Bach’s Organ World

Though J.S. Bach’s musical interests were international, the organs he regularly played were all in central Germany. With the help of audiovisual aides, this paper introduces twelve instruments—organs that Bach knew and played, or that set standards for the performance of his music in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. These instruments include those at: Dresden Court Church, Pomssen village church, Störmthal village church, Naumburg St. Wenceslaus Church, Altenburg Castle Church, Tegkwitz village church, Halle Marktkirche (Reichel organ), Wittenberg Castle Church, Berlin ”Amalien-organ,”” Berlin Cathedral, Brandenburg Cathedral, and Tangermünde St. Stephen’s Church.

Quentin Faulkner is Larson Professor Emeritus of Organ and Music Theory/History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he taught organ and developed a series of courses in church music. During the winter semester 1998–1999, he was Fulbright Guest Professor at the Protestant College of Church Music, Halle/Saale, Germany. He has performed numerous organ recitals in the United States and in Europe, in particular on historically significant organs. He is the author of J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Technique: A Historical Introduction (1984); Wiser than Despair (1996), a book on the history of ideas in church music; and Basic Bach (1997), an edition of Bach’s Orgelbüchlein and three free works. Since 2008, he and his wife, Mary Murrell Faulkner, have led four Bach’s Organ World tours to Central Germany.

Fashioned in the Sound of our Peculiar God: Queer Theology and its Implications for Music and Liturgical Musical Practice

Building on extant feminist deconstructions of musical subjectivity, this paper examines feminism’s progeny, queer theory, and its implications for music and musical theologizing, with specific implications for liturgical musical practice. Questions to be considered include: How can historical modes of expression and newly unfolding explorations in music coexist? What can the past offer us when examined through a new lens? How do cultural attitudes about harmonic resolution and dissonance support or subvert liturgical objectives?

Sean Glenn

Sean R. Glenn holds degrees from the Boston University School of Theology (M.T.S., 2013); Queens College, CUNY (M.A. Music, 2011); and Cornish College of the Arts (B.M., 2009). He has had an extensive career as a liturgical musician, having spent time as a chorister as Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle; The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City; Boston University Marsh Chapel; and The Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Boston; and has also served as director of music for the Boston University Episcopal Chaplaincy and assistant organist at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Boston. His work has been musical and scholastic, yet always with an eye on implications for ministry. He is an active composer and singer, writing music primarily for use within liturgical settings. Academically, his work focuses on theologies of music through the lens of queer experience and Anglican identity.

Bach the Teacher

No detailed description of Bach’s keyboard instruction has yet come to light, but information from his students and contemporaries allows a reasonably accurate reconstruction. Though distinguished by its rigor, Bach’s keyboard instruction followed procedures common in eighteenth-century Germany: proficiency in basic figured-bass and the realization of figured-bass chorales, leading to ever-more elaborate musical forms and processes, and culminating in the simultaneous mastery of keyboard improvisation and composition.

Quentin Faulkner

Quentin Faulkner is Larson Professor Emeritus of Organ and Music Theory/History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he taught organ and developed a series of courses in church music. During the winter semester 1998–1999, he was Fulbright Guest Professor at the Protestant College of Church Music, Halle/Saale, Germany. He has performed numerous organ recitals in the United States and in Europe, in particular on historically significant organs. He is the author of J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Technique: A Historical Introduction (1984); Wiser than Despair (1996), a book on the history of ideas in church music; and Basic Bach (1997), an edition of Bach’s Orgelbüchlein and three free works. Since 2008, he and his wife, Mary Murrell Faulkner, have led four Bach’s Organ World tours to Central Germany.

Hook Morning at Cathedral of the Holy Cross

Handout

George Bozeman, moderator

Hook Morning at Holy Cross begins with a PowerPoint presentation by Barbara Owen on the History of Hook and Hook & Hastings organs, followed by a demonstration of the Holy Cross Cathedral organ by its long-time Organist and advocate, Leo Abbott, with its restorer, Robert Newton of Andover Organ Company.  A presentation by Scot Huntington on the Hook Legacy: what the organs teach us and why we should care, will follow.  Fritz Noack discusses Hook’s best period using the restoration at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, as example.  The morning ends with a panel discussion among the morning’s presenters on the Influence and Legacy of E. & G. G. Hook (and Hook & Hastings) on the 21st Century, with George Bozeman, moderator.

George Bozeman

George Bozeman majored in organ at North Texas State College (now North Texas University) under Dr. Helen Hewitt. He apprenticed as an organ builder with Otto Hofmann of Austin, Texas. Later work was with Joseph E. Blanton, Sipe-Yarbrough, and Robert Sipe. In 1967, he received a Fulbright grant to study at the Academy of Music in Vienna. He then worked for Fritz Noack, before starting his own firm in 1971. With his partner David Gibson, and later as sole proprietor, Bozeman’s firm completed some sixty projects in more than twenty states. Among these were several pioneering restorations of nineteenth-century American organs. He has maintained a church music career and played recitals across the United States and in Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe. He is organist at First Congregational Church of Pembroke, New Hampshire, where he presides over Hook & Hastings’ Opus 1129 (1883).

Fritz Noack

Fritz Noack was born in 1935 near the Baltic in Germany. During his school years, he developed strong interests in music, in particular violin and early music, and architecture, leading to an early decision to build organs. From 1954 through 1958, he apprenticed with Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg. Journeyman time with Klaus Becker, Ahrend & Brunzema, and—after immigrating to the United States—Charles Fisk preceded the founding of The Noack Organ Company in 1960. This firm has built 157 organs to date in most parts of the United States, Japan, and Iceland, and restored several important historic American organs. Mr. Noack has taught organ design at New England Conservatory and trained many organ builders in his workshop. From 2000 through 2006, he was president of the International Society of Organ Builders. He and his wife, Betje van Dam, a psychotherapist, live in Newbury, Massachusetts.

Leo Abbott

Leo Abbott is a graduate of the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School, Cambridge, and the Chaloff School of Music, Boston. His teachers include Theodore Marier, George Faxon, Clarence Watters, and Flor Peeters in organ; Naji Hakim in improvisation; and Julius Chaloff in piano. He holds the Fellowship and Choirmaster certificates of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), has won first prize in several international and national competitions, and was a finalist at the Grand Prix de Chartres in 1984. In 1986, he was appointed music director and organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston. He has performed throughout the United States and in France, Belgium, and Ireland, and for conventions of the AGO and the Organ Historical Society. He is an active member of the AGO, the Organ Historical Society, and the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musician. In 2010, he performed at Notre-Dame and Saint-Sulpice, Paris.

Robert Newton

Robert Newton, a Vermont native, studied mathematics at the University of Vermont. He is director of the Old Organ Department of Andover Organ Company, a leading restorer of nineteenth-century American organs. A nationally recognized authority on E. & G.G. Hook and Hook & Hastings organs, he has overseen the restoration of several important E. & G.G. Hook instruments, including those at First Parish Church in Bridgewater, Mass. (1852), Old South Church in Newburyport, Mass. (1866), and Andover’s work at Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston (1875); the latter, with work conducted by Andover, included the design of the new reproduction console and the restoration of the Great 8’ Doppel Flöte and Pedal 32’ Contra Bourdon. Mr. Newton has served on the National Council of the Organ Historical Society and on several Society convention committees, most recently that of the 2013 Vermont Convention.

Scott Huntington

Scot Huntington is president of S.L. Huntington & Co., a nationally respected firm devoted to the building and restoration of historically informed pipe organs in Stonington, Connecticut. He began his organ study at Alfred University while in high school, and holds a Bachelor of Music degree, cum laude, in organ performance from the State University of New York, Fredonia. He has served the Boston AGO Executive Committee as a member-at-large, and has been a member of the chapter’s Organ Advisory Committee since its inception in 1984. He currently serves the American Institute of Organbuilders as chair of the Editorial Review Board, has chaired two conventions of the Organ Historical Society, and has served that organization as vice president, national councilor, founder and chair of the Publications Governing Board, and, most recently, as president. He has been organist of the United Church in Stonington, Connecticut since 1994.

Barbara Owen

Barbara Owen holds degrees in organ performance and musicology from Westminster Choir College and Boston University. She is author of numerous articles, entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Music, and books, including The Organ in New England, E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist, The Registration of Baroque Organ Music, The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms, and The Great Organ of Methuen. She was Music Director of the First Religious Society of Newburyport (1963–2002) and Librarian of the AGO Organ Library at Boston University (1985–2012), and is currently active as organist, lecturer, and consultant. A former AGO regional councillor and dean of two chapters, she is past president of the Organ Historical Society and a trustee of Methuen Memorial Music Hall. Honors include the American Musical Instrument Society Curt Sachs Award, the Westminster Choir College Alumni Merit Citation, the Max Miller Book Award, and the Organ Historical Society Distinguished Service Award.

Harpsichord Boot Camp for Organists

An organist may wish, or be called upon, to play harpsichord continuo with instrumental or vocal forces. Harpsichord Boot Camp for Organists offers practical ideas for greater understanding of harpsichord touch, distilled from historic sources and personal experience—the importance of the pluck, sound and silence, and achieving dynamic contrasts. Beyond simple practicality, the workshop explores how the various possibilities of expression on the harpsichord translate beyond wire and quill to pipes and pallets. The goal is to provide the means to new inspiration and confidence for the organist—at either keyboard—and refinement of technique on both.

Margaret Irwin Brandon

Margaret Irwin-Brandon specializes in early keyboard instruments. Her performances of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, l and II, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and received critical acclaim. She has been a soloist in European and American organ festivals and at American Guild of Organists and Organ Historical Society national and regional conventions. She was on faculty at Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and the University of Oregon. As founding artistic director emerita of Arcadia Players Baroque Orchestra, she produced and directed multimedia performances and played continuo for more than 250 programs. She is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Boston Clavichord Society and the Westfield Center, and is an associate fellow of Davenport College, Yale University. She holds degrees from Pacific Lutheran University and New England Conservatory. As a Fulbright scholar in Germany, she studied organ with Karl Richter and continued harpsichord studies with Gustav Leonhardt.

Hymn Playing 101 and 102: Learn the Basics and More

Handout

Empower your congregation to enjoy singing with comprehension of the music. Topics for discussion and demonstration include: the BIG beat and breathing; leading the congregation, our largest choir, in song; hymn life beyond accuracy; painting the text; and giving the hymn the treatment—a demonstration of ways to enliven the hymn through improvised hymn introductions, free hymn accompaniments, and other easy improvisational ideas.

Faythe Freese

Faythe Freese, D.Mus., professor of organ at the University of Alabama, has performed throughout the United States, Germany, Denmark, South Korea, and Singapore. She is the first American woman to have recorded at L’Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris on the landmark instrument where Guilmant, Messiaen, and Hakim were titular organists. She was a lecturer and recitalist at the 2010 national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Washington, D.C., various regional Guild conventions, and many Pipe Organ Encounters. Her performances have been hailed as “powerful…masterful…impressive…brilliant.” As a Fulbright scholar, she studied the works of Jean Langlais with the composer in France, and the works of Max Reger with Heinz Wunderlich in Germany. She studied with Marilyn Keiser, Robert Rayfield, William Eifrig, and Phillip Gehring, and coached with Dame Gillian Weir, Simon Preston, and Daniel Roth.

Teaching Treble Bell Techniques

Handout

This workshop enables both new and experienced church musicians to understand and implement the special skills necessary to ring treble handbells both musically and healthfully. Members of the Back Bay Ringers guide participants through warm-ups, four-in-hand techniques, advanced treble skills, and score analysis, and discuss how to effectively communicate tips and techniques to your musicians.

Norah Piehl

Norah Piehl is executive director of the Back Bay Ringers. She was introduced to handbells in middle school, but took a long hiatus before joining the handbell choir at Trinity Church, Boston in 2001. She joined Back Bay Ringers in the fall of 2005, and quickly assumed a leadership role, publishing the ensemble’s e-newsletter and participating in marketing campaigns. In early 2007, she was named the organization’s executive director, following the departure of co-founding director Peter Coulombe. She has also become a leader in Handbell Musicians of America Area 1, presenting workshops on marketing, branding, and treble bell techniques at directors’ seminars and at the Area 1 Festival/Conference. She currently serves as secretary on the Area 1 Board of Directors and has served as registrar for the Festival/Conference. Her professional background is in the publishing industry. Currently, she is deputy director of the Boston Book Festival.

Learning Techniques for a Lifetime of Music-Making

Handout

If juggling several jobs is jangling your nerves, this workshop is designed for you. It provides an opportunity celebrate the many skills you already have, reflect upon the roadblocks to your progress, and develop a personal plan for overcoming them. Making-music is an occupation that can be filled with joy and a sense of personal satisfaction. Find out how you can use your job to enhance the quality of your entire life.

Christopher Cook

Christopher Cook, DMA, serves as director of worship, music and the arts at Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. In addition to holding a Bachelor of Music in organ performance from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a Doctor of Worship Study from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida, he earned the California state license in Oriental Medicine/Acupuncture. He has gained a wide following through his workshops, Self-Care for the Organist and The Zen of Liturgy, teaching the use of holistic medicine as a means of enhance music performance. He is currently developing an online support group entitled Fellowship of Christian Artists.

A Golden Age: The Music of the Boston Classicists

Handout

In the early 1900s, Boston was the home of many of the most prominent American composers, including Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Horatio Parker, and others. Their organ and choral music was widely performed, and Foote later remembered their time as a golden age, when music was perceived as an uplifting intellectual, moral, and spiritual force, and Boston was known as “the Athens of America”. This workshop introduces the organ and choral works of these composers, set against the cultural milieu of the era.

Harold Stover

Organist and composer Harold Stover has written on American organ music and organs for The American Organist, The Diapason, The Tracker, and other journals, and has recorded American organ music for Albany and Table Eight records. He is a native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania; a graduate of The Julliard School; and a resident of Hollis Center, Maine.

“When You Know the Notes to Sing”: Teaching Music-Reading Skills to the Amateur Church Choir

This workshop generously sponsored by the New Haven Chapter of the AGO

In this workshop, church music directors learn techniques to develop their choirs’ music-reading skills. The workshop begins with a brief, accessible lecture on how we process information when we read music, based upon music cognition studies. The vast majority of the workshop is a hands-on demonstration of rehearsal techniques and exercises that contribute to improved sight-reading. The workshop leader talks through the pedagogical value of these techniques and exercises, and then demonstrates them in practice by leading sections of mock choir rehearsals; attendees act as choristers in these rehearsals. The workshop concludes with a question-and-answer session.

Scott Perkins

Connecticut native Scott Perkins enjoys a multifaceted career as an international prizewinning composer, a versatile performer, an award-winning scholar, and a music educator. His critically acclaimed music spans numerous genres and styles and has been performed throughout North America and Europe. Augsburg Fortress and Encore Music Creations publish his music. He has concertized as a tenor throughout the United States and abroad, performed with many professional ensembles as both a vocalist and a conductor, and is a featured soloist on recordings produced by Bridge Records and Loft Recordings. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in composition and master’s degrees in music theory and music theory pedagogy at the Eastman School of Music. He is on faculty at DePauw University, where he teaches courses in composition, music theory, musicianship, and orchestration. He has previously taught at Central Connecticut State University, Nazareth College, and the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy.