An Organ Odyssey: One Church’s Story

Noack Organ Company Opus 145

Barbara Owen

Barbara Owen is librarian of the AGO Organ Library at Boston University, organist of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Lowell, and an independent organ consultant. She is a past president of the Organ Historical Society and author of several books relating to the organ.

Noack Organ Company Opus 145 First Congregational Church, Swampscott, Massachusetts

It began around 1999 with that nagging and increasingly hard to ignore problem--”We’ve got to do something about that organ!” But the congregation of the First Congregational Church in Swampscott, Massachusetts--like most congregations--took a little while in getting around to seriously pursuing solutions to the problem. Swampscott is a coastal town on the commuter rail line north of Boston; it split off from an older town in the early 19th century. In 1846 the church was founded, and by 1852 it had its first organ, built by Simmons of Boston. That sturdy instrument served the church until 1926, when the church’s old building was replaced by a larger one.

That’s when the trouble began. A larger and more modern organ was desired, but funds were probably tight, and so the church settled for an organ made up largely of old parts from a second-hand Hook & Hastings organ, but with a new console. By 1965 the church was again in need of a larger building, and this was designed in the then very prevalent “chancel” style, with the organ relegated by the architect to two cramped chambers at the front. Probably again due to a shortage of funds, the church opted to have a local organ technician recycle parts of the organ from the former building, add a few more recycled parts from sources unknown, and install the whole thing as best as he could into the inadequate chambers.

Even before 1999 this organ, never really adequate or musically satisfactory, was plagued with maintenance problems. The old 1926 console was deteriorating, the wind regulation was unsteady, and the jerry-built internal works were causing regular problems with ciphers and dead or slow notes. The pipework was in poor tune and regulation, and due to the inadequate openings of the chamber--facing each other rather than the congregation--the sound of the organ projected poorly. A substantial amount of carpeting did not help matters either. A committee was finally formed to research the problem. Could the old organ be rebuilt? Should they consider an electronic instrument? What about just starting over with a new organ? Hard questions to answer.

Several years ago the Boston AGO chapter established an Organ Advisory Committee made up of a mix of chapter members with various areas of expertise--organ building, architecture, acoustics, consulting, even members of the clergy. Over time this committee has assisted a number of area churches with advice resulting in restoration of historic organs, repair or rebuilding, acoustical improvement, and, occasionally, new organs. In 2000 the O.A.C. was contacted by Patricia Clark, a chapter member who was organist of the Swampscott church. The church’s organ committee was getting bogged down and needed guidance.

Eight members of the O.A.C. came to the church, surveyed the old organ, and discussed the options with the organ committee, pointing out the problems of the present organ and, just as important, its acoustical and placement handicaps. While members of the O.A.C. are not always unanimous in their recommendations or suggestions of solutions, in this instance they were. None saw any advantage in attempting to rebuild the old organ, and all were concerned with the poor placement. The organ committee was strongly urged to investigate what some other churches had done--something they had not at that point considered. All eight O.A.C. members submitted individual reports, and all recommended essentially the same thing--a new pipe organ, well-designed by a reputable builder, and located in the optimum acoustical position in the middle of the chancel, facing the congregation. Suggestions were also made of churches in the greater Boston area where similar projects had successfully been carried out, and the committee was strongly urged to investigate them.

The organ committee--their worst suspicions about the old organ confirmed, but now with some direction about how to proceed--began learning more about organs and, most importantly, visiting other churches. Along the way they absorbed some standards of what really constituted a good pipe organ, and began comparing newer organs by various builders. Their epiphany came at the Church of the Redeemer in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, where the organist, Australian-born Michael S. Murray, demonstrated the recently built Noack organ for them. They liked the sound and the responsive mechanical action. They decided that their search for a builder had come to an end. Fritz Noack visited their church and concurred with the O.A.C. members that the only viable location for a new organ was the center of the chancel. The organ committee had done its job well, the congregation supported their recommendation, and soon a contract was signed for an organ of two manuals and 27 stops. Frank Olney, a Boston architect who also happens to be an organist--and thus understands the spatial and acoustical requirements of organs far better than many other architects--was hired to redesign the chancel and work with Fritz Noack on the visual aspect of the organ.

Design of the organ began in 2003, and by June 2004, the organ was completed and set up in the spacious erecting room of Noack’s workshop, located in a converted brick schoolhouse in Georgetown, not very far from Swampscott. The Noack Organ Co. is one of three organ-building firms in a relatively small area of Essex County north of Boston. All three like to host open houses to showcase new organs, many of which are destined for distant points. Noack has sent organs as far afield as Japan and Iceland. Indeed, it had been several years since his firm had built an organ in the greater Boston area, and Fritz Noack, who had enjoyed collaborating with the well-informed committee and organist from Swampscott, planned a more festive than usual open house for their new organ on June 26, 2004.

The organ committee and its chair Dan Wistran, the Rev. Dean Pedersen, and organist Patricia Clark were there, along with many parishioners. In attendance, too, were many of the local organists and aficionados, along with a delegation from the Congregational Church in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a sneak preview of what to expect when Noack’s next organ was delivered to their church.

Every organ builder has their own modus operandi when it comes to open houses. Fritz Noack always waits until an organ is entirely finished “on the floor” to schedule one, and while other builders generally opt for an “open console” approach to a demonstration, Noack usually asks a friendly organist or two to play an impromptu mini-recital before giving everyone else a chance to try it out. This assures that those in attendance will be reasonably quiet, and that they will hear a comprehensive overview of what the organ can do with minimal distraction.

The demonstration of the Swampscott organ was begun by two well-known Boston area organists, Peter Sykes and Michael S. Murray, who between them provided a good sampling of the organ’s versatility in music of various periods. Patricia Clark followed, along with Paul Schnell from the Kennebunkport Congregational Church. The younger generation of budding organists was represented by Dylan Sauerwald, a recipient of the Young Organist Initiative scholarship, given annually by the Boston AGO chapter. Afterwards, other organists took turns on the bench while organists, organbuilders, and neighbors partook of refreshments and socialized--and there was even a little impromptu hymn singing.

During the following month the organ was dismantled and packed, and by late August it was being set up in the church, which had been prepared for its arrival by some refurbishing of the chancel area--and the removal of carpeting. Its understated white casework soon emerged as the new focal point of the room. A formal dedication service was held on the morning of September 26, 2004, with plenty of organ and choral music. Rev. Pedersen, in a sermon entitled “Breathing Exercises,” took the symbolism of wind-blown organ pipes and wove it through various ramifications of the spiritual life found in the scriptures, suggesting that organs may serve to remind the congregation of its own “breathing exercises,” which he defined as “prayer and praise, worship and service.”

The final event of the dedication celebration was a recital on November 7, 2004, by Michael S. Murray, whose demonstration of the Noack organ in the Church of the Redeemer had initially helped to set this organ project on its course. Two hymns were included--good rousing ones (“For all the Saints” and “Sleepers, Wake”). The robust singing of a packed house proved beyond doubt that the new instrument was up to the major task of a good church organ, leading and supporting congregational singing without overpowering it.

The trend of organ tonal design and voicing in this first decade of the 21st century leans toward a historically-informed eclecticism that takes into account the resources needed for valid performance of music from many periods. The result, in some cases, has faint echoes of the best organs built in the United States during the second half of the 19th century. This Noack organ exemplifies this trend, and proved a satisfying vehicle for baroque works by Buxtehude (Praeludium in C Major) and Bach (Wachet auf and Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor) in the first half of Murray’s program. In the second half, the organ proved itself equally comfortable with Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 3, Herbert Howells’ Master Tallis’s Testament, and Joseph Bonnet’s rambunctious Variations de Concert, all in the romantic style.

While it is hoped that other recitals will be planned for this organ in the future, that will not be its main task. This is a church organ, and much is demanded of a church organ these days. Besides playing the literature (in all its variety), it must also lead hymns well and properly accompany a wide range of choral, solo, and instrumental music. Murray’s program proved this organ’s ability to easily interpret music of different styles and nationalities (as well as to lead hymns). It is certain that it will also be up to all other demands made of it in a church with an active music program, for many years to come. From the beginning of this church’s quest for a better organ to its culmination was close to five years, seemingly a long time to anyone hooked on instant gratification and quick fixes, but a very short time in the overall life of a well-made organ and its long-term benefits.

GREAT

16’ Bourdon

8’ Diapason

8’ Second Diapason

8’ Chimney Flute

4’ Octave

4’ Harmonic Flute

22/3’ Twelfth

2’ Fifteenth

13/5’ Seventeenth

Mixture IV-VI

8’ Trumpet

SWELL

8’ Diapason

8’ Bell Gamba

8’ Celeste

8’ Gedackt

4’ Octave

4’ Recorder

2’ Gemshorn

Cornet III

Mixture IV

8’ Oboe

PEDAL

16’ Stopt Bass

8’ Diapason

8’ Gedackt

4’ Octave

16’ Trombone

8’ Trumpet

Cover Feature

New Organs

Bedient Pipe Organ Company, Roca, Nebraska

St. Paul United Methodist Church, Lincoln, Nebraska

From the pastor

St. Paul United Methodist Church was the very first church in Lincoln,
established in 1857. Located at 12th and M streets in downtown Lincoln, the
present building was completed in 1901 and was used by many groups as the
city's largest auditorium. A major addition was built in 1999, and the
sanctuary was completely remodeled in 2001. It is an active and growing
downtown church with 1,800 members.

We were very excited when an unanticipated major gift allowed us to proceed
with a much-needed sanctuary renovation. One concern that we had to deal with
in planning this renovation was the old organ, a Reuter from 1953. The primary
concern was the appearance of the instrument in the new visual plan; and that
led to a secondary concern: the condition of the organ and its effectiveness in
leading worship at St. Paul.

We investigated renovating the existing organ versus replacement with a new
one. It became apparent that a six-figure renovation would solve the visual
problems but still leave us with an old organ that would eventually need a lot
of work. A decision was made by the organ committee to contract with the
Bedient Company to build a new organ in two phases. Phase one included the
console, a new façade and two major divisions of the new organ, and
allowed us to proceed with funding that was in place to solve the organ
problems. Subsequently, a second generous gift has allowed us to complete phase
two, the remaining two divisions of the organ.

We had serious concerns about replacing the Reuter organ with a new
instrument. Although the organ had many deficiencies, at the same time, there
were many sounds that were beloved by the congregation. Time proved that our
concerns were unfounded. The façade of the new Bedient organ is
magnificent and fits beautifully into the renovated sanctuary. More
importantly, from the first time we began to hear sounds from the new organ, it
was apparent that the tonal qualities of the new organ were equally
magnificent. The organ creates a beautiful, full sound without a hint of
harshness, and there are many lovely individual stops on the organ. It has been
a joy working with the Bedient Company. They have been responsive to all of our
concerns and have created a magnificent pipe organ for St. Paul United
Methodist Church that will enhance the worship experience for generations to
come.

--Dr. C. Rex Bevins

Senior Pastor, St. Paul UMC

From the director of music

When it became apparent that the old organ was going to be replaced, I had
serious concerns about the suitability of the new organ to lead the
congregation and to accompany the many choral and instrumental ensembles at St.
Paul. Gene and company assured us that we would be very pleased with the
result, and they were right! The range of dynamics for accompanying was
remarkable just with the Great and Swell divisions in place. When a string
ensemble from the Lincoln Orchestra Association was being accompanied by the
organ, many remarked that they were unable to tell which sounds came from the
string orchestra and which from the string pipes in the organ! The sounds of
the principal pipes and the principal choruses are excellent for leading the
congregation in hearty Methodist hymn singing. The Bedient Pipe Organ Company's
Opus 70 is well suited for all requirements.

--Dr. William Wyman

Director of Music, St. Paul UMC

Director of Choral Activities,

Nebraska Wesleyan University

From the organist

The St. Paul sanctuary, one hundred years old in 2001, was designed
according to the Akron plan. The organ chamber is located in the corner of a
diamond shape, fronted by the chancel and surrounded by amphitheater-style
seating. Three balconies skirt the outer walls with a total seating capacity of
1100.

The renovation of the sanctuary and the organ were addressed with a primary
concern for flexible use of space. All chancel furnishings were permanently
fixed in place making it difficult to find space for instrumental groups.
Acoustics were another concern. Carpet with a thick horsehair pad and soft
acoustic ceiling tile virtually defeated the courage of the congregation to
sing. The old organ, though rather large, didn't project well enough to support
and encourage singing. And as a concert instrument it was wholly inadequate.

Flexibility was achieved by making all chancel furniture, including the
choir modesty rail, movable. Choir chairs replaced pews. The organ would have a
movable console. The Bedient Organ Company agreed to a major departure from its
practice of building tracker organs to design for us an instrument with an
electric console and with electro-pneumatic slider chests. The low-profile,
French terrace console was placed on a movable platform. Conducting from the
console is now possible for the first time in the history of this church.
Ensemble playing has become a pleasurable experience. Eye (and ear) contact
with the conductor and other performers can always be achieved. An adjustable
pedalboard, both horizontal and vertical, provides relief from back and
shoulder discomfort as well as seating flexibility for younger student players.

To restore acoustical life to the sanctuary, ceiling tiles were replaced
with drywall, glued and screwed down every twelve inches. The new chancel floor
was extended and covered with solid oak. The heavily padded carpet in the nave
was replaced with a thin, tightly woven variety.

But of course, everyone wants to know, is the organ successful? The short
answer is an unequivocal yes! It can do everything required of a church organ
in worship. Tonally, the organ is well matched to the human voice, supporting
congregational singing and accompanying choirs and soloists beautifully. The
strings and reeds blend well with their orchestral counterparts. Brass players
particularly have commented on how much easier it is to tune and play with this
organ. These characteristics also provide the foundation necessary for playing
orchestral transcriptions. In general, three tonal characteristics leap to
mind: gentle, beautiful and robust. But the truly unique contribution of this
instrument is its place on the cutting edge of stylistic development.

Given the tonal qualities of the Aeolian-Skinner organ, it is understandable
why there is a virtual cult following for that style of instrument. But as the
proponents of organ reform realized, its capacity to play the vast repertoire
with any hint of appropriate historic sound and color was nonexistent. The
American Classic organ simply produced a generic sound able to play all
repertoire but with little distinction. Music composed for it, of course, was
the exception.

Now after an in-depth foray into historic building practices over the past
thirty or so years a new "American Classic" organ has emerged. The
sound is clearly influenced by historic models but in the case of some builders
it is still a generic sound, i.e., one basic sound for all styles of music. In
the hands of the Bedient Organ Company, however, a higher ideal is being
achieved.

The higher ideal, to the mind of this author, is an instrument whose
ensemble is not only cohesive but by judicious registration may produce
ensembles clearly reminiscent of French Classic and Romantic, North German and
even English Cathedral sounds. The effect may not be literal but still is able
to act as a tonal chameleon. We find Bedient's Opus 70 to successfully define
this direction in the stylistic evolution of the American Classic organ.

In our recently released recording we have chosen a solo repertoire to demonstrate
the range of the instrument. Whether the organ's use is to support and lead
worship or as a concert instrument there are three requirements for a
successful instrument: dynamic flexibility, varied tonal color (timbre), and
stylistic eclecticism.

Dynamic flexibility, that ability to affect a seamless crescendo and
diminuendo from the softest stops to full organ and back, is demonstrated
beautifully and elegantly by the Adagio in E Major of Frank Bridge. This is
accomplished by the use of two enclosed divisions, the Swell and Choir coupled
to the unenclosed Great division. This ability is essential, as well, for
effective choral accompanying.

The range of timbre is like an artist's palette. Each stop on an organ has a
specific tonal color: strings, flutes, principals and reeds. Additionally, each
manual division has mutation stops which, when used in various combinations,
create new colors. A few possibilities, using flutes, mutations, oboe and
cromorne, are revealed in the charming little dance suite, La Bourrée by
Michael Praetorius.

In most modern church settings an instrument should be stylistically
eclectic, able to play a wide range of literature both for worship and concert.
The music of J. S. Bach shows the instrument's ability to sound German and to
play complex contrapuntal textures with clarity. The music of Gigout,
Saint-Saëns, Mulet, Dupont, and Dupré shows the French personality
of the organ with its true French reeds and the full foundation of 8' flue
stops on the Great organ. And, referring once again to the Adagio in E Major by
Frank Bridge, the English love of building waves of crescendo and diminuendo in
the 19th century is clearly possible on this instrument. Finally, the inclusion
of three American hymn settings demonstrates this organ's ability to be
completely at home in the 21st century.

A new organ invites exploration into its capabilities: stylistic range and
practical uses in the worship service as a solo instrument, with other
instruments, choirs and congregational singing. The St. Paul congregation and
its musicians are grateful for an instrument that satisfies beyond our
expectations.

--Dr. John C. Friesen

Senior Organist and Consultant,

St. Paul UMC

From the builder

The Bedient organ built especially for St. Paul United Methodist Church in
Lincoln, Nebraska is the company's Opus 70. It was designed specifically for
the St. Paul sanctuary. The three-manual and pedal organ has 47 stops, 59 ranks
and a total of 3,063 pipes.

To accommodate the needs of the church, we designed and built the organ in
two phases. Phase one consisted of the structural, mechanical, electrical, and
wind systems to make the organ function. Also included in phase one were
windchests and pipes of the Great, Swell, and part of the Pedal divisions. In
phase two, the windchests and pipes of the Choir division and the main part of
the Pedal division were added.

Inside the organ chamber a three-level structure, consisting of steel
columns and laminated wood beams, provides the support for the windchests and
the wind system. The façade casework and console are made of white oak,
the keyboard naturals are of bone, and the accidentals are of ebony. The pipe
shades are of basswood with the design drawn from the foliage in the stained
glass windows. The Pedal naturals are of hard maple and the accidentals are
capped with teak. The stopknobs are of cocobola. The pedalboard, expression
shoes and toe pistons adjust vertically via electric motor, while the
horizontal pedal and bench adjustments are mechanical.

The tonal basis of the organ is an amalgamation of 19th-century American,
18th-century German and 18th/19th-century French concepts. Pipes were made with
techniques and designs appropriate to their historical derivations. All the
pipes made by Bedient are an alloy of tin and lead, ranging from 2% tin to 85%
tin, based on the historical basis of the various stops. The façade
pipes, made by A. R. Schopp's Sons in Ohio, are of polished zinc up to the
six-foot body length pipes and are 80% tin beyond that size. They also feature
23-karat gold leaf gilding on the mouths. All wooden pipes are made of poplar
except for the one set of pipes that was retained from the old organ, the 32'
Contresoubasse, which is made of mahogany.

The manual windchests are slider chests and the valves that admit air into
the channels are electro-pneumatic. All offset chests are electro-pneumatic.
The electrical control systems of the organ were made by Peterson
Electro-Musical Products, Chicago, and include the Master Stop Processor with
Piston Sequencer.

The dedication concert for Opus 70 was performed on January 27, 2002 by Dr.
John C. Friesen, organist at St. Paul UMC. Dr. Friesen highlighted the evening
with his performance of works of Buxtehude, Bach, Langlais, Franck, and Vierne.
He was joined by members of the Lincoln Orchestra Association in the
performance of the Handel Organ Concerto in F Major, op. 4, no. 4, and the
Poulenc Concerto in G minor.

The new Bedient organ was also featured in a concert by The Lincoln Symphony
Orchestra celebrating their 75th Anniversary. The evening included Rev. Dr.
Victoria Sirota performing on Opus 70, after which she stated:

The new Bedient organ at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Lincoln, with
its classic European sensibilities coupled with American flexibility, worked
wonderfully for the Sirota organ concerto "In the Fullness of Time."
Individual stops have integrity and presence, and yet blend beautifully into an
artistic whole. Gene Bedient is a poet.

From the outset, it has been the goal of the Bedient Pipe Organ Company to
create a majestic organ that will serve St. Paul United Methodist Church well
for many generations to come.

--Gene Bedient

The Bedient staff:

Alan Baehr, design, case work, installation

Gene Bedient, concept, design and voicing

Gwen Bedient, administration

Duane Grosse, pipe making, electrical

Jerry Hill, case work

Chad Johnson, wood pipes, electrical, voicing, installation

Rick LaBrune, windchests

Paul Lytle, windchests, installation, administration

Stan Pypenko, pipe making

Ed Stibal, case work, console

Jon Taylor, case work, internal structure

Donna Varney, voicing, installation

Fred Zander, windchests, installation

Todd Znamenacek, pipe shades

The recording of this organ by Dr. John Friesen is available from the church
office: 402/477-6951;

<www.saintpaulumc.org>.

For information on the Bedient Pipe Organ Company: 1060 Saltillo Road, Roca,
NE 68430; 800/382-4225;

<[email protected];

<www.bedientorgan.com>.

GREAT

16' Principal

8' Principal

8' Salicional

8' Flûte
harmonique

8' Rohrflute

4' Spielflute
(prep)

22/3' Quinte

2 Octave

13/5' Terz

Mixture
IV-V

8' Trompete

8' Wesley
Trompette (prep)

Tremulant

Chimes

SWELL

8' Violin
Diapason

8' Viole
de Gambe

8' Bourdon

8' Voix
céleste

4' Prestant

22/3' Nazard

2' Doublette

13/5' Tierce

Mixture
III-IV

16' Basson

8' Trompette

8' Hautbois

4' Clairon

8' Wesley
Trompette (prep)

Tremulant

CHOIR

8' Principal

8' Bourdon

8' Dulciana

8' Unda
Maris

4' Principal

2' Nachthorn

Cornet
II

Cymbale
III-IV

8' Trompette

8' Cromorne

8' Wesley
Trompette (prep)

Tremulant

Zimbelstern

PEDAL

32' Contresoubasse

16' Contrebasse

16' Subbass

102/3' Quinte

8' Principal

8' Bourdon

4' Octave

4' Flute

16' Bombarde

8' Trompette

Couplers

Great/Pedal

Swell/Pedal

Choir/Pedal

Swell/Great 16, 8

Choir/Great 16, 8

Swell/Choir

Reverse Choir/Great

Great 16-UO

Swell 16-UO-4

Choir 16-UO-4

Piston Sequencer

Forward, Reverse, Reset

Reversibles

Great/Pedal

Swell/Pedal

Choir/Pedal

Swell/Great

Choir/Great

Swell/Choir

Pistons

8 General

6 Divisionals

General Cancel

Divisional Cancel

Tutti

Set

OHS National Convention, Portland, Oregon

by Joseph Fitzer

The Organ Historical Society held its forty-second annual convention in Portland, Oregon, from Sunday, July 13, through Saturday, July 19. Here are, first, a kind of organ travelogue and, secondly, some broader considerations evoked by the organs and the playing.

Convention headquarters was the Best Western Rose Garden Hotel, across the Willamette River from downtown Portland. Accommodations were certainly adequate, as was transportation. So was the food, when we finally got it. Future convention leaders really must insist to caterers who are seemingly geared for bar mitzvahs and weddings that there be four food-serving lines, and if possible a single seating. Only in this way can 200 OHS convention-goers keep to their tight schedule of organ demonstrations and bus rides, and possibly have the chance of a short walk before the next scheduled activity. It is also worth noting that as the OHS ages so do its members; it is cruel to keep the oldest of them standing a long time in line. Because of a disagreement between the hotel and the convention leadership, the exhibits and evening social hour had to be transferred to the shop of organ-builder Richard Bond, with a shuttle bus. Later the René Marceau shop was opened for a social hour as well, but it appeared that the need of using the after-hours bus resulted in lower attendance. In general, the painstaking, thoughtful southern hospitality of the 1989 New Orleans and 1993 Louisville conventions remains an ideal well worth keeping in mind. But on to the music.

Sunday

The convention opened at 3 pm on Sunday the 13th, with Michael Barnes playing the 1870 Derrick-Felgemaker "portable organ," which has a diapason and a dulciana to tenor F, a stopped diapason bass that is always on, a manual super coupler, and a 17-note pedal coupler. It was played at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Portland, although Mr. Barnes owns the instrument. He was assisted by Susan McBerry, soprano.

The next event was Karl Mansfield's demonstration of the 1887 Cole & Woodberry at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Vancouver, Washington. (Vancouver is across the Columbia River from the Portland area. Portland is at the meeting of the tributary Willamette and the "really big" Columbia.) This II/23 instrument was rebuilt in 1996 by Jeremy Cooper of Concord, New Hampshire; it was relocated through The Organ Clearing House, as were many of the instruments heard at this convention.

It is noteworthy, indeed, that only two of the old instruments we heard at the Portland convention are in their original locations. It may well be that, as more old churches close, relocation is the shape of the future.1 It seems that there was an original stock of tracker organs set up during the later 19th century, but that few of these remain.2 The earlier stock of tracker organs yielded in time to electro-pneumatic instruments of varying merit and to the ubiquitous electronic substitutes. These, evidently, are yielding in turn to new tracker organs as well as to a significant number of old trackers transplanted from points east.

The third Sunday event was a program of Reform synagogue music presented by John Strege, organist and choral director, with Judith Schiff, soloist, and a vocal quartet, at Congregation Beth Israel, Portland, using a 1928 Reuter organ with five divisions, one of them a floating string division.

On Sunday evening, Douglas Cleveland presented a recital of French romantic and post-romantic music, including the entire second symphony of Louis Vierne, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. The instrument there is a 1987 III/89 of Manuel Rosales; one local organ enthusiast described it as being a true "magnet" for the organ art in the Portland area. Because of previously set travel plans I was unable to arrive in Portland before late Sunday evening; but I heard that Sunday's happenings were something for the builders, rebuilders, movers, singers and players--and their local fans--to be justifiably proud of.3

Monday

Monday the 14th began with a lecture on the organ history of the Pacific Northwest by David Dahl, professor of music and university organist, Pacific Lutheran University, and director of music at Christ Episcopal Church, both in Tacoma, Washington. He emphasized the importance of the installation, in 1965, of a large Flentrop organ in St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, under the leadership of then organist Peter Hallock. This, along with other, smaller European instruments gave impetus to local builders to begin using north German models, and ultimately, according to Professor Dahl, to a climate of opinion wherein the first choice of the educated northwest organist will be a tracker organ. Organ "reform"--the term is deliberately used--is primarily a reform back to the northern 17th or 18th centuries.

The next two presentations provided examples for Dahl's lecture. The first was at St. Mark's Cathedral (Anglican Church in America) in Portland where we heard a III/44 by Werner Bosch of Kassel, Germany. We are particular indebted to Mark Brombaugh, who at the last minute substituted for the ailing Delbert Saman. Mr. Brombaugh also showed off a thoroughly charming Dutch chamber organ from around 1790, restored with new casework in 1982 by Frans Bosman.

Then we moved on to Beaverton, Oregon, and St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, where William Porter (professor at The New England Conservatory) gave a fine short program on an excellent 1994 instrument (II/20) by Tacoma Builder Paul Fritts. One sensed here a thoughtful and successful adaptation of the baroque model, designed for the large, hard-surfaced European church, to a not-so-large and rather dry American room. Professor Porter improvised, and played Bruhns and Buxtehude expressively, in a manner suggesting improvisation. One assumes improvisations listed in a program are pieces not written down (as opposed to made up on the spot); that, too, is doubtless authentic baroque practice. There are beyond question countless baroque masterpieces known now to the angels alone, but Professor Porter's pieces, known to us, too, were enthusiastically applauded.

On Monday afternoon James Hammann of New Orleans gave (handsomely as always) an all-Mendelssohn program on the 1890 II/13 Kilgen at St. Pius X Catholic Church, Portland, which organ was moved to its present location in 1985 by Bond Pipe Organs. This small but refined instrument (22/3' and 2' but no mixture) suited the Mendelssohn very well. On other occasions OHS audiences have heard Dr. Hammann play elaborate numbers; they would have been out of place here, so he offered the short Mendelssohn pieces instead.

Next came the demonstration of a similar instrument in St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church, Portland. In this case Bond in 1982 somewhat altered a 1914 Kilgen, but was constrained by the congregation to locate it in a thoroughly unsuitable place, a sort of organ cave behind the main altar. Portland organist Thomas Curry did the best he could in an interesting program of period pieces by Walter Spinney and Wenham Smith. But the sound fall-off from cave to nave was most regrettable; one hopes the owners will sacrifice some nave pews to better sound. Smith's variations on Beecher, one of the finest, most dramatic variation sets by a 19th-century American, thus lost much of their impact.4

After St. Thomas More's we went to St. Patrick's, Portland, where Dean Applegate first played briefly on a small English organ (c. 1875, unknown builder, two whole and two half ranks), restored by Bond. But the main attraction was Mr. Applegate's Cantores in Ecclesia, a choir of women, girls and boys who under his direction performed a program of 20th-century British music for treble voices. An excellent accompaniment was provided by Douglas Cleveland, who was asked to do this on short notice.

The final event of this busy day was also a kind of double-header, if not triple-header. In St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral Bruce Neswick played first the 1996 II/19 Martin Ott organ in the chancel and then the III/41 Los Angeles Art Organ (Murray Harris) instrument in the rear gallery. The latter organ seemed to be a kind of conventioneer, too, having migrated here from San Francisco, where it was heard in the 1988 OHS convention. It was rebuilt in 1996 with some additions by Bond, and Mr. Neswick's choice of (among other things) Brahm's Prelude and Fugue in A minor was particularly apt for showing it off. As a closer, this artist and Oakland organist and composer Ronald McKean improvised a passacaglia using both organs.

Tuesday

Tuesday, July 15, began with a lecture on OHS-sponsored European organ tours by executive director William Van Pelt. Then we went to All Saints Episcopal Church, Portland, where we heard Cheryl Drewes, the incumbent organist, give one of the most musically satisfying demonstrations of the convention--and on one of the most satisfying instruments. The Bond firm enhanced an 1892 Jardine organ, adding, subtracting and moving assorted ranks (now II/15); the result is dramatic, well suited to the room. Some observers did wonder a bit at Bond's penchant for enameling organ pipes white: they tend to remind one of objects not normally associated with the organ.

Oh happy day: the next presentation was also one of the musically most satisfying of the convention--David Dahl's demonstration of a five-rank, divided single-manual Hinners of 1915. This was in the Presbyterian Church in Aurora, south of Portland. In repertory ranging from Francisco Peraza (d. 1598) to Haydn, Dahl made skillful use of the divided keyboard. The church's pastor, Mary Sue Evers, made a very telling point about getting people to play it: if they got a decent though small pipe organ they stood a much better chance of getting a credible musician for their worship. After hearing the Hinners we heard an excellent lecture on the Hinners firm by Allison Alcorn-Oppedahl. Her remarks had the considerable merit not only of discussing the Hinners instruments, but of incorporating many more social-science reflections than remarks by organ historians usually do. Hinners organs were cannily marketed to a market that came (the small, usually rural church) and then went.

After an ice-cream social and a longish bus ride to Vancouver, Washington, we next heard Marilyn Kay Stulken ably demonstrate a one-manual, eight-rank Moline organ of 1879. Since this organ did not have a divided keyboard, Ms. Stulken made very creative use of a stop-puller assistant; her selections ranged from John Redford to Johannes Brahms, and this little 8-4-2' instrument handled them remarkably well, provided one overlooked some problems of tuning temperament. The final event of the day was also in Vancouver, at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, where Paul Klemme played organ solo numbers and accompanied trumpeter Gerald Webster on a II/17 W. K. Adams' Sons (Providence, RI, 1890), rebuilt and modified by Bond (1985).

Wednesday

Wednesday, July 16, opened with the annual meeting of the Society, presided over by outgoing president Kristin Farmer. We were encouraged to hear that the OHS is in good financial shape, but reminded--friends of the OHS, take note--that a substantial and necessary part of the Society's income comes from book, score and CD catalogue sales. The OHS now has a web page. When the ballots had been counted Barbara Owen emerged as the new president, with Scot Huntington as vice-president, and Michael Barone, Lois Regestein and Peter Sykes as new board members. Michael Barone, producer of the public radio series Pipedreams, also received the Distinguished Service Award. The 1997 Biggs fellows (recipients of an award designed to aid in attending a first OHS convention) were Joseph McCabe of Buffalo and Nicole Bensoussan of San Diego, both of whom are seventeen. Next year's convention will be in Denver (June 21-27), and that of 1999 in Montréal.

After the meeting we went to Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Portland, to hear an 1885 II/12 instrument, builder unknown, rebuilt with additions by Bond. Perhaps because of excessive carpeting and its location under an arch, it sounded rather thin. Where there seems to be a problem with the marriage of a relocated organ--or any organ--and its church the listener must, of course, take into consideration that the OHS are often an SRO crowd of sound-absorbers. The scheduled demonstrator, William Schuster, was detained, and while we awaited his arrival David Dahl accompanied an impromptu hymn-sing. Mr. Schuster's billing of four slight pieces by André Fleury as "An Organ Symphony" rather stretched a label. (It should be noted in passing that Fleury composed two real symphonies.)

Next stop was St. Ignatius Catholic Church, also in Portland, where Timothy and Nancy Le Roi Nickel presented a duet program on a (now) II/17 from around 1880, builder unknown, rebuilt in 1901 by Kilgen and rebuilt again in 1982 by Bond, with notable additions. The duet players did well, but they might wish to consider whether what is executed as a duet actually sounds like a duet, that is, with two real musical contributors in it. In piano duet-playing this is more readily evident, but the many levels of organ pitch tend to produce many notes but not necessarily the impression of two executants.5 Alas, our players were assigned a gallery organ, and part of the fun of duets is seeing them done.

Next came Grant Edwards's demonstration of the instrument in the Presbyterian Church at Milwaukie, an 1898 Pilcher rebuilt to II/13 by Bond in 1992. It is, in its present reincarnation, a handsome instrument, placed in the corner of a kind of liturgical stage in a fairly reverberant room. Mr. Edwards made it reverberate, but he and other players might consider that the repertory the "little American organ" does least convincingly is the French baroque.

The afternoon ended with a roller-skating session at the Oaks Roller Rink, Portland, while Don Feely played the four-manual 1926 Wurlitzer, formerly in the Broadway Theater, Portland. But the Wurlitzer is out in the middle of the rink with no swell boxes. Here once more is an instance of an equivocal situation for the player, listener and reviewer. We have to be grateful the thing was done at all, that is, the organ preserved, and yet we can easily think of cogent reasons for doing things differently.

After supper came what many at the convention considered its finest event, the recital by Peter Sykes (Longy School, Cambridge, and New England Conservatory, Boston) on the 1883 Hook & Hastings II/20 located in the Old Church concert hall, Portland, and restored by the Bond firm. Player and organ were superb. The first half of the program consisted of C. P. E. Bach's Sonata 6, Mozart's K. 594 Fantasia, a "Canzonetta" by G. W. Chadwick, and Lemmens's "Fanfare." After an intermission came Mendelssohn's Sonata 6, two short chorale-preludes of J. S. Bach, and a rousing rendering by all of J. S. Bach's harmonization of "Jesus, Priceless Treasure." For the Old Church Society, Inc., Delbert Saman accepted an OHS Historic Organ Plaque. Not least in this instrument's attractions is the fine restoration of its front pipes in brilliant red, green, blue and gold. It is worth noting, too, that Sykes followed the old OHS custom of providing a handout listing the registrations used. Before this recital people were recalling with pleasure his 1987 recital in Newburyport; now, no doubt, they will also fondly remember this one.6

Thursday

Thursday, July 17, started with a demonstration by James Holloway at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Washington. The instrument is in the orgue de choeur, or chancel, manner, built in 1990 by Frans Bosman, II/15 with additions prepared for. The 8' foundations together were delightfully clear. As for the tutti, all this organ needs is a "French" room; the whole ensemble (at least to this listener) tended to split into its elements, though again one must consider the acoustical effect of an SRO crowd.

The next demonstration was by James Denman, at Epiphany Episcopal Church, Chehallis, Washington. The organ was a II/10 Lancashire-Marshall of 1895, renovated in 1979 by the late Randall McCarty. In the same town we heard an 1890 Koehnken & Grimm, II/12, restored by Huestis & Associates and S. L. Huntington & Co. in 1993. The demonstrator was Joseph Adam. The silver pipes stenciled in crimson and dark green and the butternut casework were particularly handsome.

After lunch we traveled to Cathlamet, Puget Island, where in Our Savior's Lutheran Church Jane Edge ably demonstrated a fine I/9 Roosevelt of 1895 relocated from Katonah, New York. Her program included one of Mozart's church sonatas, K. 336, in which she was assisted by violinists Anne Edge and Phyllis Kessel and cellist Mary Flotree. Her program also included a community rendition of "Roll On, Columbia," one of the songs the Bonneville Power Authority hired Woody Guthrie to write in 1941 to popularize their dam.7

After returning to Portland we next heard a truly magnificent instrument, a 1916 E. M. Skinner IV/49, built for the Portland Civic Auditorium, restored in 1971-75 by the late David Bruce Newman, and now located in an auditorium at the Alpenrose Dairy. After a prayer and the singing of the national anthem we saw a short Laurel and Hardy silent film, quietly accompanied by Paul Quarino. Then came supper as guests of the dairy, and then a recital by Minneapolis organist Robert Vickery. In a series of mostly short pieces Vickery showed off a great variety of lovely Skinner sounds. Since this was an evening recital one could have wished for musically more developed numbers. Opening the chamber-access doors for the closer, a slight Firmin Swinnen toccata, seemed in poor taste; Skinner certainly did not aim for the threshold of pain with sheer loudness. We can hope that this fine instrument, created for a site significantly larger than its present home, will some day find a more suitable one.

Friday

On Friday, July 18, the first demonstration was by Charles Rus of San Francisco, using the 1904 II/13 Möller in the First Christian Church, Albany, Oregon. With its elegantly curving woodwork, this little organ is one of the most attractive pipe-fence organs I have seen. Mr. Rus' selections were well chosen to show off the instrument and very well played; they included a Buxtehude praeludium (pace temperament!) and what one listener called an attractive example of "90s American light," Three Pieces by Craig Phillips, tonal though dissonant, lively, thinly scored.

We next visited St. Mary's Catholic Church, Corvallis, Oregon, which has an 1892 II/20 Jardine rebuilt and altered by Bond in 1986. The demonstrator was Portland organist Paul Wood Cunningham. Also in Corvallis we heard another Portland organist, Lanny Collins, play a program of Orgelbüchlein chorales on the robust II/28 Noack installed in 1980 in the First United Methodist Church. Quite robust as well is the 1996 II/27 Bond in Cone Chapel (a large classroom, really) at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, which was demonstrated by Marian Ruhl Metson.

One the way back to Portland we stopped at St. Anne's Chapel, Marylhurst College, where Tamara Still demonstrated a fine large Bozeman instrument, built in the French romantic style in 1994, III/37 with additional ranks prepared for, incorporating many ranks from a 1901 Hutchings-Votey. Back in Portland we were treated to another of the especially satisfying musical happenings of the convention, a demonstration by Michigan artist Mary Ann Crugher Balduf of an 1851 Henry Erben organ, which is in the "Chapel Hall" of the First Presbyterian Church and appears to have been in Portland since some time in the 1860s. With expert, split-second assistance from stop-puller Brian Buehler, Ms. Balduf used the one manual and six ranks with great imagination.

Friday ended with a program of recently composed works, including some of his own, performed by Ronald McKean on the 1996 II/37 Bond instrument (incorporating many pipes from an 1881 John Bergstrom) in Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Portland. The rich plenum includes a seven-rank mixture on the great--this in a high-ceilinged, reverberant hall. This instrument and the one in All Saints Episcopal Church were among the favorite Bond instruments heard. The presence in the pews of little plainsong hymnals (Liber Cantualis) suggested the possibility of alternatim literature involving the whole assembly, but that was not to be. Too bad, since so much baroque organ music (and Boëly, too) was meant to be used that way.

Saturday

The last day of the convention, Saturday, July 19, started off pleasantly with Will Headlee's demonstration of the 1913 II/18 Hinners in St. Charles Church, Portland. The attractive and reverberant room let shine what elsewhere might have been a rather bland instrument.8 Next we took a longish trip south to Mt. Angel Benedictine Monastery, in a striking hilltop setting, where of course we sang Engelberg and where Beverly Ratajak demonstrated two instruments. The 1966 II/16, built by Martin Ott for the monks' choir, was meant to accompany their sung office, which we heard it do, but its sound does not carry well into the nave. This is doubtless why the abbey has commissioned the Ott firm to begin, in 1998, a three-manual tracker in the rear gallery. Also heard was a delightful little three-rank instrument, now in a meeting hall, built in 1896 by one Joseph Speldrich, a dairy farmer working for the monastery. After a stop at the Eola Hills Winery we heard Barbara Baird of the University of Oregon, Eugene, demonstrate the 1972 Ahrend IV/51 in Beall Concert Hall at the University. The temperament is Werckmeister III, which gave Sweelinck's "Est-ce Mars" variations rather more sprightliness than they often get. One wished Boyvin's suite in the first tone had been alternated with a sung (or failing in that, a played in unison) Magnificat or Gloria, which would have presented the integral musical form.

Concluding the convention was the John Brombaugh instrument in Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, III/51, 1976, but altered by the builder in 1983, 1989 and 1992. The demonstrator was Margaret Evans of Southern Oregon State College, Ashland. The day ended with a round of applause for convention chairman Cliff Fairley and his colleagues, including program chairman Tim Drewes.

The Portland convention differed somewhat from many earlier OHS conventions. To be sure, the Pacific Northwest, like other large sections of the United States and Canada, simply does not have that many old organs. Given our national inclination to discard organs perceived as old, if they had fewer to start with, they now have even fewer left. Thus the 1997 convention heard, it appears, just about all the old organs--still in the original site, or transplanted--in the geographic area selected for the convention. Of particular note and a cause for celebration is how these old organs are loved and cared for; I did not hear a single organ that was not, it seemed, in a good state of repair. Many of the thirty-nine organs heard, however, were actually quite new instruments, or instruments that had been not restored precisely but rebuilt, so that even if this latter class of instruments contains more or less of old components, they are effectly new instruments.9 What we encountered in Portland, one might say, is along with organs an organ idea, an idea that has always figured in OHS concerns but that figured here more prominently. It is that tracker organs, often with a north German flavor, are the good organs, no matter what their age. One wonders if for some folks they are good for you like Saabs, Birkenstocks and benignly fertilized vegetables: when you get them you will be reformed.

The choice of organs to be heard in the Portland area inescapably tended to impress on the auditor, reformed or not, how tonally different organ-reform organs are from the area's stock of unaltered old American organs. As to choice of organs, we were led to wonder further how many admirable instruments might exist in the Portland area that are old, more or less, but just not trackers and/or in some manner baroque in tonal design. Of the thirty-nine instruments heard there were only three non-trackers, the 1928 Reuter, the denuded 1926 Wurlitzer, and, most importantly, the 1916 E. M. Skinner. Of course, if the number of unaltered old organs, whatever their type, were to be the criterion for holding an OHS convention in a certain area, and if that number were pegged to the level of the Northeast, then no convention would ever be held in Portland or other areas lightly endowed with old organs. That would not be good either for these areas or for the OHS at large. However, when a convention is held in such an area it would be well to aim for the greatest conceptual clarity attainable, and recognize that organ reform is not good organs tout court, but an idea, or complex of ideas, about what makes a good organ, and about which there remains some disagreement.10

The juxtaposition of truly old American with organ reform organs, the greater number of them being small to medium-sized two-manual instruments, leads to two further considerations.

First, one of the strengths of the Portland convention was that it offered the possibility of hearing baroque literature in other than equal temperament. Naturally, it sounds much better that way. Might we go a step further and ponder whether pre-equal-temperament literature sounds wrong played in equal temperament?11 I do not propose to answer that question, but several strategies come to mind. Might churches in a community or a denominational administrative area agree informally to offer different temperaments and literature? Or maybe the wave of the future laps on the shores of Cathlamet, where an interesting group of people with a one-manual instrument are considering installing another one-manual instrument: what if the second one were to be tuned in mean-tone? Some of the organists we heard seemed to think that "full organ" meant using most or all of the stops (and especially in passages where it wasn't needed, the 16' pedal reed). But might not a medium-sized organ, dedicated to the disciplined player, include alternatively tuned ensembles? In one of those tutti frutti OHS programs designed to show the prospective electronic-substitute buyer that a little American organ from 1895 really can play all manner of music, Sweelinck sounds "all right," but with a certain wistfulness one recognizes that he sounds much better out of equal temperament. The other side of this thought is that 19th-century instruments are better employed in doing 19th-century and later music, with judicious selections from the 18th century.

Secondly, a staple of OHS demonstrations--and properly so--is the program made of short pieces, miniatures. It shows off the possibilities of the instrument, and does it fast. Hearing a week-long succession of such demonstrations, necessary as they may be, does get you thinking. Specifically, is there a danger that a procedure for a quick demonstration might become a musical ideal, the notion that organ music consists of miniatures, either versets or dance-movements, or fantasias put together from short-winded expositions? As anyone familiar with the problems of the opera composer knows, whereas under driving emotion words contract, music expands. Music is naturally expansive, both in opera and in music history generally. In other words, the so-called symphonic organ and the invention of various sorts of playing aids resulted from a real musical felt need, and not from the invasion of the organ world by wicked engineers. One hopes that future convention leaders and players, particularly those entrusted with the longer, evening recitals, will show us more instruments and literature characterized by a certain expansiveness.12 (The Cleveland and Sykes recitals set a worthy example.) To be avoided is the impression that the OHS fancies little instruments that do little snippets of music, and do them sometimes in tunings that would make the composers wince. Such an impression would, of course, belie the actual breadth of outlook found in the OHS, which is thus a good reason for taking care not to create it. The organs are the stars, yes, but they shine brightest in a heaven of clear musical thinking. One of the best achievements of the Portland convention is that it stimulated thinking about the organ art.

Notes

1. Transplanted organs, often, are not spared the paradox that now affects so many old, now restored objects: all cleaned up and placed in rather antiseptic surroundings, they lose what Edith Wharton called the "rich low murmur of the past." Fast and Loose & The Buccaneers, ed. V. H. Winner (University Press of Virginia, 1993), p. 369.

2. In 1870 prosperous Portland had some 10,000 inhabitants. Cf. Judy Jewell, Compass American Guides: Oregon (Oakland, 1996), p. 42.

3. For the instruments see remarks by Barbara Owen and Alan Laufman in "OHS to Visit the 'City of Roses'," The Tracker XL: 1 (1997), pp. 6-7; and also Lee Garrett, "American Organ Reform in Retrospect," part II, The American Organist XXXI: 8 (August, 1997), pp. 74-75. For the convention programs of July 13 see "Dulciana's Diary," first autumn, 1997, issue of The Stopt Diapason (news-letter of the Chicago Chapter of the OHS).

4. My copy is found in W. E. Ashmall, ed., The Organist's Journal, vol. I (New York, 1889-90), pp. 53-60. The title page lists Smith as active at Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church in Brooklyn and carries the dedication, "To the memory of a Great and Good Man." Beecher had died in 1887. Variation 8 is entitled "Funeral March on the death of a hero." So Smith took an upbeat view of Beecher's legal problems.

5. Robert Cundick's Three Pieces (Concordia, 1991) are a model of the kind of texture I have in mind.

6. Hook & Hastings installed five organs in Portland between 1872 and 1886. This is the only one left. There are those, this writer included, who think the Hook & Hastings instruments of this time (and a little before and after) are the finest of all American work.

7. Jewell, op. cit., p. 224.

8. The church furnishings here were turned sideways, so that the altar is now on what was formerly the "gospel," or left side of the nave. It would not always work, but this is certainly a thoughtful way of getting more of the congregation closer to the altar while leaving the organ in place. (In this case, however, an organ was relocated from another church to the space originally provided for a pipe organ.) In sum, this rethinking of the nave makes it a theatre as opposed to a pseudo-medieval hall.

9. Alas, two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, so 19th-century aeolines yield their chest space to upperwork. Still, there has from time to time been some debate as to whether aeoline-like ranks served as overtone-making "blending" stops and as such are integral to various registration combinations. In this view they are not just for giving pitch to the choir and additional piquancy to ministerial prayers.

10. Garrett, op. cit., p. 77, wisely comments, "The important thing is that builders from both traditions [tracker and electric action] are talking to each other in a fashion not known 30 years ago." In time this more ample, generous reading of organ history will doubtless become more widely accepted.

11. In time the organ with a 17th-century stop list and a 19th-century tuning may well be seen as a kind of compromise, just as some now view the more or less baroque stop list played with an electric action.

12. I do not mean recitalists should yet again inflect their graduation recital on the OHS, as has occurred from time to time in previous years; if they are going to expand something, let it be their repertory.

12th San Anselmo Organ Festival June 24–28, October 18–19, 1996

by Libby Codd

The topic of the twelfth San Anselmo Organ Festival was
“The Organ in California: Successive Styles and Changes.” The
underlying premise of the conference was that change is inevitable, as seen in
;the relatively short history of California since its first settlement by
Europeans. Linda Clark, Director of the Master of Sacred Music program at
Boston University School of Theology, provided sociological and theological
insight into each successive era. She emphasized that we “stand on the
shoulders of people who have faced similar situations and have inherited
practices from them.” “Practices” she defined as “a
complex set of culturally specific ways of accomplishing something of enduring
importance to people.” We have been formed by practices. Clark developed
her subject in brief daily “meditations” which were followed by
five minutes of silence and then the performance by Michael Struck of an organ
work relevant to the subject matter of the day.

Monday: Spanish/Mexican California

The entire conference was in the form of a giant organ
crawl. The first excursion was to Mission San José, which was founded in
1797 as the 15th in a series of Franciscan missions in California. Although an
organ had been ordered in the 19th century, it was not installed due to the demise of the missions when California became part of the United States. Therefore, its first organ is the new instrument installed in 1988 by Rosales Organ Builders. It is historically faithful to the early 19th-century Mexican organs, with a split keyboard, and is tuned in 1/4 syntonic comma meantone. Robert Bates of Stanford University played a recital which illustrated the poignancy of the tuning.

Juan Pedro Gaffney delivered a lecture on the music of the
Franciscan missions, pointing out that the rich musical life of the missions
was based on the mature tradition of musical practice in Mexico City, where
many of the friars had studied. The indigenous Californians adapted easily to
traditional western music as singers and instrumentalists.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Mission San José, for instance,
had a resident orchestra in the early 19th century. The friars also provided
Christian texts in native language and recorded historical narratives from
Aztec nobles. Gaffney directed his
Coro Hispano de San Francisco in a vespers for the feast of St. John the
Baptist using music almost entirely from the great polyphonic choirbooks of
Mexico City Cathedral and other great Baroque Mexican churches.

Tuesday: Anglo Settlement of California

The first part of the 19th century under the Franciscans was
relatively stable politically and economically, and the arts flourished. But
beginning in 1840 the missions were secularized, the great rancheros began to
disappear, and non-Hispanic pioneers began to infiltrate the culture. The 1849
gold rush brought hordes of new settlers from around the world. San Francisco
grew into a city overnight. The miners found that the capriciousness of fate
was the central fact of existence; there was a wide chasm between religious
practice on the west and east coasts in that the pioneers’ commitment to
traditional values was not as widespread or deep. Moreover, the climate and
natural beauty of the region furnished transcendent experiences outside of
organized religion.

A remarkable collection of photographs of 19th-century
organs in California was shared by Jim Lewis. Most of the organs shown were
destroyed in the great San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. Of particular
interest was a seventeen-section panorama of San Francisco in 1878 showing a
profusion of churches. A prolific Bay Area organ builder of the time was John
Bergstrom, one of whose organs was heard at Christ Episcopal Church in
Sausalito where David Farr conducted the members of the Ragazzi Boys Chorus and
David Farr Chorale in a 1905 Victorian Matins.

After proceeding to San Francisco by ferry, we heard three
pre-fire organs played by students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
and their teacher, Wyatt Insko. At the First United Lutheran Church (the first
English-speaking Lutheran church in San Francisco), Frederick DeBoer played a
short program including Dudley Buck’s Concert Variations on the Star
Spangled Banner. The Woodbury & Harris organ (1899), in its third home, was
restored by Manuel Rosales, and has a flat 27-note pedalboard and mechanical
key and stop action. We then heard Franck’s Pièce
Héroïque played by Jung Ran Lim on a 1906 Pilcher organ at Central
Seventh Day Adventist Church. The Philadelphian Seventh-Day Adventist church
has a tubular pneumatic organ built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company,
successor to Murray M. Harris. The blower was electric from the start. Yishiu
Chen performed Conrad Susa’s “March for a Joyous
Occasion.”

The 1904 Möller organ in the Church of St. John the
Evangelist has been modified extensively. For example, the 16¢ Lieblich
Gedeckt has been reconstituted from four different ranks from other builders,
but the sound is seamless. Wyatt Insko played J. S. Bach’s transcription
of a Concerto in G Major by Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. The day concluded
with a wine-tasting and tour hosted by Jack Bethards of the historic
Schoenstein organ factory, founded in 1877.

Wednesday: San
Francisco after the 1906 Fire

Wayne Leupold argued that transcriptions are now
respectable, citing arrangers from 1300 to the present—including, among
others, J. S. Bach, Boëly, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Widor, and
Novello. Some of the compositions
emerged “new and improved” with the transcriber’s own opus
number. In the early 1900s Edwin
Lemare brought transcriptions to a new level of sophistication, as demonstrated
by Frederick Hohman, who played Lemare’s transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture at a “1924 Concert of Organ Music” on the Skinner organ in Trinity Episcopal Church, which was installed in that year.

Christian Elliott accompanied a screening of Buster
Keaton’s film “Steamboat Bill Jr.” on the Wurlitzer organ at
the Castro Theater, performing his own score. His synchronization with
Keaton’s “singing” of the Prisoner’s Song and also with
the impact of various falling objects was faultless.

Civic organs were discussed at the Palace of the Legion of
Honor by John Fenstermaker, Ed Stout, and Jonathan Ambrosino. The
museum’s Skinner organ was installed with the premise that great music
should accompany great art. Ed Stout is currently restoring this 63-rank 1924
organ, rebuilding the console and adding a computerized combination action. The
organ has many unusual features, including an Arch Clarion and Chimes which are
designed to be heard in the courtyard.
Another unusual aspect of the organ is that there are no obvious
“grills” or means for the organ to be heard in the museum. All of
the openings were originally covered in muslim and painted to imitate the stone
walls which surround them. Over the years, the paint had become so thick that
the sound of the organ was severely compromised. The restoration will include
the installation of a more suitable covering.

The First Church of Christ, Scientist in San Francisco has a
splendid example of the orchestral style of organ building —a 1924
Kimball that has been virtually unchanged. All the pipework is enclosed so that
“one can accompany the Aeoline with the Tuba Mirabilis,” according
to organist C. Thomas Rhoads, who demonstrated the tonal families and then
played a program which included his own transcription of the “Serenade of
the Doll” from Debussy’s Children’s Corner Suite.

Thursday: The
American Classic Organ and The Early Organ Reform Movement

Jonathan Ambrosino showed how pipe organs were everywhere
during Victorian times—not only in churches but in private homes and even
yachts. If there was no resident organist, music was played from rolls; it was
the home entertainment center. There was—and still is—an Austin
organ in Balboa Park in San Diego where Edwin Lemare gave a concert series in
1902. Ambrosino gave an absorbing
account of Murray M. Harris’ ups and downs, E. M. Skinner’s falling
out with three prominent California organists (Moore, Sabin and Allen) and the
ascendancy of G. Donald Harrison. Between 1930 and 1965 organs underwent swift
and dramatic change, but Harrison never rejected the romantic organ; he just
wanted to make it better. He looked backward for authentic organ sounds that
would serve previous periods of music, not imitations of orchestral sounds. He
never lost sight of the organ’s purpose, which was accompanying choirs.
He believed that all sounds in an organ needed to work together. A small
Æolian-Skinner organ (1939) at St. Boniface Church demonstrated this
emerging neo-classical trend with only eight ranks plus Plein Jeu. Other
builders reacted against the perceived sentimental excesses of the romantic
organ.

One of Harrison’s crowning achievements was the organ
at Grace Cathedral where we heard Evensong. Christopher Putnam gave a rousing
performance of Searle Wright’s Lyric Rhapsody for the prelude and John
Fenstermaker conducted the men’s choir in a setting of Psalm 126 by
Sowerby.

A concert of “Organ and Chamber Music for the American
Classic Organ” was performed at First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo
by three organists. Layten Heckman’s portion included Hovhaness’
Dawn Hymn and Three Pieces for a Ceremony by Michael McCabe with the Festival
Brass Ensemble conducted by David Farr. Wilbur Russell played Wilbur
Held’s Music for the New Year, recently commissioned by the host church.
In Theme and Variations on “The Old Year Now Has Passed Away”
Russell showed the varying colors of the 1966 Æolian-Skinner.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> John Pagett accompanied Susan Rode
Morris on the piano for Prayers, Songs and Praises by David Clark Isele. The
evening ended with a hilarious rendition of “The King of Instruments: A
Parade of Music and Verse.” The Ogden Nash-like text, by Albright and
Eugene Haun, was delightfully hammed up by Chandler Stokes, the pastor of the
church.

Friday:
Latter-Day Reform Movement; The Tracker Revival; Historical Copies

The 1910 Hutchings organ at Old First Presbyterian Church
was a victim in 1950 of the trend toward neo-baroque voicing. Shrill upperwork
was added and important 8¢ ranks discarded. Visscher Associates has just
rebuilt and greatly enlarged the organ, keeping it faithful to the
organ’s original tonal purpose while expanding the instrument’s
versatility. George Becker played
a historically diverse program including Franck’s Choral in B Minor in
which the Vox Humana was particularly effective.

At Stanford University Robert Bates introduced us to the
three magnificent organs at Memorial Church. A brand new addition is the
Katherine Potter-Brinegar cabinet organ built in Renaissance style (after
Compenius) by Paul Fritts and Company.
It is tuned in 1/4 comma meantone temperament with suspended mechanical
key action, and easily movable to other locations in the church. The size of
the instrument is deceptive; the sounds, some pure and sweet and others
surprisingly sonorous, carry through the church with ease. The oldest organ in
the church is the large 1901 Murray M. Harris instrument which has been
reworked by Johnston Organ Company (a successor to Murray Harris), Ernest
Skinner, Æolian-Skinner, Rosales, and in 1995 by John DeCamp and Mark
Austin. The 1984 Fisk-Nanney organ
epitomizes the tracker revival and can be played either in well temperament or
in one-fifth comma meantone by moving a lever.

We visited the home of Jacques Littlefield, in which there
is a large Fisk organ (1987) showing mixed French and German influences.
Noteworthy are the Dom Bedos Tremblant Doux and the harmonic flute which
changes greatly in character as it gets higher, demonstrated by Matthew Dirst
with D’Aquin’s Noël Étranger. Ewert (“Red”)
Wetherill gave an overview of the
acoustical revisions of Memorial
Church. He noted that the mosaic work on the walls provides superb
reflectivity, but that the jointed, lightweight plank ceiling is absorptive
especially in the lower registers. Improvements included removing a thick layer
of hair-covered felt from the entire ceiling of the church. The afternoon ended
with a typical Sunday morning service of Holy Communion at All Saints’
Episcopal Church where Gwen Adams is the music director. It is the
parish’s custom to print a large quantity of music directly in the Sunday
program, thereby encouraging maximum congregational participation. The parish
sings the same setting of the liturgy for the whole of a given church season so
that the congregation can learn it; they sing new hymns three or four weeks in
a row for the same reason.

The final event of the 1996 Festival was a concert with the
three organs at Stanford entitled: “Five Centuries of Transcriptions for
Organ.” Particularly effective was Paduana Lachrimae by Dowland,
intabulated by Sweelinck and played antiphonally by Robert Bates on the
Potter-Brinegar at the front of the church and Matthew Dirst on the Fisk in the
rear top gallery. A rousing end to
the evening and the Festival was provided by Frederick Hohman with the
“Ride of the Valkyries” complete with Brunnhilde’s portamento
up to the high note, played on the Murray M. Harris.

In a follow-up conference in October titled “A
Changing Profession: Embracing the
New Century,” the common thread of need for more education persisted.
Drawing on his article in the February 1996 edition of The American Organist,
“Leonard Bernstein, a Lodestar for the American Church Musician,”
Steve Pilkington urged us to “lighten up” in dealing with the gap
between the organist’s traditional musical orientation and the
congregational comfort level. We must educate congregations more and make music
accessible and inclusive the way Bernstein did in his young people’s
concerts. Harriet Nelson noted that shared traditions hold institutions
together while generational differences work against this. To confront this
trend we should be willing to adapt, have integrity, seek quality and develop
competence.

During research for her book Music in Churches, Linda Clark
studied the style of three Methodist congregations. The style of the first, a
rural congregation, was characterized by energy and hubbub; the second, located
in a suburban neighborhood, was formal and dignified; the third, a downtown
Boston African-American church, was characterized by rhythm, power, and a
call-and-response culture. She feels that conflicts over popular musical style
involve two separate issues: the
quality of the music and the style in which it is performed.

John Pagett advised us to rededicate ourselves to aggressive
education, keeping aware of the pervasiveness of popular culture.

Jack Bethards, Manuel Rosales and Jonathan Ambrosino
discussed developments in organ design. Electronic organs have taken over the
cheap market. With the reduced volume of work there is less feedback and less
opportunity for development, but builders still get excited about reproducing a
sound they hear inside their head.

In an upbeat sharing session attendees contributed various
suggestions: improve your
publicizing skills; play a congregant’s favorite hymns on their birthdays
(perhaps for donations to the music fund); write articles in the bulletin about
the organ music performed that day; investigate new electronic sounds (not
duplicative ones); improve acoustics of the church as much as possible; include
everyone possible as ‘extras’ in your music programs.

The Festival fully explored its subject matter and this
reviewer came away more aware of the debt we owe to those who came before us
and the responsibility we have in handing on to succeeding generations their
and our own “practices.” Change is endemic to every period and
provides the stimulus for a thoughtful determination of what our own
“practice” will be.

OHS National Convention

Boston, Massachusetts

by Malcolm Wechsler

Wednesday, August 16

Imagine this. A church packed to the rafters with organists
from around the country, parishioners, and Boston organ lovers. An organ in a
stunning case fills the west gallery of the church. The chairs that fill the
nave have all been turned around so the audience can sit and gaze up into the
balcony. A priest steps forward to the railing and says simply, "Good
evening. I'm Fr. Thomas Carroll, rector of this church," followed by what
can only be described as tumultuous applause, shouting, and a standing ovation!
Do this on a regular basis, and seminaries will be overflowing with candidates
for the priesthood--but of course there is a special tale to tell about this
visceral reaction, and Fr. Tom Carroll, organist and OHS member, is the
deserving symbol of a happy ending to an almost sad story. It was in 1986 that
organists and OHS members learned from the organ journals, and later from
mainstream media, that this struggling parish was preparing to make serious
changes to its church. The interior of the building would be sufficiently
reduced in size (to make way for rentable office space) that its landmark
instrument would be rendered unusable. The nave would be vastly forshortened,
leaving a small "worship center." The great space would nevermore be
seen--the great organ would never sound into its intended space again. The OHS,
and later, architectural conservation and preservation groups in the city,
managed to convince the church to reverse its plans. Three ultimately removable
office structures were indeed built in the side aisles of the west end of the
nave, but the word is that plans are afoot to remove them soon. What is left is
by no means shabby. It's a glorious place. In other good news, this parish is
now growing and thriving, with many new members to enjoy the beautiful
architectural and musical treasures left to it by earlier generations.

In part, the OHS exists to honor, protect, and present great
instruments, so perhaps it is at the Church of the Im-maculate Conception that
we see this function at its best. It is therefore fitting that the convention
began and ended with concerts on E. & G.G. Hook Opus 322 (1863) / E. &
G.G. Hook & Hastings Opus 1959 (1902), played by two great musicians who
have supported the work of the Society and been heard in many conventions over
the years. Peter Sykes began the week, which ended with Thomas Murray.

When the pandemonium settled, Fr. Carroll offered a warm
welcome, after which Jonathan Ambrosino, president of the Society (and also
editor of this year's Organ Handbook and Convention Program), officially opened
the convention and introduced Scot Huntington, this year's convention chairman.
Peter Sykes then assumed the bench, accompanied by his registrants, Michael
Murray on the right and Stuart Forster on the left.

A lovely feature of OHS convention recitals/organ
demonstrations is the inclusion of a hymn in every program. It makes perfect
sense to hear instruments doing one of the jobs for which they were designed.
Sykes's chosen tune was Helmsley to the Advent text "Lo, He comes with
clouds descending"--what a fabulous big, rich, unison sound we made in a
splendid acoustic, to a rich, varied, and totally supportive accompaniment.

The first work on the program was Mendelssohn, Prelude and
Fugue in C Minor, op. 37, no. 1. The combination of Peter Sykes, Felix
Mendelssohn, the great Hook and Hook & Hastings, and the acoustic of
"The Immaculate," conspired for a most satisfying experience. From
Annés de Pélerinage of Liszt, we heard two Sykes transcriptions,
Ave Maria von Arcadelt (which demonstrated some of the lovely sounds of this
instrument), and Sposalizio (betrothal), based on a painting of Raphael. Next,
Six Fugues on B-A-C-H, by Robert Schumann. Played together, these works become
something of a satisfying larger sonata. After intermission, Grand
Prélude (from a set of eleven dedicated to Franck) by Charles-Valentin
Alkan, and Franck's Grande Pièce Symphonique (dedicated to Charles
Alkan). Peter Sykes played this spacious and wonderful work with both breadth
and fire.

Thursday, August 17

A marathon day

The day began with a lecture, "Time, Taste, and the
Organ Case," tailored here by Matthew Bellocchio to include some of the
famous Boston organs heard at the convention.

Then on to the bus at about 10:15 to thread our way through
New York-style traffic to Most Holy Redeemer Church, East Boston. Well worth
it! Occasionally at OHS conventions, the program book says "Program to be
announced." This is never the result of indecision, disorganization, or
laziness. It's a signal that at any given moment, up to and including the first
notes of the recital, there is doubt about what will and what will not play on
the organ! In pretty bad shape, this instrument is, nonetheless, worth the
pilgrimage. Not only is it the largest remaining instrument by William Simmons
(1823-1876), but it is also the "oldest extant two-manual organ with a
detached, reversed console," quoting from the Organ Handbook. Kevin Birch
teaches at the University of Maine School of Performing Arts in Orono, and is director
of music at St. John Roman Catholic Church in Bangor, where he has developed an
important musical program, including the preservation of the church's 1860 E.
& G.G. Hook organ. For the convention, he developed a completely satisfying
program which demonstrated the capabilities of the instrument in its present
condition. The instrument is so dusty and dirty that it has not been possible
to tune it completely for a long time, so avoidance of upperwork was the order
of the day. There was lots of foundation tone, and excellent stuff it is, too.
He began with a fine performance of the Bach Pastorale, the perfect piece for
the circumstances, showing a few small but distinguished combinations of
sounds. All of the combinations were announced before he began the work. Next,
three beautiful organ pieces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Arietta, Elegy, and
Melody, all from 1898. Birch found the perfect solution to the problems of the
organ's state of health by calling on a 'cellist friend, Jonathan Cortolano, to
play the melody lines, requiring that the meager functioning voices of the
organ play only accompaniment for the most part. With a really beautiful 'cello
tone, this enterprise was a great success.

Birch had promised to demonstrate some of the notes of the
Oboe that were working, and did so charmingly with a bit of Jesu Bambino by
Pietro Yon. After this, an early 18th-century tune (Sweet Sacrament) found in
Worship III to the text "Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All." We had a
great sing, and took full advantage of a very nice harmonization. This is the
organ upon which, in 1975, Thomas Murray recorded the Mendelssohn sonatas,
recently reissued on CD. It is only through many volunteer hours by Richard
Lahaise that we were able to hear any of this marvellous but sadly neglected
instrument.

Next, on to Most Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church in
Hyde Park, to hear Stephen Roberts on the 1892 Carlton Michell instrument, much
of which was probably built by Hunter in London, and which was originally in
St. Stephen's Church in the South End of Boston. Originally tubular pneumatic,
it was electrified by Richard Lahaise when moved to Precious Blood in 1956 and
fitted with a new console. Franz Schmidt, Toccata for Organ (1924); the hymn
Ave Verum Corpus to a 14th-century plainsong tune; Everett Titcomb, Communion
Meditation on "Ave Verum Corpus." It was helpful to have sung the
entire plainsong melody before hearing Titcomb's work based upon it. The
program ended with the brilliant and brilliantly-played Allegro Vivace from the
Widor 5th Symphony.

Then, on to Christ Church Unity (Sears Chapel) in Brookline
for a fine recital by Andrew Scanlon, winner of the 1999 Boston Chapter AGO
Competition for Young Organists, and a student of Ann Labounsky at Duquesne. He
also has studied with John Walker, John Skelton, and David Craighead. Currently
organist and choir director at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Export,
Pennsylvania, he was one of the six young organists chosen to play at the New
York National in 1996. This Sears Chapel has a rather handsome exterior and a
somewhat disappointing interior. The organ is chambered in the west gallery,
with an attractive facade with stenciled pipes, but is a smallish gem (nineteen
stops) being asked to speak down a rather long carpeted nave filled with
thickly cushioned pews. It is all a bit distant, sadly, but the instrument, E.
& G.G. Hook from 1862, is intact and well cared for, and was presented on
this occasion with the handsome OHS plaque. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C Major
(545); Mendelssohn, Second Sonata: Grave and Adagio; Trumpet Dialogue from the
Couperin Convent Mass; Allein Gott by Dudley Buck; a Rondeau and Deo Gracias by
Joseph Wilcox Jenkins (b. 1928), lovely, modal, spirited stuff, perhaps
somewhat in the Hindemith mode.

The afternoon ended with two rather amazing events. At the
United Parish in Brookline we were all impressed by Peter Krasinski and
Aeolian-Skinner opus 885 and much more. First, we were welcomed in a recording
by Ernest Skinner himself, apparently from a welcoming speech he made to an AGO
gathering at some point very late in his life. It was loud and clear, and a
stunning opening, with no warning whatsoever! But there was more. After singing
"O God our help" from the hymnal in the pews, there was a program of
two works--not your usual organ recital. First, Peter and the Wolf, transcribed
by Peter Krasinski, narrated by a woman from the church's Board of Deacons who
had earlier graciously received an OHS Plaque for the organ. This was clearly a
new translation from the Russian, beginning more-or-less thusly: "Peter
lifted the heavy rolltop, and threw the switch, activating the great Spencer
blower." And then we had Peter being hustled inside, to escape the evil
Clarinet. And then, with Peter, we cowered in the face of "Evil hunters,
seeking unaltered Skinner organs!" It was all so perfectly done--the
narration was really dramatically delivered, and Peter Krasinski--what to say?
The transcription, the performance, the organ--it was nothing less than
fabulous--requiring a chapter of its own in any history ever written about OHS
Conventions We Have Known. For a bit more icing on an already rich cake, Peter
Krasinski's own transcription of von Suppé's Poet and Peasant Overture.

At the end of the afternoon, the astonishing, amazing--whatever--computer-driven
Boston University Symphonic Organ, hosted by its creator, Nelson Barden. The
whole thing had its genesis in a small Skinner (opus 764) instrument in a
Rockefeller mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. When the organ was disposed of,
it was to become one of the organic wonders of the world. Further donations of
house and other organs kept the thing growing to its present size, and it now
lives in its permanent home on a great balcony overlooking a large kind of
banqueting hall. On screen, one can see what the computer operator sees on his
monitor up in the balcony: the four keyboards plus a short one for the
pedalboard laid out, surrounded by lists of all the stops available--colored
lights indicate which keys and which stops are playing. We heard a performance,
electronically recorded, of Carlo Curley playing Fiddle Faddle, Edwin Lemare
playing the Bach "Jig" Fugue, and lots of other goodies. An exciting
aspect of this is the ability to reproduce here the many performances committed
to paper rolls in Germany in the 20s and 30s, at a time when sound recording
was not yet totally viable on location, and, of course, the immense resources
of this instrument make possible just about any registrational requirement.
After the great show, most of our large party took advantage of being able to
walk right through this marvel, to see, under glass, the whole thing operating.

After dinner, off to The Mission Church to hear Julian
Wachner on Hutchings Opus 410 of 1897, sounding out of its great west gallery
case into a superb acoustical space. Bach, Pièce d'Orgue; Mendelssohn,
Prelude and Fugue in C Minor; Cantabile from Widor 6th, played on a gorgeous
Oboe; Duruflé Prelude and Fugue on ALAIN. After intermission, we were
driven hastily back to our seats by a fabulous improvised fanfare, using the
splendid, if un-Englishy, Tuba; then the Boston premiere of Les Trés
Riches Heures (An Organ Book of Hours) by Marjorie Merryman--the six movements
are entitled 1. Procession, 2. Dialogues, 3. Cycle of the Year, 4. Rebellion,
5. De Profundis, and 6. Celebrations. The evening ended with "Holy Holy
Holy" to, of course, Nicaea. After the hymn Wachner went into a pretty
wild improvisation on Nicaea.

Friday, August 18

Promenade day

Friday began with a lecture by Barbara Owen on "The
Hook Years," not an overstatement when you realize what an enormous number
of instruments that workshop turned out each year in the mid-1800s. Then the
convention traveled to Hook Country, Jamaica Plain, and the lovely yellow home
of Elias Hook. We were split into three groups at this time, so that no church
was overly crowded--this meaning, of course, that each performer had to play
three times. My group began not with a Hook, but with Central Congregational
Church's Aeolian-Skinner opus 946 of 1936, a versatile and effective 14-stop
instrument. It can do anything asked of it and today, it met just the right
player to direct it. Possibly, this organ should not really function as it
does--after all, it is stuffed into a chamber on the north side of the
chancel--but the room is welcoming, and aided by 5≤ of wind pressure and
scaling and voicing to match, it reaches every corner of the room. This should
not suggest to anyone that it is loud--it simply projects very well in all directions.
The organ is entirely enclosed in one swell box. The program by Mark Dwyer: the
chorale Freu dich sehr; Pachelbel, Partitia on "Freu dich sehr";
Sowerby, Arioso; Bach, Trio on "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend";
Darke, Fantasy, op. 39; Dupré, Placare Christe servulis. The splendid
playing of Mark Dwyer is no surprise to those who have heard him play. This
organ, on the other hand, was a total surprise: fourteen stops, and look at the
program it played, and all beautifully and essentially authentically!

We walked through pleasant streets with lovely Victorian
houses all around, to First Baptist Church, with its essentially unaltered 1859
Hook, for a concert by Lois Regestein: Hanff, Wär' Gott nicht mit uns
diese Zeit, using a registration which Hook had set as the plenum, just through
2' on the Great, without the mixture; Pinkham, Pastorale on "The Morning
Star"; three Haydn Musical Clock pieces, Minuet, March, and Andantino,
revealing the absolutely beautiful flutes on this organ; Respighi, Prelude on a
chorale of Bach; Ciampa, Agnus Dei (with singer Dianna Daly); Telemann, Trumpet
Tune in D; Brahms, Prelude in G Minor; and a rousing performance of the hymn
"Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven."

Another pleasant walk led to First Parish, Unitarian, for a
program by Gregory Crowell, director of music at Trinity UMC in Grand Rapids
and on the faculty at Grand Valley State University. The organ is E. & G.G.
Hook Opus 171 of 1854. In 1860 Hook added the Choir organ, which was apparently
prepared for in 1854. The program began with the hymn "Spirit of God,
descend upon my heart" to the tune Morecambe, and included the Mendelssohn
Fourth Sonata.

The last venue in Jamaica Plain was St. Thomas Aquinas
Church. Scot Huntington managed to give lots of his time to trying to get this
glorious 1854 Hook (moved to this church in 1898 and somewhat rebuilt by George
Hutchings) playing--it had not been heard in 20 years! This is a major part of
the OHS Convention History--the hours or weeks of time freely given by OHS member
builders to making ill instruments well enough to be heard at conventions. The
organ was permitted to remain there (west gallery) only because it looked so
nice. (It is indeed an unusually attractive case.) The new pastor welcomed the
OHS in a really fine speech that made it clear where his sympathies lie, and he
was roundly cheered. No doubt with his encouragement many parishioners were in
attendance, some of whom had ventured into the balcony for the first time to
see what the organ really looked like. Scot Huntington demonstrated the organ,
an-nouncing registrations as he went along, and even doing a creditable
performance of the "St. Anne Prelude." He then accompanied the hymn
"O worship the King" (Hanover), and many of the attending
parishioners were overwhelmed. The building is not without resonance, and to
hear 400+ musicians filling that room was impressive.

George Bozeman is always a major presence at OHS
conventions, this sometimes taking the form of an organ he has carefully
restored, but most often in the form of an interesting and somewhat unusual
recital. Here, he fulfilled both roles, playing on an 1860 E. & G.G. Hook
(Opus 283) of 32 stops (rebuilt in 1913), which in 1992 had "tonal
re-instatements and recreations; refurbishment and restoration" at the
hands of George Bozeman--at First Congregational Church in Woburn. The program:
Bach, Prelude & Fugue in G Minor (535); C.P.E. Bach, Sonata in A; the hymn,
"Eternal Spirit of the living Christ," to a strong, unnamed, tune by F.
William Voetberg; Franck, Choral in B Minor; four exquisitely registered and
played chorale preludes of Brahms: Herzlich tut mich erfreuen, Schmücke
dich, O wie selig, and Herzlich tut mich verlangen; three selections from the
Bartok Mikrokosmos; and finally Concert Sonata No. 5 in C by Eugene Thayer.

An OHS Boston Weekend

After a fairly energetic and busy Friday, the prospect of a
somewhat more relaxed convention weekend seemed a good one. Saturday began with
Jonathan Ambrosino's lecture entitled "Ernest M. Skinner & G. Donald
Harrison, Retrospective and Review." Ambrosino is president of the
Society, bringing a distinguished background in both communications and
organbuilding, and he is making his strengths very much felt throughout the
organization.

The first concert of the day was by Richard Hill at First
Parish in Arlington, one of the truly great recitals of the convention, on one
of its very best organs--an 1870 Hook (Opus 529) of fifteen stops, moved into
First Parish's fine modern building from a church in Philadelphia. The program
began with a hymn that rather set the tone for the rest of the program,
"Stand up, stand up for Jesus," to the tune Webb. The organ is tucked
in a corner in the front of the church, and has facades on two sides, and the
whole thing resonates like one big soundboard--it really is rich and full, and
beautiful besides. The Triumphal March of Dudley Buck is the kind of spirited
stuff that can really be effective in the hands of a strong and sure player
with spirit to match--really good fun. Then, by Amy Beach, a lovely work,
Prelude on an Old Folk Tune, very Irish sounding. The next piece was the kind
of thing that would keep a congregation around for the postlude, Toccatina by
George E. Whiting (1840-1923). The beginning was a bit reminiscent of the
Lemmens Fanfare. Next, David the King, based on a theme of William Billings, by
Gardner Read--a lament on the death of Absalom. Finally, the grand finale,
Allegro comodo, from Suite in D by Arthur Foote. This work might have suffered
from a lesser performance, but there was nothing lesser about what we heard--a
great ending, to much applause and a quick stand up!

On to Follen Community Church, the oldest church in
Lexington, boasting as one of its ministers Ralph Waldo Emerson. What a
beautiful place and beautiful instrument, both to see and to hear. E. &
G.G. Hook Opus 466 of 1869 was originally in a church in Stoneham, but was
given as a gift and moved to Follen Church in 1995. Erik Suter, with degrees
from both Oberlin and Yale, is now assistant organist and choirmaster at
Washington National Cathedral. The program: Pinkham, "Festive March"
from Music for a Quiet Sunday, which was commissioned by the church to
celebrate the instrument; Mendelssohn, Third Sonata: Sweelinck, Variations on Balletto
del granduca, for which organbuilder John Bishop operated the hand pump, which
really did make a noticeable difference--the wind was rather gentle and supple.
The program ended quietly with the Paul Manz Aria, which featured the Melodia
stop, living up to its name, and toward the end of the piece, an octave up,
where it was ravishing. The final hymn: "Come down, O Love Divine"
(Down Ampney). Suter launched into a quite cathedral-like improvisation on Down
Ampney which sent everyone out very cheerfully indeed.

Sometimes food claims a place on the list of OHS convention
memories. On this Saturday evening, we had an example of this, and what an
example! At 5:30 in the beautiful evening light we boarded a large and very
fast boat for Thompson Island, the history of which is complex and off topic
here, other than to say it is a quite large, hilly, and scenic place from
which, in the right spot, one neither sees nor senses the presence of the big
city so near. I have been to one clambake in my life, a small, private affair,
memorable for wonderful seafood and for good company. This was that experience
writ large; there was no end to the wonderful food. There were various salad
things, baked beans, a wonderful piece of steak, a large pile of steamed clams
and an enormous lobster on a separate plate. We were seated in a great tent,
with some outside places for those who enjoy mosquitos. At the end
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> we hiked down to the dock through the
cool darkness, and after a bit of a wait, our boat appeared to take us back to
the mainland, giving a gorgeous moonlit ride back to Boston Harbor.

On Sunday morning the Annual Meeting of the Society was
scheduled for 8:30. There were reports from all the committees carrying on the
work of the Society, including the Historic Organs Citation Committee, the
superb OHS Archives in a new home in Princeton, the Biggs Fellowship Committee,
the Convention Committee, the Publications Committee, and so much more. At this
convention about a half-dozen plaques were presented to churches that have
recognized the historic significance and musical importance of their
instruments and have continued to maintain them properly. This recognition,
plus the very presence of several hundred musicians in their church coming to
hear the instrument, sends a strong message of support and encouragement. The
Biggs Fellowship is a great program, and its ability to assist interested
people in attending a convention when they might not otherwise be able to do
so, has been greatly enhanced by a major gift from the estate of Peggy Biggs,
the wife of E. Power, who died recently. This year the convention was enriched
by the presence of four Biggs Fellows: Daniel W. Hopkins of Lockeport, Nova
Scotia; Ted Kiefer of Franklinville, New Jersey; Tony Kupina of
Montréal, Québec; and Daniel B. Sanez of Hollywood, California. A
visit to the OHS Archives in Princeton finds one in a place where one could
happily stay for days on end, exploring the amazing riches, holdings unequaled
by any other resource anywhere in the world. Many have studied there helped by
one of the research grants available through OHS. The Archives were bursting at
the seams in the old space in the Westminster Choir College Library, and
through gifts from business and arts organizations and individuals, the sum of
$85,000 was collected to make possible the move to new and spacious quarters.
Confident in the knowledge that OHS is important to all its members, important
enough that they are willing to help the organization financially over and
above the membership fees, a new fund has been established and announced at
this year's annual meeting. This endowment fund will help stabilize the
finances of the organization and enable it to expand its work in a number of
areas where money has been a bit tight. The goal is a half-million dollars, and
amazingly, a small group of officers and close friends of the Society has
already pledged the sum of $58,000. I hope anyone reading this who is not a
member of OHS will consider now joining. Try: . By
the way, next summer's convention will be in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
June 21-28.

On this Sunday afternoon, there were some opportunities to
visit Cambridge organs and also the astonishing beauties of Mount Auburn
Cemetery, which for American organists and organbuilders, might be a rough
equivalent to an Englishman visiting Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Some
recitals were played in Cambridge, and some churches held special musical
events for conventioneers. I chose to stay close to the hotel before the great
evening event, a concert about which I almost fear to write, so controversial
was it. Catching all the buzz on the walk back to the hotel and in the exhibit
room later, there seemed to be no agreement whatsoever about the instrument,
the player, her registrations, the music she chose--even what she wore! That
Cherry Rhodes is the consummate concert artist cannot be in dispute. Nor can
one deny the historicity and significance of the enormous 1952 Aeolian-Sinner
organ, much upgraded and changed both mechanically and tonally over the years,
but still bearing the stamp of the makers, working under consultant Larry
Phelps. Beyond that, I heard those things that I thought I rather liked being
roundly condemned by some, and those things that I thought I did not like being
roundly praised by others. If nothing else, the organ is a great amusement.
There is much to gaze upon, with all manner of pipes mounted in all kinds of
arrangements. There is nothing to suggest the historic structure of The Pipe
Organ, perhaps even less so than in some of the exposed organs of Walter
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Holtkamp, Sr. Looking at those, one
usually knew what was where. Not so here in the First Church of Christ,
Scientist, known familiarly as The Mother Church. The great heaps of pipework
are not identifiable without some sort of guidance. The exposed pipework speaks
into an enormous space, seating about eight thousand people, and amazingly, it
projects fairly well, coming to the listener's ear, I think, with the aid of
the various domed shapes in the building. It is capable of gentleness and also
of bombast, all sounding to my ears just a bit on the thin side, and looking at
the pipework, one does have the impression of thin. I am sure I will pay for
this in some way, but I have to say that at the end of the first piece, a large
plenum with tons of mixture ranks in play caused me to say that I thought it
all sounded incredibly electronic.

The program (12 pieces, only two of which I had ever heard)
began with a piece that made use of the spacious layout of the organ, a work by
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) dedicated in its organ arrangement to Cherry Rhodes.
Pacific Fanfare (1999) began very softly and finally did build up to live up to
its name, exploring the many reeds of various volumes on this instrument. This
was followed by the Sweelinck Bergamasca, using what is called the Continuo
division of the organ; Deuxième Légende of Bonnet, a beautiful
work; from the Vierne Pièces de Fantaisie, "Impromptu";
Méditation by Gabriel Dupont (1878-1914, an organ student of Widor);
Sportive Fauns, by the Yugoslav composer, Deszö d'Antalffy-Zsiross
(1885-1945), who studied with, among others, Max Reger. After intermission, the
obligatory hymn, "I love thy way of freedom, Lord" to a Hubert Parry
tune, Heavenward. The accompaniment was unusual, being almost a gentle wash of
sound much in the manner of some English Psalm accompaniments, very much in the
background. Then Four Pieces for the Mass by José Lidón; Clarence
Mader's "The Afternoon of a Toad"; and Variations on "Victimae
Paschali," by Jiri Ropek (b. 1922 in Prague).

Whatever misgivings people might have had about the concert,
at the end of the Ropek there was a spontaneous and essentially unanimous
standing ovation, and it kept going long enough that it was clear an encore was
needed, the lovely and quiet Salve Festa Dies by Marius Walter. Hailing the
festival day was a very gentle affair, but beautiful. And thus ended Sunday and
the weekend.

Monday, August 21

The recitals this day were part of an elective involving visits
to instruments in the Newton area. The alternative was the Mount Auburn
Cemetery, also available the previous day. A third choice was to do nothing and
ride a bus later to a concert at The Korean Church in Cambridge.

First stop: Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Newton,
something of a cookie-cutter Anglican pretend Gothic building, of which there
must be thousands around the country. It boasted pretend Gothic acoustics as
well. Heard from the third row on the south side, the Noack organ was overpowering.
I suspect that this chancel installation caused the builder to push the
instrument so it could lead those in the back row of the church. Gretchen
Longwell gave a program that one might play on a North German-oriented
mechanical-action organ in a good room in an academic environment. The audience
was made up almost completely of organists, but the recital missed one of the
features of OHS programming--showing a variety of things the organ can do. Many
thought that we could have heard some Vierne, Mendelssohn, or anything else
that might show the Romantic possibilities which probably exist in this
instrument. The program: Buxtehude, Praeludium in G Minor; Boehm, Wer nur den
lieben Gott lasst walten; the hymn
"If thou but trust in God to guide you"; two Schübler
chorales: Meine Seele and Ach bleib bei uns, both really well played; and the
Ernst/Bach, Concerto in G.

The next recital featured a new instrument built by George
Bozeman at Eliot Church (Congregational) in Newton Corner, Newton. The instrument
has rather active or flexible wind, a bit more so than wanted, as there was
clearly no room for the main reservoir right with the instrument--it is in the
next room--and even fitted with concussion bellows, things occasionally get a
bit bouncy. But the overall effect is very good. There is an amazing wooden 16'
Pedal Trombone, tremendously round and full in sound, not loud, and perhaps a
bit slow of speech, but really fun when it opens out. The recitalist was
Kimberly Ann Hess, director of chapel music and college organist at Stonehill
College in Easton, Massachusetts. The program: de Grigny, Veni Creator, played
with glorious ornamentation and clarity on a very sympathetic organ in
Kirnberger I; Schumann, Four Sketches from Opus 58; Bach, Toccata in F (BWV
540), including the most expressive playing of that long Pedal solo I have ever
heard; and the hymn "We are your people" to Sine Nomine.

Brian Jones has been featured at OHS conventions seemingly
forever. To be sure, his playing is always wonderful, but he gives more,
steeped as he is in the history of the instrument, the OHS, and New England
itself. Léfebure-Wély, Boléro de Concert; Concerto in D by
Charles Avison (1817-1953); Jongen, Scherzetto, op. 108, no. 1. The next and
final work on the program was dedicated to Alan Laufman, director of the Organ
Clearing House, who, as a young man, first turned pages for Jones for the same
piece quite a few years back at an OHS Convention on The Cape. Jones gave a
spirited reading of the Bach Prelude and Fugue in A Minor (BWV 543); and
finally the hymn, "How shall I sing that majesty which angels do
admire," to the tune Coe Fen.

Next on the schedule was Nancy Granert at The Korean Church
(formerly Pilgrim U.C.C.) in Cambridgeport, Cambridge. The 22-stop Hutchings instrument
of 1886 was not very telling in a fully carpeted room, unfortunately, and the
program began with three early works that just did not make sense on the
instrument and in the non-intimate environment: Spanieler Tanz of Johannes Weck
(early 16th century), Mit ganzem Willen wünsch ich ihr of Paumann, and
Kochersperger Spanieler of Hans Kotter; then two Bach settings of Liebster
Jesu, the first on the really warm Open Diapason, and the second using the
Dolce Cornet for the cantus, quiet but pungent. We then sang the chorale, with
a chance to sing harmony in the middle stanza. Then George Chadwick,
Canzonetta; Frank Donahoe, Impromptu. We finally heard the (rather
underwhelming) full organ in the Arthur Foote Prelude in C. Nancy Granert is
now organist at Emmanuel Church (Boston) and Temple Sinai (Brookline), and is
on the faculty at the Boston University School for the Arts. The audience stood
all around the walls, around the altar, and in extra seats in each of the
aisles. The organ did not have a chance, but Granert put in a valiant effort,
and it was clear that she is an excellent player.

We had heard four recitals already, and it was getting on
for 5 pm, but most did not accept the proffered escape bus to the hotel,
instead opting to hear Rosalind Mohnsen at the beautiful St. Catherine of Genoa
Church in Somerville, with its fine 1894 Jardine, and decent acoustic. Mohnsen
shared her program with a wonderful, expressive soprano, Maura Lynch, who added
a great deal of interest to the program. First, three Antiphons from the
Fifteen Pieces of Dupré, "His left hand is under my head,"
"Lo, the Winter is Past," and "How Fair and Pleasant art
Thou"; the hymn "Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest" sung to a
pleasant minor-key tune from the Pius X Hymnal--written by Theodore Marier;
then Schumann, two of the Fugues on the Name of Bach. Ms. Lynch stepped forward
to the balcony rail and sang "The Flag of Prospect Hill" by J.W.
Bailey. We then sang an interesting cantor and response sort of hymn "Now
Help Us, Lord," with Ms. Lynch serving as cantor. Next, for soprano and
organ, Der Schmetterling ist in die Rose verliebt, op. 14, no. 2 of Henry
Hadley (1871-1937). Last on the program was Henry Dunham's (1853-1929) Fantasia
and Fugue in d, op. 19. Rosalind Mohnsen is director of music at Immaculate
Conception Church in Malden, and this was her 15th OHS convention recital.

Dinner on this evening was a barbeque at the Charlestown
Navy Yard. The food really was delicious, and we were only a short walk from
St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, Charlestown, where Dana Robinson played a
stunning recital. This church was one of a number of very old, large, Catholic
churches that have been recently re-stored. This was a great evening of great
organ music suited to the grand old Woodberry and Harris Organ of 1892 in a
fine acoustic. Parker, Introduction and Fugue in E Minor; a duet version of six
Schumann Studies for Pedal Piano (Opus 56) with Paul Tegels assisting; Franck,
E-Major Chorale; the hymn "Immaculate Mary" to the Lourdes Hymn; Widor,
the complete Symphonie Gothique. Dr. Robinson teaches at the School of Music of
the University of Illinois.

Tuesday, August 22

Tuesday the 22nd began with a lecture by Pamela Fox
concerning the Hook & Hastings factory in Weston, which involves more of
interest than might meet the eye. This was an attempt at a complete
"community of labor," with workers' cottages, a company-built
recreation hall, and other facilities. The move to Weston took place in 1880.

This was it--my first chance to hear the legendary
instrument at Old West Church, and its legendary organist, Yuko Hayashi.
Perhaps the experience of the organ was a bit underwhelming (to me) because we
have all heard so many wonderful instruments in a similar style that have been
built since this pioneer Fisk organ appeared in 1971. Many of these, I think,
surpass Old West in terms of color and clarity, an excellent example of which
we heard at our next stop. The program: Buxtehude, Toccata in D Minor; Bach,
Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein; Clérambault, Suite on the
Second Tone. The Basse de Cromorne was something else, given the monster
Cromorne on this instrument, full of color and character. The Récit de
nasard revealed another monster, the Nasard itself--quite big and colorful in
combination. We did sing a hymn, "Now thank we all our God," in the
strange unison version found at number 396 in the 1982 Hymnal. Had anyone
turned one more page, they would have come to the harmonization
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> by Monk, following Mendelssohn's
symphony version, which would have been infinitely more fun.

Next First Lutheran Church, where Richards, Fowkes &
Company Opus 10 was in the final stages of installation, sufficiently far along
to allow William Porter to improvise his way through many combinations of
sounds. This organ, in its hideous Piero Belluschi building, should be a
fabulous addition to the Boston organ scene.

For the next program, Frederick Jodry V gave a really
interesting performance on a 1938 Wicks instrument in a fine acoustical
environment, Most Holy Name Parish, West Roxbury, the instrument designed and
voiced by Henry Vincent Willis. Wow! Broad foundation tone! Reading through the
very detailed stoplist provided, some features stand out. The Great has no
mixture, going only to the 2' Principal. There are, however, two Open Diapasons
at 8'. The flues are on 95mm of wind, but the Great Trumpet is on 145mm. The
Choir (enclosed--73 note chest) has a French Horn with its own tremolo. It is
on 140mm of wind, while the rest of the division is on 95mm. The Swell has flues
on 100mm, a Vox Humana which automatically engages its own Tremolo, on 105mm,
with the four other reeds on 140mm. The Pedal has a 16' Open Diapason and a 16'
Bourdon. All else is either borrowed or extended from somewhere. There is a
small sanctuary organ, but it is not working, and was not made available for
inspection. The program: Woodman, Little Partita for Easter; Chadwick,
Pastorale, demonstrating a truly wonderful Harmonic Flute;
Léfebure-Wély, March; the hymn "The Strife is O'er" at
an incredibly fast clip. The program finished with a really interesting
Postlude on a Theme of Palestrina by Dudley Buck.

One of the happy-making experiences of this convention has
been seeing quite a few ornate, very old, Roman Catholic churches that have
been newly loved and spruced up with great care and taste. Saint Patrick Church
in Roxbury is not one of these, possibly lacking the enormous amount of money
required for a major fix-up. It does have rather nice stations, set in small
tabernacles, perhaps two or three feet high, and lighted indirectly from above.
The room is disfigured by ugly loudspeakers stuck all over the place. The organ
is an E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings from 1880, rebuilt by Hutchings in
1893, adding a Barker lever to the Great and its couplers. The pipework and
chests are original Hook & Hastings, but the Choir organ was added by
Hutchings. It is visually reminiscent of the Covington Holtkamp that has been
discussed on Piporg-l, with exposed pipework in a pleasing pattern--rather
remarkable for its time.

In this church, Kristin Farmer played one of those
"Program will be announced" events, again of necessity, given the
precarious condition of the organ. Kristin and her organbuilder husband John
Farmer have donated countless hours to getting this organ up and playing for
the convention. After the organ received an OHS Plaque, we heard the following
program: Langlais, Hommage; three Dupré Antiphons; Meditation from
Thaïs; and a Gigue by John Bull. The Langlais really worked on the instrument,
which is quite beautiful doing mystic bits, and also capable of some richness
as the volume rises. There is a strong and independent 16' Open on the Great.
In the Dupré "I am black but comely," the Flute had a
wonderful open sound. The John Bull Gigue was played rather full out, and the
upperwork was irritatingly out of tune, sounding for all the world like a
supercoupler forcing into play pipes that have not been noticed (or tuned) in
years--but there is no supercoupler. At the end, we sang "Glory, love, and
praise," to the pleasant tune "Benifold," by Francis Westbrook
(1903-1975).

It was getting on for tea time, and at First Parish
(Unitarian) in Roxbury the convention split into two groups: one group going to
the recital and the other to what was billed in the book as a
"reception." This meant not high tea, but various cool drinks and
cookies out under the trees in back of the church. The recital of one hour and
ten minutes (surely the longest daytime event of the convention) took place on
a rather anemic instrument in a totally dead acoustic in a quite large
building. (The building is quite beautiful, if greatly run down, but a grant
has apparently been secured and further funds are being sought for its
restoration.) Robert Barney gave another performance of the Brahms Prelude and
Fugue in G Minor, which was effective in the space, followed by another good
choice, the Hindemith Second Sonata. But nothing could overcome the effect of
the hour, the hopelessly dull acoustic and the instrument. There was a certain
amount of merriment when folks realized the hymn to come was "Sleepers
Wake! A voice astounds us." But wait, there was yet more to come. The
Reger Fantasy on Wachet Auf really did not belong in this building, on this
organ, and for that trivial matter, at this time of day. Two people were sound
asleep in my pew. We ran, not walked, to the waiting buses.

The evening venue was Holy Cross Cathedral. Anyone, in New
England at least, who receives mail at all, has probably had a mailing from Leo
Abbott concerning his ongoing effort to restore this most wonderful instrument
in a glorious space. The instrument, Hook & Hastings from 1875, is simply
enormous, with all mod cons of the period, including Barker lever to the Great
and its couplers, pneumatic stop action, eight mixtures, and imported French
reeds from Zimmerman, some with Cavaillé-Coll shallots. It was
electrified around 1929 by Laws. Henri Lahaise and Sons have been working
steadily to keep it going, while doing restoration work as time and funds permit.
Along with lots of AGO members and other members of the Boston musical
community, in addition to lots of parishioners, we were a huge audience to hear
four well-known organists in a program that became even more remarkable than we
were led to expect.

George Bozeman led off with some charming Pepping Chorale
Preludes, ones from the Kleines Orgelbüch. Julian Wachner, who had given a
full evening recital earlier in the week, offered the Bach Dorian Toccata and
Fugue. The Toccata was a bit thick for the registration and building, but the
Fugue was magical, with a hardly noticeable but very real build-up that left
one breathless at the final cadence. Next came Wachner's transcription of El
Salon Mexico of Copland. I guess there are cannon shots in the score, and Leo Abbott
was ready in the balcony with an enormous bass drum, which he struck with
immense authority. At the first blow, the whole audience rose quite visibly
just a bit off its seats. Peter Sykes began the second half with a stunning
performance of the Reger Fantasy and Fugue on BACH. This was our first chance
to hear the organ full out in a major piece of organ literature. It was totally
tremendous, and the audience response was enormous. Leo Abbott assumed his
familiar bench at his familiar reversed horseshoe theater organ console (long
story, but the thing works!), and led the hymn "The Royal Banners Forward
Go" (Agincourt Hymn), with lots of wonderful fanfares and interludes. He
then gave a magnificent improvisation on Salve Regina, which, among other things,
was a great tour through the instrument. After the last chord had died away,
there were whoops and cheers, and an audience completely on its feet. What a
night!

The final great day

Wednesday, August 23

On this last day, it was hard to
refrain from commenting on the weather. With the exception of one evening of
some rain, the days were cool, sunny, and dry. One's impressions of a
convention are somewhat tempered, I think, by whether one has or has not sat in
broiling hot churches with perspiration pouring down. We had essentially none
of that.

This day began with a lecture on
"Organ Pedagogy in Boston 1850-1900," and included a discussion of
the personalities, the publications, and institutions of the period. To attend
a Friday noon recital at Trinity, Copley Square, is to learn that this organ
culture remains very much alive today. It will be you and about 299 others in
attendance! The AGO chapter is one of the largest and most active in the
country.

For the first two concerts of
the day we were split into two groups, so today's performers each played twice.
Our group began at First Baptist Church in Framingham at 11:30 with a totally
satisfying event. The church is the oldest in the area, clearly well-loved and
well kept. Victoria Wagner gave a program of organ works and songs in which she
accompanied soprano Nancy Armstrong. The organ is gentle, the room not resonant
but small and clear. The idea of this combination organ concert and song
recital was just right. The instrument, William Simmons of 1853, 17 stops, is
lovely, but not perhaps compelling enough to carry a full program on its own.
Like the church, it has been well cared for, and was presented with an OHS
plaque before the music began. The program: Handel, Voluntary XI; two Purcell
songs, "We Sing to Him" (Harmonia Sacra) and "Tecum principium
in die virtutis" from Dixit Dominus; the hymn "Rock of Ages" to
"Toplady"; James Woodman's song, Rock of Ages. Next, the premiere of
Peter Sykes's "Arise my love" for organ and soprano, a truly lovely
addition to the repertoire for voice and organ. The perfect finish to this
lovely event was Festival March, by Christian Teilman. Victoria Wagner is
director of music at Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord, organ
instructor at Regis College in Weston, and on the piano faculty at the Noble
& Greenough School in Dedham.

It was lunch time. If you were
in Group A, you ate at St. Andrew's Church, Wellesley, but Group B, of which I
was a member, ate at Village Congregational, also in Wellesley. There were no
concerts scheduled for these churches--only the use of their facilities for the
meal. Then onward to the Chapel at Wellesley College. The complications of the
keyboard require quite a bit of time and understanding. There are split sharps
and a "short octave," and nothing quite feels like what one is used
to at home. But the whole thing represents the kind of creative adventure,
unique, I think, to the questing and curious mind of Charles Brenton Fisk. I
need to quote a bit of history from the ever-helpful Organ Handbook: "In
1972, Wellesley College signed a contract with C. B. Fisk for a two-manual
organ based on Dutch models, c. 1620. Inaugurated in 1981, this organ and its
design underwent considerable evolution in the decade leading to its fruition.
From the beginning, it was intended that a specialized instrument, built
‘in the spirit of uncompromising authenticity' would allow students a
European experience in America." The Pedal Posaune was added in 1983, as
were carved pipeshades. Additional Pedal stops were added in 1987, and the case
was oiled and gilded in 1992. At the other (east) end is an Aeolian-Skinner
instrument which is, in fact, used for accompanying the choir and congregation
up front.

On the above-described Fisk
instrument, Margaret Irwin-Brandon gave a most elegant recital: Scheidemann,
Fantasia in C; Weckmann, Canzon in G Major; a choral prelude by Franz Tunder,
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns, served in alternation to our
singing of the chorale in or with various harmonizations. Next, the Buxtehude G
Minor. While there is an electric blower for practice, in normal public
playing, the organ is human-pumped. One person can do it all, although there is
room for two at the pumping apparatus. One must carefully go backwards up a
short staircase, step out over a beam connected to one of the feeder bellows,
and glide down, propelled by one's own weight, on that beam until the bellows
hits bottom. At this point, one goes back up the stairs, and vigilance is
wanted to wait for the last-pumped bellows to rise almost to the top, at which
point one rides down on the other one. It's an exercise that adds a most
graceful visual component to the playing of this instrument. As you look at the
case, to the left, you see the pumper backing up the stairs, and then
ever-so-gracefully riding down quite slowly on the bellows, after which the
work is repeated. A couple of our Biggs Fellows had the honor of raising the
wind.

For various reasons I missed a
recital at St. Mary R.C. Church, Waltham, by Libor Dudas, music director and
organist at the famous Old North Church. The program included the Brahms A
Minor Prelude & Fugue, the Elgar Vesper Voluntaries, and the Franck Finale,
on an 1874 Hook & Hastings instrument, restored by Henri Lahaise and Son
during the 1990s.

The last concert of the
convention took us back to Immaculate Conception where, before an enormous
audience of conventioneers, AGO members, and Boston music lovers, Thomas Murray
gave one final fabulous musical memory. The whole program was a procession of
delights, all played in the elegant Murray manner and wonderfully registered
with great care: Guilmant, Sonata IV in D Minor; Reger, Benedictus; Schumann,
Three Studies for Pedal-Piano; Bonnet, Matin Provençale (No. 2 from Poèmes
d'Automne, 1908); Franck, Fantasy in A Major. We sang a rousing hymn,
"Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him," to a grand Victorian tune
called "Faben," composed by the first organist of Immaculate
Conception Parish, who served until his death in 1875, John Henry Wilcox. Next,
three more of the Schumann Studies; finally, the Mulet Carillon-Sortie. And
sortie we did, back to the exhibit hall cum bar, for a last social time with
friends from far and near.

What a wonderful convention! I
hope this report might help some readers to consider making plans now to attend
next summer in North Carolina, from June 21st to the 28th.

--Malcolm Wechsler

Mander Organs, USA

The author thanks Mark Nelson,
William Van Pelt, Judy Ollikkala, and Anonymous for corrections and additions
to this article after its original Internet appearance.

Organist and Organbuilder, Jerome Meachen and Charles McManis: A Meeting of the Minds

R. E. Coleberd

R. E. Coleberd, an economist and retired petroleum industry executive, is a contributing editor of The Diapason. He is a director of The Reuter Organ Company.

Introduction

In the following narrative, the interaction of an organist and an organbuilder in the design of a new instrument and selection of a builder is described in some detail by each of them. The organist, Jerome Meachen, an Oberlin and Union graduate, was organist/choirmaster of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1957 St. John’s, upon the recommendation of Meachen, acquired a 70-rank, three-manual McManis organ. It was followed, when he changed positions, by a 67-rank, three-manual at Redeemer Episcopal Church in Sarasota, Florida (completed in 1966), and in 1973, by a 49-rank, three-manual for Manatee Community College, Bradenton, Florida. The builder, Charles McManis, a trained organist who had apprenticed briefly with Walter Holtkamp before World War II, operated a small shop in Kansas City, Kansas. His skill in flue voicing would become widely recognized and acclaimed in a sixty-year career, which counted more than 125 new instruments and rebuilds.

The discussion highlights the steps in the evolution of their tonal philosophy. It was a process of listening, comparing and choosing sounds and stops in the quest for authenticity in the revolutionary epoch that characterized American organbuilding in the decades following World War II. Before their first meeting, Meachen had acquired a preference for non-legato playing while McManis had been taught the legato style. Despite this difference, the two men found common ground in their admiration and profound respect for the tonal work of William A. Johnson, a legendary nineteenth-century New England tracker builder, and his successors.

Background

The choice of a relatively unknown independent builder in 1956 was decidedly the exception for this era. In the 1950s, pipe organ building in America was the province of the integrated major builders who had controlled the market for new instruments since the turn of the century. M. P. Möller of Hagerstown, Maryland, the “General Motors” of the industry, with a force of more than 400 workers, delivered 365 instruments in 1928 and in the decade 1950-60, with perhaps 200 employees, built 125 organs per year.1 Other builders, those who had survived the drastic shakeout during the Great Depression of the 1930s, were likewise busy, with comparatively large work forces and lengthy backlogs.

In retrospect we might safely say the 1950s, though a vibrant decade, marked the beginning of the end of what could be termed the “commercial” era of organbuilding in America that extended back to the 1920s and perhaps even earlier. Builders, including such highly successful businessmen as Mathias Peter Möller, concentrated almost exclusively on production to meet the enormous market demand in all venues. Company executives, sons of the founder, not musicians, were largely unfamiliar with the great literature for the organ. Sadly, they scarcely comprehended the interface between Bach, Buxtehude and other composers and the subtleties and nuances of fine voicing and finishing in building the King of Instruments. Their instruments were often quite successful in the context of a “production organ,” with uniform and consistent voicing, thanks to the skills of talented shop voicers, but, in retrospect, they were perhaps lacking in artistic statement, which can come only from meticulous tonal finishing. On small organs there was virtually no concept of tonal finishing once the instrument was installed and tuned. Only with the large “signature” instruments was time scheduled for tonal finishing, for example by John Schleigh of Möller and Herb Pratt of Aeolian-Skinner.2

Yet the organ reform movement was underway and gaining momentum, beginning with the pathfinding efforts in the 1930s of E. Power Biggs, Melville Smith, King Covell and others. The major themes are well known: lower wind pressures, smaller scales and higher pitches in flue work and the introduction of chorus in place of solo reeds. A “vertical” tonal palette emerged, featuring a full range of pitches in place of the former “horizontal” palette, dominated by stops of 8-foot pitch. These elements combined in the cohesive blending of individual voices, and the emphasis on ensemble in the building of primary and secondary choruses as reflected in the work of Walter Holtkamp and G. Donald Harrison in the North German and American Classic paradigms.

Leaders in the organist profession, highly educated, widely traveled and well-read, people like Robert Noehren and Parvin Titus, were captivated by the new sounds and ensembles which awakened them to the instrument’s rich music from antiquity. They began paying close attention to European instruments, through travel and recordings, as well as 19th-century work of notable American builders (Hook, Erben, Johnson and others). They wisely looked beyond the stoplist and listened carefully to the sound. The reintroduction of the tracker instrument, first by European builders, followed by an emerging U.S. industry of small shops, reinforced the historic and intrinsic artistic value of the King of Instruments. Steady improvement in the tone quality of the electronic instruments soon spelled the end of the commodity segment of the pipe organ market rooted in the image of an organ as a utilitarian device in support of corporate worship.3

By the end of the century it was recognized that the heart and soul of a pipe organ, a work of art, is the tonal edifice, which begins with a vision and continues through design, voicing and tonal finishing of the instrument. These requirements were most often found in the combined talents of the tonal architect and skilled, dedicated artisans in his shop, seldom in one individual. Harrison, Holtkamp and Fisk, for example, were superb designers but were not voicers. Schopp, Pearson and Zajic were supremely talented reed voicers. But once in a while one individual comprised them all. George Michel of Kimball perhaps came close and, in the author’s judgment, Charles McManis fits this image.

In any revolutionary epoch, change in an established industry comes slowly and sometimes from the outside. American organbuilders, badly shaken by the lean years of the Great Depression and World War II, were to some degree insular, isolated and ingrown. On balance they were reluctant to abandon existing practices and slow to adopt new and untried techniques with unknown consequences. Voicers, trained in-house on high-pressure, wide-scale stops of 8-foot pitch, scarcely comprehended the new generation of flues and reeds. They and their superiors had been disinterested in historic instruments, American and European, which they viewed as antiquated and obsolete. But they could not ignore the revolutionary changes around them, and some firms wisely brought in outsiders--men like Richard Piper at Austin and Franklin Mitchell at Reuter--who were listening and eager to apply their ideas to new stoplists.

At the close of World War II, the demand for organ work far exceeded the supply of qualified people. Factories enjoyed lengthy backlogs and were hard pressed to meet production schedules. Service firms comprised primarily older men, former employees of firms who had failed in the Great Depression--for example, Syl Kohler in Louisville (Pilcher) and Ben Sperbeck and Milton Stannke in Rock Island (Bennett). Honest and hard working, they can best be described as mechanics; few had either voicing experience or any concept of a modern chorus or ensemble. This afforded an opportunity for a newcomer, a young man who had listened carefully, had a firm conviction of what pipe sound should be, and had acquired the voicing skills to bring the sound of a pipe to the tone quality he desired.

Jerome Meachen writes:

A native of Oklahoma City, I studied organ with Dana Lewis Griffin, a student of David McK. Williams at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Park Avenue in New York City, and then enrolled at Oberlin College where my teachers were Leo Holden and Grigg Fountain. Holden was a 19th-century organ teacher--Rheinberger, romantic, and very happy with the E. M. Skinner organ in the chapel. His whole approach to organ playing was: “write down the fingering I give you and the registration I want you to use.” It was a very dry--and I felt antiquated--approach. In contrast, Fountain said: “select your own registration from what you hear, we will discuss it and you defend it.” This was essential to broadening my understanding of organ music and what I wanted to develop in my own touch on the instrument. While at Oberlin I practiced on the Johnson organ at Christ Episcopal Church in Oberlin courtesy of Arnold Blackburn, also on the Oberlin organ faculty. This awakened me to the beautiful voicing of this builder. Of course northeast Ohio was Holtkamp country. When I began studying with Fountain, my last two years, he had just obtained a Holtkamp at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Cleveland. While I was fascinated with the sounds of this instrument, I found it ear-shattering. I well remember one Saturday afternoon when I was practicing at St. Paul’s. Walter Holtkamp came in, climbed up on the Swell box and said play full organ. He just reveled in the volume, but I found that sort of sound excruciating.

A milestone in my career was a recital at Oberlin by Ernest White. I was fascinated by his approach, non-legato, in contrast to legato, which was the basic style at Oberlin. Legato evolved because of the acoustics organists had to deal with in American churches. Nothing happened after you took your finger off the note so you had to pull everything together.

After graduating from Oberlin I enrolled in the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where I arranged to study with Ernest White, then an adjunct faculty member. We shared a common interest in repertoire and liturgy. White had me listen to orchestral recordings of Mozart and commented: remember, “Bach was a violinist as well as an organist.” Bob Clark, another graduate student, and I found White way ahead of his time in non-legato sound, which broadens your understanding of the organ. This is the sound one finds in Europe and what we were striving for in America. Working with White was working with the literature and developing the capacity to do his particular style of non-legato in terms of liturgy, the Anglican approach and plainsong. This was very enlightening to me. I was fascinated by White’s approach to playing the studio organ at St. Mary the Virgin, the second studio instrument, this one by Möller. His technique was a detached sound, like the ringing of bells. Unfortunately, the voicing was so loud it was difficult to listen to. This alerted me to the distinction between intensity and decibels, a key distinction in my thinking. I was also intrigued by the design of the organ, which had a 32’ Cornet using individual stops and two Swell boxes providing two ensembles. This inspired the use of separate swell boxes and couplers for flues and reeds at St. John’s. My admiration for Johnson continued when I practiced on their instrument at the Mott Haven Dutch Reformed Church in the Bronx while at Union.4

Charles McManis writes:

As a pre-teenager in Kansas City in the 1920s, with my parents I often rode the streetcar to Independence Boulevard Christian Church to hear Sunday afternoon recitals by the legendary Hans Feil on the four-manual, 1910 Austin organ. In the 1930s while I was a student at the University of Kansas, I spent summers and holidays working with Peter E. Nielsen, a local serviceman, tuning and rebuilding pipe organs. Two of these instruments were Johnson trackers from the 1880s.5 They were especially impressive and were to influence fundamentally my concept of voicing.

Enrolling as a liberal arts major at the University of Kansas in Lawrence I became a student of University Organist Laurel Everette Anderson, an Oberlin master’s graduate who then studied for three years in Paris with Joseph Bonnet. He taught the legato method, and emphasized proper turning of phrases and making real music out of notes. He greatly expanded my knowledge of the pipe organ and emphasized nuances of color and singing quality in organ voices. Following graduation with an A.B. degree in 1936 and having already set my sights on becoming an organbuilder, I obtained a Mus.B. at KU in 1937, which required my playing an hour-long recital from memory. The thought occurred to me that I might be the first organbuilder who could play more than “Yankee Doodle” on what he had built.

I began my organbuilding career with a shop in the basement of my parents’ home. I rebuilt three organs and built one new instrument. My Opus 2, 1939--electrifying and adding nine ranks to a 1910 tubular-pneumatic Kilgen--is still playing in the Central Christian Church in Kansas City, Kansas. Then, having learned of his growing prominence in the organ reform movement, I apprenticed with Walter Holtkamp in Cleveland for a few months, eager to learn from him. I assisted with the installation of a three-manual Holtkamp organ at Olivet College in Michigan. It had Great and Positiv slider chests, but the Swell had ventil stop-action for want of sufficient space for a slider chest. When I compared the sounds of slider chest pipes and those on the ventil chest I was surprised to find that I could hear no difference. Walter’s instruments were visually well designed and beautiful to look at but, frankly, I was disappointed with his ensemble sound and tone quality. The voicing lacked a certain richness of tone. In checking Holtkamp pipes I noticed that he nicked only on the languids and not on the lower lips. As a result, pipes occasionally tended to emit an abnormal squeaking sound. He was not interested in building a truly classic organ as much as building a distinctive Holtkamp organ. In retrospect I find that I employed very few of Holtkamp’s ideas in my later work. Based on my background in music, I wasn’t hearing in his organs the sounds I wished to hear in my own instruments.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry in World War II, I enlisted in the Army. Prior to shipment overseas my outfit was stationed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, for a few days. I went on pass to New York City to hear G. Donald Harrison’s new Aeolian-Skinner in the main sanctuary of St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church. This was my first acquaintance with mixtures and upperwork, which Laurel Anderson had talked about at KU, but which were conspicuously absent in the Austin organ in Hoch Auditorium there. Then, as a chaplain’s assistant, I was stationed in Europe where I took every opportunity to play and inspect European instruments. I remember, in particular, the famous Cavaillé-Coll instrument in the church of St. Ouen at Rouen, which inspired Guilmant’s Eighth Organ Symphony. This was the first time I had seen a five-rank mounted cornet and reeds with sunken blocks in the boots.6 After the war I returned to Kansas City, Kansas and set up shop again. On one occasion, being in New York City, I attended a recital given by Ernest White on his new Möller studio organ at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. I left at intermission because the organ was painfully loud. In my voicing I try to make a rank of pipes only as loud as needed to ping the tone off the walls, blowing only hard enough to fill the room at the desired volume.7

Jerome: Following graduation from Union, I was appointed organist/choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Waterbury, Connecticut. When we went looking for a new instrument to replace the 1869 Hook & Hastings, I wasn’t enamored with the sounds of Holtkamp, Möller, Schlicker and Austin, and mentioned my dilemma to my good friend Bob Clark, whose judgment I valued. He was organist at the Peddie Memorial Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where my wife was soloist, having the best-paying solo position in the area, while I was at Union. He said, “Why don’t you check with Charles McManis, who builds organs that sing and don’t shout.” When I learned he was in Danbury, Connecticut, I went down to get acquainted, and we hit it off immediately.

Charles: In the early 1950s I became acquainted with Robert Noehren through our writings in The Diapason and The American Organist magazines. I worked for him on the Hill Auditorium Skinner in Ann Arbor, and built a new organ for Frankenmuth, Michigan, where he was the consultant. When he was named consultant on the Johnson at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury, Connecticut, whose organist had been his student at Michigan, I was called in. My strong feelings concerning Johnson flue pipe voicing began during my apprenticeship days in Kansas City. I discovered that diapason pipes mouth-blown very gently, then increased to full volume, had scarcely any change in pitch. Volume was regulated at the toe hole, not by opening the flue. In contrast, classical open toe voicing regulated volume at the mouth, which I found totally inadequate. I revoiced the 8-foot Principal, increasing its richness of tone, primarily by opening the toes and, to a lesser degree adjusting the mouths. Jerry and I connected as musicians, no doubt in part because I too had a degree in organ. We both agreed on what we didn’t like. I obtained the contract for the St. John’s, Waterbury, organ (see photo and stoplist) in part because Parvin Titus was the consultant. The St. John’s rector, Rev. John Youngblood, had been a curate in Cincinnati, knew Mr. Titus and trusted his judgment. Also, I had built the new instrument for the Second Church of Christ, Scientist in Dayton, where Titus also had been the consultant.

Jerome: The Johnson sound was already in my head, not only from Oberlin, but from the fine Johnson in Mott Haven Dutch Reformed Church in the Bronx, where I first practiced when I went to New York. I explained that we were looking for intensity not decibels in organ sound, colors and ensembles that sing. Charles showed me what he was doing. It was soon obvious this was just the ticket for us. These initial impressions were confirmed when my wife and I visited St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and heard for the first time a complete McManis instrument. All the voices were exquisite; the 8-foot principal was a well-supported, big baritone sound. Having worked in training choirs at an early age, striving to blend individual voices, I found in the lovely individual voices of this organ an exquisite ensemble and chorus.

Charles: When Jerry came to Kansas City, the mixtures and ensemble sounds on the Great and Swell at St. Paul’s were what really got to him. The voices together on each manual resulted in contrasting sounds but very much related. We talked at length about voicing and drew up a specification for a three-manual instrument for St. John’s. (See specification.) I also discussed what I had done in reworking old pipes and changing pitch. This was very important because in the 1869 Hook & Hastings at St. John’s a number of old ranks were reworked.

I first saw Waterbury after Meachen returned from Kansas City, and was dismayed to find dry acoustics and such terribly large scales in the Hook & Hastings. The only principal stop I could use was the 16-foot on the Great, which would work well in the Pedal division. We were able to cut down and revoice a number of 8-foot stops; for example, the 4-foot principal on the Swell had been an 8-foot violin diapason. If the scale and mouth treatment were correct, the desired sound would follow.

Let me quote from my forthcoming autobiography to explain the tonal philosophy of this instrument: “The classic Werkprinzip theory of terraced manual pitches had not yet hit the AGO cocktail hour conversation when Jerry and I drew up the design for Opus 35 (St. John’s Church Waterbury, CT) on that Sunday afternoon. Submitted to organ consultant Parvin Titus, he heartily approved of the design, but suggested inclusion of the rather outstanding Oboe from the 1869 H&H. But back to the Werkprinzip! While numerous other stops are needed in each division, the backbone is the Principal chorus, as shown below:

I: Great 8’ Principal 11/3’ Mixture

II: Swell 4’ Principal 2/3’ Scharf

III: Brustwerk 2’ Principal 1/3’ Cymbel

Pedal 8’ Principal 11/3’ Mixture

For purposes of contrapuntal clarity, the Pedal chorus should be the same pitch as the Great, plus suitable 16’ underpinning. Polyphony does better without the growl of a sub-octave mixture cluster.”

After the tornado hit downtown Waterbury in July, 1989, heavily damaging the St. John’s organ, I replaced 35 ranks of pipes including replacement of the Brustwerk Singend Regal with a brass Krummhorn and substitution of a Swell 4’ Clarion for the earlier 4’ Krummhorn. Also, the 32’ extension of the Pedal reed was linked to the Posaune instead of the Contrafagotto.

Jerome: Another factor which impressed me about the McManis was its compatibility with what I call a theatre sound by which I mean, it had to dance. In the theatre organ you had a detached pedal and a strong emphasis on the melodic line when you are thinking bass line and melody. This is why I was very comfortable doing figured bases. It was non-legato; it was instrumental. When you were featuring the posthorn, you were quite willing to detach it. My father loved theatre organ, so from the time I started playing, I developed something of a theatre style. Searle Wright, the well-known organist at St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, also did a great theatre style.

Charles inspired my definition of intensity because he viewed the entire instrument as a whole. In a three-manual you could draw the principal and mixture on each division, couple them together and you had a basic ensemble evoking a very intense, rich but not very loud sound because you didn’t have to fill in and thus did not have an awful lot of stops working. Thus the concept of full organ was very discriminating; the full organ piston didn’t bring on everything. You are dealing with colors and when you put everything on you end up with brown or gray. And with a tremolo on each division if you wanted to cantus firmus you could do it anywhere in the instrument.

This instrument fulfills my belief in the theological aspect of an organ. With my developing interest in liturgy I was very much aware of the person in the pew. I hold that the organ must be people-friendly, in support of congregational singing whether it be chant or hymnody. Surrounding rather than hitting the congregation with sound--making a joyful noise, not just a noise. Charles spoke of attending a recital on the Möller practice organ at St. Mary the Virgin in New York and finding it so loud he left after the first half of the program. I agree. White offered me a chance to practice on that organ but I told him I would be using only one or two stops so I might as well practice on the chapel organ. The sound was so high in decibels I couldn’t hear it.

Redeemer and Manatee

This paper has focused on the St. John’s organ. Those at Redeemer Episcopal Church and Manatee Community College continued the fundamental practices in the philosophy of McManis and Meachen. They also reflected modifications and forward thinking in their approach, as did the rebuilding and restoration of St. John’s in 1989.

At Redeemer in Florida, the former ten-rank Möller, with its subsequent addition of nineteen Aeolian-Skinner ranks, was skillfully integrated into the 67-rank new instrument. In place of the 16’ Quintaton on the Great, they chose a 16’ Gemshorn mounted on the chancel wall, extended to an 8’ Gemshorn and a 4’ tapered flute in a seamless tonal progression. The Great and Positiv exposed chests were equipped with toeboard expansion chambers to increase richness of tone.

The 49-rank Manatee Community College organ was installed in Neel Auditorium at the point of a pie-shaped building on a 35-foot shelf at the back of the stage. In an obviously “werkprinzip” layout (see photo, page 20), in a variety of shapes, it was enclosed in a mahogany case. The 16’ Pedal Principal exposed at the center hid the movement of Swell shutters behind. To its left were the lower notes of the 16’ Subbass and 16’ Posaune; to the right, the pipes of the Hooded Trumpet and more Subbass metal pipes. To the far left in the left façade was the Great 8’ Principal, and to the far right the 4’ Positiv Principal in the façade. Roofs of the façades differed but all were related to the focal point mentioned above.

The Manatee Great included a 16’ Gemshorn, all the usual 8’ and 4’ stops, plus a normal 11/3’ Mixture, a 2/3’ Acuta, and an 8’ Trumpet. The Swell mixture was a 1’ Scharf and the Positiv had a 1/3’ Cymbel. The thoroughly adequate Pedal division included a 32’ Dulzian and the usual 8’ and 4’ ranks. As would be expected, the Pedal mixture lowest pitch was 11/3’, but pipe scales were larger than those of the Great Mixture.

Summary

The above dialogue illustrates the way in which the concept of organ sound in the mind of an organist and soon-to-be builder begins with formal study of the instrument and is heavily influenced by the instructor and his experience. With this background, they are then prepared to compare and contrast a wide variety of sound in determining their own definition of it: for Meachen and McManis, a singing sound. It also argues that the ultimate test of the voicer’s art, be it Johnson or McManis, is the 8’ Diapason found on the Great, a belief shared by organists and builders for many years.

In an article in The Diapason, based upon his lecture to the AIO Convention in Pittsburgh in 1977, McManis explains the details of flue voicing and the practices of Tannenberg, Gratian, Kilgen, Hook & Hastings, Johnson, Wurlitzer, Estey (William E. Haskell), Cavaillé-Coll, and Kimball.8 This paper, now considered a classic, together with the recognition of his peers in his selection as instructor in flue voicing at a seminar of the American Institute of Organbuilders, established him, in the author’s judgment, as one of the finest flue voicers of the twentieth century.9

Charles passed away, at age 91, on December 3, 2004 in South Burlington, Vermont. Providentially, he and his wife Judith had just completed his autobiography. It contains vivid recollections of personalities and detailed descriptions of his instruments in a sixty-year career that spanned the arc of the postwar history of organbuilding in America. This priceless volume is scheduled to be published by the Organ Historical Society in 2005. It will find a prominent place on the shelf of every organist, organbuilder and organ enthusiast.

For research assistance and critical comments on drafts of this paper, the author gratefully acknowledges: Gene Bedient, Jerry Dawson, Charles Eames, Donald Gillette, Albert Neutel, Barbara Owen, Michael Quimby, Elizabeth Schmidt, Jack Sievert and R. E. Wagner.

AGO Seattle 2000

Part 2

by Herbert Huestis & David Calhoun

Northwest Spaces

Physical, metaphysical, mental and spiritual; Concerts expand one's perceptions and test prejudices

A random survey around the convention seemed to reveal a tie vote for favorite recitals, between the paired events at Pacific Lutheran's Fritts organ and the Kynaston recitals at St. James Cathedral. The balance was tipped by the "Catholic Worship," the office of Lauds offered three times at the Cathedral, not most by the music, the ceremony, nor the incense ("not a fragrance-free corner"), but by the sermon of the Cathedral's Pastor, the Very Rev. Michael Ryan. Imagine a room of musicians listening intently to a sermon! Fr. Ryan suggested that, in a twist on the imagery of Donne, visitors and music in the place are made honest parts of the Sacrament.

The new Rosales organ was dedicated only two weeks before the convention, in a solo recital by Cathedral organist Joseph Adam proving the success of the marriage between old and new instruments in literature from Bach to Widor. The program featured a large solo work by Naji Hakim, The Last Judgment, on motifs from the windows around which the organ case is spaced on the theme, "As ye did it to the least of these, my brethren." Those who managed to be at the Cathedral at supper time on July 4th heard it in reprise; a virtuoso prelude to fireworks, of course, a sort of rondo returning to great bass clusters; a better work than the one with orchestra which ended the convention. I'd already heard the organ accompanying a professional choir the week before that, and was struck by the way Manuel Rosales has sprouted a new and different organ from the same tonal roots as grew the Hutchings-Votey in the gallery almost a century ago. If hubris can be said to have characterized the Fisk project, one can say that the Rosales work betrays a certain humility.

I can't add much to what has been said about the PLU Fritts, save that I find the work to be so blended in tone that I like to sit as close in as possible--and that the beauties of the sound bear that close examination. Neither quirky nor subdued, it is simply a work of great balance and maturity. A close third in favorite recitals was John Weaver's at the new Reuter organ at University Presbyterian Church. This church is only a few blocks from my home, and I've been there on a Sunday morning, as well as early on when I asked the organist how they were going to fit a tracker into this chancel. "Not a tracker," she said, "Absolutely not a tracker." I came to scoff, but left with praise.

The Northwest had for decades exactly one electropneumatic builder, with a sort of "American Classic" style, whose best work was heard in a Kimberly Marshall program with wind ensemble--but in reaction to which, the area has grown its strong "Baroque revival" tracker bias and trend. A Skinner, several Kimballs, a Kilgen, and an Austin are long gone; the Hutchings at St. James, possibly not the best of the lot, is all that remains of what the region has deemed an outworn style. In this vein, one very fine young teacher left the Weaver event steaming, outraged that such outdated playing should be allowed!

The pendulum swings, with a half-period of about thirty years; warm fundamental sound has come back even to "Baroque" organs. What we heard when John Weaver played this large Reuter organ seemed to me not to be highly colored; in the Brahms preludes we heard varieties and textures of gray, mauve, pastels--subtly varied and never extreme. The playing was skilled, tasteful, assured. The Bach transcription of Ernst which opened displayed a legato manner we simply don't hear around here; when was the last time I saw legato manual changes? Weaver's own Suite (1995) was followed by an encore, a paraphrase on "For All the Saints" and "When the Saints," whose themes are inversions of each other. Commissioned by the Reuter firm, the piece elicited requests for copies; it's in print (Boosey and Hawkes, I think) and appears on the CD Weaver has already made on this organ, available from the OHS. For our prejudice, we are admonished.

For the record, this Reuter organ was opened last winter by Dame Gillian Wier, as was, a couple of years back, a large Casavant across the lake in Bellevue, Washington, played by James Holloway of PLU in the convention's "Protestant Worship." On Sunday Dame Gillian made a pre-convention appearance at University Methodist Church, just down the street from home of this new Reuter organ, playing on the remains of a Kimball rebuilt by the local builder in the '70s. Despite the lateness of the program book, and thus of the ad for the event, a good house was present to admire the poised skills of another major figure.

Young Artists Edie Johnson and Paul Johnson shared a recital at the Church of the Epiphany's new Fritz Noack tracker, a finely made, chambered installation which does not speak very well into a not very hospitable room. My notes remind me that Ms. Johnson ended with Hakim's Homage to Stravinski, where a pulsing crescendo really wants an acoustic lacking in this parish church. She opened with a Handel concerto with lavish ornament and articulation, transcribed from an early barrel organ, in a stately manner reminding me of a Stanley voluntary. Mr. Jacobs played all Bach; a rhapsodic Praeludium and Fugue in a, preceded by the e-minor trio sonata whose first movement featured quite a lot of rubato which I thought not quite completely under control, and opening with the Sinfonia from Cantata #29 in Dupré's transcription, a broad orchestral sound which brought out the best of the organ's German side. This was really advanced playing from two already admired stars of the near future.

David Hurd's program on the Willis was a bit of a puzzlement. His opening Toccata served chiefly to demonstrate the under winding of the organ, a problem present since the low-bid 1987 installation. This organ was thrust upon the Jesuit-led parish before they were ready for it--it was an Organ Clearing House panic salvage from a redundant West End London church--and is still a bit of a mystery to the Jesuit-led congregation, who still ask "Is this a good organ?" Its virtues were clearer in a Mendelssohn f-minor sonata; one could imagine Felix playing on just such sounds. Sad to say, the commission by old friend Roupen Shakarian, "Inner Places for brass quintet and organ," was not a success. The inner movement was the best, with a night call and the sound of the Willis strings, but elsewhere the 20th-century brass utterly overpowered the gentle 19th-century pipes. Roupen, a widely heard conductor as well as composer, has always seemed an exuberant fellow; an introspective piece didn't reflect the qualities I know. The improvisation ending the recital made one regret the lost opportunity to have heard this playing on an adequately restored organ.

--DC

We often hear the term "in this space," in reference to lofty sanctuaries or cathedral churches. "Sacred places" are set aside in recognition of their special qualities of wonder, awe and spiritual power. Two such places exist in Seattle, and they are the cathedrals of St. Mark and St. James.

Christa Rakich's performance and playing ability was exquisitely matched to the justly famous Flentrop at St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle. She seemed to innately sense the length of phrase for the magnificent acoustic of this formidable box of a room that was once a war-time armory. As sunlight streamed through the immense clear glass windows onto massive whitewashed columns, she spun phrases of Bach, Franck and Hindemith in perfect harmony with the space of the church and gorgeous sonority of the instrument. There are few places where one can hear neo-classic pipes with such a comely tone. Mixtures sparkle and pipe speech is transformed into a rich cusp of sound, announcing imminent warmth and generosity.

St. James Cathedral is not quite walking distance from St. Mark's. It is a much larger room with a vaulted ceiling and central dome of huge proportions. Like St. Mark's, it is a mystical place which invited the commission of a unique organ for the year 2000, just as St. Mark's Cathedral did in 1965.

Nicholas Kynaston must have wide experience playing English organs in immense cathedral spaces, because he presented a flawless performance on the two organs that occupy this large space. In reality, they are more than a city block apart. He played with such consummate rhythmic assurance, that one sensed only the acoustical union of the two instruments. And a May-December marriage it is. Manuel Rosales completed this new organ for the chancel of the church just in time for the convention, yet it perfectly complements a 1907 Ferrand-Votey in the balcony! Scaling and voicing of the two organs give a "hand in glove" effect that is truly uncanny.

St. James Cathedral has such generous reverberation that a lesser organist could be trapped into "playing to the chancel," and letting chords fall like glass shards. Kynaston knew the formula for playing to the entire room with an immensely musical result. He gave a reading of mostly unfamiliar works--his choices seemed if anything, to add to the magic of the performance.

Another significant performance at St. James Cathedral was Bach's B-minor Mass, very ably conducted by Martin Haselböck with local choral and orchestral forces. Haselböck has a fluid conducting technique that is inspiring to watch. He is able to whip up crisp accents then relax as the music flows on, almost by itself. His is an innately musical approach which drives, but never forces the music.

A short conversation with James Savage, music director of this Cathedral Church, revealed that the new Rosales organ fulfilled the dreams of the late Howard Hoyt, who, as organist, pressed for such an instrument for some 17 years. Mr. Savage is justifiably proud of this accomplishment, which is surely the dream that Howard Hoyt nourished all that time.

--HH

Bookends:

Guy Bovet opening recital and Gala closing concert with the Seattle Symphony and Hatsumi Miura, Carole Terry and Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet-Hakim on the Fisk organ at Benaroya Hall

It is unusual for a major convention to bookend first and last concerts with one particular organ; however in Seattle the opening and closing concerts showcased the Fisk Organ at Benaroya Hall, the new home of the Seattle Symphony. It is far more common to exhibit important new organs with symposia of one form or another, where the weight of time bears less heavily, since the organs are finished well in advance of the event and not freshly minted just in time for a major assemblage.

We avoided a chronological account of the convention for a number of reasons, one of which was the somewhat controversial reception of this organ and the room in which it makes its home. We also point out that the immense success of this convention is the result of not one new organ in the city, but many. Seattle floats in a sea of new and impportant organs!

The Rosales organ at St. James Cathedral was, at convention time, just a few weeks old, the new Reuter organ at University Presbyterian a few months old, the Fritts organ at Pacific Lutheran University just a year old, and Martin Pasi's organ at Lynnwood just five years old. There were also some very significant organs that were not heard because the rooms were too small to house the crowd: John Brombaugh's landmark instrument at Christ Church, Tacoma, and Paul Fritts' new organ at the Church of the Ascension come to mind. In a word, the sophistication of the organ culture in the Northwest is legendary and the task of building a new organ there might be compared to composing opera in nineteenth-century Italy. There is formidable competition!

I would like to believe that the Fisk organ at Benaroya Hall is not a finished work, but might be subject to the artistic vision of its creators for some time to come. Some organ builders prefer to withhold performance on their instruments until the moment of "acceptance." I remember one episode, where as representative of a major organ builder, I waited for that "acceptance" while a local organist called all around the village, trying to find someone who would be brave enough to "accept" the organ! I much prefer the strategy I have come to know with the organ builders Martin Pasi and Paul Fritts--new stops are played in public, one by one, as they are installed in the organ. This seems to be a sure-footed way to test the organ in the room with and without an audience. I sincerely hope that the Fisk organ has begun this process of testing so that the necessary adjustments may take place.

--HH

Let me admit to some bias. I've known and admired Guy Bovet for a quarter century and more, and some aeons ago made a harpsichord for him. His brilliant mind and iconoclastic bent are givens; his ear and skills indisputable. All the odder, then, that in his recital on the monumental new Fisk which now completes the Seattle Symphony's two-year-old home, he managed to convince many a hearer, including me, that this is not a success.

In The Diapason of February 1982, Calvin Hampton laid out basics of organ for use with orchestra, including needs for sheer loudness, what Steven Dieck has called "a wall of opaque sound." That article was basic reference in early planning for the new hall. Local AGO folk had witnessed a "demonstration" of the organ in February, under odd ground rules: no literature, nor anything more than four bars, was to be played, and no sounds not considered "finished" were to be heard at all. We came away then with the impression of a Great geigen chorus heard through the wrong end of a telescope, a somewhat smaller Swell chorus, some interesting flutes, promising reeds, and one overwhelming Bombarde, setting the upper limit of the sound, the only register to involve the room at all--and an injunction not to discuss the evening, lest we offend. 'Twas said that since then the normal choruses had been brought up a bit--but for impact and presence, the organ still seems to depend on high-pressure "stentor" ranks.

The Seattle Symphony, in its former home, played on a large stage below a high scenery fly into a large opera house, sawing away to make themselves heard. The new hall was planned with as small a stage and as low a ceiling as practicable, placing the band at the mouth of a horn for maximum projection and accuracy. The players have been struggling to refine their sound downward in this efficient space. Musical Director Gerard Schwartz wanted the room to be relatively dry; in an exchange with M. Bovet, he remarked that he "really likes to hear the notes." That one can do; I've heard my harpsichord perfectly from the top of the back balcony. Smoothness and blend are other matters, as we heard the last night of the convention; but that's another tale.

The confined space below that ceiling forced a horizontal design to the organ; not encased, as the Flentrop at Rotterdam's De Dolen [The Diapason, June 1969,] but really in a room extending up behind the ceiling; far from our current thoughts about spaces for organs! The chests are spaced around this room in a way far from the classical encasements of the successful Fisks in Dallas and Yokohama; whoever remarked to me that this was an electropneumatic organ which happened to have trackers was not far from the mark. Although Fisk has the best record in North America with orchestral hall instruments, this might have been a project better built by someone else.

Seattle organ fans have been spoiled, maybe, by a number of wonderful matches of organs with unusual rooms; Benaroya concert hall isn't one of them. Maybe elsewhere one would find this organ wonderful. Other observers, who moved about the hall, found the effect to vary widely. The room had been praised for the well distributed, if not blended, sound of the orchestra in every seat. Barbara Owen, for one, reported the sound from lower side seats not to be loud, and Richard Campbell, critic for the daily paper, commented at length on the organ's uneven sound about the room. Michael Barone reports that on tape the organs sounds just fine. For me, forward and back, it was mostly crude and LOUD; loud enough to be industrial, to threaten hair cells in the inner ear. Charles Fisk, on leaving a career of bomb making for organs, remarked (I paraphrase) that "the only way an organ can hurt anyone is to fall over on him." He was wrong.

Bovet played for the last Seattle National Convention in 1978; a program of French and Spanish music, on an organ of the most severe North German school. Before beginning, he offered a brief demonstration of the stops "so that you can hear the organ before the magic of performance converts it into something it was perhaps never intended to be." There was no such magic this year. Like Ron Weasley's broken wand (of Harry Potter lore), Sunday's recital backfired. The early days to follow were filled with speculation, as some who read the Internet organ gossip columns will know, about Bovet's intent, even possible malice. Bovet is heavily involved in a much larger forthcoming Fisk, for the cathedral in Lausanne, and some thought he was sending Fisk a message. I had one chance to corner him to ask--but he headed the other way.

My sharpest commentator suggested to me the obvious: that what we heard was the demonstration; that, finding the organ of too little interest to inspire artistry, Bovet just let us hear what the organ really was. It might be so. The decision to open the recital with the St. Anne Prelude and Fugue played, not on the normal choruses, but on the solo stentor division, began the controversy. Steven Dieck, president of the Fisk firm, was still shaking his head two days later: "We never, ever, imagined that anyone would ever do that." Add to that such minor details as a couple of timing errors with the combination action, and one knew that at the very least we were not hearing the skill and subtleties which are Bovet's usual virtues.

It was, typically for Guy, an unusual if not an odd program, pairing familiar Franck and some of Bovet's stock Balbastre with Alain, Karg-Elert, and some of Bovet's own "compositions." We heard some lively playing on beautiful flutes and a somewhat Germanic Franck, but not the promised " . . . refined, colorful world of the German Romantic organ."

I find that I have, on tape, an interview with Bovet from the House of Hope Fisk, in which he can be heard to say, "I'm not a composer, but I compose anyway." I take him at his word. His pieces, some of them now rather famous, I suspect of being tests for the listener. These three "Tangos ecclesiaticos" did let us hear unusual sounds, but not the attractive side of this multi-faceted personality. However heard, it was an oddly disconcerting beginning to a fabulous week of music.

-- DC

The opening recital of the AGO Seattle 2000 convention by Guy Bovet provided no Mozartean cadences to go gentle on the ear. Rather, he threw the organ into the hall in a brutal embrace. So began AGO Seattle 2000 with a Fisk organ that duels with orchestra, rather than augmenting it. Who said the organ was required to exceed the power of an orchestra? Surely, this is a misconception, carried to its absurd conclusion at Benaroya Hall, Seattle.

Perhaps Bovet found himself in the infamous court of the emperor with no clothes, where the only alternative, given the obligation of performing the opening recital, was to "tell it like it is," pull out all the stops and let 'er rip. The angry sound that ensued succeeded in driving more than a few listeners to the far reaches of the hall. It was a simple matter of finding a back row and inquiring if there was an empty seat. There, one could hear the organ with a more rational perspective, but surely, something is wrong when the best seats in the house are in the back rows!

--HH

The final event featured organists Hatsumi Miura, incumbent at the Fisk organ in Yokohama; Carole Terry; and Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet-Hakim. I was pleased by several personal touches: Dr. Terry's playing of the Copland Organ Symphony was underwritten in memory of Northwest native Leonard Raver. Playing in the augmented percussion section were Matt Kozmirowski, whose earliest gig in Seattle was with Raver at St. Mark's, and Paul Hansen, son of beloved Edward.

The concluding concert with the Seattle Symphony had been prefigured the night before the convention opening, when in the official premiere of the Fisk organ (sold out a year in advance) James David Christie of Boston opened with the Bach Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 550, and later the last movement of Guilmant's Symphony No. 1 in d. Bovet played a Handel Concerto in F, Op. 4, No. 4, and the Pièce Héroïque of Franck. Carole Terry, consultant on this project and named "Resident Organist and Curator," offered a Haydn Concerto No. 2 in C, and the world premiere of David Diamond's Symphony No. 10, begun a decade ago but lately completed to include the organ in the last two movements. The debut was broadcast and recorded. I can report from the wireless that Bovet's playing of the Handel displayed all his usual witty use of rubato and some quite beautiful flutes, and convincing Franck. Christie's playing was bravura; he was able to stay on to play the complete Guilmant for the Symphony's subscription audience after the convention. Terry's was straightforward; the Diamond was long and rather dull. (Maestro Schwartz has been a long-time supporter of Diamond; doubtless a recording will appear.)

Schwartz' faults as conductor do not run to over-subtlty. A trumpeter, he demands full-out playing from his brass, with matching brightness elsewhere. All the music for the Finale was of this model; a former conductor of Seattle's orchestra is quoted [I paraphrase again] "People don't like music; they like the noise it makes." [Wasn't it Beecham who said this? If not, never mind.] In Robert Sirota's commissioned In the Fullness of Time, with a tuned bell ostinato, the orchestra submerged the organ at the end. On the other hand, I noticed that in the Poulenc Concerto the ascending string figure was obscured by organ tone.

The whole concluded with Hakim's Seattle Concerto in three movements; big and splashy in the manner of Stravinsky, it quoted Night on Bald Mountain a couple of times, contained a Slavic march, and ended with a great noise with an echoing cheer from the audience. One anonymous Bostonian said that this convention was the first to exceed the high standard set in 1976. As a local, I think that visitors had a good view of the reasons the Northwest takes pride in its organ culture, along with some shortcomings. The weather was hospitable; for the first time in living memory, it didn't rain on the fireworks, either on the 4th of July or from the organs.

--DC

Reflections on the "Seattle Organ Culture"

As an epilogue to a review of the AGO Seattle 2000 convention, it seems mandatory to recognize the overwhelming presence of an organ culture in the Pacific Northwest that is most unusual and compelling. The organ is a vibrant instrument here, full of mystery and charm and more than anything else, known to hundreds of thousands of people in the area.

This all began with the installation of the now famous Dirk Flentrop organ at St. Mark's Cathedral in 1965. Perhaps audiences were captivated by the unique space and spiritual energy of this church; perhaps it was the acoustics; perhaps the beauty of the instrument--most likely all these qualities lead to enormously well attended weekly concerts, year after year. One cannot forget that this came about while Peter Hallock was Cantor of St. Mark's. He has left this legacy to his successors.

The Pacific Northwest, once dubbed "Tracker Alley" by John Hamilton (from the University of Oregon) is simply full of wondrous sounds of the organ from a variety of gifted builders. John Brombaugh moved out west from Germantown, Ohio to be part of it. Martin Pasi encountered these famous organs when he visited as a guest of David Dahl, recently retired professor of organ at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma. Dahl has singlehandedly "professed" the qualities of finely crafted organs to church after church in the area and as a consequence, left an indelible mark on the history of organ art in this place.

Edward Hansen created the now famous "noon recitals" at Plymouth Congregational Church in Downtown Seattle. Most convention goers knew him as past president of the AGO. Locally, he was revered as a professor at the University of Puget Sound and looked up to by his students as a moral and spiritual icon by which they could set their compass. These disciples have gone on to major posts in the organ world, but more importantly, they have become moral and spiritual icons for their students.

Randall J. McCarty worked tirelessly to bring pipe organs to countless churches in the Northwest, especially through auspices of the Organ Historical Society and Alan Laufman's Organ Clearing House. As a performer of early music and instructor in harpsichord at Pacific Lutheran University, he influenced students and local organists year after year. A testament to his influence in the area is the fact that after his passing, local interest in the organ as a musical instrument gained momentum, rather than losing it. Perhaps this whole phenomenon is like the space shuttle--once it goes into orbit, it stays there.

The "Seattle Organ Culture" gives way to the "Northwest Fusion Organ," as organ building goes from strength to strength in the Pacific Northwest. It might be said that it has entered its second generation. Edward Hansen was succeeded by Steven Williams as organist of Plymouth Congregational Church, and chair of the AGO Seattle 2000 committee. David Dahl has been succeeded by James Halloway at Pacific Lutheran University. Melvin Butler is successor to Peter Hallock at St. Mark's Cathedral. Joseph Adam carries on the memory of Howard Hoyt as organist of St. James Cathedral. And my co-reviewer David Calhoun walks to a great extent in the footsteps of his late partner Randall McCarty. It is a second generation organ culture now, and as such, has become world class, resting squarely on the shoulders of those who created it and their able successors who foster it today. It is time to reflect on this magnificent legacy. HH

An Organ Odyssey: One Church’s Story

Noack Organ Company Opus 145 First Congregational Church, Swampscott, Massachusetts

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