Schurz Victory March

Dennis E. Northway

Dr. Dennis Northway is Parish Musician at Grace Episcopal Church, Oak Park, Illinois, a former Dean of the Chicago AGO chapter, Artistic Director of the Handel Week Festival in Oak Park, Illinois, an employee of John-Paul Buzard Organbuilders, recently Councilor for Research and Publications of the Organ Historical Society, and Chair of the 2012 OHS National Convention. He is the co-author, with Stephen Schnurr, of Pipe Organs of Chicago and Pipe Organs of Chicago—Volume Two, author of To Touch the Garment’s Hem: meditations before a choir rehearsal, and editor of The ChicAGO Centenary Anthology.

As part of the Organ Historical   Society’s 57th national convention in metropolitan Chicago (to take place July 8–13, 2012), we will visit the corner of Milwaukee and Addison streets in Chicago. Located there is Carl Schurz High School, a Prairie-style building from 1909 given Chicago Landmark status. It boasts a 1,800-seat auditorium with a three-second reverberation time and a spectacular four-manual pipe organ. We hope you will join us in Chicago to hear this instrument! This is the story of that remarkable pipe organ as told in correspondence.

The story of Carl Schurz High School, and its four-manual 1935 Whitelegg-designed M. P. Möller pipe organ, Opus 6373, is well documented in the more than 250-page factory file now housed in the American Organ Archives of the Organ Historical Society. This is a landmark instrument—it is intact, and in need of restoration. The saga of the instrument, and the final negotiations and installation presented in correspondence, is an important and interesting case study of a ground-breaking pipe organ. The instrument was once appreciated and has recently been largely neglected. It has not been heard in concert in nearly 30 years. Fortunately, neglect and disuse have preserved a large instrument that represents a revolution in pipe-organ building in America.  

We begin with a Western Union telegram dated September 1, 1935 from organ consultant Calvin Brown to Richard O. Whitelegg (1871–1944), Tonal Director of Möller, which states:

 

SUGGEST YOU COME HERE EARLY NEXT WEEK STOP FOUR MANUAL DEAL WHICH BELIEVE CAN TURN YOUR WAY ANSWER BY WESTERN UNION¹

Whitelegg came to America and worked with the Welte firm that later became the Welte-Tripp organ company. Calvin Brown’s interest in Whitelegg’s work may stem from the latter’s work as the tonal supervisor for a four-manual instrument on the near South Side of the city in St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church.² This large instrument in a generous acoustic would have made a profound impression on the listener. 

The Schurz instrument, with its vanguard specification for the time, is also highly noteworthy with regard to the speed of its implementation and completion. The specification is dated October 29, 1935 and was accepted in contract form dated November 4, 1935 in Hagerstown, Maryland. The Swell and Great divisions, played from the four-manual console, were heard in public recital on December 19, 1935—six weeks and three days later!  

The remarkable specification below includes an identical version of the three Great mixtures: the III Mixture, the III–V Cornet, and the amazing IV Harmonics, detailed by John Gladden Barr (b. 1938) in his 1977 dissertation, “A Tonal History of Pipe Organs Built by M. P. Möller, Incorporated.” This “experimental” chorus had been built by Whitelegg and placed in the west wall of the Möller erecting room in 1934.³

The compositions, listed in the dissertation, are given below:

 

Mixture III

15th 15th 15th 

19th 12th 12th 

22nd 19th 8th 

#1–23 24–40 41–61

C–A# B–D# E–C

Unison: 44 scale at 8′ CC, 1/4 mouth

Quint: 2 notes smaller, 1/5 mouth

 

Cornet III–V

1st

8th 8th

12th 12th 12th

15th 15th 15th

17th 17th 17th

#1–12 13–24 25–61

C–B C–B C–C

Unison: 42 scale at 8′ CC, 2/7 mouth

Quint: 2 notes smaller, 1/4 mouth

Tierce: 4 notes smaller, 1/4 mouth

 

Harmonics IV 

17th 17th 10th 

flat 21st flat 14th 8th 

19th 19th 12th 

22nd 15th 15th 

1–39 40–51 52–61

C–D D#–D D#–C

Unison: 48 scale at 8′ CC, 2/9 mouth

Quint: 2 notes smaller, 1/5 mouth

Tierce: 4 notes smaller, 1/5 mouth

21st flatted [Septième]: 8 notes smaller, 1/5 mouth

 

Carl Schurz High School, Chicago, Illinois; 1935 M. P. Mљller, Opus 6373

GREAT (Manual II, 5″ wind)

16′ Double Diapason (metal, sc 35, 73)

8′ First Diapason (metal, sc 43, 61)

8′ Second Diapason (ext 16′ Dble Diap)

8′ Harmonic Flute (metal, sc 50, 61)

4′ Octave (metal, sc 56, 61)

22⁄3′ Twelfth (metal, sc 65, 61)

2′ Fifteenth (metal, sc 70, 61)

III–V Cornet (metal, 269 pipes)

III Mixture (metal, 183)

IV Harmonics (metal, 244)

Chimes (from Choir)

Great 16′

Great Unison Off

Great 4′

SWELL (Manual III, enclosed,
7″ wind pressure)

16′ Salicional (metal, sc 46, 97 pipes)

8′ Geigen Principal (metal, sc 46, 73)

8′ Rohr Floete (wood and metal, 73)

8′ Salicional (ext, 16′ Salicional)

8′ Voix Celeste (TC, metal, sc 59, 61)

4′ Geigen (ext, 8′ Geigen Principal)

4′ Chimney Flute (ext, 8′ Rohr Floete)

4′ Salicet (ext, 16′ Salicional)

2′ Flautino (metal, sc 73, 61)

V Plein Jeu (metal, 305 pipes)

16′ Contra Fagotto (metal, 97)

8′ Trumpet (metal, 73 pipes)

8′ Fagotto (ext, 16′ Contra Fagotto)

8′ Vox Humana (in second enclosure,

metal, 61)

4′ Clarion (ext, 16′ Contra Fagotto)

Tremolo

Swell 16′

Swell Unison Off

Swell 4′

CHOIR (Manual I, enclosed,
5″ wind pressure)

16′ Spitz Floete (metal, sc 40, 85 pipes)

8′ Diapason (metal, sc 47, 73)

8′ Spitz Floete (ext, 16′ Spitz Floete)

8′ Spitz Floete Celeste (TC, sc 52, 61)

4′ Principal (metal, sc 62, 73)

22⁄3′ Twelfth (capped metal, sc 72, 61)

2′ Fifteenth (metal, sc 76, 61)

8′ Clarinet (metal, 73 pipes)

8′ Vox Humana (from Swell)

Tremolo

Chimes (25 tubes)

Choir 16′

Choir Unison Off

Choir 4′

SOLO (Manual IV, enclosed,
8″ wind pressure)

8′ Stentor Diapason (metal, 73 pipes)

8′ Major Flute (wood and metal, 73)

8′ Gross Gamba (metal, sc 56, 73)

8′ Gross Gamba Celeste (metal, sc 56, 73)

8′ Tuba Mirabilis (metal, 73)

Tremolo

Solo 16′

Solo Unison Off

Solo 4′

PEDAL

32′ Resultant (from Diap and Spitz Fl)

16′ Diapason (5″ w.p., wood, 44 pipes)

16′ Second Diapason (Gt 16′ Dble Diap)

16′ Contra Bass (5″ w.p., stopped wood, 44)

16′ Spitz Floete (from Choir)

16′ Salicional (from Swell)

8′ Octave (ext, 16′ Diapason)

8′ Flute (ext, 16′ Contra Bass)

8′ Spitz Floete (from Choir)

16′ Trombone (8″ w.p., in Solo enclo- sure, metal, 56 pipes)

16′ Fagotto (from Swell)

8′ Trombone (ext, 16′ Trombone)

4′ Trombone (ext, 16′ Trombone)

Chimes (from Choir)

INTER-DIVISIONAL COUPLERS

Great to Pedal 8, 4

Swell to Pedal 8, 4

Choir to Pedal 8

Solo to Pedal 8, 4

Swell to Great 16, 8, 4

Choir to Great 16, 8, 4

Solo to Great 8, 4

Swell to Choir 16, 8, 4

Solo to Choir 8, 4

Choir to Swell 16, 8, 4

Solo to Swell 8, 4

Great to Solo 16, 8, 4

Choir to Solo

Swell to Solo

 

ACCESSORIES

12 General pistons (1–12 thumb, 1–6 toe)

8 Great and Pedal pistons and Cancel (thumb)

8 Swell and Pedal pistons and Cancel (thumb)

6 Choir and Pedal pistons and Cancel (thumb)

6 Solo and Pedal pistons and Cancel (thumb)

6 Pedal pistons and Cancel (affecting couplers, thumb and toe)

General Cancel (thumb)

Combination setter (thumb, with indicator light)

Pedal to Great pistons on/off (thumb)

Pedal to Swell pistons on/off (thumb)

Pedal to Choir pistons on/off (thumb)

Pedal to Solo pistons on/off (thumb)

Great to Pedal reversible (toe)

Test button and light (for current)

Chimes damper (toe reversible)

Harp damper [sic] (toe reversible)

All Swells to Swell reversible (toe, with indicator light)

Swell expression shoe (with indicator dial)

Choir expression shoe (with indicator dial)

Solo expression shoe (with indicator dial)

Crescendo shoe (with indicator dial)

Sforzando reversible (thumb and toe, with indicator light)

What follows is a virtual flurry of correspondence addressing various façade decisions, descriptions of changes in specification, commentary on blower placement, wiring, etc. We shall see that many letters crossed in the mail on the same day! Because of the close time frame and the extant fairly complete correspondence on this groundbreaking instrument, let us explore the documentation for insights into Opus 6373 and its manufacture.

On stationery from the Board of Education, City of Chicago, Carl Schurz High School, 3601 Milwaukee Avenue dated November 22 to the Möller Organ Company, we read:

Gentlemen–

Enclosed please find the print of organ console which is o.k. Please note notation on reverse side of the blue print—console is to be movable and we are planning to place it on the stage, with three junction boards—one in center, and one on each side. Please tell Mr. Whitelegg I have changed my mind about “Horn” for “Solo Organ”—and wish Stentorphone in its place as originally specified.

Sincerely,

LeRoy Wetzel

The dummy façade pipes in the display were intended from the outset, as noted in a letter from M. P. Möller, Jr. to LeRoy Wetzel (Schurz High School’s choir director) on November 25:

Mr. Whitelegg has passed into the factory instructions that the display pipes are to be of natural zinc finish. Your comments on this will be brought to his attention.

November 26 finds Whitelegg writing to LeRoy Wetzel at the high school:

 

In reply to your letter of the 22nd, referring to the movable console, we note you suggest having three junction boards, and while this can be done, it is really very impractical. This method would lead to all sorts of trouble—short circuits, etc., besides considerable additional expense. You should arrange to have the cables come up either at the left or right hand side of the stage, preferably right in the corner, with long enough cable to reach to the center of the stage.  

In regards to the console being movable, this being an all electric action, there will only be cable attachments and it will be possible to move the console wherever you desire; but really as regards having those union boards, that just isn’t done, as in all cases tried previously it ended up in having to make a permanent job of just the one set of cables.

We are planning to ship the first part of the organ by freight Saturday, comprising the platform, pedal pipes, pedal chests, etc., and we are having men from the factory reach there to take care of the installation. I expect to be in Chicago in about ten days time. The organ in the Church of St. John of God Roman Catholic will be ready for ok, and possibly you will be able to give the time to run over and try the instrument as soon as it is tuned up.

Regarding the location of the blower, I am still of the opinion that it is more advisable to place it in the fresh air inlet; there is always a 12 degree rise of temperature from the air entering the blower until the time it gets into the organ and considering that underneath the stage that temperature is running as high as seventy and eighty, would bring the temperature of the wind up to ninety degrees, which is somewhat high and could be harmful in the way of drying out woodwork, etc. However, this matter can be left for decision until the men arrive for the installation.

 This was to be a special organ in many ways. In a factory order from Whitelegg dated November 27, 1935, we read:

 

The type of organ bench required is the pattern made after the one sent to Hugh McAmis Studios, New York, only made of oak in finish to match the console. As this console will be out on the stage for many public occasions it is necessary to have this special organ bench in preference to the standard style.

 

November 27, Whitelegg writes to Calvin Brown, 4539 North Richmond Street:

 

Dear Cal: I have just received your letter referring to the location of the blower for the Carl Schurz High School. Mr. Wetzel has written mentioning that there was some opposition regarding the location of the blower. Frankly, there is everything in its favor as regards the location of the blower in the fresh air inlet. There is always at least a twelve degree rise in temperature from the air intake to the outlet, which just for a few exceptional occasions, the temperature will normally delivered from the blower be around about 70 degrees. On the other hand, if the blower is located immediately under the stage, the temperature there is any where from 70 to 80, and figuring the rise of temperature as it passes through the blower, will be considerably warmer or a higher degree of temperature than would be good for the woodwork. However, you can settle this matter when the installation commences, but my preference would be where I suggested.  

Regarding the location of console, we have heard from Mr. Wetzel and they are thinking of having the console on the stage with three union boards for attaching console, either on each side or the center. This, while it can be done, is right out of the question in every case where this
[s]ort of console attachment has been tried, and the result has been failure. Here are almost certain difficulties as regards short circuits or bad contacts and always ends up in a permanent connection being made. My suggestion is that if the console is to be on the stage, considering the orchestra pit as first requested, it would be better to decide on which side the console would be permanently located and then have cables long enough to extend to the center of the stage.

I expect to be in Chicago again within the next ten days or so, no doubt will be seeing something of you then.

 

Calvin Brown was the recipient of a letter from Whitelegg dated December 3 discussing the console, blower placement, belted generators, commission, and concludes:

 

We are making every effort to have this organ playing for the 19th, that would be the Swell and Great divisions, hence the reason for going ahead with all parts and the necessity to eventually send a large staff to Chicago to get the work done. Well, I expect to be in Chicago next week, probably this week-end and will give you a ring in case there should be anything required in regard to the Carl Schurz School for discussion.

The same day, from Möller sales manager E. O. Shulenberger⁴ (who was “on the road” in Chicago) to M. P. “Ted” Möller, Jr., we read: 

 

I spent all forenoon with Mr. Brown and the Schurz High School. First, because Brown asked me to go out, and secondly, because Buterbaugh⁵ who arrived here yesterday with Kenneth ’phoned and said he thought they would have Union trouble. I am quite sure that we will have some trouble before we are through. Every employee around the School, including half dozen or more engineers, electricians, janitors, and some others, amounting to about a total of fifty-five in all, are Union men, and the Chief Engineer, while courteous regarding certain things, says that the electrical union even interfered when he fixed one of the electric clocks. It was a sad mistake, I think, that we built the platform there. Maybe the steel workers won’t find it out, but there is every reason to believe they will. That and the electrical work is the most serious. I talked to the Chief Engineer, the Principal of the School, Mr. Wetzel, and some others, and they said they will do what they can, and I told Buterbaugh and Kenneth to work and not talk.

In a letter written while he was in the Möller Chicago office in the McCormick Building, 332 South Michigan,
E. O. Shulenberger writes to M. P. (Ted) Möller, Jr., on December 4, 1935: 

 

Dear Ted:

I have your letter of December 2d. The boys worked last night until ten o’clock, and got part of the steel-work of the platform up, and so far without any interference. I understood that Brown’s commission was to be figured on the basis of contract price, less motor wiring, starter and platform, which as I remember was $13,650.00, or whichever was my original estimate, plus a Clarinet. That is what Mr. Whitelegg told me at the time. I will try to find out, if possible, about the grille, but I am not sure that I can make the contact today, and if I don’t leave the city later today, I will the first thing in the morning. I understood, however, that the sawed out grille as approved by the architect was what was wanted, and the architect, Iam [sic] informed, is final regarding all of those matters.  

I wrote you about the junction yesterday, and have suggested that the wiring be done to a junction board, placed on an apron of the stage, and the wiring from there permanent, since there will be no air. I think Mr. Brown will work that out, and he has the confidence of Mr. Wetzel, and would be the best medium to take it up.

I advise strongly against Kenneth attempting the motor wiring, and have told Buterbaugh toget [sic] an estimate from an electrical contractor out there, and send the estimate to Hagerstown. All the employees there are union men, and are watching what is going on. So far they have not interfered with the steel-work, but the Chief Engineer, who is in charge of the entire building and equipment, is a union man, and told me if the Delegate came in and found our men doing electrical wiring, he would start real trouble. The Chief Engineer said he don’t care, but that they are checked up very frequently, and what we might save by Kenneth doing it, might be more than lost by trouble that would be caused, and furthermore, difficulty with the inspectors could be expected.

Whether the generator is direct-connected or belt-driven probably won’t be an issue, but as we have all decided that the place for that blower is in the engine-room, there is plenty of room for a direct-connected generator. It would be impossible to put the blower and air duct where Mr. Whitelegg suggested and keep the organ in tune, as the temperature in there yesterday was below thirty, with a terrific draft, and no-one here wants to put it there. The engine-room is not hot, never above seventy, generally considerably below, and has all kinds of space. 

 

On December 10, 1935 Richard Whitelegg writes to LeRoy Wetzel:

 

The last of the Carl Schurz High School organ will be leaving the factory next Saturday, and this is almost certain unless some unforeseen difficulty arises, that the organ—at least the Swell and Great divisions—will be available for the 19th. I had expected to be in Chicago by this time, but there have been several matters which have detained me and again I must go up to New York, but I am still hoping to be in Chicago within the next three or four days.

It is indeed a considerable effort to get that organ completed in the short time: I gave it preference and hence the reason why the organ will be available as promised. I do not think that there is any other part of the world that an organ of that size could be handled on such short notice: however, nothing has been spared to make it one of the finest organs that ever left the factory.

On the tonal side of the instrument, you are going to find a very much more aggressive organ tonally than the one in your church: we have all the Great work unenclosed and the Mixtures—flu [sic] work a very sweet agressive⁶ tone, likewise with the reeds. However, I am sure after you have used the instrument a little while it will appeal to you much better than the late, Heavy Phonon Diapason type of organ.

Mr. John Buterbaugh will, I expect, have arrived in Chicago by this time. He has installed many of the larger Möller organs and in my opinion is one of the most capable organ builders we have at the present time. Mr. Buterbaugh will be in complete charge of the installation, and you will find him very tactful, diplomatic, and ready to co-operate in every way. In any case, I expect to be around myself for two or three days prior to the 19th, so will be seeing you.

 

M. P. Möller, Jr. writes December 14, 1935 to R. O. Whitelegg, in care of the Chicago office⁷:

 

In reference to your telephone call from New York this morning, I was very surprised that you were still in New York as I thought the New York work was to simply be the conference with DeTar on Wednesday and that you would be in Chicago on Thursday. I haven’t had a report as to what progress they are making, but as the organ must be playing by the 19th, or just what the schedule is. I really had not been worrying about it, as I presumed you were there and were taking care of all details.  

The third load is going today, containing the Choir and Solo organs and I presume practically everything except some parts of the case.

 

Whitelegg responds, in a report to
M. P. Möller dated December 16, 1935:

 

The plans there are to have the Great and Swell divisions playing on the 19th, which is all I promised at the time of signing the contract. 

I plan to give three or four days to the St. John of God organ, and also set up the tonal values of whatever is playing at the High School, and then return to the factory, possibly the end of this week.  

Yours truly, 

R. O. Whitelegg

 

P.S. Since the above was dictated, I’ve been over to Carl Schurz School. The work is progressing satisfactorily, Mr. Wetzel stated that he is ordering the balance of the contract tomorrow, and he is also asking for the list of suggestions on the other prepared for pipes, which I am sending to him from this office.⁸

 

Whitelegg writes then to M. P. Möller on December 20, 1935:

 

Dear Sir: Regarding Carl Schurz High School, the organ was available for use last night as planned, and is truly remarkable. In Mr. Wetzel’s own words, he expected a fine organ, but it has exceeded anything that he hoped to have.

E. O. Shulenberger writes to Calvin Brown, 4539 North Richmond Street on December 23, 1935:

 

I understand that the boys got the organ playing at the time wanted and can not do any more now until after the Holiday Season. I hope everything has come through satisfactory [sic] to every one.

We find a memo from the Hagerstown Möller factory to the offices in Chicago dated December 31, 1935:

 

The last load of the Carl Schurz High School organ will arrive at the High School on Monday morning, January 6.

Richard O. Whitelegg writes to J. B. Buterbaugh on January 17, 1936: 

 

Please let me have a report as to the progress of the Carl Schurz High School, in order that I can plan my future movements. I will be busy in the factory until the 25th, and plan to spend a few days at the completion of the organ you are installing.

Because it was a strict union house, and because of the heavy use of the auditorium during the day, we find sent to the attention of Mr. Whitelegg from Buterbaugh the following: “I am starting to do regulation this evening as we must work nights from now on.”

The prepared-for stops, the Vox Humana, Chimes, and Trombone 16′ & 8′ were called for by Calvin Brown on January 22, 1936 for the sum of $1,330.00.

The Vox Humana stopknob was ordered from H. W. Cramer by M. P. Möller, Jr., January 31, 1936.

The weekly installation report to the factory dated February 1, 1936 and signed by John Buterbaugh states: “Chimes installed. Organ tone regulated except Solo,” with a listed probable completion date of organ as February 12.

The following week’s installation report, dated February 8, 1936 states:

 

Solo and Choir finished, some regulation and final tuning of Great and Swell.  Probable completion date of organ is February 13th and dedication planned in about a month. Signed John Buterbaugh.

C. W. Nowell⁹ provides a report of All Electric Consoles (no pneumatics in consoles) built by Möller; a copy of this is in the file and is reproduced here. It may be surprising to some that Möller produced these in this period. Note the exceptional number of magnets in the Schurz console and the unique report configuration of that entry. (See chart.)

John Buterbaugh, who oversaw the installation of the instrument, writes from the Hotel Milshire on February 18, 1936:

 

The organ in the High School is entirely finished and is an exceptionally fine job according to all who have heard it. I have gone over it with M. Wetzel and he says it is beyond his expectations.

Calvin Brown writes to E. O. Shulenberger on February 28, 1936 and states: 

 

I am very much pleased with the job and your boys did an excellent job and I hope to have some more for your firm shortly.

 

G. N. Snyder, writing from the Chicago office of M. P. Möller to Richard O. Whitelegg March 13, 1936 reports: 

 

Mr. Buterbaugh and I drove out to the Schurz High School yesterday, and had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. LeRoy Wetzel. This is a case where the folks are most over-joyed with the organ and all those who had anything to do with its installation, etc. I have heard no man speak more highly of anything than he. He incidentally mentioned that Dr. Barnes had visited him a day previous, and that Dr. Barnes was most enthusiastic about the organ, making the statement that it sounded like a fifty thousand ($50,000.00) dollar organ.

 

Warfield Webb¹⁰ writes to Möller on April 20, 1936 and says: 

 

Understand you recently installed a large and expensive organ in the Carl Schurz High School, Chicago. As a writer for many, many kinds of publications, wonder if anything in the nature of a story about this organ has appeared in a music or school publication. . . Understand this organ is one out of the ordinary found in a school. Perhaps you may be able to give me some interesting data.

 

E. O. Shulenberger, Secretary and Sales Manager, responds on May 1, 1936:

 

The organ there is very much out of the ordinary as found in schools and has attracted an unusual amount of attention, so it should make a very good story. I am sure that Mr. Leroy Wetzel, head of the music department of that school, would be glad to assist you in getting any or all information, and Dr. William H. Barnes, the organ architect, South Wabash Avenue, has also made a lot of study on it. He has written an article to be published in the American Organist on the particular organ, but as this publication has not yet come out, I have not seen the copy.

 

Whitelegg writes to “Mike” Buterbaugh August 13, 1936:

 

I hope to be able to see and hear this organ after visiting Kalamazoo when that organ is completed.

 

L. B. (“Mike”) Buterbaugh, writing from the Chicago office, Suite 1742 McCormick Building, 322 South Michigan on October 12, 1936, reports, “The organ itself is in very fine shape.”

There is a great deal more in the file; however, this array of documents gives us a glimpse of what it took to get a large instrument in quickly. This also hints to the truth that all large instruments take a great deal of negotiation, in all aspects of construction and design, to fabricate and install. Opus 6373 is a monumental organ and completely intact. You are cordially invited to hear it live at the Chicago national convention of the Organ Historical Society this summer!

 

Listen to Dennis Northway play the Schurz Victory March on Möller Opus 6373 at: www.TheDiapason.com.

Frank Rippl

Chicago? Again? A third OHS national convention in the Windy City? What else was there to see and hear in the way of the pipe organ? There was a great deal—and splendidly presented with grace, good humor, brilliant scholarship, and midwestern charm. Chicago has world-class museums, architecture, shopping, dining, magnificent Lake Michigan—and stunning churches and pipe organs!

 

Sunday, July 8

Jonathan Ryan played the opening recital at St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church on Chicago’s North Side, on the fine 2m Fisk Op. 123 (2005) that stands on the floor in the rear nave’s left corner. Things got off to a lively start with Dupré’s transcription of Bach’s Sinfonia from Cantata 29. This robust Fisk has strong, dark, full-bodied reeds; clean, striking mixtures; singing flutes and strings, warm foundations, and a powerful fortissimo. Ryan’s playing had great drive; he saved the mighty reed sounds for a dramatic conclusion. In Sweelinck’s Balletto del Granduca, I liked hearing the full-bodied Trompette, flutes accompanying a Cornet and a jolly Zimbelstern, and a nice organo pleno to close. Fine playing.

Francis Jackson’s Prelude on East Acklam featured some very British sounds: celestes accompanied the 8′ Octave in the tenor register; I believe we heard the 4′ Open Flute. The organ more than held its own in the hymn “For the fruit of all creation.” How I love hearing OHS hymn singing! I was seated next to Stephen Schnurr and Dennis Northway, leaders of the convention. Their faces expressed great pleasure. That first hymn is always a wonderful affirmation for convention committee members—a moment of satisfaction after years of hard work. I was happy for them, and all who made this moment possible. This was indeed “the fruit of their creation.”

In György Ligeti’s (1923–2006) Étude coulée 1969 a busy, repetitive pattern of phenomenally fast notes in the flutes flew out over sustained pedal notes, then suddenly ended, flitting off to the upper reaches. A few chuckles were heard. 

Herbert Howells’ Rhapsody in C-sharp Minor, op. 17, no. 3, started big and then presented typical Howellsian dynamic and tonal variations. I liked the Hautbois 8′ as a chorus reed. The Great Prestant 16′ in the tenor range was grand. Ryan had a very fine sense of this piece’s architecture.

In No. 4 in A-Flat Major from Robert Schumann’s Six Canonic Etudes, op. 56, Ryan showed the rich foundations, ending with Viole de gambe 8′; No. 5 in B Minor offered pluck and life. George Baker’s Berceuse Paraphrase (1992) was a lovely combination of Vierne’s Berceuse with Away in a Manger—easy on the ear with celestes, solo flute, and soft pedal.

Jonathan Ryan closed with Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in B Major, op. 7, no. 1—its lively toccata and angular fugue formed a test for hands and feet that he passed well! This excellent recital was a great start to our convention.

Buses took us downtown, where we had our choice of restaurants, then walked to Holy Name Cathedral for a recital by Wolfgang Rübsam on the 1989 4m, 117-rank Flentrop. With mechanical stop action and very deep mechanical key action, it is not for the faint of heart. Following a recent fire, the cathedral was closed for a time. The organ suffered only minor damage, to the Positief; building repairs, with a new terrazzo floor, improved the acoustics. The organ stands proudly in the rear gallery: its elaborate casework, in light-colored French quarter-sawn oak, starkly contrasts with the dramatic dark wooden ceiling. Herr Rübsam’s all-German program began with Bach’s partita Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig. Registrations were perfectly proportioned: cornets sang with grace and conviction, beautifully supported by foundations; the full plenum was rich and clear. Elegant playing throughout.

Chorale preludes followed: Helmut Walcha’s Jesu, deine Passion (canon at the sixth) in trio texture; Rübsam’s own Wie soll ich dich empfangen used an 8′ Principal with tremolo, a lovely pastel; Walcha’s Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott offered wonderful counterpoint against a sturdy pedal cantus firmus. Walcha (1907–91) was Rübsam’s teacher; Rübsam is recording Walcha’s complete organ works on the Naxos label. We then sang the hymn “A mighty fortress is our God.” Our singing that night was some of the week’s best!

Walcha’s Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ presented effective combinations of 8′ and 4′ flutes, Cornet with tremolo, and a pedal-reed cantus firmus. Rübsam’s own O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf: Entrée opened with a grand ff; Communio was a continually moving trio followed by a lush passage on strings and flutes; a lively Toccata followed, including the pedal 32′ Bombarde. This thrilling and joyful piece is a first-rate addition to the repertoire. 

More Walcha followed: an introspective Der Tag ist hin, mein Jesu, bei mir bleibe. Usually I’m pretty good at identifying registrations, but not with this organ and organist. Rübsam drew forth a fantastic variety of color—the Dutch reeds were so subtle.

Rübsam closed this perfect recital with Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. Dynamics began softly but built quickly; tempo was langsam at first, but built momentum and energy. The fugue’s familiar melodies were given their due in perfect balance. I’ve never heard it played better. Rübsam’s wife, Jan, told me that he had had rotator cuff surgery on his shoulder in April. Only three weeks prior to the convention did he know he could play for us! The audience’s roar called him back to the balcony railing countless times. This was a memorable OHS evening.

 

Monday, July 9

Monday dawned bright and sunny. Cooler temperatures followed weeks of horrendous heat. With perfect weather, we were eager to get started. 

We divided into two groups. Mine went to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Valparaiso, Indiana to hear James Russell Brown play the 2m Hook & Hastings Op. 1417 (1889). The Atlas contains Stephen Schnurr’s two-page essay about this organ and Scot Huntington’s 16-page description of his firm’s work restoring the instrument. It stands at the back of the church resplendent in a beautiful oak case and painted façade; the 16′ Bourdon pipes form the sides of the case. One of our Biggs Fellows hand-pumped the organ for the recital. Brown began with Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from Solomon). The organ’s sound was clear and warm. In Bach’s Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 662, the Melodia accompanied the (partially new) 16′ Contra Fagotto played one octave lower, along with (I think) the 4′ Violina, a lovely sound. Brown played with great sensitivity and sweetness. Sur “La, mi, re,” by an anonymous 16th-century English composer, was played on an 8′ flute. 

Chorale Variations on St. Elizabeth (Crusader’s Hymn), from Frank Ferko’s (b. 1950) Music for Elizabeth Chapel (2001), is charming and would please your congregation. I was eager to see how Brown would bring off the late-romantic Elgar Nimrod from “Enigma” Variations (op. 36), arranged by William H. Harris, on a small tracker organ without stop pullers. He did reasonably well, using the piano and forte ventil-like toe studs, but it was ultimately awkward. Parry’s hymn “O praise ye the Lord!” (Laudate Dominum) was a good follow-up, in a fine demonstration of a very beautiful 19th-century organ.

A pleasant walk through a park-like setting complete with pond and fountain took us to First Presbyterian Church for our choice of lectures, one on the restoration of a 1926 Casavant that will be moved to Chicago’s St. John Cantius Church, about which we had received a DVD. I attended the other, “Issues in Restoration,” by Keith Williams of Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, a fascinating consideration of “Why do we do what we do the way we do it,” that also explored the words “conservation” and “restoration”—entertaining and enlightening, with plenty of photos. 

We then drove to Gary, Indiana, once home to U.S. Steel. It has stunning views of Lake Michigan, and an attractive English Gothic-style Catholic cathedral, built and dedicated in 1950 to the Holy Angels. The 2m, 33-rank Phelps Casavant, Op. 2769, installed in 1963, stands in the rear gallery on either side of a large window, and speaks clearly down the nave in a grand acoustic. This was a much-anticipated recital—word was out that this organ was exceptional (it was), and we all love Derek Nickels’ playing (he did not disappoint!). Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 549, sounded clean and polished. The fugue began on the 8′ Krummhorn—an unexpected surprise—and built to a blazing full-organ finale. We were all smitten with this instrument; music by Ernst Pepping perfectly suited it: Wie soll ich dich empfangen (Grosses Orgelbuch, 1941), Vorspiel I, Andante cantabile showed the beautiful 8′ and 4′. Vorspiel II, Allegro Scherzando leapt about; a fine reed carried the tune. William Albright’s ever-charming Sweet Sixteenths—A Concert Rag for Organ (1975) was very well played with loads of wit. As it was about 90 degrees outside, and we were packed in the church without A/C, who knows how warm the church was, nor how warm Derek was up in the loft, but it never showed in his playing!

After “Father, we praise thee” (Christe Sanctorum)—brilliantly played and vigorously sung—Nickels closed with Dupré’s Variations sur un Noël, op. 20 (1922), a dazzling performance that lifted us out of the pews roaring our approval for this superb recital. (Derek was also in charge of the buses, and did his work very well, indeed!)

Next was Christ Temple Cathedral—Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. in the Roseland neighborhood. The present building was dedicated in 1926. Originally a Dutch Reformed church, in the 1960s and ’70s it and the neighborhood became largely African-American. The church is a well-maintained part of the community. Its 3m, 39-stop electro-pneumatic 1926 Hinners—the largest surviving Hinners in the Chicago area—stands in the front of the church in chambers on either side of the seated choir. Chicago organist and composer Clarence Eddy played the dedication recital. In 1954 Austin replaced the console. The organ fell silent in recent years, but was brought back to life by the Chicago-Midwest OHS chapter especially for our convention. Recitalist Mark Sudeith began with Wilhelm Middelschulte’s (1863–1943) Canon in F Major, dedicated to Clarence Eddy—cheery music using the foundation stops. Schubert’s Am Meer, arranged by Eddy, showed the beautiful soft strings and Vox Humana; the tone is warm and luxurious. Sudeith then played (from the original manuscript) Variations on a Folksong, “Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells,” by Florence B. Price (1887–1953), which displayed the solo reeds and ended with a lively toccata. The hymn “I’m happy with Jesus alone,” by Charles P. Jones Sr. (1865–1949), founder of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A., was a rouser in the best sense—we loved it. The playing was first rate, and our voices filled the 1,150-seat church with joy.

Our buses took us to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, on the University of Chicago campus, to hear the massive 72-bell carillon, the world’s second largest (the largest, also a gift of the Rockefeller family, is at New York City’s Riverside Church, with 74 bells). John Gouwens played a stunning program as we sat in the grass beneath the chapel’s soaring tower: Dave Grusin’s On Golden Pond (1981); John Courter’s Suite No. 4 (2009); an improvisation on a submitted hymn tune; and Roy Hamlin Johnson’s Victimae Paschali Laudes (1986).

My group had dinner at Augustana Lutheran Church; organist Daniel Schwandt allowed us access to the church’s new handsome 2m tracker built by Wahl Organbuilders of Appleton, Wisconsin. We took quite a shine to its clear voicing. Wahl reused pipework from an old Lyon & Healy organ as well as newly made pipes—a very successful blend. 

On to the First Unitarian Church, completed in 1931 in the English Perpendicular Gothic style, to hear three historic organs from Stephen Schnurr’s collection. There was also a Hammond player organ performing: another treat! Who knew there was such a thing? Gregory Crowell, making his ninth appearance at an OHS convention, began on a Henry Willis “Scudamore” organ (ca. 1857–1860) with Gottlieb Muffat’s Overture, Suite 1 in C Major. The one-manual, 54-note organ had two ranks: Open Diapason 8′ and Principal 4′, with a permanently coupled 25-note pedal. The pleasing sounds graced the early evening. Crowell then moved to a sweet-toned little George Jardine & Sons (ca. 1850s) (“the oldest American-built pipe organ in the Chicago metropolitan area,” according to the Atlas). He gracefully played Handel’s Voluntary in C Major, movements III and VI from Ernest Chausson’s Vêpres des Vierges, op. 31 (I enjoyed the flute in movement VI), and his own transcription of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Wörte, op. 67, V. Moderato. 

A two-rank (no pedal) Hilborne L. Roosevelt, Op. 297 (1885) looked like an upright piano, having a reed organ’s foot-pumping pedals. It was meant to be portable. We heard Voluntary by Samuel Jackson (1818–1885), then some elegant Elgar: Vesper Voluntaries, op. 14, I. Andante and IV. Allegretto piacevole, with an effective Stopped Diapason. Praeludium in F-sharp Minor by Ernst Friedrich Richter (1808–1879) was interesting and well suited to the Roosevelt. Crowell concluded on the Willis, with Eric Thiman’s Postlude on “Nun danket alle Gott” and I. Allegro from Sonatine for Organ by Eberhart Egermann (b. 1933), good demonstration pieces, well played. We were grateful to Stephen Schnurr for making these instruments available (and to those who helped transport them!).

We returned to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel to hear Nathan Laube; the performance was broadcast over the Internet (available at: http://news.uchicago.edu/webcast/nathan-laube-live-2012-ohs-chicago-con…), an OHS first. The chapel is vast: long, wide, and high, with the main organ in front and a substantial gallery organ in the rear. The front 4m console plays both organs; a 2m gallery console controls just that organ. The room’s windows were never properly finished, so it lacks color, but is still quite impressive. The 132-rank Skinner Organ Company Op. 634 was built in 1928—a period in which Ernest Skinner built his magnum opus at Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, and huge organs at the University of Michigan and Princeton. This organ suffered some rebuilding efforts in the 1970s and later; several ranks were dispersed. In 2005 the Schantz Organ Company returned old ranks, replicated others, and replaced some with vintage Skinner pipework. Rededicated on June 7, 2008, the organ, while not exactly as Skinner left it, is once again a major part of the Chicago organ scene. 

OHS executive director Jim Weaver welcomed the audience, including those on the World Wide Web, then Nathan Laube opened with Allegro vivace from Widor’s Symphonie, op. 42, no. 5 (1878). This familiar music moved over us gently at first, followed by a good deal of aggression. Laube kept things in proportion, giving each melodic line its due, ending on full organ with those fabulous reeds. Laube spoke about growing up in Chicago; as a young boy he was taken to hear the E. M. Skinner organ at St. Luke’s, Evanston, and to Rockefeller Chapel, where he heard Wolfgang Rübsam play. He fell in love with these instruments and knew that playing the organ would be his career.

Mendelssohn’s Sonata in A, op. 65, no. 3 (1845), first movement ended in a blaze of glory, followed by the lovely Andante tranquillo. Laube’s transcription of Mendelssohn’s Variations serieuses, op. 54 (1841), with passages of great wit and virtuosity, wonderfully displayed this huge organ’s colors. Though young (he turned 25 the day before this recital), Laube is a master of the art of transcription. He reached deeply into the vast Skinner tonal palette, and brought us to places we might not have gone before—a brilliant performance. 

After intermission, he played Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie in D-flat, op. 101 (1895). Its quiet opening showed beautiful strings and a solo flute that was to die for. A gentle reed chorus punctuated the flutes and strings, then stronger reeds were in dialogue with the foundations. A swelling crescendo then arose. Laube played it beautifully, announcing the ff section on a powerful reed, then slowly drifted back to quiet strings. 

In Funérailles (d’après Lamartine) from Laube’s transcription of Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173, no. 7 (1849), thunder-like pedal rumbles gave an ominous start, followed by a smashing fanfare played on the gallery organ’s horizontal trumpet. This piece is full of foreboding darkness, and Laube summoned forth remarkable color. A riotous pedal solo accompanied the active manual work, which featured a few blasts from a strong reed, and then gave way to a single flute. In two Brahms settings of O Welt, ich muß dich lassen, no. 3 employed a quiet 8′ Diapason on the choir, and no. 11 drew especially gorgeous foundations. Laube’s tempo was a bit restless, as though the soul longed to leave the body and journey heavenward. 

The world premiere of Laube’s transcription of Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, op. 80 (1880), featured melodic lines and rhythmic passages carefully delineated, and blended into a musically rich and full whole. The concert concluded with Gaudeamus Igitur, so fun to sing in this full chapel, ending a wonderful day. 

 

Tuesday, July 10

In the suburb of Downers Grove we visited the charming Tivoli Theatre, where house organist David Rhodes played its 3m, 10-rank Wurlitzer, Op. 942. The third organ to grace this theatre (it was preceded by a Barton and a Wurlitzer), this instrument is owned and maintained by Chicago Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (CATOE). We munched on popcorn as Rhodes entertained us with Richard A. Whiting’s Hooray for Hollywood (1937), and Charles Chaplin’s Smile, then accompanied a hilarious 1915 Chaplin short film, In the Park (possibly filmed in the Chicago area). Rhodes seemingly caught every nuance. In a hot dog-eating scene, he slipped in the “Oscar Mayer Wiener Song”—very clever playing and a fun start to the day.

Our next stop was very sentimental for me: the beautiful Noack organ, Op. 44 (1969) at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph in La Grange Park. Installed the summer I graduated from college, this organ became a place of pilgrimage for us “Tracker Backers” on our visits to Chicago. It stands in a balcony in the rear of the nave of this handsome modern chapel. Originally the room had all hard surfaces, but now carpet covers the concrete floor, and padded chairs have replaced wooden seats. Though the acoustic is not as beautiful as it once was, the organ still sounds great. 

Thomas Wikman began with Buxtehude’s Partita on “Vater unser im Himmelreich”; I especially enjoyed the 4′ flutes with tremolo. In Antonio Cabezón’s Tiento del quinto tono, Wikman’s well-chosen registration—reeds and Sesquialtera II—led the way. This organ’s Italian accent spoke in Girolamo Cavazzoni’s Canzona sopra ‘Il e bel e bon’, played with good style. The sounds were as beautiful as I remembered. The music was cleanly and sensitively played. 

After the hymn “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus” (Hyfrydol), Wikman gave us a sweet performance of Robert Lind’s Prelude on ‘Love Unknown’, then Bach’s Pièce d’Orgue, BWV 572, which worked quite well. The brilliant closing section brought this outstanding concert to a fine conclusion.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church in La Grange is the city’s oldest congregation, founded in 1874. The present French Gothic-style church was built in 1926. (Our Atlas noted that it was featured in the 1995 film While You Were Sleeping.) The 1970 electro-pneumatic Phelps Casavant, Op. 3062, 3m, 46 stops, 63 ranks, stands in a chamber to the right of the chancel. Stephen Schnurr, author of the OHS Organ Atlas 2012, began with the hymn “Lo, he comes with clouds descending” (Helmsley),  followed by Buxtehude’s Praeludium in A Minor, BuxWV 153. Schnurr used the Krummhorn to good effect. Flutes led to the final fugue and a fantasia presenting the full plenum and pedal reeds—a wonderful sound, in a fine performance. 

Next came the premiere of Variations on Hyfrydol, written by convention chair Dennis Northway. At one point the tune appeared in the tenor with imaginatively placed fast notes up top. Another movement used a canon between a trumpet and pedal foundations. After a beautiful movement with sweet strings and soft foundations, a fugue brought this very good new piece to a close. Well done!

A hallmark of Stephen Schnurr’s OHS recitals is the showcasing of young musicians and friends. This recital featured a mother and her children. Tenor Willson Oppedahl, a junior at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, movingly performed Thomas Matthews’ (1915–99) The Lord Is My Shepherd, beautifully sung with sincere conviction. Elegy for violin, harp, and organ, by Harold Friedell (1908–58), featured violinist Allison Alcorn, Willson’s mother; her daughter Kiersten Oppedahl played harp. This enchanting piece, very well presented, cast a spell over all of us. 

Horatio Parker’s Allegretto, from Sonata in E-flat, op. 65, was a good contrast. The Phelps Krummhorn was playful, especially in the lower register, while flutes 8′ and 4′ scampered above. Stephen closed with the Allegro from Widor’s Symphonie VI, op. 42, a fine choice for this outstanding exemplar of the Organ Reform Movement. This organ has a lot of oomph, and Dr. Schnurr used it to good effect, playing with marvelous style and color. 

La Grange’s First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1890. The present church was built in 1962. Its 1962 3m, 46-rank Aeolian-Skinner stands in a gallery at the rear of the long, narrow nave. David Jonies and Jay Peterson shared the concert. Peterson opened with Rheinberger’s Sonata No. 8 in E Minor, op. 132, Introduction and Passacaglia, which sounded very good, with clear sounds in every dynamic range. They then joined forces for Handel’s Organ Concerto in F Major, op. 4, no. 4. Jay Peterson played the four-stop 1981 Brunzema Op. 3 portative organ from the front, while David Jonies played the orchestra bits on the main organ in the gallery. The organs were well matched, and the performance spirited. 

Jonies then played Andantino from Vierne’s Pièces de fantaisie, op. 51, no. 2, showing the beautiful strings, and Naïades, op. 55, no. 4. Next, both played the Skinner: John Rutter’s Variations on an Easter Theme (O sons and daughters), featuring a fine solo on the Oboe. The hymn was: “O sons and daughters let us sing!” (O filii et filiae).

On to Oak Park, to the beautiful St. Catherine of Siena–St. Lucy Catholic Church, a Tudor Gothic-style building dedicated in 1934. Casavant Op. 1467, built in 1932, stands in the rear gallery in two chambers that frame a large Tudor-style window. A modest 3m instrument, it has everything you’d need to be its happy player. The lucky person playing for us was Rhonda Sider Edgington, who opened with Percy Whitlock. In Pastorale, Psalm 23:1 from Seven Sketches on Verses from the Psalms, a solo on the Clarinet was accompanied by flutes, a great choice that slowly revealed the organ’s beauty. Folk Tune, from Five Short Pieces, used what I believe was the Cornopean in the tenor range. The beautiful strings crept in—still fresh after 80 years.

The hymn Picardy (“Let all mortal flesh keep silent”) was a joy to sing in this resonant room. We then heard our first music by Chicago composer Leo Sowerby: Picardy from Meditations on Communion Hymns. Edgington knew just how to express Sowerby’s marvelous harmonic sense. Her closing selection displayed this organ’s strong foundation tone: August Gottfried Ritter’s (1811–85) Sonate Nr. 2 in E Minor, op. 19.

We went to Oak Park’s Grace Episcopal Church for our Annual Meeting, followed by dinner; some explored the neighborhood, with its historic and architectural sites. 

At nearby First United Methodist Church, Ken Cowan played the splendid 4m 1926 Skinner. The console stands in a front balcony behind and above the altar, with pipes in chambers on either side of the chancel; a two-rank Echo division is in the ceiling above the rear gallery. A division of select stops from the main organ speaks into the chapel, where the division has its own 2m console. 

Cowan began with Liszt’s arrangement of Otto Nicolai’s Festival Overture on the chorale “Ein feste Burg is unser Gott,” op. 31. This organ was completely restored without alteration in 2005–6 by the Spencer Organ Company of Massachusetts and Jeff Weiler & Associates; except for an added stop in 1937, it is as it was when Skinner delivered it, producing powerful foundation tone and floor-shaking pedal notes. Cowan’s arrangement of Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 in D-flat featured lush strings and flutes, and a Skinner French Horn, played with his usual sensitivity.

The hymn was “When the morning stars together” (Weisse Flaggen). Ken Cowan’s hymn playing, like everything else, is done with great art and grace.

John Ireland’s beautiful Elegiac Romance began with a sweet Oboe solo followed by a wonderful section with celestes—perfect for a summer evening. It included the French Horn, and then built to a mighty roar; the plaintive Oboe returned, and it ended with quiet strings. Cowan closed the first half with a blazing performance of Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, op. 7, no. 3. I liked the Clarinet’s clear, round sound. The playing was precise and yet supple, with the musical line clearly shaped. That fantastic fugue really galloped along.

This organ had been restored but not modernized: it lacks levels of memory. So, as in the good old days, Cowan had to come out during intermission and reset his pistons. He chuckled about it, but went about his work good-naturedly. 

Cowan then returned to his perch high above us to perform Rachel Laurin’s Étude Héroïque, demonstrating the assertive Gamba Celestes on the Solo division, and a sweet 2′ in a French Tambourin section of this piece. He closed with Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, op. 42, giving this well-known work a new sheen through his musical creativity. The Pastorale showed the Clarinet again, the beautiful Vox Humana, and the Chimes. The Finale swept us along for a gleeful ride, with our pilot Ken Cowan giving the OHS another brilliant and memorable concert! We returned to our hotel fired up for the instrument we love, having just heard one its finest champions.

 

Wednesday, July 11

We began at Chicago’s Carl Schurz High School. The 1910 building is a masterpiece, incorporating elements of both Chicago and Prairie School styles. The 1925 Waveland Avenue wing included an auditorium seating nearly 1,800 and boasting three seconds of reverberation. The 4m Richard O. Whitelegg Möller proved to be one of the favorite instruments heard at this convention. The console abuts the front-left of the stage on the auditorium floor; pipes stand on a wide shelf at the back of the stage. We were told that this organ was delivered seven weeks after the contract was signed; the high quality of the work tells a great deal about Möller’s vast resources. (See Dennis Northway, “A new four-manual pipe organ in seven weeks: Möller Opus 6373 at Chicago’s Carl Schurz High School,” The Diapason, May 2012, pp. 26–29; audio file available at www.thediapason.com.) 

John Sherer, organist at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, presented a “Concert to Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic.” “Music of 1912” began with Elgar’s Imperial March, brilliantly played. The instrument has an English town hall organ’s power and grandeur. In Edward Bairstow’s Elegy, gorgeous strings and flutes were played with just enough rubato. The pedal part rumbled quietly as though it were a creature of the deep ocean. 

In “Music Heard Aboard the Titanic,” John Philip Sousa’s rousing and entertaining El Capitan was followed by Edwin H. Lemare’s transcription of Barcarolle, from Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, said to have been played one hour before the ship sank. Next came Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band, which was played as the ship sank. Sherer played it very well. 

“Music to Honor the Titanic Victims” began with Joseph Bonnet’s touching In Memoriam. The organ gave us deeply moving sounds of sadness, grief, and horror, and images of the deep, cold ocean. The piece ended with a quiet farewell to the victims of this tragedy.

This beautiful organ is in need and most worthy of a complete restoration, but was made to sound quite fine this day. Sherer closed with The Navy Hymn, “Eternal Father strong to save.” Here the too-brisk, march-like tempo seemed to not match the words. An over-busy accompaniment threw us off the pulse, and twice Sherer modulated up. The rest of the concert, however, was lovely and inspiring. 

We then went to Glencoe and the beautiful North Shore Congregation Israel. It was a thrill to enter this holy space, designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki (who designed the Oberlin Conservatory of Music). A peaceful study in white overlooking Lake Michigan, the sanctuary is shaped like praying hands. Narrow windows start just above the floor and rise to form ceiling arches, allowing light to fill the space. The 3m, 46-rank electro-pneumatic Casavant, Op. 2768 (probably the largest untouched early Phelps Casavant in the Chicago area), perches on a free-standing rear balcony.

The recitalist was H. Ricardo Ramirez, director of music/organist at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral. Jehan Alain’s Les Fêtes de l’Année Israelite, AWV 85, in the style of Hebrew chant and song, began quietly on the Krummhorn and gradually grew to a Trumpet fanfare. This very approachable music was so appropriate to the space, with clear and refined sounds. We sang the hymn “God of might” (Adeer Hu) in both Hebrew and English. In Bach’s Trio Sonata in G Major, BWV 530, the third movement showed the organ’s Sesquialtera. Ramirez closed with Duruflé’s Suite, op. 5. The Fagott 16′ played one octave lower was a very fine sound. The Toccata was thrillingly played.

In the leafy suburb of Winnetka, we visited Winnetka Congregational Church and its landmark 3m Martin Pasi tracker, Op. 18 (2008). Established in 1869, the church’s present building, Colonial with Art Deco and Egyptian touches in its lovely white interior, was built in 1936. The ornate North German-style case in front commands the eye with the Great in the middle, the Swell above the Great, and the Positiv cantilevered in front of the Great with the keydesk below, similar to John Brombaugh’s Op. 33 organ at Lawrence University in Appleton. The Pedal is in towers at the sides of the case; the 32′ Subbass is in the old chambers above and to the sides of the altar, where the previous Austin once stood. 

Nicholas Bideler, a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, began with Bruhns’s Praeludium in G Major, which sounded wonderful on this organ. Bideler’s playing had clear direction and he used the organ’s many colors very well. Next was Bach’s Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 654. One tremulant affects the entire organ, and it was fine, although it did create a bit of a stir on that low pedal E-flat that starts the piece. I think Bideler used the Vox Humana with a 4′ flute as the solo line. His performance was imbued with the inner joy expressed in the chorale. 

In Karg-Elert’s Trois Impressions, Op. 72—I. Harmonies du soir, Bideler showed this versatile organ’s romantic voice. I enjoyed the Krummhorn and strings. “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” (Repton) was followed by Impromptu from Vierne’s 24 Pièces de fantaisie, 3^ème Suite, which worked quite well. Bideler closed with Duruflé’s Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le theme di Veni Creator, Op. 4—III Choral varié. The triumphant ending was riveting. 

Grace Presbyterian Church in Winnetka had been First Church of Christ, Scientist, built in 1938—a white Colonial-style church, whose pewter and crystal lighting fixtures were imported from Czechoslovakia prior to World War II. The church was sold to Grace Presbyterian Church in 2012. The 1938 tonally and mechanically unaltered 2m W. W. Kimball Co. organ, Op. 7238, stands at the front. Both Swell and Great are enclosed in separate chambers. The first recital was given by William H. Barnes, of Evanston, on August 21, 1938. Our recitalist, Elizabeth Naegele, who, among other things, has the distinction of being Nathan Laube’s first organ teacher, opened with Lefébure-Wély’s Sortie in B-flat Major—jolly music, played with great spirit and flourish. In a salute to this building’s long history as a Christian Science Church, the hymn was Mary Baker Eddy’s 1896 “Saw ye my Saviour?” (Laundon). We sang it well, and she played it with great sensitivity to the text, using the organ’s colors nicely. 

Naegele then played five of the “versets” from Léon Boëllmann’s Heures mystiques, ending with Entrée III. I particularly liked the Oboe. Sonata II—III Seraphic Chant by Lily Wadhams Moline (1862–1966) was lovely music, beautifully played. Naegele ended this fine and well-chosen program with Let Us Break Bread Together from Communion Hymns for Organ, Vol. I, in a quite inventive setting by Edwin T. Childs (b. 1945). 

Our next visit, to Techny’s Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Society of the Divine Word, was highly anticipated as we had seen stunning photos of its interior. A huge complex, its property adjoins St. Joseph’s Technical School, whence the “Techny” nickname originates. The large Romanesque chapel, adorned with beautiful carvings, statues, chandeliers, and sconces (forged in the Techny shops), opened in 1923. The second-story gallery runs the entire perimeter of the chapel, and our musicians took full advantage of it. Acoustics were generous and rich. The 4m Wiener organ, some of whose ranks are reused from other instruments, stands in the rear gallery in an attractive case. Its condition is not great, but it was shown to its best advantage. 

We heard The Madrigal Choir of Grace Episcopal Church, Oak Park, led by Dennis Northway, along with young organists Madeleine Woodworth and Charlie Carpenter. Now in its twelfth year, the choir, made up of mostly high school students, is dedicated to singing music of the Renaissance. Mr. Carpenter began, playing Vierne’s Carillon sur la sonnerie du carillon de la chapelle du Château de Longpont (Aisne) from 24 Pièces en style libre, op. 31, no. 21, with skill and aplomb. 

The choir sang Kyrie Eleison from William Byrd’s Mass for four voices very well, in proper Anglican style. They surprised us by singing not from the rear gallery where the organ was, but from the perimeter gallery above the high altar. After Madeleine Woodworth played Divertissement from Vierne’s 24 Pièces en style libre, with plenty of drive from this powerful organ, the choir offered Blessed Are the Pure in Heart by Eric DeLamarter (1880–1953), a beautiful setting sung and conducted with great sensitivity. Woodworth led the hymn, Leo Sowerby’s “Come risen Lord, and deign to be our guest” (Rosedale). The choir moved to different places along that perimeter gallery each time they sang, slowly making their way to the organ loft—a magical effect. Northway led these well-trained students beautifully in Peter Lutkin’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You. 

A new setting of Ave Verum Corpus was by a familiar figure: 20 year-old Adam Gruber, an alumnus of this choir and organ student of Dennis Northway, who has played for us many times and is now a student at Oberlin. The piece was well constructed and showed that Gruber has a future in the art of composition. Charlie Carpenter, a current Northway student, played the Widor Toccata. Great job, Charlie! Kudos to Dennis Northway for giving these young people a chance to perform at the convention!

Buses then took us to Evanston, for dinner at the North Shore Hotel downtown, and then the treat of several neighborhood open consoles. Some of the young, fast-moving types, led by Nathan Laube, made it down to St. Luke’s Church and its magnificent E.M. Skinner. It was a grand, fun, free time. 

The day concluded at the Music Institute of Chicago. This building, a former Christian Science church, retained its 1914 E. M. Skinner organ, Op. 208 (the oldest functioning Skinner in Illinois, according to our Atlas), a modest 3m instrument whose pipes stand at the back of the platform in front of the 900-seat auditorium built in the Neoclassic style favored by Mary Baker Eddy. The console is on the stage. Recitalist Scott Montgomery began with Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie in E-flat. The forte sections demonstrated the sturdy foundation stops echoed by the Cornopean—a great sound. Montgomery played Bach’s transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596, in the Romantic tradition, with shades and all. I loved the ppp strings in the second movement. It worked surprisingly well.

In the Choral of Widor’s Symphony No. 7, op. 42, no. 3, Montgomery captured the mood nicely, alternating string, flute, and foundation tone. Scherzo from Vierne’s Symphony No. 2, op. 20, was an audience favorite; Montgomery did a fine job, and so did the Skinner. Huge flute sounds crowned the ensemble. Dudley Buck’s Variations on Home, Sweet Home, op. 30, displayed the big, bold Cornopean, Vox Humana, Flügel Horn, and the Great Philomela. The Swell Aeoline and Unda Maris closed the piece—wonderful sounds that made my mouth water. One young member was heard to say, “I want an E. M. Skinner in my church!” In a beautiful calm Calvin Hampton Lullaby, Montgomery summoned all of the organ’s softest sounds. The Swell Gedackt accompanied the Clarinet in the tenor range; the Vox Humana was heard again as a solo with a 4′ flute. Unda Maris and Aeoline were a great combination. This is a piece your congregation would love!

In Guilmant’s Caprice in B-flat, op. 20, no. 3 from Pièces dans différents styles, Book VI, there was a good deal of playful shifting of manuals—welcome after the Hampton’s quiet gentility, and very well played. This organ has no general pistons, so Montgomery employed two very skilled stop pullers. The hymn was Mary Baker Eddy’s “It matters not what be thy lot” (Gloaming). Montgomery closed his fine program with John Knowles Paine’s sturdy Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn, op. 3, no. 1—always a good tour of an organ. We returned to the hotel tired but exhilarated. 

 

Thursday, July 12

Thursday dawned bright and sunny. At Chicago’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Luke (ELCA) we heard Erik Wm. Suter play the large 1963 3m Schlicker. The church’s long, high nave offers wonderful acoustics. The main organ stands in the rear gallery, with a Positiv mounted on the railing. The clear, refined sound includes marvelous mixtures that were like cooling drops of water. A smaller unit organ is in front of the church. Suter opened with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 541; he has a fine and clean technique, and tempos were perfect for both music and room. 

Dale Wood’s gorgeous setting of In Thee Is Gladness began with strings and a 4′ flute. We also heard lovely solo reeds. In “Come down, O love divine” (Down Ampney), Suter showed brilliant hymn leadership. His time as organist at Washington National Cathedral was evident in a grandiose and thrilling style of playing; his last verse reharmonization was a thing of wonder.

In Peter Eben’s Nedelní Hudba (Music for Sunday), Finale, Suter put the blazing reeds on full display. After a quiet section with strings, solo flutes, and quiet solo reeds, some growling and menacing pedal sounds took us back to the louder, livelier music. Organ and organist were a fabulous combination; this fantastic concert was a great start to the day. 

We proceeded to the huge and imposing St. Josaphat’s Church in Chicago, in Romanesque style with massive stone walls, blessed in 1902. The first organ in the rear gallery, built by the Wisconsin Pipe Organ Factory in 1902, was replaced in 1924 by a 3m Kilgen, Op. 3386, which used some pipes from the previous instrument and retained its case. In 2004, the Bradford Organ Company installed a “much traveled” 1872 2m Johnson Organ Company Op. 386 in the nave on the right side. Our recitalist Bernadette Wagner earned her bachelor’s degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University; she is now a graduate student at Arizona State University. Wagner began with two Brahms settings of O Welt, ich muß dich lassen on the Kilgen; diapasons were warm and rich in the reverberant space—nicely played. She then came downstairs to the Johnson organ for the hymn “Creator spirit, by whose aid” (Surrey). Bernadette Wagner and the room-filling sound of this 14 stop-organ were quite up to the task of accompanying us. 

Movements II and III of Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 4 in B-flat, op. 65, featured the organ’s beautiful Clarinet, Oboe and Bassoon, and lovely flutes—very pleasing playing with a well-developed sense of musical line. Wagner closed her fine recital with Daniel Pinkham’s The Book of Hours, a nice demonstration of the various combinations on this well-made treasure from another century. 

Chicago’s Wicker Park Evangelical Lutheran Church, ELCA, was formally organized in 1879; the present Romanesque church was finished in 1907. The 1907 Möller tracker is still in use; sadly, however, only part of the Swell division was operable, so much of the program was compromised; at times it was difficult to even hear the organ. Our players were Dennis Northway and Adam Gruber. Northway opened with a very soft Clarence Eddy Prelude in A Minor, using the Möller’s beautiful strings very well, then played Harrison M. Wild’s ironically named hymn “Softly fades the twilight ray.” Adam Gruber played two selections from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, and Northway played Pachelbel’s Aria Sebaldina from Hexachordum Apollinis (1699). I felt sorry for these gentlemen having to play an instrument not up to convention standards. We had to listen very carefully to hear anything, but I must say that it was always worth the effort. 

During free time downtown, we could either visit the Chicago Cultural Center in the grand old former public library, or, as I did, cross Michigan Avenue and visit Millennium Park with its fantastic Frank Gehry-designed bandshell, and the three-story Anish Kapoor “Cloud Gate” steel sculpture (known locally as “The Bean”). The entire complex is brilliant.

A problem arose, beyond the convention leaders’ control. The 1927 3m Estey at the John Murphy Auditorium of the American College of Surgeons was unable to be played. So our brave recitalist, Cathryn Wilkins, moved to a quite different venue and organ—the huge 4m Aeolian-Skinner in the Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue, across the street from the 100-story John Hancock Center—and very quickly adapted her program. Designed for a very different instrument, the program did not make full use of this organ’s range, but was nevertheless entertaining. Wilkins played some waltzes by Brahms for piano, Vierne’s Scherzetto from 24 Pièces, and Le Cygne from Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals. She ended with three movements from In Fairyland by Roy Spalding Stoughton (1884–1953)—a pleasant recital. 

Our buses took us to Navy Pier—a huge place with a highly charged carnival atmosphere. We boarded “The Spirit of Chicago” for a late-afternoon harbor cruise and buffet dinner. The dramatic Chicago skyline was very beautiful. We enjoyed each other’s company and the tasty food. 

As we were downtown at 6 pm, when traffic was busy (with numerous street carnivals), our buses got snagged—the only bus problem all week. Our evening recital was at St. Pauls United Church of Christ, founded in 1843 to serve German-speaking Protestants. In 1959 the present English Gothic-style building was completed and the 4m Aeolian-Skinner, Op. 1328, installed. Its main pipe chambers are situated above and on either side of the chancel. In 1998–2000 the Berghaus Organ Company completed the organ as originally planned, updating some of the mechanical features of the console, located at the front. 

Our performer was well-known Chicago organist David Schrader. It took about 40 minutes for everyone to arrive, and bless his heart, Schrader entertained us early arrivals with an impromptu performance, from memory, of Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major. It was delightful. 

When the audience was finally in place, Schrader began with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548 (“The Wedge”). Some of the playing was rushed, which took away from the towering majesty of Bach’s music. The organ was more than up to the style, and Schrader used it quite well. In Commotio, op. 53 by Carl Nielsen (1865–1931), we heard mixture tone for a very long time, which, right after the Bach, grew tiresome. Finally, some flute sounds were heard, leading to contrasting dynamics in another section. A fugue began—Schrader’s tempos were just fine. We then heard what I believe was the lovely Gedeckt in the Antiphonal division, located high in the rear balcony—imaginative and colorful use of contrast. He used dramatic moments to good effect. The piece was OK, but it seemed to be longer than needed. Although Schrader played it well, my ears could have done with less mixture tone; at the end, he drew all of the high-pitched mixtures, bordering on painful after such a long piece.

After intermission, the lovely hymn “O blest Creator of the light” (Lucis Creator) was followed by Frank Ferko’s Symphonie brève (1987). The opening Andante had a running bass line in the pedals, with foundation stops and reeds in chords on the manuals. Attractive flute sounds accompanied a Cornet. The pedal motion returned with punctuations from those singular A/S reeds. The Toccata began on strings and flutes with fast figures. A bonny solo flute sounded out a tune in the pedal’s tenor range. We heard wonderful colors in this very appealing work. In the final Chorale, the use of mixtures and reeds was startling. The writing was fresh, sort of Messiaen or Langlais “lite”. 

Schrader closed with Reger’s Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, op. 135b. Plenty of contrast is called for and we got it, in a fine tour of this noble instrument’s fine solo voices and choruses. It was all beautifully played with great attention to the rhythmic and thematic structure.

 

Friday, July 13

The final day, devoted to regional organbuilders, began with Sebastian M. Glück’s lecture on “Innovation, Adaptation, and Stagnation: The Tonal Trajectory of the Roosevelt Organ.” Hilborne and Frank Roosevelt, aristocratic æsthetes as well as businessmen, were interested in organbuilding. Glück discussed their life and work, people who influenced them, and how their work still influences American organ building over a century after their deaths—most interesting.

We then were bused to Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest. Founded in 1902, the present English Gothic-style building was dedicated in 1931. The organ began as Skinner Organ Company, Op. 833, a 3m, 36-rank organ, rebuilt in 1956 by Schlicker. In 1987, it was rebuilt and enlarged to its present size by the Berghaus Organ Company of Bellwood, Illinois. The pipes are in twin chambers on either side of the altar, the console in a balcony over the left transept. The church has beautiful carvings and a live acoustic. 

Organist Karen Schneider Kirner began with a hymn: “As daylight steals across the skies.” Kirner wrote the tune, Morning Hymn, which was quite good. Eugène Gigout’s Grand Chœur dialogué made good use of the reeds. I could have done with less mixture tone. Kirner’s steady playing gave this majestic piece its just due. After Gigout’s Scherzo, from Dix Pièces, we then heard Variations sur un Noël bourguignon by André Fleury (1903–95), which showed some of the organ’s softer stops as well as fuller sounds. The music was attractive—like an updating of Dandrieu. 

This is a very loud organ. Seated in the front row, I wished that I had sat further back because Kirner may have crossed a line with overuse of tutti. Mixtures and reeds together over a long stretch of time is tiring.

A Gigue for the Tuba Stop by Donald Stuart Wright (b. 1940) was next—a thrilling piece, but again loud. My ears longed for strings and flutes played with the shades closed. Chicago composer Keith S. Kalemba’s (b. 1972) Toccata was also a loud piece. Kirner is a fine organist, but her programming choices were not wise. We did not hear any of the soft solo reeds. Another hymn followed: “Sing the Lord a new song,” to a tune written by Ms. Kirner. One final blazingly loud piece brought her program to a close: Marcel Dupré’s Carillon, from Sept Pièces, op. 27.

OHS convention recitalists usually take great pains to show the entire range and color of the organs to which they are assigned in thoughtfully and carefully chosen pieces. Sadly, this was not the case.

On to Wilmette, and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church ELCA, to hear William Aylesworth, former organist at that church, long-time and well-loved performer at OHS conventions, and past OHS president. The church, founded in 1903, built its present English Gothic red brick worship space in 1923. Aylesworth told us that he was approached in the late 1980s by the Bradford Organ Company, offering to build an organ as an example of what they could do with recycled materials from other organs. The result was Bradford’s Op. 6 from 1990, a very successful 2m instrument. It stands in a small transept, with pipework in a chamber to the left of the altar, using a space formerly occupied by a Wangerin organ. 

Aylesworth began with “O God, our help in ages past” (St. Anne). Bill was organist here for 38 years, and knows how to lead a hymn in this space. It was beautifully played. Bach’s Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, BWV 680, wonderfully showed this organ’s great clarity. Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639, demonstrated the lovely Oboe with tremolo. In Dandrieu’s Trio avec Pédale, we heard the warm Clarinet, which came from a Hutchings organ. The beautiful Great 4′ Gedeckt, and the Swell 4′ Flute d’Amour (from a Johnson & Son organ, Op. 389) worked very well. Dandrieu’s Duo en cors de chasse sur la trompette used, I believe, the Great Trumpet, which came from a 19th-century organ. It had a surprisingly robust sound.

Aylesworth ended his fine recital with Guilmant: Three Nöels, op. 60, demonstrated more solo stops; Marche sur un thème de Hændel, op. 15, no. 2 was very well played and sent us out on a high!

At Glenview Community Church (UCC), we heard young organist Stephen Buzard in music for organ and brass quintet. The organ was built by Stephen’s father’s company: John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois, Op. 21 (1999). In the Colonial-style church the organ is in three chambers behind the altar; a rank of Principal pipes provides façades for each of them. The center chamber’s façade is of polished tin, while the flanking chamber façades are flamed copper. The console is in the French style; the organ as a whole is highly eclectic, speaking with a sturdy sound and a wide range of color and tone on its 69 ranks.

Bach’s Concerto in C Major after Johann Ernst, BWV 595, was a clean, spirited performance with just the right amount of rubato, followed by Buzard’s own transcription of Schubert’s Du bist die Ruh, D. 776, displaying strings and several beautiful solo stops (my favorite was the Great 4′ Open Flute with tremolo), played with sweet sensitivity. Duruflé’s Scherzo, op. 2, showed more of this instrument’s variety and range.

In Percy Whitlock’s Five Short Pieces, the Allegretto used the many flute stops. The Great Harmonic Flute was featured as a solo accompanied by the Choir strings. We also heard the Swell Trompette in the tenor range. Paean featured the Major Tuba 8′ stop (on 15 inches of wind), quite thrilling. We then sang Stephen Buzard’s arrangement of the hymn “How shall I sing that majesty” (Coe Fen, a marvelous tune). The time he spent in England was very much evident in his style of playing. Prelude, Elegy and Scherzo by Carlyle Sharpe (b. 1965) was commissioned for this convention by Rodney Holmes. Stephen used many beautiful solo stops in Elegy, beginning with a sad little song on the Choir’s Cor Anglais, then a tiny Cornet, the Corno di Bassetto, and this organ’s beautiful strings. The lively Scherzo for organ and brass is a good addition to the repertoire. 

Stephen Buzard ended this superb recital with Jeanne Demessieux’s Te Deum, op. 11, easily communicating the profound nature of this music, all very splendid. We heard this fine organ play music from many different periods and national styles with ease—and Stephen Buzard is someone to watch!

The grand finale of the convention was a visit to the Place de la Musique in Barrington Hills, Illinois. It has the world’s largest collection of restored automatic musical instruments, the largest theatre organ in the world (5m, 80 ranks), and is also the private residence of Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Sanfilippo. The 46-acre complex includes an enormous shed that houses most of the mechanical instruments and a huge carousel. We ate a picnic supper amidst this collection, then soon made our way to the 44,000 square-foot house with its huge theatre organ in a massive auditorium big enough to hold the entire convention. The organ comes from many sources—some new, some vintage. There are four 32′ ranks; the massive 32′ Diaphone and Bombarde pipes line the walls on either side of the stage, as do the countless percussions, including a set of 32 Deagan Tower Bells, the largest of which we were told weighs 426 pounds! 

Our multi-talented recitalist, Jonathan Ortloff (looking quite snappy in his bright red socks), presented a highly entertaining program of mostly familiar music played with great style and good humor. We heard the theme from Family Guy, some sweet salutes to the late Henry Mancini (Charade and Moon River), a bit of nostalgia for those of us of a certain age, “Puffin’ Billy” (or as I remember it, the theme from Captain Kangaroo). The Trolley Song used all manner of percussion sounds, which raised the roof! Ortloff’s transcription of Stravinsky’s L’Oiseaux de Feu (Tableau II) showed great skill. I really admire his generation of organists who have become so adept at the art of transcription. He ended with An American in Paris, which was great fun. But the part of the recital that left us all in pain with laughter was the hymn “Earth and All Stars” (Dexter), one not exactly on my list of favorites. The text is unintentionally humorous—I cannot get past “loud boiling test tubes” with a straight face. On this huge organ, Jonathan was able to illustrate each turn of phrase in sound effects that were hilarious and a perfect end to the evening. 

This was a very good convention. Instruments, recitals, performers, lecturers—the great variety never left us bored. Buses were agreeable, respectful of our needs, on time, and quiet during recitals. Food was filling and good, and the publications (Atlas, Handbook, and Hymnlet) were beautifully produced, with wonderful content. (Good companions to the above would be Pipe Organs of Chicago, Vols. 1 and 2, by Stephen Schnurr and Dennis Northway. Gorgeous photographs, specifications, and histories of each building and instrument will keep you entertained for hours.) This was the third OHS convention in Chicago; we certainly saw and heard a breadth and depth of pipe organ beauty that other cities would be more than pleased to have. We were treated with great humor and kindness all week long. The committee did an outstanding job! Bravo, Chicago! “It’s my kind of town.” 

The 2013 convention is in beautiful Vermont: http://www.organsociety.org/2013/. See you there!

 

 

Photo credit: William T. Van Pelt, III

Stephen Schnurr

This article was delivered as a lecture for the Midwinter Pipe Organ Conclave on January 19, 2015, in La Grange, Illinois. The research for this project provides a history of a number of pipe organs in the village, but not all. For instance, organs in residences and theaters are not surveyed. This article will be continued in future issues of The Diapason.

According to the 2010 census, the village of La Grange numbered 15,550 people. The area was first settled in the 1830s. Located thirteen miles from the Chicago Loop, it was a quiet area to come and escape the growing city on Lake Michigan.

Founded by Franklin Dwight Cossitt, who was a successful wholesale grocer in Chicago, La Grange was incorporated on June 11, 1879. Cossitt had purchased farmland along the Chicago-Dixon Road, now Ogden Avenue (US 34). The Chicago-Burlington-Quincy Railroad had a milk stop here, which was then called Hazel Glen.

Cossitt laid out his ideal suburban village, platting streets, planting trees, and donating land for churches, schools, and parks. He became a homebuilder, selling the finished product to new residents, along with liquor restrictions to make sure the town retained an idyllic atmosphere. After the Great Chicago Fire of October 8–10, 1871, residents began to move to La Grange rather quickly. As the village grew, new congregations were formed, representing a number of denominations.

 

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Initial services for Episcopalians in the village were conducted in the residence of David Lyman. A parish brochure relates, “later he and village co-founder Franklin Cossitt had a surveyor plot the exact center of the fledgling community for this church, and donated the land.” The Cossitt family, for whom a prominent avenue and a school in La Grange are named, would provide other memorials to the church over the years. The parish was formally organized on December 15, 1874, and is the oldest congregation in the community. The cornerstone of the first church was laid on June 17, 1875, and the finished building, seating 400, was consecrated on October 5, 1878. The Gothic edifice, 90 feet long and 32 feet wide, was built from stone quarried a few blocks distant.

A larger Victorian gothic structure, seating 650, replaced the first church in 1894. The cornerstone was laid July 16, 1893. The building, of Naperville stone, featured a Tiffany altar and reredos, which were exhibited by the maker at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago between 1893 and 1894. This artwork was purchased thereafter by David Lyman and his wife. The original church became the parish house. The consecration occurred on December 17, 1894. On December 1, 1924, the parish plant was completely destroyed by fire.

By autumn 1925, a temporary building was erected for services. Plans for a new church began immediately and resulted in the present building, in eleventh-century French Gothic style. John Tilton, architect and son of the architect of the 1894 church, drew the plans for the $375,000 building. 

The first services were conducted in the present church on Easter Day, April 4, 1926. Dedication occurred on May 11. Near the principal entrance of the nave, one can see the cornerstones of each of the three church buildings this congregation has constructed. The baptismal font includes four stones brought from the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. 

Emmanuel Church has had a rich musical history, which has included four notable organs. In 1884, the congregation purchased Johnson & Son Opus 627, a two-manual, 13-rank, mechanical-action organ. (See stoplist 1.)

The Johnson & Son organ served the parish in the first and second churches until it was replaced by a new organ from the M.P. Möller firm of Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1908. The 1884 organ was taken in trade and resold by Möller as their Opus 950, without alteration, to the Second Presbyterian Church, Oak Park, Illinois. (The specification of the Johnson & Son organ comes to us from the contract for Möller Opus 950.) The contract for Opus 950 was dated January 15, 1909, in the amount of $400, delivered “in good playing condition.” Möller was to provide “one man to erect and tune said organ at $7.00 per day and expenses (board), also experienced helper at $4.00 per day, if desired by” the church. The organ was already crated when the contract was signed and was shipped by train from La Grange to Oak Park three days later on January 18.

Meanwhile, back in La Grange, the contract for M.P. Möller Opus 891 was signed on May 2, 1908, for completion on or before October 19 of that year. The organ was to cost $8,250, from which $750 was credited for the Johnson organ (which was sold to the Oak Park church for $350 less). Upon completion of the organ, $1,500 was due, with $3,000 due one year after completion and the balance of $3,000 due two years after completion, both notes at six percent interest per annum. The three-manual, 31-rank organ was housed in a quartered oak case. The instrument was shipped from Hagerstown on November 7, 1908.

The Choir division was located over the choir room and was placed on a duplex chest, eighty feet from the console. Thus, the entire Choir division was duplexed to the Great manual as the Echo division. At its dedication on December 20, the organ was noted to be “one of the largest church pipe organs in Cook County outside of Chicago.” (See stoplist 2.)

There were some problems with the instrument, for the church signed an agreement with Möller (undated, though approximately 1914) to “correct the Adjustable Combinations, change location of wind motors operating same, go over the entire organ and put it in good condition, including tuning throughout,” and to maintain the organ for three years (with tuning four times each year), for $350.00. The church had the option to have Möller continue maintenance on the organ in 1917 and 1918 at a cost of $75.00 per year. The organ burned with the church in 1924. Mason Slade was organist-choirmaster at the time. The Diapason of January 1, 1925, noted that Slade lost his organ library in the fire.

The present church was first served by a three-manual, 22-rank, electro-pneumatic action organ built by W. W. Kimball of Chicago. William H. Barnes of Evanston served as architect/consultant, drawing the specification for the three-manual organ. (See stoplist 3.) Barnes played the dedication recital on September 26, 1926, to a capacity audience. The program: Caprice Heroique, Bonnet; Reverie, Bonnet; Allegretto, Volkmann; The Legend of the Mountain, Karg-Elert; Scherzo, Rogers; Andante (Sixth Symphony), Tschaikowsky; Nocturne, Ferrata; Ronde Francaise, Boëllmann; Allegro con brio (D Minor Sonata), Mailly; Beside the Sea, Schubert; Scherzo (from Fifth Sonata), Guilmant.

The builder trumpeted the organ in a full-page photographic advertisement in the May 1, 1926, issue of The Diapason. The specification and dedication program were printed in the November issue. 

Mr. Barnes featured the organ in his regular column in The American Organist magazine for December 1926. He noted the specification 

 

to be nearly ideal for a moderate sized three-manual designed to meet both the limitations of money and space. I would be glad to have any of the dyed-in-the-wool-at-all-costs Straight Organ enthusiasts make us a scheme with ten additional registers that would have the usefulness of this organ, or an even better ensemble. It must be understood I am speaking of intelligent unifying and borrowing, used with discretion and done by artist voicers.

 

At some point, the Kimball organ was significantly altered. Eventually, a three-year fund-raising drive for a new organ began. The present organ in the church was built by Casavant Frères, Limitée, of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada, in 1970, as their Opus 3062, a 3-manual, 46-stop, 63-rank, electro-pneumatic action organ. The specification is dated October 14, 1968. Agreements dated January 6 and March 13, 1970, provided for preparation for Chimes on the Great and an Antiphonal division with appropriate couplers to various other divisions. The specification was drawn by Lawrence Phelps, tonal director for Casavant, John F. Shawhan, Casavant representative, and William H. Murray, organist-choirmaster for Emmanuel Church. (See stoplist 4.)

The present organ is installed in what had been chambers for the previous Kimball instrument, opened for better tonal egress, to the right of the chancel. The drawknob console is located opposite. This instrument is one of Chicago’s best examples of a large pipe organ from the late oeuvre of Lawrence Phelps’s tenure as tonal director for Casavant.

by Charles Callahan, Albert Neutel, Herbert Huestis

Mark Buxton's sudden and unexpected death on December 18, 1996 was a loss to all of us in the organ world. See his "Nunc Dimittis" notice on page 4 of the February 1997 issue of The Diapason. His work as a church organist, recitalist, and organ consultant was well-respected and of an enduring quality. Even more so, his voluminous writings will remain as a significant legacy to our profession. The following tributes are offered in his memory.

In Memoriam--Mark Buxton

by Charles Callahan.h2>

The sudden passing of a fine
musician and writer has left a sadness in all of our hearts. A graduate of
Durham University, Mark spoke French fluently and was an especially gifted
improvisateur, having studied with Jean-Jacques Grunewald in Paris. As the
author of countless articles on matters of interest to the organ world, Mark
was known here in North America and abroad. But for those of us who knew him not
only as a colleague but also as a friend, the loss is intense.

For Mark personalized a quality
of idealism that has become all too rare today. His standards of excellence
were accompained by high hopes for a renaissance in the best possible standards
in church music, organ playing, and indeed business and personal relationships.
As a sensitive and dedicated musician, Mark was certainly out of step with the
many clerical types sadly all-too-prevalent in today's church music circus.

For this alone, he would have
earned much admiration! But he "moved ahead" and carved a
well-respected name for himself through his many recitals, reviews, and feature
articles. Those of us who were blessed by his friendship cherished his calls
and cards that demonstrated his care for us, his true friendliness, and his
great civility in a world that sadly needs much more of the same.

Only days before his passing, I
received a postcard from him from St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol--saying
"what a superb organ it is!" Of course he know how I would revel in
his enthusiasm for one of the supreme examples of English organ building.

Our thoughts and prayers go now
to his wife Sandy and the two children. May he rest in peace, and may perpetual
light shine upon him.

Mark Buxton

by Albert Neutel

To write about Mark Buxton is
about as difficult as it was to get to know him. No, I don't mean to imply that
Mark was a difficult person, in fact, quite the opposite was true. It was
difficult in that Mark was "many faceted" and a complex man while at
the same time one of the clearest thinkers and most articulate writers of our
time. Does one write about his phenomenal keyboard skills, his keen
understanding of the literature, his interest in research and writing? I will
leave these to others who have a deeper understanding of the subjects. One
thing was very clear about Mark: he suffered no fools or idle talk. His respect
for worship and the meaning of the liturgy helped to make Mark what he was: a
consummate musician with great skills to communicate the beauty of all styles
of music to the listener with simplicity and ease.

It was my privilege to have
known Mark for almost three years. It all started with discussions about what a
church organ ought to be. To Mark's mind there are only two kinds of organs:
good organs and bad organs. The size of the organ had no influence on his
simple philosophy. A good organ could consist of four stops and he had many
examples of bad organs that consisted of 40 or more stops. His simple
philosophy extended also to organists as musicians.

During our many discusions,
several times Mark insisted that we go back to visit the small eight-stop
"Willis on wheels" organ in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, to prove
his point of how a few stops, well chosen, wisely scaled and exquisitely voiced
can fill the space of a room, accompany the choirs and be a perfectly fine solo
instrument.

It was a real honor and treat to
have had Mark as our colleague at Reuter. All of us have learned much, gained a
deeper appreciation and found a new desire to continue to build instruments
worthy to be placed in a house of worship to serve the people and our Creator.
He will be missed by us as well as his many friends around the world. Our
heartfelt sympathy to his family Sandy, Kevin and Joanna in Toronto, as well as
to his mother, brother and sister in Manchester, England.

Mark Buxton -- An Icon of Political "Independence" in the Organ
World

by Herbert L. Huestis

Mark Buxton's untimely death at
the age of 35 ended a writing career that was just hitting full stride. He
published over 50 articles, music, book and record reviews in The Diapason and
brought to the magazine a refreshing perspective filled with musicality and
personal experience. He was a master reviewer, able to discover the essence of
a book or recording, abstract it, and reveal its essentials quickly. He did all
that and kept an engaging personal style, filled with pithy quotes that helped
sustain the reader's interest. He could sneak in bits of musical philosophy by
telling a story--its conclusion would reveal his point of view.

Mark preferred the eclectic in
organs as well as organists. He was always open to individualism in organ
building, but was particularly aghast at what he considered "slavish"
copying by organ builders who subscribed to what he considered "historical
trendiness." That point of view came to light with a delightful story in a
review which was published in December 1995. He told a tale of attending a
reception after a recital where he dubbed both food and program as
"provender of dubious provenance." He declared that this fare caused
him to "repair to a pub to fix the damage with pork pie and real
ale."

He disliked the performance of
big Bach works on "tiny scale registrations, which robbed them of their
dignity." He put this notion into especially colorful language:

The organ world suffers from a
pandemic surfeit of Cassandras, blithering on about how large, unwieldy
instruments are bad for our communal health. 

He contended that a certain disk
by Frederick Swann "answered the prayers of those who crave deliverance
from the 'Organ Lite' movement:"

Here is a top-notch musician,
who really knows how to play and project a large organ with spectacular
conviction. Hats off to one of this continent's finest exponents of our
instrument for his devotion to music-making rather than musical trendiness.
This disc will win friends for the organ, and might just remind some of us why
we took up playing in the first instance. It would be gratifying to think that
Mr. Swann likes Lincolnshire pork pipe and ale, and that he sautées his
food in real butter.

There were no holds barred in
the reportage of the organ world for Mark Buxton. Yet humor was always lurking
between the lines and often bubbled up between them. His vocabulary was
extensive and often colorful. He was adept at the sometimes necessary
situations where he felt compelled to remark on various aspects of organs that
he didn't like. This he could do with a certain penache that belied the negative
impact of his commentary.

For example, in a review where
he did not take a shine to the organ, he put it this way:

The organ and the repertoire are
not always the most comfortable of bedfellows.  Frankly,I found it an unlovable instrument, although some
smiles are coaxed from what often appears to be a sullen beast in an
unflattering acoustical cage.

He could be relied on to find a
sly way to deliver a swift kick, when an organ could not do the musical job at
hand:

The various undulants go some
way to imparting a bloom to the sound that otherwise would be absent . . .

Mark had a definite preference
for large, eclectic and interesting organs.  In his commentary on the famous Longwood Gardens Aeolian, he
said the organ was "a sumptuous behemoth if ever there was one." He
continued . . .

The instrument's seemingly
endless and eclectic tonal palette, including strings by the desk and entire
clans of Vox Humanas will curl the ponytails of the purist fraternity . . .

Writing can be a solitary job,
especially for free lance reporters like Buxton.  He divided his time between England, his birthplace, Canada,
where he lived with his wife, and the U.S., where he eventually hoped to
settle. On the subject of expatriate writers, Brian Moore, the author of The
Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne1, observed:
"When you emigrate, you are never quite from anywhere--you are not at home
at home . . ."2

Mark put it this way in
"Off the Beaten Track in England" (April, 1995):

Returning to the land of one's
birth is a peculiar business for the expatriate.  Will things have changed beyond recognition? Will those
favorite places still be there? Will one still feel at home? Or uncomfortably
out of step with current tastes and fashions?

Like Brian Moore, Mark Buxton
was a chronicler and had the knack of making a strong start in his writing. He
could hook the reader's interest and hang on to it until the end of the
article, whether it was an interview, record review or opinion piece.

The tragedy of his early death
denied him the happy ending most of us anticipate.  But within the short period of six years, he contributed
extensively to The Diapason. 
Within that opus we can see an enthusiastic, upbeat and independent
spirit, always communicating the presence (or absence) of music as the real
subject for all that he wrote.

This adds up to a terrific loss
for The Diapason and other journals which benefited from his free-flowing pen.
Filling in that gap will be a demanding burden that will probably require a
team effort. One can only imagine from such beginnings, how magnificent his
contribution to organ reportage would have been. However, the opus that remains
with us is full of insight, sparkle and wit, often punctuated with a good
story. If you collect the issues of The Diapason with Buxton offerings, you'll
have a 2-inch thick pack to go through, but it will be worth the effort. You'll
chuckle at his witticisms, revel at his insights and weep that he is no longer
with us.

A few "Buxtonisms"

On Richard Strauss: "Would
that the composer of Salome and Electra have favored our instrument with a
piece from his top drawer!"

On Edwin Lemare: "Thomas
Murray's recording of music by Lemare, yet another step in the composer's
rehabilitation, serves to prove one again that Fortune's Wheel does indeed turn
. . . After a lengthy period in musical purgatory (a spacious resort, one would
imagine) Lemare's name is back in recital programs, and in recording
catalogs."

Reflecting on an English Organ:
"I cannot disguise a lack of affection for some of the chiffy flues and
assertive upper work heard here . . .. The Tuba Mirabilis has the requisite
hint of good flat lukewarm British beer!"

Some recommended reading

These references do not include
all of Mark Buxton's writings in The Diapason. They are those selections which
are most highly recommended by the author.

Articles and Interviews

October 1992 Daniel Roth at 50

April 1994 Ralph Downes: An
Appreciation

May 1994 A Conversation with
Thomas Murray

August 1994 A Conversation with
Oliver Latry

February 1995 George H. Guest: A
Guest at Cambridge

June 1995 Stephen Cleobury--A
Profile

March 1996 A Conversation with
Martin Neary

Surveys of Organs and Organ
Builders

May 1995 An American Landmark in
Canada, The Schoenstein Organ at Islington Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

July 1995 Off the Beaten Track
in England, A Survey of Interesting English Organs

July 1996 Restoration of
the  Casavant Organ at Redlands
University, Redlands, California

February 1997 Rieger-Orgelbau:
The First 150 Years, History of the firm and interview with Christoph
Glatter-Götz

Reviews of recordings

June 1991 An Evening with Edwin
H. Lemare, Thomas Murray, Austin Organ, Portland, Maine

January 1992 The Symphonic Organ
Thomas Murray, Skinner Organ, Woolsey Hall, Yale

February 1992 Marcel
Dupré--Le Chemin Du Croix, François Renet plays the
Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Sernin de Toulouse

February 1993
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  The Mystic Organ, Frederick Swann,
Möller organ, Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC

February 1993 Romantic Organ
Music, Mikael Wahlen plays the Organ of The Jacobskyrka, Stockholm, Sweden

May 1993 Daniel Roth interprets
César Franck on Three Cavaillé-Coll Organs

September 1993 Charles-Marie
Widor: Symphonies III and IV, Ben van Oosten plays the Cavaillé-Coll
organ of St. François-de-Sales

October 1993 Poesie de l'orgue
symphonique, Odile Pierre plays two Cavaillé-Coll organs

October 1993 Music of Alexandre
Guilmant, François Lombard plays the Cavaillé-Coll organ of St.
Omer Cathedral

November 1993 Organ Duets,
Sylvie Poirier and Philip Crozier play the Aurèle Laramée Organ
in the Chapel of the Maison Provinciale des Frères Maristes, Iberville
Québec. Organ built by Mariste brother Aurèle Laramée

March 1994 The Organs of Oxford,
Nine Organists Play The Organs at Oxford

April 1994 Organ Music of
Franck, Boëllmann, Mendelssohn, Reger, and Grunenwald. Veronique Choplin
plays Cavaillé-Coll at St-Sulpice. (Note: Mark Buxton studied with
Grunenwald, former organist.)

August 1994 Anthems and Motets,
Choir of St. John's Episcopal Church, Samuel Carabetta, director. Lafayette
Square, Washington, DC ("Church of the Presidents")

September 1994 César
Franck--Music for Harmonium and Piano, 
Joris Verdin and Jos Van Immerseel play harmonium and nineteenth-century
piano

October 1994
Reger-Organworks--Heinz Wunderlich at St. Jacobi and St. Michael's, Swabish
Hall. Nelly Soregi, violin

December 1994 Vierne--Works
for    organ, Wolfgang
Rübsam, E.M. Skinner organ at Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago, IL

January 1995 Well Tempered
Organ, John Wells plays the Letourneau organ at St. Paul's Collegiate School,
Hamilton, NZ

May 1995 Organ works of Basil
Harwood.  Roger Fisher plays the
organ of Chester Cathedral Whitley organ, rebuilt by Gray & Davidson, Hill,
and Rushworth & Dreaper

July 1995 Sigfried
Karg-Elert--Organ Works, Wolfgang Stockmeier plays the organs of
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  St. Johannis, Osnabruck, St Martin, Bad
Lippsprige and Herz-Jesu, Bremerhaven-Lehe

July 1995 Hear My Prayer--Choir
boy and choir girl competition--RSCM choir boy and choir girl of the year, 1992

August 1995 The Historical St.
Thomas Organ, Pierre Cochereau plays the organs of St. Thomas Church, NY

September 1995 The Organ Music
of Alfred Hollins, David Liddle plays the organ of Hull City Hall

November 1995 Stars and Stripes
Forever: Organ Duets, Elizabeth and Raymond Chenault, Skinner organ of
Washington National Cathedral

November 1995 Longwood Pops--The
Longwood Gardens Organ, Michael Stairs plays the Longwood Aeolian Organ

December 1995 Four Masterworks--Frederick
Swann at the Crystal Cathedral--Ruffatti organ

June 1996 George Walker--A
Portrait

September 1996 Olivier Messiaen
--Complete Organ Works, Gillian Weir, Frobenius Organ, Arhus Cathedral, Denmark--Early
Frobenius with French reeds

Book Reviews

May 1991 Charles Callahan--The
American Classic Organ: A History in Letters

August 1994 Jane Langdon--Divine
Inspiration, A review of the "organ" novel

Reports

October 1992 AGO National
Convention, Atlanta, GA (with Jess Anthony)

March 1993 Herbert Howells
Centenary Concert, Westminster Abbey

April 1994 21st Lahti Organ
Festival, August 2-7, 1993

Notes

                  1.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Moore, Brian. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1988.

                  2.
style='mso-tab-count:1'>              Wyman, Max  "Profile--The loneliness of the long-distance writer". Vancouver: Vancouver Sun, January 1997.

R. E. Coleberd

R. E. Coleberd is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

Introduction
This article is the second in a series exploring the role of the King of Instruments in American culture. The first article, “The Mortuary Pipe Organ: A Neglected Chapter in the History of Organbuilding in America,” was published in the July 2004 issue of The Diapason.1 (Others to follow will discuss organs in hospitals, hotels, soldiers’ homes and war memorials.) The era of the Masonic Lodge pipe organ, embracing close to 700 instruments, began in the 1860s, reached its zenith in the first three decades of the twentieth century, and with certain exceptions ended shortly after World War II.2 In the religious, ritualistic format of the Masonic movement, the pipe organ made a statement. It was deemed essential to crown the ambiance of the journey through the several chapters of the order (Blue Lodge, Royal Arch, Scottish Rite, Shrine and other “Rites”), and it complemented the majestic buildings, often architectural masterpieces, which contributed significantly to an attractive urban landscape. A closer look at the market, the instrument, and the builders reveals key features of this fascinating epoch, which surely belongs in the rich and colorful history of pipe organ building in America.

The Masonic Lodge
The Masonic Lodge was a broad-based, worldwide social and cultural movement with origins in antiquity, which counted the St. John’s Lodge in Boston, established in 1733, as its beginning in this country. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were Masons.3 Encompassing immigration, urbanization, social solidarity and individual identity, it satisfied a desire to belong. Lodge membership was a mark of recognition and status in the community, and a transcending emotional experience in ritual and décor in the otherwise anonymous atmosphere of urban life. A noted German sociologist, Max Weber, visiting America in 1905, spoke of voluntary associations “as bridging the transition between the closed hierarchical society of the Old World and the fragmented individualism of the New World” and saw them performing a “crucial social function” in American life.4 The well-known social commentator and newspaper columnist, Max Lerner, in his epic work America as a Civilization, saw one of the motivations behind “joining” as “the integrative impulse of forming ties with like-minded people and thus finding status in the community.”5 Ray Willard, organist at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Joplin, Missouri (M. P. Möller Opus 3441, 1922), observes that membership embraced all walks of life: from business and professional men, many of them community leaders and perhaps well-to-do, to everyday citizens.6 Masonic membership paralleled population growth and reached a peak in the first three decades of the twentieth century. New York State counted 872 lodges and 230,770 members in 1903.7 Pre-World War II Masonic membership in the United States totaled 3,295,872 in 1928.8
Of special interest is the long-recognized connection between the railroad industry and the Masonic Lodge. Railroad men were lodge men, and railroad towns were lodge towns. The railroad was the predominant conveyance in freight and passenger travel in the first decades of the last century. In 1916, railroad mileage in this country peaked at 254,000 miles, and in 1922, railroad employment reached over two million workers, the largest labor force in the American economy.9 These totals reflected the number of trains and crews, station, yard, and track workers, and the maintenance demands of the steam locomotive. The comparatively well-paid railroad workers were no doubt important in building Masonic temples. In 1920, average wages in the railroad industry were 33 percent above those in manufacturing.10 In one of what must have been numerous examples, Masonic employees of the Big Four Railroad in Indianapolis donated eight art-glass windows on the east wall of the second floor foyer of the Scottish Rite Cathedral there (q.v.).11

The market
The Masonic Lodge market differed significantly from other pipe organ markets. For the larger facilities in metropolitan locations, the Masonic building was typically a matrix of rooms, often on several stories, and each with a different décor, e.g., Corinthian Hall, Gothic Hall, Ionic Hall. Each chapter room required a pipe organ to support the ritual proceedings. The centerpiece of the building was the auditorium, manifestly different from a church sanctuary. Typically square in layout, it featured a large curtained stage in front, cushioned opera-chair seating on the main floor, and perhaps side and end balconies. The pipe chambers were quite often in the proscenium above the stage, with other divisions almost anywhere—in back of the stage, above a side balcony, in a rear balcony, etc. Occasionally, chambers with a pipe fence flanked either side of the stage. The organ console was on the floor in front of the stage.
It was especially important that the auditorium instrument look large. Just as an upright or spinet piano would have been out of place on the stage, so too would a two-manual organ console be inappropriate on the floor in front of the stage. It must be a concert grand piano on the stage and a three-manual, better yet a four-manual console on the auditorium floor, with lots of drawknobs or stop tabs for everyone to see. To achieve this image of “bigness” within the limitations of chamber space or perhaps budget, builders often resorted to extensive unification and duplexing.
The Masonic Lodge pipe organ era began in 1860 when E. & G. G. Hook built one-manual instruments for temples in Massachusetts: in Lawrence, 14 registers, Opus 275, and in New Bedford, 12 registers, Opus 281.12 In 1863, William A. Johnson built a one-manual instrument of nine registers, Opus 144, for the lodge in Geneva, New York.13 In 1867, Joseph Mayer, California’s first organbuilder, built an instrument for the “Free Masons” in San Francisco.14 The three organs built by Jardine in 1869 for New York City, in this case for the Odd Fellows Hall, marked the beginning of what would become a salient feature of the lodge market: multiple instruments for one building, often under one contract and several with identical stoplists.15 (See Table 1.) One particularly interesting example was the three instruments Hutchings built for the Masonic Lodge in Boston in 1899. The stoplists were identical (q.v.), but each one was in a different case to conform to the décor of the room. Wind from a single blower was directed to one instrument by a valve opened when the console lid was raised, turning on the blower.16
The pinnacle of the multiple contract practice came first in 1909, when Austin built twelve organs for the Masonic Lodge in New York City; in 1927, when Möller built nine for a temple in Cincinnati, Ohio. Eleven of the twelve Austins were identical two-manual instruments, eight of the nine Möllers.17 An Austin stock model that found its way into the Masonic market was the Chorophone, introduced in 1916. Austin sold nine of these instruments to Masonic Lodges. Opus 896 was exported to the lodge in Manila, the Philippine Islands, in 1920.18

The instrument
R. E. Wagner, vice-president of Organ Supply Industries, points out that the Masonic Lodge pipe organ followed closely—tonally and mechanically—the evolution of the King of Instruments in this country: from the one- and two- manual classic-style tracker organs of the nineteenth century to a brief sojourn with tubular-pneumatic action at the turn of the century, followed by the symphonic-orchestral tonal paradigm and sophisticated electro-pneumatic windchest and console action in the 1920s. It also followed a return to the American classic style beginning later in that decade.19 The liturgy-based nature of Masonic ritual would suggest a church-type instrument, one in which eight-foot pitch predominated. This was true in the beginning and in smaller instruments.
The three Hutchings instruments in Boston (q.v.), Opus 475–477, were each fourteen ranks.20 The eleven identical Austin instruments for New York City in 1909 had five ranks: an 8? Open Diapason on the Great with four ranks duplexed from the Swell (8? Stopped Diapason, 8? Dulciana, 8? Viol d’Orchestra, and 4? Harmonic Flute). There was no pedal. The twelfth organ on this contract was a 17-rank, three-manual organ with the Choir manual duplexed entirely from the ten-rank Swell manual. The seven stops of the Pedal organ were all extensions of manual stops.21 Austin’s two-manual Chorophone comprised four ranks—Bourdon, Dolce, Open Diapason and Viole—unified into 27 speaking stops from 16? to 2?.22
By the 1920s, the Golden Age of the Masonic Lodge pipe organ, the three- or four-manual organ in the lodge auditorium was frequently an eclectic instrument, embracing theatre stops and even toy counters in addition to traditional liturgical stops. Add to this a “quaint” stop now and then, i.e., a bugle call. Did you ever hear of Solomon’s Trumpet? (See 1926-2000 Kimball, Guthrie, Oklahoma q.v.) As Willard points out, these instruments were designed to play the marches, patriotic selections, and orchestral and opera transcriptions used in ritual work, as well as theatre organ and popular music of the day when the auditorium was used for entertainment.23
The mixing of liturgical and theatre stops reflected the fact that in the 1920s the concept of organ music was broadly defined, and with the introduction of the theatre organ, the distinction between liturgical and theatre voicing and sound was blurred. If anything, the eight-foot pitch tonal palette of the church organ, characterized then by wide-scale diapasons and flutes, narrow-scale strings, high-pressure reeds, and the absence of mutations and mixtures, served to further obscure this distinction.
Two stops particularly symbolic of this era and that disappeared until recently, the Stentorphone and the Ophicleide, were found in large lodge organs. Manuel Rosales, well-known California organbuilder, believes they can best be explained as items of fashion. “As the Hope-Jones ideas influenced the times with very large diapasons, the idea of the Stentorphone being a sort of superstar of the diapason family found its way into legitimate specifications. It was placed on the Solo manual rather than being put on the main divisions, and in that capacity wouldn’t destroy the balance between the stops on the Great. Couple the Solo to the Great and it works to beef things up.”24 With the tremolo on the Solo, the Stentorphone could also be used as a solo stop.
The ophicleide, a 19th-century brass orchestral instrument, was said to have been invented in Paris about 1817. It was popular in symphony and opera orchestras and in military bands of the 1830s and 1840s, being eventually replaced by the modern tuba. As a fashionable organ stop, the Ophicleide might appear on the Great manual as a powerful, high-pressure reed, a double tuba which, when coupled to the customary 8? Tuba on this manual, formed a chorus.25
The predominant characteristics of the three- and four-manual Masonic Lodge pipe organs, with the exception of those built by E. M. Skinner, seem obvious when viewed from the stoplists discussed below. They confirm our assumption that the Masonic Lodge instrument differed markedly from other pipe organs. Beginning with extensive unification and duplexing, the number of stops is double or more the number of ranks of pipes. Pedal divisions with only one or two independent ranks were typical, and duplicate consoles, the second perhaps a two-manual to control two divisions, were found. Sometimes second touch and a roll player were added to the console. The high-pressure reeds of the day, Ophicleide and Tuba, found on the Great division, required higher wind pressure than the flues to achieve their desired tone quality and power—ten inches versus six inchePs—and therefore were placed on a separate windchest. The Vox Humana was often placed in its own enclosure. Each manual division had a tremolo, and often individual stops such as the Diapason, Tibia and Vox Humana had separate tremolos. The entire instrument was often totally enclosed. Duplexing and unification were made possible by the complex and sophisticated switching in windchest and console innovations that marked the American builders during this period and that made their product by far the most technologically advanced in the world.
The three-manual Kimball organ, Opus 6781, in the Denver Scottish Rite Cathedral, now Consistory, with 19 ranks, 50 stops and 1,459 pipes, illustrates these features (see stoplist). On the Great division, five ranks comprise eleven speaking stops—four ranks with extensions—and only the 8? Tuba is an independent (one pitch) voice. The Diapason and Tuba each have their own tremolo. The Solo (second) division comprises 10 ranks and 20 stops, with the Gedeckt unified into six stops, from 16? to 13?5?. The third division, designated the Accompaniment manual, counts four ranks and seven unit stops duplexed from the Great. The organist, Charles Shaeffer, comments that the English Horn on the Accompaniment manual is unique to Kimball, voiced closer to the Oboe in contrast to an English Horn on theatre organs, which resembles an English Post Horn. He adds that the Marimba on the Solo is “reiterating,” meaning that it repeats rapidly and therefore contrasts with the single-stroke Harp on the Great.26 The String Mixture is wired from the Salicional, and the Orchestral Oboe from the Gedeckt and Viol d’Orchestra. The Tibia Clausa is independent and has its own tremolo. The nine-stop Pedal organ is entirely duplexed from the Great and Solo divisions. The bugle call is played by buttons above the keyboards. The manual compass is 73 pipes, adopted by many builders during this period to forgo upperwork and achieve brilliance through the 4? coupler, a primary registration aid.27 All divisions are enclosed, and each manual has at least one tremolo. The toy counter and pedal second touch complete the instrument.
The 8? Wald Horn on the Great, a departure from traditional pipework nomenclature, requires an explanation. A Wald Horn is customarily a chorus reed with English shallots, voiced somewhere between a Trumpet and an Oboe.28 In this example, unique to Kimball and employed briefly, 1922–1924, it is a spotted-metal tapered (one-half) open flue rank of medium scale. With more definition than a stopped flute, but with limited harmonics, it is horn-like and perhaps best described as a heavy spitzflute.29 Noteworthy in Kimball organs, and a lasting legacy of this builder, are the superb strings, the work of the legendary voicer George Michel. As the late David Junchen commented: “Michel’s strings set the standard by which all others were judged. Their richness, timbre and incredible promptness of speech, even in the 32? octave, have never been surpassed.”30

Four and five manuals
The four- and five-manual Masonic Lodge era began in 1912, when Hook & Hastings built a 53-rank, 62-stop, five-manual instrument for the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Dallas. Far less unified than later work and with a 61-pipe compass for manual stops, it reflected the church organ background of this eastern builder. But it did contain a Stentorphone and Ophicleide, two consoles, and a player mechanism.31 The next year, 1915, Austin built a five-manual, 74-rank, 89-stop, 4,860-pipe organ, Opus 558, for the Medinah Temple in Chicago. Now in storage, this instrument was for many years the largest Masonic Lodge pipe organ in America and was, perhaps, the best known among the organist fraternity.32
The four- and five-manual market was largely the province of the nationally known major builders Austin, Estey, Kimball, Möller and Skinner (see Table 2). They used large lodge installations in their sales pitch, and buyers were no doubt influenced by them in their choice of builder. Describing their four-manual Möller, Opus 3441, 1922, in Joplin, Missouri, the Scottish Rite Cathedral states: “There were five four-manual organs built by Möller in the early 1920s similar to the Joplin organ. They are in the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., the Scottish Rite pipe organ in San Antonio, Texas, Temple Beth-El, New York City, and the Masonic Building, Memphis, Tennessee.”33 Michael Brooks, recent Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the St. Louis Scottish Rite Cathedral, points out that his temple is the proud owner of one of four Kimball four-manual lodge organs. The others are Guthrie, Oklahoma (q.v.), Minneapolis (now in storage), and Oklahoma City.34
The lodge market also reflected the work of John A. Bell (1864–1935), a prolific designer, who in 1927 was said to have drawn up specifications for over 500 pipe organs in the eastern United States. Bell, a Mason, was organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh for over 40 years.35 Allen Kinzey, Aeolian-Skinner veteran, says Bell’s stoplists typically included a large-scale, heavy-metal, leather-lipped, unenclosed 8? Diapason on the Great. Also, all manual stops of 16? and 8? pitch (excluding celestes) had 73 pipes, while stops of 4? pitch and above had 61.36 Bell designed instruments for Masonic temples in Cincinnati and Dayton and the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis.37 (q.v.)
Indianapolis
The Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner five-manual, eight-division, 77-rank, 81-stop, 5,022-pipe organ in the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis, Opus 696-696B, is the largest instrument in the Masonic movement in America today (see stoplist). The building’s title is appropriate because it is most likely the largest such edifice ever built in this country and is beyond doubt the most lavishly appointed, replete with Masonic symbolism at every turn: stone carvings and figurines, 70 art glass windows, and elevator door decoration. This architectural masterpiece is crowned by a 212-foot main tower, housing a 63-bell Taylor (Loughborough, England) carillon. The Medieval Gothic interior features imported Carpathian white oak, Russian curly oak, and Italian, Tennessee and Vermont marble.38
This signature instrument was built in 1929 by E. M. Skinner, with four manuals, 65 ranks, 68 stops, 4,365 pipes.39 Skinner had defined his instrument in building church organs and he stayed very close to this paradigm in his lodge installations. With comparatively limited unification and duplexing, this organ features a mixture, mutations and principal chorus on the Great. This organ reflects the influence of John Bell (q.v.). Manual compass is 73 notes for foundation stops, 8? and below, and 61 notes for 4? stops and above. The First Diapason on the Great is 38 scale, heavy metal and leather-lipped. The Second Diapason is 40 scale, a customary scale for the first diapason. These two stops plus the 16? Open Diapason and 8? Gross Flute are unenclosed. The tremolo on the Great is described as high and low wind, reflecting the difference in wind pressure between the flues and the reeds. The Great reeds are on 12-inch wind as is the entire Solo manual, the latter likely because of the Stentorphone there, also 38 scale, heavy metal, and leathered. The Solo Tuba Mirabilis is on 20 inches of wind and not affected by the tremolo. The Diapason on the Swell is also 40 scale and leathered. The 4? Celestial Harp on the Great is subject to sub and super (octave) couplers. The Cathedral Chimes on the Echo has 25 tubes, from tenor C. A description in The Diapason commented: “Couplers and pistons will increase the number of playing devices at the command of the performer to 158.”40 In 1949, Aeolian-Skinner enlarged this instrument with two new divisions of four ranks each.41 A new five-manual console by Reisner was installed in 1969.42

St. Louis
The four-manual Kimball in the Scottish Rite Cathedral in St. Louis, now awaiting restoration, illustrates other features of the lodge pipe organ (see stoplist). With 113 speaking stops from 54 ranks of pipes, a virtually complete toy counter plus piano, marimba, xylophone, harp, chimes and orchestral bells, it is perhaps the apex of the four-manual lodge instrument, a veritable music-making machine. In this organ, the basic manual stop compass is 61 notes and the 8? pitch dominates the tonal palette. Among the 24 stops from ten ranks on the Great, the Principal Diapason is wood and the Twelfth and Fifteenth are taken from the Waldhorn (q.v.). This instrument doesn’t have a mixture on the Great or pretend to have a principal chorus; it is a collection of orchestral colors, including the luxury of three 16? open flues on the Swell, all oriented to fundamental tone as illustrated by the Phonon Diapason there, which emphasizes the eight-foot tone.43 The unit Gedeckt on the Swell speaks as six stops, from 16? to 13?5?. The Swell has separate tremolos for the Tibia Clausa and the strings. The Vox Humana vibratos on the Swell and the Echo are a tremolo. The Pedal organ counts 25 stops derived from two ranks; a 32? Bourdon, and a 32? Bombarde with three extensions. The rest are borrowed from or extensions of manual stops.

The builders
The lodge market was important to American builders in new installations, repeat sales, replacing trackers with modern instruments, additions and upgrades. The bulk of these organs were, not surprisingly, two-manual instruments, and some were stock models, designed to accommodate what we have elsewhere called the commodity segment of the market.44 For small instruments, there was scarcely any brand preference or real or imagined product differentiation to the buyer. To these lodges an organ was an organ and the sooner the better. As in other markets, a second-hand trade emerged with instruments sold to Masonic Lodges from elsewhere.
Table 3 portrays the work of thirteen builders, names familiar today. The larger firms—Austin, Estey, Kimball and Möller, well known coast-to-coast through numerous installations and with aggressive sales representation—accounted for the majority of lodge instruments. Factory production dominated the industry during this period, and these builders could meet any requirement: budget, placement and timetable. Regional builders Hillgreen-Lane and Pilcher also enjoyed lodge business, as did many local firms. In 1917, Reuben Midmer & Sons counted six organs for the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn. Lewis & Hitchcock built instruments for Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.45 In California, an early last-century firm, the Murray M. Harris Company, built lodge organs for Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco, California as well as for Santa Fe, New Mexico.46 In 1928, the Rochester Pipe Organ Company built two identical three-manual, 20-rank instruments for the Masonic Temple in Rochester, New York.47 In 1908, the Adrian Organ Company rebuilt a nine-rank, one-manual organ, from two prior locations, for the Masonic Temple in Adrian, Michigan.48
The lodge market also figured in the locational history of the American organ industry. In 1859, the Pilcher Brothers, then in St. Louis, built a one-manual organ for the Golden Rule Lodge there. In April 1863, perhaps in search of a market opportunity, they moved to Chicago where, in September, they contracted to build a one-manual organ for the Oriental Lodge there.49 In 1919, the Reuter-Schwartz Company of Trenton, Illinois built an instrument for the Masonic Temple in Lawrence, Kansas. This prompted their move to Lawrence, having found a source of capital in the Russell family who, in turn, found a business opportunity for their son Charlie, just graduated from the University of Kansas. Charlie Russell became the bookkeeper at Reuter, and the Russell family owned Reuter for many years.50
Many of the larger instruments, sources of pride for these lodges, are regularly serviced and updated as needed, perhaps with major funding from prominent members. When the signature 1926 Kimball in the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Guthrie, Oklahoma (four manuals, 67 ranks, 72 speaking stops, 5,373 pipes)51 required renovation in 1990, Judge and Mrs. Frederick Daugherty financed the project. The work, by long-time curators McCrary Pipe Organ Company of Oklahoma City, included solid-state switching and relays, new keyboards, and new stop and combination action. A digital recording and playback unit was installed, so the instrument can be played for tours of the building—a common practice in large temples. Completing the project was installation of a full-length 32? Pedal Bombarde, built by F. J. Rogers in England, and a horizontal trumpet, dutifully called Solomon’s Trumpet, reflecting the role of King Solomon and his temple in Masonic ritual.52

Summary and conclusions
The Masonic Lodge pipe organ is another illustration of the role of the King of Instruments in American culture. The Masons, a culturally and socially prominent feature of American life, found the instrument an economic and efficient vehicle in meeting the musical needs of their ritual proceedings. The tonal resources of the larger instruments afforded almost unlimited capabilities in the full spectrum of instrumental music. This was made possible by technological advances in organbuilding, which mark a singular achievement of the American industry. In many locations, these magnificent instruments enjoy the respect and admiration of today’s Masonic membership, and in the larger organ world are recognized as a vital segment in the rich and colorful history of pipe organ building in America.

For research assistance and critical comments on earlier drafts of this paper, the author gratefully acknowledges: Jack Bethards, E. A. Boadway, Michael Brooks, Mark Caldwell, John Carnahan, Ronald Dean, Dave Fabry, Steuart Goodwin, Keith Gottschall, Allen Kinzey, Fred Kortepeter, Dennis Milnar, Rick Morel, George Nelson, Albert Neutel, Orpha Ochse, Don Olson, Louis Patterson, Michael Quimby, Michele Raeburn, Robert Reich, Gary Rickert, Manuel Rosales, Dorothy Schaake, Kurt Schakel, Alan Sciranko, Charles Shaeffer, Jack Sievert, Richard Taylor, R. E. Wagner, Martin Walsh and Ray Willard.