Musica Sacra San Antonio begins Evensong series

Robert E. Fort, Jr. died on January 29 in DeLand, Florida. A native of Ocala, Florida, he was a graduate of the University of Florida, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with David Craighead. He earned a doctor of sacred music degree from the School of Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he studied with Vernon deTar. Dr. Fort taught at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, and at Stetson University, and was a lifelong church musician, serving most recently as organist-choirmaster at the First Presbyterian Church in DeLand. Active in the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, he was an honorary lifetime member and had served as its president; he also served as dean of the Central Florida AGO chapter and was a member of the Hymn Society and the American Choral Directors Association. Dr. Fort wrote widely on church music topics and led workshops and hymn festivals throughout the country. Robert Fort is survived by his wife of 49 years, Patricia Mims Fort, and his children, Robert Fort III and Carolyn Fort.

Timothy J. Oliver died in Frankfort, Kentucky on January 5. He was 71. Born in Cincinnati, he earned a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State College and subsequently studied organ with Arnold Blackburn at the University of Kentucky, where he earned a master of music degree. Active in the Lexington, Kentucky AGO chapter, Oliver initiated and for many years maintained the chapter’s organ academy; he had also been a member of the music and liturgy commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, helping to plan and rehearse the 1995 diocesan centennial service. Timothy Oliver had served as organist at Midway Presbyterian Church, following his retirement as organist-choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Versailles after a long tenure. He held a similar position at Versailles Presbyterian Church, establishing a children’s and a handbell choir, and leading the renovation of the church’s Pilcher organ; he also served at Church of the Ascension in Frankfort. He twice directed the Woodford Community Choir and was a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and the Organ Historical Society. Timothy Oliver is survived by many friends and several cousins.

French organist Michel Pinte died of a heart attack in Malaga, Spain, on October 21, 2008. Born on July 21, 1936 in Etrepagny (Eure, in Normandy), he was buried in the nearby cemetery in Doudeauville-en-Vexin. A Requiem Mass was celebrated in his memory on November 8, 2008, at the Saint-Augustin church in Paris, where he had served as organist for 29 years.
Michel Pinte began to play the organ for Masses at the parish church in his home town at the age of ten. Two years later, he began organ lessons in Rouen with Jules Lambert (substituting for him) and then with Marcel Lanquetuit. In 1956, during his military service, he served as organist at the Saint-Philippe cathedral in Algiers. When he returned to Paris in 1962, he studied piano with Irène Baume-Psichari, harmony with Yves Margat, Gregorian chant with Henri Potiron at the Institut grégorien, and organ with Jean Langlais at the Schola Cantorum, where he received his diploma in virtuosic organ interpretation and improvisation in 1964. He also studied later with Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier, Marie-Louise Girod, and Suzanne Chaisemartin.
After substituting at numerous churches (notably in Paris at Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Passy and on the choir organs at Saint-Augustin and the Versailles cathedral), in 1968 Pinte was named titular of the Cavaillé-Coll/Mutin choir organ at the Saint-Augustin church in Paris. In 1973, he requested Victor Gonzalez to enlarge this organ to 32 stops with six adjustable pistons, enabling him to play the entire repertory comfortably. He later entrusted the maintenance of this organ to Bernard Dargassies. In 1979, Michel Pinte also assisted Suzanne Chaisemartin on the 1868 Barker/Cavaillé-Coll/Mutin Grand Orgue (III/53) and was appointed as her co-titular in 1990. He retired in June 1997, and spent his final years in Marbella, Spain (Malaga).
During his retirement, Michel Pinte performed even more concerts in Europe and the United States. In Spain, he performed for the organ weeks in Grenada in 1999 and in Madrid in 2000, and at the Palau de la Música in Valencia in 2007 (for more details, see <www.musimem.com&gt;). Audiences appreciated his eclectic programs that highlighted nineteenth and twentieth-century repertory (notably works by Demessieux, Vierne, and Widor as well as lesser-known works) and were captivated by his final brilliant improvisation on a well-known theme.
His solid technique and his open spirit allowed him to express himself easily and freely, to fully share his vital love of music with others. To cite one example, those who attended his concert at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 1986, will never forget his stunning improvisation on America the Beautiful. This cultural ambassador will long be remembered for his vast artistic knowledge, his creative imagination, and his good sense of humor.
—Carolyn Shuster Fournier
Paris, France

Travis R. Powell, age 36, died on January 19 in Carey, Ohio. A student of Donald MacDonald, he earned a bachelor of church music degree from Westminster Choir College, and a master of sacred music degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he was a student of Robert Anderson. Powell was director of music–organist at the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio, where he directed the shrine chorale and a children’s choir and played over 650 Masses a year. He also taught general music at Our Lady of Consolation School and was artistic director of the Carey Ecumenical Choir; he had previously served at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe Cathedral in Dallas. He was a member of the American Guild of Organists, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Organ Historical Society, American Choral Directors Association, Choristers Guild, and the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians.

Robert Wendell Robe died on January 24 in Tampa, Florida. He was 79. Born July 8, 1929, in Zanesville, Ohio, he attended Meredith College in Zanesville and Capitol University. A church musician for 64 years, he began his musical career as organist for St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and played for “The Coffee Club,” a local radio program. He held organist positions at Webb City Presbyterian Church, New Haven Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Forest Hills Presbyterian and Wellspring United Methodist churches, both in Tampa, Florida, and until last year at the Kirk of Dunedin Community Church in Dunedin, Florida. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Mary Robe, two daughters and three sisters.

Mary Landon Russell died November 20, 2008, in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, at age 95. She attended Dickinson Junior College and in 1936 earned a bachelor of music degree from Susquehanna University. In 1957 she earned a master of arts degree from Pennsylvania State University, and did further study at the Chautauqua Institution School of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Eastman School of Music. She taught at Lycoming College from 1936 until her retirement in 1978, when she was named associate professor of music emerita and continued as a part-time piano teacher there for another twenty years.
Mrs. Russell was a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Guild of Organists, of which she was a past dean of the Williamsport chapter, the Williamsport Music Club, and the National and Pennsylvania Federations of Music Clubs. She was also a 50-year member and honorary regent of the Lycoming Chapter, Daughters of the America Revolution, and was awarded the Martha Washington Medal from the Tiadaghton Chapter (Sons of the American Revolution) for her “History of the Music of Williamsport, Pennsylvania.” She is listed in Outstanding Educators of America; during her 50th year of teaching at Lycoming College, the school’s Alumni Association established the Mary Landon Russell Applied Music Fund, which provides financial aid to musically gifted students. Mrs. Russell frequently served as organist at Covenant-Central Presbyterian Church, and in other area churches.

Gordon and Barbara Betenbaugh

Gordon and Barbara Betenbaugh are organists/choirmasters at First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, as well as directors of Cantate, the Children's Choir of Central Virginia. Mrs. Betenbaugh is also chapel organist and assistant choral director at Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg. Last summer they completed a 13-week sabbatical in the UK, visiting Cambridge, Oxford, London and Salisbury. See previous articles from their sabbatical: "London Chats #1: Michael McCarthy," October, 2003, p. 18; "John Tavener's The Veil of the Temple," November, 2003, p. 17; and "Cambridge Chats #1: Timothy Byram-Wigfield," December, 2003, pp. 16-19.

We had a delightful interview with the charming Patrick Russill on June 24, 2003, in his office at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is Head of Choral Direction and Church Music, following a weekend of attending services and rehearsals of his choir at the London Oratory. The Oratory's weekend schedule was one of the busiest we had seen on our trip. The professional all-adult London Oratory Choir supports the Latin services (Mass and Vespers) while the Oratory Junior Choir (boys and girls aged 8 and upwards) serves the English Family Mass. In addition, the Oratory School Schola sings for the Saturday Mass. The newly released CD of Patrick's choir has recently received a favorable review in the August 2003 issue of The Diapason. Our chat began with a discussion of the various types of music programs in the UK, more specifically the Church Music program now available at the Royal Academy.

 

PR: You've seen for yourselves that there is now a wide range of different choirs in English church music: all-professional; adult central London church choirs (like the Oratory); the traditional, historic boys and men's choirs (in the cathedrals and at Oxford and Cambridge); and the all-choral-scholar choirs with young women and men (at Cambridge colleges such as Trinity and Clare in particular). These different types are all central to the current state of professional choral culture in this country.

 

GB: What about church music in the Royal Academy of Music?

 

PR: Well, historically, the London conservatoires always trained church musicians very often either in a gap year or a couple of gap years before students went to university or sometimes at post graduate level after university. This was nearly always through the medium of their organ courses. There would be choir training classes as well. But there was no specific vocational training, nothing in a liturgical context or with theological understanding at all. There was nothing which had a real church music label in any of the British conservatoires until 1987 when the Principal here, who had been my tutor in Oxford at New College, Sir David Lumsden, decided that he was going to have a church music course here in the Academy--and he asked me to set it up. It was to be a contextual, supporting course, predominantly for organists, but also for singers and composers, taking a broader view of church music issues and to fill in gaps. I didn't have church music students as such, and students didn't actually graduate as church music students. They'd graduate as composers, singers, organists or whatever. That was the situation for ten years. No other conservatoire was offering anything like this at all. Of course, at Oxbridge the sort of training you get in church music is entirely based on the liturgical experience of the chapel in which you're working--very often, a rather narrow perspective. I was giving students the experience of going to the local synagogue, of Orthodox music, and giving them an understanding of Catholic church music, and from that basis the European tradition in particular--in addition to the traditional Anglican experience. I was very much aided in that by the Academy's head of organ, Nicholas Danby, who'd been my organ professor when I was at Oxford. He was also organ professor at the Royal College of Music. He, like me, was Catholic but he had great love for and insight into the real essentials of the English tradition.

 

BB: So how did your church music career start?

 

PR: Well, that was thanks to Nicholas Danby. He insisted I make myself known at the London Oratory (which was where he thought I ought to work). The organist there was Nicholas's own old organ teacher, the legendary Ralph Downes, who designed the organs both at the Oratory and at the Royal Festival Hall. Downes showed interest in me and engineered that I became his assistant. He wanted to retire and shortly after I arrived he nominated me to be his successor as organist--a kind of apostolic succession! I have to say I felt very ill prepared. In retrospect I think I should've studied a year or two abroad before going into that job. I did a lot of learning on the job, and I think a lot of my work there initially was very callow.

 

GB: We can all say that, can't we? (laughter)

 

PR: Yes, true, but at age 23 going into a job like that without hardly any previous experience is quite tough. That was in 1977. I then started teaching harmony and counterpoint here at the Academy in 1982 and did some history classes. And then in 1987 I initiated the Church Music program. In 1995 the current Principal, Dr. Curtis Price, who is an American and a former professor of music at King's College, London, was appointed. He felt that we couldn't keep on running a Church Music Course without first-study students, without majors. So, we decided what we had to do was to fill a real gap in British conservatoires: choral direction. Incredibly we were the first Choral Directing Department in an English conservatoire. Things are now beginning to change. The Royal College of Music now has a Master's course for choral conducting. And I understand that there are developments at the Birmingham Conservatoire, which may well be linked with the Royal College of Organists' move to Birmingham. Paul Spicer, conductor of the Finzi Singers, is in the driving seat for this.

 

GB: We heard his concert at the Royal College of Music with the all-volunteer Whitehall Choir and the Brandenburg Sinfonia.

 

PR: We decided at the Academy that we would have to have a primary stylistic focus. So I decided to hang on to the church music context so I could define the repertoire, the stylistic base we're working from--that is, the English experience of the repertoire in English and Latin in a fairly broad-minded view, not peddling any one particular viewpoint. That understanding of style--the importance of ensemble, tuning, clarity, also the function of church music--has really got to be heard in the daily service, because that is where the culture of corporate discipline and style springs from. But even if you take church music out into the concert hall or onto CD, you need an understanding of what that's about. Rather than "church music with some choir training" the course became "choral direction, contexted within church music." Most of my students end up with a Master's degree.

 

GB: Is there usually a problem with an American transferring here?

 

PR: No. They can't bring any accreditation, but they don't need to. In the Academy as a whole we have a lot of Americans--and even an American Principal!

 

GB: Dr. Price studied at Southern Illinois and Harvard?

 

PR: Correct. He said to me, "Can you get the students?" I said, "Yes, fine. How many can I have?" They said, "two a year." Two! Actually this exactly matches the intake of the Academy's Orchestral Conducting course, which is highly sought-after and has a tremendous record. In addition to the choral direction specialists, I also work with the organists. The Head of Organ, David Titterington, and I have a very good, close working relationship. The Academy now has organ courses not just at the bachelor's level and postgraduate level, but we also have a foundation course which doesn't have large numbers, but significant individuals coming on who may be headed for an Oxford organ scholarship. They come here for a year's conservatoire experience of London professional standards, intensive solo organ training which you typically don't get at Oxbridge. The organ scholars there often haven't the time for it since they have to be so focused on the accompanimental arts. Here they get "choir training" training, which at the moment they still don't get at Cambridge, though influential figures in Cambridge such as David Hill and Timothy Byram-Wigfield (at Jesus College, and shortly to move to St. George's, Windsor) are hoping to start building a choir training course. GB: Some of the well known English choir trainers and conductors would not pass the first year conducting course at Westminster Choir College. (laughter)

 

PR: Was that your alma mater?

 

GB: Yes, I also went to Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. With many English conductors the musicianship is there, the skill and knowledge is there, but they can't communicate with their hands. The American way is big on conducting technique. PR: This is a major issue. I only started thinking about conducting technique when I started teaching the choir training class here. I learned on the job, because there had been no tradition of courses in the UK.

 

GB: The Choir College had 3 years of conducting classes at the undergraduate level.

 

PR: I was a singer for a while as a male alto. The physical contact between singing and the conducting technique was something that interested me from watching my Oratory predecessor John Hoban who also was a singer. Also from watching other people work like John Eliot Gardiner. That I found interesting, so then I started to try and quantify what I thought and felt, in terms of relating conducting to breathing and relaxation--actually opening a door for singers rather than putting them in a constricting box. New students who come here are often quite surprised by the emphasis on gestural technique-- though the Americans not so much! One of my important contacts is with the Leipzig Hochschule and their head of choral direction Roland Börger, who is a good friend. We have an ongoing formal professorial exchange arrangement. I was fascinated to see his work. His whole training had been through gestural command. He is a very elegant, economical conductor indeed. He does great work with my students here. Though we very much speak the same musical language, our strengths lie in different areas. When I've gone to work with the Leipzig students, I've had to deal much more with handling singers' morale within a group dynamic and with visual technique: mimicry, questions of enunciation, verbal color, reinforcing pulse and phrasing through the face.

 

GB: I worked with Helmut Rilling many years ago. Of course, he's not a choral man as such, but a wonderful conducting scholar. Basically the Germans, at least the ones I know, are not vocal colorists, are they?

 

PR: It depends where you look. I think they would say they are, but they use a different area of the spectrum, a darker one. My German visitors seem to find the English choirs, the boy choirs, somewhat underdeveloped as regards vocal color. There are exceptions of course. They always seem to respond to the current New College, Oxford choir. Edward Higginbottom there gets a great sense of color and relaxation. There's a wonderful freedom of not just interpretive expression but actual technical expression from the boys. He's had a great record of encouraging young men as well.

 

BB: Of the three different places we were in Oxford, the camaraderie between him and his boys was the best--talking back and forth, chatting with the boys about what they did that day, whereas the other two places were pretty much straightforward.

 

PR: Yes, he clearly has a really interesting mind. The reason why he gets such response from the boys is because he engages them intellectually. Nevertheless, in England we need a greater emphasis on the old adage: "What they (the singers) see is what you (the choral director) get."

 

BB: Yes, exactly.

 

PR: Now in the London professional church situation you actually don't have to show everything. You've got to come to an assessment of how much your singers are able to absorb visually, because they are working under severe time restrictions, very often with music they are seeing for the first time. The singers are always very helpful. The two most commonly asked questions are 1) breathing and 2) dynamics. They want to know that you've got a unified idea and can communicate the simple general shape of a piece. Once they are happy with the essentials, then the more sophisticated aspects can be conveyed by visual and eye contact once you come to the performance--there generally isn't time in the rehearsal to do more.

 

GB: Phrasing?

 

PR: If the singers know how long the breath is then they'll take the phrasing, the actual shaping, from you. They are generally extraordinarily responsive, because, let's face it, most of them are highly experienced interpretative artists in their own right. If there is a fault here, it's that the restrictions on rehearsal time can lead to a very generalized approach to interpretation--favoring choral regimentation and the development of one choral sound over interpretation. But that is the fault of the directors rather than the singers. I'm sure you've come to your own conclusions about those choirs that generally have developed one interpretation, which essentially is the unvarying choir sound, where every piece is made to fit that concept.

 

GB: Yes, several of the top American college choirs work that way. More choirs back in the 1960s used the technique first and then the music superimposed on the technique. However, these days more American college choirs are into correct performance practice and trying to achieve different sounds for the different periods of repertoire, especially in the last 15 to 20 years.

 

PR: I'm glad to hear it. In my teaching I try to encourage the students to be as creative and as quick as they can about developing appropriate sound both through gesture, using their own voices and by the different sounds that they hear from choirs in this country.

 

GB: What sort of students do you take at the Academy?

 

PR: Well, you have to bear in mind I only take postgraduates for a two-year course with two students in each year. Currently I have two Americans, one who is already active as a period instrument orchestral and choral conductor, and the other from a Midwest Lutheran college background--both men. And then there are two women, one English (she's from Oxford) and one Irish (from Dublin). And only the English student is a church musician.

 

GB: When your students graduate, are they going to be able to get a position or positions in this country that equals a full-time wage?

 

PR: It varies. Unless you are working in a cathedral you won't get a full-time post. But most students gradually build up a portfolio of freelance casual work and regular work, often combining church, secular choral and academic teaching work. Even I'm doing something similar--I'm working for the Academy in a half-time post and also working at the Oratory half-time. That suits me fine.

 

GB: The English church choral system seems male-dominated, at least as far as directors are concerned. Do you see that changing in our lifetime?

 

PR: I don't know--it'll certainly take time. But because of the expansion of opportunities for girls in the cathedral and college choirs there will inevitably be more girls coming through the choirs who have ambitions to be directors. One major factor is--how vital is the linkage between organ playing and choral directing? I am a choral director and I'm an organist, but I'm not necessarily the choral director that I am because I am an organist. And the same can also be said for so many English choral directors (though on the other hand there are English organists who direct choirs because they are organists and not because they have a gift with singers!). At the moment there are a handful of women working in the English cathedrals: Louise Marsh at Guildford (a former student of mine), Rosemary Field at Portsmouth for example, but only one director of music, and that at a small Catholic cathedral at Arundel.

 

GB: Patrick, I'm interested that you're holding an influential teaching post here in the English tradition but you are a Catholic. Would you comment on the ecumenical climate for church musicians in the UK?

 

PR: I think the students find me quite an interesting animal, because my education was certainly through the Anglican system, but my background as a child and my working venue now is Catholic. I can happily conduct an Anglican Choral Evensong if I want. The same is true of James O'Donnell (a Catholic) and David Hill (an Anglican). They will find their way around the Latin Mass with Gregorian propers and a Victoria setting as easily as an Anglican Evensong with Smith responses, a Walford Davies Psalm and Dyson in D.

 

BB: Sounds like what we love!

 

PR: That is very much the English culture at the moment--in church music at least there's a very good inter-denominational understanding. I think the thing about Catholic centers like Westminster Cathedral and the Oratory is that they are seen as being just as much part of the London church music as the Anglican places. We're regarded as quite central, largely because of the international repertoire that we perform and because there's an improved perception of Latin as part of European culture rather than as a Roman Catholic emblem. And the recovery of the Latin tradition by the Anglican choirs has had a liberating effect on choral sound, from George Guest's choir at St. John's College, Cambridge in the early 1960s onwards. There is far more emphasis now on the color of choral sound than on perfection of ensemble. Though of course a better understanding of vocal technique by conductors actually makes it easier to achieve a natural musical ensemble of course. Nevertheless, that's not a quality you will hear and see in all choral directors in England.

 

GB: No. At many of the places we visited there were ragged entrances, just from the fact that the culture here is not to breathe for the choir. In first year conducting at Westminster Choir College, if you couldn't breathe and bring the choir in on the downbeat, you got an F. That was the first thing to do. Of course, that was with the choir right in front of you. In a divided chancel without eye contact it's harder.

 

PR: But even in that situation it still works the same way though. The whole point is one should be able to bring in the choir without doing much at all with the hand. Just breathe and come in. I have to say I've not really seen much of what goes on in the States. By and large in England we're all feeling our way as to how to deliver technical teaching. Here at the Academy I do virtually all the technical teaching. Of course there are masterclasses which can be very valuable for the practicalities of how to rehearse. Stephen Cleobury did a fine class with the BBC Singers (organized by the BBC) a couple of days ago. Stephen was wonderful in saying, "What does the choir need to look at--how do we look at it--do we need to do that once more--or do you think the singers will get it right the next time anyway?"--pragmatic things rather than matters of gestural technique. James O'Donnell is also wonderful, very economical indeed. Getting people who are really expert in teaching gestural command that will always get the result, either the first time or at least the second time, is not so easy. One of the members of staff here, Jeremy Summerly (director of the Oxford Camerata), has one of the most vestigial gestural techniques I've ever seen. It's extremely small, yet, coupled with what goes on with the face and diaphragm it's totally explicit, very relaxed, very vocal, very disciplined.

 

GB: That's the way I was taught.

 

PR: Exactly--it's all done on the breath. And then you can control the horizontal melodic line at the same time as the vertical pulse. And that's essential in the polyphonic music which is the heart of the English tradition. Polyphony seems to be one area where I'm conscious of a cultural difference between the Americans and the Brits. There seems to be a different way of analyzing the score. I find that American students find it very difficult to absorb polyphonic scores, to see the wood from the trees. All the entrances are marked, they try to give every single entrance. So, of course, the gestural preparation tends to be too late. Other problems then follow on: how do I indicate the character of the lead? If many leads, which one should I give? Do I mouth each one? But the English tradition is based on the conductor presuming that his singers (even youngsters) already have an informed understanding of the polyphonic concept. People like James O'Donnell and David are very good at that: leading the singers through and trusting the singers to do it.

 

That leads on to another essential characteristic of the English tradition. There's a really different mind-set between chorus-mastering and choral conducting when you've actually got an instrument that already has a built-in intellectual and physical motor. You don't have to do much actually to call that forth, you've got to do other things. That can be very difficult for inexperienced students when they're presented with musical singers. At Academy auditions many candidates come in and just don't know what to do. They've been used to drumming the music into their choirs and so haven't actually started to think about the essence of interpretation. Questions of appropriate tempo, elegant articulation, verbal color and intensity--very often there has been no background in these considerations at all. Fortunately now we have singers in the Academy who are already expert choralists (many of them already working professionally), so my conducting students can experience the truth of "What they see is what you get"! I place much more emphasis on actually showing what you want and not just rehearsing what you want. The initiative needs be taken by the choral director, rather than the old English way of simply listening to the choir's performance and then making a reactive comment. Even though I only have two students a year here, I think there is a growing feeling in England that choral direction is something which can and should be taught and that naturally gifted young directors still need to learn. Of course, you can't instill talent if there's no talent in the first place, but you can help refine it and hone it with technical training. There's not been a sea-change yet in attitudes towards the choral director's training in England, but things are definitely starting to change.

 

GB: Super! This has been great! Would you chat about the deputy system in London?

 

PR: Yes, all the main London choirs with the exception of the BBC Singers are part-time or are to a greater or lesser extent ad hoc, even though conductors are always going to use their favorite singers. If, for example, you are a lay clerk at Westminster Abbey or Westminster Cathedral the job is permanent, but not full-time, even though actually it is well-paid pro rata. Even in St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey the singers will either need to do solo work or they will do consort work outside. You'll find them working with all the concert groups you've heard on CDs and others as well. The only full-time professional choir working 9 to 5, 5 days a week, is the BBC Singers (24 singers). The London singer needs to have the liberty to take on freelance work, even if he or she has got a base in the church. The work of choirs like The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, even the Tallis Scholars, is part-time work, paid pro rata by appearance and by rehearsal session. The only way that you can staff that sort of thing, since you're working around people's diaries, is by working with a pool. The deputy system in London is essentially this pool of professional singers whom you need to ring up to fill the balance. This happens with all choirs, particularly the church choirs since they are at the bottom of the heap because their rates are the lowest.

 

Nevertheless, it's surprising how many singers make great efforts to keep their contact with the church even though the rate of pay is less attractive than working with other choirs. If one of my singers is on a 3-week tour with the Monteverdi Choir or The Sixteen, then I won't see them at the Oratory and they will need to send in an approved deputy; but when they get back it's like the return of the Prodigal Son--personal relationships are very strong, and many of them go back to student days or even further. Most choral directors will have their own list of approved "deps" from which the regular singer must provide a deputy. And many of the "deps" are familiar members of the choir "family". Here's my own current list for the Oratory and you'll see I've also made additional private comments [We were shown the list.]--it's my most important tool as a choral director. If I'm away I may need to get a deputy for myself. And there are deputy organists and directors. And I have an orchestral fixer (contractor) for when we have an orchestral mass (generally 3 times a year).

 

BB: You do get vacation from your position at the Oratory?

 

PR: Theoretically, yes! We sing 52 Sundays a year. There is no actual designated holiday period at the Oratory within the year. I'm entitled to 28 days holiday a year including four Sundays.

 

BB: Do you take it?

 

PR: Just about. I don't always take my Sundays off as holidays, actually. Some of them have been when I'm in Leipzig doing my exchange work, because I have to go there once a year to teach.

 

GB: What are the fees for the singers?

 

PR: The Oratory is near the top, it appears, but it's not right at the very top. For a typical Sunday morning at the moment we pay £45, a typical Sunday afternoon £38.

 

GB: Even with all that outside processing around you did last Sunday afternoon? (laughter)

 

PR: They got £45 for that. Weddings go up to £62. The rates are higher for other major liturgical celebrations, especially over Holy Week, when we do the full Latin schedule consisting of Tenebrae on Wednesday night, Mass of the Lord's Supper on Thursday night, Tenebrae on Friday morning, Afternoon Liturgy on Friday afternoon, Tenebrae on Saturday morning, Easter Vigil on Saturday night, Sunday morning Solemn Mass, and Sunday afternoon Solemn Vespers. Those are very long services. I have to say, actually, I think the program at the Oratory is bigger than anywhere else. Generally, the quality of the music is such that the choristers are prepared to do that. Also they like the fact that the liturgy itself is enduring.

 

GB: Good word!

 

PR: It's not "here today and gone tomorrow." Whatever they may think about it theologically, I think many singers find the service to be very traditional, pastoral, cultic, and essentially eternal. It's a sort of musical and cultural bedrock for them.

 

GB: There was no trouble after Vatican II with the music at the Oratory?

 

PR: Actually the Oratory Fathers always wanted to keep it as pre-Vatican II as they can.

 

BB: That's wonderful!

 

GB: Great!

 

PR: I'm interested you take that view.

 

GB: With the altar on the back wall?

 

PR: Oh, they wouldn't move the altar! Interestingly, in scholarship and re-reading the original Vatican documents, you find this idea of westward-facing celebration is actually not in the original conciliar documents. It was something that was produced much later. The Oratory Fathers have never gone along with that. While they are absolutely loyal to the authority of the Pope in the modern Catholic Church, they're deeply traditional, very retentive, very consistent, quite insulated and deliberately so.

 

GB: That can be a good or bad problem.

 

PR: Well, it can make some problems for me. For example, the approach to music from the modern era is extremely cautious, but the positive aspect is that I am never asked to do anything that is less than a five-star masterpiece. I can do all the Victoria, Palestrina, Gabrieli I want, and the bigger the better. I'm not being asked to do John Rutter-- perhaps I should complain? (laughter)

 

BB: We enjoyed hearing the Latin Mass.

 

PR: Well, what I really value (and so the singers) is that I'm dealing with something that is central to the European tradition, above all at Easter. I think that the Easter services at the Oratory are the finest representation of the classic Latin liturgy you'll find anywhere in the world wherever it's available in the new rite. It's not the Tridentine rite. It's the new rite in Latin, which is actually the normative form of the new rite, though many American bishops, and even some English bishops, don't admit that. At Westminster Cathedral at 10:30 every morning there is a Latin mass. The only mass the Cathedral choir sings which is in Latin from beginning to end is Saturday morning.

 

BB: Martin Baker invited us to come on Saturday.

 

PR: You're probably going to that and then going to the boys rehearsal afterwards. That's the way my students normally dip their toes into that system.

 

GB: Right, this has been great. Thank you so much for visiting with us. We're late for the Mozart Requiem rehearsal.

 

Prior to our interview that day, Patrick gave us a tour of the Royal Academy of Music, where we also had lunch in the dining hall. Following our interview we sat in on a rehearsal with the Academy Choir and Period Instrument Orchestra as they prepared for a concert the following day of the Mozart Requiem (edition--Robert Levin) conducted by Sir Roger Norrington. Patrick had been a kind and gracious host to us for several days, and we were most appreciative of the opportunity to get a first hand peek from an insider's perspective of both the Oratory and the Royal Academy.

Brian F. Gurley

The Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians (CRCCM) met in Washington, D.C., January 6–9 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (National Shrine) for its 31st annual gathering. Members of the National Shrine’s music staff—Peter Latona, director of music; Richard Fitzgerald, associate director of music; and Benjamin LaPrairie, assistant director of music—designed and directed the conference gathering with help from the National Shrine’s support staff. Assistance was also provided by the CRCCM steering committee: Michael Batcho, director of music at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee; Marie Rubis Bauer, director of music for the Archdiocese of Omaha and at St. Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha; Anthony DiCello, director of music at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, Cincinnati; Donald Fellows, director of music at St. Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh; Ezequiel Menéndez, director of music at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Hartford; Christoph Tietze, director of music and organist at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco; Leo Nestor and Gerald Muller, advising.

 

Monday, January 6

Conference participants arrived in Washington and were welcomed to the National Shrine. They enjoyed open bench access to the gallery organs of the Upper Church, attended daily Mass in the Crypt Church, and toured the basilica before the meeting officially opened with evening prayer in the Crypt Church, with Monsignor Walter Rossi, rector of the National Shrine, presiding; Monsignor Charles Antonicelli, vicar for canonical services of the Archdiocese of Washington, delivered the homily; and Peter Latona, Richard Fitzgerald, Benjamin LaPrairie, and the Choir of the National Shrine provided the liturgical music. Following evening prayer, participants enjoyed refreshments and fellowship at Monsignor Rossi’s welcome reception; the CRCCM Statement of Purpose was read aloud, after which the participants introduced themselves and described their work in their cathedral churches.

The CRCCM welcomed new members and first-time conference participants for 2014: Joseph Balistreri, director of the office of worship for the Archdiocese of Detroit and co-director of music at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit; Robert Carr, director of music at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, Spokane; Richard Fitzgerald, associate director of music at the National Shrine; McDowell Fogle, director of music and principal organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah; Brian Gurley, director of music and organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Albany, New York; Stephen Handrigan, director of the Choir School of St. Michael Cathedral, Toronto, Canada; and Mary Rooney of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah.

 

Tuesday, January 7

The day began with the Reverend Robert A. Skeris presenting a lecture, “Laus Vocalis Necessaria: The Music Must Pray, the Prayer Must Sing.” Father Skeris shared reflections on the necessary integration of musica sacra with the Logos in the liturgy: “Chant and liturgy have one nature; they belong together like belief and prayer.” Father Skeris currently serves as director of the Center of Ward Method Studies at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at the Catholic University of America (CUA). From 1986 to 1989, he served as professor and prefetto della casa at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, Italy.

After the lecture, the day continued with a tour of the Blessed John Paul II Institute. A gift of the Archdiocese of Detroit, the institute is owned and operated by the Knights of Columbus and is currently under renovation. Jem Sullivan, director of research at the institute, led conference participants through several exhibits, including a biographical exhibit of the life of Blessed John Paul II, and an exhibit depicting the election of Pope Francis and the process of the conclave.

The conference participants met at 12:15 p.m. for midday prayer with the Dominican Friars at the Dominican House of Studies. Father James Junipero Moore, O.P., welcomed everyone in the chapel and explained some of the Dominican traditions that were manifest in the liturgy. One example was that the alternatim practice of praying the psalms includes alternate standing and sitting. Standing represents preaching, while sitting represents the reception of preaching.

Following midday prayer, Father Moore conducted a brief concert sung by the Schola Cantorum of the Dominican Friars. Repertoire included the Dominican hymn O spem miram (plainsong), Sancta et immaculata by Francisco Guerrero, and Salvation Is Created by Pavel Tchesnokov. One of the singers in the schola is an expert in Church Slavonic, so the friars learned the text and sang it in the original language. Father Moore indicated that only two or three of the friars were music majors, and that they only rehearse for one hour per week. Lunch followed at the National Shrine.

At 2 p.m., Father Moore gave a talk entitled “The Spiritual Life of the Musician” in the Dominican Rosary Chapel of the National Shrine. Among the many exhortations he made to the conference participants, Father Moore encouraged everyone to maintain an active prayer life and to avoid the sins of pride and being underprepared.

The afternoon continued with the first of two business meetings, during which Anthony DiCello presented the proposed schedules and locations of upcoming CRCCM gatherings. He also described the duties and the rotation process of the steering committee. Marc Cerisier, organist of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Memphis, Tennessee, demonstrated updates to the CRCCM website and reminded everyone that service leaflets, compositions, and other resources may be uploaded for sharing among CRCCM members. DiCello presented his project of setting the collects of the Roman Missal (3rd edition) to modern notation. These documents are available for PDF download on the website of the Athenaeum of Ohio (www.athenaeum.edu/liturgical-resources.aspx).

Following the business meeting, Richard Fitzgerald led a session on improvisation techniques on the South Gallery Organ of the National Shrine. Fitzgerald’s doctoral dissertation at the Peabody Institute focused on improvisation techniques; he shared original musical examples as well as templates from organ literature, which can provide the basis for improvisation in liturgy. Workshop participants included Ricardo Ramirez, director of music and organist at Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois, Joseph Balistreri, and Brian Gurley.

Conference participants enjoyed fellowship at the Washington Court Hotel lobby and bar and found dinner on their own.

 

Wednesday, January 8

The first event of the morning was a lecture-presentation by Bertrand Cattiaux, organ builder and Curator of Organs at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. Cattiaux surveyed six centuries of French organ building, incorporating audio and visual examples in his thorough presentation.

The morning continued with a lecture given by the Reverend Monsignor Kevin Irwin, entitled “What We Have Done and What We Have Failed To Do,” focusing on state of liturgical and musical reforms since the Second Vatican Council. Monsignor Irwin invited his audience to consider whether or not the liturgical music prepared in their cathedrals fits the liturgy of the Roman Rite. He proposed a reexamination of repertoires consisting primarily of Protestant hymnody—which tend to be didactic in nature—at the expense of the proper antiphons of the Gradual. Monsignor Irwin is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and served as dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America from 2005–2011. He currently holds the Walter J. Schmitz Chair of Liturgical Studies. His latest book, What We Have Done and What We Have Failed To Do (2014), assesses the liturgical reforms of Vatican II and is available through Paulist Press.

At 12:15 p.m., Richard Fitzgerald presented a lunchtime organ recital at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square. Fitzgerald’s program consisted of varied improvisations inspired by the stained glass windows of St. John’s Church. Following the recital, Benjamin Hutto, organist and director of music ministry at St. John’s Church, welcomed CRCCM conference participants and gave a brief tour of the 2009 Lively-Fulcher organ. 

At 3 p.m., the conference participants visited Washington National Cathedral (WNC). Director of music, Canon Michael McCarthy, led a workshop,  “Techniques for the Choral Conductor,” in the lower chapel of WNC. McCarthy encouraged participants to maintain vocal health and to seek periodic vocal instruction and coaching, which would strengthen their work with their own choirs.

At 5:15 p.m., Monsignor Rossi celebrated Mass and preached in the Crypt Church of the National Shrine, during which prayers were offered for deceased members of the CRCCM. As is custom, the CRCCM necrology was read during the Universal Prayer. Liturgical music (Lassus, Kyrie from Missa Quinti toni; Clemens non Papa, Magi viderunt stellam; Friedell, Song of Mary) was provided by Peter Latona, Richard Fitzgerald, Benjamin LaPrairie, and the Choir of the National Shrine.

Following Mass, the Choir of the National Shrine presented a concert entitled “Moveable Feasts: Sacred Music for the Church Year.” The program included the Epiphany Proclamation for 2014, with repertoire selected for each feast. Repertoire included works by Whitacre, Dove, Palestrina, Lukaszewski, L’héritier, Allegri, Stanford, Mendelssohn, Harris, Byrd, and Vierne (organ). Peter Latona conducted the choir, and Benjamin LaPrairie accompanied from the Crypt Church’s 1987 Schudi organ. 

 

Thursday, January 9

Thursday morning began with the second of two business meetings, held in the chapel of the Theological College of CUA. Gerald Muller, director of music at the Theological College (TC), described the musical and liturgical formation of the seminary students. During the meeting, participants suggested possible programs or scholarships that CRCCM could fund and oversee. These would be especially focused on the formation of future church musicians. Additional agenda items included the nomination of CRCCM members to the steering committee, as well as further discussion of possible locations for future conference meetings.

The business meeting was followed by the composers’ reading session, also held in the TC Chapel. Participants were joined by members of the Choir of the National Shrine to read through new compositions.

Later Thursday morning, Grayson Wagstaff, professor of music, director of the Latin American Music Center, and dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at CUA, gave a lecture-presentation on the influence of the Spanish Renaissance on the sacred music of the New World. Wagstaff surveyed the latest scholarship on the topic, which has attracted the attention of many musicologists in recent years. He discussed evidence of Spanish Salve services, which were devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and resulted in a great number of settings of the Marian votive antiphon Salve Regina. Wagstaff encouraged the continued pursuit of this scholarship, since it presents an opportunity to help people appreciate historically important music that is intimately tied to Hispanic liturgical, musical, and cultural heritage. 

Johann Vexo, choir organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, presented a survey of sacred liturgical music at Notre Dame. He described the responsibilities of the organists, the singing practices at cathedral liturgies, and the Choir School. Later that evening, Vexo played a brilliant program of French masterworks on the organs of the Upper Church at the National Shrine; repertoire included music of Vierne, Franck, Dupré, and Duruflé. Prior to the concert, Robert Grogan, carillonneur and organist emeritus of the National Shrine, gave a prelude concert on the carillon of the Knights of Columbus bell tower. Repertoire included carillon literature and works arranged for carillon.

Conference participants enjoyed an elegant closing banquet at Johnny’s Half-Shell, located on North Capitol Street NW. Sincere gratitude and appreciation were extended to Peter Latona, Richard Fitzgerald, and Benjamin LaPrairie for hosting a very successful week.

The 2015 meeting of the CRCCM will take place in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. It will be hosted by the Basilica of St. Mary (Minneapolis) and the Cathedral of St. Paul (St. Paul) in conjunction with the Cathedral Ministries Convention. 

 

Marijim Thoene

Marijim Thoene received a D.M.A. in organ performance/church music from the University of Michigan in 1984. She is an active recitalist and director of music at St. John Lutheran Church in Dundee, Michigan. Her two CDs, Mystics and Spirits and Wind Song, are available from Raven Recordings. She is a frequent presenter at medieval conferences on the topic of the image of the pipe organ in medieval manuscripts.

Introduction
Joe Hoppe has been organist and director of music for over 40 years at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, located in the business district at 734 Camp Street. This historic church, completed in 1840, is in the Gothic style with a vaulted ceiling, massive hand-carved doors, and towering stained glass windows. Here the Roman Mass continues to be celebrated in Latin, and here Joe Hoppe developed one of the finest music programs in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He built a fine choir of volunteers, conducted choral masterworks with full orchestra, maintained the pipe organ, and in 2009 realized his dream of presenting the church with a new pipe organ, a magnificent instrument built by Patrick J. Murphy and Associates, Opus 53. Joe Hoppe retired from St. Patrick’s in March 2010. This interview is intended to celebrate his remarkable contributions to the musical life of St. Patrick’s Church, the community of New Orleans, and the lives of many international visitors, and to let you see some of the behind-the-scenes work of his remarkable tenure at St. Patrick’s. His music has touched the ears and hearts of thousands.
Joe was born on February 13, 1938 in New Orleans. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in philosophy, from Notre Dame Seminary in June 1961. In 1964 he completed three and a half years of postgraduate studies in theology, where he studied the theory and practice of Gregorian chant with Father Robert Stahl, S.M., and sang in the Notre Dame Seminary Schola Cantorum, which participated in joint concerts with the Saint Louis Cathedral Choir under the direction of Elise Cambon and Father Stahl.
In August 1968 Msgr. John P. Reynolds hired him as the organist for St. Patrick’s Church, where, as Joe said, “There was no choir or cantor. I was the music program!” Over time he recruited singers, and had a choir of over 40 voices. In September 1990 he was accepted into the master’s program at the University of New Orleans, where he studied organ with H. Gerald Aultman and choral conducting with Raymond Sprague. In May 1993 he was awarded a Master of Music degree, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of his employment at St. Patrick’s. In September 2008 he was honored at a banquet at the New Orleans Country Club and awarded a Waterford crystal cross for 40 years of devoted and dedicated service to St. Patrick’s Church. Also at this banquet, James Hammann, chair of the music department at the University of New Orleans, presented him with a “Distinguished Alumnus Certificate from the University of New Orleans Department of Music for Forty Years of Distinguished Service as Organist at St. Patrick’s Church, New Orleans, Louisiana.”
Here is Joe Hoppe who, when asked by a bride how long it takes to learn to play the organ, answered, with a twinkle in his eye, “Oh, a couple of weeks!”

Marijim Thoene: My favorite photo of you is as a young cleric. Knowing of your remarkable education, I’m not surprised that you should make that choice. When was this photo taken?
Joe Hoppe: In 1967 I was assigned as an assistant to the pastor (now referred to as Parochial Vicar) at St. Angela Merici Parish, and that is the photo that was printed on the weekly bulletin to introduce me to the parishioners.

M.T.: You have all the qualities I think a man of the cloth should have—compassion, a fine education, integrity, reverence, a sense of humor. Are you glad that you chose to serve the church as a musician rather than as a priest, that you chose to follow “a road less traveled ?”
J.H.: Yes. After two years in the active ministry, I came to the realization that for personal and spiritual reasons, I had to make a change in my life. After much prayer and consideration and consultation with my spiritual director, together we came to the conclusion that I should request an indefinite leave of absence from the archbishop. I made the request, and it was granted in February 1968. In August of that year, Msgr. John P. Reynolds, who was well aware of my situation and status, hired me as music director and organist for St. Patrick’s Church.

M.T.: What led you to playing the organ and directing choirs?
J.H.: When I was 13, Sister Mary Celia, SSND (School Sisters of Notre Dame), was the organist at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church and music teacher in the grammar school. I was studying piano with her, and she suggested that I should learn to play the organ. My parents gave their consent, and she began to give me organ lessons on the 11-rank, two-manual Tellers-Kent pipe organ, dated 1920, in the church. This was back in the days when Novenas and such things as evening May Devotions were very popular. As soon as I had learned the very basics of the instrument, she had me learn one hymn at a time, and as I learned each one, she would have me play it during the service. Then she had me learn the accompaniment to the Latin Masses that the school children sang at the 8:00 am High Mass every morning of the week, and she would let me play for these Masses. This was while I was still in grammar school. When I was in high school, I joined the church’s adult choir and sang with them.
When I was employed at St. Patrick’s in 1968, there was no choir. I was hired only to play the organ, and once in a while maybe sing for a morning High Mass. Between 1968 and 1987 I would invite musician friends to perform at the church for big feast days such as Christmas Midnight Mass or on Easter Sunday morning, but there was no organized music program. In 1987 I formed a male choir to sing an all-Gregorian High Mass on Passion Sunday of that year. Then in May I formed a female choir to sing a High Mass in honor of Mary. In September of that year, these two groups combined to form what became known as St. Patrick’s Concert Choir. This continued until March 7, 2010, when it was disbanded.
M.T.: To hear the Roman Rite sung in Latin is becoming a rare experience, yet you have kept this tradition alive at St. Patrick’s Church. When did you learn Latin and how were you able to maintain a volunteer choir that could sang the Latin Mass so beautifully?
J.H.: When the liturgical changes went into effect after Vatican II (1962), the pastor at St. Patrick’s Church was granted permission to continue the Tridentine Latin Mass because the Stella Maris Center (the Catholic Maritime Organization for Foreign Seamen) was directly across Camp Street from St. Patrick’s; the reasoning was that the foreign seamen would not understand the English language being used in the new liturgy, but would be more at ease and understand the Latin.
At present there are at least two additional churches in New Orleans that celebrate with the Latin liturgy.

Singing Latin
When I was in grammar school, beginning in the fifth grade, the whole student body was taught to sing Latin by rote. We sang a Missa Cantata (High Mass) every morning during the week at 8 am. The Children’s Mass was at 8:30 am Sunday, and all the students sang; on Saturday morning at 7 am individual classes were assigned on rotating schedule. During the summer months, individual classes were assigned to sing the 7 am Mass six days a week.
In 1953, when I was 15 years old, the nun who was the church organist—and also my first organ instructor—hired me to play for all the High Masses in June, July, and August. I was thrilled when at the end of the summer I was paid $150 for my services. The time I spent at Notre Dame was before the Vatican II changes went into effect. All the liturgies were in Latin. Even the philosophy courses had Latin textbooks.
When I started the choir at St. Patrick’s, it was with men who volunteered to sing a Latin Gregorian chant Mass for what in the old days was called Passion Sunday (two Sundays before Easter) 1987. In May I had volunteer women sing a two-part Mass. We called this a “Mary Mass” in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Then in September of that year I put the two groups together and St. Patrick’s Concert Choir was formed; some of these people assisted with the repair of the Möller.
All of the original members of the choir had sung Latin when they were in school, so Latin was not a problem. Most of these people knew how to pronounce Latin, but had a very limited knowledge of the meaning of what was being sung. As the years went along, there were very few members who had not been exposed to Latin, and the few who were not familiar with it were helped along by the older members of the group.

M.T.: Who were the greatest influences on your life as a musician and why?
J.H.: The two teachers who probably influenced me the most were Father Robert J. Stahl, S.M. (Society of Mary) and Elise Cambon. Father Stahl was in charge of the music program at Notre Dame Seminary for the six years that I was a student there. He conducted the Notre Dame Seminary Schola Cantorum, of which I was a member, and every day there was a 15-minute Gregorian chant rehearsal for the entire student body. Here I received my background in Gregorian chant. Eventually I was able to conduct the student body at High Mass when chant was sung. We sang two or three High Masses a week, and the entire student body was able to sing all of 18 Masses in the Kyriale and the Gregorian chant Propers of the Mass in the Liber Usualis. It was from Father Stahl that I received my foundation in chant, and learned much about choral conducting.
Dr. Elise Cambon, the organist at St. Louis Cathedral for 60 years, served on the faculty of Loyola Music School. I spent several semesters studying with her. She required hard work and dedication, and any success that I may have enjoyed as an organist must be attributed to her instruction and example.

M.T.: What have you enjoyed the most in your career as a musician?
J.H.: I have always enjoyed playing music, and playing for other people, either piano or organ. As long as I have been at St. Patrick’s, whenever I played a service, it was not unusual for me to play for thirty minutes before the service began. This was just as important for me as was playing for the service itself. I enjoyed improvising the long organ prelude and creating a prayerful and quiet time for anyone who was in church.
The most rewarding aspect of my tenure at St. Patrick’s has been conducting large works for choir and orchestra. Over the years I conducted Haydn’s Mass in Honor of John de Deo (also referred to as The Little Organ Mass) and the Lord Nelson Mass; Mozart’s Trinity Mass, Coronation Mass, Sparrow Mass, and D-minor Mass; Dvorak’s Mass in D; Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël; Rheinberger’s Mass in C; Bach’s Cantatas #142 and #190; Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio; and Schubert’s Mass in G.
Every time I listen to a recording of one of these performances, I have difficulty believing that I was able to put something like this together and achieve such glorious results. It humbles me and makes me grateful that I have been blessed to be able to do this.

M.T.: I know the crowning glory of your tenure at St. Patrick’s Church is installation of the organ built by Patrick J. Murphy & Associates in 2009. However, before this, you yourself resuscitated the 1962 Möller instrument. Your efforts to rescue it in the 1980s are remarkable. Please tell us how you did this.
J.H.: In 1982, the 1962 Möller (#9614) became unplayable because of the deterioration of the pouch leather and reservoir leather in the organ mechanism. An estimate of the cost to make the needed repairs was in the neighborhood of $60,000. At this particular time, St. Patrick’s Church building was undergoing an extensive and expensive renovation (1977–1990), and the funds needed to repair the organ were not available. So the church purchased a small Allen organ to substitute for the Möller until the necessary repairs could be made.
In 1986 someone made a $3,000 donation to the church for organ repairs. This was the seed money that began the restoration of the Möller. I dismantled and rebuilt the 1962 Möller in the 1980s. At this time I had a piano tuning, repair, and rebuilding business. I specialized in the old-time mechanical player pianos. This work on player pianos required the use of leather, pneumatic cloth, and hot liquid hide glue, many of the same materials that are used in a pipe organ. So René Toups, some of the choir members, and I decided to undertake the organ repair project. I purchased several books on organ construction and repair and the project began.
While the ceiling plaster was being repaired, the workmen did not properly cover and protect the organ pipes. As a result, several large pieces of plaster fell onto the Great pipes and damaged about a dozen pipes. Since Möller was still in business at this time, I sent the pipes back to Möller for repair or replacement. Much of the dirt from this work was not only dropped on the exposed Great and Pedal pipes, but it also found its way into the Swell and Choir chambers. So all the pipes of the organ had to be removed and cleaned, and all the windchests had to be cleaned. This was very dirty work. Our crew removed all except the bottom octave of three 16-foot sets of pipes and cleaned each one individually. When the pipes were removed and cleaned and all the pipe chests vacuumed, I replaced all of the primary pouch leather, recovered all the pneumatics in the relay chest with new leather, and also releathered eleven of the thirteen reservoirs. We began this work in September 1987 and had the organ back together roughly tuned in time for Christmas Midnight Mass the same year. In January I hired a professional organ technician to tune the organ properly and do some voicing.

M.T.: Your final gift to St. Patrick’s is the splendid organ built by Patrick J. Murphy, Opus 53. What prompted you choose him as the builder? And how were you able to accomplish this?
J.H.: The pitch on the old Möller was about 20 cents flat. It had been this way for years. Any time that the organ was tuned, it was tuned at that pitch. Finally in 2007 after we began the orchestra Masses and all the instrumentalists complained about how difficult it was to tune their instruments to the organ, I decided that maybe it was time to bring it up to A = 440 Hz. I asked Jim Hammann if he would undertake this task for us, but it was a bigger job than Jim could handle at the time because of his involvement with the university. Since Jim could not undertake this task, he recommended Patrick J. Murphy. I engaged Patrick to tune the organ to 440. I was very impressed with his tuning ability and his overall knowledge about organs.
It had been over 20 years since I had completed the re-leathering work in 1987, and there were many indications that the Möller was going to need a rebuild in a very short time. After all these years, it was obvious that the leather I had installed was nearing the end of its usefulness.
Patrick Murphy was very impressed by the acoustics of the church, and expressed an interest in building a new organ for St. Patrick’s. By this time his company had already constructed or completely rebuilt 52 pipe organs throughout the country. I suggested that he draw up a proposal for an instrument that he thought would serve our needs and submit it to the pastor. The proposal was submitted in the summer of 2007, and several organists whose opinion I respect examined it. Everyone felt that the organ described in this proposal would be a wonderful instrument for St. Patrick’s Church. I presented the proposal to the Parish Council meeting in the fall of 2007, and the group was in favor of the new instrument. All we needed was the funds to pay for it. About a month later, Mrs. Betty Noe, a longtime choir member, informed me that she would underwrite the cost of the new instrument in memory of her late husband. By the end of December the contract was signed. In January 2009 the Möller was completely removed, 27 of the 29 ranks were reconditioned and used in the new organ, along with 23 new ranks, giving the new organ a total of 50 ranks. The week after Easter 2009, the new organ arrived and was installed in time to be used for the first Mass of a newly ordained priest in June.
The Patrick J. Murphy organ was officially dedicated and blessed by the pastor, Rev. Stanley P. Klores, S.T.D., on Sunday, September 14, 2009, during the celebration of a Solemn High Mass, celebrated in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (the Tridentine Latin Mass). At this Mass the choir sang Dvorak’s Mass in D, with only organ accompaniment. Dr. James Hammann was the organist, and I conducted. I chose this Mass for the dedication of the organ because it was originally commissioned to be sung at the dedication of a chapel.

M.T.: Thomas Murray, University Organist and Professor of Music at Yale University, played the dedication concert of the Patrick J. Murphy organ on December 6, 2009 for a packed church. I was delighted to be invited to play the second recital on February 28, 2010. The instrument and sacred space of St. Patrick’s are perfect for the music of Bach, Franck, Langlais, Alain, and Hovhaness. One teenager commented that he thought Langlais’ Suite Médiévale sounded “Gothic” and suited the architecture of St. Patrick’s. High praise indeed!
You, Betty Noe and her children, Rev.Stanley Klores, S.T.D., and the builder, Patrick J. Murphy & Associates, are to be thanked for this pipe organ that will bring solace, joy, and hope to those who hear it. It is a marvel, and without you, it would not exist! We thank you, Joe Hoppe, for your determination, vision and legacy. Knowing you, you will continue to make wonderful things happen.