Clay Christiansen retires from Mormon Tabernacle

Peter Collins, British organbuilder, died October 24, 2015, after a brief illness. Born in 1914, Collins established his own organbuilding firm in 1954, after serving as apprentice with Bishops of London and Rieger of Austria. During his career he was well respected for his neo-classical mechanical-action instruments. Some of his more notable installations include instruments for St. David’s Hall, Cardiff; St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich; and Queensland Conservatorium, Brisbane, Australia. Other instruments made their way to Norway, France, Germany, the United States, China, and Korea. His final installation was finished in 2015 for the St. Albans International Organ Festival, his second for the festival. The earlier instrument, finished in 1989, was inspired by the work of Gottfried Silbermann.

Robert Morton Cundick, Sr., organist and composer, died January 7 at the age of 89. He was a long-time organist of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he accompanied the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and was frequently heard on the weekly broadcast, Music and the Spoken Word. Cundick was born in 1926 in Salt Lake City, and by the age of twelve, he began service to his congregation as organist. He became a student of Tabernacle Organist Alexander Schreiner. After service in the United States Merchant Marine in World War II, Cundick attended the University of Utah, where he earned BFA, MFA, and PhD degrees from the university, the latter in composition. During his studies, he married Charlotte (Cholly) Clark, who was his organ student. In 1957, Cundick joined the faculty of Brigham Young University. In 1962, he was called to London, England, to serve as organist at the new Hyde Park Chapel of the Latter Day Saints, where his duties included a daily organ recital and broadcasts. After two years’ service there, he returned to Brigham Young. He served as an organist to the Mormon Tabernacle for 27 years. 

In 1970 he was the first recipient of the American Guild of Organists’ S. Lewis Elmer Award, granted each year to the person who attains the highest score in either the Associateship or Fellowship examination. Cundick oversaw the 1980–83 installation of a 3-manual mechanical action organ by Robert Sipe in the Assembly Hall, the 1985–89 renovation of the 5-manual organ in the Tabernacle, and the design of the 1993 2-manual Casavant organ in the chapel of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Following retirement in 1991, Cundick and his wife served as Directors of Hosting for the BYU Jerusalem Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Cundick was an avid composer and supporter of Mormon and Utah composers. In 2004, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presented its Pearl Award of Lifetime Achievement to Cundick. Cundick’s compositional work spans numerous genres, including cantata (The Song of Nephi) and oratorio (The Redeemer). Robert Cundick is survived by his wife Cholly, children Robb (Laurel), Tom (Betsy), Ann Adams (Rob), Ruth Jackman (Dave), and Dave (Kim); brother Bert and sister Carol Hoopes (Grover), 23 grandchildren, and 38 great-grandchildren. 

Dutch organist, composer, and conductor Jacques van Oortmerssen died November 21, 2015. He was 65. Born in 1950 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, he studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he completed his soloist diplomas for organ, as a student of André Verwoerd, and for piano as a student of Elly Salomé; he did postgraduate study with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris. Awarded the Prix d’Excellence in 1976, he won the first prize the National Improvisation Competition in Bolsward, Netherlands, in 1977, and was runner-up in the Tournemire Prize in St Albans. 

Oortmerssen served as professor of organ at the
Conservatory of Amsterdam since 1979. In 1982 he succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as titular organist at the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam, where he played the 1734 Christian Müller organ. Oortmerssen performed and taught at major festivals around the world and served as visiting professor at numerous European conservatories, as well as on the advisory board of the Göteborg Organ Art Center (GOArt) at the University of Gothenburg. His many recordings include the organ works of J. S. Bach (only nine volumes were released), and the works of C.P. E. Bach and Johannes Brahms.

Dennis P. Schmidt, 66, of Narragansett, Rhode Island, died October 19, 2015, at Rhode Island Hospital. Born in LeMars, Iowa, he was the son of Ruth E. F. (Hilgeman) Schmidt of Omaha, Nebraska, and the late Rev. Walter K. Schmidt. A graduate of Dana College from which he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1999, Schmidt earned master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan and a Master of Divinity from Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. Schmidt performed in recitals around the world; his programs included the complete organ works of Bach. An active member of the American Guild of Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians, he served as a church organist in numerous parishes. Dr. Schmidt served as the executive director of the Bach Festival of Philadelphia and wrote two books to accompany the Hymnal 1982. He was the author of numerous reviews and articles for The Diapason.

Dennis P. Schmidt is survived by his wife, Susan E. Hoag-lund, his mother, daughters Julia G. S. Hoaglund and Anne Meiliu S. Hoaglund, both of Narragansett, sisters Linda B. Duda of Omaha and Diane Christenson of Marana, Arizona. Gifts may be made in Dr. Schmidt’s name to the organ program of the School of Music at the University of Michigan, 1100 Baits Dr., Ann Arbor, MI 48190. ν

The Mission Inn, Riverside, California, October 25, 2003

R.E. Coleberd is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

When you come to the end of a Perfect Day,

And you sit alone with your thought,

While the chimes ring out with a carol gay,

For the joy that the day has brought,

Do you think what the end of a Perfect Day

Can mean to a tired heart,

When the sun goes down with a flaming ray,

And the dear friends have to part?

Introduction

On Saturday evening, October 25, 2003, a gala banquet and recital for 250 guests in the Music Room of the Mission Inn in Riverside, California celebrated the rededication of the newly restored 1911 Kimball pipe organ. This majestic instrument, played daily by the staff organist and assistants in the early decades of the last century, was a defining characteristic of this world-famous resort hotel and a fond memory of the many guests who stayed there. Music at The Inn transcended the locality and reached the hearts of people everywhere when, in 1909, the noted song writer Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946) was inspired to write her most famous ballad "A Perfect Day" while visiting The Inn.1 This became the theme song of the programs and, appropriately, was the closing number of the recital which followed the banquet.

A milestone in the rich and colorful history of the pipe organ in America, the Kimball organ at the Mission Inn stands today as one of the few remaining hotel pipe organs in this country.2 As recitalist Dr. John Longhurst commented in his opening remarks: "its retention, renovation and recognition are a tribute to reverence for the past and a vision for the future." The project reflects the combined efforts of The Friends of the Mission Inn, a nonprofit support group, the generous bequest of the estate of Riverside historian Mrs. Esther Klotz, the enthusiastic support of hotel management and the untiring efforts of a local organbuilder who spent countless hours over two years bringing the instrument back to life.

The Mission Inn

The Mission Inn was built in 1903 as the Glenwood Mission Inn by Frank Augustus Miller (1857-1935) to the design of architect Arthur Burnett Benton, who championed the Mission Revival architectural style as an expression of California's Spanish Colonial heritage.3 Miller was responding to the growing demand by wealthy easterners for a warm winter climate and the luxurious features of a resort hotel. Here was an opportunity, with a signature facility, to compete with Pasadena and Redlands for this lucrative patronage. In 1910 the Cloister wing was added, one of several additions, and appointed with costly furnishings and objets d'art collected by Miller in his world travels. A focal point of the Cloister Room, located in the far right corner, is the three-manual Kimball pipe organ (see photo).

Over the ensuing decades, the Mission Inn, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and California Historic Landmarks, played host to a star-spangled list of dignitaries. Presidents Harrison, McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft were guests. At the age of twenty-five John F. Kennedy attended a peace conference at The Inn. Richard and Pat Nixon were married in the Presidential Lounge, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan honeymooned there. Gerald Ford visited, as did George W. Bush in mid-October, 2003. Painted portraits of the presidents line the wall of the lobby adjacent to the lounge.4

The Kimball Organ

The Kimball pipe organ, with a commanding presence in the opulent Cloister Room, was dedicated on February 27, 1911 by John Jasper McClellan, a noted keyboard artist from The Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City (see program).5 The occasion was a conference called by hotel owner Miller, described as a "humanist, prohibitionist, and as a tireless worker for international peace,"6 to discuss peace proposals espoused by Andrew Carnegie, the well-known steel magnate and philanthropist. McClellan's program, chosen in consultation with Miller, was an example of a repertoire deemed appropriate for a hotel pipe organ. The Music Room, as the Cloister Room came to be known, became a frequent meeting place for local organizations and hotel guests--bankers and school principals among many others--and a popular wedding venue.

In 1917 the Mission Inn employed Newell Parker as staff organist. He was a pupil of the prominent Los Angeles organist-composer Ernest Douglas.7 Appearing at the console in a blue cape and serving until his retirement in 1968, Parker played noon concerts daily and the ever-popular Sunday evening hymn sings. In 1931 Parker reported that he had played six hundred weddings in the past eight years.8 The American Organist published a list of compositions he found suitable for a hotel program (see box).9 Among notable organists who played the instrument was Alec Wyton, onetime president of the American Guild of Organists.10

The 1911 Kimball organ was a three-manual instrument of 32 ranks (see stoplist, p. 18) that the local press termed a "Cathedral" instrument "because it has the large variety of tone color, in number of speaking stops, and the dignity of tone expected in a cathedral organ."11 This no doubt pleased the image-conscious Miller who must have seen it as a competitive advantage in the market for the resort trade. The third manual was described as an Echo Organ located 150 feet from the main instrument while in fact it was a Choir division in the chamber.12

An analysis of the mechanical features and tonal palette of the Kimball affords key insights into the character and complexion of the American pipe organ at this time and in contrast to succeeding eras. Steuart Goodwin, a nationally-known expert in voicing and tonal finishing, who did the tonal work on the restoration in the chamber assisted by Wendell Ballantyne at the console, commented in the local press that the original instrument "isn't much different, really, from organs that were in churches in 1910."13 In this respect it is unique--and significant--in the history of Kimball, a major builder in the first half of the last century, in that it contrasts sharply with the orchestral paradigm of Kimball organs in the 1920s, the image customarily associated with this company's instruments. There was, of course, no distinctly hotel instrument, in contrast to the radically different theater organ emerging during this era.

Goodwin observes that some of the characteristics of early twentieth-century church organs shared by the Mission Inn instrument include large-scaled, robust, eight-foot Diapasons and at least one open wood flute (generally called "Melodia"); also, stops with names like Salicional and Cornopean.

The Kimball has three open flutes: Clarabella, Concert Flute and Gross Flute, all similar in scale. The Concert Flute has harmonic trebles. The Kimball strings are high in tin content, low in mouth cut-up and well voiced, in keeping with the builder's reputation for fine strings. They are delicate and bright in contrast to the larger more foundational strings favored later by G. Donald Harrison. The Trumpet and Cornopean are surprisingly bright, very Willis sounding, while the Clarinet is a bit soft. The Vox Humana was the familiar "Vox in a Box," located behind the Swell division in its own enclosure with manually set Swell shades and a separate, comparatively rapid tremolo. Some of the Diapason pipework was slotted, to alter the harmonic content into the more horn-like sound favored by most builders after about 1875.14

The Kilgen Rebuild

By 1930 the original tubular pneumatic key and stop action in the windchests and the lead tubing linkage to the console were obsolete and failing. The Inn then contracted with George Kilgen and Sons to rebuild and update the instrument mechanically and tonally.15 This work, supervised by the West Coast representative of the St. Louis firm, comprised a new console, installing electro-pneumatic primary action in the wind-chests, and adding stops and pipes. A major trend of the times was the use of the 4' coupler on manual divisions to brighten the ensemble in the absence of mixtures and mutations. This required adding chests and pipes to increase the manual compass on the Swell and Choir from 61 to 73 notes. The Pedal was expanded from 30 to 32 pipes. A unit flute, a 16' Lieblich Gedeckt, was added to the Swell, and a large Diapason added to the Choir. The Clarinet on the Great manual was moved to the Choir and replaced with a new French Horn (see stoplist, p. 18). Unfortunately, this new work was poorly placed. For example, the unit flute was located sideways in an alcove outside the Swell enclosure with the sound having to pass through the enclosure and the shutters. It was never satisfactory. Elsewhere, the new material was jammed in so closely and access so difficult that maintenance and tuning were nearly impossible.16

This instrument was introduced at a luncheon on January 19, 1931 before a blue-chip audience of two hundred forty-five musical personalities and southern California newspaper editors personally invited by Frank Miller. House organist Parker began the program with compositions by well-known Los Angeles and Long Beach organists who were present: Prelude and Allegro Quasi Fantasia by Ernest Douglas and A Vesper Prayer by Roland Diggle. The featured performer was the legendary Alexander Schreiner, then organist at both The Mormon Tabernacle and UCLA. After Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and Ernst Harberbier's Enchanted Bells he played The Flight of the Bumble Bee prompting "an irrepressible burst of laughter and complimentary applause which called for a repetition of the number."17

The Restoration

By the late 1960s the future of the Mission Inn was in grave doubt. Then, in a groundswell of civic pride, The Friends of the Mission Inn, a non-profit support group, was founded in 1969, dedicated to preserving this time-honored monument to their community. It was saved by the combined efforts of The Friends and the far-sighted new owner, Duane Roberts, who committed the funds necessary to secure its future. In 2001 a generous bequest from the estate of Esther Klotz made possible the estimated $140,000 budget for restoring the organ. Roberts enthusiastically endorsed the project. The Friends first approached Ron Kraft, a Lutheran minister and organist, who had serviced organs in the neighborhood for nearly thirty years. But nearing retirement, he declined to assume the task, recommending instead his friend, organbuilder Ed Ballantyne.

Ballantyne (see photo, p. 17), who is also active in his family's marble and tile business, began his labor of love and then professional career in organbuilding in 1985 with the rebuilding and installation of an organ in his Mormon Church in Riverside followed by a similar project at the Ramona High School. Soon the Kimball challenge became a family affair with Ed enlisting the help of his younger brother Wendell and his son Ryan. Added to the team were Steuart Goodwin (q.v.) and Kraft. Of these men only Goodwin had been inside the Mission Inn organ and then many years earlier. When the team first entered the chamber, they encountered rain damage and a heavy layer of soot from the days when smudge pots were used to protect nearby citrus groves from cold weather. Ballantyne recalls: "We'd come out of there looking like coal miners."18

The goal of the two-year project was to return the instrument to its 1911 Kimball profile and update the specification within that paradigm as space and funds permitted (see stoplist). The Kimball windchest action was replaced with Peterson valves and the console rewired with Matters solid-state switching. The twelve-note extension chests on the Swell and Choir were discarded. Experience has shown that extension chests, connected with the main chest by tubing, result in unsteady wind and tuning problems. The Clarinet was returned to the Great division and the French Horn not reused. The Kilgen unit flute, never satisfactory, was eliminated as were the harp and chimes whose actions were defunct. The new individual valves on the windchests afforded unification options enabling Wendell Ballantyne, who figured importantly in the tonal work, to program the Second Diapason, Twelfth, and Mixture on the Great. The unit flutes in the Swell are now composed of pipes from the 16' Bourdon and the 4' Traverse Flute, both well-positioned for tonal egress. The new harp and chimes were sampled from MIDI. A major improvement was adding an independent 4' Octave and 2' Fifteenth to the Great, both unenclosed, adjacent to the 8' Open Diapason behind the façade, resulting in a more cohesive and vibrant ensemble.19

The Rededication

In keeping with the rich traditions of the Mission Inn, it was deemed appropriate that the recital on October 25 be performed by an organist from The Mormon Tabernacle, just as in 1911 and 1931. Drs. Clay Christiansen and John Longhurst, who currently share the position, welcomed the invitation. The music they chose (see program, p. 19) was designed to match the selections played on a pipe organ in 1911 with the restored instrument evoking the nostalgia of a bygone era. Longhurst commented that when they first heard the Kimball, they heard an instrument vastly different from what they were accustomed to: the Aeolian-Skinner in The Tabernacle and the Schoenstein in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. "I wondered how we'd ever play Bach's Toccata, but decided that if they played it in 1911 we could too."20

Christiansen explained that in 1911 organ recitals featured transcriptions of orchestral pieces, often those linked to Edwin Lemare, "The Great Lemare," whose reputation was built on this music. This was a period when organ music reached the corners of American society that did not have recourse to symphony orchestras. The pipe organ, therefore, enjoyed a very prominent place in the musical landscape of our country. "We chose transcriptions of Waltz of the Flowers and Jesse Crawford's arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue as symbolic of this era. The many delicate stops on this organ--the Clarinet on the Great, for example--suggest a quieter, slower, more refined lifestyle in contrast to the rock concert, loudspeaker sound (and noise) of urban living today."21 By using four hands, he added, --as opposed to two hands--they could have three manual colors speaking at once in addition to the pedal, as well as frequent registration changes.

The program closed with "A Perfect Day." Indeed it was!

Well, this is the end of a Perfect Day,

Near the end of a Journey, too;

But it leaves a thought that is big and strong,

With a wish that is kind and true.

For the mem'ry had painted this Perfect Day

With colors that never fade,

And we find, at the end of a Perfect Day,

The soul of a friend we've made.

For research assistance and critical comments on earlier drafts of this paper the uthor gratefully acknowledges: Ed Ballantyne, Wendell Ballantyne, Clay Christiansen, Marene Foulger, Steuart Goodwin, Frances Larkin, Laurence Leonard, Jim Lewis, John Longhurst, Manuel Rosales, Rene Sturman and R. E. Wagner.

David Pickering currently teaches at Salt Lake Community College, Deseret Academy, the Waterford School, and the Day Murray Organ School. Dr. Pickering received the doctor of musical arts degree in organ performance and a master's degree in organ performance and musicology from the University of Kansas as a student of James Higdon. He received his bachelor of music degree in organ performance from Brigham Young University as a student of Parley Belnap and J. J. Keeler.

Introduction

The 1930s was a creative era in organ composition, both in Europe and the United States. Frenchman Louis Vierne composed his tonally adventuresome, cyclic Sixième Symphonie in 1930. Fellow compatriot Marcel Dupré's Le Chemin de la Croix (1931) portrayed musically Christ's crucifixion. The innovative Olivier Messiaen used his modes of limited transposition to form the harmonic vocabulary of L'Ascension in 1933-34. German Sigfrid Karg-Elert composed his lengthy and tonally-taxing Passacaglia und Fuge an B-A-C-H in 1932. American Leo Sowerby composed his Symphony in G Major in 1930, which has remained a landmark of American organ composition to the present day.

Many other organ works written by American composers during the 1930s have largely disappeared from the known organ repertory. Leroy Robertson's three organ works--Organ Sonata in B Minor, Fantasia in F Minor, and Intermezzo--join the ranks of those works that never enjoyed wide acclaim. This unpopularity does not prove that Robertson's music is not well written. Like the aforementioned compositions, Robertson's music also employs new ideas. His Organ Sonata was one of few composed during the first part of the twentieth century.1 He also incorporated a Native American melody into the Organ Sonata. This was a revolutionary idea for organ composition during the first part of the twentieth century, showing Robertson's interest in the varied styles of earlier compositions.

The famous French organist and composer Marcel Dupré came into contact with Robertson's organ music on a recital tour in 1939. Dupré wrote to Robertson, "It is a pleasure for me to tell you that I have been very interested by your organ compositions . . . They are very musical and well written for the instrument. I wish to you the success that you deserve with them."2 The success never came, and Robertson's Organ Sonata and Fantasia have never been published,3 while the Intermezzo has been published in a book containing other works by American composers.4 The ignominious state of Robertson's organ music is unfortunate, since his compositional ability and idiomatic writing for the organ have produced solid, musical organ works that deserve wider circulation and recognition.

Biographical Sketch

Leroy J. Robertson (1896-1971) was born and raised in Fountain Green, Utah, a small community about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City. He received his first formal musical training on the violin from E. G. Edmunds.5 Ben Williams, his second violin teacher, was a railroad worker who taught himself how to play the violin from a Sears Roebuck catalogue.6 Robertson attended high school in Pleasant Grove and Provo, Utah, where he played in the orchestra and took courses in music theory. He was allowed to take classes in harmony, music history, and solfeggio at Brigham Young University during his last two years of high school. He also played in the university orchestra and studied violin privately with a Brigham Young University faculty member. Robertson helped support himself in high school by giving violin lessons.

Upon graduation from high school, Robertson met George Fitzroy, a private music teacher in Provo. Fitzroy had just graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he had studied composition with George Chadwick, an acclaimed composer and teacher of the time. Fitzroy gave young Robertson training in analysis and counterpoint and lent him the first orchestral scores that he had ever seen: Mendelssohn's Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream and the Dvorák New World Symphony.7 Fitzroy eventually persuaded Robertson to go to the New England Conservatory and study composition with Chadwick. Robertson went on to earn diplomas in violin, piano, composition, and public school music from the New England Conservatory in 1923. He then returned to Utah and taught high school music for two years. He began teaching at Brigham Young University in September 1925, where he conducted the university orchestra and taught music theory and violin.

In 1925 Robertson learned that the famous Swiss composer Ernest Bloch was coming to San Francisco to head the San Francisco Conservatory. Five years later, Robertson obtained a leave of absence from his university teaching and studied privately with Bloch in San Francisco from March to June 1930. Robertson also studied privately with Bloch in Switzerland from June to September 1932, soon after receiving his BA and MA degrees from Brigham Young University. Robertson and Bloch developed a close friendship that lasted many years.

After his studies with Bloch, Robertson traveled to Leipzig and Berlin. In Berlin he studied the music of Renaissance composers with the famous musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt from October 1932 to the spring of 1933. Robertson began receiving prizes and awards for his compositions after this period of European study. His Quintet in A Minor for Piano and Strings (1933) received First Prize from among two hundred other submitted manuscripts in a competition sponsored by the Society for the Publication of American Music in 1936.

Robertson began work on his doctorate at the University of Southern California in the summer of 1936, studying first with Arnold Schoenberg and later with Ernest Toch. Robertson continued to build up the music program at Brigham Young University by expanding the theory program and the symphony orchestra. He was catapulted to international fame in 1947 when his Symphony No. 2, subtitled Trilogy, won the Symphony of the Americas Contest sponsored by Henry H. Reichhold in Detroit. Robertson was awarded $25,000 and a premiere of his symphony by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on 11 December 1947. More than four hundred musicians from seventeen countries entered this contest, including major composers from North and South America.

Robertson became the head of the Music Department of the University of Utah in 1948. He continued working on his doctorate during the summer months, finally receiving the degree in 1953. Robertson's accomplishments as a music department chair included "adapt[ing] the curriculum of study [in the music department] so as to meet national standards."8 He also introduced the bachelor's and master's degrees in music to the university's curriculum. In addition, the University of Utah became the first university in the area to offer the Ph.D. in music. Robertson taught at the University of Utah until 1962, when he retired and served as composer-in-residence until July 1965.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked Robertson to head its Church General Music Committee in the spring of 1962, three months before he retired from the University of Utah. He had served as a member of this committee since 1938 and was involved in the compilation and editing of the church's 1948 hymnal. He headed the music committee until 1969. Robertson died of heart failure, a complication of diabetes, on 25 July 1971. Other compositions for which Robertson was well known include: String Quartet No. 1 (1940), Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (1944), American Serenade (String Quartet No. 2) (1944), Overture to Punch and Judy (1945), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1948), Oratorio from the Book of Mormon (1953), Passacaglia for Orchestra (1955), Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1956), and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1966).

Leroy Robertson and the Organ

Leroy Robertson's preparation for writing organ music began several years before its actual composition. Around 1926-27, Robertson met a young teenager, J. J. Keeler, a Provo, Utah native who was just beginning organ lessons. Robertson knew of Keeler's interest in the organ and always encouraged him in his organ studies. During Keeler's student years in Provo, Robertson had Keeler play many well-known organ works for him.9 These experiences no doubt allowed Robertson to examine how to write effectively for the organ.

Robertson and Keeler traveled to Europe together in 1932 as Robertson was preparing to study with Ernest Bloch in Switzerland. Keeler went to the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany to study with the famous organist Karl Straube, one of Germany's foremost organ virtuosi of the time who premiered many of Max Reger's organ works. Straube was also the organist at the famous Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach had served previously. After Robertson's studies with Bloch, he traveled to Leipzig to see how Keeler was faring.

Robertson stayed in Leipzig for about six weeks, visiting frequently the large churches in Leipzig, the Thomaskirche being his favorite. It was here that Robertson heard Karl Straube, assistant organist Günther Ramin, and Straube's students play the organ works of the great German masters. The church's acoustics, its heroic 1889 Wilhelm Sauer organ, and Keeler's interest in organ music inspired Robertson to compose organ music of his own. He sketched his first organ works, Organ Sonata in B Minor and Fantasia in F Minor, in Leipzig in 1932.10 These works were later completed in Berlin and Provo, Utah during the years 1933-1934.11 The registration indications for Robertson's organ music were prepared with J. J. Keeler's assistance on the 1907 Austin organ in the Provo Tabernacle.12

Organ Sonata in B Minor

The Organ Sonata is composed in three movements entitled Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare. Robertson dedicated this work to his wife Naomi. J. J. Keeler premiered the Prelude and Ricercare movements of the Organ Sonata on 1 February 1943 in the Provo Tabernacle.13 The Brigham Young University student newspaper, The Y News, wrote that "one of the most delightful numbers [of the concert] was a[n organ] sonata composed by Professor Robertson, which, according to critics, is virile with energy of the new west."14 Alexander Schreiner, Salt Lake Tabernacle Organist and faculty member at the University of California at Los Angeles, later played the complete Organ Sonata on his fifty-first noon organ recital, which took place on 3 May 1935, in Royce Hall at UCLA.15

Robertson entered the Organ Sonata in B Minor in the Helen Sheets Composition Contest sponsored by the McCune School of Music and Art in Salt Lake City. The work won a prize of $50 and was hailed as the best composition by a Utah composer. The judge for the contest, a prominent California musician, wrote that Robertson's Organ Sonata "was far superior to any other entered . . . and that Mr. Robertson is a serious, splendid musician . . . who should by all means have the prize."16

At Arthur Shepherd's special request, Robertson orchestrated the Organ Sonata in B Minor for strings, woodwinds, percussion, brass, and organ and retitled the work Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare on Two Themes.17 This work was first performed for the convention of the Music Teachers National Association held in 1941 at Minneapolis. The Utah Symphony, conducted by Maurice Abravanel, recorded this work in 1948.18 Abravanel thought that this transcription was particularly successful, especially since it was not like other "very popular organ transcriptions of the day that were always very thick and loud, the Robertson score was like chamber music, very delicate and lean."19 Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was also interested in having his orchestra perform the Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare on Two Themes, but was never able to program it.20

Robertson wrote that the first movement of the Organ Sonata is "in the style of the choral prelude announc[ing] the two chief themes at the outset--the first alone in the pedal and the second in a higher register with a simple alto supplying an obligato [sic]."21 He composed this first melody in B harmonic minor, imbuing it with a brooding, melancholy air (see Example 1).

The second theme is based on a Ute Indian melody in the Phrygian mode.22 Robertson thought very highly of the Native American people and traveled to the Ute and Ouray Indian Reservation several times in the late 1920s and early 1930s. This reservation covers a large area of land next to the Colorado border in eastern Utah. During these visits Robertson transcribed some of their melodies, most of which were associated with the Bear Dance. Robertson had to obtain permission to transcribe these melodies, since the bears and the melodies associated with them were sacred to the Native Americans (see Example 2).23

Robertson's inclusion of indigenous or folk melodies was a common practice among composers in the first half of the twentieth century. Aaron Copland used Mexican folksong in his orchestral work El Salón Mexico (1936), and cowboy songs in his ballets Billy the Kid (1938) and Rodeo (1942), all of which were composed within ten years of Robertson's Organ Sonata.24 Roy Harris, another American composer who was active at this time, used modal melodies to "impart a sense of expansiveness reminiscent of the American West."25 Since Robertson was raised in a small Utah community, it is very probable that his inclusion of the Native American melody was a reflection on his youthful days in Fountain Green, Utah.

Robertson composed the Scherzo in a standard three-section form typical of works in this genre. He opens the movement with an embellished version of the Ute Indian melody accompanied by chords sounding on the offbeat. This theme, combined with the offbeat accompanimental pattern, gives a swing, freedom, and expansiveness of the western United States that Robertson knew from his youth (see Example 3). Robertson presents three additional embellished statements of the Ute Indian melody in the remaining part of the Scherzo's first section.

Robertson presents a major-mode version of the Prelude's first theme in canon at the third between the right hand and pedal at the beginning of the Scherzo's second section. A busy eighth-note accompaniment that begins incessantly on the offbeat is a recurrent motive in this section. Robertson states this theme two other times before reintroducing the Ute Indian melody in the pedal. The third section, marked scherzando, hearkens back to the beginning, with the embellished Ute Indian melody presented in canon.

Robertson's desire to compose a ricercare reflects the neoclassical trend that permeated American music in the first half of the twentieth century. Composers became more interested in musical forms and other elements of composition from the eighteenth century and earlier. Robertson had also studied the music of Renaissance composers during his time in Berlin with Hugo Leichtentritt, and he copied many works of Renaissance composers by hand. The ricercare, an early precursor of the fugue, consisted of several themes that were developed imitatively one by one. The ricercare was used in Renaissance music, so it is likely that Robertson would have studied the ricercares of Renaissance composers as he copied and studied their music in Berlin.

Robertson employs the opening pedal theme from the Prelude and the Ute Indian melody imitatively during the first part of the Ricercare. He proceeds to introduce three thematic ideas successively. Robertson alternates these themes between various voices and often combines one of them with the opening pedal theme from the Prelude or the Ute Indian melody. He concludes the Ricercare with a short Epilogue. He uses the opening theme from the Prelude and the Ute Indian melody as the thematic material for this section.

Fantasia in F Minor

The Fantasia in F Minor was the second of Robertson's organ works to be heard by the public. J. J. Keeler, to whom the Fantasia is dedicated, gave the premiere on 26 November 1934 in the Provo Tabernacle. Robert Cundick, who was later to become an organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, recorded the Fantasia in 1955.

Robertson employs a broad tempo, thick chords and flourishes in the first half of the Fantasia that show Max Reger's influence.26 Robertson most certainly heard much of Reger's organ music played while he was in Leipzig, and this could explain why he chose to write in this style (see Example 4).27 After this commanding introduction, Robertson introduces a fugato section containing a four-voice exposition employing real answers (mm. 21-32). This demonstrates his ability to infuse counterpoint with neo-romantic harmonic language. Robertson also states the fugue subject in inversion (m. 34), as well as in the original form. He builds up the fugato to a coda (beginning in m. 53) employing dramatic harmonies. Robertson brings the coda to a tremendous climax that resolves triumphantly on an F-major chord.

Intermezzo

Robertson composed the Intermezzo, his third and final organ work in 1934, dedicating it to Salt Lake Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner. The date, venue, and performing artist of the Intermezzo's first performance remain uncertain.28 This work employs a lyrical melody, is composed in a three-part form, and contains a rich harmonic vocabulary. These aspects could lead one to view Robertson's Intermezzo as a small-scale version of the other keyboard intermezzi such as those composed by Johannes Brahms. Robertson draws the Intermezzo to a close in a short coda. Concerning this work's ending, Robertson mused, "all my life I've abhorred the conventional ending."29 He avoids a "conventional ending" by cleverly employing chromaticism to good effect (see Example 5).

Conclusion

Leroy Robertson's three organ works--Organ Sonata in B Minor, Fantasia in F Minor, and Intermezzo--have never enjoyed even limited circulation among organists. This is partly because most of his works have never been published, while some might attribute their lack of renown to the fact that Utah was quite isolated from main American music scene in the 1930s. Whatever the reason, Robertson has composed three fine works for organ that deserve to be better known. His exposure to great organs and organ music in Germany moved him to write serious concert organ music that has enriched the organ repertory.

Robertson was unfortunately not able to write more of this high-caliber organ music. The pressures of university teaching, other commissions, his responsibilities as a father and husband, and his ever-increasing interests in orchestral music provide possible explanations why Robertson did not have time to compose other solo organ works, but the real answer remains unknown.30 It is the author's hope that this study of Robertson's organ music will inspire others to study, perform, research, and write more about it, so that his music will one day merit the acclaim and popularity that it rightly deserves.                

Notes

                  1.              Other American composers who wrote organ sonatas during the first part of the twentieth century include James Rogers, Horatio Parker, Felix Borowski, and Philip James.

                  2.              Marian Robertson Wilson, "Leroy Robertson: Music Giant from the Rockies," TMS (photocopy), 251, footnote 17, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  3.              The original manuscripts of Robertson's organ works are located in the Manuscript Division of Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the author's hope to have Robertson's organ music published and recorded in the near future.

                  4.              Leroy Robertson, "Intermezzo" in Lyric Pieces by American Composers, ed. Darwin Wolford (Delaware Gap, Pennsylvania: Harold Flammer), 1982.

                  5.              Marian Robertson Wilson, Leroy Robertson, Music Giant from the Rockies (Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press, 1996), 23.

                  6.              Ibid.

                  7.              Ibid., 35.

                  8.              Ibid., 169.

                  9.              J. J. Keeler, interview by author, 21 February 1996, Payson, Utah.

                  10.           Robertson Wilson, Music Giant, 98.

                  11.           Ibid., 103. See also Kenneth Udy, Alexander Schreiner, The California Years (Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1999), 173, footnote 151 for the Organ Sonata's revision date, and J. J. Keeler's verbal program notes (contained on a cassette in possession of the author) 7 September 1988, Salt Lake City, Utah for the Fantasia in F Minor's revision date.

                  12.           Marian Robertson Wilson, phone conversation with the author, February 2001. In determining the registration for a section, Robertson would have Keeler play it with several different registrations. Robertson would choose which registration he wanted. All of the stop names listed in Robertson's organ works are stops found on the 1907 Austin organ in the Provo Tabernacle. For a specification of this organ as it appeared when Robertson's organ works were premiered, please see Appendix 1.

                  13.           Leroy Robertson, program notes from 1 February 1934 concert. Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. The program notes from the concert simply state, "due to the very recent completion of the Scherzo it has been deemed advisable to defer its performance to a later date."

                  14.           The Y News (Brigham Young University), 8 February 1934.

                  15.           Alexander Schreiner, program from 3 May 1935 concert. Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  16.           Tracy Y. Cannon, Salt Lake City, to Leroy Robertson, Provo, 10 January 1936, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  17.           Robertson Wilson, Music Giant, 135.

                  18.           Leroy Robertson, Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare on Two Themes, recorded by the Utah Symphony on 20 November 1948. This recording was never released commercially. A copy of this recording is found in the Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  19.           Robertson Wilson, Music Giant, 195.

                  20.           Ibid., 209.

                  21.           Leroy Robertson, Program notes, 1 February 1936.

                  22.           Marian Robertson Wilson, phone conversation with the author, February 2001.

                  23.           Ibid.

                  24.           Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 5th ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), 778.

                  25.           Ibid.

                  26.           Leroy Robertson, Fantasia in F Minor, verbal program notes given by J. J. Keeler, September 1988, cassette in possession of author.

                  27.           Ibid.

                  28.           Marian Robertson Wilson feels that Alexander Schreiner played the first performance, while Robert Cundick feels that J. J. Keeler did. Keeler worked out the registration of the Intermezzo with Robertson and later played it on recitals, but documentation is lacking as to whether he played the first performance.

                  29.           The Y News (6 November 1936).

                  30.           Marian Robertson Wilson, phone conversation with the author, July 2001.

Mary Ann Dodd died January 1 in Cooperstown, New York. She was University Organist Emerita at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where she had served as university organist and special instructor in organ from 1973–93. In 1976 she selected Holtkamp to build the three-manual Brehmer Memorial Organ. She also taught at the State University of New York in Binghamton as an adjunct lecturer 1987–90 and as the Link Visiting Professor in organ in 1989.
Born and raised in Pullman, Washington, Dodd held the BMus degree from the University of Arkansas (1956) and the MMus degree from the University of Tennessee (1971). She performed and lectured throughout the United States with special emphasis on contemporary organ music. An active member of the American Guild of Organists, she had been a member of its national committee on new music and the committee for the AGO improvisation competition, and served on the national council as Region II councillor. Her reviews and articles appeared frequently in The American Organist and The Diapason. She was co-author (with Jayson Engquist) of the book Gardner Read: A Bio-bibliography (1996). At the time of her death, Mary Ann Dodd was working on a book on contemporary organ music, focusing on the career of the late Leonard Raver.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Jack G. Dodd, a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

H. Ronald Poll, age 70, passed away January 28 at home in Salt Lake City, Utah. A charter member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, he served three years as the organization’s president. He also served on several committees and was dedicated to strong positive goals, art and technology, and in furthering the cause, reputation and expansion of true pipe organs.
Ron’s love for the pipe organ had its roots as a young boy when he and his brother David would sit for hours listening to their organist mother’s 78-rpm, and later 331⁄3-rpm LP, recordings. He was impressed with the beauty and musical expression of the pipe organ.
After a time with the Utah National Guard and service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ron worked for a period doing installation, voicing and tuning with his M. P. Möller representative brother David, the Wicks Organ Co., and others. He was employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an organ technician and supervisor. Among the dozens of organs he worked on is the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle instrument of G. Donald Harrison.
Ron organized his own organ building and service firm, H. Ronald Poll & Associates, employing two sons, Michael and Timothy, who are continuing the firm’s operation. Ron’s code was well stated by Henry Ward Beecher: “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.” Ron constantly sought for perfection. He was faithful to the highest ethical and performance standards and in bringing joy to others through his creation.
Ron worked on many instruments from coast to coast. Among his more recent accomplishments are the three-manual instruments for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City and the Provo L.D.S. Tabernacle.
Ron is survived by his wife, Mary, nine children, 19 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, his mother, four brothers and five sisters. Services were held February 2 in Taylorsville, Utah, where Mormon Tabernacle organist Clay Christiansen provided the music on one of Ron’s smaller instruments.
—David Poll

Bruce V. Schantz died on January 5 in Orrville, Ohio, at the age of 93. Born October 17, 1913, in Orrville, he began studies at Oberlin College, but left to handle the sales department of the Schantz Organ Company with his cousin Paul Schantz. He covered territory in Ohio and Indiana during the Depression and took night classes at the University of Akron. He was hired by Goodyear Aircraft just before the U.S. entered World War II, and worked there in management during the war years. He then returned to Orrville to join the family business. Bruce Schantz managed the Schantz Organ Company along with his brother John, his son Victor, his cousin Paul, and Jack Sievert. He served as the company’s president, chairman of the board, and chairman emeritus. He was involved in many community projects, including the transformation of the Community Chest into the Orrville United Way and chairing the drive that made Wayne College possible. He was a past president of the Orrville Chamber of Commerce and the Exchange Club. In 1970 he was named the Paul L. Powell Citizen of the Year for the City of Orrville. He is survived by his wife Grace, two daughters, five sons, a brother, and 12 grandchildren. A funeral was held January 13 at Christ Church, United Church of Christ, and a memorial service was held January 21 at Wayne College.

Malcolm Wechsler died November 16, 2006 in New Fairfield, Connecticut, at the age of 70. Born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, he studied piano as a child and earned a bachelor’s in organ performance at Oberlin College. In 1963 he received a master’s in organ performance from the Juilliard School of Music. He held a number of church positions and in 1966 was appointed music director at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in London, Ontario, also teaching at the University of Western Ontario. He later taught at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. In 1985 Wechsler returned to New York to work with the Opera Orchestra of New York and begin Ph.D. studies at City College of New York. In 1987 he was appointed American sales representative for N. P. Mander, and in 1994 he became organist of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Stamford, Connecticut. An active member of the AGO and the OHS, he reported on the OHS conventions in 2001 (North Carolina) and 2003 (Pennsylvania) for The Diapason. A funeral service was held at St. Andrew’s Church on November 21, 2006.

Martin H. Wittig, 66, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, died at his home on January 18. Born August 12, 1940 in Waymart, Pennsylvania, he was a Vietnam War veteran who served with the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa, Japan. At the time of his death, he was organist at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in North Little Rock. He previously served as organist at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in North Little Rock. His many business ventures included ownership of a gas station and three car washes. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Diane Wittig, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.