Stephen Bicknell, British pipe organ designer, builder, and historian, died August 18 at age 49. Among the more important projects he designed were the two instruments in Chelmsford Cathedral, completed in 1994. He also led the team responsible for building the organ in Gray’s Inn Chapel, London, in 1993.
His book The History of the English Organ (Cambridge University Press, 1996), covering the history of the instrument in England from A.D. 900 to the present, is widely regarded as the leading authority on the subject. The book won the Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize from the American Musical Instrument Society for the best publication on musical instruments in 1996–97.
Born in Chelsea on December 20, 1957, he began his career in pipe organ building with Noel Mander at the age of 22. From 1987–1990 he worked with J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd., returning to N. P. Mander Ltd. as head designer in 1990. He occasionally collaborated with his brother, architect Julian Bicknell—for example, on the casework of an instrument in the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford, completed in 1986. An active member of the British Institute of Organ Studies, he contributed to its journal and conferences. He lectured in organ history at the Royal Academy of Music and contributed to The Cambridge Companion to the Organ and the latest edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music. Regarded as a purist, he was an advocate for traditional methods of organ building, upsetting those who, he suggested, were too willing to accept electronic compromises. He had a passion for architecture, in particular modern architecture, and traveled throughout Europe. Two years ago Bicknell all but abandoned the organ world, and joined the Association of Accounting Technicians as an administrator, to work in a an office-based environment.
Stephen Bicknell was found dead at his home; he had been suffering from depression. He is survived by his partner John Vanner, his mother, and three older brothers. On one occasion Bicknell wrote: “The organ is a continual reminder to us that learning and ‘wrought objects’ are God-given mysteries and part of the human struggle for Heaven on Earth.”
John L. L’Ecuyer died May 9 at Community Hospice House in Merrimack, New Hampshire, at the age of 70. He was on the music faculty of St. Paul’s School in Concord for 28 years and served as director of keyboard studies 1992–2001. Organist-choir director of First Baptist Church in Nashua 1965–2004, he was named organist emeritus in 2006. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he majored in piano, he concertized on piano and organ throughout New England. A longtime member of the New Hampshire AGO chapter, he was a founder and past president of the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association. He was also active in the Music Teachers National Association, Eastern Division, serving on the national executive board in the 1970s. He is survived by his wife, Margaret J. (Churchill) L’Ecuyer, three sons, and six grandchildren.
Margaretta Manchey died June 2 in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, at the age of 95. She retired after 77 years as organist at Otterbein United Brethren Church in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, serving from 1928 to 2005, never having received compensation for her work. She continued as organist at Five Forks Brethren Church in Waynesboro until October 2006. In 1999, she was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest-playing organist in one church
