enriching, and very inclusive way to experience the AGO. Afterwards, I left immediately for Cambridge and Jonathan Ryan’s recital.

Christ Church is a small, wooden, eighteenth-century structure, with a low ceiling, many pillars, tall clear windows, and virtually no room for a pipe organ. In this somewhat cramped, though richly historic, venue (George Washington worshiped here on New Year’s Eve, 1775), Jonathan Ryan presented one of the convention’s finest recitals. The program was all the more remarkable for being delivered from memory, a remarkable feat in and of itself.

During the program, I found myself struggling, not with Ryan’s excellent playing, but with the relationship of the organ and acoustic. Part of the problem was that the room was packed, and that people kept arriving—a nice problem to have! But later, I learned more: there is almost no room for an organ, and no possibility of radical restructuring of the space. The Schoenstein organ succeeds in part through very high wind pressures (Ryan spoke to me afterwards, citing pressures of about twenty inches in some cases) and even the adoption of tone chutes. None of these expedients can fully conquer an acoustic that tends toward the dead side. As a result, some of the sonorities had to be accepted as the “best possible under the circumstances” variety. This is the fault of no one.

The recital began with the Dupré Symphonie-Passion. Tempo was excellent; playing was clean, accurate, and confident. The crescendo to full organ was seamless and seemed effortless. Toward the end of the first movement, the sense of a singing line was most palpably evident. I wished for more acoustic—even a more humid day!—to give more resonance to the well-timed pauses at the end; these deserved, in Longfellow’s words, “wild reverberations, as of thunder in the mountains.”

In the other movements, Ryan used the colors of the organ to good effect, and with unceasingly varied creativity. This was especially clear in the third movement, where the dynamic and timbral range was as wide as one could hope for. Throughout, there was a sense of clear, thorough mastery of the music, and a clear vision for its interpretation. 

Following the Dupré, we heard a Meditation (2005) composed by Ken Yukl, who is married to Pamela Decker. The piece centered on a sweet lyrical tune; my impression was of early American hymnody. There was a nice buildup in classic English manner, which yielded back to a quieter and dreamier mood. We then heard two of the Schumann opus 56, numbers 5 and 4. As the first began, I was struck, again, with a sense of fresh registration. Both of these were played with great skill; one never missed the canonical writing.

Ryan ended with the Sowerby Pageant. Several of Sowerby’s students in Chicago have told me that he loved the Franck Finale, op. 21, and played it often at St. James Cathedral, sometimes for private recitals. I was struck, at this performance of Pageant, by its spiritual kinship with the Finale. Ryan has spent time in Chicago and has internalized the best of what it offers. He made the ferocious difficulties of Pageant seem like minor issues. Jonathan Ryan is one of the brightest younger artists in the field today; his Cambridge recital augurs a long and distinguished career.

 

Thursday afternoon

Heinrich Christiansen,

King’s Chapel

After Jonathan Ryan’s recital in Cambridge, I got back into Boston for the program at King’s Chapel. This church, marked by Daniel Pinkham’s long tenure, lies a few blocks north of Boston Common and close by Paul Revere’s resting place. The organ is Fisk Opus 44 from 1964. The program was for organ and string quartet. 

This church, once the symbol of royal Anglicanism in colonial Boston, today occupies about the same position in its city as St. Paul’s Chapel does in Manhattan. Though smaller than its New York cousin, King’s Chapel boasts some wonderful archaic features, like box pews throughout the space. I thoroughly enjoyed occupying one of these and facing backwards, so I could watch the performance.

Heinrich Christiansen, who has been at King’s since 2000, presented a varied and intruiguing program of music old and new. For me, the pieces that opened and closed the concert were the most enjoyable. Christiansen began with the Pinkham Sonata No. 1 for Organ and Strings, from 1943. A short work, it impressed me almost as more of a chorale, in the French Romantic sense, than a sonata per se. The organ interfaced elegantly with the strings, and the sense of ensemble was generally quite fine throughout.

This was followed by a work by Robert Sirota, titled Apparitions; it was a commission for this convention, and we heard its first performance. Sirota used four hymn tunes, and throughout the work fanned out a range of string and organ techniques. There were glassy harmonics, pizzicati, and various aliquot-rich organ registrations interacting with varied textures and ranges in the quartet. The diversity of textures was intriguing, but didn’t gel into a coherent musical statement. Sirota’s work was followed by Naji Hakim’s Capriccio, originally a commission for the 2006 Chicago convention. This piece might have done with being edited for length, but was extremely well performed by both violin and organ. It was quite amusing and easy to follow throughout—a good palate cleanser in Hakim’s whimsical style. (This is a delightful facet of Hakim’s musical personality, and I enjoyed it a lot.)

Christiansen ended with a Soler piece, the Quintet No. 3 in G Major. Its five movements projected a gracious, Mozartean spirit and seemed perfectly suited to an eighteenth-century church on a rainy New England afternoon. It made the rush-hour subway trip back to the hotel—the only awkward bit of traveling in my entire week—very bearable indeed.

 

Thursday evening 

Unitarian Worship and Peter Sykes,

First Church in Boston

First Church was exactly that, founded by the first arrivals in Massachusetts Bay during the Great Migration, led by Governor Winthrop. From its humble beginnings in 1630, it grew in stature, eventually reclaiming the various congregations that split off from it. Cotton Mather was one of its pastors, as was the father of poet e. e. cummings. During the Unitarian controversy, it embraced the new doctrine.

Today, this nearly 400-year-old church boasts a building in modernist style from 1972 (there was a fire in 1968); its members are very active in the community and welcomed me with warmth. The event was not packed to standing room, as Jonathan Ryan’s recital had been. I regretted this, as the service and concert were certainly convention highlights, models of liturgical music and concert programing.

The prelude, or “gathering music,” was another convention premiere: Embertides by Hilary Tann. These were evocative and effective pieces, playing off the four times in the traditional liturgical calendar when Ember Days are observed. The etymology of “ember” is unclear; one theory is that the word is “ymbren,” which is Old English for “to remember.” Be that as it may, Tann’s pieces were very interesting, and worth investigating. The organ was a large Casavant, in a modern case, in the Werkprinzip fashion. 

The choral music at this service was beautifully done, much of it a cappella by a small and obviously very professional choir. The “chalice lighting” motet was by Karl Henning, Love Is the Spirit of This Church, and nothing in the text would preclude its use in other traditions as far as I could see. An anthem by Leo Collins set the original church covenant of First Church; historically interesting but too particular for wider use. The major choral offering was called Prayer of Hildegard, by Edward Thompson, and again was a commission for this convention. For this, the choir came down to the chancel, and was accompanied by marimba for its three movements. The choral writing, as well as the marimba writing, were really effective; the piece was very enjoyable to hear.

Perhaps most thrilling of all, though, was the postlude, from the Liturgical Suite for Organ, op. 69, by Larry Thomas Bell. This piece was commissioned about a decade ago by Carson Cooman and Richard Bunbury; it was quite exciting, a very worthy addition to our repertoire of toccatas!

The entire service was planned and executed with intelligence and care. This extended to the sermon, which was beautifully affirmative of the value of sacred music and musicians. Delivered by the Rev. Stephen Kendrick, it should be read and prized by all organists. 

This service was followed by a concert on harpsichord and virginals by Peter Sykes. One of his harpsichords, unfortunately, had been sent back to his studio in error; we were left with the Winkler harpsichord, in German style, and two virginals, an Italian and a Flemish. On this last instrument, called a muselaar, Sykes began. 

His first piece, the Preludium Toccata of Sweelinck (SwWV 297) was a beautiful choice. It was captivating, thanks to the performer’s sense of form and motivic saturation. Next, on the Italian virginal (with a brighter and lighter tone) was the Toccata Prima from the Libro Primo (1608) of Frescobaldi. Here, the performer offset the brightness of the instrument with an introspective performance.

The remaining works—the Toccata Seconda (FbWV 102) of Froberger, the Praeludium in G Minor (BuxWV 163) of Buxtehude, and the Toccata in D Major, BWV 912, of Bach—were played on the two-manual Winkler harpsichord, a fine all-purpose instrument. Of these, I was most deeply struck by the Bach. What a Janus figure he is! Looking back to the multipartite works of his forebears, he also looks ahead, in a curious and prophetic way, to late Beethoven. Throughout, Sykes played with a keen sense of structure and motive, and communicated this to the audience. His performance was a revelation and a joy. 

 

Friday, June 27

Morning Prayer,

Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

On Friday, the convention began with Morning Prayer in honor of the patroness of this historic basilica in the Mission Hill district. It was a short ride on the T, but quite a change of scenery, moving from the polish of the convention hotel to a much grittier urban district. The church is beautiful, with a distinctive white cupola. A peaceful park adjoins, and I was able to rest there a while, having arrived early as usual.

The service was part of the Divine Office of the Catholic Church: Morning Prayer or Lauds. The music was greatly enhanced by the choir of men and boys of St. Paul’s Harvard Square. This choir is truly remarkable, as it is the only Roman Catholic choir school in the United States. The men of the choir are, according to St. Paul’s website, drawn largely from area music schools. John Robinson was the conductor, Jonathan Wessler the organist.

The Introit was the Kyrie Eleison of Ivan Božičević, the winner of the 2014 AGO/ECS Publishing Award in Choral Composition. It wasn’t entirely clear why a Kyrie would be chosen as an introit (more precisely, as an opening motet, as the Office has no introits per se), but the beauty of the setting soon banished that question. Throughout, there was excellent balance of organ and voices, due equally to the quality of the writing and the choir’s training. The choir sang serenely, with integrity and strength, as the piece moved from a hauntingly quiet opening to an energetic Christe, featuring solo work in the organ, and then back to a quiet mood. The opening hymn, “Hail, Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star,” came from a time before my own religious formation; I had never sung it before, and cannot understand why it isn’t a standard Catholic hymn.

The psalms were largely Anglican; we heard Psalm 63 (always the first psalm on solemnities) by Henry Purcell, and then a Benedicite by Francis Jackson. The Purcell brought many smiles when it broke into its coda of alleluias to the tune we now call Westminster Abbey. The Jackson was sung to the highest standards, with the choir only pushed to its limit on the very highest notes. The organ and choir were again fully integrated, and the organ sang with a full, authoritative tone, rich in reeds. The congregation joined in the third psalm, sung in Tone V; it was prefaced by a glorious incipit en taille. The morning canticle, the Benedictus (or Canticle of Zachary), was set energetically by Scott Perkins, and was another first performance, commissioned by the convention. After the final hymn (all seven verses of “Hail, Holy Queen”) the postlude—Toccata, fugue et hymne sur ‘Ave maris stella,’ op. 28 of Flor Peeters—made perfect musical and liturgical sense. Peeters’s true skill and vision as a sacred musician were fully on display and in context during this stirring performance. All the musicians acquitted themselves expertly.

The recital following, by Thierry Escaich, was at its most arresting when the performer was playing his own works. These he presented with subtlety, flexibility, and fire. The opening work, Brahms’s early Prelude and Fugue in G Minor (WoO 10), was also dashing and exciting. It was, however, risky to program the familiar Bach In dir ist Freude from Orgelbüchlein, as there were some sketchy moments in the performance which, I assume, were unmissable by much of the audience. I was perfectly pleased with all of Escaich’s own work; in particular, his own work on Christ ist erstanden, which he played with suppleness and noble joy. Some of Escaich’s registrations were unusual, at one point reaching an apex of high brilliance, which lingered long after he released the keys; he did not carry this to excess, so it worked well. The last chords of this massive work were stunning and took a long time to die away—as did the enthusiastic applause.

The Romance and Finale from Vierne’s Fourth Symphony were both executed clearly and well; the Finale at a very fast tempo, though with great accuracy. The program concluded with an exciting improvisation on two hymns, Protestant and Catholic: “O Zion, Haste” and the Irish tune Slane. This worked up to a quintessential French toccata. The audience wanted more, so Escaich obliged with a joyful encore, presto.

 

Friday evening

Stephen Tharp,

The Mother Church (First Church of Christ, Scientist)

The convention’s closing recital was head, shoulders, and torso above every other event of the week. I heard much excellent, even world-class organ playing throughout, but Stephen Tharp’s program was transcendentally superior. Stephen Tharp is the best organist in America; further debate is pointless.

I might have even said this at intermission, before Tharp closed the deal with the second half, the performance of a memorized transcription that will live in the history books. 

As a cool evening came on, the vast space slowly filled, including several tiers above the main floor. In front of the awe-inspiring gilded façade was a large screen, in order to project a view of the performer. The camera was situated by the left stop jamb, affording a good view of Mr. Tharp, including his feet.

The program (a Saint Cecilia recital, endowed by the late Marianne Webb) began with the Final of Naji Hakim’s Hommage à Stravinsky. This was a clever choice, bookending the program and foreshadowing the second half. I have heard this devilishly difficult piece played before, but never with such passion and authority. It was followed by an ideal lighter work, the Prelude in F Minor by Nadia Boulanger. The contrast was delightful, and the Boulanger piece, though modest, was not easy, and was not treated in anything other than a serious, professional manner. Great care was lavished on the singing lines in the piece, and they stood out from the accompaniment in three dimensions.

Then came the Persichetti Sonata for Organ (1960). Here, I felt there was a certain invitation to lyricism in the first movement, which the performer declined in favor of an energetic approach. However, the lyricism of the slow movement was brought out just right. The final movement was as fiery and virtuosic as one could hope for; Tharp burned the house down with that one. The cyclical elements of the sonata—such as the identical gesture that opened all three movements—cohered and made musical sense. 

Next came the Sowerby Fantasy for Flute Stops, from the Suite. Here, again, I felt that a slightly more relaxed sense of whimsy at the opening would have been nice. However, the middle section was interpreted with a really wonderful, well-shaped singing line, and the rapid tempo of the first theme came to grow on me. Tharp knows how to make the organ sing; that was never in doubt.

The first half closed with the Max Reger Choralfantasie: Straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn, op. 40, no. 2. There was much anxiety and churning energy in this piece, as well as a spirit of genuine religiosity. The performer balanced these exactly right. The quiet, hymnic moments were absolutely sincere and paced to perfection, and the dramatic finale was extremely exciting. Lightning-fast piston changes gave seamless crescendos. My notes for the conclusion read thunderously thrilling. Much, topped with more, topped with most. It was first-rate and then some; the best Reger you’re ever likely to hear.

I spent the intermission in a state of exhilaration (not typical for me!), while eagerly anticipating the great second half which still lay before us. For this, Tharp played his own transcription of the Rite of Spring. Just a century ago, this ballet was a succès de scandale at its premiere. Tonight, while a few might have been scandalized, discerning audience members recognized the presence of musical greatness. There was no score; Tharp had worked out and memorized his arrangement from the two-piano version that Stravinsky prepared for rehearsals. He sat at the console, spent a long moment in thought, then snapped into action.

The performance combined detailed fidelity to the score with idiomatic adaptations, and extended techniques as appropriate—ferocious slappings of the bottom octave, with high-pressure reeds drawn, for example. The lyricism—the frenetic busyness—the earth-bound rage—it was all there. If anything, there was a bias towards the passionate and intense side. Throughout the performance, Tharp maintained an intent, low-key composure, entirely focused on the music. There was no ego on display. He was clearly drained by the performance, and had clearly held nothing of himself back from it.

Never previously have I found myself standing before my hands could come together in applause. 

Stephen Tharp’s recital was a triumphant conclusion to a great convention. Kudos to him, and to the Boston Chapter for excellent and innovative planning, and to all the performers and presenters.

—Jonathan B. Hall

Organ Historical Society Convention, Buffalo, New York, July 14-20, 2004, Part II

PART TWO OF TWO

Ronald Dean

Ronald E. Dean is Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Holy Cross (Episcopal) in Shreveport, Louisiana and Professor of Music, Emeritus, at the Hurley School of Music, Centenary College. A graduate of Williams College and the University of Michigan, his organ study was with Frederick Kinsley, Robert Barrow and Robert Noehren. His reviews appear from time to time in this journal.

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Sunday

The day's events began with the Annual Meeting held at the headquarters hotel with OHS President Michael Friesen presiding. Among the items of general interest was a report by Scot Huntington on the following organ preservation successes: St. Thomas, Boston; St. Casimir's, New Haven; and Nativity, Buffalo. Further items of note were as follows: a new endowment fund drive is to begin to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the OHS; Dr. Gregory Crowell is the new Director of Publications; the signing of a protocol of cooperation between the Archives in Princeton and BIOS and RCO in England, a representative of which was in attendance--thus a data base on organs is about to happen. The next OHS convention will be in southeastern Massachusetts (the Old Colony), and Rhode Island, July 12-18, 2005. Later ones are slated to be held in the Saratoga-Albany area in 2006, Indianapolis in 2007, and Seattle in 2008.

Following the meeting, Jeff Weiler delivered an illustrated historical lecture entitled "History of the Wurlitzer Organ." He featured remarks on the Wurlitzer family itself as well as the various enterprises that occupied their time and business talents. He outlined the interest in automatic musical instruments (including the "Gee, Dad, it's a Wurlitzer" jukebox) as well as pipe organ manufacture and their association with the eccentric genius, Robert Hope-Jones (see the remarks on the Ambrosino lecture given on the preceding Friday), and their production of the Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra. They built some 2,200 pipe organs from 1910 until 1943 with the largest being the instrument in Radio City Music Hall.

A short bus ride to the suburb of North Tonawanda brought us to another fine catered luncheon with ample time provided to wander up Melody Lane (!) to view the massive former complex of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company with its landmark central tower. The facilities are now used for diversified industrial activities, offices and storage. Even though Wurlitzer is long gone, two consoles are on display just inside the main tower entrance.

On our way to the next event, the buses drove down Melody Lane, and at its intersection with Erie Avenue, there appeared a sign proclaiming, "Wurlitzer Pizza Company—We Deliver" (tibia toppings with phonon sauce?). Further on we passed the imposing and well-maintained former home of Farny Wurlitzer, a lovely pillared neo-classical residence with a large garden area to one side.

The first recital of the day was at Ascension R.C. Church in North Tonawanda where Rhonda Sider Edgington played the following program on a lovely restored 1-manual Felgemaker (Op. 601) of 1895: "Duetto III in G" from Clavierübung III, Bach; Partita on "Herzlich tut mich verlangen," Pachelbel; the hymn, "There's a wideness in God's mercy," sung with flute accompaniment to the tune St. Helena; "Pastoral" from Organ Sonata No. 20 in F (op. 196), Rheinberger; "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" and "Schmücke dich, o liebe seele" from Eleven Chorale Preludes (op. 122, 1897), Brahms; and "Postlude Festival" from Deux Pièces en Ré Mineur, Reuchsel. The organ, situated in the rear gallery of this intimate and neat small church, sounded its solid, yet clear and bright ensembles to great advantage under the expert hands of Ms. Edgington, who wisely chose a program to suit the resources of the instrument.

A modest-sized 3-manual Schlicker of 1966 situated in a typical 1960s building was the venue for the next recital, a program by Frederick Teardo. The church, First Trinity Lutheran in Tonawanda, was Herman Schlicker's home parish. His widow, Alice Schlicker, was in attendance for the program and received an affectionate ovation. The program: Praeludium in d (BuxWV 140), Buxtehude; "Tierce en taille" from Livre d'Orgue, DuMage; "Allegro" from Trio Sonata No. 5 in C (BWV 529), Bach; "Lullaby" from Suite No. 2, Hampton; and The Ninety-Fourth Psalm: Sonata for Organ, Reubke, followed by the singing of the hymn, "The day thou gavest" to the tune St. Clement. The organ, which has received several changes and refinements over the years, has a full-bodied, bright, intense, but never cloying sound. It is well-balanced and features relaxed, warm and singing Principals with mild and charming attack sounds in the speech of the pipes. One's first reaction might be that the Reubke Sonata would not be a good choice for this organ, but Teardo made it work through his registration choices and expansive phrasing. He is a young artist who knows how to communicate music through his elegant playing.

The final recital of the day was played by the energetic and brilliant Gail Archer who prefaced her program with both entertaining and cogent comments. The locale was the rather bleak and undecorated interior of the Kenmore Presbyterian Church, which houses another landmark Schlicker that has undergone several revisions during its lifetime. The instrument became familiar to audiophiles as the one on which Robert Noehren recorded several LPs. Its sound features the fully developed, clear, bright and cohesive sound associated with Schlicker's evolving work.

Instead of a grand evening recital, there was a very enjoyable dinner cruise on portions of the Niagara River and Lake Erie. The continually threatening weather moderated and provided a pleasant backdrop for both good dining and convivial conversation.

Monday

The day's events began with one group going to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and another proceeding to the beautiful, park-like and enormous Forest Lawn Cemetery to hear Justin Hartz perform on a gem of a four-rank unified Wurlitzer, Op. 2182 of 1933. Located in an intimate and acoustically superb stone chapel, this fine organ speaks through a wonderfully painted scrim which, at first glance, appears to be a stained glass window. The instrument has a carefully balanced sound and is well-maintained. Hartz entitled his short program &"Going out in Style&": Fountain Reverie, Fletcher; Twilight Musings, Kinder (featuring the Flute, Oboe Horn and Diapason); &"When Day Is Done&" (arr. Hartz) (played in &"Mighty Wurlitzer&" theatre style with reminiscences of both Jesse Crawford and Ethel Smith); Festival Prelude (introducing Palestrina's tune, &"The Strife Is O'er&"), Buck; and the hymn, &"Just a closer walk with Thee.&"

We then exchanged places with the group that had already visited the Historical Society Museum. This marble building is the only surviving one of many that were constructed for the 1901 Pan American Exposition, a World's Fair remembered, among other things, as the place where President William McKinley was shot. The museum houses many fascinating exhibits of Buffalo-area industrial products, and conventioneers had ample time to wander among the displays as a cozily installed Aeolian (Op. 1183 of 1911) demonstrated its voice by means of an automatic playing mechanism. Of interest also in the small auditorium, home of the Aeolian, were a 1-manual Derrick & Felgemaker of 1868 and an anonymous small English cabinet organ. We had a box lunch at the museum as the other group returned from Forest Lawn.

Since more than ample time was allotted for a trip to Middleport to hear two nearly identical Barckhoffs, the group spent some time wandering around the pretty town, which is situated on a working portion of the historic Erie Canal. A local sweet shop, close to the bridge, did an extraordinary business selling soft-serve cones to scores of conventioneers. The owners may have made their year's profit from the visitors during just this one afternoon. Because of limited seating in the two churches, we again split into two groups and were within comfortable walking distance for each repeated program. Former Biggs Scholar J. R. Daniels played a short recital on the 1902 2-manual Barckhoff tracker in the First Universalist Church: Prelude, Harris; Canon, Salomé; the hymn, &"Those who love and those who labor&" sung to the tune Domhnach Trionoide; Prelude on &"Beach Spring&" and Processional in E-flat, Wood. Daniels handled the instrument well and chose his pieces to show the various colors available on the small but solidly distinguished and well-maintained instrument.

Jason Alden performed on Barckhoff's 2-manual tracker of 1906 in the former Trinity Episcopal Church now occupied by the Middleport Fundamental Baptist Church. The organ, although visually quite different from that in the Universalist church, is identical in stoplist except that this instrument has a 2' Flautino in the Swell. The acoustics are certainly a challenge with a totally carpeted interior and a treated ceiling. Alden, always a reliably fine and sensitive player, presented the following program: Echoes of Spring, Friml (arr. Barnes); La Romanesca, Valente; &"Lied&" from Vingt-Quatre Pièces en Style Libre (op. 31), Vierne; A Joyous Postlude, Mallard; and the hymn, &"Shepherd, show me how to go,&" sung to the tune Feed My Sheep.

Following another bus ride through scenic western New York farm lands, we arrived at the charming small community of Wolcottsville where Mary Ann Cruger Balduf exhibited her usual musical creativity and apt programming sense on the second 1-manual organ heard in the convention, an 1897 Hinners and Albertsen in Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Prior to the program, the pastor gave enthusiastic welcoming remarks and noted that the instrument has been played every Sunday since its installation in 1897. The intimate church was filled by the large assembly of conventioneers; many parishioners assembled outside, furnished with a sound system that allowed them to hear the music. The same hospitable and appreciative people had set up tables with refreshments that were eagerly consumed following the recital. Balduf played the following program: Processional Fanfare, Rawsthorne; Verset, Lefébure-Wély; &"Improvisation&" from Suite Médiévale, Vierne; Fantaisie in A, Bach; Voluntary in A, Taylor; &"Interlude&" and &"Cantique&" from Sixty Short Pieces, Peeters; &"Chorale&" and &"Ground&" from Fifteen Pieces for Organ, Ridout; the hymn, &"For all the saints,&" sung with great gusto to the tune Sine Nomine; and Festival Postlude, (op. 32), Seifert. Balduf treated this dandy little organ with both verve and expertise, making the most of the keyboard division into treble and bass registers for solo and accompaniment effects. Brian Buehler acted as console assistant.

A bus trip back to Buffalo and the campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo brought us to one of the campus dining halls for dinner. We then took a short and unhurried stroll to Slee Hall for the evening presentation, a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra with associate conductor Ronald Spiegelman on the podium and David Schrader the featured soloist on the 1990 3-manual Fisk (Op. 95) in three major works: Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra, Guilmant; Snow Walker (1990), Colgrass; and Concerto No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra in E-flat (op. 55, 1902), Parker. The organ is located in its own alcove above and to the rear of the stage. Though possessing a commanding sound, the instrument was never overpowering and blended with and conversed amicably with the sound of the orchestra. The avant-garde Colgrass Snow Walker was a tour de force for both organist and orchestra, but Schrader, Spiegelman and the Buffalo Philharmonic played the work admirably. The hall, though not very reverberant, is acoustically quite sympathetic, and even with a near-capacity crowd, the organ and orchestral colors bloomed and enveloped the listeners.

Tuesday

The final day of the convention began with an expertly played recital by Bruce Stevens on the historic Garret House 2-manual tracker of 1860 housed in St. Stephen R.C. Church, Shrine of St. Jude, Buffalo. The organ, the largest surviving example by the Buffalo builder House, was originally installed in First Presbyterian's former church building. Stevens's program: two settings of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (BWV 659 and BWV 661), Bach; two versions of Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen, one by Heiller and one by Brahms; Introduction et Variations sur un ancient noël polonaise, Guilmant; Prelude on &"The Holly and the Ivy,&" Sumsion; Five noëls from L'Organiste, Franck; Grand-choeur varié sur un noël breton, Marty; Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, Gade; and the singing of the hymn, &"O Morning Star, how fair and bright,&" sung to the tune Wie schön leuchtet. The program was organized to include music suitable for the seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. The organ, with its elaborately decorated Italianate case, sits grandly in the rear gallery (sharing space with a Hammond) and adds a complementary visual interest to the high-ceilinged and reverberant Gothic church. Stevens handled the instrument masterfully in spite of the fact that it obviously needs (and deserves) a complete restoration. Larry Pruett and Tony Marchesano had worked many hours prior to the recital to provide as much tonal and mechanical ministration as was possible so that one could get more than a hint of the organ's potentially dignified grandeur.

A bus tour to the south of Buffalo offered yet another occasion for viewing some of the varied scenery of this part of western New York. This time we went through rolling hills to the delightful small town of Boston and St. John the Baptist R.C. Church to hear a transplanted 2-manual Felgemaker tracker of 1901. The organ, originally installed in Our Lady of Lourdes R.C. Church on Main Street, Buffalo, was restored in 1991 by Tenerowicz Pipe Organ Service and replaced an electronic in the gallery of the Boston church. After a welcome by the pastor, Tim Socha played the following program and gave helpful comments on his registrations: the chorale, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, sung by all and followed by the Bach chorale-prelude, BWV 661; Sonata in g for flute (op. 16, no. 10), Vivaldi (with fine flute playing by Melissa Stewart); the chorale, Schmücke dich, sung by all and alternating with the variations by Walther (a very effective procedure); Concerto in F for Flute (op. 10, no. 5), Vivaldi (again with Melissa Stewart on the flute); and the chorale, In dir ist Freude, sung by all and followed by Bach's setting, BWV 615. The early 20th-century organ seemed quite content in its 1967 locale and sang out proudly under Tim Socha's expert playing. In spite of wall-to-wall carpet and acoustical tiles in the ceiling of the side aisles, the organ sound carried well and supported the vigorous hymn singing well.

After a wonderful barbeque lunch topped off with several choices of home-made ice cream (the black cherry was particularly delicious!), we reboarded the buses for a scenic trip to East Aurora (which, curiously, is many miles west of the town of Aurora) and Baker Memorial United Methodist Church for a recital by Peter Stoltzfus on a 2-manual, 18-rank 1928 Skinner, Op. 727. His program: Passacaglia per organo, Frescobaldi (transcribed for piano by Respighi and arranged for organ by Sowerby); &"Allegro&" from Sonata III in F (Wq70, 3), C.P.E. Bach; &"Clair de lune&" from Pièces de Fantaisie, Deuxième Suite (op. 31, 1913) and &"Divertissement&" from 24 Pièces en Style Libre, both by Vierne; Stoltzfus's own Prelude and Fugue (op. 12); and the hymn, &"Christ, whose glory fills the skies,&" sung to the tune Ratisbon. As usual, Stoltzfus displayed his distinguished and elegant musicianship. He was aided at the console by Jonathan Ambrosino. The organ benefits from an ideal central location, thus speaking directly down the central axis of the room. Its big, yet bright and cohesive and clear sound is enhanced by hard reflective surfaces on the walls and ceiling vaults.

Our next stop was in Lancaster, New York, and Our Lady of Pompeii R.C. Church for a program on its 3-manual 1920 Möller, Op. 2959. It had been transplanted to the 1953 vintage church by organist Joe Momot and a group of dedicated and hard-working volunteers. They began the project in 1996 and carried it through its dedication in 2001. For a demonstration, Mark DiGiampaolo, director of music for St. Joseph's Cathedral, Buffalo, played An Organ Mass from the music of Alexandre Guilmant. He had chosen various sections from Guilmant's op. 90, op. 41, op. 49, op. 39, op. 55 and op. 46, organized according to the liturgical sections of a low mass. The building with its barrel vault ceiling helped give a good acoustical home for the organ, which is centrally located behind the free-standing altar with an Echo division in the rear gallery.  The organ (originally in the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Cortland, NY) has the typical 1920s somewhat heavy, yet dignified sound of many Möllers of the time.

After a festive closing banquet back at the Adam's Mark, we walked to the huge St. Joseph R.C. Cathedral, where we joined many parishioners and other guests to hear one of the outstanding events of the convention--a recital played by Ken Cowan on the cathedral's monumental 4-manual E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings organ, Op. 828 of 1876. After some enthusiastic welcoming remarks by Mark DiGiampaolo, Cowan played the following program:  Prelude and Fugue in B-flat, Conte; the hymn, &"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,&" sung to the tune Repton; &"Scherzo&" from Symphony No. 6 (op. 59), Vierne; &"Clair de lune&" from Pièces de Fantaisie, Deuxième Suite (op. 53), Vierne; &"Prelude to Die Meistersinger,&" Wagner (arr. Warren/Lemare); Ciaccona in c (BuxWV 159), Buxtehude (using the organ's original stops); and The Ninety-Fourth Psalm, Reubke. For encores, he played a transcription of a Scherzo in B-flat, Poulenc, and the &"Final&" from Symphony No. 6 (op. 59), Vierne. As usual, Cowan played magnificently. His unassuming demeanor complements the dual nature of his playing--a combination of technical virtuosity and great musical understanding and sensitivity. For this performance on an extremely hot night in a sweltering catherdral, he was aided at the console by his father, organist David Cowan. The organ, originally built by Hook for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, was brought to St. Joseph's in 1877 and somewhat modified at that time so as to fit in the gallery. Over the years, it has received further rebuildings, the most recent being by the Andover Organ Company in 2001. Its new console was built by Robert M. Turner. The latest tonal additions were made in a style consistent with the heroic sound of the organ and the vast dimensions of the building. As an interesting historical demonstration, Cowan wisely included the Ciaccona of Buxtehude (see the program, above) to highlight some of the stops that were original to the organ. For more information on this important instrument, see Barbara Owen's article in the Bicentennial Tracker of 1976 (pp. 128-135) and Joseph McCabe's in The Tracker, Volume 48, No. 1 (Winter, 2004), pp. 24-27.

Historic organ citations were presented throughout the week to the following instruments and their churches: the Schlicker in St. Francis Xavier R.C. Church, the Kimball in the Church of the Ascension, Episcopal, the Skinner in Central Park United Methodist Church, the Schlicker in Trinity Episcopal Church, the Votteler-Holtkamp-Sparling in Jordan River Missionary Baptist Church, the Wurlitzer in the Chapel of Forest Lawn Cemetery, and the Hinners & Albertsen in Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. These citations are given to the churches as an acknowledgement of the importance of their instruments and to encourage their use and preservation.

Another important continuing function of the OHS is the awarding of E. Power Biggs Fellowship grants to help subsidize attendance at OHS convention by specially nominated candidates. This year's recipients, announced by Derek Nickels, Chair of the Fellowship, prior to the Scanlon recital at St. Paul's Cathedral, were Michael Diorio, a student at Boston University, and Nathan Lemahieu, a student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

All OHS conventions are both educational and enjoyable. They allow people with similar collegial interest in the history of North American organ building to gather for several days for live performances on a variety of worthy instruments. This year's convention committee, chaired by the tireless Joe McCabe, spent several years organizing the Buffalo area events, and all involved deserve our sincere gratitude for a successful convention. Buffalo may be New York State's second city, but the gathering was first rate.

The 2005 OHS Convention takes place July 12-18 in southeastern Massachusetts. For information: 

Organ Historical Society Convention 2002

Chicago, Illinois, June 25-July 1

Ronald E. Dean

Ronald E. Dean is Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Holy Cross (Episcopal) in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Professor of Music, Emeritus, at the Hurley School of Music, Centenary College. A graduate of Williams College and the University of Michigan, his organ study was with Frederick Kinsley, Robert Barrow and Robert Noehren. His reviews appear from time to time in this journal.

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The forty-seventh annual convention of the Organ Historical Society took place in Chicago, with some forty events scheduled throughout the seven-day period.  The headquarters was the Hotel Allegro, formerly the famous Bismarck where, according to local lore, many a secret political deal was conjured up in what one can imagine were the proverbial "smoke-filled" rooms (the Chicago City Hall is, after all, just around the corner). Since Chicago is known familiarly as "the windy city" (the term coming more from the renowned political rhetoric than from any breezes that might come from Lake Michigan), it was appropriate that the Organ Historical Society add to the "windiness" through the sounds produced by the thousands of wind-blown pipes during the week. The convention committee, ably chaired by Stephen Schnurr, organized a well-rounded series of events designed to display a wide variety of instruments, from small one-manual nineteenth-century trackers to a huge five-manual 8,000 pipe-Wurlitzer. There was something for every taste and inclination. As the week progressed, one of the famous Chicago heat waves rolled in with daytime temperatures in the mid-nineties, producing a bit of discomfort and tuning problems in churches without air conditioning. There was much fanning and sipping from water bottles. Those stalwart organ folks who went on to the AGO national in Philadelphia the next week experienced the same sort of weather. There certainly were, to paraphrase, "hot times in those two old towns" during late June and early July.

Tuesday

The first event of the convention was a major recital played by William Aylesworth, former OHS President, and convention co-chair for the previous OHS convention held in Chicago in 1984. This evening recital featured the famous 1875 Hook and Hastings three-manual, Op. 794, the oldest organ in Chicago. The building, now the Scottish Rite Cathedral, was originally Unity Church (Unitarian). The program opened with the spirited singing of the three verses of "The Star Spangled Banner" which was followed by Voluntary No. 1 in D, Boyce; Deux Noëls (Laissez pestres vos bestes and Joseph est bien marié), Le Bègue; Cantabile, Franck; Marche Funèbre, Loret; Praeludium und Fuge für orgel zu vier Händen, Albrechtsberger; and Symphonie II, Widor. James Wyly provided the additional two hands in the Albrechtsberger piece. Following this beautifully played recital, which included cogent and helpful verbal commentary, Aylesworth provided the enthusiastic audience with an encore, "Marcia" from Widor's Symphonie No. III (original edition). Since Aylesworth is the regular organist for the Scottish Rite Cathedral, his elegant playing was at home with the musical choices which displayed both the subtle and grand sounds of the organ. In spite of the lack of reverberation to match the grandeur of both the instrument and the building, this opening program was a fitting beginning for the convention.

Wednesday

The first full day began with a "Group A-Group B" split for the first event  to accommodate limited seating space in a couple of churches. This report will follow the "Group A" plan. After a somewhat delayed departure from downtown Chicago with the compounding problems of heavy traffic and the omnipre-sent work on the highways, OHS regular Mary Ann Crugher Balduf presented the following program on a delightful one-manual organ of circa 1885 attributed to Chicago builder Emil Witzmann in St. John United Church of Christ, Palatine: March, Marsh; En Forme de Canon, Salomé; "Élevation" (from Heures Mystiques, op. 49), Boëllmann; "Vision" (from Sechs Charakterstücke für Orgel, op. 64), Bibl; "Moderato," "Poco Allegro," "Moderato con moto" and "Allegro Giocoso" from Miniatures for Organ by Howells; "Prière pour les morts" from Twenty-four Pieces for Organ by Langlais; "All my hope on God is founded" from Three English Hymn Tunes, Clark; followed by singing of the hymn by Howells. The program closed with a Scherzo by Shelley. This instrument was one of the smallest to be heard and was masterfully handled by Ms. Balduf to show what can be done on a lovely little organ with seemingly limited resources. The building is a charming New England style church that has had some recent remodeling. The organ shares a rear balcony location with Hammond speakers. The high placement allows the organ to offer a fair amount of presence within a rather dead acoustical environment. The instrument was restored by parishioners Stan and Scott Regula.

A trip to historic Woodstock (no, not THAT one; this one is in Illinois) and its 19th-century Romanesque-styled Opera House which houses a "steamboat gothic" theatre brought us to an informative lecture by William Osborne on one of Chicago's premier figures in the organ world, Clarence Eddy (1851-1937). Osborne's recently published comprehensive study on Eddy is available through the OHS catalogue. Though a native of Massachusetts, the often-traveling organist and pedagogue spent a great amount of time in Chicago, and these years were the center of Osborne's well-delivered and enlightening remarks which were followed up by a recital of some of Eddy's works the next day (see below). Prior to the lecture, John H. Scharres, managing director of the Woodstock Opera House, related the colorful history of the building and the many uses to which it had been put over the years.

St. Mary Catholic Church, just a short walk from the Opera House, was the site for both a box lunch and a recital by Robert E. Woodworth, Jr. on the church's 1910 two-manual Hutchings which has had some restoration by the Berghaus Organ Company. Michael Friesen presented an OHS Historic Organ plaque to the church. In spite of having wall-to-wall carpeting as well as pew cushions, the vast interior space with its high barrel-vault ceiling offered a good acoustical environment for the following program, which consisted of works by Chicago composers: "Fanfare" from Sonatina for Worship No. 7 by Jones; "Meditation--Elegie" from Suite for Grand Organ, Borowski; Allegretto (Andante quasi Allegretto) and Rondo (Allegretto non troppo), Buck; "Intermezzo" from Sonata II for Organ, Moline; Rest in Peace, Goode; and Impromptu, Bliss; followed by the vigorous singing of the hymn "Wonderful words of life." One wonders how many times that old Gospel hymn had been sung in a Roman Catholic church! The organ, with its keen strings and heavy, broad sound (especially in the reed stops), filled the room well.

Our travel delays were further complicated by a bus breakdown before we arrived at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo Grove where Susan Friesen played the following program: "Offertoire" from Heures mystiques, Vol. 2, op. 30, Boëllmann; two settings of Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, Pachelbel; Pastorale in F-Dur, Bach; Pastorale in A, Clarke; Pastoral Interlude (op. 32, no. 4), Parker; and Variations to the Sicilian Hymn, Carr (arr. Owen), which had been preceded by the singing of the hymn "Saviour, like a shepherd lead us" to the tune Sicilian Mariners. The organ, a small one-manual built by the Wisconsin Pipe Organ Factory in 1904, featured a reversed console. (See the Organ Handbook, 1993, p. 7, for a description of a similar instrument built by the same firm in 1905, reversed console and all, which was played by Rachelen Lien during the Kentuckiana Convention.) Ms. Friesen chose a program that was well-organized and energetically played to show the variety of sonic combinations available on this instrument of limited resources. The church building had been extended at its liturgical east end with the result that the worship space was considerably increased, yet the organ, with its favorable rear gallery location, filled the entire area effectively.

Zion United Church of Christ in the beautiful little town of Carpentersville was the site for a short program played by Mary Gifford on a small two-manual tracker Hinners of 1911 which has had restoration work done by Gruber Pipe Organs, Inc. The instrument is well maintained and loved by the congregation. Ms. Gifford obviously enjoyed playing the following program: Rustic Wedding, West; Prelude, Cradle Song, and Aria, Lloyd Webber; Andante, Wild; and Variations on "St. Elizabeth," Ferko. Prior to the Ferko piece, there was a very emotion-filled moment for many of the conventioneers at the singing of the hymn "What heavenly music" from the 1849 publication, Hymns for God's Peculiar People. Ms. Gifford noted that this was the late Alan Laufman's favorite hymn to which she has provided a descant in his memory. Alan was a prime moving force in, as well as past President of, the OHS and served the Society in many other capacities. He was also the founder of the Organ Clearing House, an organization that has saved many an old and worthy instrument. Since Alan had been a friend to many at the convention, some people found it difficult to sing through increasingly misty eyes.

After another lengthy bus trip, we arrived at the locale of what was undoubtedly one of the monumental highlights of the entire convention, a stunning memorized recital by Ken Cowan given at the Victorian Palace at Plum Tree Farm in Barrington Hills, the residence of Jasper and Marian Sanfilippo. The entire setting defies description--it must be experienced. A catered buffet dinner took place in what one wag called "the rec room," a large museum containing a variety of mechanical contrivances including automatic musical machines, a complete carousel, steam and other-powered engines and a Rolls-Royce Roadster. There was time to wander among the exhibits before taking a short walk to the main house and the continuation of displays of hundreds of mechanical musical instruments, all restored and in playing condition, and in an opulent and perfectly maintained facility, a part of which is actually the residence for the Sanfilippo family.

Cowan's recital took place in the astoundingly decorated multi-storied Music Room which houses, in addition to many more self-playing instruments, the pièce de resistance, an eight-thousand-pipe five-manual Wurlitzer which, in its present state, is the result of the late David Junchen's plan for the ultimate theatre organ. The instrument was originally a much smaller 1927 Wurlitzer built for the Riviera Theatre in Omaha. After considerable expansion, it now contains five enclosed divisions on several levels plus a set of tower chimes flanking the stage. People who did not mind climbing into the chamber were invited to do so at the end of the recital to see the inner workings. Those readers who have heard Ken Cowan realize that he is among the most outstanding young organists on the scene today. His unassuming manner and his sure and relaxed technique hide a fiery yet totally musical approach to organ playing. His program: The Stars and Stripes Forever ("my own arrangement with [obvious] borrowing from other peoples' arrangements," said Cowan). He also noted that a program such as this one requires "rapid shutters" . . . he then turned again to the audience and in an aside added " . . . this may be the only group who knows what I mean!" He was probably correct. The program continued with Rondo Capriccio (a study in accents), Lemare; "Nocturne" and "Scherzo" from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mendelssohn; Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue, Willan; Prelude to Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck (arr. Lemare); the rousing singing of the wonderful English hymn Angel Voices, followed by "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice" from Samson and Delilah, and Danse Macabre, Saint-Saëns (the latter arr. Cowan); and Overture to Oberon, von Weber (arr. Cowan). After several curtain calls, the artist returned with an encore, Moszkowski's Etude in F Major, a brilliant tour de force. As an added touch during the playing of Danse Macabre, one could see occasional appropriate and dramatic lightning flashes in the night sky. Surely, there was no Wurlitzer stop for that special effect!

Thursday

The day began at a somewhat more relaxed pace with Michael Friesen presenting an account of the Louis Mitchell organ built in Montreal in 1869-1870 for Holy Family Catholic Church, Chicago. At seventy-five ranks, it was reputedly the largest church organ in the country. It was rebuilt by Roosevelt in 1892 with a detached keydesk. After several additional rebuildings, all that remains is the huge case occupying a commanding place in the upper gallery. Even though the plethora of golden angels have descended from their once-ornamental location on the organ case (they are still intact and are in the process of being re-gilded), what remains is still imposing.

The landmark Pullman United Methodist Church and its wonderful 1882 Steere and Turner organ was the site of the first recital of the day. Naomi Rowley presented the following program: Epilogue on St. Theodulph, Willan; Two Christmas Partitas: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming and Good Christian Friends, Rejoice, Drischner; How Brightly Shines the Morning Star, Gade; Prelude and Fugue in B-flat, Simon; Two Pieces (op. 90): Lamento, and Paraphrase on a Chorus from Judas Maccabeus, Guilmant; and the hymn "Of all the spirit's gifts to me" sung to the tune Meyer. The instrument is a fine example of some of the best in nineteenth-century American organ building. Restored by Kurt Roderer in 1968, its tone is broad and solid yet clear and well-balanced in both its small and large ensembles. Dr. Rowley obviously understood the instrument and chose her program well to demonstrate its features. She is a consummate musician and responded modestly to the well-deserved standing ovation.

Our next stop was in the Hyde Park area and the Disciples Divinity House and the Chapel of the Holy Grail on the campus of the University of Chicago. The beautiful chapel has a small two-manual nine-rank Aeolian organ (Op. 1775; 1930) in the rear gallery. Michael Shawgo informally demonstrated the mildly-voiced instrument with the following selections that had been in the Aeolian player roll catalogue: "Meditation" from Thaïs, Massenet; The Palms, Fauré; The Question and The Answer, Wolstenholme; Meditation, Sturges; Andantino, Chauvet; Hymn of the Nuns, Lefébure-Wely; and "War March of the Priests" from Athalie (op. 74), Mendelssohn. Because of the intimate dimensions of the lovely chapel, listeners were encouraged to visit the demonstration in shifts. The organ, totally enclosed behind a wooden screen, has the character of many a residence organ built by the same firm. Since this campus was also the venue for a box lunch, conventioneers were free to mill about the facility and perhaps take advantage of the following recital by Rhonda Sider Edgington played on the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon of the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel: Prelude No. 5 in d, Van den Gehn; Londonderry Air, arr. Myhre; Wondrous Love, arr. Warner; Changes, White; Three Short Pieces ("Air," "Lullaby," "Chantey"), Miller; "On the Burro" and "Jumping Bean" from Spanish Suite by Della Penna; Waltz, Barnes; and Chorale Partita IV on St. Anne, Knox. Some of the more adventuresome listeners took up the invitation to climb the tower to visit the playing cabin.

Following these events, Derek Nickels played a recital on the unaltered 1928 Skinner, Opus 685, in the University Church, Disciples of Christ. His program: Imperial March, Elgar; Chant sans Paroles, Lemare; "Divertimento" from Four Extemporizations, Whitlock; Prelude on Land of Rest, Sowerby; the singing of the hymn, "O God, our help in ages past" followed by Toccata and Fugue on St. Anne from Music for Elizabeth Chapel, Ferko. Nickels treated the fine Skinner with style and aplomb during his expert playing of the program in what was some more oppressive heat. He maintained his composure and musicality during what must have been an unsettling and unwanted percussive hammering just outside the church whose windows were open in an attempt to invite some circulation of air. Mr. Skinner occasionally did include some percussion stops in his instruments, but certainly nothing like this.

William Osborne then played a program featuring works either dedicated to or by Clarence Eddy in the vast church of St. Mary of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. The large Austin, Opus 1602 of 1928, sang out its solid tones in the opulent, well-maintained and multi-domed structure. As a part of the recent restoration work, its seven-rank String Organ sounded for the first time in twenty-five years. Osborne is a seasoned musician with a great sense of style and an admirable feeling for the musical phrase. His program: Concert Overture in c (1899), Hollins (dedicated to Clarence Eddy); Suite for Organ (1905) "To Clarence Eddy," Rogers; and Eddy's own Festival Prelude and Fugue on Old Hundred (1879), which was followed by the singing of the same tune to the text: "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne." Osborne's deft handling of the incredible pedal cadenza at the end of the Eddy Fugue was nothing short of spectacular. Another well-deserved standing ovation followed.

Holy Family Roman Catholic Church was the site of a short program played by Jason Alden on a delightful one-manual Steinmeyer organ, Opus 197, of 1879 on loan to the church by Keith Hooper. Its reversed console allows the organist to view the now-empty Louis Mitchell case that had been the topic of Michael Friesen's lecture earlier in the day. Like many other churches, Holy Family is in the process of extensive restoration, and is a monument to the faith and persistence of both the clergy and parishioners. The program: Onder een linde groen, Sweelinck; "Andante" from Twelve Fughettas (op. 123a), Rheinberger; "Lebhaft" from Six Fugues on B-A-C-H, Schumann; Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, Buxtehude, followed by the singing of the hymn "Come unto me, ye weary" to the tune Abendlied. Alden, a fine young and very musical player whose interest in the organs of Costa Rica has recently been published in The Tracker (Volume 44, Number 2, 2000), chose his pieces wisely to demonstrate the lovely, bright and incisive sounds of this beautifully designed unenclosed nine-stop tracker. Amazingly, its sounds effectively filled the vast interior of the church.

The evening feature was a recital wonderfully played by Will Headlee on a rare Wurlitzer church organ (Opus 2065, 1930) of four manuals and 32 ranks installed in the breathtaking Reform Jewish Temple Sholom on Lakeshore Drive in the area of Chicago known as the "Gold Coast." After warm remarks by Rabbi Aaron M. Petuchowski, Headlee offered the following program: the hymn "Open your ears, O faithful people," sung to the tune Torah Song; Fantasy: Torah Song, Phillips; Fantaisie in E-flat, Saint-Saëns; Prelude and Fugue in G (BWV 541), Bach; Grand Choeur Triomphal, Guilmant; "Landscape in Mist" from Seven Pastels from the Lake of Constance, Karg-Elert; "Naïades" and "Clair de lune" from Pièces de Fantaisie, Vierne; Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue, Willan; Sweet Sixteenths--A Concert Rag for Organ, Albright; and Toccata on Leonie, Bingham; which was followed by the singing of the hymn by the large audience. The unusual Wurlitzer is situated in two high and widely separated chambers with a balcony for choir and organist. Unfortunately, the placement of the console and the reflecting panel for the choir together make it very difficult for the organist to sense balance with the division on the south side of the gallery since the console is on the north side of the choir loft. Headlee provided us with appropriate and entertaining comments during the recital where he demonstrated the many colors of this unusual and quite fine instrument. Its full, somewhat bright yet smooth and well-balanced sound was a revelation to most, yet he used the Albright piece to bring out the theatre organ colors for which Wurlitzer is better known. An extended ovation followed the program. In recognition of the rarity and quality of the instrument, Michael Friesen presented an OHS Historical Organ citation to the Cantor, Aviva Katzman. Upon leaving, one noticed that the listing of the staff included the name of a Rabbi named Moses--no wonder that this is an important Temple!

Friday

This was northwestern Indiana day that began with a program played by Thomas Brown on a tonally bright and strong 1963 Phelps-designed Casavant (Opus 1740) situated in a rear gallery of the acoustically live contemporary St. Mary of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Gary. His program was preceded by a surprise snippet of the great Bach Toccata in D Minor that then received a segue into a "Happy Birthday" salute to OHS President, Michael Barone, joyfully sung by all. The recital proper began with the following Bach works: Prelude in G (BWV 541a), Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV 639), featuring appropriate and subtle ornamentation, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (BWV 641) and In dulci jubilo (BWV 608), all from Das Orgelbüchlein, and Fuge in E-flat (BWV 552b) from Clavierübung III; "Berceuse" from 24 Pièces en style libre (op. 31), Vierne; "Placare Christe servulis" from Le Tombeau de Titelouze (op. 38), Dupré, followed by the singing of the hymn "Christ Leads" sung to the artist's own magnificent tune, Spes. Brown can always be relied on for vigorous, exciting and accurate playing as well as sensitive phrasing, and this program showed his considerable abilities in abundance. After a short punch and cookies reception given by the ladies of the church, we were off to Valparaiso for the next two events as well as another box lunch.

David Schrader played a dazzling program on a fine 1883 Johnson and Son organ (Opus 615) which had been relocated through the Organ Clearing House and restored in 1994 by the Rutz Organ Company and installed in the Chapel of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, Valparaiso, where convention chairman Stephen Schnurr is organist. The program: the hymn "Ancient of days" sung by all to the tune Albany; Postlude from Glagolitic Mass, Janácek; Postlude pour l'office de complies, Alain; and Grand Sonata, Buck. Schrader's choices of registration showed the transplanted Johnson off to fine advantage in spite of the dead acoustics. Of particular note were the magical Alain Postlude and the Buck Grand Sonata, a composition made for an organ such as this.

OHS Archivist, Stephen Pinel, presented an illustrated lecture titled, "New and Notable at the OHS American Organ Archives," both a retrospective view and opportunities for the future of what has become one of the most noteworthy collections of organ research materials in the world. The collection began modestly and moved to various locations prior to settling in its present rather elegant space in the Talbott Library of the Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Profound thanks for many years' hard work and dedication are due to Stephen Pinel and his many helpers for bringing our archives to its present state of world-wide and noteworthy respect. If interested, contact the OHS headquarters (www.organsociety.org) for further information on the Archives, its plans and needs.

A visit to the magnificent Chapel of the Resurrection on the Valparaiso University campus brought us to another one of the feature programs of the convention, a recital by John Gouwens on the 102-rank Schlicker/Dobson. The ambiance is visually stunning as well as sonically commanding. After some welcoming remarks by Valparaiso's acting president and university organist, Gouwens played the following program: Praeludium in e, Bruhns; Au jô deu de pubelle--Grans Déi, ribon ribeine, Balbastre; Cathédrales, Vierne; and the hymn "How lovely shines the morning star" sung with gusto by the entire audience, followed by Gouwens' magnificent improvisation on the same tune. The space and views through the incredible stained glass windows add an uplifting effect to what is reputedly the collegiate chapel with the largest seating capacity in the world. Even as left by Schlicker in 1959 with many stops prepared for, the organ was a magnum opus, and it is now even more so with the additions and changes completed by Dobson in 1996. We were told that this afternoon's performance was the first time that the organ had been featured in a national meeting. Kudos to John Gouwens for tour de force playing on yet another hot midwestern afternoon.

We then traveled to St. Paul Episcopal Church in La Porte for a short recital by Gregory Crowell on the church's much altered 1871 Steer and Turner tracker, Opus 45 (with some further rebuilding and additions by Ronald Wahl). The organ has a rather commanding presence in the small and acoustically unsympathetic room, but it did exhibit some refinement in its full sounds and warmth and subtlety in the softer ranks when some annoying ambient sounds did not interfere. Crowell can always be counted on for a sensitive sense of phrasing and contour, both of which he displayed in the following program: Ouverture in C (K. 299), Mozart; Prelude and Fugue in F (BWV 901), Bach; Five Variations on Fairest Lord Jesus Christ, Woodman (followed by the singing of this well-loved hymn); Prelude and Fugue in D, Dvorák; Solo pour la flûte, Lemmens; and Toccata, Foote. The organ had received an OHS Historical Organ plaque in 1981.

The final recital of the day was played by convention chairman, Stephen Schnurr, on a transplanted Roosevelt three-manual (Opus 506) in First Congregational Church, Michigan City. The organ has been restored by Roland Rutz, who was in the audience and recognized for his fine work. The recipient of an OHS plaque in 1999, the instrument sits in a recess at the front of the church, and what could have been a resulting "tone trap" at the top of the front display pipes and behind a choir arch seemed not to inhibit egress of the sound. The recital (enhanced by the accompaniment of birds tweeting outside) was made up of works by Chicago composers: Triumphal March (op. 26), Buck; Offertoire in g (op. 194), Havens; Prelude and Fugue in a, Eddy; "In a Village," "Serenade," and "The War Dance Festival," all from Impressions of the Philippine Islands by Moline. The first two pieces in this set featured the fine Oboe and Doppel Flute stops, while the ferocious final piece was accompanied by frantic fanning. The program continued with Meditation (op. 29), Cole; The Joy of the Redeemed, Dickinson; the hymn "O what their joy and their glory must be," sung by all as an appropriate follower for the Dickinson piece; and "Allegro con fuoco" from Sonata I, Borowski. Schnurr was obviously at home on this powerful Roosevelt, his playing being equally vigorous and brilliant while at the same time displaying an inner warmth and musicality. He is a fine young player who is receiving increasing recital exposure throughout the country. Congratulations are due to Stephen Schnurr for a fine performance, even while tending to the myriad of details as convention chairman. A note at the bottom of the page listing his recital program ended with " . . . he intends to spend the remainder of the summer walking the dunes and shores of southern Lake Michigan as soon as the convention is completed!" He has certainly earned that bit of luxury.

Our Indiana visit ended with dinner in a dining room at the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. Some wondered if any OHSers visited the casino proper to try to recoup some convention expenses.

Saturday

The first event was a stunning recital by David Dahl on the magnificent two-manual tracker-pneumatic Roosevelt, Opus 494 of 1891, in historic St. James Roman Catholic Church, Chicago. Festive bell ringing from the lofty tower welcomed us to the church. Fortunately, neither the bell tower nor the Roosevelt was severely damaged in a disastrous fire the church suffered in 1972 except for some adverse effects to the organ of extreme heat and moisture. The organ is essentially unrestored (except for some work done in 1949) and was recently put into playing condition by Walter Bradford. Even though there are some stops that are still inoperative, it was enlightening to hear this 1891 Roosevelt of two manuals and compare it with the slightly larger three-manual Roosevelt of the same year heard just the evening before in Michigan City, Indiana. The St. James instrument benefits from installation in a high rear gallery in a lofty nave helping to give a comforting bloom to the sound in the now rather stark interior. After some heartfelt and warm welcoming comments by the pastor who has only recently received appointment to the parish, Dahl presented an outstanding performance of the following program: Trumpet Fanfare, Purcell (arr. Biggs); Allegro moderato maestoso, Mendelssohn; Dahl's own An English Suite Honoring the 18th-century English Organ Art containing "Voluntary for the Diapasons (With solemnity)," "Sarabande Air (With lyricism)," "Voluntary for the Cornet or the Trumpet (With playful spirit)," "Pastorale for the Flutes (With serenity)," and "Jigg (With jaunty humor);" Elegy, Thalben-Ball; the hymn "O praise ye the Lord" sung to the tune Happy Land; Aria, Howells; and Hymn Prelude on Song 22 of Orlando Gibbons, Stanford. Among the many features of this Roosevelt, long a favorite instrument in the area, are a big, assertive yet colorful Great Open Diapason, and a grand and incisive Great Trumpet. Dahl was at one with the organ throughout his program, and his accompaniment of the hymn was truly outstanding, leading both the Roosevelt and the congregation in subtle text breaths. This was some of the best hymn playing of the convention and a true hallmark of a fine musician.

The next event took place in the massive Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows for  a recital played by Dana Robinson on what may be the largest surviving Lyon and Healy organ, their four-manual Opus 90 of 1902. The instrument received an OHS Historic Organ plaque in honor of its historical importance and the one hundredth anniversary of its installation. The vast interior with its 80-foot high barrel vault and nave of 230 feet is an example of opulent and breathtaking Renaissance revival architecture. The organ is divided on both sides of the wide half-dome chancel and fills the room with a warm and dignified sound. Robinson's program began with the singing of "Hail! Holy Queen," after which there was a short transition leading into the playing of the entire Symphonie III (op. 13, no. 3) by Widor. This was an appropriate choice since this huge work was well suited to the large and colorful sounds of the Lyon and Healy (on which, incidentally, Clarence Eddy had played the dedication recital), the massive ambiance of the building and Robinson's brilliant playing. The entire "package" worked wonderfully well. The artist obviously understood the organ, the room and the music. This was one of the most spectacular venues of the entire convention.

For a total change of pace, the group went to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Chicago, where James Russell Brown played very ably on a small tubular-pneumatic Lancashire-Marshall (their Opus 52 of 1891) which had been relocated by the Organ Clearing House and rebuilt for its present location by the Bradford Organ Company of Evanston in 1987. Placed on an angle at the rear of the church, some of its "innards" could be seen by those entering the building. With the help of a stop assistant, Brown organized the following program to display the potential of what could be accomplished on a modest yet flexible organ: the hymn "A song of creation" sung by all to the tune Whitehead, followed by a setting of the same tune by Locklair; Ciacona in e, Buxtehude; Sur "La, Mi, Re," anonymous English, 16th century; Scherzo, Gigout; "The peace may be exchanged" from Rubrics, Locklair; Angels (Chaconne), Ferko; and Fugue in F (BWV 540), Bach. Once more, the organist must have suffered greatly from the extreme heat but his performance was musical and assured, and communicated his joy in playing (perhaps aided by the twittering of more birds).

Frederick Beal then performed the following program on a rare Burlington Organ Company tracker built in Burlington, Iowa, in 1903, and placed in a recess at the left front of the Living Sanctuary of Faith Church in suburban Oak Park. His program: Voluntary in c, Greene; Meine Seele erhebt den Herren from Schübler Chorales and Fugue in g (The Little), both by Bach; "Fidelis" from Four Extemporizations for Organ, Whitlock; "I am black but comely, O ye Daughters of Jerusalem" and "How Fair and how Pleasant art Thou" from Fifteen Pieces for Organ, Dupré; Voluntary on St. Columba, and Prelude on Hyfrydol, both by Willan, preceding the hymn "Love divine, all loves excelling" sung to the tune Hyfrydol. Thanks to work done by the Berghaus Organ Company and the loving ministrations of Fred Beal, the organ, in spite of its somewhat closeted enclosure and the fact that it still needs restoration, acquitted itself quite well. Beal noted that there had been a problem with the organ bench squeaking and that tightening repairs did not seem to do the trick, whereupon someone suggested that perhaps an application of a bit of sacred olive oil from the communion table might work. Permission was granted, and the offending noises were quite mitigated. This is the only instance we could recall of an anointed organ bench at an OHS convention.

Jonathan B. Hall then presented the final recital of the afternoon in St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Forest Park on the landmark three-manual Aeolian-Skinner (Op. 1235, 1954) with floating positiv supplied by Berghaus in 1976. As a result of the continuing heat and humidity, several conventioneers drifted in and out of "the arms of Morpheus" during the playing of the following program: Concerto in a minor (after Vivaldi), Bach; Offertoire, Truette; the haunting Lotus by Strayhorn (arr. Wyton); the hymn "O love, how deep, how broad, how high" sung to the tune Deus tuorum militum, followed by Sowerby's Prelude on the same melody. The organ with its "pipes in the open" arrangement in the rear gallery, together with the added Rückpositiv on the gallery, gives a visually stunning effect in this highly decorated, vaulted and reverberant church. Hall obviously understood the potential of both organ and the wonderful room. This event was an exciting climax to an active series of performances before we went to Oak Park for the Annual Meeting, a barbecue dinner and the evening recital.

OHS President Michael Barone efficiently chaired the meeting which, in addition to the usual business items and reports from the treasurer and executive director, contained announcements concerning the modest expansion of oversight of the OHS publications, both books and periodicals, including our official quarterly, The Tracker. At this time also, this year's Biggs Fellows, Michael Banks from South Bend, Indiana, and Charles Creech from West Monroe, Louisiana, were introduced. The E. Power Biggs Fellowship was founded to allow deserving interested people to attend a national OHS convention who might otherwise not have been able to do so. Over the years, this function of the Society has resulted in many of the recipients having gone on to careers in music as performers, church musicians, scholars, or organ builders. In fact, Patrick J. Murphy, the first recipient of a Biggs Fellowship in 1978, and now a highly respected professional organ builder in Pennsylvania, was at this convention. The Distinguished Service Award went to Julie Stephens, who over the years has done exceptionally fine work and performed many tasks for the OHS. She also happened to be in charge of the committee responsible for seeing to arranging for all of the varied dinners and box lunches provided during this week.

After a sumptuous barbecue dinner served at Oak Park's First Baptist Church, many conventioneers took advantage of a short stroll to the First Methodist Church where its 1925 four-manual E.M. Skinner (Opus 528) "open console" was generously hosted by the church's organist, Michael Shawgo, who had done the demonstration of the small Aeolian organ in the Chapel of Disciples Divinity House earlier in the week. The Skinner, though distinguished and serviceable, is awaiting restoration.

The Arts Center of Oak Park (formerly First Church of Christ, Scientist) and its three-manual Kimball of 1916 with a later Austin console was the site of an evening recital by Christa Rakich. Her program, interspersed with verbal comments that were both informative and entertaining, follows: Prelude and Fugue in d (op. 16, no. 3), Clara Schumann; the Suffragette hymn, "March of the Women," Smyth (sung lustily by all); Répons pour le Temps de Pâques--Victimae Pascali Laudes, and "Rorate Coeli," "Hosanna Filio David," "Domini Jesu," and "Veni Creator Spiritus," all by Demessieux; Nocturne, Tailleferre; and Trois Préludes et Fugues (op. 7), Dupré, performed in the following order: G minor, F minor, B Major. Peter Sykes assisted as page-turner and occasional cipher stopper, and now and then emerged "from the woodwork" (actually an anteroom) to tend to other mechanical ghosts. The selections, except for the Dupré works, were pieces by women composers. The program suited the organ well in spite of a mixture that tended to separate itself from the ensemble and a particularly huge and annoying sixteen-foot pedal stop that set up extensive vibrations in the room, and which frequently obscured the upper pitches. It is quite possible that the artist was not aware of these particular problems as the console is situated off to one side of the platform and is in a somewhat sunken valley where balances might have been difficult to perceive. Ms. Rakich's energetic performance elicited an appreciative standing ovation.

Sunday

The organizers of the convention wisely left the earlier part of this day open for those who wished either to attend churches in the area or to indulge in a late morning. The events started with Lee Orr's lecture, "Dudley Buck in Chicago." Since Orr is deeply involved in the music of this noteworthy nineteenth and early twentieth century American organist and composer, it was fitting that he present this topic to our convention, particularly since Buck had spent some time working in Chicago before returning to New England and New York after the calamitous Chicago fire of 1871. Buck was apparently well known as a virtuoso with an especially "facile and quiet" pedal technique. One looks forward to Orr's publishing the results of his research, both with regard to Buck's music as well as his biography. The profession needs continuing scholarly studies of performers and composers like Dudley Buck and Clarence Eddy (see the comments on William Osborne's presentations noted earlier in this report) to help fill in our gaps of knowledge about these important and once highly popular figures.

The group then moved to the Epworth United Methodist Church where John W.W. Sherer (organist and director of Music for Chicago's landmark Fourth Presbyterian Church) presented the following program, "Chicago Composers: Past and Present," on a fine 1930 Möller, Opus 5881: Fanfare, Proulx; "Flourish" from Suite for Organ, DeLamarter; A Song of Gratitude, Cole; "Communion" from Ferko's Missa O Ecclesia; Bred dina vida vingar, Webster; Prelude on a Melody by Sowerby, Simmons; the magnificent Pageant by Sowerby, and the hymn "This is the Spirit's entry now" sung by all to Sowerby's tune Perry. The organ, with its hefty reeds, vigorous full ensemble and lovely soft work, had been a gift of the Barnes family which included the famous William H. Barnes, who had been organist at this church and was known throughout the organ world for his many writings and the several editions of his book, The Contemporary American Organ. As usual, Sherer communicated both the demanding and subtle qualities of the program through utilizing both his remarkable virtuoso technique and his sensitive musical sense to serve the requirements of the music. He is a terrific musician.

The rest of the day's program took place in Evanston and environs, beginning with Philip Gehring's warmly received recital on a two-manual tracker built in 1974 by Lawrence Phelps and Associates for St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Skokie. His program: Passacaglia, Buxtehude; O Mensch, bewein dein' Sünde gross (BWV 622), Bach, which featured elegant ornamentation on the Sesquialtera; this was followed by Pepping's setting of the same chorale melody and featured a solo line on the Principal; Benedictus--Cromome en Taille, Couperin; the Passacaglia of Near followed by the audience singing the hymn "Now thank we all our God" sung to the usual melody by Crüger. Sectional works such as variations, chaconnes and passacaglias are particularly good choices for events such as these as they allow opportunities to display both solo colors and various ensemble combinations. The rear gallery organ with its detached console and beautifully designed case filled the modestly sized room with strong, bright and colorful sound.

The next stop was the small St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Evanston where Ruth Tweeten presented the following short recital on the church's dandy little Lyon and Healy organ, Opus 174, of 1905: Voluntary in D, Croft; Chorale Prelude on Rhosymedre, Vaughan Williams; Jesus is tenderly calling, Open My Eyes that I May See, and This is My Father's World, all by Diemer; Voluntary in d (Diapasons), Walond; Siciliano (Swell Flutes), Alcock; Voluntary in D (Full Organ), Avison; and the hymn "Jesus is tenderly calling thee home" sung to a tune by George Stebbins. This diminutive "stock model" two-manual tracker of seven stops, restored by Bradford Organ Company with volunteer assistance from members of the Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the OHS, acquitted itself well under Ruth Tweeten's expert hands. Her fine, sensitive playing and creative registration showed what can be accomplished on an organ with only seven ranks. There were many such organs that served small churches well, and this one continues to do so under the watchful and enthusiastic care of this caring congregation. Prior to the program, Susan Friesen presented an OHS Historic Organ citation to the parish's articulate and appreciative rector.

Brian Harlow, recently named assistant organist at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, and who had served prior to that appointment as interim director of music, organist and choirmaster at his Alma Mater, the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts, played an outstanding recital on the well balanced Skinner (Opus 616) of 1927 in the First Congregatonal Church, Evanston. His program: Variations de Concert (op. 1, 1908), Bonnet; "Muzette" from Six pièces (op. 70, 1891), Bossi; Berceuse, op. 16, Fauré (trans. Commette); the hymn "The church's one foundation" sung to the tune Aurelia; and "Finale" from Sonata I by Harwood. Harlow is obviously one of the rising young stars on the organ scene and played magnificently on this beautiful and dignified Skinner that benefits also from being in a particularly good room. Once again, here is an artist who also knows how to play and lead a hymn--his subtle phrasings helped give life to the singing. As a virtuoso, his "horsepower" was well demonstrated in the infamous pedal cadenza near the end of the Bonnet Variations; it was done with both vigor and ease.

After a "dinner on your own" time to sample the various culinary delights in Evanston, we went to St. Luke's Episcopal Church for the feature event of the evening, a thrilling performance by Thomas Murray on the magnificently restored Skinner, Opus 327 of 1922. Details of the phases of its restoration by the A. Thompson-Allen Company of New Haven have been published elsewhere recently, but suffice it to say that here is what one might perceive as a "freshly-minted" (albeit eighty-year-old) E.M. Skinner. Everything seems just right, and the tuning, in spite of the continuing heat and thanks to the fact that Nick Thompson-Allen had been on site for several days, was tight and secure. The instrument, always a landmark in Skinner's output, is truly a monument. After some introductory welcoming remarks by Richard Webster, organist and choirmaster of St. Luke's, Murray played the following program: Fugue in g (K. 401), Mozart; Six Trios (op. 47, 1900), Reger; Two Preludes on Welsh Folk Tunes (1956), Romanza: The White Rock and Toccata: St. David's Day, Vaughan Williams; Sonata I (1904), Borowski; the hymn "Blessed be the God of Israel" sung to the tune Thornberry; followed by Vocalise, Rachmaninoff (trans. Potts); and Sonata Eroïca (op. 94, 1930), Jongen. The event was a perfect match of organ, program and artist. Murray justly received a tumultuous standing ovation.

Monday

The final day of the convention began with a short recital by former OHS President Kristin Gronning Farmer on a three-manual tubular-pneumatic Lyon and Healy, Opus 29 of 1898 in Lake View Presbyterian Church, Chicago. The organ has had some restorative repairs by the Bradford Organ Company and sounds quite good in this modernized and sympathetic room. The program began with the singing of the hymn "Not here for high and holy things" to the tune Morning Song, followed by Chaconne in e, Buxtehude; Herzlich tut mich verlangen, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern and Mach hoch die Tür, die tor macht weit from Zehn Choralvorspiele (op. 77) by Georg Schumann; "Une femme pieuse essuie la face de Jésus" from Le chemin de la croix, Dupré; and concluded with Concerto in D, FXII/15 ("The Guitar Concerto"), Vivaldi. In spite of a few mechanical problems and with the assistance of her husband, John Farmer, Ms. Farmer played in her usual forthright and musical way and featured the considerably fine colors of this straight, modest-sized instrument.

Next, the large two-manual Johnson & Son tracker, Opus 690 of 1888, in Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church was played with verve and understanding by Christine Marshall Kraemer, the church's organist and choir director. The instrument was restored by the Bradford Organ Company in 1987 and received an OHS Historic Organ plaque to commemorate its centennial in 1988. This is one of only two Johnson organs remaining in Chicago of the many that firm installed in this city (see the articles, "Chicago, A Johnson Town" written for The Tracker, Vol. 10, No. 2 and No. 3, 1966 by the late F.R. Webber). Ms. Kraemer's program follows: Voluntary in D, Boyce; "Andante religioso" from Mendelsssohn's Sonata IV (op. 65, no. 4); Noël sur les flûtes, d'Aquin; O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen and O Gott, du frommer Gott from Elf Choralvorspiele, Brahms; "Adagio" from Fantaisie in C, Franck; and the chorale prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme by Walther prior to the singing of the hymn, "Sleepers, wake! A voice astounds us" to the Wachet auf tune. Under Ms. Kraemer's expert control, the Johnson sounded quite typical and acquitted itself well in the somewhat dead room. We often need to be reminded that many fine nineteenth-century American organs were designed, voiced and installed in less than what we might consider favorable acoustical surroundings, yet they often sounded both grand and colorful--a tribute to the art of those builders of the past. This instrument served as just such a reminder.

The last event of the morning was a short but delightful recital played by Elizabeth Naegele on a fine and firm-sounding tubular-pneumatic Austin, Opus 172 of 1906 in St. Paul Community Church (originally St. Paul Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church), Chicago. The instrument, situated in a front corner of the room and angled toward the center of the congregation, has had a few tonal rearrangements and revisions, but has the overall fine Austin ensemble except for a two-foot fifteenth which is a bit strong when used with a super coupler. Ms. Naegele, with the help of one of her young and enthusiastic organ students as page turner and stop assistant, gave a rousing and energetic performance of the following program: Overture to Die Meistersinger, Wagner (arr. Karg-Elert, adapt. Morris), followed by the singing of the hymn "Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing" to the tune Azmon; Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele and Herzlich tut mich erfreuen from Elf Choralvorspiele, op. 122, Brahms; "Nicaea," "Ash Grove," "Ajalon" or "Redhead," and "Saint Kevin" from Four Hymn Voluntaries, Leavitt; and Fiat Lux, Dubois. Ms. Naegele's joy in playing brought a palpable uplifting effect to the program.

After yet another box luncheon, this time in the undercroft of the monumental St. Mary of the Angels Roman Catholic Church, Chicago, the group assembled in the upper church where James Hammann played a superlative recital on the highly unified Kimball of 1920 situated grandly in the rear gallery of this magnificent church. Designed to approximate one-sixth the scale of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome it is, as a result, the largest Catholic church in the state of Illinois. Closed for a time, considered unsafe and destined for demolition, the gigantic multi-domed building has been beautifully restored and is a monument to the faith and persistence of the parish and the priests of the Prelature of Opus Dei. Hammann always rises to the occasion in vast enclosures such as this, and brilliantly played the following program: Fantasie in Freiem Stile No. 4 in e (op. 133), Merkel (dedicated to Clarence Eddy); "Adagio molto espressivo" from Sonata No. 2 in g (op. 77), Buck (also dedicated to Clarence Eddy); and Choral varíe sur le theme du Veni Creator (op. 4), Duruflé (programmed in commemoration of the centennial of the composer's birth). The glory of this final piece was the fact that those in attendance were invited to sing the unaccompanied chant (provided in our Hymn Supplement) alternately with the Duruflé variations. Doing so provided a totally different dimension to the work than is felt when it is simply performed in straight concert format. The result was elevating in its effect, thanks to the fact that Gregorian chant is a natural expression in a space such as this with the room helping to act as support for the pitch. Thanks are due to James Hammann for coming up with the idea. It worked spectacularly well. Prior to the recital, Michael Friesen presented an OHS Historic Organ plaque to the appreciative pastor of St. Mary's.

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Chicago was the locale for the next event, a recital by Timothy Edward Smith on a rare Van Dinter organ of 1909 situated in the rear gallery of this highly decorated and well-maintained air-conditioned church. This latter feature came as a very welcome relief to the conventioneers as well as, I am sure, to the performer who presented a beautifully played recital on an organ with a surprisingly conservatively designed stoplist for its time. The large 37-rank two-manuals boasts not only a Twelfth and Fifteenth on the Great, but also a three-rank Mixture as well as an 8' Trumpet and 4' Clarion, a complete Pedal division (up through a 4' Octave and including a 51⁄3' Quint), and a large Swell division containing a variety of eight and four-foot colors as well as a Dolce Cornet. The original tracker action has been electrified and a new console supplied. The OHS had visited another and somewhat smaller yet equally bold and colorful Van Dinter organ played by Rosalind Mohnsen during the Kentuckiana convention. (See the Organ Handbook 1993, pp. 78-81.) Timothy Smith received a justly deserved standing ovation for his fine musical and vigorous playing of the following program: Solemn Melody, Davies; Ciacona in c, Buxtehude; Canzona on Liebster Jesu, Purvis; Funeral March of the Marionette, Gounod (trans. Smith); "Fantasia et Fuga" from Sonata Cromatica, Yon; followed by the hymn "Praise to God, immortal praise" sung to the tune Dix. Smith has performed frequently at OHS conventions and always with wonderful results. Hear him if you can, either in a "live" recital or on CD.

The final recital of the afternoon was presented by Sally Cherrington Beggs on a relocated large two-manual Hutchings, Opus 269, of 1892 located in St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Chicago. Originally installed in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, it was rescued through the Organ Clearing House, relocated and reconstructed with some additions for St. Joseph's by the Bradford Organ Company. Ms. Beggs gave a lively and enjoyable performance of the following program: the hymn "Come now, and praise the humble saint" sung to the tune Land of Rest; Fantasie über Ein Feste Burg (op. 13), Paine; "Rondo Ostinato," "Sarabande" and "Rhythmic Trumpet," all from Baroques, Bingham; Sweet Sixteenths--A Concert Rag for Organ, Albright; and On an Ancient Alleluia, Bitgood. The organ, though considerably altered, still has the Hutchings "heft" and color.

For the final event of the convention, the group assembled in the vast First Baptist Congregational Church in the Union Park section of Chicago to hear Peter Sykes, a perennial favorite, in a major recital on the church's large four-manual, totally enclosed seventy-seven rank Kimball, Opus 6949 of 1927. The organ, with a case from the church's previous 1871 three-manual Hook and Hastings, is receiving some ongoing restoration work by the Bradford Organ Company. Its central location in a front gallery and surrounded by a variety of additional instruments, both acoustic and electronic, is ideal for projection into the entire large church, and Sykes took advantage of this feature in the following program: Sonata III, Hindemith; Rhapsody (op. 17, no. 1, 1915), "Moderato tranquillo," Howells; Sonata No. 2 in d (1914), Prokofiev (trans. Sykes); the hymn "Come all you thirsty" sung to a tune composed by Peter Sykes; Scherzo-Fantasia (1960), McKinley; Clair de lune (op. 53, no. 5), Vierne; and Suite, Duruflé. While coping with what appeared to be a problem with balky swell shades, Sykes' virtuoso playing and demanding program obviously delighted the audience which rose to its collective feet in appreciation. As part of the event, Michael Friesen awarded an OHS Historic Organ plaque to the organist and pastor of the church. During the intermission, OHS Vice President Scot Huntington eloquently ex-pressed appreciation to the convention committee and to its chairman, Stephen Schnurr, for the years of work that went into the planning and ultimate realization of a very successful convention. Huntington noted that, since Schnurr is a native of Kentucky, he might enjoy (and certainly deserved) a gift of premier Kentucky sipping whiskey as tangible evidence of the Society's gratitude for a job exceptionally well done. One hopes that Schnurr will enjoy this as much as he will roaming the dunes of northern Indiana (see the note at the end of the report of his recital in Michigan City on June 28).

Each OHS convention has its own personality, and all are enjoyable, both from the standpoint of hearing a variety of noteworthy instruments well-played and renewing acquaintances with those who share one's interest in the OHS and its aims. The 2003 convention will be in south central Pennsylvania June 19-25, with headquarters in Harrisburg. Buffalo, New York, will be the site for the 2004 convention slated to run from June 14-24. Plan to attend a future OHS convention--you will not be disappointed. Both fun and enlightenment will be in store!

 

(Because of travel delays, the reviewer was unable to hear the opening event of the convention. The comments are distilled from those furnished by OHS members who were in attendance.)

Fan-fare: AGO in Philadelphia

July 1-6, 2002

by Larry Palmer

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

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Despite heat and humidity this convention proved to be a stellar presentation of high-quality events. Indeed, throughout the week's major recitals there were probably more drops of sweat than dropped notes! Careful thought had gone into programming: each day began with recitals (or a recital followed by a repertoire session). Worship (preceded by a short concert) began the afternoon, followed by educational workshops. Each evening featured an 8 p.m. concert. Artists and instruments were well matched. Disruptions and problems were minimal, especially considering the large number of registrants. Chartered bus transportation was efficient (and cool). In a well-planned and executed first, public transport schedules and directions were provided for those who wished to take charge of their own itineraries, and guides aided these intrepid adventurers.  A large number of center-city events took place within a reasonable walking distance.

 

This was the fourth convening of an American Guild of Organists national gathering in Philadelphia, previous conventions having occurred in 1930, 1939, and 1964. Many still recall, as well, the 1977 International Congress of Organists in this unique city of major symphonic and retail-store pipe organs, the Ben Franklin Busybody mirror, cheese steaks, and assorted historic charms.

This report will, of necessity, represent only one person's schedule. I attended all the major concerts, save one. As for workshops, the elegant (though heavy) 278-page program book listed 80 (of which one was cancelled); I was able to sample four. Daily worship offerings, in addition to the early morning ecumenical services held at the convention hotel, numbered fourteen. I got to two of them. A chronological report seems pointless; the convention was divided into four color-coded groups, each assigned to attend many of the events at different times.

Two orchestral programs at Girard College

The Philadelphia Orchestra's new concert venue, Verizon Hall in the downtown Kimmel Center for the Arts, presently contains only the façade of a large Dobson pipe organ scheduled for completion in 2006. Thus concerts with orchestra were scheduled on Tuesday and Saturday evenings in the Chapel of Girard College, home to a magnificent four-manual E. M. Skinner organ. That Tuesday's offering happened at all was a tribute to professionalism and sheer determination! Because of the stifling heat, the orchestral musicians would have been justified in refusing to play; indeed, union rules allow them to refuse to perform in such adverse conditions. The performances, however, ranged from heroic to outstanding. James David Christie opened the program as soloist in the first modern performance of the just-published Widor Symphonie in G minor, opus 42 bis--an arrangement of the first and last movements from the composer's Sixth Organ Symphonie with a middle movement arranged from the Andante of the Second Organ Symphonie. Almost immediately, during the second statement of the opening theme the stand lights for half the orchestra and the conductor suddenly went out; so the performers overcame not only heat and humidity but relative obscurity, in addition to constant distraction as technicians tried to rectify the lighting problem.

The fun of hearing familiar music in a new and attractive guise coupled with the drama surrounding its performance led to shouts of "Bravo" and sustained applause from the overflow audience, which, no matter how uncomfortable it might have been, seemed to realize that the players were even less comfortable!

With full lighting restored, Craig Phillips was the deft soloist in his own Concertino for Organ and Chamber Orchestra (1995), a three-sectioned work of great melodic and rhythmic appeal, played without pause.

Although four overheated players exercised their option of leaving the orchestra at intermission, there was an immediate new sense of purpose as Diane Meredith Belcher made her entrance to play the Jongen Symphonie Concertante, opus 81! The organ console's central placement high above the stage allowed favorable sight lines for observing Ms. Belcher's energetic, musical, and poetic performance of Jongen's impressionistic tour-de-force, arguably the most successful coupling of organ and orchestra in the repertoire. The performance of this intricate work was a marvel of synchronization, made more so since the pipes of the 1933 organ are installed in the ceiling, at considerable distance from the console. The assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bulgarian-born Rossen Milanov, proved himself an able collaborator.

The Saturday closing concert, an evening of inspired choral singing from the 38-member Voices of Ascension, with orchestra and Mark Kruczek, organist, conducted by Dennis Keene, found us back at Girard College. Relief from the punishing heat had arrived on Friday and a significant number of conventioners departed on Saturday, so the Chapel was not as overwhelmed with audience as it had been for the opening concert. Carlyle Sharpe's short AGO/ECS Publishing award-winning choral work Laudate Nomen served as an upbeat, rhythmically-pungent "curtain-raiser" to the premiere of Ruth Watson Henderson's 24-minute cantata From Darkness to Light. From the quiet opening tympani notes to the hushed and yearning setting of the final words, "Darkness sang to the light and the kiss of love was peace," this lovely work, alternating Biblical texts (sung by baritone soloist Charles Robert Stephens) and choral settings of poems by the 20th-century Canadian writer Wilfred Watson, spoke in a communicative but individual tonal language. Impressionistic harmonies, a constant sense of forward motion, and deft handling of the orchestral voices all combined to make this the most immediately appealing of the large-scale commissions for Philadelphia 2002. It is definitely a work worthy of repeated hearings.

As an unscheduled addition to the program we were given a polished performance of C. Hubert H. Parry's coronation anthem I Was Glad, complete with the often-omitted cries of "Vivat Regina Elisabetta," an appropriate gesture in this, the British Queen's Golden Jubilee year. It was especially gratifying to have one final opportunity to revel in the grandiose full sound of the Girard Chapel organ, one of the finest surviving examples of E. M. Skinner's late work.

A major theme of this gathering was the celebration of the centenary of the birth of French composer Maurice Duruflé. All of his organ works were programmed during this week, as were the unaccompanied Four Motets on Gregorian Themes. For the culminating final offering of this remembrance, Keene and his superb Voices of Ascension performed Duruflé's Requiem, opus 9, with mezzo-soprano Zehava Gal. One of the most beloved settings of these ancient texts, Duruflé's masterpiece received a sublime reading, with every subtle nuance aptly and carefully observed. It was obvious that all involved knew the work intimately. I have never heard a better realization of this haunting, gentle score which I first experienced in 1959 in Holland, with the composer himself at the organ.

Three top-notch organ recitals: Parker-Smith, Morrison, Miura

A third memorable event at Girard College was the spectacular July 4 organ recital by Jane Parker-Smith. Noting that 226 years ago to the very day a group of gentlemen in Philadelphia had declared independence from Great Britain, convention general chair Dennis Elwell remarked that "the convention committee had invited two British organists to play at this gathering to demonstrate that we were gracious winners." Indeed we were all winners to enjoy such artistry! Flanked by two registrants, Ms. Parker-Smith put the organ through its paces in a program of virtuoso works that, in her hands (and feet), never seemed to overwhelm or tire the listener: Impetuoso (Wiedermann), Passacaglia in D minor (Middelschulte--a major work of 62 variations incorporating both the BACH motive and the chorale Ein' feste Burg), Toccata, opus 12 (Germani). Duruflé's opus 4, Prelude, Adagio, and Chorale Variations on the Veni Creator, has rarely sounded better. Especially compelling was Parker-Smith's playing of the beautiful Adagio, her pavane-like statement of the Chorale, and her attention to some surprising manual counterpoint in the accompaniment to the 4-foot pedal flute solo of the third variation. Scherzo Symphonique, transcribed by Jeremy Filsell from a 1974 improvisation by Pierre Cochereau, brought this outstanding recital to a quicksilver conclusion.

Alan Morrison in Princeton

For this listener the new organ work making the most lasting impression during the week was William Bolcom's Borborygm (a Latin/Greek word meaning "a rumbling of the bowels"), based on sketches by the late William Albright and dedicated to his memory by his long-time University of Michigan colleague. Beginning with the eponymous quiet low rumblings in the pedal, the 9-minute work reached its climax in a repeated, drum-like ostinato passage, and then subsided into quietness. Constantly arresting and interesting, this skillful work by the distinguished Pulitzer Prize-winning composer suggested Albright's style without sounding like an imitation. Morrison's performance was riveting, as was his entire recital (heard in the first of its four repetitions).

Another reconstructed Cochereau improvisation, Berceuse in Memory of Louis Vierne, utilized the melody of Vierne's own Berceuse (from 24 Pieces in Free Style)--a tune with startling similarity to the opening phrase of the Rodgers and Hart song There's a Small Hotel. At the climax of this piece Morrison utilized the brilliant Gallery Trumpet stop for the first time in his program.

Masterful command of registration and a deep understanding of the work characterized Morrison's playing of Duruflé's Suite, opus 5. The somber E-flat minor Prelude, perhaps the composer's most elegiac work, waxed and waned with powerful force; the daunting cross rhythms of the Sicilienne were expertly limned, and the thrilling, if over-exposed, Toccata (with the composer's revised ending) was tossed off with virtuoso aplomb.

A week largely devoted to organ music reminded one most pointedly of the absolute need for a sympathetic acoustical space if the organ is to be a successful musical medium. The Princeton University Chapel provided such an enjoyable partnership of noble Gothic-revival edifice with noble four-manual E. M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner/N. P. Mander organ (1928/1954-56/1991) installed on both sides of the chancel, plus additional divisions in the nave and west gallery.

Hatsumi Miura in Chestnut Hill

A breath of the past was just the needed antidote to three days of large electric-action organs, orchestral transcriptions, and mostly 20th-century repertoire; a more effective aural cleanser than Hatsumi Miura's elegant playing of the three-manual 45-stop Mander tracker organ (2000) of suburban Chestnut Hill's Presbyterian Church would have been difficult to imagine! The gentle tonal variety offered by the organ's slightly-unequal Kellner temperament, the player's artistic range of touches, and her beautifully-developed program in which works of Frescobaldi, Cabezón, and Cabanilles set off the novelty of Jehan Alain's medieval estampie-like Fantasmagorie and, as emotional high point, his Première Fantasie, led us to the satisfaction of stylistically-played Bach (the double-pedal An Wasserflüssen Babylon, BWV 653b and Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 545). Brava Miura for this musical high point, and bravo Mander for an eloquently voiced instrument consisting of an encased Great, Swell, and Pedal, with separately encased Choir on the gallery rail, all with full 61-note manuals and 32-note pedal, thank you very much!

The organ as fun

For a group of professionals who take themselves very seriously far too much of the time, it was salutary to experience the organ as entertainment, lighter fare, yes . . . even fun! Among multiple opportunities to do this: the effervescent Hector Olivera amazed with his astounding musicianship at the Roland Atelier AT 90S digital keyboard instrument, especially with an expertly-nuanced and accurately-colored transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. With faux-castanets clicking from his keyboard-orchestra he brought down the house with a Foxian rendition of Bach's Gigue Fugue. Introducing the concert, Olivera's duo partner Richard Morris quipped "You've heard music you're supposed to hear this week; now here's what you want to hear!" Best of their collaborative efforts (prefaced by Morris' comic proffering of a tuning note and Olivera's "tuning" of his electronic-keyboard tympani) was their performance of the Poulenc Concerto in G minor. A two-keyboard version of Guilmant's Symphony Number 1  for Organ and Orchestra, opus 42, allowed a comparison of this composer's adaptation from a solo organ work with that of Widor heard at the opening concert. Of the two, Guilmant's seemed to be a more idiomatic, better balanced essay for organ and orchestra.

To lighten the procedings at the complimentary breakfast and annual AGO business meeting on Saturday morning, the Philadelphia Organ Quartet (Michael Stairs, Colin Howland, Rudolph Lucente, and Peter Richard Conte) provided their own brand of zaniness at four electronic instruments. Popular favorites included a rip-roaring Light Cavalry Overture thundering forth from twelve keyboards and four pedalboards, Tiptoe Through the Tulips for "petals" alone, and a relentlessly funny spoof of authentic performing practice, a "newly-discovered Sonata in C by the classical Swiss composer 'Monk Mueller'," for which Conte's instrument was tuned to a decidedly earlier (mis)temperament and a lower pitch than that employed by his accomplices.

Speaking of Peter Richard Conte, the Grand Court organist of the Wanamaker Organ at Lord and Taylor's department store displayed his considerable artistry on the world-famous six-manual instrument of more than 28,000 pipes. A twice-performed concert on the evening of July 4 featured his own transcriptions of Overture to Candide (Bernstein), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas), Edwin H. Lemare's arrangement of Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music from Die Walküre (Wagner), and the truly unique opportunity to hear Dupré's Passion Symphony in its first complete performance on this organ since the composer first improvised it here in December, 1921. Historical performance practice of the first order! Conte's playing of the entire program was of the highest musicality, with an unimpeachable sense of timing and registration and absolute technical control. Both organ and building appeared to be in tip-top shape as were most of the convention venues. And what could have been more fitting than his encore, Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever, complete with alternating red, white, and blue lights and an unfurling monster flag? No additional fireworks were needed for this patriotic celebration!

More organ recitals

Martin Baker, the "other" British recitalist, was saddled with a smaller instrument (38 ranks of 1921 Austin spread over four manuals and pedal) in a padded room (the visually attractive Congregation Rodeph Shalom). Baker made what he could of his assignment, playing particularly well in Duruflé's Scherzo, opus 2 and in his improvisation on a Jewish psalm melody, for which he utilized rapid repeated notes in an effective and telling manner. Organ and space did not abet his flawless playing of Mendelssohn (Sonata in A), Liszt (Orpheus), or Reger (Chorale Fantasia on Ein' feste Burg).

Similarly disadvantaged, Ann Elise Smoot's recital preceding afternoon worship at St. Mark's Episcopal Church died on the "hothouse" vine of a packed church, afflicted by high humidity and a program that sandwiched the potentially-exciting Reger Chorale Fantasia on Hallelujah! Gott zu loben between two dutiful works by Stanford. In this setting Ms. Smoot was unable to churn up much excitement. At the succeeding worship service the much-discussed, usually-deplored new nave division appended to the historic Aeolian-Skinner organ managed to prove its mettle by ciphering.

For Cherry Rhodes' recital on the Martin Ott organ of Trinity Lutheran Church in suburban Lansdale the only piece that seemed at home was the opener, Bach's lovely mostly-manualiter Pastorale in F. This very Germanic instrument did not do much for Ms. Rhodes' otherwise masterful performances of French and French-leaning works: Scènes d'Enfant d'après "The Turn of the Screw" (Jean Guillou), Meditations on Salve Festa Dies (Fr. Marius Walter), and Variations on Victimae Paschali Laudes (Jiri Ropek), the latter performed in memory of University of Alabama organ professor Warren Hutton, whose sudden death at the pre-convention pedagogy conference had both shocked and saddened the assemblage.

Organist Robert Plimpton capitalized on the Austro-German accents of the 1974 Rieger organ in Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church for assured performances of Bach (Chorale Partita on Sei gegrüsset) and Buxtehude (Toccata in F, BuxWV 157). The organ failed to be as sympathetic to the French vocabulary of  Franck's Grande Pièce Symphonique. Plimpton performed his teacher Robert Elmore's Holiday for Organ as if it were his own, and he seemed to revel in this return to the 98-rank organ installed during his tenure at the church.*

Repertoire enrichment sessions

Two beloved organists, both master teachers, gave organ-related recent-repertoire "mini-recitals" at featured morning time slots: Marilyn Keiser (organ and instruments) and David Higgs (solo repertoire). A third session surveying some recent choral works was offered by Clifford Hill.

Keiser devoted her program to works by living American composers, concentrating on appealing performances of two from the four Psalms for Flute and Organ by Moonyeen Albrecht, Dan Locklair's Sonata da chiesa for flute and organ (both with the elegant collaboration of flutist Mimi Stillman), Robert Powell's Carols of Christmas (which charmed, but failed to cool the room), and, with the Fairmount Brass Quintet plus tympani and cymbals, Craig Phillips' Suite. It was fortunate that the artist chose this format, for open windows admitted as much street noise as air, and her several remarks were totally obliterated by the beeping of backward-intentioned trucks.

David Higgs presented first performances of two works from the commissioned Philadelphia Organ Book (consisting of six pieces). Especially attractive was Star Rising by first-time composer for the organ Erik Santos, who was present. Also in attendance was Emma Lou Diemer, composer of the second work premiered, Prepare the Royal Highway. Because of excessive heat in the non-air-conditioned First Presbyterian Church, Higgs shortened his program; on Thursday, he mentioned that, having dispensed with a jacket, he was "playing in his shirtsleeves for the first time ever in public performance."

The immediate "hit" of Higgs' program was Recollection (Soliloquy No. 2) by David Conte. ECS Publishing head Robert Schuneman reported that all thirty copies brought to the convention sold out immediately after Higgs' first presentation on Tuesday, and more than 200 orders for it were placed during the week. In celebration of the national holiday, Higgs ended his program with 19th-century Harvard Professor of Music John Knowles Paine's sturdy Double Fugue on My Country, 'tis of Thee for the Full Organ.

Competitions

Once again a distinguished panel of judges (Margaret Kemper, Mary Preston, and George Ritchie) confounded those listeners who sat through the complete final round of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Playing by choosing a safe, middle-of-the-road winner, Timothy Olsen. As has been increasingly the case in recent competitions I have attended, the audience prize winner (selected by votes from those who "stick it out" for the complete program), second-ranked Kola Owalabi, provided more interesting and exciting music-making. If the goal of this competition is to launch a young artist's concert career, it would seem that, once again, the audience made a more "judicious" choice than did the judges.

Not one of these players succeeded equally in all four required pieces ("Great" Praeludium in E minor, Bruhns; Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 663, Bach; Etude in A-flat, Schumann; Allegro maestoso [Symphonie III], Vierne). If pressed for my own choice it would have been third place winner Christian Schmitt, whose Vierne seemed to my ears the one performance conveying the menace inherent in this work. His Bruhns was stylistic, if less fanciful than Owalabi's, whose delightful playing of the Schumann was the only one to capture its fantasy and to translate the composer's pianistic idiom to the organ with reasonable success. As is often the case, flexibly-articulated, stylish Bach-playing eluded all three players.

Winners of the National Competition in Organ Improvisation (which I did not hear) were Peter Krasincki (first prize), Neil Weston (second), and David Macfarlane (third). All three improvised on themes submitted by Harry Wilkinson. Judges for this event were Mary Beth Bennett, Lynn Trapp, and John Vandertuin.

A few workshops

While only four in number, my workshop choices included a wide range of topics offered by presenters at various stages of their careers. Nevertheless, each was successful, and each workshop held my interest. On Tuesday, as preparation for the evening concert, I went to hear veteran Widor-scholar John Near discuss the composition and reception histories of the work we were to hear. I am a longtime admirer of Near's exemplary editions of the Widor organ symphonies; he has added further to his luster by preparing Widor's opus 42 bis for performance! Much of what he said had been printed in the extensive notes so generously provided in the convention program book. It was particularly gratifying to hear Near's reference to our own venerable journal as he quoted The Diapason report (April 1919) of the American premiere of Widor's Symphonie in G minor featuring organist Charles Courboin with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. (The journal's correspondent reported 10,000 auditors in Wanamaker's Grand Court; other sources suggested the tally might be as high as 12 or 15,000.)

At Tuesday evening's performance I was seated in the balcony, close to Dr. Near, and was therefore privy to his delight as he held in his hands, for the first time, printed copies of his new edition (published by A-R Editions, Madison Wisconsin).

On Wednesday I attended "Thomas Jefferson's 'Favorite Passion'," a workshop by younger scholar Nancy Cooper from the University of Montana at Missoula. She kept us engaged in Jeffersonian biography and Cooperian wit (beginning as she quoted the musical 1776, "It's hot as hell in Philadelphia"), doled out to an overflowing roomful of interested folk. Musical examples from Jefferson's music collection were played on a lovely three-stop continuo positive organ, opus one, by Michael Rathke, now of Fort Worth, Texas (formerly employed by Fisk of Gloucester).

For the Friday time slot, I chose to sample a session on the music of my Oberlin Conservatory classmate Calvin Hampton, presented by Shelly Moorman-Stahlman from Lebanon Valley College. Some unforeseen glitches in her PowerPoint presentation and some non-sequentially copied musical examples notwithstanding, Ms. Moorman-Stahlman gave a well-organized overview of Hampton's organ music and highlighted his expertise in hymn-writing. Her performance, from memory, of The Primitives and Everyone Dance from the composer's Five Dances (1982) served as aural "bookends" to her presentation, and reminded us anew of the terrible loss Calvin's death represents to the organ world. Almost too poignant in this context was a notice posted on the bulletin board beneath the organ gallery of Arch Street Methodist Church: "Because of AIDS we remember . . ."

Finally, on Saturday, I learned again from the redoubtable Marilyn Mason, who presented a workshop, "A Lifetime of New Music," highlighting some of her 78 commissions of organ music. Beginning with prayer, continuing with focused wit, dropping nuggets of wisdom as she proceeded, Professor Mason charmed her audience. She was joined by Jean Randall, who shared the playing of several pieces by Gregory Hamilton, Gordon Young and Jean Langlais from the just-published first volume of the Mason Music Library Collection of Commissioned Works for Organ (MorningStar Music Publishers). In addition, Ms. Mason played Toccata from Suite for Organ (1947) by Edmund Haines, her very first commissioned work.

As for memorable humor, Mason shared a story from her recent trip to Spain during which an old acquaintance, a priest, told her "Madame Professor, you are looking so well preserved." She also recounted her classic tale of an encounter with a Boston matron during a recital visit to Symphony Hall.  Queried by the dowager about her Mason family pedigree, the artist replied that she was "Just Miss Mason from Michigan." To this the Bostonian commented, "Here we think breeding is everything." Without missing a beat Mason responded, "In Michigan we think breeding is fun, but not everything . . ." Of equal value in the good advice department, Prof. Mason left us with the observation, "The amateur practices to get it right; the professional practices so it can't be played wrong."

Choral components

Fine choral singing graced the convention, starting with the Monday evening Gathering Celebration at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Gerre Hancock led his marvelous Saint Thomas (New York) Choir of Men and Boys in Duruflé's Four Motets; The Twelve by William Walton (whose centenary also occurs in 2002), and the first performance of a new work, Jacob's Prayer by Owen Burdick (to a text by Gian Carlo Menotti). Expecially lovely was Burdick's chordal setting of the words "O God, let me not die in darkness," and timely, too, for we were informed during priestly welcoming words that a power failure at 4 p.m. had rendered the building untenable for the evening service: "Only God's love (and the quick response of the electric company) restored organ, lights, and air conditioning in the nick of time." This was a relief on several fronts, since the weather deities historically seem to have had little regard for organ conventions. (I think of recent AGO gatherings in Boston, New York, Dallas, Denver; only Seattle was vouchsafed a pleasantly cool week!) It was good to know that, at least for the opening event, God appeared to be siding with organists!

The athletic, intricate accompaniment to Walton's joyous setting of master poet Wystan Auden's memorable text was handled skillfully by Judith Hancock. Stirring improvisations to open and close the service were created by Gerre Hancock and John Weaver. Another new work, Ceremonies for Organ and Brass Quintet by Jennifer Higdon, commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AGO (the first "national" chapter outside New York City), clocked in at more than 30 minutes. This was simply  too much of a good thing. In future hearings, for which individual sections could be selected, the work might prove more effective. (I would suggest Opening Ceremony, Celebration [organ solo], and the last movement, Celebration.)

At the other end of the week, a Saturday concert by the Toronto Children's Chorus introduced the convention to Philadelphia's new concert venue in the Kimmel Center. Verizon Hall is cello-shaped, with four tiers of seats; the upper balconies actually surround the stage area. A dark wood interior, somewhat dry acoustically, has seats upholstered in vibrant red. This color was repeated in robes worn by 55 girl singers; the 13 boys were garbed in white shirts and black pants.

What a superb ensemble! Founder and conductor Jean Ashworth Bartle conducted the long and difficult program, drawing impeccable tuning, clear articulation, and satisfying musical results from her young charges. Their unified diction of Latin, German, and English texts was remarkable and easily understood, gratifying since there were several unannounced changes to the printed program. Pure sounds, plus added appoggiaturas, marked the stylish opening Stabat Mater (Pergolesi). An unaccompanied Ave Maria (Holst) and Eleanor Daley's delicate setting of Hilaire Belloc's The Birds (with piano) gave some welcome relief from the incessant brightness of the accompanying large electronic instrument by the Walker Technical Company.

Composer Ben Steinberg, urbane and succinct in his pre-premiere remarks, was given an exemplary first performance of his Psalms of Thanksgiving. Skillful writing for harp and cello (when not overbalanced by the organ) and flowing, singable choral lines resulted in 20 minutes of easy listening. Impressive poise and projection characterized the Chorus member who served as narrator. However, the work as a whole lacked sufficient variety to sustain interest. Like Jennifer Higdon's, this composition should fare better in excerpted form. Not for the first time during the week's new music I thought of the late Igor Kipnis' quotable quip about an interminable John Cage happening, "It reminded me of the New York Subway, but at least the Subway goes somewhere."

Some closing thoughts

Featuring "Rising Stars," winners of the 2001 AGO/Quimby Regional Competitions for Young Organists, as pre-service recitalists for the worship services proved an effective way to showcase emerging talent. I heard an adroit program of Vierne works played by Brett Maguire at Old St. Peter's Church on Tuesday. Previously I had sampled a Dallas presentation of her convention recital by Lucinda Meredith from Houston, also an assured and able player. The other "stars" in this constellation, still to be heard at some future occasions, included Tim Pyper, Christian Lane, Charles Burks, Thomas Schuster, Martin Grajeda, Jr., and Rico Contenti.

Following Maguire's recital a service of "Worship Through the Day" was offered by the 29-member choir from the Royal School of Church Music Training Course for Teenage Boys and Girls (10th grade through second-year college students), directed by Murray Forbes Somerville, with Eric Plutz, organist. Among a wide range of musical offerings was the first hearing of Douglas Major's anthem Love Poem to God (text by Rainer Maria Rilke) for choir, organ and synthesizer, featuring a congregational refrain ("What will you do, God, when I die?") signaled at each return by the haunting sounds of wind chimes. The young singers rose splendidly to the not-inconsiderable challenges of this work.

It was general cause for celebration to note a goodly contingent of younger AGO members, truly the future of the organization. Frequently manning the Exhibit Hall information booth for Oberlin Conservatory, organ majors Owen Cannon (entering freshman) and David Mislin (junior) were representative of these fresh faces. It was fun to recall the past, too, as I visited with Marjorie Jackson Rasche, FAGO, whom I met in 1957 as an Oberlin sophomore at my own very first AGO convention, a regional gathering in Akron, Ohio. Here she was in Philadelphia, seated next to me at the dinner-reception given by the Guild for members holding certification (FAGO, AAGO, ChM, CAGO, SPC). And, as unlikely as it might seem after reading that collection of letters, the ample Italian menu consisted of more than alphabet soup!

Diversity! It should be apparent to those reading this report that the program offered a wide range of offerings geared to many differing tastes. As a respite from continual organ music during the morning spent in Princeton, the seven-member New England Spiritual Ensemble sang a program of African-American music, their selections chosen to illustrate James Weldon Johnson's descriptive poem O Black and Unknown Bards. (And later, in Philadelphia, on a recreative walk, I discovered the historic marker dedicated to Francis Johnson [1792-1844], "America's first native-born master of music, African-American . . . .")

Another program "sorbet," though not on my schedule, was a concert by the Renaissance band Piffaro, early ensemble music sandwiched between carillon selections played by Lisa Lonie at St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, in Fort Washington.

The many Philadelphia connections between artists, pieces, and instruments (some of them noted in the remarks above) were appreciated. (Chairman Elwell and performance chair David Furniss are to be commended for this further felicity!) The plethora of faculty, students, and former students from the Curtis Institute of Music, in particular, made it apparent how very important this place of higher learning has been to the musical scene in Philadelphia and throughout the nation.

Another appreciated "first" at this meeting was the program book mention of the maintenance persons or firm responsible for upkeep and tuning of each convention organ.

Now that the 46th national convention of the American Guild of Organists has passed into history, might I suggest that, in order to secure the continued blessings of posterity, some of the expected profits generated by such a large attendance be set aside to endow an air conditioning assistance fund, with generous grants to the next east coast venue selected as host for a mid-summer convention? After all, who knows? There might not be any free paper fans, the next time around!

 

                  *Thanks to Dallas colleague Annette Albrecht, who served as my surrogate ears for Robert Plimpton’s recital.

 

                  Photographs by William Leazer (of the Dallas AGO Chapter).

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