Organ Recital Repertoire: Now and Then

by James B. Hartman

The Centennial Facsimile Edition of The Organ, Vols. I & II, May 1892-April 1894, Everett E. Truette, editor and publisher, Boston, was published in 1995 by The Boston Organ Club Chapter of the Organ Historical Society, P.O. Box 104, Harrisville, NH 03450-0104.  It was prepared from an original copy owned by the Spaulding Library, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, under the direction of E.A. Boadway, Alan Miller Laufman, and Martin R. Walsh. (Available for $59.95 from The Boston Organ Club, P.O. Box 371, Brushton, NY 12916-0571.)

Everett Ellsworth Truette was among the leading figures on the musical scene in the United States around the turn of the century.1 Born in Rockland, Massachusetts, in 1861, at the age of seventeen he was already participating in recitals at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was studying organ, piano, harmony, counterpoint, and theory. In 1883 he was among the earliest graduates to receive the Mus. Bac. degree from Boston University's College of Music, where he had served as organist at other graduation ceremonies. Subsequently he studied organ with Augustus Haupt in Germany, Alexandre Guilmant in France, and William T. Best in England, over a two-year period. In addition to teaching organ, piano, harmony, and theory at his large studio in Boston--it contained a three-manual, 19-stop, tracker pipe organ, in addition to a grand piano and a pedal piano--he was organist and choirmaster in a church in Newton, Massachusetts, and served as conductor of two large choral groups. He also maintained an active career as an organ recitalist, playing over 400 concerts and dedicatory programs throughout the country. His other accomplishments included the publication of over thirty organ compositions, collections of organ music, and anthems, issued by his own company, along with a successful book on organ registration, first launched in 1919. One of the founders of the American Guild of Organists in 1896, he was active in that association as its first Secretary and later as Dean. He was editor of the Organ Department of The Étude for seven years until 1907, and continued to write for that magazine until 1928. Seven months before his death in 1933 he played his last recital at the church where he had served as organist and choirmaster since 1897.

Early in the 1890s Truette conceived the idea that culminated in his most ambitious literary venture, the publication in May 1892 of the first issue of The Organ. In his inaugural editorial, Truette admitted the limited audience for such a publication, and described the magazine not as a partisan or trade journal, but as an educational enterprise for the discussion of topics of interest to music students, professional musicians, and lovers of organ music generally. His general aim was to broaden the familiarity of these people with the construction and uses of the organ through information about notable organs, technical and tonal matters, organ concerts, new organ music, and the sayings and doings of prominent persons associated with the instrument.

During its short existence only two volumes--twenty-four issues in all--of The Organ were published, and the categories of its contents varied hardly at all. There were biographical sketches of past and contemporary composers of organ music, contemporary recitalists, and organ builders; and descriptions of recent organ installations in the United States and historic organs in England and Europe. One article described the first organ in the United States, imported from England by a wealthy Boston merchant around 1700.2 Each issue included two or three organ pieces, some composed or arranged specially for the journal. Other recurrent contents included articles on organ construction and organ playing; specifications of new organs, programs of organ recitals, a question and answer column, correspondence in the form of reports and letters from near and far, a section of miscellaneous announcements about organists and their activities ("Mixtures"), and a column of humor ("Cipherings").

Although Truette's editorial at the end of the first year expressed satisfaction at the confidence shown by readers, subscribers, and advertisers, in the penultimate issue he announced that publication would be suspended. The reasons were primarily financial, related to a continued financial depression: many subscribers and advertisers were in arrears, and Truette was unable to meet payments to composers and writers for their published items. Reminding his readers that remittances for the balance of unexpired subscriptions would be forthcoming, and that back issues could be purchased at the regular rate of twenty-five cents each, Truette ended by saying, "we close the mucilage pot, hang up the scissors, and say au revoir."3

The highly informative and entertaining material contained in the twenty-four issues of The Organ is of great historical significance. Taken as a whole, its contents present a broad panorama of the state of the organ culture in the United States in the mid-1890s: organ building, organ playing, prominent recitalists, major events, and opinions on topics of interest to the musical community.

Organ Building

The organ builders of the Boston area--the focus of organ building in New England in the concluding decade of the nineteenth century--and in neighboring northeastern states were responsible for the installation of many large instruments in prestigious churches and other locations.4 Advertisements by the following organ builders ap-peared in almost every issue of The Organ.

The Roosevelt Organ works, managed by Frank Roosevelt (1865-1894) after the death in 1886 of his father who founded the company in 1872, was responsible for two of the largest organs in the world: a four-manual, 115-stop instrument in a Garden City cathedral in 1883, and a four-manual, 107-stop instrument in the Chicago Auditorium in 1889. When the company closed in 1893, various rights and patents relating to adjustable combination action, wind chests, and electro-pneumatic and tubular action were transferred to Farrand & Votey, a Detroit company.

The Farrand & Votey firm emerged from a buy-out of the Whitney Organ Company in the mid-1880s by the family of one of the partners, William Farrand (1854-1930). The company built a large four-manual instrument for the gigantic Chicago Exposition in 1893, and installed equally large instruments in the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, and in various churches. The other partner, Edwin Votey (1856-1931), invented the self-playing Pianola in 1895, shortly after the company began building organs for the Aeolian Company, with which it eventually merged.

Although the Hook factory of organ building was well established by 1860, and Francis Hastings (1836-1916) became a partner in 1871, Hook & Hastings of Boston acquired its name upon the death of one of the founders, George Hook (1807-1880). The factory operated at its peak level of activity at that time, producing an average of 46 instruments a year, including larger instruments of up to 81 speaking stops, along with several models of small, ready-made, moderately priced stock instruments, available on short notice.

Another prominent Massachusetts builder was George S. Hutchings (1835-1913), who entered the organ factory of Elias and George Hook at the age of twenty-two, leaving in 1869 to form a new association with several other Hook employees. In 1884 he began building organs under his own name, some of considerable size featuring patented changeable combination pistons. He constructed more than 600 instruments during his lifetime, including a three-manual tracker organ installed in Everette Truette's Boston studio in 1897.5

James E. Treat (1837-1915) had been working with various organ building firms for over twenty-five years before he connected with a wealthy interior decorator, Edward F. Searles, who commissioned Treat in 1886 to build an organ for his opulent mansion in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (Everett Truette was one of two organists who gave the opening program). Searles later subsidized the establishment of a factory for Treat, which became the Methuen Organ Company. In this enterprise cost was no object, the best materials were used, and the most competent workmen were hired. Treat's advertisements in The Organ warned "No specifications for competition--Prices not the lowest." For a time Treat was treasurer of the United States Tubular Bell Company, Methuen, Massachusetts, another Searles' business that advertised its products for churches, turret clocks, and public buildings in The Organ ("Ding-Dongs, 2 bells; Peals, 4 bells; Chimes, 8, 13 and 15 bells"). Among Treat's other installations was the Searles Memorial Organ in Grace Church, San Francisco, in 1894 (in memory of Searles' wife who died in 1891); Everett Truette played a demonstration program at Treat's factory before the organ was delivered. The organ and the church were destroyed in the disastrous earthquake and fire that devastated San Francisco in 1906. One of the pallbearers at Treat's funeral was Everett Truette.

George Jardine & Son, New York, was the concluding incarnation of a family enterprise that flourished in the last four decades of the nineteenth century. For most of that time, the firm was led by the son, Edward, who was a church organist and frequent recitalist in inaugural programs for Jardine organs. The firm's largest "Grand Organs" included several four-manual instruments in churches in and around New York, and one in a Pittsburgh cathedral; three-manual in-struments were placed in churches as far away as San Francisco and New Orleans.

Samuel Pierce (1819-1895) learned pipemaking in the Hook factory, but moved to Reading, Massachusetts, in 1847 to open his own shop, from which he supplied many organ builders in Boston and elsewhere with pipes, pipe organ materials, and other accessories. His advertisement in The Organ boasted, "Front Pipes Decorated in the Highest Style of the Art"; Pierce had a special department in a separate building re-served for this facet of his operations.

Although the Mason & Hamlin Organ & Piano Company built a few stock-model pipe organs in the 1890s, they were noted for their elaborate reed organs, with two manuals and pedals, and decorative dummy pipe facades; these instruments were powered by the strong arms of boys or young men who worked a handle on the side of the case. The company's advertisement in The Organ featured the "Liszt Church Organ," described as "the most perfect instrument of its class, superior to small pipe organs."  These claims were accompanied by a letter from Alexandre Guilmant, who testified that the organ "is of beautiful tone and will be very useful to persons wishing to learn to play the Great Organ."

Other organ builders whose advertisements appeared in The Organ included Carl Barkhoff, John H. Sole, Johnson & Son, William King & Son, Morey & Barnes, M.P. Möller, Cole & Woodberry, Woodberry & Harris, Geo. H. Ryder, Henry F. Miller, and J.G. Marklove. In addition, the Henry F. Miller & Sons Piano Company, Boston, offered "The Pedal Piano--Indispensable to Organists."

Organ Recital Repertoire

The content of organ recital programs in the mid-1890s was determined by a variety of factors: the performers' backgrounds, training, musical interests, and technical abilities; reverence for musical tradition and the attraction of the new; the perceived musical preferences of audiences; and the tonal resources of the organs.6 During the two years of its publication, The Organ printed the programs of 136 organ recitals, consisting of 956 selections in all. Of these, 264 (28 percent) were transcriptions of works by major composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as symphonic or instrumental movements, operatic overtures, and marches. The most frequently performed arrangements were from Wagner's operas Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, and pieces from Handel's Samson and Occasional Oratorio, along with his ever-popular Largo. Audiences heard interpretations of marches by Chopin (Funeral March), Gounod (Funeral March), Mendelssohn (Wedding March), Meyerbeer (Le Prophète, Schiller Festival March, and others), Schubert (Marche militaire); and operatic overtures by Flotow (Stradella, Martha), Rossini (William Tell), and Weber (Oberon). The frequency of performance of organ transcriptions of works by these and other composers is given in this table:

                  Number                Percent

Wagner                 36            14

Handel 27            10

Mendelssohn    19            7

Gounod                 14            5

Rossini 11            4

Schubert               10            4

Weber  9               3

Beethoven          8               3

Chopin 8               3

Meyerbeer          7               3

Haydn  7               3

Flotow 7               3              

The inclusion of transcriptions and arrangements in organ recitals was also widespread in Canada and England, and the practice attracted much criticism, even though it served the valuable function of providing the general public with opportunities to hear works that otherwise would remain unknown. In its second issue, The Organ reprinted a letter from a London magazine by the English organist William T. Best (1826-1897), perhaps the greatest concert organist of the nineteenth century, on the topic of organ arrangements.7 Best was responding to an article by Walter Parratt, Organist to the Queen, who was hostile to the practice of arrangements, calling them "examples of misapplied skill" that were having "a disastrous influence over organ music, as in the majority of such programmes two-thirds at least are arrangements of orchestral and choral works." Best retorted by pointing to "the father of all arrangers," Bach, and other musicians whose integrity would not allow them to select music unsuitable for the organ; even Guilmant, he pointed out, had recently engaged in the practice. Furthermore, he added, "in endeavoring to raise the musical taste of the humbler classes, the municipal authorities of our large towns did not intend their concert organs to be restricted to the performance of preludes, and fugues, and somewhat dry sonatas." Best argued that a well-arranged slow movement of an instrumental work was preferable to a dull specimen of original organ music. Even so, he thought that the higher forms of musical composition should only be introduced warily and gradually. Best had a very large repertoire, and his concert programs always included several arrangements. A sketch of his career included this assessment of his abilities:

Mr. Best's skill in handling the organ is something marvellous. When playing, his two hands perform feats of registration which would require three hands for most any other performer; and those who consider the organ a "cold instrument" have but to listen to his playing to become convinced that one who is so thoroughly skilled in manipulating the resources of the organ can produce effects of expression and tone-coloring which they never thought were possible.8

As for original works, Alexandre Guilmant's organ compositions were the most frequently performed, led by his Marche funèbre et chant séraphique and several of his Sonatas. Bach's Preludes and Fugues were played often, particularly the dramatic Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, but there was only a single performance of a Chorale Prelude. Handel was represented by his Organ Concertos, and Mendelssohn by his Sonatas, and Preludes and Fugues. Works by composers of the day included favorites by Batiste (Communion in G, Offertoires), Buck (Variations on The Last Rose of Summer), Dubois (March of the Magi Kings, Toccata in G), Lemmens (Storm Fantasia), Salomé (miscellaneous works), and Spinney (Harvest Home, Vesper Bells). Some short pieces by George E. Whiting, a member of the organ department of The New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, were played as frequently as Widor's Symphonies. Rheinberger's Sonatas also were played from time to time. The frequency of performance of original works for organ by these composers is given in this table:

                  Number                Percent

Guilmant              78            11

Bach      55            8

Salomé 38            6

Dubois 35            5

Handel 34            5

Batiste  31            5

Buck     28            4

Mendelssohn    24            3

Lemmens            21            3

Rheinberger       21            3

Spinney                 20            3

Whiting                 19            3

Widor   19            3

Frequent Performers

Of the 136 organ recitals reported in The Organ during its brief existence, many were played by organists who were unknown outside their own immediate neighborhoods; only two such recitals involved women organists. These concerts were not always stand-alone events, but were shared with assisting artists: violinists, instrumental ensembles, vocal soloists, and choirs. Nevertheless, about half of the recitals were played by only six performers, several of whom toured extensively. The most active players were Harrison M. Wild, Chicago (14 percent of reported recitals), whose 128th recital was reported in 1893; Clarence Eddy, Chicago (10 percent), J. Warren Andrews, Minneapolis (7 percent), and William C. Carl, New York (7 percent).

  Clarence Eddy was the subject of a biography that described him as the most widely-known organist in the country.9 Eddy, who showed musical ability at the age of five, studied organ with Dudley Buck before becoming a church organist at the age of seventeen. Later he received instruction in Germany from Augustus Haupt, who characterized him as "undoubtedly a peer of the greatest living organists." Soon after his appointment at the First Congregational Church in Chicago, Eddy began his recital career. After joining the Hershey School of Musical Art in 1876 as general director, he gave a remarkable series of one hundred weekly organ recitals without repeating a number; the concluding program in 1879 contained music composed specially for the occasion. Eddy dedicated more organs than any other organist of his day, including the great Auditorium organ in Chicago, and he gave recitals at the Paris Exposition, the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and the Vienna World's Fair, in addition to concert tours in the United States and visits to Canada. Eddy's other activities included his appointment as one of the judges for two organ music competitions sponsored by The Organ, his efforts in organizing the 1893 North American tour of Alexandre Guilmant, and his series of fifteen concluding recitals on the Festival Hall organ at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where a total of 62 recitals were played by various organists. A review of one of Eddy's dedication recitals testified to his gifts as a player, as well as exhibiting the laudatory style of music reviews typical of the time:

His programme of last evening was carefully arranged, and was carried out in the most masterly and artistic style. The most difficult subjects were brought out clearly and distinctly, while the intricate part of his work was interpreted with a sweet and sympathetic touch. There is an individuality about Mr. Eddy's playing that distinguishes him from the less skilful performer. With him the organ is not the noisy instrument it often appears when in the hands of unskilled players, but under his touch the great pipes breathe forth the most eloquent notes, and those who were strangers to the wonderful melody that can be obtained from so large an instrument were astonished at the ease with which he was able to control its wonderful resources. The hearers manifested the warmth of their appreciation by long and frequent applause. The programme was chosen with great care and embraced masterful compositions from Händel, Wagner, Flotow, Gounod, that were selected with the view of testing the instrument. . . . The Storm Fantasie of Lemmens, a descriptive piece, was superbly rendered. . . . 'The Old Folks at Home,' with variations, went to the hearts of the hearers, and elicited prolonged applause.10

Eddy also contributed letters to The Organ, including a long discourse on organ pedaling, in which he concluded that "an absolutely free and independent use of the heel in pedal playing . . . is as important as a skilful employment of the thumb upon the manuals,"11 and another on playing the organ from memory, in which he maintained (referring to the most noted organists of his time, such as W.T. Best, Alexandre Guilmant, Eugene Gigout, Charles Widor, and others) that "organists are heard at their best when they are unhampered by the mental strain attendant upon committing to memory the compositions they play."12   

The only visiting recitalist reported in The Organ was France's distinguished organist and composer, Alexandre Guilmant. He was the subject of a biographical article that commented on his youthful demonstrations of musical ability as an organist and composer, his period of study with Jacques Lemmens in Belgium, his frequent inauguration of or-gans and concert performances throughout Europe, and the compositional style of several of his organ pieces.13 The journal devoted considerable attention to Guilmant's North American tour in the fall of 1893, arranged by Clarence Eddy, in which the virtuoso played thirty concerts in less than eight weeks, including four at the Chicago World's Fair. The Chicago correspondent offered qualified praise for the master's performances:

At present everything with us is Guilmant. . . .

Though we cannot rave over this master's technique, we are carried away by the wonderfully clean and neat treatment of all his numbers. The breadth and truly marvellous conception of whatever he undertakes are indeed wonderful.

In his improvisations we expected more dash than was given; but a tone-poet, like a word-poet, is not always inspired. . . .

  In all his numbers Mr. Guilmant was encored and re-encored, and in some instances had to get off the organ bench twice, and even three times, before he was allowed to proceed.14

During his tour Guilmant played other recitals in various cities in the United States and Canada. In Boston, 5,000 people attempted to secure the 2,200 available tickets for Guilmant's two concerts. An enthusiastic reviewer stated:

Mons. Guilmant has raised organ playing to a point of virtuosity equal to the work of the celebrated pianists, and with him there is no chance to grumble at the "impossibilities of the organ." His playing of the above programme [works by Bach, Salomé, Lemmens, Schumann, Tombelle, Dubois, Best, Chauvet, Martini, Mendelssohn, and six of Guilmant's own compositions] was magnificent.

Guilmant's advent in this country is proving to sceptics that the organ is a concert instrument, and that organ recitals will draw as large and enthusiastic audiences as the best orchestras. . . .15

On his tour through Eastern Canada, Guilmant found a copy of Mendelssohn's Elijah on a hotel piano in Niagara Falls, and he impressed the guests with his playing of several selections and an extemporized fugue from the score, along with a few of his own compositions. He was met by a former Parisian organist in Hamilton, Ontario, visited the Mason & Risch piano factory in Toronto, and played for an audience of 5,000--many standing--at the inauguration of a new organ in a Montréal cathedral. Guilmant felt quite at home on the Casavant instrument because all the stop names were in French.16

Occasionally The Organ ventured onto the international scene by publishing the recital programs of several English organists; in particular, William T. Best, who performed not only in England but also in Australia, where he played a series of twelve inaugural recitals on the new organ in Centennial Hall, Sydney, in 1890.17 The programs of Auguste Wiegand, the Belgian organist who became City Organist in Sydney, Australia, were also reported, along with those of several other performers in that country.

Timely Topics: Organ Design and Construction

Of all the preoccupations of organists in the last decade of the nineteenth century, as reflected in the columns of The Organ, some were unique to that period, while others still are matters of interest today to experienced players and students of the organ alike. Most of the issues related to organ construction have long since been settled, but they were matters of intense interest at the time.

It should be recalled that organ building at the time was in a state of flux, and there was no universal agreement on many aspects of organ layout and construction. An article in the inaugural issue, "The Evolution of the Swell-box,"18 which touched upon both design aspects and their implications for performance, stimulated a debate that continued unabated for about six months. Responding to the author's claim that "the excess of Swell" was incompatible with the highest principles of organ construction, some writers advocated the "multiple swell" governing all divisions of the organ as a means of greater expression and control, while others opposed the idea as more mechanical gadgetry that smothered the organ's tone.19

The position on the console of the balanced swell pedal was also a matter of spirited debate. Truette himself initiated the topic and published the opinions of his fellow organists on various builders' practices that ranged from center to extreme right, high or low above the pedals. Some favored having the pedal sunk into the case directly over upper B or C of the pedal keyboard, while others (including William C. Carl) preferred it midway so that either foot could be used. Harrison M. Wild, the Chicago organist, facetiously suggested that "For many organists (?) the best position would be to the left of the pedal-board, just out of reach."20

In the concluding decades of the nineteenth century, organ builders in the United States and Europe were constructing instruments of enormous size for installation in large buildings world-wide. This issue was raised in an article on "Monster Organs,"21 which inquired whether organs having more than a hundred or more speaking stops were compatible with the highest grade of concert performances. On the issue of quality over quantity, William T. Best was quoted as stating that no organ needed more than fifty stops, and that "the varieties of organ tone are few, and the repetitions of the organ-builders are simply a nuisance to the player, though very useful to the builder from the white elephant point of view after erection." Although one correspondent demurred from Best's prescription, appending a specification of an ideal instrument of eighty registers, another agreed with Best in principle, but deplored the reckless distribution of colorless stops in many organs, and advocated a more scientific system of tonal design in organ construction. Later in the debate one correspondent despaired of defining the "ideal organ," while another submitted a specification for a three-manual, 54-stop, practical organ, claimed to be suitable in every way for any purpose. The journal later published a list of twenty of the world's largest organs that included these having 100 or more speaking stops:22

Town Hall, Sydney, Australia, 5/128 [126], Hill & Son, 1889;

Cathedral, Riga, Russia [Latvia], 4/124, Walcker, 1883;

Cathedral, Garden City, 4/115, Roosevelt, 1883;

Albert Hall, London, 4/111, Willis [1872];      

Auditorium, Chicago, 4/100, Roosevelt, 1889;

St. Sulpice, Paris, 5/100, Cavaillé-Coll, 1862 (reconstructed);

Cathedral, Ulm, Germany, 3/100, Walcker, 1856;

St. George's Hall, Liverpool, 4/100, Willis, 1867.

                 

At the other extreme, the W.W. Kimball Company, Chicago, developed a two-manual, eight-stop portable pipe organ, with pneumatic action throughout and a new system of feeders; the two pedal stops were vibrating free reeds exhausting into qualifying tubes. This space-saving instrument (all enclosed in a swell box), with its dimensions of six feet wide, three feet, six inches deep, and seven feet high, was designed with a detachable pedal board so that it could be taken down, boxed, and set up by anyone.23

An alleged decline in organ building generally was attributed to unhealthy competition among manufacturers committed to various "hurry-up" methods, low-grade materials, and "a maximum of claptrap mechanism, overblown stops, and cheap construction." At the same time, the author hoped that an "ebb of the swell-box flood, which . . . threatens the inundation of the entire instrument" would restore fine voicing and preserve the distinctive character of each manual.24

The business side of organ building was addressed in a discussion of organ builders' rights, common points of mutual interest, safeguards against delays in construction, redress for losses, and the negotiation of contracts with church organ committees. It was recommended that a convention of organ builders be held in Boston for the consideration of these matters.25

A series articles on "The Hope-Jones System of Electrical Organ Control,"26 described the technical details of the English inventor's new system of connecting a moveable console to the organ mechanism by a flexible cable, the second- or double-touch keyboard for bringing into action another rank of pipes, the replacement of stop drawknobs by stop keys, and a rapid sforzando pedal. It was claimed that these innovations in construction would also bring about a revolution in organ playing through the instantaneous attack made possible by the elimination of cumbersome mechanisms.27

The possibilities of the introduction of electricity into organ construction inspired a visionary speculation on "The Future of the Organ."28 The author imagined a new process of musical composition, in which the notation--perhaps as elaborate as that of an orchestral score--would be instantly translated into sound through electrically-sensitive ink. In this whimsical system, notes would be perfectly executed, along with appropriate registration and expression, as if emanating directly from the mind of the composer. Although instruments would still have manuals and pedals for those unable to compose in this fashion, present organs would someday seem tame and unwieldy relics of the past!

Timely Topics: Organ Playing

As part of its declared educational mission, The Organ offered miscellaneous advice on performance, either in the form of short articles or in a question and answer section. For beginners in particular, an article in an early issue advocated a mastery of manual parts on the piano, followed by slow practice on the organ using the soft stops, to achieve accuracy and clarity.29 A later article on pedal playing covered the proper seating position on the bench, locating the relative position of the notes, exercises in intervals, and playing hymn tunes.30 A discourse on registration touched on classes of organ tone, and offered general guidelines for combining stops for different contexts, such as chords, arpeggios, solos, accompaniment, and special effects.31 A uniquely practical piece consisted of a measure-by-measure discussion of the registration of the Adagio from Mendelssohn's First Organ Sonata, which was published in the same issue.32

For organ students and experienced players alike, there were two collections of "Don'ts."33 These assorted proscriptions denounced sliding about on the seat when playing pedal passages, swaying back and forth anytime, using the tremulant when accompanying singers, improvising every prelude and postlude ("How can your congregation stand your music all the time?"), keeping the right foot on the swell pedal, changing combinations before the end of a phrase, grumbling when the pastor announces different hymns on Sunday from the ones provided on Saturday, and forgetting to turn off the water motor, among other things.

The perennial problem of how to get an adequate amount of organ practice time in cold churches during winter months was addressed by a recommendation submitted by an ingenious organist: construct a tent over the console, heated by a kerosene lamp to raise the temperature of the miniature studio to room temperature in ten minutes.34

For players at all levels of accomplishment, the issue of whether one person can be both a good organist and a good pianist, and whether practice on one instrument is injurious to performance on the other, was discussed in terms of differences between piano and organ keyboard touch, finger position, legato playing, overlapping tones, and fortissimo playing.35 The discouraging conclusion was that it would be impossible for any one person to achieve the artistic heights of both Guilmant and Paderewski, for example; the required hours of practice would be prohibitive in an already too-short life. Nevertheless, among the advantages a country piano teacher might expect by becoming an organist included greater opportunities for being heard on both instruments, and the career advantage of working in the "elevated atmosphere" of a church. Piano students, on the other hand, were said to regard their art solely from the "Bohemian side."36

The early issues of The Organ announced that eight pages of organ music would be found in every number, a large part of which would be composed or arranged specially for the journal, the rest selected from the best writers for the instrument. This project was carried out consistently throughout the period of publication: a total of 45 selections by 26 composers were printed. These consisted mainly of short andantes, marches, and other melodies designed for players of modest technical abilities. Only two transcriptions were among them: Wagner's Wedding Processional from Lohengrin, and a Serenade by Gounod arranged by Everett Truette. Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Widor were among the composers of original works, along with Batiste, Dubois, Merkel, Salomé, and others whose pieces were often heard in organ recitals of the time. Truette published five of his own short pieces.

The center of formal instruction in organ playing in the 1890s was The New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, whose organ department had been established about twenty years before its advertisements appeared in The Organ; a brief history of the institution was published in a later issue of the journal.37 In 1894, two three-manual pipe organs, two two-manual pipe organs, and ten two-manual reed organs manufactured by the Estey Company specially for the needs of Conservatory students, were available for instruction and practice. In addition to the regular courses in organ playing, there were other classes in choir accompaniment, improvisation, and organ construction and tuning (a special nine-stop, two-manual, uncased organ was erected specially for the use of this class). The student tuition for a ten-week term in classes of four was $20.00; organ practice was 10 cents per hour and upwards. The board of instruction consisted of George E. Whiting, Henry M. Dunham, and Allen W. Swan, all of whom were frequent recitalists in Boston and surrounding areas. Thousands of organ students received their training at the Conservatory, and many of them later filled important positions throughout the United States and in Canada.

MORE POWER NEEDED

Minister.              "I think we should have congregational singing."

Organist.              "Then we must have a new organ."

"Why so?"

"This instrument isn't powerful enough to drown 'em out."

--Topeka Capital.38

Notes

                  1.              This biographical information is derived from an introductory essay on Everett E. Truette by E.A. Boadway, preceding the facsimile reproduction of The Organ, hereafter TO.

                  2.              Edwin A. Tilton, "The Brattle Organ," TO, I (December 1892): 173-75.

                  3.              TO, II (April 1894): 275.

                  4.              The following details of the lives and activities of these builders are derived from Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), and Barbara Owen, The Organ in New England (Raleigh: The Sunbury Press, 1979).

                  5.              Photograph in Owen, Plate XIV-25, 604.

                  6.              For a brief discussion of the organ literature of the late nineteenth century, see Owen, 269-71.

                  7.              "Organ Arrangements,"  TO, I (June 1892): 31, 41.

                  8.              "W.T. Best." TO, I (July 1892): 53-54.

                  9.              TO, I (October 1892): 125.

                  10.           TO, I (January 1893): 211.

                  11.           TO, I (September 1892): 114-15.

                  12.           TO, II (May 1893): 7, 17.

                  13.           "Alexandre Guilmant,"  TO, I (April 1893): 269-70.

                  14.           TO, II (October 1893): 137.

                  15.           "Alexandre Guilmant in Boston," TO, II (October 1893): 139.

                  16.           William George Pearce, "Through Canada with Alex. Guilmant," TO, II (January 1894): 211-12.              17.           "Organ Concerts," TO, I (July 1892): 65-6. Of the total of 83 pieces he played there, 29 were transcriptions; Best included one of his own compositions in every program.

                  18.           TO, I (May 1892): 6-7, 17.

                  19.           The unusually large swell-box of the Gray & Davidson organ under construction in 1858 in the Town Hall, Leeds, England, was the site for a merry celebratory dinner where the designers, builders, and others feasted on choice entrées, salmon, and venison, all washed down with a dozen bottles of sparkling and six of '34 port wine, in the novel environment gayly decorated with flags and banners. "Dinner in a Swell-box," TO, I (September 1892): 113-14.

                  20.           "The Location of the Balanced Swell-pedal," TO, I (January 1893): 197-98.

                  21.           TO, I (July 1892): 55, 65.

                  22.           "Comparative Table of the Largest Organs of the World," TO, II (December 1893): 175.

                  23.           W.S.B. Mathews, "Portable Pipe Organ," TO, II (August 1893): 90-91, reprinted from Music.

                  24.           "The Decline of Church Organ-building in the United States," TO, I (February 1893): 234.

                  25.           "For the Protection of Organ Builders," TO, II (October 1893): 126-27.

                  26            Commencing in TO, I (March 1893): 246.

                  27.           The blind English organist, Alfred Hollins, quoted William T. Best's opinion on "Hopeless Jones," who "plays his organs at the end of a long rope which ought to be around his neck." A Blind Musician Looks Back (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1936), 167.

                  28.           TO, II (March 1894): 248.

                  29.           Thomas Ely, "The Art of Practising on the Organ," TO, I (August 1892): 78-79, reprinted from the London Musical Herald.

                  30.           Horatio Clarke, "For Beginners in Pedal Playing," TO, II (January 1894): 199.

                  31.           "Registration for Beginners," TO, II (February 1894): 223-24.

                  32.           "A Few Hints on Registration," TO, I (October 1892): 127, 137.

                  33.           "A Chapter of Don'ts," TO, I (October 1892): 139; "A Second Chapter of Don'ts," TO, I (November 1892): 162.

                  34.           TO, II (January 1894): 197.

                  35.           "An Organist and a Pianist," TO, II (January 1894): 197-98.

                  36.           Albert W. Borst, "Should a Music Teacher Be an Organist as Well as a Pianist?" TO, II (October 1893): 127-28, reprinted from The Étude.

                  37.           "Organs and Organ Teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music," TO, II (March 1894): 247-48.

                  38.           "Cipherings," TO, I (April 1893): 287.

by James B. Hartman

Part 1 of this article was published in the May, 1997 issue
of The Diapason, pp. 18--21.

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Westminster Church had a reed organ until 1894, when it
acquired the discarded Warren pipe organ from Grace Church. Then, five years
later, D. W. Karn, Woodstock, Ontario, completed the installation of a
two-manual, 24-stop instrument; the opening recital on the handsome instrument
was anticipated as "one of the most interesting musical events of the
season,"28 and the organ was compared favorably with the one in Holy
Trinity Church.29

In 1912 the church replaced the organ with a four-manual,
49-stop Casavant organ at a cost of $10,500. This organ, which has undergone
several modifications since that date, is the grandest organ in Winnipeg in the
Romantic tonal tradition. For this reason it has served as the location for
many concerts and recitals by local players and world-renowned organ virtuosos
over the years.

St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church

When St. Stephen's Church was erected in 1903, it acquired a
new organ through a rather unusual sequence of events. In the same year the
Winnipeg College of Music opened, with a staff of fifteen teachers who offered
courses in piano, organ, voice, violin, harmony, and theory. The College had
ordered a two-manual $2,000 organ from an unidentified Toronto builder,
probably either Warren or Williams, for installation in their building. How St.
Stephen's acquired their organ was reported in a weekly newspaper:

When it came to making alterations in the new college
building it was found that it would be impossible to erect the organ there without inconvenience and a large expenditure of space--and the college business is growing so fast that space is a very valuable consideration. So, in this dilemma a convenient arrangement was made with the authorities of St. Stephen's church by which the organ will be placed in that church, used at the services and be available for college purposes during the week.30

The organ was only in use for about three years, when it was
replaced by a three-manual, 29-stop instrument, installed by Casavant
Frères in 1906 at a cost of $5,050.                     

Augustine Presbyterian Church

Organ installations received greater publicity when the
inaugural concerts were played by touring recitalists. For example, the
American organist Clarence Eddy, who had been the official organist at the
Paris Exposition in 1899 and who was reputed to have opened more organs than
any other living organist, played two recitals on the new three-manual, 28-stop
organ installed in Augustine Presbyterian Church by D. W. Karn, Woodstock,
Ontario, in 1905:

   Light
and color were transformed into waves of melody at Augustine church last
evening before a delighted audience of between seven and eight hundred music
lovers, assembled at the first of the two inaugural recitals on the new organ
by Mr. Clarence Eddy, a pastmaster on the great church instrument. The church
is as new as the organ so there were no grim ghosts of by-gone Covenanters to
protest against the introduction of a musical instrument in the kirk, but even
had there been they would have been soothed by the carnival of sound which the
magnificent instrument produced under the master touch of the world-wide famous
American organist.

   The
organ is set in an alcove on a level with the gallery and above the choir. It
was manufactured by the Karn Organ and Piano company, of Woodstock, Ontario, of
which Mr. Wright is the local manager. It is a splendid instrument, the largest
and best in western Canada, with over 2,000 speaking tubes; and, thanks to its
large open diapasons, it has a wide volume of sound which is unequalled by many
even larger instruments. Mr. Eddy himself is delighted with it. "It is
brilliant," he said, "and it was a pleasure to me to play on
it."31

The Augustine organ is the earliest instrument installed in
Winnipeg that still remains active, although it has undergone refitting and
renovation several times in the intervening years.

Other Installations

The arrivals of new organs in other large city
churches--Zion Methodist in 1905, Fort Rouge Methodist in 1906 and 1911, Young
Methodist in 1907, Wesley Methodist in 1908, St. Luke's Anglican in 1910, St.
Giles Presbyterian in 1913, and others--continued to receive attention in the
daily newspapers. With some exceptions, inaugural recitals by local players
were often ignored, perhaps because they were not stand-alone events, but were
part of dedication services involving religious rituals and church choirs. The
installation of a new organ also provided an opportunity for local organists to
inspect and play the instrument. Five city organists performed at a private
trial of the new three-manual Casavant organ at Broadway Methodist Church in
1907. Leading members of the congregation and several city clergymen were
present, along with J. C. Casavant, the head of the organ building firm.32

Local Players

As soon as trained musicians arrived in Winnipeg, usually
from England, they opened music studios in Winnipeg to offer private
instruction in voice, piano, organ, and other instruments. Many of these people
were also active in local orchestras or served as church organists and
choirmasters. Some took employment in local music stores to supplement their
meagre income from professional duties. For example, this advertisement was
printed in a daily newspaper:

Mr. C. J. Newman (Associate London Academy of Music),
Organist and Choirmaster, Holy Trinity Church, is now prepared to receive or
visit pupils for organ, piano and voice culture. He is also open to accept
concert engagements as a pianist, accompanist, or for organ recitals. For terms
and appointment, address, for the present, Prince's Music Store.33

In the early days organ recitals in the larger churches were
played before capacity audiences, and they were much more frequent than they
are today. Sometimes they were shared performances involving church choirs,
vocalists, or other instrumentalists. A number of Winnipeg organists were
particularly active, and the newspaper columnists followed their careers with
sustained interest.

One of the earliest was Dr. P. R. Maclagan, a native of
Scotland, who became a church organist there at the age of eighteen. Before
coming to Winnipeg in 1882, he was organist at Christ Church, Montréal,
for about twelve years. He served as organist at several prominent Winnipeg
churches and was in demand as a recitalist throughout the city:

The recital of organ music given by Dr. Maclagan in St.
Mary's Church on Tuesday evening was attended by a large and fashionable
audience, including most every professional and amateur organist in the city.
The programme was an unusually heavy one, and contained representative
compositions of nearly all the Great Masters, classical and modern. . . . The
technical difficulties of some of the pieces, notably the Guilmant sonata, are
enormous; yet they were all performed, not only with apparent ease, but with a
degree of artistic finish seldom or never heard in the country. . . . The
performance was probably superior to anything hitherto executed by that
talented artist, and his many friends who were present expressed their delight
at again enjoying his masterly interpretations.34

On one occasion he travelled to New York to play at one of
the Episcopal churches there. He was musical conductor of the Musical and
Operatic Society, and also of the Madrigal Society, before his untimely death
of consumption in 1887 at the age of thirty-six.

Among the organists who contributed to the development of
the local musical culture was Kate Holmes, organist at Grace Methodist Church
in the 1890s. While a review of her recital at Christ Church Anglican in 1892
was highly appreciative, its condescending tone would not pass late
twentieth-century feminist criteria unchallenged:

Christ church was well filled last evening by a music loving
audience, who had gathered together to hear and appreciate what is not too
often heard in this city, high-class music, well played on the organ. To very
few women is given such power over the master instrument as to Miss Holmes, who
is the organist of Grace church. Without apparent effort, she handles the keys
in a manner that proves her exceptional ability, for a woman, on the organ.

The programme which was selected was a very comprehensive
one, and was well calculated to exhibit the resources of the fine instrument
that Christ church now boasts.35

Robert D. Fletcher played his first reported recital at Holy
Trinity Anglican Church on 27 September 1898; eventually he was appointed
organist at the church, probably due to his demonstrated competence at a number
of recitals he played there and at other locations. This enthusiastic amateur
was pursuing medical studies (he received his medical degree in 1903) at the
time he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from The University of Manitoba in
1902 for his treatise, "The Church Organ--Its Evolution--Some Famous
Instruments." The opening paragraph of his 21-page dissertation accurately
reflected current views of the organ as a rival of the orchestra:

There is probably no instrument which has so engrossed the
public attention, as well as Musicians generally, as the organ, embodying in
its completeness almost all the principal effects obtained from band or
orchestra in solo as well as ensemble playing, even surpassing these in some
respects, and as capable of the most delicate pianissimo as the thundering
forte.

The reviews of his recitals also revealed attitudes towards
organ recitals in general that were widely held at this time:

Music--a branch of the art that, speaking locally, does not
hold its proper place in public esteem. There is usually an absence of vulgar
clap-trap at organ recitals, and in a beautiful church like Holy Trinity the
refined and restful surroundings add much to the impressiveness of such
occasions. Tuesday's programme was by no means a formidable one, in fact there
was not a "big" number on it; but its performance was characterized
by care and skill as to execution, and intelligence as to registration.36

There is a danger in organ music of relying too entirely on the mechanical effects for the interpretation of the work and while these effects are very necessary, in fact indispensable, nothing can take the place of a sympathetic, artistic delivery on the part of the performer himself. There are very few organists in the west who can entertain an audience as did Mr.
Fletcher last evening.37

Fletcher's great popularity can be gauged by the large
attendance at his recitals. He had a dedicated following in other social
circles, for he also played ragtime piano pieces at "smoking
concerts," where groups of men spent evenings playing cards amid the
fragrant odour of superb Havana cigars and being entertained by singers, small
orchestras, and instrumentalists. Even so, ragtime generally was denounced as
musical rot that makes money.38 Nevertheless, one critic deplored the meagre
collection received at one of Fletcher's organ recitals: "His talents will
some day be more substantially appreciated than in a community in which an
audience of one thousand 'music lovers' contribute the magnificent collection
of forty dollars and fifteen cents."39

Eva Ruttan was one of a new generation of organists emerging
in Winnipeg in this period. She received keyboard training in the city before
leaving in 1905 to study with Henry S. Woodruff, organist and musical director
of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis. On her return to Winnipeg two
years later, she opened a studio to accept students in piano and organ and also
became the organist at the new Fort Rouge Methodist Church, where she remained
until 1909. Her first public recital in 1907 was praised in print:

The lady shows distinct improvement in her manipulation of
the difficult instrument, and plays with fine expression. Her best numbers were
"Fanfare" by Lemmens and Lemare's "Andantino." Good
organists are not so many in the city but that a new recruit to the ranks will
be warmly welcome.40 

J. C. Murray, organist at St. Stephen's Church, was not a
frequent recitalist, but he was well known and appreciated in the musical
community. In 1908 a London publisher issued an album of his musical
arrangements of Elizabethan lyrics. One of his rare public performances, in
1909, was compared favourably with those of two world-class players, Edwin
Lemare and Clarence Eddy, who had visited Winnipeg, in terms of his command of
the organ's resources and his mastery of the art of improvisation.41 Murray
later received a warm posthumous tribute from an organist-diarist:

Mr. Murray had been an occasional pupil of Guilmant, i.e., I
think he had benefited on several occasions on courses of lessons designed for
pupils, who could have the time to run over to Paris from Great Britain and sit
at the feet of the great master. Mr. Murray was a superb player and maintained
the highest traditions of organ playing . . . [and] his playing had a charm and
finish that will not be easily forgotten.42

The same diarist also reminisced about George Dore, organist
at Holy Trinity Church for a time, who had arrived in the city from Chatham,
Ontario, late in 1890:

Professor Dore . . . was an elderly gentleman who played for
a time at Holy Trinity and subsequently was organist of the Anglican church in
Portage la Prairie. He had the hall marks of a fine musician and claimed, I
have no doubt with truth, to have been a fellow chorister with Sir John Stainer
and Arthur Sullivan. He was a remarkably clever improviser and a genial soul,
and I think of him with kindness as a man with the instincts of an artist and a
gentleman.43

When Zion Methodist Church installed a new three-manual
Casavant organ in 1905, the new organist Fred M. Gee was at the console. Gee
emigrated from Wales to Winnipeg in 1902 at the age of twenty and opened a
studio to teach piano and organ. In the following year he joined the staff of
the Winnipeg College of Music and became organist-choirmaster of Westminster
Presbyterian Church. For several years after his arrival in Winnipeg, until
around 1907, he was referred to as F. Melsom Gee, perhaps to preserve a family
identification with his father, Melsom D. A. Gee, who followed his son to
Canada in 1906 and served as organist at All Saints' from 1907 until his death
in 1921. Fred Gee served as organist at several churches, including six years
at All Saints' beginning in 1925, and often played inaugural recitals
elsewhere. He established Winnipeg's Celebrity Concert Series in 1927, later
described as the largest on the North American continent. As a full-time
impresario, Gee brought many world-renowned musical artists to perform before
large, enthusiastic audiences. A few months before his death in 1947, Gee was
the soloist in MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the visiting Minneapolis
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos.

Arnold Dann was one Winnipeg organist who achieved
prominence in the field of music education. Shortly after arriving in the city
to become organist at Grace Church, he opened a studio and secured an academic
appointment at Wesley College in 1918:

With the assistance of several talented teachers . . .
[Dann] will conduct classes in all grades for the study of pianoforte, harmony,
musical aesthetics, and interpretations. . . . Mr. Dann is planning to give a
series of organ and piano recitals personally. In addition he will deliver his
popular lectures on "Music and War," "The Complete
Organist," and "The Rise and Development of the Tune."44

Dr. Riddell, principal of [Wesley] College, recognizes the
importance of music as a communal asset and the necessity of placing it in
Winnipeg on the same footing as other arts and sciences. The services of Arnold
Dann, the well known piano virtuoso, and successful director of music at Grace
church, have been engaged. He has been given a professorship and a place on the
faculty of the college.45

Dann's recitals drew large crowds, and their frequency
clearly reflected their sustained success with the musical listening public.
Dann served as organist at Grace Church and held his teaching appointment at
Wesley College until he left Winnipeg in 1923 for the United States, where he
later became organist and choirmaster at a new one million dollar church in
Pasadena, California, in 1924.

Visiting Recitalists

Winnipeg was host to some of the world's most renowned
organists during this period; most of them came from the United States, several
from England, and prominent Canadian players were also represented. Advance
notices of their appearances were followed by lengthy and mainly appreciative
reviews of their recitals. The first reported recital by a visiting organist
took place at the Central Congregational Church in 1890. It was given by the
touring English recitalist Frederic Archer who, according to the English Globe,
"is now the greatest of modern organists . . . 2,000 organ recitals at the
Alexandra Palace." For an admission fee of 50 cents, the audience heard a
program comprised chiefly of transcriptions of orchestral or operatic works by
familiar composers. His return to the city early in the following year was
again accorded an enthusiastic reception.

In succeeding years, Winnipeg audiences heard recitals by
these performers:  J. Warren
Andrews, Minneapolis, at Grace Church in 1894; Frederick H. Torrington,
principal of the Toronto College of Music, at Grace Church in 1898; William C.
Carl, the New York organist who was on his way to give an inaugural recital in
Dawson City, Yukon, at Grace Church in 1903; Rosa d'Erina, the distinguished
Irish prima donna and organist, at St. Boniface Cathedral in 1905; Arthur
Dunham, the organist at Sinai Temple in Chicago who had received a testimonial
from the famous French organ virtuoso and composer Charles-Marie Widor, at Knox
Church in 1906 and 1914; Edwin H. Lemare, the expatriate English organist and
Paderewski of the organ who became a performing superstar of the organ in the
course of world-wide tours, at Grace Church in 1908; Lynnwood Farnam, the
Canadian organist who became a legend in his own time by committing 200 pieces
to memory and playing 500 recitals by the time he was thirty-five, at Augustine
Church in 1908; William Hewlitt, a co-director of the Royal Hamilton
Conservatory of Music and heralded as one of the most brilliant players in the
country, at Broadway Church in 1909; Gatty Sellars, the English organist who
was accompanied by the King's Trumpeter, at Grace Church in 1911 and St. Andrew's Church in 1912; Henry Woodruff, Minneapolis, at Knox Church in 1913; Albert D. Jordan, the Canadian recitalist who had served as organist at the
Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, at Westminster Church in 1915;
Herbert A. Fricker, former city organist of Leeds, England, who came to Canada
to conduct the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, at Westminster Church in 1919; Ernest
MacMillan, who eventually would become recognized as Canada's musical elder
statesman, at Westminster Church in 1919; and T. Tertius Noble, formerly
organist of Ely Cathedral and York Minster before settling in New York, also at
Westminster Church in the same year.

What They Played

The content of organ recital programs over the years can be
attributed to a variety of factors: the performers' backgrounds, training,
musical interests, and technical abilities; reverence for musical tradition and
the attraction of new material; the perceived musical preferences of audiences;
and the tonal resources of the organs. In Winnipeg in the early 1900s there
were only a few orchestras or instrumental groups that could provide public
performances of musical masterpieces of the past or of contemporary works.
Access to this realm of musical culture was broadened by the inclusion in organ
recitals of many transcriptions of operatic, choral, or instrumental works by
major composers. This practice, which was also evident in England and the
United States, eventually attracted much criticism, even in Winnipeg. Dr. Ralph
Horner, the music director of the Imperial Academy of Music and the Arts in
Winnipeg and music editor of a weekly newspaper, later referred to as the
"grand old man of music" in the city, commented on this issue in an
article that advocated more frequent organ recitals in city churches as a means
of increasing public familiarity with good music:

I am not an advocate for playing arrangements of orchestral
music on the organ, for the attempt to illustrate or imitate the orchestra only
results in disparaging the "King of Instruments," but in the absence
of a Symphony Orchestra these organ recitals can be the means of making people
acquainted with orchestral compositions which otherwise they would never
hear.46

In the four decades preceding 1920, there were 111 reported recitals, consisting of 733 selections in all. Slightly more than one-third of all the pieces performed were transcriptions of a wide range of works by the major composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The most frequently
performed pieces were derived from Wagner's operas Lohengrin, Parsifal, and
Tannhaüser; and Handel's choral works, including his ever-popular
Hallelujah Chorus and Largo. Haydn was represented by arrangements of his
symphonic and chamber works. Audiences also heard organ interpretations of
marches by Gounod (Marche militaire), Mendelssohn (War March of the Priests
from Athalie), and Chopin (Funeral March), along with arrangements of Grieg's
Peer Gynt Suite and Dvorak's New World Symphony. Transcriptions of Von
Suppé's Poet and Peasant Overture, as well as of Beethoven's overtures
and some of his piano pieces, were also presented.

As for original works, Alexandre Guilmant's organ
compositions were the most frequently played, led by his Marche funèbre
et chant séraphique; the earliest reported performance of his Sonata in
D Minor, written in 1874, was in 1885. Bach's toccatas, preludes, and fugues
began to be played often, but almost none of his chorale preludes; more than
half of their performances were by several visiting recitalists. The first
reported performance of his dramatic Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was in 1883.
Mendelssohn was first represented in 1885 by his Sonata No. 1 in F Minor,
composed about forty years earlier. Pieces by Louis
Lefébure-Wély, the fashionable Parisian organist who demonstrated
instruments of the leading French organ builder Cavaillé-Coll in the
mid-1800s, rapidly became recital favourites; one of his works, the Offertoire
in G, was played in the first known organ recital in Winnipeg in 1878, about
ten years after its publication. The works of Charles-Marie Widor were not
included in the programs of touring organists until 1905. Interest in the
compositions of Edwin H. Lemare escalated following his recitals in Winnipeg in
1908, and local organists included many of his lighter works--particularly his
Andantino, later popularized as Moonlight and Roses--in their programs for many
years. The compositions of Alfred Hollins, the blind English organist, began to
appear in the programs of both visiting and local players at least a decade
before his visit to Winnipeg in 1926.

The audiences at organ recitals probably consisted of
parishioners of all the major churches and members of the general public
possessing different degrees of musical enlightenment, along with the leading
musical people of the city--"the tutored and untutored alike," as one
newspaper commentator described them. A "full house" at a large
church would have amounted to a crowd of over 1,000 people. Considering that the
population of Winnipeg around 1900 was about 40,000, and although it more than
tripled within a decade, it is evident that attendance at organ recitals was a
significant aspect of musical culture. These musical-social events were but one
manifestation of intense musical activity that included the forming of bands,
church orchestras, choral societies, and choirs, as well as the establishment
of several musical conservatories, music teachers' associations, and music
clubs, and the inauguration of the Manitoba Musical Competition Festival.

Theatre Organs and Organists

Moving picture theatres were the chief form of popular
entertainment in the cities and towns of Manitoba and elsewhere in the early
years of the twentieth century. The larger Winnipeg movie houses also had
resident vocal soloists, instrumentalists, and orchestras that gave brief
concerts before screenings of motions pictures or during intermissions.
Vaudeville acts and sometimes local military bands were featured in these
events, too.

Theatre organs first were used to provide musical
backgrounds to the action in silent movies. Sometimes these sonic backdrops
were improvised spontaneously by the organist, sometimes they were adaptations
of composed music. In some respects the theatre organ was a competitor of the
orchestra, for the pipe ranks and stop lists of these organs mimicked
orchestral instruments. They were also equipped with a variety of percussion
devices, such as drums, traps, xylophones, bells, and chimes. Organ consoles
were elaborately decorated structures, often of coloured glass backlighted to
silhouette the player. Sometimes they were mounted on hydraulically-operated
platforms that allowed the organist, seated at the console, to rise
dramatically into the audience's view from beneath floor level, playing all the
while.

A bizarre instrument called "The Fotoplayer" was
installed in Winnipeg's Bijou Theatre in 1915. Many of these relatively
inexpensive music machines, manufactured by The American Photo Player Company,
New York, were installed in theatres throughout the United States and
elsewhere, where they added to the public's enjoyment of silent films. This
mechanical wonder included a pressurized reed organ section and perhaps several
ranks of organ pipes, along with various sound effects, all of which could be
played manually or by means of paper rolls. Some models had a device for
shifting quickly from one roll to another to follow the mood changes of the
film. The single keyboard was centred between two sound cabinets that housed
the electric blower, wind chests, and special effects devices. It was
advertised as "The Ninth Wonder of the World, The Musical Masterpiece that
Expresses the Griefs, Joys, and Triumphs of the Artists; that Supplies the
Unspoken Words in the Pictures--Magnificent Orchestral and Organ Tones."

Organ recitals of current popular music and transcriptions
of familiar light classics took on an independent life of their own with the
advent of talking pictures. These performances, like those of theatre
orchestras, were additional attractions to the current motion picture being
shown, and often featured special music for the Christmas season. It is
interesting to note that theatre organists endeavoured to maintain high
standards in their selections of music, whether to accompany the motion picture
or for short recitals during intermissions:

Modern theatres have for some time been equipped with
splendid pipe organs. Good orchestras have been introduced, and are now a
recognized feature. The music is one of the chief attractions. One organist who
plays at a large picture house said recently, "besides recital programmes
and special organ solos, I gave request numbers to get the musical pulse of our
audiences. Only once have I received a request for ragtime or any real cheap
piece. On one occasion I had a request for a Bach Fugue."47

Some theatre organists earned a living out of this activity,
while others occupied posts as church organists at the same time. Their
careers, involving moves from one theatre to another or presiding at the
opening of a new instrument, were reported in the entertainment sections of the
newspapers, perhaps in the belief that their fans would want to follow them
from theatre to theatre.

The installation of a large theatre organ in the Province
Theatre in Winnipeg in September 1917 created a high level of interest. The
three-manual, electric-action instrument (claimed to be the only organ in
Winnipeg so equipped), containing 2,000 pipes, was supplied by the Toronto
organ builder C. Franklin Legge. The $20,000 instrument also had a self-playing
mechanism  that allowed the
instrument to perform on its own in the absence of a trained organist. The
organ was formally opened by George E. Metcalfe, "The Organist
Supreme" from the Pacific Coast, who amused the theatre customers with a
steady stream of improvisations on the "Wonder Organ" throughout the
afternoon and evening. On that occasion the theatre was featuring the
hand-coloured film "Mayblossom," made in France by
Astra-Pathé. 

The Winnipeg theatre organist Walter Dolman had a career as
a church organist before and after his experience in Winnipeg cinemas. Born in
England in 1875, he was appointed organist in a church in Burton-on-Trent at
the age of fourteen. After coming to Canada in 1903, he lived in Toronto and
worked for a while with F. H. Torrington, principal of the Conservatory of
Music, then moved to Chatham, Ontario. He was a church and theatre organist
briefly in Detroit, Michigan, before coming to Winnipeg around 1918 to play at
the largest movie theatres. Later in his career he inaugurated a daily series
of "twilight recitals" in the late afternoon and early evening, when
he presented a mix of music by modern masters, earlier composers, and popular
numbers in vogue with the younger set. In 1928 he moved to nearby Kenora,
Ontario, to become organist at Knox Church in that town, where he remained
until his death in 1947.

The question of the influence of the theatre organ generally
on the development of an appreciation for mainstream organ music was the
subject of a borrowed newspaper editorial. The fear that "bad" music
would drive out "good"was unfounded, according to this writer:

The feeling among musicians that the organ performances
given in "movie" shows lower the public taste for dignified music
seems to be increasing. In regard to the general influence of
"movie"organ music a writer in Musical Opinion says: "When the
instrument began to take a prominent part in the 'movies,' some of us thought
that people, having the organ thus brought to their ears night after night,
would esteem it more highly. But this is not likely to provide an exception to
the rule that 'familiarity breeds contempt.' We are now beginning to see that
the old aloof position of the organ was not a bad thing. True, its public was
limited, but if it spoke to comparatively few, the few were devotees. It is not
likely to gain new ones from its association with Mr. Chaplin."48

Later Years

The 1920s marked the height of fashion for cinema organs.
Several of the larger movie theatres in Winnipeg installed pipe organs in this
period, and the arrival of a new instrument was a matter of intense interest on
the part of the popular musical establishment and the entertainment industry.
Following the advent of the first sound-synchronized "talkies" in 1928, the role of the theatre organist began to change. With the gradual demise of silent motion pictures, cinema organists still continued to provide musical
entertainment before picture showings and during intermissions, but these
practices eventually were discontinued as the talking movies came to be
regarded as self-sufficient entertainments in themselves.

The Winnipeg Centre of the Canadian College of Organists was
established in 1923 by some of the city's leading organists. This small but
enthusiastic group sponsored recitals by local and visiting players and
arranged special events for the improvement of church music generally. The
1920s were the peak period of organ recitals, and the 1930s were almost as
active. The frequency of new organ installations diminished over the succeeding
decades, particularly during the years of World War II, when materials were in
short supply. Many renovations of existing instruments were undertaken in the
1950s, but only a few of the churches built after this time acquired pipe
organs, preferring less costly electronic instruments instead.

The past four decades have been marked by renewal,
consolidation, and modest growth in the fortunes of the organ. Interest in the
organ and its music is still relatively strong today, considering the various
musical and performing arts alternatives, as well as the other forms of
cultural entertainment now available. But in terms of organ installations,
recitals, and intensity of public interest in the King of Instruments and its
players, the period of the "Golden Age" of the organ remains
unsurpassed in the history of music in Manitoba.               

Notes

                        28.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
15 April 1899.

                        29.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Winnipeg
Tribune, 22 April 1899.

                        30.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
31 October 1903

                        31.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
22 February 1905.

                        32.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
27 April 1907.

                        33.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
18 June 1888.

                        34
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                FF,
11 November 1885.

                        35.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
19 May 1892.

                        36.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
1 October 1898.

                        37.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
12 September 1900.

                        38.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
1 June 1901.]

                        39.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
5 October 1901.

                        40.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
19 October 1907.

                        41.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              TT,
8 May 1909.

                        42.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              "Recalling
Early Organists: From the Diary of the Late Jas. W. Matthews," FP, 3
January 1925.

                        43.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              "Few
Pipe Organs When Winnipeg was a Hamlet: Diary of the Late James W. Matthews
Recalls Early Instruments and Players," FP, 13 December 1924.

                        44.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
31 August 1918.

                        45.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              "Wesley
College to Inaugurate Music Department," FP, 14 September 1918.

                        46.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              "Music,"
TT, 17 February 1912.

                        47.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              "Music,"
FP, 23 March 1918.

                        48.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              FP,
21 September 1918.

by James B. Hartman

 

Anyone familiar with the biographies of distinguished composers and performers throughout music history can never fail to be amazed at the impressive stories of children exhibiting exceptional talent. Musical ability often manifests itself early in life, and many of these early bloomers go on to significant and sustained achievements in later years. The accounts of their creative childhoods are a source of interest not only to music lovers generally, but also to psychologists who have studied the progress of such individuals in an attempt to understand and explain these extraordinary phenomena. The following survey will chronicle the highlights of the emergence and development of musical talent in a selected group of musical prodigies from the 16th to the 19th centuries whose abilities were later realized in the fields of organ music composition and performance.1 Some concluding generalizations, derived from the writings of psychologists who have studied this fascinating topic, will end the presentation.

 

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), the son of a musician in Ferrara, Italy, became one of the greatest organists and keyboard composers of his time. As a boy he possessed a remarkable voice and went from town to town singing, followed by crowds of admirers. Although little is known of his early life, he studied organ with a court organist and occupied his first position as organist at the age of 14. At the age of 25 he went to St. Peters in Rome where he also spent his final years. This prolific composer was later described as "father of the organ style" that prevailed in England and other countries for over a century. His compositions were central to keyboard study as well. Froberger studied with him for several years and J. S. Bach copied out his Fiori musicale (1635), a publication of liturgical organ music.

William Crotch (1775-1847), born in Norwich, England, was a remarkable child prodigy who was able to play at the age of 2 the tune to "God Save Great George Our King" on an organ made by his father, a carpenter. He gave his first concert at the age of 3, played before the royal family at 4, and was exhibited by his mother on tours of England and Scotland until the age of 9. At the age of 10 he played his own harpsichord concerto in London and began composing an oratorio. At the age of 11 he went to Cambridge University where he assisted the professor of music and was organist at two colleges. He transferred to Oxford University at the age of 13 and was appointed organist at Christ Church within two years. He took his D.Mus. at Oxford at the age of 24. Some of his Oxford lectures were published in 1831. While at Oxford he composed the "Westminster Chimes" for a church clock in Cambridge; this tune was used in the Houses of Parliament following 1860. His later years were mainly academic, including various professorships in music as well as a ten-year term as Principal of the Royal College of Music from its founding in 1822. His compositions include organ works, piano pieces, songs, and choral works. He was also a watercolorist of considerable ability.

George Washburne Morgan (1823-1892), whose name is largely unknown today, was believed to be the first famous organist heard in the United States in the late 19th century. Born in Gloucester, England, he exhibited remarkable musical gifts at a very early age, playing his first church service when only 8 years old, later becoming assistant organist at Gloucester Cathedral. Following his arrival in the United States in 1853 his remarkable playing generated much enthusiasm, particularly due to his phenomenal pedal technique. He served as organist in various New York churches and gave many concerts both in New York and throughout the country. His performances of "concert music"--an unknown factor in organ music prior to his arrival--placed him at the head of his profession.

William T. Best (1826-1897) became one of the world's most prominent organ recitalists of the 19th century. The son of a solicitor in Carlisle, England, he studied organ in his home town where he was assistant organist at the local cathedral, followed by a post at Pembroke Chapel at the age of 14. While still in his twenties he occupied a number of prestigious positions in London, moving to Liverpool at the age of 29 to preside at the organ in St. George's Hall. Following several appointments elsewhere he returned to Liverpool where he remained until his resignation in 1895. He performed extensively beyond England, including the inaugural recital on the new Town Hall organ in Sydney, Australia, in 1890 (both the Hall and the Hill & Son's organ were the largest in the world at the time). Best's orchestral use of the organ included many of his own transcriptions along with other original organ works and he edited editions of the works of Bach, Handel, and Mendelssohn. During his own time he was described as the "Prince of Organists."

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1887) was born into a family of French organists and organbuilders in Boulogne. Although largely self-taught, his first lessons were from his father, substituting for him at the organ of St. Joseph's in Boulogne at the age of 12. There he exhausted several organ blowers during his daily practice sessions, sometimes as long as ten hours. He succeeded his father as organist at the age of 22. Following study with Lemmens in Brussels he began giving recitals in Paris at the age of 25. His later career included European and North American tours, inaugural recitals at many large organ installations, and appointments at the major cathedrals of Paris: St. Sulpice, Notre Dame, and La Trinité. He was one of the founders of the Schola Cantorum and succeeded Widor as professor at the Paris Conservatory where several of his pupils (Bonnet, Boulanger, Jacob, Dupré) achieved fame in their own right. Perhaps the most prolific composer of organ music since Bach, he also published collections of pieces and edited much older organ music. In 1893 the President of the French Republic nominated him a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in recognition of his achievements.

Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901), born in Vaduz, Lichtenstein, began music lessons at the age of 4. At the age of 7 he played the organ at a local church where a special set of extended pedals were installed to accommodate his short legs. Soon afterwards he composed a three-part mass with organ accompaniment. At the age of 12 he was sent to the Munich Conservatory where he studied until he was 19. Later, at the same institution, he became a noted teacher of organ and composition, becoming one of the most sought-after composition teachers of his time. He was appointed director of the Conservatory at the age of 28 and was also director of church music to the court. During his lifetime he composed in many different genres--operas, masses, symphonies, chamber music--but is most remembered for his organ music, especially two concertos and twenty sonatas.

Auguste Wiegand (1849-1904), born in Liège, Belgium, developed his musical abilities so rapidly that he was appointed organist at a local church by the early age of 7. He entered the Liège Conservatory at the age of 10, winning several prizes and medals for his accomplishments before the age of 20. As professor at that institution he also served as organist in several other cities, travelled to England many times to inaugurate organs there, and performed throughout Europe. He later studied organ at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. His major success was that of the first city organist at the Town Hall, Sydney, Australia, 1891-1900, where he played over 1,000 recitals during that period. His broad-based recital programs on the huge Hill & Son organ included many arrangements and transcriptions; his concerts were received with great enthusiasm by large and appreciative audiences. Following his departure from Sydney he again toured Europe and spent his final years as organist of Oswego, New York. His compositions include a "Storm Idyll," a popular form of organ entertainment at the time.

Clarence Eddy (1851-1937), born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, showed marked musical ability at the age of 5. He held his first church position at the age of 14, then went to Hartford, Connecticut, to study with Dudley Buck at the age of 16. At the age of 20 he studied in Germany with Professor Augustus Haupt, the most prominent teacher in that country, who gave him a written recommendation as "undoubtedly a peer of the greatest living organists." Following a successful European recital tour he settled in Chicago and developed a reputation as a leading American organist. He played more dedicatory recitals than any other organist of his day. While director of the Hershey School of Musical Art he gave a remarkable series of one hundred weekly recitals without repeating a number; he was 25 years old at the time. His many concert tours included playing at various expositions in the United States and abroad. He published two multi-volume organ methods to supplement his teaching activities, in addition to a number of original works. As a founder of the American Guild of Organists, Eddy became affectionately known as the "Dean of American Organists."

Edwin H. Lemare (1865-1934) was born on the Isle of Wight where his father, the organist of a local church, was his first teacher. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of 13 and was awarded an Associateship at the end of his studies there. Following graduation he occupied church positions in Sheffield and London. After the death of W. T. Best in 1897 Lemare was acclaimed Best's successor as the greatest living English organist. Following his American tour in 1900 he served as a very highly paid municipal organist in several cities in the United States over a period of thirty years. He had considerable influence on organ playing in America on account of his legendary registration of orchestral compositions and transcriptions of Romantic composers, especially Wagner. His own 126 original compositions ranged from the simple and sentimental to complex concert pieces; the best known of the former type is his "Andantino in D-flat," later arranged as the popular song, "Moonlight and Roses." He had a remarkable musical memory and was a gifted improviser.

Alfred Hollins (1865-1942), born in Hull, Scotland, became blind when still in infancy. Nevertheless, he exhibited exceptional musical abilities, including absolute pitch, from an early age. At the age of 2 he could play tunes on the piano and identify notes or chords played by others; by the age of 6 he could improvise. Following lessons from a family member and at an institute in York, at age 13 he entered the Royal Normal College for the Blind where he developed into a brilliant pianist. He played for Queen Victoria when he was 16 and gave his first public organ recital shortly afterwards. Later he studied piano with Hans von Bülow in Berlin and toured Germany with a repertoire of piano concertos; on one occasion he played three piano concertos in a single concert. He learned his music by listening to his wife play each part through, which he then rapidly committed to memory. His longest church appointment was at St. George's in Edinburgh, which he held for forty-five years. As an active organ recitalist he toured widely throughout the world. In addition to composing fifty-five organ works Hollins also published church music, songs, and piano music. His book, A Blind Organist Looks Back (1936), contains many insights into the life of a touring concert organist in the early 19th century.

Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), was born in Rouen, France, into an intensely musical family; his father and both grandfathers were organists and his mother was a cellist and pianist. Family connections included friendships with the organbuilder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and organists Charles-Marie Widor and Alexandre Guilmant. He studied with both Widor and Guilmant at the Paris Conservatory where he received many prizes. At the age of 11 he was appointed organist at a church in his home town. At the age of 20 he became Widor's assistant at St. Sulpice in Paris. At the age of 28 he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome, the greatest distinction a French musician could attain. In 1920, at the age of 34, Dupré startled the musical world by playing from memory the entire organ works of J. S. Bach in a series of ten concerts. This celebrated performer and improviser performed in various countries over the years. He published a quantity of solo and ensemble music for organ along with works for other instruments. He also wrote several books on organ playing and published editions of Bach, Franck, and others.

 

  *     *     *

Psychologists who have studied the phenomenon of exceptional musical talent2 have noted a number of distinguishing factors that are exemplified in many of the preceding biographies. The musical abilities referred to may include a variety and range of acoustic and musical capacities: perfect pitch, identifying intervals and chords, reading at sight, playing from memory, playing from a full score, transposing, improvising, and composing (although not to the level of form and harmonization of more mature artists).

Musical prodigies are distinguished by the following childhood characteristics:

* The most obvious feature is that musical ability emerges early in life, usually in the first decade; this, of course, is the definition of a child prodigy. Interpretative talent, including instrumental technique and playing in public, appears first, often before the age of 8, followed by compositional talent somewhat later, except in very rare cases, earlier. As much as ten years of composition experience may be needed for the production of excellent musical works. Musical capacity continues to expand during the third decade of life.

* Heredity above average: parents often make significant contributions to the extraordinary success of their children. The importance of an early home and educational environment, including inspiring social contacts, is prominent in such cases. In fact, ability may be less important than interest, devotion, encouragement, and appropriate educational opportunities. Heredity sets limits, but within these limits and with adequate training, gifted individuals may rise to the stature of outstanding members of the musical profession.

* Unusually high intelligence.3

* Persistence of motive and effort, confidence in their abilities, and great strength or force of character.

* The manifestation of exceptional abilities in infancy is more consistently found among musicians than in other fields. The reason for this lies in the nature of music itself. Music, due to its abstract, formal nature, creates its own material independent of words. It is not fed from the outer world and interaction with others or from external experience and practice. Rather, the subject matter of music is from within, an embodiment of uniquely musical feelings and emotions that are quite independent of other mental qualities.

 

*     *     *

There are no grounds for judging whether organists, as a group, exhibited more or less musical ability in their early years than other musicians in the period just surveyed; comparative evidence is lacking. However, mature organists were probably more prominent in the public eye due to the central place the organ played in musical culture at the time. As for prominent organists of recent years, their early musical talents and abilities are not generally publicized. However, musical talent is not just a thing of the past. It is a common characteristic of today's children that must be fostered by constant encouragement, proper atmosphere, and by a combination of expert tuition and appropriate education facilities if they are to become important artists in the future. n

 

Notes

                  1.              Some explanation should be made for the omission of several major musical figures from the following list. The lifelong career of Johann Sebastian Bach is so well known that it does not need repeating here. The significant fact is that the Bach family was perhaps the most remarkable and important of all time, and the young Bach received a thorough grounding in music from his father and brothers. Although Bach's family life was permeated with music, specific biographical information is lacking on his very early abilities or achievements that would classify him as a "prodigy" as the term is applied to other figures throughout this article.

Biographies of George Frideric Handel reveal that although as a child he had a strong propensity to music, his doctor father opposed his son's inclinations, considering music a lowly occupation, and intended him for the study of law. However, when Handel was 7 an aristocrat heard him play and persuaded the father to allow his son to follow a musical career, which began with lessons in composition from the age of 9 years.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an outstanding example of a musical prodigy, according to tests in sight reading and extemporization administered to him at the age of 8 by Daines Barrington, a scientifically inclined man who reported his findings to the Royal Society in 1779. Mozart's musical memory was most remarkable; at the age of 14, upon hearing in the Sistine Chapel one performance (perhaps more) of a complex choral work, Allegri's Miserere, he wrote it down from memory with only a few errors (Mendelssohn accomplished a similar feat). Although Mozart became an accomplished organist, apart from a few short pieces and seventeen "Church Sonatas" his "organ" works are three pieces written for mechanical clock.

                  2.              Important studies include:

Carl Emil Seashore, The Psychology of Musical Talent (New York: Silver, Burdett, 1919). His discussion of the musical mind covers various dimensions: pitch, intensity, time, rhythm, timbre, consonance, auditory space, voluntary motor control, musical action, musical imagery and imagination, musical memory, musical intellect, and musical feeling. Even so, he asserted that these do not operate in isolation; the musical mind is a unity that works as an integrated whole.

G. Révész, The Psychology of a Musical Prodigy (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1925). This work, the first of its kind, attempts to portray the early development of a richly endowed pianist, Erwin Nyiregyházi (1903-1987). It covers such topics as the early appearance of musical talent in general, diagnostic tests, elementary acoustic and musical faculties, specific forms of musical ability, compositions, and the progress of the pianist's development as shown in his works. Although some aspects of Erwin's childhood progress resembled Mozart's, his musical career failed to proceed and eventually he worked for film studios in Los Angeles.

Lewis M. Terman, ed., Genetic Studies of Genius (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1926), 5 vols. The volumes in the series deal with the mental and physical traits of gifted children (vol. 1), the early mental traits of three hundred geniuses (vol. 2), follow-up studies of a thousand gifted children (vol. 3), twenty-five years' follow-up of a superior group (vol. 4), and thirty-five years' follow-up of the gifted group at midlife: thirty-five years' follow-up of the superior child (vol. 5). The fields surveyed are extensive; musical ability receives only minor consideration. Perhaps the most relevant volume to this present discussion is Catherine Morris Cox, The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses, which mentions musical prodigies and musicians as a group. In the preface Terman observes: "We are justified in believing that geniuses, so called, are not only characterized in childhood by a superior IQ, but also by traits of interest, energy, will, and character that foreshadow later performance" (ix).

Articles include:

R. A. Henson, "Neurological Aspects of Musical Experience," in Music and the Brain: Studies in the Neurology of Music, ed. Macdonald Critchley and R. A. Henson (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), 3-21.

Tedd Judd, "The Varieties of Musical Talent," in The Exceptional Brain, ed. Loraine K. Obler and Deborah Fein (New York: The Guilford Press, 1988), 127-155. The technical discussion covers the psychology and neuropsychology of musical abilities, relation to other skills, musical memory, and relationships among musical skills.

Donald Scott and Adrienne Moffett, "The Development of Early Musical Talent in Famous Composers: a Biographical Review," in Music and the Brain: Studies in the Neurology of Music, ed. Macdonald Critchley and R. A. Henson (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), 174-201. The focus is on Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and Bach, along with several other prodigies studied by Daines Barrington, reported in 1781: Charles and Samuel Wesley, William Crotch, and Lord Mornington.

The following summary draws upon some of these sources.

                  3.              For example, Catherine Morris Cox, The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses, vol. 3 of Genetic Studies of Genius, estimated the childhood/young manhood IQs of several eminent composers: Bach, 140/165; Handel, 160/170 Mozart, 160/165, and others.

 

James B. Hartman specialized in philosophy, psychology, and the aesthetics of music in his doctoral studies at Northwestern University. He is Associate Professor, Continuing Education Division, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, where he is Senior Academic Editor for publications of the Distance Education Program. He is a frequent contributor of book reviews to The Diapason.

by James B. Hartman

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.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

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.  

The Technical and Aesthetic Legacy of Carl Weinrich

by Ray M. Keck

In 1960, in an article about Glenn Gould for The New Yorker
magazine, Joseph Roddy harnesses Nietzsche's terms to describe a dichotomy he
perceives in the composition and the playing of piano music. Eighteenth-century
keyboard compositions "are Apollonian, adhering to classical formality and
reserve; those of the nineteenth century are Dionysiac, being notable for
poetic mood and emotional thunder." Keyboard compositions of the twentieth
century, "for all their involutions, have shown a tendency to return to
the Apollonian ideal."2 Rather than providing a clear example of either
Apollonian or Dionysiac tendencies, Glenn Gould's life and art enclose a
mesmeric opposition of both classical and romantic components: Dionysiac
frenzies during performance, behavior for which he became legend, and
Apollonian compositions and interpretations which are "essentially
dispassionate." It was Gould's interpretation of Bach's "highly Apollonian"
Goldberg Variations which established the young Canadian as a top-ranking
pianist. Playing the Variations, Gould accomplishes his technically flawless
performance, "lean, aloof and fleet," in ten minutes and twenty-one
seconds less than it took Wanda Landowska to complete her highly Dionysiac
performance of the same work.3

Joseph Roddy's description of Glenn Gould and his music
suggests a startling similarity to the Apollonian style and taste of Carl
Weinrich, organist and choirmaster of Princeton University from 1943 to his
retirement in 1973. There are, of course, many significant differences between
the two men.  Gould the pianist was
famous for his histrionics, swaying and singing and conducting himself as he
played. Weinrich the organist was just as known for a calm, classical manner,
an almost unnerving physical control which he exercised even during the music's
most intense passages.4 But, as we shall see, when Carl Weinrich compiled his
own canon of organ music, his choices were very like what the younger Gould
came to champion:  the music of
Sweelinck, of Bach, of Hindemith, of Krenek. In addition, few words could
better describe Carl Weinrich's playing than those applied to Glenn Gould:
"lean, aloof, fleet." And if Gould had his Van Cliburn, so, too,
Weinrich had his artistic antipodes. From his own era sprang the Dionysiac
Virgil Fox, whose preconcert foreplay, cavalier treatment of the printed score,
and wild technical high jinks asserted a violent contrast to Weinrich's
Apollonian creed. Most often compared with Weinrich was his exact contemporary,
E. Power Biggs, whose playing, though technically less precise than Weinrich's,
could hardly be called Dionysiac. Biggs's dedication to popularizing the organ,
however, eventually bred in him a Dionysian's taste, music of uneven artistic
merit from all periods, chosen because it appealed to the untrained listener.
In our own era, Anthony Newman, Simon Preston and Diane Bish are only a few of
the many outstanding Dionysiac recitalists.

Carl Weinrich's importance in American organ music, however,
reached far beyond the university where he made his home. Weinrich was both a
traditionalist and a revolutionary, the former because he chose to concentrate
his energies on the works of Bach, the latter because he was one of a group of
American organists who in this century thoroughly altered American practices of
organ playing and building.5 But what was Weinrich's method and how did he
acquire it?

Lynnwood Farnam: Beauty with Discipline

When Carl Weinrich began in earnest his study of organ in
the 1920s, instruments, the technique of playing, and attitudes toward organ
literature differed greatly from today's prevailing notions. Mechanically
sluggish consoles and the romantic organ's preponderance of 8¢ diapasons
and strings made intricate passages, particularly in the music of J.S. Bach,
difficult to hear and hence not rewarding to master.  Indeed, Bach's famous remark, "you need only to hit the
right notes at the right moment and the instrument does the rest"6
alleged, when Carl Weinrich began his career, not irony and understatement, but
impossibility. Lists of organ stops from those years read like a romantic
orchestral fantasy: flauto amabile, tuba mirabile, philomela. Weinrich was one
of a group of energetic, musically dissatisfied young organists who gathered
about the great teacher and player, Lynnwood Farnam, organist at the Church of
the Holy Communion in New York City until his death in 1930. Together they
reformed and refashioned American organ playing.7

As the first step toward unlocking music's subjective
components or its effect upon the soul, Lynnwood Farnam directed his students'
physical dexterity to the technical components or skeleton of organ music.8 To
approach music's aesthetic ends, Farnam first insisted upon absolute mastery of
the score, careful planning of fingering, endless practice of difficult
passages. Moreover, Farnam demanded an end to the physical pyrotechnics and
theatrical body thrusts which organists often affected at the console. Clear,
clean, precise playing soon brought a predictable dissatisfaction with the
sluggish, muddy sounds of romantic organs and led to an interest in Baroque
techniques of organ building, a return to the principles of construction,
design and stop selection practiced in Bach's era. Farnam's followers, then,
embarked upon a dual quest: more responsive instruments and clearer sounds to
convey more precise playing. Their vision for organ study proclaimed forcefully
the link between technical and aesthetic dimensions of music, the objective and
subjective components of art. And in his own practice, Lynnwood Farnam left
little to chance; before playing a recital, he insisted upon a minimum of
fifteen hours to prepare himself at the instrument he was to play.

In addition to his insistence upon technical perfection,
Farnam's notions of repertoire were built around the music of Bach. He
especially condemned the nineteenth-century custom of including transcriptions
or arrangements of piano music in organ recitals: études of Chopin or
Schumann, pieces such as Debussy's Clair de lune, Rachmaninoff's Prelude in
C-sharp Minor, and overtures and arias from opera. In a series of twenty
recitals, Farnam performed the complete organ works of Bach, a monumental
statement of his musical vision and a feat which his student, Carl Weinrich,
was to repeat many times. Weinrich's appointment as Farnam's successor at the
Church of the Holy Communion, following the latter's death in 1930, indicates
the high regard which Weinrich's playing enjoyed in Farnam's circle.

Weinrich's legacy to his students, and hence to all
musicians who followed him, is three-fold. First, he adopted, practiced, and
passed on Lynnwood Farnam's uncompromising standard of technical excellence as
the foundation of aesthetic satisfaction. Second, having at his disposal the
whole of organ literature, he offered to his students his own special views
concerning repertoire and its use. Third, Weinrich fostered in those about him
an artistic awakening, a refined musical judgment, the unerring aesthetic
sensibility which Plato attributes in the Republic, Book III, to a proper
education in music. Throughout his life, Carl Weinrich stubbornly refused to
practice or to perform any but the very best music composed for the organ.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

Legacy 1: Technique, Organ Design and Artistry

It is the first of these three legacies, Weinrich's efforts
to rescue organ playing from technical lassitude, which remains his most
difficult, his most heroic and his most far-reaching musical gift to us. To
begin with, Weinrich's Apollonian style rested upon an intense scrutiny of the
notes. His scores included extensive notations of fingering, and much of his
time with students was given over to searching carefully and slowly for the
best possible execution of difficult passages. Impatient with older theories of
fingering, Weinrich was an outspoken proponent of employing, whenever possible,
"the strong fingers," the thumb, index and middle finger of each
hand. He insisted that, especially in the works of Bach, one could always
devise a comfortable fingering for even the most difficult passages. He often
commented that "if the fingering of a particular passage isn't comfortable
when you practice it, the tension of a public performance will probably cause
you to stumble at that spot. A musical composition is like a string of
pearls--one weak knot, and the necklace breaks; one flubbed measure can destroy
the beauty and perfection which you achieve in all the others."

To be sure, a difficult measure or passage, properly fingered,
might require scores of repeated attempts to master. One should know a work
well enough to play each part separately, he insisted, and should practice a
piece for at least one year before performing it in public.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  As if to follow Bach's famous attribution
of his own success to hard work,9 Weinrich the student practiced at least eight
hours per day. At the time of his retirement, he still considered five hours
per day a minimum practice schedule for an active organist.

Weinrich's concern for precision even extended to noting
pedal passages with a "P.N." to remind himself which was the
"pivot note," the moment at which the body should shift its angle to
execute comfortably the pedal lines. 
And then, like Farnam, he allowed himself no other movement at the
console.  He was willing to discuss
diverse possibilities for phrasing, and hence for interpretation, only after a
student had demonstrated undisputed mastery of the work's skeleton. He liked to
say that his first concern was to help a student get the notes firmly in hand,
into the "strong fingers." "After that," he once said,
"we can discuss phrasing at our leisure.  My first job is to see that you can play these notes
correctly and with the same good fingering each time you approach this
piece."

It is natural that, following Lynnwood Farnam's first steps,
Carl Weinrich's tireless zeal to perfect the technique of organ playing led
him, as it had led Bach before him, to a careful evaluation of the instrument
itself, to the impact of organ design upon technical and aesthetic
considerations. Determined that musical lines must be clear to the ear,
Weinrich was an early proponent of spare use of the 8' registers, of eliminating
the heavy Diapason stops and of developing a full Rückpositiv division for
proper registration of the music of Bach. Together with G. Donald Harrison of
the Skinner Organ Company, Weinrich toured the organ lofts of Europe in the
summer of 1936 and studied carefully the instruments whose design and sound he
admired. While head of the organ department at Westminster Choir College
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  (1934-1940), he designed a Baroque
instrument for his studio, the celebrated "Praetorius Organ"
installed in 1939, one of the first instruments in this country built to
recover the clear tonal capacity and clean sounds necessary to the technical
perfection Weinrich sought.

After taking up his post at Princeton in 1943, Weinrich
began with Harrison a rebuilding of the University's enormous Chapel organ,
disconnecting many of the old, useless stops and adding the bright sounds of a
Baroque instrument.10 In later years, Weinrich collaborated with Walter
Holtkamp, Sr. in pioneering efforts to design organs following Baroque models.
The thirty-four stop, three-manual Holtkamp organ at General Theological
Seminary in New York, completed in October, 1958, is a monument to their
labors.11  Weinrich proudly used
this instrument for all of his later recordings with RCA Victor.

Improved technical articulation and improved organ sound
generated new possibilities for interpretation. Both inspired and enabled by
new instruments, Carl Weinrich began to play Bach's works at a far greater
speed than had been the custom. One need only compare Weinrich's early
recordings of Bach with those of Albert Schweitzer, a formidable Bach scholar
but a technically mediocre performer, to understand the very pleasing aesthetic
implications of superior technique, clear sounds and brisk tempi. Throughout
his life, Weinrich remained keenly interested in the relationship between tempo
and music's aesthetic effect. He checked himself regularly with a metronome to
ensure an accurate rhythmic rendering of each passage. He was forever warning
of the danger of rushing the sixteenth notes, even when playing with the
metronome. The margins of Weinrich's music, particularly his Bach scores,
contained a fascinating record of the diverse organs upon which he had
performed and recorded, and the tempi appropriate to each.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  But the happy marriage of superior
technique and intelligent organ design gave birth to unexpected musical
problems, unanticipated artistic discoveries.

In 1959, Carl Weinrich dedicated a new Holtkamp organ for
the First Presbyterian Church, now Nassau Presbyterian, in Princeton. Conceived
as an instrument similar to the organ at General Theological Seminary in New
York, the Princeton Holkamp included a complete Rückpositiv division,
three manuals and twenty-nine stops.12 Organist of the church for forty years,
Mary Krimmel was also Weinrich's brilliant student from his earliest days of
teaching, and she was determined that her congregation should enjoy the fruits
of Weinrich's research into organ design. But upon completion of the organ, a
problem which neither Weinrich nor Mrs. Krimmel foresaw quickly began to
manifest itself. Unlike the New York organ, First Presbyterian's instrument is
housed in an acoustically challenged space. Because First Presbyterian stands
approximately 150 yards from the Princeton Chapel, with its immense Aeolian
Skinner and endless echoes, the several organists who often performed on both
instruments experienced a technical, then aesthetic dichotomy. Detached, crisp
playing necessary for musical clarity in the cavernous chapel produced a
crumbly, thin, and altogether uninteresting effect in the church; stately tempi
suited to the chapel's great masses of sound became tediously slow in the
church. Each setting was an exaggerated circumstance: few rooms could be as
acoustically alive as the Princeton Chapel or as tonally unresponsive as the
First Presbyterian Church.

Efforts to find a technical solution to the aesthetic
dilemma surrounding these two fine organs led Carl Weinrich and Mary Krimmel to
undertake a search for improved articulation, an approach which would finally
produce aesthetically pleasing music in both the chapel and church. For
Weinrich, the subject was not a new one. Questions of how to achieve the best
articulation of a musical line began during his days under Farnam. Carl
Weinrich the student marvelled at his teacher's ability to play a legato line
as though there were tiny spaces of air between each note.13 In later years,
Weinrich often commented to his own students that he learned from Farnam the
secret of how to execute a singing legato without loss of definition and
clarity. Under no circumstances was the listener to sense a staccato touch.

The problem of fitting articulation to the instrument and to
its environment remained a matter of great interest to both Carl Weinrich and
Mary Krimmel to the end of their professional lives. It was my great good fortune
to be the student of both Weinrich and Krimmel and to prepare for many years a
weekly lesson on each instrument. What they learned and I absorbed from this
experience proved the most exciting and complete instruction possible in organ
articulation. Their endless discussions of articulation, of technical
exactitude, of how to execute the notes, would not have been novel in piano
pedagogy. For organ study, it was revolutionary. The following principles
slowly emerged.

First, neither strict legato nor detached, non-legato
playing satisfied the listener in either setting.  On both organs, a sensible alternation between detaching and
connecting notes produced the best effect.  Second, step-motion generally required a legato line, while
skips could be detached.  In the
church, the slightest change from a legato to a detached line produced an
immediate effect; in the chapel, only very pronounced, exaggerated articulation
reached the listener's ear. What in the chapel seemed to the performer a
slightly detached articulation became a singing legato as the sound moved out
to fill the nave. Finally, and most important, the same piece had to be
executed very differently on each organ. In the chapel, Bach's heroic Toccata
in F major had to be played at a tempo deliberate enough to allow an
appreciation of the work's massive chords punctuated by octave leaps and
cadenzas in the pedal. In the church, the Toccata had to move at much brisker
pace; sections following the second pedal cadenza unfolded most effectively if
the organist conceived of one beat, not three, to a measure.

Handel concerti proved to be the most difficult works of all
to tackle. In the chapel, a clearly detached line in all parts produced an
exciting interpretation; in the church, one had to cultivate a very slight
detachment, an articulation midway between staccato and legato, one which
obliged the organist to remain precariously perched on the edge of the keys.
Carl Weinrich, having thoroughly adjusted to the very live acoustics of the
Princeton Chapel, continued to employ a crisp, detached articulation; Mary
Krimmel, confronted with the dry environment, moved to a firm, legato style
made vital by a careful detaching of skips. The lesson is a clear one:
organists must approach each instrument, able to make even radical adjustments
in articulation to suit the organ's setting.

Legacy 2: Components and Uses of Repertoire

As he carried forward Lynnwood Farnam's technical legacy,
Carl Weinrich, like Farnam before him, exercised a formidable influence upon an
entire generation's notion of worthy repertoire for a superior organist.
Weinrich's clearest statement concerning organ literature came in 1950-51, when
Harvard University named him the Lamb Visiting Lecturer in Music, an honor
previously accorded Gustav Holst, Béla Bartók, and Aaron Copland.
For the first time, this prestigious post went to a performer, and the
compositions Weinrich chose for his series of eight recitals form what might be
called the Great Works for the organ.14 Weinrich's Apollonian tastes are never
more apparent: not one single work chosen for the eight recitals comes from the
nineteenth century.

It is here that the history of organ playing records an
accident, an irony, and an amusing juxtaposition. At the same time the
Apollonian Carl Weinrich was playing the eight Lamb recitals in Harvard's
Memorial Church, E. Power Biggs was continuing his custom, begun in the 1940s,
of broadcasting organ recitals from Boston's Symphony hall and Harvard's
Busch-Reisinger Museum. It would be an exaggeration to assert that these two
famous pioneers in organ study and building shared no common ground. As is
well-known, Biggs, like Weinrich, collaborated in the 1930s with his fellow
English ex-patriot, G. Donald Harrison, in the design and building of tonally
improved organs.  Biggs supervised,
in 1937, the construction of one of Harrison's early instruments, an organ for
Busch Reisinger Museum much like the "Praetorius Organ" Harrison
installed at Westminster Choir College for Weinrich. It is this instrument
which Biggs used for his famous broadcasts which began in 1942.15

Operating independent of both church and school, however,
Biggs's turf lay in the concert hall. Sensitive to that environment, he
cultivated a Dionysiac's taste and repertoire unlike Carl Weinrich's chosen
restraint. His programs, which contended with Weinrich's for announcement space
in the Harvard University Gazette of 1950-51, did include Bach, but also a
heavy offering of nineteenth-century music: Franck, Strauss, Schumann, and the
twentieth-century warhorse, Alain's Litanies. Biggs's Dionysiac programming was
conceived to make organ music accessible to untrained listeners, and to widen
organ repertoire to include all manner of popular and classical works.
Weinrich's Apollonian attitude gave no thought to popular taste or preference.
He was delighted with the environment which Princeton's chapel provided for his
recitals: absolute silence before the music began, and no applause at its
conclusion.

Among those Bach chorale preludes Weinrich played most often
were, from the Eighteen Organ Chorales, "O Lamm Gottes"; the
celebrated, double pedal composition on "An Wasserflüssen
Babylon"; and from the third part of the Klavierübung, a spectacular
little fugue, "Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot," and Bach's only
six-voice composition which has come down to us for the organ, "Aus tiefer
Not."

Perhaps the double pedal lines of "Aus tiefer Not"
and "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" appealed to Weinrich.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Only an organist of superlative
technical accomplishment can handle these complex pedal parts, and at the same
time convey the sadness and deep feelings which pervade each piece. And his
playing of much smaller works reliably captured the same mystical quality of
more extended compositions; from the Orgelbüchlein, he often chose for a
recital's encore "In dir ist Freude," "In dulci jubilo" and
"Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf"; each in his hands became a
small, flawless jewel.

Of Bach's great preludes and fugues, Weinrich played often
the Fugue in E-flat major ("St. Anne"), the Toccata and Fugue in F
major, the extremely popular Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the Prelude and
Fugue in A minor, the Fantasie and Fugue in G minor, the Toccata, Adagio and
Fugue in C major, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, the Toccata and Fugue
in D minor (the "Dorian"), the Fantasie in G major, the Prelude and
Fugue in B minor, the Prelude and Fugue in G major and, curiously, the
strangely hybrid Pastorale in F. His playing of both the pedal and manual
ornaments in Bach's Toccata in F, the piece which for Mendelssohn "brought
down the roof of the church,"16 and his introduction of complex
ornamentation in Bach's subject for the Fugue in F major, perfectly executed
each time the subject appears, were spectacular examples of his technical
prowess.

Another of his favorites was the Concerto in A minor, Bach's
arrangement for organ of Vivaldi's double concerto for two violins.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Weinrich performed the spare,
ravishingly beautiful middle movement at a very gentle, meditative pace,
employing a mournful reed for the solo passages, and then fell suddenly,
unexpectedly, with piercingly bright sounds upon the descending scale passages
which open the last movement. His breathlessly exciting tempo of this final
movement, notes spectacularly detached and perfectly articulated, formed a
thrilling contrast to the middle movement's careful legato touch and languid
mood. In addition, for the last movement of the concerto, Weinrich exploited
his talent for innovative registrations and the Princeton organ's resources,
employing two divisions located on opposite sides of the chancel; the result
accentuated the dazzling series of echoes and imitations for which Vivaldi's
music is famous, all played at a speed which no organist could match.

Weinrich regularly included movements from Bach's Trio
Sonatas in chapel services and on recital programs, and described playing these
most difficult of all pieces for the organ as "walking on eggs for twenty
minutes." He was, moreover, wonderfully inventive in selecting music for
the special needs of a university community. For the long academic processions
at all official university functions in the chapel, Weinrich chose, rather than
insipid voluntaries or marches, Bach's elaborately extended chorales and
chorale preludes on "Komm, heiliger Geist," from the Eighteen Organ
Chorales, and "Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit" and "Kyrie, Gott
heiliger Geist," from the third part of the Klavierübung. Weinrich's
choice of Bach's most ornate four-part chorales for processionals at university
functions meant filling the chapel's nave with what are perhaps music's most
majestic chords, most ordered voices. It is hard to imagine a more perfect
blend of reason, sensual splendor, and art: the four musical lines moving
flawlessly toward their cadences as scholars of all ages and academic colors
process ponderously by.

While his primary interest and preference always lay with
the music of J.S. Bach, Carl Weinrich often commented that his favorite piece,
one which he played in public at least once each year, was Buxtehude's chorale
prelude on Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern!  And Weinrich's unbending fidelity to the score did not imply
monochromatic or uninteresting choices of registration. His daring, unexpected
use of reeds in Buxtehude's Wie schön leuchtet, preserved in a recording
made on the Holtkamp at General Theological Seminary, is a truly ingenious
interpretation of a masterpiece. He frequently performed Sweelinck's echo
fantasies and variations on Mein junges Leben hat ein End', Cabezón's
Diferencias sobre el canto del caballero, the preludes and fugues of Buxtehude
and Bruhns, Lübeck's Prelude and Fugue in E major, Noël #10 from
Daquin's book of twelve noëls. He recorded the Handel organ concertos,
Mozart church sonatas, and the Haydn organ concerto with Arthur Fiedler and the
Boston Pops orchestra. In addition, Weinrich released recordings of Baroque
Christmas music and organ music of the Bach family.

Although not as a group his favorite works, a few pieces
from Romantic composers appeared each year on his programs and among his
recordings; reviewers and concert goers frequently commented that it was
surprising to hear the organist famous for definitive renditions of Bach bring
such precision and sensitivity to later works.17 He played Mendelssohn's Sonata
I, Franck's Pièce Héroïque, and Brahms's chorale preludes
and Fugue in A-flat minor. The modern period received his enthusiastic study,
especially Hindemith's First Sonata for organ, Messiaen's Dieu Parmi Nous, and
Marcel Dupré's Cortège et Litanie, copied down when Weinrich was
a student of the great Frenchman. And Weinrich was very proud to have offered
the first public performance of Schoenberg's "Variations on a Recitativ,"
op. 40, a work which he edited for publication.

Weinrich's improvisations, or, rather, what we might call
Weinrich's theory of improvisation, deserve special mention. No Princeton
student interested in music could ever forget Carl Weinrich's spectacular
modulations and improvisations spun out between the organ's offertory and the
congregation's singing of the Doxology which followed.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Retaining the theme from his offertory
piece, Weinrich slipped adroitly through a succession of keys, adding ranks of
pipes with each phrase. Three special pieces reveal how he planned his
modulations or "improvisations," for in truth, Carl Weinrich was too
much a student of the classical principles of form, too Apollonian, to attempt
an unplanned or uncharted improvisation. 

The last movement of Mendelssohn's first organ sonata and
Bach's "St. Anne" fugue, two master works he especially favored for
offertories at Princeton, possess unmistakable, famous musical tropes which he
used to begin the improvisation and to establish its structure. The thundering
arpeggios of Mendelssohn's finale to his first sonata, the "St. Anne"
theme and the subject of the third movement's fugue--each became the germ for
an improvisation.  If the offertory
happened to include an anthem or composition by Mozart, Weinrich quoted the
great chords, dissonances, and dotted rhythms of Mozart's Fantasie in F minor,
K. 608.   Listeners awaited
the inevitable, climactic arrival of the dominant seventh chord, and then the
resolution in G major on which note the singing began. Because Weinrich never
played a preparatory phrase from the Doxology, one was obliged to listen
intently as the downbeat of an emerging tonic chord drew nearer and nearer.
Organists who must provide an improvisational bridge between an anthem and
doxology would do well to remember Weinrich's secret.  One should choose a theme or motif of the piece just
completed, and make that theme or motif the unifying idea of improvisation.

Legacy 3: Aesthetic Sensibility and a Life in Music

Carl Weinrich's third great legacy to organ study and
performance evolved from his decision, taken early in his career, to invest his
energy and effort in only those works he considered the very best compositions
for the organ. Having little patience with Romantic warhorses which merely
exploit the organ's capacity to sustain loud, rushing noise, Weinrich
withstood, in Apollonian fashion like Bach before him, many years of censure
from mediocre musicians and critics who felt him excessively inflexible,
narrow, and rigid in his adherence to Bach.

But Carl Weinrich's early recognition of those compositions
of greatest artistic value, and his fidelity to their study and performance,
widened his place in musical history from that of master performer to master
teacher. His dual authority, first over organ music's technical, then its
aesthetic, dimensions pointed students' interest and organists' labors toward
those composers and compositions capable of capturing one's imagination
forever. His life's work answers not only the question of how to realize the
full beauty of organ literature, but which portions of that literature merit
first, our endless technical effort to play accurately, and then, a lifetime of
sensitivity and reflection to interpret.

Perhaps because as a weekly performer for the Princeton
community, Carl Weinrich had to reclaim and defend his mastery of the organ
each time he sat down at the console, he retained throughout his professional
life both a student's wonder at the act of playing and a student's uneasiness
before the demands of the art. One could say without fear of overstatement that
Carl Weinrich remained, forever, frightfully respectful of the perils of
performance. It is not possible to over-practice great music or to arrive at a
definitive interpretation of its beauty, he liked to observe, nor does one ever
tire of returning "to polish once again an exquisite diamond."

As a teacher, 
Weinrich set before his students a three-pronged challenge which he
himself had answered: to identify within one's self a passionate devotion to
one field of inquiry and to remain forever its restless student; to train
discriminating eyes and ears to direct the efforts of imperfect hands and feet;
to recognize that mastery of a discipline is achieved only when one understands
that it is in the details of construction, in the skeleton, that all great art
is made. The process of intense scrutiny required to master a work's skeleton
teaches us that all art is not equal, all compositions not of a quality to
command one's study for life.

It is not surprise, finally, to discover that in his thirty
years at Princeton University's center, Weinrich's approach to the study of
music practiced the fundamental principles of a liberal arts college.
Princeton's president Robert F. Goheen, in his address to the Freshman Class at
Opening Exercises in the fall of 1965, insisted that a liberal education is not
merely to prepare one to earn a living, but also to open the mind to a field of
inquiry, a body of knowledge or learning capable of engaging the spirit and
intellect throughout life. In order to realize any of the great ends of
education, students must give themselves to a discipline, an intellectual and
artistic task which will command their life's attention, effort, and passion.

In music, a regrettable emphasis, often encouraged by
teachers, upon pursuing "what hasn't been done" occasionally leads
students to invest their time and talent in works or ideas too shallow for
repeated scrutiny, too jejune to sustain a mature spirit. By stating
unequivocally that organists should look to Bach, that the Master's greatest
works require a lifetime to execute and to interpret, that a life spent with
J.S. Bach is a life well spent, Weinrich's legacy can still spare all who will
listen from the sa

by Malcolm Wechsler

The author thanks Scott Carpenter and Harry Martinas for editorial help with this report.

The 46th annual convention of the Organ Historical Society
(OHS) took place June 21-28, 2001, in North Carolina, centering around
Winston-Salem. Convention registration brings with it the fabulous Organ
Handbook, with recital programs, organ specifications and photographs, and bios
and photos of performers. It's the Bible for the week, eagerly devoured, and
kept in one's library forever. As with last year, the editor this year was
Jonathan Ambrosino.

Thursday, June 21

The opening concert was held at First Presbyterian Church in
Greensboro, the perfect convention opening on several levels. The building is
stunningly beautiful, designed by Hobart Upjohn, modeled on the cathedral at
Albi in France, and somehow built in 1929 and 1930, in the height of the Great
Depression. It was able to accommodate the entire convention, not the case with
quite a few buildings later in the week, when we were often divided into
smaller groups. The organ, finished by Létourneau just last year, fills
the 1400-seat building with great clarity and power. It is a grand creation,
with large instruments in both gallery and chancel, beautifully encased. The
acoustic of the building is organ-friendly, but nothing more. Having chancel
pipes on both sides and a large gallery division placed very high up gives the
instrument a great presence. There is a very effective en chamade reed atop the
gallery division. The whole enterprise is undergirded by digital 32's, not
obnoxious all of the time, but often enough.

Bruce Stevens plays with grace and elegance. The program
opened with the Kerll Passacaglia in D Minor, which introduced us to the clarity of the instrument's choruses and
other combination possibilities, through a great variety of variations,
building to a quite sturdy ending. Next, Beethoven, Adagio in F Major (Organ Sonata 8) played on a pleasantly limpid flute registration. Somewhere, at every recital of an OHS convention, a hymn gets sung, mostly meant to show the effectiveness of the organ as an accompanimental instrument, but the custom has taken on a life of its own. There is even a special hymnal printed, especially attractive this year. The recitalist gets to choose the hymn, and to accompany it with as much or as little freedom as wanted. The hymn, "I will give thanks with my whole
heart," to the tune Herr Jesu Christ, was sung in glorious harmony,
supported magnificently by Stevens. Next, Rheinberger, Introduction and
Passacaglia (from Sonata No. 8). This sonata is glorious, and both player and
organ did it complete justice. The huge power of the Pedal, some of it achieved
by illicit means (I would personally prefer a good Resultant), gave the ending
particular force. Then, Franck, Choral No. 2 in B-Minor
style='font-style:normal'>; next, Stevens and flutist Marcella Leonard
performed The Hedding Suite by
Everett Titcomb. Liszt's Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H
style='font-style:normal'> received a totally splendid performance, virtuosic
in the extreme, registered without fear, including the en chamade in the
balcony. The Liszt was a glorious ending to a great recital, and a promising beginning for the week to come.

Friday, June 22

The first full day plunged us right into the OHS convention
bus-church-bus-church routine at its richest and fullest, complete with an 8:30
a.m. departure (and I might add, an 11:30 p.m. homecoming). We had a wide
variety of experiences this day, in the vicinity of Danville and Chatham,
Virginia, a two-hour bus ride from the hotel.

The first stop was Mount Vernon United Methodist Church,
Danville, housing a gentle and lovely 1860 Boston-built Simmons and Willcox
organ, rebuilt with significant additions by George Bozeman in 1988. As this
organ was saved and relocated through the good work of the late Alan Laufman
and the Organ Clearing House, it was somehow entirely appropriate that this
recital was played by the new director of the Clearing House, John Bishop. The
program: Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C Minor (BWV 549), began quietly, very slowly, and passionately; the fugue, on the other hand, was quite quick, almost Newmanlike, on a reedy registration, building naughtily with the gradual opening of the box; Pachelbel, Aria Sebaldina (from Hexachordum Apollinis); Derek Bourgeois (b. 1941, student of Howells), Serenade, written for the procession at his own wedding, a fine, accessible work, in a fresh but not shocking harmonic idiom. The hymn, "Christ is made the sure
foundation," was sung to Westminster Abbey
style='font-style:normal'>--we got to sing in parts in our usual impressive
way, complete with descant. Langlais, Noël with Variations, Choral (from 24 Pieces for Organ or Harmonium); Lefébure-Wély, Sortie--this was so well done, it made up for the over-exposure from which this piece now suffers. He who occupies the director's chair of the Organ Clearing House is able to shape and encourage one of the greatest programs to ever come out of the OHS. Its achievements under Alan Laufman were noteworthy. We offer John Bishop thanks for showing us his musical side, and wish him the very best in guiding OCH in the years ahead.

At Sacred Heart R.C. Church, Danville, James Darling,
well-known for his many years at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, gave an
excellent recital on a Simmons organ from 1877, rebuilt with some tonal changes
by Andover in 1980-81. The program began with the Concerto in C Major, op. 6, no. 10, by Corelli, adapted for organ by Thomas Billington; then Grave (with variations) from Voluntary in D Major (op. 6, no. 5) of Samuel Wesley. The hymn, giving us a good chance at some excellent harmonizing, used the tune Hereford by Samuel Sebastian Wesley  for the text "O thou who camest from above" by
Charles Wesley. The program next promised more Wesley, but the artist had a
change of mind and moved smartly into the 20th century with a quite flashy and
wonderful chorale-based work, Christ ist erstanden
style='font-style:normal'> by Ludwig Lenel, long associated with Muhlenberg
College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

After a good lunch at the Knights of Columbus Hall (bar
closed!), we moved on to First Christian Church, still in Danville, which
became the scene of an unfortunate confluence of realities. OHS really tries,
with the help of always willing volunteers, to get organs into shape for our
pleasure and edification. This recalcitrant machine (built at a time when
Möller could actually build good instruments), through poor design,
including really ill-thought-out tuning and maintenance access, and long-term
neglect, in recent years due to the poverty of the congregation, defied all
attempts to bring it "online." Just to get inside the thing, lots of
heavy case pipes have to be removed, this landing one on the huge reservoir,
and leading to other contortions to actually get at the pipes that badly need
ministrations. With the complexities of running smoothly a convention of this
kind, and it does indeed run amazingly smoothly, this poor old organ and its
condition did not get sufficient attention. Baxter Jennings, longtime organist
at Sacred Heart Church, where we had just been, was the unfortunate player
assigned to play this instrument. Susanne Martin, choir director at Sacred
Heart, came along to sing the "Pie Jesu" from the Fauré Requiem, but was overwhelmed mostly by a too-loud registration, which in turn, might have been necessary if none of the softer stops had sufficient notes actually playing. I think too, that Mr. Jennings was totally terrified by the experience of not ever knowing what notes might play at any given time, and by knowing that under these almost impossible
circumstances he was playing for a church full of organists from all over the
country.

The next event took place at Chatham Presbyterian Church in
Chatham and involved a 1912 Möller. This 17-stop organ showed that in the
early 20th century some very good things could come out of Hagerstown. What a
solid and lovely instrument, and what a player is Randy Bourne. For the first
two pieces, the organ was hand pumped, with all the well-known benefits of
this: a Praeludium (WV33) of
Scheidemann, followed by the Prelude & Fugue in F Major
style='font-style:normal'>, from the "Eight Little," with supple and
sensitive playing. Bourne spoke during much of this concert, and the compelling
nature of both the playing and the chat kept the audience at full attention all
the way. One of the first things he mentioned was his use, in the Bach, of an
old edition of 1909, a product of its time, suggesting soloing out sections
using a solo Flute accompanied by strings. Would this have been taken seriously
by many organists as little as ten years ago? Some would say we are returning
to the corrupt old ways of the pre-Orgelbewegung days. Others, I with them,
might say that we have matured musically, and can now ask what is musical
rather than what do the "rules" say. Next, four gently busy Variations on "St. Catherine" written in 1999 by Robin Rokey. Bourne then played a ravishing transcription of Mélodie in E-flat Major (op. 42, no. 3) of Tchaikovsky, with the Flute solo accompanied on that rarity, "an audible Aeoline!" This was followed by another successful transcription, of a Mussorgsky piece, Fair at Sorochintzy, with images of the Cossacks
riding into a village, destroying it, and riding off--exciting stuff! The
program ended with the hymn "Love Divine, all loves excelling," sung
to Beecher. And here was a
recitalist who understands the wonder of hymn singing, and he gave us a chance
at some harmony, and accompanied rather than dominated.

J. R. Daniels, who is organist and choirmaster at Saints
Simon and Jude Church in Pittsburgh, has been around OHS conventions since
1994, in which year he was an E. Power Biggs Fellow. He gave a concert this
year at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Chatham, on a much-moved 1865 S.S. Hamill
organ of about 12 stops. Taylor and Boody did a restoration in 1992, adding a
pedalboard and a Pedal Bourdon. Here is another recitalist who understands
hymns--he supported us gently in a sweet old traditional Roman Catholic hymn,
letting us happily harmonize to our hearts' content. He then made an apt little
speech about how much louder this gentle instrument would have sounded when it
was built, to people who had so little noise and music in their lives. His
recital made me wonder whether we have matured sufficiently to accept most of
the music on this program! Daniels is, at present, researching the music of
Théodore Salomé (1834-1896). The program began with The
Canterbury March, by Harry Crane Perin
(1868-1933), not a work of much substance. This was followed by the essential
Lefébure-Wély, Choeur de Voix humaines (The Nuns'
Chorus), consisting of Flute solo with
flourishes, accompanied on strings. Next, a kind of ornamented aria on "My
hope is built," by John Behnke, born 1953. It was then Salomé time.
Daniels warned us that the next piece, Offertoire in D-flat
style='font-style:normal'>, had been referred to by John Henderson, in his A
Directory of Composers for Organ, as the worst piece of organ music ever
written. The recital ended with a more interesting work of Salomé, Grand Choeur in A, altogether a better piece than the previous offering.

After a good dinner at the Stratford Inn Conference Center
in Danville, we headed to The Church of the Epiphany. George Bozeman,
organbuilder and a regular recitalist at these conventions, played the first
half on a 1928 Skinner of 16 ranks, I thought not a very successful example of
the breed. Bozeman, as always, gave us something unusual and interesting--the Sonata Cromatica (Seconda) of Pietro Yon. I was sure that what we were handed next was not going to work, but I underestimated us. We had in our hymnals a choral score of the Yon Gesù Bambino, and led by an excellent soloist who also conducted, Robert Sutter, we did a wonderful job. What a great idea, and what an interesting recital.

After a brief stretch, the program  moved to the balcony, with its 1978 Andover organ of 38
stops, for a contrast of epic proportions. There are 12 ranks of mixtures,
given unpromising names like Cymbal, or simply "Sharp." These are a
bit uppity, but judicious registrational pruning can work wonders, and there is
much that is beautiful in this instrument. The upstairs organist was Kathleen
Scheide, and she began with  Aria: Quis mutuos amores, by F.-X. Murschhauser; the hymn "Everlasting Arms of Love" to the tune Galliard; O Lamm Gottes (BWV 656) of Bach; the Reger Prelude and Fugue in B Minor,  and then we heard from Ms. Scheide as composer in a very pleasant piece called Aria
La Romanesca. The program finished with
Scheide's own transcription of a Mozart piano duet, K. 358.

Saturday, June 23

This day began with John Farmer's fascinating history of the
much travelled Skinner (opus 248 of 1916), now comfortably and happily living
in the great Vanderbilt mansion, Biltmore, in Asheville, North Carolina, thanks
to Farmer's alertness and skilled ministrations. The following rather long
Internet address will give the story in some detail:

<http://www.biltmore.com/just_for_media/news_releases/whats_new_concert_…;
and this address will show the handsome console:

<http://www.biltmore.com/visit/biltmore_house/pipe_organ.html&gt;.
There are a few infelicities, like a "genuine forced-air organ," and
other minor oddities, but if you don't know Biltmore, or even if you do, this
is all interesting reading. My thanks to Harry Martenas for locating these
sites.

Next we boarded six buses for the longest journey of the
convention, a bit less than three hours, during which we were shown a rather
good video about the Biltmore mansion. The Asheville part of North Carolina is
wonderfully hilly, giving the bus drivers some anxious moments maneuvering the
sometimes narrow streets, including the one which brought us to Mount Zion
Missionary Baptist Church.

Presiding over Felgemaker Opus 713, 1901, two-manuals and 26
stops, was Will Headlee, always a wonderful presence at these conventions. He
spent some years of his life in Asheville, so this was something of a
homecoming. Out of respect for the organ's lineage, he began  the first movement of the Mendelssohn
A Major Sonata on original Felgemaker
sounds--distinguished and beautiful sounds they are, too. For the Andante, he
used the original strings. Next, two choral preludes by Ludwig Lenel: "Now
praise we Christ, the Holy One" and "How brightly shines the morning
star;" then, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan
style='font-style:normal'>, Kellner; Voluntary No. 1 in D Major, Boyce. This organ really does sing. I think everyone realized that we were in the presence of royalty, an organ with
distinguished beginnings well and lovingly restored tonally and mechanically,
with some additions, by John Farmer and Company. Also, somehow, in its
simplicity, the organ is really fine visually as well. Then, "Sarabande" and "Rhythmic Trumpet" (from Baroques), Bingham; "Balm in Gilead" and "Swing Low," Utterback; Fantasy on "Roll, Jordan, Roll," Ralph Simpson (b. 1933), a really great fun piece (published by Morning Star); and the 1875 hymn, "I am thine, O Lord."

The next program took place at St. Matthias' Episcopal
Church, Asheville, and featured Carol Britt playing a one-manual organ built by
Reuben Midmer. Britt, organist and choir director at St. Augustine's Episcopal
Church in Metairie, made fine use of the single-manual instrument. The organ,
built in 1898, is original to this building. Ponder this from the program note:
"Original to the church, the Midmer organ is in a remarkable state of
preservation. Apart from maintenance and some patching to the bellows leather,
the instrument is essentially as installed 103 years ago." Was that a good
investment or what? The program: Triptych
(Prelude, Scherzo, and Fugue), Robert Powell; Grand Triumphal March, Nicholls (1877), a real two-step played with wonderful panache. To play the Partita on O Gott, du frommer Gott of Bach on an instrument with limited variety takes a bit of work. With impeccable phrasing and some careful registration planning, this was a fine and arresting performance. It made perfect sense for us to next sing "O Gott, du frommer Gott," and we did indeed, happily with some directions for harmony and unison verses.

The next move was well up the social ladder, as we visited
the Vanderbilts in their stately home, Biltmore, in Asheville. After a lovely
dinner in "The Stable" on the estate, we then proceeded to the main
house to hear the organ, played partly by the Skinner player mechanism, and
partly by Kristin Gronning Farmer. Kristin, who chaired this convention, and
whose good and thoughtful work in that capacity we benefited from daily, has
also played for OHS conventions in the past, including Boston last year. In
addition to which, she is an organ builder, working with her husband, John
Farmer, and specializing in "gilding, pipe stencilling, polychrome
painting and faux finishes," which skills she makes available not only to
the "family firm," but also to other builders. After a demonstration
of some of the resources of the instrument, she let us sample some of what is
available on the Skinner semi-automatic rolls. It was all good fun.

Sunday, June 24

After yesterday's long ride to Asheville, we spent today
staying quite close to Winston-Salem, beginning the day at the hotel with the
annual meeting of the OHS. Bill Van Pelt presided, and those in charge of other
projects and committees of the society reported on activities since the last
meeting (in Boston in 2000). There were two E. Power Biggs Fellows this year:
Ryan Celestin of Metairie, Louisiana, and Bruce Ludwick, Jr. of Keyser, West
Virginia. An election of officers was held by mail prior to this meeting, with
some ballots submitted on the day. Elected as President: Michael Barone, whose
radio program, Pipedreams, produced and disseminated by Minnesota Public Radio,
is known throughout the U.S.

On to the buses at 11, going to the workshop of J. Allen
Farmer, Organbuilders--a great barn surrounded by beautiful countryside. On
display, a two-manual and pedal mechanical-action residence organ, two stops on
each manual division and a pedal 16'. Outdoors, on a perfect day, we were
treated to a fine buffet lunch.

Next stop, Maple Springs United Methodist Church to hear
James Hammann, who is on the faculty of the University of New Orleans, is
organist of St. Francis Xavier Church, and in his spare time runs an organ
maintenance business! The organ is a 1926 Casavant, originally located in
Detroit, but moved to Winston in 1982. Voluptuous describes it well, a 3-manual
instrument with all the good (big) stuff and a sound that is broad and warm.
The program: James Houston Spencer (1895-1967), Symphonesque
style='font-style:normal'>, op. 12 of 1933, a rich work, somewhat inventive
harmonically in a way occasionally somewhat reminiscent of Sowerby, followed by
our second convention performance of "Rhythmic Trumpet" from Seth
Bingham's suite, Baroques, of
1944. This had the benefit of a wonderfully bold Trumpet, and was given a
really swaggering performance. Last, in this concert of music by composers who
lived at just about the same time, Air with Variations (
style='font-style:normal'>written for William Strickland) by Leo Sowerby
(1895-1968).

Here, we did our famous split, dividing into two groups
because of some limited seating in one of the churches. My group went first to
Ardmore United Methodist Church, which houses an organ by Fritz Noack from
1978. Although I recognized a bit of aggressiveness in the sound occasionally,
its was more than compensated for by a luminous clarity and some really lovely
stops and ensembles. This was a most interesting recital, played by William H.
Bates, professor of organ at University of South Carolina in Columbia. He chose
"When in our music" to Engelberg as his hymn, which he played very broadly and did interesting things with the accompaniment. Abruptly changing modes, he played Retrové (Estampie III) from the Robertsbridge Fragment of the early 14th century; then Fantasie sus orgue ou espinette, arr. Guillaume Costeley, mid to late 16th century; the choral prelude Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich of Buxtehude, with the cantus on a beautiful Tierce with tremulant; John Stanley, Voluntary in C: Adagio and Andante; then, Brahms, Herzlich tut mich verlangen, played sensitively on Principal sounds; and Partita on "When in our music God is glorified" by Professor Bates himself. This recital was carefully designed to match the instrument, and all was played with great musicality, technical skill, charm and as needed, wit!

The buses took us then to St. Timothy's Episcopal Church for
a recital by Rachelen Lien, from New Orleans, where she is organist and choir
director at St. Matthew United Church of Christ and Parker Memorial United
Methodist Church. Lien chaired the OHS's national convention in New Orleans in
1989. Her assignment this day was to perform on the smallest instrument heard
in the convention, a charming Erben from 1851, temporarily living in the chapel
at St. Timothy's, while its home church in South Carolina is undergoing
structural work. The organ has one manual, no pedal, 5 stops, 5 ranks, 190
pipes! An 8' Open Diapason goes down to Tenor F, a Dulciana does the same, and
both are anchored by 17 pipes of a Stopped Diapason Bass. There is a 4'
Principal and a Flute to Tenor F. There is a very tight Swell box. For some of
the pieces, the hand pump was used. The program: Adagio in e minor
style='font-style:normal'>, J.S. Bach; Allegro
style='font-style:normal'> from a Thomas Arne Concerto; Soeur Monique of François Couperin, using the Swell box for the contrasts called for in the piece; Pastorale by Charles Wesley, using first the Dulciana, and then the 4' Flute for contrast, sounds of enormous beauty and integrity; Partita on "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman," Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795). Next, mezzo-soprano Mary Martin, violist Tony Pruett, and cellist Worth Williams collaborated with Rachelen in the Brahms Lullaby for the Christ Child, opus 91. A really special treat, followed by another, the Saint-Saëns The Swan with cellist Williams. Following this, the hymn "Built on the Rock." A fascinating program, beautifully played, ended with a good chance to sing.

The convention then moved into the main church for two more
events, and they were something of a family affair, in the broadest sense of
family. It honored people of this community and people who worked to make this
wonderful convention possible. Starting with the organ builder: this amazingly
versatile one-manual instrument is Opus 22 of 1994, by John Farmer. Through the
judicious use of common basses, space and money was saved, and divided stops
made possible accompanied solo effects. The organist who next played a recital
and then accompanied Evensong was Scott Carpenter. He is assistant organist at
this church--Kristin Farmer is director of music. The composer whose music we
heard both in the pre-service recital and in Evensong itself is Margaret
Sandresky, another treasure of this area, of whom more later. The recital: Préambule (24 Pieces), Vierne; next, an anonymous 18th-century English Cornet Voluntary, and courtesy of divided stops, we heard a beautiful accompanied Cornet, three ranks just from middle c up; next a full Trumpet divided at middle c made possible a Trumpet Voluntary of Thomas Dupuis (1733-1796); then, Nun freut euch (BWV 734) of Bach; next we heard the really lovely Celeste in Prayer in E-Flat of Guilmant. The final works on the program were two
parts of an Organ Mass by
Margaret Sandusky based on the little 15th-century waltz tune L'Homme
armé. This was a wonderful recital,
which fact the audience acknowledged fully. Scott Carpenter is a player of
great assurance, musicality, and clarity.

Next was a really glorious Evensong, sung by the splendid
unauditioned choir of St. Paul's, Winston-Salem, conducted by Barbara Beattie.
Evensong began with the Richard Strauss Solemn Entry
style='font-style:normal'>, with the Giannini Brass Quintet. Preces
and Responses were by Martin Neary, then
followed the hymn, "O blest creator, source of light," to the Haydn
tune Bromley. The Psalm was No.
19, impeccably sung to a fine S.S. Wesley chant. The canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D) were by Sir Herbert Brewer (1865-1928). For the anthem, another lovely piece by Margaret Sandresky, The Turtle Dove. The closing hymn was "The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended," to the magnificent tune St. Clement.

After a good dinner at the Adams Mark Hotel, it was off to
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and a joint concert by Margaret and John Mueller.
The organ is Skinner Opus 712 of 1929. Aeolian-Skinner did some revoicing work
in 1965, and in 1996-97 the Thompson-Allen firm of New Haven, Connecticut, did
a complete restoration. The St. Paul's organ has four manuals, 42 stops, 51
ranks--not huge, but quite telling in the space. The event began with Margaret
Mueller at the console as we lustily sang "For All the Saints," to Sine Nomine, complete with harmony for stanzas 5 and 6. After that, came an organ demonstration (Margaret). We were handed a two-sided, tightly-spaced sheet describing the demonstration. There were seven sections for the demonstration of the reeds, six for the Diapasons (no Prinzipals here), seven for Flutes, and three for the Strings; ah, and one
short section for the Harp and Celesta! Each of the sections dealt with
divisions separately, and ensembles and stops alone in those divisions. We then
heard March on a Theme of Handel
by Guilmant; Fantasie in C,
Franck; and finally the charming A Wreath of Carols
style='font-style:normal'> by Margaret Vardell Sandresky (b. 1921), making use
in lovely and clever ways of the Sussex Carol, Greensleeves, Lo how a
rose, and In dulci jubilo
style='font-style:normal'>. John Mueller then took over for a very fine Sonata da Chiesa for Flute and Organ assisted by flutist Julie Frye, written (1998) by North Carolina composer Dan Locklair (b. 1949). Dr. Mueller ended the program with the Allegro from the Widor Sixth. The audience essentially erupted at the end of this definitely "feel good" program, a tribute to two North Carolina composers, two well-loved North Carolina organists, and a most beautiful instrument.

Monday, June 25

The day began with a fascinating lecture by Jonathan
Ambrosino, who was just finishing a two-year term as President of the OHS.
"The Residence Organ, 'The Final Touch of Beauty for the Well-Planned
Home,'" took us back to those days of "yesteryear," the early
part of the 20th century when even radio did not exist commercially. If you
wanted music, you made it yourself. Just about everyone had a piano in the
parlor, and someone in the family who could play it. Those with wealth and
space had pipe organs.

After the lecture, a short bus ride took us to Centenary
United Methodist Church, Winston-Salem, for a concert involving Margaret
Vardell Sandresky and Dan Locklair. Centenary U.M.C. is not a small church,
surely seating at least a thousand souls. The church was begun in 1929, and
Austin installed an organ in 1931. With its usual uncanny thoroughness, the
Organ Handbook for the convention provides both the original specification and
that of today, after a number of revisions. The main redo was in 1963, not a
promising year! Right away, one notices that the Great lost its 16' Double Open
Diapason in favor of a Quintaten! Five 8' stops were whittled down to three.
The Second Open (albeit an upward extension of the 16') is gone, as is the
Doppelflute. The Great reed unit, Trumpet and Clarion, is gone. To be sure, in
the 1931 instrument the Great only went up to a 2' Principal, and that was an
extension of the 4'; now there is a IV Mixture, surely an improvement. The
Swell did not fare too badly, although it did lose its 8' Open Diapason, always
a shame, I think. It gained a 16' Contra Fagotto. I think I weep a bit for the
Choir organ, which must have had breadth and presence with an English Diapason,
Concert Flute, Flute Celeste, Dulciana and Unda Maris. These morphed into just
a Nason Flute, Dulciana and Unda Maris. It lost its Clarinet and Orchestral
Oboe in favor of a Larigot and Krummhorn. The Solo and Echo divisions are
changed somewhat in character, and possibly improved by the 1963 rebuild. In
1987, Austin made two additions of great significance: a not-too-frightening en
chamade reed in the back, and a solid 32' Bombarde in the Pedal.

The first part of the program was played by Margaret Vardell
Sandresky, who began with a work by her father, the first organist in the new
1931 building, Charles G. Vardell, Jr. (1893-1952). Appropriately, Mrs.
Sandresky registered using only stops from the 1931 organ. Skyland is a
wonderfully atmospheric work, with great soaring lines, and bits of nice glassy
effects, using also the French Horn and the Harp. Next, three works by Mrs.
Sandresky herself, beginning with a year 2000 commission from the Home Moravian
Church, a suite entitled The Good Shepherd, consisting of four chorale preludes based on Moravian Chorales; then a Wedding March written in 1982 while Mrs. Sandresky was organist of this church--somewhat British sounding, with great flourishes; and ending the first half of the program, En Chamade, written for OHS 2001. There are several movements, some with chimes, and some cleverly using the big reed in the back.

After a short break, the program resumed with Dan Locklair
playing his own music, beginning with a Fanfare for Organ
style='font-style:normal'>, written in 2000 on commission from Fourth
Presbyterian Church of Chicago. This was followed by three sections from the
Windows of Comfort (Organbook 2),
commissioned in 1996 by First Presbyterian Church, Topeka, Kansas, and inspired
by that church's Tiffany windows. Then, Ayre for the Dance and Jubilo
(A Prelude for Organ), a 1998 commission
from the AGO for the 2001 regional competitions for young organists. Finally,
we had a chance to sing, and a good chance indeed with the Parry tune to
"O praise ye the Lord!"

We next did a rather free-form triple split. We all drove to
the great estate that Tobacco built, Reynolda House in Winston-Salem, spacious
and elegant. The room from which to hear the organ is not huge, hence the split
with assigned times for each group for hearing the recital, for eating lunch in
the various restaurants on the estate, and for simply walking around the
beautiful grounds. It did not work out exactly as planned, because it took
rather a time to check out the various restaurants and to get into fairly long
lines and to wait for service.

After this visit, the buses took us back to the hotel for a
rest period. Then, we rode to Greensboro for dinner at First Presbyterian
Church, and then to Christ United Methodist Church, the scene of which could
have been a convention planner's nightmare, but turned out more than o.k. We
were to have heard Lenora McCroskey. Ms. McCroskey suffered an injury to her
arm some days before she was to play, and realized it would not be possible to
meet the commitment. Her excellent former pupil Stewart Wayne Foster was,
fortunately, available to play. He is artist in residence and associate
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  organist of First (Scots) Presbyterian
Church and is founder/musical director of the Orchestra of St. Clare,
Charleston's first full-scale Baroque orchestra. Mr. Foster has been
coordinating the pipe organ component of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival since
1999.

We began with a hymn, "O Gladsome Light," to the
tune Cantique de Simeon, a Louis
Bourgeois tune harmonized by Claude Goudimel. The notes on the instrument
indicate that this was one of the organs completed in the last year of Charles
Fisk's life, 1982, and mentioned that it is  considered a sister organ to the one at Downtown United
Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York. Mr. Foster is a superb player, possessing a very easy sort of grace, his movements sure and musically based. With very little notice, he was able to put together a most interesting program. He also spoke very clearly and well, with comments carefully chosen and useful. Nicholas Bruhns, Praeludium in e minor; Bach, Toccata in d minor, BWV 913 (written with harpsichord in mind); Clérambault, Suite on the Second Tone; a setting of "Amazing Grace" by Robert Hebble, who was one of Mr. Foster's teachers; Toccata on "Old Hundredth" by Jack Jones (another of Mr. Foster's teachers). The recital ended with the Final from the Vierne Third Symphony, brilliantly played. By this point, I had wondered if Mr. Foster, given the late notice about playing, had actually had a chance to go out in the room and listen to the instrument with his registrations. Some judicious pruning could have made the big moments more bearable, something that was very much wanted in the Vierne, which was so splendidly done, but was also painfully loud.

Tuesday, June 26

The day began with a lecture by Peter Cameron entitled,
"George Jardine and Son, New York Organbuilders--An Era of Spectacular
Organs." Cameron has had a long career in organ maintenance, repair, and
restoration, and from 1977 to 1994 served as maintenance coordinator for the
Andover Organ Company. His lecture was a wonderful appreciation of a once great
company, from one who has had extensive hands-on personal experience with their
output. A great story, well told.

After the lecture, we did our three-way split to accommodate
one very small but beautiful venue in Historic Bethabara within Winston-Salem,
the "Saal" of the 1771 "Gemeinhaus," the meeting room in
which services were held in the Congregation House. While one part of the group
was hearing the recital, the other two parts were visiting the historical exhibits and enjoying the beautiful grounds. The little three-stop, single-manual organ in the "Saal" is by Charles McManis, built in 1971 after a 1772 organ by North Carolina builder Joseph Bultischek, an instrument that perished in a fire in 1942. Sadly and strangely, no one knows what the specification of that organ was, so Charles McManis, fortified with some knowledge of other very small organs used by the Moravians, settled on an 8' Gedact, 4' Principal, and 2' Octave.

Michael Rowland is director of music at Ardmore United
Methodist Church, and staff accompanist at Salem College. He played an
18th-century program beginning with Four Preludes of the English Moravian,
Christian Latrobe (1758-1836), followed by three Bach chorale preludes: Erbarm dich mein (BWV 721), Gelobet seist du (BWV 697), and Allein Gott (BWV 717). We then sang Allein Gott, two stanzas with harmony provided--sheer joy in that lovely place. Mr. Rowland was then joined by Lauren Kossler, a fine violinist, and together they played a suite for violin and keyboard by John Stanley. Thanks to them both for a perfect program for a most attractive and historic place.

Andrew Unsworth played an 18-stop Hook and Hastings
instrument of 1924, with no stop over 4', in a quite dead acoustic at Calvary
Moravian Church in Winston-Salem. Both Unsworth and the organ conquered all,
aided, no doubt, at times by the 73-note chests and attendant super coupler.
Currently organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Durham, he holds a Ph.D. in performance practice from Duke. The program began
with two pieces by Henry Dunham (1853-1929), who taught organ at New England
Conservatory for 52 years: from the First Sonata in G Minor
style='font-style:normal'>, op. 10 (from 1882), an Allegro moderato, followed
by Impromptu from a set of 12
pieces of 1912, op. 24; next, "Vision," Rheinberger, a lovely piece
requiring some dexterity at registration changes, which were very deftly
handled. The last of the organ pieces was the War March of the
Priests, Mendelssohn, played with great
flair and a fat and powerful registration--very satisfying indeed. Unsworth
proved himself to also be a very fine hymn player, giving really good support,
and doing clever bits of descanting, with a rather nice reharmonization of the
last verse of the hymn Redeemer of Israel, to a tune by Freeman Lewis.

Lunch was served at Centenary United Methodist Church,
Winston-Salem, following which we bused to Old Salem where we again broke into
three groups in order to accommodate the limited capacity of the "Saal" in the Single Brothers' House. While one group was at the recital, others were touring Old Salem. In the "Saal," Lois Regestein played her excellent recital three times in order to fit everyone in. The organ, by David Tannenberg, 1798, is gentle and sweet, and comprises five stops. The console is slightly detached and reversed. The instrument was rebuilt by Charles McManis in the mid-60s. The program: Organ Obbligatos to an Anthem, by Johann Ludwig Freydt (1748-1807); Fuga, by Johann Gottfried Gebhard (1755-?); Prelude No. 2 in C Minor, Prelude No. 6 in E-flat, by Christian Latrobe; Nun rühen alle Walder, by Ernst Immanuel Erbe (1854-1927), then another "Chorale Verse" based on the same tune, by Carl Anton Van Vleck; Voluntary IV in G, op. 7, by John Stanley; and then the hymn Morning Star, written in 1836 by Francis Florentine
Hagen (1815-1870). James Boehringer, former director of the Moravian Music
Foundation, and Kevin Brown, present administrator of the foundation, were both
acknowledged as having provided help in organizing the program.

We next walked to Home Moravian Church, where Paula Locklair
presented a most interesting slide-talk about the work of David Tannenberg and
his relationship with the Moravians in North Carolina. Mrs. Locklair has worked
with the various collections at Old Salem since 1975, and has been director of
collections since 1987, and is married to composer Dan Locklair. After her
talk, she introduced John Boody of the firm of Taylor & Boody, who gave a
slide-talk presentation about the company's project for restoring the 1799
Tannenberg organ for the Home Moravian Church. This is the oldest American-made
two-manual instrument extant. (For information on the project:
<www.taylorandboody.com&gt;.)

We then moved upstairs to the church, where the Piedmont
Chamber Singers, directed by James Allbritten, and accompanied by David
Pulliam, led us in a Singstunde, which is just what it sounds like--a wonderful
hour of singing, much of it done by us, with some choral works sung by the
Chamber Singers. We sang hymns that would be known to a Moravian congregation,
but not necessarily to us, and thus learned some new and quite interesting
hymns.

OHS planners always try to find occasional experiences other
than organs and organ music, and tonight was the night. We bused quite a long
way out of town to the Pollirosa Restaurant, obviously a very popular spot.
There was a long line and the place was really packed, but they were ready for
our group, and we had some wonderful barbecue and lots of other good things,
all accompanied by bluegrass music, live, on stage. There were also hayrides
available, but I did not notice any of our group indulging. We had six buses,
and they left for the hotel at intervals, so you could leave when you had had
your fill of food--and possibly of bluegrass. A lot of our gang really got into
it, singing and dancing up a storm, and me without my camera!

Wednesday, June 27

This penultimate full day of the convention featured an
array of various instruments. Here is the pipe count for the day: 362, 363,
951, 4926, 1038, and finally 6663. The day began with an almost two-hour bus
ride to New Hope Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, to hear Steve Barrell play
the 1987 one-manual organ by John Brombaugh. The program: Pieter Cornet (c.
1560-c. 1630), Four Versets on "Regina Caeli," featuring various combinations of sound, some of the fuller
bits somewhat on the harsh side, some individual voices quite beautiful.
Divided stops make possible solo and accompaniment, used to good effect. Then,
Johann Pachelbel (from Hexachordum Apollinis
style='font-style:normal'>, 1699), Aria Prima with Six Variations, the second variation on a beautiful Flute with tremulant. For something entirely different, we sang the hymn "Were you there," with a harmony of Barrell's own devising, based on the music of Fats Waller.

A very short bus ride brought us to Hillsborough and St.
Matthew's Episcopal Church for a recital by Grant Hellmers, an Australian by
birth, who has been at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond for 20 years,
and was assistant for the four years before that. Before his time in Richmond,
he held church positions in Australia and in Vienna. The two-manual Hook &
Hastings stock model organ dates from 1883. The program: Humoresque (L'organo
primitivo), Toccatina for Flutes, Pietro
Yon; the beautiful Schübler Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten, Bach, after which we sang the two stanzas given for the chorale, one in harmony, and the second in unison with a very nice reharmonization. The power of even half of an OHS convention was just too overwhelming (we were split in two groups at this point)--every stop was indeed on! Following the hymn, three charming pieces by Leopold Mozart, from Der Morgen und der Abend (Morning and Evening); then, "Lied" (from 24 Pieces in Free Style), Vierne, with the lovely Open Diapason for the melody; Percy Whitlock, Divertimento (No. 2 from Four
Extemporisations); and finally, Allegro
(Number 6 of Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Set 2, op. 105) of C. V. Stanford. Well conceived and beautifully played was this program, and the little stock organ really is
lovely.

Both New Hope Presbyterian and St. Matthew's Episcopal
provided lunch for their half of the convention party, after which we gathered
at the Chapel of Peace College in Raleigh, where Rosalind Mohnsen played her
16th OHS convention recital. The organ is a transplant, a gift to the college
given by Christ Church, Raleigh. I don't know how many intact organs by
Pomplitz & Company are extant. Here at Peace College, this 17-stop Pomplitz
found an excellent home, and it and the college were presented with an OHS
Plaque in recognition of this. It was accepted by the president of the college,
who said a bit about how much she enjoys this instrument. With only 17 stops,
this two-manual organ nonetheless has both a 16' Double Open and a Bourdon, and
is quite robust in other ways as well. The program began with March from Ten
Progressive Pedal Studies of George
Whitefield Chadwick; then, Gavotte Pastorale by Frederick N. Shackley (1868-1937); Prelude
in E-flat Minor (op. 66-1911), Vincent
d'Indy (1851-1931); Prelude and Fugue in B Major
style='font-style:normal'> (op. 99), Camille Saint-Saëns; Pastorale in D Major, op. 13, William Wolstenholme (1865-1931); and finally an Allegro Moderato in D by Henry Smart (1813-1879). The recital came to a rousing close with the hymn "The Day of Resurrection" in glorious harmony to Henry Smart's well-known tune Lancashire
style='font-style:normal'>.

A bus ride brought us to the beautiful campus of Duke
University, with a chapel boasting three remarkable organs, upon each of which
we heard what could only be described as a perfect recital, tailored to match
the qualities of the instrument. We began at the west end of the chapel with
the famous four-manual Flentrop of 1976, with Mark Brombaugh offering a recital
of Buxtehude, Scheidemann, de Grigny, and a partita by James Woodman,
commissioned by Brombaugh in honor of his father. Woodman's Partita on
"Spanish Hymn" was written in
1999 and comprises seven sections: Prelude, Chorale, Bicinium, Trio, Aria,
Fughetta, and Canon. The program ended with the hymn "Spanish Hymn,"
complete with three harmony verses and even a bit of a descant! The Flentrop
organ had a robust sound in the louder works and permeates the building wonderfully. The chapel's walls have been treated with several coats of sealant with excellent results. Equally impressive were the clarity and color of the quieter sounds.

The next event generated something akin to hostility. I
suppose the behavior of a few of our colleagues might be compared to the
reactions of some who demonstrated their opprobrium at the first performance of
Rite of Spring. Well, in truth, no
tomatoes were thrown on this occasion, but it saddens me to report that a
number of people left the building, saying things like "I don't have to
listen to this." Some even said things like: "I listened to the damn
Flentrop, but this is too much!" Meantone is not nearly as sinister as it
sounds! I heard Margaret Irwin-Brandon at OHS Boston the previous summer, where
she had the assignment of playing the Charles Fisk dual-temperament instrument
at Wellesley College. The anti-anything-different folks were in evidence there,
too. As at Wellesley, she chose a program absolutely perfect for the instrument
at hand: Frescobaldi, Toccata Sesta, Bk. II, per l'organo sopra i pedali, e senza; Canzona Quarta; Toccata Quinta, Bk. II, sopra i pedali per l'organo, e senza. Then we sang "Savior of the nations, come" (Nun komm der Heiden Heiland), five harmony stanzas in our hymnlet, which means we all sang in meantone without any permanent injury, with the exception of stanza 3, which got switched amazingly into a triple meter, which we all managed quite well. Then Canzona II of Froberger, followed by Ballo della Battaglia of Bernardo Storace. Now, if anyone was in doubt about the personality of meantone tuning, the Frescobaldi works left no doubt. There are intervals that jar our "well"-conditioned brains and ears, and I found myself, as at Wellesley, looking straight up at the organ and listening with as much attention as I could muster--this contemplation coupled with a totally relaxed attitude. This is edgy, this is somewhat unsettling, but I can get used to it, and find these sounds more of a condiment than a threat. The very gentle beauty of this Brombaugh organ at Duke beguiled me into complete acceptance, and pleasure at having the opportunity to hear something from the history of our instrument. The Froberger was wonderfully gentle and sweet, and then the Storace was, well, a battle, with the little Regal on the Brustwerk doing yeoman service!

The journal of the Organ Historical Society is called The
Tracker, and back in the very early days, this was the perfect name.
Conventions included visits to, if not totally exclusively, almost exclusively
mechanical-action instruments. The broadening happened gradually, and now
convention goers visit historic E. M. Skinner organs, on which are often
conferred OHS plaques in honor of their preservation and maintenance. We have
often even visited new organs of note, no matter what mechanism makes the pipe
speak, e.g., the new Létourneau instrument at the first recital of this
convention! Welcome, I think, to the real world, with a broader view of real
excellence. I have not, and I know others who are driving the work of OHS have
not, abandoned a belief in the great virtues and advantages of tracker action.
This does not prevent me from thrilling at the sound of the Wanamaker Organ,
for example. The full circle we have made was brought into full view by all the
buzz and almost palpable anticipation of the next event, a recital on the
Aeolian organ in the east end of the chapel, an organ so reviled in times past
that there was a powerful movement to junk it. It makes the heart glad to know
that the OHS had a role in the campaign to save it, so there was some reveling
in all of this as we settled down to hear Ken Cowan give a convincing
demonstration of this instrument: Allegro vivace from the Widor 5th; Ave
Maria of Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925) demonstrating the ravishing strings of the instrument; Roulade, Seth Bingham; Overture to The Flying Dutchman, Wagner; the hymn "In our day of thanksgiving one Psalm let us offer," to the glorious tune St. Catherine's Court, with harmony. (Let it be here stated that Ken Cowan does know how to accompany a hymn. I wrote in my book: "What an accompaniment!!") Words won't do in describing Cowan's simply stunning performance of a perfect piece for right where we were, the Liszt Ad nos, ad salutarem undam.

Thursday, June 28

The last day of the convention began with Rachelen Lien from
New Orleans, a regular performer at OHS conventions, giving a preview of a
January 2002 mini-convention entitled "A South Louisiana Organ
Odyssey." This event, to be held January 3-5, was to include tours of
plantations, monasteries, and convents, as well as the famous French Quarter.

A 45-minute bus ride brought us to the First Presbyterian
Church of Lexington, for a recital by Edward Zimmermann, a native of North
Carolina, now teaching at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. The organ, Opus
499 of Geo. S. Hutchings (1900), was relocated to this church through the Organ
Clearing House and members of the staff of Andover Organs, which company
rebuilt and enlarged the instrument in 1994. The program consisted entirely of
works by Otto Dienel (1839-1905), beginning with a chorale prelude on Lobe
den Herren, for which Zimmermann used only
original Hutchings stops; we then sang just one stanza of the chorale. This
two-manual instrument of 23 stops and 28 ranks is very fine. There followed
three more chorale preludes: Komm, O komm, du Geist des Lebens; Mach
dich, mein Geist, bereit; and Wer
nur den lieben Gott lasst walten. The
program ended with a three-movement Grand Sonata No. 3 in F Major, op. 18, on the chorale Wie gross ist des Allmaecht'gen Guete. At some of the convention recitals, we are joined by varying numbers of members of the
congregation, which suggests the good news that there is interest in the organ.
From this church, there were many congregants, and I am sure they had their
interest and pride in the instrument strengthened.

After lunch in Winston-Salem, we moved on to another
surprisingly effective organ, speaking out of a very small rectangular hole
high on the east wall, looking for all the world like a large
style="mso-spacerun: yes">   speaker enclosure. No date is
given for this Kilgen unit organ of 11 stops and 13 ranks. The church was built
in the early 1930s by a Presbyterian congregation, and the organ would seem to
be of the same period. In 1964, the congregation of St. James A.M.E. Church
bought the building. The organ was last played publicly 30 years ago. The last
time it was played at all was 20 years ago. At some point, before the organ
ceased to be used, some tonal changes were made under the direction of John
Mueller, which now, at this time of our organic thinking in the 21st century,
will either bring cheers or jeers. The Great 8' Open was replaced by a Mixtuur
III. The 8' Clarabella became a Gedeckt. The Dulciana became a 4' Octaaf. On the
Swell, the Vox Humana became a 2' Vlakfluit. When members of the convention
committee went to inspect this instrument, it was not playing at all--there was
no longer electricity to the blower. John Farmer and a crew, along with a
licensed electrician, got it all cooking again. There were a few members of the
congregation around for the recital, and I hope they might be persuaded to make
some use of the instrument, now that it can be played again. Those there seemed
impressed. Here we were treated to a concert by bass-baritone John Williams and
organist Max Smith. The program: Handel, Thanks be to Thee
style='font-style:normal'>; Mendelssohn (Elijah
style='font-style:normal'>), Lord God of Abraham (preceded by the recitative);
Margaret Vardell Sandresky, O God, my heart is fixed on thee
style='font-style:normal'> (Psalm 108); for organ alone: Adagio from Widor Symphony No. 6; "I Stood on the River of Jordan," arr. Harry Burleigh; "Let Us Break Bread Together"; provided with full harmony, we happily sang "Fairest Lord Jesus" to the tune Crusaders' Hymn.

A 45-minute bus ride brought us to the third and last
"stately home" of the convention, the Chinqua-Penn Plantation,
devised and built by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Penn. A Skinner organ,
Opus 565, was installed in 1926. The pipes are in the basement, speaking out
into the great living room through large grates. For this visit, we were
divided in two groups to avoid crowding in the room where the organ resides.
While one group was walking the extensive and interesting grounds, the other
was listening to a recital, well played and chosen for the organ and venue, by
Mary Gifford, who is director of music at St. Leonard Catholic Church in
Berwyn, Illinois. Her program was perhaps a reproduction of at least the spirit
if not the specifics of what might have been heard by the residents of this home. There were four charming Edward MacDowell piano works arranged by Ms. Gifford: Hunting Song, An Old Love Story, To a Humming Bird, and the inevitable To a Wild Rose; next A Southland Song by William Lester, an English organist who settled in Chicago in the early part of the 20th century, and was for some years a reviewer for The Diapason; then we attempted to sing "When Mother Played the Organ," by George B. McConnell (text by Dick Sanford) and did not do
too badly at all. The perfect closer was the Mendelssohn War March of
the Priests arranged by Theodore Dubois.

After dinner at the plantation (one could get used to that),
we hopped on the bus for a one-hour relaxing trip to Greensboro, and West
Market Street United Methodist Church, where Peter Sykes played the final
recital of the convention. Organist at First Church in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Sykes teaches organ, harpsichord, and chamber music at the Longy
School, and serves on the faculty of the extension division of New England
Conservatory. The organ at West Market Street is by Dobson in collaboration
with Manuel Rosales. Quoting from the Organ Handbook: "In the final
equation, Dobson designed and constructed the organ; Rosales provided basic
scaling with input from Dobson; and both companies shared equally in the
voicing and tuning process." Key action is mechanical, stop action,
electric. Some Pedal ranks are on electric action. There are three manuals and
39 stops, the third manual being a small Solo Organ, with an Harmonic Flute, a
5-rank Tenor G Cornet, an 8' Trumpet and an 8' Clarinet. The program:
Mendelssohn, Sonata No. 3 in A Major; a five-movement "suite" by
James Woodman, All Creatures of Our God and King: Sister Moon, Brother Sun, Mother Earth, All of Tender Heart, and Alleluia; the tune Lasst uns erfreuen appears here and there. Then, Tocccata in F (Bux 137); Fantasia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 537, Bach; three "Tonstücke," op. 22 of Niels Gade; and to close, Duruflé Prélude, Adagio, et Choral varié on Veni Creator. The last hymn to be sung at this convention followed, a rather angular but ultimately attractive and singable tune by Derek Williams (b. 1945) to the text, "Give us the wings of faith." The Dobson/Rosales instrument, though not large, provided plenty of variety and color for such a varied program. There were, for me where I was sitting, a very few overpoweringly loud and harsh moments, and I thought it had to do with the Great Reeds, 16, 8 & 4, but others will have felt differently, I am sure. The instrument is surely a great success, and Mr. Sykes' performance was superb. The buses soon departed for the hotel, and one last look at the exhibits and the convivial bar  and it was all over for another year.

This was another wonderful OHS convention! Readers please
note: the 2002 OHS national convention will take place June 25-July 1 in
Chicago, Illinois. For information: 804/353-9228;

<www.organsociety.org&gt;.