Paulette Fry 40th anniversary

Richard T. Bouchette

Richard T. Bouchett, 85, of New York, New York, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 17. He was born March 6, 1937, in Seymour, Texas, attended Texas Christian University, and earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Oklahoma, an artist’s diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, and Master and Doctor of Sacred Music degrees from the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, with the dissertation “The Organ Music of Jehan Alain.” His organ teachers included Emmet Smith, Adrienne Reisner, Mildred Andrews, Alexander McCurdy, Robert Baker, Marie-Claire Alain, and Anton Heiller. He was the 1966 winner of the Young Artists’ Competition sponsored by the Boston Symphony and the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and was presented in recital at Symphony Hall in Boston. He taught organ at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, and Indiana University, Bloomington, and presented recitals across the United States, including performances at several AGO regional conventions.

For ten years Bouchett was organist at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City where he recorded an LP entitled The Organs of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Played by Richard Bouchett, presently available on YouTube and Amazon. In 1972 he was named director of music and organist for First Presbyterian Church, Greenwich, Connecticut. He conducted a semi-professional choir that performed cantatas and oratorios with orchestra in addition to singing at regular services, and developed a concert series, “Music from the Top.” Bouchett supervised the installation of a 66-rank M. P. Möller organ in the church’s sanctuary, where he premiered a commissioned work of Ruth Schonthal, The Temptation of St. Anthony.

Before moving to New York City, he held positions at the Church of the Good Samaritan (Episcopal) in Paoli, Pennsylvania, and the Episcopal Academy in Overbrook, Pennsylvania. After his retirement from First Presbyterian Church, Greenwich, in 2002, he played for several years at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Greenwich, and was a substitute musician for churches in and around New York City, including Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Richard T. Bouchett is survived by his brother Frank and sister-in-law Betty, three nephews, and numerous grandnephews and grandnieces.

Diana Lee Lucker

Diana Lee Lucker, 89, was born Diana Lee Kennelly, July 9, 1932, in Seattle, Washington, and died January 15, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her first piano lessons were given by her mother; she later attended the Juilliard School of Music. Her first organ teachers included Ronald Hooper and Rupert Sircom. She earned her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Minnesota and studied there with Heinrich Fleischer and Dean Billmeyer.

Lucker was assistant professor of music at Augsburg College and Bethel College and taught privately. She served as organist at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church for 16 years, as interim organist at Westminster Presbyterian Church (1994–1995), and as organist for Wayzata Community Church from 1995 until 2016. The four-manual Hendrickson organ was installed shortly after her arrival; she performed its dedication recital in September 1998.

While at Wayzata she directed an annual summer organ recital series as well as a concert series of over 40 events each year including orchestral, choral, piano, small ensemble, and organ programs. Lucker was active in several capacities for the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. As a recitalist, she performed throughout the United States and in Scandinavia and Italy.

Diana Lee Lucker is survived by three daughters, five stepchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren. Memorial gifts may be made to: Des Moines Metro Opera, 106 West Boston Avenue, Indianola, Iowa 50125; or Pipedreams, MPR, 480 Cedar Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55101.

Thomas H. Troeger

Thomas H. Troeger, hymn writer, preacher, homiletics professor, theologian, poet, musician, columnist, and author, died April 3. Born in 1945, he grew up in New Jersey and upstate New York. After graduating from Yale University cum laude in 1967, he attended Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Rochester, New York, where he earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree (now designated as Master of Divinity). He later received an S.T.D. degree from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, and, most recently, an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 2014.

Following graduation from Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Troeger was ordained a Presbyterian minister and served as associate pastor for the Presbyterian Church of New Hartford, New York (1970–1977). (He was later ordained an Episcopal priest.) He returned to (now) Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall, Crozer Theological Seminary as a professor of preaching and parish ministry (1977–1991) before moving to Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado, where he was the Ralph E. and Norman E. Peck Professor of Preaching and Communications (1991–2005). In addition to his professorial duties, Troeger began serving in administrative posts as the director of the Doctor of Ministry program (2000–2005) and the senior vice president and dean of academic affairs (2002–2005). At that time, Troeger moved to Yale as the J. Edward and Ruth Cox Lantz Professor of Christian Communication (2005–2015).

Troeger was a prolific author and hymnist. He authored more than a dozen books on homiletics, essays for Feasting on the Word, a monthly column for Lectionary Homiletics over a period of years, and articles and chapters that appeared in scholarly venues. He served as president of the Academy of Homiletics (1987) and co-president of Societas Homiletica, the international guild (2008–2010). The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada named him a Fellow of the society, and he received a lifetime achievement award from the North American Academy of Homiletics.

Troeger also published books in the areas of liturgy and spirituality. He served as chaplain to the American Guild of Organists and wrote a monthly column for The American Organist for four years. He became affiliated with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he had standing during his tenure at Yale. As a poet and a hymnist, Troeger composed more than 400 hymn texts and poems, many of which are now in current hymnals of most denominations.

Thomas H. Troeger is survived by his wife of 54 years, Merle Marie Troeger; his brother, Don, and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Crawford and Julie Butler of Conway, New Hampshire. A memorial service was held on May 3 at the Episcopal Church of St. Mary, Falmouth, Maine.

University of Michigan 58th Annual Organ Conference, September 29–October 2

Joy Schroeder holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Michigan in organ performance. She is currently a student, ABD, at the University of Oregon in music theory.

The fifty-eighth annual organ conference at the University of Michigan celebrated women’s contributions as performers, composers, educators, and builders of the organ, harpsichord, and carillon. Distinguished guest artists and lecturers from North America and Europe joined University of Michigan faculty, students, and alumni in presenting an impressive range of events, beginning with the annual improvisation competition and concluding with the restaging of three choreographies by the American modern dance pioneer, Doris Humphrey, set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The conference explored not only the music, performance practices, and pedagogy of women in the field, but also how their individual careers in a male-dominated profession have helped shape the current landscape.

A prelude to the conference

Jennifer Pascual, director of music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, performed a recital at the First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti on September 23. The performance was presented by the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival and the Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Her program included a mixture of well-known organ works by Bach, Guilmant, Duruflé, Yon, Ravel, and Cherubini (both arranged by Machella), lesser-known pieces by Hakim and Lidon, and music by women composers Clara Schumann, Jeanne Demessieux, Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn, and Sr. Mary David Callahan, serving as an introduction to the conference the following weekend.

Saturday, September 29

The First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor hosted the Seventh Annual Improvisation Competition, and three contestants had been selected to enter the final round. The contestants improvised on the hymntune, Wondrous Love, and a selected chromatic theme. First place and audience prizes were awarded to David Simon, currently a student at Yale University; second prize to Alejandro D. Consolación, II, from Manila; and third to Christopher Ganza from Minnesota. The judges were James Biery, Ann Labounsky, and Anne Laver. Kola Owolabi chaired the event with assistance from preliminary round judges Joseph Gascho, Darlene Kuperus, and Stephanie Nofar-Kelly. Timothy Huth of the American Center of Church Music provided historical anecdotes along with host representative Richard Ingram.

Sunday, September 30

First Presbyterian Church hosted a hymn festival titled “Sing Justice! Proclaim Justice! Hymnody in Word and Song by Women Poets and Composers.” Scott Hyslop served as the organist, while the Reverend Kendra Mohn gave several meditations on injustice, with support from the First Presbyterian Choir and interim director of music, Richard Ingram. The program featured works by Catherine McMichael (prelude), Jane Marshall (anthem), with hymn texts by Mary Louise Bringle, Carolyn Winfrey Gilette,
Shirley Erena Murray, Jaroslav Vajda, and Rusty Edwards, arranged by Alice Parker and Hyslop.

That evening, the faculty recital featuring works by Pamela Decker, Rachel Laurin, and a world premiere of a work by Catherine McMichael was presented at Hill Auditorium with Susan Clark Joul, soprano; Joan Holland, harp; James Kibbie and Kola Owolabi, organ. McMichael’s The Apostle: A Symphony in Three Linked Movements drew thematically from the biblical character of Paul of Tarsus—persecutor, poet, and apostle. The last piece by Rachel Laurin, Fantasy and Fugue on the Genevan Psalm 47, op. 62, was a duet performed by Kibbie and Owolabi. The work has contrasting registrations and themes utilizing four manuals and pedal of the organ.

Monday, October 1

The day began with two lectures. Michael Barone discussed women organists past and present (including music presented during the conference) in “Ladies Be Good: One Guy’s Overview of Women Organists and Composers.” Sylvia Wall presented “Call Me Fran: Harpsichordist Frances Elaine Cole.” An American harpsichordist, Frances Cole (1937–1983) was a musician from Cleveland, Ohio, who taught at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, and died in New York. She organized numerous harpsichord festivals, and her life was commemorated in the lecture by Wall and by Cole’s niece, Mia Cole Washington. Following, Annie Laver discussed and performed “An Introduction to the Organ Works of Judith Bingham.” Bingham has written about 300 works of which some twenty are for organ.

In the afternoon, conference attendees heard music in a program entitled “Élizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Claveciniste Extraordinaire,” including the Chamber Sonata in D Major, the Harpsichord Suite in A Minor (played by Nico Canzano), and the dramatic cantata Semelé. The recitalists, Nico Canzano, Ellen Sauer, Leah Pemick, Leo Singer, Antona Yost, Alyssa Campbell, Alex Baker, and Neil Robertson are all students of Joseph Gascho.

Following the performance, a lecture, “Sylvia’s Little Black Book: an Intimate View into the Pioneering Life of Harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe,” was presented by Christina Scott Edelen. Marlowe (1908–1981) was an American harpsichordist who commissioned many works from leading composers and performed Baroque repertoire. This recital included works by Virgil Thomson, François Couperin, Vittorio Rieti, and Henri Sanguer. Italian virtuoso Letizia Romiti completed the afternoon’s events with a recital, “Women, Italy, and the ‘Queen of Instruments.’” The program featured works by Andrea Gabrieli, Merulo, Majone, Frescobaldi, Madame Ravissa de Turin, a manuscript from the Convent of Notre-Dame de Vitre, and Clara Schumann.

The evening began with a carillon recital at Burton Memorial Tower performed by Margaret Pan of Boston, Massachusetts. The pieces played were mainly by late twentieth-century women composers and included Reflections from the Tower (1990) by Emma Lou Diemer. The evening concluded with a recital at Hill Auditorium, “Music by Women Composers,” presented by students of James Kibbie and Kola Owolabi, including Jenna Moon, Kaelan Hansson, Joseph Mutone, Sarah Simko, Joseph Moss, and Julian Goods, with featured works by Pamela Decker, Judith Bingham, Libby Larsen, and Florence Beatrice Price.

Tuesday, October 2

The last day of the conference began with Ana Elias and Sara Elias presenting “An Evolution of Women’s Role in the Carillon World and Its Implications for Arts Entrepreneurship.” Starting with the historical evolution of women’s role in the carillon, the current state of the profession in Portugal was discussed. Female entrepreneurship was encouraged, and the presenters’ traveling carillon was exhibited. Following, “Florence Price: The First African-American Woman Composer Successful in Classical Music: Newly Found Organ Works” was presented in lecture and recital by Calvert Johnson. In particular, Johnson discussed Price’s Passacaglia and Fugue of 1927.

Later that morning, the panel “The ‘Solo’ Keyboardist: When You’re the Only ____ In Your Workplace—Professional Perspectives” was moderated by Tiffany Ng, university carillonist, and featured panelists Anne Laver (Syracuse University), Susan Tattershall (ID Project at Colorado Legal Services), Elena Tsai (freelance harpsichordist and technician), Colin Knapp (Michigan Opera Theatre), and Anne Huhman (associate director of University of Michigan Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center).

In the afternoon, students of James Kibbie and Kola Owolabi played music by women composers at the First Congregational Church. The recitalists were James Renfer, Matthew Durham, Allison Barone, Samuel Ronning, Clayton Farmer, and Emily Solomon performing the music of Pamela Decker, Ruth Zechlin, Erzsébet Szönyi, Brenda Portman, and Efrida Andrée.

“Living Legends . . . Lasting Legacies: Emma Lou Diemer, Marilyn Mason, and Alice Parker” was presented by Darlene Kuperus and Marcia Van Oyen, with music by Diemer, Parker, Larry Visser, and Joe Utterback, along with videos and remembrances of each “legend.” The afternoon concluded with a presentation of “The Work of Dana Hull, Organ Builder & Restorer” by Tom Curry and Elgin Clingaman, followed by a reception in honor of Hull.

Tiffany Ng began the final evening with a carillon recital that utilized added electronics. The recital, “Women Who Rock the Bells,” was divided into sections: “#METOO: The Movement to Support Survivors and End Sexual Violence” (music of Pamela Reiter-Feenstra); “Breaking the Tower Ceiling: Black Composers” (music of Yvette Jackson and Jessie Montgomery—both Michigan premieres); “Frontiers of Space and Imagination” (music of Laura Steenberge, Margo Halsted, Agniezka Stulginska), and “Not Your Quiet Model Minority” (music by Carolyn Chen).

The conference concluded with University of Michigan Dancers, the University of Michigan Baroque Chamber Orchestra (Aaron Berofsky and Joseph Gascho, directors), and James Kibbie on organ, recreating choreography staged by Gail Corbin, Jillian Hopper, and Michela Esteban of Doris Humphrey (1895–1958) to the music of Bach. Non-danced music of de la Guerre was also included in “An Evening of Doris Humphrey and J. S. Bach:  Romantic Post-Modernism in Dance and Music.” The final piece, Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, was played by Kibbie with stunning choreography by Humphrey from 1938. Jillian Hopper and Christian Matijas-Mecca are directors of the Dance Legacy Project.

The conference was one of trailblazers, presenting music chiefly by women, many of whom are unknown. Indeed, the conference itself was a trailblazer in its presentation of women composers, the breadth and varied scope of the offerings, and the immense educational benefits to all attendees.

Photo credits: Sherri Brown

Jennifer Lucy Bate, 75, born in London, UK, November 11, 1944, died March 25. She was the daughter of H. A. Bate, organist of St James’s Muswell Hill from 1924 to 1978. An international concert organist, she was considered an authority on the organ music of Olivier Messiaen, having befriended him within the last twenty years of his life as his organist of choice. In 1986, she gave the first British performance of his Livre du Saint-Sacrement at Westminster Cathedral and later made the world premiere recording of the work under the personal supervision of the composer, winning the Grand Prix du Disque. He also endorsed her earlier recordings of all of his other organ works. Bate owned scores that contain many personal markings and references made by Messiaen. In 1995, Bate opened the Messiaen Festival at l’Église de la Sainte Trinité, Paris, France, where his complete organ works were performed and recorded. Among numerous awards for her CD were the Diapason d’Or (France) and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Germany).

Bate performed and recorded a broad repertoire spanning several centuries, including English organ music, the complete organ works of César Franck, and the complete organ music of Felix Mendelssohn. A frequent performer at organ festivals, she often played works written for her. She also presented numerous masterclasses and lectures. She was instrumental in the formation of the annual Jennifer Bate Organ Academy, a course for young female organists, and she was the lead patron of the Society of Women Organists.

Bate was briefly married (as his second wife) to George Thalben-Ball. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol in 2007. In 1990, Bate was recognized with the Personnalité de l’Année award by the French-based jury, only the third British artist to achieve this distinction, after Georg Solti and Yehudi Menuhin. In 1996, Bate was granted honorary citizenship of the Italian province of Alessandria for her services to music in Northern Italy over 20 years. In 2002, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2008 was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

In 2011, M. Frédéric Mitterand, minister of culture and communication, awarded Jennifer Bate the rank of Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, stating that this honor is awarded to renowned artists and writers who have promoted French culture throughout the world. Subsequently, President Sarkozy appointed Jennifer Bate to the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, stating that this honor was awarded in recognition of her skill as an organist and her contribution to making Olivier Messiaen’s organ works more widely known throughout the world. She received both awards in 2012.

Marillyn Ila Freeman, 85, musician and teacher, died March 24. Born in Marion, Wisconsin, February 23, 1935, she grew up in New London and Appleton, where she began playing the organ for local church services at the age of twelve. She graduated from Appleton High School in 1953 and the Lawrence College Conservatory of Music, Appleton, earning a degree in music performance in 1957. While at Lawrence, she met her future husband Ralph Freeman, and they were married in 1958. Following graduation Freeman taught music at Lawrence and worked in the president’s office at Princeton University, eventually returning to Wisconsin and settling in Green Bay, where she taught piano and played organ in the Moravian church.

In 1965 the Freemans moved to Neenah where a year later she began a 54-year career as organist for St. Paul Lutheran Church. In addition to playing organ and piano, as director of music ministries she planned worship services, directed youth choirs, accompanied the adult Sanctuary Choir, presented church musicals, and guided the church in purchasing a new Dobson organ in 1986. She earned an associate certificate of the American Guild of Organists in 1995 and an associate in music ministry certificate in 2000.

Throughout her career Freeman continued to teach piano and organ, organizing piano recitals, judging piano competitions, and mentoring young musicians in the Fox Valley. She was a member of the Fox Valley Music Teachers, a member of the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity, served as treasurer of the North Eastern Wisconsin chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and was active in the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. For many years she and her husband Ralph, a pianist, violinist, and published author of hymn texts, performed organ and piano duets each August as part of the Lunchtime Organ Recital Series in the Fox Valley region.

Marillyn Ila Freeman is survived by her husband Ralph Freeman, five children: Rebecca Freeman (Stephen Fusfeld) of Neenah; Jennifer Timm (Terry) of Neenah; Robert Freeman (Robin) of Darien, Illinois; Jon Freeman of Whitefish Bay; and Paul Freeman (Nicole Berman) of Stow, Massachusetts; twelve grandchildren, and several great grandchildren.

Memorial gifts may be made to the music ministry program at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 200 N. Commercial Street, Neenah, WI 54956, or to either the Melanoma Research Fund or the Surgical Oncology Outcomes Research and Awareness Fund at the University of Wisconsin (supportuw.org/give).

Josephine Lenola Bailey Freund, 90, died February 8 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A lifelong musician, she was a professional organist for almost 70 years and taught piano and organ. She performed organ recitals and directed choirs throughout the United States, as well as in Swaziland and Papua New Guinea.

Josephine Bailey was born April 8, 1929, in Indianapolis, Indiana. She began piano lessons at age six and started studying organ at age thirteen. Among her first professional jobs were playing the organ to accompany silent movies and substituting as an accompanist and organist in local churches.

Following graduation from high school in 1946, Bailey attended Wittenberg College, Springfield Ohio, later transferring to Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. There she earned a teaching certificate in organ and bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1952, she was the first female graduate of Peabody to earn a master’s degree in organ performance.

During the 1950s Bailey played at various churches in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, including serving as music director for First Baptist, Washington, D.C., which President Truman attended; and St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Annapolis, Maryland, where she was honored to play for a royal visit by Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. From 1956 until 1961, she was associate professor of music at Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia. She was also organist of First Presbyterian Church, Farmville, and taught music in local public high schools.

In 1963, Bailey became the first full-time director of music at Trinity Lutheran Church, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. She later returned to Indianapolis to teach in public schools and was the organist and assistant choir director at First Presbyterian Church. In the early 1970s, she moved to East Lansing, Michigan, to work on her doctorate in music theory at Michigan State University. She also was associate professor of music and organist and choir director of Martin Luther Chapel at Michigan State. It was there that she met her future husband Roland Freund who was an Australian agricultural missionary working on his master’s degree. They married in July 1971 and moved to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

In 1976, the family moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where Josephine taught piano and was organist at Grace United Methodist Church. The family spent 1982–1984 working on a U.S. AID and Penn State University project in Swaziland, Africa. There she taught music in several schools and directed the largest choir in the country for a performance of Brahms’s Requiem.

Upon returning to Carlisle, Josephine Freund served as organist and choir director at St. John’s Episcopal Church and Gettysburg College Chapel. She was adjunct professor of organ for Dickinson College and an active member and officer of the Harrisburg Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Freund played her final organ recital in 2010, but continued to teach piano and organ and to substitute and support church services, weddings, and funerals for a few more years. She was a lifetime member of the national honors fraternity for women in music, Sigma Alpha Iota.

Josephine Lenola Bailey Freund is survived by her husband, Roland Paul Freund of Carlisle; her nephew, Matthew Freund of South Australia; and her son, Colonel Ernie Freund, daughter-in-law Megan Sayler Freund, and granddaughters, Amelia Rose and Adelaide Pearl, all from Burke, Virginia.

Funeral services were held February 15 at Trinity Lutheran Church, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Memorial contributions may be made to Residential Hospice, 100 Sterling Pkwy #110, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050 or the Traditional Music Fund at Trinity Lutheran Church, 2000 Market Street, Camp Hill, PA 17011.

Eleanor Marie Fulton, organist and music educator, died February 23 in New Haven, Connecticut. Born August 9, 1939, in Morristown, Tennessee, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bennett College, Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1961, and continued her education at the Manhattan School of Music, New York City; the Haydn Conservatory, Eisenstadt, Austria; and the University of Ghana’s International Center for African Music and Dance.

She served as the longtime organist and director of music for Center Church on the Green, New Haven, and was a music teacher for New Haven Public Schools, director of the New Haven Children’s Chorus, assistant organist and director of Christian education for Battell Chapel, Yale University, New Haven, consultant to the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and a private piano and music instructor. She was the featured performer on a CD released by Raven, performing on the 1971 Beckerath organ of Dwight Chapel, Yale University, with works of Bach, de Grigny, and Mendelssohn (Eleanor Fulton, Organist: Dwight Chapel, Yale University, OAR-810).

Odile Pierre, French liturgical and international concert organist, professor, and composer, died in Paris, France, on February 29, shortly before her 87th birthday. Born in Pont-Audemer (in Normandy) on March 12, 1932, she decided to become an organist at age seven, inspired by a recital by Marcel Dupré on the Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Ouen Abbey in Rouen. After taking lessons with Madeleine Lecoeur, organist at St. Nicaise Church in Rouen at age fifteen, she served as organist and choir director at the St. Martin Church in Barentin (in the Seine-Maritime region of Normandy). From 1950 to 1952, she studied harmony with Albert Beaucamp and organ with Marcel Lanquetuit at the Rouen Conservatory. She then entered the Paris Conservatory, where she was awarded first prizes in the classes of Maurice Duruflé (harmony), Noël Gallon (fugue), Norbert Dufourcq (music history), as well as organ and improvisation with Marcel Dupré and Rolande Falcinelli. At the age of 23, Odile Pierre became the youngest Marcel Dupré student to win a first prize in organ and improvisation at the Paris Conservatory. She won this prestigious prize the same year as Éliane Lejeune-Bonnier (1921–2015), with the unanimous approval of the jury, which included Jeanne Demessieux.

From 1955 to 1957, Odile Pierre officially substituted for Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, then organist at Saint-Pierre de Montrouge Church in Paris. She then studied organ performance with Fernando Germani at Saint-Cecilia Academy in Rome and at Chigiana Music Academy in Sienne, and with Franz Sauer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1969, she succeeded Jeanne Demessieux as titular organist of the gallery organ of the Madeleine Church and remained in this post until 1979. By coincidence, on the day after she died, Olivier Périn began his functions as the official assistant to François-Henri Houbart, her successor at the Madeleine.

Well known for her mastery of organ repertoire from early to contemporary masters, Odile Pierre performed at least 2,000 concerts throughout the world, including appearances in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Canada, Iceland, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Austria, and the former Czechoslovakia, including twelve tours in the United States and six in Asia. In 1977, she represented France at the Third International Organ Congress in Washington and Philadelphia. She performed organ concertos under the direction of conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Pierre Dervaux, Antoine de Bavier, and Georges Prêtre.

Odile Pierre recorded for RCA, Mitra, Motette, Festivo, Editions Lade, and IFO. At least two of the recordings were made at the Madeleine Church in Paris: Camille Saint-Saëns’ Preludes and Fugues (1972, RCA LSB 4088) and The Great Romantic Toccatas (1978, RCA/RC 8108). In 1991, she recorded (for SCD 814) Jean-François Muno’s reconstitution of Jean de Joyeuse’s 1694 organ at the Auch Cathedral, which she had inaugurated in 1988 with André Isoir. Her Poetic Symphonic Organ Music (Vierne, Debussy, Duruflé, and Odile Pierre) on the Cavaillé-Coll of the Trinity Church in Fécamp and at St. Godard in Rouen (1988, MP/FR 51190 C) calls upon her Normand origins; her record of Widor, Vierne, and Guilmant at the Orléans Cathedral (1993, Motette 11251), reminds us that she lived nearby, in Tigy, in the Loiret department, at the end of her life.

As professor, Odile Pierre taught organ and music history at the Rouen Conservatoire from 1959 until 1969 and then organ and improvisation at the Paris Regional Conservatoire from 1981 until 1992. Among her students were Michael Matthes, Léon Kerremans, D’Arcy Trinkwon, Kristiyan Seynhave, David Di Fiore, and Lionel Coulon (titular organist at the Rouen Cathedral since 1992, he substituted for her at the Madeleine for four years). In 1991, she gave organ classes at the Scuola Internationale d’Alto Perfezionmento Musicale in Perugia, Italy, and gave masterclasses in numerous colleges and universities. She also served on the juries of international organ competitions. In 1977, she was appointed as a member of the Commission on Organs in Paris.

Her organ works were published as early as 1955: Chorale and Fugue on the first antiphon of the Second Vespers for Christmas (1955, Procure du Clergé), and Chorale and Four-Voiced Fugue (1955, republished by Europart-Music in 1988), Four Pilgrimages at the Virgin Mary for four hands, opus 1 (Leduc, 1988), Variations and Fugue on three Christmas Carols (Leduc, 1990), The Martyr of St. Thomas Becket, op. 4 (Bergamo, Carrara 1994), Chorale and Fugue on the Name of Charles-Marie Widor, op. 5 (Mayence, Schott, 1994), and Canonic Variations and Fugue on Two Christmas Carols from Naples, op. 6 (1955). Her edition of some of Alexandre Guilmant’s organ works was printed by Bornemann in 1983 and 1984. In addition, she wrote about Marcel Dupré’s improvisation exams in 1953 and 1954 (Leduc, undated). Odile Pierre received three awards for her contributions to French culture: Officer in the French Legion of Honor, Commander in the French Order of Merit, and the Silver Medal of the City of Paris.

Odile Pierre is survived by her husband, the historian Pierre Aubé.

—Carolyn Shuster Fournier

Philip Astor Prince, 89, of New Haven, Connecticut, died February 5. Born January 5, 1931, in Evanston, Illinois, Prince attended the Taft School before entering Yale University with the Class of 1952. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin, subsequently studied musicology in the Yale Graduate School, but completed a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music in organ performance under H. Frank Bozyan in 1959. Prince was drawn to the Anglo-Catholic liturgy celebrated at Christ Church, New Haven, and became associated with the music program there, succeeding Richard Donovan as organist and choirmaster in 1966. He became respected among colleagues for his English-language arrangements of Gregorian chants and psalmody and for his hymn accompaniments.

Prince published scholarly articles on Max Reger’s organ music (see “Reger and the Organ,” The Diapason, March 1973) and a performing edition of a sonata da chiesa of Johann Gottfried Walther. He also taught organ students at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, where he served as university organist for nearly 30 years and played annual recitals. In 1988, he joined the choirs of St. Mary Church, New Haven, and the St. Gregory Society and continued singing with them well into his 80s. Prince became an associate fellow of Ezra Stiles College in 1974. He was a longtime member of both Mory’s and the Elizabethan Club in New Haven, and the American Guild of Organists and Association of Anglican Musicians. Prince was a supporter of the Yale swimming team, and for many years he refereed at swimming matches and tournaments.

Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian ethnomusicologist, composer, church musician, pianist, organist, choral conductor, and scholar with over a hundred publications to his credit, including twelve books. His compositions have been performed and recorded worldwide. In 2004 at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Sadoh distinguished himself as the first African to earn a doctoral degree in organ performance from any institution in the world. He has taught at several institutions including the Obafemi Awolowo University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is presently professor of music/LEADS Scholar at the National Universities Commission, Abuja, Nigeria. Sadoh’s biography is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Education, and Who’s Who in the World.

An important event in the history of church music in Nigeria was observed in 2018. It connotes longevity and continuity as we celebrate the centenary of the oldest choral group in Nigeria (1918–2018), which finds its home in the oldest Anglican cathedral in Nigeria, the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos. The history of the Cathedral Choir began in 1895, when Reverend Robert Coker inaugurated the first Anglican choir in the country. The centenary is associated with the first choir festival celebrated on November 23, 1918, under the mantle of the progenitor, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips. Since then, the choir’s anniversary has been celebrated around this period on the Sunday nearest to Saint Cecilia’s Day in November each year. The choir has gone through several phases in the hands of organists and choirmasters, without losing its standard, tradition, fervor, ethics, and focus on cathedral liturgy and challenging musical heritage.

Singing has always been an integral part of worship at the Cathedral Church of Christ since its inception in 1867. It is referenced that the first organist, Robert A. Coker, just before his appointment as organist, was sent to England to expand his knowledge of church music in order to inaugurate a choir suitable for Christ Church, to be second to none in Nigeria. The choir was expected to be able to sing in a manner worthy of being regarded as a model by other churches. The initial choir set up by Coker comprised women and men. It was later reorganized during the ministry of Reverend Hamlyn, who replaced the women with boys and young men. The present choristers, comprising several choirboys together with the gentlemen of the choir who sing alto, tenor, and bass, continue this tradition of singing into the twenty-first century, providing music at worship services and other occasions throughout the year. The choir also reaches out to a wider audience by singing in live radio broadcasts during Easter and Christmas seasons, and also through their compact disc recordings. The basis of the choir’s ministry is the regular singing at cathedral services, but there are other activities, including choir feasts, picnics, as well as frequent concert appearances in the cathedral and other venues.

Repertoire 

The Cathedral Church of Christ Choir is one of the most respected choral groups in Nigeria and throughout the continent of Africa. It is particularly noted for its wide range of liturgical repertoire, which forms the bedrock of weekly worship in the excellent acoustics of the Gothic cathedral. The repertoire is similar to that of any typical English cathedral choir. It primarily reflects the seasons of the liturgical year, with plainsong antiphons and hymns, challenging festival anthems, and more flamboyant Eucharistic settings, such as Alan Wilson’s Mass Of Light and Mozart’s Mass in B-flat, in addition to the daily music. The repertoire encompasses a broad range of styles and compositions ranging from plainchant to classical, African-American spirituals, contemporary American praise choruses, and Nigerian indigenous gospel music.

The Cathedral Choir repertoire ranges from Orlando Gibbons anthems, motets, and madrigals to Herbert Howells’s strong individuality, to Edward Elgar’s combination of nobility and spirituality of utterance with a popular style. The choir has always incorporated the works of some indigenous Nigerian composers, mainly ex-choristers and present musicians of the Cathedral Church. Among the composers whose music still enriches the repertoire of the choir are the father of Nigerian church music, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, whose indigenous sacred Yoruba compositions are often heard in the cathedral, and Fela Sowande, whose Responses in English are still sung regularly at Matins and Evensong. Other notable composers include Ayo Bankole, Samuel Akpabot, and Godwin Sadoh.

The choir is polyglot, performing works mainly in English, but occasionally singing in other European languages such as Latin as well as in the Yoruba dialect during special diocesan services of the Anglican Synod, combined mass choir or the augmented choir events,1 and Evensong. In recent years, it has given a few performances of some major works in the cathedral including Felix Mendelssohn’s St. Paul in November 2008 at its ninetieth anniversary concert, and Handel’s Messiah in December of that year. Some other major works that the Cathedral Choir has performed in the past include Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus in 1998, at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON), Lagos, for its eightieth anniversary, Haydn’s The Creation in April 2001, and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

As the premier choir in Nigeria, Cathedral Church of Christ Choir has played a major role in shaping the direction and development of church music in Nigeria especially in the Anglican Communion. The choir’s work is felt not only in the Anglican Church, but in other denominations as well. The annual choir festivals, Advent carol services, Festival of Lessons and Carols, classical music concerts, choir feasts, and picnics continue to attract choristers and music enthusiasts from the Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Charismatic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, African, Evangelical, and non-denominational churches such as Pentecostals, from different parts of the southwest region of Nigeria. The choir connects American culture with Nigeria through the use of spirituals in the compositions of its ex-choristers and their musical training in American universities, primarily Fela Sowande.

Organists and masters of the music

The choir has been trained and directed by musicians such as Robert Coker, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969), Charles Obayomi Phillips (1919–2007), Olayinka Sowande (Fela Sowande’s younger brother), Tolu Obajimi, and presently, Babatunde Sosan (b. 1975). From the late nineteenth century to the present, those at the helm of music ministries at the cathedral have been skillful and talented.

Apart from the weekly routine of choir practices in preparation for Sunday worship, the master of the music and choirmasters are responsible for preparing the choir for concerts that feature repertoires of sacred choral, instrumental, and organ pieces. The concert performances are in the form of the annual choir festival, Advent carol service, Festival of Lessons and Carols, Easter cantata, Christmas concert, and various other concerts throughout the year.

Most of the music used for worship is by British composers: John Ireland, William Byrd, John Stainer, Bernard Rose, David Willcocks, John Rutter, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Samuel Wesley, Thomas Attwood, Charles Villiers Stanford, Malcolm Archer, George Thalben-Ball, Sydney Nicholson, Herbert Howells, Hubert Parry, Edward Elgar, Eric Thiman, Healey Willan, Walford Davies, Edward Bairstow, William Harris, Orlando Gibbons, Martin Shaw, William Boyce, William Matthias, Robert Cooke, and Charles Stanley. However, compositions from other European nationalities are occasionally incorporated into worship, including works of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Liszt, Widor, Alain, and Schubert.2

The cathedral has been served by three generations of the Phillips family as organists and masters of the music. Ekundayo Phillips’s tenure was the longest, spanning forty-eight years (1914–1962). His son, Obayomi Phillips, served for thirty years (1962–1992). Tolu Obajimi occupied the same position for two decades (1993–2013). Olayinka Sowande spent the least amount of time in office, July to December 1992. The reason for the short term was that as the sub-organist to Obayomi Phillips for several years, he was next in line for promotion to the position of master of the music; thereafter the Cathedral Church gave him the position in 1992. However, old age did not permit Sowande to stay longer than six months in the position as he was already an octogenarian. Time and circumstances will determine the length of Babatunde Sosan’s tenure.

Choir training

The outstanding musical standard of the Cathedral Choir today reflects the models established by Thomas Ekundayo Phillips. Some of the ideals instituted by Phillips included strict discipline, clarity of diction and pronunciation, regular and punctual attendance at choir practices, correct interpretation of notes, voice balance, articulation, attack, comportment, reverence in worship, and utmost sense of good musicianship. As a pedantic choir director, his expectations were very high and certainly demanding, but the choir always rose to his standard and taste. Ekundayo Phillips’s philosophy toward choral training cannot be overemphasized. He would detect and correct any musical snag such as faulty notes emanating from any section of the choir. Ekundayo Phillips would also call to order any chorister who did not hold his music book correctly, such as covering his face with it or placing it on his lap while seated.

Before a choirboy or man can be admitted into the choir to sing in Sunday worship, he first goes through the rigorous probationary period that normally lasts several months. In the case of the choirboys, their probationary period lasts eight months, while probation for those who wish to join the choir as adults to sing alto, tenor, or bass is three months. The author remembers his probationary period in 1980 while still in high school. He attended the choir practices on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but on Sundays would sit in the congregation for worship and was not allowed to sing with the choir until the three months of probation was completed. Whenever the young neophytes complete their probation, they are formally admitted into the Cathedral Choir at a special service in which their parents assist them to put on the white surplice over the black cassock. The induction ceremony is always a moment of joy and pride for the parents.

Choir ministry

The choir leads the congregation every Sunday in hymn singing, responses (antiphonal prayers set to music), special settings of liturgical music such as Venite, Benedictus, Te Deum, Nunc dimittis, Magnificat, Jubilate, and settings of the Eucharist. The master of the music uses the choir to teach the congregation new hymns, service music, and songs. This is realized by the choir first singing all verses of a hymn as an anthem on a Sunday, while the congregation is asked to sing along the following Sunday. Occasionally the choir sings several verses before the congregation joins. The Cathedral Church of Christ proves to be an inclusive culturally blended congregation in terms of hymnals used for worship. The church exemplifies the nature of an interdenominational faith-based organization with the use of hymnbooks from diverse churches. The hymnals used for worship include Hymns Ancient and Modern, Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised, Songs of Praise, Methodist Hymn Book, Hymnal Companion, Baptist Hymnal, Saint Paul’s Cathedral Psalter, Church Hymnal, Alternative Service Book, New English Hymnal, Redemption Hymnal, Broadman Hymnal, Sacred Songs and Solos, More Hymns for Today, American contemporary praise choruses found in Songs for Refreshing Worship, and indigenous hymns written by Ekundayo Phillips as well as other members of the choir.

Concert performances

There are other times in the year that the Cathedral Choir performs concerts in and outside of the church. Oratorios, cantatas, and orchestral works have been performed by the choir such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah in 1989, as well as Hymn of Praise and Saint Paul; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in 1953; Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast; Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Ode on Saint Cecilia’s Day performed in 1998; Haydn’s Creation; Stainer’s Daughter of Jairus and Crucifixion performed in 1916; Davies’s The Temple; and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance performed by the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir Orchestra at the eightieth anniversary of the choir on November 22, 1998. On March 20, 2016, the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON), in collaboration with the cathedral, presented Fauré’s Requiem, featuring the MUSON Choir, Cathedral Choir, MUSON Chamber Orchestra, and MUSON Ensemble.

These concerts featured solos, choral, and instrumental music. The events often attract dignitaries, professional musicians, and students from far and near. The venues of the concerts include the Cathedral Church, Glover Memorial Hall, Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Center, and other concert halls in Lagos.

Some of the concerts were specifically organized to raise funds for either the Cathedral Church or to buy a new organ. For instance, Ekundayo Phillips embarked on a concert tour with his choir to Abeokuta on August 24, 1930, and later to Ibadan, to raise funds to build a new pipe organ for the Cathedral Church. In these concerts, the Cathedral Choir performed mostly Ekundayo Phillips’s Yoruba songs to the delight of the indigenes of southwest Nigeria. The concerts were a success because the choir alone was able to raise more than half the cost of the organ.

In 1927, Ekundayo Phillips went as far as England to appeal to British congregations for money to build a pipe organ. He was able to raise a substantial amount through the successful rendition of some of his Yoruba compositions by Saint George’s Church Choir on October 23, 1927. The Yoruba songs were recorded by H. N. V. Gramophone Company in London, while the royalties from the sales of the recording were all given to the Cathedral Church of Christ, for the purchase of an organ in 1932.

The Cathedral Choir has performed for numerous dignitaries. The group performed before the British royal family, first in April 1921 at the cornerstone laying ceremony of the Cathedral Church of Christ, by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. In January 1956, the choir performed before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, when they worshiped at the Cathedral Church; and finally, on October 2, 1960, at the Independence Day service of Nigeria, attended by Her Royal Highness, Princess Alexandra. On an Advent Sunday in 1972, the Cathedral Choir performed with the King’s College Cambridge Choir, during their visit to Nigeria. The first broadcast by the Cathedral Choir on the British Broadcasting Corporation was aired on December 12, 1951.

Compact disc recordings

The Cathedral Choir’s work has not been restricted to only live performances at services and concerts. The choir has recorded some of its favorite works to reach out to the wider church music community. During the tenure of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, the choir recorded two of his songs, Emi O Gbe Oju Mi S’Oke Wonni (I Will Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills—Psalm 121) and Ise Oluwa (The Work of the Lord) for the
BBC series, Church Music from the Commonwealth. In 2006, the choir released its first compact disc set, Choral Music: Volumes I & II. The two CDs contain a selection of hymns, anthems, psalms, Te Deum, and Jubilate that the Cathedral Choir has sung over decades. Composers of the selected works as usual were mostly British with the exception of the Cathedral Choir musicians, in particular, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, Modupe Phillips, Obayomi Phillips, Soji Lijadu, Fela Sowande, Olusina Ojemuyiwa, Yinka Sowande, and Babatunde Sosan.

Conclusion

In spite of the stability and loyalty to the Anglican worship system, the music ministry at the Cathedral Church of Christ has gone through a transformation to conform with modern trends in Nigeria. The middle of the 1980s chronicles the emergence of the Neo-Pentecostal-Evangelical churches and university campus Christian fellowships all over the country. These were largely driven by an American innovation of worship and evangelistic methodologies. Hence, singing in those arenas is characterized by the adoption of contemporary American praise choruses. The new churches have been founded primarily by Nigerian pastors trained in American seminaries and Bible schools. The pastors, at the completion of their training in the United States, returned to Nigeria to establish an experiential worship that mirrored what they had been exposed to in the United States. Other factors that paved the way for the proliferation of American influences were the abundance of sermons and songs on audio and video recordings, praise chorus hymnbooks with staff notation, and Christian literature sold in local religious bookstores. These influences are interwoven into various strands of worship that undisputedly distinguish the new churches from the well-established Protestant churches such as the Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist denominations.

On a final note, twenty-first-century congregational singing at the Cathedral Church of Christ is indeed a commixture of traditional hymns and contemporary American praise choruses, a tuneful blending of the American and the British influences. At each service, each congregant’s musical taste is met through the appropriation of a pluralistic worship. It is not only the indigenous members that are being catered to, but also visiting European and American worshippers who comfortably feel at home in the Cathedral Church of Christ with this type of multi-cultural musical repertoire. While all these evolutions continue, the Cathedral Choir and its musicians have painstakingly endeavored to maintain a befitting exceptional musical standard that it is reputed as a role model for other choirs, thereby preserving the legacies of the founding fathers of the choir, namely, Robert Coker, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, and Charles Obayomi Phillips.

The Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, website: https://www.thecathedrallagos.org

Notes

1. Combined Mass Choir or Augmented Choir is a choral outfit comprising of about a hundred voices made up of choristers from various Anglican churches in Lagos.

2. This essay is derived from the author’s book, The Centenary of the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos (Columbus, Ohio: GSS Publications, 2018).

C. B. Fisk, Inc., Gloucester, Massachusetts

First United Methodist Church, Pittsburg, Kansas

From the Organbuilder

Forever ago it seems, in the year 1991, C. B. Fisk, Inc., was commissioned to build a three-manual, 49-stop teaching and recital instrument in McCray Hall on the campus of Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas. Our first organ in the Sunflower State, Opus 106 provided us an opportunity to work closely with PSU professor Susan Marchant, the school’s widely respected director of choral activities, organ, and harpsichord. Trained in organ performance at Oberlin and Yale, Dr. Marchant allowed at the time that, should the stars someday align again, her dream was to acquire a Fisk instrument for her church—the First United Methodist Church of Pittsburg.

Well, to the benefit of all, twenty-six years later the stars did indeed realign, and in the spring of 2017 C. B. Fisk was awarded a contract with FUMC to build a two-manual, 26-stop mechanical-action organ. Discussions had commenced the year previous with Dr. Marchant, music director and organist, Eric Rosenblad, chair of the organ committee, and the Reverend Mark Chambers, senior pastor. It was decided early on that Opus 152, in contrast to its predecessor, would be centrally located and facing forward at the front of the sanctuary, enabling it to speak without obstruction into the nave. Its unorthodox, imaginative tonal design, developed in close collaboration with the music director, would be efficient, flexible, and specific to the needs of a traditional United Methodist parish church with a reputable, first-rate music program. For our part, we were as delighted at the opportunity for further artistic partnership with Dr. Marchant as we were enthused to add to the collection of fine musical instruments that enhance life in southeastern Kansas.

The First United Methodist Church was established in 1879 as the Tabernacle Methodist Church, three years after the founding of the city of Pittsburg. The current building, a sturdy and nicely proportioned edifice of red brick, is the third in the church’s 140-year history. Dating from 1914, it stands at the intersection of 5th and Pine Streets, one block west of Pittsburg’s picturesque main street.

The church has recently undergone a major renovation, a new pipe organ having been a cardinal component of the renovation plan from day one. Acoustical consultant Joseph Myers, president of Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago, was key to the revitalization of the sanctuary design. Following a day of joint onsite listening and brainstorming with Fisk president Michael Kraft and project manager Andrew Gingery, and encompassing ideas that came out of visual designer Charles Nazarian’s initial studies in the physical design model, Mr. Myers generated a detailed, prioritized list of room modifications for consideration. All together, these changes would markedly improve the sanctuary’s acoustical ambience—for the spoken word, for congregational as well as choral singing, and for the support of organ tone. Myers’s comprehensive report contained recommendations for:

1) reshaping and extending the chancel platform in order to bring the liturgical proceedings closer to the people and to provide greater flexibility for worship and concerts;

2) filling the former organ chamber openings in the chancel sides with angled, plastered masonry walls to add support for the organ’s bass tones and at the same time reduce parallel side wall flutter;

3) removing in its entirety the (providentially) non-structural proscenium arch, thus doing away with an acoustically harmful sound trap;

4) adding a gently sloping, shallow, convex reflector tight against the barrel-vaulted ceiling at the centerline of the chancel in order to dramatically reduce the confusing buildup of sound between floor and ceiling and to furnish supportive reflections for both choir and organ.

These room modifications, in concert with the new instrument, signaled substantial changes to the front of the worship space; in spite of this, all were enthusiastically embraced and adopted by the church leadership. With the renovations complete and the new organ in place, the sanctuary has been visually and acoustically transformed into an exceptional setting for liturgical worship and musical performance.

Opus 152 is a two-manual and pedal instrument of 26 stops, 22 of which are independent voices. The stoplist was conceived to make the most of available resources, both in terms of budget and space. The Great division, located behind the façade at impost level, comprises only six stops but provides a solid foundation of 16′, 8′, and 4′ tone as a basis for leading congregational song. The one Great reed stop, the German Trumpet, is constructed after Arp Schnitger’s Unterklavier Trompet 8′ in the St. Laurentius Kirche, Dedesdorf. The large Swell division is home to a complete 8′ flue chorus, a pair of strings modeled after those of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, a flute-scaled cornet séparée with Dom Bédos-inspired mutations, and three colorful nineteenth-century French reed voices—Trompette, Hautbois, and Clarinette—all at 8′ pitch. Importantly, the upperwork of the Swell is scaled and voiced to not only create an effective and balanced flue chorus in that division, but also to couple to the Great foundations where it generates a convincing organo pleno on Manual I. The heavily built Swell box is located above the treble pipes of the Great division and is oriented back to front, with expression shades on the front and both sides. Due to its wealth of tone colors and extensive dynamic range, the Swell accompanies the church choir with ease, and it contributes well to the organ’s ability to showcase a wide range of organ solo repertoire. The Pedal is home to two independent voices—the hammered spotted metal Principal 16′, standing in the façade from DD, and the Trombone 16′. Four additional Pedal stops are mechanically transmitted from the Great.

Construction and preliminary voicing of Opus 152 happened in our Gloucester workshop over the first several months of 2018. Installation took place in August of that year, and the finish voicing occupied us throughout the fall and into the winter. The service of dedication and consecration of both sanctuary and pipe organ took place during Lent, on March 24, 2019, to a full house. It featured the organ as an instrument beautifully positioned to fulfill its roles of supporting congregational singing, accompanying choral music, and playing solo and chamber music of diverse styles. Participating musicians on this joyous occasion included the church’s Chancel Choir, members of the Pittsburg State University Choir, PSU saxophone professor Joanne Britz, and organists Susan Marchant, Peter Frost, and Jung Hee Lee.

—David C. Pike, Executive Vice President & Tonal Director, C. B. Fisk, Inc.

From the Music Director and Organist

From my earliest visits as a graduate student to the Fisk shop in Gloucester, as well as to a number of the instruments that resulted from the artistry and craftsmanship that guide the creative process there, I was drawn to the extraordinary organs that bear the name of the firm’s founder. My subsequent conversations and visits with Charles Fisk confirmed my decision that, were I ever to be so fortunate as to have an opportunity to help guide the acquisition of a new organ, I would look first to C. B. Fisk.

That good fortune became a reality when, in the 1980s, the leadership of Pittsburg State University and the PSU Foundation embraced the concept of launching a campaign to support the acquisition of what would become Fisk Opus 106. Since its arrival in 1995, it has served as the university’s primary instrument for teaching and performance, and as such has been visited by many of the profession’s most distinguished organists for concerts and masterclasses.

The opportunity to work toward the acquisition of a second new organ for Pittsburg, this time for First United Methodist Church, brought to mind images of a rather different type of instrument, one whose primary function would be to accompany the choir and congregation in the church’s long-standing and vibrant music program. The goal for Opus 152—with its substantial and versatile Swell and Fisk’s characteristically full-bodied principals of the Great, working in concert with the critically important acoustical improvements to the sanctuary—was to achieve a result that would bring an entirely new dimension to congregational singing, one that would be both supportive and inviting. By all accounts from members of the congregation, this goal has been met with resounding success!

Visitors to Pittsburg invariably sense the wonderful symbiotic relationship that exists here between the university and the community. In that spirit, my hope is that both institutions will benefit greatly from the presence of Opus 106 and Opus 152. Organ students as well as seasoned professionals will have an opportunity to study the two instruments’ differences in tonal resources, stop action, and other essential aspects of their design, and will continue to engage in great music-making for many years to come.

—Susan J. Marchant

Director of Music, First United Methodist Church, Pittsburg

Professor and Chair, Pittsburg State University Department of Music

GREAT (Manual I)

16′ Bourdon

8′ Principal

8′ Harmonic Flute

8′ Spire Flute

4′ Octave

8′ German Trumpet

SWELL (Manual II, enclosed)

8′ Violin Diapason

8′ Viole de gambe

8′ Voix céleste

8′ Chimney Flute

4′ Principal

4′ Harmonic Flute

2-2⁄3′ Nasard

2′ Fifteenth

2′ Piccolo

1-3⁄5′ Tierce

1-1⁄3′ Mixture IV–VI

8′ Trompette

8′ Hautbois

8′ Clarinette

PEDAL

16′ Principal

16′ Bourdon (Gt)

8′ Principal (Gt)

8′ Spire Flute (Gt)

4′ Octave (Gt)

16′ Trombone

Couplers

Swell to Great

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Swell to Pedal 4′

Accessories

Wind Stabilizer

General Tremulant

Key action: direct mechanical (tracker)

Stop action: solenoids, electrically controlled

Combination action: by SSOS, Sequencer

Casework: Quartered white oak with black walnut console surround

Keydesk: two manuals and pedal; manuals 61 keys (CC–c⁴); Fisk pedalboard 32 keys (CC–g¹)

Temperament: Fisk II

Photo courtesy C. B. Fisk, Inc.

Builder’s website: www.cbfisk.com

Church website: www.fumcpittsburg.org