Royal Canadian College of Organists appoints Nicholas Fairbank national president

James B. Hartman is Senior Academic Editor for publications of the Distance Education Program, Continuing Education Division, The University of Manitoba. His recent publications include articles on the early histories of music and theater in Manitoba. He is a frequent contributor of book reviews and articles to The Diapason.

                  All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.

--Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677)

The organ has been a prominent feature of the musical life of Canada since the earliest days of the first European settlement. The first organs were brought from France to Québec City around 1600 and organbuilding flourished mainly in Québec and Ontario from the mid-nineteenth century onward.1 Growth in organbuilding accelerated in the years 1880-1950 following the establishment of Casavant Frères in 1879 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec. Therefore it is not surprising that organists became prominent around the same time.

As soon as trained musicians began arriving in Canada, usually from England, many of them opened music studios to offer private instruction in piano, voice, organ, and violin. Some were also active in community orchestras or served as church organists and choirmasters. A few took employment in local music stores to supplement their meagre income from professional duties. With the advent of silent films in the early 1900s some organists obtained positions at theaters that had installed pipe organs where they played improvised or specially arranged accompaniments to the events unfolding on the silver screen.

Although the great majority of organists were known only in their local communities, some gifted individuals achieved wider recognition by making exceptional contributions to the musical culture of the country. This article will chronicle the careers and accomplishments of seven such outstanding organists who were active in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Frederick H. Torrington (1837- 1917) was born in Dudley, near Birmingham, England, where he received his early musical training. Later studies in piano, organ, theory, and choral music led to his position as organist at St. Ann's Church in Bewdley at the age of sixteen.

Torrington moved to Canada in 1856, first working as a piano tuner in Montréal then as organist-choirmaster at St. James Street Methodist Church. He taught privately and at several schools, and conducted instrumental and choral groups, including the Montréal Amateur Musical Union. For three years he was bandmaster of the 25th Regiment, Queen's Own Borderers. In 1869 he organized the Canadian section of an orchestra that performed in the First Peace Jubilee in Boston. In the same year he settled in Boston to become organist at King's Chapel and to join the New England Conservatory of Music as teacher of piano and organ; he also conducted various choral groups and was violinist in the Harvard (later Boston) Symphony Orchestra. He gave organ recitals in Boston, New York, and other eastern cities.

In 1873 Torrington returned to Canada to become organist-choirmaster at Metropolitan Methodist Church in Toronto and conductor of the Toronto Philharmonic Society 1873-94. His influence on the musical life of Toronto included conducting choral-orchestral works and organizing musical festivals. Other activities included director of music at the Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Society in the 1880s, and founder of the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1888, serving as its director until his death.

In the late 1880s Torrington became president of a group modelled on the Royal College of Organists, founded in England in 1864, dedicated to uniting organists and raising the standards of the profession. Although his group did not last for long, it was a predecessor of the Canadian College of Organists, founded in 1909. Torrington's work with various amateur orchestras led to the formal establishment of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1906. He left his organist post at Metropolitan Church in 1907 for a similar position at High Park Methodist Church.

It should be recalled that in these times the organ was regarded as a substitute for the orchestra; consequently, organ recital programs usually included a number of transcriptions. For example, one of Torrington's recitals in 1869 included Rossini's William Tell Overture and the Andante from Beethoven's Septet on the same program with Mendelssohn's Organ Sonata No. 1. Nevertheless, Torrington championed the music of Bach, and his performances of the master's works were enthusiastically received by his audiences. He composed several patriotic songs, a choral work, and some organ music.

Herbert A. Fricker (1868-1943) was born in Canterbury, England, where he received his early musical training as a chorister, and later as assistant organist, at Canterbury Cathedral. In London he studied with Frederick Bridge and Edwin Lemare. His subsequent career in Leeds included city organist, symphony orchestra founder and conductor, and festival choirmaster, along with other positions as organist in various churches and schools, and as a choral society conductor.

Fricker came to Canada in 1917 to become conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, a position he held until 1942. His cross-border musical activities began immediately with his choir's program with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski in 1918; this reciprocal association continued for seven years. Under Fricker's leadership the choir gave Canadian premieres of several major choral works by such composers as Beethoven, Berlioz, and Walton. Fricker served as organist at Metropolitan United Church, Toronto 1917-43, organ instructor at the Toronto Conservatory of Music 1918-32, staff member at the University of Toronto, and conductor of the Canadian National Exhibition chorus 1922-34. He was an active organ recitalist and adjudicated many competition festivals. He was president of the Canadian College of Organists 1925-6.

Fricker composed several organ works and made arrangements for organ, all published by various London firms. His choral pieces included both sacred and secular works. Over his lifetime Fricker accumulated an extensive library of books and musical scores that were given to Toronto libraries after his death.

William Hewlett (1873-1940) was born in Batheaston, England, where he was a choirboy at Bath Abbey before moving to Canada with his family in 1884.

In his new country he enrolled at the Toronto Conservatory of Music where he studied organ, piano, theory, and orchestration, graduating in 1893 with a gold medal for organ playing and extemporization. While in Toronto he served as organist-choirmaster at Carlton Street Methodist Church at the age of seventeen. In 1895 he moved to London, Ontario, to become organist-choirmaster at Dundas Centre Methodist Church and conductor of the London Vocal Society 1896-1902. Later he moved to Hamilton, Ontario, to become musical director at Centenary Methodist Church 1902-38; his Twilight Recitals on Saturday afternoons were a significant aspect of the Hamilton music scene for about twenty-five years. He was one of the founders of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and served as its first accompanist 1895-7, and he accompanied the celebrated singers Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Dame Clara Butt when they visited Canada. He was one of the co-directors of the Hamilton Conservatory of Music and served as its sole principal 1918-39; during this time he travelled widely in Canada as adjudicator and examiner. He conducted the Elgar Choir, which was frequently joined by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. In 1927 he conducted a 1000-voice choir in a celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Confederation of Canada.

Hewlett was a prolific composer in the smaller forms; he contributed to the Methodist Hymn and Tune Book (1917) and was one of the compilers of the United Church Hymnary (1930). He was one of the most respected Canadian organists of his generation and an expert on church organ installations. He served as national president of the Canadian College of Organists 1928-9.

Healey Willan (1880-1968) was born in Balham (later part of London), England, and was taught music at the age of four by his mother and his governess. At the age of eight he entered St. Saviour's Choir School, Eastbourne, where he studied piano and organ. By the age of eleven he directed the choir and alternated with the incumbent organist in playing evensong services. After private organ study in London he served as organist-choirmaster at three churches in various parts of England in succession 1898-1913. During this time he developed a reputation as an authority on plainchant in the vernacular (i.e., English, not Latin).

Willan came to Canada in 1913 to head the theory department of the Toronto Conservatory of Music and to become organist-choirmaster at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Toronto. His recital programs around this time exhibited his comprehensive repertoire, including much English music. In 1914 he was appointed lecturer and examiner for the University of Toronto and served as director of the university's Hart House Theatre, writing and conducting music for plays. He was vice-principal of the Toronto Conservatory of Music 1919-25 but his position was terminated as an economy measure and possibly on account of internal politicking involving Ernest MacMillan (see below). In 1921 he became organist-choirmaster at the Anglican Church of St. Mary Magdalene, an association that continued until his death; while there he introduced an Anglo-Catholic style of service music.

Apparently Willan possessed a facetious brand of wit: he was heard to say that the organ was a dull instrument, that organ recitals bored him, and that he was unable to play his own major compositions. On being elected president of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto in 1923 he promptly set its constitution to music.

Willan held many influential appointments: member of the Arts and Letters Club for fifty years, president 1923; president of the Canadian College of Organists 1922-3, 1933-5; honorary president and life member of the Royal Canadian College of Organists; university organist at the University of Toronto 1932-64 and teacher of counterpoint and composition 1937-50; president of the Authors and Composers Association of Canada 1933; chairman of the board of examiners of Bishop's University; summer guest lecturer at the University of Michigan 1937, 1938; chairman of the British Organ Restoration Fund to help finance the rebuilding of the organ at Coventry Cathedral 1943; summer guest lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles 1949; co-founder and musical director of the Gregorian Association of Toronto, 1950; founder and musical director of the Toronto Diocesan Choir School; and fellow of the Ancient Monuments Society of England. He was commissioned to compose an anthem for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, the first nonresident of Britain to be so honored.

Willan's public honors included the Canada Council Medal 1961, Companion of the Order of Canada 1967, and a diploma from the Province of Ontario in recognition of his role in Canadian musical life. A group of his admirers formed the Healey Willan Centennial Celebration Committee to encourage activities marking the centenary of his birth in 1980, and the Canada Post Office issued a commemorative stamp bearing his portrait.2

Willan was a prolific composer. His works encompassed dramatic music, vocal music with instrumental ensemble, works for orchestra and band, chamber music, piano works, organ works,3 and choral works; many of the latter have been recorded by groups in Canada, the USA, and England. He also wrote twenty-four articles on church music and organ playing.4

Lynwood Farnam (1885-1930), who became a legend in the organ world, was born in Sutton, Québec, a small town southeast of Montréal. Following basic musical training he continued his studies for three years as a scholarship student at the Royal College of Music in London, England, beginning in 1900. He held several church positions in Montréal and taught at the McGill Conservatorium until accepting a post at Emmanuel Church, Boston, in 1913. The story is that he impressed the audition committee by presenting a list of 200 pieces that he had committed to memory, stating that he was willing to perform any of them; he was hired immediately.

After overseas service during the war Farnam became organist-choirmaster at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, in 1919. By the time he played his last recital there in 1920 he had given 500 organ recitals. As a concert organist his performances were noted for their flawless technique, infallible memory, and profound musicianship. His reputation was consolidated among his colleagues by a dazzling performance for the American Guild of Organists in 1920. In 1925 he made organ rolls for two companies that manufactured player organs. 

Farnam's New York fame gained him an appointment in 1927 as head of the organ department at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, where he taught weekly until his death at the age of forty-five. His pupils included a number of prominent Canadian and American organists. At the climax of his career in 1928-9 he played the complete organ works of Bach in twenty recitals in New York, repeating each program at least once in response to public demand.

Although Farnam did no improvising and composed only one piece for organ, he was one of the great interpreters of his time, introducing North American and European audiences to contemporary organ music, particularly that of French and American composers, as well as to the forerunners of Bach. Louis Vierne dedicated his Organ Symphony No. 6 (1931) to Farnam's memory.

Ernest MacMillan (1893-1973) was born in Mimico (Metropolitan Toronto), the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister who became an internationally recognized hymnologist. He began his organ study at the age of eight with the organist of Sherbourne Street Methodist Church in Toronto and performed in public shortly thereafter. He accompanied his father to Edinburgh, Scotland 1905-8, where he had the opportunity to take lessons from Alfred Hollins, the noted blind organist, occasionally substituting for him at St. George's West Church, Edinburgh. Around the same time he enrolled in music classes at the University of Edinburgh in preparation for his first diploma. Upon returning to Toronto, now at the age of fifteen, he took an appointment as organist at Knox Presbyterian Church, where he remained for two years. He then returned to Edinburgh and London to complete his work for the Fellow, Royal College of Organists diploma and extramural Bachelor of Music degree at Oxford University, both awarded in 1911 before his eighteenth birthday. Back in Toronto he served as organist-choirmaster at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, commuting on weekends.

Thinking that his piano training had been neglected on account of his concentration on the organ, he went to Paris in 1914 for private study. While visiting Germany at the outbreak of war he was detained as a prisoner of war; there he befriended other English composers (including Quentin Maclean, see below), organized a camp orchestra for musicals, and concentrated on composition, including a work later submitted as part of the requirements for his Doctor of Music degree from Oxford University.

Back in Canada in 1919 he embarked on a lecture-recital tour of the west in which he played organ pieces and described his experiences as a war prisoner. In 1920 he began teaching organ and piano at the Canadian Academy of Music, and in 1926 became principal of the amalgamated Toronto Conservatory of Music. As an examiner and festival adjudicator, he travelled extensively throughout Canada offering stimulation and encouragement for musical development in small centers. In the following year he became dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, initially a titular position.

By this time MacMillan had moved away from the organ as an exclusive preoccupation; his new interests included education, administration, and developing systems and policies, although he continued to conduct and to compose new music and arrange old music as required. One of his unusual projects, in collaboration with an ethnologist in 1927, was recording and notating music of native peoples in northern British Columbia. In 1931 MacMillan became conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a position that enabled him to develop an unused potential. In 1935 King George V knighted him for his services to music in Canada. In the late 1930s he gained fame as a conductor in the USA, appearing in such prominent series as the Hollywood Bowl concerts and with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

1942 was a banner year for MacMillan: first, he was offered, but did not accept, an invitation to succeed Donald Francis Tovey in the Reid Chair of Music at the University of Edinburgh; second, he succeeded Herbert Fricker as conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (see above). In 1945 he filled conducting engagements in Australia, and in Rio de Janeiro in the following year. Also in 1946 he was instrumental in establishing the Canadian Music Council and served as president of the Composers, Authors, and Publishers Association of Canada until 1969; one of his first projects was the organization of a concert of Canadian music for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As part of his renewed interest in the piano he performed piano concertos with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, gave recitals, and made radio broadcasts. In 1950, during a weeklong festival to celebrate the Bach bicentenary, he offered a lecture-recital on the Clavierübung, playing all of Book 3 from memory. Although he resigned as conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1956, and of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in 1957, he still accepted conducting engagements with other musical organizations, travelled throughout Canada to initiate new projects to encourage young musicians, and acted as a classical disc jockey for a Toronto radio station.

MacMillan was a productive composer of musical works for the stage, orchestra, orchestra and choir, band, chamber groups, keyboard, and choir and voice. His writings included works on music instruction, articles in music journals, and other publications. He has been the subject of numerous articles by other writers.

Recognized as Canada's musical elder statesman, in later years MacMillan served as a member of the first Canada Council 1957-63 on account of his extensive participation in the musical arts. He participated in the formation of the Canadian Music Centre, serving as its president 1959-70, and of the Jeunesses musicales of Canada, serving as its president 1961-3. He received the Canada Council Medal in 1964. He was recognized by many public tributes on his seventieth and seventy-fifth birthdays, and these events were marked by special publications and revivals of his works. In 1970 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Quentin Maclean (1896-1962) was born in London, England, and studied organ there in the early 1900s and with Karl Straube (organ) and Max Reger (composition) in Leipzig 1912-14. During World War I he was interned in Germany where he met Ernest MacMillan (see above). In 1919 he served as assistant organist at Westminster Cathedral, then toured British theaters with newsman Lowell Thomas, providing background music for a lecture-film on Palestine. He was theater organist at many English cinemas 1921-1939 and began to broadcast regularly on BBC radio in 1925.

Maclean moved to Canada in 1939 where he continued his theater organ career in Toronto for ten years. He became one of the best-known organists of his time for his frequent radio broadcasts of background organ music for plays, poetry readings, and music for children's programs. He was organist-choirmaster at Holy Rosary Church 1940-62 and taught at the Toronto Conservatory of Music and at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto.

Maclean composed concertos for organ (two), harpsichord, piano, electric organ (two), harp, and violin; works for solo organ (eight), pieces for orchestra and other solo orchestral instruments, a string quartet, piano pieces, a cantata, and other choral works, among others. He was noted for his diverse musical interests, technical skills, musical memory, and high standards in the composition and performance of serious music, secular and liturgical.

*

Two features are noteworthy with respect to the individuals surveyed here. With the exceptions of Farnam and MacMillan they were born in England and received their early musical training there, which undoubtedly influenced their later musical orientation. Two of them lived for some time in the USA: Torrington 1869-73 and Farnam 1919-30, periods in which their careers flourished. The wide range of the experience and achievements of the seven organists is impressive. Taken collectively, they exhibited exceptional competence in a broad variety of activities: church musician, concert recitalist, teacher, lecturer, composer, arranger, conductor, festival organizer and adjudicator, examiner, writer, academic administrator, academic staff member, president of a professional organization, and expert on organ installation. At least one became a recognized authority in a specialized field (Willan, plainchant). All of them can be counted among those who have contributed significantly, in their specialized fields, to the musical life of Canada. 

Notes

                  1.              For a brief history of organbuilding and the major manufacturers, see James B. Hartman, “Canadian Organbuilding,” The Diapason 90, no. 5 (May 1999): 16-18; no. 6, (June 1999): 14-15.                 

                  2.              With Canadian soprano Emma Albani (1847-1930), who was commemorated in the same way at the same time, Willan was the first Canadian musician to be honored in this fashion.

                  3.              Willan made significant contributions to music for the organ. His monumental Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (1916) was described by Joseph Bonnet as the greatest of its genre since Bach. Other works combine Englishness and European chromaticism reminiscent of Reger and Karg-Elert. After 1950 his works became more contrapuntal, and chorale preludes became his most frequent form of expression.

                  4.             See, for example, “Organ Playing in its Proper Relation to Music of the Church.” The Diapason 29, no. 10 (October 1937): 22-23. He discusses the different--but sometimes overlapping--functions of concert organists (excelling in technique) and church organists (beautifying the liturgies or verbal forms, supporting the congregation, accompanying the choir, and welding the entire service into an appropriate whole). “As a general rule, I do not like large organs, large choirs or large noises of any sort, but there are occasions when grandeur is not only appropriate, but positively necessary . . .” (23). 

The biographical information in this article is derived from the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Second Edition, and is used by permission from the University of Toronto Press.

Lucien Deiss, C.S.Sp., died on October 9. His funeral was celebrated on October 13 at Seminaire des Missiones in Larue, France. Best known to Roman Catholics in the U.S. through his scriptural songs such as “All the Earth,” “Keep in Mind,” and “Grant to Us, O Lord,” Fr. Deiss was also widely known in Europe and the United States as a scholar in the fields of sacred scripture and patristics. He was selected by Pope Paul VI to coordinate the Lectionary psalter following the Second Vatican Council. His Biblical Hymns and Psalms was one of the first collections of congregational music for Roman Catholics. For this he was given an honorary doctorate in sacred music from Duquesne University. An advocate of the reforms of Vatican II, Fr. Deiss dedicated much of his life to liturgical catechesis through workshops and the well-known “Deiss days” sponsored by WLP (then World Library of Sacred Music).

Czech composer Petr Eben died October 25 at his home in Prague at the age of 78. Born January 22, 1929, in Zamberk, Eben began piano study at age six and organ at nine. At 10, he composed his first musical pieces. As a teenager, he was imprisoned in the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp. After the war, he studied piano and composition at Prague’s Academy of Music.
He taught for several decades, first at Prague’s Charles University, and later at the Academy of Performing Arts. From 1977–78, Eben was teaching composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. In 1990 he became professor of composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and president of the Prague Spring Festival.
Over his career he composed some 200 pieces, including works for organ and piano, orchestral and chamber compositions, oratorios, masses and cantatas as well as pieces for children. Among his best-known works were the organ cycle Job; the oratorio Sacred Symbols for the Salzburg Cathedral; Windows (four movements for trumpet and organ inspired by Marc Chagall’s stained glass designs for a synagogue in Jerusalem); and Prague Te Deum. He concertized around the world, performing his compositions as well as improvisations on organ and piano, including at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, London’s Royal Festival Hall, and the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.
Eben’s music is regularly performed throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. He was awarded many prizes for his works: 1990, by the Czech government for his organ cycle Job; 1991, the Ordre Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture; 1992, Professor (honoris causa) of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester; 1993, the Stamitz Prize of the German Künstlergilde; 1994, doctorate (honoris causa) from Prague Charles University; and in 2002 he received a high Czech decoration, the Medal of Merit. Eben is survived by his wife Sarka and three sons, Marek, David and Krystof.
Eben’s works for organ include:
Concerto for Organ and Orchestra No. 1 (Symphonia gregoriana), 1954.
Concerto for Organ and Orchestra No. 2, 1983.
Windows on the Pictures of Marc Chagall (trumpet and organ), 1976.
Fantasia for Viola and Organ Rorate Coeli, 1982.
Landscapes of Patmos (organ and percussion), 1984.
Tres iubilationes (brass and organ), 1987.
Two Invocations for Trombone and Organ, 1987.
Sunday Music, 1957–59.
Laudes, 1964.
Ten Chorale Preludes, 1971.
Two Chorale Fantasias, 1972.
Small Chorale Partita, 1978.
Faust, 1979–80.
Mutationes, 1980.
Versetti, 1982.
A Festive Voluntary (On Good King Wenceslas), 1986.
Hommage à Buxtehude, 1987.
Job (organ), 1987.
Two Festive Preludes, 1990, 1992.
Biblical Dances, 1990–91.
Amen, es werde wahr, 1993.
Momenti d’organo, 1994.
Hommage à Henri Purcell, 1994–95.

Albert Fuller, harpsichordist, conductor, teacher and author, died September 22 at his home in Manhattan, at the age of 81. As co-founder in 1972 and artistic director of the Aston Magna Foundation in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he was among the pioneers of the revival of playing baroque music on the original instruments for which it was conceived. A frequent recitalist, Fuller also recorded extensively, including the first American original-instrument complete set of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. The 1977 recording, made at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, became the initial release of the Smithsonian Institution’s recording program and went on to sell more than 100,000 copies.
Born July 21, 1926, Fuller grew up in Washington, D.C., where he was a boy soprano with the choir at the National Cathedral and studied organ with Paul Callaway. He went on to study harpsichord at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and at Yale University, where his teachers included Ralph Kirkpatrick and Paul Hindemith, and then went to Paris on a Ditson fellowship. He made his New York debut at Town Hall in 1957, and in 1964 joined the faculty of Juilliard as professor of harpsichord. He was also on the faculty of Yale University, 1976–79.
In 1972, Fuller founded the Aston Magna Foundation. Up to 30 performers gathered for several weeks each summer to study and play early music on the original instruments. Fuller left the Aston Magna Foundation in 1983 and went on to found the Helicon Foundation, a New York-based ensemble whose repertoire included music by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms.

Rudolf “Rudy” O. Inselmann died July 6 in Newport Beach, California at the age of 72. He majored in piano at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, then attended Capital Bible Seminary and became an ordained Lutheran minister. He received an MA in organ from Indiana University and a doctorate in sacred music from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After teaching music at the University of El Paso, he joined the faculty of Christ College, now Concordia University, Irvine, California. He served as organist at Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia; St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, San Clemente; St. Kilian Catholic Church, Mission Viejo; and Our Lady Queen of Angels, Newport Beach. Dr. Inselmann was dean of the Orange County AGO chapter from 1998–2000; he was also a longtime member of the Music Teachers Association of California.

Henry Ray Mann died June 30 in Greenville, Michigan. He was 72. A graduate of the University of Richmond, he earned a master of sacred music degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he served as organist-director in several churches and formed an organbuilding firm in partnership with Larry Trupiano. Henry Mann was known for his skill and artistry in the manufacture and voicing of wood pipes. He retired to Trufant, Michigan in 1992, subsequently serving as organist at Settlement Lutheran Church.

Bruce E. Mathieson died July 19 in Morgantown, West Virginia, from injuries sustained in an accident. He was 50 years old. Early in his 42 years of organ playing, he won two junior organist competitions. He was a graduate of Holyoke Community College with an associate degree in music. Mr. Mathieson served in the U.S. Navy for 24 years, and was the organist on the U.S.S. Enterprise during his service on that ship; he also played for Pope John Paul II while in Rome. After retiring from the Navy, he worked for West Virginia University and was organist at Point Marion Baptist Church in Point Marion, Pennsylvania; he also assisted the choir of Westover United Methodist Church in Westover, West Virginia. He was a charter member of the new Monongahela AGO chapter in West Virginia. Bruce Mathieson is survived by his wife of 29 years, Karla Landry Mathieson, a son, a daughter, his mother, two brothers, three sisters, and two grandchildren.

Roy G. Wilson died May 31 at the age of 92 in El Paso, Texas. A graduate of New Mexico State College, he earned a master’s degree from Texas Western College and focused his career on school administration in several El Paso schools. A lifelong musician, he served Grace United Methodist Church for over 50 years as organist, choir director, or as both. He regularly provided music for the Grace pre-school program and area school districts, and accompanied for solo and ensemble contestants. A member of the El Paso AGO chapter, he served as dean on several occasions. Mr. Wilson is survived by two daughters, a son, eight grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren.

The French organist and musicologist Jean Bonfils died on November 26, 2007 in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) at the age of 86. His funeral was celebrated on November 29 at the Notre-Dame Church in Vitré and a memorial mass was held in his honor at La Trinité Church in Paris on February 16, 2008.
Born in Saint-Etienne (Loire) on April 21, 1921, Jean Bonfils studied at the Paris Conservatory and received first prize in organ in 1949 in Marcel Dupré’s class, a second prize in composition in Jean Rivier’s class in 1948, and a first medal in analysis in Olivier Messiaen’s class in 1950.
Jean Bonfils substituted for Olivier Messiaen at La Trinité Church in Paris for over forty years (from 1950 to 1992), then for Naji Hakim. According to Denis Havard de la Montagne (http://www.musimem.com/BonfilsJean.htm), he also played the Merklin organ at the Grande Synagogue in Paris, rue de la Victoire, for over thirty years (succeeding Henriette Roger in 1953), and in 1964 he was also named titular of the Cavaillé-Coll/Mutin organ at Saint-Ignace (succeeding Paule Piédelièvre, remaining until 1975). After assisting Jean Langlais as organ professor at the Schola Cantorum, he taught organ there from 1973 to 1992.
He was editor of numerous liturgical journals and musical publications, including the collection he co-directed with Gaston Litaize, L’Organiste liturgique, Heinrich Schütz’s works for choir, and an organ method he wrote with Noëllie Pierront (Nouvelle méthode de Clavier, four volumes, 1960–68, and in 1962 a two-volume Nouvelle méthode d’orgue), which has formed an entire generation of organists, notably Olivier Latry. Seuil Editions published his reconstitutions of Goudimel’s psalms and motets. Jean Bonfils edited numerous 16th- and 17th-century French organ compositions, including Jacques Boyvin’s First and Second Organ Books as well as Deo Gloria, collections of liturgical organ music he prepared with Noëllie Pierront from 1962 to 1968.
A musicologist, Jean Bonfils wrote numerous articles, notably in L’Orgue: on the Christmas carols of Pierre and Jean-François Dandrieu (no. 83, pp. 48–54) and on Olivier Messiaen (1992, no. 224, pp. 12–14); in Recherches sur la musique française classique edited by Picard: on the instrumental fantasies of Eustache Du Caurroy (in 1961–62) and on Jehan Titelouze’s organ works (1965), as well as numerous biographical notices on French musicians for Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Bärenreiter) and for Corliss Arnold’s Organ Literature: A Comprehensive Survey (Scarecrow Press).
Jean Bonfils composed an organ piece, Communion on “Beata Viscera,” published in L’Organiste liturgique (Schola Cantorum). Jean Langlais dedicated to him his Trois Méditations sur la Sainte-Trinité, op. 129 (Philippo, 1962).
At La Trinité Church, I had the joy of working with him from 1989 to 1997. Like Olivier Messiaen, Jean Bonfils was very discreet, modest and cordial, and was an excellent musician. He played an eclectic repertory and carefully chose the pieces he played during the church services, strictly in keeping with their specific liturgical functions; an excellent musicologist as well, he was an immense inspiration to me and countless other musicians and students. In addition, he generously gave numerous manuscripts, musical scores and letters to the music department at the Bibliothèque nationale and to the library at the Conservatory in Boulogne-Billancourt.
—Carolyn Shuster Fournier
Titular of the A. Cavaillé-Coll Choir Organ at La Trinité Church in Paris

Robert N. Cavarra died February 8 in Denver, Colorado after complications from kidney failure. He was for many years professor of music at Colorado State University and a leading participant in the revival of the classical organ tradition in North America.
Under Cavarra’s leadership, three examples of this movement were realized in Fort Collins: the Casavant Frères organ at CSU (1969), the Lawrence Phelps opus 1 organ at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (1973), and the Danish Marcussen and Son organ at First United Methodist Church (1987). He brought together artists from throughout the world for master classes and recitals on these instruments, including E. Power Biggs, Marie-Claire Alain, Luigi Tagliavini, Gillian Weir, Lionel Rogg, Bernard Lagacé, and Anton Heiller. He taught from 1963 until 2000 on the faculty of CSU’s Department of Music, Theater and Dance. At his death, he was Professor Emeritus of Music. As a student of both philosophy and music, Cavarra also served as organist for the North American College.
Robert Nicholas Cavarra was born on February 23, 1934, in Denver. His musical training began in childhood, and by age 12 he was performing publicly. As a recitalist, Cavarra toured widely, including concerts in Denmark, Sweden, France, England, Canada, Mexico and the United States. He and his wife Barbara founded an international non-profit foundation, “Pro Organo Pleno XXI.” As a recording artist, he released CDs through the Musical Heritage Society, and he was a major figure in the “Christmas at CSU” series of recordings. He was also a published composer and solo and ensemble harpsichordist.
In addition to the classical organ, Cavarra was responsible for the installation of a Wurlitzer theatre organ at CSU, and sponsored numerous workshops on theatre organ music. He was organist at St. Joseph and St. Pius X Roman Catholic Churches and St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Denver, and St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins. He also taught music at Loretto Heights College and St. Thomas Theological Seminary in Denver, as well as at the University of Wyoming. Cavarra is survived by his wife Barbara, a daughter, three sons, and five grandchildren.

Jack Hennigan died November 11, 2007 in Pelham Manor, New York, at the age of 64. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he earned a bachelor of music degree at Juilliard, having studied organ with Vernon deTar. Further studies were in Cologne, Germany, with Michael Schneider (organ) and Gunther Ludwig (organ). He earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale, studying organ with Charles Krigbaum and piano with Donald Currier. He won international organ competitions in Bruges, Belgium, and Worcester, Massachusetts. Hennigan served as organist-choirmaster at St. Matthews Church, Wilton, Connecticut, and the Church of Christ the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Pelham Manor, New York. He wrote a monthly column for The American Organist dealing with fingering, hand coordination, and performance anxiety, and lectured to AGO groups on these topics. He was also known as a gourmet cook, traveling and studying food preparation in France. Jack Hennigan is survived by his partner, Martin Nash, of Pelham Manor.

Winston A. Johnson died February 4. He was 92. Born in China in 1915 to Covenant missionaries, he first studied piano with his mother. His family returned to the U.S. in 1927, eventually settling in Illinois. Johnson began organ study at age 13 and by age 16 held his first church organist position. He earned bachelor and master of music degrees from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and the master of sacred music from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. His teachers included Clarence Dickinson, Marcel Dupré, Hugh Porter, and Leo Sowerby. He served in the U.S. Army from 1942–46 as a chaplain’s assistant, playing for Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish services.
Winston Johnson served as organist and choir director for over 60 years, including at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle for 32 years. Active in the American Guild of Organists, he was one of twelve organists who studied with Sowerby in Chicago for the Associate certificate; he was the only candidate who passed the two-day examination that year. Johnson held several offices with the Seattle AGO chapter, including as dean. He also played for two AGO regional conventions, and had performed with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Opera. He taught at North Park College and Trinity Bible Institute in Chicago, and at Simpson Bible Institute and Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, and taught privately. He gave his last piano lesson three days before his death. Winston Johnson is survived by Irma, his wife of nearly 50 years, his sister, two sisters-in-law and a brother-in-law, and nieces and nephews.

Robert V. McGuire died November 12, 2007, in Haines City, Florida, at the age of 79. Born and raised in Chicago, his doctoral dissertation from the University of Chicago dealt with the use of the augmented second in Bach’s Passions and other choral works. Dr. McGuire served as organist-choirmaster at churches in Illinois and in Florida; his last position was at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Haines City, retiring in 2002. He served on the boards of the Messiah Association of Polk County and the Bach Festival of Central Florida, for which he authored program notes for many years. A lifelong member of the AGO, he served as dean of the Lakeland Area (Florida) chapter. Robert McGuire is survived by many cousins, nieces, nephews, and his friend Jeanette Stokes.

Edward Lamond Nobles, age 72, died January 2 in Meridian, Mississippi. Born in Meridian, he first studied piano with an aunt; he earned a bachelor of music degree at Jackson State College (now Jackson State University) in 1958, and a master of music education degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1968. Nobles taught music for eight years in Mississippi and for 18 years in Michigan; he also served as organist-choir director in various churches in those two states. He returned to Mississippi in 1984 and served as organist at St. Patrick Catholic Church of Meridian for over 20 years. Nobles was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity and the AGO, and was active in the Jackson, Mississippi chapter. He is survived by several cousins and many friends.

Glenn Edward Pride, 57, died suddenly February 26 at his residence on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he graduated from Peabody Demonstration School in Nashville and from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, majoring in organ performance. His graduate degree in sacred music was completed at Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology, in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Pride had served St. Simons Presbyterian Church as director of music and organist since 2000. During his 34-year music career, he also served First Presbyterian Church of Dalton, Georgia; First Presbyterian Church of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; First Presbyterian Church of Jonesboro, Georgia; and the First Presbyterian Church of Douglasville, Georgia. He was a member of Rotary International and the American Guild of Organists. He was also artistic director of the Island Concert Association of St. Simons Island.

Nunc Dimittis

Jonathan E. Biggers, associate professor of music and Edwin Link Endowed Professor in Organ and Harpsichord at Binghamton University, died unexpectedly on September 27 at his home in Vestal, New York. Born on February 10, 1960, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to Robert E. and Margaret V. Biggers, Jonathan earned bachelor and master degrees in music from the University of Alabama, and a doctorate in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music. He was awarded a Fulbright grant to study at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva, Switzerland. He won a unanimous first prize at the 1985 Geneva International Pipe Organ Competition, and also won the 1990 Calgary International Organ Festival Concerto Competition. Biggers presented hundreds of concerts in church and university settings throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, appeared as the featured soloist with orchestras in both the U. S. and Canada, and was featured many times on NPR “Pipedreams,” the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, and on radio and Television Suisse Romande broadcasts in Geneva, Switzerland. Jonathan E. Biggers is survived by his brother and sister in law, Fred and Caroline Biggers of Staunton, Virginia, and their children Claire and Sam to whom he was simply Uncle Jonathan.

George Bernard Bryant, Jr., died October 9 at the age of 77 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. Born June 17, 1939, in Nyack, New York, Bryant began playing the organ at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Nyack, while in high school, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ. He returned to Nyack to serve as organist for St. Ann’s Church from 1966 until retirement in 2014. He was a founding member of the Rockland County Music Teachers Guild and served on the music commission of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. In 1978, he became organist of Temple Beth Torah, continuing until 2014. In 1992, Bryant formed the Rockland County Catholic Choir, an organization that has toured Europe and Canada on several occasions. The George Bryant scholarship was created in 1997 to promote organ students and their studies. 

Emily Ann Cooper-Gibson died at her home in Marshall, Texas, on May 19, 2016, after an extensive illness. Born in 1935, she won the American Guild of Organists National Competition at the 1956 national convention in New York City. She studied with Robert Ellis at Henderson College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas (BM, 1957), David Craighead at the Eastman School of Music (Performer’s Certificate and MM, 1961; DMA, 1969), and André Marchal in Paris, France (Fulbright Fellow, 1958–59). Cooper-Gibson taught at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, and Hardin-Simmons University, Abeline, Texas, and served at churches in Abeline, Texas; Rochester, New York; Washington, D. C.; Potomac and Bethesda, Maryland; and McLean, Virginia. From 1957 through 1998 she played recitals throughout the United States and Europe. Active in the AGO, she served as dean of several chapters. Emily Ann Cooper-Gibson is survived by Gerald Gibson, her husband of over 50 years.

James A. Wood of Concord, New Hampshire, died October 16 at the age of 90. He was born on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, February 8, 1926. After graduating from Nantucket High School he studied at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, majoring in organ with E. Power Biggs and George Faxon, and choral conducting with Sarah Caldwell. During World War II he served as an Army medic in Europe. After the war he continued his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and Trinity College in London, England.

He served as director of music at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Nashua, New Hampshire, for 23 years, and at Saint Paul’s Church in Concord, New Hampshire, from 1970 until his retirement. In 1956 he joined the faculty of Saint Paul’s School in Concord and became head of the music department and director of chapel music in 1970. In 1955, he was a founder of the Actorsingers of Nashua, a community group of vocalists and actors producing musicals and operettas. He was a dean of the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and was named honorary member in 2008. He was also a president of the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association.

James A. Wood was pre-deceased by his wife, Constance A. Wood, a daughter, Licia A. O’Conor, and a grandson, Alexander. A memorial service was held at the Old Chapel at St. Paul’s School on October 22. Donations in his memory may be made to St. Paul’s School Music Department, 325 Pleasant Street, Concord New Hampshire 03301, or St. Paul’s Church Food Pantry, 21 Centre Street, Concord, New Hampshire 03301.

James B. Hartman is Senior Academic Editor for publications of the Distance Education Program, Continuing Education Division, The University of Manitoba. His recent publications include articles on the early histories of music and theater in Manitoba. He is a frequent contributor of book reviews and articles to The Diapason.

Like the members of any other profession--usually defined as an occupation requiring special education and training--organists possess skills that set them apart from other people. Their teachers certify their competence either through private instruction or in an institutional context such as a university or academy. They may also receive public acknowledgment of their status through specialized professional designations relating to organists' "guilds"--A.G.O., R.C.O., and R.C.C.O.--and by membership in their professional organizations. All of these connections serve to establish and reinforce the mastery of a unique musical tradition. In the performance of their work they exercise a fairly high degree of autonomy, even taking into account the kind of cooperative decision making that organists normally make with clergy, choirmasters, and concert managers. Unlike profit-oriented occupations, such as those related to business, organists are members of an altruistic profession that embodies cultural values supported by considerable public recognition, whether localized in the case of church organists or internationally in the case of widely known concert organists.

The role of family influence and associations in the
training of organists is seldom known for at least two reasons: (1) the
relative isolation and invisibility of the training of organists generally, and
(2) the historical time lag before the accomplishments of successive
generations of organists can be documented and evaluated. This article will
chronicle the highlights of the lives and accomplishments of several Canadian
families of organists, chiefly of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.1

Ambrose

Charles (1791-1856) was born in England where he served as
organist at Chelmsford Cathedral before coming to Canada in 1837. After
spending several years as a farmer, in 1845 he became organist-choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario, where he taught piano and organ. He composed Three Grand Sonatas for piano.

Robert (1824-1908), the son of Charles, was also born in
England. After accompanying his family to Canada he also worked on the farm, and
then in 1847 he joined a brother who was a music teacher in Kingston, where he
became organist-choirmaster at St. George's Church. In 1863-83 he was
organist-choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension in Hamilton and also taught
at a women's college. In 1891 he was president of the Canadian Society of
Musicians, which had been founded in 1885 to encourage musical art in all its
forms and to promote the interests of the profession. He was a prolific
composer of songs and instrumental pieces. One of his songs, "One Sweetly
Solemn Thought," was recorded many times by various performers, including
singers Ernestine Schumann-Heinck and Alma Gluck. It was arranged for organ
solo and for other instruments; it was also a popular piano roll.

Paul (1868-1941), the son of Robert, studied piano with his
father and also in New York, where he studied composition with Bruno Oscar
Klein and orchestration with Dudley Buck. He served as organist-choirmaster at
Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church 1886-90 and at several other churches
in the New York area before retiring to Hamilton in 1934, where he was guest
organist at Christ Church Cathedral. He served as president of the National
Association of Organists in the USA for four terms and was elected president of
the Canadian College of Organists in 1939. He composed many songs, choral
works, and pieces for both piano and organ. His anthems, in particular, were
performed throughout North America.

Carter

The four brothers of the Carter family were born in London,
sons of the English organist John Carter. The details of their lives are rather
sketchy and the respective death dates of three brothers are unknown.

John (1832-1916) came to Canada in 1853 and served as
organist at the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity in Québec City
1853-6. In 1856 he moved to Toronto where he founded and conducted the Sacred
Harmonic Choir, whose performance of Handel's Messiah on 17 December 1857 was
probably the first complete oratorio performance in Upper Canada (Ontario). He
was organist at St. James Cathedral, Toronto 1856-78, and in 1861 he
established the Musical Union, a Toronto choral and orchestral society that
performed large-scale works intermittently from 1861 to 1867. He gave piano
recitals in Toronto and conducted a Verdi opera in 1866 as well as a cantata by
his brother William (see below) in the early 1870s. The extent of his
professional activities after 1878 is unknown.

George (1835-?) was a pupil of Sir John Goss in London. He
gave recitals in England, Europe, and the USA before coming to Canada in 1861,
where he served as organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Montréal, for
about ten years. While there he organized a series of five chamber music
concerts. In 1870 he returned to England where he was organist at Royal Albert
Hall for several years. His compositions included songs, operas, cantatas,
organ works, and miscellaneous pieces.

Henry (1837-?) also studied with Sir John Goss and other
organists while still in London, and with Karl August Haupt and others in
Germany. After his arrival in Canada he was organist at the Anglican Cathedral
of the Holy Trinity in Québec City 1857-61. He founded one of the
earliest oratorio societies in Québec and was the English choirmaster of
the Québec Harmonic Society, a group of amateur singers and orchestral
performers that existed intermittently between 1819 and 1857. In 1861 he moved
to the USA where he was a church organist and taught at the College of Music,
Cincinnati 1880-3. In addition to giving recitals he composed songs, two string
quartets, and a large-scale anthem.

William (1838-?) studied organ with his father and Ernst
Pauer before serving as organist at several churches in England. In 1859 he
exchanged positions with his brother Henry at the Anglican Cathedral in
Québec City. While there he conducted what probably was the largest
Handel festival in Canada up to that time, on 13 April 1859, to coincide with
the centennial of Handel's death on the following day. His compositions
included songs, part-songs, anthems, choral arrangements, and a cantata,
Placida, the Christian Martyr.

Gagnon

Three members of this family successively occupied the
position of organist at the Québec Basilica; their total service
altogether amounted to almost a hundred years between 1864 and 1961.

Ernest (1834-1915) received piano instruction from his older
sister in his early years in Rivière-du-Loup-en-haut, a Québec
provincial town, and later at Joliette College 1846-50 where he won first prize
in a music competition. He moved to Québec City in 1853 where became
organist at St-Jean-Baptiste Church. He was one of the founding members and the
first music instructor at the École normale Laval in 1857. In the same
year he travelled to Paris to study piano, harmony, and composition; while
there he met several major musical figures of the day, including Rossini and
Verdi. On his return to Québec City and the École he served as
organist at the Québec Basilica 1864-76. As an organist he was reported
to be a virtuoso performer and fluent improviser. He was one of the founders
and the first director of the Union musicale de Québec, a choral
society, in 1866. He was also one of the founders of the Académie de
musique du Québec in 1868 and served as its president for four terms to
1890. Later he abandoned his musical activities for a career as a provincial
civil servant, then published several historical works and essays on musical
life in seventeenth-century France and in Québec. His compilation of
folk songs was reprinted many times, making it one of the most widely published
books in Canada. In 1902 he became a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

Gustave (1842-1930) was also born in Rivière-du-Loup-en-haut and studied piano in Montréal with his brother-in-law Paul Letondal (see below) 1860-4. He succeeded his brother Ernest as organist at St-Jean-Baptiste Church in Québec City 1864-76. Like his brother he also went to Europe where he studied organ and harmony with different teachers and met several famous musicians, including Saint-Saëns. On his return to Québec City he succeeded his brother as organist at the Québec Basilica in 1876, where he remained until 1915. He, too, taught at the École normale Laval 1877-1917 and also at the Petit Séminaire de Québec, a teaching establishment for training clergy. With his brother Ernst he was one of the founders of the Union musicale de Québec in 1866, and he was also one of the founders of the Académie de musique du Québec in 1868, serving as president for nine terms between 1878 and 1902. He participated in the founding of the Dominion College of Music in Québec City and was the first director of the school of music at Laval University 1922-5 and taught there 1922-30.

Henri (1887-1961), the son of Gustave, was born in
Québec City where he studied piano with his father and organ with
William Reed, a noted Québec organist. At the age of 13, with his
mentor, he played an organ concert before a huge audience at the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo. He continued his organ and piano studies in
Montréal before going to Paris in 1907 where he studied with various
noted musicians, such as pianist Isidor Philipp and organists Eugène
Gigout and Charles-Marie Widor. In the summers of 1911, 1912, 1914, and 1924 he
studied in Paris with Joseph Bonnet and Widor. Like his brothers he served as
organist at the Québec Basilica 1910-61. He, too, also taught at the
École normale Laval and at the Petit Séminaire de Québec
1917-33.  In addition to teaching
piano and organ at Laval University, he was one of the first teachers at the
Conservatoire de musique du Québec and served as director 1946-61.

Letondal

Paul (1831-1874) was born in France and lost his sight in
early childhood, so he received his musical training at the Institut des jeunes
aveugles in Paris. Upon moving to Montréal in 1852 he taught at the
Collège Ste-Marie and was organist at Gesù Chapel 1852-69. He
performed frequently and was involved in a business of importing French pianos.
He had many noteworthy pupils and was a founding member of the Académie
de musique du Québec, serving as its president 1882-3 and 1888-9. He was
also a founding member and director of La Revue canadienne. He is considered to
be one of the pioneers of the music profession in Canada. In 1860 he married
Élisabeth Gagnon, sister of Ernest and Gustave Gagnon (see above), thus
reinforcing an interfamilial musical connection.

Arthur (1869-1956), son of Paul, was born in Montréal
where he studied music with his father before obtaining his diploma at the
Académie de musique du Québec in 1886. He taught briefly at the Collège Ste-Marie. Like other gifted pupils of his father, he studied in Europe 1890-4, first at the Paris Conservatory, then at the Brussels Conservatory where he studied organ with Alphonse Mailly and theoretical subjects with other tutors. Upon his return to Montréal he served as organist at Pères du St-Sacrament Church 1894-1900, at Gesù Church 1900-23, and at St-Jacques-le-Majeur Cathedral. He taught at the Canadian Artistic Society Conservatory 1895-1900, the Institut Nazareth after 1901, the McGill Conservatorium 1904-10, and at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, where he trained several winners of the Prix d'Europe. He was a member of the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs (Paris) and served as president of the Académie de musique du Québec for four terms between 1898 and 1923. He was also honorary president of the Schola cantorum, Montréal. His compositions included works for organ, piano, and religious songs. He lectured extensively and wrote articles for several publications. His son Henri apparently was not interested in the organ but developed his career as a cellist, critic, administrator, playwright, and actor. 

Piché

This family of organists--Joseph and his sons Eudore and
Bernard--were all born in Montréal.

Joseph (1877-1939) studied organ, piano, and harmony with
several instructors in Montréal. He first served as organist in the
churches of Notre-Dame-du-St-Rosaire in 1898, St-Denis in 1900, and
Sacré-Coeur in 1908-26, before becoming the regular organist at St-Victor
Church in 1930. He also taught at the Collège Ste-Marie 1905-37 and then
at the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf. His wife, Yvonne Corbin, formerly
a pianist, conducted choirs and served as deputy organist at two
Montréal churches after her marriage.  

Eudore (1906-1967) entered the priesthood for a short time
before working as an administrator for an encyclopedia publisher and as a radio
producer. He was organist at Ste-Madeleine Church in Outremont, Québec
1950-65 and at St-Joseph Church in the Town of Mount Royal 1965-7.

Bernard (1908-1989) became organist at St-Nicholas Church in
Ahuntsic in 1926 and then moved to Notre-Dame-de-la-Défense. After
winning the Prix de Europe in 1932 he studied organ, piano, fugue, and
counterpoint with Paul de Maleingrau at the Brussels Conservatory and then went
to Paris to work with Charles Tournemire. He was the regular organist at the
Trois-Rivières Cathedral where he gave daily recitals consisting mainly
of Bach organ works for six weeks in 1934. In 1945 he recorded the music for
The Singing Pipes, a National Film Board production about Casavant
Frères, on the instrument in the Québec Basilica. In the same
year he began a series of several tours in Canada and the USA (covering about
twenty states) and served as organist at St. Peter and St. Paul Church in
Lewiston, Maine 1945-6. He taught at the Conservatoire de Trois-Rivières
from 1966 until his retirement in 1973. His compositions included several
pieces for organ and a mass for four mixed voices and organ.
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Warren

The large family related to or descended from the prominent
Canadian organbuilder Samuel Russell Warren (1809-1882)--born in Tiverton,
Rhode Island; worked in Boston; emigrated to Montréal in 1836; produced
more than 350 notable pipe organs for use in Canada and the USA--included two
organists who developed their own independent careers.

William Henry (18??-1856), one of the brothers of Samuel
Russell, was born in the USA and eventually settled in Toronto where he became
organist at St. James Cathedral in 1834. Several years later he moved to
Montréal where he was appointed organist at Christ Church Cathedral in
1838; he remained there until his death. His parallel occupations included
those of music teacher at a boarding school for girls and piano tuner.

Samuel Prowse (1841-1915),2 the eldest son of Samuel
Russell, was born in Montréal and began studying organ at the age of 11.
He was organist at American Presbyterian Church in that city until 1858. In
1861 he went to Germany where he studied organ with Karl August Haupt. He
returned to Montréal in 1864 and moved to New York in 1865 to become
organist at All Souls Unitarian Church. He also served at Grace Episcopal
Church 1868-74 and 1876-94. While there he inaugurated a series of over 230
weekly recitals covering a wide range of organ literature, which created for
him a reputation as one of the foremost concert organists in the USA. Other
appointments included Holy Trinity Episcopalian Church, New York 1874-6 and
First Presbyterian Church, East Orange, New Jersey, from 1895 until his death.
He was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists in 1896, becoming
honorary president in 1902. His collection of rare books and musical
manuscripts was one of the most complete in America. He was a close friend of
the French organ virtuoso Alexandre Guilmant. His professional activities
included conductor of the New York Vocal Union, examiner for the Toronto
College of Music, administrator of the American College of Musicians, and
member of the Boston Conservatory. Few of his numerous compositions--piano and
organ pieces, anthems, and songs--were published during his lifetime.
Nevertheless, he prepared an edition of Mendelssohn's organ works for Schirmer
music publishers, edited a church hymnal, and transcribed some of the works of
Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner, and Weber for organ. He was widely recognized as a
teacher, and many of his students went on to distinguished careers.

Organist families

The family, a basic unit of social organization in which the
members live, at least initially, in close proximity, is one in which musical
education and development can flourish, provided that other favourable
circumstances exist, such as social, economic, and emotional security. It can
be assumed that all these were present in the foregoing cases, where the
symbiotic and supportive relations between members--fathers, sons, and
brothers--supplied the motivation and encouragement for the development of
musical abilities relating to the organ. While the inheritance of musical
ability was likely an important factor, the superior advantages of a nurturing
family environment, along with the outside associations and inspiring social
contacts that they brought, were crucial factors in the development of these
talents to a high level. Recognition and status was achieved not only locally
but also internationally in some cases. A distinguishing feature of many of
their careers was their versatility; professional occupations represented
included organist, choirmaster, composer, teacher, examiner, conductor, editor,
arranger, founder and officer of musical societies, and institution
administrator.

The fact that this activity flourished in eastern Canada is
related to two historical factors: (1) the first appearance of organs from
France in Québec in the late seventeenth century, and (2) the
development of organbuilding in Québec and Ontario from the
mid-nineteenth century onward. The early careers of most of the organists
considered here all began in the later years of the nineteenth century and
developed further in the early years of the twentieth century. The
opportunities for the emergence of latent organist talent were clearly
connected to the heightened activity in organbuilding and organ performance
around this time, and to the general public acceptance of, and enthusiasm for,
the organ and its music.