University of Michigan Historic Organ Tour XL, August 2-16, 1999

Jeffrey K. Chase is a practicing attorney in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a concentration in the area of estate planning. He is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to becoming an attorney, he earned a bachelor’s degree in music literature and a master’s degree in musicology. He has been a published feature writer and music critic for The Michigan Daily and The Detroit Free Press and has also written for High Fidelity magazine. Currently he also reviews classical music compact discs for All Music Guide, an online music reference source.

What a special trip the Marilyn Mason University of Michigan Historic Organ Tour 54 this past July 9–22 was, tracing the cities and churches limning the lives and careers of J. S. Bach and Buxtehude and, among others, the organ builders Silbermann, Schnitger, Trost and Marcussen! Entitled “In the Footsteps of Bach and Buxtehude,” it included visits to historic organs in Mühlhausen, Weimar, Eisenach, Arnstadt, Altenburg, Frauenstein, Freiberg, Dresden, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Hamburg, Lübeck, Århus, Odense and Copenhagen. Much was learned and experienced by its fortunate participants.
After arriving in Frankfurt at approximately 7:30 a.m. and after having collected all of the participants flying in from various locations, we boarded a beautiful, very modern bus to commence our journey of exploration.

Mühlhausen, Weimar, Eisenach, and Arnstadt
Our first stop was at St. Blasiuskirche in Mühlhausen, where Bach had worked from 1707–1708 (this year being the 300th anniversary of Bach’s arrival there from Arnstadt). While there, Bach submitted plans for rebuilding the organ.This organ, however, was replaced in the 19th century with a new instrument. But turnabout is fair play, and from 1956–1958 the 19th-century organ was removed; the Alexander Schuke company built a new organ based upon Bach’s plans, but with the addition of five new registers to support the performance of modern organ literature. The casework of this Schuke organ exemplifies the industrial style of the former East German regime and its banal aesthetic.
Then on to Weimar where Bach spent ten years as a musician to the Grand Duke; where Bach was imprisoned in 1716 for requesting to resign from his position to take another; and where, in 1717, Bach was first mentioned in print, being called “the famous Weimar organist.” After checking into the outstanding Elephant Hotel, next door to the building in which Bach lived from 1708–1717 and where his sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philip Emmanuel were born, we took a short stroll in the rain to visit the Parish Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, where, beginning in 1707, Bach’s relative and colleague Johann Gottfried Walther was organist.
Early the next morning we boarded the bus and departed for Eisenach, where J. S. Bach was born on March 21, 1685. He was baptized at St. George’s Church, where Luther had sung in the choir and had also preached. That baptismal font, which has a pedestal carved like a wooden basket, is still in use today. At that church, located on the Market Square (that day it was market day), we were treated to an organ recital (well attended by the public) performed by the young Denny Philipp Wilke, an organist from Nürnberg, who studied with Latry and van Oosten. Wilke performed Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D, the Scherzo from Vierne’s Organ Symphony No. 2 and the Franck A-minor Choral on the 1982 Schuke of Potsdam organ. This fall Wilke was scheduled to record a recently discovered transcription by Dupré of Liszt’s Ad nos, ad salutarem undam.
After lunch we visited the Bach Museum (Bach’s birth house), where we heard a talk describing and demonstrating two small period organs, a spinet, a clavicembalo and a clavichord, and in which a crystal drinking cup, the only item remaining from the Bach household, is displayed. One of the rooms is set up as Bach’s composition room in Leipzig presumed to have looked.
Then back in the air-conditioned bus for a drive to Arnstadt to visit St. Boniface Church, containing a 1703 Wender organ (reconstructed by Hoffmann in 1999) on the fourth level. It was to test this organ that Bach came to Arnstadt in 1703. He was so appreciated that he was hired as organist and remained employed here until 1707, when he took his 200-mile walk to Lübeck to hear and learn from Buxtehude, a trip that resulted in his dismissal and move to Mühlhausen. Marilyn Mason’s friend Gottfried Praller demonstrated this Wender/Hoffmann instrument with performances of Buxtehude’s Ciaconne in d and Bach’s Fugue in d. On the third level of this church, now referred to as the Bachkirche, is a 1913 Steinmeyer organ, also reconstructed by Hoffmann in 1999.
Our last stop in Arnstadt was the nearby New Bach Museum containing, inter alia, the console Bach played upon in St. Boniface and some historic holographic music manuscripts.

Altenburg, Frauenstein, and Dresden
The next day, after breakfast, we departed for Dresden, but with two intermediary stops. The first was in Altenburg to view and play the 1735–1739 Tobias Heinrich Trost (1673–1759) organ in the castle church (“One of the great organs of the world,” says Marilyn Mason). Bach played this organ in September 1738 or 1739 and again in October 1739, when Bach’s pupil Krebs was the organist, as he was for the last 25 years of his life. This fine organ was also played by Weber, Liszt, Agricola and Schütz. Today Felix Friedrich, who has edited and published several volumes of Krebs’s work, is the organist. Altenburg is known as the playing card capital of the world, because playing cards are made here, and the castle museum contains an interesting collection of both old and new cards.
The second stop was in Frauenstein, the birth city of the revered organ builder Gottfried Silbermann (1683–1753) and the site where Werner Mueller established the Gottfried Silbermann Museum, which contains, among other things, a reproduction of a one-manual, no-pedal organ in Bremen, and upon which we each shared playing a theme and variations by Pachelbel on Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgetan. While there, we learned that the property has recently been sold to developers, so most likely the museum will be removed to another building.
Now in Dresden, we visited the Dom or Hofkirche (the Dom was the main church in a town) containing a 1755 Silbermann organ, his largest and last, with three manuals and 47 registers, and which was last restored by Jehmlich in 1971. Then we walked past the porcelain mural of the kings of Saxony on the street leading to the Frauenkirche, which, however, we could not visit due to the late time of day. So on to a fine dinner at one of the outside restaurants.

Freiberg, Leipzig, Rötha, and Stürmthal
The next day we traveled to Leipzig via Freiberg to visit Silbermann’s Opus 2 (1714) with three manuals and 44 registers and last restored by Jehmlich in 1983. We also visited the Jakobikirche, just outside the old city wall, where we played a two-manual Silbermann. This church is an old, very plain building but with an active congregation. The priest, rather than an organist, let us in and explained that the congregation can’t afford an organist. Can you imagine: a church with an historic Silbermann organ and no organist! Any volunteers?
In Leipzig we lunched on the Nikolaistraße before entering the Nikolaikirche, whose congregation was a leader in the democratic movement before the fall of the Berlin Wall. This church has a very ornate interior decorated with sharp pointed simulated foliage. We played an 1862 five-manual Ladegast organ reworked over the years by Sauer and by Eule. Currently part of its electronic stop action is by Porsche, whose name is prominently displayed on the beautiful wood of its art deco-like console. From the Nikolaikirche it was a short walk to the legendary Thomaskirche, originally part of a 13th-century monastery and the other main city church, and the one at which J. S. Bach was cantor from 1723 until his death in 1750 and with which he is most closely associated. Because this church is such a tourist attraction, all we could do was look around; the organ here is not a relic of the days of Bach’s tenure, but an 1889 Wilhelm Sauer instrument last restored in 1993. It is here that Bach is buried.
No University of Michigan organ tour to this area would be complete without a stop in Rötha to view the 1721 G. Silbermann organ in the Georgenkirche, because this instrument was chosen by Charles Fisk and Marilyn Mason as the model for what is now known as the “Marilyn Mason Organ” in the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance—Fisk and Mason thought it, of all known G. Silbermann organs, best suited to the U-M space.
Next, an unscheduled visit to Stürmthal to tour a country church, where a funeral was in progress. Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688–1757), a protégé of G. Silbermann, built this organ, a one-manual with pedal, but got into trouble with Silbermann because of Silbermann’s perceived competition. Hildebrandt invited Bach to play this bright, high-pitched instrument and Bach wrote Cantata 194 for Hildebrandt.

Wittenberg, Lüneburg, Hamburg, and Neuenfelde
The next day, Saturday, began with a long drive to Hamburg with a first stop along the way in Wittenberg, birthplace of the Lutheran Reformation, to visit the revered Martin Luther sites. We did not play the organ in the castle church, another major tourist attraction and which now has Luther’s 95 statements immortalized in bronze on its doors (the doors upon which Luther nailed his 95 Theses on 31 October 1517 have long since been replaced).
The second stop on the Hamburg journey was in Lüneburg to visit the Michaeliskirche, where Bach had matriculated in the choir school. This triple-naved, Gothic, red-brick hall church with drastically leaning pillars contains an organ with a typical North German case and with pipes from many eras. This was originally the church for a Benedictine monastery, and thus the private church and sepulchral vaults for the reigning families of the Billungs and Guelphs. Tobias Gravenhorst is the current choirmaster. The organ here consists of an old case with new contents last reworked in 1999–2000 by Sauer, which used to be a large firm but now is only a small company. One might speculate whether Bach, as a young boy in the choir school gazing up at the organ case, got the idea of putting “Soli Deo Gloria” at the end of his compositions from the “Soli Deo Gloria” inscription at the top of the organ case. Sunday mornings are, of course, the time when churches are fulfilling their main function as houses of worship for their congregations, so for us Sunday morning is free time.
Sunday afternoon we visited the famous Jakobikirche in Hamburg, where we were hosted by a friendly female organist who knows English well. Reinken was on the city committee in 1693 when the organ was built by Arp Schnitger. Reinken didn’t want this church’s organ to have a 32′ stop because he wanted his church to be the only one in town to have a 32′ stop, but Schnitger foiled him by building two 32′s—a Principal and a Posaune. Bach applied for the organ post here in 1720, but he would have had to pay a fee to get the job. Instead a wealthy man with the money to pay (bribe!) was hired.
This was the organ whose pipes were removed to safe storage during WWII, thus saving this organ when the church and loft were subsequently destroyed. This Schnitger organ, which used to hang higher on the wall, was eventually restored by Jürgen Ahrend in 1950 and again in 1993. It was Schnitger’s habit to reuse pipes, so pipes from the 1500s were incorporated by Schnitger. (This in contrast to Silbermann, who used only new material.) Its temperament is between meantone and Werckmeister III (modified meantone). The faces of its donors are immortalized on the original stopknobs of the original console, which is displayed on a balcony but is not part of the currently functioning instrument. Albert Schweitzer has played this organ, and Marilyn Mason has proclaimed it one of the great organs of the world.
We also visited the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg, the main city church, a rococo room with curved balconies. The gallery organ was built from 1909–1912 by E. F. Walcker of Ludwigsburg. With its five manuals and 163 stops, for a time it was the largest organ in the world. We played music including French pieces that work well on it. The restored organ in the side gallery we did not play, nor did we play a small organ in the choir space. There were many visitors coming and going in this church.
St. Pankratius, a small church with a rural setting in Neuenfelde, is the burial place of Arp Schnitger (1648–1719) and was his home church for a number of years. He built this high baroque-style, two-manual, 34-stop organ for this church in 1688 and the bulletin board invites people to worship on Sunday to the accompaniment of the Schnitger organ.

Lübeck
On Monday, our last day in Germany, we journeyed to Lübeck, the first German city bombed in World War II (in response to the Germans’ bombing of Coventry, England), where we visited four important churches. The first was the Marienkirche, where Ernst-Erich Stender, organist, was our host. This is the church where Buxtehude had worked from 1668 to 1707. Its historic Schnitger organ and the Totentanz organ (named after a painting in the church) were destroyed by bombs in 1942.
The Domkirche, founded by Henry the Lion in 1173, today makes modern use of space. Its Romanesque towers survived the war, but its Gothic portions fell. Its contemporary (1960) stained glass window in the west end is especially beautiful. The 1699 Schnitger organ, originally built here but burned during the war, had been played by Handel, Mendelssohn and Mattheson. A 1970 Marcussen instrument now sits on the north wall. There are raised auditorium seats on the west end where the organ used to be and a small positiv organ is in the choir space. Here also is a charming Baggio di Rosa 1777 Italian one-manual portative organ with pull-down pedals and a bird stop, which has been restored by Ahrend in the Netherlands.
The design of the 13th-century Aegidiankirche is unusual because its pews face the preacher and not the altar. It has a choir screen from the Renaissance with eight panels depicting the life of Christ. Its original organ dated from 1629 and was built by Scherer of Hamburg. The case, not in baroque style, but with small, refined details suggestive of earlier times, was created by a famous Lübecker carver. This is one of the few organs built during the Thirty Years War, in which the independent northern German cities were not obliged to fight. Now, the old cabinetry with its intricate light and dark inlaid wood figures is more interesting than the 1992 Klais instrument it contains.
The Jakobikirche is where Hugo Distler—who had a good sense of history and resisted romantic modifications to the great organ, built by Joachim Richborn in 1673 and last restored by Schuke/Berlin in 1984—was the organist from 1931 to 1937. This organ contains pipes from a Blockwerk from the 1400s; Schuke added a Swell as part of his restoration in 1984. This organ is approximately 20% original and includes an 18th-century pedal division. Interestingly, there are two matching organ cases, north and west, both in swallow’s nest design. The main case is in Renaissance style and the Positiv case is in Baroque style.
The Jacobikirche three-manual, 31-register smaller organ by Stellwagen, built in 1637 and based upon an anonymous builder in 1515, was last restored by Brothers Hillebrand in 1978. With this organ being 70% original, today one hears what would have been the sounds of 1637 and of 1515. The Werckmeister temperament is tuned one step above A=440. Distler had this organ in mind when he composed Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.

Ulkebøl, Sønderborg, and Aabendraa
The Ulkebøl Lutheran Church was our first stop in Denmark. Although this church has housed an organ continuously since the beginning of the 16th century, its current organ is a Marcussen & Søn dated 1888 set in a Jürgen Hinrichsen angel façade dated 1790. From 1864 to 1920 this part of Denmark had been part of Germany, and during World War II this church’s bells were removed to Hamburg to be melted down for munitions manufacture, but were fortunately rescued just at the end of the war before being melted. Danish churches have ships suspended from the ceiling to as a symbol recalling that human life is sustained by God; the nave is called the church ship. The patron of this church was the Duke of Augustinborg.
From there we bussed to the Sønderborg Castle; however, when we arrived the streets were blocked. We soon learned that this was for the security of the visiting Queen Margrethe, who had arrived in her royal yacht to visit this coastal castle. However she left promptly at 2 pm, and we were granted entrance to hear a recital on this reconstructed Renaissance organ by its organist. Originally there was a 1570 Rottenstein-Pock instrument, which was enlarged to two manuals with nine and five stops, respectively, in 1626; each manual has a slightly different compass. The present instrument is a 1996 Mads Kjersgaard reconstruction set in the original 1570 façade; D-sharp and E-flat are separate pitches because of the (probably) meantone tuning.
From there we were treated to a Marcussen factory tour. Founded in 1806, this firm celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. Still in the ownership of Marcussen’s descendants, it has been in this location in Aabendraa since 1829. Our tour was conducted by a Marcussen relative. We concluded this day in Århus.

Århus, Odense, and Copenhagen
The first stop the next morning was at the Århus Domkirke, the largest church in Denmark. Originally containing a Schnitger organ, the current instrument is a 1928 Frobenius, which has been placed behind the 1730 Kastens console and is the organ on which Gillian Weir recorded the complete works of Franck, Messiaen and Duruflé. Its 8′ Voix humaine is modeled after that in Ste. Clotilde in Paris (César Franck’s church).
After lunch we left for Odense, the birth city of Hans Christian Andersen, and visited St. Canute’s Cathedral, located next to a beautiful city park. This cathedral contains three organs: the smallest and oldest is the Jens Gregersen instrument built c. 1843; the second oldest is the main organ built by Marcussen & Søn in 1965 and using the façade of its 1756 predecessor; and the newest, in the east end of the cathedral, was built by Carsten Lund in 1999. Then on to Copenhagen for a visit to the Church of the Holy Ghost with its 1986 Marcussen & Søn organ; the opulent Jesuskirken, built by the Carlsberg brewing family and containing in front one of the last Cavaillé-Coll organs (dated 1890) built and, in the rear, a 1993–1994 Jensen & Thomsen instrument; and a city tour.

Roskilde
On the penultimate day we visited the impressive Roskilde Cathedral containing a 1991 Marcussen & Søn three-manual, 33-rank organ. We were granted special access to the upper gallery from which to view this magnificent edifice, which is the burial place of many Danish kings and queens and with its wonderful trompe l’oeil paintings of heroic exploits on various side chapel walls.
From there we visited the environmentally friendly chapel organ, an 1882 A. H. Busch & Sønner rebuild at Ledreborg Castle. The resident organist (from Tennessee!) gave a demonstration of this unusual single-manual instrument to which the pedal is always coupled, which has not been electrified and requires an assistant to work the bellows. We returned to Copenhagen to give a public recital at St. Andreas Church.
On Saturday, our last day together, many spent the day shopping and enjoying the city, while others visited the Trinity Church with its three-manual, 53-rank, 1956 Marcussen & Søn organ rebuilt by P. G. Andersen in 1977 and the Garnisonkirche. Our communal dinner, at an historic local restaurant, was a bittersweet gathering, knowing that the camaraderie created by this tour’s participants was a unique organism and never to be duplicated.
Unlike any other instrument, no two organs are the same and, to be fully understood and appreciated, should be personally touched and experienced. Thus, one of the primary values of these tours is to acquaint oneself with the famous historic organs of the world to experience what it is about each that makes it so revered. And on this two-week, multi-city tour of northern and eastern Germany and Denmark, the participants “experienced” approximately 43 organs dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries. But it’s not just about the organs. It’s about the camaraderie with organ aficionados, too.■

Jay Zoller is organist at South Parish Congregational Church in Augusta, Maine, where he plays the church’s historic 1866 E. & G.G. Hook organ. He holds degrees from the University of New Hampshire and the School of Theology at Boston University. He is a retired designer for the Andover Organ Company and currently designs for the Organ Clearing House. He resides in Newcastle, Maine, with his wife Rachel. Zoller, as a high school student in 1961, was fortunate to hear Heinz Wunderlich play at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall on Wunderlich’s first American tour. They began a professional relationship in 1989, when Zoller played in a masterclass that Wunderlich was giving. Since then, Zoller has studied some of the Wunderlich organ works with Professor Wunderlich and has performed many of his organ compositions in recital. In addition to writing several articles about Wunderlich for The American Organist, Choir and Organ, and The Diapason, he has played in all-Wunderlich recitals in Hamburg, Germany in 1999, 2004 and now again in 2009. His article, “Heinz Wunderlich at 90,” appeared in the April 2009 issue of The Diapason.

Birthday concerts in Hamburg
My wife, Rachel, and I flew out of Newark on Thursday, April 23, and landed Friday morning at Tegal Airport in Berlin, Germany. Our friend Matthias Schmelmer, who will be important later in this story, helped us to the Hauptbahnhof. There we took a fast train for the two-hour ride to Hamburg, where the birthday celebrations were to take place. As one of the recitalists, I had been given an hour and a half of practice time on Friday evening the 24th, and an hour the next morning to prepare for the first concert, which was to take place on Wunderlich’s birthday itself, April 25. There were five other organists participating, as well as a vocal ensemble, so the time we had available was limited and valuable.
I was to play the Fuga Variata, a piece Wunderlich had written in 1942 during the war. Suffering from jet lag and with my wife practically falling asleep beside the console, I found the allotted time barely enough to register the piece. After a night of rest, I was looking forward to my hour of practice the next morning. Imagine my surprise when, arriving in the balcony, the performer practicing before me said that we had a cipher on the Hauptwerk. Luckily, we found a key to the organ case, and I was able to fix the problem. My years of organbuilding came in handy!
The four-manual Beckerath organ in St. Petri had been completely rebuilt by the Schuke Organ Co. since my visit five years ago. Several new stops were added to make the choruses more complete, along with a new console and, most welcome, a new solid-state system with multiple memories; all was done in keeping with the Beckerath sound.
Unlike many churches in the USA, German churches have hard surfaces within large spaces, and refrain from using carpeting. As a result, the sound is unlike almost anything you hear in this country. I gauged the reverberation in St. Petri to be 6 to 8 seconds—long enough to require some adaptation in one’s playing to allow for it.
The performance of “Former students playing music of Heinz Wunderlich” went very smoothly. The Kontrapunktische Chaconne was played by Dörte Maria Packeiser (Heidenheim, Germany); next I played the Fuga Variata; a chorus under the direction of Cornelius Trantow sang Four Motets for unaccompanied chorus; Izumi Ikeda (Fukuoka, Japan) played the Sonata Tremolanda Hiroshima; Andreas Rondthaler (Hamburg) played Dona Nobis Pacem with violinist Solveigh Rose; Emotion and Fugue was played by Eva-Maria Sachs (Erlangen); and the program ended with Orgelsonate über ein Thema played by Sirka Schwartz-Uppendieck (Furth). As in subsequent concerts, the church was full and the audience enthusiastic. All the performers ended the evening with dinner at a local restaurant with Professor Wunderlich.

Ökumenische Messe
The next day, Sunday, a performance of the Wunderlich Ökumenische Messe (Ecumenical Mass) took place as part of the morning service at St. Petri. It was sung by the Hamburger Bachchor St. Petri under the baton of the St. Petri music director, Thomas Dahl. This is a very effective setting of the Mass for a cappella choir, and the experienced chorus of St. Petri made it memorable. The music was soaring and lyrical, with suggestions of Gregorian chant, and put me in a contemplative frame of mind.
Sunday afternoon we toured an amazing exhibit of the works of Edgar Degas at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, followed in the evening with dinner at the home of Thomas Dahl with his wife Steffi and their two delightful daughters. We were able to inspect the two-manual Fürer organ in the little village church of St. Nicholas next door, where Thomas is able to practice. Although a much smaller church than St. Petri, the beautiful interior of wood and plaster is sympathetic with the organ, making a clean and distinct sound.
After being tourists on Monday, we boarded a train on Tuesday for Bremen where we toured again, the highlight being the St. Petri Church—a huge, garishly painted cathedral, possessing four organs. In the main part of the sanctuary is the large Sauer organ originating from 1893. During several rebuilds, it has been enlarged to its present four manuals and 98 registers. A three-manual Bach Organ was built in 1966 and sits primly in a side aisle balcony. The remaining two organs are a one-manual Silbermann Positiv from 1732/33 and a one-manual and pedal Wegscheider organ from 2002, which accompanies the choir.

Wunderlich’s 90th birthday concert
Following an afternoon in the contemporary art museum, we returned to Hamburg in time for Heinz Wunderlich’s recital at St. Jacobi in the evening. The recital was played on the Kemper organ, which has been restored since my last visit five years ago. The church is also the home, of course, of the famous Arp Schnitger organ, which dominates the end of the church in the second balcony. The Kemper sits on one side of the lower balcony. Professor Wunderlich chose four pieces for his program: Bach, Präludium und Fuge in h-Moll, BWV 544; Wunderlich, Sonata Tremolanda Hiroshima; Reger, Fantasie und Fuge über B-A-C-H, op. 46; and Wunderlich, Sonata über den psalm Jona.
Professor Wunderlich’s playing, at ninety, is still immaculate, and the Kemper was appropriate for the music on the program. Although I have heard the Schnitger organ on several occasions and have played it myself, I couldn’t help but wish that we could have heard the Bach on the Schnitger organ instead. In any event, American recitalists should acquaint themselves with all of Wunderlich’s music, as it is of the highest quality.

Organ and orchestra
On Wednesday evening, we gathered at St. Petri again for the final Wunderlich birthday concert, a program for chorus, organ, and orchestra. Thomas Dahl had a demanding evening with the Organ Concerto No. 7 in B-flat Major, op. 7, no. 1, of Georg Friedrich Handel; Heinz Wunderlich’s Easter cantata, Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag, written in 1992; the premiere performance of Wunderlich’s Concerto for Organ and Orchestra on the Name B-A-C-H; and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, “Wie der Hirsch schreit,” op. 42. The soprano soloist was Dorothee Fries and the organist Andreas Rondthaler. The chorus was once again the Hamburger Bachchor St. Petri. The evening was exciting, with the Wunderlich Concerto being only one of many highlights for me.
One other Hamburg organ that deserves mention is in the Church of St. Georg. The church, which is dedicated to the Trinity, was built in 1747 and destroyed by bombs in 1943. Only the damaged steeple remained, which was repaired, and a new church, representative of 1950s architecture, was built. The sanctuary, which was designed to serve the purpose of a concert hall as well, seats 700 people, has galleries large enough for an orchestra, and boasts a 1959 E. F. Walcker & Co. organ with 36 registers.

Berlin
On Thursday morning, we boarded the train for our trip back to Berlin. Having never been to Berlin, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it, but we found the city a delight, with the transit easy to get around on, and more things to see than we could possibly include in our remaining week. The city has been rebuilt, and like Hamburg, construction seems to be going on constantly.
Our friend, Matthias Schmelmer, is the director of music and organist at Kirche zum Heiligen Kreuz (the Church of the Holy Cross) in Berlin. Thanks to his many contacts, I was able to see and play more organs than I ever would have on my own. The largest is the Sauer organ in the Berliner Dom. The cathedral itself is an impressive building, with a dome reminiscent of St. Paul’s London or St. Peter’s Rome, and the organ is equally impressive. At 7,000 pipes and 113 registers on four manuals and pedal, it is one of the largest in Germany. Once I determined that the swell pedals worked opposite to ours in the USA and that the Great is the lowest manual, I was off for an enjoyable evening.
The organ built for Princess Amalia in 1755 by Peter Migendt and Ernst Marx was the next instrument on our agenda on Monday morning. It had had several homes since it was built, but is now located in the Berlin Karlshorst. The organ is awaiting restoration in the fall, but is completely playable in its small church. It has two manuals and pedal with 25 stops. The sound is clear and bright, and the reeds, which were added in 1960, are compatible with the time period. A complete delight!
Monday afternoon brought us to Schmelmer’s own church, with its rather unique, for Germany, E. & G. G. Hook organ. Much has been written about this 19th-century American transplant from Woburn, Massachusetts, and I won’t add to that now. Suffice it to say that it has a wonderful new home in a very live building. The building itself is unique in that a steel structure has been added internally, with catwalks around the central area so one can walk around the church at the balcony level. Built in behind arches throughout are glassed-in offices and conference rooms that look out on the sanctuary proper. In the center of the church and extending up into the dome is a large tent hanging by ropes or cables. I can only imagine that it is to deaden the reverberation somewhat.
Across the street in a quiet cemetery lies the grave of Felix Mendelssohn. We spent several meditative moments at his graveside and that of his sister, Fanny and her husband, William Hensel.

Leipzig and Dresden
On Tuesday we fulfilled a lifelong desire of mine, to visit the churches where J. S. Bach worked for the last decades of his life. Although we did not hear the organs in either St. Nicholas or St. Thomas, we sat enjoying the atmosphere and were able to pay our respects at the grave of the greatest of composers. Later, we walked to the home of Felix Mendelssohn, which is not far away, and got a taste of his home and life. Of particular delight were his drawings and watercolors displayed there.
We had also wanted to visit Dresden and were glad we did. After a bus tour around the city, we found our way to two churches that showed two different methods of reconstruction. The Kreuzkirche had been completely burned out during the fire bombing of February 13, 1945. The church, which seats 3,200, was rebuilt in a simple style and rededicated on February 13, 1955. The raw plaster walls, which were intended as a temporary measure, were kept as a reminder of the night of terror when tens of thousands of Dresden people were killed. The great Jehmlich organ, which was destroyed, was replaced by a new Jehmlich organ of 76 registers and four manuals and pedal.
The restoration of the Frauenkirche was finished in 2005 and was completed in exquisite and loving detail. It is an almost unbelievable place, with its marbleized and gold-leafed surfaces, exquisite colors, central altar of which 80% had been saved from the rubble, and glorious organ. We were fortunate that as we walked in, the new organ built by Daniel Kern, with four manuals and pedal and 67 registers, began to play. As the organist demonstrated the instrument, we sat overwhelmed by the sound and the beauty of the space around us. (See Joel H. Kuznik, “Dresden’s Frauenkirche: Once a Silbermann, Now a Kern,” in The Diapason, February 2006.)

Max Reger’s organ
The last organ I played in Berlin was ordered and designed by Max Reger. In 1913, the acquisition of an organ was planned for the Schützenhaussaal, where Max Reger was conductor of the ducal orchestra. Since Reger wished to have a movable console, the contract was signed with Steinmeyer, the only company capable of the work at the time. Reger ordered the organ very informally using only a post card!
The organ was built for Reger, and in the end he was satisfied with the results. The dedication recital was played by Karl Straube on April 19, 1914. Unfortunately, illness forced Reger’s resignation soon afterward, and so he only played it for the Duke’s funeral on June 26. In August, World War I began and the organ wasn’t used any more. Today the organ sits in the Weihnachtskirche (Christmas Church), which began as a community hall. The room is not large, and the organ speaks from behind wood latticework directly and loudly into the space. It was an exciting experience to sit at the console where Reger and Straube sat!
In addition to organs, we visited many historical sites including remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag. Our primary interests were in the many museums that Berlin has to offer, however. One of the most outstanding for us was the Berggruen Museum with its large collection of Picasso, Matisse, Klee, Braque, and Giacometti. We highly recommend it.
We were reluctant to end this memorable trip with its concerts, organs, museums and serendipitous surprises.

"In the Steps of Bach and Luther"

Francine Maté is the organist/choirmaster and the director of the Bach Festival at Grace Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. She is also a music copyright examiner in the U.S. Copyright Office in the Library of Congress. Dr. Maté received both her M.M. and D.M.A. in organ performance from The University of Michigan as a student of Marilyn Mason.

On July 10, 2003, I began one of the most interesting trips of my life, The University of Michigan's 49th Historic Tour led by Marilyn Mason. This was my first trip to Germany, and was less than two days after my Bach organ recital which concluded the Grace Church, Georgetown, Bach Festival. Bach's music in my heart and fingers, off I went to play, examine and hear some of the organs on which Johann Sebastian Bach played and performed.

The trip across the Atlantic was my fourth, the first being in 1982, and the last in 1996. Technology and terrorism made for differences in this trip from the other three trips. On the technology side, computer/television monitors located throughout the aircraft mapped our progress across the Atlantic. An on-time arrival in Frankfurt on Friday morning allowed me to team up with others coming from other cities, including Marilyn Mason, and we had a chance to catch up before departing on an Airbus to Berlin.

I was able to see the Berlin skyline on this clear and beautiful day. We gathered our bags, and shortly our trip tour guide, Franz, and our bus driver, Rheinhart, met us and ferried us off to the bus which would be our transport for our two weeks in Germany. Our hotel in Berlin was located only about two blocks from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This church was heavily bombed in World War II, and, like Coventry Cathedral in England, has been rebuilt on the adjacent ground with a modern church. The bombed out older church was left basically as it was after the bombing.

Naumburg

We left Berlin on Saturday morning to proceed to Naumburg for five nights. En route, we spent the morning and afternoon in Wittenburg. Although we did not play or hear the organ at the Schlosskirche in Wittenburg, we learned much of Luther's history from a devoted tour guide. Even though Bach would have probably been a highly acclaimed composer and musician if he were only to be a court musician, the Lutheran Reformation most certainly set the stage for Bach's career.

The Zacharias Hildebrandt organ in the Wenzelskirche in Naumburg has one of the most beautiful organ cases that we saw on the trip as well as a remarkable sound. One of Bach's sons-in-law was the organist here, and in 1746 Bach traveled from Leipzig to Naumburg to examine the final installation of the instrument. We were fortunate not only to play this beautiful three-manual instrument, but also hear three organ recitals and attend a lecture about the organ given by Mr. Verner from the Eule Organ Company. Mr. Verner had recently completed the restoration of the instrument to its original state, and is currently restoring the organ in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig.

Marilyn Mason performed one organ recital, and Irene Greulich, the organist at the Wenzelskirche, performed two additional recitals. Dr. Mason's recital included pieces from every period in Bach's life and ended with the Toccata in C, BWV 564.

This beautiful tracker instrument was changed to electro-pneumatic action in 1933. The restoration by Mr. Verner and the Eule Organ Company included returning the organ to its original mechanical action. There was some damage from bombs in 1944 during World War II, and therefore, some pipes had to be replaced. Many of the older pipes were taken to metallurgy laboratories for chemical analysis to match the new metal to the original metal. There were seven bellows on the original Naumburg instrument, and all could be worked by one person. The person pumping the bellows read the musical score of the work being played in order to know how much wind was needed.

The Hildebrandt organ, as all the organs we played in Germany, is pitched up one step. Pedalboards and keyboards on each of the organs we played were each unique. Unlike the American AGO pedalboard, there is no uniformity in these German Baroque pedalboards except for the fact that they are all flat. The pedalboard of the organ at the Wenzelskirche for example is quite large, and middle C on the manuals did not line up with the pedals as I'm used to. I was so excited to play my first Bach organ, but these adjustments combined with hearing the music up one step threw me for a loop! I had a concern before the trip that the benches would be too high for me, since I'm 5¢1≤ tall. They were all workable for me, thank goodness.

Eisenach

On Bastille Day, July 14, we headed off to Eisenach, Bach's birthplace and a city Martin Luther lived in as a young child. We visited the Georgenkirche where Bach was baptized. The same baptismal font used to baptize Bach is still in the front of the church. Marilyn Mason pointed out to us that we would see three baptismal fonts on this trip: Bach's, Handel's and Luther's. Although Bach had his first organ lessons here, the organ in the Georgenkirche is not the same one Bach played.

Our next stop was Wartburg Castle which is high up on a mountain in Eisenach. Our bus took us most of the way up, but we hiked the remainder on this cool and sunny day. The views from the top of the mountain and Wartburg Castle were spectacular. The German countryside was beautiful. Living close to Northern Virginia, I found the part of Germany where we traveled, as well as the view from Wartburg Castle into the valley below, to be very similar to Virginia. There were many farms, green everywhere and rolling hills. There were also many unusual windmills that we could see here as well as all over the countryside. Franz told us that the blades sometimes simply take off and whirl until they hit something! The inside of Wartburg Castle is extremely ornate, and seeing the room where Martin Luther lived and translated the New Testament of the Bible was breathtaking.

Waltershausen

On July 15 we started our day out in the city of Waltershausen at the Stadtkirche which has a newly restored three-manual Trost organ. The sound of the organ is magnificent and powerful, and the organ case is extremely ornate and beautiful. The organist, Theophil Heinke, met us there and assisted with stop pulling as we played, in addition to giving us a demonstration. This instrument is the largest Baroque organ in Thuringia. The keys were somewhat difficult to play, but the pedalboard was user friendly.

Arnstadt

We then proceeded to the Bachkirche in Arnstadt. The organ is not the instrument Bach played, but the organ loft is the one in which Bach and Maria Barbara were supposedly caught kissing before they were married! There are seven historic stops from Bach's time on this instrument. The town square just outside the church has a modern statue of the young Bach.

Altenburg

Our next stop was the city of Altenburg. We visited the Altenburg castle and the chapel on the castle grounds. There is a Trost organ in the chapel and it is virtually in the same condition as it was when Bach played a recital there in 1739. The two-manual organ was one of my favorites on our trip. The sound is glorious, and the fact that Bach played this same instrument as it now is made the event memorable. And, last but not least, the keydesk and pedalboard felt like the organ at my church at home built by A. David Moore! Some of the metal pipes were removed in World War II, but later the organ was restored to its original state. In addition to playing this wonderful organ, we saw a fascinating group of statues above the altar in front of the chapel portraying Roman soldiers viewing the risen Christ.

On July 17, we departed Naumburg, and the entire staff at the hotel were on hand to wave goodbye to our bus. We proceeded to Eisleben where Martin Luther was born and where he died. Luther preached four sermons at St. Andrew's Church in Eisleben just before he died. There were two funeral services for him, one at this church and then another in Wittenburg where he was buried under the pulpit in the Schlosskirche.

Halle

In Halle we visited the Handel House and the Marktkirche. Samuel Scheidt was organist at the Marktkirche from 1628 to 1630, and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow from 1684 to 1713. In the Marktkirche we saw the baptismal font of Handel, yet another touching sight. We know that Handel studied organ with Zachow and played the instrument here. The Handel House in Halle has a quite extensive collection of scores, instruments and paintings. Bach was offered a position at the Marktkirche, but he declined because the salary was not sufficient.

Leipzig

After visiting Halle, we made our way to Leipzig, Bach's home from 1723 until his death in 1750. One of our first excursions was to visit the Thomaskirche where Bach was organist and cantor. We placed flowers on his grave in the Thomaskirche.

Attending the 9:30 service on July 20 at the Thomaskirche was a most touching experience. Although the organs are not the ones Bach played, we do know that Bach's organ music sounded in this very space. Bach is buried in the front of the church, and there are always flowers on his grave. The flowers that our group placed on his grave on Friday were very lovingly placed in a vase by the time we returned for church on Sunday morning. The Bachchor of Stuttgart was the choir for the day, and Ullrich Böhme was the organist. The choir sang many movements of Bach motets, and the postlude was the Fugue in g minor, BWV 578. Each hymn was introduced by a chorale prelude just as would have been done by Bach. Everyone sat and listened to the postlude and then left in silence.

Rötha

Next, we found ourselves in the tiny little town of Rötha which is just outside of Leipzig. There are two wonderful Silbermann organs in Rötha: a stunning two-manual in St. George's Church, and a splendid little one-manual in St. Mary's Church. The Marilyn Mason Organ at The University of Michigan, built by Fisk, is very similar to the Silbermann at St. George's, and Charles Fisk did extensive study of the Silbermann organs in Germany before building that organ. Having now played them both, I can affirm that both instruments are works of art.

I was surprised that after a lifetime of thinking the only wonderful organs were those having four or five manuals, I absolutely loved the one-manual Silbermann in St. Mary's Church! Bill Gudger did a wonderful job of stop pulling for me as I played the "St. Anne" Prelude. Susan Broughton, the organist at the two churches in Rötha, was very helpful to us during our stay in that lovely town.

Störmthal

We left Rötha, and traveled to the village of Störmthal which is very close to both Rötha and Leipzig. The organ in the Dorfkirche in Störmthal is another delightful one-manual, and is the only Hildebrandt that is still in its original condition. The organ was probably designed by Gottfried Silbermann. The façade pipes were removed during World War I and were replaced by tin façade pipes during a renovation in 1934. The organ was installed in 1723, and Bach examined and accepted the organ. He performed the dedication recital on November 2, 1723, in which he directed his Cantata No. 194.

Pomssen

We heard and played the oldest organ in Saxony in the Wehrkirche, located in the little town of Pomssen. We were treated to a short recital by Professor Burger from Leipzig which included a piece by the Spanish Baroque composer Francisco Correa. The Wehrkirche was first a Romanesque church. The late Renaissance and early Baroque saw Italian influences, and one painting in the church comes from Italy. The first organ was built in the early 17th century, but the builder is not known. Bach came here and conducted his Cantata No. 157 which was commissioned by this church. The lovely one-manual organ has 15 stops. The Wehrkirche was one of the few churches we visited that had pew boxes. I did not play this instrument because Professor Burger told us that there are bats living in the organ loft!

Berlin

Our final organ to visit was the Amalia organ in Berlin. Beate Kruppke is the organist there. She was so very gracious on this warm, dry day to have bottled water and juices for us to drink on our arrival in the afternoon. She played a short program for us which included a set of variations by Georg Böhm. C.P.E. Bach wrote his six keyboard sonatas for this very organ.

One of our many side trips was a bus/walking tour of Berlin. I had not realized before how large the city is. Many tour books suggest that even avid walkers often resort to taking the bus or hailing a cab. Some "cabs" were bicycles with seats in the back for their riders! Berlin has many museums, and one could spend days just going to museums. The former Berlin Wall was breathtaking and the Brandenburg Gate spectacular. Napoleon "took" the statue on the top of the Brandenburg Gate, but it is now back to its original state. There are now modern statues across the street of cannons protecting the Brandenburg Gate.

We had a wonderful farewell dinner on our last night together in Berlin. Marilyn Mason had told us earlier in the trip that she wanted us each on that last night to tell something significant about what the trip meant to us. Each person had such insightful thoughts, and I enjoyed all of my discussions and experiences with all the people on the trip. My thanks to Marilyn Mason for making this superb trip possible! The German people were so wonderful to us all, and thanks to Franz and Rheinhart for their care of us.

Photos are by the author unless indicated otherwise.Francine Maté

The 38th Historic Organ Tour, sponsored by the University of Michigan and led by Marilyn Mason, took place August 3-20, 1998, entitled "In the Steps of Bach."

For two weeks we journeyed from west to east across the "waistline" of Germany, visiting most of the places where Bach lived, plus Dresden, Gera, and Berlin. Among the organs played by the group were at least three (two Hildebrandts and a Trost) that Bach had proven, and one that Handel had played; 10 organs of Gottfried Silbermann, plus the copy which is in the Silbermann Museum.  In total, we visited 41 organs, playing 30 of them.

Day 1. We arrived in Frankfurt, a group of 35 which included 21 organists.  A long bus ride into what used to be called "East" Germany took the group to Eisenach, where we first visited the Georgenkirche. In a special moment, Marilyn Mason gathered us around the font where Bach was baptized--still in use today. We played the modern baroque-style 3/35 Schuke on the west wall, visited the Bachhaus, and then travelled to Weimar.

Day 2. Walking tour of Weimar and  visit to the city Church of Sts. Peter & Paul where J. G. Walther worked; dark Lucas Cranach altar paintings. Immense live sunflowers on the altar glow in sunlight streaming directly onto them.

Bus to Arnstadt. Lunch at Goldene Sonne with Herr Schockinger, our gracious chef. We played the 1964 2/15 Schuke organ at the Liebfraukirche and visited the Bach Museum. The "Bach Church" where Bach worked 1703-1707 is being renovated.

Short ride to tiny village of Dornheim:  small, lovely white interior of the church where Bach married his first wife, his cousin Maria Barbara Bach.  We played the Scheinfeld 2/16 organ.

Bach worked for the Duke of Weimar from 1708-1717. The palace and chapel where he played have not survived.  Friedemann and C.P.E. were born in a house, the site of which is now occupied by part of our Hotel Elephant.

Day 3. Bus to Muehlhausen, attend Lutheran worship at St. Blasius Church, where Bach worked 1707-8. After the service, pastor greeted us and eloquently explained history of the church in English. Later we played two organs in Gotha.

Day 4. Naumburg, to play at Wenzels-kirche (Church of St. Wenceslaus) the large Hildebrandt organ, originally 3 manuals/54 stops, 75 ranks, that was proved by Bach and Silbermann in 1746 and pronounced good.  Altnikol, Bach's son-in-law, worked there. Irene Greulich, who has played there since 1971, told us that in 1933 the action was electrified; now it is being restored to its original action.  The Rueckpositiv pipes (13 stops, 18 ranks) were the only ranks present;  we played them--what a wonderful sound. The other 3/4 of the remaining facade is empty. Herman Eule of Bautzen is doing the restoration.

Day 5. We visited tiny Rötha, south of Leipzig, and enjoyed the luxury of 11/2 hours each in two churches, each with a Silbermann organ placed, as usual, high on the west wall. Our first Silbermanns--and two of them! We met Maria Schödel, a long-time friend of Marilyn Mason, who for 30 years has been fortunate to have  these two Silbermanns at her disposal.

The Silbermann two-octave pedalboard is placed far to the right compared to American standards. We played pedal pieces at our own risk. Our learning on this trip came not simply from playing, but also from watching, occasionally pulling stops for others, walking around the church to hear the organ from different locations, or just sitting and reveling in the beauty of the sound and the interior of the church. The Marienkirche has a 1722 1/11/12 Silbermann; the St. Georgen-Kirche a 2/23/30 (2 manuals, 23 stops, 30 ranks) from 1721; the latter is the inspiration for the Marilyn Mason Organ at the University of Michigan which was built by Charles Fisk in 1985. As tour group members played, Dr. Mason pulled stops and gave us mini-lessons on site.

Leipzig. We visited the Thomaskirche, where Bach was music director from 1723 until his death in l750. (No organ that Bach played survives here.) We gathered at his grave, placed flowers and sang a hymn together. Bach was no longer simply a name on paper. The fact that he was a human being--who was born, baptized, married, buried one wife, buried some children and raised many others, worked hard and died--seemed new and vivid, the acoustical joys more real, the human griefs more sad, now that we had been in these places.

Days 6, 7. In Dresden to visit Silbermann's last and largest organ (3/47/70) in the Dresden Hofkirche; the next day we played his earliest extant instrument, the only other surviving three-manual, 3/45/68, in the very ornate Freiberg Cathedral. (Freiberg in Saxony, near Dresden.) Bach did not live in Dresden, but he could visit its opera and other wonders from Leipzig.

Day 8. We visited the tiny village of Grosshartsmannsdorf which has a superb 2/21/25+ Silbermann "scraping the ceiling,"  with soft flutes to die for. That evening five of us (Marguerite Thal, Margarete Thomsen, Steven Hoffman, Marian Archibald, Kurt Heyer) played the Kindermann Magnificat and four of us sang the chant in recital in the town of Klettbach. The village church has a lovely 1725 Schroeter 2/16/18+. Some of these tiny churches with lovely old organs are unable to find an organist. Life in the old "East" Germany is quite difficult.  I am tempted to offer to be an interim for a few months!

Day 9. To Altenburg to play the Trost organ that Marilyn Mason will play in recital this evening. The castle church is long and narrow, with the Trost, 2/36/53, filling one long side wall. The organ even includes a Glockenspiel.  Bach played the Trost organ at least twice, around 1739.  Before we tried the sounds, Dr. Felix Friedrich gave us a fine demonstration of the entire instrument. The 16' Quintadena and bowed-sounding Viola da Gamba on the Hauptwerk are amazing. In the afternoon we drove to the small town of Ponitz, where the Silbermann organ is in the front balcony. Silbermann lived in the town for six months in 1736-37 while installing the organ. At the Altenburg Schloss Marilyn Mason's exciting recital displayed the glories of the Trost organ in music by Dandrieu, Couperin, Bach, Calvin Taylor, and Guilmant.

Day 10. We  exchanged greetings at the Silbermann Museum in Frauenstein with the scholar, Werner Mueller, who founded the Museum and has written about Silbermann. We played the lovely 1/7 copy of an organ, the original of which is in Bremen.  Special items: useful model of how a tracker works; map of where Silbermanns are, were played, or were destroyed (several were destroyed in World War II; the masterpiece in the Dresden Hofkirche had been removed and was thus saved); copies and originals of contracts for organs.

Day 11. To  Halle, Wittenberg and Berlin.  In Halle we played both organs in the large church: a small, but powerful, 7-rank which Handel played on the east wall; a large 3/40 opposite it,more recent. We visited the house where Handel was born, now a museum,where there are three small organs. In Wittenberg, we visited the castle church, on which door Luther nailed the 95 theses in 1517.

Day 12. We toured Berlin.

Day 13. Visit to the Kirche zur Frohen Botschaft (Good News Church) in a Berlin suburb, Karlshorst. Organist Roland Muench spoke briefly and demonstrated the wonderful "Princess Amalie" organ, built in 1755 by Peter Migend and played by C.P.E. Bach. The organ has had many homes, but then found rest in this resonant 1905 building, which was used as a stable in the war. This was our last church. We had a fine tour of the Schuke organ shop in the southern suburbs of Berlin.

Day 14. We flew home with many wonderful memories.

Two tours take place in 1999:  U. of M. Historic Tour XXXIX: Italy: Music and Mosaics May 3-13. U. of M. Historic Tour XL: Northern Germany & Schnitger August 3-13. Information from Marilyn Mason 734/764-2500; e-mail  [email protected]

--Marian Archibald

Spain and France, May 1-12, 2003

Te-Min Ong is an engineer and organist. He is a student of Dr. Evelyn Lim at Methodist School of Music, Singapore, and a former student of Dr Marilyn Mason. Don Baber is parish musician at Faith Lutheran Church, Sarasota, Florida

This year's tour, number 49 led by Marilyn Mason, chair of the organ department at the University of Michigan, brought us to new and unexplored regions of Spain and France. We had the opportunity to sample the rich organ heritage of the Basque region, a place where both Spanish as well as French organ traditions melded, as evidenced by the presence of numerous Cavaillé-Coll organs.

The organists on this tour presented a total of six recitals, the first of which was in Pamplona on the splendid Spanish baroque organ in the Church of the Dominicans. The local government extended their hospitality by providing transport to the church and an English-speaking tour guide. The organ was fascinating with several en chamade ranks and a full complement of efectos including tambores (drums) and pájaros (nightingales). There were knee levers for turning on and off the reed stops as well as a cadereta, which was probably a later addition to this organ.

The group played the second recital in the village of Biarritz, France. The Church of St. Martin is home to a 32-stop organ built by Gonzalez in 1975. The next day it was on to Pau where we had our third recital at the Church of St. Jacques on another three-manual Gonzalez. Performers stayed on to practice at this church while the rest of the group proceeded to the Cathedral of St. Martin to try out the organ there.

After this we traveled back into Spain to the beach resort town of San Sebastián where we stayed for four nights. Our fourth recital was held at the organ in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Coro, the most well preserved Cavaillé-Coll organ outside France and subject of numerous recordings. This monumental instrument was built in 1862 and follows closely the design principles of Franck's organ at St. Clothilde in Paris. It was truly a privilege to be able to play this organ.

The next recital was at the Church of Santa María la Real in Azcoitia. This organ--as does the one at the Basilica of St. Ignatius of Loyola--features horizontal stops which are not present on any of Cavaillé-Coll's organs in France. Cavaillé-Coll used Spanish stop nomenclature and measurement units (i.e., palmos instead of feet) as an acknowledgement of his Spanish heritage. Professor Elizondo, an authority on Spanish organs, shared his expertise on the unique Basque instruments.

The final recital was held at the Church of Santa Maria in Tolosa on an 1885 Stoltz Frères organ. This was followed by a reception held in a 17th-century palace by the Friends of the Organ in Tolosa, a relatively young organization dedicated to promoting awareness of the town's organ heritage. The next night was spent at the Parador Argomaniz where we had an opportunity to go visit Vitoria before returning for the farewell dinner in the ancient dining hall of the hotel. After an additional night in Bilbao, the American and Singaporean contingents went their separate ways.

-- Te-Min Ong

On May 1, Marilyn Mason led a merry band of 32 organists and music lovers on an overnight flight to Frankfurt, where we boarded another flight for Bilbao, a city in the Pyrenees of Spain. Our plane was met by Carlos Calvente of Madrid, who had planned the locations and hotels for us, and who stayed with us throughout the trip, acting as guide and interpreter. After a rest in our hotel, we ventured out to San Jacques Cathedral where we enjoyed playing the 2-year-old classical Pellerin-Up organ of 38 stops from DAX of France.

On May 3, we visited the Guggenheim Museum with its works of modern art. Taking an elevator to the top, we worked our way down via the curving walkway. That evening the group enjoyed a welcome dinner at our hotel. The following day we drove to Pamplona on a modern tour bus and walked the street where the bulls run each July. Tour members played a wonderful Spanish baroque organ in Santo Domingo Church. Built in 1660, it was restored in 1991 by Les Franqueses del Vallies of Barcelona. It boasts a powerful horizontal trumpet, or battle trumpet, as the Spanish call it. We learned that the Spanish organbuilders, not the French, were the first to build horizontal trumpets.

The members of our group who were to play a recital on this organ that evening stayed to practice. The rest walked to the Cathedral of Santa Maria where we played the 3-manual Cavaillé-Coll style organ build by the Spanish builder Roques around 1890. It is in this Cathedral that Charles III, King of Navarre, and his wife are buried in front of the high altar.

On May 5 we crossed the border (now an open border due to the E.U. agreements) into France and on to St. Jean de Luz, where we registered at our hotel. Then we then drove to Biarritz where we played the 1973 Danion Gonzalez 3-manual romantic organ built in the style of Cavaillé-Coll. Several members played a recital here in the evening. The organ is placed to the side of the west gallery, rather than spread across the west wall.

May 6 found the group in Lescar. The Cathdral of Notre Dame, a 12th-century church, has a 3-manual, 54-rank, 32-stop organ built in 1760 by Dom Bedos. It was rebuit in 1869 by Wenner. After lunch we drove to Pau to the Church of San Jacques. Here we played the French neo-classic organ built by Merklin in 1872 and modified by Victor Gonzalez in 1971. Some stayed to practice for the recital that evening. The rest toured the Chateau de Pau, which was built in the 14th century and became the residence of the King of Navarre at the end of the 15th century. During the recital that evening, an interesting addition to the organ music was the chirping of a bird that had gotten into the building.

On the morning of May 7, we visited St. Jean Baptiste Church, a Basque church with tiers of galleries on three sides of the church, dating from the Middle Ages. All Basque churches have galleries, where the men sat during Mass; the women sat on the main floor in the pews. The original organ, built in 1740, was destroyed during the French revolution; however, the case was not destroyed and remains today. In 1875 Venner built a Cavaillé-Coll style romantic organ here. From there we drove back over the border into Spain and checked into our five-star hotel in San Sebastian, where we would stay for the next three nights.

On May 8, we visited the Basilica Santa Maria del Coro in San Sebastian, where some of the group were to play a recital that evening on the Cavaillé-Coll organ, a 3-manual with 44 stops, built in 1863, and restored in 1972. It has remained an authentic Cavaillé-Coll and is much the same as the organ Franck played at St. Clotilde in Paris, and has been featured on many recordings because of its authenticity. Those not playing in recital that evening also visited San Vicente Church near the Basilica and played a less interesting Cavaillé-Coll organ built in 1868. The city government hosted a reception for the tour group at the City Hall before the concert that evening. Wine flowed freely and we were treated to Spanish tapas (much like our hors d’oeuvres).

May 9: We left early for Bergara, where we played the Stoltz Frères of  Paris 1889 organ at the church of San Pedro. We wondered why we were visiting so many romantic organs and were told that other parts of Spain tend to have classic instruments. Cavaillé-Coll built 36 organs in Spain, and 24 of these are the Basque area, where we were. The Stoltz brothers were competitors of Cavaillé-Coll. This organ (3 manuals and 36 stops) was on the side of the west gallery, like the ones Cavaillé-Coll built, and sounded much like his.

We then drove on to Aranzazu for lunch, where we were served by the Franciscan Order in their complex isolated in the mountains. Located here are the church, monastery and retreat house, with a very large dining room. The church was built in the 1950s when Franco was in power. There was much objection to the church, as it was built in a strange modern style, and the Vatican was called in to support the plans. Our lunch consisted of several courses including wine, bread, vegetable stew, fried squid and other things. Dessert was huge slices of heavily iced cake and ice cream. There were many pilgrims making retreats there.

After lunch, we drove to the Church of Santa Maria la Real in Azkoitia, where we left the recital crew to practice for the evening concert. The rest of the group went on to Loyola and visited the Basilica of Loyola and the House of Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit Order. The Basilica has an 1899 Cavaillé-Coll organ of 3 manuals and 36 stops, which we played. The recital in the evening was on the 1898 Cavaillé-Coll in Azkoitia, which features a trompette-en-chamade and 72 stops. This was the last large organ built by Cavaillé-Coll which is still in original condition. We were treated to a reception afterward by the city government.

May 10: This morning we visited an ancient historic church sitting in splendid isolation on the very top of a mountain. Santa Maria de Zumarraga was once a Roman building, made of stone with wood ceiling. There are galleries around in the Basque style. The church is used only for special events, such as weddings. At San Martin Eliza Church in Zumarraga, we played a Spanish organ built in 1761—it was a delight. There is a wonderful horizontal trumpet and a single divided keyboard with an octave of pedal tabs. The Basque builder Arragola restored the organ to original condition, only adding a modern keyboard.

We then drove to Santa Maria Church in Tolosa to play the 3-manual 36-stop romantic organ by Stoltz Frères of Paris. For the evening concert a video screen was set up in front of the altar so the audience could see the performers as they played from the west gallery. We were again given a reception, this time by the Friends of the Organ of Santa Maria Church.

May 11: Some of us attended Mass at San Sebastian Cathedral. After lunch we drove to the Parador du Argomaniz, where we would spend the night. We spent the afternoon enjoying a nearby town, Victoria. Everyone, it seemed, was on the streets walking and visiting, and the bars were full of people socializing. We had a farewell dinner that night.

May 12: We drove to Bilbao and checked into a hotel not far from the airport for our 7 am flight to Frankfurt the next day. The hotel was in a country setting. It had been used originally as a seminary.

May 13: We were up at 4 am. At 7 am our plane departed for Frankfurt, and after a four-hour wait we began our overseas flight to the U.S. We were a very congenial group, with ages from 16 up to late 80s. We came home with many happy memories of wonderful historic organs, beautiful scenery in the Pyrenees, new friends and gratitude to Dr. Mason who made it all possible.

--Don Baber, CAGO, Mus.M

Performers in the recitals included Melissa Goh, Nicholas Leow, Evelyn Lim, Robert Luther, Marilyn Mason, Chet Wei Ng, Te-Min Ong, Julia Watson, Helga Weichselbaum, and Ellena Yeo.

July 13–25, 2004

William Callaway is an organist and travel agent in Atlanta, Georgia.

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for London holds all that life affords.” So wrote Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth century, words that still hold true today. To paraphrase, it could also be said that “When an organist is tired of England, he is tired of life, for England holds all that an organist desires.” Indeed, the fabled island country is an organist’s dream, home to hundreds of noble and majestic instruments--many from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries--that survive to this day for the enjoyment of organ lovers everywhere. Imagine being able to not only see and hear, but play nearly two dozen of the great cathedral, church and concert hall organs of England.

The sixteenth annual Organ Tour of England got underway in London on July 13, 2004. Created and escorted by Leslie Peart, these tours begin and end in London, and focus on a particular region of the country each year. For this tour of eastern and northern England, a very congenial group of organists and organ enthusiasts from New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Oregon and Canada gathered for a get-acquainted lunch at the modern Holiday Inn Forum Hotel, the largest Holiday Inn in the world. Located in the fashionable borough of Kensington, within walking distance of Harrods, the Royal Albert Hall, parks and museums, the hotel was a comfortable and convenient base from which to explore England’s vibrant capital city. Meals in the quiet and private Forum Room were wonderful.

London

After a hearty pub lunch of traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, our group’s first stop was Southwark Cathedral on London’s revitalized South Bank. Here we were warmly welcomed by Peter Wright, who briefly demonstrated the splendid 1897 4-manual Lewis, then turned the instrument over to us. Everyone who wished to got an opportunity to play on each and every organ we visited, which is a major feature of these tours. Our first evening in London got off to a fine start with James O’Donnell’s recital at Westminster Abbey, which included a complete performance of Widor’s Sixth Symphony. This was the first of five recitals that we heard on the tour, and we had choice reserved seats in the choir stalls to fully enjoy seeing and hearing this celebrated instrument.

Our second day in London began with a visit to Immaculate Conception Church Farm Street, a beautiful French Gothic style building designed by Pugin, with a richly-detailed interior. David Graham briefed us on the history of the church and organ, and played a comprehensive mini-recital to fully demonstrate the fine 1926 3-manual Willis. After we all had a chance to play, the tour continued via double-decker bus to the large Temple complex on the Strand. Paul Derret presented a lunchtime recital in the ancient Temple Church, after which we were free to try the marvelous 1926 4-manual Harrison & Harrison.

After dinner, we returned to Westminster Abbey for a private, after-hours session on the organ with assistant organist Andrew Reid. This was a highlight of the trip, as Mr. Reid gave a thorough demonstration of the 1937 5-manual Harrison & Harrison. He concluded with Walton’s “Orb and Sceptre,” an especially appropriate choice in this site of English coronations. After basking in the splendor of full organ, we were all able to play this famed instrument, a thrill I’m sure none of us will ever forget.

North of Londonn

The next day we met our very competent coach driver, David Attfield, himself an organist, and began our journey north. David describes these annual organ tours as the highlight of his year. First stop was Chelmsford Cathedral, home to two recent Mander tracker-action instruments. Since both organists were away, head verger Michael Rivers, another organ fan, acted as our host. Michael and his assistants first served us coffee and refreshments, and then turned the instruments over to us. The 3-manual in the chancel and the 4-manual in the rear gallery were both distinguished by beauty of tone and ease of action. It is possible to play both organs from each of the two consoles.

A short drive later, we arrived in the quaint small village of Long Melford, seemingly straight out of an Agatha Christie novel, with an imposing manor house, ivy-covered cottages and the Holy Trinity Church, deemed one of the most beautiful in England. This visit was intended more for the beauty of the church than the organ, but we enjoyed a leisurely time playing the 1887 Walker tracker organ and strolling through the grounds surrounding the church, full of interesting old tombstones, yew trees and rose bushes.

The final destination of the day was the university town of Cambridge, where we settled into the comfortable Gonville Hotel overlooking a large park (Parkers Piece) on the edge of the city center. There was time to explore this fascinating city on our own before a delicious dinner at our hotel.

Cambridge

On Friday we first visited Girton College Chapel in Cambridge to see the recently installed 4-manual tracker by the Swiss firm of St.-Martin, a rarity in England. As expected, the tone was very clean and bright, and the action easy and responsive. We then had several free hours for lunch on our own, shopping, sightseeing or punting on the Cam River. Several made an excursion to the beautiful American Cemetery on the outskirts of town, where nearly 4,000 U.S. servicemen from World War II are buried. At 3 pm, we walked half a block from our hotel to the Church of Our Lady of English Martyrs (R.C.) to experience the 1881 3-manual Abbot & Smith organ, recently restored by Nicholson. The organ sounded marvelous in this spacious and resonant French Gothic building, and our host Nigel Kerry was most helpful. After another excellent dinner in our hotel, we retired to a hospitality suite, with coffee and dessert, to watch the opening night concert of the Proms, which featured Martin Neary on the newly restored Royal Albert Hall organ, playing the Bach D-minor Toccata alone, and then the Fugue with the orchestra.

Ely

On Saturday, July 17, we drove the short distance from Cambridge to the spectacular Ely Cathedral, one of the glories of English architecture. We were among the first visitors of the day, and had this vast building pretty much to ourselves. After being greeted and briefed on the 1908 4-manual Harrison & Harrison by the assistant organist, we each climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the organ loft to play this majestic instrument. Our own Bob McDonald regaled us with the Widor Toccata as we wandered around the spacious nave, absorbing the history and beauty of this fantastic place.

After a scenic ride through the tranquil Fen country, we made a lunch stop in the old market town of Boston, where we briefly visited St. Botolf’s Church. We admired the spacious, light-filled interior and marveled at the spire--at 272 feet, the tallest of any parish church in England. Being Saturday, the city center was filled with market booths, providing the group with a very interesting experience.

In the afternoon we continued on to the large town of Kingston-upon-Hull to experience the magnificent 100-rank 1911 Foster & Hill organ in City Hall. The auditorium featured a wonderful frieze of classical mythological figures on the walls surrounding the organ façade, and the curator unlocked the pipe chamber, allowing us to explore the interior of this large instrument. We had a leisurely, enjoyable visit here, with ample time to fully familiarize ourselves with this fine concert instrument. Our group would be the last to play the organ for quite some time, as the auditorium was being shut down the next day for extensive redecorating. Final stop of the day was the fashionable resort town of Harrogate, where we settled into the Victorian Yorkshire Hotel, facing a green park filled with beautiful floral displays. This would be our base for a total of five nights from which we would explore the north of England.

York

For our first Sunday of the tour, we took a short coach ride to the walled medieval city of York to attend the main service in York Minster. We enjoyed the choral and organ music in the rolling acoustics of this imposing space, the largest gothic cathedral north of the Alps. The cathedral is in excellent shape, after the recent rebuilding of portions due to a tragic fire. Following the second service, John Scott Whiteley gave us a warm welcome, demonstrated the 1872 4-manual Willis, and then graciously allowed us to try our hand at the moveable chancel console. He also showed us the original console in the organ loft before excusing himself to play for a special service with Prince Philip and veterans of World War II, who entered the cathedral as we were leaving. We had some free time for lunch and exploring this fascinating town, winding through the crowded streets with the other Sunday visitors, taking advantage of a fine English summer afternoon.

Later in the day we drove to Armley, a suburb of Leeds, to visit St. Bartholomew’s Church and attend a recital by German organist Joachim Walter on the 1869 4-manual Schulze. He presented a fine program of works by romantic composers such as Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Reubke and others that worked very well on this instrument. During the interval the ladies of the church had set up tea and refreshments, and we all savored homemade cakes and trifles before getting to play this marvelous organ for ourselves.

Beverley

On Monday July 19, our first visit of the day was to the small town of Beverley to visit the famed Minster, another one of the architectural gems of England. We were welcomed by Alan Spedding, who presented a fine demonstration on the 1916 4-manual Arthur Hill instrument. The layout was similar to York Minster, with the main case on a center loft in the chancel and the towering 32-foot pipes in the side gallery. As in Ely, we were the first visitors of the day, and had this remarkable building pretty much to ourselves to enjoy as we all took turns playing and admiring the ornate interior.

Another short ride through the rolling northern English countryside brought us to the gates of Castle Howard, the stately home made famous as the setting for television’s “Brideshead Revisited.” We enjoyed a leisurely visit, made even more delightful by the fine summer weather. After lunch in the café on the lake, we had a private session in the chapel to play the 1872 smallish 3-manual Harrison tracker. There was then time to explore the house and extensive grounds, which included formal gardens, fountains and lakes. Back in Harrogate, our final visit of the day was at St. Peter’s Church, conveniently located next door to our hotel. Here we experienced another 4-manual Schulze, recently renovated by David Wood of Huddersfield. After dinner at the hotel, we were treated to the piano-playing talents of our own Bob MacDonald, to the delight of tour participants and hotel guests alike.

The Yorkshire area

On Tuesday July 20, we first headed south to Doncaster to see St. George’s Parish Church and its large 5-manual Schulze. Organist Andrew Wilson is an attorney in Sheffield, and could not be there. So we were again hosted by another head verger/organ fan, Chris Clay. After everyone had played here, we headed north again, driving through the picturesque Yorkshire moors and dales, and arrived in Durham after lunch. After checking into our comfortable and luxurious hotel, Leslie Peart led us up the twisting medieval streets to the massive Norman cathedral, which crowned the highest hill in the city, majestically overlooking the River Wear. We were graciously welcomed by James Lancelot, who demonstrated the superb 4-manual Willis, later rebuilt by Harrison & Harrison. After we had all taken turns playing, Mr. Lancelot ended our session with a brief fanfare on the commanding Tuba Mirabilis, sending us forth with the sound of this magnificent instrument still resounding throughout the cathedral.

The following day began with a private tour of the Harrison & Harrison organ building factory, a short ride from our hotel on the outskirts of town. We were warmly greeted by our charming hosts, Mark and Catherine Venning, who now own this venerable firm. It was fascinating to see the amount of painstakingly detailed work that goes into the building and restoration of fine pipe organs, and we left with a renewed appreciation of the technical complexities of the instrument. Harrison’s largest project at the time was the rebuilding of the organ of Peterborough Cathedral, which had suffered from a recent fire.

After free time in Durham for lunch and exploring, we rode to the large city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the northernmost point of our tour, for a visit to the cathedral. Our jovial and enthusiastic host, Scott Farrell, showed us the 1881 4-manual Lewis, housed in a beautiful Renatus Harris case from 1676. After we had all enjoyed playing, we returned to Durham to prepare for dinner and a recital at the cathedral by our friend John Scott Whiteley. Most of us sat in the choir stalls to fully experience the awesome power of this instrument with its thundering 32-foot stops and powerful reeds. Mr. Whiteley presented a stunning program, concluding with his own transcription of a Cochereau improvisation.

On Thursday July 22, we reluctantly checked out of Durham and headed south to the Leeds Parish Church to see an unusual 4-manual instrument of various builders, with some of the pipework dating back to 1771. Our host, Simon Lindley, welcomed us and gave an introduction to the organ, installed behind a large wooden Gothic screen. Sitting at the console, one can almost imagine being in a jail cell! After we had all played and enjoyed the church’s coffeehouse, we rode to the large town of Huddersfield to visit the splendid 1881 4-manual Father Willis organ in the town hall. We were enthusiastically greeted by Scottish organist Gordon Stewart, who offered us tea and refreshments, then played a superb mini-recital to show off this wonderful instrument. David Wood of Huddersfield was also there--he and his firm did the last rebuilding of this instrument. It was very satisfying to then be able to play this grand Victorian concert organ.

After lunch at a local pub, we boarded our coach for a short ride back to Harrogate and the Yorkshire Hotel, our base for northern England. Our final visit of the day was to nearby St. Wilfrid’s Church, home to another fine 1928 Harrison & Harrison of surprisingly robust tone. We all took turns playing before returning to our hotel for the evening.

Our first stop on Friday was the Rochdale Town Hall, an impressive Victorian Gothic style building completed in 1871. Organ curator Edward Riggs greeted us and led us up the regal grand staircase to the fantastic Great Hall richly decorated with stained glass, painting and woodcarving. Here we had a delightful time on the 1913 4-manual Binns organ, housed in alcoves behind a raised stage area. The console sits on a high platform, so one actually climbs aboard! Our group played mostly lighter popular selections here, including “The Lost Chord,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and “Londonderry Air,” which all worked well on this full-bodied Edwardian instrument.

We moved on to Blackburn to visit the cathedral and the newly rebuilt and enlarged 1969 Walker. This was the third organ we visited that had been rebuilt by David Wood, including the addition of a new console and Solo division. The pipes were mounted high up on the chancel walls in “swallows’ nest” chambers, and the elegant movable 4-manual console had been placed in the middle of the sanctuary for us. We all enjoyed playing this wonderful instrument in surprisingly resonant acoustics, giving the Imperial Trumpet a good workout as several of the group played trumpet tunes, fanfares and big toccatas.

Then it was back on the coach for a short ride to Whitefield, a suburb of Manchester, for our final visit of the day to All Saints Stand Church, where our friend Gordon Stewart was organist. The 1926 3-manual Harrison & Harrison impressed us with its full, robust tone. We also admired the finely carved woodwork on the altar, choir stalls and organ case before returning to Harrogate through the scenic Yorkshire countryside--the backbone of England, according to our driver David Attfield.

On Saturday July 24, we checked out of the Yorkshire Hotel and had a short ride south to Wakefield. Arriving in the late morning, we were glad to discover an open-air farmer’s market had been set up in the streets surrounding the cathedral. The vendors were mainly French, and the air was heavy with the aromas of fresh baguettes, sausages, cheeses and spices. Several of our group purchased bags of cookies and pastries to enjoy with their coffee break before we entered the cathedral for the fifth and final recital of the tour. David Holder played an interesting and varied program on the 5-manual unified instrument containing pipework by various builders, again most recently by David Wood. After the recital we had time to play the organ ourselves before leaving on the final leg of our journey back to London. We arrived in the capital in the late afternoon and returned to the Holiday Inn Forum Hotel. After an excellent farewell dinner together, we were free to attend a Proms concert at the nearby Albert Hall, or partake of one of the many other cultural opportunities of this exciting city.

The tour officially concluded after breakfast on Sunday July 25, although many participants opted to stay an extra day or two to more fully explore London. Leslie Peart escorted a group of us to reserved seats under the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral for the main service, followed by lunch in the historic Albert Pub near the houses of Parliament. The afternoon was free to enjoy evensong and organ recitals at the major churches of London, and some of our group attended a Proms concert that evening.

Each year the England Organ Tour focuses on a particular region of England. This year’s tour will take place July 12-25, 2005, and will feature the cathedrals and organs of southwestern England and Wales, concluding with three days at the Southern Cathedrals Festival at Winchester Cathedral. For more information, contact Leslie Peart at 2129 Fairway Drive, Springfield, IL 62704; phone 217/546-2562; e-mail <[email protected]>.