Institute for Sacred Music, The University of Iowa

William Dickinson is past Dean of the River Valley Chapter AGO.

For this year's conference, entitled "Let All the World . . . ," Delbert Disselhorst (head of the U of I organ department) and his committee engaged three presenters who are distinguished in their respective fields of endeavor: Martin Jean, associate professor of organ at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music; Paul Westermeyer, professor of church music at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, director of music for the seminary, and director of the Master of Sacred Music program at St. Olaf College; and Carlton R. Young, currently visiting professor of church music at Tainan Presbyterian College and Seminary in Tainan, Taiwan; Dr. Young is emeritus professor of church music at Emory University's Candler School of Theology.

Thursday

The conference opened on Thursday afternoon with the first part of Paul Westermeyer's lectures entitled "Congregational Song as Global and Particular." Westermeyer advanced his thesis that congregational song is global--that "the church takes flesh in many different times and sings in the idioms of many different times and places." As he pointed out, any one hymnal has many examples of congregational songs that are both multicultural and global. Westermeyer further stated that congregational song is catholic (small c) in that the message emanates from all people and from all time periods. Congregational song is alien because God is the source of the message and that message will not touch everyone in the same universal manner. Dr. Westermeyer used chant as a perfect example of congregational song that is at once global, catholic and alien. Chant can be sung by anyone (global), stands above indigenous congregational folk song (catholic) and does not integrate with folk songs of any given people (alien). Finally, congregational song is about texts. The text must have meaning and must reflect the fact that congregational song is truly global. The text of congregational song will be called into question if it in any way infers that it is better than that of another culture.

Carlton Young completed the Thursday afternoon session with the first of his two-part presentation "Congregational Song in Global Perspectives," which covered the development of Christian global song from apostolic times (Palestinian-Hellenistic missional settings) to twentieth-century mission hymns. Dr. Young noted that "song became an important means of passing on the religious and social ethos and identity of one generation to another and for restating them in new languages and cultures." He traced the development of Christian evangelical hymns from Western (Roman) and Eastern (Orthodox) Christianity through the monastic period (Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, etc.) to the Roman Catholic Church's missionary effort, all of which he termed Global Phase One. Global Phase Two was the development of Christian evangelical song from the 16th-century Protestant Reformantion to Anglo-American evangelical hymns. Two important compilations during this period were The Whole Book of Psalms (London 1562) and John Wesley's A Collection of Psalms and Hymns 1737, which many hymnologists, according to Young, consider the first missionary hymnal. Dr. Young then discussed the consequences of both the "First Great Awakening" (1730 to 1750) and the "Second Great Awakening" (from around 1787 to the current times, at least in the South, in the minds of some commentators) and the resultant effects of the Euro-Anglo U.S. missionaries bringing the worship-song of their respective traditions, and linking these repertories to the development of Native American and African-American indigenous religious song. Young discussed the camp meeting movement that developed in the Second Great Awakening and how, in Reconstruction times, the Baptists moved away from the camp meeting format while the Methodists took it to new heights. Young then gave a short introduction to twentieth-century mission hymns, the discussion of which would be further developed in the second part of his presentation on Friday afternoon.

Following a dinner sponsored by the River Valley Chapter AGO on Thursday evening, conference participants attended a worship service at the First United Methodist Church in Iowa City. Martin Jean was organist and Paul Westermeyer gave the meditation. The cantor for this service was Dennis Ungs of the River Valley Chapter. The highlight of the service was the premiere of a hymn commissioned especially for this conference. The hymn, with text by Thomas H. Troeger ("Let the Truth Shine in Our Speaking") and music by Carlton R. Young, is named RAHN in memory of Frederick T. Rahn, Sr., whose family fund, the Frederick T. Rahn Memorial Fund, has been very supportive of the University of Iowa organ department for over 30 years (see sidebar).

Friday

Martin Jean opened the Friday morning session with his lecture "The Church at Sea: Navigating the Signs." The theme of Dr. Jean's presentation was that the canon of church music is expanding and that there is less time for the so-called "high art" (classical) tradition. Jean noted that in the reality of today's contemporary society, the debate continues as to just how classical church music can successfully continue to function. And, if the notion is that high-art, or classical, music has less relevance to today's more contemporary style of worship, then what is to become of the heritage of hundreds of years of classical church music?

The church, Jean feels, is no longer as homogeneous as it once was. Churches today are often made up of congregants with many different denominational backgrounds. And, often, today's congregations are made up of people who have not been long-time active members of the Christian faith. Therefore, today's church musicians are being forced to move beyond old assumptions of just what constitutes "proper" church music because so many of today's congregations are not wedded to a particular style of liturgy or liturgical music. To illustrate his point, Jean first played a videotape of a very large Assembly of God congregation in Georgia which uses a contemporary form of worship service and the so-called "praise" style of congregational song. Jean felt that this tape demonstrated how this style of music allowed the people to step into the mood of the service instantly. For his second example of an alternative style church worship service music, he discussed the use of the bluegrass religious music being used by a church in Minnesota. While admitting that the use of bluegrass music is somewhat unusual, he found the music to be incredibly beautiful and to be a type of church music that has to evaluated in more than a musicological vein--more than just notes on a page.

Jean concluded this lecture with the following pointers for church musicians who are being faced with changes in their church's changing style of worship and liturgical music: realize that the church today is made up of congregants from many different cultural backgrounds; listen to what is taking place in a particular situation, and don't dictate; bring your talents humbly and look for God in all types of music; develop a cooperative dialog with your pastor and then begin to educate the congregation through a number of venues such as adult forums, choir rehearsals, sermons and bulletin announcements.

The Friday morning session concluded with a recital by U of I undergraduate and graduate organ students. The recital began in the Krapf Organ Studio on the 1986 Taylor and Boody organ featuring performers Timothy Duhr, David Vanden Berg, and Hanna Lee. The concluding half of the student recital was held in Clapp Recital Hall on the 1971 Casavant organ with Sean Vogt, Eunjin Choi, Anna Eriksson, and Linda Hakken. Hakken was joined by baritone Stephen Swanson, percussionist Chris Foster and Tim Duhr, electronics, in Richard Felciano's Glossolalia (Psalm 150).

Paul Westermeyer opened the Friday afternoon session of the conference with the second part of his theme, "Congregational Song as Global and Particular." That congregational song is particular means that "the church takes flesh in a specific time and place and sings in the idiom of a specific time and place." Dr. Westermeyer began by citing three hymnals from German groups in the U.S. that relate to their time and place in spite of their presumed postures and perceived characters. For instance, the 1941 Hymnal was accused of being entirely German, but in reality was not. The service music was Anglican chant and though most of the hymn tunes were of German origin, 287 of the hymns were of Anglo-American heritage. Westermeyer pointed out that what the church actually uses may not be what is perceived to be in the hymnal. Perceptions don't make for the real world as we sing in the idiom of a given time and place even if we don't realize it.

Congregational song has a blurring reality to it as the text must be in our language or we would not be able to sing it. The distinction between what is global and what is particular is that the two mix with each other--some places are more in flux while others are more stable. There is always a moving stream--not a fixed point. There is a duration to the time of congregational song and the particularity of the song is indigenous. Indigenous song is a result of itice. Westermeyer noted that performance practice for each congregation is made up of the individual language of that congregation. He also feels that it should come as no surprise that i (incarnational) and that the church takes place among real people in a real time and place.

The particularity of congregational song protects the church from becoming a i. There is a temptation for the church to become a museum, but if, in fact, the church is a constantly moving stream, then it must sometimes cleanse itself. Dr. Westermeyer concluded with these three points: these are complimentary, not contradictory, realities; congregational song is intrinsic rather than extrinsic; congregational song cannot be forced, but is learned from the inside out. Finally, he noted that congregational song is inherently musical (to be human is to sing) and that it is authentic, not derivative.

Carlton Young concluded the Friday session with part two of his lecture "Congregational Song in Global Perspectives." Young called this session "Global Song Three" and began by discussing contextualization as it relates to the indigenous congregational songs of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and Asia. Young explained the term contextualization as the process whereby concepts, words and symbols from one cultural setting are received, embodied and expressed in the concepts, words, and symbols of a different cultural setting. In examining the African congregational song, Young noted three distinct characteristics of it as being the orality, communal nature and the sensuality inherent in it. According to Young, the hymns used by the African churches were developed by the Dutch Reformed, British Methodist, Anglican, the Church of Scotland and the Lutherans. The 1960s and 70s saw ethnomusicologists and their African students encouraging the use of indigenous music in African-style liturgies. Dr. Young then cited a number of examples of recent African Christian congregational songs and had the participants sing a stanza or two of each.

Christian worship music in the Latin American and Caribbean countries and islands goes back to the time of Columbus in the Caribbean islands and to the 16th and 17th century Roman Catholic missionary efforts in South and Central America and Mexico. The music of the islands features reggae and calypso rhythms. Young noted that it has only been in recent times that these songs have been collected, recorded and published, including Sing a New Song (1981) and Caribbean Praise (1999). The alabados (songs of praise) are the typical indigenous folk-hymns in Central and South America. Young stated that Protestant hymn writers have recently begun to compose hymns of liberation and hope and that popular dance rhythms, including the samba and tango, have been used in hymn tunes. He feels that Pablo Sosa (b. 1933) is one of the most influential composers of Latin American Protestant church music. Sosa is editor of the six-volume Cancionero Abierto (Open Songster) of 1974-90. Again, the conference participants were encouraged to sing a number of examples of Latin American and Caribbean folk hymns.

In the case of Pan Asian Hymnody, Young feels that the contexturalization of Asian Christian song is counter-cultural, in and out of the church. The E.A.C.C. Hymnal (1964) was the first attempt at compiling a collection of significant contextualized Christian song and, for the first time, featured a selection of pan-Asian religious song in one volume. Dr. Young noted that the successor to the E.A.C.C. Hymnal is the collection of pan-Asian Christian songs entitled Sound the Bamboo (1990) which includes a greatly expanded repertory and instructions for performance practices.

Young concluded his presentation with the following points for consideration: church musicians should offer Christ not only in Western-style music, but also in diverse tonalities, rhythms, scales and styles of the various cultures of the global family of God; the training of music ministers for service in this country and around the world should include the history, worship practices and music of non-Christian religions; finally, graduates of schools of music and of seminaries that prepare ministers of music should be "bi-musical"--they must be required to demonstrate that they can teach songs in a second language, understand and be able to perform blues and gospel songs and can arrange and teach congregational song in three styles: Latin American and Caribbean, Asian gamelan and African-American gospel. Young also suggests that these graduates be required to complete an onsite mission assignment in a non-Western culture.

Every Institute for Sacred Music Conference has included an organ recital in Clapp Recital Hall (Marilyn Keiser in 2000 and Gerre Hancock in 2001), and Martin Jean's concert on Friday featured a varied and eclectic program.

Saturday

The conference concluded on Saturday morning with Martin Jean's final presentation "Revisiting the Basics of Liturgical Accompaniment" and a panel discussion by all three presenters. Dr. Jean began by stating that as church musicians we must bring a humble approach to hymn playing. The church musician needs to keep in mind that the earliest congregational song was unaccompanied. The earliest reports of accompanied congregational hymn singing were in North Germany around 1630 or so. In England and Holland accompanied congregational song began in the 18th century. Jean quoted Nancy White (in "Philosophy of the Hymn"): "Briefly, the hymn is an idea-emotion, born of Christian experience, through the media of poetry and music; and in turn, transmitted through the media of poetry and music, it nourishes Christian experience."

Jean then presented what he feels to be eight principles of good liturgical music: it is doxological, profoundly scriptural, liturgical, participatory, traditional, eclectic, creative and, above all, aspires to excellence in concept and execution. The question as to what constitutes the ideal instrument for accompaniment (type of organ) is best answered by the fact that we as church musicians must use what we have at our disposal to the best of our ability. Jean noted that the early North German organs had very bright mixtures and heavy and loud pedal stops to counter the very loud congregational singing.

Jean outlined a number of techniques to use for better hymn playing. First, it is key to listen to just how the congregation sings hymns. Congregations can become easily fatigued and the organ can help by allowing a little extra breathing space between stanzas. He recommends using varied types of accompaniments such as no pedal, use of a solo line in the treble, tenor or bass parts, the use of varied registrations and the use of canons and alterations of voices for each stanza. He also advocates adopting a style of playing in which articulation is applied to the particular time in which the hymn was written.

The majority of the time given to the concluding panel discussion centered on what constitutes good and bad liturgical music. For instance, in answer to the question of what makes a text banal, Paul Westermeyer answered that beauty is not necessarily a universal given--there is such as thing as craft. He felt that the universal church will not tolerate banal texts or music over time. Martin Jean felt that there is a tendency for classically trained musicians to adopt somewhat of an arrogant attitude when it comes to alternative styles of liturgical music such as praise music--and if there is something to be said against popular praise texts and music, it should be done with humility. Martin Jean also felt that standards have been lowered to achieve higher congregant numbers for Sunday services, but, he would rather err on the side of being open to changes in the styles of liturgical music. Westermeyer feels that the either/or of folk vs. "high art" is a false dichotomy. Like the global and the particular, they are complementary, not contradictory, as the church has demonstrated by its practice of alternation: all is for all, though not all do all as is true of any healthy body. Carlton Young felt that the more that we try to suppress pop culture-related church music, the harder it will be to stop its use. He again stressed that the training of church musicians must include a strong emphasis on congregational song.

Once again, congratulations to Delbert Disselhorst and Brett Wolgast of the University of Iowa School of Music faculty and to T. Andrew Hicks and Robert Triplett of the River Valley Chapter AGO for their combined efforts in producing another very fine and enlightening Institute for Sacred Music Conference.

--William Dickinson

William Dickinson is a board member and past Dean of the River Valley AGO Chapter. He has written a number of articles for The Diapason and The American Organist.

The 2006 Institute for Sacred Music sponsored by the University of Iowa was held January 26–28 in Iowa City. This year’s presenters included Don Saliers, who is the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship at Emory University; Carole Terry, Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the University of Washington; and Thomas H. Troeger, who is currently the J. Edward and Ruth Cox Lantz Professor of Christian Communication at the Yale Divinity School.

Thursday

Don Saliers opened the conference on Thursday afternoon with his lecture “Singing Our Lives to God: Exploring the Assembly’s Sung Prayer,” in which he developed five theses. Thesis number one is that “Text depends radically on that which is not verbal.” Saliers feels that some liturgies are too verbal and asks the question, “How shall these texts sing?” His second thesis explains that words or text well set, whether in hymns or psalms, become more than just sounds—they invite one to see and taste. Thesis number three involved producing an ‘ordered’ sound that acts upon our senses. In worship, when the ear starts to see and the eye begins to hear, music will open all the senses (thesis number four). Finally, thesis five states that most crucial theology is understood in singing. Because music lies so close to the soul, when we sing the prayer is formed not only in music but also in theology. Saliers feels that shared music making in a gathered assembly helps the body to come to life and to receive life back from one another. Worship requires music that sees, hears, gestures and inhabits space. Yet music is not just performed for the assembly but must involve the assembly in active participation in prayer. We cannot assume that the congregation does not hear or participate, and should begin to think about various levels of participation that will provoke the assembly to realize the joys of singing, which should extend beyond the sanctuary to everyday outside activities such as fellowship. Finally, Saliers feels that the ecology of singing is missing in many assemblies, and he recommends quarterly hymn sings to give new life to congregational participation.
Thomas Troeger completed the Thursday afternoon session with his presentation “God Made All Things for Singing: how music and worship form our identities as creatures.” Dr. Troeger began by stating that we are all ‘mud creatures’ who have had life breathed into us by God and who are inherently musical. We have a drum (heart) that beats 40 million times a year. We are all ‘orchestras’ and to know that one is musical is to be “Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise.” But he warns that if we human beings forget our primordial identity, we are apt to sponsor some dangerous illusions—my group is better than yours or my race is better, etc. Who, then, will call us back to our primordial identity? Troeger feels that no one is better equipped to remind people who they are and to lead them back to their essential identity than the church musician. Because the church musician has the ability to provide the medium (music) to bring people back to God, Troeger feels that the School of Music is perhaps the most important school at the University of Iowa. The church musician’s role is to try to put people into harmony with basic life by teaching that to love God is to sing. “Hit the first note of a hymn and all disparate groups hit the same note.”
On Thursday evening, the River Valley AGO Chapter hosted a dinner for area clergy and conference attendees at First United Methodist Church in Iowa City. The conference worship service, entitled “Lost in Wonder, Awe and Praise,” followed the dinner. The homilist was Thomas Troeger, the liturgist Don Saliers, and Carole Terry was the organist. A special schola was arranged for and directed by T. Andrew Hicks.

Friday

Friday morning was devoted to a masterclass led by Carole Terry and included a recital by the undergraduate and graduate organ students at the University of Iowa. The masterclass in the Krapf Organ Studio demonstrated why Carole Terry has such national and international acclaim as a lecturer and pedagogue. Participating in the masterclass and the following recital held in Clapp Recital Hall were Jin-Ah Yoo, Erin MacGorman, Tom Hamilton, Julia Howell, Michael Davidson and Aaron Sunstein. Friday afternoon opened with a lecture by Dr. Saliers entitled “Humanity at Full Strength: Doxology and Lament in Christian Worship.” In this lecture, Saliers tells us that music has the power to touch into the deepest places in our lives. It touches even those souls who can’t sing well—music takes them to places for which they have no words. Texted music can create sensations—a way of understanding the world through deep affections. In the context of the Judeo/Christian traditions, those affections conjure up a very special object—God. Text and music allow for the possibility of joy with tribulation. The Christian assembly must develop a capacity for experiencing joy, delight, and praise as well as the capacity for grieving. In fact, the capacity to grieve is the most basic and most profound thing that a person can experience. In responding to a joyful or grieving song, we experience how music has the ability to shape and give meaning to a deep appreciation and to serve as a representation of the manner in which we take in the world. In discussing liturgy, Saliers feels that ‘good’ liturgy requires our humanity to be stretched to the fullest. His thesis is that one must know the psalms to know scripture; to illustrate this thesis, he made five points: one, that psalms are language of the human heart and are a rigorous reminder of life on earth; two, that psalms are addressed to God; three, psalms are integral to our movement through time; four, psalms are the crucible of encounter (through the psalms we hear God speaking to us); and five, singing the psalms requires that the assembly is aware of and accepts the double message that the psalms impart in terms of the mystery of God and the depth of humanity.
Thomas Troeger completed the conference lecture series on Friday afternoon with his presentation “Created to Create: how music and worship form our identities as creators.” He noted that when one delves into the whole notion of creativity, there lies a great danger that there are many things created by humanity that are perverse—war, torture, etc. However, to move into the depths of what is beautiful and good is the only direction that should be strived for in creation. Troeger feels that God took a great risk in creating those (we musicians included) who create. Troeger’s presentation can best be summed up by the following hymn text, The Crickets Chanting through the Night:

The crickets chanting through the night,
The windswept, whistling trees,
the birds that welcome morning light,
the humming, roaring seas
are each assigned the notes they sing
while we make up our part
and fashion God an offering
through our creative art.

The budding wood, the flowered field,
the mountain robed in snow,
the burrow and the nest that shield
the beasts from winds that blow
are from the same inventive mind
that dared to set us free
to probe how nature is designed
and bring new worlds to be.
Created to create, we ask,
O God, before we start
that you will join us in our task
by moving in our heart
so everything that we create,
compose, produce, invent
will help the earth to celebrate
and honor your intent.

Text: Thomas H. Troeger (born 1945), from Borrowed Light, ©1994 Oxford University Press, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Carole Terry’s recital in Clapp Recital Hall on Friday evening was an eclectic program ranging from Sweelinck, Mendelssohn, Bach, Bolcom to Reger, Messiaen and finally to a thrilling presentation of three movements of the Vierne Symphony No. III. The entire recital reflected an intense personal involvement in each piece on the program and was enthusiastically received by a large and very receptive audience.

Saturday’s conclusion

The 2006 Institute for Sacred Music concluded with a roundtable discussion on Saturday morning. All three presenters discussed books that they have either published or that are in the works. The conference attendees and presenters discussed the need to (1) prepare the assembly so that they can better accept liturgy and music; (2) train seminarians in their role to properly lead the assembly; and (3) to continue with development of interaction between different religious organizations. In discussing ways to help in the formation of the assembly’s capabilities, it was noted that the use of children to lead the assembly in accepting various liturgical and musical paths should be considered and encouraged. Suggested reading on these subjects included Composing Music for Worship by Steven Darlington (Canterbury Press), and Music in Christian Worship by Charlotte Kroeker. The planning committee for this 2006 Institute for Sacred Music included Delbert Disselhorst, Brett Wolgast, Wallace Bubar and T. Andrew Hicks. Congratulations to this group for providing a most enlightening and engaging conference. And, of course, this not would have been possible without the talents of Drs. Saliers, Terry and Troeger.

Remembering the prolific and active church musician

Donald Paul Hustad, organist, choir director, radio musician, composer, arranger, scholar, educator, editor, and writer, died on June 22, 2013, at the age of 94. Active in church music for more than 85 years, he had become one of the most articulate scholars, chroniclers, and critics of the history and traditions of music in the evangelical and “free” (i.e., non-liturgical) church traditions. He wrote six books and over 100 articles, composed numerous hymns, hymn arrangements and choral octavos, edited a number of hymnals and authored hymnal companions, taught at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and later the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and played organ for the Billy Graham crusades beginning in the 1960s. He held two graduate music degrees from Northwestern University, plus AAGO and FRCO certificates. 

Though he retired from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1986, Hustad continued actively performing, writing, lecturing, and editing for the next two decades. Post-retirement activities included being the general editor for the hymnal, The Worshiping Church, which was first published in 1990, and revising his well-received textbook, Jubilate! Church Music in the Evangelical Tradition, first published in 1981, which was released in 1993 as Jubilate II: Church Music in Worship and Renewal. In 1989, he became a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, in recognition of his contributions to hymnody. In 1991, Hope Publishing Company, which published music, hymnals, and books by Hustad, named him their first emeritus editor. In 2006, he received an honorary doctorate from Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, and in 2008, he was honored for his contributions to church music at the American Choral Director’s Assocation’s Southern Division Conference.

Hustad’s legacy in the Chicago area is manifold, especially through his work at Hope Publishing Company (located in Carol Stream, Illinois) and through his tenure at Moody Bible Institute, beginning in 1942 at the Institute’s flagship radio station, WMBI, and then as conductor of the Moody Chorale beginning in 1947, and additionally as Director of Moody’s Music Department, 1950–1963. Under Hustad’s leadership, the Moody Chorale was critically acclaimed and the Music Department’s current facilities were built, including the Doane Memorial Music Building and the 4-manual Möller organ (now being rebuilt by R. A. Colby) in Torrey-Gray Auditorium. Hustad’s long relationship with Moody led to the opportunity for the following edited interview which took place on October 11, 2011.

Hustad was born October 2, 1918, in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota. Following the death of his father in a hunting accident the year after his birth, his mother moved with Donald and his younger brother Wesley to the Boone Biblical College in Boone, Iowa, a home for indigent families. This is where Hustad’s musical life began.

Elizabeth M. Naegele: How did you first become interested in music?

Donald Hustad: At the age of four, I was taken under wing by a little lady at the Boone Biblical College where I grew up and where all of our music was from the “Holiness” tradition. She had me studying all the serious piano works of Beethoven, Liszt, Mendelssohn, etc., and in those days of limited entertainment, I ate it up. From my very first years, I improvised, but I never quit reading music that was serious.

You were doing church music alongside classical music?

Yes, I was in church music. In a very typically fundamentalist culture of church music where I improvised much of the time, I was also studying classical music. I grew up thinking of music schizophrenically because all the things that were ideal in classical music were taboo in the church music that we had, and all the things that we doted on in church music were just out-of-bounds in classical music. I had this love-hate relationship, understanding it, sensing it—from the very beginning—as being in two worlds . . . and I enjoyed them both! 

Curiously, I was also in radio at that age. Little Boone Biblical College had a ten-watt radio station which they bought in 1926, so when I began working at Moody Bible Institute’s radio station later in life, I was simply doing what I had done as an eight-year-old boy. I accompanied my mother who was a singer of sorts, and I played trombone in the orchestra. 

How did you begin your professional career?

Sacred music as a profession was a complete surprise to me. I didn’t realize that anyone could make a living with music, even though I studied it at the John Fletcher College in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The graduates from that school went to theology school and became ministers or they went to a university and became a school teacher. I didn’t want to do either, so I had nothing to do. I came to Chicago looking for any kind of a job. I went to the Christian Businessmen’s Committee downtown Chicago, where they referred me to a Christian businessman, Reamer G. Loomis, who had a real estate office on the south side of Chicago. There I wound up answering the telephone or did surveys in the neighborhood . . . until I got busy doing music. Interestingly enough, my future wife’s family was friendly with the real estate office’s owner.

Where did you meet your wife?

I met Ruth at Lorimer Memorial Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago—and the church had lost their musician, so I was hired to be their choir director and organist.

When had you studied organ?

Prior to this time, I had only one year’s instruction, 1940–1941, during the time I was working at a church in Zion, Illinois. I studied with Francis Moore, who had been a student of Alexandre Guilmant. He taught the organ at Oak Park Methodist Church. I remember him well because he was the first to teach me that I should have fingering written in for Bach. Would you believe I began with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major? Moore kept active in music and years later, while I was at Moody, I remember that he was doing things for Lyon and Healy in downtown Chicago.

So your professional career began at the church where you met your wife?

Yes, but . . . there was a member of the church named Theresa Worman, who was in charge of children’s programming at Moody Bible Institute’s radio station, WMBI. She came to me one day and said, “Don, why don’t you audition? Down at Moody they hire a lot of musicians.” I asked, “They do? To do what?” She answered, “To play music. To write music. To arrange music. To make music!” So I arrived at WMBI’s Studio D on a Saturday morning in May, 1942, and was met by George Beverley Shea and Cornelius W. Kerr. Corny Kerr was one of the so-called “gospel” organists at Moody—there was a whole bevy of them. And they hired me . . . auditioned me on Saturday, and I showed up for work on Monday.

So you became a professional radio musician?

I played accompaniments for George Shea on Hammond organ, pipe organ, and piano. And I did solo organ programs, I did piano duet programs. I also very soon became an announcer, and then, like everyone else, I became a producer and sometimes an actor in a drama that the station had on for years, “Number Nine Elm Street.”

What music degrees did you earn?

I have a bachelor’s degree in music from John Fletcher College, and completed a master’s degree in piano from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) in 1945, while I was working in radio. Later, I went back to Northwestern to do a Doctor of Music degree in church music, which combined organ, service playing, and conducting [completed in 1963]. I also have an Associate certificate from the American Guild of Organists and a Fellowship certificate from the Royal College of Organists in London. 

Interestingly enough, I never completed a conducting course in my life. The first official conducting I ever did was for a tour of the “Twelve Singing Men” from John Fletcher College. I simply watched people conduct, saw the motions, and practiced them myself as I walked across campus. 

When you were doing doctoral work in Northwestern, did you finally take some conducting courses?

Oddly enough, I didn’t take any conducting classes. I took more classes in literature. I didn’t even take any service playing . . . though I registered for thorough bass [figured bass/continuo playing], I opted out of it because I had played by ear all my life and could “bypass” the class.

In what educational institutions have you taught?

I take great pride in them all. One of the first teaching duties I had was as a substitute for Frank W. Van Dusen at Wheaton College for one full year. I worked at Olivet Nazarene College, now Olivet Nazarene University, 1946–1950, teaching piano and music literature. The lengthier stints: I taught at Moody Bible Institute, 1950–1963, and finally the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, beginning in 1966 and officially retiring in 1986. 

What about your association with Billy Graham?

I joined the Graham team in 1961 and worked for them six years until 1967. At the beginning of my time with them, I was on a leave of absence from Moody but still chairman of the Music Department until 1963, one of those flitting chairmen who bounced off and on campus, helping make important faculty and catalog decisions, teaching assignments, and so forth. 

You started teaching at the Southern Baptist Seminary in 1966 before you were done with Billy Graham?

I kept playing for the Billy Graham team off and on for 20 years and retired from them around the same time that I retired from the seminary. 

What changed during your years of teaching church music?

When I began teaching people how to use music in the church, I knew only one kind of music, and that was what I had learned in the conservatory and colleges. As I understood it, musicians could take the same understanding, the same theory, same techniques, and work in, say, church or even nightclubs, just as well. They were trained for music, and they did music wherever they had to do it. Later, I began to realize the discipline of church music was separate from the ordinary discipline of music, and there were no books written about church music. Church music has different requirements, different objectives—so you should have different training for it. I learned the principal activity of the church was its worship, so I became intensely interested in worship, and I essentially began all over again to study worship and liturgics. My books Jubilate! and Jubilate II became journals on worship and church music and evangelism and Christian education . . . the whole activity of the church. 

Finances have become one of the primary problems with church music in our day. It costs too much to train musicians, so Northwestern University throws out its organ department. Other schools throw out a whole music department because it costs so much more to train a musician than it does to train a philosopher or a theologian. I’ve often wondered if maybe our system should be different. I’ve watched the Europeans teach all beginning applied music in classes. Only artists are taught privately. When I was on sabbatical in France, my daughter took flute classes, not private lessons, at the local conservatory. Everybody heard everybody play. Everybody learned from what everybody else learned, and they spent hours in a studio listening to teaching as well as practicing. I’ve wondered if we shouldn’t do more of that. I think we have the same problem in reverse when teaching conductors. Conductors need more private study than we give them. 

What do you see when you look ahead in church music?

None of us really know! But it’s very interesting for me to look at history, to see movements come and go. As I mentioned, I felt schizophrenic growing up, because I could see that church music and classical music were on two different tracks. For instance, my mother was an amateur singer, but she heard that Amelita Galli-Curci (1882–1963), a famous Italian opera soprano in the 1920s, was giving lessons for $25 to anyone who showed up in Des Moines. And my mother wanted to travel to Des Moines for a lesson because that was a different kind of music than she knew. So she learned Bernard Hamlin’s solo, “Beside Still Waters,” and I accompanied her when she sang it for Galli-Curci. Why did she do this? Well, because there was that other world of art music out there. And it was not a sinful world, it was God’s world. She didn’t know that, but she thought it might be. She had a chance to toy with it, and she did!

On the other hand, George Beverley Shea was a gospel singer from his youth. He grew up in an educated family, all of whom were university people, most of them scholars, preachers, and professors of various sorts in the denomination in which he grew up. But he was a gospel singer, he was different . . . though not completely, because his idol was the concert baritone, John Charles Thomas (1891–1960). Shea worshipped Thomas’s singing, because of his diction, which was the most accurate, most precise, most dramatic diction of any singer in the English language. Shea copied him. He went to Thomas’s coaches, and as a result, Shea had the sharpest diction in English of any singer I know. He’s the oldest singer whose words I can identify when the song is one I’ve never heard before. 

Western music in the year 1000 had no place to operate except in the church. And for hundreds of years, serious composers were trying to imitate the “music of the spheres”—the music that the Book of Job writes about when God says to Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation . . . while the morning stars sang together?” (see Job 38:1–7). This was the music of heaven’s angels joined with all of creation, which has together moved to earth only twice in history: once at the creation of the world, once at the birth of Jesus Christ. And did you ever notice this comes full circle in the Book of Revelation, where it says that we will sing in heaven an anthem to God who created, to God who redeemed? That’s all. That’s all there is. That’s all! For eternity!

How does this fit with contemporary music in the church?

Evangelicals have always been plagued with the love of novelty. The gospel is the “good news”—the new good news. Got to have a different music for it. Can’t have ordinary music that God blessed from eternity. Got to have a special music, so we’ll throw out Watts, we’ll throw out Wesley, we’ll throw out Luther, and we’ll have the gospel song. And in the late 19th century, evangelicals did it thoroughly, throwing out the tried and true, God-given music of Watts and Wesley and sang the gospel song. Had a lovely time, and founded Moody Bible Institute to perpetuate it, but knew all the time that they really shouldn’t have let the other go—that they should have hung on to it. The conductors of the auditorium choir at Moody Bible Institute knew this in 1910. The teachers at Moody who played the organ knew this about the organ, and so they had serious organ study back in those days. They never let serious music go because they had a sneaking suspicion that somehow God had blessed it, and they should bless it and protect it and teach it forever. But evangelicals may not do it today. They’ve frittered around to the point now that many have let classical music go. 

Who knows what will happen? The present movement has lasted so long there are few classical musicians left. A cousin in Minneapolis sent me a copy of a program from a Covenant church that had a prelude on the organ by Bach, anthems—true anthems, liturgy, and straightforward hymns, but I don’t know many other evangelical churches that do that. To you that do, I say, “Hang on!”

What activities are you involved in now that you’re really retired?

Years ago I started writing a memoir, and I’ve had so much fun just writing it, I’m on my 15th chapter. 

Are you going to publish it?

No—somebody else can! The title of the 15th chapter is the name of the retirement community where we live now, Plymouth Place. And that’s the end. Plymouth Place has been ideal—it has so many people with all kinds of ideas and interesting backgrounds. There are a lot of Congregationalists, a lot of Catholics, a lot of Lutherans. I wake up remembering that my first memory of Billy Graham was in Western Springs, Illinois, and he was considered too conservative by most of the people in this place.

You know, for me, I’m back where I started. I grew up in a communal living center and now, though we never thought we’d go to a retirement home, it’s a perfect situation. Our needs are cared for and we can use our energy to do what we want to do. 

What do you think music will be like in heaven?

On earth, we’re preparing to worship in eternity—why don’t we do it the biblical way? Thank goodness, the biblical way is happening in some places, and I have faith that God will not let it die.

At this point in the interview, Mrs. Hustad interjected and asked if she and her husband could share the prayer by John Donne which they said every night. Dr. Hustad agreed and—together—they recited:

Since I am coming to that holy room

Where, with Thy choir of saints forevermore,

I shall be made Thy music, as I come

I tune the instrument here at the door,

And what I must do then, think now before.

—from Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness, by John Donne (1572–1631)⁸

On January 14, 2013, Dr. Hustad addressed the music faculty and students at Moody Bible Institute for what turned out to be his final time. He distributed a handout, which included his personal credo (see sidebar) and an outline of his lecture titled “Creation, Culture and Musica Mundana.”⁹ The lecture covered the biblical story of music from creation to the music of heaven, the history of church music from Greek culture through 19th-century Romanticism, and the history of Moody from the music promulgated by Moody’s founder, evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899) through the history of contemporary Christian music. He challenged the students (1) to use the hymnal, even in personal devotions; (2) to use all kinds of music; and (3) to use their education in music. He also reminded them that we are not called to be successful; rather we are called to be faithful. Finally, he left the following exhortations ringing in our ears: 

Worship God!

Teach what God taught!

Live out truth!

Sing to the glory of God!

Ruth Hustad died less than one month after her husband, on July 18, 2013. Their daughter Marcia reported that as her mother was saying goodbye to her father, she said, “Don’t walk too fast, darling…I’ll be right behind you.” The memorial service Mrs. Hustad had planned for Dr. Hustad was revised and became a double ceremony, celebrating both their lives. The service was held July 27, 2013, at Western Springs Baptist Church, the church where Billy Graham was pastor when he first became famous. Current members and alumni of the Moody Chorale sang at the service under the direction of longtime former conductor and faculty member emeritus Gerald H. Edmonds. Their repertoire included an excerpt from Brahms’s Requiem and an original anthem with both words and music by Hustad, “Prayer Before Singing,” which was published in the 1950’s (copyright 1959, Hope Publishing) and recorded by the Chorale. 

Notes

1. Hustad’s life and contributions to church music have been well documented by Rhonda S. (Rogers) Furr, especially (1) in her dissertation, Rhonda S. Rogers, “The Life and Work of Donald Paul Hustad,” DMA dissertation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1988; (2) in her article “Jubilate!—‘Shout for Joy!’ 70 Years in Church Music: Donald Hustad,” The Hymn, Vol. 47, No. 2 (April 1996); and (3) in her contributions to Jubilate, Amen!: A Festschrift in Honor of Donald Paul Hustad, Timothy W. Sharp & Paul Richardson, editors, Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2010 (see “Biography,” pages 23-55, and “Bibliography,” pages 57–103). 

Another good resource for information about Hustad is the Donald Paul Hustad Collection (SC 5585), Special Collection, Harwell G. Davis Library, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.

2. Hustad met Ruth McKeag on February 12, 1942, and they were married on November 28, 1942. They had three daughters and were married for over 70 years. Lorimer Memorial Baptist Church was at 73rd St. and St. Lawrence Avenue on Chicago’s south side. It later moved to Dolton, Illinois, and today is called New Community Church and includes two locations in Chicago’s suburbs, one in Dolton and the other in Park Forest.

3. During his last year at John Fletcher College, Hustad’s keyboard talent earned him his first church job at the First Methodist Church in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he taught himself basic organ technique. Following graduation in 1940, he continued playing organ for another year when he worked at two churches in the Chicago area, filling in for the organist who was on leave at Ravenswood Methodist Church on Sunday mornings and assisting at the Christian Catholic Church (now Christ Community Church) in Zion, Illinois, on Sunday afternoons.

4. George Beverley Shea (1909–2013) was best known as a soloist who sang with Billy Graham’s Crusades, beginning in 1947. Shea died on April 16, 2013, at the age of 104, only a few months before Hustad died.

5. Hustad was also associated with other radio programs that originated in the Chicago area, most notably the American Broadcasting Radio network’s Club Time, a 15-minute weekly program of hymns, and the longtime popular radio series, Songs in the Night, for which Hustad played organ for two decades beginning in 1947. Songs in the Night began in 1943 and since 1968 has been produced and broadcast by the Moody Church, an organization separate from Moody Bible Institute (though named after the same 19th-century evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody) and also located in downtown Chicago.

6. It may be assumed that Hustad’s conducting of a nationally known choir, the Moody Chorale, and his outstanding improvisation skills made it possible for him to “bypass” course work in conducting and service playing, leaving his remaining studies in various areas of music literature, primarily choral and organ. His two doctoral research projects, both completed in 1963, were “A Study of Sacred Choral Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams” and “The Organ Music of Paul Hindemith.” Hindemith died in 1963, making Hustad’s project the first major document that covered the complete organ works of the composer.

7. Frank W. Van Dusen began teaching at Wheaton College in 1935; he also taught at the American Conservatory in Chicago.

8. This is the first strophe of six in Donne’s Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness. Some scholars suggest Donne wrote it when he was on his deathbed, 1630–1631. Others suggest it was written during a life-threatening illness in 1623.

9. Musica mundana means the “music of the spheres” or universal music, the music that occurred in God’s creation as differentiated from the music of heaven and its angels.

10. E-mail from Marcia Hustad, July 19, 2013.

11. Billy Graham returned to lead Western Springs Baptist Church’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1962. Don Hustad participated in organ dedications at this church in 1962 and again in 1980.

The following deals with the most important debate in the German Christian churches: the crisis within the church and the consequences of that crisis to church music today.  Such a situation may easily create the impression of that whining attitude of which we Germans are usually suspicious. But the subject is very urgent to us, and we church musicians cannot ignore it by any means. Moreover, the fact that in Germany the whole system of professional church music as a unique cultural domain is put on half-pay, seems to justify the following statements of mine. The Protestant Church of Germany will hold the spotlight throughout my lecture because 1) I am a member of this church, and 2) I am able to show you the problems firsthand I mention here.

The following words are from articles in the Forum Kirchenmusik magazine, all of them chosen at random within the last year. They capture the essence of the problems I shall discuss.

1. Tastenhengst or entertainer--expectations of the parish for the church musician.

2. Stress, conflicts, squabbling--and this in the church?

                  3. Training in popular church music

                  4. Professional organization--why?

                  5. The need to cut costs in the church and the future of the church

                  6. Declaration about Protestant pedagogical responsibility concerning church music

                  7. Church music--the professional image in transition

                  8. Cooperation of church musicians and theologians

                  9. Declaration concerning the situation of church music positions in the German Protestant Church

 10. Declaration of the Central Council of church musicians concerning the evaluation of professional     church musicians

 11. Changes of the laws for (hiring) and firing

 12. Being a church musician in the North German Lutheran Church is like being caught between preaching and at the same time being fired (a German play on words: "Ein Spagat zwischen Kündigung und Verkündigung")

If you now have the impression that we church musicians no longer find any joy or satisfaction in our positions, I have to admit that it may be like that in some cases. For it is undeniable that in many parts of the church we have a climate of insecurity and fear. This concerns all staff members, including theologians.

Protestant and Catholic Churches in Germany: Basic Structures

Protestant church music in Germany was characterized during the last 50 years by great prosperity and a high degree of commitment. But now it would appear that we have reached a situation of a great crisis similar to that of the Amtskirche (official church) itself.

The rich variety in our church music was developed from the new beginning and the efforts to revive it in large Christian churches in Germany after the Second World War. There seems to be no other country with a Christian tradition where church music has such an important place within the church structure--shown, for example, in the distinction between full-time and part-time positions for which one needs adequate diplomas corresponding to the classification of church musician positions. To understand the problems concerning church music in Germany, it is necessary to understand the structure of the big churches.

At the time of the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the Protestant Church in Germany, with its respective Landeskirchen (regional state churches), and the Catholic Church signed a contract with the state, following the end of the Nazi dictatorship and the end of the "official state-approved churches" dominated by the regime. This contract regulates and establishes the system of coordination between the state and churches. Both Protestant and Catholic churches demand their independence given to them by national law and guaranteed by the federal constitution.

Within the last fifty years we in Germany have developed a system of so-called Amtskirche, whose presence is demonstrated in many spheres of society. This happens by common consent and is often supported by the state in a kind of symbiosis. The institutionalization of the churches in state and society led to an enormous increase of influence of the Amtskirchen, as in the question of religion as a subject in schools, or in being granted the right of running social services like kindergartens or hospitals under church auspices, often in fact with the churches functioning as the sole bearer of financial responsibility. In that sense the expression Volkskirche (people's church) was developed. It both refers to the fact that in Germany most people belong to one of the two large churches and also to the responsibility these churches have for the people. As for the first point, the present decline of membership percentages appears to imply that the Volkskirche is approaching the end of its existence or, at least, that it needs a radically renewed orientation. The state collects a tax from individuals for support of the church--but one may opt out of paying this tax.

The individual Landeskirchen, whose borders usually correspond to those of the German states (Bundesländer), all have their own church constitutions. (The borders of the Catholic dioceses are often different, due to historical tradition.) The Landeskirchen developed into Lutheran, Reformed, or United traditions. Their central organization is the EKD (Evangelische Kirche Deutschlands) with its General Synod. The Catholics have a similar organization in their Conference of German Bishops. Although the constitutions of the individual Landeskirchen may be different, they have the same organization, a parish with its council, the synod (deanery), and central synod (Landeskirche). This closely corresponds with the political structure of community (town, city), county, and state. A major difference between the Protestant and Catholic churches is the different emphasis of the role played by lay people.

In the Protestant Church, apart from their functions in services, theologians and laymen are considered equal. This may consequently lead to regional differences in parish life. On the synod level, for example in the Nordelbische Kirche (church in the north Elbe River area), there is financial independence. Other examples are the supervision of theologians and church workers, or the extensive autocracy of the local parish in my own Nordelbische Kirche. In contrast to that, the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church of Germany is similar to those in many other countries. But the Catholic Church has nearly the same basic structure in church music organization as the Protestant churches.

The Crisis of the Amtskirchen

Secularization, individualism, the loss of values, moral and spiritual disorientation, self-complacency and sluggishness of the Amtskirchen are the keywords in the crisis of the church. Without any doubt, the system of the Amtskirche finds itself in a major crisis. The number of people who have left the church in the large cities is a simple demonstration of this fact.  Hamburg is an extreme example of that, as only about 34% of the population are still members of the church and pay church taxes. An apparent contradiction to this, though, is the rich and blooming church music offered in the Hauptkirchen, the main churches such as St. Michaelis, St. Jacobi, St. Petri, or St. Katherinen.

The subject of highest priority in all areas of community life has been, for a number of years, the so-called Struktur-    debatten (debate on administrative strucures within the church), or "How can a church still fulfill its varied tasks with less and less money," or if I may put it more bluntly, "Where shall the church start saving money?" What makes things even more difficult is my observation that there is a lack of self-critique and innovative thinking on the side of those who are responsible--namely the church's governing body.

The Special Situation of the Churches of East Germany

Since the reunification of Germany in 1989, the churches of East Germany have undergone a great change in many ways. Fewer and fewer people find their way to the church, since the church is no longer a center of resistance against the communist regime, a regime that had restricted all spiritual life over a long period of time. The number of people belonging to the church has dramatically diminished, even more than in the west of Germany. For that reason the financial problems are even greater than in the west. One example may suffice: despite its rich cultural and musical tradition, the city of Dresden offers only one Protestant A position, in the famous Kreuzkirche. And the choir of that church, the well-known Kreuzchor, is partly financed by the city of Dresden.

Church music training in the (formerly East) German Democratic Republic, by the way, had been different. A B musician got his training not only in church music but also as a deacon; s/he did not have the same qualifications as his/her counterpart in West Germany. This has now been assimilated to what we have in West Germany. In times of less money, one talks again about the match of training and positions. There are even sometimes advertisements showing that for a church musician they expect not only musical qualifications but also the background to do the work of a deacon or sexton.

Protestant and Catholic Church Music

Church music has its firm place in the Protestant Church, as even the church constitution gives it the official role co-equal to that of preaching the word. There are great differences between the individual Landeskirchen concerning the institutional endorsement of church music. Especially the Lutheran Nordelbische Kirche, with its rich tradition of highly-esteemed church music, remains passive in the face of new negative developments in this area. I shall later refer to the current problems in this particular Landeskirche.

About Training and Positions

One can earn a German church music degree (A or B) at any Staatliche Musikhochschule or at one of the Kirchenmusikschulen, which are either Protestant or Catholic. Other possibilities include studying church music at private conservatories, which offer only the B program.

Kirchenmusikschulen, as well as other organizations of the Landeskirchen, offer courses of two semesters for a non-professional degree; we call it C. Basically it is the same program, but on a lower level. Holding this C degree gives less-trained musicians a simple practical advantage: their income is slightly improved over unschooled musicians, and they are not depending so much on arbitrary payments.

Both programs--Catholic and Protestant--are nearly identical; however, all staff members are obliged to belong to their respective denomination. Even at the Staatliche Musikhochschulen there are always two departments of church music. And at every test, whether organ playing or hymnology, there will be a representative present of the respective church; otherwise the test is not regarded as legal.

The basis of training and positions is the B degree, which one usually earns after 6 to 8 semesters. It includes a complete variety of church music, in theory and in practice. In recent years attempts to improve the musician's knowledge in the field of popular music and children's choirs has occurred, although these attempts do not find common approval. At least the level of the B degree has gained a higher reputation within the last twenty years.

A student with an above-average diploma usually gains admittance to further studies of four semesters, ending with the A degree. At this level of studies, the focus is placed on artistic abilities, especially organ playing and choral and orchestral conducting. More and more A program students volunteer to do special studies. These students work primarily on the topics of organ playing or conducting, namely during studies abroad that often include practical experience in establishing performances of historical performance practice.

We already face budgetary deficits because of the financial problems of the Landeskirchen running the Kirchenmusikschulen. The well-known Johannisstift in Berlin was closed recently. Other Kirchenmusikschulen try to survive by cooperating with other schools. Even the Staatliche Musikhochschulen, though disposing of contracts with the churches, think about cooperation or cutting down their educational programs.

In Germany we have eighteen Staatliche Musikhochschulen and more than twenty Kirchenmusikschulen, or conservatories. It must be said quite clearly that there are too many of them, if you look at the opportunity of positions for graduates. For there is one perceptible tendency: not enough positions for all students. Often A musicians apply for B positions, and many of those are part-time positions!

It is not hard to explain the typical profile of a B position. It contains everything that can be done by a church musician--playing the organ, making music with vocal and instrumental groups and the community, and performing concerts, as the case may be. This may even include the performance of oratorios, depending on the local situation. I know of a B church where they perform Verdi's Requiem or similar repertory, on a remarkably high level. But this is not very common.

B positions are usually found in places with some favorable conditions allowing professional work. Here are the principles of our Central Council, as they are instrumental for having a B position in a parish:

First, the local conditions: a church with enough space for making music and an audience, appropriate rehearsal rooms and music scores for professional work

Second, the organ: it should have at least two manuals and pedal

Third, the choir: it must be possible to do qualified singing (which is not clearly defined)

Fourth, financial resources: there must be money enough for the various tasks of professional church music including performances with orchestra and soloists (in many places this is no longer possible!)

The A position does not fundamentally differ from a B position. Typical A churches are the larger churches, situated in the center of big cities, but may also be found in important towns in rural surroundings with sufficient resources. There have to be specific artistic achievements in organ playing and/or choral performance. The size of the church should be suitable for big events. The organ should have three manuals and allow the playing of pretentious organ literature. An accomplished choir (especially for a cappella repertory) is a decisive condition; the same is true as for regular performances of oratorios.

Many A positions, and some B too, have to take care of overseeing regional tasks: helping other colleagues in the district, teaching, shaping expert opinions, activities in the field of professional organizations, and so on. In most Landeskirchen these colleagues do this position in a combination of 75% parish and 25% district work; for example, the work being paid for by both parish and the synod. In the synods of my own Nordelbian Landeskirche, however, we have a different system: the respective colleagues do all the parish work and the deanery (synod) position for free, receiving money only for related expenses.

Within the last years the difference between A and B has become smaller-- last, but not least, because the standards of the B degree have risen. Therefore, we are now in dialogue to determine whether we should have only one professional church music degree.

All other parishes, in small villages or suburbs, have non-professional church musicians or none at all. The tendency is that it is more and more difficult to get people to do these tasks. The reasons for that may be different: there is certainly a connection to the changing situation of the professional church musician; additionally, many potential volunteer musicians have changed how they spend their leisure time, especially on weekends.

Popular Church Music

For several years, it has become possible at some schools to study "popular church music." For example, at the Fachakademie für evangelische Kirchenmusik at Bayreuth you can take popular church music courses for one year in an A or B program. The reason for this is "that there is, established in the church for many years now, a popular church music scene with bands, youth choirs, concerts and festivals, and publishers and editors' labels. In view of these numerous activities, church musicians should have appropriate competence to justify the importance of popular church music in spiritual context" (quoting from the Fachakademie's literature). In a weekly two-hour program the contents of theory, hands-on practical knowledge (performance in a band, or bandleader), and computer/music electronics (arranging, composition, printing with computer software) are taught in close connection with each other. The subject of harmony includes analysis of the standards of jazz, pop, and rock, chord symbols, reharmonization, and scales. While listening to sound tracks of different music styles one tries to connect practical music making with typical patterns of the band. The students gain basic knowledge of playing band instruments as the basis for creating their own arrangements. Of what use is the best arrangement if it can only be played by a professional musician? Most students develop the right feeling that a funk can really "groove!"

The students are taught one hour a week in groups. They learn harmonization of tunes, voicings, accompaniment patterns in various styles, solo improvisation (for example, blues), and so on. The intention to train professional pop musicians in one year would be wrong. The real aim is to sensitize and interest the students in order to channel enthusiasm for this music with which many people identify nowadays.

The echo to this development has been--as could not be expected differently--by no means unanimous. Most Musikhochschulen and most Kirchenmusikschulen look at these new tendencies with great skepticism, but also with some sense of powerlessness.

About Training of Ministers

A few remarks on the situation of theological training are necessary only because we are concerned with it. Classes offered during one's theological training on hymnology and liturgy have decayed; therefore, we often needlessly face problems concerning the competence of both church musicians and ministers. On one hand, the minister may decide freely, according to his conscience and taste, how the service shall unfold. On the other hand, the church musician is just as responsible for shaping the service. As expressed in the Nordelbisches Kirchenmusikergesetz (Church Musician's Handbook), one can read that in case of doubt, solve the problem on your own!

This is a dilemma because the qualifications of the two sides are very often different. Sometimes there are complaints about non-professional handling of the sermon and the proper use of language. Rhetoric knowledge and simple rules of technically good speaking are rare. In seminary training, there was no opportunity afforded the seminarians to experience the liturgy and hymns as they are to be sung. Perhaps a knowledge of appropriate liturgical music would have kept theology students from being reported to the police for disturbing the peace (as once did the young Martin Luther) by singing in quiet streets at night. Nonetheless, most young theologians are very interested in teamwork with church musicians.

Almost everything I have said about Protestant church music is transferable to the Catholic church. Small differences may be found in the hierarchical system. A difference may be the interpretation of everyone's role: the Catholic church musician usually works independently, while Protestant colleagues are more or less obliged to partnership or teamwork.

The Situation in the Nordelbische lutherische Kirche

I love music, and I do not like the "enthusiasts" who condemn it. I love music, firstly, because it is a gift of God and not of men; secondly, it makes peoples' souls happy; thirdly, it drives off the devil; fourthly, it creates innocent joy, thereby outbreaks of anger, desires, and pride disappear. I say that music is in the first rank after theology . . . ; fifthly, because it reigns at times of peace. So, bear it, but this art will be better off with those who live after us, because they will live in peace. . . .

To some of my musical colleagues within the Nordelbische Kirche this famous quote from Martin Luther, dated 1530, may sound like a scornful description of the present day situation of our church music.

In this context I would like to call your attention to the Nordelbische Kirche again. It is the area of Schleswig-Holstein, including Hamburg and Lübeck, and is the newest of all German Protestant Landeskirchen. Although it did not exist before 1978, it has attracted the attention of the public much more than any other church. There may be several reasons for this; perhaps no other German church follows such varied theological and political tendencies, which constantly fight violently against each other. Or think of the fact that only recently the first German female bishop's seat was established in Hamburg. Or think of the dissents and intrigues about the successor of the Hamburg St. Michaeliskantor, of which you could read in all important German newspapers, and even in the magazine Der Spiegel. In many ways the Nordelbische Kirche reflects the essential aspects of clerical reality.

The Lutheran tradition of a singing and music-making church has always been extremely rich in this area. Since their foundation, Hanseatic cities such as Hamburg, Lübeck, or Lüneburg were able to afford outstanding church music. The heritage of that time can still be noticed, for example, in the wonderful historic organs, most of them beautifully restored. Names like Scheidemann, Weckmann, Tunder, Lübeck, or Buxtehude are widely known. Beginning in this century, in the 1950s, a dense network of professional church music centers has been woven, especially in the Hamburg and Lübeck areas--more than in any other part of Germany.

Against the background of this musical tradition it is even more unpleasant than anywhere else to see our whole profession disintegrate or disappear. There are no concepts up to this moment to prevent this tendency. The Landeskirchenmusikdirektor, the head of church music in the Nordelbische Kirche, sometimes sarcastically refers to himself as the "grave-digger of Nordelbische church music."

This drastic definition is certainly not always helpful, because the representative of church music should not speak like this in public, but there is an essential point in it, which you can verify easily by statistics. For that purpose I want to give you some actual figures, which you can find in two texts edited in two memoirs (Denkschriften) by Landeskirchenmusikdirektor Dieter Frahm in 1995 and 1998. Behind the crude numbers lie explosives for many church musicians. Around 1980 we in the Nordelbische Kirche had almost no professional part-time positions. By 1995 there were 55 A positions and 254 B positions, 90 of which were already part-time positions. Only three years later, in 1998, this changed to 51 A and 213 B positions, 81 of which are now part-time positions. In the large city of Hamburg, in a period of 8 to 9 years, more than 30% of church musicians lost their full-time B positions; in Lübeck more than 20%. It is not an exaggeration to speak about a dramatic development. Frahm wrote "If the basis of having professional positions shakes and crumbles--and this is the case now--the whole tradition of church music and culture will die."

The shining medal granted by the privilege of extensive authority within the local parishes now shows its darker side: every parish can practically do what it wants. And unfortunately it is true that any church council, when it feels the necessity of saving money, first of all kills the music. And no piece of advice from higher clerical authorities has to be feared because the ways of decision in financial and other matters are usually organized on the lower level of the parishes, which forms a remarkable difference to other Landeskirchen in Germany. There is no strict supervision; there are spongy laws that may be interpreted in different ways, and therefore often produce arbitrariness of church councils.

The problem of part-time positions is serious also in another respect: the contracts are often obscure or problematic. A person is offered a half-time position, which also means half the wage, but it is expected that the work exceeds fifty percent by far. And if some critic, not long ago, could rightly have teased us church musicians with the malicious remark that the abundance of "nordelbian" church music is now shrinking down to a normal standard, we could respond with the same tone that there are now some areas where you do not find any professional church musicians at all. Certainly the large Hamburg Hauptkirchen like St. Michaelis or St. Petri or St. Jakobi will always want and will have outstanding church music. But in middle-sized and smaller cities the shortages have already caused painful gaps.

In this context, we are aware of increasing demands from the side of our theologians that we should increase our commitment of personal time as an addition to our "contract" time, an attempt that ignores the already high level of that private commitment most of us currently exert. It is indeed a subtle pressure that is often exerted on the staff. Even "squabbling" is no longer a foreign word in parish life.

There are not many places in the Nordelbian area anymore where you can observe the will and the readiness to look for solutions on the basis of real solidarity--a term which is still an essential principle that should not be dispensed with. And the people in charge sometimes disregard the fact that church music often is an important activity in a parish and sometimes it is the sole activity that remains, as it continues to be attractive to people of all age groups.

There are some hopeful attempts to solve these problems, which in part have already been put into reality, and they are usually summed up under the term of "cooperation." This works pretty well in big cities, especially when the parishes are within neighboring districts. And, in addition, single synods try to develop regional employment schemes and to put the burden on positions of church musicians under their influence, which is to say that the synods, quoting the idea of solidarity, ask certain favors from the single parishes that they, for moral--not legal--reasons cannot possibly deny. The goal is to guarantee a kind of minimum employment within the area, as we have had for a long time in south German churches. The motto is: Better one full-time position than two part-time positions!

I myself work in a group of theologians and church musicians who all try to develop a system of safe positions in our area. Ten years ago in my deanery (synod) with its 22 parishes, we had one A position, 8 full-time B positions, one part-time position, and the rest were non-professional ones. Now we still have the A position, three full-time B positions, and six part-time positions.

Current Tendencies

Here are some recent advertisements from magazines concerning church music positions. These advertisements cast a spotlight on the actual situation and emotional sensitivity on the side of both employers and employees:

Landshut (100% A). This represents in a good sense the typical A position, an offer which is now becoming something like a fossil: favorable opportunities, rich endowment, support by a fundraising organization, real commitment to high level church music, well-organized choir groups.

Düsseldorf (80% A). This advertisement refers to the position of Oskar Gottlieb Blarr, a widely-known colleague, who had exerted his position with unique profile and style. Now the same standard is requested, but at only 80% of his former salary.

Göttingen (90% A). Once more, a well-known A position in Germany, and again the same amount and quality of work is expected from the side of the future position holder, this time at 90% salary.

Eppendorf (formerly an A position). This time, the A position is in one of the well-known and wealthy neighborhoods of Hamburg, yet it is only a small church. It is the parish in which the Nordelbische Landeskirchenmusikdirektor formerly worked, and payments are now reduced to the ones of a B position. Of course, the traditional standard of work has to be preserved.

Quickborn (temporary). It is really unnerving to read this ad because it symptomatically reveals the present-day problems: the offer is for a three-year time period at 100% payments of a B position, then going down to 75%, and then, who knows?

Bielefeld (B 60%). This time the offer is just 60% of a full-time position.

Herchen (B 50%). Another variation of the same melody: a 50% position, an ad that one will find very often. An interesting item is the note that the parish could also do with a non-professional church musician. It is interesting, because the parish officials are bold enough to trespass the borders of legal rights in mixing up two levels of professional qualifications.

Ottensen (B 50-100%). This last example demonstrates something like autocratic behavior of certain parishes. Here, the important message is that they can put a person on the position at payments varying from 50 to 100%, as the case may be. At any rate, the parish, as usual, wants the complete spectrum of church music. Note the sarcasm at the end of the advertisement, where it says:

We do not consider a church musician

-who regards the parish as his monopoly

-who believes that he can do best if he is left alone high up on the organ

-who would be unwilling to play on the organ the famous tune of Pippi Longstocking [a character in Astrid Lindgren's children's movies].

Conclusion

Every profession undergoes certain changes over time, and, of course, church music is not an exception. Nevertheless, it is surprising how often and how easily valuable traditions and successful work in a famous field of German culture are regarded as questionable and dispensable. Many people say that within the next generation the position of the church musician in its traditional form and structure that has grown for decades will cease to exist. This will not surprise those who anyway speculate that the Amtskirche with its obsolete peculiarities will not be able to survive. Some prophets predict that churches in Germany will move in a direction like the ones in North America and, as a matter of fact, there are certain symptoms of such a development. At any rate, quite a number of my colleagues are convinced that, within a few years, our profession of church music will not exist anymore.

I myself do not feel as our "grave-digger," since work, itself, with people, still offers great joy. There are not many professions in which the meaning of "profession" and "vocation" are so close together--in my language we have the play of words Beruf and Berufung. In this sense I am sure to speak for most of my colleagues who really love their profession. Often it is solely church music that opens the church door for many people who otherwise are very critical of the Amtskirche as an institution. Herein lies a great opportunity for the church of securing itself, an opportunity that should be appreciated more and squandered less.

R. E. Coleberd is an economist and petroleum industry executive.

In the March, 1997, edition of this journal we published
"Is The Pipe Organ A Stepchild In Academe?" The purpose was to call
attention to the perilous status of the King of Instruments in many
institutions of higher learning and to suggest concrete ways to shore up its
uncertain future. We closed the article with a call to action, a plea for
concerned friends of the organ--faculty, students, alumni and laymen--to take
determined action. We cited two examples of what is required: "Friends of
the Northrop Organ" at the University of Minnesota and alumni tours of
Woolsey Hall at Yale University, and we mentioned a followup article spotlighting promising developments.

The purpose of this article is to review the nature of the
problem in the context of the current complexion of higher education and to
discuss several auspicious programs in some detail.  The wholesale neglect, abandonment, and sell-off of organs
in colleges and universities which, sadly, threatens to continue, is perceived
as a nationwide phenomenon. This situation is attributed to the emergence of a
pervasive market-driven mentality in academe. Ill-advised budget officers and state legislatures are today preoccupied with student numbers and credit hours as the overriding criteria for funding. Policy and operating decisions by
administrators are based upon a frantic search for "hot buttons"
(computer science and genetic engineering, for example) to bolster enrollment
amid intense competition for students who are increasingly vocationally
oriented in their choice of school and curriculum. This short-sighted pragmatic
approach threatens the distinguishing features of a campus setting and its
time-honored mission as the repository of our culture, and the harbinger of our
future as a cultivated society.

In preparing this article the author has talked with a score
of music professors in all types of schools, public and private, large and
small, coast to coast. He has discovered some remarkable programs, which are
attracting institutional and community support leading to increased student
enrollment and funding. If the bold and imaginative initiatives taken by many
schools are adopted by others, the pipe organ has a bright future in academe.

Invaluable Goods

We repeat our premise that a pipe organ is not merely an
appliance or teaching device, but is a campus jewel along with the telescope,
the book collection and the art gallery. So recognized, these treasures should
be impervious to cost-cutting, down-sizing and departmental budget allocations
based upon enrollment. They should be classified as "invaluable
goods," a concept eloquently articulated by Professor Kenneth Arrow of
Stanford University, an internationally renowned economist awarded the Nobel
Prize in economics in 1972.  The
occasion for his commentary is his review of Margaret Jane Radin's seminal work
Contested Commodities in which her fear is that "actions which are
essential to personal identity fall under the sway of the market and are
measured by its criteria." Arrow's concept of invaluable goods rests upon
the belief that certain aspects of human life are so essential to whole
personhood that their existence and ultimate value cannot be measured in
dollars and cents. They are not--and should not be--bartered in the marketplace
and their value should not be judged by a monetary payoff. He acknowledges that
this concept is symptomatic of  a
failure of economics (and of the market mentality): "One of the oldest
critiques of economic thinking has been its perceived disregard of the deeper
and more sacred aspects of life" he writes.1 In short, when we begin, or
insist on, valuing the fundamentals of human life in terms of money, putting a
price on them and, without hesitation, buying and selling them based on this
criterion, we are asking for trouble. One example Arrow gives of invaluable
goods is children. No matter how poor or desperate a family might be, the idea
of selling the children is utterly unthinkable. Is it time that we invoke the
spirit of invaluable goods in our colleges and universities and declare the
pipe organ and other jewels of the campus as integral to the deeper and more
sacred aspects of the higher learning, and thereby untouchable?

We continue with the admonition that the trancendent
three-dimensional sound of a majestic pipe organ, as heard in an auditorium
convocation or chapel service, can evoke emotions which contribute immeasurably
to a vital sense of identity and community in the collegiate experience. One
striking, if novel, example of the lasting imprint of this experience is in
Robert L. Duffus's delightful little book The Innocents at Cedro. It
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  recounts the year 1907-08 when Duffus
and his brother William kept house for Thorstein Veblen in their sophmore year
at Stanford University. The publisher described the book as "an
unforgettable evocation of American college life in the early 1900s."
Written in 1944 near the close of a distinguished career in journalism as a
member of the editorial board of the New York Times, Duffus recalled what,
nearly four decades earlier, were his most cherished memories of college life,
the experiences that meant the most to him. Among them was joining fellow
students for a sack lunch on the quadrangle and listening to Professor Blodgett
practicing on the chapel organ. "The music would rumble along, formless in
the distance, but pleasant and tranquil" he wrote. 2

Auditorium Organs

We noted in the previous paper that the auditorium and its
majestic pipe organ have all but disappeared as a centerpiece of campus
activity. Too small for many functions or pre-empted by the drama department,
the auditorium often stands anonymously as a symbol of the vast increase in
enrollment and of specialized curricula, which together with other forces, have
compartmentalized student life into various "schools,"
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  i.e., engineering, business, nursing,
agriculture and others. We are happy to have discovered two exceptions.

Mansfield University

Mansfield University in Pennsylvania is one of fourteen
former state teachers colleges which now comprise the "University
System."  Its two organs are a
25-stop three-manual Austin, Opus 297, 1917, in Strawn Auditorium and a 27-stop
three-manual Moller, Opus 10652, 1970, in the Stedman Theater wing of the
Butler Music Building.

  These
instruments are the pride and joy of President Rod C. Kelchner, a graduate of
the school, who says: "You would have to drag me across the campus kicking
and screaming to get rid of our organs." He calls them significant symbols
in the ambience and character of the school and its history. He laments that
with the many changes in academe in recent years, history fades and is
forgotten; hence the need for reminders and recognition. Just as furniture
makes a house livable, hospitable to visitors and complements the personalities
of the occupants, so too do the treasures of a campus give it definition and
persona and bridge the generations, he asserts.

President Kelchner's office, not the music department, has
contracted for five maintenance visits per year for these instruments. This is
particularly significant because it illustrates the role the top administration
must play in the recognition and preservation of campus instruments. His
loyalty and devotion are especially noteworthy because Mansfield has not been
immune to organ enrollment trends. When the organ professor retired two years
ago he was not replaced, there are currently no organ majors on campus, and he
has had to go off-campus to find people to play the organ for commencement.

In another gratifying endorsement of music and its place in
the history of Mansfield, which will gladden the hearts of musicians
everywhere, President Kelchner chose Carl Ruck, a graduate of the school, as
commencement speaker two years ago. A well-known keyboard performer in the
Washington, D.C. area, Mr. Ruck also performs frequently on campus and is a
member of the alumni board. Kelchner toyed recently with the idea of a "non-traditional"
commencement, calling for the speaker, a musician, to be seated at the organ
console in Strawn Auditorium, playing and narrating classical music and its
place in time-honored liberal education, providing an alternative to the customary remarks to graduates.   

Boston University

The John R. Silber Symphonic Organ in the George Sherman
Union at Boston University is an eloquent example of the role of a pipe organ
as a distinctive jewel in a campus setting This instrument originated from gifts
of two residence organs to the school by prominent trustees who recognized the
lasting value of them in America's musical heritage and whose resources and
devotion to the school found expression in creating this one-of-a-kind campus
jewel.  The first organ was a small
Skinner in the home of Percy Rockefeller in Greenwich, Connecticut. The second
was a larger Aeolian from the Winchester mansion of William E. Schrafft, the
Boston candy-maker. Meticulously restored and greatly enlarged by organbuilder
Nelson Barden, this spectacular instrument resides in Metcalf Hall in the
Sherman Union, and was dedicated in October, 1994, in honor of Silber, the
Chancellor of Boston University.

This majestic instrument not only replicates the prominence
of an auditorium organ at the turn of the century, it goes a step further in
defining the institution and making a lasting impression on the students. With
102 ranks and 6,815 pipes, displayed prominently with the entire mechanism, the
latter behind plate glass windows, it becomes a commanding presence in the
ambience of student life. As Jonathan 
Ambrosino remarks: "From the start, the instrument was designed to
be a living display of art and technology, restored to perfection and open to
the public.  Whether playing or silent, the organ makes a statement on many artistic levels."3 As students pass through the building daily to and from classes, and as alumni gather for
special occasions,  the visual
presence and glorious sounds of this organ, linking past to present and transcending the cares of life, will evoke a lasting memory.

Promoting the Pipe Organ

In the economic realities of higher education, the market
mentality of administrators and state legislators who view a school today as a
business is here to stay, like it or not. In the final analysis, the best
guarantee of preserving faculty positions, maintaining instruments, and
budgeting scarce resources for tuning and periodic restoration and updating is,
first, never to miss a chance to call attention to the instrument. Second, is
to "shake the bushes" and aggressively recruit students from
traditional sources on campus and non-traditional sources within the community.
The type of missionary zeal required is found in Prof. William Kuhlman of
Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, who says proudly: "I have done everything
but stand on my head to bring about organ awareness and appreciation."
Indeed he has:  organ crawls after
church, summer organ camps for local grade school children, demonstrations for
faculty and board of regents spouses, family camps, church heritage workshops,
Halloween "monster concerts" and presentations to the local Rotary
Club.

In research for this paper the author has surveyed all types
of schools across the nation. He has come upon some enterprising and
imaginative faculty who are "pulling out all the stops" to promote
their departments, programs and instruments with gratifying results.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  For purposes of analysis and
discussion, it is useful perhaps to divide the landscape of higher education
into three categories: small liberal arts colleges, state colleges including
urban branches of state universities, and major music schools and universities,
particularly those noted for professional and graduate study.

Liberal Arts Colleges

The liberal arts colleges were historically church
affiliated and many retain strong church ties today. The Lutheran schools, in
particular, enjoy a rich legacy of liturgical music in the heritage of their
denomination, and churches of all denominations traditionally reflect the
prominence of music in the experience of corporate worship. Thus, the church
connection augurs well for maintaining pipe organs as integral to campus
resources and central to the music program. These schools benefit from an
articulate and active alumni and the corresponding sensitivity of the
administration and trustees to alumni concerns in budgeting decisions. The
choice of liberal arts as an initial course of study is perhaps indicative of a
lesser concern with the vocational job-market payoff in selecting a school and
a curriculum. The church-going life style of students enrolled in these
schools, particularly those students having a musical background and interest,
may cause them to contemplate making a musical contribution to parish life and
to prepare for organ and choral opportunities. Therefore, although these
schools are not totally immune to the market-orientation mind-set, and have
adjusted curriculum to broader trends, they have never suffered such a loss of
organ enrollment as to justify ending the curriculum and liquidating the
instruments. The challenge of these schools is to continue to insure the
rightful place of music in the philosophical and operational image of the
liberal arts and to affirm organ study in music programs, resources and curriculum.

Marylhurst College

Practical Outreach

One of the most imaginative and innovative programs in a
four-year undergraduate curriculum is the one developed by Nancy LeRoi Nichol
at Marylhurst College, a Catholic women's school in Portland, Oregon. Acutely
aware of the precarious position of organ studies in her school and elsewhere,
where faculty are constantly admonished to "double our enrollment"
and to be "accountable" in matching revenue with cost, she has taken
giant steps to expand the student base far beyond the traditional BM and BA
degree programs in organ performance and sacred music. Her efforts benefitted
from a rich tradition in sacred music in the order which founded and operates
the school, and from the George Bozeman rebuild of a vintage Hutchings-Votey
tracker instrument installed in the auditorium in 1995.

Cornerstones of the new format at Marylhurst are two new
classes, a one-semester "Meet the Organ" and a one-year "Basic
Training in Organ." The first class is a semi-private group of three to
four students who, in recent enrollment, have ranged in age from 24 to 74. They
are seeking primarily a general introduction to the instrument. The class may
include non-organ music majors, non-music students from other departments and
music aficionados from the community. It sets its own course of study such as
service playing knowledge and skills, a specific repertory area, or perhaps,
depending on the students, preparation for an AGO exam. The goal of this course
is to foster a love of the instrument and its music, to recognize its singular
historic prominence in the spectrum of music and to promote the contemporary
role of the organ on campus and in the community.

The "Basic Training in Organ" class meets
two-hours a week in three ten-week terms, for a total of 60 hours of
instruction. Enrollment is limited to eight participants who are solicited
through a letter to local clergy of all faiths. It reminds them of the chronic
local, as well as national, shortage of organists and points out that this
economical and efficient program will fulfill their needs. Churches also are
encouraged to subsidize all or part of the students' $1242 per year tuition as
a wise and minimal investment that will pay rich dividends for many years in
the worship life of the congregation. Results have been most encouraging, with
interest coming particularly from piano teachers who welcome the opportunity to
broaden their keyboard experience and to increase their income potential by
becoming part-time church organists. In the class they learn fundamentals of
technique, registration, practical repertoire, and begin each class playing
church hymns.

The new programs more than meet the cost-revenue guidelines
mandated by the administration at Marylhurst. The semi-private group
instruction has been particularly successful in increasing productivity of
faculty resources without any decrease in quality. In Professor Nichol's
experience, the group format, with its collegial and supportive atmosphere for
learning, is far more advantageous to students at this juncture in their
careers than are individual studio lessons. In addition, the group format makes
lessons financially attractive for many students. At the end of the
introductory year the students can choose private lessons or continue in
semi-private instruction in groups of three. The school also has established a
Certificate in Sacred Music option, a two-year program in which one-half of the
curricula is in theology and the other half in music. The success of the
Marylhurst programs can be explained, in part, by the fact that it is primarily
a commuter school in an urban setting. Community outreach and the role of
continuing education is an established factor in its educational philosophy.
Thus, it has long been accustomed to probing the surrounding area for special
educational needs and the corresponding potential for enrollment.

Dordt College

Church Music Training

Dordt College in Sioux Center, (northwestern) Iowa,
illustrates the importance of a strong denominational and cultural tradition in
providing a prominent instrument on campus, and in keeping vibrancy in its
organ curriculum. A comparatively new school, founded in 1955, Dordt is
affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church of Dutch heritage.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Most students are from Christian high
schools where music programs are strong. Many students, including 150 from
Canada, are first or second generation immigrants from Holland where the organ
is a centerpiece of their culture. When these families visit the campus they
ask about the pipe organ. The large Casavant tracker instrument in the
auditorium makes a statement (see photo). Thus, music and the organ program,
established in 1967 by Dr. Joan Ringerwole, are a priority in the mission of
the school. The auditorium platform and instrument are reserved for organ
students from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm, after which it is available for choir, band,
orchestra, and other ensembles. As in many other church-affiliated colleges, a
number of non-music majors take organ lessons, seeking to become good hymn
players and build a repertoire of church music, perhaps in anticipation of
strong church ties as adults and an active role as a musician in the local
parish.

The place of organ in the achievements and image of the
school were recognized in an alumni magazine article, "Playing the organ
is their occupation," featuring four graduates from the 1980s who have
gone on to graduate study and to choice positions in the profession. These
include Dr. Christian Teeuwsen, professor of music at Redeemer College in
Ancaster, Ontario; Dr. Laura Vander Windt, organist and choirmaster at All
Soul's Church in Oklahoma City;  
Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, university organist and music professor at
Eastern Michigan University; and Dr. Martin Tel, chapel organist and lecturer
in church music at Princeton Theological Seminary. "They're a passionate
group. Each of them speaks with warmth and intensity about the organ, its
repertoire and the joy of playing it," the alumni magazine columnist
wrote. Another organ graduate of Dordt, Brent Assink, president of the St. Paul
Chamber Orchestra, was named outstanding alumnus two years ago. A current
student, Bonnie Runia, a senior from Melvin, Iowa, won first place in her
junior year in the National Federation of Music Clubs competition. These people
speak with glowing praise for their teacher, Dr. Ringerwole, who inspired them.
"She was a gentle spirit, always pushing us to pursue excellence but never
hard on us. At the same time she expected a lot from us," said Vander
Windt.4

University of Evansville

Musical Anchor for Liberal
Arts

The University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana,
affiliated with the United Methodist Church, enjoys a rich tradition in organ
which dates back to 1919. The relocation of the school from Moores Hill,
Indiana to Evansville that year coincided with the installation, in the
Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial Colliseum, of a large Moller concert organ.
James Gillette, the first chairman of the music department at the school, was
also the municipal organist. He was succeeded as organ teacher on campus by
Ralph Waterman, who served many years. The program made giant strides in the
1960s under the leadership of Carl Staplin, the nationally-known keyboard
artist now at Drake University, who guided the selection of Holtkamp
instruments for the concert hall and the chapel. Staplin was succeeded by
Robert Luther, who moved to Carleton College in 1975 and he was followed by the
present incumbent, Douglas Reed.

The program also enjoys active support
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  by the administration.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  The president, Dr. James Vinson, a
physicist by training who has a special affinity for organ music, says:
"The presence of the organ at significant ceremonies greatly enhances the
event." The two visiting artists in the annual recital series, in addition
to Reed's faculty recital, are funded by the administration. The college
chaplain, Dr. John Brittain, also an organist, is equally enthusiastic for the
organ program and its place in the school, as are the comparatively large
number of musicians in other departments.

A distinguishing feature of the Evansville liberal arts
philosophy and of the place of music in it, is the three-semester World
Cultures Curriculum. Here Reed presents a lecture on baroque keyboard music and
plays the harpsichord and the two Holtkamp organs. The organ is used
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  during noontime chapel recitals and was
part of a successful "Music at Midnight" event. Another popular event
in recent years was a "Handel with Care" program endowed by an
alumnus. On tours of the campus for visitors and prospective students, student
guides are instructed to call attention to the instruments.

Other attractions at Evansville for prospective organ
students are the Neu Chapel Organ Scholarship, awarded to a freshman, selected
by audition, each year. Also, the community's unusually rich organ resources
represented by Fisk, Jaekel, and Taylor & Boody tracker instruments.
Students are welcomed at performances and in master classes at the First
Presbyterian Church (C. B. Fisk, Opus 98, 1991) funded by the church's Sacred
Arts Series.

Organ Study and Other Curricula

If liberal arts students also are sensitive, ultimately, to
the employment outlook (i.e. the absence of well-paying positions in church
music), a majority of organ students are likely to be part-time while wisely
acquiring marketable skills in other departments. Nonetheless, part-time
non-music degree students are quite enough to support a program and to justify
the security of organ faculty and resources. This is the experience of Dr. John
Behnke of Concordia College in Mequon, Wisconsin. The majority of his students
are in accounting, business, physical therapy and other majors. They welcome
the opportunity to pursue a personal if not a primary career interest. His
appeal to them is based on his fervent belief that the future of the organ and
its role in a liturgical setting 
(where it is the most effective musical vehicle for leading group
singing) is in training grassroots organists. "Playing hymns well, playing
exciting uplifting hymn preludes are of equal importance to the organ
masterworks," he says, adding "I believe training an organist
exclusively for a career as a concert performer is unrealistic." The
importance of a church focus is echoed by Professor John Ferguson at St. Olaf
College who asks: "Why should a church invest in a college or university
trained organist if that person leads congregational singing no more creatively
than an amateur?" His experience suggests that students are interested in
developing skills as church organists as well as performers of the literature.
"They know that most of the professional opportunities are in
churches." The dual focus upon literature and church music at St. Olaf
perhaps explains why the organ department remains strong with 12 Bachelor of Music performance or church music organ majors out of a total of 26 organ students this year.

Much recruiting of high school students for future organ
study is indirect, as Davis Folkerts of Central College in Iowa explains. That
is, it begins with  the admissions
office soliciting applicants in the entire spectrum of music: band, orchestra,
vocal and keyboard. John Hamersma of Calvin College in Michigan finds music
students often are persuaded that organ study wisely complements their basic
program; such as in fulfilling the keyboard requirement in music education, or
as part of a combined degree, perhaps in music and religion. He observes
that  the organ holds a fascination
for students, once on campus, because of its size, visual appearence, range of
pitch, volume and color. Karen Larsen of Wartburg College in Iowa notes that
the flexibility of combined degrees, and of a broad curriculum in music, is
especially appealing to students due to uncertainties of the job market. And as
W. N. Earnest of  The Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, Virginia notes: "Schools of all sizes and the AGO should recognize that churches aren't looking just for organists anymore; they're looking for ministers of music."

In the church affiliated liberal arts colleges, organ
teachers are accustomed to teaching courses as well as studio lessons and, in
fact, they welcome this broad approach to music as integral to their
philosophical approach to education. Professor Rudolf Zuiderveld of Illinois
College considers himself a professor of music, not just
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  of organ. He views himself as an
advocate of the liberal arts and its cosmopolitan approach to learning, a
curriculum he much prefers over a conservatory education at the undergraduate
level.

Drake University

At Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, a regional
privately-supported school, promoting the pipe organ is, in large measure,
maintaining the momentum of its sterling reputation. Drake is an eloquent
example of a thriving private school in a large metropolis (Washington
University in St. Louis is another) which is a focal point of the artistic and
cultural life of the community. It enjoys high visibility and widespread
community financial support. This in turn fosters administrative resource
priorities in support of its image.

Drake is well-known and highly regarded in the organist
profession,  particularly for its
excellent preparation for graduate study. This mirrors its emphasis on
performance. The bachelor's degree curriculum in church music requires the same
number of performance hours as a performance degree. The school's reputation is
also based upon its faculty and resources. The former began with the venerable
Frank Jordan in the 1940s , continued with the legendary Russell Saunders, and
is represented today by the well-known Carl Staplin. The resource attraction is
anchored in the 1972 Fine Arts Complex featuring a 50-rank three-manual
Holtkamp recital  instrument, a
three-manual Reuter studio organ and two modern practice organs. Mechanical
action instruments by Phelps and Dobson in nearby churches are also used for
teaching and recitals. Total organ enrollment of 39 students in 1997-98 attests
to the vibrancy and competitive position of  the school. Drake has recently launched a certification in
church music program encompassing seven courses in church music and eight hours
of studio instruction scheduled in weekend classes and to be completed over two
years.

State Colleges

In our second category of schools are former state colleges,
many of them now universities, which began as teachers colleges, located
regionally throughout the states, and new schools. Grand Valley State
University in Michigan is 
representative of large public institutions which emerged in response to
population growth and voter demand for higher education. It also reflects the
crucial role of private funding in adding essential resources to the base of
public support. Founded only thirty years ago, it enrolls thirty thousand
students, and aggressively recruits from the region with an ever-expanding
array of courses and programs. The Cook-DeWitt ecumenical center and concert
hall, the gift of two families, houses a 27-rank, two-manual Reuter organ. This
instrument permits organ instruction as the initial step in the future development of an organ curriculum.

In this classification we also include branches of state
university systems located in metropolitan areas, schools that are
predominantly vocational in orientation, offering myriad programs for part-time
and full-time day and evening students of all ages. These schools are the
quintessential examples of mass higher education focusing on transmitting
knowledge and skills and on training students for opportunities in the world of
work.

With their emphasis on career preparation in certificate and
degree programs, these publicly-supported schools are expected to bear the
brunt of the projected tidal wave increase in enrollment in the next several
years (400,000 in the next eight years in California alone), placing a premium
on facilities and bringing enormous pressure to increase faculty-student
ratios. The urban campus perhaps will end up resembling Grand Central Station,
with legions of students funneling in and out, moving anonymously through their
huge classes with scarcely any attachment to the school. Adding to this
prospect is the anticipated revolutionary impact of the Internet which in the
long run may diminish seriously the role of the campus in the educational
process. 

Yet sheer numbers and the clamor for low-cost education
should augur well for a minimum number of students in organ. Although campus
facilities may be crowded, the proximity of church instruments nearby, many of
them large and up-to-date, should fill the needs.  These schools will be able to capitalize on nearby
off-campus resources because churches, desperate for revenue, will be only too
glad to rent their faciliies. 

Central Missouri State

Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Missouri,
is symbolic of the transition of a school from having an auditorium organ as a
campus centerpiece to a much larger campus with specialized department
facilities. In 1923 the school installed a three-manual Austin organ in the
auditorium as a memorial to alumni casualties of World War I. Its prominence in
the image of the school was indicated 
by the photograph of the console in the college viewbooks of this era.
Heavily used until after World War II, the organ and the auditorium were
largely abandoned as a music facility when instruction and performance relocated
to a new music building with a McManis organ (see photo) which now services
department needs.

CMSU reflects some developments in state funding which in
their experience have worked to the detriment of organ enrollment. Formerly,
students paid a flat tuition fee per term which covered every type of
instruction, including studio organ lessons at no extra charge. This encouraged
students, many with strong church ties, to study organ as an academic interest
apart from their major field of study. Beginning in 1985, however, the school
moved to a fee schedule based upon number of credit hours. With the rising cost
of higher education, coupled with the premium placed on graduates with
marketable skills, the result of this "pay by the drink" mentality
has been to force students to concentrate on their major and degree
requirements, and to forego organ lessons because of the additional cost. In
Professor William McCandless's judgment, this has caused a noticable reduction
in organ enrollment, omitting those who had looked forward to beginning or
continuing an interest in organ with the resources on campus.

In another far-reaching development in Missouri, perhaps to
occur sooner or later in other states, the legislature has stipulated that each
of the five regional state colleges specialize in a particular curriculum,
ostensibly tied to vocational preparation; one in technology, another in public
service, another in teacher training, etc. The purpose is to foster economies
of scale in educational resources and to stem the tide of rising costs to the
taxpayer. The implications of this development are ominous for the fine arts in
general and music in particular. The legislature has mandated that all future
capital expenditures be channeled into these narrow specialties, and if capital
funds fall short of need, existing resources be converted, without hesitation,
to the newly-concentrated programs. This, in effect, seriously diminishes the
American tradition of liberal higher education and moves these hapless
institutions one step closer to becoming trade schools.

Promotion of the organ by interested people outside the
music department and the school is illustrated by the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.  When Michael
Ferris, the organ teacher, resigned to accept a position at the Eastman School
of Music, the chairman of the music department dragged his feet in appointing a
successor. Clergy at campus churches and thoughout the two cities called and
wrote to the dean pleading with him to replace Ferris, which he did in the
person of Michael Keeley. Steve Shoemaker, pastor of the McKinley Foundation
and Presbyterian Church, observes that In the March, 1997, edition of this
journal we published "Is The Pipe Organ A Stepchild In Academe?" The
purpose was to call attention to the perilous status of the King of Instruments
in many institutions of higher learning and to suggest concrete ways to shore
up its uncertain future. We closed the article with a call to action, a plea
for concerned friends of the organ--faculty, students, alumni and laymen--to
take determined action. We cited two examples of what is required:
"Friends of the Northrop Organ" at the University of Minnesota and
alumni tours of Woolsey Hall at Yale University, and we mentioned a followup article spotlighting promising developments.

The purpose of this article is to review the nature of the
problem in the context of the current complexion of higher education and to
discuss several auspicious programs in some detail.  The wholesale neglect, abandonment, and sell-off of organs
in colleges and universities which, sadly, threatens to continue, is perceived
as a nationwide phenomenon. This situation is attributed to the emergence of a
pervasive market-driven mentality in academe. Ill-advised budget officers and
state legislatures are today preoccupied with student numbers and credit hours
as the overriding criteria for funding. Policy and operating decisions by
administrators are based upon a frantic search for "hot buttons"
(computer science and genetic engineering, for example) to bolster enrollment
amid intense competition for students who are increasingly vocationally
oriented in their choice of school and curriculum. This short-sighted pragmatic
approach threatens the distinguishing features of a campus setting and its
time-honored mission as the repository of our culture, and the harbinger of our
future as a cultivated society.

In preparing this article the author has talked with a score
of music professors in all types of schools, public and private, large and
small, coast to coast. He has discovered some remarkable programs, which are
attracting institutional and community support leading to increased student
enrollment and funding. If the bold and imaginative initiatives taken by many
schools are adopted by others, the pipe organ has a bright future in academe.

Promoting the Pipe Organ

In the economic realities of higher education, the market
mentality of administrators and state legislators who view a school today as a
business is here to stay, like it or not. In the final analysis, the best
guarantee of preserving faculty positions, maintaining instruments, and
budgeting scarce resources for tuning and periodic restoration and updating is,
first, never to miss a chance to call attention to the instrument. Second, is
to "shake the bushes" and aggressively recruit students from
traditional sources on campus and non-traditional sources within the community.
The type of missionary zeal required is found in Prof. William Kuhlman of
Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, who says proudly: "I have done everything
but stand on my head to bring about organ awareness and appreciation."
Indeed he has:  organ crawls after
church, summer organ camps for local grade school children, demonstrations for
faculty and board of regents spouses, family camps, church heritage workshops,
Halloween "monster concerts" and presentations to the local Rotary
Club.

In research for this paper the author has surveyed all types
of schools across the nation. He has come upon some enterprising and
imaginative faculty who are "pulling out all the stops" to promote
their departments, programs and instruments with gratifying results.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  For purposes of analysis and
discussion, it is useful perhaps to divide the landscape of higher education
into three categories: small liberal arts colleges, state colleges including
urban branches of state universities, and major music schools and universities,
particularly those noted for professional and graduate study.

Liberal Arts Colleges

The liberal arts colleges were historically church
affiliated and many retain strong church ties today. The Lutheran schools, in
particular, enjoy a rich legacy of liturgical music in the heritage of their
denomination, and churches of all denominations traditionally reflect the prominence of music in the experience of corporate worship. Thus, the church connection augurs well for maintaining pipe organs as integral to campus resources and central to the music program. These schools benefit from an articulate and active alumni and the corresponding sensitivity of the administration and trustees to alumni concerns in budgeting decisions. The choice of liberal arts as an initial course of study is perhaps indicative of a lesser concern with the vocational job-market payoff in selecting a school and a curriculum. The church-going life style of students enrolled in these schools, particularly those students having a musical background and interest, may cause them to contemplate making a musical contribution to parish life and to prepare for organ and choral opportunities. Therefore, although these schools are not totally immune to the market-orientation mind-set, and have adjusted curriculum to broader trends, they have never suffered such a loss of organ enrollment as to justify ending the curriculum and liquidating the instruments. The challenge of these schools is to continue to insure the rightful place of music in the philosophical and operational image of the liberal arts and to affirm organ study in music programs, resources and curriculum.

Conservatories and Universities

Our third category of schools comprises the nationally known
professional schools and universities including:  Eastman, Oberlin, New England Conservatory, Westminster
Choir College, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Texas and Yale. We are also happy
to note that, contrary to the report in the previous article, Syracuse
University, long a member of the elite group, is again prospering and
attracting students under the dynamic leadership of Katharine Pardee. The
curriculum of these schools is centered on career preparation as a performer or
teacher and, with the exception of Oberlin, focuses primarily on advanced
degrees. 

These prestigous schools enjoy a level of recognition and
support not found elsewhere among private and public institutions. The organ
faculty, with advanced degrees from top-drawer schools, are well-known and
highly esteemed in the profession, by virtue of their recital appearences
before American Guild of Organists gatherings as well as from their
well-publicised recital tours in this country and abroad. Their accomplishments
and high visibility contribute to the luster of the programs, are a key factor
in attracting highly qualified students, and, most important, guarantee vital
institutional support. Status-conscious administrators acknowledge that recital
performances and offices in professional organizations are, in terms of
institutional recognition, almost the equivalent of a Nobel Prize.

In addition, these institutions frequently are beneficiaries
of substantial private funding by wealthy individuals and families who identify
with the school as alumni or as benefactors in the arts. A striking example is
the $50 million 1973 endowment of the School of Sacred Music at Yale University
by Clementine Miller Tangeman, based on the Cummins Engine Company fortune
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  A more recent illustration is the $18
million Simon Music and Library building at Indiana University, now awaiting a
52-stop Rosales tracker organ. This building was funded exclusively by private
subscriptions to the University Foundation, not an appropriation by the
legislature of state tax dollars. 
The University of Iowa music department has also been privately endowed.
The prominence of these schools, in recent times, has hinged significantly on
private funding and their continued prosperity will depend on these sources.

These schools represent what Martin Trow defines as elite
higher education which centers around high ambition and the resources required
to nuture it. This paradigm reflects a close and prolonged relationship between
student and teacher, and the social and physical setting in which this kind of
relationship can exist, i.e., low faculty-student ratios, excellent physical
plant and other resources. It makes high demands on students in the severity of
the curriculum and because of these demands it does not encourage or admit
older or part-time students. It is most likely to be residential, highly
selective and richly staffed. Clearly these schools are in a class by
themselves. As Trow notes: " . . 
. elite higher education is too costly; . . .  only a fraction of students and teachers have the interests,
motivations and ability to profit from the intense and demanding personal and
intellectual relationships that mark it."5

Oberlin College

No discussion of the pipe organ in academe would be complete
without reference to Oberlin College which stands preeminent in the history of
music in colleges and universities in America. The nation's first conservatory,
founded in 1865, Oberlin is internationally recognized for its faculty and
facilities offering world-class musical training. With its rich tradition,
legions of distinguished artists and performers among its graduates,
unparalleled facilities, and uncompromising ideals in the higher learning, it
is clearly the exception to other schools. A leitmotif for excellence in
American higher education, the school has been blessed with the resources
required to maintain its gold-plated image. The luster and status of organ
study at Oberlin is confirmed by the spectrum of instruments beginning with the
1974 Flentrop in Warner Concert Hall embracing the 18th-century North German
style. It continued with the Brombaugh organ in Fairchild Chapel as an exquisite
example of the late Renaissance period. To complete the rainbow the school has
contracted for a $1.2 million Fisk organ, scheduled for installation in Finney
Chapel in 2001. A symphonic organ, made possible by the initial bequest of Kay
Africa, it will be well-suited for music of the 19th and 20th century. Styled
in the paradigm of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, this Tiffany instrument will
reinforce Oberlin's image as progressive and up-to-date in the world of organ
pedagogy. In  the Fisk Opus List it
joins the company of Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Rice and Wellesley, among
others, in the gallery of this prestigous trophy builder.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  North Texas University has also
selected Fisk to build the recital organ for its new concert hall, as yet
awaiting funding.

Yet despite its lofty status, and the preferred position of
its graduates in the music marketplace, Oberlin has addressed the legitimate
aspirations of students who seek flexibility and potential employment options
outside music performance. The answer is a double degree program; a fifth year
program established thirty years ago for conservatory students who then receive
a Bachelor of Arts degree. This "Double Degree" program now includes
one-third of the 550 students enrolled in the conservatory. Officially described
as a program to produce a more broadly educated person, it undoubtedly reflects
a recognition by the school, and by the students, of the need to explore many
possibilities at this juncture in their budding careers. Oberlin's challenge is  to continue to command the financial resources needed to attract top talent, which means the generous scholarships required to bid them away from  competing schools.

Westminster Choir College

The staggering financial requirements of private higher
education today were dramatically illustrated in the recent history of
Westminster Choir College whose phalanx of prominent graduates have made it a
household word in American church music. According to Professor Eugene Roan,
the merger with Rider College (now University) three years ago was a godsend in
the fortunes of a school that, despite its sterling reputation, could not have
survived as a stand-alone institution 
For Rider, a college little-known outside New Jersey, the Westminster
acquisition gives them an instant nationwide visibility and prestige that no
amount of money could buy. As for Westminster, it gained the necessary
resources in scholarships and bricks and mortar to continue its storied
tradition. The organ program counted a total enrollment of 51 in the Fall of
1997 including 22 graduate students. The standards of admission and levels of
performance are the highest on record, according to Roan. An excellent
placement program features a subscription-only job newsletter circulated every
two weeks. With a preferred position in an uncertain nationwide job market for
church musicians, Westminster should continue to attract students who can
reasonably expect to find employment in their chosen profession upon
graduation.

The so-called elite institutions under discussion are
indicative of the fact that nationwide there is a core of highly qualified and
professionally ambitious students who actively pursue quality education in
high-profile schools, but who are increasingly selective in their choice of
school and are actively shopping for the best financial package. Therefore, the
financial challenge is one of obtaining scholarship money in ever increasing
amounts to attract the top talent and to compete successfully with other
schools which are seeking the same students. This is the economic price one
must pay for being an elite institution.

Summary

We have argued that the pipe organ is a jewel of a campus
setting, imparting definition and meaning to the collegiate experience.
Unfortunately, this fact has not been adequately acknowledged by the majority
of decision-makers. We have shown that if the organ is not to continue to fall
victim to enrollment criteria as the basis for funding, it must be aggressively
promoted on campus: to trustees, alumni, visitors, townspeople, in special
programs and to today's generation of students.  It should be featured in campus publicity, on tours, in the
alumni magazine, and in the recognition of organists among prominent alumni.
Marylhurst, with its enterprising community outreach, Dordt capitalizing on
church ties, and Evansville emphasizing the core of the liberal arts, are
showing the way. The innovative approaches of these schools, others we have
noted, and, no doubt, many more, can be adopted and applied successfully by
schools everywhere. The costs are minimal and the potential rewards are great.
Undeniably, the potential is there--in group study, combined curricula, and
untapped student sources within the community.

Organ professors in academe are a very close-knit
professional group who communicate with each other frequently and who are eager
to find ways to bolster the immediate prospects of their school and the
fortunes of their colleagues elsewhere as well. They should be encouraged to
exchange ideas in regional and national gatherings of organists and music
educators and on the Internet. The professional media should be admonished to
publicise program details and achievements. Perhaps the AGO should contemplate
establishing awards to individuals and programs that demonstrate innovation and
leadership in advancing the profession and the instrument.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      

For critical comments on earlier drafts of this paper the
author gratefully acknowledges: 
Byron Arneson, Nelson Barden, Jack Bethards, Charles McManis, Albert
Neutel, Jack Sievert and Haskel Thomson.

For research input the author thanks:
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  John Behnke, Margaret Cries, George
Damp, Delbert Disselhorst, W. N. Earnest, John Ferguson, Davis Folkerts, Lee
Garrett, John Hamersma, Rod Kelchner, William Kuhlman, Karen Larsen, William
McCandless, Thomas Murray, Nancy LeRoi Nichol, Dale Peters, Douglas Reed, Joan
Ringerwole, Eugene Roan, Larry Smith, Carl Staplin, Herman Taylor, James
Vinson, Chris Young, and Rudolf Zuiderveld.

Notes

                        1.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Arrow,
Kenneth J., "Invaluable Goods," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol.
XXV (June 1997), pp. 757-765.

                        2.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Duffus,
R. L., The Innocents at Cedro, New York: 
Macmillan, 1944, p. 25. 
Reprint Augustus M. Kelley.

                        3.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Ambrosino,
Jonathan, "The John R. Silber Symphonic Organ at Boston University",
The New England Organist,Vol. 7, No. 3, May & June, 1997, pp. 8-11.

                        4.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Jongsma,
Sally, "Playing the organ is their occupation," The Voice,
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Dordt College, Vol. 42, No. 4, May,
1997, pp. 12-13.

                        5.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Martin
Trow, "Aspects of Diversity in Higher Education" in Gans, Glazer, Gusfield
and Jenks, eds, On The Making of 
Americans:  Essays in Honor
of David Riesman, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, pp. 171-270.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        

December 16, 1910-August 4, 2002

J. Bunker Clark is editor of Harmonie Park Press. He taught organ and theory at Stephens College (1957-59), was organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Cranbrook (1959-61), taught music history and harpsichord at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1964-65), and music history at the University of Kansas from 1965 until retiring in 1993.

William Osborne holds three degrees from the University of Michigan. He serves Denison University in Granville, Ohio as Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, University Organist, and Director of Choral Organizations.

Haig Mardirosian is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Music at American University. He is also Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes, Washington, DC, and a recitalist, recording artist, writer, and consultant on organ building.

Ronald E. Dean is on the faculty of Centenary College, Shreveport, Louisiana.

Robert Noehren died on August 4 in San Diego, California, at the age of 91. (See "Nunc Dimittis," The Diapason, September 2002, p. 8.) International recitalist, recording artist, author, scholar, professor and university organist at the University of Michigan, and organbuilder, Noehren enjoyed a long and remarkable career, and was clearly one of the major figures of our profession in the 20th century.

His many recordings and recitals evidenced a special kind of organ playing: the highest standards of musicianship, devoid of superficial excesses, quiet and controlled console manner; indeed, his technique seemed to become quieter and easier the more difficult and virtuosic the music became. He continued to practice the organ daily and record up until his death, carried on extensive correspondence, had plans for another commercial recording on his organ in Buffalo, was preparing a talk for the AIO convention this month, was working on a cookbook of his favorite recipes, and continued to enjoy music, art, fine wine, good food, and friends from all over the world.

Below follow tributes in Noehren's honor, by William Osborne, Bunker Clark, and Haig Mardirosian, and a review by Ronald Dean of Noehren's Bach CD which was released last year, in addition to a listing of his articles and news releases as featured in The Diapason. Requiescat in pace.

--Jerome Butera

Robert Noehren: A Remembrance

When Jerry Butera, Ron Dean and I shared a meal during the Organ Historical Society gathering in Chicago on the final day of June, we regaled ourselves with tales about and from the man who had had such a seminal influence on us and a host of others, assuming that he would endure virtually forever, little anticipating the shocking news of his sudden death only weeks later. He had suffered the loss of his devoted wife only months earlier, but on the evidence of telephone conversations had seemed quickly to reconcile himself to this new phase of his incredibly rich life, determined to get on with his latest passions, energetically practicing daily at age ninety-one on his electronic [sic!] house organ, wrestling with what he could possibly say to a conclave of pipe organ builders in Los Angeles during an upcoming invited lecture, listening intently to CDs drawn from his immense collection, having been recently attracted particularly to the playing of pianist Ivo ogorelich.

A consummate man of the organ, he was nonetheless not preoccupied with the instrument, always fascinated by a wide range of human understanding.  For example, when the Noehrens made the decision to relocate to suburban San Diego after a particularly harsh Ann Arbor winter, the significant tragedy of their transfer was a wayward moving van stranded in the desert heat of the Southwest, a delay that turned the man's substantial and valuable wine collection to vinegar. I suspect that in retrospect he might have preferred to express himself through a medium other than the organ, since he was constantly dissatisfied with so many examples of the instrument, especially his inability to make music on them to his satisfaction. In fact, he suggested that his students could learn more about elegant music-making by observing a fine singer, violinist or pianist, and, when time permitted, he practiced Chopin or Debussy at the piano, although never in public.

It seems a bit incredible that he retired from studio teaching at the University of Michigan more than four decades ago, and that at least a few of his students have preceded him in death. I, for one, found him a rather reluctant pedagogue. When provoked, he could be enormously enthusiastic and insightful, but one had to work to attract his attention. He loved to tell a story that he attributed to George Faxon, but which I suspect was meant to mirror his own predicament. Supposedly Faxon had in his Boston studio a very comfortable upholstered chair where he ensconced himself as he directed a student to play straight through a big Bach prelude and fugue. As the piece proceeded, he would brush the lint off his jacket, adjust his shoelaces, settle back, and gradually fall completely asleep. The student, having finished his performance, would turn expectantly, at which point Faxon would suddenly rouse himself and blurt out: "Bravo! Play it again!"

Robert Noehren also frustrated and even infuriated many in a profession rife with calcified credos by remaining in a constant condition of quest. I joked that it was impossible to ride a Noehren bandwagon because, as his would-be disciples were clambering on one side, he had already jumped off the other and moved on to some new position. Recall the man's seminal role in the organ Renaissance in this country. He was one of the first to study the classic European instruments to the extent that he was able to understand and explain what made the instruments of Schnitger and Cavaillé-Coll tick. Those of us privileged to experience his organ design course can vouch for that wisdom. It was also Robert Noehren who was crucial in bringing to this country in 1957 that groundbreaking von Beckerath instrument in Cleveland's Trinity Lutheran Church. I can remember driving from Ann Arbor to Cleveland in a snowstorm to experience the incredible revelations that it offered. So, how did a man devoted to the principles the Beckerath manifested become a builder of instruments based on direct electric action and incredible amounts of borrowing and duplexing? Hard to say, except to acknowledge that he later pretty much disavowed that facet of his career, although expressing annoyance over those attempts to redress some of the mechanical problems he bequeathed the instruments' owners. He did assert that his foray into organ building resulted from his failure to find an established builder who was willing put his ideals into practice. Recall also that the best of his instruments were and are ones of distinction, and that he was a pioneer in considering the possibility of computer-driven combination systems, even though the clunky, punchcard system that he and a Michigan Engineering colleague devised seems hopelessly antiquated now.

Even though he has left us physically, his legacy will surely survive in the form of his immense discography and the many provocative, sometimes quixotic writings published in this journal and elsewhere.

What will survive as well for those of us privileged to know him is the memory of a man with a generous sense of humor (I will never forget the look on his face when asked in a studio class by a pompous doctoral student how one properly mounts the bench); an immense, eclectic repertory (e. g., as I recall, virtually nobody on this side of the Atlantic was aware of Tournemire when Noehren began to champion the man); an intense musicality at his chosen instrument that nonetheless refused curtailment by any of the various performance "isms" by which the profession lives (Furthermore, I, as one who was privileged to assist him often, for example in the series of sixteen all-Bach programs he played in Hill Auditorium before such marathons became fashionable, was always amazed that, while he advocated marking scores extensively, he always seemed to play from pages untouched by a pencil.); an incredible range of experiences (e. g., as a young church organist in Buffalo being asked to play the two existing Hindemith sonatas for their composer, thereby indirectly provoking the writing of the last of the trilogy); a man of immense principle who retired from active teaching prematurely when confronted with a Michigan dean who asked him to create the country's largest organ department (he seems to have been prescient enough to have anticipated the future state of the profession and thus suggested as an alternative the country's finest, albeit compact organ program); and, last, but hardly least, the sense that organists are all too often insular in their perspective, encouraging all with whom he was associated to seek out and embrace the full  range of human experience.

RN, we will miss you.

--William Osborne

From his editor

"Gee, it's hard to play the organ, isn't it?"--cliché by Robert Noehren after hearing a student trying to play a difficult piece.

"Gee, it's hard to produce a book about the organ"--my cry in the process of working with Bob on An Organist's Reader.

Bob had been talking about doing a book for some years, but I'm proud of persuading him to begin in earnest in 1995. He sent a box two years later, and after two more years of phone calls and letters concerning the details, the box was sent to Harmonie Park Press in February 1997, and the result appeared in November 1999.

I'd known Bob since going to Ann Arbor in 1950, but after my piano days unfortunately never took organ with him. Nonetheless, I was lucky to audit several of his classes on the history of the organ--which, in retrospect, helped considerably in checking details of historic instruments. Even then, it was embarrassing to both of us to have a good friend point out the omission of thirteen pedal stops from the 1576 organ of  the Georgenkirche, Eisenach. (Harmonie Park Press has an errata slip, or get it at .) But this omission had not been discovered when that article had previously been published in the Riemenschneider Bach Institute's Bach no fewer than three times, 1975, 1985, and 1995! It's only logical that an organ associated with Bach would have more than two pedal registers, no?

He correctly defended Grobgedackt, against my proposal of Großgedackt. As for another detail, does one use the modern German "K" for Katharinenkirche, or the original spelling Catharinenkirche, Hamburg? (we used the latter). Lüdingworth has an umlaut; otherwise it would seem to be a village in England. So does the composer Jean-Jacques Grünenwald, even though he was French. The foregoing represents a survey of some 54 pages of letters on my computer, which also has comments on a trip to Italy; Eloise's new hip, fall 1997; and his bout with cancer, early 2000.

I had attended many of his Ann Arbor recitals, and have seen the two-story end of the Noehren living room in Ann Arbor which housed his Hausorgel. But Lyn and I really got to know Bob much better when he taught at the University of Kansas, fall 1975; we had Thanksgiving and several other similar occasions together. What a wonderful human being! I already miss our more recent phone chats, in which he described his interest in a proper diet (indeed, published as an article in these pages last year), in our mutual enjoyment of a pre-dinner drink, his interest in audio equipment and recent recordings (usually not of organ music), and in a joke. And I miss his Christmas cards (the design of one is on the cover of his book).

Bob Noehren was very modest--but a hard worker when preparing a recital. He was not vain, but I'm certain he was very proud of the discography and recitals (a representation of programs appears in his book). Above all, in spite of and perhaps due to, his quiet and unassuming manner, his playing never highlighted the performer, but always the music, as if to say "I've studied this piece hard, and here is what I found out."

--J. Bunker Clark

Letters from Noehren

I never met Robert Noehren, yet I am humbled to be able to call him a friend. In the last three years of his life, Noehren and I had corresponded regularly through a series of letters, a thread of correspondence initiated somewhat coincidently.

In my academic administrative capacity, I was at work during 1997 with a project team charged with drafting a self-study report to my university's regional accrediting agency. Our member from the university's publications office, Trudi Rishikoff, saw to the style and editing of the finished document. At some stage of the process, Trudi mentioned that she had learned that I was an organist. Did I know her Uncle Bob?

Uncle Bob, it turned out, was Robert Noehren. With what must have been obvious mirth at this serendipitous news, I told Trudi of my high esteem for Noehren, the thrill of having played a recital on one of his instruments, the honor of having reviewed several of his recordings for both The American Organist and Fanfare, but even more, of the inspiration that I had derived from listening to him perform, both on disc and live, early in my career. I asked Trudi to convey those sentiments and my kindest respects to her uncle.

About the same time, my editors forwarded for review a CD comprising reissues of various Lyrichord recordings by Robert Noehren. These amounted to seminal performances on several of his instruments (as well as others) and an assortment of repertoire attesting to the performer's all-embracing musical interests. The disc merited its title, "A Robert Noehren Retrospective."

Months later, a long letter arrived from Robert Noehren, the first of many in which we discussed issues of mutual interest--musicians, repertoire, organs. Noehren's beautifully composed and printed texts (for openers, I marveled at the deliberate care in writing these and his obvious fluency at computing, something quite remarkable for a man about to turn 90). The composition and printing mirrored what one heard in his meticulous musicianship and performance. His critical but calculated opinions about music matched his gifted and insightful interpretation of music. His thoughts about the music and musicians of his early years in particular bespoke his own deference to tradition, origins, and lineage in composition, organ building, and pedagogy. In sum, these letters represented valedictory notes to a new friend, but they were frank, surprisingly modest, and very generous in tone and spirit. Noehren, it turned out, had wanted to contact me for some time and he had done his research too. He had gone out and found recordings by his correspondent and he had closely read any number of reviews of books and recordings. He was sizing me up!

I had just released a recording of the Suite for Organ, by Paul de Maleingreau. I had not known that Noehren regularly played the toccata from it back in the 1930s. He clearly missed the piece adding that " . . . since it is no longer in my head I am glad to be able to hear it again . . ." Of our mutual interest in Maleingreau, he observed that "it [the toccata] is such a fine work and no one else seems to be interested in Maleingreau." A second little coincidence had sealed a friendship. With that our correspondence grew more personal as well with talk about his wife Eloise, and illness, and aging. He was very sympathetic and supportive at my family's story of senior care, and the intellectual and physical changes brought on with age.

A major part of our conversations concerned organs. For two years, Noehren and I exchanged many words on organ design, organ building, and organ builders. I had made the analytical (but not malicious!) observation in my review of his Lyrichord recording that certain of the organs he built were idiosyncratic. My observation was based on experience. I had played a recital at St. John's Cathedral in Milwaukee where, in preparation, I had spent hours punching out registrations manually on the IBM data cards that comprised the combination action's memory. I had also remarked on the various subunison registers that played only to tenor C. Noehren graciously observed that "It was right for you to comment on the design of my organ in Milwaukee." He continued with a treatise on the economics of organ building, tight budgets, and resource maximization. It may have been a musician/instrument builder speaking, but it was also the voice of someone who had taught at a university and worked for the church!

Noehren tempered economic exigency with art. "I designed the organ [at St. John's Cathedral] always thinking how it was to be used musically." Saving the cost of the bottom twelve pipes of the Great 16¢ Principal on that 1965 organ allowed Noehren to add a string and some mutations to the specification. "If . . . you look at the music of Vierne, you will often see that the Gambe on the Great Organ is required in many pieces. . . . Look at most American organs. There is rarely a string on either the Great or Positiv (or Choir) organs. Indeed, there is usually an Unda Maris set. To be sure, a beautiful sound, but not very useful in much serious organ music." He questioned both his own tonal choices and those advocated by others. Robert Noehren had taken this critic earnestly, drew no offense from the opinions in print, and used the opportunity to engage in a dialog on the merits of respective tonal choices.

I later asked Noehren about Paul Hindemith, adding that my own conception of the organ sonatas was formed mainly through Noehren's recording of them. That prompted a meticulous response concerning Noehren's association with the composer. He outlined meeting Hindemith in Buffalo, where the composer lived after arriving in the United States before going to teach at Yale University, and where the organist played at a small Episcopal parish. Because Hindemith would sometimes visit the church, Noehren eventually got to know the composer well. They spent many hours together discussing interpretation and registration of the then only two sonatas, for Hindemith had just begun composing the third.

I had commented about the respective merits of romantic, colorist and dryer, abstract interpretations of the sonatas. In fact, I told Noehren that I had rebelled against my own teacher's insistence on an orchestral approach to these scores. That rebellion led to my  willful imitation of Noehren's old LP recording. He replied, "Like your teacher, I had been playing them in a rather romantic way, and I have to thank Hindemith for helping me with my musicianship during those early days. I still remember how dissatisfied he was with my performance of the last movement of the first sonata."

Noehren also voiced curiosity about instruments on which I had recorded and consulted. I had asked him about a couple of stoplists on which I was working and received immediate, candid, and helpful responses. At the time, the new organ at my own parish, the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes in Washington, was under construction by Orgues Létourneau. I had confided in Noehren that our hope was for an instrument reflecting English tonal heritage and had sent him specs and scalings. In the end, when I sent him a recording of one of the opening concerts, his approval overjoyed me.

What was most remarkable about Robert Noehren in his last few years was the zeal with which he still played the organ on a daily basis. He had been hard at work revisiting the Orgelbüchlein, a book he felt "appropriate at my stage of life." He had just been diagnosed with serious illness and seemed to find particular comfort in the brief movements. But, he acknowledged their musical difficulties. "I might feel a bit safer in the great G-minor fugue than in the prelude on 'Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn' with that wicked pedal passage at the end!"

While he missed access to a good pipe organ near his home in San Diego, he did own a custom electronic organ, and his curiosity and aptitude with technology had led him to electronically revoice that instrument and add several MIDI sound modules to it. This fulfilled both his need to play on a daily basis and his ongoing instinct to build "better" organs. He was carefully apologetic, but not defensive about this instrument. "I fear that you might be one who believes we have been poisoned by the advent of the electronic organ!" But, he added, that this instrument "assuages some of my frustrations." As proof--extraordinary proof--he enclosed a cassette recording of some Bach, Karg-Elert, and the Roger-Ducasse Pastorale as recorded on his house organ. Of the dazzling and poetic performance of the latter piece, made when Noehren was in his late 80s, he commented, "it is perhaps the most difficult work I have ever encountered, and it has been a constant challenge. It is technically difficult and choosing and executing the registration is no easy task." Of the thousands of organ recordings in my collection, this one, performed by an octogenarian on an electronic organ in his living room and recorded on his little cassette machine, is the most prized.

Robert Noehren had also published a book of memoirs that I had reviewed, and some of the letters to me may have well been an elaboration or gloss on the book. At one point, Noehren sent a long list of all his teachers--piano, organ, theory, composition. This early 20th century Who's Who of our profession contained several names that interested me greatly.

One of these was Charles Courboin for, as a boy, I would sit in the choir loft at St. Patrick's Cathedral and watch Dr. Courboin play for the 11:30 "organ mass." In those pre-Vatican II years, the Cathedral maintained the tradition of a low mass (rendered mostly silently by the priest at the east end) accompanied by organ music (rendered not at all silently by the virtuoso at the west end). I would, on my own, take the bus and the subway and travel down to 5th Avenue on Sunday mornings in order to hear the Solemn Mass at 10 o'clock. I would always remain for Courboin's organ mass at 11:30. It was a splendid dessert to the sung mass. Courboin would graciously welcome me to the gallery and even ask me what I would like to hear. Courboin's phenomenal memory was legendary and I don't ever recall naming a piece of repertoire that he could not simply rattle off.

One of the reasons that Courboin fascinated us both was his atypical profile for an organist. He loved fast cars and boats. He was dashing and, in Noehren's terms, "could have been mistaken for a government ambassador." While a student at the Curtis Institute during the early 1930s, Noehren had coached with Courboin. One morning, Noehren and his friend Bob Cato, Lynnwood Farnam's favorite student, were walking downtown. They ran into Courboin. "He behaved at once as if we were his best friends and suggested we all have lunch at Wanamaker's. It was then about 11:00 o'clock, and he invited us to meet him at noon at the front of the store. When we finally entered the dining room it became apparent that the luncheon had turned into a big party in a private room with at least 15 people. All I can remember of the food is that for dessert there was a great flourish as the party was presented with a huge baked Alaska prepared for the occasion."

Robert Noehren also recalled his meetings with Fernando Germani (with whom he became friends and who introduced him to Italian food and garlic), André Marchal (who influenced him musically but was "distracted by the ladies," such that, in a meeting along with Marilyn Mason, Marchal paid no attention to Noehren), Gaston Dethier (who had the most formidable technique of anyone and whose pedaling was "really phenomenal" although he eventually no longer took the organ seriously), and Lynnwood Farnam (whose playing "simply put everyone I had ever heard in the shade"). These reflections were all the more vivid as several of these legendary performers were still active in my own youth. As Noehren put it about our swapped recollections, "what a difference a generation makes!"

How does one summarize the enormous range and analytical insights of Robert Noehren? It is difficult task to be certain. His musical life spanned East Coast and West, with a long stop in between. He could be, at once, a Classicist and a Romantic. He studied old music and old organs, built modern instruments capable of playing the old, and championed scores by composers of his own day. He was the recitalist who built instruments to overcome the defects he perceived in the instruments upon which he had to play. He studied with the legends of his youth and passed that tradition on to generations of fortunate students in one of the country's most important universities. He agglomerated seemingly far-flung and inconsistent concepts, all the while making sense of their synthesis. His world was expansive and never shrank, for his all-embracing curiosity disclosed an adroit mind that slowed little even in its ninth decade. Robert Noehren zealously coveted the truth--truth as discovered, revealed, debated, or developed in theory and creativity. He grappled with and reconciled art and technology decades before such would become commonplace. He generously communicated his remarkable journey to a large audience in his writing and teaching, and even to a grateful correspondent late in his days.

Can all of this, then, amount to anything less than the absolute and comprehensive definition of professional and personal intellect, art, and, above all, integrity? I would argue not. Integrity, furthermore, takes courage, the courage to pursue truth and to assert the convictions to which one's work leads. As such, Robert Noehren was nothing less than a genuine hero. I thank God for having had a moment to know him. Requiescat in pace.

--Haig Mardirosian

Robert Noehren bibliography in The Diapason

Robert Noehren is organist and choirmaster of St. John's Church, Buffalo. November 1940, p. 22.

Robert Noehren takes up new work in Grand Rapids. September 1942, p. 3.

"Organ Building an Art Not to be Limited by Definite Styles." February 1944, p. 12.

Robert Noehren leaves Grand Rapids for war duty. March 1944, p. 23.

Famed Dutch Organ Used in Broadcast by Robert Noehren. November 1948, p. 2.

"Poitiers Cathedral Has Famous Cliquot Organ Built in 1791." June 1949, pp. 28-29.

Noehren appointed to post in Ann Arbor. September 1949, p. 4.

"Historic Schnitger Organs Are Visited; 1949 Summer Study." December 1949, p. 10; January 1950, p. 10.

Bach recitals by Noehren in Ann Arbor and Buffalo. June 1950, p. 40.

"Famous Old Organs in Holland Disprove Popular Fallacies." March 1951, pp. 8-9.

"Organ Cases Objects of Beauty in Past and Return Is Advocated." June 1951, pp. 14-15.

Michigan "U" course reorganized to make all-around organist. November 1951, p. 38.

"Schnitger Organs That Still Survive Teach New Lessons." December 1951, p. 24.

Robert Noehren on fourth tour of recitals in Europe. September 1953, p. 17.

Robert Noehren is winner of prize for his recording. November 1953, p. 1.

Robert Noehren to play in Duesseldorf. June 1954, p. 1.

"Commends Opinions of Dr. Schweitzer to Organ Designers." February 1954, p. 22.

Robert Noehren is awarded doctorate. June 1957, p. 1.

"How do you rate? Test yourself on this final exam." July 1959, p. 16.

"Music Dictates Good 2-Manual Organ Design." September 1960, pp. 12-13.

Robert Noehren . . . Northwest regional convention. April 1961, p. 16.

Noehren to act as judge at Haarlem Competition. December 1962, p. 3

"The Relation of Organ Design to Organ Playing." December 1962, pp. 8, 42-43; January 1963, pp. 8, 36-37.

Robert Noehren to give dedicatory recital on the Schlicker organ at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. March 1963, p. 24.

"The Organ and Acoustics." March 1964, pp. 26-27.

"Architectural Acoustics as related to Church Music." November 1964, pp. 40-41.

"Taste, Technique and Tone." April 1965, p. 49.

"Schnitger, Cliquot and Cavaillé-Coll: Three Great Traditions and their Meaning to Contemporary Organ Playing." November 1966, pp. 40-41; December 1966, p. 28; January 1967, pp. 48-49; February 1967, pp. 44-45.

Robert Noehren appointed Rose Morgan Professor of Organ for the fall semester of 1975 at The University of of Kansas. September 1975, p. 18.

Robert Noehren, professor of organ at the University of Michigan, retired in January 1976. June 1976, p. 2.

Robert Noehren named professor emeritus. January 1977, p. 5.

Robert Noehren elected Performer of the Year by New York City AGO. May 1978, p. 19.

"Squire Haskin--a tribute." February 1986, p. 2.

"The discography repertoire of Robert Noehren." March 1990, pp. 12-13.

"Robert Noehren at 80: A Tribute." December 1990, pp. 12-14.

"Organ Design Based on Registration." December 1991, pp. 10-11.

"A Reply to the Tale of Mr. Willis." January 1997, p. 2.

Robert Noehren celebrates his 90th birthday. December 2000, p. 3.

"Enjoying Life at 90." September 2001, pp. 15-17.

"Reflections on Life as an Organist." December 2001, pp. 17-20.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Organ Works. Robert Noehren, Organist. Previous unreleased recordings from 1980 issued in celebration of Robert Noehren's ninetieth birthday. Noehren organs of The Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and The First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, New York. Fleur de Lis FL 0101-2. Available from The Organ Historical Society, P.O. Box 26811, Richmond, VA 23261; 804/353-9226; $14.98 plus shipping;

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Program: Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542; Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein, BWV 668; Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 646; Partita: O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 767; Partita: Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig, BWV 768; Fugue in G Major ("Gigue"), BWV 577; Prelude and Fugue in D Minor ("Violin"), BWV 539; Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543.

This new issue, like the previous Robert Noehren Retrospective produced by Lyrichord (see this journal, December, 1999, p. 11), is the result of expert remastering by Hal Chaney of analog recordings done on tape many years ago. As in the CD mentioned above, this issue features organs designed and built by Robert Noehren.

For those who are familiar with Noehren's tasteful and flexible organ playing, this issue should come as a welcome addition to his already considerable discography. Noehren was never one to endorse or follow "trendy" or merely currently fashionable playing ideas; instead, he always makes the music come alive through thoughtful application of scholarship and study of the scores to determine both just the right tempos and appropriate registrations for convincing musical communication. These features are in abundance on this new issue.

Another important facet contributing to the pleasure of this CD is the fact that the same person is both the artist and the organ builder. His clearly articulated philosophy of organ tone (see An Organist's Reader, reviewed in this journal, September, 2000, p. 10) is demonstrated here all the way from gutsy and brilliant (but never strident) principal and reed choruses to subtle smaller ensembles and solo combinations appropriate to the musical requirements. One can imagine that Noehren was able to bring forth the very sounds that were in his "mind's ear" by performing on these two rather large instruments of his own design.

All the pieces except for the two chorale partitas are performed on the 1966 organ in the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, while the partitas show off the varied smaller ensembles and solo combinations of the instrument in The First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, built in 1970. Both instruments are of similar size, with the Buffalo instrument (somewhat larger) notable by its frequently pictured hanging Positiv division.

Seasoned players and students alike will be inspired by the apparently effortless execution of the more demanding works and should take note of the way Noehren uses subtle rubato to point up the structure of the various forms. His elegant approach to trills and other ornaments reveal that the artist regards these items as integral parts of musical expression and not simply as whimsical and mechanical additions to the musical line.

Blessed with both an astounding playing technique and impeccable musical taste, Robert Noehren's playing as revealed on this CD should bring feelings of recognition to those who have head him in past years and should also serve as a revelation to the younger generation. Highly recommended.

--Ronald E. Dean

Centenary College

Shreveport, Louisiana