A new organ for Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago

Schoenstein & Co., Benicia, California: First Lutheran Church, 

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Schoenstein & Co., 

Benicia, California

First Lutheran Church, 

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

 

Polishing a gem

When we talk with committees today about building a new organ, we remind them that their decision will have ramifications for many generations and that insisting on top quality will be like establishing an endowment—a lasting legacy. First Lutheran’s choice of an Æolian-Skinner in 1956 proves the wisdom of investing in the best—not just the “good enough.” Æolian-Skinner was the gold standard then and still is today. The majority of the most famous and highly regarded instruments in America were made by Skinner in Boston.  

What makes an Æolian-Skinner so special? The answer is that the firm was always guided by people who knew and loved music. The Skinner people seemed to have an innate sense of refined good taste. This artistic impulse was supported by outstanding craftsmanship in every facet of organ building. The depth of expertise was unrivaled.  

Schoenstein & Co. has a long-standing connection with Skinner. From 1907 to 1909 Louis Schoenstein, third generation member of our founding family, worked for Ernest M. Skinner, following the family tradition of broadening skills by apprenticing with other builders. Later, his son Lawrence joined Æolian-Skinner in a more permanent way at the invitation of G. Donald Harrison in 1956. He extended his “apprenticeship” for 16 years! Our company has maintained, restored, and installed numerous Skinner and Æolian-Skinner organs. We can say from decades of practical experience that Æolian-Skinner organs deserve the reputation they have.

Our work at First Lutheran Church began in 1989 when we were asked to survey the organ for the possibility of completing stops prepared for later addition. The organ is Æolian-Skinner Opus 1342, designed in 1957, completed and dedicated by Virgil Fox in 1959. It replaced Wurlitzer Opus 2127, built for the then-new church in 1930. The builder’s plan was for an enlarged Pedal division and a floating Positiv, typical of the period. In 1964, Æolian-Skinner was called back to add an 8′ Festival Trumpet and a Zymbelstern. By 1989, the primary concern was to add more weight and power to the Pedal and possibly move forward with some of the other planned additions.  

Our survey confirmed the need for additional Pedal weight, but revealed other points that we thought should take precedence over additions such as the Positiv. The organ suffered from an accumulation of mechanical maintenance issues and it was badly out of regulation, with poor speech and erratic balance within and among stops. This appeared to be due to a rushed installation that allowed hardly any time to finish the instrument before Virgil Fox was to arrive, as well as layout of the enclosed divisions that made the pipework so inaccessible that regulation efforts were undoubtedly hampered. Rushed installations were fairly common during the fast moving post-war boom. The overall quality of Skinner’s magnificent factory voicing, however, made even the jobs finished with a lick and a promise sound quite grand. In 1990 we thoroughly serviced the organ, correcting the mechanical problems and doing some preliminary tonal work. This led us to recommend installing only the planned Bombarde in the Pedal and giving the instrument a thorough tonal regulation before considering any further additions. Hearing an instrument in proper balance with every stop delivering its full potential often obviates the need for more stops or changes the direction that additions might take. Furthermore, we knew that the instrument would need releathering and that the most efficient approach was to take care of any tonal additions along with renovation work. The Bombarde and regulation were completed in 1994.  

By 2010 it was clear that the need for mechanical renovation was imminent and the church was determined to complete the instrument and at the same time rearrange the choir seating and improve the acoustic as far as possible. In consultation with committee chairman James Moore, who is also a trained organist, consultant John Ferguson, music director Michael Elsbernd, and organist emeritus Marcia Kittelson, we developed a plan to solve three musical problems that were considered truly worth addressing after years of experience with the instrument. Although the planned Positiv and additional Pedal upperwork would be nice, it was considered far more urgent to direct the tonal character of the organ towards making up for acoustical problems. After intensive acoustical study, it was determined that it was not practical from an engineering standpoint to make major changes in the building, such as strengthening the ceiling for better sound reflection. Several improvements, including removal of carpet, would make a significant difference; however, sound would not carry well from the balcony to the chancel and mid-range tenor and bass tones would not be supported as well as treble. We decided on a program that would use the available budget to address these issues as well as honor as much as possible the original intention of a Positiv division.

To augment the foundation of the Great, we added a 16′ Violone and a large-scale 8′ Flute Ouverte. To add some of the “sparkle” promised by the Positiv we added a Seventeenth to the Great as well as a 4′ Fugara and Klein Mixtur to the Choir. A five-rank Antiphonal division was added in the chamber formerly occupied by the Wurlitzer organ. Dominated by 8′ tone, its main purpose is to provide the acoustical illusion of tone from the main organ in the balcony reaching forward to the chancel. It has proved to be quite effective in this role. It is difficult for anyone in the nave to determine that the Antiphonal is playing; it simply seems to extend the “reach” of the main instrument. The division is also quite helpful in accompanying choirs that occasionally perform from the chancel. The 16′ Quintaton, which was a bit light in this acoustic for the Great division, has turned out to be an ideal double for the small Antiphonal.

Our other work included a complete rebuild of the console and electrical control system, which also facilitated the addition of a few useful borrows in the Choir and Pedal. An interesting feature of the console work was the addition of a large music storage cabinet filling the space formerly taken by the electro-pneumatic combination and switching equipment! We built an entirely new expression system with vertical shades located on two sides of each expression box. These replaced the horizontal shades that opened in only one direction and had become warped over the years. This greatly improved the tonal egress of both Swell and Choir divisions. The pipe display was rearranged to incorporate the new 16′ and 8′ pipes of the Great, making quite a dramatic façade. We also did a complete mechanical rebuild with the exception of wind regulators, which had been completed earlier by the J.F. Nordlie Company, who have done excellent work on the organ over the years. Perhaps of most importance for the organ’s long-term maintenance was a re-engineering of certain aspects of the layout to provide improved access for maintenance.  

This project has been a special pleasure for us because of the long-term relationship we have had with the congregation. Over the years, as we have taken steps towards this final completion, we have enjoyed each of our experiences in Sioux Falls. The congregation is a most active one and is deeply appreciative of good, traditional church music. We have been privileged to know and work with all their musicians throughout this period and the atmosphere has been totally supportive and most pleasant. 

—Jack M. Bethards

President and Tonal Director

Schoenstein & Co.
Pipe Organ Builders

 

From the consultant

I have long been a friend of First Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls and enjoyed bringing the St. Olaf Cantorei to the church many times. Thus I was delighted to be asked to help the organ committee explore options for the renovation and possible completion of its 1959 Aeolian-Skinner organ. Fortunately, the people of First Lutheran had taken exceptional care of the instrument and while the time had now arrived for more significant mechanical and electrical upgrades, its basic integrity had been maintained.

The church’s experience working with Jack Bethards and Schoenstein & Co. suggested that the firm was the logical choice to undertake a more extensive process of renewal of the instrument. Since they are highly respected for their restoration work on many Aeolian-Skinner organs, the fit was a natural. It seemed to be the ideal time to complete the preparations evidenced in the console, especially the absent Positiv division. All agreed to utilize the console preparations for an Antiphonal organ instead of adding the typical Aeolian-Skinner brightly voiced Positiv to what already was an instrument needing more gravitas in its sound, especially considering the relatively dry acoustics in the room. It has made a great difference in the effectiveness of the organ, especially as a leader of congregational song. Additional foundational sound was added to the Great and the existing Choir was provided with a complete chorus with mixture, a significant move since the Positiv division was not to be.

During the long gestation of the project, a careful study of the acoustics in the space was undertaken. It soon became evident that any major improvement to the acoustics was not structurally or fiscally possible. However, reflective surfaces in the gallery, especially directly behind the choir, were improved and have enhanced the choir’s projection into the nave and enabled its members to hear one another significantly better.

First Lutheran now has a warmer, more colorful organ. The strong choral tradition of the church has a more versatile accompanimental colleague and the overall sound of the instrument in the room is richer and much more satisfying. Its leadership of the congregation’s singing has been substantially improved. Throughout this lengthy and sometimes frustrating process, I’ve been impressed by the creativity and patience of Jack Bethards of Schoenstein and the perseverance of the committee, especially its chair, James Moore, and organist Marcia Kittelson. They had a vision, never wavered, and the result more than fulfills their hopes and aspirations. Would that it always were so.

—John Ferguson

 

From the organist

Music ministry has long been an important facet of First Lutheran’s identity. It came as no surprise to me, when I joined the professional staff of this church in 2007, that the organ enjoys an active role in the leading of weekly services. Since the installation of Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1342 in 1959, only two other organists have presided at the console: the late Dr. Merle Pflueger (who designed the original stoplist in collaboration with Aeolian-Skinner representatives) and Organist Emerita and Curator of Organs, Marcia Kittelson, whose scholarship and musical excellence cultivated appreciation for the organ and its role in Christian worship. During her tenure at First Lutheran, Marcia Kittelson took excellent care of Opus 1342, and the church owes a tremendous debt of gratitude for her careful preservation of this heritage instrument.  

Given the history of the sanctuary organ, with slightly more than fifty years of service to the congregation, it was not difficult to gain the momentum to undertake its necessary renovation. Knowing the benefits in terms of overall cost, and faced with the prospect of not being able to finish the organ more than fifty years after the initial investment, the organ committee pressed forward with the tenacious and unflagging leadership of chairman James Moore. With the generosity of two lead gifts, the committee was able to finally realize the total project.

Under the guidance of project consultant John Ferguson, the organ committee confidently engaged Schoenstein & Co. to proceed with the renovation and completion of Opus 1342. From the outset, the committee sought to preserve the Aeolian-Skinner aesthetic, while blending in new pipework with the existing stoplist. The committee’s decision to entrust the work to this firm began in the 1990s, when Schoenstein & Co. added a pedal reed and completed necessary regulation work. Furthermore, Schoenstein’s connection to Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner via Louis Schoenstein and his son, Lawrence, who worked for G. Donald Harrison, naturally affirmed this decision.   

From the beginning of the committee’s discussions with Jack Bethards, President and Tonal Director of Schoenstein & Co., it was clear that we could accomplish astounding results with a strikingly conservative approach. Acoustically, it was determined that an Antiphonal organ would be a more appropriate way of rendering the prepared division. Housed in the chancel, the Antiphonal organ lends valuable support to the cantor, choirs, and congregation at the crossing and front portions of the nave. The Quintaton 16′, formerly the basis for the gallery Great, now takes its place as a foundation for the Antiphonal organ. The ability to draw the Quintaton separately in the Pedal as well as a manual stop makes it a fine addition to the new colorful foundation stops.

Further enhancements to the Great and Choir divisions were also desired; the Great lacked an appropriately scaled 16′ to support the principal chorus, and the Choir division, while ideal for the accompaniment of choirs and solo vocalists, lacked a chorus that could contrast with the Swell. Added support to the Great division is offered by a new Violone at 16′ and 8′ pitch, an 8′ Flute Ouverte, and a 13⁄5′ principal-scaled Seventeenth. With the appropriate foundation tones now in place, the existing mixture, a 11⁄3′ IV–VI Fourniture, makes sense to the ear. The additional mutation stop, when combined with the existing 22⁄3′ Twelfth, allows for a contrasting Sesquialtera to the Choir.   

Joining the existing pipework in the Choir are a new 4′ Fugara and 2′ Klein Mixtur. While modest, to be sure, these two additions give the Choir a firm identity, and a fine contrast to the Swell plenum. The ability to make the existing Krummhorn speak at 16′ to tenor C adds further gravity to the division.

The finished organ opens a new chapter in the life of First Lutheran and Opus 1342. With the renovation and completion accomplished, the church members have answered the call of the 1956 organ committee—continuing to invest well in those things that ensure a worthy legacy of faith—even as other “steeples are falling” in favor of fleeting trends. Towering over the east balcony is an instrument of stately beauty, completely at home with its Gothic surroundings. In this context, I believe one starts to hear the organ—first by sight. When played, it sounds like one expects it should—with grace, exquisite beauty, and majestic power. It was rededicated in a public recital played by Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs, chairman of the organ department at the Juilliard School, to a capacity audience on December 4, 2011.  

On behalf of the organ committee, I wish to extend our deepest appreciation to Jack Bethards, Louis Patterson, and the entire staff at Schoenstein & Co. First Lutheran has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with this firm since the early 1990s, and it is a joy to see the progress over the years that continues to make Opus 1342 an ever more perfect instrument. The finished organ has exceeded what many of us thought possible, and we could not imagine a more satisfying relationship than that which we have enjoyed with the professionals at Schoenstein & Co.  

—Michael J. Elsbernd 

Director of Music Ministry 

& Principal Organist 

 

From the chair of the
organ committee

When the organ committee recommended the purchase of an Aeolian-Skinner in 1956, they probably knew how well the instrument would serve the church beyond their lifetimes. They probably did not know that the organ would still be unfinished 50 years later. Purchased at a cost of $52,000, the organ as installed and dedicated was missing reeds, a mixture, and upperwork in the Pedal division, as well as a Positiv division, all of which could have been added at the time for another $12,000.  

As Opus 1342 approached its fiftieth anniversary in November 2009, a new organ committee, formed in 2007, had two goals: to complete the instrument, and to do everything necessary to keep the organ in service for another 50 years. 

Having worked with Jack Bethards and Schoenstein & Co. in the early 1990s on a reed addition to the Pedal and other tonal regulation of the entire organ, the committee had no trouble deciding to move forward with Schoenstein. With the invaluable help of John Ferguson, our consultant and long-time friend of First Lutheran, we quickly agreed on the scope of work. It took longer to find our way through the political processes and to raise the money needed to finish the project, but with help from many faithful members, we did. 

In the end, we made the instrument mechanically current, added 12 ranks of pipes, and ensured that the organ should serve First Lutheran Church long beyond those of us on the committee. The results exceed our expectations in every way: the Antiphonal division enables the sound of the organ to fill the room for the first time, the new 8′ stops add warmth and richness of tone without changing the organ’s identity as an Aeolian-Skinner, and all of the new stops add impressive tonal color and versatility. 

Jack Bethards, Louis Patterson, and everyone at Schoenstein have been always timely, responsive, and professional. Their work is simply excellent, and speaks for itself.

—James E. Moore

Chair of the organ committee

 

Photo credit: Louis Patterson, unless indicated otherwise

Timothy Robson

Timothy Robson is associate director of the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University, and was director of music and organist at Euclid Avenue Congregational Church in Cleveland, Ohio, for 27 years. He reviews concerts regularly for ClevelandClassical.com and Bachtrack.com.

The Organ Historical Society celebrated its 60th anniversary in Philadelphia from June 26–July 2, 2016, with a memorably diverse array of instruments and concerts, from an organ by David Tannenberg from 1791 with a handful of stops and no pedals to the gargantuan creations at Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall and Macy’s Center City store. The convention attendance was the largest ever, with over 500 registrants.

The culture of OHS conventions is unique. Performances (most of which were very fine in Philadelphia) are almost secondary to the qualities of the instruments themselves. One attendee commented that the purpose was “to hear what the organs can do.” The concerts always included a congregational hymn. The schedule was rigorous; the convention buses left about 8:00 a.m. each day and generally did not return to the hotel until after 10:00 p.m. 

The convention was co-chaired by Steven Ball and Frederick R. Haas. Haas was present to introduce many of the events, and, in some ways, the convention was a celebration of his and his family’s philanthropy toward many significant organ building and restoration projects in Philadelphia. The most recent example of his family’s generosity is the gift, announced at the convention, of the family’s home, Stoneleigh, to become the new headquarters of the OHS.

 

Ceremonies

The Sunday evening opening concert in University of Pennsylvania’s Irvine Auditorium was preceded by introductory remarks, including a resolution honoring Orpha C. Ochse for her decades of research into American pipe organs and her service to the mission of OHS. This year’s E. Power Biggs Fellows, who applied and were selected to receive generous support to attend the convention, were also introduced. The backgrounds of the various Fellows included both performance and involvement in the organ building profession.

Stephen Tharp’s opening program was a technical tour de force, beginning with Duruflé’s Suite, op. 5, “Toccata,” played at breakneck speed. The premiere of George Baker’s Danse diabolique was a parody of hellish French toccatas, comically featuring, among other things, snippets of the Dies irae and “Tea for Two.” Tharp also played Marcel Dupré’s own transcription of his Poème héroique, op. 33; Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which showed off the strings of Irvine Auditorium’s Austin (Opus 1416, 1926); and Ravel’s La Valse. Brilliant playing, however, could often not overcome the loss of Ravel’s crystalline orchestration amidst the organ’s often murky sound.

The Fred J. Cooper Organ in Verizon Hall (Dobson, 2006) celebrated its tenth anniversary, and the OHS officially celebrated its 60th anniversary in a concert on Monday evening that was simply too long, coming as the sixth concert of an exhausting first day. After remarks from OHS dignitaries, the music began with the premiere of Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue for Organ and Percussion (2016) by Kurt Knecht, with Christopher Marks, organ, and Dave Hall, percussion. Both players were given virtuoso parts, convincingly played. The Adagio was especially attractive in its soaring organ melody, with accompanying gentle rhythmic patterns on the marimba.

The remainder of the program was a musical theater creation, “The Organ as Crystal Ball: Images from Shakespeare’s Hamlet” with Hans Davidsson, organ, Henryk Jandorf, actor, Stacye Camparo, Gabriel Davidsson, and Johathan Davidsson, dancers. There were narrations, monologues from the play, and dance interpretations of scenes with accompanying organ music by Bach, Franck, Mendelssohn, Pärt, Messiaen, and others.

This Hamlet concoction was an interesting idea that should have filled the whole evening; or, perhaps, some of its scenes should have been condensed for this performance because of the other preliminaries. Hans Davidsson showed the Dobson organ to its potential, and parts of the program were brilliant (including a riveting performance of Ligeti’s Volumina). Much of his playing, however, seemed mannered; a more straightforward musical line would have been preferable.

 

The Big Three: Wanamaker,
Atlantic City, and Girard Chapel

Peter Richard Conte’s program on the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ at Macy’s was an astonishing synthesis of performer and instrument. After years of painstaking restoration, the organ is now almost fully playable again. Conte’s program was notable for its breadth of literature and virtuosity, especially in the realm of transcriptions. Dupré’s Cortège et litanie and Bernstein’s “Overture” to Candide, and especially Conte’s version of E. H. Lemare’s transcription of “Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music” from Wagner’s Die Walküre, conveyed the essence of their orchestral and operatic origins. 

Conte’s performance of Ives’s Variations on America captured the phantasmagoria of Ives’s variations, complete with Conte’s own interpolated cadenza. His spectacular performance of Reubke’s Sonata on the Ninety-Fourth Psalm was seamlessly tailored to the Wanamaker organ. Several collaborations with flugelhorn player Andrew Ennis, including a transcription for organ duet by Ennis, with arranger as the second player, of Respighi’s “Pines of the Appian Way” from Pines of Rome, were not as interesting as the solo organ works.

Friday’s visit to Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall was revelatory for those who had never heard or seen the instrument. The Midmer-Losh organ, the largest pipe organ ever constructed, was left for decades to decay until it was mostly unplayable. An ongoing program of restoration is slowly bringing the organ back. About 35% of the organ is now playable, including a newly completed section in the left chamber (to the left of the stage from audience viewpoint). It was the first use of that segment since the early 1980s. The instrument continues to be in a fragile state for performance, and, especially in the newly renovated division, there were out-of-tune ranks and missing notes. It had just been heard for the first time at 5:30 that morning. Complete restoration is expected about 2023. OHS registrants toured the pipe chambers and restoration shop.

The pure volume of sound of the organ, which easily fills the vast spaces of Boardwalk Hall’s main auditorium, is astounding. There is also an acoustical quirk, seemingly due to the distance between the left and right chambers; unless the listener is sitting directly in the middle of the hall, there is a significant lag in the sound from the left or right. 

The auditorium’s resident organist, Steven Ball, played a program that included a march written for Boardwalk Hall, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538 (“Dorian”), a suite from Richard Rodgers’ Victory at Sea, and works by Langlais and Vierne. The audience sang all four stanzas of “The Star Spangled Banner,” probably a first for many. Ball also accompanied Buster Keaton’s Spite Marriage in the Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Philips Ballroom (Kimball KPO 7073, 42 ranks). Ball’s original score supported, but did not overwhelm the comedy.

Nathan Laube is one of the brightest stars in the organ firmament these days, and he met the high expectations for his Tuesday evening recital at Girard College Chapel, on what is arguably Ernest M. Skinner’s masterpiece (Skinner Organ Company Opus 872, 1933). The organ, installed above the recessed ceiling in a tall, resonant chamber, speaks remarkably well through a large, grille-covered opening in the ceiling. 

Laube played works by John Cook; Max Reger’s wildly Romantic transcription of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903; a lovely “Lullaby” from Calvin Hampton’s Suite No. 2; Roger-Ducasse’s Pastorale; and Willan’s Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue. The Pastorale’s kaleidoscopic array of registrations was the perfect demonstration piece for the Skinner, from the softest celestes and quiet solo reeds to full organ.

 

Other highlights

British organist Ben Sheen won first prize in the inaugural Longwood Gardens International Competition in 2013. He returned to the symphonic four-manual, 146-rank Aeolian on Thursday evening for a program mostly of his own transcriptions, which were colorful, invoking the many percussion effects on the organ. Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre was dazzling in its orchestral virtuosity. Elgar’s Elegy for Strings, op. 48, was soft and mournful. Shostakovich was represented in an unusually happy mood in his Festival Overture, op. 96, with fanfares, cymbal crashes, and crisp passagework. 

Sheen’s encore, the “Waltz, no. 2” from Shostakovich’s Suite for Variety Orchestra (often erroneously identified as the composer’s Jazz Suite No. 2), again used the organ’s extended resources, including the attached grand piano and percussion. Sheen’s playing throughout was technically fluent and musically satisfying.

Thursday morning’s hymn sing at the Tindley Temple United Methodist Church with organist Michael Stairs proved to be one of the most enjoyable events of the convention. The M. P. Möller organ (Opus 3886, 1926, renovated 2016) was ideal for hymn accompaniment, with its broad, rich voices undergirding congregational singing. Stairs’s accompaniments were solid rhythmically, imaginatively registered, and sensitive to the texts. The hymns were by composers who lived and worked in Philadelphia. Rollin Smith’s deadpan commentary captured the often humorous social and historical aspects of the hymns and tunes.

David Schelat’s lovely Thursday afternoon recital on the Gabriel Kney organ (1989) at First and Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, was a perfect OHS recital. He showed the capabilities of the pleasingly clear two-manual organ, with playing that was not showy, but highly musical. The organ was well balanced to the room. Schelat’s attractive, ear-cleansing program included anonymous Renaissance dances, short works by Johann Ludwig Krebs, Vierne’s Clair de lune (Pièces de fantaisie), and Schelat’s own Organ Sonata. 

On Saturday’s “add-on” day, Bethan Neely’s recital on the 1791 Tannenberg organ at Zion Lutheran Church in Spring City, Pennsylvania, was a highlight of the convention. The organ, with six stops (divided bass/treble) on a single 51-note manual and no pedal, was restored in 1998 by Patrick Murphy, who pumped the bellows to supply the wind for this concert.

Neely’s imaginative program was confidently performed, with secure technique and musically flexible phrasing. There were works by John Stanley, Herbert Howells, the small Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie settings from Bach’s Clavier-Übung III, and a partita by Pachelbel. Neely proved that less is sometimes more in organ building and performing.

Annie Laver played one of the most interesting “concept recitals” of the convention on the Hilborne Roosevelt organ (1884, restored 1987 by Patrick Murphy) at Highway Tabernacle Church. Laver assembled a fine batch of music that was played at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago on a 4-manual Roosevelt organ. Laver played works by Lemmens, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dudley Buck, and Carl Attrup. Her enthusiasm for her program was obvious and contagious.

Alan Morrison played a reworked Skinner Organ Company instrument, Opus 638 (1927), originally in Sinai Temple in Mount Vernon, New York, and relocated to St. Paul Catholic Church. His solid performances of Howells’s Master Tallis’s Testament and Mozart’s Fantasy in F Minor, K. 608, were highlights. 

The winner on Wesley Parrott’s recital on the J. W. Steere organ (Opus 344, 1892) at Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church was Variations on an American Air by Isaac Van Vleck Flager (1844–1909), based on Stephen Foster’s Old Folks at Home. It was similar in form to other variations by Ives, Paine, Buck, etc., although, disappointingly, it had no concluding fugue.

Andrew Senn’s recital at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (Austin, 1960) followed the OHS annual meeting immediately after lunch on Tuesday. It was a challenging time slot, and Senn’s playing, in music by Bach, Vierne, Cochereau, and others seemed more dutiful than inspired. Other than an impressive Trumpet on 7 inches of wind pressure, the organ was solid, but not especially notable.

Prior to beginning his program in the striking 1992 Chapel of St. Joseph (E. & G. G. Hook Opus 461, 1868, which was acquired by the chapel in 1996), Eric Plutz was announced as being ill. His indisposition did not seem to affect his playing of music by Bach, Franck, Whitlock, Gigout, and Mendelssohn. His registrations on the modest two-manual organ were imaginative, although the wooly-sounding pedal Bourdon 16′ often covered softer manual registrations.

Craig Cramer played on the Mander organ (2000) at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. The three-manual organ has an overly brilliant sound, and it was too loud for the room, especially in Cramer’s choice of organo pleno for the Bach Passacaglia, BWV 582, from beginning to end. Cramer closed with Max Reger’s three-movement Zweite Sonate, op. 60. Cramer’s playing was technically superb, but with so much loud music, the program was not particularly enjoyable. A greater variety of works that demonstrated more of the sounds of the organ would have been preferable.

Jeffrey Brillhart is long-time organist at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, and he showed off the church’s Cavaillé-Coll-influenced 2005 Rieger in music by Marchand, Franck’s Choral in E Major, and excerpts from Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement. Brillhart’s playing was sensitive and musical, but the organ seemed consistently too loud for the size and dry acoustics of the church.

Kimberly Marshall is noted for her performances of early music, repertoire that she sampled on her program on the Brombaugh organ (Opus 32, 1990) at Christ Church Christiana Hundred, Wilmington, Delaware, in works by Muffat, Buxtehude, Schlick, and Sweelinck. But the highlight of her program was the lengthy “Passacaglia” from Rheinberger’s Sonata No. 8. Her performance showed not just her own versatility and virtuosity, but the Romantic flexibility of Brombaugh’s fine instrument. It is a large organ in a relatively small room, but it did not overwhelm.

 

Emerging artists

Isaac Drewes, a St. Olaf College student, played a 1902 Hook & Hastings organ (2 manuals, 11 stops) in the Carmelite Monastery of Philadelphia. The small organ has a bright, clear sound that filled the monastery’s chapel. Vierne’s Impromptu and Clair de lune (Pièces de fantaisie) and the last movement of Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 4 were technically fluent, and were registered imaginatively. Samuel Barber’s Wondrous Love variations fared less well, with imprecise attention to Barber’s metrical changes. 

The concert by “20 under 30” winner Caroline Robinson at St. Peter’s Church (3-manual, 1931 Skinner Organ Company) showed polished performances of Guilmant, Howells, and Sowerby, along with William Albright’s rag Sweet Sixteenths, and her own transcription of Sibelius’s Finlandia. The transcription, though well played, lost its full impact from the dry acoustic, and some rhythmic unsteadiness. 

Amanda Mole (DMA student at Eastman and “20 under 30” winner) played at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in the Germantown area of Philadelphia on the 1894 instrument by the British builder Carlton C. Michell, in collaboration with Boston organ builders Cole & Woodberry, and later alterations by Casavant and Wicks. Her program of works by Hollins, Schumann, Lefébure-Wély, and Vierne was highlighted by her performance of Messiaen’s “Alleluias sereins” (L’Ascension). It was, indeed, serene, with excellent balance of technical accuracy, rhythm, and structure. 

Bryn Athyn Cathedral, built between 1913 and 1928 in a Gothic/Norman style, is the episcopal seat of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, a denomination founded on the writings of theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. Although the cathedral nave is on a large scale, the acoustics of the room are not as live as one would expect from its size and building materials. The organ is a 2014 amalgamation by Charles Kegg of two Skinner organs, Opus 574 (1925) and Opus 682 (1927), both dating from the period during which the cathedral was built.

Monica Czausz, a student at Rice University and “20 under 30” winner, was making her second consecutive OHS convention appearance, and it was apparent why. She showed impressive technique and musicianship and a sophisticated use of the organ. John Ireland’s Capriccio showed off not only the chimes, but also an especially robust tuba. Her virtuoso reworking of E. H. Lemare’s transcription of Dvorák’s Carnival Overture, op. 92, and in the “Final” from Naji Hakim’s Hommage à Igor Stravinsky were brilliant.

Saturday afternoon featured two young performers, Bryan Dunnewald, a Curtis student, on an 1865 George Krauss organ in Huff’s Union Church, Albertis, Pennsylvania, and Rodney Ward, a student at Appalachian State University, on a Thomas Dieffenbach organ (1891). Although both performers matched imaginative programs to their respective small instruments, both seemed to suffer from nerves. In Ward’s case, the organ appeared to be recalcitrant, which probably did not help his confidence.

 

Also noted

Several novelty programs filled out the week: theater organ music played by Andrew Van Varick on the 1929 Wurlitzer (Opus 2070) in the Greek Hall of Macy’s before dinner on Wednesday; a theater organ concert by John Peckham at John Dickinson High School (Kimball, 1928) near Wilmington, Delaware; and a Saturday lunch-time demonstration of Skinner organ rolls at Welkinweir, an estate near Pughtown, Pennsylvania. Restoration of the 1928/1941 organ is still in progress.

Christoph Bull’s concert at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (Aeolian-Skinner, 1936/Cornel Zimmer, 2002) was disappointing as the closing event to an otherwise satisfying convention. He played works by Vierne, Bach, Vaughan Williams, Reger, and several of his own “New Age-y” minimalist compositions. The balances of sound of the organ were often awry, with bizarre registrations; phrases were smudged; tempos were unsteady. Although Bull’s concert was inexplicably odd, it did not erase the many memorable moments from the preceding days.

Berghaus Pipe Organ Builders,
Bellwood, Illinois, was established as Berghaus Organ
Company in 1967 in Melrose Park, Illinois.  

 

Cover photos, top: La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church, Scottsdale, Arizona (2008); middle: O’Fallon United Church of Christ, O’Fallon, Illinois (1973); Sacred Heart School of Theology, Hales Corners, Wisconsin (1990); First United Methodist Church, South Bend, Indiana (1988); bottom: St. Benedict’s Parish, Chesapeake, Virginia (2015).

 

From the Founder

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, I was encouraged to leave home to seek my education at Concordia Teachers College (now Concordia University Chicago) in River Forest, Illinois. After graduation, I married and worked for several years as a parochial school teacher and church organist/choir director. My unexpected decision to enter the organ-building trade was chiefly influenced by two instruments and two men.

Before I left Ohio, Trinity Lutheran Church in Cleveland began installing a four-manual and pedal mechanical-action organ from the Beckerath company of Hamburg, Germany, which was completed in 1956. The church was near my house, and my curiosity, for some unknown reason, led me to make frequent visits during its installation and voicing. I had no earthly idea that this organ would lay the groundwork for my organbuilding philosophy! 

While still enrolled at Concordia, my informal apprenticeship for organbuilding began as I started to repair the slider chests on an 1888 Jackson Organ Company (Chester, Illinois) tracker at St. Matthew Lutheran Church on the south side of Chicago. Slowly, the organ came back to life as I repaired badly damaged pipes, broken trackers, and cracked rollerboards. We found a second-hand pedalboard to replace the original and installed key extensions to accept mechanical connections to the pedal chests and couplers. By repairing an ancient blower and wind system, a somewhat compromised new life to the organ was born. By 1961 the organ was again used for services. Subsequently, the congregation authorized Berghaus Organ Company to extensively rebuild the organ with new slider chests, pipework, action, and wind system. Since 1972 the organ remains as rebuilt.

Why devote time to these two churches and their organs? These were my mind and eye openers! I had a gnawing curiosity to tear into the old Jackson organ, find out what went wrong, and fix it! In the Beckerath, I had a “new” organ for comparison.

Sometime in 1967 while a fifth and sixth grade teacher, I was approached by John F. Shawhan, the Midwest service and sales representative of Casavant Frères of Canada, to take over a dozen or so contracts to provide semiannual service and maintenance for new Casavants located from Des Moines to Fort Wayne. I still had no plans on becoming an organbuilder, but November 1967 was my final month as a teacher. John paired me up with his assistant, Paul Jochum, who spent time in the Beckerath shop as a general apprentice. When I first met Paul, I assumed that I would be the tuner and he would be the key holder. But that is not how he had it planned! He insisted that he tune and I sit at the console. And that was the arrangement for all the years we worked together. His disciplined tuning was impeccable and went so far as to check the tuning of higher-pitched mixtures by listening through the entire stop without the tuning stop on! 

As the service and tuning business grew, the opportunity came along to build an instrument. The O’Fallon United Church of Christ in southern Illinois was planning an extensive renovation of its church. The original Kilgen tracker was entombed behind the altar and was in serious need of repair. Casavant turned down the project and asked Berghaus to consider it. I, too, turned down the opportunity to renovate the old Kilgen.

They asked, “Who do you recommend to do the renovation?” I said that I would build a new mechanical-action organ for them instead. What did I have to show? Nothing! But they chose Berghaus despite our lack of experience. The contract was signed and construction took place in a 24′ by 27′ garage with an extremely limited number of tools and space. Today, this organ stands as built in 1973. A few years ago, we thoroughly cleaned it and set it back on course for another 40-plus years of faithful service.

After O’Fallon, four contracts were negotiated in fairly rapid succession for 2-manual and pedal mechanical-action organs. As these were being built, a noticeable change in design requests followed: namely, to retain the mechanical key action, but to abandon the mechanical stop action and utilize a more user-friendly stop control system. This was an acceptable alternative to me, as it did not affect the key action or the windchest design. I was firmly convinced that slider windchests were the best chests in the world! The most striking change came with the detached, moveable console, requiring the separation of the direct key action from the windchests, which we accommodated by installing electric pull-down magnets outside the pallet box. 

Our stay in a house basement and two-car garage lasted a very short time. By 1973 we moved to Bellwood into a facility of approximately 4,000 square feet and a ceiling height of only 13 feet. A number of organs exceeding that height were built in this low-ceiling room. In 1984, a two-story erecting room and design and fabrication spaces were added to facilitate construction of larger instruments.  

Time passed so fast that it became unnoticeable. My wife, Judy, worked many years as the office manager. Both of our sons, Todd and Brian, served us well in service projects, organ construction, and installations. It would be Brian whom I would entrust with continuing my work by taking the leadership of the company into the second generation. Along the way, he would build a team around him.

­—Leonard G. Berghaus

 

From the Tonal Director

When I joined Berghaus in 2006, the company was in a period of transition. While the hallmarks of slider chests, open-toe voicing, and Werkprinzip were still present in many instruments, a few others were examples of a more eclectic approach to tonal design. The 2003 four-manual instrument created for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, combined new resources with many ranks from the Aeolian-Skinner organ built in the 1950s. The result was decidedly more American Classic in sound, and it has enjoyed great success in live performance as well as several recordings. Subsequent years saw the installation of more eclectic organs at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Illinois (3 manuals, 46 ranks), and Queen of All Saints Basilica, Chicago, Illinois (3 manuals, 60 ranks).  

My own background in pipe organs began at the age of 13, when I first took organ lessons and began playing church services some months later. I had always been fascinated with the pipe organ; I used to spend many hours listening to recordings of instruments from all over the world, conjuring up stoplists, and occasionally attempting to design casework and façades. Little did I know then that this would ultimately become my career! I completed organ studies at Valparaiso University and The Juilliard School; these institutions educated me with a solid foundation of organ performance in both concert and church settings. My many opportunities to perform around the country allowed me first-hand experience with the great wealth of pipe organs in this nation, and I began to formulate my thoughts of what my own personal tonal signature would be. 

In 2007, the Berghaus-built organ for St. John’s Episcopal Church, Chevy Chase, Maryland, would be my first opportunity to make my mark. With a stoplist that leans more into the French Romantic realm (complete with a sumptuous Cavaillé-Coll-style drawknob console), this instrument of 3 manuals and 63 ranks began a new era for our company. The organ, both in its stoplist and tonal approach, is a synthesis of classical and romantic styles. As a result, it emphasizes a clear and singing sound in the individual stops, while at the same time providing warmth and depth when stops are used in combination. Each division contains a complete principal chorus, characteristic flute stops, and reeds both fiery and more subdued. Decidedly different from previous instruments is the treatment of string and reed tone. The Grand-Orgue and Récit contain Salicionals with more harmonic prominence, which aid in carrying accompaniment lines found in homophonic music. While our past instruments accentuated the build-up of the Tutti through upperwork and mixtures, this organ places reed tone in the several Trompette and Bombarde ranks at the fore, paying homage to the symphonic style.

These principles were also carried out in the instruments of 2007–08: St. Jerome Catholic Church in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (3 manuals, 53 ranks), built in collaboration with Scott R. Riedel & Associates as the organ consultant/acoustician, and First Lutheran Church, Manitowoc, Wisconsin (3 manuals, 41 ranks). 

2008 brought an extraordinary opportunity to construct our magnum opus for La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. Taking cues from the American Classic and Romantic traditions, our tonal approach was to design an eclectic instrument that would handle a wide range of repertoire, capable of a vast amount of both dynamic and tonal expression. To that end, there are no less than five manual 8′ Principals, ten different 8′ and 4′ flutes, and strings and hybrid (tapered) stops, which are of varying tone and construction. The versatility of this instrument is the result of our ability to finish every stop as its own beautifully unique voice and also as a worthy contributor in combination.

Given the challenge of designing a 92-rank organ with only one division under expression, it became clear from the beginning that great care would need to be taken in the tonal finishing process to ensure the success of a seamless crescendo and equally balanced manual divisions. The ranks of the Positiv division are designed and voiced so as to provide a remarkable degree of expressiveness for an unenclosed division. The overall effect in the crescendo is that of a continuous transition from ppp to fff without any staggering dynamic or color steps.

In recent years, because of economic challenges, many churches have elected not to build entirely new instruments, but to retain as much as they could from their current organ or investigate viable options of transplanting a vintage instrument. One of our unique endeavors was creating an instrument for First Presbyterian Church, Johnson City, Tennessee, by combining resources from two organs in need of a new home: a 1930 Casavant from Our Lady of Grace, Chicago, and the Berghaus from Christ Lutheran Church, Cleveland, Ohio. On paper, these two disparate tonal concepts would not necessarily work well by merely placing stops together. To achieve good blend within and among the divisions, and to provide appropriate combinations for musical performance, we decided to keep the Great and Swell divisions of the Berghaus together, but reassign them and enhance the 8′ tone to be adequately scaled for the new space. The new Great and Pedal divisions would combine new pipework and vintage stops that were fully restored or changed to blend with the overall tonal concept. We have also successfully installed instruments of this type with the help of consultant Wayne Wagner at Zion Lutheran Church, Columbus, Wisconsin (2 manuals, 24 ranks) and in partnership with Edward Meyer at Luther Preparatory School, Watertown, Wisconsin (2 manuals, 35 ranks). 

2014 brought us an opportunity to work with organist and historical author Peggy Kelley Reinburg, who acted as consultant for St. Benedict’s Parish, Chesapeake, Virginia. Her insight into pipe organs and tonal design proved to be an invaluable resource. Together with her, we collaborated to present an instrument with a heart of simplicity and clarity, rooted in North German tradition but also possessing a distinctive voice. This instrument brings our company full circle to its early beginnings—confident in the creation of instruments in a classic style, while tailoring tonal schemes that serve the specific needs of our many different clients.

As Berghaus celebrates 50 years, we can applaud the first instruments of our founder, Leonard Berghaus, and his many successful contributions to organbuilding. Each instrument that has been produced since I started in 2006 is unique in its own right, and I am truly proud of them all. I look forward to what the next years will bring, both in challenges and opportunities.

—Jonathan Oblander

 

From the President

My apprenticeship at Berghaus began at a very young age. I have fond memories of being pulled out of class at Grace Lutheran School to help assist with organ repairs, or so they thought! Little did I know that this would set the stage for my life’s work. My high school summers were spent working for Berghaus in a variety of roles, and in 1988 I began my full-time position. My training and work experience was primarily in casework, structure, winding, and windchest construction. As time went on, I gradually moved into project management for several years before being appointed vice president in 1999. In 2004, I was named president of the firm.

During the mid-1990s, I began to look to the future of the company and realized that to grow and remain viable, we would have to employ a new business model of separating the new organs from the service side and executing multiple projects at once. A larger facility would be needed to accommodate the change. In 1999, after several years of exploring various options, including construction of a new facility, we located a building. Although it had been vacant for a number of years, the advantages far outweighed the drawbacks. Its location less than a mile from our previous facility meant that the remodeling process and relocation would have a minimum impact on our production schedule and the more than 200 clients for whom the company provided service and maintenance.  

The move in 2001 from a 6,700-square-foot building to a 30,000-square-foot plant afforded Berghaus the opportunity to design a more streamlined approach to our processes. A new set-up room with a ceiling height of 38 feet was constructed to accommodate larger instruments. The remodeled service area allowed for a clean and spacious environment to accomplish all aspects of organ service and maintenance. One of the depressed loading docks was filled in to create additional 26′ by 52′ space for managing multiple projects simultaneously. Four separate voicing rooms were created to allow our artisans to excel in their craft. A conference room and spacious office area completed the updated state-of-the-art facility. The building underwent other significant structural updates and improvements, including a new fire/burglar alarm system and surveillance for safety and the protection of our clients’ property.  

In addition, the new facility allowed us to install more efficient and larger equipment to the plant floor. A new spray booth, dust collection system, 54-inch-wide belt sander, and multiple TigerStops^TM significantly updated our production process. With four new vacuum press tables, we were able to press up to eight slider chests in one day, something that would have taken us four days to accomplish in the past. Recent additions to our technology include a 3-D printer and planning for the installation of a large CNC machine. 

With my father nearing retirement, there was no doubt in my mind that a different business model would be needed to propel the company forward and continue our commitment to excellence. His were big shoes to fill. It is sobering and gratifying when I think of the many former Berghaus employees who were mentored by my father and have prominent positions throughout the industry. Preserving his legacy and continuing his life’s work was a daunting task. To accomplish this, I created a new team approach made up of a variety of artisans with the same dedication to the art of organbuilding that my father instilled in me. The new methodology produced a positive, collaborative working environment and a superior instrument, resulting in a secure future for all.

Berghaus has a history of successfully building both mechanical action and electric slider chest instruments and has continually made improvements to its approach. At the turn of the century, the advances started accelerating as the new Berghaus team began incorporating wooden windlines, 1.75-inch tongue and groove solid hardwood enclosures, European racking, and fastidious wire management into the construction techniques. Today, three-dimensional modeling and design create a realistic representation for new instrument presentation drawings and aid in the efficiency of in-shop construction. The case and console designs are an organic part of the rooms in which they reside. Our tonal finishing is, quite simply, second to none. Along with the aforementioned construction changes, we have an overhauled marketing approach with a new corporate image, website, and brochure.

What did not change was our commitment to maintaining high standards for every task our clients hire us to do, from tuning and service to building new instruments. We take great pride in tuning throughout the Midwest and beyond. From emergency service seven days a week to releathering reservoirs or cleaning instruments, our service business is paramount to our success and we appreciate the trust our clients have in us.

Our company is still devoted to the time-honored tradition of slider chests, low to moderate wind pressures, and pure and natural voicing practices. Our later instruments retain these hallmarks while presenting new colors and possibilities for performance of many schools of organ composition. Celebrating our 50th anniversary gives me the opportunity to reflect on the past and contemplate the honor of leading Berghaus into the future. The tremendous pride and respect I have for my staff and their accomplishments cannot be expressed in words. 

—Brian D. Berghaus

 

Please mark your calendars to celebrate the Berghaus 50th Anniversary with a recital at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois, November 12, 4:00 p.m. A reception will follow in the fellowship hall.

Frank Rippl

Chicago? Again? A third OHS national convention in the Windy City? What else was there to see and hear in the way of the pipe organ? There was a great deal—and splendidly presented with grace, good humor, brilliant scholarship, and midwestern charm. Chicago has world-class museums, architecture, shopping, dining, magnificent Lake Michigan—and stunning churches and pipe organs!

 

Sunday, July 8

Jonathan Ryan played the opening recital at St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church on Chicago’s North Side, on the fine 2m Fisk Op. 123 (2005) that stands on the floor in the rear nave’s left corner. Things got off to a lively start with Dupré’s transcription of Bach’s Sinfonia from Cantata 29. This robust Fisk has strong, dark, full-bodied reeds; clean, striking mixtures; singing flutes and strings, warm foundations, and a powerful fortissimo. Ryan’s playing had great drive; he saved the mighty reed sounds for a dramatic conclusion. In Sweelinck’s Balletto del Granduca, I liked hearing the full-bodied Trompette, flutes accompanying a Cornet and a jolly Zimbelstern, and a nice organo pleno to close. Fine playing.

Francis Jackson’s Prelude on East Acklam featured some very British sounds: celestes accompanied the 8′ Octave in the tenor register; I believe we heard the 4′ Open Flute. The organ more than held its own in the hymn “For the fruit of all creation.” How I love hearing OHS hymn singing! I was seated next to Stephen Schnurr and Dennis Northway, leaders of the convention. Their faces expressed great pleasure. That first hymn is always a wonderful affirmation for convention committee members—a moment of satisfaction after years of hard work. I was happy for them, and all who made this moment possible. This was indeed “the fruit of their creation.”

In György Ligeti’s (1923–2006) Étude coulée 1969 a busy, repetitive pattern of phenomenally fast notes in the flutes flew out over sustained pedal notes, then suddenly ended, flitting off to the upper reaches. A few chuckles were heard. 

Herbert Howells’ Rhapsody in C-sharp Minor, op. 17, no. 3, started big and then presented typical Howellsian dynamic and tonal variations. I liked the Hautbois 8′ as a chorus reed. The Great Prestant 16′ in the tenor range was grand. Ryan had a very fine sense of this piece’s architecture.

In No. 4 in A-Flat Major from Robert Schumann’s Six Canonic Etudes, op. 56, Ryan showed the rich foundations, ending with Viole de gambe 8′; No. 5 in B Minor offered pluck and life. George Baker’s Berceuse Paraphrase (1992) was a lovely combination of Vierne’s Berceuse with Away in a Manger—easy on the ear with celestes, solo flute, and soft pedal.

Jonathan Ryan closed with Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in B Major, op. 7, no. 1—its lively toccata and angular fugue formed a test for hands and feet that he passed well! This excellent recital was a great start to our convention.

Buses took us downtown, where we had our choice of restaurants, then walked to Holy Name Cathedral for a recital by Wolfgang Rübsam on the 1989 4m, 117-rank Flentrop. With mechanical stop action and very deep mechanical key action, it is not for the faint of heart. Following a recent fire, the cathedral was closed for a time. The organ suffered only minor damage, to the Positief; building repairs, with a new terrazzo floor, improved the acoustics. The organ stands proudly in the rear gallery: its elaborate casework, in light-colored French quarter-sawn oak, starkly contrasts with the dramatic dark wooden ceiling. Herr Rübsam’s all-German program began with Bach’s partita Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig. Registrations were perfectly proportioned: cornets sang with grace and conviction, beautifully supported by foundations; the full plenum was rich and clear. Elegant playing throughout.

Chorale preludes followed: Helmut Walcha’s Jesu, deine Passion (canon at the sixth) in trio texture; Rübsam’s own Wie soll ich dich empfangen used an 8′ Principal with tremolo, a lovely pastel; Walcha’s Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott offered wonderful counterpoint against a sturdy pedal cantus firmus. Walcha (1907–91) was Rübsam’s teacher; Rübsam is recording Walcha’s complete organ works on the Naxos label. We then sang the hymn “A mighty fortress is our God.” Our singing that night was some of the week’s best!

Walcha’s Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ presented effective combinations of 8′ and 4′ flutes, Cornet with tremolo, and a pedal-reed cantus firmus. Rübsam’s own O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf: Entrée opened with a grand ff; Communio was a continually moving trio followed by a lush passage on strings and flutes; a lively Toccata followed, including the pedal 32′ Bombarde. This thrilling and joyful piece is a first-rate addition to the repertoire. 

More Walcha followed: an introspective Der Tag ist hin, mein Jesu, bei mir bleibe. Usually I’m pretty good at identifying registrations, but not with this organ and organist. Rübsam drew forth a fantastic variety of color—the Dutch reeds were so subtle.

Rübsam closed this perfect recital with Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. Dynamics began softly but built quickly; tempo was langsam at first, but built momentum and energy. The fugue’s familiar melodies were given their due in perfect balance. I’ve never heard it played better. Rübsam’s wife, Jan, told me that he had had rotator cuff surgery on his shoulder in April. Only three weeks prior to the convention did he know he could play for us! The audience’s roar called him back to the balcony railing countless times. This was a memorable OHS evening.

 

Monday, July 9

Monday dawned bright and sunny. Cooler temperatures followed weeks of horrendous heat. With perfect weather, we were eager to get started. 

We divided into two groups. Mine went to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Valparaiso, Indiana to hear James Russell Brown play the 2m Hook & Hastings Op. 1417 (1889). The Atlas contains Stephen Schnurr’s two-page essay about this organ and Scot Huntington’s 16-page description of his firm’s work restoring the instrument. It stands at the back of the church resplendent in a beautiful oak case and painted façade; the 16′ Bourdon pipes form the sides of the case. One of our Biggs Fellows hand-pumped the organ for the recital. Brown began with Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from Solomon). The organ’s sound was clear and warm. In Bach’s Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 662, the Melodia accompanied the (partially new) 16′ Contra Fagotto played one octave lower, along with (I think) the 4′ Violina, a lovely sound. Brown played with great sensitivity and sweetness. Sur “La, mi, re,” by an anonymous 16th-century English composer, was played on an 8′ flute. 

Chorale Variations on St. Elizabeth (Crusader’s Hymn), from Frank Ferko’s (b. 1950) Music for Elizabeth Chapel (2001), is charming and would please your congregation. I was eager to see how Brown would bring off the late-romantic Elgar Nimrod from “Enigma” Variations (op. 36), arranged by William H. Harris, on a small tracker organ without stop pullers. He did reasonably well, using the piano and forte ventil-like toe studs, but it was ultimately awkward. Parry’s hymn “O praise ye the Lord!” (Laudate Dominum) was a good follow-up, in a fine demonstration of a very beautiful 19th-century organ.

A pleasant walk through a park-like setting complete with pond and fountain took us to First Presbyterian Church for our choice of lectures, one on the restoration of a 1926 Casavant that will be moved to Chicago’s St. John Cantius Church, about which we had received a DVD. I attended the other, “Issues in Restoration,” by Keith Williams of Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, a fascinating consideration of “Why do we do what we do the way we do it,” that also explored the words “conservation” and “restoration”—entertaining and enlightening, with plenty of photos. 

We then drove to Gary, Indiana, once home to U.S. Steel. It has stunning views of Lake Michigan, and an attractive English Gothic-style Catholic cathedral, built and dedicated in 1950 to the Holy Angels. The 2m, 33-rank Phelps Casavant, Op. 2769, installed in 1963, stands in the rear gallery on either side of a large window, and speaks clearly down the nave in a grand acoustic. This was a much-anticipated recital—word was out that this organ was exceptional (it was), and we all love Derek Nickels’ playing (he did not disappoint!). Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 549, sounded clean and polished. The fugue began on the 8′ Krummhorn—an unexpected surprise—and built to a blazing full-organ finale. We were all smitten with this instrument; music by Ernst Pepping perfectly suited it: Wie soll ich dich empfangen (Grosses Orgelbuch, 1941), Vorspiel I, Andante cantabile showed the beautiful 8′ and 4′. Vorspiel II, Allegro Scherzando leapt about; a fine reed carried the tune. William Albright’s ever-charming Sweet Sixteenths—A Concert Rag for Organ (1975) was very well played with loads of wit. As it was about 90 degrees outside, and we were packed in the church without A/C, who knows how warm the church was, nor how warm Derek was up in the loft, but it never showed in his playing!

After “Father, we praise thee” (Christe Sanctorum)—brilliantly played and vigorously sung—Nickels closed with Dupré’s Variations sur un Noël, op. 20 (1922), a dazzling performance that lifted us out of the pews roaring our approval for this superb recital. (Derek was also in charge of the buses, and did his work very well, indeed!)

Next was Christ Temple Cathedral—Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. in the Roseland neighborhood. The present building was dedicated in 1926. Originally a Dutch Reformed church, in the 1960s and ’70s it and the neighborhood became largely African-American. The church is a well-maintained part of the community. Its 3m, 39-stop electro-pneumatic 1926 Hinners—the largest surviving Hinners in the Chicago area—stands in the front of the church in chambers on either side of the seated choir. Chicago organist and composer Clarence Eddy played the dedication recital. In 1954 Austin replaced the console. The organ fell silent in recent years, but was brought back to life by the Chicago-Midwest OHS chapter especially for our convention. Recitalist Mark Sudeith began with Wilhelm Middelschulte’s (1863–1943) Canon in F Major, dedicated to Clarence Eddy—cheery music using the foundation stops. Schubert’s Am Meer, arranged by Eddy, showed the beautiful soft strings and Vox Humana; the tone is warm and luxurious. Sudeith then played (from the original manuscript) Variations on a Folksong, “Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells,” by Florence B. Price (1887–1953), which displayed the solo reeds and ended with a lively toccata. The hymn “I’m happy with Jesus alone,” by Charles P. Jones Sr. (1865–1949), founder of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A., was a rouser in the best sense—we loved it. The playing was first rate, and our voices filled the 1,150-seat church with joy.

Our buses took us to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, on the University of Chicago campus, to hear the massive 72-bell carillon, the world’s second largest (the largest, also a gift of the Rockefeller family, is at New York City’s Riverside Church, with 74 bells). John Gouwens played a stunning program as we sat in the grass beneath the chapel’s soaring tower: Dave Grusin’s On Golden Pond (1981); John Courter’s Suite No. 4 (2009); an improvisation on a submitted hymn tune; and Roy Hamlin Johnson’s Victimae Paschali Laudes (1986).

My group had dinner at Augustana Lutheran Church; organist Daniel Schwandt allowed us access to the church’s new handsome 2m tracker built by Wahl Organbuilders of Appleton, Wisconsin. We took quite a shine to its clear voicing. Wahl reused pipework from an old Lyon & Healy organ as well as newly made pipes—a very successful blend. 

On to the First Unitarian Church, completed in 1931 in the English Perpendicular Gothic style, to hear three historic organs from Stephen Schnurr’s collection. There was also a Hammond player organ performing: another treat! Who knew there was such a thing? Gregory Crowell, making his ninth appearance at an OHS convention, began on a Henry Willis “Scudamore” organ (ca. 1857–1860) with Gottlieb Muffat’s Overture, Suite 1 in C Major. The one-manual, 54-note organ had two ranks: Open Diapason 8′ and Principal 4′, with a permanently coupled 25-note pedal. The pleasing sounds graced the early evening. Crowell then moved to a sweet-toned little George Jardine & Sons (ca. 1850s) (“the oldest American-built pipe organ in the Chicago metropolitan area,” according to the Atlas). He gracefully played Handel’s Voluntary in C Major, movements III and VI from Ernest Chausson’s Vêpres des Vierges, op. 31 (I enjoyed the flute in movement VI), and his own transcription of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Wörte, op. 67, V. Moderato. 

A two-rank (no pedal) Hilborne L. Roosevelt, Op. 297 (1885) looked like an upright piano, having a reed organ’s foot-pumping pedals. It was meant to be portable. We heard Voluntary by Samuel Jackson (1818–1885), then some elegant Elgar: Vesper Voluntaries, op. 14, I. Andante and IV. Allegretto piacevole, with an effective Stopped Diapason. Praeludium in F-sharp Minor by Ernst Friedrich Richter (1808–1879) was interesting and well suited to the Roosevelt. Crowell concluded on the Willis, with Eric Thiman’s Postlude on “Nun danket alle Gott” and I. Allegro from Sonatine for Organ by Eberhart Egermann (b. 1933), good demonstration pieces, well played. We were grateful to Stephen Schnurr for making these instruments available (and to those who helped transport them!).

We returned to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel to hear Nathan Laube; the performance was broadcast over the Internet (available at: http://news.uchicago.edu/webcast/nathan-laube-live-2012-ohs-chicago-con…), an OHS first. The chapel is vast: long, wide, and high, with the main organ in front and a substantial gallery organ in the rear. The front 4m console plays both organs; a 2m gallery console controls just that organ. The room’s windows were never properly finished, so it lacks color, but is still quite impressive. The 132-rank Skinner Organ Company Op. 634 was built in 1928—a period in which Ernest Skinner built his magnum opus at Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, and huge organs at the University of Michigan and Princeton. This organ suffered some rebuilding efforts in the 1970s and later; several ranks were dispersed. In 2005 the Schantz Organ Company returned old ranks, replicated others, and replaced some with vintage Skinner pipework. Rededicated on June 7, 2008, the organ, while not exactly as Skinner left it, is once again a major part of the Chicago organ scene. 

OHS executive director Jim Weaver welcomed the audience, including those on the World Wide Web, then Nathan Laube opened with Allegro vivace from Widor’s Symphonie, op. 42, no. 5 (1878). This familiar music moved over us gently at first, followed by a good deal of aggression. Laube kept things in proportion, giving each melodic line its due, ending on full organ with those fabulous reeds. Laube spoke about growing up in Chicago; as a young boy he was taken to hear the E. M. Skinner organ at St. Luke’s, Evanston, and to Rockefeller Chapel, where he heard Wolfgang Rübsam play. He fell in love with these instruments and knew that playing the organ would be his career.

Mendelssohn’s Sonata in A, op. 65, no. 3 (1845), first movement ended in a blaze of glory, followed by the lovely Andante tranquillo. Laube’s transcription of Mendelssohn’s Variations serieuses, op. 54 (1841), with passages of great wit and virtuosity, wonderfully displayed this huge organ’s colors. Though young (he turned 25 the day before this recital), Laube is a master of the art of transcription. He reached deeply into the vast Skinner tonal palette, and brought us to places we might not have gone before—a brilliant performance. 

After intermission, he played Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie in D-flat, op. 101 (1895). Its quiet opening showed beautiful strings and a solo flute that was to die for. A gentle reed chorus punctuated the flutes and strings, then stronger reeds were in dialogue with the foundations. A swelling crescendo then arose. Laube played it beautifully, announcing the ff section on a powerful reed, then slowly drifted back to quiet strings. 

In Funérailles (d’après Lamartine) from Laube’s transcription of Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173, no. 7 (1849), thunder-like pedal rumbles gave an ominous start, followed by a smashing fanfare played on the gallery organ’s horizontal trumpet. This piece is full of foreboding darkness, and Laube summoned forth remarkable color. A riotous pedal solo accompanied the active manual work, which featured a few blasts from a strong reed, and then gave way to a single flute. In two Brahms settings of O Welt, ich muß dich lassen, no. 3 employed a quiet 8′ Diapason on the choir, and no. 11 drew especially gorgeous foundations. Laube’s tempo was a bit restless, as though the soul longed to leave the body and journey heavenward. 

The world premiere of Laube’s transcription of Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, op. 80 (1880), featured melodic lines and rhythmic passages carefully delineated, and blended into a musically rich and full whole. The concert concluded with Gaudeamus Igitur, so fun to sing in this full chapel, ending a wonderful day. 

 

Tuesday, July 10

In the suburb of Downers Grove we visited the charming Tivoli Theatre, where house organist David Rhodes played its 3m, 10-rank Wurlitzer, Op. 942. The third organ to grace this theatre (it was preceded by a Barton and a Wurlitzer), this instrument is owned and maintained by Chicago Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (CATOE). We munched on popcorn as Rhodes entertained us with Richard A. Whiting’s Hooray for Hollywood (1937), and Charles Chaplin’s Smile, then accompanied a hilarious 1915 Chaplin short film, In the Park (possibly filmed in the Chicago area). Rhodes seemingly caught every nuance. In a hot dog-eating scene, he slipped in the “Oscar Mayer Wiener Song”—very clever playing and a fun start to the day.

Our next stop was very sentimental for me: the beautiful Noack organ, Op. 44 (1969) at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph in La Grange Park. Installed the summer I graduated from college, this organ became a place of pilgrimage for us “Tracker Backers” on our visits to Chicago. It stands in a balcony in the rear of the nave of this handsome modern chapel. Originally the room had all hard surfaces, but now carpet covers the concrete floor, and padded chairs have replaced wooden seats. Though the acoustic is not as beautiful as it once was, the organ still sounds great. 

Thomas Wikman began with Buxtehude’s Partita on “Vater unser im Himmelreich”; I especially enjoyed the 4′ flutes with tremolo. In Antonio Cabezón’s Tiento del quinto tono, Wikman’s well-chosen registration—reeds and Sesquialtera II—led the way. This organ’s Italian accent spoke in Girolamo Cavazzoni’s Canzona sopra ‘Il e bel e bon’, played with good style. The sounds were as beautiful as I remembered. The music was cleanly and sensitively played. 

After the hymn “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus” (Hyfrydol), Wikman gave us a sweet performance of Robert Lind’s Prelude on ‘Love Unknown’, then Bach’s Pièce d’Orgue, BWV 572, which worked quite well. The brilliant closing section brought this outstanding concert to a fine conclusion.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church in La Grange is the city’s oldest congregation, founded in 1874. The present French Gothic-style church was built in 1926. (Our Atlas noted that it was featured in the 1995 film While You Were Sleeping.) The 1970 electro-pneumatic Phelps Casavant, Op. 3062, 3m, 46 stops, 63 ranks, stands in a chamber to the right of the chancel. Stephen Schnurr, author of the OHS Organ Atlas 2012, began with the hymn “Lo, he comes with clouds descending” (Helmsley),  followed by Buxtehude’s Praeludium in A Minor, BuxWV 153. Schnurr used the Krummhorn to good effect. Flutes led to the final fugue and a fantasia presenting the full plenum and pedal reeds—a wonderful sound, in a fine performance. 

Next came the premiere of Variations on Hyfrydol, written by convention chair Dennis Northway. At one point the tune appeared in the tenor with imaginatively placed fast notes up top. Another movement used a canon between a trumpet and pedal foundations. After a beautiful movement with sweet strings and soft foundations, a fugue brought this very good new piece to a close. Well done!

A hallmark of Stephen Schnurr’s OHS recitals is the showcasing of young musicians and friends. This recital featured a mother and her children. Tenor Willson Oppedahl, a junior at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, movingly performed Thomas Matthews’ (1915–99) The Lord Is My Shepherd, beautifully sung with sincere conviction. Elegy for violin, harp, and organ, by Harold Friedell (1908–58), featured violinist Allison Alcorn, Willson’s mother; her daughter Kiersten Oppedahl played harp. This enchanting piece, very well presented, cast a spell over all of us. 

Horatio Parker’s Allegretto, from Sonata in E-flat, op. 65, was a good contrast. The Phelps Krummhorn was playful, especially in the lower register, while flutes 8′ and 4′ scampered above. Stephen closed with the Allegro from Widor’s Symphonie VI, op. 42, a fine choice for this outstanding exemplar of the Organ Reform Movement. This organ has a lot of oomph, and Dr. Schnurr used it to good effect, playing with marvelous style and color. 

La Grange’s First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1890. The present church was built in 1962. Its 1962 3m, 46-rank Aeolian-Skinner stands in a gallery at the rear of the long, narrow nave. David Jonies and Jay Peterson shared the concert. Peterson opened with Rheinberger’s Sonata No. 8 in E Minor, op. 132, Introduction and Passacaglia, which sounded very good, with clear sounds in every dynamic range. They then joined forces for Handel’s Organ Concerto in F Major, op. 4, no. 4. Jay Peterson played the four-stop 1981 Brunzema Op. 3 portative organ from the front, while David Jonies played the orchestra bits on the main organ in the gallery. The organs were well matched, and the performance spirited. 

Jonies then played Andantino from Vierne’s Pièces de fantaisie, op. 51, no. 2, showing the beautiful strings, and Naïades, op. 55, no. 4. Next, both played the Skinner: John Rutter’s Variations on an Easter Theme (O sons and daughters), featuring a fine solo on the Oboe. The hymn was: “O sons and daughters let us sing!” (O filii et filiae).

On to Oak Park, to the beautiful St. Catherine of Siena–St. Lucy Catholic Church, a Tudor Gothic-style building dedicated in 1934. Casavant Op. 1467, built in 1932, stands in the rear gallery in two chambers that frame a large Tudor-style window. A modest 3m instrument, it has everything you’d need to be its happy player. The lucky person playing for us was Rhonda Sider Edgington, who opened with Percy Whitlock. In Pastorale, Psalm 23:1 from Seven Sketches on Verses from the Psalms, a solo on the Clarinet was accompanied by flutes, a great choice that slowly revealed the organ’s beauty. Folk Tune, from Five Short Pieces, used what I believe was the Cornopean in the tenor range. The beautiful strings crept in—still fresh after 80 years.

The hymn Picardy (“Let all mortal flesh keep silent”) was a joy to sing in this resonant room. We then heard our first music by Chicago composer Leo Sowerby: Picardy from Meditations on Communion Hymns. Edgington knew just how to express Sowerby’s marvelous harmonic sense. Her closing selection displayed this organ’s strong foundation tone: August Gottfried Ritter’s (1811–85) Sonate Nr. 2 in E Minor, op. 19.

We went to Oak Park’s Grace Episcopal Church for our Annual Meeting, followed by dinner; some explored the neighborhood, with its historic and architectural sites. 

At nearby First United Methodist Church, Ken Cowan played the splendid 4m 1926 Skinner. The console stands in a front balcony behind and above the altar, with pipes in chambers on either side of the chancel; a two-rank Echo division is in the ceiling above the rear gallery. A division of select stops from the main organ speaks into the chapel, where the division has its own 2m console. 

Cowan began with Liszt’s arrangement of Otto Nicolai’s Festival Overture on the chorale “Ein feste Burg is unser Gott,” op. 31. This organ was completely restored without alteration in 2005–6 by the Spencer Organ Company of Massachusetts and Jeff Weiler & Associates; except for an added stop in 1937, it is as it was when Skinner delivered it, producing powerful foundation tone and floor-shaking pedal notes. Cowan’s arrangement of Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 in D-flat featured lush strings and flutes, and a Skinner French Horn, played with his usual sensitivity.

The hymn was “When the morning stars together” (Weisse Flaggen). Ken Cowan’s hymn playing, like everything else, is done with great art and grace.

John Ireland’s beautiful Elegiac Romance began with a sweet Oboe solo followed by a wonderful section with celestes—perfect for a summer evening. It included the French Horn, and then built to a mighty roar; the plaintive Oboe returned, and it ended with quiet strings. Cowan closed the first half with a blazing performance of Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, op. 7, no. 3. I liked the Clarinet’s clear, round sound. The playing was precise and yet supple, with the musical line clearly shaped. That fantastic fugue really galloped along.

This organ had been restored but not modernized: it lacks levels of memory. So, as in the good old days, Cowan had to come out during intermission and reset his pistons. He chuckled about it, but went about his work good-naturedly. 

Cowan then returned to his perch high above us to perform Rachel Laurin’s Étude Héroïque, demonstrating the assertive Gamba Celestes on the Solo division, and a sweet 2′ in a French Tambourin section of this piece. He closed with Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, op. 42, giving this well-known work a new sheen through his musical creativity. The Pastorale showed the Clarinet again, the beautiful Vox Humana, and the Chimes. The Finale swept us along for a gleeful ride, with our pilot Ken Cowan giving the OHS another brilliant and memorable concert! We returned to our hotel fired up for the instrument we love, having just heard one its finest champions.

 

Wednesday, July 11

We began at Chicago’s Carl Schurz High School. The 1910 building is a masterpiece, incorporating elements of both Chicago and Prairie School styles. The 1925 Waveland Avenue wing included an auditorium seating nearly 1,800 and boasting three seconds of reverberation. The 4m Richard O. Whitelegg Möller proved to be one of the favorite instruments heard at this convention. The console abuts the front-left of the stage on the auditorium floor; pipes stand on a wide shelf at the back of the stage. We were told that this organ was delivered seven weeks after the contract was signed; the high quality of the work tells a great deal about Möller’s vast resources. (See Dennis Northway, “A new four-manual pipe organ in seven weeks: Möller Opus 6373 at Chicago’s Carl Schurz High School,” The Diapason, May 2012, pp. 26–29; audio file available at www.thediapason.com.) 

John Sherer, organist at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, presented a “Concert to Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic.” “Music of 1912” began with Elgar’s Imperial March, brilliantly played. The instrument has an English town hall organ’s power and grandeur. In Edward Bairstow’s Elegy, gorgeous strings and flutes were played with just enough rubato. The pedal part rumbled quietly as though it were a creature of the deep ocean. 

In “Music Heard Aboard the Titanic,” John Philip Sousa’s rousing and entertaining El Capitan was followed by Edwin H. Lemare’s transcription of Barcarolle, from Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, said to have been played one hour before the ship sank. Next came Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band, which was played as the ship sank. Sherer played it very well. 

“Music to Honor the Titanic Victims” began with Joseph Bonnet’s touching In Memoriam. The organ gave us deeply moving sounds of sadness, grief, and horror, and images of the deep, cold ocean. The piece ended with a quiet farewell to the victims of this tragedy.

This beautiful organ is in need and most worthy of a complete restoration, but was made to sound quite fine this day. Sherer closed with The Navy Hymn, “Eternal Father strong to save.” Here the too-brisk, march-like tempo seemed to not match the words. An over-busy accompaniment threw us off the pulse, and twice Sherer modulated up. The rest of the concert, however, was lovely and inspiring. 

We then went to Glencoe and the beautiful North Shore Congregation Israel. It was a thrill to enter this holy space, designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki (who designed the Oberlin Conservatory of Music). A peaceful study in white overlooking Lake Michigan, the sanctuary is shaped like praying hands. Narrow windows start just above the floor and rise to form ceiling arches, allowing light to fill the space. The 3m, 46-rank electro-pneumatic Casavant, Op. 2768 (probably the largest untouched early Phelps Casavant in the Chicago area), perches on a free-standing rear balcony.

The recitalist was H. Ricardo Ramirez, director of music/organist at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral. Jehan Alain’s Les Fêtes de l’Année Israelite, AWV 85, in the style of Hebrew chant and song, began quietly on the Krummhorn and gradually grew to a Trumpet fanfare. This very approachable music was so appropriate to the space, with clear and refined sounds. We sang the hymn “God of might” (Adeer Hu) in both Hebrew and English. In Bach’s Trio Sonata in G Major, BWV 530, the third movement showed the organ’s Sesquialtera. Ramirez closed with Duruflé’s Suite, op. 5. The Fagott 16′ played one octave lower was a very fine sound. The Toccata was thrillingly played.

In the leafy suburb of Winnetka, we visited Winnetka Congregational Church and its landmark 3m Martin Pasi tracker, Op. 18 (2008). Established in 1869, the church’s present building, Colonial with Art Deco and Egyptian touches in its lovely white interior, was built in 1936. The ornate North German-style case in front commands the eye with the Great in the middle, the Swell above the Great, and the Positiv cantilevered in front of the Great with the keydesk below, similar to John Brombaugh’s Op. 33 organ at Lawrence University in Appleton. The Pedal is in towers at the sides of the case; the 32′ Subbass is in the old chambers above and to the sides of the altar, where the previous Austin once stood. 

Nicholas Bideler, a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, began with Bruhns’s Praeludium in G Major, which sounded wonderful on this organ. Bideler’s playing had clear direction and he used the organ’s many colors very well. Next was Bach’s Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 654. One tremulant affects the entire organ, and it was fine, although it did create a bit of a stir on that low pedal E-flat that starts the piece. I think Bideler used the Vox Humana with a 4′ flute as the solo line. His performance was imbued with the inner joy expressed in the chorale. 

In Karg-Elert’s Trois Impressions, Op. 72—I. Harmonies du soir, Bideler showed this versatile organ’s romantic voice. I enjoyed the Krummhorn and strings. “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” (Repton) was followed by Impromptu from Vierne’s 24 Pièces de fantaisie, 3^ème Suite, which worked quite well. Bideler closed with Duruflé’s Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le theme di Veni Creator, Op. 4—III Choral varié. The triumphant ending was riveting. 

Grace Presbyterian Church in Winnetka had been First Church of Christ, Scientist, built in 1938—a white Colonial-style church, whose pewter and crystal lighting fixtures were imported from Czechoslovakia prior to World War II. The church was sold to Grace Presbyterian Church in 2012. The 1938 tonally and mechanically unaltered 2m W. W. Kimball Co. organ, Op. 7238, stands at the front. Both Swell and Great are enclosed in separate chambers. The first recital was given by William H. Barnes, of Evanston, on August 21, 1938. Our recitalist, Elizabeth Naegele, who, among other things, has the distinction of being Nathan Laube’s first organ teacher, opened with Lefébure-Wély’s Sortie in B-flat Major—jolly music, played with great spirit and flourish. In a salute to this building’s long history as a Christian Science Church, the hymn was Mary Baker Eddy’s 1896 “Saw ye my Saviour?” (Laundon). We sang it well, and she played it with great sensitivity to the text, using the organ’s colors nicely. 

Naegele then played five of the “versets” from Léon Boëllmann’s Heures mystiques, ending with Entrée III. I particularly liked the Oboe. Sonata II—III Seraphic Chant by Lily Wadhams Moline (1862–1966) was lovely music, beautifully played. Naegele ended this fine and well-chosen program with Let Us Break Bread Together from Communion Hymns for Organ, Vol. I, in a quite inventive setting by Edwin T. Childs (b. 1945). 

Our next visit, to Techny’s Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Society of the Divine Word, was highly anticipated as we had seen stunning photos of its interior. A huge complex, its property adjoins St. Joseph’s Technical School, whence the “Techny” nickname originates. The large Romanesque chapel, adorned with beautiful carvings, statues, chandeliers, and sconces (forged in the Techny shops), opened in 1923. The second-story gallery runs the entire perimeter of the chapel, and our musicians took full advantage of it. Acoustics were generous and rich. The 4m Wiener organ, some of whose ranks are reused from other instruments, stands in the rear gallery in an attractive case. Its condition is not great, but it was shown to its best advantage. 

We heard The Madrigal Choir of Grace Episcopal Church, Oak Park, led by Dennis Northway, along with young organists Madeleine Woodworth and Charlie Carpenter. Now in its twelfth year, the choir, made up of mostly high school students, is dedicated to singing music of the Renaissance. Mr. Carpenter began, playing Vierne’s Carillon sur la sonnerie du carillon de la chapelle du Château de Longpont (Aisne) from 24 Pièces en style libre, op. 31, no. 21, with skill and aplomb. 

The choir sang Kyrie Eleison from William Byrd’s Mass for four voices very well, in proper Anglican style. They surprised us by singing not from the rear gallery where the organ was, but from the perimeter gallery above the high altar. After Madeleine Woodworth played Divertissement from Vierne’s 24 Pièces en style libre, with plenty of drive from this powerful organ, the choir offered Blessed Are the Pure in Heart by Eric DeLamarter (1880–1953), a beautiful setting sung and conducted with great sensitivity. Woodworth led the hymn, Leo Sowerby’s “Come risen Lord, and deign to be our guest” (Rosedale). The choir moved to different places along that perimeter gallery each time they sang, slowly making their way to the organ loft—a magical effect. Northway led these well-trained students beautifully in Peter Lutkin’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You. 

A new setting of Ave Verum Corpus was by a familiar figure: 20 year-old Adam Gruber, an alumnus of this choir and organ student of Dennis Northway, who has played for us many times and is now a student at Oberlin. The piece was well constructed and showed that Gruber has a future in the art of composition. Charlie Carpenter, a current Northway student, played the Widor Toccata. Great job, Charlie! Kudos to Dennis Northway for giving these young people a chance to perform at the convention!

Buses then took us to Evanston, for dinner at the North Shore Hotel downtown, and then the treat of several neighborhood open consoles. Some of the young, fast-moving types, led by Nathan Laube, made it down to St. Luke’s Church and its magnificent E.M. Skinner. It was a grand, fun, free time. 

The day concluded at the Music Institute of Chicago. This building, a former Christian Science church, retained its 1914 E. M. Skinner organ, Op. 208 (the oldest functioning Skinner in Illinois, according to our Atlas), a modest 3m instrument whose pipes stand at the back of the platform in front of the 900-seat auditorium built in the Neoclassic style favored by Mary Baker Eddy. The console is on the stage. Recitalist Scott Montgomery began with Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie in E-flat. The forte sections demonstrated the sturdy foundation stops echoed by the Cornopean—a great sound. Montgomery played Bach’s transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596, in the Romantic tradition, with shades and all. I loved the ppp strings in the second movement. It worked surprisingly well.

In the Choral of Widor’s Symphony No. 7, op. 42, no. 3, Montgomery captured the mood nicely, alternating string, flute, and foundation tone. Scherzo from Vierne’s Symphony No. 2, op. 20, was an audience favorite; Montgomery did a fine job, and so did the Skinner. Huge flute sounds crowned the ensemble. Dudley Buck’s Variations on Home, Sweet Home, op. 30, displayed the big, bold Cornopean, Vox Humana, Flügel Horn, and the Great Philomela. The Swell Aeoline and Unda Maris closed the piece—wonderful sounds that made my mouth water. One young member was heard to say, “I want an E. M. Skinner in my church!” In a beautiful calm Calvin Hampton Lullaby, Montgomery summoned all of the organ’s softest sounds. The Swell Gedackt accompanied the Clarinet in the tenor range; the Vox Humana was heard again as a solo with a 4′ flute. Unda Maris and Aeoline were a great combination. This is a piece your congregation would love!

In Guilmant’s Caprice in B-flat, op. 20, no. 3 from Pièces dans différents styles, Book VI, there was a good deal of playful shifting of manuals—welcome after the Hampton’s quiet gentility, and very well played. This organ has no general pistons, so Montgomery employed two very skilled stop pullers. The hymn was Mary Baker Eddy’s “It matters not what be thy lot” (Gloaming). Montgomery closed his fine program with John Knowles Paine’s sturdy Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn, op. 3, no. 1—always a good tour of an organ. We returned to the hotel tired but exhilarated. 

 

Thursday, July 12

Thursday dawned bright and sunny. At Chicago’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Luke (ELCA) we heard Erik Wm. Suter play the large 1963 3m Schlicker. The church’s long, high nave offers wonderful acoustics. The main organ stands in the rear gallery, with a Positiv mounted on the railing. The clear, refined sound includes marvelous mixtures that were like cooling drops of water. A smaller unit organ is in front of the church. Suter opened with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 541; he has a fine and clean technique, and tempos were perfect for both music and room. 

Dale Wood’s gorgeous setting of In Thee Is Gladness began with strings and a 4′ flute. We also heard lovely solo reeds. In “Come down, O love divine” (Down Ampney), Suter showed brilliant hymn leadership. His time as organist at Washington National Cathedral was evident in a grandiose and thrilling style of playing; his last verse reharmonization was a thing of wonder.

In Peter Eben’s Nedelní Hudba (Music for Sunday), Finale, Suter put the blazing reeds on full display. After a quiet section with strings, solo flutes, and quiet solo reeds, some growling and menacing pedal sounds took us back to the louder, livelier music. Organ and organist were a fabulous combination; this fantastic concert was a great start to the day. 

We proceeded to the huge and imposing St. Josaphat’s Church in Chicago, in Romanesque style with massive stone walls, blessed in 1902. The first organ in the rear gallery, built by the Wisconsin Pipe Organ Factory in 1902, was replaced in 1924 by a 3m Kilgen, Op. 3386, which used some pipes from the previous instrument and retained its case. In 2004, the Bradford Organ Company installed a “much traveled” 1872 2m Johnson Organ Company Op. 386 in the nave on the right side. Our recitalist Bernadette Wagner earned her bachelor’s degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University; she is now a graduate student at Arizona State University. Wagner began with two Brahms settings of O Welt, ich muß dich lassen on the Kilgen; diapasons were warm and rich in the reverberant space—nicely played. She then came downstairs to the Johnson organ for the hymn “Creator spirit, by whose aid” (Surrey). Bernadette Wagner and the room-filling sound of this 14 stop-organ were quite up to the task of accompanying us. 

Movements II and III of Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 4 in B-flat, op. 65, featured the organ’s beautiful Clarinet, Oboe and Bassoon, and lovely flutes—very pleasing playing with a well-developed sense of musical line. Wagner closed her fine recital with Daniel Pinkham’s The Book of Hours, a nice demonstration of the various combinations on this well-made treasure from another century. 

Chicago’s Wicker Park Evangelical Lutheran Church, ELCA, was formally organized in 1879; the present Romanesque church was finished in 1907. The 1907 Möller tracker is still in use; sadly, however, only part of the Swell division was operable, so much of the program was compromised; at times it was difficult to even hear the organ. Our players were Dennis Northway and Adam Gruber. Northway opened with a very soft Clarence Eddy Prelude in A Minor, using the Möller’s beautiful strings very well, then played Harrison M. Wild’s ironically named hymn “Softly fades the twilight ray.” Adam Gruber played two selections from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, and Northway played Pachelbel’s Aria Sebaldina from Hexachordum Apollinis (1699). I felt sorry for these gentlemen having to play an instrument not up to convention standards. We had to listen very carefully to hear anything, but I must say that it was always worth the effort. 

During free time downtown, we could either visit the Chicago Cultural Center in the grand old former public library, or, as I did, cross Michigan Avenue and visit Millennium Park with its fantastic Frank Gehry-designed bandshell, and the three-story Anish Kapoor “Cloud Gate” steel sculpture (known locally as “The Bean”). The entire complex is brilliant.

A problem arose, beyond the convention leaders’ control. The 1927 3m Estey at the John Murphy Auditorium of the American College of Surgeons was unable to be played. So our brave recitalist, Cathryn Wilkins, moved to a quite different venue and organ—the huge 4m Aeolian-Skinner in the Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue, across the street from the 100-story John Hancock Center—and very quickly adapted her program. Designed for a very different instrument, the program did not make full use of this organ’s range, but was nevertheless entertaining. Wilkins played some waltzes by Brahms for piano, Vierne’s Scherzetto from 24 Pièces, and Le Cygne from Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals. She ended with three movements from In Fairyland by Roy Spalding Stoughton (1884–1953)—a pleasant recital. 

Our buses took us to Navy Pier—a huge place with a highly charged carnival atmosphere. We boarded “The Spirit of Chicago” for a late-afternoon harbor cruise and buffet dinner. The dramatic Chicago skyline was very beautiful. We enjoyed each other’s company and the tasty food. 

As we were downtown at 6 pm, when traffic was busy (with numerous street carnivals), our buses got snagged—the only bus problem all week. Our evening recital was at St. Pauls United Church of Christ, founded in 1843 to serve German-speaking Protestants. In 1959 the present English Gothic-style building was completed and the 4m Aeolian-Skinner, Op. 1328, installed. Its main pipe chambers are situated above and on either side of the chancel. In 1998–2000 the Berghaus Organ Company completed the organ as originally planned, updating some of the mechanical features of the console, located at the front. 

Our performer was well-known Chicago organist David Schrader. It took about 40 minutes for everyone to arrive, and bless his heart, Schrader entertained us early arrivals with an impromptu performance, from memory, of Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major. It was delightful. 

When the audience was finally in place, Schrader began with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548 (“The Wedge”). Some of the playing was rushed, which took away from the towering majesty of Bach’s music. The organ was more than up to the style, and Schrader used it quite well. In Commotio, op. 53 by Carl Nielsen (1865–1931), we heard mixture tone for a very long time, which, right after the Bach, grew tiresome. Finally, some flute sounds were heard, leading to contrasting dynamics in another section. A fugue began—Schrader’s tempos were just fine. We then heard what I believe was the lovely Gedeckt in the Antiphonal division, located high in the rear balcony—imaginative and colorful use of contrast. He used dramatic moments to good effect. The piece was OK, but it seemed to be longer than needed. Although Schrader played it well, my ears could have done with less mixture tone; at the end, he drew all of the high-pitched mixtures, bordering on painful after such a long piece.

After intermission, the lovely hymn “O blest Creator of the light” (Lucis Creator) was followed by Frank Ferko’s Symphonie brève (1987). The opening Andante had a running bass line in the pedals, with foundation stops and reeds in chords on the manuals. Attractive flute sounds accompanied a Cornet. The pedal motion returned with punctuations from those singular A/S reeds. The Toccata began on strings and flutes with fast figures. A bonny solo flute sounded out a tune in the pedal’s tenor range. We heard wonderful colors in this very appealing work. In the final Chorale, the use of mixtures and reeds was startling. The writing was fresh, sort of Messiaen or Langlais “lite”. 

Schrader closed with Reger’s Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, op. 135b. Plenty of contrast is called for and we got it, in a fine tour of this noble instrument’s fine solo voices and choruses. It was all beautifully played with great attention to the rhythmic and thematic structure.

 

Friday, July 13

The final day, devoted to regional organbuilders, began with Sebastian M. Glück’s lecture on “Innovation, Adaptation, and Stagnation: The Tonal Trajectory of the Roosevelt Organ.” Hilborne and Frank Roosevelt, aristocratic æsthetes as well as businessmen, were interested in organbuilding. Glück discussed their life and work, people who influenced them, and how their work still influences American organ building over a century after their deaths—most interesting.

We then were bused to Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest. Founded in 1902, the present English Gothic-style building was dedicated in 1931. The organ began as Skinner Organ Company, Op. 833, a 3m, 36-rank organ, rebuilt in 1956 by Schlicker. In 1987, it was rebuilt and enlarged to its present size by the Berghaus Organ Company of Bellwood, Illinois. The pipes are in twin chambers on either side of the altar, the console in a balcony over the left transept. The church has beautiful carvings and a live acoustic. 

Organist Karen Schneider Kirner began with a hymn: “As daylight steals across the skies.” Kirner wrote the tune, Morning Hymn, which was quite good. Eugène Gigout’s Grand Chœur dialogué made good use of the reeds. I could have done with less mixture tone. Kirner’s steady playing gave this majestic piece its just due. After Gigout’s Scherzo, from Dix Pièces, we then heard Variations sur un Noël bourguignon by André Fleury (1903–95), which showed some of the organ’s softer stops as well as fuller sounds. The music was attractive—like an updating of Dandrieu. 

This is a very loud organ. Seated in the front row, I wished that I had sat further back because Kirner may have crossed a line with overuse of tutti. Mixtures and reeds together over a long stretch of time is tiring.

A Gigue for the Tuba Stop by Donald Stuart Wright (b. 1940) was next—a thrilling piece, but again loud. My ears longed for strings and flutes played with the shades closed. Chicago composer Keith S. Kalemba’s (b. 1972) Toccata was also a loud piece. Kirner is a fine organist, but her programming choices were not wise. We did not hear any of the soft solo reeds. Another hymn followed: “Sing the Lord a new song,” to a tune written by Ms. Kirner. One final blazingly loud piece brought her program to a close: Marcel Dupré’s Carillon, from Sept Pièces, op. 27.

OHS convention recitalists usually take great pains to show the entire range and color of the organs to which they are assigned in thoughtfully and carefully chosen pieces. Sadly, this was not the case.

On to Wilmette, and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church ELCA, to hear William Aylesworth, former organist at that church, long-time and well-loved performer at OHS conventions, and past OHS president. The church, founded in 1903, built its present English Gothic red brick worship space in 1923. Aylesworth told us that he was approached in the late 1980s by the Bradford Organ Company, offering to build an organ as an example of what they could do with recycled materials from other organs. The result was Bradford’s Op. 6 from 1990, a very successful 2m instrument. It stands in a small transept, with pipework in a chamber to the left of the altar, using a space formerly occupied by a Wangerin organ. 

Aylesworth began with “O God, our help in ages past” (St. Anne). Bill was organist here for 38 years, and knows how to lead a hymn in this space. It was beautifully played. Bach’s Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, BWV 680, wonderfully showed this organ’s great clarity. Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639, demonstrated the lovely Oboe with tremolo. In Dandrieu’s Trio avec Pédale, we heard the warm Clarinet, which came from a Hutchings organ. The beautiful Great 4′ Gedeckt, and the Swell 4′ Flute d’Amour (from a Johnson & Son organ, Op. 389) worked very well. Dandrieu’s Duo en cors de chasse sur la trompette used, I believe, the Great Trumpet, which came from a 19th-century organ. It had a surprisingly robust sound.

Aylesworth ended his fine recital with Guilmant: Three Nöels, op. 60, demonstrated more solo stops; Marche sur un thème de Hændel, op. 15, no. 2 was very well played and sent us out on a high!

At Glenview Community Church (UCC), we heard young organist Stephen Buzard in music for organ and brass quintet. The organ was built by Stephen’s father’s company: John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois, Op. 21 (1999). In the Colonial-style church the organ is in three chambers behind the altar; a rank of Principal pipes provides façades for each of them. The center chamber’s façade is of polished tin, while the flanking chamber façades are flamed copper. The console is in the French style; the organ as a whole is highly eclectic, speaking with a sturdy sound and a wide range of color and tone on its 69 ranks.

Bach’s Concerto in C Major after Johann Ernst, BWV 595, was a clean, spirited performance with just the right amount of rubato, followed by Buzard’s own transcription of Schubert’s Du bist die Ruh, D. 776, displaying strings and several beautiful solo stops (my favorite was the Great 4′ Open Flute with tremolo), played with sweet sensitivity. Duruflé’s Scherzo, op. 2, showed more of this instrument’s variety and range.

In Percy Whitlock’s Five Short Pieces, the Allegretto used the many flute stops. The Great Harmonic Flute was featured as a solo accompanied by the Choir strings. We also heard the Swell Trompette in the tenor range. Paean featured the Major Tuba 8′ stop (on 15 inches of wind), quite thrilling. We then sang Stephen Buzard’s arrangement of the hymn “How shall I sing that majesty” (Coe Fen, a marvelous tune). The time he spent in England was very much evident in his style of playing. Prelude, Elegy and Scherzo by Carlyle Sharpe (b. 1965) was commissioned for this convention by Rodney Holmes. Stephen used many beautiful solo stops in Elegy, beginning with a sad little song on the Choir’s Cor Anglais, then a tiny Cornet, the Corno di Bassetto, and this organ’s beautiful strings. The lively Scherzo for organ and brass is a good addition to the repertoire. 

Stephen Buzard ended this superb recital with Jeanne Demessieux’s Te Deum, op. 11, easily communicating the profound nature of this music, all very splendid. We heard this fine organ play music from many different periods and national styles with ease—and Stephen Buzard is someone to watch!

The grand finale of the convention was a visit to the Place de la Musique in Barrington Hills, Illinois. It has the world’s largest collection of restored automatic musical instruments, the largest theatre organ in the world (5m, 80 ranks), and is also the private residence of Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Sanfilippo. The 46-acre complex includes an enormous shed that houses most of the mechanical instruments and a huge carousel. We ate a picnic supper amidst this collection, then soon made our way to the 44,000 square-foot house with its huge theatre organ in a massive auditorium big enough to hold the entire convention. The organ comes from many sources—some new, some vintage. There are four 32′ ranks; the massive 32′ Diaphone and Bombarde pipes line the walls on either side of the stage, as do the countless percussions, including a set of 32 Deagan Tower Bells, the largest of which we were told weighs 426 pounds! 

Our multi-talented recitalist, Jonathan Ortloff (looking quite snappy in his bright red socks), presented a highly entertaining program of mostly familiar music played with great style and good humor. We heard the theme from Family Guy, some sweet salutes to the late Henry Mancini (Charade and Moon River), a bit of nostalgia for those of us of a certain age, “Puffin’ Billy” (or as I remember it, the theme from Captain Kangaroo). The Trolley Song used all manner of percussion sounds, which raised the roof! Ortloff’s transcription of Stravinsky’s L’Oiseaux de Feu (Tableau II) showed great skill. I really admire his generation of organists who have become so adept at the art of transcription. He ended with An American in Paris, which was great fun. But the part of the recital that left us all in pain with laughter was the hymn “Earth and All Stars” (Dexter), one not exactly on my list of favorites. The text is unintentionally humorous—I cannot get past “loud boiling test tubes” with a straight face. On this huge organ, Jonathan was able to illustrate each turn of phrase in sound effects that were hilarious and a perfect end to the evening. 

This was a very good convention. Instruments, recitals, performers, lecturers—the great variety never left us bored. Buses were agreeable, respectful of our needs, on time, and quiet during recitals. Food was filling and good, and the publications (Atlas, Handbook, and Hymnlet) were beautifully produced, with wonderful content. (Good companions to the above would be Pipe Organs of Chicago, Vols. 1 and 2, by Stephen Schnurr and Dennis Northway. Gorgeous photographs, specifications, and histories of each building and instrument will keep you entertained for hours.) This was the third OHS convention in Chicago; we certainly saw and heard a breadth and depth of pipe organ beauty that other cities would be more than pleased to have. We were treated with great humor and kindness all week long. The committee did an outstanding job! Bravo, Chicago! “It’s my kind of town.” 

The 2013 convention is in beautiful Vermont: http://www.organsociety.org/2013/. See you there!

 

 

Photo credit: William T. Van Pelt, III

David Fienen

David Fienen is Emeritus Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota. At Gustavus, he was Cantor at Christ Chapel, taught organ, music theory, chaired the music department, and served as provost and dean of the college his last two years before retirement.

Sitting under a shade tree in his backyard last summer, sipping iced tea with Charles and Birgitta Hendrickson, I asked him about his philosophy of organ building. His immediate answer was, “If I can make them [the congregation] sing, I have succeeded.” To make them sing—what a fine goal!

 

First a physicist

Minnesota native Charles Hendrickson grew up in Willmar, Minnesota, where his father had a law practice. During Charles’s young years, his father, Roy, was also chair of the board of trustees at Gustavus Adolphus College (Roy’s alma mater) in St. Peter, Minnesota, from 1945–53. After Roy passed away in 1954, Charles’s mother, Frances, was hired as secretary to President Edgar Carlson at Gustavus from 1955–ca. 1967. Charles had already started his college career at Gustavus, and now the rest of his family moved to St. Peter. In 1957, Charles graduated from Gustavus with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and mathematics. It is interesting that he is not the only organbuilder with a physics background—Charles Fisk worked for Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project before he began building organs.

After college, Hendrickson started graduate studies at the University of Minnesota for one year, then taught physics at Superior State Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin-Superior, Superior, Wisconsin) for a year. He earned his Master of Science degree in physics at the University of Arkansas while also teaching for a year at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee (and serving as head of the department!). He also taught at Northeast State University in Oklahoma before returning to Minnesota to teach physics at Mankato State College (now Minnesota State University Mankato) for a couple of years.

In 1964, Charles married Birgitta Gillberg at Gamla Uppsala Church in Sweden. Birgitta, a native of Sweden, was teaching Swedish at Gustavus at that time. She continued teaching at Gustavus until Eric was born in 1967. She then returned to her academic career in 1975, teaching Swedish and German at Minnesota State University Mankato for 30 years until her retirement.

 

Hendrickson Organ Company: Beginnings

Hendrickson’s interest in the pipe organ began early in his young life, in 1953, when he watched with fascination as the Möller organ was rebuilt and reinstalled at Bethel Lutheran Church in Willmar. Harry Iverson, who was the Möller representative, supervised the regulation and work at the church, and Hendrickson got involved as a “gopher.” Iverson had previously been the Kimball representative and had designed the Minneapolis Auditorium Kimball organ. During graduate school, Hendrickson followed up on this early interest by working on organs (servicing, repairing, moving, tuning) on a part-time basis.

In 1964, Charles Hendrickson was asked to rebuild and significantly enlarge the 1910 Hillgreen-Lane organ in First Lutheran Church in Winthrop, Minnesota, by the pastor of the church, who was a family friend. Pastor Lambert Engwall had talked his congregation into undertaking the project to enlarge the organ in the church, had raised the money for the project, and convinced Hendrickson to tackle this project. As it was already part way through spring semester, Hendrickson resigned his teaching position at Mankato State and thus committed himself to being an organbuilder.

Several interesting things about this instrument, Opus 1, produced by the nascent Hendrickson Organ Company, are worth noting:

• The Swell division consists of pipes from the previous instrument, with new Hauptwerk, Positief, and Pedal divisions. The casework was mostly new to house the new organ.

• The Positief division was housed in its own case cantilevered on the balcony rail—in Rückpositiv position. This was the first Rückpositiv built in Minnesota.

• Hendrickson rented space in the empty Green Giant canning plant in Winthrop to build the organ with three helpers. (This is reminiscent of how older organ builders like Schnitger operated—building on site or at least in the vicinity of the church.)

• The new pipes added to this organ came from Organ Supply.

• Composer David N. Johnson, then on the faculty of St. Olaf College, played the dedication recital in September 1965.

• In 1982, Hendrickson added two mutations and swapped out two flute ranks, bringing the instrument to 36 ranks.

At about the same time, Hendrickson was asked by his home congregation, First Lutheran Church in St. Peter, Minnesota, to build a “temporary” organ for their new sanctuary then under construction to replace the church that had been destroyed by lightning on Mother’s Day in 1962. He readily complied by assembling a two-manual, eight-rank instrument, partly from salvaged materials. The outstanding acoustics of the building helped this small instrument to be amazingly successful, and it also included a horizontal trumpet! This temporary instrument, Opus 2, installed in 1965, remained in the church longer than expected. It was not replaced until his Opus 45 was completed in 1979, a two-manual, 44-rank instrument with a third coupler keyboard.

Opus 3 was another enlargement project, this time resulting in a two-manual, 30-rank instrument at Grace Lutheran Church, Mankato, Minnesota, using some ranks, offset chests, blower, and console from the previous two-manual, nine-rank M. P. Möller organ built for Grace Lutheran’s previous building. This instrument was also subsequently expanded in 1992 by adding a new Great division, horizontal trumpet, new three-manual console, and other tonal and mechanical revisions (Opus 86, three manuals, 41 ranks).

From these beginnings of the Hendrickson Organ Company in 1964, there followed several new instruments, including Opus 6, of two manuals, eight ranks, at St. John Lutheran Church in Yankton, South Dakota, and Opus 9, of two manuals, 24 ranks, at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin, plus more revisions, enlargements, and rebuilds, leading up to Opus 10 in 1970. Interestingly, the Yankton instrument, a larger version of Opus 2, came about because Harold Spitznagel was the architect of both First Lutheran Church in St. Peter (which housed Hendrickson Opus 2) and of St. John Lutheran Church in Yankton (Opus 6). The Yankton instrument originally contained only eight ranks, later enlarged to 12 after a fire in the church in 2009.

It is worthwhile to look further at the early influences on Hendrickson. He is largely a self-taught organbuilder, learning by experience, by voracious reading, and from the influences of Russ Johnson (an acoustician) and Robert Noehren (an organbuilder, performer, and teacher himself). Around the time Hendrickson was starting to build his Opus 1 and Opus 2, he met Robert Noehren at the Central Lutheran Organ Symposium in Minneapolis. From Noehren he became convinced to use primarily all-electric action when building electric-action instruments. And from Noehren, he learned the concepts of judicious borrowing and duplexing to retain clarity in the resulting organ while realizing some economies of budget and space. His Opus 1 at Winthrop used electro-pneumatic chests for the Great and Swell, but all-electric for the Positief. Subsequently, he primarily (though not exclusively) used all-electric chests when building non-mechanical-action instruments.

 

The Hendrickson factory

The year 1970 saw a new chapter unfold. Hendrickson was contacted by William Kuhlman, professor of organ, to build a new organ for Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Most of his work prior to this time had been accomplished in his basement, garage, rented facilities, or on site. Now, in order to have a tall erecting room, he took the plunge, purchased land in the industrial park in St. Peter, and built the first part of his organ factory, including in the center a tall room where he could set up this two-story instrument. The organ for Luther College, Opus 10, of two manuals, 35 ranks, was his first mechanical-action instrument. 

This organ was intended as a teaching, practice, and performance instrument, and was built on a movable platform like a hovercraft so it could move to a neighboring room. Subsequently, it was relocated to a permanent teaching studio on the campus, the floating mechanism disabled, and an electric-action, unified trumpet rank on the Great was reinstalled as an 8′ horizontal reed, playable from the mechanical action. Due to heavy use, the keyboards have been replaced twice on this instrument.

The original factory consisted of a tall central erecting room, with the office in the back as an upstairs room, and two flanking rooms for wood work, pipe set up, and voicing. The equipment included the voicing machine originally built by Vogelpohl & Spaeth in New Ulm, Minnesota, in the late 19th century. Over the years, a sizeable building was added behind the original shop, including an assembly room and new voicing room, with the earlier flanking rooms repurposed. Later still, another former business building was moved to adjoin the addition, becoming the office, drafting studio, and library storage for the extensive collection of books and organ journals kept close at hand. (Hendrickson has every issue of The Diapason since 1913, and of The American Organist since 1929!) A large warehouse was added next door for much-needed storage and to house the spray booth. Interestingly, after a tornado struck in 1998, both this author and the Gustavus chaplain rented space in the warehouse to store all of our furniture while our houses were being rebuilt. More recently, a disastrous fire in November 2013 engulfed the original shop building. (Andreas Hendrickson, Charles’s younger son, designed a replacement shop building, which has been recently completed.) Fortunately, the added buildings were separated enough that they were not damaged, and no organs were destroyed except for some wood pipes, machinery, and some supplies. 

With Opus 10 for Luther College, Hendrickson began building mechanical-action instruments, either with mechanical stop action or electric stop action. A significant portion of the organs built by the firm feature mechanical action. When asked, Hendrickson expressed his preference for this type of action “just because I like it.” He also indicated he felt such instruments are “very satisfying” and provide the “best possible solution.” But Hendrickson indicated that throughout his career, he particularly wanted to “satisfy a need.” This is a most salient point—he set out to provide a good musical instrument for a wide variety of situations, large and small, and while his preference would be a tracker organ, sometimes placement, finances, or other considerations necessitated using electric action. If that were the case, he set out to make it the best it could be. Not infrequently, his project working with a church to improve their musical resources would also involve redesigning either the chancel or the balcony to facilitate placement of the new instrument and the location of the choir and/or the liturgical appointments.

During the half-century so far of the Hendrickson Organ Company, the firm has been involved in a wide variety of organ projects, building large and very small instruments, restoring, rebuilding, and expanding both historic instruments and some of their own, adding single divisions and/or replacing consoles—a variety of, as Charles said, “solving problems” for particular situations and congregations. To comment on each of the many projects (opus numbers) undertaken by the Hendrickson Organ Company would occupy far more space than is possible here; instead, a summary is presented, featuring a few interesting examples. 

 

Mechanical-action instruments

There are 27 mechanical-action organs on the Hendrickson opus list, ranging from a practice instrument with one 8′ flute for each of two manuals and pedal (Opus 33) to his largest instrument at Wayzata Community Church in Wayzata, Minnesota (Opus 92, four manuals, 70 ranks). The Wayzata instrument is unusual in that it incorporates a large Paul Granlund bronze sculpture in the middle of the façade.

Other sizable mechanical-action organs include Opus 47, a three-manual, 43-rank organ in St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, New Prague, Minnesota, and Opus 35, a three-manual, 59-rank instrument at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Mankato, Minnesota. These large instruments have mechanical key and stop action. The New Prague instrument leans toward a French Classic style, though not exclusively. The later Opus 78, of three manuals, 62 ranks, at St. Joseph Cathedral in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, utilizes a multi-channel electric stop action. It was also an instrument of a more complex design because of its size and the necessity for a detached keydesk. Hendrickson also had to redesign the gallery choir risers to accommodate the new organ. All three of these instruments were placed in rear balconies, and the Mankato and New Prague installations feature Rückpositiv divisions.

While most of Hendrickson’s two-manual mechanical-action instruments contain between 12 and 29 ranks, the largest is Opus 45, a two-manual, 44-rank instrument completed in 1979 at Hendrickson’s own church, First Lutheran Church, St. Peter, Minnesota. This instrument finally replaced the “temporary” Opus 2 that he had built nearly 15 years earlier. The organ features a horizontal trumpet on the Great (as had Opus 2) but also includes a trumpet within the case for that division. For this instrument, Hendrickson used a chassis from Laukhuff, Pedal division façade pipes made of aluminum, and a third manual as a coupler manual. This instrument is housed in an excellent acoustical environment and is a particularly successful installation. Marie-Claire Alain examined the organ upon completion and played the dedication recital.

In addition to these full-size tracker organs, the company built five portative organs consisting of one manual (no pedal) with 8′ flute, 4′ flute, and 2′  principal stops. The first such instrument was built for the St. Olaf Choir (Opus 16) and was intended to be able to be transported in a regular coach bus (with a couple of seats removed). To fit that size, the instrument has a short octave in the bass (lacking C#, D#, F#, and G#) and the compass is an octave shorter in the treble than a normal 61-note compass. In addition, the keyboard folds down inside the case, thus fitting through a bus door (at least back in the early 1970s). The stops are divided between bass and treble. The blower is also enclosed in the case, which is mounted on casters and has handles for ease in lifting and moving it around. After a second version was ordered by the Rockford Kantorei in Rockford, Illinois (Opus 18), three more instruments were built—“for every board we cut, we cut three.” These instruments eventually found their way to the University of Wisconsin in River Falls, Wisconsin (Opus 30), Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota (Opus 81), and Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota (Opus 72a). The organs are principally used for continuo playing.

 

Electric-action instruments

The Hendrickson opus list includes nearly 60 electric-action instruments. Thirty of these projects involved organs with fewer than 20 ranks, most incorporating at least some borrowing or duplexing, using the ideas Hendrickson had acquired from Robert Noehren. Many of these instruments use all-electric chests, as mentioned above. However, for Opus 60, a two-manual, 19-rank organ built for First Lutheran Church in Glencoe, Minnesota, the builder used slider chests with electric pull-downs. The largest two-manual electric-action instrument is Opus 25, of two manuals, 38 ranks, installed in First Lutheran Church, St. James, Minnesota (another instrument with a horizontal trumpet).

A dozen three-manual instruments (and one four-manual) contain 30 to 54 ranks. Beginning with Opus 1 (three manuals, 34 ranks), the list includes many significant enlargements of instruments by Möller, Aeolian-Skinner, Austin, Hillgreen-Lane, and Schantz, the largest being the expansion of a 1961 Schlicker (three manuals, 32 ranks) as Hendrickson Opus 100 (three manuals, 54 ranks) for Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Two notable large all-new instruments are Opus 51 (three manuals, 46 ranks) at St. Mark Catholic Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Opus 34 (three manuals, 51 ranks) at St. John’s Lutheran in Owatonna, Minnesota (yet another organ with a dramatic horizontal trumpet). The Owatonna instrument also uses pallet and slider chests with electric pulldowns.

What is clear from all these instruments is that Charles Hendrickson and the many workers over the years in the shop were interested in creating or improving musical instruments that would “make them sing,” whether in the big city or the small country church. Hendrickson always endeavored to learn from the past, from his own experience, and from the lessons the industry had learned, whether from books or from his colleagues in the business. He was not interested in modeling after a particular style or a particular period, nor was he dogmatic about actions or particular stops, but was focused on a clear, singing tone and satisfying the particular needs of a group of people assembled in a specific congregation.

 

Rebuilds, restorations, and
renovations of 19th– and early 20th-century organs

The company website (www.hendricksonorgan.com) lists over 116 opus numbers. They include more than two dozen rebuilds, renovations, and restorations, notably:

• Rebuilding and enlarging the 1862 Marklove organ in the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior in Faribault, Minnesota (Opus 70, two manuals, 34 ranks), using many of the original pipes—possibly the oldest pipes in Minnesota;

• Rebuilding two other late 19th-century organs, one by Hutchings, Plaisted & Co. (Opus 40, two manuals, 21 ranks), and the 1896 Kimball tubular pneumatic instrument located in the Union Sunday School in Clermont, Iowa (Opus 51a, two manuals, 27 ranks). The latter is the largest remaining tubular-pneumatic Kimball in original condition;

• Restoring, rebuilding, or revising several early 20th-century instruments by Hinners, Hillgreen-Lane, Kimball, Estey, and Vogelpohl & Spaeth (a late 19th/early 20th-century Minnesota builder);

• Maintaining, revising, and renovating the large four-manual, 52-rank Hillgreen-Lane organ in Christ Chapel at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, especially after the 1998 tornado severely damaged the entire campus and community. Organ repairs included cleaning all reeds, re-racking pipes, building a new Great chest, and replacing the keyboards;

• Rescuing Hendrickson Opus 53 (two manuals, 27 ranks) that was housed in St. Peter Catholic Church, which was destroyed by the same tornado. This mechanical-action organ was later used as part of the much larger instrument (Opus 99, three manuals, 40 ranks) designed by Andreas Hendrickson for the new church;

• Rebuilding and moving a much-altered 1931 Aeolian-Skinner (Opus 877) to a church in Arkansas in 1990 (Opus 88, three manuals, 30 ranks), then, after that church had closed, moving the instrument and reinstalling it at Celebration Lutheran Church in Sartell, Minnesota, in 2009 (Opus 115, three manuals, 35 ranks).

 

Hendrickson as author

From his beginnings in academe, Hendrickson never lost his inquisitive mind or his desire to share what he had learned. An active member of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America (APOBA) and the American Institute of Organbuilders, he served as president of APOBA for about 8 years. During that time, he arranged for the organization to commence sponsoring Pipedreams on American Public Media and oversaw the statement APOBA produced regarding “sampled voices” in pipe organs.

A large undertaking by Hendrickson was a long series of articles he wrote, mainly for The American Organist. These included articles on families of tone, divisions of the organ, tonal architecture, pipe materials, and a host of other relevant topics. The Hendrickson Organ Company website lists and links to 46 of these articles written between 1976 and 2003. [http://www.enchamade.com/hendricksonorgan/wb/pages/articles.php]

More recently, Hendrickson returned to his physics roots by collaborating on a research project with Dr. Tom Huber and some of his students at Gustavus Adolphus College. A summary of their study, “Vibrational Modes of an Organ Reed Pipe,” can be accessed at http://physics.gac.edu/~Huber/organs/vibrometer/ and an abstract of Huber’s Faculty Shop Talk about the project can be found at https://gustavus.edu/events/shoptalks/Shop0304.htm.

 

The future

Charles Hendrickson has retired from active involvement in the work of the Hendrickson Organ Company. The enterprise continues under the leadership of his two sons, Andreas and Eric. Andreas, who holds an architecture degree from the University of Minnesota, is in charge of design, while his older brother, Eric, is head of installations, tuning, and service. Andreas also called on his architecture background to design the rebuilding of the portion of the shop lost to the November 2013 fire. The company services many of their own instruments, plus numerous other instruments around Minnesota and neighboring states. The brothers grew up in the organ factory and learned many of their skills from their father. Thus a new generation is continuing the process of building, rebuilding, and repairing pipe organs in this small town in southern Minnesota. ν

 

References

Bies, Jessica. “PORTRAITS: Sons of St. Peter pipe organ maker continue Hendrickson legacy,” St. Peter Herald, March 27, 2014. www.southernminn.com/st_peter_herald/news/article_bb355bf8-3aea-55a2-b9…

Hendrickson Organ Company website: http://hendricksonorgan.com

Huber, Tom, Brian Collins, Charles Hendrickson, and Mario Pineda. “Vibrational Modes of an Organ Reed Pipe.” Presentation for Acoustical Society of America Meeting, November 2003. http://physics.gustavus.edu/~huber/organs/

Interviews with Charles Hendrickson in June and July, 2016, plus several phone conversations.

Organ Historical Society Pipe Organ Database: database.organsociety.org

TCAGO Pipe Organ List: http://www.pipeorganlist.com/OrganList/index.html

Vance, Daniel. “Hendrickson Organ Company.” Connect Business Magazine, July 1999, Mankato, Minnesota. http://connectbiz.com/1999/07/hendrickson-organ-company/

Jonatan B. Hall and Joyce Johnson Robinson

Jonathan B. Hall writes frequently for The American Organist, THE 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 Organist’s Committee on Professional Certification. He is the author of Calvin Hampton, A Musician Without Borders (Wayne Leupold Editions).

 

Joyce Johnson Robinson is editorial director of The Diapason.

The American Guild of Organists 2016 National Convention was held in Houston, Texas, June 19—24. The hot, humid weather in Houston was not an issue indoors—all venues were air-conditioned, as were the buses that transported attendees. This year’s program book was much slimmer and trimmer (only 3/8” thick); many details were handled via an app for mobile devices (neither of the reviewers used it), and concert programs were provided at the venues. We were unable to attend every performance, but present here an account of those we did.

 

Sunday, June 19

Opening convocation, 

St. Martin’s Episcopal Church

The church is magnificently imposing—really, a Gothic cathedral-sized edifice. I sat in the rear balcony, near a window of St. Francis of Assisi with the Wolf of Gubbio and Julian of Norwich and her cat Isaiah. The convocation was impressive, and the only musical issues I had concerned the prelude and some of the choral singing. The prelude, which was most of the Third Symphony of Vierne (the finale was the postlude) and the Feierlicher Einzug of Richard Strauss, was suitable in terms of size and mood, but the music was persistently rushed. Especially in the first movement of the Vierne, the rising anacrustic figures needed much more space. The postlude suffered the same problem. The Gloria Dei Organ, Schoenstein & Co. Opus 145, is a grand four-manual, 80-rank instrument dating to 2004. It produced an imposing and impressive tone and did sonic justice to the French literature, not least in the reed department. The organist was not credited, though two were listed as “participants:” parish organist David Henning and Moseley Memorial Organ Scholar Grant Wareham.

The combined choir (St. Martin’s own choir plus that of St. Thomas) occasionally suffered from balance issues, at least from where I sat. In particular, the familiar I Was Glad displayed these. The anthem, With a Shining Like the Sun by David Ashley White, was exciting and effective, and the hymn arrangements by Craig Philips were energetic. White’s anthem was commissioned for this convention.

 

Monday, June 20

David Goode, 

Foundry United Methodist Church

David Goode’s recital was performed on a three-manual, 62-rank Wolff & Associates, the firm’s opus 45, installed in 2001. The organ has a strong French influence, though the keyboards are not (as Americans say) “reversed.” The organ makes an imposing appearance, classic towers and flats in a streamlined modern case. It harmonized well with the spacious neo-traditional architecture.

Goode opened with the Bach Toccata in E major, BWV 566, an early work showing the influence of the North German praeludium. Goode turned in a clean and convincing performance, the instrument’s clear plenum and lightly flexible wind showing the piece to advantage. The performance was stylishly conservative—not used as an occasion of display—and the result was very musically engaging. Next was a piece by Nancy Galbraith, Sing With All the Saints in Glory, commissioned for the Bayoubüchlein, a compilation created for the convention. This was an attractive piece, full of energy and zest, and featuring an episode on the Swell reeds, which showed them off extremely well. Goode ended with full organ and the obligatory dramatic final stop-pull. 

Next came the Mathias Partita, a difficult and complex work in three movements. The first movement was restless, featuring a recurring rapid figure in dotted rhythm. The second movement displayed Goode’s mastery of registration and especially use of the swell, as the piece beautifully built up and then down. The final movement was the most approachable, full of energy and a splashy ending. 

The Reger Ave Maria came next, and here the soprano ascendancy of the voicing was both noticeable and effective. A soft-spoken zimbelstern developed at one point, then vanished—a lone star on a misty evening. The final offering was the Dupré Variations on a Noël and was played with tremendous musicality; the most difficult variations always managed to sing. This, despite a tempo that few organists should attempt—very appropriate to the music but at the upper end of advisability. Goode’s performance of this piece was thrilling.

The room had decent acoustics, but I felt it would be an intimidating place to play. There was no room to hide; every seat was a front-row seat. In this laboratory-clean acoustical space, Goode handled the organ musically and convincingly. A first-rate job all around.

 

Monday evening

Michel Bouvard, 

Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

This recital was designated the St. Cecilia Recital, endowed by the late Marianne Webb. 

As the organ console was in the loft and not visible, there were several screens in the nave. The camera work for these was the best I’ve ever seen, with several different angles in use. Michel Bouvard began with a transcription of Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, op. 54, a piano work transcribed by Reitze Smits. Bouvard gave a very clean and professional performance, featuring a fine tempo and warm and room-filling registrations. The tone was continually varied: we heard reeds, mixtures, and flue work in continuous and effective alternation. Bouvard’s reading, essentially Apollonian, managed to release a Dionysian spirit from these elegiac, “serious” variations. After one tumultuous passage, a single high note was set aloft to die slowly. As the solstice had occurred only minutes before, I thought of a single firefly on the first evening of summer. 

Two branles—a branle is a Renaissance dance—came next, one by Claude Gervaise and one anonymous. I like this genre, and found these pieces attractive and representative. We then heard two French Classic organ pieces: the Récit de tierce en taille of de Grigny and the big Couperin Offertoire sur les grand jeux. I would not have minded the omission of either piece on this program, if only because the performances were so matter-of-fact. The former utilized a very penetrating cornet, and the latter was registered with taste and discretion. Ultimately, though, both pieces were exercises in great music played very accurately.

Much more interesting was the next work, Variations sur un noël basque, composed by the performer’s grandfather, Jean Bouvard. This was a very imaginative and wide-ranging piece, by turns mystical and extroverted, pungent and crunchy, flowing and busy. It was played with conviction. I would enjoy hearing it again.

The spirit of poetry had flitted in and out during this program; it was out during the next piece, the “Serene Alleluias” from Messiaen’s L’Ascension. I do not mean to suggest, by any means, that a “poetic” interpretation must include gimmicks such as excessive rubato or the like. On the contrary, it is an indefinable quality—a je ne sais quoi—that takes a correct performance (always the foundation) and makes it speak to the heart as well as the ear. As was the case with the de Grigny and Couperin, the Messiaen was played very accurately and with fine registration, but little more.

Joan Tower is a major name in American classical music. The next piece on the program was commissioned by the Houston convention and was titled Power Dance. Tower’s new piece contained much power but little dance. It consisted largely of chromatic scales in parallel and contrary motion, interspersed with furious toccata work. For me, to dance is to surrender power; the two terms are incompatible, and power won this time, with a long, argument-stopping final triad.

We then heard the Alain Trois Danses. The reeds called for at the outset were done full justice by Bouvard’s great registrational skill. The development of color continued throughout, climaxing in a terrifying roar of 32’ pedal reeds. 

There was some genuine magic in the final piece, the Duruflé Prélude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain, op. 7. I have never before heard a Vox Humana (in any language) so completely mimic wordless singing. The quiet, elegiac moments in the Prelude, especially when Litanies is quoted, were the most memorable moments of the recital. The Prelude, overall, was played rather too fast. The Fugue featured a marvelous buildup towards the final statement of the theme. 

 

Tuesday, June 21

Jonathan Rudy and Patrick Scott, Houston Baptist University 

This recital featured the 2014 winners of, respectively, the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Playing and the National Competition in Organ Improvisation. The program was accordingly devoted half to literature and half to improvisation. The venue, Belin Chapel of Houston Baptist University, is a beautiful circular space dominated by a large three-manual, 58-rank Orgues Létourneau instrument, the firm’s opus 116. Jonathan Rudy opened the program with the Bach Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543ii. I appreciate the programming choice: it is not always necessary to play “both halves” of a prelude and fugue. Rudy was a touch nervous at the outset, but quickly steadied and delivered a ringing, musical performance. He is all concentration and seriousness at the console; all of the expressiveness goes into the music. 

The next piece, the Saint-Saëns Fantasy No. 2 in D-flat, op. 101, is too long for its own good. Well constructed and studded with beautiful moments, it’s nevertheless one of those pieces that acts as its own worst enemy. Despite this, Rudy gave it a well-prepared and thoroughly musical performance. In particular, the climactic crescendo was managed very nicely. 

The first half closed with a movement from Pamela Decker’s Faneuil Hall, titled “Fugue: Liberty and Union Now and Forever.” Rudy came into his own with this piece, handling its manifold ferocities with great skill. The pedal work, in particular, was superb. The performance was seamless, thrilling, and altogether convincing. At the end, the performer graciously acknowledged the composer, who was in the audience—and without doubt, thrilled to the marrow.

Patrick Scott began his half of the program with a Triptych on Duke Street. He began with an epic statement—a tutti effect not heard from the organ yet on the program—and presented a complete piece in ABA form. The second movement, a scherzo, was quite enjoyable. Consistency shone through: he chose an idea and stuck with it, keeping on message during all of the surprising transformations of the theme. He ended with a dignified fugue on the hymn tune. The fugue waxed complicated, but he brought the music to a rousing conclusion.

The next subject for improvisation was Kathleen Thomerson’s hymn tune Houston. Perhaps chosen in part for its name, as well as for its enduring popularity, it’s worth noting that 2016 is the fiftieth birthday of this hymn, also known as “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.” Perhaps that was another reason it was used today. In any case, Scott gave the audience warm buttery tones and an elegiac introduction, playing a quiet reed off the harmonic flute. Canon was in evidence. He built up to a final chorus that, while it held few surprises, uplifted and celebrated the tune. 

Deep in the Heart of Texas was an exercise in theatre-organ camp, as well as the heaviest tremulants the organ offered (and they were heavy enough). More a rousing movie-house rendition than anything else, with no subtlety that I could detect, it nevertheless elicited whoops and yips from the audience members who “got it.”

The submitted themes were two: Coronation and Laudes Domini, or “All Hail the Power” and “When Morning Gilds the Skies.” I noted the possibility of a quodlibet approach—some kind of combination of two themes with an upbeat and the same meter—but Scott chose to present the two essentially in sequence, building a chorale that moved to a climax, much in the manner of Gerre Hancock. 

Both Jonathan Rudy and Patrick Scott are rapidly developing artists, and it will be a pleasure to hear from them again in the future.

 

Tuesday afternoon 

Hymn Festival with David Cherwien,

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church

David Cherwien was the organist for this festival (playing the 2001/2014 four-manual, 77-rank Schantz organ), with Monica Griffin reading Susan Palo Cherwien’s poetic reflections between several of the offerings. This was supported by the Chancel Choir of the church, a brass quartet, a flutist, and a cellist. The sight of a massed, vested choir in that space brought to mind a time that has almost vanished, when traditional forms of Protestant Christianity were almost literally the voice of America. I felt a very old power in the room, and a good one at that.

Cherwien studied with Paul Manz, and the kindly and inventive spirit of the late master was clearly to be heard in the improvisations and accompaniments today. We opened with a grand anthem by Cherwien, To God Be Highest Glory and Praise, based on the third chapter of Daniel. A dramatic segue led us into the opening hymn.

I wish that our hymn festivals, this one included, would summon up the courage to focus on the grand, popular hymns of the past, rather than to continue to cheer for loud boiling test tubes like Earth and All Stars. (Here, though, the introduction was sheer delight, playing off a Bach minuet.) Similarly, the effort to lift up a more recent hymn—in this case, Thomas Pavlechko’s tune Jenkins—fell flat to my ears. I found this hymn both didactic and sullen; thankfully, no verse began “when our song says joy.” The text was off-putting in its repeated “we will trust the song,” a vacant sentiment. (Again, Cherwien’s interpretation was first-rate, including a toccata depicting “and the world says war.”) But when we came to When Peace, Like a River, that hymn of hard-won resignation and faith, the depth of shared feeling was palpable and intense. For that moment, I was entirely merged with the community, my critical distance abandoned, my faith in flower.

Cherwien did an excellent job with Yigdal, creating a partita out of the accompaniment. There was a thrillingly unexpected decrescendo, a quiet passage on flutes against the cantus on a principal, a fugal passage leading to the last verse (I thought of the Ninth Symphony), a grand finale with brass—wonderful, all of it.

David Cherwien was in top form for this event, and Susan’s reflections were poetic and thought-provoking. All in all, a memorable hymn festival. Just more oldies next time, please.

 

Tuesday evening

Richard Elliott with Brass of the Houston Symphony, 

First Presbyterian Church

The program (on Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co. Opus 912A, rebuilt by Schoenstein & Co. in 1993, three manuals, 72 ranks) followed an interesting format: first we had brass alone, then brass with organ, then organ alone. (The concert was preceded by a Texas barbecue, which was brilliant in an entirely different way.) The opening piece, Scherzo for Brass Quintet by John Cheetham, was a charming and effective curtain-raiser, and the playing was as tight and stylish as one could hope for—polished brass indeed!

Next was a piece commissioned for the convention, Rhapsody for Brass Quintet and Organ, by Eric Ewazen. At the outset, the brass takes the lead and the organ joins in on some abrupt chordal punctuations. Here, the timing was perfect and the musicianship altogether impressive. The piece is very attractive, a classical work in a contemporary voice, and it should prove accessible and popular. A spacious and substantial composition, it is also well organized, a trait to be appreciated. The composer took a deserved bow at the end.

At this point, the brass took their leave, and the rest of the program was for organ solo. We heard first the Reger fantasy opus 40, no. 1, on Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern. Richard Elliott rendered this work extremely well; we heard a rich range of sonorities and fine, poetic playing. The pacing was just right, and the architecture of the piece was rendered clearly. The next piece, a chorale prelude on Christe, redemptor omnium by C. Hubert H. Parry, was of course dwarfed by the Reger we’d just heard, but was rendered sweetly and idiomatically. S. Andrew Lloyd’s meditation on Herzlich tut mich verlangen, composed in 2014, began with a hauntingly hollow tone (the Nason Flute of the Choir?) and then presented the tune to a rapid filigree of accompaniment. The music grew more and more energetic, ending on a note of triumph and affirmation. A fine work by a younger composer.

The recital ended with a guaranteed crowd pleaser, Lynnwood Farnam’s Toccata on O Filii et Filiae. What more can be said about this short but imposing piece? Elliott played it to perfection and brought the recital home on a familiar note.

 

Wednesday, June 22

Isabelle Demers, with Michael N. Jacobson, alto saxophone,

Rice University, Shepherd School of Music, Edythe Bates Old
Recital Hall

The program (played on C. B. Fisk, Inc., Opus 109/Rosales Organ Builders Opus 21, three manuals, 84 ranks) contained a nod to the centennial of Max Reger’s death. The five pieces on the program, bookended by Reger, were explained in the program as somehow spelling the five letters in his name, a kind of soggetto cavato.

The opening work was Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903, arranged by Reger. I didn’t know what to expect, as I was struck (even intimidated) by the sheer size of the organ in comparison with the room. An organ of that size and tone could easily fill several times the cubic footage of the recital hall. Built out to the very walls and close to the high roof, the instrument looked trapped. However, when the first elegantly phrased runs of the Bach sang out, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of acoustic the room did offer. Isabelle Demers played from memory and used a very wide variety of registrations to realize the piece—far more color than the original harpsichord would have allowed. Reger added quite a bit to the original score; the final product is almost as much Reger as Bach, and I found it convincing. The performance was a tour de force. 

The Dupré Fileuse from Suite Bretonne was next, and again Demers played from memory. She has an entirely natural and unaffected presence and focuses intensively on the music. There was a great moment of showmanship in the final, lightly rolled chord. The performance was once again thrilling.

Michael Jacobson entered at this point to play the saxophone part of Réverie: Hommage à Francis Poulenc. This composition, by Luke Mayernik, was another commission for the Houston convention. There was a problem at the outset, in that the two instrumentalists didn’t tune. Yes, the organist played a note and then the saxophonist played a note, but they were not quite the same note and nothing was done about it. The music that followed was disturbingly out of tune.

As an organist who regularly works with a classical saxophonist, I was bothered by the haste and carelessness of the tuning process. Saxophones can and should play in tune—to imply otherwise is unacceptable. My sense of the piece may have been negatively affected by this issue. I also felt there were balance issues; the saxophone has uncanny carrying power, and can often outplay full organ, but here the organ frequently overwhelmed it. There were tuneful moments in the piece, and even hints of Poulenc’s wry sweetness. Still, I heard little neo-classical detachment or intellectuality. The piece rambled pleasantly enough in a romantic vein, but was more atmospheric than substantial. Then again, perhaps it was just out of tune. I’d like to hear it again.

A premiere followed the commission: Rachel Laurin’s Humoresque: Hommage à Marcel Dupré, op. 77. Demers shone in this delightful offering. It was a lovely revisiting of the Dupré Fileuse that we’d just heard, both recognizable and stylistically apt. The final coquettish chord—identical to that of the Dupré—was greeted with delighted laughter.

The final piece, Reger’s Hallelujah! Gott zu loben, op. 52, no. 3, was played from memory. The piece was rendered magnificently, and only in the final, massive, plagal cadence did I finally feel that the organ out-played the room. There were jarring clashes of harmonics as wave crashed into wave. This was not altogether the fault of the organist, who should be able to register with a free hand. In any case, it is the only other small concern I might raise about a spectacular recital.

 

Thursday, June 23

Ken Cowan, 

Rice University, Shepherd School of Music, Edythe Bates Old
Recital Hall 

The next afternoon, I was back at Rice, this time to hear the resident organist, Ken Cowan, in another excellent recital that had definite links to Demers’. The term intertextuality, borrowed from literary criticism, is apt here. As Demers’ program featured several works that talked to one another, Cowan’s program talked to Demers’. A fascinating and very advanced programming concept.

After an exceptionally personable and self-confident introduction, Cowan began with Homage to Bach and Widor by Emma Lou Diemer, commissioned for this convention. He played from memory. The music contained feints at the Liszt BACH (if not Franck’s Choral in A Minor!) and the Air on the G String, as well as quotations from the (in)famous Widor Toccata. While the performance was excellent—filled with confidence and superb musicianship—the music itself veered toward pastiche. Some of the quotations seemed gratuitous, and a joke or two may have fallen flat. However, in context of Demers’ recital the day previous, the theme of intertextuality—Bach via Reger, Dupré via Laurin, Poulenc via Mayernik—continued with another “homage” replete with quotation, this time Bach and Widor via Diemer. The programming, not just of this recital but of the previous one considered with it, was utterly fascinating.

The Roger-Ducasse Pastorale was next, and again Cowan delivered a world-class performance. He achieved a real spatial separation in a passage of quick manual changes, a wonderful effect. Virtuosity again reigned in the Toccata of Jean Guillou, a piece one might describe by paraphrasing Alice in Wonderland: furioser and furioser! Cowan handled this vast expressionist work with ease.

After this, I heard the best Danse Macabre of my life. The oft-heard main theme was fleshed out with the rest of what Saint-Saëns wrote. Cowan opened with an uncanny chiming effect that must have been rendered on high mutations. Dawn finally came, to the sweet sounds of the Rossignol. The entire piece was played wonderfully well and made a great impression.

The final piece was by Rachel Laurin (more intertextuality!): her Étude héroïque. This is an arresting and accessible piece, dazzling to watch as well as hear. Cowan brought out its dramatic harmonic progressions and diverse moods. Though very difficult, the work is not grotesquely or impossibly so, and could certainly be performed more widely. I hope that will be its fate!

 

Thursday evening

John Schwandt and Aaron David Miller, with Melissa Givens, soprano and narrator; Houston Symphony, Brett Mitchell, conductor; video production by Stage Directions;

St. Martin’s Episcopal Church

I was very intrigued, upon arriving back at St. Martin’s (to end the convention as it had begun), to see that the opening item on the program was a greeting from Colonel Jeff Williams of the International Space Station. I was hoping for some reference at the convention to the role Houston has played in American’s space program, and I was going to get it. But I viewed the rest of the program with a little trepidation. Space station—Hildegard—something about cornfields—improvisations—concertos—! I wondered if the program had bitten off more than it could chew. My fears turned out to be groundless, literally as well as figuratively.

On the big screen in front of the chancel, Col. Williams sent us a warm, personalized message about the convention, tying it in to the beauty of the earth itself. We then saw glorious images of the Earth from the ISS—a man-made heavenly body one may easily track across the night sky. These images gave way to others from the Hubble Space Telescope. The cosmic imagery continued to play across the screen, offering a visual continuity for the entire concert. Only when the music of Hildegard was sung did the imagery switch to her extraordinary artworks. The music, including improvisations by both of the featured organists, a duet, and two concertos, all harmonized astonishingly well with the context asserted by the visuals. The convention commission was titled Interstellar: Cornfield Chase, by Hans Zimmer, arranged by Aaron David Miller as a duet. The two organists worked very well together, and the music featured one of the organ’s chimes as well as a wonderfully atmospheric (if not entirely chase-like) ambience. Hildegard’s songs, though chant-like, contained wonderfully expressive moments and some daring leaps.

It must be admitted that some of the music was soundtrack-like, reminiscent of the “two hours of cosmic music” videos one encounters on YouTube. However, it was more than that, as it featured a good deal of rigorous invention as well as a “cosmic” flavor. And frankly, I found the latter refreshing.

It would be difficult to prefer one of the improvisers over the other; both are able practitioners and did themselves credit. Both had an eye to improvising on the Hildegard theme that had just been sung, as well as accompanying the images on the screen, silent-movie-like. Likewise, both interacted with the orchestra seamlessly; Miller with the Howard Hanson Concerto for Organ, Harp and Strings, op. 22/3, and John Schwandt with the Poulenc. Both concertos were played with excellent balance and interpretation. An interesting detail involved the transitions from the improvisations into the concertos: in both cases they were handled as attaccas, the orchestra quickly tuning the instant the organ stopped. There was a lot of space but no dead air.

The Poulenc, wisely, was placed last, as it was the most intensely energetic music on the program and guided our re-entry to earth as the convention ended. To use another cosmic metaphor, the Houston AGO convention ended with a big bang.

The concluding reception was exceptional, with Tex-Mex food and the “passing of the torch” to the Kansas City team. What they will cook up, besides barbecue, one can only imagine.

—Jonathan B. Hall

Monday, June 20

Rising Stars Recitals, 

St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church

The recitals were played on St. Thomas’s three-manual, 43-rank Schoenstein & Co. organ, an instrument that could be made to sound much larger than its actual size. Madeleine Woodworth (Great Lakes Region) began, playing a memorized program of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543, and Dupré’s Variations sur un Noël. The Bach fugue was taken at a very brisk tempo, using the same registration throughout. Woodworth had mastered the counterpoint and accents and recovered well from a minor slipup. The Dupré variations were a fine choice for this organ; especially nice was the flute in the fifth variation. 

Next up was Chase Loomer (Southeast Region), also playing from memory, beginning with Howells’s Psalm Prelude Set 1, no. 1, op. 32, no. 1. He built lovely crescendos and decrescendos and offered sensitive playing in the very soft sections. He concluded with Liszt’s Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH, S. 260, a complete contrast in dynamic and mood, delivered with confidence and sensitivity.

David Ball (North Central Region) began with a commissioned work by Ryan Dodge, Psalm 30: For you changed my mourning into dancing, a jazz-tinged, free-form piece that utilized higher-pitched stops against lower, thick chords, then broke out into the “dancing.” This was followed by a nicely done reading of Samuel Barber’s Wondrous Love: Variations on a shape-note hymn, op. 34. Ball finished strongly, with Mozart’s Fantasie in F Minor, K. 608; exploiting the piece’s strong contrasts and moods and most clearly demonstrating the main versus the antiphonal divisions of the organ.

Jeremy Jelinek (Mid-Atlantic Region) played a memorized program, of Alain’s Litanies (quite fast!) and Fantasmagorie (from Quatre oeuvres pour orgue), demonstrating the organ’s lovely flutes, and closing with Duruflé’s Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain, played with elegance and assurance. In the fugue, he built up a marvelous crescendo, always able to add a bit more.

Monica Czausz (Southwest Region) offered contemporary works, performed from memory: John Ireland’s Capriccio, a pleasant, cheerful piece that began on the flutes and grew dynamically; Alain’s Deuxième Fantaisie, in a wonderful, mystical reading, and Final (from Hommage à Igor Stravinsky) by Naji Hakim, in which Czausz tossed off the rapid manual changes in this difficult piece with aplomb. She certainly displayed mastery of the organ console, with an easy facility of stop and manual changes.

Tyler Boehmer (West Region) presented a refreshing mix of works. He began by accompanying a tenor singing Bach’s aria Ich habe genug, with his own transcription of the accompaniment, then performed a lovely atmospheric piece, Eden (from The Three Gardens), by S. Andrew Lloyd. The flutes and strings were on display, and the work (which I heard quoting Victimae paschali laudes), ended with a whisper. Boehmer concluded with a fine rendering of Dupré’s Résurrection (from Symphonie-Passion).

Colin MacKnight (Northeast Region) closed with a memorized program that began with the Impromptu from Vierne’s 24 Pièces de Fantaisie, Suite No. 3, op. 54, no. 2, all relaxed and pretty, followed by a very nicely done Andante espressivo from Elgar’s Sonata, op. 28. He closed the morning off with a showstopper, Rachel Laurin’s Étude Héroïque, op. 38, a multi-sectional, broadly assertive piece that opened on full organ. After backing off a bit, the piece grew more majestic, and MacKnight displayed much registrational color and rhythm. The opening bravado returned, to close the work on full organ. MacKnight made fine use of the antiphonal division.

 

Monday afternoon

Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet,

Church of St. John the Divine

Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet presented an all-French program on the five-manual, 143-rank Opus 97 (2005) Orgues Létourneau organ at the Church of St. John the Divine. I was seated in the balcony, directly in front of the antiphonal division; it was probably not the ideal location from which to hear the organ, and most every piece sounded quite loud to me. Dufourcet’s recital was bookended by works of Naji Hakim, opening with Arabesques, which exhibited rhythmic outbursts and theatre-organ stylistic elements. Next she presented one of her own compositions, Image, which opened in an impressionistic style using flute and tremolo; she demonstrated many different registrations, including gapped combinations. This was followed by a muscular performance of the Allegro vivace from Widor’s Symphony No. 5, in which the power of this immense instrument was unleashed, including the pedal division’s 64′ stops. 

Her sweet and relaxed performance of Durufle’s Scherzo, op. 2, featured lots of clear upperwork and the organ’s lovely string division. The Fantaisie from Tournemire’s L’orgue mystique, op. 55, no. 7, opened with a rumbling bass and chant snippets, and featured mixture-laden flourishes and heroic chords moving slowly in non-traditional patterns. Dufourcet concluded her program with Naji Hakim’s Fandango, commissioned for the convention; I would describe it as “a Spanish dance goes to a roller rink.” It included a touch of the Zimbelstern and was rollicking great fun—an exuberant close to the recital.

 

Monday afternoon

Ludger Lohmann, 

St. Philip Presbyterian Church

Ludger Lohmann played a mixed program ranging from Buxtehude (born c. 1637) to Chen (born 1983), demonstrating how the 48-stop, unequal temperament Paul Fritts & Company organ could successfully present repertoire of many styles and periods. Like Dufourcet’s, the program design was bookended, here via Bach. Beginning with Bach’s Fantasie und Fuge g-moll, BWV 542, played without registrational changes, he proceeded to Buxtehude’s Choralfantasie ‘Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein.’ The variations were solidly played and ornamented, and featured delicious registrational combinations (and chiff!). 

Next up with Chelsea Chen’s delightful commissioned work, Chorale-Prelude on Bethold, a charming piece with dancing lines that sounded lovely with the organ’s flutes. The mood changed with Brahms’s Choralvorspiel und Fuge über ‘O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid,’ and this lovely recital closed with the matching bookend, Liszt’s Präludium und Fuge über BACH. It was certainly a different experience hearing this work on a Baroque-style organ (especially the winding system), but it was musically successful and a most satisfying close.

 

Tuesday, June 21

The Rodland Duo, 

Episcopal Church of the Epiphany

Organist Catherine Rodland was joined by her sister, violist Carol Rodland. The 23-rank, two-manual, Vallotti-temperament 1983 Noack organ was a delightful counterpart to the rich sound of the viola, in a clear and friendly acoustic. This recital was wonderfully refreshing after hearing large instruments and repertoire to match; the room and the music invited me to relax and drink in the sonorities. The program began with Bach—first the Sonata in D Major, BWV 1028, for organ and viola, including creatively playing the accompaniment on a 4′ stop (thus above the viola’s line), with the bass line on the second manual. Next was Bach’s setting of Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Minor, BWV 593, for organ only—a fine choice for this instrument, and well played. Three works by living composers followed. David Liptak’s Ballast featured high clusters on the organ, with the viola playing bouncing thirds in different ranges, after which things really took off, though still grounded by the thirds. Adolphus Hailstork’s Lenten Mourning Tears, the commissioned work, presented free-form melodies that had a folk-tune or spiritual cast to them; it was lovely and atmospheric. The program closed with John Weaver’s Three Chorale Preludes for Viola and Organ—sturdy settings of Wondrous Love, with a canon at the fifth; the lullabying Land of Rest; and a martial Foundation. 

 

Wednesday, June 22

Edoardo Bellotti, 

Christ the King Lutheran Church 

Edoardo Bellotti presented a captivating program on the two-manual, 35-rank 1995 Noack organ, of eighteenth-century pieces that sandwiched in the commissioned work. Bellotti began with his own adaptation of Vivaldi’s Concerto ‘La Notte,’ op. 10, no. 2. Following the opening Largo, the second movement, Fantasmi (“Ghosts”), demonstrated the clarity a tracker instrument could produce. Movement 3, Il Sonno (“Sleep”), chordal progressions over an arpeggiated tenor line, was played using flute and tremulant; the fourth and final movement featured a do-re-mi-re-do-re-mi melodic pattern that would link this piece to the recital’s final work, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532. 

The second work, Domenico Zipoli’s All’Elevazione in F, was dedicated to the memory of the late Jacques van Oortmerssen. It was followed by the commissioned composition, Hans-Ola Ericsson’s God’s Angels Are His Messengers, a setting that began dissonantly with the tune in the pedal underneath a heavy ostinato-filled texture, and proceeded to powerful chord clusters. This was followed by Bengt Hambraeus’s chorale, God’s Angels Are His Messengers, sung by the audience; the chorale, part of the Hambraeus St. Michael’s Liturgy, is a sturdy tune in F-minor that ends on the dominant. 

The mood then lightened appreciably, with Haydn’s three-movement Symphonie L’Imperiale as transcribed by J. C. Bach. The first movement was charming (one does not hear an Alberti bass often in an organ recital!); Bellotti changed registrations for the repeats, which kept things fresh. In the Andante con Variationi, he treated us to the Rossignol and high upperwork, then in the closing Minuetto, utilized a full, reedy palette for a strong conclusion. The final work was Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532, authoritatively played at a brisk tempo. From where I sat, some of the organ’s stops were a bit sluggish in the ensemble, and their slower speech in the rapid tempo made for a bit of muddiness. But all in all, a most satisfying and delightful program and performance.

 

Wednesday evening 

The Choir of St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City, 

Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart 

This concert was our second opportunity to hear Martin Pasi’s four-manual, 75-stop Opus 19 (having first heard it played by Michel Bouvard on June 20). The instrument boasts versatility and glorious sound, and it is at home in the contemporary architecture of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

Surely none of those who planned this concert had any idea that at this convention the Choir of St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue would be led by anyone other than John Scott. Scott’s sudden passing on August 12, 2015, shocked the community of organists and church musicians, and some of this feeling still lingered in the air.

But the choir was in the best of hands, and Scott would certainly have been pleased. Benjamin Sheen, St. Thomas’s acting director of music, and Stephen Buzard, St. Thomas’s acting organist, led the St. Thomas choir in a stirring, finely crafted program (mostly chosen by Scott himself) that lacked for nothing. 

The concert began with the choir singing a cappella early music from the front of the wonderfully resonant co-cathedral. After two English works, John Sheppard’s Libera nos, salva nos (in seven parts) and Tallis’s Magnificat octavi toni, the choir took a break and Stephen Buzard played Bach’s Komm, heiliger Geist, O Herre Gott (BWV 651, one of the “Great Eighteen”), a fine, stylish performance on Martin Pasi’s Opus 19. Next was an energetic performance of Byrd’s Laudibus in sanctis, then Bach’s motet Komm, Jesu, komm (BWV 229), with an unobtrusive continuo accompaniment. 

Leaping forward into the twentieth century, the choir sang Bernard Rose’s Feast Song for St. Cecilia, with a marvelous soaring solo treble line, and the Sanctus and Benedictus from Francis Grier’s Missa trinitatis sanctae, again featuring soaring solos in treble and tenor; the blend in the “Hosanna in excelsis” was amazingly pure. 

Benjamin Sheen then switched from his role as conductor to that of organist, delivering a fine reading of Rhapsody in D-flat Major, op. 17, no. 1, by Herbert Howells that put the powerful Pasi instrument on glorious display. During this, the choir made its way up to the balcony (where they sounded even better). They performed John Ireland’s Greater Love hath No Man, then reverenced the memories of Gerre Hancock with their performance of his Judge Eternal (commissioned for the 1988 AGO convention in Houston), and of John Scott, with their performance of his Behold, O God Our Defender. And to crown the program the choir offered a muscular I Was Glad by C. H. H. Parry, with a stirring crescendo on the word “Glorious” that guaranteed goosebumps. The audience’s ovation went on and on, and only an encore would stop it: Gerre Hancock’s thrillingly quiet setting of Deep River. Rest in peace, John Scott.

—Joyce Johnson Robinson