J. F. Nordlie Company, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Ida Roberts Memorial Chapel Organ,
J. F. Nordlie Company, Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Ida Roberts Memorial Chapel Organ,
Kernersville Moravian Church, Kernersville, North Carolina
Dedicated on May 6, 2007, Moravian Music Sunday
Buxtehude’s reputation as a master of organ music could rest on the chorale-based repertoire. This article will concentrate on two specific aspects of the composition, especially: 1) the harmonic and contrapuntal aspect and 2) the relationship of the music to the text and the chorale.
Helmut Walcha, the great German organist, may have had the distinction of knowing more keyboard music of Bach by heart than any other individual in history, including quite likely the composer himself. Walcha, who would be 100 years old this year, was born in Leipzig; he became blind at the age of seventeen, and could boast as his innermost possession virtually all the organ works of J. S. Bach, the harpsichord works, including the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations, and the entire Art of the Fugue. The first portion of the following three-part study formed part of a contribution to Bach-Stunden, a Festschrift for Helmut Walcha on the occasion of his 70th birthday, published by Evangelischer Presseverband in Hessen und Nassau, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Albert Russell is considered not only a prince of the organists’ realm, but as a gentleman’s gentleman. His recently released Aeolian-Skinner Legacy recording enables his outstanding musicianship to be shared with a new following of fans, all of whom will be delighted that he has generously given this fascinating interview.
For two weeks this past summer, a handful of American organists participated in the Summer Institute for French Organ Studies, a biennial educational seminar run by Gene Bedient, president of Bedient Pipe Organ Company, and Jesse Eschbach, professor at the University of North Texas.
The 28th annual International Organ and Church Music Institute took place June 24–26, hosted by the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Under the direction of Marilyn Mason, university organist and organ department chair, this year’s conference focused on the music of Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707).
On relaxation, hand position, and posture, and the business of teaching experienced pianists to play organ or harpsichord.
Great artists can be constantly looking for the balance between the popular offerings that pay the bills and the new ideas that stretch the boundaries and lay the path for coming generations.
