January 1999

Editor's note: The following is a recap of the author's presentation to the annual meeting of APOBA on May 1, 1998 in Lawrence, Kansas. His remarks received a decidedly cool reception from the builders. Many strongly disagreed with his views on the macroeconomic demand for pipe organs and especially on the threat of Canadian competition. In the belief that the assumptions, analysis and conclusions of an economist are of general interest to the organ world, offer a timely basis for discussion and contain useful insights into the future of organbuilding, these remarks are published.

Laeta Wentworth Guerra died at the age of 69 on September 20 in her home near Daytona, Florida. She was born there in 1930 and studied organ with Arthur Poister at Syracuse University and Robert Baker at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She spent a considerable time in Mexico, where she accompanied her husband, first as Methodist minister, then Episcopal priest. In addition to her organist's duties, she taught grade school and achieved considerable fluency in the Spanish language.

From the builder

Hendrickson Organ Company, St. Peter, Minnesota, has built a
new organ for Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata, Minnesota. Opus 92 is a
4-manual, 70-rank tracker action instrument installed in a white colonial-revival style case at the front-center of the new church sanctuary. The "C.
Charles Jackson" pipe organ is named for its principal donor and long-time
supporter of the church and its music program. Diana Lee Lucker is Director of
Music and Organist.

In his famous treatise on continuo playing,1 Francesco
Gasparini gives a table of twenty-one keys which the student could expect to
encounter. The absence of certain keys proves that the contents of the table
are determined by the tuning which Gasparini used, and because of his standing,
it would be of particular interest if the precise nature of this tuning could
be established.

In his famous treatise on continuo playing,1 Francesco
Gasparini gives a table of twenty-one keys which the student could expect to
encounter. The absence of certain keys proves that the contents of the table
are determined by the tuning which Gasparini used, and because of his standing,
it would be of particular interest if the precise nature of this tuning could
be established.

News from abroad

* The future of Ghent's historic bell Klokke Roeland, which
was cast in 1660 and cracked in 1914, is uncertain. Roeland is not included in
the initial sketches by Spanish architect Jordi Farrando who was commissioned
by the city to redesign the area between the belfry and the St. Niklaaskerk
where the legendary bell now rests. Under consideration is the possibility of
repairing the crack and hanging the bell in a free-standing frame fitted with a
manual tolling mechanism.