Winthrop Organ Festival to be held August 13–16 in Rock Hill, SC

Winthrop University began in 1886 in Columbia, South Carolina as the Winthrop Training School, to train women teachers. Robert Winthrop, chair of the Peabody Foundation in Boston, was the philanthropist who made the effort possible, with a generous gift of $1,500, plus a personal check for $50 for books to David Bancroft Johnson, the Columbia Superintendent of Schools, who was the school’s mentor. The state legislature soon found reason to establish a Normal and Industrial School for Women, and in 1895, Rock Hill was the chosen city. Winthrop’s name was retained. Some decades later the name was changed to Winthrop State College for Women. Eventually it became Winthrop College. Men were admitted in 1974, and a few years later the name changed to Winthrop University. Some 6,500 students at bachelor and master degree levels populate the campus today. The Department of Music is in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The College Auditorium and Conservatory of Music (the wording engraved in stone high up on the outside façade) were built in 1938–39 with funds from the WPA (Work Projects Administration). For fourteen years the concept of an organ for the College Auditorium (later designated the James F. Byrnes Auditorium) was a dream of the music department head, Dr. Walter B. Roberts. Under Roberts’ guidance, alumni raised $15,000, and the State of South Carolina appropriated $35,000. Ultimately, the 1952 contract with the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts, was for $59,865. Some months later another $3,000 was applied to the contract for the 32′ Contre Basse. The Class of 1914 (which in that fateful year was so penniless that it was unable to leave a class gift) achieved its goal in 1955 by donating $1,400 for the Deagan chime stop. The total of the initial expenditure added up to $64,265.
A 1951 letter from G. Donald Harrison, president and tonal director of the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, thanks Dr. Roberts for the invitation to design an organ for Winthrop, but Harrison goes on to say:

. . . as the college is a state school, bids will be necessary. I feel that in view of this it would be useless for us to put in a bid as we are bound to be the highest bidder with absolutely no chance of landing the contract.
President Sims just a week later, July 17, responded that

. . . the determination of which organ offered the most for the price could not be made on a mere dollar basis . . . I cannot guarantee that the committee will eventually select the organ you submit, still I do want you to feel that any proposal you make will receive careful consideration . . .
A month later, Harrison sent a specification of the proposed instrument and a justification of the tonal design that reflects the philosophy now known as “American Classic.”

Fifteen or more years ago, I developed a type of organ which combined both Classical and Romantic material in one instrument, the sole idea being to produce an organ that was capable of giving authentic renditions of all types of worthwhile organ music and an instrument that would suit players such as Virgil Fox, on the one hand, and Professor Fritz Heitmann at the Berlin Dom, on the other.

Harrison himself was in the auditorium in August 1955 for the final voicing of the organ. It was ten months later that Harrison died in his apartment in New York City, while finishing the rebuilding of the E. M. Skinner organ (Opus 205A) in St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue.
Today the D. B. Johnson Memorial organ stands as one of the few Aeolian-Skinner organs with Harrison’s signature that is not a rebuild of a previous instrument. It reflects Harrison’s 1950s concept of what his American Classic sound should be, and he obviously took advantage of calculating his design for the 3,500-seat space, which boasts a two-second reverberation time. Virgil Fox played the inaugural recitals November 2 and 3, 1955.
For the first ten years after the installation, the college organists (a title no longer used) were Jeannette Roth, Wilbur Sheridan, Wilmer Hayden Welsh, and George Klump. David M. Lowry became college organist in 1965. Lowry became professor emeritus in 1996, and has remained the part-time organ professor since. Many undergraduate and graduate students have performed their degree recitals on the Byrnes Auditorium organ. Lowry has been heard in nearly 100 performances—solo recitals, lecture-recitals, ensemble concerts, symphony orchestra programs, and the annual Festival of Carols.
The roster of guest artists on the organ is remarkable, due greatly to the support of Dr. Roberts for its first few years, then with the continued support of Dr. Jess T. Casey for over thirty years. That list includes Marie-Claire Alain, Robert Anderson, Robert Baker, David Craighead, Catharine Crozier, Virgil Fox, Fernando Germani, Jerald Hamilton, Yuko Hayashi, Anton Heiller, Paul Jenkins, Wilma Jensen, Marilyn Keiser, Jean Langlais, Simon Preston, Alexander Schreiner, Larry Smith, Murray Somerville, John Chappell Stowe, and many others.
As with the purchase of the instrument, the search for a builder to restore the instrument fell into a category of specialized work where the low bid did not have to be the winner. A panel of judges read the proposals, and the voting for the winner was under the supervision of a state agent. Létourneau Pipe Organs of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec won the contract. In 1967, Fernand Létourneau, at just 23 years of age, was present in Rock Hill installing an organ for another firm when Marie-Claire Alain played a recital in Byrnes Auditorium. Following the concert, he came to a private party for her and engaged her in conversation about Dom Bédos de Celles. It was a significant moment in his life that he has never forgotten, and he made it very clear to Winthrop authorities that he was in total agreement about not changing anything tonally on the organ. Andrew Forrest, artistic director of the firm, achieved total cooperation with all the artisans in the project.
Today the restored organ stands as one of the country’s prized historic instruments, in that the number of nearly pure G. Donald Harrison signature organs becomes ever more rare.
—David Lowry, DMA, HonRSCM
Professor of Music Emeritus
Curator for the Restoration

The Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company’s tumultuous history is well documented and the cast of characters still seems familiar nearly forty years after the company’s demise. The books The American Classic Organ and Aeolian-Skinner Remembered by Charles Callahan vividly illustrate the ideas, external pressures and internal tensions that shaped the company until 1972 and, indeed, there remain many parallels in the daily machinations of an organ shop over thirty-five years later. Specifically, The American Classic Organ provides helpful insights into the motivations of G. Donald Harrison, the company’s tonal director from 1933 through to his death in 1956. Jonathan Ambrosino has also done much to document Aeolian-Skinner and Harrison’s rise to prominence through his writings for numerous journals and his scholarly liner notes for JAV Recordings’ series of recordings on vintage Aeolian-Skinners.
Aeolian-Skinner’s Opus 1257 in Byrnes Auditorium at Winthrop University is a remarkably unaltered example of Aeolian-Skinner’s work in 1955. Harrison’s work in the 1950s was marked by a number of prestigious rebuilding projects, and against this backdrop, the Winthrop contract represented a real opportunity for Harrison to design a large instrument free from outside influences. All decisions regarding the organ’s tonal design, from its stoplist to scaling and winding details, were left to Harrison, and the console plate bearing his signature indicates a particular interest in the final result. Following the organ’s installation during the early summer of 1955, Harrison traveled to Rock Hill to personally supervise the tonal finishing for several days during the month of August. As such, the D. B. Johnson Memorial Organ is a landmark instrument: in addition to its celebrated status as a superbly effective pipe organ, it also represents one of the last significant Aeolian-Skinners supervised from beginning to end by Harrison.
Jumping ahead to the 21st century, the D. B. Johnson Memorial Organ was still in remarkably good form some 52 years after it was completed, thanks to Professor of Music Emeritus David Lowry’s efforts. Fundraising for the restoration was generously provided by Winthrop alumni plus local individuals and businesses, with the project being spearheaded by Shirley Fishburne and David White and the university’s Alumni Association and Development Offices. An in-house recording of the instrument’s au revoir bash on May 21, 2007 gives a good account of repertoire from Bach to Howells to Diemer, rendered with conviction and color. Nonetheless, the instrument was in growing need of attention by then: the console’s pistons were temperamental at best, one of the pneumatic swell engines had failed entirely, and with increasing regularity, individual notes or entire stops had become unreliable or outright inoperative. From the very beginning of the project, it was imperative that the instrument remain tonally unchanged, and our approach here was to treat Opus 1257 with great deference. Largely a mechanical restoration, the instrument is today ready to serve for additional decades as an acclaimed concert and teaching instrument.
The most obvious indicators of the recent work are the discrete changes to the instrument’s four-manual console, though the console had also undergone some earlier restorative efforts. The organ’s original remote combination machines had been replaced by a primitive Solid State Logic (now Solid State Organ Systems) capture system in the early 1980s—following repeated floods in the auditorium basement—and three of the console’s four manuals had also been recovered with new ivories. As part of the 2007–2009 restoration project, the console was upgraded with new solid-state equipment, including capture and coupling systems. The console now boasts 256 levels of memory, a USB-based system for storing and recalling memory levels, the usual complement of general and divisional pistons, and a new general piston sequencer. The new coupling system also permits a Great–Choir manual transfer and restores the console’s All Swells to Swell feature (now programmable on general pistons as desired). At the request of David Lowry, one new coupler was added for additional flexibility, the Positiv to Choir 16′.
The console’s original silver wire and bronze plate contact system was restored with new silver wire contacts, while the four manuals’ bushings were replaced and the ivory key coverings cleaned and polished. New thumb pistons and toe pistons—in the Aeolian-Skinner style—were provided, using the same contact mechanism as the originals, while the original pneumatic stopknob actions were replaced with new electro-repulsion solenoids from Harris Precision Products. The walnut console shell and elegant dog-leg bench were both stripped, repaired as needed and refinished.
The organ itself was dismantled in late May of 2007, and the console, reed stops, and other restorable components were packed and shipped to our workshops in Québec. All 8′ and smaller flue pipes were also removed from the chambers and packed carefully for storage in various locations within Byrnes Auditorium. Subsequent to the organ’s return, the chambers were cleaned and painted by John Dower and Company.
Once in our workshops, all of the organ’s various pneumatic actions were recovered with new leather, including wind reservoirs, concussion bellows, expression motors, pouchboards, note and stop primaries, and tremolo units. The organ’s reed stops were carefully dismantled, cleaned and measured; resonators were repaired as needed and then each stop was checked on a voicing jack. As much as possible, the existing reed tongues were reused, with new tongues being provided only where the existing tongue was damaged. The single exception to this was the bass octave of the Choir 16′ English Horn, which was revoiced to cure a chronic slow speech problem.
We returned to Winthrop University with the organ in October 2008 to begin reinstalling the organ’s many components. During this process, the two wind reservoirs that had proved impossible to remove were recovered with new leather, and all of the organ’s wind chests and wooden framing were wiped down. The organ’s flue pipes were also cleaned prior to reinstallation, with tuning scrolls being soldered closed and re-cut for the 16′ and 8′ octaves. The longest pipes of the 32′ Contre Basse extension had originally been mitered to fit under the chamber ceiling and were fitted with baling wire slings in the early 1960s for support, with the slings coming down through holes in the plaster ceiling above. To provide better access to the top of the chamber, we built a new access ladder and platform, and the mitered 32′ pipes were fitted with new twill tape slings. Again, the slings pass through the chamber ceiling to a sturdy metal frame in the attic above. The tuning scrolls on these large pipes had also, over time, succumbed to gravity and unrolled and ultimately proved impossible to salvage; these scrolls were cut off and custom-made tuning sleeves lined with felt were provided for tuning.
The organ’s wind system and electro-pneumatic windchests were then reassembled, with care taken to replace all wind trunk collars with new split leather gaskets. The organ was also entirely rewired within the chambers, joining the new SSOS coupling system to the new Reisner electro-magnets that were retrofitted in our workshops. Wind pressures throughout the organ were restored to those listed in the 1955 specification, as the Swell and Choir divisions had slipped slightly. The wind reservoir feeding the 8′–4′ Trompette en chamade rank and the Pedal 16′–8′–4′ Bombarde unit was, however, restored to the 87⁄8″ pressure as it was when we began our restoration.
Following the reassembly of the instrument and testing, a team of voicers began their work that continued into January 2009. All of the organ’s 3,820 pipes were thoroughly regulated for proper volume and speech, but few alterations were made in cases where there were obvious problems between adjacent pipes. New adjustable toe blocks were fitted for the bass octaves of the Great 16′ Contra Geigen and the Swell 16′ Flauto Dolce, allowing much finer regulation for these pipes. The relatively simple but time-consuming regulation process yielded some unexpected results, with particular improvements in the clarity and overall refinement of the 32′ and 16′ registers.
A detailed inventory was also taken on site of most flue stops in an effort to flesh out G. Donald Harrison’s scaling practices at the end of his career. Generally, the pipework confirms that Harrison favored narrow basses and broader trebles, coupled with a fine, refined style of voicing. Reed stops are generally small to average in scale—the 8′ Trompette en chamade and the Swell 8′ Trompette were built to the same scale!—but are on generally high wind pressures. A surprising variety of shallot types were also used to good effect.
Prior to our restoration, two tonal alterations had been made to Opus 1257. The first change was a revision of the Swell III-rank Plein jeu, as the original was felt to be insufficient against the powerful Swell reed chorus. Modified in 1965 by Arthur Birchall, the mixture was transposed up a fifth, going from 2′ pitch to 11⁄3′ pitch. From a detailed examination of the pipes, it appears that as many of the 1955 pipes were reused as was practical, requiring but 31 new pipes to complete the revised stop. Despite its non-original composition, our restoration of the organ left the III-rank Plein jeu in its 1965 form, as the mixture is a good fit with the rest of organ and in particular, addresses the Swell reeds in a telling fashion.
The 8′–4′ Trompette en chamade was also modified during the 1970s by moving up the break between natural and harmonic-length resonators, with the first harmonic pipe moving from c25 to f#31. This cured persistent tuning problems in this range and what David Lowry remembers as “an unfortunate tone akin to a New York City taxi cab.” At the same time, the unit chest for this stop was also moved to the very front of the Great-Pedal chamber from its original location beside the Pedal main chest for better projection. An angled plywood baffle was also added above the pipes, providing protection from dust contamination and directing sound out of the chamber.
In conclusion, our work on the D. B. Johnson Memorial Organ at Winthrop University is one of the most interesting and best-documented restorations we’ve been privileged to carry out in recent years. Opus 1257 is a persuasive, musical instrument through which Harrison’s tonal philosophy shines; it has much to offer today’s tonal discussions. We are grateful to have had this opportunity to restore and perhaps more importantly, learn from this magnificent pipe organ.
— Andrew Forrest, Artistic Director
Létourneau Pipe Organs

GREAT (3-3⁄4″ wind pressure)
16′ Contra Geigen
8′ Diapason
8′ Spitz Principal
8′ Holzflöte
4′ Principal
4′ Rohrflöte
2-2⁄3′ Quint
2′ Super Octave
1′ Fourniture IV
2′ Cornet III–VI
8′ Trompette en chamade (Pos)
4′ Clairon en chamade (Pos)
Chimes (Ch)

SWELL (expressive) (6″ w.p.)
16′ Flauto Dolce (ext)
8′ Geigen Principal
8′ Stopped Diapason
8′ Viole de Gambe
8′ Viole Celeste
8′ Flauto Dolce
8′ Flute Celeste (t.c.)
4′ Prestant
4′ Flauto Traverso
2′ Fifteenth
1-1⁄3′ Plein jeu III
16′ Fagot
8′ Trompette
8′ Hautbois
8′ Vox Humana
4′ Clairon
Tremulant

CHOIR (expressive) (5″ w.p.)
8′ Viola
8′ Viola Celeste
8′ Dulciana
8′ Concert Flute
4′ Prestant
4′ Flûte harmonique
2-2⁄3′ Sesquialtera II
16′ English Horn
8′ Cromorne
4′ Rohr Schalmei
Tremulant
8′ Trompette en chamade (Pos)
4′ Clairon en chamade (Pos)
Chimes

POSITIV (3″ w.p.)
8′ Nason Flute
4′ Koppelflöte
2′ Principal
1-3⁄5′ Tierce
1-1⁄3′ Larigot
1⁄4′ Cymbel III
8′ Trompette en chamade (8-7⁄8″ w.p.)
4′ Clairon en chamade (ext) (8-7⁄8″ w.p.)

PEDAL (5″ w.p.)
32′ Contre Basse (ext Gt 16′) (6-1⁄4″ w.p.)
16′ Contre Basse (6-1⁄4″ w.p.)
16′ Geigen (Gt)
16′ Bourdon
16′ Flauto Dolce (Sw)
8′ Principal
8′ Gedeckt Pommer
4′ Choral Bass
4′ Nachthorn
2′ Blockflöte
2-2⁄3′ Mixture IV
32′ Fagot (half-length ext Sw 16′)
16′ Bombarde (87⁄8″ w.p.)
16′ Fagot (Sw)
8′ Trompette (ext) (87⁄8″ w.p.)
4′ Clairon (ext) (87⁄8″ w.p.)
8′ Trompette en chamade (Pos)
Chimes (Ch)

Mixture Compositions (as of 2009):

Great IV Fourniture:
c1 to b12: 22-26-29-33
c13 to b24: 19-22-26-29
c25 to b36: 15-19-22-26
c37 to b48: 12-15-19-22
c49 to f#55: 8-12-15-19
g56 to c61: 5 - 8-12-15

Great III–VI Cornet:
c1 to f18: 15-17-19
f#19 to f42: 12-15-17-19
f#43 to f54: 8-12-15-17
f#55 to c61: 5-8-8-10-12-15

Swell III Plein jeu:
c1 to f18: 19-22-26
f#19 to f42: 15-19-22
f#43 to f54: 12-15-19
f#55 to c61: 8-12-15

Positiv III Cymbel:
c1 to f6: 36-40-43
f#7 to b12: 33-36-40
c13 to f18: 29-33-36
f#19 to b24: 26-29-33
c25 to f30: 22-26-29
f#31 to b36: 19-22-26
c37 to f42: 15-19-22
f#43 to b48: 12-15-19
c49 to c61: 8-12-15

Pedal IV Mixture:
c1 to g32: 19-22-26-29

William D. Gudger is Professor of Music History and Theory at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) and organist of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul (Episcopal).

In time for the third Spoleto Festival USA in 1979, a companion festival, Piccolo Spoleto, was organized in conjunction with the City of Charleston’s Office of Cultural Affairs. The first meeting about this took place in Ben Hutto’s apartment on Montague Street in Charleston. Ellen Dressler Moryl was the newly-appointed Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of Charleston, and the first coordinators for music series were Hutto, Emily Remington, William Gudger, and David Lowry. We decided to make something of a sandwich of the Spoleto day, with organ recitals in the morning before the “big” Festival’s first chamber concert at 11 am, and chamber concerts in the afternoon. In keeping with the founding of the Festival by Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, we named our 10 am organ series “L’Organo: The Organ in Recital.” It is the only music series that has run through the entire 25 years of Piccolo Spoleto in its original form (though there was no L’Organo series in 1990 in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo). Larry Long, who played in the 2003 series, gave the first recital on a Saturday morning in May, 1979, at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, whose historic organ case was featured on our poster in 1979 and again on the cover of the Spotlight Chamber series in 2003. Recitals were held daily except Sundays. We soon found that organ recitals worked best on Mondays through Fridays, and for the entire series over the years it is safe to say that average attendance at each recital has been over 100. With Spoleto usually running for two weeks, most years we presented ten performers. For many years in 1980s one program was devoted to “Kids Meet the King of Instruments,” capturing the undivided attention of 200-300 Charleston schoolchildren. Performers were local organists or guests from out-of-town, featuring regional performers, the goal of Piccolo Spoleto. But a number of national and even international figures have played, in some cases due to the generosity of local patrons. A complete list of performers is found at the end of this article. It reads like a Who’s Who of the organ world. Some of the more prominent performers were featured on special events, some of these late at night. There were often annual midnight recitals (beginning at the hour, or ending at that hour). At first these were benefit galas of a humorous nature (“Nuptial Nuggets”; a 300th Birthday Party for Bach in 1985 [with the composer present!]; and the like), and in other years such outstanding performers as the Chenaults and David Higgs played late at night to catch the Spoleto Festival crowd after operas and dance programs.

The 10 am solo recital has been the backbone of our series, though often organists have been joined by other performers (also listed at the end). A number of premiere performances have been given, and the repertory for organ has covered the gamut from Bach to Bolcom (Alain to Zipoli would be a better description!), representing the most popular organ classics as well as introducing much unfamiliar literature including transcriptions and avant-garde works. Some special events have included our wonderful Charleston Symphony Orchestra. In 2003 the first week of the Festival had the regular 10 am series. In the second week, everything on the organ series was a special event with a totally different schedule in order to accommodate the 250 organists attending the American Guild of Organists Region IV 2003 Convention. Besides solo recitals by Timothy Tikker, Charles Boyd Tompkins, and Calvert Johnson, the Miller/Lowry trumpet/organ duo was heard. The Charleston Symphony Orchestra played twice, with Scott Bennett for a concert which included Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie concertante and Stephen Paulus’ Mass for Chorus, Organ, and Orchestra, and with Stewart Wayne Foster for music of William Bolcom and Allan Ontko.

Performers on the Piccolo Spoleto L’Organo Series, 1979-2003

Charleston organists: Warren Apple, Deborah Bagwell, Mark Bebensee, C. Lynn Bailey, Paul Batchelor, J. Scott Bennett, Paul Blanchard, Nancy M. Callahan, Thomas B. Clark, Christopher Cotton, Capers Cross, Alan Davis, Lee deMets, Stephen Distad, Stewart Wayne Foster, Robert Gant, William Gudger, Julia Harlow, Ann Hood, Benjamin Hutto, Gregory Jones, Seung-lan Kim, Hazel King, Brian Kittle, Francis Kline, Lee Kohlenberg, Larry Long, Douglas Ludlum, George Mims, James Polzois, David Redd, Emily Remington, Timothy Shepard, Preston Smith, Arlon Sunnarborg, Randall S. Thompson, Timothy Tikker, Thomas White, Alan Wingard, Sarah Younker

Out-of-town organists: Albert Ahlstrom, Donald Armitage, Richard Apperson, David Arcus, Edward Artis, G. Dene Barnard, Ann Bauer & Kristin Johnson (duo-organists), Diane Bish, David Bowman, David Brensinger, James Russell Brown, David Chalmers, Raymond and Elizabeth Chenault (duo-organists), Raymond Chenault (solo), Sally Cherrington Beggs, Andrew Clarke, Douglas Cleveland, Rodney Cleveland, Marty Cloninger, John Conner, Giles Cooke, Benton Craig, William Crane, Gregory d’Agostino, James Darling, Jolene Davis, Ted Davis, Emma Lou Diemer, Jonathan Dimmock and Jane Dimmock Cain (duo-organists), Jonathan Dimmock (solo), Shane Doty, Ricky David Duckett, Peter Dubois, Edward Dunbar, Wayne Earnest, David Eaton, Ray Ebert, Ronald Ebrecht, Natalie Eubanks, Trudy Faber, Richard L. Falk Jr., John Farmer, Kristin Gronning Farmer, Andrae Felton, Janette Fishell, Faythe Freese, Deborah Friauff, Robert Gallagher, Bruce Glenny, Steve Godowns, J. Michael Grant, Joseph Golden, Bruce Gustafson, Cheryl Hamilton, Stephen Hamilton, Andrew Hayler, Kim Heindel, Felix Hell, David Higgs, Frederick Hohman, George Hubbard, Harry Huff, Eileen Hunt, Janet Hunt, Mark Husey, Lawrence Jenkins, Calvert Johnson, Edie Johnson, James Johnson, Jeffrey C. Johnson, Florence Jowers, Michael Kaminski, Stephen Karr, Charles Kennedy, Robert Burns King, James Kosnik, Andre Lash, Arthur Lawrence, David Lawrie, David Lowry, David Lynch, Peter Marshall, Thomas Marshall, Sarah Martin, Lenora McCroskey, Russell Meyer, Charles Miller, William Mills, J. Thomas Mitts, Susan Dickerson Moeser, John Mueller, Margaret Mueller, Thomas Murray, David Oliver, William O’Meara, David Ouzts, Dorothy Papadakos, Kathryn Cain Parkins, Robert Parkins, Robert Parris, Karel Paukert, Richard Peek, Roberta Poellein, Samuel Porter, Robert Powell, Stephen Powers, Simon Preston, Debra Ramsey, Peggy Kelley Reinburg, Porter Remington, Robert Ridgell, Schuyler Robinson, John Rose, Clair Rozier, Cj Sambach, Christopher Samuel, John Schaeffer, Stephen Schaeffer, David Schelat, John Schwandt, Keith Shafer, Edmund Shay, Robert Simpson, Sherryl Smith-Babbitt, Jeffrey Smith, Timothy Quay Smith, Hazel Somerville, Murray Somerville, Thomas Spacht, Vincent Stadlin, Richard Tanner, Mickey Thomas Terry, Edward Tipton, Charles Boyd Tompkins, William Trafka, Beverly Ward, David Weadon, John Weaver, Steven Alan Williams, Robert Wisniewski, Searle Wright

Assisting artists: Samuel Adler, conductor; Suzanne Fleming Atwood, soprano; Rhett Barnwell, Celtic harp; J. Michael Barone, lecturer; Birmingham Brass Quintet; William Bender, actor; Cantalope the Clown; Charleston Symphony Orchestra; Kathleen Conner, soprano; Fort Worth Early Music Ensemble; Van Tony Free, percussion; Kathy Harty Gracy Dance Theatre; Ellen Dressler Moryl, cello; Allen French, horn; Kim French, flute; Robert Ivey, choreographer (dancers from the Robert Ivey Ballet); Elizabeth Lyman, percussion; David Maves, percussion; Marcia Newman, soprano; Nuptial Nuggets Chorus; Brian Osborne, trumpet; Anders Paulsson, saxophone; Michael Rhodes, tenor; The Schola Cantorum of the University of Northern South Carolina at Goose Creek; Gregory Schoonover, trumpet; Edith Simmons, mezzo soprano; Nancy Eaton Stedman, mezzo soprano; Caesar Storlazzi, oboe and English horn; Elizabeth Tomorsky, English horn; Adele Marie Taylor, harpsichord; Claire Teuber, soprano; Matthew Walker, cello; Marianne Weaver, flute

Coordinators and associates: Deborah Bagwell, Mark Bebensee, Jane Bradley, Stewart Wayne Foster, William Gudger, Benjamin Hutto, Hazel King, Francis Kline, Lee Kohlenberg, Larry Long, Gary Loughrey, David Lowry, Douglas Ludlum, Loving Philips, James Polzois, Emily Remington

Curators to the series: Vernon Elliott, Allan Ontko

Churches and synagogues (name of organ builder): Advent Lutheran Church, North Charleston (Zimmer); Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, Episcopal (Kney); Circular Congregational Church (Hutchings); Citadel Square Baptist Church (Wicks); First Baptist Church (Wicks); First (Scots) Presbyterian Church (Ontko & Young, replacing earlier Austin); The French Protestant (Huguenot) Church (Erben); Grace Episcopal Church (Reuter); John Wesley United Methodist Church (Moeller); Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Ontko); Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church (Roosevelt); St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Mount Pleasant (Schantz); St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church (Austin); St. John’s Lutheran Church (Schantz); St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church (Austin); St. Philip’s Episcopal (Church: Casavant; and Chapel: Appleton); Second Presbyterian Church (Moeller); Summerall Chapel, The Citadel (Reuter); Trinity United Methodist Church (Hartman & Beaty)

James B. Hartman is Associate Professor, Continuing Education Division, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, where he is Senior Academic Editor for publications of the Distance Education Program. He is a frequent contributor of book reviews and articles to The Diapason.

Organ enthusiasts who wish to learn about organs far outside their immediate vicinity have at their disposal a number of search engines to survey the Internet, such as Alta Vista, Google, InfoSeek, Lycos, WebCrawler, and Yahoo; however, these are neither easy nor efficient for this purpose. A particularly effective source is offered by the Dutch magazine, het ORGEL (the ORGAN), a publication of Koninklijke Nederlandse Organistenvereniging (KNOV, i.e., Royal Dutch Organists Association); this is Europe’s oldest magazine on organ art: <www.hetorgel.nl&gt;.

The organ links of het ORGEL are in three categories: Countries, Related Instruments (Carillons, Barrel Organs, Harmoniums, Theater Organs, Harpsichords), and General Information (General, Composers, Liturgies, Music Software, Organists Societies, Organ Music).

There are links to organ sites in 65 countries throughout the world: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldavia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Ukraine, Uruguay, U.S.A., and Zambia.

The relevant information in each country is classified under six headings: General, Organ Builders, Persons, Churches and Concert Rooms, Conservatories/Music Schools/Universities, and CDs/Books. The form of the entries in the different countries remains largely the same throughout but with local content appropriate to the particular country. Many sites include photographs of organ pipe façades and consoles.

An overview of the Web sites of several selected countries follows (some locations have more than one Web site).

U.S.A. The General category, with 147 entries, includes the Web sites of the chapters of the American Guild of Organists, along with a listing of other miscellaneous organizations, societies, topics, and publishers (including The Diapason). It also contains a Web site devoted to the largest pipe organs in the world, but this matter is not easily resolved due to some debatable technical distinctions.1

In the Organ Builders category there are 175 Web sites, including those of such well-known manufacturers as Aeolian-Skinner, Fisk, Holtkamp, Keates-Geisler, Möller, Reuter, Schlicker, and Wicks.

Under Persons the 187 Web sites include familiar names of many organists and concert artists: E. Power Biggs (1906-1977)2, Virgil Fox (1912-1980)3, Edwin H. Lemare (1865-1934)4, Rosalyn Tureck (1914-2003)5, and others. A typical site in this category includes a biography, a résumé, church appointments, compositions, repertoire, concerts, tours, recordings, a discography, testimonials, reviews, writings, links to related sources, and sometimes audio clips.

The Churches and Concert Rooms category consists of an alphabetical list of 614 locations throughout the country. New York City has 23 sites, including Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, as well as Riverside, St. John the Divine, and St. Thomas churches, among many others.

There are 94 Universities and Music Schools, including Indiana University School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Peabody Conservatory, and schools at many state universities.

In the CDs and Notes category there are 98 Web sites of music publishers, bookstores, catalogs, record companies, and music societies.

A small category, Music Programs, consists of nine sites, including a software distributor and other sources.

Canada. The General category, with 33 entries, consists of the Web sites of 13 local chapters of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, two branches of the Royal School of Church Music, and the sites of other organizations, societies, publishers, festivals, and miscellaneous topics. A particularly ambitious Web site, Organs of the United States and Canada Database, is intended to provide a single, consistent, accessible, historical source of the organs constructed or installed in the United States and Canada since the arrival of the first imported instrument in the colonies; this listing of about 90,000 instruments and 1,800 builders is accessible only by inquiry to the site originator in Seattle, Washington.

In the Organ Builders category there are 26 sites, including Canada’s leading builder, Casavant (three sites), along with other prominent firms like Guilbault-Thérien, Keates-Geissler, Létourneau, Wilhelm, and Wolff.

Under Persons 29 organists have Web sites; there is a historic entry for the Lynnwood Farnam (1885-1930) Society. A separate listing of Organists in Québec is also provided.

The Churches and Music Rooms category includes information on 70 locations in major cities across the country. A relatively new organ is the Davis Concert Organ, four manuals, 96 stops, in the Francis Winspear Music Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, installed in 2002 by Orgues Létourneau, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec.

In the category of Universities/Music Schools six are identified, all in eastern provinces.

Under CDs and Books there are seven publishers or distributors.

England. The General category, with 58 entries, includes the Web sites of organizations such as the Guild of Church Musicians, Royal College of Organists, Royal Society of British Organists, along with associations and societies in various cities, and other specialized organizations. Several magazines or other publications devoted to the organ or organists are also listed here.

In the Organ Builders category there are 39 names, including the Incorporated Society of Organ Builders, Harrison & Harrison, N. P. Mander, and Henry Willis & Sons.

Under Persons 68 organists are listed, including such notable players as David Briggs, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Christopher Herrick, John Stainer (1840-1901), Gillian Weir, Carol Williams, and Arthur Wills.

The Churches and Concert Rooms category consists of 290 locations in major centers throughout the country, some in universities such as Cambridge, and others in cathedrals such as Coventry, Durham, Exeter, Gloucester, Leicester, and Liverpool. Royal Festival Hall, St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, and Westminster Abbey are also found here.

In the category of Music Schools there are 12 sites, including the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal School of Church Music, and similar academies connected with educational institutions.

Under CDs and Books there are 43 Web sites of music publishers, bookstores, catalogs, record companies, and music societies.

France. The General category, with 79 entries, includes the Web sites of associations and societies--”Les Amis de l’Orgue”--in various cities, reports of organ festivals and seminars, and miscellaneous topics, such as French Organ Music and pages devoted to organ magazines.

In the Organ Builders category there are 49 sites, a few with historical significance: Jean-André [Johann-Andreas] Silbermann (1678-1734), Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-99), and Dom Bédos de Celles, L’Art du Facteur d’Orgues, in addition to present-day firms and the comprehensive Groupement Professionnel des Facteurs d’Orgues.

Under Persons 48 names are listed, including such familiar figures as Pierre Cochereau (1924-1984), Jean Guillou, Naji Hakim, Jean Langlais (1907-1991), André Marchal, Daniel Roth, and René Saorgin; there is a separate site for Parisian Organists that lists the organists who served at churches in Paris from the 13th to the 21st centuries.

The Churches category covers 414 establishments in the major cities. Paris includes Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, St. Eustache, St. Sulpice, St. Clotilde, St. Gervais, and Madeleine, all familiar on account of their associations with famous organists of the past; there is a separate site for organs of Paris. In the category of Schools, there are only three, led by the Conservatoire de Paris.

Under CDs, Books, and Sheet Music, there are 25 Web sites of music publishers, suppliers of music publications, and record companies.

Germany. In the Organ Builders category there are 234 names, some of which may be familiar to North Americans: von Beckerath, Gabler (1700-1771), Glatter-Götz, Klais, Laukhuff, Schnitger, Silbermann, and Walcker. Here, as in some other countries, there is a comprehensive Web site devoted to organ building; a number of entries are related to historic builders of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Entries in other categories--General, Persons, Churches, Conservatories, CDs and Books--are appropriate to Germany.

Australia. The General category has 10 Web sites that include several societies, including a branch of the Royal School of Church Music, England.

There are only two Organ Builders in the country; both are small firms that construct small organs and provide restoration and maintenance services.

In the Churches/Concert Halls category there are 51 Web sites. These reveal that several town halls have organs: Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. The activity of external makers is evident in the case of Melbourne, where the five-manual Hill, Norman & Beard instrument, acquired in 1929, was rebuilt by Schantz, U.S.A., commencing in 1999. A special Web site, Second Wind, reports that elegant furniture was made from timbers taken from the Melbourne Town Hall organ when it was renovated in 2001. A monastery library in Arcadia also has an English organ by T. Atterton: two manuals, 11 stops, 1893, later restored in Melbourne.

In the Schools category there are six sites, one for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the others connected with the music faculties of the major universities.

South Africa. The General category has five Web sites, including one of the Johannesburg Organ Society, which promotes all aspects of the organ, including recitals, workshops, concerts, and visits to significant instruments.

There are only two firms listed in the Organ Builders category, specializing chiefly in the restoration, rebuilding, and maintenance of existing instruments.

In the Churches category there are eight entries. One of these, St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, has an organ that originally was in St. Margaret’s Church in London, England (next to Westminster Abbey). In 1909 a later four-manual, 61-stop organ was donated to St. George’s by a London businessman who had connections in South Africa. The largest organ in the country is in Feather Market Hall, Port Elizabeth, with 5,508 pipes.

The two Universities/Music Schools are University of South Africa, and University of Cape Town where the Baxter Concert Hall has a three-manual, 49-stop von Beckerath instrument, inaugurated in September 1977 (von Beckerath died on 20 November 1976 before the installation was completed).

This survey will conclude with a few miscellaneous items concerning organs in several selected countries.

In Denmark the Frobenius firm has completed slightly more than 1,000 organs since it was founded in 1909; of these, five are in England, two in U.S.A., and five in Japan.

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has one organ in the Hong Kong Cultural Center.

In Ireland the Pipe Organ Site, in addition to providing information on organists, organ specifications, organ builders, and recordings, contains a section on organ jokes.6  

The Isle of Man Organists Association held an Organ Festival in 2002 that included recitals by Gillian Weir and others, workshops, and a gala dinner (£12 including wine!).

The independent state of Malta, consisting of three islands south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, has seven organ builders and restorers; a recent project was the restoration of the ‘Platania’ organ, originally built in Sicily in 1726.

In The Netherlands two famous organ builders are found among the 42 firms listed: Schnitger (1648-1719) and Flentrop (since 1903). Stinkens, organ pipe makers (since 1914), is also active there.

The Philippines has two old organs, two organ builders, and two churches; it recently held its 29th International Bamboo Organ Festival.

In Zambia, an independent country (formerly called Northern Rhodesia) in east central Africa, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka has a two-manual, 25-stop organ (builder not identified). In addition to containing information on the organ, the church’s Web page contains sermons, anniversaries, church news, prayer requests, and other information of interest to the parishioners.

The immense amount of organ information contained in the worldwide Web sites defies even a summary description. Given the diversity of languages among the different countries, not all of this information is easily available to English-only readers for that reason, although some sites provide an English version in addition to the language of the country of origin. On the other hand, it is possible to recognize the stop names of organs in most cases on account of their widespread similarity throughout the world. The curious reader can only speculate on the vast number of organs in these countries that do not have Web sites! Visiting the various Web sites, with their colorful and attractive home pages, also provides aesthetic experiences of diverse organ designs. The reader will discover that some Web sites are unavailable or have moved; many are church pages, where the organ is included but is secondary in importance.

KNOV’s assembly of Web sites provides a valuable cultural resource that will be useful for a variety of purposes: recreational exploration of the world of the organ on the Internet, comparative research on organ specifications and the historical backgrounds of the instruments, and perhaps for planning future journeys to the countries where existing organs can be found, inspected, and perhaps played.