Richards, Fowkes & Co. Opus 24, Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Richards, Fowkes & Co., Ooltewah, Tennessee; Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati, Ohio

Background

While some organ projects come together quickly, most usually take longer. And some, such as our recently completed Opus 24 for Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, seem to require almost a micro-generation to fulfill. For those who are patient, this duration can pay dividends. After all, relationships take time to build, not merely between people or groups, but also between the creative act itself and the space in which it has been asked to flourish. Christ Church is a complicated space with an involved history; our becoming part of it was never likely to be straightforward.

Christ Church was founded in 1817 and soon settled into an 1835 building that would last through World War II. The Gothic revival Centennial Chapel, added in 1917, has its own organ history, which has culminated in C. B. Fisk’s Opus 148 in an Italian style, completed in 2018 (see The Diapason August 2018 cover feature). Although by the 1930s the main church was thought to be in need of replacement, World War II paused any rebuilding effort. After a proposed design by Eliel and Eero Saarinen was rejected, Ohio architect David Briggs Maxfield’s modern design was chosen, and the new building was dedicated in 1957. In 1993, Christ Church was consecrated as Cathedral of the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

Walter Holtkamp, Sr.’s three-manual, 54-stop organ was a logical fit for this new mid-century modern building. His daring unencased sculptural design fit perfectly with the building’s architectural aesthetic. Holtkamp’s clean, “classic” voicing style won many admirers, and this organ helped launch Gerre Hancock’s early career as well as being a central part of Christ Church’s annual Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival.

While the Holtkamp was well regarded, musicians struggled with certain aspects of the organ’s personality. Over the years, consultants attempted to diagnose the situation and offer suggestions. The consensus was that the organ’s location was a key detriment. Located in a shallow open gallery on the left, the Holtkamp spoke across the chancel and engaged the acoustic in such a way as to generate a confusing flutter echo.

In the early 1980s, the church was renovated and largely stripped of decoration. The stone east-facing altar was replaced by a wooden table, and other surfaces altered to help absorb troubling reflections. Unfortunately, these alterations exacerbated rather than alleviated the acoustical issues. In less than a decade, another renovation was in the works, this time to warm up the room visually and suggest more of a traditional aesthetic. Wooden galleries were added to the organ loft, together with pilasters and wooden coffer beams to break up and articulate the walls and ceiling. The climax of this effort was a wood-and-glass chancel screen directly behind the choir. Although successful from a liturgical standpoint, the new wall tended to swallow up the organ’s modest bass (as well as that of the choir), further altering the balance of the Holtkamp.

The effect on choral singing was detrimental. While the choir was now front and center, ostensibly a good thing, the location put the singers farther than ever from the Holtkamp’s enclosed divisions. Without any nearby surfaces for early reflections, singers struggled to hear not only each other but the organ. A common accompanimental conundrum ensued: if the organist could hear the instrument, it almost always meant the organ was too loud to balance the choir. After much discussion about the merits of moving divisions, and possibly revoicing, it was concluded that any such radical changes would spoil the Holtkamp. For an organ to succeed, it needed a central placement, engaging the room not side to side, but fully down the length of the nave.

Process

The cathedral first contacted us in July 2008. James Diamond, the cathedral’s former and now late dean, had called a committee (himself, Robert Clark, Roberta Gary, Thom Miles) to assess the Holtkamp and make recommendations either for its rebuilding or replacement. In retrospect, this was merely the first of what would turn out to be this project’s three phases.

When this first committee finished its work, the assumption was that the dean would accept the committee’s recommendation, seek funding, and sign a contract. But July 2008 became September 2008. The ensuing financial crisis and Great Recession caused the project to be shelved.

When Stephan Casurella was appointed director of music in 2009, he was asked to begin the process anew with the current music committee chaired by cathedral member and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra violinist Harold Byers. Dean Diamond did suggest, however, that Stephan visit our organs at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas. In time, we were again selected again to build a new organ. In 2010, the new interim dean and the music committee took the project to the vestry, led by senior warden Mary Hagner, a chorister since childhood; but the timing was still not right.

In 2013, with the arrival of a new dean, Gail Greenwell, all of the factors were finally in place for a successful outcome. After five years of planning and education they were ready to sign a contract.

The case for Deco

Designing a beautiful and sensible case proved formidable. The twice-rebuilt church now had an identity issue: well thought out and tasteful, yes, but not necessarily in any strong style. Focus on both altar and cross seemed diffuse. We believed that the right organ design could tie everything together, but how?

Our first two designs were in a classic style. We soon came to see that this incongruity—which has worked for us elsewhere—would not be the answer here. Eventually, Ralph Richards and Trent Buhr started working with the arch curve at the front of the nave. Using this motif, they outlined the overall organ and its undulating cross section. The arch was then scaled, flipped, and stacked to subdivide the compartments. As the instrument began to emerge, Trent observed that the design was taking on Art Deco elements. After many hours of study, trial and error, and, to everyone’s surprise, exploring Art Deco as a style allowed us to fuse the room and the case into a single concept. In a nod to fractal theory even the decoration contains the same hockey stick motif applied to the six Hebrew letters of the word Hallelujah. An unintended consequence is an addition to the prominent legacy of Art Deco in Cincinnati.

The tonal landscape

Ralph and I started building organs in the 1970s, when the early music movement and historic tradition were just coming into bloom in the United States. Over the last thirty-three years, our team of eleven artisans has built organs using all of the knowledge that has come from the last century of organ methodology. Thus begins a litany that may seem familiar from builders of our general type but is far from a list of “features” to us. Wherever our tonal style may take us, certain fundamentals remain resolute. Our instruments are built in cases made from solid wood using traditional joinery methods and finishes. Suspended mechanical key actions provide the most intimate connection we can offer between the keys and the pipes. Wooden wind systems with large wedge bellows (in this instrument, five 4′ x 8′ bellows) and generous wind trunks allow a system that breathes as should a real wind instrument.

Pipe making is our point of pride. Our metal pipes are handmade from sheets cast using historically informed metal alloys. The sheets are then hand-planed to taper the thickness of every pipe. This allows the foot and mouth area to be made thickest, for strength, with the bodies lessening in thickness towards the top of the pipe, to ensure that the weight of pipes will not lead to collapse at mouth or toe. We make every pipe in our shop.

Most of our instruments are based in the classic North German and Dutch traditions, noted for exceptionally colorful instruments that excel at leading congregations. But, over those thirty-three years, it has become clearer to us that we live neither in Germany nor Holland, nor in some other century. We are building American organs for American churches of the twenty-first century. The people of today, even when they share our love of the old instruments and music, have ideas about singing and accompaniment that lie well away from any Germanic centrality, and which our organs cannot consider mere inconveniences if they are to succeed. Episcopalians ourselves, we are more and more wanting our organs to reflect this blended landscape.

When we were selected at St. George’s Hanover Square in London, the musician Simon Williams asked for an organ that could accompany an English choir yet still play Buxtehude authentically. Frankly, we felt we had begun to do just that in our Scottsdale instrument, not by tempering the ensemble, but rather by filling out the organ’s quiet end with open flutes and strings. At the same time, we wanted those quieter voices to have plenty of color and personality. Better expression played its part. Double paneling in the swell boxes, combined with thick shutters, provides a wider dynamic range. As time has gone on, we have made other decisions about how much articulation is appropriate, or even musically helpful. Voicing our pipes a little slower relaxes the speech and helps them blend better. London was also our first organ with two enclosed divisions. Since then we have built one other large organ with a second enclosed manual, further exploring this quiet, but hopefully alluring, sound world.

When J. S. Bach was advising Zacharias Hildebrandt for the organ at Saint Wenzel in Naumburg, he recommended that all flutes of a particular construction exist on the same keyboard, so that one could immediately tell the difference between different manuals. At Christ Church, we have done likewise. The Positive flutes are all built from open, tapered pipes, as are the quieter flutes and strings. The Great flutes are open, while the Swell flutes are stopped. (True, the Swell’s 4′ Flöht traverse lives here and is voiced to blend and act in a generally nineteenth-century manner.)

Throughout, the strings are of Germanic inspiration. Voiced with less garlic than French strings, the German type have a light, bright tone that allows them to work effectively in many styles of literature. (When voicing these strings, we are not doctrinaire and happily use modern roller beards to stabilize speech.) The Great Salicional is the largest in scale and finds its double in the Pedal Violonbaß. The Swell strings are a medium scale, voiced in the brightest manner, thinking again of how nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature expects that kind of effect in that location. The Positive’s are the smallest, tapered and of 90% tin, voiced chastely. As a result, they have an ethereal edge and lack of body that, with the 4′ Viol, make psalm accompaniment an organist’s dream.

An unusual feature is that at eighteen stops, the Positive division is the largest of the three. The 8′ Principal and Trompette-en-Chamade are unenclosed, the latter located horizontally above the Positive box for easy dialogue with Swell or Great. With this division low in the case, the Positive has proven to be the accompaniment workhorse, especially during Covid when only eight singers were allowed.

Like the strings, the reeds are mostly of German origin. The Pedal and Great reeds are patterned after Schnitger, while the Swell Trompet and Oboe are influenced by central German stops, which, like French reeds, employ cylindrical shallots. We use our own bass shallot pattern here, with tin-plated tapered forms, which helps to keep the basses from outshouting the trebles. The Chamade has French-type parallel shallots, which are wonderfully flexible and permit voicing on the round side. (After all, we wouldn’t want the French stop to feel as if it were being occupied by the Germans.) Also Germanic, in a way, is the completely independent Pedal, from 32′ to mixture. Six independent 16′ stops (four flue and two reed stops) provide variety and foundation for infinite gradations of color and volume.

Organ builders usually wince when we read in the magazines, “We were given the task to build an organ that would play all of the organ literature authentically and accompany 400 years of choral anthems seamlessly.” The unity of this organ, we hope, comes from the fact that we are, yes, historically informed about the different schools and eras of organ building. But our evolving confidence about those schools has made us freer to meld those ideas into a voice of our thoughts, our tastes, and our sensibilities—and, hopefully, of our time.

Richards, Fowkes & Co.

Jakob Barger

Trent Buhr

Patrick Fischer

Bruce Fowkes

Karla Fowkes

Nathan Govig

Alex Haas

Joshua Knight

Richard Mcusic

Brian Miscio

Jesse Mozzini

Ralph Richards

Richard Schulze

Patrick Spiesser

Dean Wilson

Andy Wishart

 

Stephan Casurella, Canon Precentor & Director of Music

Shiloh Roby, Associate Director of Music

 

Organ Committee Chair: Julie Kline

Music Committee Chair: Harold Byers/Drew Abbott

 

Builder’s website:

https://www.richardsfowkes.com/

Church’s website:

https://cincinnaticathedral.com/

 

GREAT (manual II)

16′ Principal (in façade) 58 pipes

8′ Octave 58 pipes

8′ Spielflöht 58 pipes

8′ Salicional 58 pipes

4′ Octave 58 pipes

4′ Flöht 58 pipes

3′ Quint 58 pipes

2′ Octave 58 pipes

Cornet IV (Tenor A, 4′, 3′, 2′, 1-3⁄5′) 141 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Mixture 264/324 pipes

16′ Trompet 58 pipes

8′ Trompet 58 pipes

POSITIVE (manual I, enclosed)

8′ Principal (façade) 58 pipes

8′ Hohlflöht 58 pipes

8′ Quintadena 58 pipes

8′ Flöht dolce 58 pipes

8′ Flöht celeste (TC) 46 pipes

8′ Dulcet 58 pipes

8′ Dulcet celeste (TC) 46 pipes

4′ Octave 58 pipes

4′ Viol 58 pipes

4′ Spitzflöht 58 pipes

3′ Nasat 58 pipes

2′ Octave 58 pipes

Sesquialtera II 109 pipes

1-1⁄3′ Scharff 204/300 pipes

8′ Krummhorn 58 pipes

8′ Vox humana 58 pipes

4′ Schalmey 58 pipes

8′ Chamade (52–58, 8′ + 3′) 65 pipes

SWELL (manual III, enclosed)

16′ Bourdon 58 pipes

8′ Principal 58 pipes

8′ Gamba 58 pipes

8′ Celeste (TC) 46 pipes

8′ Rohrflöht 58 pipes

4′ Octave 58 pipes

4′ Traverse flöht 58 pipes

3′ Nasat 58 pipes

2′ Waldflöht 58 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Tertia (1–51) 51 pipes

Mixture 232 pipes

16′ Basson 58 pipes

8′ Trompet 58 pipes

8′ Oboe 58 pipes

PEDAL

32′ Subbaß (ext 16′) 12 pipes

16′ Principalbaß 30 pipes

16′ Subbaß 30 pipes

16′ Bourdon (Sw)

16′ Violonbaß 30 pipes

8′ Octave 30 pipes

8′ Spitzflöht 30 pipes

8′ Gedackt (Sw)

4′ Octave 30 pipes

2′ Mixture 120/150 pipes

32′ Posaune (ext 16′) 12 pipes

16′ Posaune 30 pipes

16′ Fagott 30 pipes

8′ Trompet 30 pipes

8′ Trompette (Pos Chamade)

4′ Trompet 30 pipes

Normal couplers

Tremulant to the entire organ

Stable/Flexible Wind switch

Mixture + to add additional high-pitched ranks

Cimbelstern

Vogelgesang

Temperament: Neidhardt for a small city 1732

 

59 stops

78 ranks (depends on count of compound stops)

3,806 total pipes

When each mixture stop is pulled it turns on the “normal” ranks indicated in black. When the Mixture + knob is pulled it turns on the additional ranks indicated in red in all mixtures. This allows the mixtures to function as “normal” mixtures or as North German mixtures.

 

Susan Palo Cherwien

Susan Louise Palo Cherwien died December 28, 2021. Born May 4, 1953, in Ashtabula, Ohio, she was active in music in school and at Zion Lutheran Church (Finnish-American), Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Her undergraduate degree in church music and voice was earned from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, in 1975. Her junior year was spent at the Berlin Church Music School, Spandau, Germany. After graduating from Wittenberg, she returned to Berlin to complete a graduate degree at the Berlin Conservatory of Music. She was active in the American Lutheran Church in Berlin, a mission church of the Lutheran Church in America (now part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).

It was through this church in Berlin that Susan Palo met David Cherwien, who came in 1979 to study at the Berlin Church Music School. They returned to the United States in 1981 and were married on August 8 at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two weeks later they moved to Seattle where David served at First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach. Two sons were born, Jeremiah in 1983 and Benjamin in 1986. In 1987 the family moved to the Chicago area for David to serve at St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Park Ridge, Illinois. During these years, Susan earned a master’s degree from Mundelein University and began her career as a writer. Since 1990 the family has lived in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and has been a part of the community at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, where Susan served in many capacities as volunteer, sacristan, and soloist.

As a poet, Susan Cherwien wrote extensively, especially in two areas: hymn texts and reflections for hymn festivals, published by Augsburg Fortress and MorningStar Music Publishers. Her hymns are included in hymnals of many denominations, including Evangelical Lutheran Book of Worship and its newest supplement hymnal, All Creation Sings.

Susan Louise Palo Cherwien is survived by her husband, David; sons and daughters-in-law, Jeremiah and Karen and their children Hannah and James Cherwien in Batesville, Arkansas; Benjamin and Angel and their daughter Gabriella Hull Cherwien in Blaine, Minnesota; brother John Palo (Freddie) of Lenexa, Kansas; and sister Nancy Bukowski of Sacramento, California. A funeral service was held on December 31, 2021, at Mount Olive Lutheran Church. Memorials may be directed to Mount Olive Lutheran Church debt reduction fund (mountolivechurch.org) or National Lutheran Choir (nlca.com).

Merrill Nathaniel (“Jeff”) Davis III

Merrill Nathaniel (“Jeff”) Davis III, 80, died October 16, 2021, in Rochester, Minnesota. Born February 13, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois, he lived most of his childhood and teen years in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was an active organist while still in grade school, and at age 15 was dean of the La Crosse area chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Davis earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, and studied organ privately with Arthur B. Jennings, Jr. He completed his Master of Music degree at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, as a student of Robert T. Anderson. Additional studies and coaching were with Willard Irving Nevins, Gerald A. Bales, Arthur Poister, and Heinrich Fleischer.

Davis served as musician for various congregations, including First Congregational Church, La Crosse, Wisconsin; St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, St. Paul Church, Zumbro Lutheran Church, First Unitarian Universalist Church, and the Congregational (United Church of Christ) Church, all in Rochester, Minnesota. He was a frequent guest organist at Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago, Illinois. Davis concertized widely and was known for his skills as an improviser. In 1974, he was one of four finalists at the International Organ Improvisation Competition at St. Bavo Church, Haarlem, the Netherlands, and the first American to be invited to compete there. He was an active member of the Southeast Minnesota AGO Chapter.

Davis was also involved in the pipe organ industry as a sales representative and freelance consultant. The firms for which Davis worked included the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Rodgers Instruments, and Rieger-Kloss of Krnov, Czech Republic. He also consulted on behalf of other companies, in particular Hendrickson Organ Company, St. Peter, Minnesota. He also was involved as a personal financial advisor, working for IDS.

Merrill Nathaniel Davis III is survived by two sons and two sisters-in-law. He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, a sister, and by his first wife, Jane Schleiter Davis, and his second wife, June Fiksdal Davis. A memorial concert is planned for February 12 at the Congregational Church, Rochester, Minnesota.

Richard Stanley Houghten

Richard Stanley Houghten, 78, died December 29, 2021, from complications following heart surgery. Born October 7, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan, he was introduced to the organ partly from exposure to the Barton organ at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theatre, and partly at an organbuilding class taught by Robert Noehren at the University of Michigan, where he was studying psychology. He eventually apprenticed to Noehren as an organbuilder, as did classmate Jerroll Adams; Adams and Houghten would soon be sharing a barn-workshop in Milan, Michigan, and regularly collaborating.

A conscientious and well-rounded organbuilder, Richard became best known as a specialist in consoles and electrical systems. Early in his career he worked for Solid State Logic, eventually becoming president and board chairman. In this role he was central to the industry’s adoption of solid-state technology, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s when such equipment was still novel. He was further central in evolving multilevel combination actions and other advanced console aids. By 1995, he was fully independent of SSL, undertaking projects and occasional organbuilding. From 1989 he also acted as North American representative for the German supplyhouse/organbuilder Aug. Laukhuff.

For Houghten, demystifying solid-state technology was religion. He not only sold early systems but installed them, where, on site, he was intent on showing local technicians how to diagnose and service the new equipment. The reliable results of these early projects earned him a high reputation. Projects readily came his way, often without competition, and his client list over 57 years reads as impressively as any could. In the last 15 years alone, St. Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire; Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Calvary Church, Memphis, Tennessee; the Community of Jesus, Orleans, Massachusetts; and Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, sought his work. In turn, Richard regularly collaborated with
J. Zamberlan & Co. for woodworking and his trusted affiliate Vladimir Vaculik, whose wiring had all the Houghten trademark elegance.

Houghten was equally active as a subcontractor, working largely in the background to builders wanting clear systems design coupled to immaculate installation and wiring. The relationships he forged with those shops, together with his technical mastery and reassuring demeanor, meant that it was often he, not the electronics manufacturer, who would be called in a crisis. “Is there smoke? Good. Next question . . . .”

Throughout his career, Houghten retained connections to the University of Michigan. During Jerroll Adams’s long tenure as organ curator there, the Houghten team renovated consoles for many campus organs, including the large four-manual at Hill Auditorium. The University link was further strengthened through a steady stream of organ students who also served as housemates in the Houghten condominium, tending to the cats and technology Richard gathered there.

The funeral for Richard Stanley Houghten was held January 12 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, Detroit. A broader celebration of his life is being scheduled immediately preceding the 2022 Atlantic City Convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders, with which Houghten was centrally active and at whose regular October gatherings he celebrated a half-century of his own birthdays. That same community remembers him as an uncommonly generous colleague, ready to share knowledge, solve a problem, or make something as good as it could be for the benefit of all organbuilding.

—Jonathan Ambrosino, Arlington, Massachusetts

Marilyn Kay Stulken Rench

Marilyn Kay Stulken Rench, 80, organist, teacher, recitalist, author, and genealogist, died December 28, 2021, in Franklin, Wisconsin. She was born August 13, 1941, in Hastings, Nebraska, and studied organ and church music at Hastings College in Hastings, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. During this time, she had several piano and organ students and from 1962–1965 served as organist and program director at All Faiths Chapel, Ingleside, Nebraska. At Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, she studied organ performance and church music, earning a Master of Music degree in 1967 and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1975. One of her positions while in Rochester was as a sewing therapist at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Stulken Rench held a number of church positions, including organist and choir director at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Pittsford, New York, 1966–1973; organist at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1975–1979; director of music at Trinity Lutheran Church, Kenosha, Wisconsin, 1979–1985; and organist at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Racine, Wisconsin, from 1986 to the time of her death. In addition, she taught at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the University of Iowa, Iowa City; Carthage College, Kenosha; University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha; and Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon.

On December 27, 1984, in Omaha, Nebraska, Marilyn Stulken married Thomas R. Rench, a pipe organ builder. Marilyn often played programs on instruments that Tom had built or restored. As a lecturer and organ recitalist, she appeared throughout the United States and Canada, including ten recitals for national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. After Tom installed a pipe organ in the family room of their home, the instrument was used for practicing and teaching. When her multiple sclerosis precluded her from playing the pedals, Tom engineered the keyboard at St. Luke’s so that a note played by her left hand could sound that same note on the pedalboard.

Stulken Rench is the author of the Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (1981) and An Introduction to Repertoire and Registration for the Small Organ (1995), and coauthor with Catherine Salika of Hymnal Companion to Worship, Third Edition (1998). She was one of three contributors who assisted in the preparation of historical notes on the hymns in The New Century Hymnal (1995). With Martin A. Seltz and others, she compiled Indexes for Worship Planning (1996), and with James R. Sydnor and Bert Polman, she edited Amazing Grace: Hymn Texts for Devotional Use (1994). She contributed an article, “Hymnody from German, Scandinavian and Finnish Sources,” to The New Century Hymnal Companion (1998), and “Hospital Hymnody as Transition Hymnody” to We’ll Shout and Sing Hosanna: Essays on Church Music in Honor of William J. Reynolds (1998). She is the author of With One Voice Reference Companion (2000) and authored numerous articles and reviews for musical journals. Stulken Rench was active in the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Hymn Society of America, and, for a time, was the worship representative on the Southport District Cabinet of the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan Synod of the LCA (Lutheran Church in America).

Marilyn Kay Stulken Rench was predeceased by her husband, Thomas R. Rench, and a stepson, Evan Rench. (For an obituary for Thomas R. Rench, see the January 2016 issue, p. 8). She is survived by her stepchildren Alan (Mary) Rench, Eric (Bobbie) Rench, and Kari (Jeff) Eschmann; seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; as well as two sisters and a brother. A memorial service will be held in the spring. Memorial gifts may be made to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 614 Main Street, Racine, Wisconsin 53403.

Wesley Parrott introduces the new organ at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, installed by Emery Brothers.

The organ began as M. P. Möller Opus 6425, which was installed in Schwab Auditorium at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, in 1936. Designed by Möller’s tonal director Richard Whitelegg, the organ’s thirty-three ranks include warm, bold diapasons, evocative flutes, colorful and varied strings, and four iconic reeds, all at eight-foot pitch: Trumpet, Oboe, Clarinet, and Vox Humana. After some years in storage, it was restored by Emery Brothers and reconfigured for its new location.

The new organ also includes stops from the 1903 Austin organ at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, M. P. Möller Opus 6512 from 1937, and M. P. Möller Op. 9453 from 1960. The completed cathedral organ now comprises 53 ranks, 86 stops, and 3,606 pipes.

The organ was dedicated in an inaugural recital featuring Tyrone Whiting, Jeff Brillhart, and Clara Gerdes-Bartz on October 24, 2021. It is featured on the cover of the December 2021 issue of The Diapason: https://www.thediapason.com/content/cover-feature-emery-brothers

For information: www.emerybrothers.com

Wesley Parrott is Organist at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral and Liturgical Musician at St. Francis De Sales Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. His recordings are available through the Organ Historical Society.

He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, the University of the South (Sewanee, TN), and Eastman School of Music. In Philadelphia, he has served St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Cathedral Road; previous positions include Alexandria, VA (The Old Presbyterian Meeting House), Washington, D.C. (New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and Church of the Epiphany), and Rochester, NY (St. Stanislaus Kostka R.C. Church). 

Winner of three U.S. national organ playing competitions in 1979 (Ottumwa Iowa, Fort Wayne and Mader), he was also a finalist in the International Organ Playing Competition, Grand Prix de Chartres in 1982.

For information: http://www.philadelphiacathedral.org/staff/article458601.htm

Charles Huddleston Heaton

Charles Huddleston Heaton, Sr., 92, died June 11, in Huntsville, Alabama. He was born November 1, 1928, in Centralia, Illinois. Heaton earned his Bachelor of Music degree from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, in 1950, studying with Van Denman Thompson. He then went to New York City for his Master of Sacred Music degree at the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary, completed in 1952. After service in the United States Army, he returned to Union Seminary in September 1954 for his Doctor of Sacred Music degree. Among his teachers at Union were Hugh Porter and Harold Friedell.

In 1954, while a student, Heaton was appointed chapel organist for Kirkpatrick Chapel, Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, playing a three-manual Skinner organ. The following year, while still a student, he became organist and choir director for the Presbyterian Church of Bound Brook, New Jersey. He was awarded his doctoral degree in 1957.

In 1956 Heaton was named organist and director of music for Second Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Missouri. He would become organist for Temple Israel of the same city in 1959. From 1962 to 1964, he taught organ at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Heaton then served as organist and director of music for East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1972 until 1993. During his tenure at the church, he recorded the disc, Music Till Midnight, named for a series of concerts he formulated at East Liberty beginning in 1976. He was a lecturer in music at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary between 1973 and 1976.

Following retirement Heaton was organist-in-residence at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (1993–1996 and 1997–2002) and served as interim organist for a year each at Calvary Episcopal (1996–1997) and Oakmont Presbyterian Churches, all in Pittsburgh. Heaton was a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (1957), penned two books—How to Build a Church Choir (1958) and A Guidebook to Worship Services of Sacred Music (1961)—published several anthems, and was editor of the Hymnbook for Christian Worship, published by Judson Press in 1970. He was a staff reviewer of new recordings for The Diapason magazine and was pleased to have a complete run of the journal, which he had bound and donated to DePauw University. He also contributed to journals such as Clavier and The American Organist. A 90th birthday celebration concert in Heaton’s honor was held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh on November 3, 2018, with several local organists performing.

On April 17, 1954, Heaton married Jane Pugh, who predeceased him in September 1999. They had three children, who survive: Rebecca Lynn Turner (Patrick) of Herndon, Virginia; Charles Huddleston Heaton, Jr. (Miki), of Brierfield, Alabama; and Matthew Aaron Heaton (Shannon) of Medford, Massachusetts, along with four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Charles Huddleston Heaton, Sr., will take place in September at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh. Burial will be in Crystal Lake, Michigan, where the Heatons spent their summers. Memorial contributions may be made to a scholarship in Heaton’s memory to the American Guild of Organists, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1260, New York, New York 10115, attention: F. Anthony Thurman.

Fritz Noack

Fritz Noack, 86, died June 2. Born in Germany in 1935, he apprenticed in organ building with Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg between 1954 and 1958. He would work with Klaus Becker and Ahrend & Brunzema, also in Germany, before coming to the United States, working briefly for the Estey Organ Company in Brattleboro, Vermont, and later with Charles Fisk, then with the Andover Organ Company in Methuen, Massachusetts.

In 1960, he founded the Noack Organ Company, then located in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The workshop would move to Andover, Massachusetts, in 1965 for larger space. In 1970, the company moved to its present location, a former schoolhouse in Georgetown, Massachusetts, where an erecting room was added to the building. More than a dozen organ builders, including the principal personnel of various other firms, have received their training there.

Noack was active in various professional organizations, including service as the president of the International Society of Organbuilders from 2000 to 2006; he also served two terms as president of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America. He taught organ construction and building at New England Conservatory, Boston.

In early 2015, Noack retired from his company, turning its leadership over to Didier Grassin. At that point, the firm had built nearly 160 instruments, installed throughout the United States and abroad in locations such as Iceland and Japan.

William E. Randolph, Jr.

William E. Randolph, Jr., died May 15. In 1979, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, New York City, studying with Frederick Swann. He would further study with Jean Langlais in Paris and Christopher Dearnley in London.

Randolph worked at the Episcopal Church of the Intercession in New York City from 1983 until 1993. He then served at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and at St. George’s Episcopal Church, New York City. He returned to Church of the Intercession in 2002 where he remained until his death. He also was adjunct organist at Columbia University, organist at the Marymount School for Girls, and assistant organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, all of New York City. A memorial service for Randolph was held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on June 10.

Carl Schalk 

Carl Flentge Schalk, 91, died January 24 in Melrose Park, Illinois. He was born September 26, 1929, and attended high school and college at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois (now Concordia University Chicago), graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. He proceeded to earn a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri. His first call was to Zion Lutheran Church and School, Wausau, Wisconsin, as fifth and sixth grade teacher and church musician. From 1958 to 1965, Schalk was music director for radio broadcasts of The Lutheran Hour.

From 1965 until his retirement in 1993, Schalk was professor of church music at Concordia University, River Forest. During this time, he guided the development of the university’s Master of Church Music degree, which has since graduated more than 200 students, edited the journal Church Music, and coordinated the annual Lectures in Church Music, which brings church musicians, performers, conductors, and educators together for a three-day conference. Schalk was a member of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, which produced the Lutheran Book of Worship in 1978, and the board of directors of Lutheran Music Program, the parent organization of the Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival. He was honored with the Faithful Servant award from the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, was named a fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, and received numerous other awards and several honorary doctorates. In 2002, Schalk was named the American Guild of Organist’s Composer of the Year.

At Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois, adjacent to the Concordia campus, Schalk assisted Paul Bouman in church music; together they founded the Bach Cantata Vesper Series that continues to this day. Schalk is well known for his numerous choral compositions as well as his hymn tunes and carols, which number over one hundred. He had ongoing collaborations with poets Jaroslav Vajda and Herbert Brokering, producing tunes for several of their hymn texts. Schalk’s hymn tunes may be found in modern Christian hymnals of various denominations. In 2013, Nancy Raabe’s critical biography, Carl F. Schalk: A Life in Song, was published, and in 2015, Singing the Church’s Song, a collection of articles and essays about church music by Carl Schalk was released. As recently as 2020, his book, Singing the Faith: A Short Introduction to Christian Hymnody, was also printed (see the March 2021 issue of The Diapason, p. 21). He was preceded in death by his wife Noël Roeder, and is survived by three children and four grandchildren.