A Second Glance: An Overview of African-American Organ Literature

Contrary to popular belief, there is a substantive body of African-American classical music. This music draws upon a wealth of influences which are not just limited to Negro spirituals and jazz. The same can be said for the organ literature of African-Americans. Of the 332 entries listed in Paula Harrell's 1992 dissertation "Organ Literature of Twentieth-Century Black Composers: An Annotated Bibliography," only 74 are based on spirituals.1 In fact, African-American organ literature draws upon a multitude of influences which include spirituals, melodies of African origin, general protestant hymnody, German Protestant chorales, plainchant, as well as original composer themes. A few organ compositions have even been inspired by musical themes, individuals, and historical events associated with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.2

Regarding the composers, several have had extensive training
and expertise in the field of composition.  Many of these, at one time or another, have been the
recipients of prestigious music fellowships3 and/or composition awards.4

As is the case with a large segment of 20th-century organ
music, African-American organ literature has been influenced by neo-classical
as well as symphonic organ composition styles.  The composers who have written utilizing a neo-classical
idiom include, but are not limited to, such names as George Walker (b. 1922),
Ulysses Kay (1917-1995), and Mark Fax (1911-1974). In terms of symphonic
writing for the instrument, there is, for instance, the music of Thomas H. Kerr
(1915-1988), William B. Cooper (1920-1993), Eugene W. Hancock (1929-1994), and
Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941). Some composers such as Noel Da Costa (b. 1929)
and David Hurd (b. 1950) display a diversity of stylistic influences in their
compositions.

Much of the literature for the instrument represents a
varied number of compositional forms such as sonata, fugue, rondo, theme and
variations, as well as free form. There is also a considerable body of
literature for organ and other instruments which encompasses everything from
concerti with orchestra to chamber music.5 Before embarking upon a discussion
of the literature and its composers, it is necessary to provide some background
into its history and to discuss the nature of a few deterrants to performance.

The accessibility of music scores is perhaps the central
problem regarding the performance of this music. The reason for this is because
the vast majority of this literature, with few exceptions, remains
unpublished.6 Much of it exists only in manuscript form, the legibility of
which could itself constitute a deterrent to performance. Most of the scores
may be obtained directly either from the composers or their estates. The fact
that a large segment of this music remains unpublished has no bearing on its
quality, for the quality of the music is equal to much of that which already
appears in print, and in several instances, exceeds it. The lamentable truth of
the matter is that bias and negative racial stereotyping of black intellectual
capacity have been at fault.7 In the past, music publishers generally displayed
little interest in publishing the classical works of African-Americans,
Hispanics, women, or anyone who was not traditionally considered to be a part
of the male-dominant social mainstream. Since that time, music publishers have
slowly, but surely, begun to express an interest in publishing the works of
women and a handful of minority composers;8 however, for many years, this was
not the case. Much of this music went virtually unnoticed and unperformed. This
was even true for Thomas Kerr's AGO prize-winning composition Arietta, the
latter of which was once published commercially, but is currently unavailable
in print.9 It is for this reason that a survey, however succinct, is not only
desirable, but necessary. Although it is not feasible in the scope of a single
article to provide a comprehensive survey of African-American organ literature,
it is nonetheless possible to provide a brief, informative overview of a select
opus belonging to an equally select cadre of composers from this group.

For the purpose of this article, the composers discussed are
divided into two general styles of organ composition: symphonic and
neo-classical. Brief composer biographical sketches accompany a selective opus
listing. For each composer, a few measures from one or more compositions have
been extracted which reflect the wide variety of thematic sources and stylistic
influences from which these pieces are derived. We will start with the symphonic
compositions of Thomas H. Kerr, Adolphus Hailstork, and William B. Cooper.

Thomas H. Kerr
(1915-1988) served on the music faculty of Howard University as Professor of
Piano from 1943 until his retirement in 1976. An alumnus of the Eastman School
of Music, Kerr graduated with highest honors and was later awarded an M.M.
degree from the same institution. Kerr became the recipient of a Rosenwald
Fellowship in Composition (1942) and was subsequently awarded First Prize in
the Composers and Authors of America Competition (1944). In addition to his
recital activity, he was presented twice as a concerto soloist with the
National Symphony. Kerr's contributions to musical literature have been in the
area of piano, voice, chorus, woodwind ensemble, and organ. Although primarily
trained as a pianist, Kerr became masterfully familiar with the organ and its
resources, thus enabling him to write most effectively for the instrument.

Here, two of Kerr's compositions have been selected. The
first example is the theme from the Concert Variations on a Merry Xmas Tune,
which is based on the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas." (Example
1)

Another popular Kerr composition,  Anguished American Easter-1968, is a brilliant set of theme
and variations based on the Easter spiritual "He 'rose." Written upon
hearing news of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Kerr completed the
original manuscript in 10 days. It is dedicated to Dr. King's memory. (Example
2)

Organ Compositions (Published Scores)

Arietta [1957]-[Now out-of-print]

(Unpublished Scores)-[selected]

Anguished American Easter-1968 (Dedicated to the Memory of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Concert Variations on a Merry Xmas Tune ("Good King
Wenceslas") [Revised 1969]

Thanksgiving-1969 (Somber Variations on Handel's "Thanks
Be to Thee")

Suite Sebastienne: (Theme and Cantus, Frolicking Flutes,
Miniature Antiphonal on a Pedal Point, Fugato and Toccata, Trio, Allegro
barbaro, Reverie, Toccata-Carillon) [Revised 1974]

Adolphus Hailstork
(b. 1941) received his degrees from Howard University (B.M. degree) under Mark
Fax, and at the Manhattan School of Music (B.M. and M.M. degrees) under
Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond. He later received a Doctorate of Music in
Composition from Michigan State University where he was a student of H. Owen
Reed. Hailstork pursued additional study with Nadia Boulanger at the American
Institute at Fountainebleau. Currently, he is serving as Professor of Music and
Composer-in-Residence at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia. Among
his composition awards are the Ernest Bloch Award for Choral Composition
(1972), the Belwin-Mills Max Winkler Award (1977), and First Prize in the
Virginia College Band Director's National Competition (1983). In addition to
organ works, Hailstork has written for chorus, voice, various chamber
ensembles, and band.

Hailstork's fiery Toccata on 'Veni Emmanuel' is based on the
Advent plainchant known in English as "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."
(Example 3)

Organ Compositions (Published Scores)

Suite for Organ: (Prelude, Andantino, Scherzetto, Fugue)
[Hinshaw Music, Inc., Chapel Hill, NC, 1975]

 (Unpublished
Scores)

First Organ Book-Eight Short Pieces for Organ: (Who Gazes at
the Stars [1978], Toccata on "Veni Emmanuel"
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  [1983], Prelude and Postlude on
"Shalom Havayreem" [1983], Prelude on "We Shall
Overcome"  [1983], Prelude and
Scherzo on "Winchester New" 
[1983], Prelude and March in F [1983], Prelude on "Veni
Emmanuel"  [1983])

Prelude [1967]

Andante [1967]

William B. Cooper
(1920-1993). Born in Philadelphia, Cooper received his B.M. and M.M. degrees
from the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts and a Doctorate of Music from
Columbia Pacific University (California). In 1988, he was awarded a Doctorate
of Sacred Music (honoris causa) from Christ Theological Seminary in Yonkers,
New York. Cooper pursued additional music studies at the School of Sacred Music
of Union Theological Seminary (New York), the Manhattan School of Music, and
Trinity College of Music (London). He not only served on the music faculties of
Bennett College (Greensboro, North Carolina) and  Hampton University (Hampton, Virginia), but taught 26 years
in the New York City School System. Cooper also served as Minister of Music at
historic St. Philip's Episcopal Church (1953-1974) and St. Martin's Episcopal
Church (1974-1988) in Harlem. His musical output, which is considerable,
includes works for organ, voice, chorus, solo instruments, orchestra, and
ballet.

Here, three of Cooper's compositions are cited for their
thematic diversity. The first of these, Cooper's Meditation on 'Steal Away', is
based on the Negro spiritual bearing that name. (Example 4)

The theme of Cooper's Lulliloo-Ashanti Cry of Joy is African
in origin, being based on an Ashanti tribal melody. (Example 5)

Based on a melody from the shape-note hymnal Southern
Harmony is Cooper's Pastorale. (Example 6)

Organ Compositions (Unpublished Scores)-[selected]

Peaceful Warrior [1961]

In the Beginning-Creation [1962]

Diferencias con Quattro [1962]

Meditation on "Steal Away" [1964]

Poem II-To the Innocents [1967]

Rhapsody on the Name FELA SOWANDE [1968]

Pastorale No. III [1973]

Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring (Air) [1978]
style='mso-tab-count:1'>               

Toccata on "John Saw" (The Holy Number) [1978]

Concerto for Cello and Organ [1979]

Symphony No. II for Organ [197-?]

Lulliloo-Ashanti Cry of Joy [1981]

Spiritual Lullaby [1981]

Paraphrase on "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" [1985]

The African-American organ compositions which have been
selected for their neo-classical influence are by composers George Walker and
Mark Fax.

George Walker (b.
1922). A native of Washington, D.C., George Walker was a piano child prodigy.
He attended Oberlin Conservatory (B.M. degree), and later, the Curtis Institute
of Music (Philadelphia) where he received the Artist Diploma. He also pursued
study at the American Academy at Fountainebleau (1947) where he was a student
of Nadia Boulanger and Robert Casadesus. At the age of 23, he won the
Philadelphia Youth Auditions and played the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto with
Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1956, Walker became
the first African-American to receive a Doctorate of Music at the Eastman
School of Music. For years, he concertized as a piano virtuoso under the
Columbia Concert Artists and National Concert Artists Management. Walker later
headed the Music Department at Rutgers University. He was also the recipient of
several prestigious awards and fellowships such as a Fulbright, Guggenheim, and
Rockefeller. With many compositions to his credit--works for piano, voice,
chorus, chamber ensembles and orchestra--the Three Pieces for Organ constitute
his only contributions to the instrument to date.

Originally conceived as a movement from a Protestant organ
service, Walker's Chorale Prelude on Jesu, wir sind hier (also known by the
title Herzliebster Jesu) is based on the German Protestant chorale. (Example 7)

Organ Compositions (Published Scores)

Three Pieces: (Elevation, Chorale Prelude on "Jesu, wir
sind hier,"  Invokation)
(M.M.B. Music, 1991)

Mark Fax (1911-1974)
was a native of Baltimore. He received his B.M. degree in Piano at Syracuse
University, graduating with highest honors. He was subsequently awarded a M.M.
degree in Composition from the Eastman School of Music where he was an Eastman
and a Rosenwald Fellow. Fax joined the faculty at Howard University in 1947
where he served as Professor of Composition. He later became Assistant to the
Dean of Fine Arts prior to his appointment as Acting Dean of Fine Arts. He was
later appointed as Director of the School of Music. Fax composed for many
musical media including piano, chorus, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and has
three operas to his credit.

In the example, Fax mixes elements of neo-classicism with
influences of the Black Church. The first movement of his Three Pieces for Organ
is based on a Negro spiritual. (Example 8)

Organ Compositions Unpublished Scores)-[selected]

The Pastor [1944]

Prelude and Chorale [1952]

Variations on Maryton [1960]

Three Pieces: (Free, Hauntingly [1963], Allegretto [1965],
Toccata [1966])

Three Organ Preludes: St. Martin [1964], Crusader's Hymn
(Offertory-Transposed to A Major), St. Anne [Fragment, 1964]

Two Chorale Preludes: Crusader's Hymn [1964], Kremser [1968]

Postlude on "I'll Never Turn Back" [1972]

Noel Da Costa (b.
1929) was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He later moved to Jamaica where he lived
until the age of 11, at which time he came to the United States. He received a
B.A. degree from Queens College (City University of New York) and was awarded a
M.A. degree from Columbia University. While still in graduate school at
Columbia, Da Costa became the recipient of the Seidl Fellowship in Music
Composition. He later studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence under a
Fulbright Scholarship (1958-61). Currently, Da Costa holds the post of Associate
Professor of Music in the Mason Gross School of the Arts in Rutgers University
where he has taught since 1970. His musical output consists of a large variety
of compositions which include music for piano, solo instruments, chamber
ensemble, voice, chorus, orchestra, as well as five operas.

Exemplifying Da Costa's stylistic diversity are two
examples, the first of which is the theme from Da Costa's Variations on
'Maryton', based on the English hymntune known as "O Master, Let Me Walk
with Thee." (Example 9)

A second example of a composition based on a melody of
African origin is Da Costa's Chililo: Prelude for Organ after an East African
Lament, which is based on the Mozambique ceremony of lamentation. (Example 10)

Organ Compositions (Unpublished Scores)

Maryton (Hymntune and Variations) [1955]

Generata (for solo organ and string orchestra) [1958]

Chililo: Free Transcription for Organ [1970]

Chililo: Prelude for Organ after an East African Lament
[1971]

Triptich for Organ (Prelude, Processional, Postlude) [1973]

Spiritual Set for Organ (Invocation, Affirmation, Spiritual,
Praise) [1974, Publ. by Belwin-Mills (unavailable since 1986)]

Ukom Memory Songs (Organ and Percussion) [1981]

David Pickering currently teaches at Salt Lake Community College, Deseret Academy, the Waterford School, and the Day Murray Organ School. Dr. Pickering received the doctor of musical arts degree in organ performance and a master's degree in organ performance and musicology from the University of Kansas as a student of James Higdon. He received his bachelor of music degree in organ performance from Brigham Young University as a student of Parley Belnap and J. J. Keeler.

Introduction

The 1930s was a creative era in organ composition, both in Europe and the United States. Frenchman Louis Vierne composed his tonally adventuresome, cyclic Sixième Symphonie in 1930. Fellow compatriot Marcel Dupré's Le Chemin de la Croix (1931) portrayed musically Christ's crucifixion. The innovative Olivier Messiaen used his modes of limited transposition to form the harmonic vocabulary of L'Ascension in 1933-34. German Sigfrid Karg-Elert composed his lengthy and tonally-taxing Passacaglia und Fuge an B-A-C-H in 1932. American Leo Sowerby composed his Symphony in G Major in 1930, which has remained a landmark of American organ composition to the present day.

Many other organ works written by American composers during the 1930s have largely disappeared from the known organ repertory. Leroy Robertson's three organ works--Organ Sonata in B Minor, Fantasia in F Minor, and Intermezzo--join the ranks of those works that never enjoyed wide acclaim. This unpopularity does not prove that Robertson's music is not well written. Like the aforementioned compositions, Robertson's music also employs new ideas. His Organ Sonata was one of few composed during the first part of the twentieth century.1 He also incorporated a Native American melody into the Organ Sonata. This was a revolutionary idea for organ composition during the first part of the twentieth century, showing Robertson's interest in the varied styles of earlier compositions.

The famous French organist and composer Marcel Dupré came into contact with Robertson's organ music on a recital tour in 1939. Dupré wrote to Robertson, "It is a pleasure for me to tell you that I have been very interested by your organ compositions . . . They are very musical and well written for the instrument. I wish to you the success that you deserve with them."2 The success never came, and Robertson's Organ Sonata and Fantasia have never been published,3 while the Intermezzo has been published in a book containing other works by American composers.4 The ignominious state of Robertson's organ music is unfortunate, since his compositional ability and idiomatic writing for the organ have produced solid, musical organ works that deserve wider circulation and recognition.

Biographical Sketch

Leroy J. Robertson (1896-1971) was born and raised in Fountain Green, Utah, a small community about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City. He received his first formal musical training on the violin from E. G. Edmunds.5 Ben Williams, his second violin teacher, was a railroad worker who taught himself how to play the violin from a Sears Roebuck catalogue.6 Robertson attended high school in Pleasant Grove and Provo, Utah, where he played in the orchestra and took courses in music theory. He was allowed to take classes in harmony, music history, and solfeggio at Brigham Young University during his last two years of high school. He also played in the university orchestra and studied violin privately with a Brigham Young University faculty member. Robertson helped support himself in high school by giving violin lessons.

Upon graduation from high school, Robertson met George Fitzroy, a private music teacher in Provo. Fitzroy had just graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he had studied composition with George Chadwick, an acclaimed composer and teacher of the time. Fitzroy gave young Robertson training in analysis and counterpoint and lent him the first orchestral scores that he had ever seen: Mendelssohn's Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream and the Dvorák New World Symphony.7 Fitzroy eventually persuaded Robertson to go to the New England Conservatory and study composition with Chadwick. Robertson went on to earn diplomas in violin, piano, composition, and public school music from the New England Conservatory in 1923. He then returned to Utah and taught high school music for two years. He began teaching at Brigham Young University in September 1925, where he conducted the university orchestra and taught music theory and violin.

In 1925 Robertson learned that the famous Swiss composer Ernest Bloch was coming to San Francisco to head the San Francisco Conservatory. Five years later, Robertson obtained a leave of absence from his university teaching and studied privately with Bloch in San Francisco from March to June 1930. Robertson also studied privately with Bloch in Switzerland from June to September 1932, soon after receiving his BA and MA degrees from Brigham Young University. Robertson and Bloch developed a close friendship that lasted many years.

After his studies with Bloch, Robertson traveled to Leipzig and Berlin. In Berlin he studied the music of Renaissance composers with the famous musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt from October 1932 to the spring of 1933. Robertson began receiving prizes and awards for his compositions after this period of European study. His Quintet in A Minor for Piano and Strings (1933) received First Prize from among two hundred other submitted manuscripts in a competition sponsored by the Society for the Publication of American Music in 1936.

Robertson began work on his doctorate at the University of Southern California in the summer of 1936, studying first with Arnold Schoenberg and later with Ernest Toch. Robertson continued to build up the music program at Brigham Young University by expanding the theory program and the symphony orchestra. He was catapulted to international fame in 1947 when his Symphony No. 2, subtitled Trilogy, won the Symphony of the Americas Contest sponsored by Henry H. Reichhold in Detroit. Robertson was awarded $25,000 and a premiere of his symphony by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on 11 December 1947. More than four hundred musicians from seventeen countries entered this contest, including major composers from North and South America.

Robertson became the head of the Music Department of the University of Utah in 1948. He continued working on his doctorate during the summer months, finally receiving the degree in 1953. Robertson's accomplishments as a music department chair included "adapt[ing] the curriculum of study [in the music department] so as to meet national standards."8 He also introduced the bachelor's and master's degrees in music to the university's curriculum. In addition, the University of Utah became the first university in the area to offer the Ph.D. in music. Robertson taught at the University of Utah until 1962, when he retired and served as composer-in-residence until July 1965.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked Robertson to head its Church General Music Committee in the spring of 1962, three months before he retired from the University of Utah. He had served as a member of this committee since 1938 and was involved in the compilation and editing of the church's 1948 hymnal. He headed the music committee until 1969. Robertson died of heart failure, a complication of diabetes, on 25 July 1971. Other compositions for which Robertson was well known include: String Quartet No. 1 (1940), Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (1944), American Serenade (String Quartet No. 2) (1944), Overture to Punch and Judy (1945), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1948), Oratorio from the Book of Mormon (1953), Passacaglia for Orchestra (1955), Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1956), and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1966).

Leroy Robertson and the Organ

Leroy Robertson's preparation for writing organ music began several years before its actual composition. Around 1926-27, Robertson met a young teenager, J. J. Keeler, a Provo, Utah native who was just beginning organ lessons. Robertson knew of Keeler's interest in the organ and always encouraged him in his organ studies. During Keeler's student years in Provo, Robertson had Keeler play many well-known organ works for him.9 These experiences no doubt allowed Robertson to examine how to write effectively for the organ.

Robertson and Keeler traveled to Europe together in 1932 as Robertson was preparing to study with Ernest Bloch in Switzerland. Keeler went to the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany to study with the famous organist Karl Straube, one of Germany's foremost organ virtuosi of the time who premiered many of Max Reger's organ works. Straube was also the organist at the famous Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach had served previously. After Robertson's studies with Bloch, he traveled to Leipzig to see how Keeler was faring.

Robertson stayed in Leipzig for about six weeks, visiting frequently the large churches in Leipzig, the Thomaskirche being his favorite. It was here that Robertson heard Karl Straube, assistant organist Günther Ramin, and Straube's students play the organ works of the great German masters. The church's acoustics, its heroic 1889 Wilhelm Sauer organ, and Keeler's interest in organ music inspired Robertson to compose organ music of his own. He sketched his first organ works, Organ Sonata in B Minor and Fantasia in F Minor, in Leipzig in 1932.10 These works were later completed in Berlin and Provo, Utah during the years 1933-1934.11 The registration indications for Robertson's organ music were prepared with J. J. Keeler's assistance on the 1907 Austin organ in the Provo Tabernacle.12

Organ Sonata in B Minor

The Organ Sonata is composed in three movements entitled Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare. Robertson dedicated this work to his wife Naomi. J. J. Keeler premiered the Prelude and Ricercare movements of the Organ Sonata on 1 February 1943 in the Provo Tabernacle.13 The Brigham Young University student newspaper, The Y News, wrote that "one of the most delightful numbers [of the concert] was a[n organ] sonata composed by Professor Robertson, which, according to critics, is virile with energy of the new west."14 Alexander Schreiner, Salt Lake Tabernacle Organist and faculty member at the University of California at Los Angeles, later played the complete Organ Sonata on his fifty-first noon organ recital, which took place on 3 May 1935, in Royce Hall at UCLA.15

Robertson entered the Organ Sonata in B Minor in the Helen Sheets Composition Contest sponsored by the McCune School of Music and Art in Salt Lake City. The work won a prize of $50 and was hailed as the best composition by a Utah composer. The judge for the contest, a prominent California musician, wrote that Robertson's Organ Sonata "was far superior to any other entered . . . and that Mr. Robertson is a serious, splendid musician . . . who should by all means have the prize."16

At Arthur Shepherd's special request, Robertson orchestrated the Organ Sonata in B Minor for strings, woodwinds, percussion, brass, and organ and retitled the work Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare on Two Themes.17 This work was first performed for the convention of the Music Teachers National Association held in 1941 at Minneapolis. The Utah Symphony, conducted by Maurice Abravanel, recorded this work in 1948.18 Abravanel thought that this transcription was particularly successful, especially since it was not like other "very popular organ transcriptions of the day that were always very thick and loud, the Robertson score was like chamber music, very delicate and lean."19 Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was also interested in having his orchestra perform the Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare on Two Themes, but was never able to program it.20

Robertson wrote that the first movement of the Organ Sonata is "in the style of the choral prelude announc[ing] the two chief themes at the outset--the first alone in the pedal and the second in a higher register with a simple alto supplying an obligato [sic]."21 He composed this first melody in B harmonic minor, imbuing it with a brooding, melancholy air (see Example 1).

The second theme is based on a Ute Indian melody in the Phrygian mode.22 Robertson thought very highly of the Native American people and traveled to the Ute and Ouray Indian Reservation several times in the late 1920s and early 1930s. This reservation covers a large area of land next to the Colorado border in eastern Utah. During these visits Robertson transcribed some of their melodies, most of which were associated with the Bear Dance. Robertson had to obtain permission to transcribe these melodies, since the bears and the melodies associated with them were sacred to the Native Americans (see Example 2).23

Robertson's inclusion of indigenous or folk melodies was a common practice among composers in the first half of the twentieth century. Aaron Copland used Mexican folksong in his orchestral work El Salón Mexico (1936), and cowboy songs in his ballets Billy the Kid (1938) and Rodeo (1942), all of which were composed within ten years of Robertson's Organ Sonata.24 Roy Harris, another American composer who was active at this time, used modal melodies to "impart a sense of expansiveness reminiscent of the American West."25 Since Robertson was raised in a small Utah community, it is very probable that his inclusion of the Native American melody was a reflection on his youthful days in Fountain Green, Utah.

Robertson composed the Scherzo in a standard three-section form typical of works in this genre. He opens the movement with an embellished version of the Ute Indian melody accompanied by chords sounding on the offbeat. This theme, combined with the offbeat accompanimental pattern, gives a swing, freedom, and expansiveness of the western United States that Robertson knew from his youth (see Example 3). Robertson presents three additional embellished statements of the Ute Indian melody in the remaining part of the Scherzo's first section.

Robertson presents a major-mode version of the Prelude's first theme in canon at the third between the right hand and pedal at the beginning of the Scherzo's second section. A busy eighth-note accompaniment that begins incessantly on the offbeat is a recurrent motive in this section. Robertson states this theme two other times before reintroducing the Ute Indian melody in the pedal. The third section, marked scherzando, hearkens back to the beginning, with the embellished Ute Indian melody presented in canon.

Robertson's desire to compose a ricercare reflects the neoclassical trend that permeated American music in the first half of the twentieth century. Composers became more interested in musical forms and other elements of composition from the eighteenth century and earlier. Robertson had also studied the music of Renaissance composers during his time in Berlin with Hugo Leichtentritt, and he copied many works of Renaissance composers by hand. The ricercare, an early precursor of the fugue, consisted of several themes that were developed imitatively one by one. The ricercare was used in Renaissance music, so it is likely that Robertson would have studied the ricercares of Renaissance composers as he copied and studied their music in Berlin.

Robertson employs the opening pedal theme from the Prelude and the Ute Indian melody imitatively during the first part of the Ricercare. He proceeds to introduce three thematic ideas successively. Robertson alternates these themes between various voices and often combines one of them with the opening pedal theme from the Prelude or the Ute Indian melody. He concludes the Ricercare with a short Epilogue. He uses the opening theme from the Prelude and the Ute Indian melody as the thematic material for this section.

Fantasia in F Minor

The Fantasia in F Minor was the second of Robertson's organ works to be heard by the public. J. J. Keeler, to whom the Fantasia is dedicated, gave the premiere on 26 November 1934 in the Provo Tabernacle. Robert Cundick, who was later to become an organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, recorded the Fantasia in 1955.

Robertson employs a broad tempo, thick chords and flourishes in the first half of the Fantasia that show Max Reger's influence.26 Robertson most certainly heard much of Reger's organ music played while he was in Leipzig, and this could explain why he chose to write in this style (see Example 4).27 After this commanding introduction, Robertson introduces a fugato section containing a four-voice exposition employing real answers (mm. 21-32). This demonstrates his ability to infuse counterpoint with neo-romantic harmonic language. Robertson also states the fugue subject in inversion (m. 34), as well as in the original form. He builds up the fugato to a coda (beginning in m. 53) employing dramatic harmonies. Robertson brings the coda to a tremendous climax that resolves triumphantly on an F-major chord.

Intermezzo

Robertson composed the Intermezzo, his third and final organ work in 1934, dedicating it to Salt Lake Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner. The date, venue, and performing artist of the Intermezzo's first performance remain uncertain.28 This work employs a lyrical melody, is composed in a three-part form, and contains a rich harmonic vocabulary. These aspects could lead one to view Robertson's Intermezzo as a small-scale version of the other keyboard intermezzi such as those composed by Johannes Brahms. Robertson draws the Intermezzo to a close in a short coda. Concerning this work's ending, Robertson mused, "all my life I've abhorred the conventional ending."29 He avoids a "conventional ending" by cleverly employing chromaticism to good effect (see Example 5).

Conclusion

Leroy Robertson's three organ works--Organ Sonata in B Minor, Fantasia in F Minor, and Intermezzo--have never enjoyed even limited circulation among organists. This is partly because most of his works have never been published, while some might attribute their lack of renown to the fact that Utah was quite isolated from main American music scene in the 1930s. Whatever the reason, Robertson has composed three fine works for organ that deserve to be better known. His exposure to great organs and organ music in Germany moved him to write serious concert organ music that has enriched the organ repertory.

Robertson was unfortunately not able to write more of this high-caliber organ music. The pressures of university teaching, other commissions, his responsibilities as a father and husband, and his ever-increasing interests in orchestral music provide possible explanations why Robertson did not have time to compose other solo organ works, but the real answer remains unknown.30 It is the author's hope that this study of Robertson's organ music will inspire others to study, perform, research, and write more about it, so that his music will one day merit the acclaim and popularity that it rightly deserves.                

Notes

                  1.              Other American composers who wrote organ sonatas during the first part of the twentieth century include James Rogers, Horatio Parker, Felix Borowski, and Philip James.

                  2.              Marian Robertson Wilson, "Leroy Robertson: Music Giant from the Rockies," TMS (photocopy), 251, footnote 17, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  3.              The original manuscripts of Robertson's organ works are located in the Manuscript Division of Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the author's hope to have Robertson's organ music published and recorded in the near future.

                  4.              Leroy Robertson, "Intermezzo" in Lyric Pieces by American Composers, ed. Darwin Wolford (Delaware Gap, Pennsylvania: Harold Flammer), 1982.

                  5.              Marian Robertson Wilson, Leroy Robertson, Music Giant from the Rockies (Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press, 1996), 23.

                  6.              Ibid.

                  7.              Ibid., 35.

                  8.              Ibid., 169.

                  9.              J. J. Keeler, interview by author, 21 February 1996, Payson, Utah.

                  10.           Robertson Wilson, Music Giant, 98.

                  11.           Ibid., 103. See also Kenneth Udy, Alexander Schreiner, The California Years (Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1999), 173, footnote 151 for the Organ Sonata's revision date, and J. J. Keeler's verbal program notes (contained on a cassette in possession of the author) 7 September 1988, Salt Lake City, Utah for the Fantasia in F Minor's revision date.

                  12.           Marian Robertson Wilson, phone conversation with the author, February 2001. In determining the registration for a section, Robertson would have Keeler play it with several different registrations. Robertson would choose which registration he wanted. All of the stop names listed in Robertson's organ works are stops found on the 1907 Austin organ in the Provo Tabernacle. For a specification of this organ as it appeared when Robertson's organ works were premiered, please see Appendix 1.

                  13.           Leroy Robertson, program notes from 1 February 1934 concert. Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. The program notes from the concert simply state, "due to the very recent completion of the Scherzo it has been deemed advisable to defer its performance to a later date."

                  14.           The Y News (Brigham Young University), 8 February 1934.

                  15.           Alexander Schreiner, program from 3 May 1935 concert. Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  16.           Tracy Y. Cannon, Salt Lake City, to Leroy Robertson, Provo, 10 January 1936, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  17.           Robertson Wilson, Music Giant, 135.

                  18.           Leroy Robertson, Prelude, Scherzo, and Ricercare on Two Themes, recorded by the Utah Symphony on 20 November 1948. This recording was never released commercially. A copy of this recording is found in the Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                  19.           Robertson Wilson, Music Giant, 195.

                  20.           Ibid., 209.

                  21.           Leroy Robertson, Program notes, 1 February 1936.

                  22.           Marian Robertson Wilson, phone conversation with the author, February 2001.

                  23.           Ibid.

                  24.           Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 5th ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), 778.

                  25.           Ibid.

                  26.           Leroy Robertson, Fantasia in F Minor, verbal program notes given by J. J. Keeler, September 1988, cassette in possession of author.

                  27.           Ibid.

                  28.           Marian Robertson Wilson feels that Alexander Schreiner played the first performance, while Robert Cundick feels that J. J. Keeler did. Keeler worked out the registration of the Intermezzo with Robertson and later played it on recitals, but documentation is lacking as to whether he played the first performance.

                  29.           The Y News (6 November 1936).

                  30.           Marian Robertson Wilson, phone conversation with the author, July 2001.

Warren Apple holds a high school diploma and undergraduate degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts. His graduate degrees in organ performance are from the Eastman School of Music. Further studies have been with Anton Heiller and Arthur Poister. Dr. Apple is currently organist and choir director at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church in Charleston, SC, and is associate professor of music at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, where he holds the Pauline F. O'Connell Chair in Fine Arts.

Arthur Homer Bird was born in Belmont, Massachusetts on July 23, 1856. He exhibited precocious musical abilities which were fostered by his father and uncle, both of whom were professional musicians, noted as hymn compilers and writers. When only fifteen years old, Bird succeeded his sister, Helen, as organist at the First Baptist Church in Brookline, Massachusetts.

When he was nineteen years old, Bird went to Berlin for musical studies at the Musikhochschule, where he studied piano with Albert Loeschorn, organ with Karl August Haupt, and composition with E. Rohde. At the St. Georgen-Kirchen in Berlin on April 21, 1876, he gave an organ recital that was particularly noted by critics for his improvisational skills.  In 1877 he accepted positions in Halifax, Nova Scotia as organist at St. Matthew's Church and as a faculty member at the Young Ladies' Academy and the Mount St. Vincent Academy; he also founded the first chorus in Nova Scotia, the all-male Arion Club. During a second period of study in Germany (1881-1886), he was a composition pupil of Heinrich Urban at the Kullak School of Music and a close friend and compositional disciple of Franz Liszt, who admired Bird's orchestral Carnival Scene enough to conduct several performances.

Bird's initial major success as a composer occurred on February 4, 1886, when he conducted a program of his own works, including his Symphony in A Major (1885), First Little Suite (1884) and Concert Overture (1885), at the Singakademie in Berlin. Successful American performances later that year included his Symphony in A Major by the New York Philharmonic under Walter Damrosch on June 3 and his Carnival Scene by the Chicago Symphony under Theodore Thomas on July 26.

Bird returned to the United States during the summer of 1886 at the invitation of the North American Saengerbund to become director of the Milwaukee Music Festival for one year.  During this period he was active as a piano and organ recitalist and received favorable reviews for performances of his own pieces.

After his return to Berlin in 1887, Bird remained there, with the exception of brief visits to the United States in 1897 for a production of his operetta The Highlanders, in 1907 for medical consultations, and in 1911 to investigate the possibilities of a commission for an opera.  All of these visits included organ recitals, and he developed professional friendships in the United States with such organists as Gerrit Smith in New York and Clarence Eddy in Boston.

 After he was married to Wilhemine Waldman in Petersboro, England on February 29, 1888, Bird was able to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle due to his wife's considerable means; however, the lack of financial necessity greatly diminished Bird's activities as both performer and composer. The Birds maintained opulent mansions in Berlin and in its Grunenwald suburb. The Grunenwald residence was equipped with a house organ. Although their financial holdings were affected detrimentally by the inflationary spiral after World War I, the Birds continued to live comfortably in an apartment on the Kurfuestendamm in Berlin. Bird died suddenly of a heart attack on December 22, 1923 during a suburban train ride.

 Bird received the Paderewski Prize in 1901 and was named to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1898. He has the distinction of being the first American composer of a major full-length ballet, Ruebezahl (1886), and of being the first American-born composer to receive commissions from Germany and France.

Because Bird's compositions were almost exclusively performed and published in Europe, especially in Germany and France, his reputation was never great in the United States; however, contemporary critics, such as Louis Elson and A. Lasser, acknowledged him to be America's foremost living composer, rivaled only by Edward MacDowell. Conductor Arthur Nikisch rated him as America's finest composer. He was especially noted for his melodious, late Romantic style, his colorful orchestration and his facile counterpoint. Bird considered himself a conservative or "conditional modernist" and was especially critical of both Debussy and Richard Strauss.1

Bird published three organ pieces during his lifetime; Three Oriental Sketches, op. 41 (1898, published 1903); Marcia (published 1902); and Concert Fantasia (published 1904). A fourth organ publication, Theme with Variations in d minor, op. 27, was transcribed by W. H. Dayas from the piano two-hand version and published in 1908. Unpublished organ works by Bird include Fugue on August Haupt (1881); three fugues in a minor, c minor and C major (1881); three sonatas in g minor, A-flat major and c minor (1876); and Toccatina (1905).2 An additional unpublished organ piece, Introduction and Fugue in d minor, op. 16, was transcribed from the piano four-hand version in 1891 by W. H. Dayas. The manuscripts for four unpublished pieces, fugues in a minor and g minor of 1891, a canon trio of 1891, and Concert Variations in C Major of 1880, have been lost.3

The earliest of these pieces, the three sonatas from Bird's first German sojourn, were never revised or edited by Bird for publication. In spite of their occasional awkwardness and lack of refinement, these sonatas are fully on the level of Rheinberger's sonatas and are noteworthy for their lyric slow movements and fugal concluding movements. The overall sequence of movements is fantasia/andante/ fugue in the Sonata in g minor, andante/allegretto/fugue in the Sonata in A-flat major, and fantasia/adagio/introduction and fugue in the Sonata in c minor. A fourth sonata in D major is  substantially incomplete. (See Example 1.)

Bird's Fugue in a minor on August Haupt of October 1881 and fugues in C major and c minor of December 1881 are also student works from  his second Berlin trip. They rival Mendelssohn's op. 37 fugues in craftsmanship and reveal Bird to be an extremely skilled contrapuntist. These works amply support the admiration of contemporary critics for Bird's contrapuntal skills. Although Bird generally avoids such devices as stretto, augmentation, diminution and inversion, rhythmically animated subjects are given rigorously contrapuntal treatment that never dissolves to homophonically dominated episodes.

The Theme with Variations for piano two-hand, op. 27 of 1889 was transcribed for organ by W. H. Dayas and published by G. Schirmer in 1891. The variations, in order, include an eighth-note poco allegro; a staccato eighth-note poco più allegro; a moto perpetuo sixteenth-note allegro; a triplet più moderato; sixteenth-note arpeggiations marked allegro moderato; a chorale-like andante ma non troppo; thirty-second note arpeggiations; and a moderato fugue of one hundred measures. The style of  the music is quite reminiscent of Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuse for piano, and the transcription is quite organistic, although one may occasionally wish for fewer octave doublings and a transfer of less of the left hand bass line to the pedal. (See Example 2.)

The Introduction and Fugue in d minor, op. 16 is unquestionably Bird's finest organ work. Bird himself must have held the piece in high regard, because it exists in several versions. It appeared in print for piano four-hands in 1887, in an unpublished manuscript for orchestra, in an unpublished manuscript for organ and orchestra, and in an unpublished transcription for solo organ (dated 1891) by W. H. Dayas with corrections by Bird.4

The introduction is in free form and must be indicative of Bird's improvisational style. The substantial fugue is reminiscent of the fugues that conclude Liszt's "Ad Nos" fantasy and Reubke's organ sonata, with a second section that introduces rapid passagework against the principal fugue subject. Also similar to the Liszt fantasia is the final peroration which includes a recall of the initial thematic material of the fantasie. (See Example 3.)

Written in 1898, the Three Oriental Sketches were copyrighted in 1902 and published in 1903. They are extremely attractive pieces that easily evoke a Middle-Eastern atmosphere through drones, ostinato bass patterns, open fourths and fifths, chromaticism, and grace note figuration.

The Marcia in A-flat of 1902 is a ternary-form piece that retains much of the charm and character of Bird's many piano salon pieces. It is well written and  falls easily under fingers, but does not show an overabundance of inspiration.

The Concert Fantasia in f minor is clearly the best written and most exciting of Bird's printed organ opuses. It  is a large ternary structure of 235 measures in which unbroken sixteenth note figuration in the outer sections gives the same propulsive rhythmic energy as a French toccata or organ symphony finale. The central section also shows the influence of Dubois' toccata and the finale to Guilmant's first sonata with its alternation between a chorale-like theme and sixteenth-note figuration from the outer sections. (See Example 4.)

The Toccatina of 1906, dedicated to Clarence Eddy, maintains a moto perpetuo repeated chord figuration throughout, but seems to be closer akin to a Mendelssohnian scherzo than the élan of a French toccata. Its relatively limited amount of thematic material does not maintain interest readily during the piece's 235 measures.

When considered as a group, one is impressed with the compositional quality and musical attractiveness of Bird's organ works. Although none of the pieces are currently in print and manuscript sources are relatively inaccessible, they certainly merit further research and performance.                

Notes

                        1.                  The two most extensive sources of biographical  information in this article are W.C. Loring, Jr.: "Arthur Bird, American," Musical Quarterly, xxix (1943), 78 and W.C. Loring, Jr.: The Music of Arthur Bird (Atlanta, rev. 2/1974). Other sources for  biographical information  are D. Ewen: American Composers: a  Biographical Dictionary (New York, 1982); L.C. Elson: The History of American Music (New York, 1904, enlarged 2/1915); W.T. Upton: "Bird, Arthur," Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1928-36; 7 suppls., 1944-81); and Walter Lueckhoff: "Arthur Bird. Einiges ueber sein Leben und Schaffen," Das Harmonium, vii (1901/02), 74-75.

                        2.                  The only known manuscript copies of the Fugue on August Haupt, Fugue in a minor, Fugue in c minor, Sonata in g minor, Sonata in A-flat major, Sonata in g minor, Introduction and Fugue in d minor, op. 16, Theme and Variations in d minor, op. 27 and Toccatina are all currently housed at the Library of Congress. LOC also has copies of the published versions by G. Schirmer of the Concert Fantasia, Three Oriental Sketches, Marcia and the Theme with Variations in d minor, op. 27. Additional copies of the printed edition of Theme with Variations, Three Oriental Sketches, Marcia, and Concert Fantasia are in the collections at Music Library, Harvard University and Music Room, British Museum. The author especially wishes to thank William Parsons of the Music Division of the Library of Congress for his assistance in preparation of this article.

                        3.                  The four sonatas are in a single manuscript sheaf, which contains the fragmentary Sonata III in D major. The cover of the manuscript sheaf which contains Fugue in a minor, Fugue in c minor, and Fugue in C major also lists Fugue in a minor, Fugue in g minor and Canon Trio, which are either missing or were never composed. The Concert Variations in C major were performed at concerts in Boston and Halifax in 1880 and have since been lost.

                        4.                  These manuscripts are housed in the collection at the Library of Congress.

For more than three decades, since the appearance of very radical organ compositions such as those by Bengt Hambraeus (Constellations) and György Ligeti (Volumina), the language of organ music has developed considerably. Although organ sound is often perceived through its religious connotations, many composers have tried to use the organ as a modern concert instrument, as a viable medium for communication today. In Poland, as well as in other European countries, organ music has developed in two directions: as functional, and as independent of liturgical function. This distinction is especially pronounced in Poland. With the Catholic Church playing such a dominant role, the place of music in the liturgy has been strongly limited ever since Vatican II. Therefore, the more interesting Polish composers' production of independent concert organ music has presented itself. Although the most internationally-known composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Mikolaj Górecki have not been interested in writing organ music (with the exception of H. M. Górecki's early Kantata for organ, 1968), the group of Polish organ music composers constantly expands.

After the time of searching for new sound and technical possibilities (in the 1960's and 70's), from the very beginning of the 80's we observe the conversion of the previous relation between aesthetic and technological problems in the process of composing music, resulting in a stylistic synthesis. Different elements have been linked up together: simple and complex, old and new, conservative and radically innovative. Tonality has been combined with cluster technique, monumentalism with intimacy, harmonic principles with sonorous ones. Composers use different techniques and different conceptions, but there is at least one feature in common: they have reinstated the primary role of the expressive factor.

The inauguration of an organ festival which focused entirely on contemporary music (Legnica, October 1986) can be considered--in a certain sense--as the culmination of the decade of the 80's in the province of new organ music. Each year during Conversatorium, as the festival is named, groups of composers, organists and musicologists get together to listen to new organ music and to discuss its problems. In Legnica, several new compositions have been performed for the first time, including those commissioned by the festival's Director, composer and organist, Stanislaw Moryto. Several experimental works for organ and other instruments were premiered, far from the organ in terms of an aesthetic and historical point of view (such as accordions, percussion or saxophone). In 1987 four works for organ and two accordions were presented: Trigonos by Zbigniew Wiszniewski, Conductus by Stanislaw Moryto, Por Dia De Anos by Wieslaw Rentowski, and Intervals by Krzysztof Olczak.1 In 1988, pieces for organ and saxophone: Ordines for saxophone, violoncello and organ by Piotr Grella, Trio for saxophone, organ and timpani by Norbert Mateusz Kuznik, Ab Ovo for saxophone and organ by W. Rentowski and The Painfull Remembrance for saxophone and organ by Wladyslaw Slowinski. The work by Tadeusz Wielecki, The Gestures of Soul, presented in 1989 in Legnica and during the Warsaw Autumn Festival as well, calls for organ, synthesizer, accordion, guitar and percussion. It may be questionable whether this piece still can be classified among organ compositions in the strict meaning, but certainly it is a good example of the new direction in music for organ.

Wieslaw Rentowski, born in Poland in 1953, represents that group of contemporary composers who place equal emphasis on both the traditional and novel aspects of music. He received degrees in psychology (University of Lodz), organ performance (Conservatory of Music, Lodz) and composition (Frederick Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw). He has participated in the Darmstadt International Summer Courses in New Music in 1984 and in master organ classes in Bayreuth, Germany in 1985. He is the winner of several composers' competitions (including the first prize in the 1988 National Competition for Young Composers in Poland for his Wayang for chamber orchestra), as well as a recipient of grants from the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts in 1988 and 1989, the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada in 1989, and the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York in 1990. Since 1990 he has lived in the U.S.A. (recently Dallas, Texas), and in 1996 he received his D.M.A. degree in composition at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Rentowski has appeared as soloist at concerts, lectures and organ recitals in Poland, Germany, Canada and the U.S. His other compositions have been performed many times in Europe and North America (including Carnegie Hall: Lagniappe for 8 instruments, 1991, commissioned by the LSU New Music Ensemble).

As Rentowski is also a concertizing organist, he has a special interest in writing music for organ idiomatically. That makes his organ works extremely difficult and very complex in the technical sense, demanding top virtuosity as well as big concert instruments with rich sound qualities. Previously his organ music (Albebragen, Chorea minor, Ab ovo--see the catalogue of the principal works) brought some interesting innovations such as tremolo of pentatonic clusters moving in opposite directions, fast short strikes with the register "Tutti" while the cluster moves from low to high, and specific changes of registration.2 All these innovations served to enrich the sound, which the composer liked to compare with the sound of electronic music (but not electronic organ!).

But Rentowski is also keenly aware of the historical and aesthetic position of the organ. Although he is very progressive, all his organ compositions contain some traditional elements. In his earliest organ piece, Ekleipsis, written during the last year spent in the composition class of Wlodzimierz Kotonski in Warsaw, a short quotation of the Lacrimosa motif from Mozart's Requiem and the very general tendency towards D-minor tonality were the only signs of the musical tradition. But the work delivers also a specific catalogue of new ideas, cultivated by the composer later, including, for instance a fast change of the manuals with so called "cascade" effect. (See Example 1.)

In the next work, Albebragen, Rentowski used the twelve-tone row of Alban Berg's Violin Concerto as a harmonic and motivic disposition. The row, which in spite of the strict rules of dodecaphony contains several minor and major chords, served as a structural model for different figurative passages or glissando tone-strands. The presence of the row then is noticeable mainly inside of clusters or complex progressions, since it doesn't follow typical dodecaphonic linear texture. The row appears only twice in a linear form, as a quotation in the pedal part. The imitation of the flageolet sound of the violin can be realized through using the 2¢ flute (or octave) coupled from the manual to the pedal part. (See Example 2.)

Albebragen begins with a very fast (Prestissimo) and loud (fff) pulsation of the octaves: d-d, d-e, a-flat-b-flat, followed by the short pedal cadenza. (See Example 3.) Later, this repetitive phrase returns twice, separating longer phases of contrasting pp or p figuration.

Albebragen had its first performance in Legnica, in 1986, by organist Marta Szoka. The piece was also presented by the composer during the 26th Annual Conference of the Society of Composers in Alabama, 1992.

The next work, Piffero, dedicated to Marta Szoka, was performed by her for the first time in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1985. The title is derived from Italian: Piffero (or piffaro), a wind instrument thought to be a thousand years old. The unique sound of the Pan pipe inspired the composer in two ways: first for using a variety of flute organ stops (including 2¢ in the pedal part); secondly for exploring modality. Since the Pan pipe as an instrument is typical of the folk music of Mediterranean countries, the main melodic theme of Piffero is based on the D-minor scale with two augmented seconds: f-g-sharp and b-flat-c-sharp. (See Example 4.) The dreamy-like atmosphere and purely lyrical style of the piece brings us something new after the strongly contrasted Albebragen and its forceful expression. However, both works through their quasi-improvisatory character demand from the organist creative involvement, especially in terms of the sound color (registration) and time organization (approximate duration in some phases). In 1995, Piffero was choreographed as the dance Rivers of Life by Anne Marks and Betty Wooddy.

In the next three works Rentowski took up the very specific problem of combining organ sound with other instruments. The combination of the organ and brass is one of the few in which the organ may fully assert its sound without being compelled to limit its scope to a few, or subdued, registers. Chorea Minor for trumpet and organ, premiered by the composer and Jozef Dejnowicz (trumpet) in 1986 in Lodz, partially hinted at baroque trumpet sonatas. But on the other hand, Rentowski has loaded the parts of both instruments with new technical means, as for instance, a variety of clusters (static and moving) and tremolos or rhythmic manipulations with the "Tutti" piston in the middle of sustained clusters etc. (in the organ part). The trumpet part contains both traditional melodic lines and some motifs typical of baroque style (See Example 5) as well as glissandi, very fast pulsation on one tone, and a chromatic ascending course of figuration, based on the ostinato pattern.

The title of the work refers to the Latin term for St. Vitus's dance, that as the disease syndrome was described for the first time in 1686, exactly 300 years before the piece was composed. But the designation "minor" could be perceived also as a suggestion of the presence of the minor scale. As a matter of fact, the tonality D-minor has a dominant role in the piece, framing all its phases. Two main parts of Chorea Minor symbolize two psychological conditions, typical of the course of the disease.

The first part (Largo) is very slow, static and quiet, with an atmosphere of deep dejection; the second part (Presto), following the trumpet glissando from pianissimo to fortissimo, expanded from F-sharp to the highest possible tone, is full of impetuosity, quick changes and special sound effects. At the end, the short reminiscence of the Largo brings a final stabilization of the D-minor tonality.

The dynamic and coloristic relation between trumpet and organ is perfectly complementary. Although the density of the organ texture (chords, clusters, trills, tremoli) is sizeable, the organ sound never overdominates the trumpet. On the contrary, the sound of the trumpet and organ correlate, especially in those phases where three sound strands are horizontally simultaneous. (See Example 6.) In Chorea Minor Rentowski tried to achieve a synthesis of avant-garde techniques and traditional elements, such as a tonal center and baroque melodic features. But, quite unexpectedly, the strongly emotional and expressive character of the piece indicates also a new area of the composer's inspiration: late Romanticism, with special reference to the music of Gustav Mahler.

Although Chorea Minor is linked with the musical past in some ways, the works for organ and accordions, as well as for organ and alto saxophone, seemed to be unique at the time of their composition. It must be emphasized here that in the last decades in Poland the accordion has been emancipated from a typical folk-dance music instrument to a modern one. For a long time a synonym for musical triviality, recently it has found a place in the conservatory of music education, as well as in contemporary concert life.

The saxophone, on the other hand, is perceived mostly through its jazz associations. So, both the accordion and saxophone are fairly far from the classical organ tradition, especially distant from the religious context of organ sound, so fundamental in the European tradition. Rentowski was perfectly aware of all these implications, although, above all, he tried to shape his new sound ideas.

Por Dia De Anos for organ solo and two accordions, was premiered in 1987 in Legnica by the composer--as organist--and Zbigniew Kozlik and Krzysztof Olczak playing accordions. Since the accordion and organ possess the same abilities to produce unlimited sustained sound, and they can similarly play chords and polyphony, the combination of their sounds can be shaped in a layered manner. Rentowski gets at the effect of dynamic intensity flow through different types of texture, including a variety of performing techniques. Some of these appear already at the very beginning of the piece; e.g. moving diatonic clusters, and a structure of fast extension of interval size: from a half-tone to the ninth. The traditional category of motif or theme, as a fundamental structure for organizing musical form, does not exist here. Instead, the composer  has built the sound texture of flowing layers with changing density and contours, one overleaping the other, sometimes vanishing, sometimes returning. This sort of technique results in form without breaks or distinct demarcations between successive phrases. Therefore, Por Dia De Anos seems to be a continuum of loosely connected musical ideas.

The material for building clusters, chord structures, and sound layers is derived from three scales: diatonic, pentatonic, and whole-tone. The lack of both strong contrasts and aggressive dissonant sounds is matched by the playful, serene character of the piece. This character has as its other source a combination of the static, solemn sound of the organ and the lightness and mobility of the accordion part. Certainly, after the very emotional expressivity of Albebragen and Chorea minor, Por Dia De Anos presents a new stage in Rentowski's organ music.

The continuation of this stage is set in the next piece, Ab Ovo for alto saxophone and organ (two performers), premiered in 1988 in Legnica by Krzysztof Herder (saxophone), Marta Szoka and Wieslaw Rentowski. The exploration of new sound and performance techniques in the organ part here provide ways to improve the unique possibilities of playing with four hands. Both organists have the pitch range (low and high) and one manual assigned. Therefore Ab Ovo is playable even on a small tracker organ with two manuals and without any registration aids. The composer has expanded several forms of  simultaneous play on two manuals, linking together chords, clusters, figuration, and even polyphony. (See Example 7.) Quite often one of the sound layers is a compound of static structure, while the other one is of ostinato motion. (See Example 8.)

The organ part does not exceed conventional keyboard technique. In contrast, the saxophone appears richly. The most interesting is using its natural technical possibilities, such as fast scale courses, extended figurations, extremely high and low tones (indeterminate pitch), very fast repetition, glissandi, and so-called "combination tones," which means non-harmonic "unmusical" sound. (See Example 9.) But the saxophone is used also for its lyrical and melodic qualities. Then the alliance with a jazz idiom is the most distinct. (See Example 10.) Of course, it is not simple pastiche, since the idea of Ab Ovo is much more complex. But numerous sequences with syncopation, free, quasi-improvisatory form of the piece, and the very characteristic sound color of the saxophone, with typical "entry" solo cadenza, are a manifestation of jazz influence.

Another source of inspiration is revealed in quasi-baroque motifs and polyphony in the organ part (See Example 7). The repetition of a single tone A in the pedal part that opened the piece, returns  after the climax (See Example  9). This makes the whole form more clear and similar to a ternary form. Ab Ovo has an atmosphere of its own; lyrical rather than dramatic, with the soft sound of the saxophone, and harmonic language subdued through the several tonal and modal sings. Five years passed before Rentowski composed his next organ piece, and eight years since his last piece for organ solo. New Orleans Magnificat (1993) was premiered in 1994 by the composer himself in Montreal, during a concert sponsored by the Faculty of Music at McGill University and the Department of Music at Concordia University. (First European performance was given in 1994 by Prof. Andrzej Chorosinski--who also commissioned the piece--at the  XIX Internationale Studientage für Neue Geistliche Musik, Sinzig, Germany.)

The work is based on the opposition of modal, tonal and chromatic features. Modality is represented by the Gregorian theme that opens the composition. Since the latter returns several times, the form of the piece resembles a rondo form, although without classical regularity. Tonality marks a presence of tonal centers: first it is A-flat major in a trill sequence, later F-minor that determinates the climax section (Presto possibile and Prestissimo). (See Example 11.) The tonal element plus ostinato technique and some rhythmic patterns are common in New Orleans Magnificat and Ab ovo. But there are also many differences. New Orleans Magnificat brings some idiomatic organ sound obtained through trills, tremolo, pedal glissando, fast chromatic passages, and so-called "cascade" cluster glissandi, done across three manuals from up to down (compare Example 12 and Example 1). In terms of  pedal technique, Rentowski requires here also double play in extended intervals above two octaves (C-sharp-g1). With regard to technical innovations, New Orleans Magnificat refers to earlier works of Rentowski, as for instance Ekleipsis and Albebragen. Moreover, this is also music of high contrasts and powerful expression. However, New Orleans Magnificat is the first organ piece written by the composer in America, as a special "hommage à Louisiana." The question arises immediately of whether there are any noticeable signs of something new, of the influence of American music or New Orleans tradition on the compositional style of Rentowski. But before anyone can answer, let us examine Rentowski's newest organ work, In Nomine, for organ and orchestra. It was written in 1996 and has not yet been performed.

The work is in three movements: Allegro - Largo - Fugue, and resembles the classical concerto. Both the organ part and orchestra have been handled conventionally in terms of instrumental technique and notation. There is no further exploration for new effects or unusual sound combinations. On the contrary, the organ part has been written moderately and it does not demand extraordinary virtuosity.

In Nomine is based on an original scale, called by the composer, Gamma. The scale resources are related to the concept of "open tonality" which in general reverses the function of the traditional dominant and tonic. As the composer explained, "In traditional tonal system, the dominant functions as a single channel that leads to only one predetermined resolution (tonic). This concept assumes the existence of an open channel (open Tonic) that leads to many different resolutions (predominants). Because "predominants" are related to and based on different representative scales (not on chords), the system creates an open universe of equally important tonal levels that have a freedom of coexistence."3

It is not my purpose to present a detailed analysis, but let us state here that the first part, Allegro, introduces the main melodic theme, based on Gamma (See Example 13), and then transposed from f, g, a, a-flat, and later from d, e-flat and f. Fugue has its own theme. (See Example 14.) In the middle section of the fugue it appears in a stretto with the theme of Allegro. Another melodic line is the basis for Largo, where the organ solo creates a mysterious atmosphere with only tympani and chimes.

Certainly, In Nomine shows attributes of a classical composer's technique to an extent never before seen in Rentowski's production. Using classical forms and textures, as well as recalling the dominant role of the melodic factor and well-tried harmonic and orchestral principles, the composer consciously accomplished a radical simplification of his style. It is difficult to say if now it is more "his own" style than before. Probably, American audience expectations and quite different views of organ music history and aesthetics could bring Rentowski to propose something new. He has come a long way from Ekleipsis to In Nomine, and it seems to be a very consistent journey. I hope that my short review will stimulate readers to get acquainted with the very interesting organ music of Wieslaw Rentowski.

Wieslaw Rentowski's Organ Works

Ekleipsis for organ (1984), recorded by Polskie Nagrania and West Deutsche Rundfunk.

Albebragen for organ (1985), recorded by Polonia Records 1994 (CD 020), score available from Astra, Lodz (Poland) and Conners Publications, Baton Rouge, LA.

Piffero for organ (1985), published by Conners Publications.

Chorea Minor for trumpet and organ (1986), commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Society, Lodz, Poland; published by Agencja Autorska, Warsaw, Poland.

Por Dia De Anos for 2 accordions and organ (1987), recorded by Sonoton, Germany; published by Pro Nova Sonoton, Munich, Germany and Pomorze, Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Ab Ovo for alto saxophone and two organists (1988), awarded a prize at Polish National Composers' Competition, Warsaw 1989.

New Orleans Magnificat for organ (1993), recorded by Polonia Records 1995 (CD 057), published by Conners Publications.

In Nomine for organ and orchestra (1996), published by Conners Publications.

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

                  All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.

--Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*

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

Notes

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

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

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

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

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

An Interview with Ned Rorem

Sean Burton is the Music Director of the Boston University Choral Society, Assistant Conductor of the Marsh Chapel Choir, and is pursuing the MM in Choral Conducting at Boston University. This interview is part of a larger project, in which the author is interviewing several prominent choral composers and conductors in preparation for a book on American composers and conductors of choral music.

Born on October 23, 1923, in Richmond, Indiana, Ned Rorem began his training in music at an early age. By the age of ten, his piano teacher introduced him to musical luminaries such as Debussy and Ravel. At seventeen he entered the Music School of Northwestern University, and in two years received a scholarship to The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He went on to study under the supervision of Bernard Wagenaar at The Juilliard School earning his B.A. and M.A. degrees in composition. Privately, he studied orchestration with Virgil Thomson while working as his copyist in New York. During the summers of 1946 and 1947 he continued his education through the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood as a student of Aaron Copland. He then traveled to Europe, where he resided from 1949 to 1958 in post-war Paris, and immersed himself in French culture. Upon returning to the United States, he held academic appointments at the University of Buffalo from 1959-1961; the University of Utah from 1965-1967; and maintained a guest faculty position for a period of years at Yale University. Since his appointment in 1980, he serves as Professor of Composition at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. A recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Pulitzer Prize, he has composed music for every genre including the symphony, concerto, chamber music, keyboard music, choral music, opera, and art song. On September 12, 2003, I had the pleasure of interviewing him to discuss various aspects of his work and life experiences.

SB: When and why did you start composing for chorus?

NR: The first choral piece I wrote was at Juilliard. I wrote some madrigals on poems of Sappho. I learned the poems in a literature class taught at Juilliard. That was in 1946. No, earlier than that in 1943, I wrote a piece for William Strickland and the Army Music School at his request. It was on Psalm 70 for men's chorus and about four or five instruments.

SB: How did you choose those poems for the madrigals?

NR: Well, they were in a book of literature, and I was attracted to them. I choose poems according to what I need. Any composer of vocal music has his own taste.

SB: How would you describe your compositional process?

NR: Well, I'll tell you one thing--I never really talk about my own music--I talk about other people's music. I've written five books that contain about 150 essays, none of which is on my own music. I am not interested, really, in what composers say about their own music. I think the music speaks louder than they do. Occasionally, with a class I might analyze a piece, but usually it's a piece by somebody else. There are three ways to talk about music. First, the Women's Club way--the sentimental way, in other words. I was in love . . . and the moonlight . . . and I was sad . . . and somebody died . . . so I was inspired. But that's all nonsense. Everybody is inspired--but not everybody has the control to make inspiration speak to other people. The second way is the technical way--which you do with students. You talk about how a piece is made. But again, there's no one way of saying how a piece is made. There are as many ways as there are people talking. Third, is composers amongst themselves. They talk about, "how much money did you get," to provide a certain kind of piece. When a piece is not exclusively musical, then it's a setting of words. I've set easily 200 different authors to music and I'm a literary person myself. I think whatever my vocal music might be worth, at least the choice of text is pretty high class. That's as much as I can say about my own music.

SB: What do you think are some of the challenges composers in general face when writing for chorus?

NR: Well, you learn how to write music. The challenge is knowing what a chorus is--how high do they go, how low can they go, how good is this chorus as opposed to that chorus. I've written for huge choruses with orchestra. The Gay Men's Choruses, about ten or fifteen years ago, they, each one, commissioned a different composer. There were ten of them and they were all going to sing in New York. They commissioned me to write a piece for all ten. In others words, that was about 1000 male voices. I chose a Walt Whitman text and made eight or ten songs out of it with twelve brass. What I learned from that was a) brass can hold its own against 1000 voices very easily, and b) the effectiveness of 1000 voices--1000 voices is not ten times louder than 100--but it's ten times fuzzier. The most effective things were the very pianissimo sections. I've written for big chorus, and a regular mixed chorus, and orchestra, for Margaret Hillis and the Chicago Symphony, for example. Since I knew it is the best chorus in the world, I wrote, I did, whatever I wanted. I don't think many of my pieces are difficult, at least not difficult to hear, but they take real singers. The challenges, in other words, are generally theatrical as well as technical.

SB: What would you say are some of the trends you've seen in terms of writing for chorus during the 20th century?

NR: You have to be more specific. Ask me about specific pieces.

SB: How about comparing and contrasting Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Lukas Foss' The Prairie?

NR: Well, Symphony of Psalms is in Latin isn't it . . . and so is Oedipus Rex. When Stravinsky wrote Oedipus Rex, he said, "it's a Greek story but we'll put it in Latin." Since nobody knows how Latin is pronounced anyway he could do whatever he wanted. He thought almost strictly about music as distinct from vocal music. Although it's very singable, for the men's chorus, the very first three words are Oedipus pronounced in three different ways. Lukas Foss' Prairie on the other hand is of a young European coming to America and trying to be more American than the Pope. He took Carl Sandburg, I think, and took a very, very, very American song and made it as comprehensible as possible. Those were literary considerations rather than musical considerations, which is mostly what choral music is anyways. A composer either knows how to write or he does not. I don't know if you can talk about trends in choral music. On the whole, music goes generally from contrapuntal to--it doesn't get better, it doesn't get worse--but it goes from contrapuntal to harmonic and contrapuntal to harmonic. The harmonic periods are usually a lot more simple than the counterpoint. The Boulezes, and Elliot Carter, and all that, was contrapuntal. That emerged into the extremely diatonic period that we're in now and came out of a diatonic period in France which came out of Wagner, which was very contrapuntal. I think you could name big choral pieces of the past many years by Americans on the fingers of one hand. In England, there are more--and that has to do with the Church in England. I've written, I think, as much choral music as any other American and easily half of that is on so-called "sacred" text; much of it with organ and much of it simple enough for a congregation to sing, or at least for a good church choir to sing. I've written hours worth of that for various reasons. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God, but I do believe in belief. I respect it and I think a lot of great literature--a lot of lousy literature has been done in the name of the Lord--but so has lot of great literature and great painting. Though I may not believe in the Lord, I do believe in Psalms to the Lord. So many of my texts have been given to me by churches that have commissioned me to write motets and introits. But, for bigger works, I've chosen my own lay texts.

SB: What composers have influenced you?

NR: I don't talk about that. We're all influenced. I'm French and not German. No German composer has ever influenced me at all. All of the music I like is French. I think the whole universe is divided between those two aesthetics--French and German. If that's true, I'm definitely French. It's not for a composer to say that he's been influenced by this or that person. Usually, if he's conscious of it, he tries to hide it. The very act of hiding is what, if he has anything to say, he translates what he has stolen into his own language. Therefore it's for you to say but not for me. To say that, Ned is influenced by Poulenc or Ravel, Debussy and so forth, but certainly not Boulez and that French group, which is essentially German.

SB: In terms of your contemporary composers, do you feel anyone deserves more attention or less attention?

NR: I think I should get more attention. I think Philip Glass should get less attention. I think that the world as we know it, culturally, is getting more and more vulgar--more and more dumbed down. We are the only period in history ever that emphasizes the past at the expense of the present. We are the only one that emphasizes performers at the expense of the composer. The performer of serious classical music who plays mainly Beethoven makes in one night what I make in a year. Even those people with their Beethoven, Brahms--it's almost never French--and Bach, are only one percent of music today--which is generally rock and pop music. Even cultured intellectuals don't know much about "serious" music, for lack of a better term. This is getting worse rather better. I give us another ten years before I think the whole world's going to blow up.

SB: That leads into another question I have. You have spent a significant amount of time teaching at universities. What are some of your thoughts about all the composers and performers we're training now? What do you think the future is going to be like for them?

NR: Well, I don't know, but there have always been about 10,000 people in the world who give a damn. It's always been that way no matter how big the population in the world is, but it's an ever-shrinking minority. On the other hand, at Curtis where I teach, although I'm going to stop at the end of this year, and at Yale where I was and other places, there are people who really care. The thing is, in the whole world there is no teaching of music in grade school and high school any longer in appreciation for the arts. Everything is money. Some of the young composers are never going to make money anyway, distinct from young investment brokers. They shouldn't be in it for the money, they should be in it for the love of it. There's always an outlet. I don't know why a piece has to have an audience of 20,000. A string quartet, if it's played in front of 100 people, what's the matter with that in a hall that seats one hundred. The future will be always aristocratic I suppose, or specialized. I think the future of the world is getting dreary. I think we're going to blow ourselves up, but there are always caring people--at least that you and I are interested in. I do think we could re-encourage the teaching of music appreciation courses as they used to be called, but nobody really can do that, or will do that much anymore.

SB: I know you are also a prolific author. Would you say your writings influence your compositions at all?

NR: No, the two things fulfill completely different needs. I'm a composer who also writes as distinct from a writer who also composes. What I encouraged to get published was the diaries as I was in my forties and already had a reputation as a composer for twenty years. I don't set my own words to music because, as I said before, I think my taste of words to be set to music is pretty high-class. If I were good enough to write my own words for music, I wouldn't need to write music because the words would be sufficient of themselves. I think there's something incredibly self-important about setting my own words to music. The kind of words I write are definitely prose. It's not poetic writing, it's not mellifluous, and it's not vague. I like to get ideas across. My prose has to do with ideas, which a literary writer would write. The two careers are independent of each other.

SB: Is there anything else you would like to share with the general readership of this article?

NR: I think churches have been and are usually very encouraging about contemporary organ music. I've written a great deal of organ music and I don't even particularly like the organ. My late friend, Jim Holmes, was an organist and I wrote a great deal of it for him and for other commissions. I wish that the readers could be encouraged to play more and more contemporary music and not just the same standard 19th century literature--because that's what will keep us alive.