T H E FEBRUARY 2021 - Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc. 50th Anniversary Cover feature on pages 18-20
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THE
D I A PA S O N
FEBRUARY 2021
Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc.
50th Anniversary
Cover feature on pages 18–20
PHILLIP TRUCKENBROD
CONCERT ARTISTS
ADAM J. BRAKEL THE CHENAULT DUO PETER RICHARD CONTE LYNNE DAVIS
ISABELLE DEMERS CLIVE DRISKILL-SMITH DUO MUSART BARCELONA JEREMY FILSELL MICHAEL HEY HEY & LIBERIS DUO
CHRISTOPHER HOULIHAN DAVID HURD MARTIN JEAN BÁLINT KAROSI JEAN-WILLY KUNZ HUW LEWIS
RENÉE ANNE LOUPRETTE ROBERT MCCORMICK JACK MITCHENER BRUCE NESWICK ORGANIZED RHYTHM RAÚL PRIETO RAM°REZ
JEAN-BAPTISTE ROBIN BENJAMIN SHEEN HERNDON SPILLMAN JOSHUA STAFFORD CAROLE TERRY JOHANN VEXO
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BRADLEY HUNTER WELCH SEBASTIAN HEINDL INSPIRATIONS ENSEMBLE
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THE DIAPASON Editor’s Notebook
Scranton Gillette Communications
One Hundred Twelfth Year: No. 2, 20 Under 30
Whole No. 1335 We thank the many people who submitted nominations for
FEBRUARY 2021 our 20 Under 30 Class of 2021. Nominations closed on Feb-
Established in 1909 ruary 1. We will reveal our awardees in the May issue, with Stephen Schnurr
ISSN 0012-2378 biographical information and photographs! 847/954-7989; sschnurr@sgcmail.com
www.TheDiapason.com
An International Monthly Devoted to the Organ,
the Harpsichord, Carillon, and Church Music
A gift subscription is always appropriate.
Remember, a gift subscription of The Diapason for a In this issue
friend, colleague, or student is a gift that is remembered each Gunther Göttsche surveys organs and organbuilding in the
CONTENTS month. (And our student subscription rate cannot be beat at Holy Land. There are approximately sixty pipe organs in this
FEATURES
$20/year!) Subscriptions can be ordered by calling our sub- region of the world. John Bishop, in “In the Wind . . .,” writes
Organs, Organbuilders, and Organists in the scription service at 800/501-7540 or visiting thediapason.com about the groundbreaking work of Nannette Streicher, the
Holy Land and clicking on Subscribe. early-nineteenth-century pianoforte builder of Vienna, Austria.
by Gunther Martin Göttsche, translation In Here & There, Kimberly Shafer presents her bi-monthly
from German by Valerie E. Hess 12
Speaking of our website . . . Carillon Profile, featuring the new instrument at North Caro-
NEWS & DEPARTMENTS If you have not recently visited our website, you are miss- lina State University, Raleigh.
Editor’s Notebook 3 ing out on frequent updates. Many of our news items appear Our cover feature celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Qui-
Here & There 3 at the website before we can put them in print. Last minute mby Pipe Organs, Inc., of Warrensburg, Missouri. The firm
Appointments 4 announcements received after our print deadlines can be has not only an august history, but also a promising future with
Nunc Dimittis 4
found there. Visit thediapason.com frequently. exciting projects. Q
Carillon Profile by Kimberly Schafer 8
In the wind . . . by John Bishop 10
Carillon News 20 Here & There
REVIEWS
Book Reviews 21 Events St. Mary’s Cathedral houses a 1971 (RSCM). RSCM America will share
New Organ Music 21 Fratelli Ruffatti organ of four manuals, office space and support staff with the
New Recordings 21
89 ranks. These events are available chapel’s music program. The arrange-
New Handbell Music 23
livestream. For information: ment gives RSCM America a base of
CALENDAR 24
www.stmarycathedralsf.org. operations at a major research university
with a vibrant sacred music program,
RECITAL PROGRAMS 25
Washington National Cathedral, and connects Duke Chapel more closely
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 26 Washington, D.C., announces its Sacred to RSCM America’s national training
Choral Music Online Festival, February programs and network of church musi-
26–28, featuring the King’s Singers and cians. The arrangement provides a
THE the cathedral choirs. The King’s Sing- foundation for nurturing church music,
D I A PA S O N ers New Music Prize will be presented, particularly choral singing, at Duke Uni-
FEBRUARY 2021
and the Wayne Dirksen Centenary versity and around the country. Zebulon
Raymond Nagem at his home setup for Celebration will be featured. Dirksen Highben is Duke Chapel director of
Tuesdays at 6 concerts was a longtime director of music for the music. Joseph Causby is president of
cathedral. For information: cathedral. RSCM America and director of music
The Cathedral Church of St. John org/sacredmusic. and organist at the Episcopal Church of
the Divine, New York, New York, con- The Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill,
tinues organ recitals, Tuesdays at 6:00 The Richmond (Virginia) Chapter North Carolina.
p.m., except where noted: February 2, of the American Guild of Organ- Duke Chapel’s music program dates
Raymond Nagem; 2/9, David Briggs; ists announces 2021 recitals in its 57th back to the chapel’s founding in the
2/16, to be announced; 2/23, 7:00 p.m., Organ Repertoire Recital Series, Fridays 1930s and includes multiple choirs,
Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc.
50th Anniversary
Cover feature on pages 18–20 David Briggs. All recitals will be streamed at 7:30 p.m.: February 26, Amanda weekly worship services, regular organ
at facebook.com/StJohnDivineNYC and Mole, Ginter Park Presbyterian Church; and carillon recitals, an annual concert
youtube.com/CathedralSaintJohn. For April 30, Alcée Chriss, Grace Covenant series, recording projects, training for
COVER information: stjohndivine.org. Presbyterian Church. For information: singers and organists, and a diverse cata-
Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc., richmondago.org. logue of choral compositions published
Warrensburg, Missouri in the “Music from Duke Chapel Series”
Fifty Years and Counting 18
with ECS Publishing Group. Duke
Educational programs Chapel is a member of RSCM America
Editorial Director STEPHEN SCHNURR and has been hosting its summertime
and Publisher sschnurr@sgcmail.com Carolina Course for more than a decade.
847/954-7989 For information: chapel.duke.edu and
President RICK SCHWER
rscmamerica.org.
rschwer@sgcmail.com
847/391-1048
Editor-at-Large ANDREW SCHAEFFER
Workshops
diapasoneditoratlarge@gmail.com Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, Princeton Early Keyboard Center,
San Francisco, California, Ruffatti organ Princeton, New Jersey, announces one-
Sales Director JEROME BUTERA day workshops for fall 2021 with PEKC
jbutera@sgcmail.com
608/634-6253 The Cathedral of St. Mary of the director and The Diapason contribut-
Circulation/ Assumption, San Francisco, Califor- ing editor Gavin Black. Subjects will
Subscriptions THE DIAPASON nia, resumes recitals, Sundays at 4:00 include: The Art of the Fugue: an intro-
P.O. Box 300
Lincolnshire, IL. 60069-0300 p.m.: February 7, Christoph Tietze, duction; Johann Jacob Froberger: his life
DPP@omeda.com organ; 2/14, organ recital of Instituto de and music; and An introduction to the
Toll-Free: 877/501-7540 Organos Historicos de Oaxaca; 2/28, Jin harpsichord for organists and pianists.
Local: 847/763-4933
Kyung Lim, organ, with Kathy McKee, Exact dates and specific locations within
Designer KELLI DIRKS mezzo-soprano, and Colby Roberts, the Princeton area will be announced in
kellidirksphoto@gmail.com tenor; March 7, Federico Andreoni, the coming months. For information:
organ; 3/14, David Hatt, organ; 3/21, http://pekc.org/.
Contributing Editors LARRY PALMER
Harpsichord Hans Uwe Hielscher, organ; 3/28, Diana Duke University Chapel, Durham, North
Stork and Cheryl Fulton, harps. Carolina
BRIAN SWAGER April 4, Gail Archer, organ; 4/11, People
Carillon
Norm Paskowsky, organ; 4/18, St. Mary’s Duke University Chapel, Durham, The Ivors Academy has awarded
JOHN BISHOP Cathedral Choir. On April 25, celebrat- North Carolina, has become the new composer Cecilia McDowall the Ivor
In the wind . . . ing 50 years of the present cathedral and administrative home for the Royal Novello Award for Outstanding
its organ, Olivier Latry will perform. School of Church Music in America ³ page 4
GAVIN BLACK
On Teaching
THE DIAPASON (ISSN 0012-2378) is published monthly by Scranton Gillette Routine items for publication must be received six weeks in advance of the month of
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WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 Q 3
Here & There
³ page 3 planning, and relationships with internal
and external constituents. She earned
her Bachelor of Arts degree in interna-
tional affairs from George Washington
University, Washington, D.C., a Master
of Science degree in management from
Emmanuel College, Boston, Massachu-
setts, and is completing her thesis for a
Doctorate in Liberal Studies at George-
town. For information: npm.org.
Laura Schlappa (photo credit: Matthias Kilmanek)
Laura Schlappa of Cuxhaven, Germany, won the 10th Northern Ireland Inter-
Cecilia McDowell with her Ivor Novello national Organ Competition (NIIOC), which took place virtually at the end of
Award for Outstanding Works Collection November 2020, with an online results ceremony taking place via Zoom on December
9. Second place went to Jonas Schauer, and third place to Josua Velten, both also
Works Collection. Presented at from Germany. Joshua Simoes from the UK and Hannes von Bargen from Ger-
the Ivors Composer Awards 2020 on Nathan Laube (photo credit: Joseph Routon) many were both highly commended. The Dame Gillian Weir Medal for an outstand-
December 1, the awards were broad- ing performance of one piece not by Bach went to Ilaria Centorrino from Italy, and
cast on BBC Radio 3. Since 1956, the Nathan Laube is appointed to the the Bach Prize went to another competitor from Germany, Johannes Güdelhüfer.
Ivor Novello Award has been a peer- organ faculty at the Staatliche Hoch- Fifteen young performers from five countries reached the final round of NIIOC
recognition award in songwriting and schule für Musik und Darstellende 2020. When it became clear that the challenges presented by Covid-19 restrictions
composition, established to recognize Kunst, Stuttgart, Germany, succeeding meant the organists could not travel to Northern Ireland to perform in person, they
exceptional UK composers across classi- his mentor, Ludger Lohmann, at his alma were asked to submit video recordings of themselves playing their planned programs
cal, jazz, and sound arts. mater. There he takes part in leading on an organ in a church, concert hall, or other venue of their choice.
Cecilia McDowall’s choral works an international center for organ study. Laura Schlappa, winner of the competition, studies church music at the University
include St. Martin’s Canticles, Missa Prior to his move to Europe, he served of Music in Detmold with Martin Sander. In 2018 she won first place in the interme-
Brevis (Tongues of Fire), and I Know on the organ faculty of the Eastman diate competition of NIIOC and in 2019 she won the London Organ Competition.
that My Redeemer Liveth. Organ works School of Music, Rochester, New York, For NIIOC 2020, her program was recorded in the Cathedral of the Assumption of
include Celebration, Sacred and Hal- from 2013 until 2020. Since 2018 Laube the Blessed Virgin Mary, Hildesheim, Germany. In addition to her prize of £1,500,
lowed Fire, and Wo Gott der Herr nicht additionally holds the post of interna- she will present recitals at St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, London, St.
bei uns hält. For information: oup.com tional consultant in organ studies at the Thomas Fifth Avenue, New York City, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, Trinity College,
and ivorsacademy.com/awards/the-ivors- Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. Cambridge, and St. Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.
composer-awards and ceciliamcdowall. He will serve on the juries for the Albert Second Prize winner Jonas Schauer is a student of Martin Schmeding and Daniel
co.uk. Schweitzer Organ Festival (United Beilschmidt at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre,
States) and the Silbermann Competition Leipzig. He performed on the Schulze organ of St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley,
(Freiberg, Germany), both in 2021, as in Leeds. He wins £500 and recitals at Stockholm Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral,
Appointments well as the International Martini Organ London, and Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Third Prize winner Josua Velten,
Jennifer Kluge is appointed execu- Competition (Groningen, Netherlands) from Gießen, played in St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. He wins £200 and recitals at
tive director of the National Association in 2022. Glasgow Cathedral and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin.
of Pastoral Musicians, headquartered In addition to his new duties in Stutt- Ilaria Centorrino, from Messina, won the Dame Gillian Weir Medal for her per-
in Silver Spring, Maryland. A resident gart, Laube will continue to perform formance of Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on the name of BACH, transcribed for organ
of Silver Spring, she was most recently in the United States and elsewhere. by Jean Guillou, played in the Cathedral of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Vairano, Italy.
chief of staff for the office of the dean Recent inaugural recitals include the She receives prize recitals at St. Michael’s Cornhill, London, and for the Organ Soci-
of research at Georgetown University, new William Drake organ at Chelsea ety of the Parish Church of St. Lawrence, Alton, Hampshire. Johannes Güdelhöfer,
Washington, D.C., where she managed Old Church in London, the Mühleisen from Cologne, won the Bach Prize for his performance of “Vivace” from J. S. Bach’s
administrative functions of the office, organ at Moscow’s new Zaryadye Con- Sonata No. 2, recorded in St. Nicholas Church, Cologne-Sülz, Germany.
worked with the dean to develop strate- cert Hall, the restored Lundén organ at The jury consisted of David Titterington, David Hill, and Simon Harden. For
gies for increasing investigator resources the Vasa Church in Göteborg, Sweden, information: niioc.com.
at Georgetown University Medical and in October 2020, the first solo recital
Center, and coordinated communica- on Austria’s largest pipe organ at St.
tions, development activities, strategic Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, built by the Rieger firm. Laube is represented In February 1981, Mr. Brunner
by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc. founded the organbuilding firm Brunner
For information: concertorganists.com. & Heller in Marietta, Pennsylvania, with
A SLAVIC
Alan E. Heller (1952–2008), becoming
NYC Nunc Dimittis
sole proprietor of R. J. Brunner & Co. of
Silver Spring, Pennsylvania, in October
2021 Raymond James Brunner, 71, 1984. Both had worked as organbuilders
CELEBRATION
organbuilder and organ historian, died at James R. McFarland & Co., Millers-
November 17, 2020, in East Petersburg, ville, Pennsylvania. The Brunner firm
Pennsylvania. Born June 19, 1949, in reorganized in 2016 as Brunner & Asso-
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he was the ciates, LLC, with partners Hans Herr
author of a comprehensive study of 18th- and Thomas Becker.
GAIL ARCHER, ORGANIST and 19th-century Pennsylvania German
organbuilders and their instruments,
Organ restorations performed by
Brunner and his firm include the organ
That Ingenious Business, published built in 1770 by David Tannenberg
in 1990 by the Pennsylvania German at Zion Moselem Lutheran Church,
Society. He was a member of the Organ Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and partial
Historical Society and the American restoration of the 1804 Tannenberg
Institute of Organbuilders. ³ page 6
POLAND UKRAINE RUSSIA
FEBRUARY 7 — 2:30 MARCH 16 — 7:00 APRIL 10 — 3:00
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER ST. JEAN BAPTISTE ST. JOHN NEPOMUCENE
55 WEST 15TH ST 184 EAST 76TH ST 411 EAST 66TH ST
co-sponsored by: The Harriman Institute, Columbia University
more information: www.gailarcher.com
4 Q THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM
Here & There
³ page 4 as world travel with his wife, Martha, were married in Sweden in 1964. That For Opus 2754, at First Presbyterian
and boating, camping, and swimming same year he was approached by family Church, Lakeland, Florida, a new
with his family on his family’s island in friend Rev. Lambert Engwall to build a four-manual console is being built. For
the Susquehanna River. pipe organ for First Lutheran Church, information: austinorgans.com.
Raymond Brunner is survived by his Winthrop, Minnesota. Having been his
wife, Martha Sweigart Brunner, and by passion since helping with the instal-
his children with his first wife, organ- lation of the organ at his home church
builder Ruth E. Rissmiller Brunner during high school, this was the start
(1958–2003): Owen J. Brunner (Jaimie) of the business he would lead until his
of Bel Air, Maryland; Amy E. Moore retirement. Hendrickson Organ Co.
(Jeffrey) of Columbia, Pennsylvania; and began in the Hendrickson garage in St.
Amelia R. Brunner (fiancée of Nicholas), Peter and soon moved to a new building
Rochester, New York. A public memorial on the north end of town. His sons, Eric
service will be planned for a later date. and Andreas, eventually succeeded him
in the business.
Charles’s wife, Birgitta, died in 2018.
Charles George Hendrickson is survived
by his sons Eric and Andreas (Eva) Hen-
Raymond James Brunner drickson, along with grandchildren Roy
and Vivian.
at the York County Historical Society, See the article, “Charles Hendrickson:
York, Pennsylvania. Other restorations Profile of a Minnesota Organbuilder,” by
and restorative repairs include 18th- and David Fienen, in the June 2017 issue of
19th-century organs built by Krauss, The Diapason (pages 20–22).
Doll, Jardine, Felgemaker, E. W. Lane,
Bohler, Pilcher, M. P. Möller, Hook & Michael Jarvis of Victoria, British First Presbyterian Church, Franklin, Ten-
Hastings, Hall & Labagh, and others. As Columbia, Canada, 62, died December nessee (photo credit: Michael Snoddy)
well, the firm has restored and rebuilt 25, 2020. A harpsichordist, chamber
organs of later periods and actions and Charles Hendrickson organist, and fortepianist, he also served
built new organs of mechanical and as a soloist, arranger, and choir director.
electro-pneumatic actions. Charles George Hendrickson, 85, Born in Quebec, he worked in Nova Sco-
A 1971 graduate of Lehigh Univer- died in St. Peter, Minnesota, December tia and Ontario, focusing on rarely heard
sity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a 17, 2020. Born June 10, 1935, in Willmar, early chamber music repertoire.
degree in civil engineering, Brunner Minnesota, he graduated from Willmar Jarvis taught at University of British
worked eight years with the Pennsyl- High School in 1953, Gustavus Adolphus Columbia, University of Toronto, and
vania Department of Transportation College, St. Peter, Minnesota, in 1957, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo,
in the Research and Development and University of Arkansas-Fayetteville Ontario, among other institutions, before
Department, becoming licensed as a in 1963 with a master’s degree in phys- moving to Victoria five years ago with his
professional engineer. He then switched ics after building his own furnace from wife, Carolyn Sinclair. He continued
careers to pursue organbuilding and salvage parts based on his calculations to to perform in ensembles and choirs in First Congregational Church, Cha-
his lifelong interests in precision wood- grow a single crystal of aluminum. He had recent years around British Columbia, tham, Massachusetts (photo credit: Joseph
Marchio)
working and cabinetmaking, antiques, started his graduate studies at the Univer- Alberta, Washington State, and Oregon.
and Pennsylvania German history and sity of Minnesota, but then taught physics Jarvis was a regular performer at Vic-
culture. He was largely influenced by at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. toria’s Pacific Baroque Festival and often Casavant Frères, Limitée, Saint-
his grandmother, the late Hattie Klapp While there, his interest in astronomy led arranged concerts on his own with Paul Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada, has
Brunner (1889–1982), who was a well- him to restore the telescope tracking in Luchkow, his most frequent collabora- recently completed several projects. A
known researcher and dealer in Penn- their observatory to operating condition. tor, at Christ Church Cathedral. Jarvis two-manual, 23-stop, 25-rank instrument
sylvania German antiques, becoming a He also built his own six-inch reflecting was also artistic director of Bach on the has been installed at First Presbyterian
celebrated folk-art painter at age 67 with telescope, grinding and silvering the mir- Rock Music Society, the umbrella orga- Church, Franklin, Tennessee. The Swell
her grandson’s encouragement. rors himself. After graduate school at the nization for Salt Spring Chamber Choir division is divided into two separate
Brunner attended Holy Spirit University of Arkansas, he also taught at and Salt Spring Chamber Orchestra, and expressive enclosures. Twelve stops were
Lutheran Church for 35 years. He Union University, Jackson, Tennessee, music director for St. Barnabas Anglican used from a 1910 Casavant organ.
enjoyed classic cars, trains, and was a and Northeast State University, Tahle- Church, Victoria. At First Congregational Church,
member of the Studebaker Drivers Club quah, Oklahoma. Luchkow and Jarvis performed Chatham, Massachusetts, celebrating its
of America and the Studebaker Drivers After meeting his future wife Birgitta together as a duo and with British viola 300th anniversary, a new three-manual,
Club-Keystone Region. Other pastimes Gillberg, he taught physics at Mankato da gambist Sam Stadlen in LSJ Trio, 22-stop, 26-rank organ has been installed
included reading, especially early State College, now Mankato State which released its debut CD last year. (with preparation for the addition of a
American history and genealogy, as well University, Mankato, Minnesota. They Only three of the five albums Luchkow seven-stop Choir division). For informa-
and Jarvis recorded together have been tion: casavant.ca.
released thus far.
Parsons Pipe Organ Builders,
Canandaigua, New York, will build a new
Organbuilders three-manual, 49-voice, 57-rank organ
Austin Organs, Inc., Hartford Con- for at St. Benedict Catholic Cathe-
necticut, announces new projects. For dral, Evansville, Indiana. Delivery of the
Connelly Chapel, DeSales University, organ is expected in 2023.
Centerville, Pennsylvania, a new three- The new gallery organ incorporates
manual, 35-rank organ with a drawknob electric slider and electro-pneumatic
console is Opus 2800. For the Congre- actions and will be situated across
Proud builders
pipe organ kit
gational Church, South Glastonbury, the back wall of the expanded musi-
Connecticut, a new 11-rank organ will cians’ gallery. The organ will include
be Opus 2801. unenclosed Great and Pedal divisions
At St. Stephen’s Church, Sewickley, as well as expressive Swell and Choir
of the
Pennsylvania, the project will include a divisions. Some of the color stops of the
new four-manual console, pipe cleaning, Great division will be located within the
repairs, and voicing for Austin Opus 531. ³ page 8
0LOQDU2UJDQ&RPSDQ\
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6 Q THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM
ALLEN AB III/68
68 Stops / Three-Manuals
An Allen Designer Series Organ
This 68 Stop Aram Basmadjian design can effectively and
convincingly play music of all styles and eras with equal facility.
Aram Basmadjian Employing Allen’s state-of-the-art GENISYS technology, the organ
TM
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“The design emphasizes the apotheosis of American organ building as
conceived by legendary organ designer, G. Donald Harrison, during the mid-twentieth century.
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The organ incorporates a 34-channel audio system. The unique audio design employs
specialized speaker cabinets for upper-range voices allowing this expansive audio system to
produce sound with impressive clarity and spaciousness, yet fit comfortably into chambers of
moderate size.”
1971-2021
50 YEARS IN DIGITAL MUSIC
SOUND | TECHNOLOGY | SUSTAINABILITY
www.allenorgan.com
Here & There
Carillon Profile
North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, North Carolina
The new carillon in the hallowed
Memorial Belltower of North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, constitutes
the second university carillon of the
area’s Research Triangle and the first
complete carillon cast by B. A. Sunderlin
Bellfoundry of Ruther Glen, Virginia.
B. A. Sunderlin Bellfoundry is a new,
full-service bell foundry in the Rich-
mond area, with other recent projects
including the bell renovation of the
Leaning Tower of Niles, Illinois; resto-
ration and enlargement of the Indiana
University Jacobs School of Music
carillon; and expansion of the B. M.
C. Durfee High School carillon in Fall
River, Massachusetts. The carillon clavier from the front
The 55-bell NCSU carillon was cast North Carolina State University Memo- Some of the large bells of the carillon
in 2019 and 2020 and installed August rial Belltower, Raleigh
through November 2020. The bourdon
bell is pitched at F and weighs 1,800 lbs.
The traditional baton keyboard, built to
World Carillon standard specifications,
ranges from C3 to G7 (absent C-sharp3),
transposing up five semitones. The
baton keyboard is also outfitted with
a pneumatic tube system to allow the
bells to be played from a smaller key-
board located in the adjacent Holladay
Hall. Inscriptions honor the Henry
family as donors, fallen alumni from
World War I, and NCSU school spirit.
At this time, the new carillonists for
the instrument are unknown, as is the
performance schedule.
The NCSU carillon is the culmina- Kate Sunderlin works on a bell
tion of efforts that began one hundred Installing bells in the tower
years ago. In 1920, the project was The clavier from the back
imagined as a tower complete with installation maintains this performance
bells to memorialize the 34 university capability along with the new baton 2010 gave the largest 2,000 pound bell,
alumni who had fallen in World War keyboard. The electronic carillon sys- meant to serve as the bourdon for an
I. William Henry Deacy of New York tem was updated two more times, with eventual installation. The bells were
City was hired as the architect, while the last update occurring in 1986 with cast by Meeks, Watson & Company and
Carroll Mann, an engineering profes- the installation of a Maas-Rowe digital stored, awaiting tuning and its compan-
sor, led the building committee. Work carillon. By 1989, however, the system ion bells. The bells could not be tuned
on the tower began shortly thereafter, was inoperable, although the hourly to match the sonic profile of Sunderlin’s
with the Works Project Administration chimes and occasional tape recordings bell design, however, so Sunderlin Bell-
continuing construction through the have played since then. foundry melted them down and used
1930s. Since the tower was nearly fin- Over ten years ago, then-student the bronze to cast the full, matched Josh Gardner (left, background) and
ished by the 1940s, but few donations Matthew Robbins and other students set of 55 bells. The linchpin gift for the Eli Carter (right, foreground) finishing
came in from the mostly agricultural spearheaded the Finish the Belltower carillon arrived in 2017 from Bill (Class bells
alumni, the project team settled on a campaign. To Robbins and other of 1981) and Frances Henry. In honor Founder and Partner,
more economical electronic carillon advocates, the iconic tower was sim- of their generous donation to the Think Community Bell Advocates, LLC
system that was installed in the late ply incomplete without the planned and Do the Extraordinary Campaign, www.communitybelladvocates.com
1940s. The speakers were positioned bronze bells gracing its belfry. The the tower location will be rededicated communitybelladvocates@gmail.com
at the top of Memorial Belltower, while campaign raised enough funds to pur- as the Memorial Belltower at Henry
the finger-played keyboard was set up chase five large bells to play Westmin- Square in spring 2021. Q All photos provided by B. A. Sunderlin
in nearby Holladay Hall; the current ster Chimes, while the NCSU Class of —Kimberly Schafer, PhD Bellfoundry
³ page 6 In addition to the gallery organ, a sanctuary platform, is planned so that windows. The cathedral’s rectangular
Choir expression chamber to expand the nave organ, to be installed in a cham- antiphonal cantor and modest congrega- shape, combined with its plaster walls,
instrument’s versatility. ber located above the west side of the tional accompaniment will be possible. 65-foot ceilings, and new porcelain and
Two identical, moveable consoles hardwood floors result in an acoustical
are planned. Gallery casework will be environment that is favorable for the
designed to conform to the cathedral’s organ. The Very Rev. Godfrey Mullen,
Lombard-basilica style architecture and OSB, is cathedral rector; Jeremy Korba
will incorporate images of the Cross of is director of music and organist; and
St. Benedict. Portions of the organ will Jennifer Korba is director of choirs. For
flank the centrally located stained-glass information: parsonsorgans.com.
BACH AT NOON
Grace Church in New York
www.gracechurchnyc.org
A. Thompson-Allen Co., LLC
11 Court Street
AUSTINORGANS.COM New Haven, Connecticut 06511
t8PPEMBOE4U)BSUGPSE$5 203.776.1616
www.thompson-allen.com
8 Q THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM
Here & There
Recordings and fifth volumes. Volume 4: Motet
and Sacred Song (ChB 5333, €26.90)
includes works that are not classified
according to the liturgical year by Mon-
teverdi, Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn,
Reger, Palestrina, and others. Volume
5: Mass and Liturgy (ChB 5334, €24.90)
features liturgical works by Palestrina,
Haßler, Mendelssohn, Distler, Reger,
and others. For information:
www.breitkopf.com.
Intuitions
E Minor, BWV 528, Wachet auf, ruft uns
die Stimme, BWV 645, and Violin Partita
in B Minor, BWV 1002. For information:
Daniel Roth plays Louis Vierne at paraty.fr.
Saint-Sulpice A Legend Reborn: The Voice of King’s
Association pour le rayonnement In addition, the set includes filmed Publishers Complete Organ Sonatas, Camillo
des orgues Aristide Cavaillé-Coll de performances, duplicated over the two Banks Music Publications Schumann
l’église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France, CDs, by organ scholars past and present. announces new organ publications:
has released a Blu-ray disc, Daniel Roth David Briggs improvises, and Robert Réjouissance: A Tuba Tune (14094, £3.50, Breitkopf & Härtel announces a
plays Louis Vierne at Saint-Sulpice (€30), Quinney, Ashley Grote, Tom Winpenny, £2.99 download) and A Trumpet Minuet new organ publication: Complete Organ
consisting of ten of Vierne’s organ works Richard Gowers, Henry Websdale, and (14101, £3.95, £2.99 download), by Sonatas (EB8979, 172 pages, €44.90), by
on the occasion of the 150th anniversary Donal McCann play works by Bach, Vernon Hoyle; Festival Fanfare (14100, Camillo Schumann (1872–1946). This
of the birth of the composer. Each piece Mendelssohn, Reger, Vaughan-Williams, £4.50, £2.99 download), by Jennifer urtext edition is edited by Antje Wis-
is introduced by Roth. Selections are Bridge, Howells, Vierne, Dupré, Alain, Bate; Lacrimae (14086, £3.95, £2.99 semann. The collection includes: Sonata
drawn from Symphonies I, II, and IV, 24 Messiaen, and Bingham. For informa- download), Fanfare Joyeuse (14107, No. 1 in D Minor, op. 12; Sonata No. 2 in
Pièces de fantaisie, and 24 Pièces en style tion: fuguestatefilms.co.uk. £3.50, £2.99 download), and Three Vari- B-flat Major, op. 16; Sonata No. 3 in C
libre. For information: aross.fr. ants on Eriskay Love Lilt (14106, £3.95, Minor, op. 29; Sonata No. 4 in F Major,
Paraty Productions announces a £2.99 download), by Andrew Carter; and op. 67; Sonata No. 5 in G Minor, op. 40;
Fugue State Films announces a new new CD: Intuitions, featuring Elizabeth An Organist’s Scottish Collection (14104, Sonata No. 6 in A Minor, op. 110. For
2-DVD and 2-CD boxed set: A Legend Geiger, organ, with Stéphanie Paulet, £6.95), with national melodies arranged information: breitkopf.com.
Reborn: The Voice of King’s (£38.50), Baroque violin. The disc features the by Antony Baldwin. For information:
featuring an extensive documentary film Blumenroeder organ of Église du Sacré- banksmusicpublications.co.uk. CanticaNOVA Publications
detailing the restoration of the 1934 Har- Cœur, Charolles, France, inaugurated in announces new choral publications:
rison & Harrison organ of King’s College, 2016. Transcriptions of works of Bach Breitkopf & Härtel announces new O Bread of Life from Heaven (5078,
Cambridge, UK, filmed over more than are included, particularly works for solo choral publications: Chorbibliothek $1.95), by Robert Benson, for SATB
a year at stages of the restoration and organ and solo violin reworked for organ (Choir Library: Sacred Repertoire for and organ; Five Treble Motets (5047,
presented and narrated by David Briggs. and violin duet, including Sonata in Mixed Choir) is now available in fourth ³ page 20
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WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 Q 9
In the wind...
“All the news that’s fit to print” important figures in the development of
In 1897, Adolph Ochs, owner of The piano making. After her father’s death in
New York Times, created the slogan 1792, when she was twenty-three years
that still appears on the masthead of the old, she moved the company to Vienna
newspaper. As I write, we are steaming where the musical action was. Her new
toward the mid-December deadline for husband Andreas assumed the role
submissions for the February issue of of managing the correspondence and
The Diapason, nearing the end of the finances of the business, and Nannette
wildest of all news years. It has been a took her younger brother Matthäus as a
year during which it was important to partner, changing the name of the firm to
print a lot of news that was barely fit to Geschwister (siblings) Stein.2 Nannette
print, and I have had my nose, by way and her brother had a falling out and
of touchscreen, in the NYT pretty much formed separate firms. While Matthäus
every morning. Along with the daily hor- claimed the family name for his nascent
rors of the Covid epidemic and political business, Nannette cleverly named her
turmoil, I have been grateful to the NYT company Streicher neé Stein. Compara-
for keeping the true wonders of the tively little was heard of Matthäus Stein
world in our minds. On November 6, after that.
2020, the NYT published an article by Nannette had met Beethoven in Augs-
Patricia Morrisroe under the headline, burg, and after she arrived in Vienna,
“The Woman Who Built Beethoven’s they began a collegial relationship when
Pianos.” Nannette Streicher was a Beethoven used her pianos for his con-
hands-on craftswoman, an engineer, and certs. After one concert, Beethoven com-
a musician who helped transform the mented to Andreas that the piano “was
piano from its original delicate form as too good for him, because he wanted
virtuoso techniques were developed, and the freedom to ‘create his own tone.’ In
her prominence in a male-dominated a follow-up letter, he complained that
trade in a male-dominated society is a the piano was still the least developed of
striking story. You can find the article all the instruments and that it sounded
at nytimes.com/2020/11/06/arts/music/ too much like a harp. Taking an obvi-
beethoven-piano.html. ous swipe at the composer, Andreas
Streicher wrote an essay describing an
Innovators: the chicken . . . unnamed pianist as a brutal murderer at
Pipe organ builders have always been the keyboard, ‘bent on revenge.’”2 Ouch.
innovators. Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and Beethoven’s comments must not have Replica of 1816 Streicher piano, started by Margaret Hood, completed by Anne Ack-
Ernest Skinner are two examples of been lost on Nannette. She was not only er (2019) (photo credit Anne Acker)
builders whose mechanical and tonal a brilliant craftswoman, but a creative
innovations were so dramatic and wide- innovator as well. She added an octave
reaching that they inspired generations and a half to the keyboard range of her
of musicians. Without Cavaillé-Coll, we father’s pianos, which illustrates her
would not have the music of Franck, prowess with the scaling and tension of
Vierne, Widor, and Dupré, and countless strings and the other minutia of piano
of their contemporaries. Without Skin- engineering. In the first decade of the
ner, Lynnwood Farnam would have been nineteenth century, pianists were tak-
limited to a few mechanical composition ing their performances out of salons
pedals, and his ingenious development of and performing in concert halls that
symphonic playing and orchestral tran- sat hundreds of people. Her father
scriptions might never have happened. had invented what became known as
the “Viennese Action,” in which the
. . . or the egg? hammer head pointed towards, rather
The piano was invented around 1720, than away from the player, allowing
and in its early years it was a gentle the advance of an escapement action
instrument, comparable in power to (a sort of slingshot device that allows
the harpsichord from which it evolved. the hammer to fling toward the string).
Part of Mozart’s genius was to define the Nannette refined the action, changed
soul of the piano barely fifty years after the dimensions and thickness of the
its invention, exploiting the instrument’s soundboards, and increased the heft of Ink drawing of Nannette Streicher by
fluid and expressive qualities. And fifty the instruments’ frame and case, work- Ludwig Krones, 1836
years after the invention of the piano, ing assiduously to create instruments
Beethoven was born. His progressive, that were up to the demands of advanc- of taking just about anything a human Anne Acker (photo credit: Elizabeth Raley)
even aggressive approach to the piano ing keyboard technique and the size of body can exert, the sonic equal to mod-
ushered in a new tradition of virtuos- concert venues. Now when Beethoven ern decibel-rich symphony orchestras. musical styles related to the develop-
ity, and the piano would never be the wanted to summon up a roar, the piano Pianists of the early nineteenth century ment of the instruments.
same. While organbuilders provided could deliver it. were demanding more of their instru- Wanda Landowska (1879–1959) was
challenges and inspiration to musicians, Meanwhile, another performer, ments, often to the point of damaging one of the first twentieth-century musi-
it was composers and pianists who made Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785–1849), them as they played. This recalls the cians to advocate the performance of
demands of the instrument, challenging introduced lightning-fast passages of legend about Franz Liszt (1811–1886), early music. She recorded Bach’s Gold-
the builders to keep up. octaves in both hands. Mere mortal key- the demon musician of the following berg Variations in 1933, playing a harp-
Nannette Streicher (1769–1833) was board players marvel at the spectacle and generation, who beat his pianos so hard sichord built by the French piano maker
the exact contemporary of Beethoven sonorities of modern artists playing on a that he kept a second piano backstage for Pleyel, an instrument similar to that dis-
(1770–1827). Her father, Johann Andreas modern piano as they thunder in octaves the second half of the concert. In 1812, played by Pleyel at the Paris Exposition in
Stein, was a piano maker in Augsburg, to the climax of a concerto by Saint-Saens Streicher built a 300-seat concert hall 1889. Pleyel harpsichords were built with
Germany, and she took to the piano as a or Rachmaninoff. As an instrument adjacent to her workshop, a long jump steel frames and sturdy cases more like
young girl. “At the age of eight, Nannette builder, I can imagine the bewilderment from the intimate salons that Mozart a modern piano than a harpsichord, but
played in front of Mozart, who criticized of an early eighteenth-century piano- knew, and as the capacity of concert Landowska’s energetic playing enthralled
her posture and grimacing, but admitted maker witnessing someone doing that for halls expanded toward a thousand seats musicians and led to the modern active
she had ‘genius.’ Two years later, she had the first time, the force of the entire body in the ensuing years, she tweaked and industry of harpsichord making.
mastered many of her father’s piano- poured into the piano. “Whoa, whoa, strengthened the designs of her pianos, Alfred Deller was the first modern
building techniques, earning a reputa- you’re going to bust it!” producing over fifty instruments a year countertenor and a champion of early
tion as a mechanical wunderkind.”1 Nannette Streicher was the pioneer and earning the reputation among some vocal music, especially that of Purcell.
In an age when it was unusual for a in transforming Mozart’s silvery and of the most admired musicians as the As a boy, he sang in a church choir in
woman to succeed professionally, Nan- light-touched piano toward the versatile best piano maker of her time. his hometown of Margate, England, and
nette Streicher was one of the most powerhouse we know today, capable musically defied puberty by simply con-
Innovation by replication tinuing to sing in the treble range after
During the twentieth century, com- his voice changed. He formed the Deller
posers like Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoen- Consort in 1948, gathering singers and
berg, and Stockhausen were inventing instrumentalists to perform music from
new musical languages at a rapid rate. as early as the thirteenth century. His
As the century progressed, many musi- distinctive vocal tone was a revelation,
cians delved deeply into the study of and his interest in early music inspired
early music and how the progression of generations of musicians.
10 Q THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 WWW.THEDIAPASON.COMBy John Bishop
(photo credit: Félix Müller)
Margaret Hood a few months thereafter.
Later she and Stephenson debuted one
of Hood’s Streicher copies at a Schuber-
Drawing showing “section at f” by John Watson of Nannette Streicher’s Grand Piano No. 1550 (1820), in the collection of the tiade at Edgewood College in Madison,
Schubert Club, St. Paul, Minnesota (reprinted by permission of John R. Watson) Wisconsin, playing Schubert’s F-Minor
Fantasie. Under Hood’s influence, Anne
Nikolaus and Alice Harnoncourt Regier of Maine are among those fol- the instrument and had the sense that became fascinated by the work of Nan-
founded Concentus Musicus Wien in lowing Philip Belt by building replicas of something was missing. While in high nette Streicher, and she continued her
1953. This was an ensemble of musicians early pianos today. school, she was learning Bach’s Italian career, building, restoring, and repair-
playing on period instruments backed by Concerto and happened to pick up a ing harpsichords and antique pianos.
extensive research into the methods of Generations of women recording of the piece played by Igor When Margaret Hood passed away,
performing in earlier centuries. Nannette Streicher became a sort of Kipnis on a harpsichord. As she put it she had been working on a copy of an
E. Power Biggs played a weekly radio personal caretaker for Beethoven, man- in our lengthy phone interview, “That 1816 Stein piano. Anne approached
program from the Busch-Reisinger aging the details of his household and was my first ‘a-ha,’ someday I will have Hood’s husband and acquired the unfin-
Museum (now Busch Hall) between enabling his later great compositions. a harpsichord.” ished instrument. As she wrote on her
1942 and 1948, performing on an The organization she brought to his When her children were little, she website, “After all, it is a design by a
experimental “classic” organ built by personal life and the ever more powerful joined a group of amateur musicians that woman, Nannette Streicher, daughter
Aeolian-Skinner. He brought the now pianos she built enabled the composi- gathered monthly to play for each other. of the famous piano Viennese maker
iconic Flentrop organ to the same hall tion of his blockbuster Hammerklavier One of the guys had a Zuckermann Andreas Stein, the replica was begun
in 1958 and by 1961 was flooding the Sonata in 1818 and the Diabelli Varia- harpsichord, and at one of the meetings, by a woman, so, as I told Margaret’s
market with multiple volumes of Bach tions, written between 1819 and 1823, a Anne played the Italian Concerto on husband after her too early passing, a
Organ Favorites recorded there, still bewildering hour-long set of thirty-three it. When she finished, he said, “Take it woman needs to finish it.”
regarded as the best-selling series of solo variations. Nannette Streicher died in home, Anne.” “Oh Jack, don’t be silly.” Patricia Morrisroe is not a musician—
classical albums in recording history. 1833, and the firm “continued to thrive She ran into Jack at a bookstore a month in fact, one of her recent books is a biog-
His recording The Golden Age of the under her son, Johann Baptiste, and then later, and he asked when she would come raphy of Robert Maplethorpe—but she
Organ celebrating the organs built by her grandson, Emil, who built pianos for to get the harpsichord. The second time was inspired by the work of Nannette
Arp Schnitger (1648–1719) was released Brahms. When Emil retired in 1896, the she ran into him, she relented. It needed Streicher when doing research for her
in 1963 and was followed by another company closed.”3 some work, so she made some phone recently published novel, The Woman
multiple-volume series of historic organs § calls, got her hands on some materials, in the Moonlight (Little A, 2020), about
of various European countries. and did the work. Anne spoke of her the dramatic passion behind Beethoven’s
As musicians dug into the study of After reading Morrisroe’s article, I father with gratitude and admiration, composition of his iconic Moonlight
early music, a parallel study of period wrote to my friend Laurence Libin, saying that he had instilled in her a love Sonata. I guess I’ll read that next.
instruments was essential. Organbuild- retired curator of musical instruments and understanding of tools and things That’s all the news that’s fit to print,
ers like Charles Fisk, Fritz Noack, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in mechanical, and that she had been able today. Q
and John Brombaugh started building New York City. I knew that the Met’s col- to draw on his lessons to make the little
organs according to ancient ideals and lection included at least one piano built harpsichord sing better. Notes
principles. They traveled Europe to by Nannette Streicher, and I thought I Trevor Stephenson, a student of 1. Patricia Morrisroe, “The Woman Who
Built Beethoven’s Pianos,” The New York
study and measure the important organs would get some goodies from him. And Malcolm Bilson, came to town to play Times, November 6, 2020.
and applied their new knowledge to the so I did, in the form of an introduction to a recital on his copy of a Stein piano 2. Patricia Morrisroe, The New York
instruments they were building. Harp- Anne Acker, the harpsichord and piano built by Tom Ciul. Anne fell in love with Times.
sichord makers like Eric Herz, William maker featured toward the end of the the instrument, and through him met 3. Ibid.
Dowd, and Frank Hubbard brought article as having completed a replica of
the modern revival of the harpsichord an 1816 Streicher six-and-a-half-octave
from the battle-ready Pleyels to respect- grand piano started by Margaret Hood,
ful copies of the lively and delicate which was pictured in the article. (See
instruments played by Renaissance and Anne Acker’s article, “The 2014 Ivory
Baroque musicians. Trade and Movement Restrictions: New
Philip Belt was the first to commit to regulations and their effects,” The Dia-
building replicas of early fortepianos. pason, September 2014, pages 28–30.) 2020-2022 Projects
He apprenticed building harpsichords Margaret Hood (1937–2008) grew up
with William Dowd and Frank Hub- in Greenwich, Connecticut, and was an 86$LU)RUFH$FDGHP\3URWHVWDQW&DGHW&KDSHOĆ&RORUDGR6SULQJV&R
bard while feeding his fascination with accomplished painter and prodigious Rebuild III/83 Moller/Holtkamp
early pianos in a basement workshop. equestrian. She became interested in
He started a pianoforte workshop on instrument building in the early 1960s, 86$LU)RUFH$FDGHP\&DWKROLF&DGHW&KDSHOĆ&RORUDGR6SULQJV&R
a farmstead in Center Conway, New building harpsichords from kits, first for Rebuild III/33 Moller/Holtkamp
Hampshire, and purchased a hearse for herself, and then to be sold to others.
transporting pianos. His instruments Her interest expanded to fortepianos 7KH)R[7KHDWUHĆ$WODQWD*D
were first used in concert at Harvard as she studied historic instruments in Rebuild “Mighty Mo” Moller theater organ console
University in the mid 1960s, and in 1969 museums in Europe and the United
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Belt loaned his copy of an instrument by States, and she founded her company
Dulcken for use in a concert at Cornell to build fortepianos in Platteville, Wis- Build V-manual console with new windchests and more
University played by Malcolm Bilson, consin, in 1976. Within ten years she 6W$QGUHZ(SLVFRSDO&KXUFKĆ)RUW3LHUFH)OD
who immediately ordered one for him- was renowned for building copies of
New III/31 pipe organ
self and became an energetic champion instruments built by Nannette Streicher
of Belt’s work and the revival of the in 1803 and 1816. Margaret Hood was St Simons Island Presbyterian ChurchĆ6W6LPRQV,VODQG*D
fortepiano. In 1987, John Eliot Gar- also a prolific researcher, and at the time New III/38 pipe organ
diner and the English Baroque Soloists of her death was working with the more
recorded a complete cycle of Mozart’s than sixty letters written by Beethoven 3OXVPRUHSURMHFWVIRUQHZFRQVROHVQHZIDFDGHV
piano concertos with Malcolm Bilson, to Streicher regarding the details of run- UHEXLOGLQJDQGUHVWRUDWLRQRIYLQWDJHLQVWUXPHQWV
Robert Levin, and Melvyn Tan dividing ning his household.
the keyboard duties on a piano built by Anne Acker studied the piano from
Philip Belt. Christopher Clarke (British, the age of four, and by the time she How can we help you?
living in France), William Jurgenson was a teenager playing the music of ZZZSLSHRUJDQFRPĆ
(American, living in Germany), and Rod Scarlatti and Bach, she felt frustrated by
WWW.THEDIAPASON.COM THE DIAPASON Q FEBRUARY 2021 Q 11Organs in Israel
Organs, Organbuilders,
and Organists in the
Holy Land
By Gunther Martin Göttsche,
translation from German by Valerie E. Hess
O n the shelves in our music room in
Sinntal, Hessen State, Germany,
there is a very special relic near the
grand piano and the house organ: a
heavy 30 cm (nearly 12 inches) long,
squared timber cut from the trunk of an
ancient olive tree that once stood in the
lower part of the garden of Gethsemane.
When the new, small Golgotha organ for
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was
built in 2016, the keyboards were made
from this wood. Not all of the wood was
needed, and so Brother Peter, at that
time still vice-bursar for the Franciscans,
led me a few days after the dedication of
the organ to a plastic sack with the sacred
wood remnants, and I was allowed to
choose the most beautiful piece of wood! Figure 3: The oldest playable organ of Israel, built by Agati, 1847
The Gethsemane wood traveled with
us back to Germany in 2018, remind- the Museum of Biblical Studies at the Greek Orthodox strongly opposed the in-
ing me time and again of my five years Church of the Flagellation in Jerusalem, stallation.1 In view of this difficult situation,
in the Holy Land and, of course, of the these pipes will soon find a new place in it was decided to set up the organ in the
extremely interesting organ world that I the museum section of Custodia Terrae church of St. Salvatore. But given the small
Sanctae (The Custody in the Holy Land) size of this church, the instrument had to
was gradually able to get to know. Figure 1: Drawing of the organ in Saint
be downsized and only a part was installed.
The fact that there are organs in Salvatore from Elzear Horn’s Ichno- on the site of the Monastery of Saint Sal-
Israel and Palestine, in the center of the graphiae monumentarum terrae sanc- vatore. Proof for the presence of organs
tae, 1724–1744
Middle East, astonishes many people. can only be firmly established from the In a document from 1793, the organ-
If I then tell them that the number of seventeenth century as documents from building workshop of the Franciscans
instruments is about sixty, their astonish- the archives of the Franciscans’ Custodia was called “Officina sacris exstruendis
ment grows even larger. Where are these Terrae Sanctae list instruments from organis” (workshop for the construction
many organs, and who uses them? about 1630 for Saint Salvatore in Jerusa- of sacred organs) (Figure 2).
Some people think of Jewish worship lem and 1640 for Bethlehem. An impressive photograph, published
first. In fact, since the nineteenth cen- In the first half of the eighteenth in 1882 in the Palestino-Seraphicum
tury in Germany and the United States, century (1724–1744), the German Fran- Album by the Custodia Terrae Sanctae,
the synagogues of Reform Judaism have ciscan P. Elzear Horn wrote his Ichno- shows the organbuilding workshop
been home to the “synagogue organs.” In graphiae monumentarum terrae sanctae toward the end of the nineteenth cen-
Germany, most of them were destroyed (Iconographic Monument to the Holy tury. We see a small organ with two
in the Reichs-Kristallnacht (November Land), a kind of “atlas” in which he (in registers (or is it a voicing windchest
9–10, 1938); today only a few of them are Latin) minutely described the Francis- needed in the workshop?). In front of it
left. There are around fifty such instru- can churches of the Holy Land and their stands a bearded religious, the director
ments in the United States. In Israel, inventory. Among other things, he pre- of the Officina Constructorio Organo-
however, where Orthodox Judaism served a wonderful drawing of the organ rum, who shows the viewer a large pipe
prevails, there are no synagogue organs. of Saint Salvatore Church in Jerusalem grid. An Arab aide holds something on
Rather, the vast majority of organs in the at that time, obviously an instrument in the right side of the image that could be
Holy Land are in Christian churches, the Italian style. The meticulous drawing the bellows lever for pumping the wind.
especially in the Jerusalem and Beth- (Figure 1) reveals many details, such as Two Arab apprentices sit in front of the
lehem region, but also in the north the range of the two manuals (with the picture, one has a reed pipe in his hands.
(Nazareth). However, not all Christian so-called “short octave” in the bass typi- Also on the windchest of the small
churches have organs. For example, the cal of the time), the pedal that has only instrument are reed pipes.
Eastern Orthodox churches do not have Figure 2: The organ workshop of the a one octave range, some register names Of all the organs mentioned so far,
organs because they have unaccom- Franciscans, 1882 such as “Principals” or “Contrabasso apart from the archival documents, there
panied musical traditions, such as the in Pedals” divided into bass and treble is nothing physically remaining. It was
magnificent polyphonic male choirs of centuries. We find German, American, registers, and three leather straps on the only in the nineteenth century that an
the Armenian Orthodox Church, which French, and Danish organs from more right side panel to raise the bellows. instrument was created that we can still
can be heard in Saint James Cathedral recent times as well as historical organs At the beginning of the second half see, touch, and hear. It is a small Italian
in Jerusalem. from France, Austria, and Italy. of the eighteenth century, a permanent organ from 1847 built by the brothers
It is mainly the Lutheran, Roman When did organs first come to the Holy organbuilding workshop was established Agati (Nicomede and Giovanni) of Pis-
Catholic, and Anglican churches that, as Land? The earliest known instrument is in the convent of Saint Salvatore. Delfín toia (Figure 3). It has nine stops and a
in their homelands or countries of origin, only documented from the remaining Fernandez, OFM, reports in a 2002 small “appended” pedal and belonged
use an organ in worship, and so the organ 221 organ pipes that were found in 1906 essay that two Franciscan organbuilders to the Franciscan monastery in Tyros,
landscape in Israel and Palestine offers during excavations next to Saint Cath- from Spain came with the order in 1754 Lebanon. At some point, it was moved
a very interesting variety. Because each erine’s Church in Bethlehem. The pipes to build a new organ for the Church of to the Christian Information Center at
church does not want to miss the familiar date back to the fourteenth century, a the Holy Sepulchre. Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate. (The instrument
organ style of its homeland and the instru- time when the organ was established as was there in 2001, but may have moved
ments are usually imported, the organ a church instrument in many European But when the work was completed and there even earlier.) In June 2014, the
scene of the Holy Land is a reflection countries, but they may be even older. the organ was to be installed in the choir organ found a new home in Saint Peter’s
of the world’s pipe organs from several After being exhibited for a long time in of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church in the picturesque old town of
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