Maxine Thevenot installed as Canon Precentor

The Very Rev. J. Mark Goodman, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico, installed Maxine Thevenot as Canon Precentor of the cathedral on Sunday, October 19, 2014.

Since January 2010, Dr. Thevenot has served at the cathedral as Director of Cathedral Music & Organist, after serving as Acting Director of Cathedral Music (September–December 2009) and Associate Organist-Choir Director (2005-2009).

Thevenot’s two colleagues, Canon Rev. Shawn Wamsley and Canon Rev. Steven Caldwell, were also made Residentiary Canons of the Cathedral. 

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Sewanee Church Music Conference: July 14–21, 2013

New faculty members, choral reading sessions, fellowship and more at this year's conference

Jane Scharding Smedley
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The 63rd annual Sewanee Church Music Conference, directed by Robert Delcamp, president of the board and university organist at the University of the South, welcomed three ‘first-timers’ as music faculty this year: Richard Webster, Maxine Thévenot, and Edmund Connolly. The Reverend Barbara Cawthorne Crafton returned as chaplain, to the great delight of those privileged to hear her in 2011. Webster is director of music and organist at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston. Thévenot and Connelly, in addition to their extensive performing and re-cording careers, serve as organist-choir director and assistant organist-choir director, respectively, at the Cathedral of St. John’s in Albuquerque. Reverend Crafton, author, counselor, and spiritual director, has served several churches. She heads the Geranium Farm, an institute for the promotion of spiritual growth.

The scope of the conference allows for many essentials: learning, worship, fellowship, spiritual enrichment, and the proverbial “re-charging of batteries.” This year’s gathering accomplished all this and more. In the first rehearsal, Webster took the 138 singers through all the music to give them a taste of what was in store, while getting acquainted with the ensemble at his disposal.

On Tuesday evening, the annual Gerre Hancock Concert was presented by Thévenot and Connolly in All Saints Chapel. Thévenot played Marcel Dupré’s Placare Christe Servulis from Le Tombeau de Titelouze, op. 38, Sweelinck’s variations on Ballo del Granduca, and selections by Bruhns, Hampton, Messiaen, McNeil Robinson (Homage to Messiaen), and Phillip Moore. The inclusion of Gerre Hancock’s Air was most fitting, as many of those present personally knew of his long-time relationship with the conference. Thévenot showed sensitive accompanying skills on three songs by Hugo Wolf offered by Connolly; Vaughan Williams’s beloved “The Call” was a perfect match for his expressive baritone voice. Thévenot concluded with Vierne’s Carillon—the pulse of the piece could have set the carillon in the Shapard Tower above tolling.  

Choral reading sessions were spaced throughout the week: Richard Webster, Alvin Blount, and Peggy Lyden shared proven winners from their own church programs, with anthem packets provided by Elizabeth Smith of Lois Fyfe Music. A highlight of the conference is the presence of this store on campus all week for browsing, professional advice, and conviviality of shoppers. Mark Schweizer of St. James Press previewed its latest collection, and Maxine Thévenot presented organ music from her native Canada.

Long-time attendee Richard Moore offered two workshops on the use of computer programs especially geared towards the work of church musicians. To judge from the overflow crowd he drew, this was obviously filling a need for many.

The popular and invaluable “Episcopal Basics” class offered by School of Theology faculty member Susan Rupert now includes “Singing the Altar Book” and “Liturgical Planning”—pertinent topics whether one is serving a small parish or a cathedral.

While the primary focus of the music faculty is the rehearsal and performance of literature at the two main liturgies, each offered sessions on various topics. Thévenot gave a thorough and excellent overview of hymn-playing skills, demonstrating such with attendees Bill Bane, Parks Greene, and Richard Mangiagli. In her organ masterclass, coordinated by Alvin Blount, players Tim Hall, Bill Bane, Jeffrey Ford, and Stanley Workman, Jr. were each allotted 30 minutes; this allowed in-depth observations by the clinician that could be beneficial to all. She shared background tidbits to illustrate reasons for approaching a piece in a certain way. 

Edmund Connolly’s well-received classes on vocal techniques were further integrated into the group rehearsals: at Webster’s invitation, Connelly oversaw warm-ups and made suggestions for dealing with specific issues throughout the week. Such displays of teamwork were noted positively by colleagues.

Choristers from St. George’s Episcopal Church in Nashville assisted Webster in his presentation entitled “The Joy of Doing REAL Music with Children.” The topic of composing and arranging drew about 35 who read through submissions conducted by attendees Mark Janus, Stephen Schalchin, Brennan Szafron, Stephen Casurella, and Kirby Colson. Webster facilitated feedback from the observers, with each composer receiving positive and insightful suggestions on their work. A workshop on choral conducting offered Eric Vinciguerra, Jennifer Stammers, Susan Yoe, and Mark Janus (all expertly accompanied by Dory Light) the chance to show their interpretation of Howells’s Like As the Hart. In addition to Webster’s comments, others made positive and useful observations, further showcasing the collegial aspect of this conference.  

Each year one looks to bring back some pearls of wisdom to share with one’s choir: a vocal warm-up, a conducting gesture for the clean release of a final ‘s,’ a catchy phrase to drive home a point—even a good joke! Webster’s rehearsals contained many such gems, generously and respectfully shared. Later in the week, on a more personal note, he told his story of being present at the Boston Marathon when the bombings occurred, only two months previously (see The Diapason, October 2013, pp. 20–21).

The Reverend Barbara Crafton was back as chaplain—truly by popular demand! Besides deeply spiritual insights, her talents in theater and music, among others, showed forth in her profound messages—choices of words, their delivery, timing, pacing, punctuated with delightful humor. Daily morning homilies were scripture-based, with everyday examples woven throughout. Glimpses of personal stories and musical knowledge obviously resonated with her listeners, including her image of the choir as a model for the world in its blend, ensemble, unity, harmony. In addition to using her voice as a preacher, she very capably served as Precentor at Evensong. Her presence at daily choral rehearsals was further evidence of her appreciation of the conference’s focus on liturgy. It was notable that, unlike some years, attendance at morning Mass did not decrease as the week went on! The titles of her four lectures alone enticed listeners to come and hear: The Music of the Spheres; A Tree Falls in the Forest; Nude Descending Staircase; The Also-Life.

The Missa Dorica by Webster was sung at daily Eucharists, with the Durham Mass by Daniel Gawthrop used once. Organ selections provided by Dr. Thévenot on the Rodgers organ in the small Dubose Chapel ranged from Buxtehude and Bach to Boëllmann, Langlais, and Messiaen. 

This year’s commissioned organ work—Variations on ‘Ubi Caritas’ by French-Canadian composer Denis Bédard—served as the prelude one morning, with the chant later sung at the Offertory. The work consists of three statements of the chant in contrasting styles and lasts six minutes—a useful and accessible setting. Thévenot also played it during Communion at the Sunday Eucharist in All Saints Chapel.

A carillon concert by John Bordley and the Reverend Raymond Gotko beckoned worshipers to Friday’s Evensong. Both retired college professors, each took up the field of campanology as a second career in recent years. 

Canticles by Edwardian composer Charles Wood (Collegium Regale in F) were complemented by Webster’s Anglican chant for Psalm 85 and his Preces and Responses in Mixolydian Mode (nicknamed “Web in Mix” by his own singers). The musical centerpiece of the liturgy was S. S. Wesley’s major work Ascribe Unto the Lord, an amalgamation of Psalm 96 and 115 written in 1851. Webster crafted descants for Bromley and St. Clement. His drilling of the singers on diction, precise rhythms, and tuning was rewarded. Thévenot concluded the service with Victor Togni’s exuberant Alleluia! (Five Liturgical Improvisations).

The use of modal tonality in Webster’s Missa Dorica brings a fresh element to music written with a congregation also in mind. As done in many places this year, Benjamin Britten’s centenary was acknowledged; his Festival Te Deum served as the Offertory anthem. Jennifer Stammers’s soprano soared over the chorus into one of the most beautiful endings in modern choral repertoire. George Herbert’s text “The Call” was heard this time in a sweet and accessible SATB setting by Harold Friedell. This further showed the range of difficulty presented each year in choral choices. Some, like the Britten, provide a venue for clinicians to teach techniques, while letting singers experience repertoire most could not otherwise perform. John Whitmer’s professional recordings of the liturgies not only serve archival purposes, but allow the musical experiences shared by the attendees to be heard by a much wider audience.

Special note is made of the various tasks—many behind the scenes—shared by attendees: John Hobbs and the Reverend Thomas Williams at the altar, Frolic producer Jennifer Stammers, among others. Bill Bane now joins the board of directors who oversee the planning and execution of the conference. Kim Terry Agee, director of the Dubose Center, announced her retirement after 25 years. Her presence will be greatly missed.

Faculty for the 2014 conference (July 14–20) will be Todd Wilson and Peter Conte, with Bishop J. Neil Alexander as chaplain. It was announced that Todd Wilson will become the conference director beginning in 2015, the 65th anniversary of the conference. Information can be found at www.sewaneeconference.org. 

Catching up with Stephen Tharp

Reflections ten years later

Joyce Johnson Robinson

Joyce Johnson Robinson is editorial director of The Diapason. 

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An interview with Stephen Tharp appeared a decade ago in The Diapason (“A conversation with Stephen Tharp: Catching up with a well-traveled recitalist,” January 2004). At that time, Tharp’s discography included six recordings, and he had made over twenty intercontinental tours. Among the topics discussed were Tharp’s many concert tours, his advocacy of new music, and interest in transcriptions. In the decade since, Tharp has continued his travels and performances, and received many accolades. He presently resides in New York City, where he serves as associate director of music at the Church of Our Saviour. Stephen Tharp will be the featured performer at the closing recital of 2014’s American Guild of Organists national convention in Boston.
 
 
Joyce Robinson: Our previous interview’s title called you a “well-traveled recitalist,” and that seems truer than ever today. Tell us about your concert tours (and how you keep track of all those recitals!).
 
My grandfather, who was director of personnel management at Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Chicago for some 40-plus years, and also a lecturer at both Northwestern University and University of Chicago post-World War II, was a real business model for me. He was the ultimate paper hoarder, keeping track of all of his correspondence, lectures, and so forth, throughout his life. For better or worse, he taught me to keep a paper record of everything I’d accomplished. 
 
Of course, I let go of a great deal with time, but, as far as concert programs go, I have saved one copy of everything I have ever played. Consequently, after 1,400 concerts, I am glad I can look back, trace them, and keep track—like keeping a diary. My 1300th solo recital was at St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, on their very large Marcussen organ, in November 2008. A few days later, in St. Martin, Dudelange, Luxembourg, was the concert that coincided with my Jeanne Demessieux Complete Organ Works CD set (Aeolus Recordings) “release party,” where the recording was officially made available to the public for the first time. It remains my largest recording project to date, which I will discuss more a little later. The recording led directly to a series of three concerts in October 2010 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, wherein I played the complete organ works of Demessieux.
 
On July 30, 2013, I performed my 1400th solo concert, for the organ festival in La Verna, Tuscany (some of which is up on YouTube). This is the place, on top of a mountain and a 90-minute drive from Florence, where Francis of Assisi spent his later years on land that was bequeathed to him. It is a picturesque spot surrounded by forests untouched for some 900 years; in the center is a basilica where there is a regular summer festival of organ concerts catering to an immense tourist crowd that packs the house for recitals starting at 9 p.m. (when the temperature cools down enough for a full church to be tolerable). A small group of friends and colleagues celebrated afterwards with a private meal that included regional wines.
 
What is awesome for the organ in central European culture is that festivals like this, well attended, grow on trees. In Germany alone, you could hit a series every weekend for two years without repeating yourself—funding in place, quite often new organs, and audiences that support its continuation. There seems something about Old World culture that’s founded in the deepest roots, centuries of traditions under them, that maintains a thriving life no matter what the come-and-go cultural shifts of any given generation—a kind of condensed richness around which you can build an entire life. 
 
As for my own tours, 1,400 concerts means too many to name. Standouts include the Gewandhaus, Leipzig; the Igreja de Lapa in Porto, Portugal; Victoria Hall, Geneva; the Frauenkirche, Dresden (which was only recently reconstructed); the inaugural organ week of the new Seifert organ at the Cathedral in Speyer, Germany, with its 14-second acoustic—a whole new character for Alain’s Trois Danses; Ben van Oosten’s glorious festival in The Hague; twice at the Berlin Cathedral, with another concert set for summer 2015; Cologne Cathedral (with its 5,000 regular concertgoers during the summer Orgelfeierstunden, encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs if necessary and seat themselves in the aisles, which they do, going wild over a program of Guillou, Alain, Dupré, and Litaize); the summer festival at St. Bavo, Haarlem (there are no words for the experience of playing this organ); playing the de Grigny Messe on the Dom Bedos at Ste. Croix in Bordeaux, and so on. In addition to that, my one and only action-packed trip without jetlag adjustment, over six days, for concerts in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Riga. Twice to Hong Kong, twice to Korea, twice to Australia. Every memorable moment outside the box would take a book. But connect all the dots over time and it’s the richest and most diverse menu of experiences I could ever have imagined. And as an American, it is seeing the forest from outside the trees, in spades, and that has determined a great deal for me.
 
 
You’ve also been busy with recordings. Would you summarize these, and tell us about your experiences making them? 
 
This is a discussion of but a few of my projects. Ultimately, audio and video recordings are one’s most powerful tools. How one can spread the word on Facebook, iTunes, or YouTube puts global exposure at your fingertips, which is wonderful. Listening as a child to LPs of many organs, I often fantasized about getting to these instruments one day, either to perform on them or record them myself. One of my greatest battery chargers, the kind that continues to inspire in the long term, has been recording a number of these landmark instruments, both for JAV Recordings and the Aeolus label in Germany. 
 
The first opportunity like this was St. Sulpice, Paris, where I recorded in October 2001, a somewhat nervous traveler given the horrific events of September 11 the month before—and amplified by a flight over to Paris on a plane that was mostly empty. In 2005 I was back in St. Sulpice for two more projects. A large choir, comprising several groups, was assembled to record the Widor Mass, op. 36, for choir and two organs (main and choir organ), which was never before recorded in St. Sulpice. With Daniel Roth at the grand orgue, Mark Dwyer and I played musical benches with the orgue de choeur in the front of the church. In the two days that followed that project, I had the great pleasure of recording Dupré’s Le Chemin de la Croix there. Dupré recorded this years before in St. Sulpice on LP, which went out of print. So, my recording is the only one available of this entire work on the organ most associated with the composer.
 
In the summer/early fall of 2008 I made two more recordings for JAV within a month of each other, which were released at different times. One is my organ adaptation of J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations on Paul Fritts’s stunning magnum opus instrument at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Columbus, Ohio, and the other a mixed repertoire recording on the Christian Müller organ of St. Bavo, Haarlem, the Netherlands. My first experience with this famous organ was as a student when, at age 20, I spent three weeks at the Haarlem International Organ Academy as the result of a generous scholarship from Illinois College. That experience was life-changing in that it turned my thinking upside down and, consequently, permanently re-directed the way I would conceive performance as it is informed by music history and aesthetics, standards that remain in place to this day. I can’t fully express how thankful I am that this was an experience I had at a young age, when these influences had the chance to be the most powerful.
 
On this side of the pond is the first commercial recording of the Casavant organ Opus 3837 at the Brick Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. This instrument, a cooperative design between director of music Keith Tóth and Jean-Louis Coignet, is a masterpiece. A synthesis between the French symphonic and American orchestral, the organ covers music from Jongen to Tournemire to Hakim to Guilmant, in a warm acoustic environment. There is also my Organ Classics from Saint Patrick Cathedral in New York City—all somewhat lighter fare, some organ solo, some organ plus trumpet, aside from a few heftier pieces by Cook, Vierne, and Widor. It was a great pleasure to have been able to make these two recordings.
 
All of my commercial CD releases from St. Sulpice thus far are on JAV, and all engineered by the outstanding Christoph Frommen, who also owns the Aeolus label in Germany. It was with Frommen, and for Aeolus, that I embarked upon my biggest recording project to date: The Complete Organ Works of Jeanne Demessieux. I had played much of her music starting as early as my college years, but to document all of her organ solo works on recording was an exciting and challenging prospect. Too many stereotypes were also floating around about this music: that it was a language worth little more than an extension of Dupré’s harmonic idiom, more cerebral than communicative, and not worth the effort. I sought to prove this very wrong. 
 
At the time of the recording, several pieces remained unpublished, and so Chris Frommen and I sought copies of these in manuscript form from Pierre Labric, one of Demessieux’s more famous students, who generously shared the scores with us for this project. These are, specifically, Nativité, Andante, and the Répons (the one for Easter being the only score from the set previously published), now printed by Delatour in France. 
 
We needed an electric-action organ for certain pieces, most importantly the treacherous Six Études, so some of the recording was done on the Stahlhuth/Jann instrument at the Church of St. Martin, Dudelange, Luxembourg, an organ of great color and strength. For the remainder of the release, we chose the great Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Ouen, Rouen, France, an instrument closely associated with Demessieux’s life. This is such a splendid oeuvre that was too long overlooked. If you don’t know the music, investigate it.
It is with Aeolus that I will release my next recording, the Symphonies 5 and 6 of Louis Vierne. Symphonies 1–4 are now available with Daniel Roth, and my release will complete the set, hopefully later this year. All were recorded again at St. Sulpice.
 
One additional recording must be mentioned, as it appears as a single track on iTunes and is not part of any CD. In September 2010, as a part of one of Michael Barone’s Pipedreams Live! concerts, I played the world premiere of a work I’d commissioned for the occasion from George Baker, Variations on ‘Rouen.’ It is also composed in memory of Jehan Alain, and so there are harmonic and motivic nods in that direction, very much on purpose. That first performance was played at the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas; my recording of the piece, made as well at St. Sulpice, is what is available on iTunes. There is also a YouTube concert video of my live performance of it at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica in Missouri from the summer of 2013.
 
 
You are also a composer and arranger, creating both transcriptions and original compositions. Are any of these published? Do you have any plans for future works?
 
I have only one published organ work, my Easter Fanfares, composed in 2006 as the result of a commission from Cologne Cathedral in Germany. Two new high-pressure en chamade Tuba ranks had been added to the instrument at the west end of the cathedral, which they wanted to play for the first time at Easter in 2006. My work was composed to be the postlude for that occasion. It is structured, at surface level, like an improvised sortie with the architecture of a written composition, with all melodic and motivic material throughout derived from only two sources: Ite Missa est, Alleluia, the dismissal at the conclusion of the Mass, and the Easter sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes. The piece is dedicated to the Cologne Cathedral organist Winfried Bönig, and is published in a collection of organ music specifically written for the Cologne Cathedral organ called Cologne Fanfares. It is published by Butz Musikverlag of Bonn. There is a JAV YouTube video of me playing the work at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, made a few years ago. 
My only other fairly recent solo organ work was occasion-specific, my Disney’s Trumpets, written for the organ at the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, where I premiered it in concert in March 2011. It is a short, agitato fanfare designed to highlight the various powerful reed stops of this particular instrument, heard both separately by division and, at times, altogether. I kept the unique visual design of the façade in mind. In musical terms, this is reflected in short riffs, which appear rapidly, flinging gestures into many directions at will. And as with the organ’s façade, which appears random to the eye amidst an underlying cohesive structure, so is true in this work, where an overall architecture gives proportion to what seems irregular. As an added layer of tongue-and-cheek, I used as the model for the riffs a motive from a song by David Bowie, of all things. (I don’t remember the name anymore.) I have only played Disney’s Trumpets that one time.
 
I also have an ongoing list of organ transcriptions, which I’m getting to little by little. Those are premiered here and there from time to time; Chopin, Dukas, Stravinsky, Bartók, Mussorgsky, Liszt. I have also toured quite a bit with David Briggs’s colorful transcription of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and two rather demanding organ adaptations by a gifted Italian colleague, Eugenio Fagiani, namely J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Ravel’s La Valse.
 
 
You have received several awards in recent years. Tell us about those.
 
There are two particular awards about which I feel especially honored. One is the 2011 International Performer of the Year award from the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the only award of its kind specifically for organists from any professional music guild in the United States. It is a recognition of long-standing accomplishment whose list of recipients is truly global, and I tie with Dame Gillian Weir for the youngest in the award’s history (received, respectively, at the same age in our early 40s). The other is the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Germany’s highest critic’s award for recordings, which I received for The Complete Organ Works of Jeanne Demessieux release on Aeolus. Imagine some 140 judges looking at an assortment of releases and ripping apart everything from sound quality to performance to graphic design to music notes scholarship. This is the prize. The recipients are chosen under great scrutiny, more so than voted for (and there is a big difference). It is, for me subjectively, the ultimate compliment. Other recipients at that time include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Marc-André Hamelin, and Cecilia Bartoli.
 
 
Beyond your solo career, you have also worked as a church musician. Are you presently doing so?
 
In September 2013 I was offered the position of associate director of music and organist at the Church of Our Saviour (Roman Catholic) in Manhattan by the newly appointed music director and organist, Paul Murray, a long-time friend and colleague in the city with whom I have collaborated on many previous occasions. Ironically, it was in this very church that my wife Lena and I had our son Adrian (born January 5, 2013) baptized. This music program embodies high standards of choral singing—we have an all-professional choir—use of chant, a rich palette of choral and organ repertoire, and no-nonsense liturgical organ improvisation, something I was not doing in New York City since my days at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The mission statement of the church has been beautifully summarized by Mr. Murray as follows:

 
In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, it was made clear that the Church’s musical heritage, namely chant and polyphony, was to be preserved. At the Church of Our Saviour in New York City, it is my goal to build a liturgical music program that is in concurrence with the admonition of the Second Vatican Council, by developing a professional music program offering music of the highest caliber to the Greater Glory of God.
 
Paul and I have a great rapport as professional colleagues, devoid of the drama that all too often accompanies working relationships. In this regard, I’ve struck gold. The church is also very supportive of my travels. Everything about this position is a match, the kind one hopes to find but rarely does. It is a special centering for me that provides a constant in my artistic life as other things continue in different directions.
 
I must also make mention of post-Easter April 2008, when I was asked to be the official organist for the New York City visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. I was contacted by the current director of music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Jennifer Pascual, who was in charge of music for all events for the Pope’s visit. The organist at the cathedral had been taken ill, and I was asked to cover all televised events from St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Yorkville (in Manhattan), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and, yes, Yankee Stadium, which took place outdoors. I was struck primarily with how this church leader in his 80s, not some young pop star, captivated these massive gatherings with an energy that was palpable. Music for each of the three occasions was different, involving soloists, choirs, and instrumental ensembles, rehearsals for all of which occurred in under two weeks. It was quite moving to be in the center of the energy that radiated from these huge events. And my days at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the mid-1990s had prepared me for live television, which is always exhilarating.
 
 
What are your thoughts about the future? 
 
Becoming the father of a little boy who is now 1-1/2 years old has become the ultimate filter. My shifts in priorities have been herculean, in a way that a parent understands. I am very sensitive to the passage of time one doesn’t see again, so there is this intolerance for the irrelevant, the counter-productive and the trivial.
 
The most important thing for me to remember is why I have always done what I do, as that unshakably justifies how I must continue. It is critical for me to remember that I was never media-constructed at a young age. In fact, that approach in this country during my 20s, under management, completely failed. I have, however, taken decades to build where I am, and am one who is given the respect on a global platform that I probably sought above all else. It’s an Old School approach to achievement—and it stems from the kind of teaching I had—the kind that leaves you a library of references, not just a membership, and that you don’t accomplish overnight. It must be earned.
 
This all underscores one aspect of my musical life that has become even more pronounced. I consider myself a very serious artist, not an entertainer, one who believes that an audience knows the difference between putting before them a substantial product and just celebrity. If what you speak reaches people profoundly, they remember not only you as the vehicle but the statement, the music itself, and musical memories that matter. You see, this is what will actually save our instrument. Popularity alone is not enough. Actually moving an audience is vital, as this instigates a curiosity for more, which has direct impact on literacy, not merely fascination. It is not possible to produce book after book without addressing the literacy of your readers and then claim you have “saved the book.” There is a big difference between selling an audience tickets and keeping them there. That said, every teacher has to make decisions: one cannot build rockets by continuing to play with blocks. And if nobody curates the collection, what will all of the newly schooled have to hear beyond Concerts 101? 
 
It is no great secret that I have a mostly European career. My own passion for the lineage of such long-rooted, historically aware and layered culture seems to be a marriage with the demand for it from the large (and multi-aged) audiences that continue to want programs of real meat and substance. I feel that I am most inspired engaging an environment wherein, no matter what other globalization invades, the baby isn’t simply discarded with the bathwater. This will continue as my direction for the future, regardless of what else happens. It’s taken me years to evolve to this point, but this article documents part of the journey.
 
 

Stephen Tharp's Discography

 
Naxos Recordings 8.553583
 
Ethereal Recordings 108
 
Ethereal Recordings 104
 
Capstone Records 8679
 
Ethereal Recordings 123
 
 
JAV Recordings 130
 
JAV Recordings 138
 
JAV Recordings 161
 
JAV Recordings 160
 
JAV Recordings 162
 
Aeolus Recordings 10561
 
JAV Recordings 178
 
JAV Recordings 172
 
JAV Recordings 185
 
JAV Recordings 5163
 
 
Christopher Berry (cond.); Stephen Tharp (org.); the Seminary Choir of the Pontifical North American College, Vatican City State
Duruflé Messe “cum Jubilo”; sung chants; organ improvisations
JAV Recordings 181
 
Christopher Hyde (cond.); Camille Haedt-Goussu (cond.); Daniel Roth (Grand Orgue); Stephen Tharp (Orgue du Choeur); Mark Dwyer (Orgue du Choeur); Choeur Darius Milhaud; Ensemble Dodecamen
Widor Mass, Op. 36 plus motets; choir/organ works by Bellenot and Lefébure-Wély; organ improvisations by Daniel Roth
Recorded at St. Sulpice, Paris, France
JAV Recordings 158
 
Richard Proulx (cond.); Stephen Tharp (org.); The Cathedral Singers
Recorded at St. Luke’s Church, Evanston, Illinois
GIA Publications, Chicago
 
Maxine Thévenot (cond. and org.); Stephen Tharp (org.) 
The Choirs of the Cathedral of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Raven OAR-926
 
Maxine Thévenot (cond. and org.); Stephen Tharp (org.); Edmund Connoly (org.) 
The Choirs of the Cathedral of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Raven OAR-954
 
Maxine Thévenot (cond. and org.); Stephen Tharp (org.); Edmund Connoly (org.) 
The Choirs of the Cathedral of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Raven OAR-955

 

The Cathedral of St. John Celebrates Ten Years of Cathedral Commissions

Maxine Thévenot

Maxine Thévenot has served the Cathedral of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico, as Canon Precentor-Director of Cathedral Music and Organist since January 2010. Prior to that she served as Associate Organist-Choir Director since 2005. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Mexico. She is founding and artistic director of New Mexico’s first resident professional choral ensemble, Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico. Maxine is one half of the duo Air & Hammers with her husband, English baritone Edmund Connolly. She has published works with Paraclete Press and has numerous organ and choral recordings with Raven Recordings.

A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, Thévenot received her bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Saskatchewan and her master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from Manhattan School of Music. She is an Associate of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, and is an Honorary Fellow of the National College of Music, London, U. K. Her website is
www.maxinethevenot.com.

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Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico, in which is located the Cathedral of St. John, seat of the Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Since moving to Albuquerque from New York City in June 2005, I’ve watched this unique city become a bit faster-paced, expand its city limits, and acquire a few more new, fabulous restaurants. I’ve seen a few more movie stars up close and personal. And I’ve watched the classical and new music scene grow exponentially and had the pleasure of helping to invite and welcome composers, guest singers, instrumentalists, and conductors from across North America and Great Britain to the cathedral, located in downtown Albuquerque.

 

Background

Cathedral Commissions was started in 2006 by my predecessor, Iain Quinn, under the auspices of the Friends of Cathedral Music program, which is a donor-funded entity of like-minded individuals and receives no funding from the cathedral’s operating budget. Gifts to Friends of Cathedral Music come as donations “in memory,” “in thanksgiving,” or through designated giving such as United Way. Friends of Cathedral Music funds special concerts (orchestral, chamber, and choral), educational projects about our pipe organ (the largest in the state), and other worthy educational events. Now in its 23rd season, Friends of Cathedral Music continues to be a blessing for our congregation and community.

Having support from the clergy and congregation is key to running a successful commissioning program. The Cathedral Commissions weekend has always been a joyous time in the life of our cathedral: a celebration of creating, together, something completely unique for the liturgy. Becoming an active participant in creating a musical legacy for the congregation and choir members of the future is a process that enriches the broader Christian Church and surmounts denominational boundaries. 

 

Dean’s Message

I asked the Dean of the Cathedral of St. John, the Very Rev. J. Mark Goodman, to offer a few words about the Cathedral Commissions program.

 

The role of cathedrals in the Church has shifted significantly from Medieval times to the present. While cathedrals continue to be civic and cultural centers in community life in England and Europe, that position has diminished as societies have become more secular and multicultural. Particularly in the United States, the place of cathedrals in the community has undergone profound change, with only a few, like the Washington National Cathedral or St. John the Divine, having the stature they once enjoyed.

As the place of cathedrals has changed, there is one aspect of the life of these churches that has continued to draw attention. Cathedrals are still centers of cultural life, experimentation, and patronage. Visual, theatrical, and musical arts, as well as dance, sculpture, and architectural expressions, are supported by cathedrals throughout the Episcopal Church. The Cathedral of St. John is no exception.

A growing and vital part of St. John’s support of music has been its underwriting of special commissions over the years. Dr. Maxine Thévenot, Canon Precentor-Director of Cathedral Music, has reached across the world of composers of sacred music to ensure that inspiring and powerful choral works continue to feed the hearts and souls of people in Albuquerque, and that the commissioned composers are encouraged in their vocation.

The premiere of each year’s commission is a time of excitement and anticipation for the choir and the congregation. Each of the works to date, unique in form and genre, has been challenging for the choir and warmly received by cathedral members. 

When the time comes for the rehearsals and first performance, the composer arrives in Albuquerque for a residence of between one and three weeks. This is a time eagerly awaited by those who serve as hosts, for sharing meals and quiet conversation together opens a window into the mind of the composer and aspects of his or her life that provide glimpses into the currents that flow into musical creativity. To serve as hosts for Andrew Carter, the 2014 Commission Composer, was a time of joy and sharing for our entire family, an experience we won’t forget.

The Cathedral Commissions Program is a powerful and vibrant part of the musical and spiritual life of the community of faith that is the Cathedral of St. John.

In ten years of Cathedral Commissions, we have hosted composers from America, Canada, and Great Britain. Many of these composers have become friends of our congregation, clergy, and choir, and have made special pilgrimages to hear our choir when we travel overseas. As part of this ongoing relationship, composers continue to send their works to be considered for inclusion in our liturgical services and even send Christmas cards each year. 

 

The commissioning process

The process of commissioning a new work can be approached in almost as many ways as there are composers out there to commission. Guidelines on commissioning can found on the Internet; a good place to start is the American Composers Forum website (composersforum.org) under “Programs.” What follows offers an insight into the distinctive features of our own Cathedral Commissions program. 

An essential part of our Cathedral Commissions process, once we have decided on our commissioned composer, found sponsors, and completed the necessary negotiations, is to invite the composer to the Cathedral of St. John to work directly with the choir and choristers, either by conducting the premiere, accompanying the premiere, or by coaching the choir in rehearsals and enjoying the premiere from the pew. 

The composer’s personal presence is important to us: as part of the Sunday worship service, the composer can meet other congregants and form a special connection with our community. We invite the composer to speak to the congregation and choir about their work as formally or informally as they feel comfortable (either before or following the liturgy at our Dean’s Forum), which further reinforces that important connection. 

Some of our commissioned composers have chosen to stay for extended periods in the Albuquerque area (New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment for a reason!), thereby strengthening the relationship between us all, leaving room for a true friendship to blossom and grow. 

In February 2012, we had the pleasure of hosting Philip Moore as our commissioned composer. He stayed in Albuquerque for a two-week period to facilitate the rehearsal and performance of his commissioned work, combined with a concert with orchestra a week later. The concert included two large-scale works, one of which was Philip’s Concerto for Organ and Strings for which I played the organ part and he conducted. The orchestra, comprising a mix of New Mexico Philharmonic and Santa Fe Symphony players, loved working with Philip as conductor. He truly brought the best out of them. The other half of the program was Fauré’s Requiem, sung by the Cathedral Choirs; I conducted and Philip played the organ part alongside the chamber orchestra. Philip’s ears for romantic registration on our Reuter organ were truly inspiring, and having occasion to work with him collaboratively has been one of my most memorable musical experiences to date.

In May 2014 we welcomed the wonderfully gregarious British composer Andrew Carter, who stayed in Albuquerque for nine days. His energy was infectious (at the time of his visit he was 75!), and he not only wrote us a gorgeous anthem on a Christina Rossetti text, but also helped by conducting (with tremendous enthusiasm) a one-hour public concert of his music, including the second known American performance of his Organ Concerto in C, for which I played the organ part. This gave him extended time with our choir members and also allowed him to work with professional orchestral musicians in New Mexico, thereby enlarging the circle of connection.

 

Relationship

An especially important relationship is that between sponsor and composer. We always aim to provide the opportunity for social time for the sponsors and the composer over a shared meal or two, and where possible we arrange a choir party to coincide with the composer’s visit. Meeting the creator of a new work can make a world of difference to how we respond to the music placed
before us.

Finding the right sponsor for a particular composer, therefore, requires knowing the personalities of both parties somewhat and should be the responsibility of the director of music, or whoever runs the commissioning program. It is important that when the composer and donor meet in person that you are as sure as possible that they are compatible people, and, of course, that nothing should jeopardize the fulfillment of the contractual terms. In our commissioning scheme the donor and composer are never directly in touch until the donor receives a copy of the new work to be premiered. The donors are invited to attend the first rehearsal of the newly commissioned piece with the choir, organ, and composer, and are encouraged to observe the continuation of the creative process as we all strive to realize the composer’s intentions. Following that first, often very exciting rehearsal, there is usually the opportunity for important social time for everyone involved.

 

Resources

A commission should aim to make the best use of the resources available. We have a fabulous organ at the Cathedral of St. John (Reuter Organ Company Opus 2210, 65 ranks), and so it makes sense to showcase its wonderful tonal and color palette. The organ has a terrific Tuba and a memorable Trompette en Chamade, in addition to beautiful flutes and strings. It is important that the composer gratify those who have invested in the long-term use of the cathedral organ, and therefore it is important that he or she can write idiomatically for the instrument. 

We also look for composers who can write music tailored to our cathedral choir(s). Over the years, as is common to all choirs, our choir personnel change. One season you might have a particularly strong bass section, the next you might find yourself with an excellent 11-member tenor section! You’ll want the composer to exploit that wonderful musical gift in the commission. It is important to help guide the composer with a clear set of parameters for what you are after in a work. Do you want four choral parts throughout, or are you happy with a little or a lot of divisi? Do you have soaring high sopranos or rich low basses? It helps the composer if they know how your particular choir sounds at its best. 

In the case of our cathedral choirs, in more recent years we have had the pleasure of our senior girl and boy choristers joining the ranks of the Cathedral Choir, and so writing specifically with those voices in mind has also become an option for a commissioned composer. We have some very fine soloists within the choir, and that, too, is something for the composer potentially to incorporate, at his or her discretion. It is important, therefore, that you, the commissioning party, know which strengths and weaknesses to communicate to your commissioned composer.

 

Text

Selection of text is usually the first point of artistic discussion. The choice of text is initially dictated by the liturgical season in which the premiere is to take place. Beyond that, sometimes the donor wishes to help select a text and sometimes the composer wishes to have complete control over the text used. Keeping a clear line of communication is key to coming to any agreement. I can say from experience that choosing a text that isn’t too specific will encourage many more future performances, and this is something that makes your donor beam with great pride: a second or third hearing of “their piece.” Be sure to let them know when you’ve scheduled “their” work. Donors often love inviting friends and family to hear the work they helped bring into the world.

Asking composers to write something fresh and new on a familiar text is particularly exciting and potentially very challenging. Imagine being asked to write a new anthem on the text of “In the bleak midwinter.” Yes, it can be done, but the composer will have to somehow overcome the inevitable comparisons with Darke and Holst. Writing music for an unfamiliar text can be equally inspiring, with the possibility of creating a new favorite text to uplift people in their liturgical experience.

 

Response

The first read-through of a newly commissioned work is akin to presenting a family member with their Christmas gift: you really hope they’ll like it immediately. I usually receive the score weeks before introducing it to the choir, and, having worked with this choir for 11 years now, I have a sense of whether it will be love at first sight(read), or whether the work is one that will grow on them with time. 

The collective response of the congregation, too, immediately following the premiere performance, always manages to surprise me. The commissioned works have evoked a variety of responses, from an immediate appreciation shown by a burst of applause (something, which, as Episcopalians, we very rarely allow ourselves), to a hushed sense of the whole room holding its breath for a moment while the final sounds dissipate into the acoustical space and time of the cathedral sanctuary.

However appreciation is expressed, we will all have been changed by hearing a new marriage between this new music and this text for the very first time. Singing a new work by a composer whose name you had only previously seen in print but whom you have now met in the flesh is thrilling. Singing music especially written for your choir and congregation under the direction of the person who created it brings a new perspective when singing any other piece of music by that same composer. The Asian proverb, “Better to see something once, than hear about it a thousand times,” resonates strongly when we have the opportunity to know and work with a composer. 

In October 2016 we performed all of the Cathedral Commissions to date in a public concert. Several of the works on the program had, over the years, become “go to” anthems for all sorts of occasions including international and national tours and special occasion services such as ordinations, funerals, and weddings. A few of the works, however, had only received one performance, their premiere, until our tenth anniversary concert this past October.

Having the opportunity to restudy and relearn some of the less-performed anthems we’ve commissioned allowed us all to see our own growth as musicians and as storytellers. It allowed those of us who have been there for each commission to see this story of creation by our cathedral body, to share in the joy of renewing relationships with past donors, and to share stories of our time with each composer who came to visit us in Albuquerque and make new music with us. 

Our next opportunity to celebrate a new work written for us will be Sunday, March 5, 2017 (Lent I), when we will give the first performance of a new work by the celebrated, award-winning U. K. composer, Cecilia McDowall. 

I encourage any reader of this article who has a choir and a good organ accompanist to contact these composers or their publishers, secure a perusal copy of these anthems/canticles, and see if any of these works might be a good fit for your choir. We have recorded several of these commissioned works and hope to record the remainder of the works in the near future.

At the right is a listing of all of the works commissioned since the Cathedral Commissions project began in 2006. The listing shows the month in which the work was premiered, the commissioned composer, the title of the work, the sponsor(s), those who either conducted or accompanied the cathedral choir(s) for the premiere performances, and lastly how a person can best acquire a copy of any of these commissions.

 

Nunc Dimittis

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William Ernest Baker died August 31, 2007 in Tucson, Arizona. Born in 1938 in Denver, he had enlisted in the United States Air Force as an in-flight computer technician. During this time, he studied organ at the University of the Pacific, and later studied at the University of Colorado. While in Denver, he worked with Fred H. Meunier & Associates. Mr. Baker’s early work took place in California and Nevada; in 1963, he rebuilt the 1877 Johnson organ at St. Paul Episcopal Church in Sacramento. He relocated to New York City in 1968, serving as organist-choirmaster at St. Savior’s Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn, where he further rebuilt and enlarged the 1911 Reuben Midmer & Sons organ. He eventually settled in Hatfield, Massachusetts, living on the top floor of the wooden-frame building that housed his shop. Mr. Baker would take on difficult projects, such as improving the actions for the slider windchests at St. Thomas Church in New York, and restoring the high-pressure Solo chests of the Skinner organ at Mt. Holyoke College following water damage. Upon retirement, Mr. Baker moved to Mexico. His remains were inurned October 29 at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver.

William Dinneen died July 26, 2007 in Greenville, Rhode Island. He was 91. Mr. Dinneen, a graduate of Harvard University, served as organist for over 60 years, including positions at the chapel of Brown University (where he taught) and First Baptist Church in America, both in Providence. He also directed the University Glee Club and the Rhode Island Civic Chorale, and served as keyboardist for the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and as music critic for The Providence Journal. A member of the Rhode Island AGO chapter, he served as dean in the 1950s, was a recitalist and accompanist for many Guild programs, and for years offered Sunday afternoon coaching sessions for groups of organists. He was awarded the chapter’s Anna Fiore-Smith Award in 2005. He is survived by Frances, his wife of 64 years, two sons, and two grandsons.

Noel E. Heinze, of Riceville, North Carolina, died on December 14, 2007, of a massive heart attack. He was 67. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he graduated from Michigan State University with a master’s degree in English and music. During the Viet Nam War, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Adj. Corps. He worked in contact administration with various firms in Washington, D.C., and most recently with Palmer, Wahl in Weaverville.
He began playing the organ in church at age 11, while attending Cranbrook Academy in Michigan. He served as an organist while in the Army, and held church positions in Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York, before moving to North Carolina. Most recently he served as organist at St. Giles Chapel, Deerfield Retirement Community in Asheville. A member of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society, he performed in concerts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Noel Heinze is survived by his wife of 37 years, Kathryn Heinze, a daughter, a sister, and many nieces and nephews.

Herbert A. Severtsen died at age 77 on October 1, 2007, in Spokane, Washington. Born March 4, 1930, he attended the New York Institute for Blind and Bard College, and received a master’s degree and professional diploma in music from Columbia University. He met his wife when she joined the choir at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in New York City, where he was organist-choirmaster for 25 years. In Spokane, he was employed by the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, and the Unitarian Universalist Church, and by Davis & Hosch Music. He served as dean of the Spokane AGO chapter 1978–80 and was awarded a lifetime membership in 2004. He is survived by Billie Marie, his wife of 41 years, five children, and two grandchildren.

Craig Smith died November 14, 2007 in Boston. He was 60 years old. He was the founder and artistic director of Emmanuel Music, the resident ensemble at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston. Over the years he built Emmanuel into a major musical center that presented works of Schütz, Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, and contemporary composers, especially John Harbison. Between 1970–77, Smith conducted the complete cycle of Bach cantatas, the first time all these works had been performed in America. Mr. Smith studied at Washington State University and the New England Conservatory. He collaborated with the stage director Peter Sellars on Mozart and Handel operas, and works by Bach, Weill, Gershwin, and Gilbert and Sullivan; the productions were seen in both American and European venues, and on DVD. Mr. Smith was principal conductor of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels from 1988–91 and had taught at the Juilliard School, MIT, the New England Conservatory, Pepperdine University, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

James Gary Stuart, age 72 and formerly of Lake Bluff, Illinois and Santa Fe, New Mexico, died on January 17, from complications due to cancer. He was preceded in death by his wife Nancy Anderson Stuart, an accomplished singer and music teacher, in 2006. Gary is survived by a sister, a brother, nieces, a grandniece, and a grandnephew. Born on January 28, 1935 in Jacksonville, Illinois, he earned B.Mus. and M.M. degrees from Northwestern University and began a career as a church organist-choirmaster for several churches on the North Shore of Chicago, including St. James the Less (Episcopal) in Northfield, and Church of the Holy Spirit (Episcopal) in Lake Forest, before beginning a music ministry at the Church of the Holy Comforter (Episcopal) in Kenilworth in 1990.
Gary married Nancy Elizabeth Stuart on March 29, 1970 in Lake Forest, Illinois. Together Nancy and Gary spent a lifetime devoted “first and foremost” to church and choral music. In addition to private teaching, he had also served as accompanist for the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the North Shore Choral Society, and the Lake Forest Camerata Singers. Mr. Stuart led two singing tours to England and was the visiting accompanist for a third. He retired as director of music at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Kenilworth in 2002 after establishing a music ministry of quality music and an Evensong series that included performances of Requiem settings by Duruflé, Fauré, and Rutter, and Masses by Gounod and Schubert. A celebration of the Holy Eucharist in thanksgiving for his life was celebrated at the Church of the Holy Comforter on January 23. A choir composed of current and former choir members and colleagues led by current music director Derek E. Nickels sang anthems by Lutkin, Mozart, and Vaughan Williams. The family asks that donations be made to the American Cancer Society, 820 Davis Street, Evanston, IL 60201.
—Derek E. Nickels

Susanne L. Taylor died September 10, 2007, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, at the age of 89. A graduate of Smith College, Mrs. Taylor also attended the College of Charleston. She served as assistant organist at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, and in Mount Pleasant served as organist at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Christ Episcopal Church, and as junior choir director at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. She also spearheaded the restoration of the Henry Erben organ at the Huguenot Church in Charleston. A member of the Charleston AGO chapter, Mrs. Taylor served as dean from 1965–67. Preceded in death by her husband, Francis Bergh Taylor, she is survived by her four children and eight grandchildren.

A Celebration of Joe Hoppe’s Legacy at St. Patrick’s Church, New Orleans

Marijim Thoene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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