Katelyn Emerson in Lexington, Kentucky

Randall Dyer & Associates, Inc.,

Jefferson, Tennessee

Cathedral of Christ the King,

Lexington, Kentucky 

Our new organ for the Cathedral of Christ the King closely follows the concept we have recently espoused for ideal three-manual design in an organ of moderate size, affordable for many situations. The concept includes: 

• Two expressive divisions 

• 16′ Open plenum on the Great with English Trumpet 

• 16′ Closed Flute/8′ Principal plenum on the Swell with Cornet, broadly scaled strings with extended-range Celeste, and French reeds 

• 8′ Open plenum on the Choir with bright, but relatively low-pitched mixture and broad, blending color reed

• 8′ Harmonic Flute as one of four 8′ flue stops on the Great 

• 8′ Solo Trumpet 

• 32′ pitch line in the Pedal. 

The sound is broad, full, rich, and enveloping—an exciting sound that totally belies the size of the instrument. With no attempt at clever manipulation of stoplists, we believe that an instrument of any given size requires that certain stops always be present in a prescribed order to effectively maximize that instrument’s ability to accompany congregational and choral song, play the incidental music of the service, and the literature at large. If a more generous budget is available, there are certain other stops that should be added, and again, in a prescribed order. We hold similar beliefs about effective design of smaller organs.

The agreement with the church called for the use of some pipes from the church’s previous organ, an undersized and lightly winded instrument installed when the building was new in 1967. As the construction of the new organ drew near, closer examination of those pipes revealed that while they were well made, the original open-toe voicing treatment would require extensive alteration to make them useful in the new organ. Concurrently, we were fortunate to be made aware that an organ we had built in 1980 for a small college in eastern Kentucky had become available due to a change in the school’s music program. 

That organ had utilized all-new pipes on the chassis of an existing instrument, and a thorough reading of the documentation in our files revealed that those pipes would be an excellent match for the Lexington organ. In the end, only four ranks from the cathedral’s former organ were retained. New pipework, voiced in our shop, occupies the important positions in the major choruses, as well as the reeds and color stops, but all existing pipes also received the same shop-voicing treatment as the new pipes.

After the previous organ was removed from the cathedral, a contractor stripped the chamber down to a bare shadow box, totally open across the front, and shallow in depth. Tightly fitting the new organ, with its free-standing expression boxes on each end, and the Great in the middle, the tone is blended and focused forward, much in the same manner as an encased instrument, to authoritatively fill the large room with a warm and supportive sound. Pipes of the Great and Pedal Principals, in 70% tin and polished aluminum, form the simple but elegant façade, which blends well with other visual elements in the room.

As in all of our instruments, the mechanical parts were completely built in our shop, and include our standard Blackinton-style electro-pneumatic slider-and-pallet chests, with electro-pneumatic unit chests for stops that appear at more than one location or pitch. The organ is controlled from a movable three-manual drawknob console, connected to the organ by a single fiber-optic strand. As is standard on virtually all the consoles we build, the manual keys are covered with genuine (and legal) elephant ivory for the naturals and rosewood for sharps.

The Great includes standard Principal ranks of 70% tin at 8′ through Mixture, undergirded with an open 16′ sound and augmented with 8′ and 4′ Flute stops. The Rohrflote is scaled and voiced in a manner that allows it to be a secondary voice under the Principal upperwork, when the full body of sound provided by the broadly scaled 8′ Principal is not desired.

We consider the Violone, Flute Harmonique, and (English) Trumpet stops, while shown as derivations from the Choir, to be part of the Great. The fact that they are enclosed gives them an added measure of usefulness, and allows the Violone to serve as the tertiary 8′ Principal when pulled on the Choir.

The Swell has a complete secondary principal ensemble, with closed 16′ flute basis. The Cornet is composed of broadly scaled flutes that are increasingly open as the pitch of the ranks ascend, resulting in a very tightly cohesive sound that changes character with each addition, and because of correct pipe shapes, locks into pitch. The strings, both warm and keen, are from the original instrument, and speak decisively better on our slider chest than they did on their former all-electric action. Swell reeds are French in character, and the 16′ Oboe is bold in its support under the Trompette, all the way to the bottom.

The Choir is a complete division, of lighter and brighter character than the other two. Quite capable of its standard position in the literature, it is also useful with the very active children’s choirs, which perform frequently in both daily school and weekend Masses. The ability to use the enclosed stops from the Great broadens the texture and usefulness of the Choir, which is completed with its own indigenous reed, a broadly scaled Cromorne. The Grand Trumpet stop, voiced on 9 inches of wind pressure, is also enclosed in this division. That all the reeds are expressive, including the real pipes of the 32′ Trombone, provides extra versatility in registration, particularly at dramatic climaxes.

Sales, design, and mechanical layout were handled by Randall Dyer. Bradley Jones supervised production and voiced all the pipework in the shop. He was assisted in the tonal finishing process at the church by David Beck. James Greene, Jane Lowe, Colin McGlothlin, and Jack Wolfe built, finished, assembled, wired, and installed the various parts of the organ. Matthew and Linzi Dyer assisted with unloading and setting of heavy parts at the church. David Bottom assisted with installation and built the large wind lines. Lou Anna Dyer provided administrative assistance. Pipework, custom-scaled and voiced in our shop, was provided by Jacques Stinkens BV, Matters, Inc., and Oyster Pipe Works, Ltd.

We are indebted to Brian Hunt, organist, and Robert Whitaker, director of music, not only for their choice of our firm to build the organ for their church, but for their support throughout the project. Their very fine music program at the cathedral will make good use of the new instrument.

—Randall Dyer

Randall Dyer & Associates, Inc., is a member firm of APOBA, the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America.

A consideration of the record series made by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company

John A. Hansen, a native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, began his pipe organ career at the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company in Boston in May of 1961, working in the console shop. Most of his time at the firm was spent in the Engineering Department. Sensing trouble in the distance, he left the company in 1965, returning to the Omaha, Nebraska, area (of which Council Bluffs is a part) to become a tuning and service technician. In 1985 he became Regional Representative of Austin Organs, Inc., for Nebraska and Western Iowa.

The arrival of the post-World-War-II 331/3-r.p.m,
high-fidelity, long-playing recording was 
embraced by the legendary Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston as a
means of promoting its product. In the course of approximately twenty years,
thirty volumes of the series, entitled The King of Instruments, were released.
The series can be divided into three groups, (1) The Harrison Era, (2) The
Whiteford Era, and (3) The Post-Whiteford Era. The impetus for entering into
the venture came from Joseph S. Whiteford, who served as associate and
successor to the legendary English-born President and Tonal Director, G. Donald
Harrison.

The Harrison Era

Perhaps the most important recording of the entire series is
Volume 1, The American Classic Organ, a lecture-demonstration narrated by no
less than G. Donald Harrison. Many of the tonal examples were recorded at the
Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, the organ there played by George Faxon.
Other organs used were those in Symphony Hall, Boston; First Presbyterian
Church, Kilgore, Texas; and New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, played
by Thomas Dunn, Roy Perry, Norman Coke-Jephcott, and Mr. Whiteford.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  (The latter's efforts include the
improvised demonstration of the legendary St. John the Divine State Trumpet.)
The urbane, English verbiage of Mr. Harrison and the very persuasive musical
presentations are, even after almost fifty years, highly contagious. (Roy
Perry, however, did express to the writer regret that the examples of
string-tone stops were from Boston's Symphony Hall rather than those in the Kilgore
organ, which he felt were superior.)

Volume 2, Organ Literature: Bach to Langlais, features the
organs of Symphony Hall, Boston; the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston; and
First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas. The playing of, respectively, the
Bach Trio Sonata No. 1 and the
Allegro  from the A Minor
Concerto of Vivaldi/Bach by George Faxon at
St. Paul's Cathedral may be the chief treasures of the disc, followed closely
by Roy Perry's unique rendition of Davies' A Solemn Melody
style='font-style:normal'>. Thomas Dunn is said to have played the three Bach Schübler
Chorales and the Alain Litanies
style='font-style:normal'> at Symphony Hall, listed as the "Staff
Organist," while William Watkins received a similar listing, very
effectively playing the Sowerby Carillon on the Kilgore organ. It might be argued that the use of three organs
to demonstrate the versatility of Aeolian-Skinner's work would have been better
served by a single instrument, but the recording is still very effective.

The next two issues, Volume 3, Organ Recital: Robert Owen
and Volume 4, Hilliar at St. Mark's, employed organs somewhat unique, in that
they both had divided Swell divisions. The first of these was recorded at
Christ Church, Bronxville, New York, and garnered perhaps the highest critical
praise of the early releases in this series, with the possible exception of
Volume 1. Owen's playing of the Walther Partita, Meinen Jesum lass ich nicht
style='font-style:normal'> and Messiaen's The Prayer of Christ
ascending to the Father may be the high
points of that recording. Edgar Hilliar was organist at St. Mark's Church, Mt.
Kisco, New York, and his playing of the Bach Trio Sonata No. IV in E
Minor is truly a marvel--a brilliant
example of how deft touch control can affect the pipe speech of a
non-mechanical action instrument. The Mt. Kisco acoustic is very dry; and,
perhaps somewhat unique in this series, no attempt was made to add artificial
reverberation to it. (The writer had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Hilliar in
recital at St. Mark's and will never forget his masterful playing of the Bach
"Little" Fugue in G Minor,
using but a single flute stop.)

The "dry" acoustic at Mt. Kisco is placed in sharp
contrast by Volume 5,  The Music of
Richard Purvis, recorded in the spacious confines of San Francisco's Grace
Cathedral. Despite the listing of the player as the "staff organist,"
the organist was, in fact, the composer of the music. (One can only assume that
the player's designation was designed to avoid conflict with his other
recordings.) The most notable piece is the Partita on
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Christ ist Erstanden
style='font-style:normal'>.

New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the setting
of Volumes 6 and 8. The former, The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New
York City, is played by Alec Wyton and is perhaps most notable for Sowerby's Prelude
on  Deus Tuorum Militum,
style='font-style:normal'> written for the Cathedral's justifiably famous State
Trumpet. The latter, Norman Coke-Jephcott at Saint John the Divine, features
Wyton's Cathedral predecessor. Whereas Volume 6 was somewhat closely
"miked" to deal with the lengthy reverberation, Volume 8 seems to
revel in the vastness of the space. Coke-Jephcott's Toccata on
"St. Anne" is very exciting, and
the four opening notes on the lower registers of the State Trumpet in his Bishops'
Promenade are truly awesome!

One of Harrison's landmark organs of the mid-thirties is
that in St. John's Chapel of the Groton (Massachusetts) School, and it was used
for the series' Volume 7, Marilyn Mason in Recital. In addition to a very
spritely performance of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Major
style='font-style:normal'>, the recording is also notable for the performance
of Robert Crandell's Carnival Suite for Organ
style='font-style:normal'>.

The largest organ built by Aeolian-Skinner was that in the
Mother Church, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston. Volume 9, The Mother
Church, Boston, features Ruth Barrett Phelps, for some years organist at the
Mother Church. Her playing of the Buxtehude Prelude and Fugue in G Minor
style='font-style:normal'> stands out in the writer's consideration, proving
that a large, electro-pneumatic-action organ can be a model of clarity. (The
writer once played the Buxtehude on this record for an organ-enthusiast friend
without telling him what the organ was, and asked him what sort of instrument
he assumed it might be--his response was that it must have been a North
European tracker!)

Volume 10, Music of the Church, was recorded at First
Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas, where Aeolian-Skinner's first horizontal
Trompette en Chamade was installed. Four anthems, with Roy Perry at the console
and the church's choir augmented by the choir of Austin College, make up the
bulk of the recording. A rousing performance of C. Hubert H. Parry's I was
glad--including the Coronation vivats
style='font-style:normal'>--begins the record. While the tempi, particularly in
the John Ireland Greater Love hath no man and David McK. Williams' In the Year that King Uzziah died
style='font-style:normal'> are sometimes unusually slow, the performances are
still quite beguiling, certainly helped by the removal of the church's
carpeting for the recording. (The Texans certainly sang with great zeal, and
the "quasi-tympani" effect of multiple notes played on the 32'
stops after the words, . . . and the house was filled with smoke, in the
Willams anthem is especially notable.) Perry's playing of the evocative,
impressionistic evensong Prelude on Iam Sol recedit igneus
style='font-style:normal'>, by Bruce Simonds, is a wonderfully quiet conclusion
to this, one of the series' most popular releases.

Henry Hokans at All Saints' is the title of Volume 11,
comprising pieces by Walond, Whitlock, Franck, and Dupré. The Worcester,
Massachusetts, organ was another of Harrison's "landmark" instruments
of the 1930s. As it evolved over a number of years, it was perhaps the most
"French" of his organs until his final one in St. Thomas' Church, New
York City. Mr. Hokans, successor to William Self at All Saints' Church, is one
of the most gifted players the writer has ever heard. His performance of
Dupré's Variations sur un Noël,
Opus 20, is absolutely electrifying!

Volume 12, Pierre Cochereau at Symphony Hall, contains, not
surprisingly, all French literature. Most significant is the player's Triptych
Symphony, in Four Movements, a splendid
example of the art of improvisation. Works of Fleury, Dupré, and Vierne
complete the release.

The Whiteford Era

The death of G. Donald Harrison in 1956, while he was
completing the great organ in St. Thomas Church, New York, although portending
a gloomy future for Aeolian-Skinner, did not, by any means, spell the end of
the company's record series. An alliance was forged with Washington Records,
the first release of which was Volume 13, Organ Music and Vocal Solos, recorded
in the Mother Church, Boston, featuring organist Ruth Barrett Phelps and the
church's then tenor soloist, Frederick Jagel, who had a long and distinguished
career on the opera stage. Of the organ works, the Franck Fantaisie in A
style='font-style:normal'> and the Buxtehude Ciacona in E Min
style='font-style:normal'>or are particularly memorable.

Volume 14, also on the Washington Records label, is entitled
New Dimensions in Organ Sound and features Catharine Crozier playing the large
organ in the Auditorium of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints in Independence, Missouri. The major work on this release is the
monumental Sonata on the Ninety-fourth Psalm of Julius Reubke, and the issue was the first to incorporate stereo
sound. The mystical atmosphere of Crozier's performance of Alain's Deuxième
Fantaisie is notable, as are the
reservoir-bottoming tone clusters! Joseph Whiteford, who seemed afraid of bold
sounds, felt that the tapes made at the Crozier recording sessions had too much
mid-range emphasis and instructed Mr. John Kellner, who had made the tapes, to
electronically lessen that emphasis while adding artificial reverberation from
the company's then-new reverberation system. Unhappily, the final tonal results
have a harsh, thin ambiance.

A number of the Harrison Era recordings were re-issued on
the Washington Records label.

The technical quality of the Washington Records releases was
a disappointment, and Volume 13, originally issued with monaural sound, was
re-released, under the previous arrangements for pressings, in stereo. (Interestingly,
it was found that the vibrato of Mr. Jagel--well past his prime when the
recording was made--was too slow; so the master tapes were speeded up, raising
the pitches of all pieces on the recording--vocal and organ--almost a
semitone.) At the same time, because of popular demand, Volumes 1 and 10 were
also re-issued. Since more pieces were recorded by Crozier than appeared on
Volume 14, two releases, Volumes 15 and 16, called, respectively, Catharine
Crozier, Program I and Catharine Crozier, Program II, were issued, with the
elegance of the Bach Trio Sonata No. 5 in C Major being perhaps the most particularly special addition.

The instrument used in Volume 17, Phillip Steinhaus, was
that in All Saints' Church, Pontiac, Michigan, a three-manual organ of more
modest proportions than most used in this series. Steinhaus, who would
ultimately serve a brief tenure as a company vice-president in the later 1960s,
recorded a diverse program ranging from Buxtehude to Langlais, with Paul de
Maleingreau's Tumult in the Praetorium
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  being perhaps the most unusual. Also
quite different is the rendition of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C
Minor, which contains a cadenza, adapted
from the same composer's Prelude and Fugue in F Minor.

Two Great Organs is the title of Volume 18, which features
Albert Russell playing, respectively, the organs in Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln
Center, New York City, and in Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford.
(Russell was organist/choir director at the Hartford church.) The sound of the
now former concert hall instrument, playing pieces by Dupré, Buxtehude,
Bach, and Langlais, is impressive, invoking sadness that it was not retained in
what is now called Avery Fisher Hall. The writer, while an employee of
Aeolian-Skinner in the early 1960s, served on the installation team of the
Hartford organ and considers it one of the best of the Whiteford organs. Roy
Perry, who began the tonal finishing, agonized to Mr. Whiteford that he could
not get what he desired out of the Great 8' Spitzprinzipal, which, with
its tapered configuration, reflected Whiteford's reluctance to create a bold
principal chorus. (Donald Gillett, chief tonal finisher and, briefly, company
president after Whiteford's departure, liked to refer to "Joe's
'string-quartet' Greats!") After promising a new set of pipes, the
replacements had even more taper than the originals, prompting a plea to Arthur
Birchall, Assistant Tonal Director, from Perry. The third--and final--set, sent
by Birchall, was not tapered and was quite satisfactory. A large, four-manual
Austin console, which had replaced that of the previous E.M. Skinner organ,
contains the pressure regulator of the Rückpositiv division, making it
perhaps the only Austin console in which there is pressurized wind. The major
work played on the recording at Asylum Hill Church is Healey Willan's massive
Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue; and, even though the composer expressed
reservations about Russell's performance, it is a splendid reading.

The Hartford organ was also used in Volume 19,
Duruflé: Requiem. The writer had
the pleasure of hearing Albert Russell conduct and accompany this glorious work
on two occasions, once at Asylum Hill Church and later at Trinity Church,
Boston. Unforgettable was the sight, at the latter venue, of Russell's
gyrations while directing from the console and delivering a beautifully
conceived and executed organ accompaniment. The recorded Hartford performance
is superb, with the unnamed mezzo soprano's singing of the haunting Pie Jesu
bringing one close to tears. The Requiem is preceded by Myron Robert's Prelude & Trumpetings
style='font-style:normal'>, in which the opening ascending notes in the lower
register of the Krummhorn are very effective.

While at Aeolian-Skinner, the writer had the very good
fortune of hearing John Weaver in recital on the famous Walcker/Aeolian-Skinner
organ in Methuen. His program concluded with an astounding performance of
Liszt's massive Fantasy and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam.
style='font-style:normal'> As the final thunderous chord began to die away, one
could clearly sense the audience gasping! Fully equal to that transcending
performance is the one on Volume 20, John Weaver playing Liszt and Mozart,
recorded at the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, New York, where Mr. Weaver
was organist and choirmaster at the time of the major rebuilding by
Aeolian-Skinner of the E.M. Skinner instrument in the mid-1960s. There would
doubtless be those who would express dismay at Weaver's use of shimmering
celestes at the beginning and closing of the Mozart Fantasy in F
Minor, K.594, but the performance is most
convincing even so. (It is sad to consider that an organ sounding so fine was
ultimately removed!)

Bob Whitley was organist/choirmaster at St. Luke's Episcopal
Church, San Francisco, where Volume 21, Music at St. Luke's, was recorded. Side
1 comprises pieces by Sidney Campbell, Leo Sowerby, Frederick Karam, Helmut
Walcha, and Jean Langlais, while Side 2 offers Searle Wright's fine cantata, The
Green Blade Riseth. The small choir, while
obviously well trained, did not have a good blend--too many wide vibratos.

Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, was the venue of Volume
22, Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. Madame Duruflé is heard
on Side 1, the major work being her husband's Prelude, Adagio, and Choral
style='font-style:normal'> with Variations on Veni Creator
style='font-style:normal'>. While she was generally considered the virtuoso of
the pair, her husband's playing of his own Prelude from the Suite, Opus 5, and
of Tournemire's majestic Improvisation on the Te Deum
style='font-style:normal'> are perhaps the chief glories of this very
impressive recording. Before coming to St. Louis, the Duruflés expressed
reservations about the organ's specifications but became quite enthusiastic
about the instrument after playing it.

The St. Louis organ was also used for the final King of
Instruments recording of the Whiteford Era, Volume 23, Ronald Arnatt. Arnatt,
at the time of the recording, was organist/choirmaster at the Cathedral. The
writer was on hand for the recording sessions, contributing a last-minute
tuning of the hooded Trompette de Reredos, located at a dizzying height behind
the stone reredos, and by holding one of the narthex doors to prevent rattling,
in soft passages, caused by the very effective electronic 32' Bourdon. The
soft movement of Sowerby's Sonatina is a
highlight of this release, which also includes works of Brahms, Bach, and
Arnatt.

Some of the Whiteford Era releases were issued as
pre-recorded, reel-to-reel tapes by Ampex. The writer has three of these
(Volumes 15, 16, and 18). The acetate backing of the tapes has not held up
well.

The Post-Whiteford Era

In 1966, Joseph Whiteford moved to the desert southwest,
assuming the title, Vice Chairman of the Board. At that time, John J. Tyrrell,
who had been company President since 1960, became the Board Chairman. In 1968,
Tyrrell left Aeolian-Skinner, and Whiteford sold his controlling interest in
the firm to Donald M. Gillett, who became President and Tonal Director. Gillett
was soon joined by Phillip Steinhaus, the organist featured on Volume 17, who
became Executive Vice President. Within three years the company's financial
condition had deteriorated significantly, and the controlling interest was
purchased by E. David Knutson, of Oklahoma, in 1969. Knutson appointed Dallas
tracker organ builder Robert M. Sipe to the position of Vice President, and
Sipe quickly became in charge of Aeolian-Skinner's operations. The company's
record series was of interest to him and; even though two post-Whiteford
recording sessions had been carried out prior to Sipe's arrival, he saw to it
that the next issue would be Volume 24, Paul Van Veelen, with that Dutch
organist playing the 18-rank, 2-manual Sipe & Yarbrough mechanical action
organ at St. Stephen United Methodist Church, Mesquite, Texas, built in
1963--six years before Sipe's association with Aeolian-Skinner. The program
consists of shorter works, ranging from pre-Bach to Piet Kee; and the sound of
the little organ, while rather arresting, is far removed from the
"American Classic" sound that had been associated with the company's
work. It is obvious that Sipe was making a clear declaration that
Aeolian-Skinner was heading in a much different tonal--and
mechanical--direction.

The next record to be issued--Volume 25, Clyde Holloway--is
the first of the two pre-Sipe recordings referred to earlier. Mr. Holloway plays
the Liszt Prelude and Fugue on BACH;
Mozart's familiar Fantasy in F Minor,
K.608; and the Reubke Sonata.
(The latter work also appears on Volume 15.) The organ used is that in the
National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.

A pet project of Phillip Steinhaus was the organ for the
Cathedral Church of Christ the King, Kalamazoo, Michigan, which was used for
Volume 26, Alexander Boggs Ryan. Mr. Ryan played a varied program, with the
Franck Choral III in A Minor and the
Reger Fantasy on Wachet auf!
being perhaps the most notable. Aeolian-Skinner was very late in completing
this organ; and, because a dedication recitalist had been contracted for well
in advance, it was necessary to temporarily install the small organ that had
been in Steinhaus' residence and would ultimately find a home in Memphis.
(Organ builders would be well advised to include an iron-clad clause in
new-organ contracts prohibiting the scheduling of opening recitals until
installation has been completed!)

When Robert Sipe came to Aeolian-Skinner, he brought with
him a contract for a 3-manual, mechanical action organ for Zumbro Lutheran
Congregation, Rochester, Minnesota, components for which were already on order
from a German organ supply house. Robert Anderson, of Southern Methodist
University, Dallas, was engaged to play for three releases in The King of
Instruments series. The first of these, Volume 27, Robert Anderson in a Program
of 20th Century Organ Music, consisted of two LP discs; and some of the pieces played
are very much avant garde, such as Ton Bruynèl's Reliëf
style='font-style:normal'> (Organ and 4 Electronic Sound Tracks). While the
writer feels that the Zumbro organ is not ideal for the Alain Trois
Danses, Anderson's performances are very
convincing. Also included, among others, is Vincent Persichetti's Shimah
b'Koli, which was commissioned for the
opening concert on the company's short-lived organ in Philharmonic Hall,
Lincoln Center. Of the three players on that remarkable program, Virgil Fox
(the other recitalists being Catharine Crozier and E. Power Biggs) was given
the task of performing the premiere of the Persichetti twelve-tone
composition--hardly typical of the traditional Fox repertoire! (Joseph
Whiteford was, like Virgil, less than kindly disposed to the work.) The writer,
who was in attendance at the premiere, also heard the piece played by Anderson
in a recital on the superb Aeolian-Skinner in First Central Congregational
Church, Omaha, Nebraska; and, while he is not sure that such serial
compositions fully qualify as music, he feels that Anderson did a masterful job
of splashing tone colors around the church and made the listening experience a
compelling one!

Volume 28, Robert Anderson in a Program of 19th Century
Organ Music, includes music by Schumann (Six Fugues on the Name BACH),
Franck, Widor, and Ives. The familiar Variations on America by the latter
composer is perhaps this disc's greatest success. While quite a step away from
traditional Aeolian-Skinner sounds, those of this tracker organ prove that
romantic literature can be played successfully on such an instrument, although
not as effectively as on the organs used previously in this record series.

Volume 29, Robert Anderson in a Program of 18th Century
Organ Music, comprises works by Cabanilles, Seger, Zipoli, Greene, C.P.E. Bach,
Dandrieu, and J.S. Bach--literature, along with some of the pieces on Volume
27, better suited to this organ.

As Aeolian-Skinner was in its early-70s death throes, the
final King of Instruments record, Volume 30, was issued, interestingly using
the title of Volume 10, Music of the Church. Zumbro Lutheran Congregation,
Rochester, was the recording's venue. That church's choir, along with the
Parish Choir of Calvary Episcopal Church of the same city, was conducted by
composer Gerald Near, with Zumbro's organist at that time, Merrill N. Davis
III, at the console. Davis opens the program with a quite rousing performance
of Vierne's Maestoso in C-sharp Minor,
an organ solo arrangement by Alexander Schreiner of the Kyrie from the Messe
Solennelle. The well-trained choirs sing
works by Fetler, Near, Vaughan Williams, Scheidt, and Zimmerman, while mezzo
soprano Anne Suddendorf is very effective in Hovhaness' Out of the
Depths and Ives' Abide with Me
style='font-style:normal'>. Avant garde composition is also represented by
Felciano's God of the Expanding Universe, for organ and electronic tape.

Reverberation

One of the chief interests of Joseph S. Whiteford was the
acoustical properties of churches and concert halls. Correctly observing that a
majority of American churches, often because of lack of knowledge on the
subject and inept planning by architects, are acoustically hostile to organ and
choral music, he set about to design a synthetic reverberation system as a
cost-effective remedy to this situation. The result was a system consisting of
a specially modified tape recorder in which the tape would pass over one record
head, where the live sound would be planted on the tape, and then pass, in
turn, over eight playback heads, each sending its sound to its own series of
amplifiers and loudspeakers. (A patented randomizing circuit was also used to
smooth out the reverberation.) The most remarkable use of such a system was at
an outdoor concert, conducted by Thomas Schippers, concluding the 1960 Festival
in Spoleto, Italy. (A most fascinating description of this project, written by
John Kellner, company recordist [succeeding Mr. Robert Breed], reverberation
system builder, and the person who set up and ran the system in Spoleto,
appears in Charles Callahan's great 1996 book, Aeolian-Skinner Remembered--A
History in Letters [ISBN 0-9652850-0-6, published by Randall M. Egan].) With
the possible exception of Volume 21, all of The King of Instruments releases
from the Whiteford Era had artificial reverberation added, with Volumes 14, 15,
16, 17, 18 (Asylum Hill Church only), 19, 22, and 23 using the Aeolian-Skinner
system. For those volumes, the system set up in the company's electronics
department, on the fourth floor of its South Boston plant, was used; and it was
necessary for John Kellner to add the reverberation in the "wee hours of
the morning" in order to avoid noises generated by vehicular traffic,
aircraft, office personnel, the pipe shop, and the voicing rooms.
Interestingly, nothing on the record jacket notes indicates use of synthetic
reverberation.

Jacket Art

The jacket fronts of the original issues, Volumes 1 through
8, designed by John Tyrrell, are rather simple, having two sketches of classic
moldings, with a background of a large color panel (different colors on
successive issues) and a smaller white one. Pictures began to appear on the
jacket backs with Volume 6; and the front of Volume 9 has a large picture of
the Mother Church organ façade, with Mrs. Phelps, at the console,
pictured on the back. Volume 10 has a large picture of the Kilgore, Texas,
Trompette en Chamade, below a stained-glass window, on its cover; and the same
picture was used on the fronts of Volumes 13 (first release), 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, 20, 21, 22, and on the re-releases of Volumes 1 and 10. Volumes 11, 13
(second release), 23, 24, 25, 26, and 30 have front pictures of the respective
organs used. (On the jacket fronts of Washington Records' original release of
Volume 13 and on the re-releases of the earlier recordings, the ubiquitous
Kil-gore cover appeared with varying, much-less-than-flattering background
colors.) The cover of Volume 12, Pierre Cochereau at Symphony Hall, is a
departure from the norm, containing instead a sketch of Notre Dame, Paris,
drawn by Aeolian-Skinner Assistant Vice-President M. A. Gariepy, on the lower
left and a drawing of three manual keyboards on the upper right. (There are no
pictures of the artist or of the Symphony Hall organ on Volume 12.) The front
of Volume 14, from Washington Records, has a picture of the Independence,
Missouri, organ (arguably one of the finest examples of an uncased pipe
display, a marvelous testimony to the architectural artistry of John Tyrrell);
but, unfortunately, the pipes in the picture are gold in color, which is not
the case in actuality. ("Let's have some razzmatazz!!") Although the
Kilgore picture "graces" the front of Volume 18, Two Great Organs,
fairly large pictures of both of the organs used appear on the back; and there
is an insert with programs, stop-lists, and a picture of Albert Russell. The
Antiphonal division of the National Presbyterian Church instrument ap-pears in
a somewhat fantastical, kaleidoscopic manner on the front of Volume 25. The
jacket fronts of the three Robert Anderson releases are a major departure, each
containing its own original drawing by Jeanne Bastinier, who was a company
secretary during some of the firm's waning years. Because it contains two LP
records, the first Anderson issue has a folding jacket, with program notes and
the artist's picture on the insides of the folds. Volumes 28 and 29 have
inserts with those items. All three Anderson volumes have a large photograph of
the handsome Zumbro organ and its stoplist on the jacket backs.

In Conclusion

Aeolian-Skinner was not unique among organ companies in
issuing recordings of its instruments; but, to the writer's knowledge, no other
builder has ever come close to the sheer number of volumes that comprise The
King of Instruments series. Those, like the writer, fortunate enough to possess
the entire series doubtless realize what a treasure they have; and, if they
have access to a computer that can "burn" compact discs, they may
wish to follow the writer's example and copy the series to that format. (A tip:
both of the releases featuring the organ in the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine [Volumes 6 and 8] fit nicely on a single CD.)

To the writer's knowledge, three professionally issued
compact discs containing parts of the series are available. JAV Records has
issued their JAV-121, entitled Studies in Tone & King of Instruments,
containing both Volume 1 and an early-1940s 78 r.p.m. recording entitled
Studies in Tone. (John Kellner recollects of being told that Studies in Tone
was narrated by an English organist who sounded very much like G. Donald Harrison;
but, given the similarity of the verbiage to that of Volume 1 and the sound of
the narrators' (?) voices, the writer is hard-pressed to detect that different
persons narrated, respectively, the two recordings.) The William Watkins'
Kilgore, Texas, performance of the Sowerby Carillon, which is part of Volume 2,
Organ Literature: Bach to Langlais, is included on Raven OAR-310, Lorenz
Maycher plays Sowerby  (also
recorded at Kilgore). Pierre Cochereau's improvised, four-movement Triptych
Symphony at Boston's Symphony Hall is
included on a two-CD set, Cochereau Les Incunables, available from the Organ
Historical Society as SOCD-177/8.

Mr. William T. Van Pelt, of the Organ Historical Society,
relates that Mr. Knutson "bequeathed" a large number of tapes, possibly
including the masters of The King of Instruments series, to the Society. The
tapes are apparently in very poor condition.

Those interested in the fascinating history of
Aeolian-Skinner are urged to read the Charles Callahan book mentioned earlier
and also his 1990 masterpiece, The American Classic Organ--A History in
Letters (ISBN 0-913499-05-06, published by
The Organ Historical Society).

A sad testament to Aeolian-Skinner's demise in the early
1970s exists at the bottom right-hand corner of the back of the jacket of the
writer's copy of Volume 30--the final issue. A small box declares that the
record was "Produced for Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc., by King of
Instruments Records," addressed at a post office box in Dallas. The name
of the supposed record company and its address are rather crudely blocked by an
office stamp giving the organ company's address as 29 Melcher Street, Boston.
The once-great firm had degenerated to a small office that would soon also be
only a memory.

The Organ Historical Society’s 60th Annual Convention took place in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, with the Marriott Hotel in central Springfield as the convention headquarters. I arrived on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited on Saturday, June 27, and found the hotel conveniently located a short walk from the railroad station. Pre-convention events offered on Sunday morning and afternoon included visits to the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Daniel Chester French Estate, and a walking tour of the Springfield Quadrangle, though I opted instead to attend the Sung Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) in Springfield, again conveniently located a short walking distance from the hotel.

Sunday, June 28

The convention proper began with Choral Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, with an augmented Cathedral Choir directed by David Pulliam, in which we were treated to the John Sanders Responses, Sumsion in G, and Stanford’s Te Deum in B-flat. Evensong was rounded off by a spirited performance of the Allegro from Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 5 on the fine 1953 Austin Opus 2195, rebuilt as a III/54 instrument by Theodore Gilbert Associates in 1985. 

Another short walk took us to St. Michael’s Catholic Cathedral, where we heard the first recital of the convention, given by Christopher Houlihan on the rebuilt 1929 4-manual Casavant organ, comprising a gallery organ in the fine Gothic case of the previous 1862 E. & G. G. Hook organ, and a chancel division in cases designed when the present organ was installed. This is the largest organ in Western Massachusetts. The program included the Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor by Henry Martin (b. 1950) of Rutgers University, commissioned by OHS member Michael Barone and previously given its première performance by Christopher Houlihan in New York City. Houlihan also treated us to one of Brahms’s earliest works, the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, WoO 9, and one of his latest works, the chorale prelude O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, op. 122, no. 11, effectively sandwiching the chorale prelude between the prelude and the fugue. Houlihan’s performance of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548, was masterful, and indeed I think this was the best performance of the “Wedge” Fugue I have ever heard. The other major work in the recital was Vierne’s Symphony No. 4 in G Minor, op. 32, in which Houlihan effectively demonstrated the large mood swings that characterize this work. After this, it was a short walk back to the hotel for drinks and to explore the books, music, and recordings in the exhibit hall.

Monday, July 29

We boarded the buses early Monday morning for a day looking at organs in and around Westfield, Massachusetts. The day began with a recital given by Patricia Snyder on the 1977 C. B. Fisk organ, Opus 71, in First Congregational Church. This splendid little organ was ideally suited to the program of de Grigny and Bach that Ms. Snyder played. Next was a recital by Caroline Robinson on the 1897 Casavant tracker organ, Opus 78, relocated in 2008 from Pittsfield by the Czelusniak firm.to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Westfield. The organ is situated in a divided case in the gallery at the west end of the church, with the console on the north side, and is believed to be the second oldest Casavant organ in the United States. It has a warm, bold tone with rolling diapasons, but is brilliant enough to be effective in classical as well as romantic music. Ms. Robinson’s recital consisted of music by Brahms, Widor, Schumann, and Boëly.

Following these recitals, founding OHS member Barbara Owen gave a lecture on organ building in the Pioneer Valley. Three important organ builders had their workshops in Westfield—William A Johnson/Johnson & Son, Steer & Turner/J. W. Steer(e) & Son, and Emmons Howard. The Steere company was purchased by the Skinner Organ Company in 1921; the Westfield factory continued to run as a branch of the Skinner firm until 1929. The lecture was accompanied by slides illustrative of the history of all these companies.

After lunch we went to nearby Lenox, Massachusetts, for a recital on the famous Aeolian-Skinner, Opus 1002 of 1940, at the Serge Koussevitzky Music Shed of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. The “shed” is a fine semi-outdoor concert hall designed by Joseph Franz. James David Christie, who is the resident organist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, gave an interesting concert, assisted by two members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Robert Sheena, English horn and oboe, and Cynthia Meyers, flute. The program included music by Johann Sebastian and Johann Bernard Bach, Georg Böhm, Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, Charles Callahan, Jacques Berthier, and Jean Langlais. The J. S. Bach piece was the Sonata No. 1 in B flat, BWV 525, transposed to G major and transcribed for organ and flute, a very interesting change from the usual version.

We then moved to the Church on the Hill (United Church of Christ) in Lenox for a recital played by Peter Crisafulli on the I/9 William A. Johnson organ, Opus 281 of 1869. In 1988, Andover Organ Company releathered the bellows and in 1991 carried out a thorough historically informed restoration. Crisafulli’s eclectic program ranged from No. 5 of the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues, attributed to J. S. Bach but probably by Johann Tobias Krebs, to a modern piece, the Sonatina by Robert W. Jones. Altogether this was a pristine and delightful little organ. Next was a recital given by Adam Pajan on a later Johnson instrument, Johnson & Son Opus 805 of 1893, at the Unitarian-Universalist Meeting of North Berkshire in Housatonic, Great Barrington. The music included works of Arthur Foote, J. S. Bach, Brahms, and Mendelssohn.

The day culminated in the evening recital given by Bruce Stevens on the Hilborne L. Roosevelt organ, Opus 113 of 1882, at First Congregational Church, Great Barrington, an organ I have been longing to hear since I first heard of it around thirty years ago. I was not disappointed: it is a wonderful mellow, cohesive instrument. The chorus was perhaps a little lacking in brilliance for the Bach Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 541, though Stevens’s performance was nevertheless very effective, and the instrument later proved more than capable of softer baroque effects in the Pachelbel Partita on ‘Christus, der ist mein Leben.’ The organ was at its best, however, in the performance of Max Reger. We heard both Reger’s Scherzo, op. 65, no. 10, and his Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor, op. 96, in which the organ sounded absolutely magnificent. We then heard the suite In Festo Corporis Christi by Bruce Stevens’s former teacher Anton Heiller, and finally Wilhelm Middelschulte’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne for Violin Solo from the Partita in D Minor, BWV 1004. A feature of the Great Barrington Roosevelt is the striking façade of pipes stenciled in blue and brown on a background of gold. Small chunks of wood and plaster were glued to the pipes under the paintwork to create a rich three-dimensional effect that is most unusual and possibly unique.

Tuesday, June 30

We began the day with a recital by Michael Plagerman on the 1907 Emmons Howard organ in South Deerfield Congregational Church. If anyone thought that Johnson and Steere were the important organ builders in Westfield and that Emmons Howard was an “also ran,” this instrument and the other Emmons Howard organ we heard would definitely give the lie to such a thought. Emmons Howard may not have had quite such a large output as the other Westfield builders, but his instruments were certainly of equal quality. The conventioneers began by singing the chorale Vater Unser, after which Plagerman played Bach and Pachelbel chorale preludes on this hymn. We then heard a voluntary by the eighteenth-century English composer Maurice Greene, Franck’s Cantabile, and the Allegro from Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata No. 2. The organ produced a grand effect—rich and powerful—and Plagerman brought forth some very pretty effects in the Greene.

We next heard an organ—perhaps the only surviving organ—built in 1868 by William Jackson of Albany in Holy Name of Jesus Polish National Catholic Church in South Deerfield. Jackson was the son of an organ builder in Liverpool, England. Jackson’s father was chiefly memorable for having built the first organ in England with a 1-1/7 foot stop. William Jackson trained with Gray & Davison in London before coming to the United States, which is evident from the Gray & Davison-style console of the South Deerfield organ. The recitalist, Larry Schipull, began with Niels Gade’s Three Tone Pieces, op. 22, and then—appropriately for an ethnically Polish church—played a transcription of a Chopin Fugue in A Minor. The Chorale Prelude on ‘Wie schön leucht die Morgenstern’ by Johann Christoff Oley featured the labial oboe on the Swell, perhaps the earliest stop of its kind in North America. We also heard the Andante with Variations in D of Mendelssohn and the Finale in D by T. Tertius Noble. The organ sounds grand yet bright and has a particularly beautiful Melodia.

Gregory Crowell then played the early William A. Johnson organ, Opus 54 of 1856, in First Congregational Church, Montague. Works of the eighteenth-century English composers Jonathan Battishull and Henry Heron were followed by Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 870, from Das wohltemperierte Klavier II, together with an Adagio by nineteenth-century German composer E. F. E. Richter and a Maestoso by an anonymous German composer of the same period. This is quite a charming little instrument with a very substantial Pedal Sub Base [sic]. We also took in a recital by Don VerKuilen at the First Congregational Church of Sunderland, home of an early Odell organ, Opus 109 of 1871, a relatively rare example of a New York-built organ in the Pioneer Valley. The program consisted of nineteenth-century American music and Seth Bingham’s Fughetta on ‘St. Kevin.’

Following lunch at the same church, we boarded the buses for a recital at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Springfield. This for me was one of the highlights of the convention. The church was built in 1962 during the pastorate of Father Basil J. Rafferty, who spared no expense to make sure that it was an outstanding example of modern architecture, with excellent acoustics and built from the finest materials. Much of the building is lined with marble in various hues, including a striking emerald green marble reredos. The stained glass is also extremely beautiful. The organ is a three-manual electro-pneumatic Lawrence Phelps Casavant, Opus 2750, built in 1963. The church was threatened with closure in 2005, but following the appointment of Father Quynh D. Tran as pastor in 2006 has taken on a new lease on life as a predominantly ethnically Vietnamese congregation. One would hope that this fine Casavant organ might inspire some parishioners to learn the instrument. The recital was given by Joey Fala. Fala, a native of Hawaii, has completed two degrees at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Albany, New York, and is now undertaking graduate work in organ performance at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Fala promises to be one of the outstanding organists of the upcoming generation. His varied program included Marcel Dupré’s transcription of the Sinfonia from Bach’s Cantata 29, the Prélude from Franck’s Prélude, Fugue, and Variation, and Hyfrydol from Vaughan Williams’s Three Welsh Hymn Preludes. Fala’a program continued with Miroir by Dutch composer Ad Wammes and ended with the Te Deum, op. 11, by Jeanne Demessieux. The Casavant is a wonderful organ in excellent acoustical and architectural surroundings.

The evening recital featured Peter Sykes, assisted by his wife Victoria Wagner, playing the four-manual E.M. Skinner organ, Opus 322 of 1921, in the United Congregational Church of Holyoke. This is a very forthright Skinner organ—I found it a little brutal in the bass at times—in a vast and very beautiful church. Following an American folk tune, White’s Air, arranged by William Churchill Hammond, we heard Peter Sykes’s fine and now well-known transcription of Holst’s The Planets, op. 12. I have now heard Sykes’s transcription of The Planets on several organs in several states, but I thought this was the best performance I have heard. Sykes was able to produce some almost magical effects on the Skinner organ in the quieter passages.

Wednesday, July 1

The first recitalist on Wednesday was Monica Czausz, a young woman who also promises to be one of the outstanding organists of the upcoming generation. A student of Ken Cowan, she has already received several awards in organ-playing competitions. The organ was Johnson Opus 424 of 1874 in Wesley United Methodist Church, Warehouse Point, Windsor, Connecticut, a lovely little organ in a very well-kept church. Ms. Czausz played selections from Widor, Schumann, and Saint-Saëns, as well as a haunting Adagio by Charles-Valentin Alkan and Will o’ the Wisp by Gordon Balch Nevin.

Next we travelled to Somers Congregational Church (United Church of Christ), Somers, Massachusetts, for a recital by Christa Rakich, organ, with cellist Jeffrey Krieger of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. The recital included Ms. Rakich’s own composition, Hommage à Pachelbel: Eleven Variations on ‘St. Anne,’ three pieces for cello and organ by Edward Elgar, and the Ricercar à Trois from Bach’s Musical Offering, BWV 1079. The organ is a fine new tracker instrument by Richards, Fowkes & Co., Opus 21 of 2014. 

We then went to St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, South Hadley, Massachusetts, for the OHS Annual Meeting followed by a hymn sing led by Patrick Scott and featuring the church’s 1964 Casavant tracker organ, Opus 2791. At the meeting, we heard the exciting news that through the generosity of the Wyncote Foundation, founded with monies from the late Otto and Phoebe Haas Charitable Trusts, the Organ Historical Society offices, library, and archives are all to be housed in Stoneleigh, a 35-room mansion built in 1901 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. A presentation showing the plans for the new climate-controlled OHS headquarters was given by OHS member Fred Haas, son of Otto and Phoebe Haas, and also the chair of next year’s OHS convention in Philadelphia. I was particularly interested in the organ at St. Theresa’s used for the hymn sing, a Lawrence Phelps Casavant tracker originally built for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts. My late mother-in-law was for many years a member of St. Andrew’s, and so I knew the Casavant organ in its original location well. It was far from satisfactory, being architecturally out of keeping with the building, too loud, and excessively bright and screechy. The church put up with the instrument until 2005 when the then organist and choirmaster, OHS member Harry Kelton, persuaded them to buy a new Juget-Sinclair organ, which is as perfect an organ for the church as one might imagine. The Casavant organ was secured for St. Theresa’s in South Hadley through the Organ Clearing House and was installed in 2005 by Czelusniak et Dugal of Northampton, Massachusetts. Bill Czelusniak told me that no changes were made to the voicing apart from raising a few drooping languids and note-to-note regulation. The Casavant organ fits St. Theresa’s as though it had been built for it. The casework that was so out of place in Wellesley looks just right in the fine modern architecture of St. Theresa’s and the volume of the instrument is just right for the spacious acoustics of the church. Furthermore, the acoustics of the building boost the bass frequencies and absorb some of the upper frequencies, so the organ is perfectly balanced for the room. So now St. Andrew’s, Wellesley, and St. Theresa’s, South Hadley, both have ideal tracker instruments in their buildings. As I asserted above, it is as though the Casavant organ was built for the South Hadley church: the organ has at last found its true home.

The next venue was the South Congregational Church of Amherst, where Christopher Marks gave a recital on Casavant Opus 74 of 1896. This is believed to be the oldest unaltered Casavant organ in North America and was relocated to the Amherst church by Czelusniak et Dugal. The stoplist is interesting in being somewhat similar to many Cavaillé-Coll orgues de choeur, with a small Grand-orgue to 4 foot and a larger Récit to mixture and reed. The recital consisted of works by Pierné, Ropartz, and Widor. 

After this we made a short trip to the Jewish Community of Amherst for a recital by Vaughn Watson. The organ, a splendid little instrument, was built by Emmons Howard in 1900. The synagogue inherited the organ in 1976 when they purchased the building from the Second Congregational Church of Amherst, which had merged with First Congregational Church in 1970. Although the Jewish Community used the organ for a time, they had not used it recently and were excited to discover that it might still be played. Several members of the community were present and expressed interest and enthusiasm for the recital, so one hopes they may make more use of the instrument in future. The recital consisted of works by Bach, Schumann, and Mathias, after which the congregation sang “The God of Abraham Praise,” and Watson rounded off the program with Louis Lewandowski’s Prelude ‘Rosh Hashanah.’

For the evening concert we went to the First Church of Monson (United Church of Christ) for a concert on the organ, Johnson & Son Opus 781 of 1892, played by Rosalind Mohnsen. I suspect that the convention committee’s choice of Mohnsen to give a concert on the Johnson in Monson may have been a little tongue-in-cheek, but it proved to be an excellent pairing. The organ is a fairly comprehensive three-manual and includes—unusually for the period—a soft yet very effective 32-foot Pedal Quintaton. In addition to some well-known works such as Saint-Saëns Fantaisie, the recital included a number of interesting works that are not often played. These included Albert W. Ketelbey’s Sanctuary of the Heart, Karg-Elert’s concert arrangement of Handel’s The Harmonious Blacksmith, Alfred Hollins’s Concert Overture in C Minor, Toccata from Sonata No. 1, op. 40, by René L. Becker, and the Concert Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, op. 45, by Eugene Thayer. Of particular interest was Zsolt Gárdonyi’s playful Mozart Changes.

Thursday, July 2

We began the day with a visit to Heath Union Evangelical Church for a program given by Frances Conover Fitch on the very early William A. Johnson two-manual organ, Opus 16 of 1850. The instrument is interesting in that it appears to have been constructed as a G-compass organ but changed to C-compass during installation. Ms. Fitch demonstrated this very attractive little organ with a selection of works by Percy Buck, John Stanley, John Zundel, and Samuel Wesley. 

The next organ we visited at First Congregational Church in Shelburne was an eye-opener for me in a number of ways. The instrument was J. W. Steere & Son Opus 681 of 1915, an early example of a pitman electro-pneumatic action Steere. The first thing that impressed me was the quality of the work, both tonally and mechanically, every bit as good as the best work of Ernest M. Skinner during the same period. But what was also really impressive was that the organ is a hundred years old and still operating on its original leather, which as yet is showing no signs of giving out. This can be attributed to three factors—the use of very high quality vegetable-tanned (or perhaps even mercury-tanned) leather, the careful sealing of the leather against the atmosphere, and the absence of air pollution in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. The only changes ever made to the organ were the addition of an electric blower and the replacement of the original dry batteries for the action current with a rectifier. I was further impressed by how laid back the organist Carol Britt was about her recital. Unlike the other organists who spent the first few days of the convention frantically practicing for their recitals, Dr. Britt had practiced the previous week and came along on the bus with the rest of us and enjoyed listening to all the organs. She gave a faultless recital consisting of the Pastorale from Guilmant’s Organ Sonata No. 1, David Dahl’s Suite Italiana, and Lefébure-Wély’s Sortie in E-flat.

One of the little-known gems of the Pioneer Valley is the village of Florence, now part of Northampton, Massachusetts. The Victorian Annunciation Chapel was formerly a parish in its own right, but is now part of the consolidated St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish and is only used for one Mass each week. The organ, Steere & Turner Opus 305 of 1890, is the oldest organ in Northampton. It is a surprisingly powerful organ for its size. The recitalist was Grant Moss, organist of nearby Smith College in Northampton. The last time Dr. Moss gave a recital at an OHS Convention, our bus driver got hopelessly lost and we missed the recital, so I was delighted that I finally got to hear him this time. The program consisted of works by Healey Willan, Nadia Boulanger, Joseph Jongen, and Alexandre Guilmant.

We then travelled into the center of Northampton for a recital at the First Churches of Northampton, affiliated with both the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Church. The church is a fine Victorian brownstone building with cast iron pillars and an outstanding Tiffany glass window. The celebrated preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) was once the pastor. The organ is E. M. Skinner & Son Opus 507 of 1936, which retains the case and 16 ranks from the previous Johnson & Son organ, Opus 718 of 1889. Lorenz Maycher was intending to give the recital but had to withdraw owing to indisposition, and Charles Callahan graciously agreed to come down from Orwell, Vermont, and step into the breach. He played the Bourée in D of Wallace A. Sabin, Adoration by Florence Price, Nevin’s Will o’ the Wisp, and two pieces of his own composition, Folk Tune (1994) and Hymn-Fantasia on ‘Melita’ (2013)—altogether a very interesting and varied program that showed off the lovely voicing of the Skinner organ to good advantage.

We then returned to the United Congregational Church of Holyoke, where we had heard The Planets on Tuesday evening, for a recital by Christoph Bull in the monumental Skinner Chapel, an amazing neo-Perpendicular building with a vaulted apse. As a chapel, it is much larger than most people’s churches! Unlike the main church, the chapel has air conditioning, so the congregation has the main worship service there during the summer. The organ was Ernest M. Skinner Organ Company Opus 179 built in 1910–12. It was rebuilt in 1972–74 by the Berkshire Organ Company, and reconstructed again, more in keeping with the original design, by Czelusniak et Dugal in 1990–92. Christoph Bull began his recital with one of his own compositions, a rather exciting piece named Vic 1, short for Victimae Paschali Laudes, the Gregorian chant upon which it is based. He followed this with Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, an Invention in C Minor by William Joel, and a transcription of Ravel’s Boléro. Bull’s program continued with another entertaining piece composed by the recitalist, When Felix met J. S.—Mash-up of Mendelssohn and Bach. The organ retains much of its E. M. Skinner sound, but as this recital demonstrated it can handle many varied styles of repertoire well.

The convention proper ended with the evening recital on Thursday, although there was an additional optional day on Friday. The Thursday evening recital was given by Nathan Laube and was streamed live on the Internet. The webcast will be available on the OHS website under “Conventions” at www.organsociety.org. The recital featured the two organs of the Abbey Chapel, Holyoke College, South Hadley. Laube played the first half of the program on the large two-manual C. B. Fisk organ, Opus 84 of 1986, in the west gallery of the chapel. The program reflected Laube’s recent research in early European styles of music and included works by Buxtehude, Cabanilles, Poglietti, Rossi, and van Noordt. These came off extremely well on the organ, which I think in some ways is the best Charles Fisk organ I have ever heard. 

The second half of the concert was performed on the Abbey Chapel’s magnificent four-manual chancel organ, built by George S. Hutchings, Opus 436 of 1896, rebuilt by the Skinner Organ Co., Opus 367 of 1922, and again rebuilt by E. M. Skinner & Son, Opus 511 of 1938. Restoration work was subsequently carried out by William Baker in 2001 and Czelusniak et Dugal in 2013. The second half of Laube’s program included a transcription for organ of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G, op. 23, no. 5, Lynnwood Farnam’s transcription of Dupré’s Cortège et litanie, op. 19, no. 2, the third of Herbert Howells’s Three Psalm Preludes, op. 32, Joseph Jongen’s Sonata Eroïca, op. 94, and the Andante Sostenuto from Widor’s Symphony No. 9 (Symphonie Gothique). The program provided a very fitting close to a great convention.

Friday, July 3 

More than half of us were still around to board the buses for the optional extra day of the convention on Friday. We began the day with recitals on two early E. & G.G. Hook organs. The first of these was Opus 93 of 1849 in First Congregational Church, Hinsdale, New Hampshire. The recitalists were David and Permelia Sears, organ, and their daughter, Rebecca Sears, violin. Permelia Sears played a suite by Jacques Boyvin, which came off very well since the surprisingly complete specification of the organ includes a Tierce, Cremona, and other stops suited to eighteenth-century French organ music. Next Permelia and Rebecca Sears played a transcription for organ and violin of Arthur Foote’s Cantilena in G, op. 71. Permelia Sears’s final offering was the Introduction and Passacaglia from Rheinberger’s Eighth Sonata. Then, in honor of it being the day before July 4, David Sears played his own transcription of Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, specially written to exploit the G-compass of the Hook organ. The organ was originally built for the much larger First Congregational Church in Springfield, where it may have been used to accompany Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” when she visited the church in 1851. It makes a very grand sound in the rather smaller church in Hinsdale, New Hampshire.

The second early Hook organ we visited was also located in a rather smaller building than the one for which it was originally constructed. This was Hook Opus 48 of 1842 in the First Parish (Unitarian) in Northfield, Massachusetts, originally built for Third (later Unity) Church in Springfield. Lubbert Gnodde gave a short recital of works by Franck, Dupré, and Sweelinck. The instrument, though smaller than the Hinsdale one, again produced a rather grander sound than one might
have expected.

We had lunch on the attractive grounds of the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Massachusetts, with lovely views of the surrounding hills. After lunch it was only a few yards to the school’s Memorial Chapel, built in 1901. Here we heard Rhonda Sider Edgington give a recital on Andover Organ Company Opus 67 of 1970. The program was made up entirely of works by composers born in the last century—Adolphus Hailstork, James Woodman, Margaret Sandresky, Daniel Pinkham, and Libby Larsen. The organ is a fine instrument in fine acoustics and though now 45 years old has weathered well. There is something to be said for the view that a good organ will never really go out of fashion.

Next we proceeded to the First Church of Deerfield, affiliated with both the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Here there is a 2003 organ by Richards, Fowkes & Co., Opus 13, which was designed to be similar to the small village church organs in Thuringia that J.S. Bach would have been familiar with, by builders such as Trost and Hildebrand. The builders have done a remarkable job of fitting a II/22 organ into a case in the relatively shallow gallery that is a mere fourteen feet high. Margaret Irwin-Brandon gave a recital of works by J. G. Walther and J. S. Bach that was well suited to the instrument.

The final recital of the post-convention day was given by Daniel Romero on the organ of Our Lady of the Valley in Easthampton. The J. W. Steere & Son organ, Opus 504 of 1902, originally had a Weigle membrane tubular-pneumatic action that was never satisfactory, but this has now been replaced with an electro-pneumatic action by Czelusniak et Dugal, who also made additions, including a mixture, using Steere pipework. The organ has a rich, warm sound, not unlike a Skinner organ. The program unusually included a plainsong Credo sung by the congregation and accompanied on the organ. Also included were Duruflé’s Choral varié sur le thème de ‘Veni Creator,’ Philip G. Kreckel’s Silent Night, Harold Darke’s An Interlude and Charles Tournemire’s Improvisation sur le ‘Te Deum’ as reconstructed by Maurice Duruflé. And so back to the hotel for drinks and a dinner together before parting homewards by our several ways, God willing to meet again at the Philadelphia convention, June 26 to July 1, 2016.

The 58th annual Organ Historical Society national convention differed in several ways from some of the recent ones. Its hub, Burlington, is the largest city in northern Vermont, but hardly in the same size league as Washington, Pittsburgh, or Chicago—the sprawling urban sites of recent conventions. Yet it is accessible via train, plane, and interstate, culturally vital, and full of amenities from good food to spectacular views of Lake Champlain, not to mention parking. Burlington has some important recent organs, although no really huge ones, and is within easy distance to a pleasing array of smaller towns to the north, east, and south, with a corresponding selection of smaller and older organs, all of them discussed in interesting detail in the substantial accompanying Atlas, edited and largely written by Stephen Pinel. However, that was bedtime reading for many of us, as all the programs, stoplists, and performer biographies were contained in a well-organized and more portable schedule booklet.

Monday, June 24

The convention opened on the evening of Monday, June 24 in the Recital Hall of University of Vermont’s Redstone Campus, with welcoming words by Executive Director James Weaver, Convention Chair Marilyn Polson, and outgoing President Scot Huntington. This year’s Biggs Fellows were introduced, and the 2013 Ogasapian Book Prize was awarded to David Yearsley for his groundbreaking work on organ pedaling and its history. 

This was immediately followed by a recital on UVM’s French-influenced 1975 Fisk organ by well-known recital and recording artist Joan Lippincott, who impressively displayed its French personality in works by Marchand (an opening and decidedly grand Grand Jeu) and de Grigny, and its more hidden German flavor in works by Bach, which included a knowledgable performance of the classic Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major as the “sandwich” of a varied program that included de Grigny’s Veni Creator, performed liturgically with baritone John McElliott singing the appropriate chants between the registration-oriented organ movements. 

Tuesday, June 25

Tuesday morning we were off and running in buses heading for the east of Burlington, beginning with Hook & Hastings organs in Plainfield (United Methodist, 1873) and Cabot (UCC, 1896)—coincidentally 1,000 opus numbers apart. Although of similar small size, their tonal philosophy differed noticeably, yet both were surprisingly capable of varied repertoire tastefully registered and played by Lynnette Combs (Plainfield) and Permelia Sears (Cabot). In these two programs we heard excellent interpretations of music from the Baroque (Pasquini, Boyce, Muffat, Pachelbel, Homilius), 19th century (Thayer and Buck), and 20th century (Murphy, Langlais, Huston, Sears). 

Two more organs, both somewhat tonally altered (although not greatly to their detriment), rounded out the day’s offerings. The resources of a small organ in Hardwick by a little-known Vermont builder, Edward H. Smith (1887), were capably employed by Robert Barney in a Bach concerto, a Mendelssohn sonata, and a short trio by Vermont native S. B. Whitney, while Samuel Baker also made excellent use of a larger 1868 Johnson organ in Greensboro, which began and ended with 20th-century works by Gawthrop and Willan, sandwiching four varied Baroque and contemporary preludes on Wer nur den lieben Gott by Bach, Krebs, Walcha, and Dupré in between. 

The evening program was back in Burlington at the Congregational Church. It was unique in that it featured two 21st-century continuo organs by
A. David Moore and Scot Huntington, plus an Estey reed organ, in a program of concerted works by Soler, Froberger, Caldara, Wagenseil, and Dvorák (this last with the Estey), all admirably interpreted by organists David Neiweem and Mark Howe, with string players of the Burlington Ensemble.

Wednesday, June 26

Wednesday brought us to the Montpelier area and three larger two-manual organs, all by notable Boston builders. In Montpelier’s Unitarian Church, Carol Britt displayed the 1866 Stevens organ’s varied colors well in four chorale preludes by Willan and Brahms, and showcased the Oboe stop in a delightful Récit de hautbois by Emmanuel Chol, before closing with a robust transcription of an Elgar March. 

In the auditorium of the Montpelier College of Fine Arts, the 1884 Hutchings organ was expertly put through its paces by Paul Tegels in a varied program ranging from two of Haydn’s chirpy “Musical Clock” pieces to three movements of Mendelssohn’s Second Sonata, and closing with contrasted settings of Wer nur den lieben Gott by Böhm and Bach. 

In nearby Stowe, the 1864 Simmons organ in the Community Church, although twice rebuilt and enlarged (but retaining mechanical action), proved a perfect vehicle for an engaging program by John Weaver and his wife, flutist Marianne. Beginning with a smashing Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and ending with Franck’s Choral in E Major, it included two fine works by Weaver, plus his pleasing arrangement for organ and flute of an excerpt from Franck’s Fantasie in A, performed with a borrowed Estey reed organ. Although rain had been threatening all day, the sky cleared that evening for an enjoyable and relaxing sunset dinner cruise on beautiful Lake Champlain.

Thursday, June 27

On Thursday we journeyed north to towns near the Canadian border. St. Albans was the first stop, with three programs. Isabelle Demers led off in Holy Guardian Angels Church in a full-scale program well suited to the resources of the organ built in 1892 by Ernest Desmarais, a Canadian who built organs for a short time in Vermont. Beginning with some little dances by Praetorius, she segued into another set of short pieces by contemporary Canadian composer Rachel Laurin, and then a fine interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Fourth Sonata. The real pièce de resistance, commented upon by many, was her own transcription of four excerpts from Prokofiev’s Cinderella (operatic transcriptions are not dead!), and was followed by a rousing performance of Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in B Major as a closer. 

Christopher Anderson led off his program on the 1893 Hook & Hastings organ in the Congregational Church with four pleasingly light pieces from Daniel Pinkham’s First Organbook, followed by a sensitive performance of two hitherto unknown and very contrasted works by the young Charles Ives (only published in 2012): a sedate and melodic Canzonetta and a rather crazily bitonal smash on “London Bridge.” Demers had included some of the recently republished Reger and Straube organ expansions of Bach harpsichord pieces, and Anderson did likewise in his closing selections. 

The 1889 Jardine organ in St. Luke’s Church was the final St. Albans stop, and OHS favorite Rosalind Mohnsen did not disappoint in a varied full-scale program that began brightly with the solo organ version of Handel’s Fifth Concerto. Works by Dubois and Dvorák followed, authentically registered on this organ’s Romantic colors, and a Fuga by Cernohorsky revealed its classical side. Contrasting American works were Elmore’s brash Alla Marcia, and a sensitively performed Air from the Suite No. 1 by Florence B. Price, a gifted African-American composer whose classically crafted works have only recently begun to appear on concert programs, as have those of Anglo-African Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose Impromptu closed Mohnsen’s program.

From the Romantic and orchestrally flavored late 19th-century organs of St. Albans, a fairly short trip to two nearby rural towns transported us back to the English-inspired early 19th century, represented by two delightful and more gently voiced organs by New York’s Henry Erben in the Episcopal churches of Sheldon (1833) and Highgate Falls (ca. 1837), both remarkable for being unaltered, sensitively restored, and still in use liturgically. Most unusual was the Highgate Falls instrument, with only three stops—Stopped Diapason, Principal, and Trumpet (yes, you read that right). Gregory Crowell made imaginative and effective use of these stops in “period” selections by Handel, Mozart, Loud, and Byrd, plus one of Daniel Pinkham’s Saints’ Days pieces in honor of St. John, for whom the church is named. 

The Sheldon organ is larger, though still of only one manual, transplanted many years ago from St. Paul’s in Burlington. Period-appropriate works by Shaw, Taylor, Pasquini, Stanley, and Rinck again predominated in Peter Crisafulli’s nicely varied program, but the organ also proved equal to a more Romantic Elevazione by Peeters, and even Alec Wyton’s prelude on “We Three Kings,” a tribute to its Vermont-born author, grandson of Vermont’s first Episcopal bishop. 

Evening brought us back to Burlington, and the fine 1864 Hook organ of the First Baptist Church, where Ray Cornils presented an imaginative program of mostly shorter works by American, German, French, and Spanish composers designed to showcase “The Colors of This Organ.” Beginning with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Prelude in F Major, it ran the gamut from Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G Major to works featuring flute and trumpet solos, a French toccata by Bédard, and even a theatre-organ staple, Nigel Ogden’s smile-producing Penguin’s Playtime.

Friday, June 28

Friday, the last full day, began with two organs in Randolph. On the United Church’s 1912 organ by Vermont’s most notable organ builder, Estey, George Bozeman expertly brought out its warm and Romantic flavor in his creative use of its eight ranks (and various couplers) in decidedly “period” works by Honegger (Two Pieces, 1917) and Frank Bridge (Three Pieces, 1905). A nicely varied program of works by 20th-century American composers Nevin, Near, Thomson, and Pinkham played by Glenn Kime showcased the 1894 Hutchings organ in Bethany UCC Church, and by concluding with a well-paced performance of the Fugue in E-flat Major proved the organ to be quite capable of convincing Bach performance as well. 

The next stop was Northfield, home of a Hook and two Simmons organs—all, interestingly, “transplants” from other churches. The Hook in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, dating from 1836 and the builder’s earliest extant two-manual, took us back to the gentler sounds heard the afternoon of the previous day. The English flavor of these early 19th-century American organs was fully exploited by Lois Regestein in a program that began with varied works by Purcell, Stanley, Samuel Wesley, S. S. Wesley, and Arne. The latter’s “Rule Brittania” was given an authentic performance with the verses sung by tenor Edson Gifford, with appropriate interludes. The program concluded with a Trio by Vermont-born S. B. Whitney, and a selection from contemporary composer David Dahl’s English Suite. 

The versatility of the substantial 1855 Simmons organ in the United Methodist Church was exploited in a varied program by Lubbert Gnodde that included two nicely registered works by Jehan Alain, and seemed quite ideal for two of Karg-Elert’s chorale preludes as well as the smashingly executed Finale from Vierne’s Symphony No. 1 that closed the program. 

Another Simmons of a decade later in St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church also proved equal to a varied program by James Heustis Cook that began with a flowing Frescobaldi Toccata on the warm 8′ Principals and a bright Albrechtsberger Prelude and Fugue in B. Works different styles by 19th-century composers Hauser, Lemaigre, Mendelssohn, and Whitney followed, along with orchestrally inspired works by once popular 20th-century composer Harry Vibbard.

It will be observed that throughout the week, works by 19th-century American composers, both early and late, appeared on many programs. And in the final tour stop in the Federated Church of Williamstown, on an organ originally built by Vermonter William Nutting in 1868 and rebuilt by another Vermonter, Harlan Seaver, in 1895, Christopher Marks treated us to a program that was not only based on works by American composers born mostly in the middle decades of the 19th century, but works by these composers—Yon, Lutkin, Whitney, Chadwick, Parker, and Buck—in which canonic forms of the classical style occurred. Yet the ways that they did so also displayed great variety. Yon’s Eco was a double canon, Lutkin’s a quiet Pastorale; five of Chadwick’s Ten Canonic Studies displayed a variety of registrations, and even the hymn sung was the well-known Tallis’ Canon. But the climax was Marks’s brilliant performance of Buck’s Choral March, in which “Ein feste’ Burg” and other themes are expertly canonically woven.

Back in Burlington, we gathered for the final concert on the 1973 Karl Wilhelm organ in the modernistic and acoustically fine St. Paul’s Cathedral that had risen after a devastating fire. While by no means lacking foundation, the organ’s tonal design is Baroque-based, and James David Christie was in fine form for a varied program of Baroque works by Sweelinck, Schildt, Scheidemann, Vivaldi, Krebs, Buttstett, and, of course, Bach. High energy was displayed throughout, not only in the brilliance of Scheidemann’s Alleluia! Laudem dicite Deo and works by Krebs and Buttstedt, but also in the more somber Paduana Lagrima variations of Schildt, the delicately registered little dances from the Van Soldt manuscript, and Christie’s own “Bachian” transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major. A vigorous and driving interpretation of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor brought the audience to its feet at the close, and proved a fitting conclusion to a week of fine organs, music, and fellowship.

Saturday, June 29

But wait, there’s a bit more. Just as a shorter and quieter encore can complete a more vigorous concert, so does a lighter optional coda often follow an intensive OHS convention. So on Saturday a smaller number signed up for a brief tour south of Burlington. The first stop was in the unique Round Church (now a museum) in Richmond, where Demetri Sampas successfully coaxed short pieces by Zeuner, Whitney, and Krebs from a rather strange little 19th-century chamber organ of anonymous parentage. 

The next stop was in Vergennes, where in a well-chosen program of works by Bingham, Albright, Langlais, Yon, and Reger at the Methodist Church, Estey expert Philip Stimmel impressed us with what the (on paper) seemingly limited resources of a nine-rank 1927 Estey were capable of in the hands of one who knows what can be done by judicious use of sub and super couplers. 

Also in Vergennes is a pleasing one-manual Hook organ of 1862 in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, where Margaret Angelini stepped a bit out of the expected box by proving it capable of three short pieces by Jongen, a reed organ Service Prelude by W. H. Clarke, and Daniel Pinkham’s six Versets for Small Organ, which indeed worked well on this small organ. 

The final stop was the sprawling and impressive Shelburne Museum, where we had a leisurely time to wander around some of the exhibits and have lunch in its restaurant before the final program in the Meeting House, home of a small transplanted five-rank Derrick, Felgemaker & Co. organ of ca. 1869, where the OHS’s current Executive Director, James Weaver, also slightly “out of the box,” treated us to a varied program of short works by Stanley, Pachelbel, Merula, and Bach, closing with Domenico Zipoli’s lively Toccata all’ Offertorio. 

All OHS members, whether attendees or not, received a copy of the impressively researched, written, and illustrated 234-page Atlas, with its detailed history of the organ in the State of Vermont. Non-members, including libraries and historical societies, may still obtain a copy from [email protected]. In addition, the closing recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral was digitally recorded, and has become available. 

The 58th annual Organ Historical Society national convention differed in several ways from some of the recent ones. Its hub, Burlington, is the largest city in northern Vermont, but hardly in the same size league as Washington, Pittsburgh, or Chicago—the sprawling urban sites of recent conventions. Yet it is accessible via train, plane, and interstate, culturally vital, and full of amenities from good food to spectacular views of Lake Champlain, not to mention parking. Burlington has some important recent organs, although no really huge ones, and is within easy distance to a pleasing array of smaller towns to the north, east, and south, with a corresponding selection of smaller and older organs, all of them discussed in interesting detail in the substantial accompanying Atlas, edited and largely written by Stephen Pinel. However, that was bedtime reading for many of us, as all the programs, stoplists, and performer biographies were contained in a well-organized and more portable schedule booklet.

Monday, June 24

The convention opened on the evening of Monday, June 24 in the Recital Hall of University of Vermont’s Redstone Campus, with welcoming words by Executive Director James Weaver, Convention Chair Marilyn Polson, and outgoing President Scot Huntington. This year’s Biggs Fellows were introduced, and the 2013 Ogasapian Book Prize was awarded to David Yearsley for his groundbreaking work on organ pedaling and its history. 

This was immediately followed by a recital on UVM’s French-influenced 1975 Fisk organ by well-known recital and recording artist Joan Lippincott, who impressively displayed its French personality in works by Marchand (an opening and decidedly grand Grand Jeu) and de Grigny, and its more hidden German flavor in works by Bach, which included a knowledgable performance of the classic Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major as the “sandwich” of a varied program that included de Grigny’s Veni Creator, performed liturgically with baritone John McElliott singing the appropriate chants between the registration-oriented organ movements. 

Tuesday, June 25

Tuesday morning we were off and running in buses heading for the east of Burlington, beginning with Hook & Hastings organs in Plainfield (United Methodist, 1873) and Cabot (UCC, 1896)—coincidentally 1,000 opus numbers apart. Although of similar small size, their tonal philosophy differed noticeably, yet both were surprisingly capable of varied repertoire tastefully registered and played by Lynnette Combs (Plainfield) and Permelia Sears (Cabot). In these two programs we heard excellent interpretations of music from the Baroque (Pasquini, Boyce, Muffat, Pachelbel, Homilius), 19th century (Thayer and Buck), and 20th century (Murphy, Langlais, Huston, Sears). 

Two more organs, both somewhat tonally altered (although not greatly to their detriment), rounded out the day’s offerings. The resources of a small organ in Hardwick by a little-known Vermont builder, Edward H. Smith (1887), were capably employed by Robert Barney in a Bach concerto, a Mendelssohn sonata, and a short trio by Vermont native S. B. Whitney, while Samuel Baker also made excellent use of a larger 1868 Johnson organ in Greensboro, which began and ended with 20th-century works by Gawthrop and Willan, sandwiching four varied Baroque and contemporary preludes on Wer nur den lieben Gott by Bach, Krebs, Walcha, and Dupré in between. 

The evening program was back in Burlington at the Congregational Church. It was unique in that it featured two 21st-century continuo organs by
A. David Moore and Scot Huntington, plus an Estey reed organ, in a program of concerted works by Soler, Froberger, Caldara, Wagenseil, and Dvorák (this last with the Estey), all admirably interpreted by organists David Neiweem and Mark Howe, with string players of the Burlington Ensemble.

Wednesday, June 26

Wednesday brought us to the Montpelier area and three larger two-manual organs, all by notable Boston builders. In Montpelier’s Unitarian Church, Carol Britt displayed the 1866 Stevens organ’s varied colors well in four chorale preludes by Willan and Brahms, and showcased the Oboe stop in a delightful Récit de hautbois by Emmanuel Chol, before closing with a robust transcription of an Elgar March. 

In the auditorium of the Montpelier College of Fine Arts, the 1884 Hutchings organ was expertly put through its paces by Paul Tegels in a varied program ranging from two of Haydn’s chirpy “Musical Clock” pieces to three movements of Mendelssohn’s Second Sonata, and closing with contrasted settings of Wer nur den lieben Gott by Böhm and Bach. 

In nearby Stowe, the 1864 Simmons organ in the Community Church, although twice rebuilt and enlarged (but retaining mechanical action), proved a perfect vehicle for an engaging program by John Weaver and his wife, flutist Marianne. Beginning with a smashing Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and ending with Franck’s Choral in E Major, it included two fine works by Weaver, plus his pleasing arrangement for organ and flute of an excerpt from Franck’s Fantasie in A, performed with a borrowed Estey reed organ. Although rain had been threatening all day, the sky cleared that evening for an enjoyable and relaxing sunset dinner cruise on beautiful Lake Champlain.

Thursday, June 27

On Thursday we journeyed north to towns near the Canadian border. St. Albans was the first stop, with three programs. Isabelle Demers led off in Holy Guardian Angels Church in a full-scale program well suited to the resources of the organ built in 1892 by Ernest Desmarais, a Canadian who built organs for a short time in Vermont. Beginning with some little dances by Praetorius, she segued into another set of short pieces by contemporary Canadian composer Rachel Laurin, and then a fine interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Fourth Sonata. The real pièce de resistance, commented upon by many, was her own transcription of four excerpts from Prokofiev’s Cinderella (operatic transcriptions are not dead!), and was followed by a rousing performance of Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in B Major as a closer. 

Christopher Anderson led off his program on the 1893 Hook & Hastings organ in the Congregational Church with four pleasingly light pieces from Daniel Pinkham’s First Organbook, followed by a sensitive performance of two hitherto unknown and very contrasted works by the young Charles Ives (only published in 2012): a sedate and melodic Canzonetta and a rather crazily bitonal smash on “London Bridge.” Demers had included some of the recently republished Reger and Straube organ expansions of Bach harpsichord pieces, and Anderson did likewise in his closing selections. 

The 1889 Jardine organ in St. Luke’s Church was the final St. Albans stop, and OHS favorite Rosalind Mohnsen did not disappoint in a varied full-scale program that began brightly with the solo organ version of Handel’s Fifth Concerto. Works by Dubois and Dvorák followed, authentically registered on this organ’s Romantic colors, and a Fuga by Cernohorsky revealed its classical side. Contrasting American works were Elmore’s brash Alla Marcia, and a sensitively performed Air from the Suite No. 1 by Florence B. Price, a gifted African-American composer whose classically crafted works have only recently begun to appear on concert programs, as have those of Anglo-African Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose Impromptu closed Mohnsen’s program.

From the Romantic and orchestrally flavored late 19th-century organs of St. Albans, a fairly short trip to two nearby rural towns transported us back to the English-inspired early 19th century, represented by two delightful and more gently voiced organs by New York’s Henry Erben in the Episcopal churches of Sheldon (1833) and Highgate Falls (ca. 1837), both remarkable for being unaltered, sensitively restored, and still in use liturgically. Most unusual was the Highgate Falls instrument, with only three stops—Stopped Diapason, Principal, and Trumpet (yes, you read that right). Gregory Crowell made imaginative and effective use of these stops in “period” selections by Handel, Mozart, Loud, and Byrd, plus one of Daniel Pinkham’s Saints’ Days pieces in honor of St. John, for whom the church is named. 

The Sheldon organ is larger, though still of only one manual, transplanted many years ago from St. Paul’s in Burlington. Period-appropriate works by Shaw, Taylor, Pasquini, Stanley, and Rinck again predominated in Peter Crisafulli’s nicely varied program, but the organ also proved equal to a more Romantic Elevazione by Peeters, and even Alec Wyton’s prelude on “We Three Kings,” a tribute to its Vermont-born author, grandson of Vermont’s first Episcopal bishop. 

Evening brought us back to Burlington, and the fine 1864 Hook organ of the First Baptist Church, where Ray Cornils presented an imaginative program of mostly shorter works by American, German, French, and Spanish composers designed to showcase “The Colors of This Organ.” Beginning with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Prelude in F Major, it ran the gamut from Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G Major to works featuring flute and trumpet solos, a French toccata by Bédard, and even a theatre-organ staple, Nigel Ogden’s smile-producing Penguin’s Playtime.

Friday, June 28

Friday, the last full day, began with two organs in Randolph. On the United Church’s 1912 organ by Vermont’s most notable organ builder, Estey, George Bozeman expertly brought out its warm and Romantic flavor in his creative use of its eight ranks (and various couplers) in decidedly “period” works by Honegger (Two Pieces, 1917) and Frank Bridge (Three Pieces, 1905). A nicely varied program of works by 20th-century American composers Nevin, Near, Thomson, and Pinkham played by Glenn Kime showcased the 1894 Hutchings organ in Bethany UCC Church, and by concluding with a well-paced performance of the Fugue in E-flat Major proved the organ to be quite capable of convincing Bach performance as well. 

The next stop was Northfield, home of a Hook and two Simmons organs—all, interestingly, “transplants” from other churches. The Hook in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, dating from 1836 and the builder’s earliest extant two-manual, took us back to the gentler sounds heard the afternoon of the previous day. The English flavor of these early 19th-century American organs was fully exploited by Lois Regestein in a program that began with varied works by Purcell, Stanley, Samuel Wesley, S. S. Wesley, and Arne. The latter’s “Rule Brittania” was given an authentic performance with the verses sung by tenor Edson Gifford, with appropriate interludes. The program concluded with a Trio by Vermont-born S. B. Whitney, and a selection from contemporary composer David Dahl’s English Suite. 

The versatility of the substantial 1855 Simmons organ in the United Methodist Church was exploited in a varied program by Lubbert Gnodde that included two nicely registered works by Jehan Alain, and seemed quite ideal for two of Karg-Elert’s chorale preludes as well as the smashingly executed Finale from Vierne’s Symphony No. 1 that closed the program. 

Another Simmons of a decade later in St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church also proved equal to a varied program by James Heustis Cook that began with a flowing Frescobaldi Toccata on the warm 8′ Principals and a bright Albrechtsberger Prelude and Fugue in B. Works different styles by 19th-century composers Hauser, Lemaigre, Mendelssohn, and Whitney followed, along with orchestrally inspired works by once popular 20th-century composer Harry Vibbard.

It will be observed that throughout the week, works by 19th-century American composers, both early and late, appeared on many programs. And in the final tour stop in the Federated Church of Williamstown, on an organ originally built by Vermonter William Nutting in 1868 and rebuilt by another Vermonter, Harlan Seaver, in 1895, Christopher Marks treated us to a program that was not only based on works by American composers born mostly in the middle decades of the 19th century, but works by these composers—Yon, Lutkin, Whitney, Chadwick, Parker, and Buck—in which canonic forms of the classical style occurred. Yet the ways that they did so also displayed great variety. Yon’s Eco was a double canon, Lutkin’s a quiet Pastorale; five of Chadwick’s Ten Canonic Studies displayed a variety of registrations, and even the hymn sung was the well-known Tallis’ Canon. But the climax was Marks’s brilliant performance of Buck’s Choral March, in which “Ein feste’ Burg” and other themes are expertly canonically woven.

Back in Burlington, we gathered for the final concert on the 1973 Karl Wilhelm organ in the modernistic and acoustically fine St. Paul’s Cathedral that had risen after a devastating fire. While by no means lacking foundation, the organ’s tonal design is Baroque-based, and James David Christie was in fine form for a varied program of Baroque works by Sweelinck, Schildt, Scheidemann, Vivaldi, Krebs, Buttstett, and, of course, Bach. High energy was displayed throughout, not only in the brilliance of Scheidemann’s Alleluia! Laudem dicite Deo and works by Krebs and Buttstedt, but also in the more somber Paduana Lagrima variations of Schildt, the delicately registered little dances from the Van Soldt manuscript, and Christie’s own “Bachian” transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major. A vigorous and driving interpretation of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor brought the audience to its feet at the close, and proved a fitting conclusion to a week of fine organs, music, and fellowship.

Saturday, June 29

But wait, there’s a bit more. Just as a shorter and quieter encore can complete a more vigorous concert, so does a lighter optional coda often follow an intensive OHS convention. So on Saturday a smaller number signed up for a brief tour south of Burlington. The first stop was in the unique Round Church (now a museum) in Richmond, where Demetri Sampas successfully coaxed short pieces by Zeuner, Whitney, and Krebs from a rather strange little 19th-century chamber organ of anonymous parentage. 

The next stop was in Vergennes, where in a well-chosen program of works by Bingham, Albright, Langlais, Yon, and Reger at the Methodist Church, Estey expert Philip Stimmel impressed us with what the (on paper) seemingly limited resources of a nine-rank 1927 Estey were capable of in the hands of one who knows what can be done by judicious use of sub and super couplers. 

Also in Vergennes is a pleasing one-manual Hook organ of 1862 in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, where Margaret Angelini stepped a bit out of the expected box by proving it capable of three short pieces by Jongen, a reed organ Service Prelude by W. H. Clarke, and Daniel Pinkham’s six Versets for Small Organ, which indeed worked well on this small organ. 

The final stop was the sprawling and impressive Shelburne Museum, where we had a leisurely time to wander around some of the exhibits and have lunch in its restaurant before the final program in the Meeting House, home of a small transplanted five-rank Derrick, Felgemaker & Co. organ of ca. 1869, where the OHS’s current Executive Director, James Weaver, also slightly “out of the box,” treated us to a varied program of short works by Stanley, Pachelbel, Merula, and Bach, closing with Domenico Zipoli’s lively Toccata all’ Offertorio. 

All OHS members, whether attendees or not, received a copy of the impressively researched, written, and illustrated 234-page Atlas, with its detailed history of the organ in the State of Vermont. Non-members, including libraries and historical societies, may still obtain a copy from [email protected]. In addition, the closing recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral was digitally recorded, and has become available.