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The Organ: An American Journal,1892-1894

March 18, 2003
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The Centennial Facsimile Edition of The Organ, Vols. I & II, May 1892-April 1894, Everett E. Truette, editor and publisher, Boston, was published in 1995 by The Boston Organ Club Chapter of the Organ Historical Society, P.O. Box 104, Harrisville, NH 03450-0104.  It was prepared from an original copy owned by the Spaulding Library, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, under the direction of E.A. Boadway, Alan Miller Laufman, and Martin R. Walsh. (Available for $59.95 from The Boston Organ Club, P.O. Box 371, Brushton, NY 12916-0571.)

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

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

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

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

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

Organ Building

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organ Recital Repertoire

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

                  Number                Percent

Wagner                 36            14

Handel 27            10

Mendelssohn    19            7

Gounod                 14            5

Rossini 11            4

Schubert               10            4

Weber  9               3

Beethoven          8               3

Chopin 8               3

Meyerbeer          7               3

Haydn  7               3

Flotow 7               3              

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

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

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

                  Number                Percent

Guilmant              78            11

Bach      55            8

Salomé 38            6

Dubois 35            5

Handel 34            5

Batiste  31            5

Buck     28            4

Mendelssohn    24            3

Lemmens            21            3

Rheinberger       21            3

Spinney                 20            3

Whiting                 19            3

Widor   19            3

Frequent Performers

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

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

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

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

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

At present everything with us is Guilmant. . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Timely Topics: Organ Design and Construction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                 

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

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

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

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

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

Timely Topics: Organ Playing

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

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

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

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

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

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

MORE POWER NEEDED

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

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

"Why so?"

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

--Topeka Capital.38

Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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