September 2007

Gavin Black's new column deals with teaching—specifically the teaching of organ, harpsichord, keyboard-playing as such, and, to some extent, anything having to do with music and musicianship.

At what point in the development of any technology does one take a snapshot and declare the ideal, after which there’s no need for further development?

Schoenstein & Co. Opus 147, First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Michigan

In 1932, Minot Teachers College (now Minot State University, ) in Minot, North Dakota, installed a 22-rank Kimball designed by William H. Barnes in the college auditorium. A recent restoration by the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas, has given the organ a second life, and for the first time in over a decade the public can again hear this organ.

"Feast of the Gods,” the 282-page program book of the Boston Early Music Festival, listed a bountiful smorgasbord of musical offerings from which each visitor to this biennial early music extravaganza could construct an individual menu. Stellar offerings at prime afternoon, evening, and late evening times carried the cachet (and financing) of the Festival proper; ancillary events, sponsored (but not paid for) by the BEMF organization, included a plethora of “fringe” concerts.