Nunc Dimittis

Jan-Piet Knijff is organist-in-residence, Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY; adjunct professor of music, Fairfield University; director of music, St.Michael's Lutheran Church, New Canaan, Connecticut; and concert organistin residence, St. Paul's Church National Historic Site, Mount Vernon, New York.

Corliss R. Arnold of Venice, Florida, died September 19, 2003, at the age of 77. He held the doctorate in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was Emeritus Professor of Music at Michigan State University where he taught for thirty-two years. He served as organist and director of music at the Peoples Church, East Lansing, for thirty-three years. Dr. Arnold was a Fulbright Scholar to France, studied at the Summer Organ Academy at Haarlem in the Netherlands, and held three certificates from the American Guild of Organists: the Associateship, Fellowship and Choirmaster. He was the author of the first major survey of organ literature in English: Organ Literature: A Comprehensive Survey, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey. The book is currently in its third edition. Dr. Arnold and his co-editor had almost completed the 4th edition, which will be completed and published this year.

Arnold received the B.Mus., Summa cum laude, from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and the M.Mus. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan. He had also been a church musician at First Presbyterian Church and First Methodist Church, both in Conway, Arkansas; First Methodist Church, El Dorado, Arkansas; Reformed Church of Closter, New Jersey; First Methodist Church and Templar B'nai Abraham Zion, both of Oak Park, Illinois. Corliss Arnold is survived by his wife of 42 years, Betty Arnold, their three children and five grandchildren.

Natalie Ferguson, copy editor for The Diapason, died on December 10, 2003, after a long battle with cancer. She was 69. Her work at Scranton Gillette Communications began as a typesetter and grew to include copy editing for many of the company's publications, production editor and copy editor for The Diapason, and editor of AV Guide. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 31, 1934, she attended Shortridge High School, where she wrote for and edited the school newspaper and was a member of the Fiction Club. She studied piano and organ growing up and played for many groups in which she was active including church, Girl Scouts, D.A.R. and Job's Daughters. She attended Milwaukee-Downer College (now part of Lawrence University) and graduated with a degree in Occupational Therapy. She worked as an OT until her two daughters were born. She moved to the Chicago area in 1962 and was active at church and in local community theater groups. Prior to coming to Scranton-Gillette in 1985, Ms. Ferguson worked for many years at Bartlett Manufacturing in Elk Grove, Illinois. One of her joys was teaching piano, and at one point taught at the John Schaum School in Milwaukee, and taught for the past 20 years at Schaumburg Music. She was a member of Our Saviour's United Methodist Church, Schaumburg, Illinois, where her activities included the Evangelism Committee, singing in the choir, directing the chime choir, accompanying the children's choir and, proofreading bulletins and newletters. She is survived by daughters Linda Deneher and Susan Ferdon, grandchildren Jenna, Kate, and Jimmy Ferdon, and long-time devoted friend, Allen Johnson.

Dirk Andries Flentrop died on November 30, 2003 in Santpoort near Haarlem, the Netherlands. Born in Zaandam, the Netherlands on May 1, 1910, Flentrop was undoubtedly one of the most influential organ builders of the twentieth century worldwide. After an apprenticeship with the Danish organ building firm Frobenius, he entered the business of his father, H.W. Flentrop, and took over the firm in 1940. He was an early advocate of mechanical action and of the Rückpositiv, and after World War II built a whole series of new organs in a concept which was later to be labeled "neo-baroque," a term he himself disliked immensely. The contact with E. Power Biggs and with many Fulbright scholars in Europe led to an enormous production in America; in the 1960s, almost half of the firm's annual turnover came from America.

The best-known examples of Flentrop's art in America are perhaps the organs in Busch Hall at Harvard University (1959), St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle (1965), and Duke University (1976). Flentrop's restoration activities include the famous Schnitger organs in Alkmaar and Zwolle--even though the Zwolle restoration has often been criticized--as well as organs in Portugal and Mexico City. Flentrop retired in 1976, selling the business to his employees. Almost thirty years later, Flentrop Orgelbouw--celebrating its 100th anniversary this year--is still a sought-after firm for both restorations (the Alkmaar Schnitger was again restored by Flentrop Orgelbouw in 1987) and new organs. The organ for Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago (1989) was the firm's last major project in America. Flentrop held honorary doctorates from Oberlin College and Duke University.

--Jan-Piet Knijff

Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs, LLC, San Leandro, California
Zion Lutheran Church,
Piedmont, California

Church history
The Zion Lutheran congregation established itself in Oakland in 1882 and by 1886 had purchased their first house of worship. From the beginning, education and music have been important elements of the church’s mission. To this day, the church provides Christian education for kindergarten through the eighth grade, with music being a large part of the educational program at Zion Lutheran School.
During the 1920s, the congregation renewed their Victorian facilities in Oakland with a new parsonage, parish hall, school, and worship facility. It is here, in the church’s second worship facility, that in 1930 M. P. Möller built their opus 5769. This two-manual organ contained thirty-one registers.
In 2007, Piedmont was named “Best Place to Live” in the United States by Forbes. It was in this residential area surrounded by Oakland that the congregation of Zion Lutheran Church dedicated their most recent site on April 4, 1954. The current church complex is situated atop a high bluff, with a background of stone hills with pockets of dense shrubs and trees. Attached to the Mediterranean-style church is a bell tower, offices, school classrooms, meeting rooms, kitchen, barbeque area, library, and gymnasium. The church edifice is designed to accommodate 350 persons.

The church’s 1930 Möller pipe organ
Möller’s opus 5769 was brought from the parish’s second church in Oakland, relocated to their present site, and placed in two chambers with separate expression in the rear balcony behind the terraced choir seating area. As there was no façade, the choir “enjoyed” watching the two sets of vertical shades open and close. From the congregation’s vantage point, the organ looked like two rather large jalousie windows caged by wooden framing.
As with many organs of the 1950s and ’60s, Zion’s Möller organ was enlarged with several high-pitched ranks, and some of the original ranks were replaced with neo-Baroque substitutes. With actions and console parts failing, by 2005 plans were underway to provide Zion Lutheran Church with a new and reliable instrument. As part of this plan, many of the ranks of the extant organ were to be incorporated into their new instrument. The 1930 Möller organ with its additions served the parish until it was removed by us in July 2006. With the organ removed, we loaned the church our large seven-rank continuo organ.

Another Möller organ
Also, as part of the plans for Zion’s new organ, the pipework and offset chests were removed from the 1946 Möller organ, opus 7370, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco. This organ became available because of the retrofitting of the church and plans by the parish to purchase a new Taylor & Boody organ. It was noted that Richard Purvis was the organist at St. Mark’s during the time this three-manual organ of twenty-four ranks was installed. It is with these two instruments (the augmented Möller opus 5769 and opus 7370) that Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs rebuilt, rescaled, and revoiced pipework that provided the new organ for Zion Lutheran Church.

Tonal design of the new instrument
Our concerns were to provide the church with a tonally versatile and cohesive musical instrument, which would have a visual presence in the room, and would be reliable and serviceable. Using many ranks from Möller’s opus 5769 and opus 7370, the original conception for Zion’s new pipe organ envisioned a three-manual organ of forty ranks. This organ would have included a Rückpositiv. However, the organ committee decided instead to plan for a large two-manual instrument.
In working with the organist, David Babbitt, it was decided that the new organ would have a Pedal based on a 16′ Principal. The Great would have a 16′ plenum, the Swell an 8′ plenum, and there would be an assortment of unison tone. There would be a wide variety of flute tone (stopped, chimneyed, open, harmonic) represented. Also included in the tonal design was a selection of wide and narrow strings. Mutation ranks would be drawn from the flute and principal families. This two-manual organ would boast five 16′ ranks. Benefiting the Great plenum, a new German-style Trumpet would be built. For the Swell, a harmonic-rich French-style Trumpet would be provided.
Unfortunately, Mr. Babbitt passed away during the planning stages of the organ. This was a great loss not only to Zion, but also to the musical community in the Bay Area. The church soon found an admirable organist/choir director, Dr. David Hunsberger. It was his opinion that the Cornet Composée in the Swell should be a little stronger. Recalling how he enjoyed the sound of the Cornet on the Silbermann-style organ at the University of Michigan, it was decided to change the ranks to the larger scales used by the Fisk company. So, with the help of Stephen Kowalyshyn, we replaced the Swell mutation ranks with pipes based on Mr. Kowalyshyn’s information.
During the installation it was decided that the beautiful Clarinet from opus 7370 was too similar in volume to the Oboe. So, a full-throated Cromorne replaced the Clarinet. John Hupalo also decided to use French “tear drop” shallots in the new Cromorne. The generous inclusion of four reed voices in the Swell division of this moderate-sized two-manual organ provides both variety in color and a progression in volume.
Physical layout
The previous organ at Zion was installed in two non-communicating chambers. With the removal of opus 5769, the in-between area was opened up to allow placement for the Pedal ranks and to allow pitch transfer from one division to the other during tuning. This was virtually impossible on the previous organ. To aid tonal projection, the chambers were lined with two layers of 5/8″ sheetrock and then painted. The Swell chamber was placed in the left, the unenclosed Great in the right chamber, and the Pedal ranks placed in the center area.

Temperament
Another suggestion of Dr. Hunsberger was that the organ should be tuned in a well temperament. The Thomas Young temperament was chosen for its purer major thirds and playability in all keys. Like a good choral ensemble, this tuning helps the organ lock pitch in the more common keys.

Pipework
It was evident from the first that much of the Möller pipework was of excellent quality, especially the pre-World War II zinc pipes. The wooden pipes were cleaned and refinished. The stopped pipes were releathered. The Great 8′, 4′, 22⁄3′, and 2′ plenum ranks were rescaled as appropriate to the tonal scheme of the organ. The Great principals also received new languids. The removal of the old languids had the advantage of lowering the cut-ups, allowing us to revoice the Great plenum. This turned the old Möller diapasons into clear-toned principals. To provide a tonal contrast to the Great principals, the Swell diapasons are voiced and scaled towards a more neo-Romantic sound. The neo-Baroque 8′ Principal from opus 5769 was rescaled and made into the Great 8′ Gamba. Length and slotting were added to these pipes patterned after the Gambas of Cavaillé-Coll. Besides the two manual trumpets, Cromorne, and the Swell Nazard and Tierce, the other newly made stops for this organ include the Great Harmonic Flute and the Swell mixture.

Chests
Both the new Great and Swell main chests are slider chests with magnet pull-downs. It is our philosophy that these traditional-style chests provide a noticeable ensemble for the pipework. Even Ernest Skinner later in his life recognized the benefits of slider chests, with each note sharing a common channel of wind.
Many of the electro-pneumatic bass offset chests from opus 7370 were releathered and incorporated into the new organ. Given the large size of the pallets, they provide a lightning-fast response for the lower notes of the organ.

Façade
To match the architectural style of the church, it was decided to fashion the façade in the American Craftsman style. The center five-pipe flat is flanked on both sides by three flats of five pipes each. The styles, rails, toe boards, and corbels are of quarter-sawn white oak proportioned in the Craftsman manner. The styles are punctuated with medallions. The molding is highlighted by areas of crimson red.
Starting with low F-sharp of the Pedal 16′ Principal, the façade incorporates the lowest pipes of the Pedal 16′ and Great 8′ Principal. To provide visual uniformity, these zinc pipes were mottled in a terra cotta color, with the upper and lower lips in painted verdigris.

Console and control system
The console is our standard terraced-style, roll-top design, with three rows of drawknobs on either side of the keyboards. The shell is made of quarter-sawn white oak, with French polished European pearwood used in the stop jamb and nameboard area. The drawknobs are of ebony, as are the sharps. The manual key covers are of bone. The console is placed in a fixed central position in the choir loft to provide the organist with space for conducting both choir and instrumentalists.
A computerized system controls the combination action, memory, and the complex switching system of the organ. It provides the organist with a transposer, 99 levels of memory, a piston sequencer, and MIDI In and Out, as well as many programmable features.

Personnel
The following craftsmen assisted in the construction of our opus 3: Mark Dahlberg (technical designer), Robin Fox, John Haskey, Robert Hoffmann, John Hupalo, Bruno Largarce, Gerard Montana, Steve Repasky, Bob Schertle, Lawrence Strohm, William Visscher, Shayne Ward, and David H. Zechman.

Organ dedication
The organ was dedicated to a full house in a solo recital on Sunday afternoon, January 25, 2009 by Stanford University Organist Robert Huw Morgan.
Dedication program:
Dialogue, L. Marchand
Fantasia in f, K. 608, W. A. Mozart
Homage to Handel, S. Karg-Elert
Prelude in E-flat, S. 552, J. S. Bach
An Wasserflüssen Babylon, S. 653, Bach
Sonata V in C, S. 529, Bach
Fugue in E-flat, S. 552, Bach
—Steve Repasky

Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs, LLC, 2008, 35 stops, 33 ranks

GREAT
16′ Hohl Flute 61 pipes
8′ Principal 61 pipes
8′ Harmonic Flute 49 pipes
8′ Gamba 61 pipes
4′ Octave 61 pipes
4′ Röhr Flute 61 pipes
22⁄3′ Twelfth 61 pipes
2′ Fifteenth 61 pipes
13⁄5′ Seventeenth 61 pipes
Mixture IV 244 pipes
8′ Trumpet 61 pipes
Chimes 25 tubes

SWELL
8′ Diapason 61 pipes
8′ Stopt Diapason 61 pipes
8′ Salicional 61 pipes
8′ Celeste 61 pipes
4′ Principal 61 pipes
4′ Flute 61 pipes
22⁄3′ Nazard 61 pipes
2′ Piccolo 61 pipes
13⁄5′ Tierce 61 pipes
Plein Jeu III 183 pipes
16′ Fagot 61 pipes
8′ Trompette 61 pipes
8′ Oboe 61 pipes
8′ Cromorne 61 pipes
Tremolo

PEDAL
16′ Principal 32 pipes
16′ Bourdon 32 pipes
8′ Octave 12 pipes
8′ Bourdon 12 pipes
4′ Choral Bass 12 pipes
4′ Bourdon 12 pipes
16′ Posaune 32 pipes
16′ Fagot Swell
8′ Trumpet 12 pipes
4′ Schalmei Fagot

Couplers
Unison, sub, and super couplers provided on tilting tablets

Accessories
6 general thumb pistons and toe studs
5 divisional thumb pistons for each of the three divisions
Setter and general cancel thumb pistons
Up and down thumb pistons
3 reversible thumb and toe pistons for unison couplers
Reversible thumb and toe pistons for full organ
Crescendo pedal
Zimbelstern: 8 bells

Tuning
Thomas Young

Photo credit: John Hupalo

Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs
510/483-6905
www.hupalorepasky.com

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

A concert of music for organ and orchestra featured the outstanding Oberlin Orchestra, comprising undergraduate students, conducted by Paul Polivnick.  Soloists were Haskell Thomson and David Boe, the current organ faculty members.

Rain, persistent earlier in the week, had given way to an achingly beautiful, dry and crisp fall day, perfect weather for celebration. Nature's affirmation of life's beauty made even more moving an added opening tribute to the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the quietly noble "Nimrod" from Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, followed immediately by a passionate rendition of our national anthem, which allowed the first hearing of the new organ.

The planned program began with Robert Sirota's In the Fullness of Time, a celebratory noise of organ, brass and percussion, and the ubiquitous "Organ" Symphony (the third) of Camille Saint-Saëns, with Boe at the keyboards. He got the hush of the quiet organ entrance just right, revealing immediately a warmth of sound to complement the patina of the stately mahogany case, the central and lower parts of which came from the chapel's original organ, E. M. Skinner's opus 230 (1915).

The "other" keyboard part, played by pianist Isadora Pastragus (and assisted in the several four-hand measures by Aymeric Dupré la Tour), was spot on. Balances were well-conceived throughout. The horns had a rough night. In the second part of the concert, Haskell Thomson gave a thoroughly satisfying performance of Joseph Jongen's virtuoso Symphonie Concertante, showcasing the organ's many colors with unerring fingers and feet.

Oberlin's traditional foot-stomping ovation, much more collegial than a standing one ever could be, vibrated the floor of the Chapel gallery, evoking for me memories of such enthusiastic demonstrations at concerts heard in years long past. It was exactly 45 years ago that I came to Oberlin as a freshman, to be shaped and nurtured by such exemplary teachers as organists Leo Holden and Fenner Douglass, as well as choral conductor Robert Fountain, whose St. John Passion here had been accompanied by a violent thunder storm, underlining the musical drama even further. Another unforgettable mentor was Robert Melcher, truly a "virtuoso" theory teacher, always in attendance at artist recitals in this hall: concerts such as those by baritone Gérard Souzay, pianists Glenn Gould (Bach's Goldberg Variations) and Van Cliburn (whose signature rendition of The Star Spangled Banner caused consternation, and a delayed patriotic standing, among those who mistook its downward major triadic opening for the first bar of the program-opener, Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, which begins with a similar descending figure, but in the minor). And, perhaps most memorable of all, an appearance by the 20th century's most commanding composer, Igor Stravinsky, who crowned a week's residency at Oberlin by hobbling onto the stage to conduct a soaring, incandescent performance of his Symphony of Psalms.

Back in the present it was not ghostly figures from Oberlin's illustrious past, but a large group of living alumni who joined others from the capacity audience to congratulate the performers, comment on the new organ, and revel late into the night at the open reception following the concert.  Set in the spacious Root Room of the former Carnegie Library, now the Admissions Center for the College, the festivities were graced by a striking ice sculpture of the new organ, tables of elegantly presented food, and those all-important reunions with classmates and friends, many not seen for far too many years.

Formal dedication ceremonies for the Kay Africa Memorial Organ were scheduled for Saturday morning. Senior organ major Daniel Sullivan opened the proceedings with a splendid, assured and memorized performance of the Duruflé Toccata from Suite, opus 5. Robert Dodson, Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory, introduced the two professors of organ, both of whom made brief, graceful remarks of gratitude to the donors who had made the new organ possible. Steven Dieck, president of C. B. Fisk, presented Boe and Thomson each with a symbolic key to the new organ, and noted the more than 40,000 hours of building and voicing time accomplished by the Fisk staff, one-third of whom were in attendance.

Dieck also acknowledged the work of acoustician Dana Kirkegaard, whose recommendations for improvements to Finney Chapel's acoustics were accepted not only by the school's musicians, but by the administration and Board of Trustees, as well. Bringing the organ fourteen feet forward of the former instrument's placement allowed it to speak in front of the proscenium arch, directly into the Chapel. Hardening the walls behind the instrument as well as the ceiling of the first two bays directly above the organ helped in projecting a more vibrant sound with better bass response, as has the addition of thicker glass to the windows nearest the organ. More could still be done, of course, to increase reverberation time in the building, and it is to be hoped that funds will be available to continue the treatment of the remaining sections of ceiling as a first step toward this goal.

In her gracious remarks Oberlin's president, Nancy S. Dye, noted that 54 of the organ's 4,014 pipes had been "endowed" by specific donors. She reminded her listeners that many opportunities to contribute to this funding remained.

Karen Flint, a member of the Board of Trustees, presented her former organ teacher, Fenner Douglass of Oberlin's class of 1942, for the honorary degree, Doctor of Music, which was conferred on him by President Dye. Mr. Douglass, Professor Emeritus of Music from Duke University, holds additional degrees from Oberlin: the Bachelor of Music in 1943 and Master of Music in 1949. His scholarly contributions to our knowledge of the historical organ include his books The Language of the Classical French Organ: A Musical Tradition Before 1800 (Yale University Press, 1969, revised edition, 1995) and Cavaillé-Coll and the Musicians: A Documented Account of His First Thirty Years in Organ Building (Sunbury Press, 1980; republished in a newly formatted edition as Cavaillé-Coll and the French Romantic Tradition, by Yale University Press, 1999). Together with Grigg Fountain, Oberlin's other "young Turk" of the 1950s, Douglass charted a course for acquiring historically-informed organs and harpsichords for the Conservatory. Additionally, he was instrumental in obtaining the Kay Africa bequest for Oberlin, a bequest that contributed the major initial funding for the planning and building of the Fisk organ. At this ceremony Mr. Douglass was moving slowly, the result of a recent fall from the walk board of an organ for which he was serving as consultant. There was, however, no diminishing of the wit and mental agility for which he has long been known, as he demonstrated by his address to the assembly.

Introducing this lecture by his former faculty colleague, David Boe noted that Oberlin's most recent previous honorary degree to a member of the organ community had gone to Dutch organ builder Dirk Flentrop in 1968. (Not quite true: the College conferred an honorary doctorate on E. Power Biggs in November 1974.) Now aged 91 and unable to be present to honor his longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Flentrop sent a congratulatory message to be read at the ceremony. Dr. Douglass also received an honorary key to the organ from the Fisk firm.

In his wide-ranging address "Glancing Back to Shape the Future" Professor Douglass traced much of the history of Oberlin's commitment to music, as the first American college to hire a music professor, in 1841, not all that long after the founding of the institution in 1833; its acquisition of a separate Conservatory of Music in 1866 through the purchase (for $1800, including two turtledoves!) of an independent music school founded the previous year; and its confirmation of academic status for the discipline in  1903, when the first music degrees were approved (previously Oberlin had awarded only diplomas in music).

A commitment to organ study began with the appointment of organ professor George Whitfield Andrews, age 21, in 1882. During his 49-year tenure the three-manual Roosevelt organ in the old Warner Concert Hall and the four-manual E. M. Skinner instrument in Finney Chapel were installed. The Warner Hall instrument was enlarged by E. M. Skinner, then rebuilt in the late 1940s by Walter Holtkamp to bring it more in line with changing tastes in organ design, while the Finney Chapel instrument, too, was rebuilt by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company in the style of the American "organ reform" movement.

Oberlin's first Flentrop mechanical-action organ, a one-manual Positiv, was acquired by the Conservatory in 1956. (I remember well trying to practice even trio sonatas on this incredibly responsive and beautifully voiced musical instrument!) Nine Flentrop practice and studio organs were ordered for the new Conservatory building, completed in the early 1960s, followed by the masterful 44-stop, 3,400-pipe instrument in the north German style installed in the new Warner Concert Hall by the Flentrop firm in 1974. Appropriately this instrument was dedicated to the memory of Dr. George W. Andrews, in honor of his lifetime devotion to Oberlin Conservatory. A smaller 12-stop instrument in an early 17th-century style inspired by German builders Gottfried Fritzsche and Friedrich Stellwagen was placed in Fairchild Chapel by John Brombaugh and Company in 1981.

Now Oberlin has completed a trio of major period instruments with the installation of its organ in the French symphonic style of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. All three instruments are situated within easy walking distance, around Oberlin's central Tappan Square! More organological riches are to be found in Oberlin's churches--also close at hand: two-manual instruments by Flentrop at Christ Episcopal, Brombaugh at First Methodist, Bedient in the Lutheran Church, and soon, it is hoped, a new mechanical-action instrument will be built for Oberlin's First Church (Congregational), founded in 1834. Douglass compared Oberlin's organ "museum" to the rich 20th-century gems of architecture found in another small community, Columbus, Indiana.

A comparison of two organ departments, Oberlin and the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, New York, occupied much of the remainder of Douglass' talk. Oberlin's ongoing commitment to historic instruments and its wealth of organs was contrasted with the lack of historically-styled instruments at Eastman.

As a direction for the future, Douglass urged Oberlin to consider establishing an institute for advanced organ studies modeled after the Göteborg Organ Academy, and noted that the appointment of Göteborg's Hans Davidsson to the Eastman School organ faculty and the devising of a master plan to endow that institution with a comprehensive collection of period keyboard instruments could lead to a mutually beneficial cooperation.

An unscheduled afternoon allowed the opportunity to wander about the campus, enjoying again the various architectural strata represented by Oberlin's buildings, from solid late 19th-century Victorian landmarks to the Italian Renaissance-inspired creations of 20th-century Cass Gilbert, the classic modernist simplicity of Wallace Harrison's small mid-century auditorium, and the concrete "radiator Gothic" of Minoru Yamasaki's Conservatory buildings. Oberlin has long made a virtue of architectural eclecticism, and by choosing not to have every building on campus look alike, the school has developed its own unique style: a unity of diversities. The center of the campus, both physically and emotionally, is a large, forested square, where at this particular time student reaction to our recent national tragedy was to be seen at a large rock, normally painted with bright colored announcements of campus events, now black and surrounded by memorial flowers, placed there in remembrance and sorrow.

Saturday evening's events revolved around the solo recitals played by David Boe and Haskell Thomson. The patriotic and memorial themes were continued with the dedication of the program to the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the singing of the hymn America the Beautiful as an opening invocation.

Boe offered literal readings of the Final from Symphonie I (Vierne), La Vallée du Béhorléguy au matin from Paysages euskariens (Ermend Bonnal), and Grande Pièce Symphonique (Franck). The organ provided an exquisitely balanced Hautbois with the Swell Foundation stops; a distinctive, singing Positif Clarinette; beautiful Swell Strings suitably supported by the 32-foot Pedal Soubasse; and a rousing final movement Grand Choeur, complete with Octaves Graves at the end. For this concert I exchanged my front row balcony seat of the previous evening for a fifth row "center orchestra" one on the main floor. Here the organ had much more presence and the hall seemed more reverberant.

After intermission Thomson played Variations on Veni Creator (Duruflé) with the intervening chants sung by four organ students (David Kazimir, Thatcher Lyman, Timothy Spelbring, and Jared Stahler); the Andante sostenuto from Symphonie gothique (Widor) gave an opportunity to revel in the creamy orchestral solo voice of the Flûte harmonique; Communion: The birds and the springs and Sortie: The wind of the Spirit from the Pentecost Mass (Messiaen) proved to be the outstanding music making of the evening, during which Messiaen's ecstatic bird calls elicited an echoing whistle from a wandering avian fancier outside the chapel; Choral in A minor (Franck), where, for once, Franck's specified opening registration made sense; and finally, to show off the Orage (Thunder) pedal of the organ, Scène pastorale (for the inauguration of an organ) by L.J.A. Lefébure-Wély. Quel orage indeed!

Before this lengthy concert Roger Sherman moderated a panel presentation by Steven Dieck and David Pike of C. B. Fisk and Dana Kirkegaard, the consulting acoustician for the organ project. Background information on Cavaillé-Coll and the type of sound his organs produced (a "cantabile whine" according to Charles Fisk), the almost pure (95%) tin content of many pipes in the new organ (rather than Fisk's more usual 70-75%) as an attempt to emulate Cavaillé-Coll's even higher tin proportion; the more favorable forward placement of this organ and acoustical treatment of parts of the chapel that resulted in improved bass response and a subsequent enhancement of the reverberation time by 1/3 second were among the topics discussed.

Following the program Oberlin organ alumni and friends were treated to a wine and cheese reception in venerable Peters Hall (1885/87), where current organ students made a presentation of signed and framed dedication-event posters to their hard-working professors.

Finally, on Sunday the consoles of all three of the major Oberlin organs were made available to visiting alumni. The new instrument sounded spectacular in the now-empty Finney Chapel. I am happy to report that, with the help of student host David Kazimir, the French ventil system was negotiated smoothly (a simple pushing of the "Mode" button converts the organ from its multi-level American piston system to the wind-on-and-off French system of Cavaillé-Coll with the stops available on the ventils indicated by red printing, rather than the usual black, on their stop knobs). Fisk's adaptation of the 19th-century Barker Machine, the Servo-Pneumatic Lever allows tension-free playing of the coupled manuals, as well as the employment of the mechanical 16-foot coupler, the Octaves Graves (which operates on the Grand Orgue and any keyboards coupled to it). As for voicing, refinement and beauty of sound remain in the memory, as does the elegant differentiation among the 8-foot Principals of each division of the organ, the stops cohesive, yet each with its individual character.

Thus the "progression to the past" of the previous half-century has borne rich fruit in this very special educational setting. But is it not fair to remind ourselves that, had Oberlin kept its own earlier instruments by Roosevelt, Skinner, Holtkamp and the Christ Church Johnson, its character as an American center for organ study would have been enriched with unique period instruments from our own historic past? Hindsight is always easier than foresight, of course, but a wistful remark from longtime Oberlin music professor W. K. Breckenridge, commenting on the seemingly obligatory European organ study of the post World War Two period, seems to have been perfectly accurate. "No wonder," he said, "that all the young ones go off to Europe to see old organs. All the ones here have been replaced."

As a product of those off-to-Europe years I am delighted to see (and hear) the results of our heightened interest in historic and stylistic matters. I only hope that succeeding generations will grant that we "got it right."  Whatever the verdict, surely an ability to perform the organ music of the 19th-century French symphonists on such an appropriate instrument cannot fail to add a valuable further dimension to the musical experience at Oberlin. Gregory Bover, Fisk's project manager for opus 116, wrote, "We commend this instrument to the present and future faculty and students . . . as an avenue to France in the late 1800s."  It is commended, as well, to those devotees of the organ who will make their way, not to Europe, but to the remarkable organs of this small college town west of Cleveland.

Sources consulted:

* Publications of Oberlin College:

Celebrate: The Program of the Kay Africa Memorial Organ Dedication Events, September 28-30, 2001.

Gail Taylor: A Symphony of Old and New--Oberlin's C. B. Fisk Organ. Oberlin Conservatory Magazine, Spring 2001.

Oberlin College Conservatory of Music presents The Dedication and Inaugural Recital of the George Whitfield Andrews Organ, Friday, November 22, 1974. (The program contains unsigned articles about Flentrop, Biggs, Andrews, and "A Brief History of Warner Hall Organs").

9.11.01: Oberlin Reflections [On the Events of That Day]. Published by the Office of College Relations, 2001.

* The American Organist, July 2001:

Cover Feature: Oberlin's C. B. Fisk Organ. (Contains Statements from the Organ Faculty, Haskell Thomson and David Boe, and from the Organbuilders, written by Gregory Bover.)

* The Diapason, November 1962

"Oberlin Realizes a Dream" (Pictures and specifications of the new practice and studio organs for the Conservatory of Music).

Special thanks to Oberlin historian and organ department friend Richard Lothrop for anecdotal and historical information, as well as for his hospitality during the Fisk dedication weekend.

Fisk Opus 116

Finney Chapel, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

GRAND ORGUE (Manual I)

                  16'          Montre

                  16'          Bourdon

                  8'             Montre

                  8'             Gambe

                  8'             Flûte harmonique

                  8'             Bourdon

                  4'             Prestant

                  4'             Octave

                  2'             Doublette

                                    Grande Fourniture II

                                    Petite Fourniture V-VIII

                                    Dessus de Cornet V

                  16'          Bombarde

                  8'             Trompette

                  4'             Clairon

POSITIF (Manual II, enclosed)

                  16'          Quintaton

                  8'             Principal

                  8'             Salicional

                  8'             Unda maris

                  8'             Cor de Nuit

                  4'             Prestant

                  4'             Flûte douce

                  22⁄3'      Nasard

                  2'             Doublette

                  13⁄5'      Tierce

                  11⁄3'      Larigot

                  1'             Piccolo

                                    Plein jeu IV

                  16'          Cor anglais

                  8'             Trompette

                  8'             Clarinette

RÉCIT (Manual III, enclosed)

                  16'          Bourdon

                  8'             Diapason

                  8'             Viole de Gambe

                  8'             Voix céleste

                  8'             Flûte traversière

                  8'             Bourdon

                  4'             Dulciane

                  4'             Flûte octaviante

                  2'             Octavin

                                    Plein jeu IV

                  16'          Basson

                  8'             Trompette

                  8'             Basson-Hautbois

                  8'             Voix humaine

                  4'             Clairon

PÉDALE

                  32'          Montre (ext)

                  32'          Bourdon (ext, Soubasse)

                  16'          Contrebasse

                  16'          Montre (G.O.)

                  16'          Violonbasse

                  16'          Soubasse

                  8'             Flûte

                  8'             Violoncelle

                  8'             Bourdon

                  4'             Flûte

                  32'          Contre Bombarde

                  16'          Bombarde

                  8'             Trompette

                  4'             Clairon

                                    Pédales de combinaison

                                    Hook-down pedals

                                    (available in Mode français)

                                    Tirasse Grand Orgue

                                    Tirasse Positif

                                    Tirasse Récit

                                    Copula Positif/Grand Orgue

                                    Copula Récit/Grand Orgue

                                    Copula Récit/Positif

                                    Grand Orgue sur la machine

                                    Octaves graves Grand Orgue

                                    Anches Pédale

                                    Anches Grand Orgue

                                    Anches Positif

                                    Anches Récit

                                    Trémolo Récit

                                    Trémolo Positif

                                    Effet d'orage

                                    Coupler drawknobs above Récit

                                    (available in American Mode)

                                    Grand Orgue/Pédale

                                    Positif/Pédale

                                    Récit/Pédale

                                    Positif/Grand Orgue

                                    Récit/Grand Orgue

                                    Octaves graves G.O.

                                    Récit/Positif

                                    Récit Trémolo

                                    Positif Trémolo

John Bishop is executive director of the Organ Clearing House.

Whenever I’m demonstrating, playing, selling, or moving an organ, people ask, “How did you get into this?” I’m pretty sure every organist and organbuilder has fielded a similar question.

Roots
I got interested in the pipe organ as a pup. When I sang in the junior choir as an eight-year-old kid, the director was Carl Fudge, a harpsichord maker and devoted musician. When my voice changed and I joined the senior choir, I sat with other members of Boston’s community of musical instrument makers. I took organ lessons, found summer jobs in organbuilders’ workshops, studied organ performance at Oberlin, and never looked back. It’s as if there was nothing else I could have done.
As I’ve gone from one chapter of my life to the next, I’ve gathered a list of people who I think have been particularly influential in the history of the pipe organ, and who have influenced my opinions and philosophy. I could never mention them all in one sitting, but I thought I’d share thoughts about a few of them in roughly the order of their life spans. This is not to be considered a comprehensive or authoritative list, just the brief recollections of their role in the work of my life.
Arp Schnitger (1648–1719) was a prolific organbuilder active in Germany and the Netherlands. He was involved in the construction of well over a hundred organs—more than forty of them survive and have been made famous through modern recordings. As a modern-day organbuilder, I marvel at that body of work accomplished without electric power, UPS, or telephones. Schnitger’s work burst into my consciousness with E. Power Biggs’ landmark Columbia recording, The Golden Age of the Organ, a two-record set that featured several of Schnitger’s finest instruments. I was captivated by the vital sound, especially of the four-manual organ at Zwolle, the Netherlands, on which Biggs played Bach’s transcription of Vivaldi’s D-minor concerto from L’estro armonico. His playing was clear, vital, and energetic, and I remain impressed at how an organ completed in 1721 could sound so fresh and brilliant to us today.
Schnitger’s organs all sport gorgeous high-Baroque cases and some of the most beautiful tonal structures ever applied to pipe organs. Many of the most influential organists of his day were influenced by Schnitger’s work, which was a centerpiece of the celebrated North German school of organbuilding and composition.
In my opinion, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811–1899) is a strong candidate for best organbuilder, period. No single practitioner produced more tonal, mechanical, or architectural innovations. Among many other great ideas, he pioneered the concept of multiple wind pressures, not only in a single organ but also in a single windchest. Big organs in large French churches had the perennial problem of weak trebles, especially in the reeds. That’s why the Treble Cornet was so important to Classic French registration—if you wanted to play a dialogue between the bass and treble of a reed stop, accompanied by a Principal, you used the Trompette for the bass and Cornet for the treble (remember Clérambault 101!). Cavaillé-Coll used one pressure for bass, slightly higher pressure for mid-range, and higher still for the treble. This required complicated wind systems that would be no problem for us today, but remember those were the days of hand-pumping. Imagine that for more than half of Widor’s career at St. Sulpice, the 100-stop organ had to be pumped by hand. Those poor guys at the bellows handles must have hated that wind-sucking Toccata!
Cavaillé-Coll’s organs created vast new possibilities for composers through tone color and snazzy pneumatic registration devices. It’s safe to say that without his work we wouldn’t have the music of Franck, Vierne, Widor, Dupré, Tournemire, Messiaen, Saint-Saëns, Pierné, Mulet, or Naji Hakim, to name a few. A pretty dry world . . .
Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) was a Scottish-born industrialist who built great companies in nineteenth-century America for the production of steel and many other products. The rapid expansion of the railroads formed a lucrative market for Carnegie’s products, and he built a vast fortune. He once stated that he would limit his earnings to $50,000 a year and use the surplus for the greater good. He gave millions of dollars for the establishment of great universities, notably Carnegie-Mellon University and the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and countless library buildings were built throughout the United States with his money. He loved the pipe organ and was a loyal customer of the Aeolian Organ Company, commissioning several instruments for his homes. His love of the organ did not carry across to religious devotion—he was cynical enough about organized religion that as he gave money for the commissioning of new organs for churches he said that it was his intent to give the parishioners something to listen to besides the preaching. In all, Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Foundation contributed to the purchase of more than 8,000 pipe organs. During the time I was a student at Oberlin and for several years after my graduation, I was organist of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, where there was a large Austin organ donated by Andrew Carnegie.
Dudley Buck (1839–1909) was born in Hartford, Connecticut, educated at Trinity College, and studied organ at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany. He was organist at Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York, for many years, was a prolific composer and an active concert artist. His studies in Europe formed him as one of a group of American musicians who brought European virtuosity to the United States. This in turn inspired the transition of the nineteenth-century American organ from the simple, gentle, English-inspired instruments of the early eighteenth century with primitive Swell boxes and tiny pedal compasses to the instruments more familiar to us, with significant independent pedal divisions, primary and secondary choruses, and powerful chorus reeds. The first American organ Renaissance was under way.
Ernest Skinner (1866–1960), one of America’s most famous organbuilders, was a pioneer in the development of electro-pneumatic keyboard and stop actions, and in the tonal development of the symphonic organ. His brilliantly conceived combination actions gave organists convenient, instant, and nearly silent control over the resources of a huge organ. Those wonderful machines can fairly be described as some of the first user-programmable binary computers, built in Boston starting in about 1904, using wood, leather, and a Rube Goldberg assortment of hardware. Mr. Skinner devoted tremendous effort to the creation of the ergonomic organ console, experimenting with measurements and geometry to put keyboards, pedalboard, stop, combination, and expression controls within easy reach of the fingers and feet of the player. He was devoted to the highest quality and was immensely proud of his artistic achievements. He lived long enough to see his organs fall out of favor as interest in older styles of organbuilding was rekindled, and he died lonely and bitter. He would be heartened, delighted, and perhaps a little cocky had he witnessed the reawakening of interest in his organs some twenty-five years after his death.
E. Power Biggs (1906–1977) was central to the second American organ Renaissance. He was born and educated in England and experienced the great European organs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries before coming to the United States. Disenchanted with mid-twentieth-century American organbuilding and empowered by the introduction of the long-playing record (remember those black discs with the holes in the center?), he traveled Europe with his wife Peggy, recording those venerable instruments, handling the heavy and bulky recording equipment himself. He produced a long series of recordings of historic European organs, each of which focused on a single country or region and featured performances of music on the organs for which it was intended. This vast body of recorded performances brought the rich heritage of the European organ to the ears of countless Americans for the first time. Biggs’s recordings were an early example of the power of the media, made in the same era of fast-developing technology in which the Kennedy-Nixon presidential race was so heavily influenced by that mysterious new medium, television.
The response from organists and organbuilders was swift and enthusiastic. Dozens of small shops were established and important schools of music shifted the focus of their teaching to emphasize the relationship of organ music and playing to those marvelous older instruments.
In 1956 Biggs imported a three-manual organ built by Flentrop, which was installed in Harvard’s Germanic Museum, later known as the Busch-Reisinger Museum, now known as Busch Hall. Using that remarkable instrument, Biggs produced his record series released on Columbia Records, E. Power Biggs Plays Bach Organ Favorites, which became the best-selling series of solo classical recordings in history. Especially through the wide distribution of his recordings, Biggs was enormously influential, introducing a new world-view of the organ to the American public.
Virgil Fox (1912–1980) was a contemporary of Biggs, equally widely known and respected, who represented a very different point of view. He was champion of a romantic style of playing, celebrating organs with symphonic voices, lots of expression boxes, and plenty of luscious strings. His virtuosity and musicianship were without question, his lifestyle was flamboyant, and he was outspoken in his opinions, especially as regarded his artistic rival Biggs. Fox was determined that the “new” approach to organs and organ playing as borrowed from earlier centuries in Europe would not overshadow the romantic symphonic instruments that he so loved.
The rivalry between Biggs and Fox formed a fascinating artistic portrait and could well have been a healthy balance, but at times was vitriolic enough to become destructive. We had tracker-backers and “stick” organs on one side and slush buckets and murk merchants on the other. Those members of the public who were not interested enough in the organ to know how to take sides often simply walked away.
Jason McKown (1906–1989) was a right-hand man to Ernest Skinner, born in the same year as Mr. Biggs. It was my privilege to succeed Jason in the care of many wonderful organs in the Boston area when he retired, including those at Trinity Church, Copley Square (where Jason had been tuner for more than fifty years) and the First Church of Christ, Scientist (The Mother Church) that is home to an Aeolian-Skinner organ with 237 ranks. We overlapped for six months at the Mother Church to allow me a chance to get my bearings in that massive instrument. With forty-one reeds and more than a hundred ranks of mixtures, that organ was a challenge to tune. Jason had helped with the installation of several Skinner organs in the area in the 1920s that he maintained until his retirement, leaving me as the second person to care for organs that were sixty years old. He had prepared organs for concerts played by Vierne and Dupré, and though he never drove a car, he dutifully cared for dozens of organs throughout the Boston area, taking buses wherever he went. Jason’s wife Ruth was a fine organist and long-suffering key-holder. She had been a classmate and lifelong friend of former AGO national president Roberta Bitgood. I attended Jason’s funeral at his home church, Centre Methodist Church in Malden, Massachusetts, home to a 1971 Casavant organ. When that parish disbanded, the Organ Clearing House relocated Jason’s home organ to Salisbury Presbyterian Church in Midlothian, Virginia. Jason was a gentle, patient, and humble man who spent his life making organs sound their best.
Sidney Eaton (1908–2007) was an organ pipe maker and the last living employee of the Skinner Organ Company. He was Jason McKown’s co-worker and a long-time resident of North Reading, Massachusetts, where I lived for about ten years. I got to know Sidney when he was very old and quite crazy—I think he lived alone long enough to stop disagreeing with himself, and when he lost himself as his final filter he could say some outrageous things. One day I stopped by his house on my way to say hi and he came to the door in his birthday suit. Nothing weird, he had just forgotten to get dressed. Sidney told me about working next to Mr. Skinner as he dreamed up the shimmering Erzähler, the beguiling English Horn, and Skinner’s most famous tonal invention, the French Horn. Though it was often a challenge to find the line between fact and fantasy, I felt privileged to have had an opportunity to hear first-hand about some of our most famous predecessors. In his last years, Sidney road around town on an ancient Schwinn bicycle with balloon tires, a wire basket on the handlebars, and a bell that he rang with his thumb. He would lift his right hand and give a princely wave and a toothless smile to anyone driving by, whether or not they were an organbuilder.
Charles Fisk (1925–1983) began his musical life as a choirboy at Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where E. Power Biggs was the oft-truant organist. He studied physics at Harvard and Stanford, worked briefly for the Manhattan Project in New Mexico under Robert Oppenheimer, and rescued himself to become an organbuilder. He apprenticed with Walter Holtkamp in Cleveland, Ohio, became a partner in the Andover Organ Company, and later formed the venerable firm of C. B. Fisk, Inc. My father, an Episcopal priest now retired, was involved in the purchase of two organs by Fisk. When I was growing up, we lived equidistant (about three blocks) between two Fisk organs, one in my home church and one in the neighboring Congregational church, where I had my lessons and did most of my practicing through high school. I didn’t know Charlie well but I did meet him several times and attended workshops and lectures that I remember vividly. I consider him to be the Dean of the Boston School of revivalist organbuilders—that fascinating movement that was well underway as my interest in the organ developed.
Brian Jones (still very much alive and active!) was director of music and organist at Trinity Church in Boston when Jason McKown retired and I took on the care of the complicated and quirky organ there. Complicated because it is in fact two organs in three locations, with a fantastic relay system and sophisticated console, quirky because it was first a Skinner organ, then an Aeolian-Skinner organ, and then continuously modified by Jason in cahoots with George Faxon, long-time organist there, and much beloved teacher of many of Boston’s fine organists. Brian understood the central position of that church in that city—a magnificent building designed by H. H. Richardson, decorated by John LaFarge, and home to some of the great preachers of the Episcopal Church—and the music program he created reflected the great heritage of the place. He brought great joy to the church’s music as he built the choir program into a national treasure. Otherwise polite-to-a-fault Back Bay Bostonians would draw blood over seats for the Candlelight Carol Service (now famous through the vast sales of the twice-released Carols from Trinity), and the 1,800-seat church was packed whenever the choir sang. I remember well the recording sessions for the second professional release, which took place in the wee hours of stifling June and July nights, the schedule dictated by the desire for a profitable Christmas-shopping-release. It was surreal to lie on a pew in 90-degree weather, tools at hand, at two in the morning, listening to the third take of I saw three ships come sailing in.
My Trinity Church experience included tuning every Friday morning in preparation for the weekly noontime recital. The opportunity to hear that great organ played by a different musician each week had much to do with the evolution of my understanding of the electro-pneumatic symphonic organ that I had been taught to consider decadent. And the weekly communal lunches that followed each recital at the Thai place across the street introduced me to many of the wonderful people in the world of the pipe organ.
My wife, Wendy Strothman, was organist of the Follen Community Church (Unitarian Universalist) in Lexington, Massachusetts, and chair of the organ committee when we met. I was invited to make a proposal to the committee for the repair and improvement of the church’s homemade organ for which there seemed to be little hope, but whose creator was still present as a church member. A spectacular 14-rank organ by E. & G.G. Hook fell from the sky as a neighboring U.U. church closed and offered the organ. With lots of enthusiastic volunteer help, we restored and installed the organ. I marveled at Wendy’s commitment to her weekly musical duties as she managed the rigors of her day job—executive vice-president at a major publishing house in Boston. When the organ was complete, the church commissioned Boston composer Daniel Pinkham to compose a piece for this wonderful organ. He responded with a colorful and insightful suite called Music for a Quiet Sunday, published by Thorpe Music. It includes about a half-dozen tuneful, attainable pieces and a partita on the tune Sloane. Daniel had sized up Wendy’s dual life and produced a marvelous collection of pieces aimed at the skillful dedicated amateur who worked hard to squeeze out enough practice time from a life filled with pressing professional responsibilities, not to mention raising a family. I write often about the brilliant big-city organists who I am privileged to know—their deep dedication, and virtuoso skills. Daniel’s reading of Wendy’s situation was a third-person insight for me into the joy of playing the organ in church as a sideline to a professional career.
There are dozens of you out there who know you’re on my list. Stay tuned. We’ll do this again. 

James G. Chapman, retired University of Vermont Choral Union conductor and longtime music professor, died February 8. He was 83. Born and raised in Manistee, Michigan, Chapman studied at the University of Michigan, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music in 1949 and master’s in 1950. He began as a church organist while a teenager, and later taught at Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, North Carolina, but was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951. Though trained in cryptographic work, he was assigned as an organist and assistant choir director for the Far East Command Chapel Center in Tokyo (1951–53). He served from 1953–59 as the organist and choir director at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Forest Hills, New York.
Chapman taught music at Middlebury College from 1959 to 1963 and was one of 40 music teachers selected for a Danforth Teacher Grant in 1963–64. In 1964, he finished his Ph.D. in musicology at New York University. He also served as a guest conductor for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and led tours to Europe.
In 1968, Chapman was the founder and director of the UVM Choral Union. Chapman teamed up with UVM English professor Betty Bandel in February 1973 to release the record album “Vermont Harmony” that featured music by Vermont composers between 1790 and 1810. Three years later, Chapman and Bandel released “Vermont Harmony II” with the works of Hezekiah Moors and Jeremiah Ingalls, and “Vermont Harmony III” appeared in 1986. Chapman—along with Mel Kaplan and Bill Metcalfe—helped create the Vermont Mozart Festival in 1973. Chapman was selected to perform the inaugural recital on the Vedder Van Dyck memorial organ in the new St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Burlington in 1974.

Musician, scholar, and philanthropist Roy Frederic Kehl died at his home in Evanston, Illinois, on February 12 at the age of 75 after a valiant 24-year battle with cancer. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Kehl was a member of the Bishop’s Advisory Commission of Church Music of the Diocese (Episcopal) of Chicago. He also served as a member of the Hymn Music Committee of the Episcopal Church, making many contributions to The Hymnal 1982.
His generosity was extensive, benefiting his chosen interests: the American Guild of Organists and the North Shore University Health System, where he endowed the gastroenterology laboratory. At considerable personal expense, he conducted exhaustive research at the Steinway piano facilities in New York and became the world’s foremost authority on the history of Steinway & Sons piano production. Outside of his musical interests, Kehl was also a train and mass-transit enthusiast, and maintained a significant collection of historical documents and photographs of the mass transit systems of Chicago and St. Louis.
The only child of F. Arthur and Eleanor McFarland Kehl, he was born on November 22, 1935 in St. Louis. He was educated at the St. Louis Country Day School, Oberlin College, and Ohio State University, and he completed advanced musical study at Syracuse and Northwestern universities. His organ teachers included Grigg Fountain, Leo Holden, Wilbur Held, and Arthur Poister. He taught organ at Houghton College (NY), served as director of music at Kenmore Methodist Church (NY) and as organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension in Chicago.
He leaves no immediate survivors, but his gentle spirit was infectious, resulting in a multitude of friendships from all walks of life. As a mentor to young musicians, he became an icon of caring, always offering encouragement and concern. He was a prolific letter-writer, known to friends all over the country for his distinctive prose.
A memorial celebration of his life was held at the Church of the Ascension, Chicago, on March 5. Memorial gifts may be made to the Endowment Fund of the American Guild of Organists, 475 Riverside Dr., Suite 1260, New York, NY 10115, or to North Shore University Health System Foundation, 1033 University Place, Suite 450, Evanston, IL 60201.
—Morgan Simmons
Evanston, Illinois

Richard Torrence, promoter and manager, died February 6 following a stroke. With his colleague and life-partner Marshall Yeager, Torrence promoted Virgil Fox’s “Heavy Organ” initiative back in the 1960s and 70s. He guided the career of Ted Alan Worth, collaborated with the Rodgers and Ruffatti organ companies, commissioned Fox’s “Black Beauty” touring organ, co-authored the irreverent biography, Virgil Fox: The Dish, shepherded the “Virgil Fox Legacy,” godfathered the ‘virtual organ’, and encouraged Cameron Carpenter.
Richard Torrence earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1958. He moved to New York and established a concert management in 1963, representing Virgil Fox and other leading artists. He worked with Rodgers Organ Company and Fratelli Ruffatti, handling marketing, public relations, advertising, product development, and sales until 1976, when the concert management grew into a production company. By 1983, Torrence was developing high-visibility fund-raising events for such clients as UNICEF, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City Opera, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). Celebrities he worked with included Elizabeth Taylor, Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Eartha Kitt, Van Cliburn, Madonna, William F. Buckley Jr., Ted Turner, Jane Fonda, and Michael York.
During a trip to Russia in 1992, Richard Torrence became acquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, Mayor of St. Petersburg, and became Advisor to the Mayor of St. Petersburg on International Projects, 1992–96, facilitating cultural projects and investment opportunities in the Petersburg region. During his tenure he helped raise $1.3-million for city dental programs, and attracted the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to St. Petersburg to build a $70-million factory. Vladimir Putin was Torrence’s immediate superior during this time. Torrence had twice produced the St. Petersburg Festival of American Films, and in 1998 he designed and marketed Le Club, a business and professional complex with two restaurants and special events facilities.