June 2024

In our previous cover features in The Diapason and The American Organist, we exclusively showcased our own work. However, this time, we aim to spotlight another crucial aspect of our business endeavors—high-quality organ renovations and additions to existing instruments. These projects constitute nearly half of our workload and are just as essential to us as our new builds.

Schoenstein & Co., Benicia, California

Grace and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Schübler Chorales have a special place in my heart. In the winter of 1978, when I was a sophomore organ major at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, I heard all six of them played (from memory) by a senior organ major during departmental organ class at Alice Millar Chapel. I was so moved by the playing that I went to the back of the chapel to greet the organist, James Biery, when he came down from the loft. It was the first time we had ever had a conversation. Forty-four years later, we are still in conversation.

Throughout the history of music, composers have not only influenced and enriched the cultural life in their communities, but they have also influenced each other. The focus of this article is the influence of Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) on Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and specifically how that influence is manifest in Bach’s organ concerto transcriptions. We will explore Vivaldi’s concerto style and his L’estro armonico, opus 3.

Covering all the basses

I remember the first time I went to Fenway Park in Boston with my father to see a Red Sox game. I had watched many games on television, but those of us “of a certain age” remember what televisions were like in 1965 with foil-wrapped rabbit-ear antennas, bulbous black-and-white picture tubes, and fuzzy pictures. When Dad and I came out of the tunnel into the sunshine at Fenway, the outfield grass was the greenest I had ever seen. I was dazzled.

William "Bill" De Turk