January 2009

Ken Cowan plays the Quimby Pipe Organ at First Baptist, Jackson; Art of the Symphonic Organist, Vol. 4. JAV Recordings, JAV 169

Review of Louis Vierne: Second Symphony for Organ, performed by Christopher Houlihan, organist, at the Trinity College Chapel, Hartford, Connecticut

In the intimate acoustical setting of Grace Episcopal Church, a church that seats only 250, with a gallery where space was extremely limited, Schoenstein & Co. built a 20-voice, 23-rank symphonic organ.

Bedient Pipe Organ Company, Roca, Nebraska, Opus 81:
First Congregational Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

At the time that I joined the Möller New York City maintenance staff in 1955, the Rev. Dr. Hugh Giles concert series at Central Presbyterian Church (Park Avenue at 64th Street) was a major factor in the city’s music scene. Its centerpiece was the superb four-manual instrument (M. P. Möller opus 8000).

American harpsichord maker William Richmond Dowd and his business partner Frank Hubbard set new directions for the modern harpsichord revival with their gradual return to the historic construction principles of fine harpsichord making.

It has been my privilege to serve in each of the past eleven years as a “constant” juror for the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival. And yes, I’ve grown in many good ways from the experience.

The playing of repeated notes on organ and harpsichord has always been an issue unto itself.

It’s a grand achievement for a pipe organ to “stand up to” a modern symphony orchestra, which is capable of bewildering volumes of sound. To achieve that with modest wind pressures and slider chests is especially impressive.

Jeanie Little Castle, M. Louise Miller, Barron Smith, J. Rodney Yarbrough