Nunc Dimittis

Donald A. Grooms, 78, died May 7, following complications caused by a stroke. Born in Paris, Texas, he was an honor graduate of Paris High School. During his high school and college years, he served as organist for several churches. He studied organ under Helen Hewitt at North Texas State University. In 1965, he graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and in 1971, he was elected a Fellow to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Grooms served as a Major in the Army, attached to the 25th Evacuation Hospital, Da Nang, Vietnam, after which he relocated to New York City where he was associated with the international division of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals for 20 years. Following his retirement from Pfizer, Dr. Grooms became a partner in Petty-Madden Organ Builders, a position he held well into his seventies.

Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB, 87, a monk and priest of St. Meinrad Archabbey, St. Meinrad, Indiana, died on June 9 at the monastery. He was a jubilarian both of profession and priesthood. Born in Williamsburg, Iowa, on October 30, 1930, he was given the name John Joseph at his baptism. He attended St. Ambrose College, Davenport, Iowa, for several years before transferring to St. Meinrad College. Invested as a novice monk on July 30, 1952, he professed simple vows on July 31, 1953, and his solemn vows on August 6, 1956. Fr. Columba completed his theological studies in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood on July 5, 1958. The following year, he received a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’ Anselmo. He then pursued graduate studies, earning his doctorate in church music at Rome’s Musica Sacra in 1963. He studied semiological interpretation of chant under Dom Eugène Cardine, OSB, monk of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre in Solesmes.

When Fr. Columba returned to Saint Meinrad in 1964, he was named choirmaster of the monastic community and began to teach in both the College and the School of Theology. His lasting contribution was to introduce chant in English into the celebrations of the Divine Office and the Eucharist. The monastery’s collection of his chant compositions numbers nearly 2,000.

In addition to his many years teaching at Saint Meinrad, he taught courses on liturgical music for 12 summers at St. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, Indiana. Other summer teaching assignments included University of Wisconsin, Madison, and California State University-Los Angeles. Through his many workshops to parishes and religious communities, and through the collections of his antiphons published by GIA and Oregon Catholic Press, his work is known by many cantors, choirs, and parish communities throughout the United States.

Fr. Columba was a charter member of the Benedictine Musicians of the Americas, a member of the American Musicological Society, the American Guild of Organists, the National Catholic Music Educators Association, the Church Music Association of America, and the Composers’ Forum for Catholic Worship. He was also a standing member of the Chant Division of the National Pastoral Musicians Association. In 2015, he was named the second recipient of the Spiritus Liturgiae Award, given by the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein, Illinois.

In addition to his music scores, Fr. Columba contributed to the literature on chant and sacred music. These include his 2003 book, Gregorian Chant Intonations and the Role of Rhetoric; “The Organ,” an article in a book sponsored by the National Liturgical Conference and the Church Music Association; and, in 2006, his translation of and notes to the first volume of Agustoni and Göschl’s An Introduction to the Interpretation of Gregorian Chant. Fr. Columba also contributed entries on the Kyrie, Gloria, Agnus Dei, Benedicamus Domino, and Ite Missa Est for the New Catholic Encyclopedia.

The funeral Mass for Fr. Columba Kelly was celebrated June 13. Burial followed in the Archabbey Cemetery.

Henry Willis, IV, the last living family member of the Henry Willis & Sons organbuilding dynasty, died at a hospital near his home in India on June 23, at the age of 91. Willis was born January 19, 1927, to Henry Willis, III and Clara Constance (Sinclair) Willis at Streatham Hill, London. Educated at Gladstone Preparatory School, London, Westminster School, London, and Giggleswick School, North Yorkshire, he left school in 1944 to join the Royal Army during World War II. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in 1945 and commissioned to the Queen’s Royal Regiment in 1946, where he was placed in charge of a Japanese prisoner of war camp and the repatriation of British prisoners.

Willis joined the family organbuilding firm in 1948 as a laborer (at the insistence of his father) and then trained as a pipemaker and voicer under George Deeks. He was sent to manage the Liverpool Branch in 1954, principally to oversee the restoration of the great 1855 Willis concert organ in St. George’s Hall, which had been severely damaged by wartime bombing, theft, and general mishandling. He returned to London to manage the Head Office in 1965 due to his father’s worsening health. Following Henry Willis, III’s death on February 27, 1966, he began the search for property to construct a purpose-built organ factory in Petersfield, where he opened a shop in 1968 on land that had been the site of old dairy buildings.

Willis was invited to attend, and became one of the founding members of, the American Institute of Organbuilders at its first annual convention in 1974, thereby beginning a relationship with his American organbuilding colleagues. A frequent attendee and lecturer at subsequent conventions, his last appearance was in Washington, D.C., in 1993, where he lectured on and demonstrated organ pipemaking and voicing. His acerbic wit and entertaining style covered quite a bit of useful information to those who “listened between the lines” during those lectures and demonstrations. His wife, Barbara, was a charming lady who did her best to keep Willis as well-behaved as possible, especially during times set aside for evening socializing!

In 1997 Willis stood down as Managing Director of Henry Willis and Sons. New management and new ownership relocated the firm to the Liverpool Branch in 2001 where the firm now survives him. He was a Freeman of the City of London and served as Master of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, of which he was the longest holder of the Livery.

Henry and Barbara Willis moved to India in 2008 where his mother’s family had been coffee planters in the 19th and 20th centuries. They purchased land and built a house there, in which he and Barbara have lived up to the present. He died peacefully at home in the Nilgris District of Tamil Nadu.

—John-Paul Buzard

As told to John-Paul Buzard, Part 2

The factory

He inherited a factory with a great many organ builders in
it, all beautifully trained, all thoroughly disciplined, possibly partially by
the circumstances of the time, possibly partially by the fact that when my
great uncle Vincent wanted to reprimand anybody, he'd used to say "You
wait until the winter and I'll sack you!" because anybody that was sacked
at the beginning of the winter suffered more than somebody who was sacked in
the spring (it's colder in the winter, and if you haven't got enough to eat,
you suffer more).

The men were treated abominably, but they were treated
better at Willis's than at most other organ builders' shops. They had to bring
their own coal in a bucket to work if they wanted to warm themselves; they had
to bring their own candles to see by. Yes, it sounds like Dickens, but it's
not, it's true! They were paid by results: piecework. And if the work wasn't
good enough, you smashed it and sent it back and said, "There you are, fix
it on your own time. There you are . . . you haven't done your work properly,
your work is rejected, bang! Make another, and you won't get paid while you do
that!"

My granduncle Vincent used to cut up a pipe and nick it. If
it didn't speak without any further adjustment, he used to get hold of the top
end of it and smash it on the bench so that the body collapsed each side of the
languid (I spell it "langward"), and sent it back to the metal shop
to have a different one made. He expected his pipes to come up perfect, cut
them, nick them: finished! And no little naughties like punching languids up or
down.

The factory ran like clockwork.  The orders were still coming in, well enough and fast enough
for him to still build organs in spite of the fact that he was spending many
hours a week in or out of court fighting his relatives, determined to pay off
his father's debt. Which is why my father, when he was an old man, was able so
easily to leave people the impression that as a young man he was in charge of
the business. The fact was that my grandfather, Henry Willis II was well in
charge of the business until the end of the 14-18 war (WWI), the difficulties
with his father's debt, and with his relatives having been settled about the
time of the Great War.

By the time my father took over the firm, after the 14-18
War, Henry Willis II was not only old enough, but suffered from senile dementia
to the point where he used to get up in the night, go down and open the back
door and look in the dust bin for burglars. My aunt says this was partly due to
the strain of having to fight his relatives for about 10 years or so from the
time of his father's death, and responsibilities that he bore beforehand as a
very loyal son and servant without any complaint.

Henry Willis III

My father was very pleased to leave people the impression
that Divine Right passed from "Father" Willis directly to him. Most people
know nothing about Henry Willis II because when my father wrote the book:
Father Willis, His Heir and Successors, by William Leslie Sumner, he was
careful to write the truth as he saw it, in which God created the world,
"Father" Willis created organs, and this ability was passed down
directly to Henry Willis III.

When my father's eldest sister read the book, and read the
bit where it said: "My first work was the design and building of the organ
at the Liverpool Cathedral Lady Chapel . . . " she cried, "I drew
that organ on the drawing boards to my father's instructions, and my little
brother had nothing to do with it at all! 
My little brother only went there as a kind of juvenile laborer to help
put it up!"

 His early works
started when he was a young lad. He left school as a brilliant young man
earlier than most, partly because he was required to come into the family firm,
but partly because he was a brilliant student. He was in a class two years
ahead of his age group. This had other difficulties because they did their
sports together, and as he was two years younger and was never a big man
(5'3”), he had a really strong inferiority complex based on his physical
size. Also, having been brought up in Liverpool, he hadn't been able to
overcome his accent, and in those days any kind of that dialect meant you
weren't a gentleman. 

This he overcame by suppressing his natural sympathies and
his natural affections, and putting on a domineering, dominating, hard-hearted
veneer. He wore it like a well-fitting glove, and he enjoyed it. And he got
away with it. He always remained sitting, and had others stand so that the
difference between their heights should not show as a disparagement. Failing
that, in his office he had an armchair, the wooden legs and the casters of
which were cut off, so that if anyone sat down in it, my father could then
stand, assured that he'd be well above their head and shoulder level.

My father's early tonal work was standard. The work he loved
to do was that which he could take over from somebody else and leave his
imprint upon. The work that you can do that with most conveniently was to
accept a voiced reed and then take the tongues out and alter the curve of them,
because he was a superb reed voicer, to give that little extra edge, what other
people might have well called a great clarity, a greater clang. Some, unkindly
perhaps, a harder tone. But he would take this and do it extremely well. But he
didn't wish to spend time cutting the reeds out and putting the initial curve
on them. He was prepared to put his imprimatur on anything--whether he'd done
it or not! On the grounds that as he was the managing director and a majority
share-holder, he could do what he liked.

He started to develop a new fashionable (or unfashionable)
type of Willis tone whereby he started to make stringier strings. He made
string pipes of zinc right through to the top note, which some people
erroneously believe was for economy, although I can assure that certainly from
one foot up they're so much harder to make than spotted metal or pure tin. They
were by no means economical. He did it on purpose because that was what he
wanted to do. You should remember that, as a matter of his personal attitude to
life in general and himself in particular, whatever he wanted to do was
right.  The fact that he wanted to
do it made it right, and if everybody else thought it was wrong, it didn't
matter because it was still right. And that applied to everything.

But this was part of the man, and it was therefore part of
the voicing. You need to understand that my grandfather was a gentleman and a
gentle man, I hope you took the inference, and this shows in his organs--they
were lovely!  They were more near
to the Harrisons' style than they were to the fiercer Willis style, because he
himself was an affectionate, loving, gentle man. He wasn't doing it to appease
people who wanted gentler organs--it was in his style. And my father: his
personal character comes through in his organs, where you have the firmer,
harder, domineering tone. Dictatorial tutti, the awesome clang of the full
organ reeds, which was not outside the Willis style, but was toward the edge of
that golden-mean path which is a Willis term.

I don't know what he thought of Ernest Skinner. But I know
what he said about Skinner to me. 
Same as he said about almost everybody else: "bloody old
fool!" That was my father's general attitude to almost everybody. But at
the same time he came back having seen and heard what Skinner and others were
doing. This affected his willingness to take after his uncle Vincent by
experimenting: "Well, I'll try a stringy string," and so forth. He
held Skinner in higher regard than most because Skinner was wise enough to ask
him to come as a consultant. And that deserved his high esteem. I've tried to
get you to understand the man, because the man helps understand the tone. The
tone must also come from the man. The big change came really, after the 39-45
war, maybe even the slump, 1929, Wall Street and all that.

The Depression

 This period:
work at a premium. In fact, my father stole his wife's money, which was got
from plantations in India where they grew tea and coffee and rubber. My mother
had inherited wealth, which she brought over here, which she kept quietly to
herself until such time as her husband came to her and said, "Times is
hard, and we must sell you some shares in the firm otherwise we won't be able
to carry on and we'll have to put men off."

Very few men were put off. Other organ builders put lots of
men off; we put off very few. My father didn't need to, because he'd stolen his
wife's money. I say stole because she was never issued with shares of stock,
and she never got the money back. But it didn't worry her very much because she
was a loving wife; she was a domesticated woman and loved her children.

This period is more difficult. My father was more amenable
to the suggestions of anybody who could give the firm an order. This will show
in the specifications; you'll see funny little aberrations creeping in. My
father had always been willing to compensate people in the position to give him
work. Although by this time the question of bribery was illegal, if some
organist was able to persuade the church that it should be replaced by a Willis
organ, was going to suffer loss while the old organ was taken out and the new
put in, because he wasn't able to teach on it or give recitals, then my father
was prepared to compensate him for it.

I have never done this, and I have lost a lot of work.
People have come to me, three of whom stupidly in writing, and have asked
what's it worth to me. Then I was told "I am sorry to hear that, because I
would really like you to do it, but if you aren't prepared to cover my
out-of-pocket losses, then I'm afraid someone else will have to get it instead."
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  They've wanted 12.5%, and I have never
done it. And I've lost a great deal of work.

World War II

My father was in the army during the War, and lied about his
age to get in, as I did later . . . got himself invalided out.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Some people get a story of armed combat
and purple hearts. This was never the case. My father's stomach problem was not
due to hard-tack (biscuits) and bully beef (corned beef) eaten in the trenches
in some place in France (because he didn't go), but alcohol and other poisons,
consumed as a member of the Honorable Artillery Company in London. They were
digging trenches in Hyde Park lest the Germans invade by being dropped from
zeppelins, which had bombed London then and were responsible for the damage to
the early Willis records from 1845-1873.

I myself was in the Home Guard because residential private
school boys had a special dispensation to join at the age of 16 instead of 18;
they were already disciplined and probably in Officer's Training Corps or
something. Their training was in fact probably far better than most of
established Home Guards. When I went to join the army, having been a Company
Sergeant Major in the Officer's Training Corps and having been a Lance Corporal
in the Home Guard, without looking at the documents in great detail, they
assumed I was two years older than I was.

My father's post-war period began mostly with the rebuilding
and restoration of organs, because we were rationed. A lot of organs were built
up from selected second-hand components. Occasionally my father was able to
imprint his artistic opinions on existing second-hand organs, which he did
notably, to my knowledge, from 1948 onwards when I came out of the army,
somewhat against my will. He wrote and ordered me back home, and I didn't
respond. He wrote again, pleading, and I immediately returned.

He became very good at rebuilding and revoicing. The Willis
voicing techniques are there to control the scaling, because it's standard.
Therefore we are perhaps better trained by ourselves and circumstances to
revoice selected second-hand stock than others; we're used to being given
something and saying, "Right! Do what you will with that!"

I'm restoring the organ in the Alexandra Palace, not
improving it. Successfully, so I'm told, and I believe it. I remember hiding under
the seats there when I was small, before the war, when Marcel Dupré was
playing. He always finished his reputed last encore, which never was his last
encore, with full full full full organ, and if you had double super-octave
couplers and double sub-octave couplers, he would've used them. And as Virgil
Fox said when he finally pushed the Swell unison coupler on at the very end,
looked down at me and grinned, and said, "I like to see 'em all
down!"

My father took to his deathbed in early 1966--died at Easter.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  During the preceding several years, he
was distracted by the fact that by 1966, he was in his 76th year and he married
the widow of G. Donald Harrison. She had suffered a hard life, and she received
treatment for her personal nervous disabilities. These worried my father
intensely. Especially since they to some extent reminded him of the troubles
he'd had with his father toward the end of the 14-18 war. These sorts of things
effect the nervous system, and therefore the artistic deposition of a man. One
of the things I've been grateful for is that I've been blessed with a loving
wife and what I understand is an abnormally serene and happy home background.
For my own artistic side, if I have one, that is essential.

So you come up to the time of my father's death, and that's
the end of the Willis era. Everybody knows that I died.

Henry Willis 4

I was brought up in the fear of God--that's an old fashioned
English expression, and it's in our prayer books. In that language, it means
the love of God. Although my father was a Christian agnostic, if there is such
a thing, my mother was a devout
bent-Christian-oblique-infiltrated-partial-Sikh-Hindu-Buddhist. I was brought
up in the agnostic fear of God, and in the very real fear of my father,
including in the word fear that respectful love that any well brought-up
Victorian child would have had for his father.

My father was often not at home. He was a hard working, hard
drinking, hard romancing active organbuilder who delighted in entertaining organists,
particularly influential organists who could bring him work and adoration
because one without the other was of no use to him. He came home and spent his
Saturday nights there, probably from 2 am onwards, the butler having rescued
him from the car. He could always drive home, but couldn't always switch the
ignition off and get out of the car. The relief of having arrived home and
driven up the drive was sufficient to enable him to relax, and immediately he
was asleep. The butler used to go down and switch the ignition off if the car
hadn't already stalled, because he had been known to take his foot off the
clutch.

On Sunday mornings we were wise to keep quiet as children
and not disturb him. About 9:30 he'd be taken his tray of tea. When I or the butler
had run his bath, we'd inform him it was ready, and it was 108° F. And the
correct amount of bath salts was in, and the towels were on the hot radiator.
My father was not somebody that you tangled with as a child. I was brought up
to know that I had been born to take over the firm. Otherwise I would have
willingly been a farmer, and would have equally willingly stayed in the army,
in which I had already done extremely well.

I started as a general laborer, then a laborer in the metal
shop. Once, for some weeks my father sent me home early (early being after the
men had finished) so he could teach himself again how to make pipes without
admitting to me that he'd forgotten, and then turn 'round to me one day and
say, "You'd be going home, my boy? I thought you wanted me to show you how
to make pipes?" I knew damn well what he'd been doing evenings, even
though he'd tidied most carefully after himself for the last ten weeks. He then
showed me how to make pipes. Then I taught myself. 

The foreman was determined that I shouldn't learn to make
pipes. When he caught on, he took one foot out and put it in the wrong place in
the pile. He shaved a foot so that it didn't fit the body. And he scraped a
body too thin at the node, then re-sized the sides, so that when I put it
together, soon as anybody touched it, it collapsed in the middle.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  All sorts of friendly little tricks.

When my father took me out of the metal shop he said,
"It's time you started voicing, my boy. And here is a second-hand Dulciana
which is going back into some organ we're overhauling and it has to be
revoiced. I will set the 2' C, and I've got another  2' C here which I'm going to voice, and I'm going take the
original away from you and leave you with the sample. I don't want you alter
it. The rest of the stop should be voiced to that. Get on with it."

And I said, "But I don't know how to
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  voice." He said, "Here's your
opportunity. You just regulate them at the tip, and if they're not speaking
properly you get the mouths in the right place like you do in the metal shop;
check the cut-ups, and if they're too high you can take it apart and lower it,
but not too much. Take more than a saw cut out of it and you might make it
short. Make sure they're not over-nicked or under-nicked. Just go from one to
another, it's very simple, you won't find any difficulty."

At the end of about three days--and he left me strictly
alone contrary to his normal habit of calling in and seeing everybody in the
shop twice a day--he always walked past my voicing shop.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  After three days he came in the evening
on his last round and went--blupblupblupblup (trying the stop on the voicing
soundboard) and said "Bloody awful," and walked out!

When I'd dried my tears and mopped up the floor, I went to
Mr. Piper, of whom you may have heard. Richard Piper went to Austin in America,
a well respected, competent, loyal servant, who became well loved at Austin,
and did some excellent, straight-forward work. I said, "Please, Mr. Piper,
my father's just come in and blupblupblupblup, and said 'bloody awful,' and
walked out. Will you please advise me?" And he said, "No, Mr. Henry,
I've been forbidden to tell you or show you anything or help you in any way.
I've been absolutely forbidden to advise you."

I went back in and spent another day or so, and my father
called in again, and blupblupblupblup and said "bloody awful," and
walked out.

So I'd been working on it for over a week. And next time he
came in, I rounded on him, and I seldom rounded on my father because I held him
in that awe and respect which Victorians used to keep for God alone and their
fathers, and I had been brought up in a semi-Victorian aura (not era), treated
my father with very great care. I said, "Will you tell me what's the
matter with it, or tell me what to do?" He said, "blupblupblupblup,
well, you can hear, it's uneven." And he walked out.

After some further time he came back, and I actually lost my
temper a bit, very respectfully and carefully, I may say. And he said, "No
need to get irritable, my boy, I'm just tryin' to teach ya somethin'. Now,
here's the pipe. I told you you weren't to alter the substitute which you've
put in, which you have done, haven't you?"

I said yes, because I had to because . . .
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  He said, "Um, I knew it, I knew
it." He took the 2' C from its wrapping, having put a stamp paper over
with initials on it, and put it on the voicing soundboard, and says, "Now,
what do you notice?"

"Oh, you've come back and loudened it up."
"No I haven't, I assure you I haven't," he said. This is what happens
when you spend too long regulating a stop. The human ear, and the human emotion
always picks out the loud, or what seems loud, and softens it. And rarely picks
out the soft, or what seems soft, and loudens it. So the more somebody tells
you to regulate a stop, the softer it becomes, particularly with a soft stop.
And you will regulate it and regulate it until there's nothing left.

It's partly the imperfections that make the character, make
the artistry. The most beautiful, the most artistic, the most musically useful,
loveliest, emotional organs are those which are made to the best of the ability
of a craftsman working to a reasonable commercial outline. Because if you have
too much money, and too much time and somebody says "carte blanch,"
you can spend 500 hours voicing a Dulciana. By the time you've spent more than
10 or 15 hours, you are only spoiling it. And you will end up with something
which is useless.

One of the great managerial arts is the art of knowing when
you've done enough work, when the responsibilities of management are beginning
to become overbearing, where you could loose your patience or your sanity or
your judgment--that's when you say "good-bye" and take a walk around
the block or go home or get drunk or whatever.

I developed some knowledge of scaling and rebuilding. While
my father was away, an order came in for an organ. I scaled, designed, and
voiced it in my father's style; it was the quickest organ we'd built since my
grandfather's time. When my father came back, I held him in the office until he
refused to stay any longer. I said, "Just before you go out, have a look
at this inquiry that's come in. How does this scaling snatch you?"
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  He went into the drawing office to look
at what I'd done. I then took him to all the places except for the building
hall (erecting room), which I saved till last. When we got there he said,
"What's this!"

"This is the organ." "All right--I'll set the
C's." "Wait, try it first."

He went in and tried the job, right through. He didn't play,
but he knew how to try an organ. He could do it better than I, because I'd been
taught how to play piano at the age of three with a sharp pencil sticking in my
ribs. He said, "The 17th's too soft" and got up and walked off.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  And that was it. After that, after
having always been told I was too soft or too stupid, I was sent up to
Liverpool to restore the organ at St. George's Hall and to rebuild the organ in
the Anglican Cathedral.

I said to my wife, "As long as my father lives, I'll
always stand the likely possibility of being fired if I don't do what he says,
when he says, how he says, quickly without arguing. I would like now, in 1955,
to do something of my own, and I propose to start offering to rebuild organs
without bothering my father." And I did several.

I started to offer the Willis Junior Development Plan, in an
attempt to persuade people of the type of specification I would like. The
Development of an Organ From a One-Manual, Two Stops, No Pedals, Up To a
Moderately Well-Developed Two-Manual--a complete plan, with prices. I started
to build the very first one; it was a two-stop, one-manual organ, on which I
made 50% net profit on the gross. On the other hand, I didn't charge for my
time: about three-million man-hours!

I've got nothing to say about my own work, with the possible
exception of when the International Society of Organbuilders came to London on
their previous English congress about 30 years ago. I managed to get them to
stop to see a one-manual, 4-stop instrument I had built a couple of hundred
yards away from my father's old Kent Road factory.

Dr. Martin Vente, the Secretary of the ISO, and several
others were interested because several people had said that it sounded like
Silbermann's work. They were astounded when they went up the ladders, because
the thing is a box nailed on the wall, 20-30' in the air. They looked at the
pipework and saw how the Gedeckt was very small-scaled and cut up 2/3rd its
mouth width. Perhaps 10-12 nicks in it. The Dulciana (tenor c, common bass) was
also voiced totally incorrectly. The Gemshorn was cut up with an arch, 5 in 2,
16 nicks.  The 15th Diapason was
far too small in scale and cut up far too high.  The way the pipework looked didn't match the sound--like a
musician reading a score, expecting Bach and the noise in his head being Gershwin.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

Nevertheless, I accepted all that as a compliment, although
I don't think my stuff sounds like Silbermann.  Certainly those people who are sympathetic with the
gentility of Henry Willis II might be forgiven for thinking that I had cribbed
his style. I must say that I hadn't, because I hadn't been familiar--hadn't
been allowed to become familiar--with Willis II's work whilst I was still under
control of my father in London. Because Henry Willis II didn't exist! It wasn't
until I went up to Lancashire and met several examples that I found what he'd
done.                    

Janice Feher is organist in residence at First Presbyterian Church, San Diego. She holds a BM from Michigan State University and an MM from the University of Michigan, and she is a Colleague of the AGO. Her teachers included Corliss Arnold, Leslie Spelman, Donald Sutherland, Robert Noehren, and Marilyn Mason. She and her husband, Bela Feher, published two photobooks as part of an ongoing project on pipe organs of Europe—Sacred Spaces of Germany and Denmark (with Marilyn Mason) and Sacred Spaces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (available from Blurb.com ). Photo credit: Bela Feher

Robert Noehren impressed me with
his concern that organists should spend more time listening to music. I think he would have approved of the Leslie Peart organ tour of 2010 that included organ concerts, an evening at the BBC Proms, and choral services. We heard some impressive sacred and secular music in Scotland and England, as well as sharing memorable meals of representative local cuisine.
The 2010 Scotland and England organ tour—July 13–26—began with a welcome luncheon at the Ramada Mt. Royal Hotel in Edinburgh. This hotel is located on Princes Street, above shopping and restaurants, and it provided a great base for visiting the varied organs of Edinburgh. We began by playing the 1989 Collins organ at the Greyfriars Church, followed by the fine Willis organ at the Episcopal Cathedral. That evening we enjoyed a generous amount of time playing on the wonderful 1992 St. Giles Cathedral organ, built by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria.
The next day, Scottish rain and chill failed to dampen our spirits as we explored Queen Elizabeth’s yacht, Royal Brittannia. We were treated to lunch at St. Mary’s Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral, where concert organist Simon Nieminski is music director. Afterward, we played the large 2007 Copley organ in the church.
Next we visited historic St. Cuthbert Church, which has a large organ by Robert Hope-Jones, dating from 1899. The 93-register organ was extensively reconstructed in 1997–98 by J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd. of Brandon, Suffolk. We found an unexpected treat in the Freemasons’ Hall of Edinburgh, where there is a 1913 vintage Bridley & Foster pipe organ that has been preserved in original condition by Forth Pipe Organs of Edinburgh. The day concluded with a memorable organ recital at St. Giles, played by the cathedral’s director of music, Michael Harris.
An early arrival before the public at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow gave us time to see and play the historic Lewis organ from the 1901 International Exhibition. Later, we joined the public for the lunchtime concert played by our fellow tour members, Bob MacDonald and Dene Barnard.
Notable experiences in northern England included visiting Keswick in the beautiful Lake District, where we stayed at the Country House Hotel and cruised on Lake Windermere—England’s largest lake. We were warmly welcomed at St. Bees Priory, which has a historic 1899 organ built by “Father” Willis that is essentially untouched. It was the last major instrument he personally supervised. The original programmable pistons (the first in England) are still in place.
On Sunday we enjoyed the sung Eucharist accompanied by the historic Willis organ at Durham Cathedral. After playing the organ at Ripon Cathedral, we traveled to York Minster for Evensong in the large Gothic cathedral.
The highlight of the next day was touring Castle Howard, the location for Brideshead Revisited, where we played the organ in the castle’s beautiful chapel.
Our host in Liverpool was concert artist Ian Tracey, who helped us discover the impressive Willis organs of Liverpool. “Father” Henry Willis founded his pipe organ firm in 1845 in Liverpool. He contributed much to the science and art of organbuilding, and he was regarded as the leading English organbuilder of the Victorian era. Willis organs were placed in town halls and churches throughout the UK. Many remain today, including the 121-rank 1855 “Father” Willis organ in St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. Ian Tracey, Liverpool’s city organist, has great enthusiasm and concern for the maintenance of this historic organ.
A second great Willis organ is located in the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, where Ian Tracey is cathedral organist. It was the largest musical instrument ever conceived when dedicated in 1926. Today it is the largest organ in the UK, even larger than Royal Albert Hall, with recent additions. It is playable from two matching five-manual consoles.
We toured the Willis organ factory, where we were impressed with the quality of their current instruments and the historic Rolls-Royce that David Wyld, the new owner of the company, had driven to work that day. Our Liverpool adventures were capped by an evening visit to the dramatic Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, where a 1967 Walker organ is installed.
The last few days flew by with visits to play many organs, including those at Coventry Cathedral; Rugby School, where the game of rugby originated; Worcester Cathedral, with its wonderful 2008 organ by Kenneth Tickell; and the military academy, Sandhurst.
On our way to London, we realized we had visited a total of 28 instruments in England and Scotland!
A special memory of our London visit was the sung Eucharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where we had reserved seats under the dome for Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with orchestra, organ, and soloists. The service concluded with the Fantasia in F Minor on the organ. Sunday afternoon Evensong at Westminster Abbey was followed by an organ recital by Christian Lane, assistant university organist at Harvard.
We flew home from London well rested, with great memories and new friends, and thankful for exposure to such wonderful and diverse organs.
If you are interested in seeing the highlights of our UK organ tour, visit gallery.me.com/janbela#100052 for a 24-minute slideshow. (Note: Grid allows manual control of timing; slideshow is automatic. Locations are identified above or below the pictures.)
The twenty-third annual England Choral, Castle, and Organ Tour will be July 12–25, with four days in London, three at the Southern Cathedrals Festival at Winchester Cathedral, and many other organs and castles along the south shore of England. For more information, go to www.organtours.com, or contact Leslie Peart at [email protected], phone 217/546-2562. 

by Kay McAfee

Kay McAfee is professor of organ and music history at Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and she serves there as organist for First United Methodist Church.

Twenty-four people traveled to the south and middle of England for the British Organ Music seminar, directed by Christina Harmon, the week of June 24, 2001. The great cathedrals of Winchester, Gloucester, and Liverpool formed part of the itinerary with guide John Norman, formerly of the Hill, Norman, and Beard firm, and now a consultant in Great Britain. Mr. Norman provided brochures and valuable commentary on each instrument prior to arriving at each destination. John Norman studied acoustics under Dr. R.W.B. Stephens at Imperial College, London, and organ under H.A. Roberts. At Hill, Norman, and Beard he learned voicing from Robert Lamb and tonal finishing from Mark Fairhead, working on seven cathedral organs before leaving the firm in 1974. An accredited professional organ consultant and a founding member of the Association of Independent Organ Advisers, Norman is a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, of the Organs Committee of the Council for the Care of Churches, and the London Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches. He is the author of The Organs of Britain, founder and editor of The Organbuilder, and has been a regular columnist for the Organists' Review for over twenty years.

Winchester

Traveling through the beautiful British countryside by bus, the first stop was Winchester, the ancient Roman city whose cathedral boasts the longest nave in Europe. Restored by King Alfred after the Dark Ages, two of the city's original gates are found around the perimeter of the 11th-century cathedral. The church sits in a sea of grass, and its massive thick-walled Roman-esque transepts and Gothic nave and apse protect the tombs of the early English kings. Jane Austen's tomb lies in the north aisle. Music historians are aware of the role played in the creative additions to ninth-century plainsong by the church in the preservation of the Winchester Troper, a manuscript which today is kept at Cambridge. The beautiful Winchester Bible, an illuminated manuscript, is preserved here. The twelve men of the choir, conducted by assistant organist Sarah Baldock, re-hearsed service music of Morales, Taverner, and Robert Stone pieces for the approaching Evensong service. Then, assistant organist Philip Scriven discussed the Henry Willis organ which was built for the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851. Purchased at the urging of then-organist Samuel Sebastian Wesley, rebuilds and additions were made routinely by Willis, Heil & Co., and Harrison.

Most recently (1987), a division for the nave was added to create better support for congregational singing, a widespread practice in large English churches whose organ chambers were placed predominately on either side of the choir. Scriven demonstrated the Great Trumpet and Grand Cornet, reeds of the Pedal to 32', ringing 8' (two) and 4' Tubas on the Solo, Nave Trumpet, Great 16', 8', and 4' Trumpets, and the Swell reeds. The strings of the Swell (16', 8', 4') are particularly beautiful. Two Open Diapasons grace each of the four manual divisions, with a third on the Great. Scriven showed how any four of them sound lovely in playing the solo line of Bach's Orgelbüchlein setting of "Ich ruf zu dir." The Claribel Flute of the Great is like a harmonic flute. Participants observed the distinctly effective British practice of using a series of graduated pistons to produce crescendo and diminuendo. Participants played Elgar, Bridge, Wesley, Hollins, Handel, and Bach.

Bath Abbey

At Bath Abbey, organist and master of choristers Peter King explained the 1997 Klais organ, a rebuild of an 1868 William Hill/1895 Norman and Beard/

1914 Hill organ which sits in the north transept of the church. Few churches in England retain the organ atop the choir screen as is the situation at Westminster Abbey, Exeter, Gloucester, and King's College Chapel, and in many others, the screen has disappeared altogether. Since the late nineteenth century, the prevailing ideal has been to create an unobstructed view to the altar from the west door entrance, and many choir screens have been removed.

King told of the history of the 19th-century English Renaissance in church music and the symphonic organ required for the music of Stanford, Parry, and Elgar. Klais retained about half the pipes from the old organ and preserved the Hill, Norman, and Beard Positive division. Some of the 1895/

1914 tonal changes were reversed to revive the Hill sound ideal. The 1914 Thomas Jackson case was preserved. King played Bruhns, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Ireland, and the Bach/Reger Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.

Bristol

In Bristol at Saint Mary Redcliffe, a church constructed over a period of 200 years by merchants of the city, the entrance is through the north door of the porch, which dates from the 14th century. Only a fragment of the original medieval stained glass remains, the rest having been destroyed in the Reformation.

In 1726, the firm of Harris and Byfield built an organ which featured one of the country's first pedalboards with an octave permanently coupled to the Great. The present instrument by Harrison (1911) is considered one of the finest examples of that firm's work and of the Edwardian ideal. It fills three chambers on either side of the choir. Rebuilt in 1990 with few additions other than the upperwork and the console, the organ comprises 71 stops on four manuals. The tonal palette features a Double Open Wood 32' and Open Wood 16' of the Pedal, Corno di Bassetto of the Choir, and Cor Anglais, Orchestral Oboe, and Vox Humana (normally of the Solo division) and a complement of 16', two 8', and 4' reeds on the Swell. The Great Harmonics mixture includes a flat 21st which was peculiar to Arthur Harrison's design. Organist Anthony Pinell played a Ropartz Prelude, a Howells Psalm Prelude, and Fugue on the name Alain by Duruflé. He then assisted participants who played Honegger, Taverner, Howells, and Elgar on this lovely instrument.

Gloucester

Gloucester Cathedral, containing the tomb of King Edward II, was the site of a small Anglo-Saxon monastery until the 11th century, when it became a Benedictine monastery. The present building, ordered by William the Conqueror, dates from 1089. In 1541, the church became the cathedral for Gloucester. The massive Norman pillars of the nave bear red marks from a 13th-century fire. The choir vault is 14th-century perpendicular Gothic style. King Henry II was crowned there as a boy of 9 in 1216, the only monarch ever to be crowned outside of London.

Evensong canticles, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, were by Herbert Murrill, with responses by Walsh. The anthem was Herbert Howells' "Like As The Hart." David Briggs, organist of Gloucester Cathedral, improvised the opening voluntary and later chatted about the organ. It is one of a few remaining atop the choir screen and has a long history of adaptations. It has been over the screen since 1715. The 1640 Robert Dallum chair case on the east side of the screen is all that remains of that organ. Thomas Harris built an instrument in 1665 which contained the earliest mixture stop in Britain--200 pipes of that organ remain today. In 1831, J.C. Bishop added pedal pipes, among them a Flute 16' which is possibly the widest scale Pedal Open in Britain. Father Willis contributed to the organ in 1847 and 1888 as did Harrison and Harrison in 1920. Hill, Norman, and Beard restored the organ and electrified the console in 1971 to create one of the most rapid key-responses of any organ anywhere. With the 2000 restoration by the firm of Nicholson, the organ today can be described as neo-Baroque. Briggs mentioned that most English cathedral organs are rebuilt every 20 years or so "in the fashion" of the day. Henry Willis added a pedalboard. The last rebuild made it a Romantic instrument. Harrison & Harrison changed the voicing but kept all of the pipes. The organ has a grand, rolling sound. Briggs demonstrated the seven stops which remain of the Harris organ of 1665: Great Diapasons (one facing east, one west), two 4' Principals, 12th and 15th, and Choir 4' Principal. Briggs described the foundations as "throwing down to the 16'," perhaps because there are many high cut-ups and not much nicking of the pipes. There are nine seconds of reverberation in the nave when it is empty. Briggs played the Symphonie Passion of Dupré, Fantasie and Fugue in G Minor of Bach, and a long, multi-movement improvisation of symphonic scope based upon a hymn tune. One of his generation's most gifted at improvisation, Briggs then delighted his hearers by improvising in the style of other dazzling exponents of this art: Hakim, Latry, Cochereau, Lefebvre.

Hereford

Traveling through the rich Wye valley with its beautiful truck farms and fruit orchards, we arrived at Hereford, the last cathedral town before the Welsh border. The Romanesque cathedral church contains a late-19th-century Henry Willis built at a time when the firm was copying the tonal design of Cavaillé-Coll.

Of 4 manuals and 67 stops, the 1933 Willis rebuild features a console with couplers on tablets which are below the music rack (a copy of the American design). The pedal contains a 32' Double Open Bass, the Great a Double Open Diapason 16' and three 8' Diapasons, and the Swell a Contra Gamba 16'; the powerful reeds are on high wind pressure, and the wide-scale flues have "stringy" tops. With painted pipes which are often described as looking like "rolls of linoleum," the organ is not much altered from the Willis original. John Norman's firm electrified the console in 1978, the rebuild of which was funded by a local cider maker. Peter Dyke, assistant organist and acting principal organist, spoke of former organists John Bull and S.S. Wesley. He then played Purcell, Wesley's "Air and Gavotte," and the theme and two variations of the Brahms/Rogg Variations on a Theme of Haydn.

Every year, the prestigious Three Choirs Festival is held here with performers located at the west entrance and facing the audience which is seated facing the west entrance. Dyke called our attention to an organ which sits on a wheeled platform in the south aisle. For ease of the organist's sightline, the organ is wheeled to the next bay when the festival conductor's position moves eastward as the choral and accompanying ensemble personnel change.

Birmingham

The group then arrived at Birmingham's Symphony Hall which is part of an arts complex built in the late 1980s. The German firm of Klais was installing a large instrument in this beautiful facility. The interior is surely a sister-hall to the Meyerson in Dallas, so alike are the two. At the time the building was constructed, Simon Rattle was artistic director and conductor of Birmingham's famously fine orchestra, and a poster outside the hall featured a large photo of Rattle with two organ pipes, the feet of which extend sideways from his mouth. Wide-eyed, he appealed for donations for the organ. The Klais firm won the contract in 1989. The group enjoyed taking lunch with Philipp Klais, grandson of the firm's founder and a gracious, personable man of great enthusiasm. He considers his firm's "invasion" of England for restoration and new-instrument contracts a great honor. As participants settled into the audience seats of the concert hall, Klais recalled that many "firsts" were achieved by the British: the Swell Box, the modern bellows system, over-blowing flutes, and double-mouthed pipes. As his crew worked behind him, Klais explained that the organ for the Birmingham Hall would be of four manuals and 82 stops with inauguration scheduled for October, 2001. Thomas Trotter and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra presented three concerts on Friday and Saturday, October 19 and 20. Only the façade was built for the opening of the facility some 11 years ago. Two consoles, one of tracker and the other of electric action, are provided, allowing one of them to be placed within the orchestra. Klais mentioned that he had visited the Meyerson Center in Dallas to study the acoustical properties there. His firm has recently installed a symphony hall instrument in Singapore and will construct another in Madison, Wisconsin.

Lichfield

Next, at Lichfield Cathedral, which sits in a lovely close surrounded by old and new buildings, Andrew Lumsden, organist and master of choristers, talked of the education and appointment of organists for large English churches. Rarely is the number 2 or number 3 organist elevated through the ranks, an exception being John Scott at St. Paul's London. Lumsden was educated at Saint John's College and was number 2 at Westminster Abbey for a time. The duties of Master of Choristers used to include the teaching of Latin and Greek. The choir schools, and the advent of girls' choirs, are enormously expensive.

The original instrument before the present Hill organ of 1884 was on the choir screen and was purchased by Josiah Spode of the pottery-making family. The Hill instrument was placed on the north transept and the pipes of that organ survive into the current one, a 4-manual instrument placed on either side of the choir. A Baroque choir organ was added in 1973-74 and a recently completed 4-million pound refurbishment by Harrison added the nave organ. The Great reeds are on a separate chest under high wind pressure, and there is a wonderful Edwardian Tuba and massive pedal reeds. Lumsden played the Bach "Liebster Jesu" with choir Cornet and Great Open Diapason, Widor Symphonie V "Adagio" with foundations and strings, and Guilmant's March on a Theme of Handel.

Liverpool

The great industrial city of Liverpool was the last stop before returning to London. Ian Tracey, organist for both Saint George's Hall and the Cathedral, treated us to a well-articulated history of both structures and their instruments. Saint George's Hall is a magnificent civic monument to nineteenth-century British pride and opulence. Built in the 1840s for music festivals, the interior was copied after the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and even displays Roman military insignia on its guilded interior doors. A magnificent marble floor is now covered by wood but is revealed on special occasions, increasing the considerable reverberation by two seconds.

S.S. Wesley directed the building of the Henry Willis organ in 1855. Willis was barely 30 at the time and this organ established his reputation. The instrument featured 100 stops, the first radiating concave pedalboard, stop jambs angled towards the player, and thumb pistons. Rebuilds occurred in 1897 and 1931. The organ was dismantled after a bomb damaged the building in 1940. Many pipes were stolen, and in 1957 Henry Willis IV reconstructed the organ. Since 1989 it has been cared for by the David Wells company, with a campaign now on to further restore the organ. Today it has 120 stops, including two percussions. It still retains a classical English Great Mixture and wide scaled Diapasons.

About 200 people will attend organ recitals at any given time. At Christmas, some 1700 people congregate to enjoy dinner parties and carol singing. At other times, Tracey continues the tradition of playing the 1812 Overture while the audience provides the bell and cannon effects. In the 19th century, W.T. Best, notable for his orchestral transcriptions, would play concerts for school children and for adults, who were charged but a farthing to hear the organ. Once, a woman dressed in black appeared in Best's peripheral vision while he played a Spohr overture. He shooed her away. It was Queen Victoria. George Thalben-Ball was organist here for a time. Tracey played a Purcell March to feature the Tuba Mirabilis and double-leathered Diapason, Thalben-Ball's Elegy, and the Bossi Scherzo.

Liverpool Cathedral contains the largest organ in England. Like the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Liverpool Cathedral took most of the twentieth century to construct. Like Saint Paul's in London, the church became a national symbol of British fortitude during WWII as Churchill ordered the work to continue on the tower even as Liverpool endured saturation bombing by the Germans. Begun in 1904 and completed in the 1980s, the enormity of the structure is magnified because the nave is very wide, there is an unobstructed view from entrance to altar (1/8 mile), there are two sets of transepts, and the arches under the tower soar to 175 feet. 4000 people can congregate here, as they did when the Queen consecrated the Cathedral in 1978. Giles Gilbert Scott, 18 years old at the time, won the competition for the design. He also designed the Bank Side Power Station (now the new Tate Gallery) in London and the University Library at Cambridge. Henry Willis designed the instrument to accommodate the organist, Henry Goss-Custard, and his considerable gifts for orchestral sonorities. There are 147 speaking stops, 47 of which are reeds, including those on 30 and 50 inches of wind pressure. There are 10 ranks of mixtures on each manual, mutations, and clarinet, bassoon, and flutes, all of which are much more subtle than those at Saint George's Hall. The huge organ is mounted on both sides of the choir and faces into the nave, held up by massive load-bearing piers that were designed to hold two 200-foot towers which were never built.

Little of the organ is changed today, but in 1989 a new moveable console was provided. Tracey demonstrated the five beautiful Open Diapasons of the Great, played the Tournemire Te Deum, Joel Martinson's Aria, and his own transcription of two movements of the Respighi Pines of Rome. Participants played Karg-Elert, Widor and Mulet.

London: Temple Church

Returning to London, participants were greeted by James Vivian, organist at Temple Church, where George Thalben-Ball was organist for over 60 years.  The present organ, a 1927 Harrison & Harrison, was a gift of Lord Glentanner, in whose Scottish castle ballroom it was originally placed. Moved to the church in 1954, a Double Ophicleide was added. In 1989, Harrison revised the Great Mixture and lowered the Great reeds from 15 to 7 inches of wind pressure. The original instrument, a 1684 instrument of 23 stops, was the first 3-manual organ in England. The Echo division (a forerunner of the Swell) had a short compass to Middle C. This and subsequent instruments and their restorations were destroyed in 1941.

Saint Paul's Cathedral

At Saint Paul's Cathedral, the 5 p.m. Eucharist was sung by the choir, with service music by Harold Darke and Introit by Palestrina (Tu es petra). Andrew Reed, the number 2 organist, played for the service. After the church emptied, Huw Williams, assistant organist, led us to the choir loft to demonstrate the 1872 Father Willis organ. Today it is of 108 stops in three parts: the main organ on either side of the choir, the west entrance Trumpet en Chamade and Diapason chorus, and the Quarter Dome Northeast division of 3 tubas and a Tuba Militaire. Willis had split the original Bernard Smith organ of 1697 (a double-sided instrument located on the choir screen) and moved it to its present location on either side of the choir. The case was designed by the architect of the church, Christopher Wren. Willis claimed first use of tubular pneumatic action in this organ. From 1897 to 1900, Willis expanded the Pedal, the pipes of which lie horizontally on the north side of the choir. From 1925 to 1930 the organ was moved to the Wellington monument bay as it was feared that the dome was unstable. Restored in 1960, 1972, and 1977, windchests and other parts of the organ received major overhauls. The Mander company added Diapasons to the quarter dome division. The Swell is particularly fine, an example of an early Willis classic Swell, not deep in the case, and equal to the Great. Williams played Stanford, Howells, and Bossi to demonstrate the colors and families of stops. The finale was Grand Choeur Dialogué by Gigout in which the Royal Trumpets sounded antiphonally with the main organ.

Afterwards, the group proceeded to Saint Helen Bishopgate, near Saint Paul's, where John Norman was the consultant for a new organ. The original instrument was destroyed by an IRA bomb in the 1980s.

Saint Margaret Lothbury

Saint Margaret Lothbury, a small church nestled next to the Bank of England, was our next stop. We were greeted by Richard Townend, who is resident recitalist at Saint Margaret Lothbury and music director for Holy Trinity Church at Sloane Square. Townend was a choirboy at Westminster Abbey and sang for the funeral of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1958. He studied at the Royal College of Music with Harold Darke and Herbert Howells, and in Switzerland with Lionel Rogg and Guy Bovet. He is also director of music for the Hill House school, which Prince Charles attended.

Saint Margaret Lothbury was designed by Christopher Wren and built after the great fire of 1666. In danger of collapse, it was rebuilt in the 1970s. An organ of two manuals was placed in the west gallery in 1801 by G.P. England and a Choir division was added in 1845 by James Butler. In 1881 Bryceson moved the whole organ to the gallery and added the treble case from the church of St. Mildred Poultry. In 1938, Hill, Norman and Beard added a large Great Open Diapason and discarded the Great Mixture. The console was electrified and detached from the case. In 1983-84, J.C. Bishop and Son, under the direction of John Budgen and Richard Townend, completely reconstructed the organ, restoring the case to its original form. The remaining stops by England and James Butler have been incorporated in a new instrument built in the style of the original. Both Felix Mendelssohn and S.S. Wesley played here.

In 1830, the organ at St. Margaret Lothbury featured the first addition of the bottom 12 notes of pedals in England. It contains warm Open and quiet Stopped Diapasons. According to Townend, the instrument is a quintessential British organ, of "polite" sound and singing quality, but not built for playing polyphony. The Great 4' Flute "bubbles up." In English music whenever a flute is called for, it means a 4' Flute. There is an "elderly" Trumpet. The classic English chorus is 8' Open Diapason, 4' Principal, Twelfth, Fifteenth, and Mixture. The English Cornet is of 3 ranks: 8', 4', 22/3'. The Swell is soft--the Great louder. Adding the Trumpet to the Cornet gives a "Frenchy Grand Jeu." The Cremona with metal resonators, fatter than the French Cromorne, is for solo melodies.

Westminster Abbey

The group attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey to hear responses by Aylesbury, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis by Howells, and an anthem by Stanford. Afterwards, Stephen LePrevost, assistant organist, spoke briefly of the organ as playing time was limited. The organ is a 1937 rebuild by Harrison & Harrison of a William Hill instrument from 1848 and 1884. The first instrument was by the firm of Schrider & Jordan in 1727. The choir Stopped Flute and 4' Flute are reputedly from the Jordan instrument. The Bombarde division was added by Simon Preston and features the borrowing of reeds from the Great and Solo manuals. Participants played Howells, Tournemire, Handel, and Walton.

Westminster Cathedral

The imposing Roman Cathedral of Westminster, loosely based on the design of St. Mark's in Venice, was built in 1901. Past the nave with its three domes, the group gathered in the choir loft which is behind the high altar. Martin Baker, organist of Westminster Cathedral, explained that it costs around $400,000 per year to maintain the choir school. The sound of the famous choir is more "continental," rather than that of the British "hooty" sound. 95% of the music is in Latin, and the boys actually have trouble singing in English after learning the Italianate Latin vowel sounds. The Apse Organ of two manuals accompanies the choir. The large Willis Grand Organ in the west gallery is playable from the Apse Organ through setting pistons from the Grand Organ, but the two-second delay takes some getting used to.

Walking down the south triforium gallery towards the west gallery, we stopped at a bay close to the Great Organ. Comparable to the Liverpool instrument, it was built by Henry Willis III and rebuilt by Harrison in 1984. It features a Double Diapason 16' and three Open Diapasons on the Great. There is a Double Open Bass 32' and Open Bass and Open Diapason 16' in the Pedal. The Swell and Solo both contain beautiful orchestral reeds: Waldhorn, Cor Anglais, French horn, and Corno di Bassetto. The Cor de nuit celestes on the Choir are velvety and beautiful. In 1976, Stephen Cleobury directed the raising of the Apse Organ and part of the Great Organ to concert pitch. In 1985, David Hill, who began the Grand Organ Festival, had all of the Great Organ raised to concert pitch. Baker improvised on "Adoro te devote," and participants played Stanford, Parry, and Mulet.

London options

On July 1, with several Sunday service choices in London, one group of participants returned to Westminster Cathedral for a Festival Mass in celebration of the centennial anniversary year of the church. Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei, sung by the choir, were by Widor. The anthem was Parry's "I Was Glad," accompanied by both the Great Organ and the Apse Organ. The congregation sang the rest of the Latin Mass from printed plainsong. The 1700 seats of the nave were full. At Richard Townend's church, Holy Trinity at Sloane Square, an orchestra accompanied a Mozart Mass and a youth choir from Alaska participated.

Afternoon choices included hearing recitals at Saint Paul's (John Scott), Westminster Cathedral (Martin Baker), and Westminster Abbey. Participants practiced for and played a recital at Holy Trinity church at 7:00 p.m. Open to the parishioners and public, the program featured music by Walond, Lang, Howells, Rutter, Thalben-Ball, and Vierne. The interior of the church, an arts-and-crafts-Gothic design, features a breathtaking window above the altar which was the largest window ever built by the William Morris Company. Its beautiful stained-glass images were designed by pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones. J.W. Walker & Sons built an organ here in 1891 which was almost totally destroyed during WWII. It was rebuilt in 1966 by Walker, and Simon Preston inaugurated the instrument in 1967.

The British Organ Music Seminar provides participants access to great instruments and their artist-curators. For those unfamiliar with the vast repertoire of British organ music, especially that of the 19th and early 20th century, playing these works on the instruments for which they were conceived is a revelation. The reverberation of the environment, the velvety Diapasons, the exquisite Swell divisions with their strings and orchestral reeds, and the fire of the British tubas resonates long after the experience is past. The hospitality of our hosts was among the finest. At many venues, the church's staff provided a meal, either in the undercroft, or a parlor, or in a great hall. Such is what creates memories surrounding the experience of beautiful music and instruments.           

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.

Henry Murlin Kelsay,
82, died August 23 in Springfield, Missouri. He was born on February 17, 1923
in Versailles, Missouri. After graduation from high school in Booneville,
Missouri, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, rising to the rank of 1st
lieutenant and serving as an air corps navigator. He fought in several World
War II battles and air campaigns in southern France and Italy, and was
decorated with numerous medals and citations. Kelsay graduated from Union
Theological Seminary in New York City, and went on to serve as music director
at several churches in the Little Rock, Arkansas area, including Pulaski
Heights Methodist Church and Christ Episcopal Church. He served as dean of the
Central Arkansas AGO chapter 1954-55 and 1959-61. Later in life he
became interested in interior decorating and was successful in that endeavor.

At the time of his death, Kelsay was a member of St. James
Episcopal Church in Springfield, Missouri. A memorial service took place there
on September 17. He is survived by his sister-in-law and three nephews.

--Virginia Strohmeyer-Miles

Noel Mander, MBE,
FSA, prominent British organbuilder, died September 18 at his home in Suffolk,
England, at the age of 93.

Born on May 19, 1912 in Crouch near Wrotham, Mander was
brought up in South London. Having left school (which he hated), he went to
work for A & C Black, publishers. The office work did not suit him,
however, and through his uncle, Frederick Pike, he met Ivor Davis who had
worked for Hill, Norman & Beard. After working with him for a while, Mander
started on his own in 1936, the first organ being that at St. Peter’s
Bethnal Green opposite St. Peter’s School, which years later was to
become the organ works. Unfortunately, Christ Church Jamaica Street, Stepney, where
he rented workspace, together with the organ he was working on and all his
equipment, were lost in the first air raid on East London 1940.

Shortly after that, he joined the Royal Artillery, seeing
service in North Africa and Italy, where he worked on a number of instruments,
including the organ in Algiers Cathedral, which had been silent for years.
Having been invalided out of active service in Italy, he joined the Army
Welfare Service and during his convalescence he repaired a 17th-century organ
in Trani.

After the war he assisted the London Diocese in getting
organs working again in bomb-damaged churches. He set up a workshop in an old
butcher’s shop in Collier Street before moving in 1946 into the old
buildings of St. Peter’s School in Bethnal Green, where the firm remains
to this day. In 1948 he married Enid Watson with whom he had five children,
living over the workshop in Bethnal Green. Most of his early work revolved
around the rebuilding of organs, many of which survive to this day.

He always had an affection for historic instruments and
restored a number of antique chamber organs, setting new standards for the time
with his sympathetic appreciation and restoration of them. Of particular note
was the restoration of the 17th-century organ at Adlington Hall in Cheshire in
1958-59, which was in a completely desolate state. It had not been
playable for perhaps a century, 
but with painstaking care the organ was restored and remains one of the
most important survivors in England.

In the 1960s he became aware that interest was growing in
tracker-action organs in the rest of Europe, and this encouraged him to
investigate this form of action himself, initially in the restoration of
instruments (which otherwise might have been electrified) and then in new
organs. Ultimately a number of such instruments were built including the export
of some to places such as Bermuda and the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial
Foundation in Fulton, Missouri.

Having been involved with the rebuilding of a number of
large organs, he was awarded the contract to rebuild the organ in St.
Paul’s Cathedral in London during the 1970s. This project, lasting almost
five years, was perhaps his greatest pride and was completed just in time for
the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations at St. Paul’s. In 1978 H.M.
Queen Elizabeth made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He
retired in 1983 to his home in Suffolk, but retained an interest in what the
firm was doing right to the end. The 60th anniversary of the Mander firm was
marked in 1996 by publication of a collection of essays in his honor entitled
Fanfare for an Organ Builder.

Noel Mander’s interests were by no means restricted to
organs. He was a keen historian and an avid bookworm. He was a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries and very active in the Council of Christians and Jews
for many years. He became a very popular member of the Earl Soham community in
Suffolk, where he retired to in 1983. He was also the British representative
for the Sir Winston Churchill Foundation in Missouri and secured a number of
significant pieces of antique furniture for the Wren church rebuilt there,
including, during the last year of his life, a fine 18th-century pulpit that
had once stood in a City church.

Philip Marshall, who
served as organist at both Ripon and Lincoln cathedrals, died on July 16. Born
in Brighouse in 1921, his early studies were with Whiteley Singleton, a pupil
of Edward Bairstow. He gained an Associateship of the Royal College of Music,
and in 1946 won three prizes in the Fellowship examination of the Royal College
of Organists. He earned his BMus at Durham in 1950, by which time he was
assistant to Melville Cook at Leeds Parish Church. He also served as organist
at All Souls, Haley Hill, Halifax, where he met Margaret Bradbury, whom he
married in 1951, and who survives him. The Marshalls moved that year to Boston,
working at the Parish Church and Grammar School. By 1957,
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Philip Marshall had completed his
doctorate at Durham, studying with Bairstow’s York successor, Francis
Jackson, and was appointed organist at Ripon Cathedral. Founding the choir
school, rebuilding the cathedral instrument and producing a chant book were
highlights of his tenure at Ripon.

An accomplished model engineer, organbuilder and composer as
well as an outstanding organist, accompanist and teacher, Dr. Marshall served
as organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral for 20 years
until retirement in 1986. The Dean and Chapter named him Organist Emeritus in
the early 1990s.

Dorothy Hildegard Nordblad died of congestive heart failure on September 9 at the Moorings, a
retirement community in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was 93. A lifelong
member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Chicago, she served for 37 years as
organist and director of junior choirs at Edison Park Lutheran Church, where
she directed 60 children in three choirs. Nordblad also taught history, math
and music to hundreds of children, serving the Chicago public schools for 40
years.

The daughter of Swedish immigrants, she was born in Chicago
in 1911 and graduated from Senn High School before attending Northwestern
University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in education in 1932
and a master’s degree in education in 1946.

Her teaching career began at Stewart School, and in the late
1950s Nordblad moved to Beaubien Elementary School on the Northwest Side. In
addition to teaching, she was assistant principal, a position she held until
her retirement in the 1970s. After she moved to the Moorings retirement home,
she organized and directed the choir there, continuing as its director for more
than seven years. Funeral services were held on September 14 at Ebenezer
Lutheran Church, Chicago.

Donald W. Williams,
of Ann Arbor, died September 22 at the Chelsea Retirement Center, Chelsea,
Michigan, following a seven-month battle with cancer. He was 66.

Williams received his bachelor’s degree (1961) and
master’s degree (1962) from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee,
where he studied with Scott Withrow. In 1979 he received the DMA from the
University of Michigan, where he studied with Marilyn Mason. At Michigan, he
was given the Palmer Christian Award by the Organ Department of the School of
Music in recognition of his accomplishments in teaching, performing, and choral
conducting.

Dr. Williams served as organist and choirmaster at Zion
Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor from 1963 until 1995, when he became
organist-choirmaster at Chelsea First United Methodist Church, a position he
held until his death. He was a member of the organ faculty of the National
Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, from 1966 to 1970, and was adjunct
lecturer in organ at the University of Michigan in the early 1970s. He taught
organ performance and church music at Concordia University in Ann Arbor (1976-95,
1999 until his death). He was co-founder of the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale, which
he directed with Richard Ingram and Ruth Datz from 1987 to 2001, and was
founder and conductor of the American Chorale of Sacred Music.

Williams performed at churches and cathedrals in this
country and abroad, including the National Cathedral and the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New
York City, St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, and various European venues.
From 1981 to 1985 he performed as a member of Principal VI, a group of
organists from the greater Ann Arbor area. In 1986, he gave the world premiere
of Vincent Persichetti’s last composition, Give Peace, O God.

In addition to the various positions he held in the Ann
Arbor chapter of the American Guild of Organists, Williams was chair of worship
standards and repertoire of the American Choral Directors’ Association
(1995-2001), and a member of the board of the Boy Choir of Ann Arbor from
2000 until his death. He was a life member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Funeral services were held on September 26 at First
Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. Williams is survived by his 97-year-old
father, Joel Williams, of Marietta, Georgia.