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ORGAN AUSTRALIAi
ORGANAUSTRALIA
SPRING 2014
A NATIONAL JOURNAL FOR ALL INTERESTED IN THE ORGAN AND ITS MUSIC
12050018_JOH_ECCLESIA_USA_246X360_DIA.indd 1 6/6/12 11:53 AM
Bernies Music Land381 Canterbury Road Ringwood 3134T: 03 9872 5122F: 03 9872 5127
12050018_JOH_ECCLESIA_USA_246X360_DIA.indd 1 6/6/12 11:53 AM
Bernies Music Land381 Canterbury Road Ringwood 3134T: 03 9872 5122F: 03 9872 5127
ORGAN AUSTRALIA1
EDITORChristopher Akehurst 0415 192 929 [email protected] Box 1138, Windsor, Vic. 3181
BUSINESS MANAGERAllan Smith 0419 347 787 [email protected] Box 315, Camberwell, Vic. 3124
STATE CORRESPONDENTSNew South Wales (Hunter District): Gail Orchard 02 4966 4450 [email protected]; ACT: Garth Mansfield 02 6248 6230 [email protected]; Queensland: David Vann 07 3262 7997; South Australia: Mark Joyner 08 8331 2611 [email protected]; Tasmania: Ian Gibbs [email protected]; Victoria: vacant; Western Australia: Bruce Duncan 08 9574 0410.
DESIGNMark Brewster [email protected]
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT AND LISTINGS COORDINATORClea Stapleton [email protected]
PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTIONMBE Elsternwick 03 9532 4396
NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORSOrgan Australia welcomes contributions (including letters to the Editor) but regrets that it is normally unable to pay for articles. Material for publication should be submitted via e-mail to the Editor or to the appropriate State Correspondent as listed above. Photographs should be submitted as high-resolution (preferably at least 400 dpi) JPEG files. Full details for captions and photographic credits should be provided.
Deadlines for all contributions, including print-ready advertising, are 1 February, 1 May, 1 August and 1 November.
ADVERTISINGTo advertise in Organ Australia please contact the Business Manager as above.
ADVERTISING RATES ARE:Outside back cover (colour) $300 Full page (colour) $210Full page (greyscale) $137Half page (greyscale) $84Quarter page (greyscale) $53Less than quarter page (greyscale) pro-rataInserts can be mailed with Organ Australia at $137 (minimum) per A4 sheet. Please contact the Business Manager for artwork specifications and submission details.
SUBSCRIPTIONSThe annual subscription rate within Australia is $50. Overseas subscriptions $70.Subscription enquiries should be directed to the Business Manager as above.
ABOUT ORGAN AUSTRALIA Organ Australia is a national journal published quarterly (Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring) by the Society of Organists (Victoria) Incorporated for members of participating Australian organ societies and individual subscribers. Organ Australia publishes items of national, state and local interest to enable the exchange and sharing of ideas, plans and activities for all who are interested in the organ and its music. It aims to foster a sense of community among organists and organ-music lovers throughout Australia.
The Organ Australia logo shows a map of Australia from which state boundaries have been removed, symbolising a unity within the nation, and six pipes representing each of the states that have some kind of organ society; the whole being encircled by rings which reinforce the concept of a community of organists transcending state and local boundaries.
The Organ Society of Queensland www.organsociety.com.au President – Peter Robinson [email protected] Secretary – Denis Wayper [email protected]
The Hunter District Organ Society President – Gail Orchard [email protected] Secretary – Ian Guy [email protected]
The Organ Society of Sydney Inc. www.omss.org.au President – Hugh Knight [email protected] Secretary – Geof Lloyd [email protected]
The Society of Organists (Victoria) Inc. www.sov.org.au President – Alan Roberts [email protected] Secretary – Alan Roberts [email protected]
The Hobart Organ Society Executive Officers – Mark Tuckett [email protected] Nico Bester [email protected]
The Organ Music Society of Adelaide Incorporated www.organmusicsociety.org.au President – Gregory Crawford [email protected] Secretary – Helen Harrison [email protected]
The Organ Society of Western Australia (Incorporated) www.oswa.org.au President – Dominic Perissinotto [email protected] Secretary – Maree Duncan [email protected]
ACT Organ School and Organs www.wesleycanberra.org.au Contact – Garth Mansfield [email protected]
DiRECTORYPublished by the Society of Organists (Victoria) Incorporated
PO Box 315, Camberwell 3124, Victoria, Australia
ABN 97 690 944 954A 0028223JISSN 1832-8795PP 100004308
Organ Australia
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 2
ORGAN TRAINING IN AUSTRALIA
04 SEEKiNG TOMORROW’S ORGANiSTS Thomas Heywood, President of the Australia and New Zealand College of Organists, describes initiatives for encouraging young people to take up the organ.
08 NEW STUDENT SCHOLARSHiP With an adult scholarship already established, a Victorian regional parish has now created new opportunities for junior organ students.
10 SNAPSHOTS FROM THE ORGAN TRAiNER’S WORLDDavid Clark’s and Mark Quarmby’s students and scholars.
NEWS
13 QLD ORGAN SOCiETY CHANGES PRESiDENTSPeter Robinson takes over from Steven Nisbet, stepping down after 30 years.
15 ORGAN MUSiC THRiVES iN WADominic Perissinotto reviews the state’s organ scene as the WA Organ Society approaches its 50th anniversary.
16 REACHiNG OUT TO NEW AUDiENCESChristopher Trikilis offers a performer’s view of a weekend of live organ music in historic buildings.
FESTIVAL
17 HAARLEM’S 50 YEARSThe Haarlem International Organ Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary this year: a personal account from Christa Rumsey.
PIPE ORGANS
24 BRiSBANE’S CiTY ORGAN RETURNSSplendidly restored, the Henry Willis organ in Brisbane City Hall is again at the centre of the city’s musical life.
28 AN ORGAN iN AUSTRALiA BY THE LATE KEN TiCKELLJohn Maidment describes the organ at St John’s College at the University of Queensland, a fine work by British organ builder Kenneth Tickell who died in July.
ORGANIST PROFILE
31 BETWEEN CONSOLE AND LECTURE HALLBruce Steele, celebrating 30 years as organist of a Melbourne church, can look back on two fulfilling careers.
ORGAN BUILDERS
37 WORK COMPLETED iN FOUR CHURCHES Goldfields Pipe Organs, Victoria.
REVIEWS
40 CONCERT MASTERFelix Hell at the Melbourne Town Hall.
40 CLASSiCAL ENGLiSHThomas Trotter: A Shropshire Idyll.
41 DELiGHTFUL DiSCOVERYVierne: Messe Solennelle. Duruflé: Prélude, Adagio, et Choral Varié sur le Thème de Veni Creator. Langlais: Messe Solennelle. Demessieux: Te Deum.
SPRiNG 2014
CONTENTS
ORGANAUSTRALIA
A national journal for all interested in the organ and its music.Published for subscribers and members of organ societies in Australia by
the Society of Organists (Victoria) Incorporated.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA3
OUR COVERAmid bushland and the sound of birdsong,
Ken Turner of Goldfields Pipe Organs works on a pedalboard on his property in
the Victorian countryside near Ballarat. Ken is believed to be the only organ
builder in Victoria – and perhaps Australia – whose workshop is in the countryside.
See a report on Ken’s recent work on page 37 of this edition of Organ Australia.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY BAILEY
ORGANISTS IN A SECULAR AGEMOST PIPE ORGANS are in churches. If that is stating the obvious, what might not be so obvious is that, given the way western society is moving, this organ-church association has risks for the future of the organ. Fewer people are going to church, therefore fewer people get to hear organ music. Fewer weddings and funerals are in church, therefore fewer people hear organ music even only occasionally. The decline in churchgoing has been going on for several generations at least, but a consequence of that decline only recently apparent everywhere is a growing ignorance of the organ, its music and its traditions. (Though fewer churchgoers is the principal cause of this it’s not the only one. Another is the attitude of some churches that do still manage to attract large youthful congregations and where, as part of evangelistic “outreach”, the pipe organ is being dispensed with in favour of instruments that are supposedly more relevant as an accompaniment to an informal and liturgically formless style of service.)
Pipe organs were not built as museum pieces and if they are to survive someone has to play them. That’s why overcoming this increasing marginalisation of the pipe organ and encouraging a vocation to organ-playing among young people who in their daily life might never hear an organ is a pretty formidable challenge, to say the least. But it’s one that ANZCO, the Australian and New Zealand College of Organists, is confronting head-on, as ANZCO’S president, Thomas Heywood, explains in the lead story of this edition of Organ Australia. That story is part of a report on organ training that also highlights some encouraging developments in the field.
Encouraging young people to learn the organ is not an end in itself. It is not a bee in the bonnet of a minority of pipe-organ enthusiasts. As Thomas Heywood puts it, training a new generation of organists “is part of handing on our culture”. It is a way of making a great cultural tradition that belongs to us all accessible to everyone in the community and of offering everyone with the interest and ability “a means of artistic self-expression that gives
enormous satisfaction to the player and those who hear the music.”
Incidentally, the closure of churches caused by the decline in congregations is a separate though related threat to the preservation of pipe organs. It’s a problem we’ll be looking at in future editions of Organ Australia.
A DIGITAL ORGAN AUSTRALIA?As Organ Australia readers are probably aware, the subscription rate has not changed since the magazine was first published. What has changed are the costs of production. Costs have
gone up, revenue per edition has stayed the same till we now have a situation where Organ Australia is running at a considerable loss.
In order to rebalance costs with revenue, the Society of Organists (Victoria) Inc., publishers of Organ Australia, is taking two steps: firstly to increase the subscription rate within Australia from $44 to $50 a year and secondly to explore various means of distributing the magazine electronically to as many subscribers as possible, with obvious savings in production and postage costs.
If you would be interested in receiving Organ Australia electronically, either as an eBook or pdf (portable document format) or another option, we should be grateful if you would let us know by an email to [email protected].
Christopher AkehurstEditor
EDiTOR’S COLUMN
42 CAROLS FOR CHRiSTMASChristmas Carols for Choir and Organ arranged by June Nixon.
43 FiNELY CRAFTED MASSParish Mass in E by Michael Overbury.
44 POPULAR PiECES BY BACHMartin Setchell’s Bach Transcriptions for Organ.
DEPARTMENTS
01 DiRECTORY03 EDiTOR’S COLUMN30 iNTERMEZZO45 THE ORGAN iN LiTERATURE46 EVENTS DiARY 48 OBiTUARY
AN
THO
NY BA
ILEY
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 4
THERE IS ONE thing that differentiates the pipe organ from the piano or guitar or saxophone or any other musical instrument: its cultural context – the places and circumstances where it can be played. Other instruments can be played more or less anywhere and for any purpose, serious or light. The organ, with its majesty of sound, is associated with occasions of a certain solemnity or gravitas – with ceremonies of state or, particularly, the Church. Take a poll in the street and you are certain to find that most people associate the organ with churches. It is this specific association that, as things stand today, presents a risk for the survival of organs and organ music.
As fewer people go to church fewer people hear organ music. As fewer weddings and funerals are conducted in churches, fewer non-churchgoers hear organ music even occasionally. The result, says Thomas Heywood, Australian national director and founding president of ANZCO, the Australian and New Zealand College of Organists, is a growing ignorance of the organ, its music and its traditions.
This ignorance has been increasing for at least two generations. A journalist in England recently pointed out that in his country people now in their twenties are the children of the first generation that did not go church as a regular habit. These young people are now far distant from the Church – they don’t even think about it, it doesn’t ever swim into their consciousness. The situation in Australia is not that much different, except for being worse for the churches because the tradition of churchgoing never was as strong here.
Since most organs are in churches, people who never go into churches never hear an organ played. “Out of 500 kids,” asks Thomas Heywood, “how many these days have seen a pipe organ? Perhaps 30 or 40.
“Children educated in state schools would, in normal circumstances, never come into contact with the organ. Those in church schools would hear it in chapel services but never when they left school except maybe at an occasional chapel wedding or if they actually went to church.”
It is true that musically gifted children can choose to study the organ at private schools, though the demand varies. It would appear to be much stronger in schools where the organ is at the heart of the school’s spiritual and liturgical life – and the degree of that varies too. Some “nominal” church schools seem to become more nominal by the year.
The situation is not helped by an increasing tendency within churches of an evangelical leaning
ORGAN TRAiNiNG iN AUSTRALiA
“Where are the young players, the great organists of tomorrow, going to come from?”
Christopher Akehurst talks to Thomas Heywood, President of the Australia and New Zealand College of Organists, about ANZCO’s initiatives for
encouraging young people to take up the organ.
THOMAS HEYWOOD: “OUT OF 500 KIDS, HOW MANY THESE DAYS HAVE SEEN A PIPE ORGAN? PERHAPS 30 OR 40.”
ORGAN AUSTRALIA5
to dispense with the pipe organ in favour of some supposedly more relevant form of music in their services. As the evangelical churches tend to be the growing churches, the only ones that attract young people in any numbers, the anomaly arises that in such places even churchgoing young people don’t get the opportunity to hear organ music. An Anglican church near the University of Melbourne, thronged with students, is an example of this.
No knowledge of the organ usually means no incentive to learn it. Where are the young players, the great organists of tomorrow, going to come from?
“The fact that young people are not exposed to organ music the way they once were,” says Thomas, “is reflected in the numbers studying the organ. As I noted in my speech at the launch of ANZCO three years ago, this is not unique to Australia. In
the United States, in 1983, organ students accounted for 1000 of the 41,000 tertiary-level music students across the country. In 1995 they were only 600 out of 83,000. In other words, while overall music enrolments had more than doubled, the number of organ students had nearly halved.”
Finding ways to help young people get to know not only about organ music but about the very existence of the organ is thus a challenge and a necessary preliminary to encouraging them to learn to play it. “Teaching people to play the organ, training a new generation of organists, is not an end in itself,” says Thomas. “It’s part of handing on our culture and offering people a means of artistic self-expression that gives enormous satisfaction to the player and those who hear the music.”
ANZCO has come up with several ways of meeting this challenge. One is devising educational
STUDENTS AT AN ANZCO “ALL STOPS OUT!” EVENT THIS YEAR LEARN THEIR WAY AROUND THE CONSOLE.
PICTURE: V
ICTOR JETTEN
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 6
programmes for primary and secondary schools. “The educational approach was partly suggested by the children themselves. We asked a group of children already interested in the organ, ‘how would you go about getting other children interested?’ They came up with a formula. You make the initial approach in Grade 3 – if they’re going to be interested that’s when you’ll get their attention. You
come back to them in Grade 5 for what educational theorists call ‘reinforcement’. That’s when those who would like to learn the organ will start. By Year 7 they have a considerable knowledge of the organ and its potential in their lives.”
Launched last year, the schools educational programme goes under the title “All Stops Out!” The schools approached, says Thomas, have been “largely cooperative” and “All Stops Out!”, after successful presentations at the Melbourne Town Hall, will soon be presented in many places in Australia and New Zealand. The programmes are conducted by volunteer members of ANZCO – “and if no volunteer is available we will soon be able to offer the school a DVD,” says Thomas, adding that ANZCO intends in time to get to the stage of being able to pay the volunteers.
Thomas says there have been enquiries about running “All Stops Out!” from places as far apart as Bairnsdale in Victoria and Whyalla in South Australia, “though it’s probably too early to tell how
ANZCO APPEAL TO PROMOTE ORGAN TRAiNiNGThe ANZCO Academy Tax Deductible Appeal has been launched with three main objectives: to promote the teaching and learning of the organ; to use pipe organs as cultural assets for the benefit of all; and to operate an Academy to realise this vision. For further details and information about how to contribute, please see the brochure in this edition of Organ Australia or contact ANZCO at [email protected].
LAUNCHING “ALL STOPS OUT!” AT A PRESENTATION IN THE MELBOURNE TOWN HALL.
PICTURE: V
ICTOR JETTEN
ORGAN AUSTRALIA7
successful the venture will be.” One indicator, at least in part, will be the number of students taking organ lessons. But ANZCO is not leaving it at that. It has several other initiatives to attract young people to organ music.
This year it launched MUSOC – the Melbourne University Series of Organ Concerts, which, says Thomas, is “a world-first initiative” to bring organ music to tertiary students. Performers are drawn from the ranks of the new generation of Australian organists (for MUSOC programmes, please see Events Diary in this edition).
Then there’s NextGen, an annual series of concerts given by young organists and aimed at attracting young people. “We try to show that this is not some sort of amateur hour by paying the young performers,” says Thomas. “We hope this encourages them to take their playing seriously.” ANZCO also sponsors, each year, an Australian International Concert Organ Week that incorporates educational events, cultural activities and public concerts.
A trans-Tasman exchange programme for organ scholars was also inaugurated last year. This is giving young organists from Australia and New Zealand the opportunity to play and hear new instruments, to meet other young organists and make contacts with other students, teachers and performers.
In another venture ANZCO has established the
Australasian Pipe Organ Hall of Fame to “honour those who have made a significant contribution to the establishment and development of the instrument in Australia and New Zealand”. This is not simply an exercise in historical awareness, Thomas argues. “Halls of fame for people such as sports heroes encourage young people to look up to the names that are honoured there. By giving musical young people a ‘pantheon’ of great Australian and New Zealand organists and their achievements as a focus of their admiration – and aspiration – we hope to encourage them in their own organ-playing.
“If the new generation of young Australian organists can reawaken public awareness of the pipe organ in the same way organists commemorated in the Hall of Fame did for their generations,” says Thomas, “then perhaps prospects for the organ in Australia are not so bleak after all.”
I’d go further. If ANZCO’s efforts to encourage new students to learn the organ bear fruit, prospects for the survival of the pipe organ in our society are actually rather bright. n
Thomas Heywood is an international concert organist and is on the staff of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. He is Director of Music at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Brighton, Victoria.
For full details of ANZCO educational programmes, forthcoming events and other initiatives, please visit the website www.anzco.org.
Craftsman Organ Pipe MakerMember of the Australian Guild of Master Organ Builders
Bayswater Village LPOPO Box 2047Bayswater Vic 3153
Ph: 0418 374 961email: [email protected] N B Gilley
Tim is pleased to provide the following services:• reeds)• Repair and restoration of existing pipes• Minor on site repair work• Zinc windtrunking• Tuning sleeves
Please do not hesitate to contact him to discuss all your pipe requirements. Tim looks forward to being of service to you in the near future.
ABN 97 356 147 152
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 8
A NEW SCHOLARSHiP FOR YOUNG ORGAN STUDENTS
With an adult scholarship already established, a Victorian country Catholic parish has now created new opportunities for junior organ students.
BY CHRISTOPHER AKEHURST PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRENDON LUKIN
HIGH IN THE ORGAN LOFT AT ST JOSEPH’S, WARRNAMBOOL, VICTORIA, SEVEN OF THE SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS FOR THE CHURCH’S NEWLY ESTABLISHED JUNIOR ORGAN SCHOLARSHIP HAVE THEIR FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE CHURCH’S HISTORIC FINCHAM & HOBDAY ORGAN.
TRAINING ORGANISTS FOR the future is a major priority for all who value the great tradition of organ music. Extending the availability of that training is another. For these reasons, the establishment of a new scholarship for young organ students is to be welcomed – even more so, as it is not a metropolitan venture but extends access to skilled organ training in a regional area.
The scholarship has been set up by a Roman Catholic parish, St Joseph’s in Warrnambool on Victoria’s south coast. Indeed, the ecclesiastical connection is another big advantage of this scholarship. Young organists who can play good
liturgical music are needed all over Australia to maintain and extend a musical tradition in the parishes – and in some places to build it anew. At the risk of being outspoken, I can state from personal experience that this applies especially to Roman Catholic parishes, in too many of which both organ-playing and musical tradition are either inadequate or absent.
St Joseph’s is an imposing church, a large bluestone building designed by the renowned William Wardell, architect of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, and St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne. It has a tower and spire added later that is a landmark
ORGAN AUSTRALIA9
in Warrnambool. Some years ago it was sensitively redecorated inside and a striking modern triptych added as a reredos behind the principal altar. Such a church is made to resound to fine organ music. And it does. St Joseph’s has an excellent organ, built in 1892-93 by Fincham & Hobday, with manuals, 34 speaking stops, seven couplers and tubular-pneumatic action. The organ was restored eight years ago at a cost of $125,000, raised mainly locally.
“We recognise the significance of the organ and believe it is important that the organ be used and appreciated and does not become a museum piece,” wrote St Joseph’s parishioners Bill Quinlan, of the church’s pipe organ committee, and Mary Lancaster in an article prepared for their local diocesan bulletin. Setting up a scholarship is thus a way of converting words into action, and the parish is to be congratulated for its imagination and foresight.
All the more so, as St Joseph’s already had one scholarship established. This is for adults and was set up in 2010. Lessons are funded for two years, during which time students commit to playing for Masses and other services in St Joseph’s. In the third year the commitment continues but lessons are not funded. Anyone can apply – you don’t have to be a parishioner. “Our aim,” wrote the committee in the article quoted above, “is to create an awareness of the beauty and versatility of pipe organ music and ensure there are pipe organists into the future, not only within our parish but in the region as a whole.”
The new St Joseph’s Junior Organ Scholarship got off to an encouraging start. There were nine successful applicants, selected at audition, aged
between seven and ten. The main tutor is Geelong-based Brendon Lukin, a vice-president of the Society of Organists (Victoria) and a tireless worker in the cause of extending opportunities for organ training throughout south-western Victoria and beyond. Brendon is also tutor in the adult scholarship programme at St Joseph’s, in addition to his teaching commitments at Geelong Grammar School, Geelong College, Sacred Heart College and St David’s Uniting Church, in the Geelong suburb of Newtown.
Tuition for the junior scholars follows the Suzuki method, of which Brendon is one of the leading exponents in Australia. In this method of training, classes are held in tandem in order that students may “learn” from the instruction given to fellow students. Brendon is assisted by Sonia Gellert, one of the adult scholarship students and a music student in her final year of Bachelor of Music at the Australian Catholic University. Teaching takes place initially at St Joseph’s Primary School, where a practice organ (funded by the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat Foundation) is installed. The scholarship is for three years, with ongoing assessment of progress.
Recently the nine junior students ascended into the organ loft in St Joseph’s Church to practise for the first time on the Fincham & Hobday organ: an impressive experience and a taste of things to come for them all. They were also able to practise on the classical Johannus electronic organ located in the body of the church.
The opportunities do not end there. Brendon has donated a number of electronic organs with pedal boards that can be used by the students to practise at home.
Organ music and organ training are on the ascendant in Warrnambool. The city already has a pipe-organ competition as part of the Warrnambool Eisteddfod in August. This year, for the first time, it will have is own organ festival. There are several notable pipe organs in Warrnambool churches and their splendid sound will be enjoyed by audiences from far and near. The finale of the Warrnambool Organ Festival will be held on 18 October in St Joseph’s Church. nDonations towards the funding of the St Joseph’s Junior Organ Scholarship are welcome. To donate or for further information, please contact Bill Quinlan on 03 5562 1979 or Mary Lancaster on 03 5562 2464.
BRENDON LUKIN: “A TIRELESS WORKER IN THE CAUSE OF EXTENDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORGAN TRAINING.”
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 10
IF THERE’S ONE thing organ trainers have in common – beyond whatever their differences in temperament, technique or aesthetic taste – it’s enthusiasm.
“I love teaching the organ – the ‘king of instruments’,” says David Clark, who as director of Suzuki organ teacher training for Australasia teaches the future teachers as well as organ students. David directs the biggest organ youth programme in Australia, which is held at Memorial Seven Day Adventist Church in Cooranbong, NSW, in association with the University of Newcastle Conservatorium of Music.
“I’ve had many years’ experience teaching organ in the Hunter area around Newcastle and overseas,” says David, “and I teach all periods of classical organ music. For the past five years I have pioneered the Suzuki approach to teaching organ to young children.
“The organ is the most fascinating and interesting instrument ever created for children – and adults too,” he adds.
It used to be said that you joined the navy to see the world. The same can apply to learning to play the pipe organ. Last year David’s students went on an organ study tour to Europe; this year in spring they’re on an extensive concert tour to the United States.
David is one of those sought-after organ teachers for whom fears about a future supply of organists to keep the art alive are groundless. Not only is he surrounded by students but they share his enthusiasm. Students and teacher communicate to each other a delight in the “king of instruments”.
To illustrate that enthusiasm, David provided Organ Australia with a series of “snapshots” of students learning and performing in various localities and situations.
SNAPSHOTS FROM AN ORGAN TRAiNER’S WORLD
HERE’S TWELVE-YEAR-OLD EMILY THOMPSON AT THE ANNUAL YOUNG ORGANIST’S DAY AT THE SYDNEY TOWN HALL LAST DECEMBER. SHE PLAYED BACH’S GREAT TOCCATA IN F, BWV 540.
YOUNG PERFORMERS AT THE RISING STARS RECITAL IN ST ANDREW’S CATHEDRAL IN SYDNEY LAST JANUARY. ALL ARE SUZUKI ORGAN STUDENTS WITH DAVID CLARK AT COORANBONG AND NEWCASTLE CONSERVATORIUM.
ANOTHER CONCERT – THIS ONE AT THE ADAMSTOWN UNITING CHURCH IN NEWCASTLE IN MARCH. THE CONCERT WAS GIVEN TO RAISE FUNDS FOR HUNTER DISTRICT ORGAN MUSIC SOCIETY SCHOLARSHIPS. EACH YEAR, THE SOCIETY AWARDS SEVERAL SCHOLARSHIPS TO SENIOR AND JUNIOR STUDENTS IN THE HUNTER REGION.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA11
Laurie PiPe Organs PTY LTD
For almost fifty years we have specialised in the tuning & maintenance of pipe organs, providing professional organ
building services to our clients.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you require our services.
Enquiries: Richard Duncan Mobile: 0418 389 218Phone: 03 9752 5961
Fax: 03 9752 6013Email: [email protected]
THREE ORGANISTS IN ONE FAMILY – THE WIGGLESWORTH BROTHERS, DAMIAN, KRISTAN AND RYAN, PLAYING MUSIC ESPECIALLY ARRANGED FOR UP TO SIX HANDS AT ST ANDREW’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, LAST JANUARY. DAVID CLARK COMMENTS: “SIX FEET WOULD BE AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE.”
WHEN YOU START LEARNING THE ORGAN VERY YOUNG, YOU MIGHT NOT TO BE ABLE TO REACH CONSOLE AND PEDALS DESIGNED FOR AN ADULT PLAYER. PAUL BUTOV, AGED SIX, SHOWS HOW THIS CAN BE RECTIFIED. DAVID CLARK (PICTURED ON THE LEFT) EXPLAINS: “VERY YOUNG ORGAN STUDENTS HAVE LOW BENCHES FOR THE PEDALS, AS WELL AS SPECIALLY
ADJUSTABLE BENCHES AND PEDAL ATTACHMENTS TO PLAY ON PEDALS ALONE OR ON MANUALS AND PEDALS TOGETHER. THE PEDAL BOARD IS IDEALLY SUITED TO YOUNG CHILDREN AS IT IS SUCH A LARGE ‘KEYBOARD’. STUDENTS EASILY LEARN GROSS MOTOR MOVEMENTS AND SKILLS WHICH ARE LATER TRANSFERRED TO THE MANUALS.”
SCOTT THOMPSON RECHARGING THE BATTERIES AFTER A NINE-HOUR MARATHON OF LESSONS AND PRACTICE AT THE ORGAN BOOT CAMP AT OBERON IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS LAST JULY. n
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 12
A NUMBER OF churches in Australia with well established organ and choral traditions have an organ scholar as part of their musical establishment. Most of these churches (with at least one notable exception, St Matthew’s in Albury) are in the capital cities. The scholar enjoys the benefits of practical church experience and the advice and tuition of an organist and teacher, often with a distinguished reputation – such as Mark Quarmby. Several of Mark’s pupils have themselves gone on to become organists of repute.
Mark, who took his degree in music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying organ with Norman Johnston and piano with Marjorie Hesse, teaches organ, piano and musicianship in the St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir School (he was assistant organist at the cathedral for twenty years), at St Patrick’s College, Strathfield and privately.
Mark is now Director of Music at St Stephen’s Uniting Church in Macquarie Street, Sydney. This is a church with a tradition of organ scholars. There have been two in Mark’s time. The first was David Tagg, organ scholar from 2009 until September last year and now the organ scholar at Christ Church St Laurence in Sydney. The current organ scholar
at St Stephen’s is Joshua Ryan, who is in his first year of a B.Mus degree in organ at the Sydney Conservatorium.
“The scholar’s role during my time at St Stephen’s,” Mark told Organ Australia, “has been to accompany half of each service. This includes preparing preludes, postludes, hymns and anthems plus playing recitals.” The scholars also contribute to the St Stephen’s Friday music recital series (see Events Diary in this edition).
Among Mark’s past organ scholars are Edwin Taylor, scholar in 2007 before himself going to Christ Church St Laurence. He is now organist of St Paul’s Anglican Church in the Sydney suburb of Burwood. Mark’s 2008 scholar was Gavin Ward, who left to be ordained.
In addition to his teaching and his work at St Stephen’s, Mark is a regular recitalist and recording artist for CD, radio, television and film. He is a director of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia.
Mark cares deeply about the future of organ music in Australia and in every aspect of his work is one of those who are making an invaluable contribution to ensuring its future. n
MARK QUARMBY’S ORGAN SCHOLARSThe experience acquired by an organ scholar is an indispensable element
in the training of an accomplished organist.
LEFT: JOSHUA RYAN, ORGAN SCHOLAR AT ST STEPHEN’S UNITING CHURCH IN SYDNEY AND PUPIL OF MARK QUARMBY.RIGHT: DAVID TAGG, FORMER ORGAN SCHOLAR AT ST STEPHEN’S UNITING CHURCH IN SYDNEY.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA13
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS can be quite lacklustre affairs with the office-bearers struggling to get a quorum present. Indeed, a lot of “creative” thinking is often required to attract members to turn up at all. So it was all the more gratifying that there was a record attendance when the Organ Society of Queensland held its 2014 AGM on Saturday morning, 26 July, at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane.
Peter Robinson, acting President at the time, announced to the meeting that long-serving President Dr Steven Nisbet was standing down after 30 years. However he indicated that Steven would be happy to remain on the committee without any specific portfolio.
The acting President reported that the Society hosted three major recitals over the prior twelve months. The first was at St Paul’s Presbyterian Church at Spring Hill where five society members played at the Church’s anniversary recital and were joined by three young organ students. St Paul’s is home to a fine Hill organ.
The second recital was at the Bethesda Lutheran Church at Beenleigh where Christopher Wrench played a superb recital to a packed church to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the installation of the Smenge organ in the church. The final recital was with noted British organist John Keys at St Andrew’s Uniting Church in Brisbane.
Members were told that the Brisbane City Council Society had asked for the Society’s views on the management and use of the recommissioned Father Willis organ in Brisbane City Hall (see report on page 24 of this edition). The Society was also asked to provide ideas for a series of opening concerts.
The meeting elected new office-bearers for the year. Peter Robinson was elected President (see his message on page 14). Denis Wayper was elected Secretary and Jenny Summerson Treasurer. Steven Nisbet, Bob Guthrie, Ross Windsor and Garry Smith were elected to the committee.
After the meeting members and guests enjoyed a short recital by the newly appointed cathedral organist, Andrej Knouznetsov. The programme was Chorale Partita on Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig, BWV 768 by J. S. Bach; “Guadeamus in loci pace” by contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan; Canzona, from Organ Sonata in C minor by Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) and Toccata and Fugue in G, “The Wanderer” by Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918).
The recital was followed by a luncheon reception to give Society members the opportunity to meet Andrej, who has been an organ scholar in England at Salisbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. He is only the sixth permanent organist of St John’s and follows in the distinguished tradition of George Sampson and Robert Boughen. n
RECORD ATTENDANCE AT ORGAN SOCiETY OF QUEENSLAND’S AGM
NEWS
BY DAVID VANN
ORGAN SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP BRINGS BENEFITSWhether you’re an organist, an organ student or simply an admirer of the music and culture of the “king of instruments”, you’ll find there are distinct advantages in joining one of Australia’s organ societies.
Societies offer a range of benefits to their members, such as concessions for concerts given by international and Australian celebrity organists and organised visits to see and play historic and heritage organs sometimes not generally accessible.
For details of the organ society in your state please refer to the Directory on page 1 of this issue.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 14
I AM HONOURED to have been elected President of the Organ Society of Queensland but at the same time a little daunted by the prospect, particularly as I succeed Dr Steven Nisbet who has been at the helm for most of the past 30 years. The OSQ owes a great deal to Steven for his enthusiastic and long-term service and I wish publicly to record our gratitude to him
I have inherited a healthy organisation that is financially sound and I was heartened by both the attendance and the active participation of the members at our AGM. Several priorities were identified and these I will pursue. The two major issues raised were “succession planning” – how do we get more and more “young blood” onto the organ bench? – and regional involvement, in other words, the inclusion of state centres other than Brisbane in our activities. These issues are probably common to other societies that subscribe to Organ Australia, so I won’t expand on them here, but hope in the future to have some progress to report. I am equally sure these are going to present challenges and that the problems involved are not going to be solved overnight; but I am going to try my hardest to bring a solution about.
The most notable recent organ event in Brisbane was the re-commissioning of the restored
Father Willis Organ in the Brisbane City Hall. Pierce Pipe Organs deserve acknowledgement for a job exceedingly well done. The organ sounds fantastic and to quote Eduarda van Klinken, one of the four performers in the opening concert series: “The Grand Old
Dame is Back” – and what an entrance!The Organ Society of Queensland has been
approached by the Brisbane City Council for advice on how to manage the City Hall Organ in the future. We have made a lengthy submission and I hope to have the OSQ involved as an active party in the organ’s future. The Lord Mayor made some announcements at the opening concert; however, we understand nothing yet has happened as there has been insufficient time for follow-up to those announcements to take place. However, the organ community can rest assured that our aim is to hear it, use it and play it! n
This is an edited version of Peter Robinson’s presidential message to the Organ Society of Queensland.
ORGAN SOCiETY OF QUEENSLAND:
THE NEW PRESiDENT WRiTES:
ORGAN AUSTRALIA15
THE ORGAN SOCIETY of Western Australia is on a countdown to 2016, when we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the society’s founding. We are already looking at how best to mark the occasion, with ideas for concerts, dinners, and a history of both the society and the state’s organs in the works. There will be many people to thank, whose contributions, great and small, have made the Western Australian organ scene dynamic and exciting, for students, amateurs, professionals and listeners.
Our membership of around 100 comes from many different walks of life, with interests as diverse as our backgrounds. The committee recognises this by planning a series of events that covers social activities, performance opportunities, visits to organs and the chance to hear organs played in concert by young organ students and local and visiting professional organists. We have a continually evolving Young Organist Programme, with a focus on planning events specifically designed to meet the needs of this age group.
Numerous Western Australia schools have active organ programmes, with this year’s pipe organ section of the Fremantle Eisteddfod attracting competitors from five schools (Christ Church Grammar School, Guildford Grammar School, John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School, Perth College and Trinity College). Some performed in our Organ With Friends concert, a
forum for them to play alongside singers and instrumentalists.
Our latest event was the three-day “Organ Retreat” held from Friday to Sunday on the first weekend of September at Australia’s only monastic town, New Norcia, an hour and a half north of Perth. The New Norcia Abbey Church contains an organ by Albert Moser of Munich, built in 1922 and installed in 1923 (see “From Munich for a Monastic Choir”, Organ Australia, Winter 2014). While the organ is used every week for Masses, there are few opportunities for the public to enjoy extended access to listen to the instrument. The “retreat” provided its dedicated audience
with a thorough exploration of both this instrument and the smaller organ in the Monastery Chapel.
Most of the major churches around Perth host regular organ concerts, choral societies often use organ accompaniment, while the theatre organ world is also a hive of activity. A visit to the OSWA website (www.oswa.org.au) will show you the extent to which the organ is used in schools, the two cathedrals, Perth city churches, the Fremantle basilica and churches outside the Perth central district and further afield across the state.
That so much is happening in Western Australia is indicative of a thriving state, with a population keen to experience and enjoy these myriad offerings of organ music.
Dominic Perissinotto is President of the Organ Society of Western Australia.
WESTERN AUSTRALiA’S ORGAN SOCiETY LOOKS FORWARD TO 50TH ANNiVERSARY
A round of celebrations is already being planned for the anniversary in 2016, writes Dominic Perissinotto.
DOMINIC PERISSINOTTO, PRESIDENT OF THE ORGAN SOCIETY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, IN ST PATRICK’S BASILICA, FREMANTLE, WHERE HE IS ORGANIST
AND DIRECTOR OF MUSIC.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 16
THE CITY OF Melbourne has once again opened its doors to the public. The annual “Open House” means just that. Doors of historic and otherwise notable buildings not normally open to the public welcome visitors; doors that are regularly open but that we might take for granted or not get around to visiting make a special effort to welcome us in. And this year, in many places, the grand sound of the “King of Instruments” was joyfully heard by tens of thousands of visitors.
Melbourne Open House, held this year on the weekend of 26 and 27 July, was a free and in many cases rare opportunity for the public to discover a hidden wealth of architecture, engineering and history. Around 100 buildings opened their doors – most of them in the CBD but also this year in inner suburbs such as Carlton, Docklands, South Melbourne, Prahran and Richmond. Among the wide range of buildings on display – each identifiable by a welcoming banner bearing the words “I’m Open” – were a number of churches and the Melbourne Town Hall (see below), Parliament House, the long-shuttered ballroom of Flinders Street Station, Spencer Street electricity substation, the Supreme Court, the East Melbourne Synagogue, Hamer Hall, the Arts Centre and that monument to 1920s Art Deco, the Manchester Unity Building.
For Melbourne’s organists and for organ-music lovers, this year’s Open House was an opportunity not to be missed. At least two dozen organists demonstrated their musical talents by providing live organ music across both days in four grand buildings: the Melbourne Town Hall, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Scots’ Church and St Michael’s Church. Each of these buildings is of great importance to Melbourne’s architectural heritage; each contains a large pipe organ located in an impressive architectural space that displays the organ to its best advantage.
To hear the organ played in these majestic surroundings adds significantly to the experience for visitors and to their appreciation of the instrument. No longer does the organ appear as a static object as though it were an exhibit in a museum. It comes
alive – a functioning vibrant entity from which wave after wave of thrilling, glorious sound pours forth. There is a human dimension too: while listening to the music you can in many instances see the performers plying their craft. In a time when so much music is recorded – indeed when most people only ever hear
recorded music – it is an enormous advantage for the organ to be shown off in this way. As an organist, I believe that live organ-playing in public spaces does much for the future of the organ, its players and music, by exposing these great instruments to a wider range of listeners who would normally encounter organ music only infrequently.
In fact, a personal highlight of the Open House was the interaction between performer and attendees – the fascination felt by visitors young and old in being right up close to the performers and instruments; the satisfaction the organist feels in “performing” to a visible, responsive, audience. People come up to you with questions and comments and you are right there to answer them. No greater publicity can the instrument have than opportunities such as this in engaging with the wider community.
It would be good to see the amount of live organ music on display increase in future years for Melbourne Open House – perhaps in other city churches which may open their doors for this intriguing weekend, and especially at the Arts Centre, when a decision must soon to be made about returning a pipe organ to its rightful prominence on the stage of Hamer Hall. nChristopher Trikilis is Organist and Director of Music at St Patrick’s Church, Mentone, Victoria.
ORGAN MUSiC CHARMS AUDiENCES AT MELBOURNE’S “OPEN HOUSE”
Christopher Trikilis offers a performer’s view of a weekend of live organ music in historic settings.
CHRISTOPHER TRIKILIS: “AS AN ORGANIST, I BELIEVE THAT LIVE ORGAN-PLAYING IN PUBLIC SPACES DOES MUCH FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ORGAN … BY EXPOSING THESE GREAT INSTRUMENTS TO A WIDER RANGE OF LISTENERS WHO WOULD NORMALLY ENCOUNTER ORGAN MUSIC ONLY INFREQUENTLY.”
ORGAN AUSTRALIA17
WHEN THE HAARLEM festival began, it started as an Improvisation Contest. Because of its success and potential it was soon expanded into a three-week event which included the improvisation competition as well as courses and lectures – and excursions to the many beautiful Dutch instruments in the vicinity (everything is fairly close by in the Netherlands). The Haarlem Summer Academy began as an annual three-week event, later became biannual and was shortened to two weeks. Overall, despite many changes over the past 60 years, its outline and ideals remained basically the same.
Of course by now organ festivals are nothing uncommon (we have enjoyed quite a few in Australia over the years), but when Haarlem began it was the only festival of its kind. Its teachers were in the forefront of developments in the organ world. The famous “Haarlem Trio” – Anton Heiller, Marie-Claire Alain and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini – plus legendary harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, and the great improvisers Cor Kee and his son Piet Kee, were all involved as teachers and performers for many years. Students flocked to Haarlem from throughout Europe and all over the world, especially from the United States, but also from Australia and New Zealand. Over the last few years student numbers from Asia have increased greatly. This year 110 participants from 30 countries took part. Given its illustrious history, it is not surprising that the Haarlem Festival sought to present something very special to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The instrument which has served as a centrepiece for most of the courses is the wonderful 1738 Christian Müller organ at the Grote of St Bavo church. This instrument – which belongs to the
city of Haarlem (not the church) and bears its coat of arms – is visually perhaps the most spectacular organ in the world. The massive case, filling the entire upper western wall of a big building, is three or four times as tall as the average church organ yet it still seems to float weightlessly. A number of other instruments around Haarlem, including a romantic-style instrument by Cavaillé-Coll at the Philharmonie Concert Hall, are also used for classes and concerts. Coinciding with this festival, other Dutch cities join in with organ concerts, resulting in
HAARLEM’S 50 YEARSThe renowned Haarlem International Organ Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. Christa Rumsey was there and offers this personal
account of a memorable event.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTA RUMSEY
THE 1738 CHRISTIAN MÜLLER ORGAN AT THE GROTE OF ST BAVO CHURCH IN HAARLEM, NETHERLANDS. “THE MASSIVE CASE … SEEMS TO FLOAT WEIGHTLESSLY,” WRITES CHRISTA RUMSEY.
FESTIVALS
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 18
a rich nationwide tapestry of organ events. And as many Dutch churches have beautiful carillons, the carillonneurs can’t be left out. On most days they presented morning and early evening recitals in the spires, the bells echoing around the old town.
I was encouraged by my old friend Peter Planyavsky, Viennese organist, and many years ago fellow Heiller student, to come to Haarlem this year. It was an anniversary for us as well: we both first attended as students 50 years ago, in 1964 (and then again the following year). He has returned to the festival many times since then and is involved on quite another level now: as a teacher of improvisation and recitalist. For me, it was too tempting – I decided to make the trip. I chose the first week of the festival, so this article will deal with only the first half of the event.
This landmark festival took place this year between 12 and 26 July. I arrived a couple of days
after the grand opening day (the Haarlem Organ Day, when many concerts took place in various Haarlem churches), but in time for the first round of the Improvisation Contest which was held at the St Bavo church. Eight competitors from Holland, Germany, France, Denmark and the United States competed. Viennese improvisation master Hans Haselböck supplied two themes. (He, many years ago, had won the Haarlem “Silver Tulip” – the trophy for the first prize of the Improvisation Contest – three times in a row. By doing so, he was allowed to keep it – otherwise it has to be handed over to the next winner.) Hans Haselböck provided a stately, song-like theme and a contrasting lively one, and the themes were to be used in the form Theme, Variations and Fugue. It is worth noting that the competition is “blind” as far as the jury goes; they do not know who is playing. The large audience could see the performers (and stop-pullers) on various
THE FOUR FINALISTS IN THE IMPROVISATION CONTEST: ON THE LEFT IS DAVID CASSAN, SECOND FROM LEFT LUKAS GRIMM.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA19
video screens, but had to guess their identity from a list of eight names and tiny photographs in the programme booklet.
We heard some very interesting and also beautiful movements, though one thing not very much in evidence was the improvising of a fugue. Some contestants just ignored that instruction, others paid lip service to it by doing a little fugato which after the second fugal entry petered out into less tricky texture. Improvising a fugue is a tall order, of course (anyone who has tried even to write one knows that) yet there are stories of improvised fugues which have included inversions, augmentation, stretti – the stuff that legends are made of. I followed the eight players intently, tried to guess who each contestant was, and gave each a tick, or two ticks or no tick at all, hoping that my choice would appear in the final round.
I should perhaps add how fascinating I
found the whole business of stop-pulling for an improvisation recital. As a student I had observed Anton Heiller improvising on many occasions, but only ever doing all stop changes himself. For me, the question was this: how can stop-pullers prepare registrations in advance, seeing that the very nature of an improvisation is that nobody knows what will be played next? On the other hand, on an organ like that in St Bavo, most of the stop knobs are completely out of reach of the player and there are no registration aids of any kind, so somebody else needs to operate the stop knobs!
The players were given an hour to study their chosen theme (without a keyboard to try things out). They designed a basic plan for the overall shape of the improvisation and with it an outline for registrations for each major section. Just before playing, at the console, this outline was given to the two stop-pullers (one on each side) with brief
LEFT CHRISTA RUMSEY AT THE ST BAVO CONSOLE WITH PETER PLANYAVSKY. “I TOOK ALONG BACH’S G MAJOR FANTASIA, THE WORK I HAD PLAYED THERE IN 1965 AT THE FESTIVAL’S CLOSING RECITAL.” RIGHT LUIGI FERDINANDO TAGLIAVINI GIVING A MASTERCLASS AT ST BAVO.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 20
instructions. After that, nods, meaningful looks and verbal commands while playing filled in the gaps. Needless to say this made for an exciting time and some frantic activity in the organ loft. The stop-pullers have to be on top of their game and know the instrument really well.
I did not attend the second round, which was held on the Cavaillé-Coll organ at Haarlem’s Philharmonie Concert Hall. All eight contestants played again, but this time quite different abilities were tested. I understand that an electronic tape played various sound effects at random moments and the improviser had to respond to these sounds by matching improvisations. The audience also was given ever-changing computer-generated images on a screen to accompany the music. I heard later that many people found the result somewhat too avant-garde and, most of all, too loud. I believe the audience started leaving after the second contestant and by the time the eighth played not many were left.
From the first two rounds four contestants were chosen (and yes, each of them had received
at least one tick from me and my two-tick player was there as well) to compete in the final round. St Bavo was packed for this concert. The theme was supplied by Dutchman Louis Andriessen, member of a well-known Dutch family of musicians and accomplished composer himself. He gave not just a melody, but the first fourteen bars of a started piece, to be continued. The instructions were: “One single bar can be used as an ‘idée fixe’” and “Do not avoid the ‘grandeur’ of a D major fortissimo”. The performers found it quite easy to select an “idée fixe” from the material provided and took the thematic material through all manner of emotions, textures and dynamic levels. Some were more successful in making the organ sound really good than others: the art of registration is a very delicate one. For my taste there generally was rather too much fast and furious rushing (showing off?) and not enough sensitivity and structure. But it was fun waiting for that “grandiose” D major triad somewhere among those mostly contemporary sounds and all but one player managed to include that.
I picked my favourite among the four finalists
THE TRANSEPT ORGAN IN THE NIEUWE KERK, AMSTERDAM. THE MAIN ORGAN IN PIETERS KERK, LEIDEN: “ALL IN DARK BLUE AND GOLD, WITH BEAUTIFUL WINGED DOORS ON BOTH CASES.”
ORGAN AUSTRALIA21
quite easily and we all had the opportunity to chat about our choice and compare notes once the international jury had taken off to discuss the verdict. I was pleased that my colleague Peter Planyavsky agreed with me most fervently – he is an improviser himself, so he should know. When the verdict came, we were happy: the winner was “our man”, Frenchman David Cassan. The Audience Prize went to German Lukas Grimm, my second choice. The evening closed with speeches, bouquets of flowers and photos over glasses of wine and cups of coffee (yes, in the church. Most Dutch churches serve food and drink in church; some of them have actual small cafés in a little nook somewhere – how civilised is that?).
Organ recitals are given on various instruments around Haarlem for the duration of the two weeks. It is customary for all the teachers to present a recital. This year the number of visitors was so large, that “duo” recitals were planned, so that they could all be accommodated. In each of these concerts two performers would share the programme, each playing one half of the concert. The special Jubilee Organ Recital was shared between Dutchman Ton Koopman and Olivier Latry from Paris. There was standing room only – and St Bavo is a big church – and the concert was broadcast live on Dutch Radio 4.
We arrived well before the 8.15pm start and only just managed a seat on the side. Ton Koopman played Bach (C. P. E. and J. S.) and in the second
half Latry started with Alain’s Litanies and finished with the entire Ascension Suite by Messiaen. The St Bavo organ, though an eighteenth-century instrument, was, many years ago, not restored back to its original state, but became a more eclectic instrument so that it can be used for later repertoire. The generous acoustics help as well. I found the Messiaen very inspiring. I was lucky enough to be able to spend a short time playing this lovely instrument myself (Peter Planyavsky sacrificed some of his practice time to give me this treat). I took along Bach’s G Major Fantasia, the work I had played there in 1965 at the festival’s closing recital.
The most illustrious teacher and player among the visitors was Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini. An important figure at Haarlem ST. LAURENTS KERK, ALKMAAR: THE MAIN ORGAN.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 22
festivals during the early 1960s, he returned after an absence of 37 years to take part in this special festival. He is 85 now, the sole survivor from amongst the Haarlem “greats” of the past; but still teaching a course and giving a recital. We heard him in the lovely Nieuwe Kerk in one of inner Haarlem’s quaint old streets, together with Michael Radulescu from Vienna. It was a beautiful recital of early Italian music, Buxtehude and Bach, despite the fact that the organ needed to receive first aid during Tagliavini’s half due to a cipher. Again, the church full, and the coffee/tea/wine and juice bar open. This helped us greatly while the organ builders were busy inside the instrument.
At the St Bavo church again to hear another duo: Peter Planyavsky from Vienna and Zsigmond Szathmáry (Hungary/Germany). The former played Mendelssohn, Heiller and an improvisation, the latter J.A. Reincken, Liszt, his own Lacrimoso II (with electronic tape) and an avant-garde improvisation which coaxed very unusual sounds from the stately instrument.
On the weekend between festival weeks buses took participants on organ excursions to a number of other cities. On Saturday (I did not attend) everybody went off to Utrecht. The first events took place at the Nicolaikerk (Marcussen organ of 1956): a lecture by Christoff Wolf; an Organ Trio and a recital of twentieth-century organ music. Utrecht Cathedral was next: organ and percussion concert.
On Sunday (I joined in) we headed first for Amsterdam. To begin the day, a beautiful church service in the Westerkerk, rich in organ music and
with lots of hymn-singing from the Genevan psalter. It was to be a festive, joyful service, but ended up meditative and introspective as news of the Malaysia Airlines disaster had just shocked Holland.
After the service everybody rushed across to the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam. Bernard Winsemius played both the wonderful main organ (1655 by H. W. Schonat, 1673 by Jacobus van Hagerbeer, then many subsequent alterations over the centuries until finally in 1981 a Marcussen restoration that brought it back to its 1673 state) and the equally beautiful transept organ (Hagerbeer 1651, various alterations, restored by Flentrop in 1989). Bernard Winsemius improvised a French Suite (historical style) on the small organ, and on the large organ we heard Sweelinck, Bach and an improvisation on a psalm tune.
Then the buses took us to Leiden, a beautiful small town with picturesque canals flowing alongside rows of tightly packed narrow houses with decorative gables. We walked through the streets to the Waalse Kerk (the Walloon church) where we saw and heard a much more modest but very
CONSOLE OF THE 1511 “SWALLOW’S NEST” TRANSEPT ORGAN IN ST LAURENTS KERK, ALKMAAR. THE BOTTOM KEYBOARD IS ORIGINAL WITH RE-SURFACED KEYS.
interesting instrument in quite a small church (Peter van Dijk introduced and demonstrated the organ and played a short recital). For me the highlight of the day was the Pieterskerk in Leiden. It features two organs: the romantic style Thomas Hill organ (we heard Mendelssohn) and, adorning the western wall, the stunning van Hagerbeer organ (1643 with a 1998 restoration by Verschueren). Impressive and elegant, all in dark blue and gold, with beautiful winged doors on both cases, it is a joy to the eye. The ears do not miss out either – we heard Leo van Doeselaar play early English music by Peter Philips, Thomas Tomkins, William Byrd, John Bull and Henry Purcell – stunning.
Unfortunately I was no longer in Haarlem for the festival concert at the famous Grote of St Laurents Kerk in Alkmaar. To make up for that we went to Alkmaar under our own steam on Friday 18 July. It had to be a Friday, for the traditional Cheese Market takes place on that day and, as one obviously can’t live by cheese alone, there has to be an organ recital nearby. St Laurents holds one at 12 noon and another one at 1pm. The cheese market was fun, but crowded with tourists like ourselves. Burly lads in straw hats with fluttering ribbons carried quaint stretchers loaded with big cheese wheels to and from the antique weighing house while stalls all around were selling flowers, tulip bulbs, souvenirs, pickled herrings and all kinds of other delights. Pieter van Dijk, organist at St. Laurents, was not the recitalist that day, but an excellent young South Korean player, Hyewon Woo, did a wonderful job. She played both on the “swallow’s nest” choir organ of 1511 (and beautifully restored) and the main organ (Hagerbeer 1645, restored in 1987 by Flentrop). Pieter van Dijk was at the concert and offered to take us up to the console of both organs between the two recitals. On the 1511 instrument the bottom keyboard is still original, just re-surfaced keys – fancy a keyboard that has been used for over 500 years! I was amazed at how little room there is in that swallow’s nest, and on the stairs to get up there – no room for a stop puller here! The console of the large organ has changed quite a bit since I played there in 1964 and looks splendid.
Other events I attended were a lecture by Masaaki Suzuki on the relationship between Bach’s cantatas and his organ music and another by the learned and much published Norwegian Jon Laukvik on freedom and rubato in organ music. I was invited to attend a reception for the launch of the commemorative book The Haarlem Essays.* It is a beautiful volume with contributions by a number of people associated with Haarlem and its organs and the festival over its long history. I was pleased that my “Haarlem Trio” photograph (it appears on page 27 of this year’s Winter Edition of Organ Australia) is included in this volume and even got a special mention in the launching speech, as the festival organisers went to the trouble of tracking down the very bus, operated by Trio Tours, which is shown in the photograph behind Heiller, Marie-Claire Alain and Tagliavini. It still exists and I believe the organisers considered hiring it for the festival excursion, just for the fun of it.
With almost a week of festival still to come, I had to leave Haarlem to return home. It had been a splendid time. To add to our enjoyment, the weather had been fantastic – it could have been an Australian summer! Blue skies, sunshine and quite hot (we made it to 32 degrees on one day). Luckily, Haarlem has a lovely, wide, sandy swimming beach, Zandvoort, just a bus ride away. We spent a couple of evenings there, admiring beautiful sunsets, and enjoyed a couple of swims in the North Sea, just like in 1964, when all of us young Heiller students flocked there between concerts and classes.
The Haarlem Festival will take place again in two years’ time. For anyone who wants two weeks of wonderful organs and organ music, the excitement of a major competition, possibly a course or a lecture or two, with a pealing of bells in the towers while you’re sipping a coffee in a café on a picturesque old town square, maybe a little canal cruise and the occasional windmill, visits to various museums, world-class art galleries, cheese markets – Haarlem is the place! n
* The Haarlem Essays will be reviewed in this year’s Summer Edition of Organ Australia.
ORGAN AUSTRALiA23
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 24
BRISBANE CITY HALL is one of the great buildings of Australian architecture of the 1920s. Its tall clocktower stands 91 metres over the city’s central King George Square. Inside, the grand auditorium, modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, is dominated by the organ of 4600 pipes. Built in Liverpool, England, in 1892 by Henry Willis and Sons, the organ was housed in the concert hall of the Brisbane Exhibition Building until moved to the new City Hall in 1927.
But this imposing civic monument had a flaw.
It was built – not on sand like the foolish man’s house in the Gospels, but on a swamp. Over the years rising damp had caused considerable damage to the foundations and this damage was spreading throughout the building. Some parts of the building were deemed unsafe and were declared out of bounds.
In 2007, with anxiety arising over the City Hall’s worsening state, a consultants’ report recommended that the building be closed and thorough repairs and
CONCERTS BRiNG BRiSBANE’S CiTY ORGAN BACK TO LiFE
Splendidly restored, like the auditorium in which it stands, the Henry Willis organ in Brisbane City Hall is again at the centre of the city’s musical life.
THE GRAND AUDITORIUM IN THE BRISBANE CITY HALL IS MODELLED ON THE PANTHEON IN ROME AND DOMINATED BY THE 1892 HENRY WILLIS ORGAN OF 4600 PIPES.
BY DAVID VANN
PIPE ORGANS
ORGAN AUSTRALIA25
restoration carried out. These would cost some $215 million, but the alternative might have had to be demolition.
Part of the restoration required the removal of the floor in the auditorium to allow workers access to the foundations. This in turn required the dismantling and removal of the Father Henry organ. As there was no space on site to store the five-manual instrument, the Brisbane City Council made available an air-conditioned building where the organ could be placed in safe storage and a contractor given complete access for restoration work on the organ itself. An organ concert held on 14 November 2009 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the organ’s installation was the last time the instrument would be heard for nearly five years.
Brisbane organ builder Simon Pierce was entrusted with the removal of the instrument,
its restoration and finally its re-installation into City Hall. As consultant the council appointed John Maidment OAM, chairman of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia.
The restoration of the auditorium was completed early last year and the City Hall reopened on 6 April. By mid-July the organ too was fully restored. The first of a series of opening concerts began at 11.30am on Sunday 10 August and lasted more than three hours. Simon Pierce is to be commended that there were no teething problems on opening day and a packed auditorium was able to enjoy the sound of the organ again.
At the start of the concert the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Cr Graham Quirk, thanked the invited guests and the general audience for their attendance but announced that he was
abandoning the long tradition of Brisbane having a city organist. Instead there would be a panel of organists and an organ committee that would meet every six months.
Master of ceremonies was Professor Peter Roennnfeldt, who is to be commended for his research on the organ and Brisbane’s past city organists and for his introduction of the recitalists and the music.
Two large TV monitors at the sides of the stage gave the audience an up-close view of the playing. The images came from a camera angled at the pedals on one side and towards the manuals on the other side. The result was an intimacy with the playing and the organists’ technique.
The first player at the concert was the newly appointed organist of St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane, Andrej Knouznetsov, who opened with
BRISBANE CITY HALL, BEGUN IN 1920, TOOK SOME SEVEN YEARS TO BUILD AND IS ONE OF THE GREAT MONUMENTS OF AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN THE WARS.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 26
the rousing piece Coronation March 1953, “Orb and Sceptre” by Sir William Walton (1902-1983), arr. Sir William McKie (1901-1984).
For his first bracket Andrew chose two further items: Percy Whitlock (1903-1946), To Phoebe and Toccata and Fugue in G, “The Wanderer” by Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918). Members of the audience familiar with the organ immediately noticed the brightness of the instrument and the brilliance and sharpness of the reeds.
The second player at the event, noted recitalist Thomas Heywood of Melbourne, played the following in his first segment:
Louis Vierne (1870-1937): “Carillon de Westminster” from Pièces de Fantaisie – Troisième suite, Op. 54 No. 6
Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849), transcribed by William Thomas Best (1826-1897): Polonaise in A major [‘Military’ Polonaise], Op. 40 No. 1
Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), trans. Thomas Heywood (b. 1974): Vocalise from Fourteen Songs, Op. 34 No. 14
Edwin Henry Lemare (1865-1934): Concert Fantasia – Improvisation upon The Sailor’s Hornpipe, British Grenadiers and Rule, Britannia! Op. 91
After a short interval, Andrej returned to the console to present his second bracket:
Percy Whitlock (1903-1946): Plymouth Suite – I. Allegro risoluto – II. Lantana – III. Chanty – IV. Salix – V. Toccata
Scottish melody, arr. Edwin Henry Lemare: “Loch Lomond”;
Jean Langlais (1907-1991): “Feux d’artifice” (Fireworks), from Rosace;
Scottish melody, arr. Edwin Henry Lemare: “Auld Lang Syne”.
To conclude the concert and have the organ officially declared open and a worthy asset to the musical life of Brisbane, Thomas Heywood returned to present:
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), trans. Thomas Heywood: Prelude to Act I from La Traviata;
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), edited by Thomas Heywood: Allegro maestoso [First movement] from
Sonata for Organ [in G major], op. 28;
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (1836-1891), trans. Thomas Heywood: Divertissement – Variation dansée (Pizzicati) from the ballet Sylvia, Act III No. 20
Felix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911), edited by Thomas Heywood: Final [3rd movement] from First Sonata – Symphony for Organ, op. 42 [New Edition (1898)];
Johann Strauss, Jnr (1825-1899), trans. Thomas Heywood: Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, Op. 214.
As an encore for an audience obviously wanting to hear more even after three hours, Thomas played the Finale from the Overture to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868), trans. Edwin Henry Lemare.
These were two wonderful concerts and a fitting reintroduction of the City Hall organ to the musical life of Brisbane.
If I could add a final comment, I wonder if the City Council could have been a little more visionary and included in the opening concert series a recitalist from overseas, of international standard, to play an international recital that would have announced to the world that Brisbane was the home of a Willis organ without peer and has a developing and professional musical tradition. That of course is a comment on the authorities and is in no way to be construed as a reflection on Heywood or Knouzsetsov who are both extremely competent musicians of the finest order.
CROWDS QUEUING TO HEAR THE RESTORED ORGAN IN THE BRISBANE CITY HALL. SOME 2000 PEOPLE ATTENDED THE TWO CONCERTS.
PICTURE: SIM
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PICTURE: SIM
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ORGAN AUSTRALIA27
A SECOND CONCERTAs part of the ongoing celebrations to welcome the Father Willis organ back to Brisbane City Hall a second concert took place before a capacity lunchtime audience on Tuesday 12 August under the banner of the “Clem Jones City Hall Concert series”. Entitled “The Organ Returns”, this concert featured two Brisbane master organists, Eduarda van Klinken and Phillip Gearing.
Eduarda commenced and completed her organ playing studies in Brisbane and is well known and respected by organ music lovers and followers of Brisbane. After completing a stint as organist at St Augustine’s Anglican Church at Hamilton on the rebuilt organ, she moved on as the relieving organist at St John’s Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane and has also been a regular relieving organist at St Andrew’s Uniting Church in Brisbane.
Eduarda won the audience over immediately with her colourful registrations and keyboard technique – all of which, of course, could be watched by the audience via the TV monitors. With modern technology making it so much more enjoyable to watch as well as hear an organ recital, one wonders why so many organists, particularly in churches, are still hidden from view by a wooden screen.
Eduarda’s programme included Scherzo by Eugene Gigout, “Gabriel’s Oboe” by Ennio Morricone (from the 1986 film The Mission),
“Chopsticks”, arranged by Robert Ampt and “Carillon de Westminster” by Louis Vierne. As an encore she played Festive Trumpet Tune by David German – a most appropriate choice.
Phillip’s selection was more “serious” but known music that enabled the organ to be judged on its original role as a concert organ (or should I more correctly say recital organ). A professional musician and organist, Phillip has worked and studied in Europe and the United Kingdom as well as in Australia. He is now Director of Music and organist at St Mary’s Anglican Church in Brisbane and recently had a tenure as relieving organist at St John’s Cathedral.
Phillip’s programme consisted of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565) by J. S. Bach; Gigue de Pan by Douglas Mews and Crown Imperial by Sir William Walton. In each of these works he was able to demonstrate his excellent technique and his gift for making playing seem so easy.
Altogether, around 2000 people attended the two concerts, which indicates that there are plenty of people who wish to attend organ recitals where a variety of organ music is played by competent organists. It is to be hoped that the policy of free concerts on the restored organ will be maintained. Paid concerts could mean, regrettably, that the numbers attending could fall.
Additional writing by Christopher Akehurst.
BRISBANE CITY HALL’S RESTORED FATHER HENRY ORGAN IN ALL ITS GRANDEUR.
ORGANIST PHILLIP GEARING: A “GIFT FOR MAKING PLAYING SEEM SO EASY.”
PICTURE: SIM
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PICTURE: SIM
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ORGAN AUSTRALIA 28
Kenneth Tickell & Company, of Northampton, England, completed in November 2011 a very fine two-manual mechanical action organ for the chapel of St John’s College. The instrument was installed in memory of Edward James Spencer Cripps (1951-2009).
The organ has an elegant case in Australian mountain ash, with pipeshades carved in limewood to the design of John Brennan (who also designed
the pipeshades on the Peter Collins organ at Toorak Uniting Church, Victoria, back in 1980). These depict gum leaves and incorporate a coat of arms, a magpie and a kookaburra.
The Queensland organ is notable for its excellent action and elegant sound, combining warmth, colour and outstanding overall blend and balance.
Its specifications are:
QUEENSLAND COLLEGE ORGAN BY THE LATE KEN TiCKELL
KENNETH TICKELL, WHO died recently, was an organ builder of great status in his native England. His instruments are to be found in cathedrals, parish churches and
chapels – notably Worcester Cathedral (quire organ), the Roman Catholic cathedral in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the reconstructed Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow in London,
Sherborne Abbey and the chapels at Eton, Keble College in Oxford and Lincoln’s Inn in London – all places with choral and music foundations of high repute.
An Australian chapel, that of St John’s College at the University of Queensland, is also the possessor of a Tickell organ, as John Maidment writes:
Ken Tickell also built a small chamber organ for Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide, opened in 2010, with the following specification:
PIPEWORK OF THE GREAT ORGAN IN THE 2011 KENNETH TICKELL ORGAN AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND.
GREATOpen Diapason 8 1-4 from Chimney Flute with open wood ‘helpers’ Chimney Flute 8 Principal 4 Quint 2-2/3 Fifteenth 2
Tierce 1-3/5 Mixture 19.22.26 III Trumpet 8 Tremulant Swell to Great
SWELL Stopped Diapason 8 Salicional 8 gvd.bass Spitz Flute 4 Flageolet 2 Larigot 1-1/3 Hautboy 8 bass ∏ length Tremulant
PEDAL Sub Bass 16 A Open Flute 8 A Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Compass: 58/30 Balanced swell pedal
MANUALStopped Wood 8 Principal 4 1-12 from Chimney Flute Chimney Flute 4 Fifteenth 2 Sesquialtera 12.17 II Middle C up
Compass: CC-f 54 notes Shifting movement Transposing action
ORGAN AUSTRALIA29
THE 2011 KENNETH TICKELL ORGAN IN ST JOHN’S COLLEGE CHAPEL, ST LUCIA, QUEENSLAND. NOTE THE PIPESHADES CARVED IN LIMEWOOD TO THE DESIGN OF JOHN BRENNAN IN A GUM LEAF MOTIF. A MAGPIE AND A KOOKABURRA ARE IN THE LEFT AND RIGHT PANELS IMMEDIATELY ABOVE THE CONSOLE.
PIPEWORK OF THE GREAT ORGAN IN THE 2011 KENNETH TICKELL ORGAN AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND.
PICTURE: JO
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KENNETH TiCKELL, ORGAN BUiLDERBorn 25 August 1956, died 24 July 2014.
Born in Lancashire, Kenneth Hugh Tickell learnt violin as a child and, despite not having a keyboard at home, became a young church organist. He entered Coventry School of Music, where he studied with Robert
Weddle from Coventry Cathedral, before winning an organ scholarship to the University of Hull, where his teachers included Simon Lindley.
He decided to become an organ builder while still a student when a friend approached him to help install a second-hand organ in a parish church. This turned out to be a more complicated job than at first thought, and suggested to Tickell a means of earning his living which would draw on both his practical and his musical abilities.
He studied at the Royal College of Organists and became a trainee with Grant, Degens and Bradbeer, the organ-building firm based in Northampton. In 1982 he set up his own business with a rented workshop on a farm. His first instrument was acquired by All Saints’ church at Preston Bagot in Warwickshire.
His company began to grow and in 1986 moved to an old bakery, where Tickell and his young family lived above the shop. Over the next 32 years Tickell built or rebuilt instruments around England and several overseas, including those in Australia described in the adjacent article. He declined to undertake renovations and limited himself to building new instruments, though he would sometimes consent to work within an existing case.
He once said that the favourite among his instruments was that in Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, London, because the chapel was a place where visually and acoustically everything comes together.
Ken Tickell was a founding member of the Institute of British Organ Building and a practising organist for some years at St Mary’s Church, Northampton. n
AN iNFAMOUS ANCiENT ORGANiST?
AS WELL AS being, in his day job, an emperor and a tyrant,
Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus was a great patron of the arts who loved to tread the boards dressed as Apollo,
singing his heart out and accompanying himself on the
kithara (a heavy duty lyre designed for professional musicians).
This third-century AD image depicts Nero’s hero Apollo leaning an arm on his kithara and graciously waving what looks suspiciously like a gladiolus to his public.
But was Nero an organist? The widespread story of him fiddling whilst Rome burnt in 64 AD is often taken to mean that he was a violinist. The violin hadn’t been invented so maybe he was fiddling on a pipe organ. There is strong, albeit highly circumstantial, evidence that he was doing just that. His typically modest Roman residence, the Golden Palace, was nearly complete in 64 AD. It housed an impressive organ and it’s difficult to think that Nero didn’t play it.
So if Nero was an organist what manner of instrument did he play? An organ presented to the firemen of Aquincum by a philanthropic citizen in 228 AD is indubitably a less lavish affair than Nero’s hydraulis but it provides interesting clues. The remains of the instrument are housed in the Aquincum Archaeological Museum, Budapest. The images in column 2 are of a scholarly reconstruction therein.
The author is most definitely not an archaeologist but he finds the assessment of the
organ as illustrated above to be convincing: Table-top instrument with a thirteen-note keyboard designed for agile fingers, four ranks of pipes with draw stops at the right hand end of the wind chest, dual weighted hand operated bellows behind (rather than the then usual pedestal mount containing hydraulic wind pressure stabilisation with pneumatic pumps to left and right, aka hydraulis).
Incidentally, the remains of the organ were preserved due to the fire station burning down – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? you might say. It’s tempting to speculate that the firemen were too obsessed with the organ in the living room to pay proper attention to a blaze breaking out in the kitchen (analogous to the 64 AD Roman conflagration).
Leaving aside the vexed question of whether Nero was an organist, one thing about his life seems clear. It was intolerable artistic temperament that finally sealed his fate. Nero’s less than adoring public could stand it no longer and he was obliged to flee from Rome with a few loyal staffers; but there was nowhere to hide. It is reported that he persuaded one of the staffers to do him in and that his last words were: “What an artist dies in me”! n
Jim Fletcher is organist of Richmond Uniting Church, Victoria, and a member of the council of the Society of Organists (Victoria) Inc.
INTERMEZZO
BY JIM FLETCHER
ORGAN AUSTRALiA 30
ORGAN AUSTRALIA31
ONE OF THE many French idioms almost impossible to translate into English is le violon d’Ingres. Most dictionaries define it as “hobby”, but that noun communicates a sense of trivial recreation which the French original avoids. The best English-language rendition of le violon d’Ingres can be found in The New France (1970, p. 385) by the late London Observer correspondent John Ardagh: “not so much an amateurish pastime as a second professional pursuit at which one excels.”
Accordingly le violon d’Ingres has an exceptional relevance to Bruce Steele, who in 2014 celebrates 30 years as organist at St Aidan’s Uniting Church in the Melbourne suburb of North Balwyn. The strange thing about Professor Steele’s background is that his eminent activity on the organ scene, editorial and organisational as well as specifically executant, has been in economic terms something of a sideline for him. After all, until his retirement he was an associate professor at Monash University. Such a double life – for want of a less sinister-sounding phrase – is hardly unknown in Australian organ circles (and of course outside those circles it has any number of precedents: Borodin’s term as a chemistry professor; Charles Ives’s and Wallace Stevens’s livelihoods as insurance executives; T.S. Eliot’s duties in a bank and as a publisher). But to lead that double life with Bruce Steele’s level of dedication is unusual indeed.
It is a dedication that commands, and obtains, respect. Anyone who has ever served as locum-organist for a Uniting Church ceremony knows full well that Uniting Church ministers, however much they might differ from one another in personalities and politics, are at one in their decisiveness on musical matters. They all know exactly what church music they want. What they want, they get (and they pay accordingly). In other words, Professor Steele has spent three decades at St Aidan’s because those in charge of St Aidan’s wish him to stay there. There is no question whatsoever of his having been imposed on a congregation – as there indubitably would be in certain other religious allegiances – by any parish council’s resident Amos Starkadder or Hyacinth Bucket.
BETWEEN CONSOLE AND LECTURE HALL
Bruce Steele, now celebrating 30 years as organist at a Melbourne church, can look back on two fulfilling careers.
BY R. J. STOVE
BRUCE STEELE IN THE ORGAN GALLERY AT ST AIDAN’S, NORTH BALWYN, VICTORIA.
ORGANIST PROFILE
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 32
+++It seemed worthwhile for Organ Australia not only to mark the occasion of Bruce Steele’s 30th North Balwyn anniversary, but to seek more elaborate biographical information about him than standard reference sources divulge. On the whole Professor Steele has been unwilling to thrust himself forward. One suspects that he would rather die than attempt full-on publicity techniques. Even his speaking voice adds to the impression of lucid quietude. It is a scholar’s voice, neither fast nor slow in speed, neither high nor low in pitch, though with a hint of breathiness. Consequently his feats are in danger of being underrated. What more apposite time to note those feats than for this particular jubilee of his?
Vagaries of work commitments and of public transport militated, alas, against my interviewing
Professor Steele in person. Hooray for the invention of email, which makes it possible to enquire formally of an interviewee – and to obtain the interviewee’s exact own words in response – without the “double-handling” factor inevitable when working from even the most reliable dictaphone transcription. The Editor of Organ Australia specifically requested that the resultant findings not be set out in dialogue form, like a play-script. But readers may be assured that every single word of Professor Steele quoted here comes from the words he supplied via e-mail.
It is fair to own (as will emerge in the ensuing paragraphs) that Professor Steele possesses what expatriate Australian playwright Meredith Oakes once elegantly called “that intransigent meticulousness of those who know the press too well.” Let us simply hope that, if Professor Steele indeed has about him – notwithstanding his slender build – a touch of Dr Johnson’s robustness,
then at least I have not become too maladroit a Boswell.
+++Born and raised in Melbourne, Bruce Steele moved to England after obtaining his first degree, and completed in 1960 a second degree at Durham University. He explains that progression: “My motivation in going to Durham was twofold: like many of my generation I wanted to travel, but I also wanted to go further academically. Chance really took over from there. Durham, the third oldest university in England, offered me a place which I accepted, thinking to specialise in English, which I did. It was not literature that eventually became my interest but history of the language and its Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval roots. There had been nothing like that in my Melbourne degree and to be
THE ORGAN AND CHOIR GALLERY IN ST AIDAN’S, NORTH BALWYN. DATING FROM 1897, THE ORGAN WAS BROUGHT FROM NEW ZEALAND, RESTORED AND ENLARGED. THE ST AIDAN’S MUSIC SOCIETY RAISED $450,000 TO FINANCE THE PROJECT WITHOUT RECOURSE TO PARISH FUNDS. THE RESULT, SAYS BRUCE STEELE, “IS A FINE THREE-MANUAL ORGAN CAPABLE OF PLAYING AN EXTENSIVE REPERTOIRE.”
ORGAN AUSTRALIA33
living in a place steeped in that history was exciting and rewarding beyond anything I imagined when setting out.”
Back from Durham, he joined Monash’s English Department in 1962 and moved up through the teaching ranks there. “My success at Durham led eventually to my appointment to the new Monash University as a lecturer in the history of English. I owe much to Professors Bill Scott, who appointed me, and David Bradley who oversaw my later moves in the department. But all my colleagues helped my career in various ways; it was a very friendly and collegiate department. Over the years my interests changed and I became interested in critical editing. Two people especially encouraged and assisted this move: Arthur Brown and Harold Love. I edited four volumes of the works of D. H. Lawrence, including his Australian novel Kangaroo, for the Cambridge University Press complete edition. After that, at Monash with Professor Clive Probyn, we began a huge research project editing
the correspondence and works of Henry Handel Richardson. This included an edition of her songs, which were hitherto unknown to all but a few of her readers. A selection of these was recorded by Vivien Hamilton and Lucas de Jong for PLC [Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne]. Copies of the CD are still available from the school.”
Harold Love seems to have shared something of Professor Steele’s own versatility, having been “a dedicated musician: he played viols, recorders and crumhorns. He formed an early music group called the Wednesday Consort in which I played harpsichord and chamber organ. We gave the first lunchtime concerts in the University until the music department was established some years later.”
So how did Professor Steele, as it were, “catch the organ bug”?
“My mother had been a professional pianist before her marriage and she still played at home and in public. We were a churchgoing family, my father sang in choirs, so I grew up with music at home and at church. When I was five my mother took me to a lunchtime concert in the Melbourne Town Hall where we heard William McKie, the City Organist. From that moment I knew that I wanted to be an organist. There had been nothing so overwhelming to my young ears as that concert.
“However, there was a time-gap. From about five I studied piano through my school and university years, gaining the AMEB Licentiate in performance. In my teens I taught myself the organ with the encouragement of our local church organist, who gave me Stainer’s primer. After graduation, during my three years’ teaching at a country high school, I landed the position of organist at one of the churches in the town. There was a small but fine Fincham organ and a choir of up to 30. So I suppose I learned on the job.
“In 1979, Douglas Lawrence offered to give organ lessons at Monash if he could find six starters. Well, there were six of us, and his lessons changed my whole approach to organ playing. As a result I joined the MIFOH [Melbourne International Festival of Organ and Harpsichord] Council and gave my first public recital in 1984. I also became Monash University Ceremonial Organist in 1989,
BRUCE STEELE AS MONASH UNIVERSITY’S CEREMONIAL ORGANIST PLAYING AT A GRADUATION IN ROBERT BLACKWOOD HALL IN 1997.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 34
playing for graduation ceremonies on the new Arendt organ in Blackwood Hall. Through MIFOH I got to know Michael Dudman and he encouraged and coached me. He invited me on a couple of occasions to give recitals at the Newcastle Con., on the new Knud Smenge organ.”
+++Between 1986 and 1994 Bruce Steele played an important role in the organ recital series at the Melbourne Town Hall and was very much involved with the famous organ restoration in that building. It turns out that the connection between the Town Hall’s ASO (“All Stops Out”) cycle and the Festival of Organ and Harpsichord was closer at that stage than I had ever realised or, presumably, than most younger Australian music-lovers now appreciate.
“Yes, the ‘All Stops Out’ series of lunchtime and twilight concerts was an offshoot of the Festival of Organ and Harpsichord. The aim was to draw attention to the organ and its increasingly poor state. I remember playing an arrangement of ‘The Swan’ at a concert and becoming alarmed by the audience giggling. I could not hear it, but on every third note of the accompaniment there was a click from the ailing action. The piece was thereafter known as ‘The duck with the gammy leg’!
“I think the first concert in the ASO series in 1986 was given by Hans Fagius, the Swedish virtuoso who was in Melbourne for the Festival. Thereafter the concerts tended to be organ plus choirs, instrumentalists, etc. While the City Council supported ASO, there was caution in the air – we’d never attract an audience and so on. Well, that first year we mounted fifteen concerts and attendances were never below 500 and peaked at 1500 plus. During the latter years, Carlo Curley came to Melbourne to play at the Concert Hall, but discovered the rather ailing MTH organ. He headed up a committee and enthusiastically put everything behind our efforts towards getting the organ restored. There were frustrating delays before this was accomplished in 2001.”
+++Even the church where Bruce now plays, despite – or because of – its obvious affluence (Balwyn is
hardly a low-income area) has not been spared the experience of congregational amalgamation prevalent in most Australian denominations since the 1980s. Bruce stressed this: “I should say that since an amalgamation with a neighbouring church, it is now North Balwyn Uniting Church (St Aidan’s). For internet searchers it is now nbuc.org.au.
“People tell me 30 years at the one church is something of a rarity – church organists tend to be itinerant, usually for reasons we need not go into here. Back in 1984 I was extremely busy at Monash and was reluctant to do anything more than occasional relieving as organist. But when Douglas Lawrence was leaving St Aidan’s to go to Scots’ [Church in Melbourne], he gave me the metaphorical kick in the backside and said ‘You’ve gotta take it on!’ So I did. But the truth is that it has been the most rewarding 30 years. I have been very fortunate in working with clergy and a congregation who have been totally supportive of good music in the services and have been willing to meet regularly to discuss it. We are not, of course, in the same league as those churches that can afford paid choirs and professional standards. What we concentrate on now is alert and intelligent congregational singing of the best hymns available led by a small band of committed amateur singers. I am very interested in new hymns and have composed several, as well as new tunes to old words.”
St Aidan’s had its own music society, and Professor Steele showed particular eagerness in explaining what it had attained over the years. A lot, as it happens.
“It’s a long story. When I arrived at St Aidan’s, there was a small music committee which was set up to find a replacement for the small, and inadequate, Laurie extension organ. I had heard of a similar undertaking by a small church in South Australia, whose means of doing so we thought of emulating. This was to establish a recognised, registered arts organisation which would promote concerts and receive tax deductibility on donations. In our case this brought about, in 1987, the St Aidan’s Music Society Inc. Our aim was to promote concerts, particularly by young aspiring performers (not only organists) and to raise the necessary funds to
ORGAN AUSTRALIA35
provide a new organ for the church.“In the next 25 years, we had an annual
concert series, built up a subscribers’ and concert-goers’ base of almost 200 persons, mostly from outside the congregation. In all over 200 concerts were mounted, and in addition, we received big donations from charitable trusts and many individuals.
“We had proposals from several organ builders, none of which came to anything, until we were referred to the South Island Organ Company of New Zealand. They had completed three renovations in Melbourne, including St Mary’s Star of the Sea and the Church of All Nations. To cut a long story short, they suggested refurbishing and enlarging an organ, dating from 1897, from a closed church in Dunedin. I went to New Zealand for discussions and inspection of the dismantled organ.
“On my recommendation, the society agreed to proceed. We were able to add pipes from a contemporary 1896 Fincham organ which we had in store. We had to enlarge the gallery to accommodate
the new organ and choir. The project was completed in July 1996. The result is a fine three-manual organ capable of playing an extensive repertoire. The first celebrity recital was given in March 1997 by Dame Gillian Weir.”
“The society was also able to provide a grand piano for concert use. I emphasise that all this was achieved without recourse to parish funds. The society raised some $450,000 to make this possible. By 2005, it was debt-free.”
+++It is impossible to acquire a Steele-type level of involvement in the organ world without having heard lots of individual organists, both live and on recordings. I could not resist asking Professor Steele which of those musicians he had admired most. “Too many to name, if you mean admiring their skill and artistry. But if you insist, I would name a few who have been inspirational and whom I have known personally – the late Michael Dudman, and Hans Fagius, Thomas Trotter and Dame Gillian Weir. I find a rare musicality about their playing
BRUCE STEELE (RIGHT) WITH MICHAEL DUDMAN (1938-1994) AT THE NEWCASTLE CONSERVATORIUM.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 36
which rises above virtuosity – indeed conceals it.”A similar detail and forthrightness marked
his response to the query “Which sorts of organ music, for that matter, do you find most congenial?” “As a listener, anything that’s good and is well-played from theatre organ to austere classical music composed for organ and arrangements for the instrument. As a player, I find Bach is a never-ending source of enjoyment and instruction. Beyond that, I suppose, nineteenth-century English and French music. I enjoy discovering and playing neglected and out-of-the-way pieces, for example amongst Guilmant’s vast corpus. His Sonatas, for instance, one never hears but they contain some extraordinarily effective movements.”
That aforementioned “intransigent meticulousness” kicks in again, understandably, when Professor Steele is asked about the process by which the AM (Order of Australia) award came his way in 2003. “The process is of course secret. Those who nominated me have never admitted to it to me and I have only suspicions as to who they are. The citation is for services to literary scholarship and religious music. So it reflects on the two sides of my professional life.”
+++The scope and range of Bruce Steele’s Organ Australia editorship can be confirmed by browsing through the back numbers available in the State Library of Melbourne and its counterparts in other big Australian cities. How did this OA editorship come about, and what tasks did it involve?
“When Tony Love and I took over as editors of the Victorian Organ Journal and transformed it into Organo Pleno, we soon raised the possibility of a national journal rather than the several state journals or newsletters. With the backing of the Victorian council, we had discussions with the various state bodies. Eventually, a compromise was reached whereby local journals or newsletters would stay but each body would have its own consulting representative who would be the national journal’s source of articles and important local news and views. Tony designed a new cover and we agreed on the new name – Organ Australia.
In those formative years we built up a list of contacts and contributors – not only in Australia. Each issue ran to 40 or 50 pages and was copiously illustrated. With four issues a year to assemble and prepare, it was becoming almost a full-time job. Unpaid, I might add!
“After editing, I think, twenty issues of OA and several years of OP before that, Tony and I decided that the time had come to hand over the editorship of what was by now a well-established journal to fresh hands.” (Since then OA has had several editors.)
+++Rare are the Australian organists who do not periodically wonder about the instrument’s future hereabouts. Many of us must have found ourselves tempted to echo, mutatis mutandis, the tetchy complaint Kenneth Tynan made about his own field of British journalism, when a junior successor proved unforthcoming: “I hear,” Tynan griped, “the older generation knocking at the door.” What advice (I thus wondered in conclusion) would Professor Steele offer to any youngster in Australia who is giving serious thought to becoming an organist but who is not sure how to go about it, or whether it would be worth the effort and expense involved?
“I don’t know that I can give a general answer to that question. If the young person is serious about being an organist, he or she should find a teacher and this can be done through the usual educational channels, AMEB, ANZCO etc. There are a few churches which will take you on as a student-assistant. Ask around. Further than that, each person is an individual, and so I would want a one-on-one talk with the potential student.
“If you really want to be an organist and know that you have the talent and the persistence needed to realise it, together with a real love of the instrument and its music, nothing will stand in your way. There can be no doubt that it is ‘worth the effort’. There are even ways round the expense.” n
R. J. Stove is an organist, music historian and writer and a former editor of Organ Australia.
There is more about music at North Balwyn Uniting Church (St Aidan’s), including details, photograph and specification of the organ, on the church’s website nbuc.org.au.
37
KEN TURNER OF Goldfields Pipe Organs (see cover of this edition) reports that his firm has been carrying out major work on four notable organs in regional cities in Victoria.
The restoration and realignment of the 1864 J. W. Walker organ in St Paul’s Anglican Church on historic Bakery Hill in Ballarat is now complete. The organ had become unreliable through wear and the accumulation of dirt and it was not possible to make repairs without major dismantling.
After careful measurement of the organ space it was found that the entire instrument could be rotated by a quarter turn anti-clockwise. This would bring two major benefits. First, the organ would speak down the nave rather than across the sanctuary. Second, the pedal chests and bellows could be repositioned relative to the building frame so that all components could be easily accessed for
future maintenance.The entire organ case was stripped down and
re-stained. The stencilled façade pipes were cleaned and coated with sealer to enhance and protect the colours.
Internally, everything was totally taken apart and repaired as necessary and cleaned. The drawstop engines were replaced by SLIC motors for promptness, quietness and considerable space-saving.
Finally, the console underwent cleaning and adjusting of contacts and the pedalboard was refurbished and re-aligned so that the middle D was directly under the middle D on the keyboards.
Tonal finishing and tuning were completed just days before the opening recital performed by Siegfried Franke of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, to a large audience.
GOLDFiELDS PiPE ORGANS COMPLETES WORK iN FOUR CHURCHES
NEWS FROM THE ORGAN BUiLDERS
AT ST PAUL’S, BALLARAT, THE ENTIRE ORGAN CASE HAS BEEN STRIPPED DOWN AND RE-STAINED. THE STENCILLED FAÇADE PIPES WERE CLEANED AND COATED WITH SEALER TO ENHANCE AND PROTECT THE COLOURS.
ORGAN AUSTRALiA
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 38THE 1925 FREDERICK TAYLOR ORGAN IN ST JOHN’S, WARRNAMBOOL, VICTORIA.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA39
St John’s Presbyterian Church in the south-western coastal city of Warrnambool is one of Victoria’s most imposing country churches. The 1925 Frederick Taylor organ (installed after the interior of the church was rebuilt after a fire) was in need of thorough cleaning and considerable repair to the electrical system. Attention was needed to its many air leaks, worn out pneumatic parts and a number of other issues.
During the course of the work, a decision was made to convert to an all-electronic note and capture system, including opto-electrical switched keyboards. This involved replacing almost all of the existing cabling, but had the advantage of avoiding the need to repair old electro-pneumatic switching units. The console required extensive modification to accommodate a new stop tab rail and the computer equipment.
A new Ventus blower was installed, and the air intake was ducted to inside the building.
The work was completed in December 2013.At the Anglican Christ Church in the spa
town of Daylesford the 1871 George Fincham mechanical-action organ has an unusual configuration of Choir, Swell and Pedal instead of the usual Great, Swell and Pedal.
This instrument had not had any major work done on it for some 35 years and had become very dirty and worn, with several broken mechanical parts. It was stripped down to the last part and systematically cleaned and repaired.
There was a long list of repairs to be done. For instance, every tracker end had to be replaced
as the originals were rusted and had lost their grip on the leather adjusting buttons. The roller boards needed to be re-bushed throughout. The drawstop mechanism needed repair and adjustment for accurate operation of the windchest sliders. A new set of drawstop labels was made to replace the originals which had cracked and were attached by a screw through the middle!
Several metal pipes were taken to Tim Gilley for repair of tops and toes and Ian Wakeley refurbished the keyboards. Now, after final tonal work and tuning, the restoration of the organ is complete.
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in North Geelong has an original George Fincham organ of 1887, enlarged in 1958 by Geo. Fincham & Sons. An accumulation of faults had built up over the years. These have been dealt with and repair work is now complete. n
THE CONSOLE OF THE ORGAN AT ST JOHN’S, WARRNAMBOOL, REQUIRED EXTENSIVE MODIFICATION TO ACCOMMODATE A NEW STOP TAB RAIL AND THE COMPUTER EQUIPMENT.
THE MECHANICAL ACTION ON THE 1871 GEORGE FINCHAM ORGAN IN CHRIST CHURCH, DAYLESFORD, VICTORIA.
CASE AND PIPES ON THE ORGAN IN CHRIST CHURCH, DAYLESFORD, VICTORIA.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 40
LiVE MUSiC
CONCERT MASTERFelix Hell at the Organ Melbourne Town HallREVIEWED BY BRUCE STEELE
TWELVE YEARS AGO, teenage prodigy Felix Hell gave a brilliant concert in Melbourne. On 10 August this year he returned to the Melbourne Town Hall, saying that, after having played hundreds of concerts on some of the world’s great instruments, he hoped the MTH organ would be as fine and exciting as he remembered it. To a round of applause he said it really was! Whether this was just schmaltz or not, his playing certainly exuded enjoyment. Youthful verve and energy was joined with assured musical judgment. And a big programme for a Sunday afternoon free concert it surely was. The hall was barely half full, perhaps 800 or 900, but the audience was totally engrossed.
The program opened with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E flat. It set a cracking pace but was remarkable for the clarity of parts and fine detail of phrasing. This was followed by the Andante
sostenuto movement from Widor’s rarely heard Symphony No 9 which featured some lovely flute solos. Then followed a lively performance of Franck’s Choral No 3. Then a Toccata “Schlafes Bruder” by the contemporary German composer Enjott Schneider (b. 1950) – music from the film based on the novel of the same name. Can the organ toccata ever reach the limits of technical brilliance? This was a spectacular virtuosic display to end the first half.
The second half of the programme was devoted to Liszt’s Fantasia and Fugue on Ad nos ad salutarem undam. It was a riveting performance. There was plenty of Sturm und Drang in the big moments but heart-breaking beauty in the gentler moments – like the first full appearance of the theme towards the middle of the work and the variation which follows. It demonstrated most of the resources of the Town Hall organ from the various solo stops even to the Trumpet Victoria for the fanfare. The audience responded with a well-deserved standing ovation at the end.
Don’t leave us for another twelve years, Felix! Return soon! n
RECORDED MUSiC
IMPRESSIVE ENGLISH CLASSICALThomas Trotter: A Shropshire Idyll. The organ of St Laurence’s Church, Ludlow. REGDVD002. Boxed set including DVD and CD recordings.REVIEWED BY JOHN MAIDMENT
THOMAS TROTTER HAS been a frequent visitor to our shores and has played here as far back as 1981, before his career took off. He is now one of the world’s leading performers on the organ, and has given solo concerts in most countries as well as performing with numerous orchestras. He is Birmingham City Organist (a position he has held since 1983) and organist at St Margaret’s Church, next to Westminster Abbey.
This recording features the four-manual instrument of St Laurence’s, Ludlow, in the west of England, some of the pipework of which dates back to a Snetzler organ of 1764 – and the very fine three-tower case dates also from this time. The corpus of
REViEWS AND APPRECiATiONS
ORGAN AUSTRALIA41
the organ is really by Gray & Davison, 1860 and 1883 and that is how the organ sounds – a very impressive English-classical tonal landscape of the later nineteenth century but not symphonic in any way. Later upgrading to the action has taken place by Hill & Son and then Nicholson & Co.
Thomas Trotter has chosen a delightful programme to reflect the history of the building and organ, all items performed to an exemplary level of skill and with excellent stylistic insight and impeccable ornamentation. It is wonderful to be able to see him actually performing the Elgar organ Sonata – I was not conscious of how the hands must be crossed at one stage, and, of course, the registrational demands are enormous too, all deftly handled by the performer, who plays entirely from memory – no mean feat.
Apart from the Elgar Sonata (which I must confess is not perhaps entirely suited to the thinnish texture of the instrument), we hear a Handel Organ Concerto (op. 4 no. 2) transcribed by the performer and dexterously handled. There are three early sixteenth and seventeenth century dances, nicely presented, and one featuring the rather bucolic Vox Humana and the Orchestral Oboe – again requiring far more nimble finger-work than one might have imagined. Trotter performs S.S. Wesley’s Holsworthy Church Bells, starting off on the carillon himself and then working through the variations on the organ – delightful. Finally, two more modern works – Michael Nyman’s Fourths, Mostly, which has a pronounced minimalist flavour, and Walton’s ever popular Crown Imperial.
Thomas Trotter’s playing has been very nicely captured on the DVD and it’s not often that we can observe an organist of his superlative competence playing at close quarters. There is an interview with him, in which he eloquently discusses the music he performs in some detail; and also an excerpt in which the organ is presented by the Ludlow
Organist Shaun Ward – that is also most valuable.The recording pays homage to A.E. Housman
who wrote the poem A Shropshire Lad. Jane Allsopp’s excellent essays in the informative accompanying booklet look at Housman’s life and his relationship with both Ludlow and Elgar.
An accompanying CD enables one to sample the results through a superior playback system – certainly the sound heard in this way was rather superior to that heard through my television speakers. n
A DELIGHTFUL DISCOVERYVierne: Messe Solennelle. Duruflé: Prélude, Adagio, et Choral Varié sur le Thème de Veni Creator. Langlais: Messe Solennelle. Demessieux: Te Deum.Simon Hogan and Hilary Punnett (organs). Choir of Southwell Minster. Paul Hale (conductor).REGENT RECORDINGS REGCD 425. Total Playing Time: 73.16.REVIEWED BY R. J. STOVE
FEW IF ANY Frenchmen would presume to tackle (say) Gilbert and Sullivan on disc, but that fact did not stop all too many British choirs in the 1960s and 1970s from attempting Gallic repertoire, and inflicting on it a ludicrous gentility. Mirabile dictu, this is one area where recent years have brought quite spectacular improvements. The choir of Nottinghamshire’s Southwell Minster – clearly a group which we should hear far more often on record than we do – has done the sensible thing and crossed the Channel, choosing to record this
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 42
material at Sées Cathedral in Normandy, where it benefits from not one but two Cavaillé-Coll instruments at its disposal. Result: pure pleasure.
None of the works herein could be called famous, though all can be found on other CDs. The Langlais is the most obvious candidate among them for a wider following: surely among the three or four finest Latin Mass settings by any composer since 1945 (nay, since 1900), and intensely exciting into the bargain. Langlais’s style is to French music what Paul Claudel’s is to French literature: at once epic, agitated and hortatory. Whereas Messiaen – Langlais’s junior by a year – seems almost always to be seeking the condition of stasis, Langlais gives even in his slowest passages a sense of forward drive. Whilst some of his vocal parts will challenge any larynx, Southwell Minster’s choristers are undeterred by them. Too many conductors skip the climactic soprano high C which Langlais’ Sanctus demands, but Paul Hale and his forces make sure we get it.
Vierne’s own Messe Solennelle is an early (1901) work, surprisingly mild in places, with hints of Brahms and Schumann that he would never have allowed into his later, far more hedonistic output. Still, nothing by Vierne lacks beauty, enterprise, or class; and if the singers here convey the impression of being slightly less at home with it than with the more virtuosic Langlais, the overall outcome remains most impressive. The Duruflé piece – like much by its fastidious and original yet curiously voluble composer – needs careful handling if its improvisatory nature is not to outstay its welcome. It receives just such careful handling from Hilary Punnett here, allied to superb technical control and discerning registration. Even if one can imagine a slightly wilder, edgier account of Jeanne Demessieux’s wonderfully heterogeneous showpiece (at one point it teeters on ragtime’s edge) than the present excellent one by Simon Hogan, any organist with enough talent merely to master the Te Deum’s notes will never be unemployed.
The Regent label has lavished upon this project well-written booklet annotations and superlative sound quality, where each passing detail tells (the orgiastic explosion of Voix Humaine organ timbre in the middle of Langlais’s Agnus Dei must be heard to be believed), but where the acoustic retains a suitably ecclesiastical resonance. Listeners will never for a moment forget that the performers are in a house of God. What a delightful discovery this release is. n
CHRiSTMAS MUSiC
APPROACHABLE CAROLSChristmas carols for choir and organ: traditional carols arranged by June Nixon.REVIEWED BY COLIN J. JENKINS
I HAVE DELIBERATELY headed this review with the words “for choir and organ” because as with all June Nixon’s carols that I have reviewed in recent years these are a real marriage of voices and organ.
Nowadays choice of music for carol services is often complicated by the fact that many churches have smaller choirs and other churches only have “seasonal” choirs that get together for special occasions. The following pieces are eminently suited to such choirs or to more permanent and professional choirs. Dr Nixon, director of music at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, for 40 years until last year, is obviously well aware of current needs and has given us charming, approachable and varied arrangements of carols with organ accompaniments that will delight organists, singers and listeners alike. Rather than presenting SATB parts in open score she has wisely put them in “hymn” format which will appeal to singers more used to such presentation. The organ accompaniments are skilfully composed, not overly difficult and sit extremely well under the hands. Registration suggestions are provided and any pedal parts, which have been sympathetically composed to add colour and interest, are not difficult.
I will give a brief commentary on each piece which I hope will assist readers in the selection of repertoire.
1. SUSSEX CAROL [SATB & Organ], 2012. Paraclete Press, Orleans, Mass., USA. www.paracletepress.com
The jaunty organ introduction leads into the first line sung by sopranos after which there is great variety, employing three or four part or unison sections interspersed with short organ parts. The final verse is in unison with a descant. The organ accompaniment is generally light and bright with very little use of the pedal.
2. A VIRGIN MOST PURE [SATB & Organ], 2014. Paraclete Press.
A carefully articulated introduction takes us into a unison verse. The next verse is particularly effective with the melody in the tenor initially against low alto and bass parts, then the sopranos
ORGAN AUSTRALIA43
are briefly added before the unison refrain. Verses 3, 4 and 5 are predominantly a mix of soprano phrases and four-part harmony whilst the final refrain features a soaring descant part. However, if your sopranos aren’t into a “soaring flight mode” Dr Nixon has provided an optional four-part ending! The organist then enjoys the final word.
3. TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY [SATB & Organ], 2011. Encore Publications, Matfield. Kent. www.encorepublications.com
Here we have the traditional carol in waltz style with choristers singing in either one or four parts. Once again the emphasis in the organ part is on colour, expressive lightness and brightness with little use of pedal. There are two short unaccompanied sections.
4. I SAW THREE SHIPS [SATB & Organ], 2013. Encore Publications.
This arrangement does not employ as much four-part writing however it is embedded with variety in both the organ and choral parts. The opening of the sixth verse is particularly interesting; an unaccompanied eight-bar section not giving the melody over to any one part although the melody notes are always somewhere in each chord. The occasional pedal part is both extremely simple and effective.
5. WHENCE IS THAT GOODLY FRAGRANCE FLOWING? [SATB & Organ], 2009. Encore Publications.
This may be sung in the original French or in the quite well known A.B. Ramsay English translation. We have here a very sensitive arrangement in which careful attention to intonation and chording, particularly in unaccompanied sections will be well rewarded.
6. NEAR BETHLEHEM [SATB & Organ], 2012. Encore Publications
I was not familiar with this gentle “pastorale” carol originally composed to traditional words by Arthur Henry Brown (1830-1926). The four-part harmony sections are hymnlike in style and the lilting organ accompaniment sets and maintains the mood throughout. Towards the end the piece builds up with the words “Unto us a Son is given” in unison with a descant part. The organ then confirms those words in an fff ending. This attractive arrangement certainly conveys the story told throughout this carol. n
Colin J. Jenkins is a freelance organist and choral director, formerly Organist and Director of Music at Wesley Church, Melbourne.
LiTURGiCAL MUSiC
A FINELY CRAFTED MASSParish Mass in EA setting for congregation and organ with optional SATB choir.Michael OverburyAvailable from Michael Overbury ([email protected]). Melody (4 pages A5); Melody, large print (4 pages A4); Full Music (12 pages A4). Postage rates on application.REVIEWED BY JOHN F. HOGAN
THIS IS A finely crafted setting, easy to learn and with elegant, interesting optional parts for SATB choir with one descant note at the end of each memorial acclamation. The organ part is easy and interesting. Harmonically it is rich.
The Kyrie is a simple setting of the Greek text. It is led by a cantor and the repeated melody is harmonised for four-part choir but would work just as well for call and response by cantor and congregation. Of course if we have a choir we have an enriched experience.
Unlike many fine settings of the Mass in which the Gloria is in refrain style, with the first two lines up to “people of good will” recurring three or four times during the rest of the text on a psalm-style-tone, the Gloria in Overbury’s Mass is through-composed, without interruption. The melody for “We praise you” is the same as for “we bless you” and “we adore you” but because the harmony changes for each there is no sense of boredom or predictability. The middle section is suitably reflective. The final Amen, which is also
JUNE NIXON. “DR NIXON … HAS GIVEN US CHARMING, APPROACHABLE AND VARIED ARRANGEMENTS OF CAROLS WITH ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENTS THAT WILL DELIGHT ORGANISTS, SINGERS AND LISTENERS ALIKE.”
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 44
used for the Great Amen, is marked unison but would be exquisite if sung in harmony. Playing it through several times I was tempted to add a high E at the end for sopranos as a descant. However, on reflection, Michael’s restraint is in fact more satisfying.
The Sanctus is short, built on two simple and easily remembered themes which, because of the interesting varied harmonies, add great interest. Again the part writing is elegant and easy for the choir to sing. The choral parts are doubled by the organ, so again if there was no choir it would be satisfying as a unison congregational setting.
The three Memorial Acclamations are set to the same tune for congregation, organ and four-part choir with an optional descant note on the last chord. A problem is that there is no way of knowing in advance which one is intended. It might be a good idea for composers to have an optional short lead-in/intro that is different for each so the congregation doesn’t have to wait to hear the first word from the cantor or choir.
The Great Amen is set as a satisfying rising motive. Many composers set it as a three-fold Amen – that works well – but in this case it is not repeated. Overbury’s single Amen lasts for eight beats and really sounds complete in itself.
The Agnus Dei is set for congregation, organ and four-part choir with the organ doubling the choir parts. The first and third petitions have the same melody with a different melody for the second petition. Initially when a congregation is learning this they could be encouraged to sing the first and third petitions and leave the second one to cantor or choir before finally joining in the lot.
My only disappointment is that the score is a photocopy of the composer’s handwriting. It is clear to read in most instances but I wish the spacing in bar 4 of the Gloria had a better lining up of the left and right hand parts. I also found the second petition of the Agnus Dei with its accidentals hard to read quickly at sight. Both problems would have been solved and the score would be more user-friendly if it had been typeset on Sibelius or Finale. (In fact Michael has e-mailed to tell me that he has just purchased Sibelius and will in time typeset all his compositions).
This setting is used by the composer with success at Worksop Priory, an ancient church (it can trace its history back to 1103) with a fine musical tradition in Nottinghamshire, England. Worksop is in the Anglo-Catholic or High Church tradition
and the text of the Parish Mass in E is that of the revised Roman missal. I will certainly be adding it into the cathedral repertoire at Bendigo and would encourage all readers to check it out. Good, well-crafted settings of the revised Mass texts are to be celebrated and used. This is one of them.
Michael Overbury was organ scholar at Corpus Christ College, Cambridge, then assistant organist at New College, Oxford and assistant director of music at St Alban’s Cathedral. He has been Director of Music at Worksop Priory since 1999. n
John Hogan is Organist and Director of Music at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo and Diocesan Director of Sacred Music for the Diocese of Sandhurst, Victoria.
TRANSCRiPTiONS
POPULAR PIECES BY BACHBach Transcriptions for Organselected & arranged by Martin SetchellOxford University Press, 2014March (BWV 207a); Sarabande (BWV 812); Largo (BWV 1043); Bourrée II (BWV 807; “Wir setzen uns” (BWV 244); Badinerie (BWV 1067); Sonatina (BWV 106); Menuetto I & II (BWV 1033); Pastoral Symphony (BWV 248); Sinfonia (BWV 156); Siciliano (BWV 1031); Gavotte (Musette) (BWV 808); Sinfonia (BWV 29); Sarabande (BWV 807); “Now thank we” (BWV 79).REVIEWED BY BRUCE STEELE
INDEFATIGABLE MARTIN SETCHELL has added yet another volume to his collection of transcriptions for organ – Sousa, Saint Saëns, Bizet, et al. This time it’s Bach and he has selected fifteen pieces, many of them well known and popular. They come from various works – cantatas, English
suites, concertos and even the closing chorus from St Matthew Passion. They are divided into three categories: Cantata movements, Movements from large-scale choral works and Instrumental movements. All are arranged very effectively – no unnecessary notes – for players at an “intermediate” standard. Nearly all are instrumental-based and so adapt well but I have reservations about the Matthew Passion chorus: apart from anything else it belongs so much to the whole work and loses so much without the voices.
Perhaps of limited usefulness in strictly liturgical contexts, most of these transcriptions could be very handy for weddings or funerals, as “fillers”, and as short but effective concert items. The March, which is virtually a Trumpet Tune, the popular “Now thank we”, and the opening Sinfonia to Cantata 29 make bright postludes, however. Setchell is a skilful arranger and the pieces would sound well on most church organs. His two-page introduction with notes on the pieces is authoritative and helpful.
Highly recommended. n
Novelist Joanna Trollope has written much on English church and clerical life. Her 1988 novel The Choir dealt with the internal politics and personality clashes of the choir school at the fictional Aldminster Cathedral. Enmeshed in the drama is the cathedral organist, Leo Beckford, who, towards the end of the story, resigns to go and teach organ in another school, exchanging the vast cathedral organ, now in the course of elaborate and controversial restoration, for an
1885 Walker. Very good of course, of its kind, but only forty-eight speaking stops so I shall miss the size. Nice solo stops though ...
Before leaving the cathedral Beckford pays a last visit to the cathedral organ he has loved.
He went into the Cathedral for his own private farewell to the organ. He simply sat at the console, lightly stroking the ivory of the keys and the thumb pistons and the stop controls. He took his shoes off to feel the pedals better. He had spent hours in that organ loft, probably some of the best as well as the happiest hours he had ever spent in his life, hours in which he had sometimes felt himself
so much part of the great central life force of humanity because of the music he was making, that he had been moved to tears. It was a terrible parting. He had no wish at all to relinquish this extraordinary instrument, at once passionately human in its capabilities and superbly indifferent of its historic permanence, into the hands of anyone else. Its vast old personality seemed to engulf him, dwarf him and at the same time to be withdrawing itself, inch by inch, and holding itself apart, ready for the next man. He drew the beechwood cover down over the console and laid his cheek against it and listened to the huge breathing quiet of the place. He must go. If he stayed any longer, he would hardly be able to.
The Choir was filmed by the BBC in 1994 with Nicholas Farrell as Leo Beckford and Gloucester Cathedral as the fictional Aldminster. A DVD is available.
ILLUSTRA
TION
BY CARO
LINE ELLSM
ORE
THE ORGANiST’S FAREWELLFrom The Choir by Joanna Trollope.
THE ORGAN IN LITERATUREAN OCCASIONAL FEATURE
45 ORGAN AUSTRALiA
EVENTS DiARY
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 46
OCTOBER
Friday 3 October, 1.10pmMelbourne University Series of Organ ConcertsUniversity of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic.This series of free lunchtime concerts held every Friday for the duration of Semester 2 continues.Further information (including venue): www.anzco.org
Saturday 4 October, 2.30pmTrinity Uniting Church Fincham Organ 130th CelebrationsTrinity Uniting Church, 17 Black Street, Brighton, Vic.October sees a series of three events to mark the 130th year of the church’s “Grandfather” Fincham organ. The first in the series includes an informative talk delivered by John Hargraves of South Island Pipe Organs about the organ and its restoration, refreshments at Trinity House, and then an open organ session in the church.Further information: 03 9592 4716 or email [email protected]
Sunday 5 October, 10amTrinity Uniting Church Fincham Organ 130th CelebrationsTrinity Uniting Church, 17 Black Street, Brighton, Vic.To mark the 130th year of the church’s Fincham organ, there will be a special church service commencing at 10am featuring the organ and a choir. Further information: 03 9592 4716 or email [email protected]
Wednesday 8 October, 1pmBach’s Back – Seniors Festival Organ ConcertMelbourne Town Hall, 90-130 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Vic.Appearing in costume as JS Bach,
English born organist Martin Setchell will be performing this entertaining and educational concert. As Bach, he will introduce and play his “personal favourites” as well as reminisce about his life and times.Further information: www.thatsmelbourne.com.au
Sunday 12 October, 2pmMartin Setchell Springtime Organ ConcertSt Mark’s Anglican Church, 1 Canterbury Road, Camberwell, Vic.Internationally renowned organist Martin Setchell has recently returned from touring Europe and North America, and will be performing at this concert to raise funds for Medical Mission Associated.Admission: $20/$15 concession (includes afternoon tea)Further information: www.melbourneanglican.org.au
Sunday 12 October, 2.30pm Trinity Uniting Church Fincham Organ 130th CelebrationsTrinity Uniting Church, 17 Black Street, Brighton, Vic.Featuring prominent Melbourne organists, the third in the series of celebratory events for the Fincham organ’s 130th will be a free organ recital in the church, to be concluded by refreshments in Trinity Hall. Further information: 03 9592 4716 or email [email protected]
Sunday 12 October, 4pmFree Organ ConcertsAll Saints’ Church, corner of Dandenong Road and Chapel Street, East St Kilda, Vic.Rhys Arvidson began his formal study of the pipe organ at the University of Newcastle Conservatorium. He is now organist at St Peter’s, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Further information: www.allsaints.org.au
Monday 13 & Tuesday 14 October, 7pmMasterpieces and Miniatures, Housemuseum Organ ConcertLyon Housemuseum, 219 Cotham Road, Kew, Vic.Appearing before a small audience in this unusual domestic museum, organist Rod Junor performs works of Handel, Vierne, Bach and others. The program is repeated over the two nights to allow further opportunity to appreciate the Housemuseum concert organ’s range and tonality.Admission: $40 (including post-concert refreshments and tour of the collection).Further information: 03 9817 2300 or email [email protected]
THE ORGAN IN THE OLD WILSON HALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1952 ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE BUILDING. FROM THE ADMISSION CARD TO THE MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY SERIES OF ORGAN CONCERTS.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA47
Friday 17 & Saturday 18 October Warrnambool Organ FestivalSt John’s Presbyterian Church, Anglican Christ Church, and St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Warrnambool, Vic.Three concerts showcasing the organs in three of Warrnambool’s church buildings will be held for the inaugural Warrnambool Organ Festival. The first concert will take place on the Friday at St John’s Church, 25 Manifold Street, at 8pm, and on the Saturday there will be two concerts: the first at 2.30pm at Christ Church, Cnr Koroit & Henna Streets, and concluding with an evening concert at 8pm at St Joseph’s Church, 169 Kepler Street.Further information: www.warrnamboolinfo.com.au, or www.facebook.com/ warrnamboolorganfestival
Sunday 19 October from 3pmHistoric Organs on Richmond HillSt Stephen’s Anglican Church, St Ignatius’ Catholic Church and Richmond Uniting Church, Richmond, Vic.Commencing at St Stephen’s at 3pm, the afternoon features sequential half hour performances on the historic organs in the three churches on Richmond Hill by organists Kieran Crichton, Jim Fletcher and Christopher Trikilis. The churches are within a short, easy walk of each other. Entry is by gold coin donation with all proceeds going to the Richmond Hill Churches Food Relief Centre. Further information: www.richmond.unitingchurch.org.au
Friday 24 October, 1.10pmMelbourne University Series of Organ ConcertsUniversity of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic.The final in this series of free Friday lunchtime concerts.Further information (including venue): www.anzco.org
NOVEMBER
Sunday 2 November, 3pmAll Soul’s Day ConcertSt.Margaret’s Church cnr Port Road &Woodville Road, Woodville, S.A.The program for this concert includes Schubert’s Litany for All Soul’s Day, the Gregorian chant Dies Irae, J.Christoph Bach’s Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte, and Cabezon’s Magnificat Versets. Performing will be soprano Gillian Dooley and cantor Chris Gent, as well as Isaac Ellis (organ), and Bruce Naylor (harpsichord).Further information: 08 8244 3250 or email [email protected]
Sunday 9 November, 2pmVirginia Davey Concert Series – Gala ConcertToorak Uniting Church, 603 Toorak Road, Toorak, Vic.Presenting performers Catriona DeVere (soprano), Ursula Paez (mezzo-soprano) Stephen Carolane (tenor), Andrew Long (baritone) with the collaboration of David Ross-Smith (piano). The programme will include Au fond du temple saint from “Les Pêcheurs de Perles” and Habanera from “Carmen” by Bizet, as well as excerpts from other operas. The Manse Gallery Café at the rear of the church will be open from 8.30am to 3.30pm.Further information: www.toorak.unitingchurch.org.au
Sunday 9 November, 4pmFree Organ ConcertAll Saints’ Church, corner of Dandenong Road and Chapel Street, East St Kilda, Vic.The final concert of the church’s free Sunday series presents a performance by Tony Way, Director of Music at St Francis’s Church, Melbourne, since 1998.Further information: www.allsaints.org.au
Saturday 29 November, 5pm2014 Advent Organ Concert SeriesSt Patrick’s Church, 10 Rogers Street, Mentone, Vic.The first in the series of organ concerts featuring seasonal music being performed by some of Melbourne’s leading organists on the church’s historic 1862 Nicholson organ. Admission is free with the concert being followed by 6pm Mass.Further information: 03 9583 2103 or email [email protected]
Sunday 30 November, 2pmA Tale of Two OrgansMelbourne Town Hall, 90-130 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Vic.Esteemed organists Richard Hills and Tony Fenelon will be performing at this concert in which for the first time the Grand Organ of the Melbourne Town Hall and the Wurlitzer Organ from the Regent Theatre will be featured together in the same concert. All profits from the concert will be donated to the Good Friday Appeal.Admission: from $54Further information: 03 9658 9658 or email [email protected]
Sunday 30 November, 8pmMusic for Three OrgansThe Basilica of St Mary of the Angels, 136 Yarra Street, Geelong, Vic.This free recital will present performances by organists Tom Healey, Brendon Lukin, and Frank De Rosso. The three organs – the grand, chamber, and digital – will be played both separately and in unionFor further information: www.musicatthebasilica.org.au
EVENTS DiARY
ORGAN AUSTRALIA 48
DECEMBER
Monday 1, 8, 15, 22 December, 12.30pmFree Lunchtime Advent Organ Recital SeriesThe Basilica of St Mary of the Angels, 136 Yarra Street, Geelong, Vic.Throughout December the Basilica will be staging a series of free lunchtime concerts. The 45 minute recitals will take place each Monday and feature a selection of music to celebrate the season. Organists performing are Dion Henman, Paul Taylor, John Rivers, and Frank De Rosso.Further information: www.musicatthebasilica.org.au
Saturday 6, 13 & 20 December, 5pm2014 Advent Organ Concert SeriesSt Patrick’s Church, 10 Rogers Street, Mentone, Vic.Seasonal music will be performed by some of Melbourne’s leading organists on the historic 1862 Nicholson organ located in St Patrick’s church. Admission is free with 6pm Mass to follow.Further information: 03 9583 2103 or email [email protected]
Saturday 13 December, 8pmVirginia Davey Concert Series – St Lucia ConcertToorak Uniting Church, 603 Toorak Road, Toorak, Vic.The third and final in the Virginia Davey Concert Series follows the Swedish tradition of the Celebration of Light. With a candlelight performance of music directed by
Swedish Organist Camilla Hellgren, the concert will evoke a true sense of Christmas in Sweden. Swedish-style Christmas refreshments will follow at the conclusion.Further information: www.toorak.unitingchurch.org.au
Tuesday 16 December, 1pmOrgan &…Symphonic BandMelbourne Town Hall, 90-130 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Vic.Featuring a program with a festive flavour, the Air Force Band will be performing favourite works by composers such as Elgar and Strauss, as well as premiering a commissioned work by Melbourne composer Stuart Breenbaum. This concert is a free event.Further information: 03 9658 9658 or email [email protected]
EVENTS DiARY
LISTINGS INFORMATIONOrgan Australia welcomes listings of all organ-related events for inclusion in each edition’s Events Diary. Please e-mail full details of your event to the Listings Editor at [email protected]. High-resolution images for possible use in the Diary are also welcome. All listings are free.
David Vann writes:Christina Boughen (known as Christine) passed away in April 2014 in her 93rd year.
Christine was the wife of noted Brisbane musician Robert Boughen and mother of their four children.
Christine herself was also a highly acclaimed musician and pianist who on occasion also played the organ. I recall a recital many years ago at St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane, where she and husband Robert played two organs to great effect. Christine played piano in a large number of concerts in the Brisbane City Hall and was highly acclaimed as a most professional and sympathetic accompanist who would always bring out the “best” in any entrant.
A service of celebration and thanksgiving was held at Christ Church Anglican Church at St Lucia on 14 April. The organist for the occasion was Christopher Wrench. Shaaron Boughen gave the family eulogy. n
OBiTUARY CHRISTINA URQUHART BOUGHEN OAM, MUSICIAN
Born 2 September 1920; died 9 April 2014
CHRISTINE BOUGHEN IN EARLY AND LATER LIFE.
ORGAN AUSTRALIA49
Qld, NSW, ACT - Jim Clinch 0412-758651Sydney metro - Godelieve Ghavalas 0404-837363
Vic, SA, Tas - Leith Ewert 0419-388949Web site: www.allenorgan.com
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