Making Music City Mixture : Part IV

Part 4 of a multi-part narrative of my new recording on mechanical action organs of Nashville. Music City Mixture is available here.

Second Presbyterian Church

Church: http://www.SecondPresbyterian.net/
Organ specifications: http://www.nashvilleago.org/AreaOrgans/Specs/SecondPres.htm
Organ builder: http://www.Juget-Sinclair.com

Sunday afternoon, after finishing practicing at First Presbyterian, it was off to uncharted waters at Second Presbyterian. The church is in a newish building that imparts a bit of a beach house look inside, with bamboo flooring, pastel walls, and indirect lighting. It all has a “cooling” effect on the observer. Here are some photos from the church website:

The Juget-Sinclair is buried treasure. Its large two-manual specification is an unending source of inspiration, and piece after piece kept presenting itself for successful inclusion. The organ played everything beautifully. With the near-instantaneous addition of this fine organ to the project, many plans had to be made – and fast. What to choose? What to move from another organ to this one? The recording bears out the final decisions. Here are some photos from practice sessions:

Although we spoke on the phone, I didn’t get to meet Director of Music David Bridges, but church Administrator Sarah White was most helpful and gracious. This church wins the prize for last-minute hospitality, and Music City Mixture is better for it.

We recorded at Second Presbyterian on Tuesday, late in the day. Although I’m confessing now to being tired by then that day, I hope the Bach E Major Toccata doesn’t give it away too much! The action of the Juget-Sinclair is comfortable, if a bit feather light. The suspended action is sensitive, and for a fellow who plays on an electro-pneumatic organ most of the time, it was all too easy to graze wrong notes. Which I did. In abundance. We worked a good bit to clean up some spots in the Bach E Major. We also worked on the Bach Gigue Fugue, for which the pedal always seemed to be behind, even though the pedal action is firm and shallow. Might have been the pedal reed, some delay on whose speech you might be able to hear in the Bach E Major. The CD did not have room for the Gigue Fugue, but it is here: 

 Download

The first two of the Gawthrop Floral Preludes recorded relatively quickly. But we reached an impasse on the third one. The quick-moving chords of that movement present many opportunities for fingers to hit cracks and graze wrong notes. Which I did. In abundance. It reached the point where I called Dan Gawthrop and apologized for the possibility of having only two of the pieces represented. But the next day during First Presbyterian’s recording sessions, the idea came to record the third one there, on a more resistant action. Worked beautifully. Problem solved. Called Dan back with the good news.

H. Max Smith (1931-2012)

This morning, July 14, 2012, my undergraduate organ professor was given one of the finest liturgical send-offs I have ever seen. It was a 90-minute service at St. Mary of the Hills, Blowing Rock, NC, loaded with wonderful music and attended by many wonderful friends and colleagues. It was my profound honor to have been asked to deliver the eulogy, reproduced here:

Dr. Smith to many. Uncle Max to many. Daddy Max to me and a few others. And just plain Max everywhere else. The very sound of that name -- MAX -- brings wonderful memories to many minds. And as I’ve travelled the country, I’ve marveled at all the people who knew and admired him over the years. Eyes light up everywhere when anyone mentions him and it is my honor and privilege to have been asked to share a few of my thoughts with you today.

Remember Max’s singing? Enough said there.

Remember what Max wore to class? It was always a three-piece suit, even if he were wearing hiking boots in winter. And he wore that suit even while grading papers at home at the end of the day. However, if he had lessons and no classes, he wore a guayabera to teach.

Remember those long brown cigarettes he used to smoke? Remember the days of smoking inside university buildings?

Max did a lot of good in the world. His house was a safe house for people dealing with addictive friends, troubled families, identity crises, or Mama. His office was a safe house for anyone in need of moral support or research assistance. And his heart was a safe house. Max respected boundaries of people in pain, and he respected the authority of someone a person in pain should really have been talking to. He knew where the boundaries were for saving face, and he was unimpeachable.

You didn’t have to be a student for Max to reach out to you, but students received priority. Max spent a lot of time promoting students in their budding careers, including me. He must have lost a lot of music over the years, forgetting whom he had lent it to. He gave lots of scores, books, and money to the music library over the years, for students to use. And he generously disseminated many of his scores and books to former students in retirement, some of which I am the grateful recipient. He consulted on about 100 pipe organs in the region, including virtually all the pipe organs in Watauga County. While perhaps his final legacy will be the gamelan just now being delivered to the School of Music, his greatest legacy will be Pablo. Everyone was enriched by Max’s presence among us.

I’ve heard some of the horror stories about his days as chair of the music department. Max was a peaceful man, but he was forthright in waging war as a necessary part of life. He did all that so calmly. It was all in stride and usually creative. A former student once regaled a group of us about a dedicatory recital Max played. Max had to hand-register everything because the combination system wasn’t working. On a brand new organ! Max was furious, and he made a show of changing registrations by hand, stopping the music, making the changes stop by stop with sharp gestures, and carrying on in the music. Then at the reception, he greeted everyone with, “Thanks so much for coming. I’m sorry the combination system wasn’t working.” “Thanks so much for coming. I’m sorry the combination system wasn’t working.” “Thanks so much for coming. I’m sorry the combination system wasn’t working.” All this, of course, in the presence of the organ builder.

I have my day job because of Max getting in someone’s face. When a one-year vacancy opened up at ASU in 2004, then-Dean Harbinson visited with Max to discuss a recommendation for a replacement. Max told me later, “I waggled my finger in Bill’s face and told him he was going to call Joby Bell!”

There are plenty more stories among us, many of which shouldn’t be told in this room.

Max’s colleagues will agree what a colleague he was. The Mountain House will agree what a good customer he was. The housing and car sales markets will miss his business. The community will agree what an interesting and affable fellow he was. But we students came away the most enriched of all. Every time I introduce a student to a colleague at a convention, I think of Max doing the same for me. Every time I put on a tie to go teach, I think of Max doing the same. Every time I hear of a student getting excited about the organ or a new research topic, I think of Max’s encouragement. Every time I welcome a stranger to spend some time playing an organ they haven’t played, I think of Max. Every time I say, “Thank you,” to someone, rather than roll my eyes, I think of Max’s limitless diplomacy.

In 2000 ASU developed a program called “Open Door,” which is a simple, visible indication on a faculty member’s office door that that faculty member’s office is a safe house, no matter who you are or how you’re made. The program is merely a campus-wide representation of the support Max provided for years on his own. May we all learn to be as open. May we all celebrate Max’s humor, his joy for life, his ways of honoring diversity. May we all hone our ability to discern, as he did, what is important. And what is not.

Making Music City Mixture : Part III

Part 3 of a multi-part narrative of my new recording on mechanical action organs of Nashville. Music City Mixture is available here.

First Presbyterian Church

Church: http://www.FPCNashville.org/
Organ specifications: http://www.nashvilleago.org/AreaOrgans/Specs/FPCNashville.htm
Organ builder: http://www.Beckerath.com/

After practicing at St. Andrew’s on Sunday, it was off to First Presbyterian to register the Bobo Appalachian Prelude, the Rheinberger Sonata, and the Gawthrop Three Floral Preludes. I also roughed in the registrations for a few other pieces, in case any other organ proved to be un-recordable (none did). Here are some photos from practice sessions:

The First Presbyterian campus is a marvel of traditional Georgian architecture, handsomely situated on top of a huge, rolling hill. Rhonda Swanson, organist, extended the finest hospitality to me and was a complete delight to work with. She clearly loves the Beckerath organ and the congregation she serves and was very helpful with registrational and tuning issues. She also introduced me to the veritable gold mine of organ photos on Ken Stein’s website. Ken is a member of the Nashville AGO chapter, and he freely posts his photos for all to enjoy. You’ll find links throughout this blog series to many pages of his website. A must-see.

Also at First Presbyterian is a Casavant positif organ. The Froberger Canzona would have been perfect on that one, but alas, low A on the 8-foot was dead. Too bad – that would have been tasty icing on the recording’s cake. (The Froberger found its champion in the chapel at First Lutheran.)

The Beckerath is both a nightmare and pure joy. I have never encountered an organ that “draws” as much as this one does. Physics of sound for two pipes of the same pitch being installed very close to each other dictate that they might “draw” each other into tune – or out of it. So you can’t use principals and flutes of the same pitch from the same division together on this organ. The joy is that this organ is so richly voiced that you don’t need all those wind-robbing flutes in large ensembles – the organ fills the room beautifully with its pure principal choruses. Beckerath and similar builders know that; the drawing was probably just an added bonus toward ensuring success!

Another mild nightmare at First Presbyterian is in the piston layout. There are multiple memory levels but only six general pistons. The thumb pistons are spread quite far apart from each other, say, a couple inches or more. The general toe studs are located a bit too far to the left and are jumbled up rather than in the straight lines of the thumbs. And one of them didn’t work reliably – so that meant being able to trust only five toe generals. But the tonal finishing of this organ more than makes up for its somewhat eccentric console layout.

Another joy of the Beckerath is in how it lovingly envelops you in its arms. Literally. You sit among the divisions of the organ as a part of them. Above you is Great. In front of you is Swell. Behind you is Positif. To your right is Pedal. And to your left is the church choir.

You are truly wrapped up in music at this organ!

This organ had the steepest learning curve for registration – what sounds right at the console is probably not right in the room. Rich and I spent all day Thursday recording there. We had the Rheinberger Fantasia-Sonata, the Bobo Appalachian Prelude, and the third of the Gawthrop Three Floral Preludes to record. (I had prepared all three Gawthrop Preludes here and at Second Presbyterian. I preferred Second, but the third Prelude didn’t work there due to pilot error, which I will explain later.) We spent a good deal of time figuring out the “drawing” issues of the Beckerath and re-registering accordingly. As my “ears” out in the room, Rich was also able to inform me that this or that balance may sound great at the console but is overblown in the mikes. We also spent a good deal of time taking and re-taking some difficult notes in the Gawthrop that took advantage of my fatigue and decided to go AWOL.

I feel the final results on this organ are stunning. This organ takes its rightful place among the stars of the show. The Rheinberger, one of my favorite pieces, gets a loving but commanding rendition. And the third of the Gawthrop Floral Preludes is just good fun, as it should be. The various solo colors made the Bobo come alive, but alas, the CD did not have room for it. That was perhaps the most painful cut I had to make. Fortunately, it is here as a free bonus:

Download

While I celebrate the beauty of all the instruments I worked on, this one has a special place for being so elegant in its versatility.

Making Music City Mixture : Part II

Part 2 of a multi-part narrative of my new recording on mechanical action organs of Nashville. Music City Mixture is available here.

St. Andrew’s Anglican Parish

Church: http://StAndrewsNashville.org/
Organ photos: http://www.PhotographyByStein.com/nashvilleorgans/standrews/standrewsmain.htm
Organ specification

We hit the road to Nashville on Saturday, October 8, 2011. Sunday and Monday, October 9-10, were practice days, and we recorded Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, October 11-13.

First stop on Sunday was St. Andrew’s to practice. Church was over around 11:30, which would give me plenty of time to make friends with the Visser-Rowland, register the Sweelinck Variants and then get over to First Presbyterian at the end of its service, to practice and be done for the day. Or so I thought.

The rapturous smell of incense hung in the air at St. Andrew’s, and I knew that Carl Smith was right where he wanted to be in that congregation. As is the case for many liturgically-minded congregations these days, attendance and contributions are down, but the church is bravely soldiering on in its time-honored traditions.

Carl asked if I was planning to record on the Juget-Sinclair at Second Presbyterian. I had not heard of that church at all, but I am familiar with Juget-Sinclair and knew that I had to pursue this one! So I immediately got on the phone with David Bridges at Second Presbyterian. He was most accommodating and was able to secure Session approval for me to record there. I visited the church later that same afternoon, after practicing at First Presbyterian. So Sunday got longer! But the project got more interesting, a deserving organ got included, and we all have Carl Smith to thank for it. I also mused on how careful I had been to contact venues months in advance to make this recording, and yet I had overlooked a treasure of an organ but was able to add it with less than a day’s notice. How these things go.

Practicing at St. Andrew’s was a bit like going back to my days in Houston. Visser-Rowland’s shop (later Visser & Associates) is in Houston, and I spent a lot of time there during my graduate school years. I saw many an organ on the shop floor much like the one at St. Andrew’s, and I learned a great deal about organ building from Pieter Visser, who always warmly welcomed me to the shop. I remember during the 1995 AGO regional convention in Nashville going over to St. Andrew’s to seek out Pieter’s only instrument in town, to enjoy a bit of Houston in Nashville. I am glad this organ could be included on this recording.

Wednesday evening’s recording session at St. Andrew’s was quick. The organ does its job without protest. You’ll hear in the Sweelinck Variants on “Est-ce Mars” on the recording how well this organ “speaks Dutch.” After all, its builder is Dutch.

Making Music City Mixture : Planning

Part 2 of a multi-part narrative of my new recording on mechanical action organs of Nashville. Music City Mixture is available here.

Planning

I have self-recorded for many years – things like practice sessions and run-throughs to catch those things one may not hear in the heat of battle. Recording like that is always instructive, minimally time-intensive – and intimidating. I always dread listening to my own playing as an audience member; it makes me more nervous than walking out to play a recital for organists. But after all those years, plus making three previous recordings (two of which were not released) the exercise of listening to a professional recording opened up a new idea: at one point during our Nashville sessions, Rich Mays had me listen back to a passage that he as an organist thought needed to be phrased/shaped/lifted here and there. I listened and concluded, “It sounds like ME. Let’s keep it.” With that, I arrived at the words to express what I had thought for years about performing and recording: Sound like yourself – communicate what you have to say, and the listening audience will hear it.

This project was conceived with a much grander number of instruments intended for inclusion. We were going to record on all the big ones and virtually all the pretty ones. But these multi-venue projects have a way of defining their own parameters as things progress. The project started getting unwieldy and focus-poor. Add to that the logistical nightmare of coordinating schedules among so many venues for only one available week of recording sessions. One roadblock led to another, red tape increased in some places, and unreturned phone calls and emails languished in others (names withheld here, but I am this close…). Engineer and producer Rich Mays saved the day when he noticed our thoughts and plans kept returning to the same handful of deserving organs, all of which happened to be mechanical action. An accident in one way, but a wonderful re-definition of the project! By paring down to the “trackers,” the project’s focus sharpened immediately, and everything carried on much more smoothly from that point on. I backtracked to the “electric action” venues and told them we were scaling back. Everyone understood completely, and I did not encounter a sourpuss anywhere. That is a phenomenon that does not exist everywhere, dear Reader, but I have come to appreciate it so much from the Nashville Chapter of the AGO.

What music to record? And where to record each piece? I believe a recital instrument is much easier to plan for than a recording instrument. With a recital, I get a one-time shot to play for the audience, maybe an archive recording of it is captured, and it’s over. With a recording instrument, everything is laid bare in perpetuity to be played and replayed by any number of listeners (and critics). I chose a large handful of music and started practicing, pondering, and paring down. This piece might work here, this piece might work there, this piece would work anywhere, this piece is too hard, this piece will pair well with this one, and so on. Decisions were made, and off we went to Nashville. You’ll find program notes for all the pieces at the Program Notes tab of this website.

The Gawthrops and I talked and re-talked about a recording title. We made attempts at tying in “Music City” with “mechanical action” or with “the Athens of the South” or with my last name. Of course, the hare-brained titles started showing up, and the laughter derailed the proceedings for a while. “Bell Plays Nashville Belles,” “A Music City Bell,” and so forth. “A Mechanic Visits the Music City” made me sound non-musical (but my father attended mechanic school in Nashville, which would have brought things full-circle in a different way). Shooting a photo of me in a tux in the middle of a Tennessee horse farm just didn’t seem to do it for us, either. Showing me leaning against all six organs was a little more appealing:

Showing me leaning against the Parthenon replica in Nashville’s Centennial Park, with pipes from the six organs peeking between the columns, was even more appealing:

But we were afraid the casual observer wouldn’t get the reference (“What do those columns have to do with anything?”). Enter Bradley Gawthrop, who offered “Music City Mixture.” Everyone froze and made the quick mental trip to the double entendre of ‘mixture’ denoting both an organ stop and this compilation. Perfect. The title was settled. There is a reason I surround myself with people smarter than I.

Lodging had been worked out months before. I was all set to choose a hotel more or less centrally located to the venues. But when I made initial contact with Jennie Lou Smith about recording on the Casavant in Wightman Chapel, not only did she give an enthusiastic Yes to the project, but she also immediately offered the use of her home, right in town. So the lodging question was now settled, much more cheaply and far more luxuriously! In addition to Jennie’s refreshing straightforwardness and encyclopedic knowledge of organists far and wide, there were two delights involved with staying in her elegant home. Her husband, James Gooch, estate-planning attorney by day, is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Nashville Symphony. Imagine the lively and stimulating conversations with this engaging and charming couple! Despite the pressures of hitting all the right notes and hoping that organs were in tune and the rooms quiet, the lodging arrangements and the company we kept could not have been more revitalizing. Another unexpected delight was in playing their piano for hours. James loves Beethoven Sonatas and all manner of Romantic fare, as do I, and I was all too happy to oblige with playing for him and Jennie. It is remarkable how playing the piano became a great way to relax during an organ recording project. We enjoyed conversations on great music, and I was delighted to have introduced Jennie to the Rachmaninoff Moment Musical in D-flat. Surely in-home musicales like that had to have been the delight of the great composers back in the day. There is something more than mildly invigorating about gathering around music to unwind after a long day. That, plus red wine or Scotch.

Making Music City Mixture

Part 1 of a multi-part narrative of my new recording on mechanical action organs of Nashville. Music City Mixture is available here.

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Why Nashville? And why all mechanical action instruments?

In the summer of 1995, the Nashville chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) hosted the biennial convention for Region IV, the South. That convention was my first – and in many ways my favorite – AGO convention. There were thrilling performances on equally thrilling organs, and I discovered my bliss in assembling with people in the profession. In a trice, I was hooked on AGO conventions and have attended at least one each year ever since. During that convention, I also discovered that Nashville is not all country music. There are splendid organs, fine choirs, and a first-rate symphony orchestra. There are beautiful, acoustically vibrant churches populated with outstanding musicians. Nashville had awakened in me a new perspective on my profession, as well as a new perspective on the musical life of the city itself.

Fast-forward to 2006, where it was announced during the AGO national convention in Chicago that the Nashville chapter would be hosting the national in 2012. The memories of 1995 came flooding back, and wheels began turning. I immediately sought out Bill Gray, the 2012 convention coordinator. I told him my story of “coming to life” during the Nashville regional and that I wanted to help with this one. So I joined the chapter as a dual member, and my years of service with the AGO National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance made me a good choice to serve on the onsite competition committee during the convention. Meanwhile, I began looking for an additional way to celebrate the fact that my convention attendance was about to come full circle, back to Nashville. A compilation recording of Nashville organs came to mind and kept coming to mind. Music City Mixture is the result.

This narrative involves the rapid tossing about of numerous names, venues, and organ builders. A dramatis personae is offered here:

Rich Mays†, Sonare Recordings, project engineer and producer, Savannah

Jennie Lou Smith and James Gooch, housing hosts for Rich and me, Nashville

Susan Murphey, M.D., my wife and tireless cheerleader, who took many photos, designed some graphics, and suffered with me through finishing up the myriad little details that drive us both crazy

Daniel E. and Jane Gawthrop. Dan is the prolific organ and choral composer whose output includes the hugely popular Sing me to heaven, as well as the Three Floral Preludes on this recording. Jane is an undisputed expert in graphics and publicity – and organists. Without these two, my fame would have gone no further than the nearest county line.

Bradley Gawthrop, brilliant organ builder, graphics designer, and all-around thinker. He designed Joby Bell dot org.

Covenant Presbyterian Church, home of a III/58 C. B. Fisk organ, Op. 134, 2009
- Paul Magyar, former Director of Music Ministries, now Associate Pastor for Music and Worship at Central Baptist Church, Knoxville

First Presbyterian Church, home of a III/49 Beckerath organ, 1974
- Rhonda Swanson, Assistant Organist

Second Presbyterian Church, home of a II/21 Juget-Sinclair organ, Op. 26, 2007
- David Bridges, Director of Music
- Sarah White, Church Administrator

First Lutheran Church chapel, home of a II/10 Wolff et Associés organ, Op. 42, 1998
- Mark Beall, Director of Music

St. Andrew’s Anglican Parish, home of a II/13 Visser-Rowland (Visser & Associates) organ, Op. 102, 1993
- Carl Smith, Organist and Choirmaster

Wightman Chapel, Scarritt-Bennett Center, home of a II/37 Casavant-Frères organ, 1970
- Jennie Lou Smith, Organist

The following two websites are rich sources for information and photos of many Nashville organs. Visit often, and feast your eyes:

Photography by Stein

Nashville AGO (click “Area Organs” in the left sidebar.)

You make it look so easy!

I’m not sure the title of this post is anything to aspire to hear from audience members. If playing the organ were easy, an organist would get bored with it. And I’ve seen that happen to more than one organist. I want to be seen working my hiney off! I want to sweat, huff, puff, and pant in performance. Anything less and the audience isn’t getting its money’s worth.

Of course, some people can push notes down faster and more accurately than others. But without some soul, some work, some affection for the audience, and some unlimited respect for the composer, guess what it all begins to sound like – it sounds like notes being pushed down fast and accurately.

We should pay lots of attention to that man behind the curtain. The music may be jolly, but that organist had better be working for it. Once we allow complacency in, the assembly line approach starts to form around the notes, and trouble begins. I sometimes encounter a similar phenomenon with music I’m repeating many times during a season. But it’s not boredom. Rather, it’s a struggle to keep everything sounding fresh, which is what I want to do above all. But some music needs to rest, and too many repeats make it stale, despite my best efforts. However, a piece that is well-learned will resurrect later more quickly. When I return to a previously oft-played piece, a new freshness will appear, as will an easier time of playing the notes. But the sweat will remain, as it should.

The real test is in how it sounds, not how it looks. Looking easy can go hand in hand with sounding profound. And looking difficult can go hand in hand with sounding utterly scintillating. Every organist has his style, but great music requires our best efforts all the time. If only one could lose weight doing that.

Weddings! Part IV: The XIV Commandments

And it came to pass that the prophet Joby had had enough and did offer these fourteen commandments, thereby getting some things off his chest:

I. Thou shalt not marry a Bridezilla. Neither shalt thou marry a Groomzilla. Thou shalt not vicariously marry either parent of thy betrothed. For in the day that thou doest any of these things, thou and thy youthful spirit shall surely die.

II. When thou shalt say in public or post upon Facebook, “I got engaged!” thou art a liar, for thy fiancé(e) hath got engaged also, and shall be entitled to credit thereof. If thou be stuck in first person singular, then thy fiancé(e) shouldst take heed, for great will be his/her distress in married life.

III. When thou shalt say in public or post upon Facebook, “I’m marrying a doctor!” thou art a liar. Thou art not marrying a doctor. Neither art thou marrying a lawyer, stock broker, banker, musician, teacher, nor CEO. Thou art marrying a man or a woman, and no more, and thy names shall be ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ Thy names shall not be ‘Dr. and Mrs.’ or ‘Mr. and Dr.’ or ‘Dr. and Dr.’ Enough already, I beseech thee.

IV. If any one person among you shall proclaim him- or herself to be in charge without pay, then all others shall run away and never return.

V. Thou shalt allow twice as much time to arrive for the wedding rehearsal as thou thinkest thou shalt need. Many wedding rehearsals begin during Friday rush hour, and in the day that thou respectest not that fact, then thou shalt surely be late to the rehearsal. If thou art a bride or a groom, then thou shalt be at least one-half hour early for rehearsal. If thou art anyone else who hath arrived for the rehearsal on time and do not find there a bride and a groom, then thou shalt be free to go and do as thou please for the rest of the evening.

VI. If thou art a mother or grandmother, thou shalt dress in a manner befitting thy age and thy status as a person not getting married at this time.

VII. If thou art a mother or grandmother, thy seating shall not need to be rehearsed. Verily I say unto you, walking down an aisle and taking a seat, it is a no-brainer.

VIII. Verily I say unto you, it shall not be bad luck for bride and groom to see each other before the wedding ceremony shall commence. Thou shalt not observe such superstitious behavior for a church wedding, for such is an abomination unto the Lord. Verily.

IX. If thou art under the age of eight years, thou mayest be enlisted to carry something down the aisle. But I say unto you that a better way for thee to be involved would be to stay home with thy babysitter until the reception shall commence.

X. If thou art a groom or a groomsman, thou shalt dress like a man, not a frat boy nor cowboy nor prom date.

XI. If thou art a bride or a bridesmaid, thou shalt dress like a woman, not a flower girl nor whore nor prom date. If thy makeup render thee unrecognizable, then thou hast gone too far with it.

XII. If thou art a congregant, thou shalt dress appropriately as befits thy gender. Thou shalt also remain quiet during the prelude. Thou shalt also refrain from applauding and cheering during a church wedding. Thou shalt also leave thy children home with thine hired babysitter.

XIII. If thou art a layman who hath been enlisted to read scripture, thou shouldst read audibly, slowly, and deliberately. Thou shalt not simply insert more pauses between rapid-fire words. And thou shalt say, “First Corinthians,” not “One Corinthians.”

XIV. If thou art a bride or groom, thou shalt recite thy vows confidently and audibly. Thou shalt not leave everyone wondering if thou believest that which thou saith.

Here endeth the lesson. Give thou unto me a break.

Going to Carolina in my mind

My aunt lived in Nashville. My sister lived in Nashville, Vicksburg, and now Dothan. I lived in Houston. My mother lived in Statesville (N.C.). But Mother would never mention those cities by name. She would refer to those destinations by state: “When are you coming back to North Carolina?” “We’re going to Alabama to visit Talana for Christmas.” “Aunt Sandy is going back to Tennessee tomorrow.” Mother would answer ‘North Carolina’ to the question, “Where are you from?” A rather broad-ranging yet endearing approach to geography!

A similar thing occurs, in the other direction, when American organists are referred to in printed materials abroad. For example, Stephen Tharp is represented as being from ‘New York, USA.’ James David Christie would be from ‘Boston, USA.’ I would be from ‘Houston, USA” or ‘Boone, USA.’ But we Americans do the same thing when referring to foreign cities: we talk about visiting ‘Leipzig, Germany’ or ‘Paris, France’ or ‘Toronto, Canada.’ But we skip the county or state that those locals often use. And if you say ‘Frankfurt, Germany’ or ‘Halle, Germany,’ which do you mean? There are two of each!

Well, I have just completed my first-ever visit to “Germany.” I suppose since I didn’t stay in a single city for more than two overnights, I can really say “Germany.” And what a trip! Frankfurt, Halle, Leipzig, Dresden, Naumburg, Merseburg, Berlin, Hamburg, Lübeck, Cologne, Aachen. I have always felt that the best way to tour a city for the first time is to visit its churches, not its museums. The church towers help you get your bearings, and they define so much of a city’s history. And let’s not forget the treasure trove of pipe organs that exists in most European churches. Look at my Facebook photo album “Germany & England 2012.” The photos are all of churches and organs! My first trip to New York City (“New York”) was for an AGO convention. That was perfect, because I got to visit the churches and hear the organs – the very things I would have wanted to hear in the first place but probably couldn’t on my own. Same thing for my first visit to Paris (“France”) – I was on an organized organ tour. That was even better, because not only did I get to hear the organs, but I got to play them, as well.

This trip to “Germany” is actually a trip to “Europe.” Two weeks in Germany, one night in Paris to catch the Chunnel train, and then a week in Sherborne (Dorset!) England, for recital duty. Today, “Germany.” Tomorrow, “Europe.” Next week, “the world!”

Living in the past

Memory Lane may work in the States, but a trip to Europe is a trip down Memory Superhighway. Every time I travel to Europe, I am overwhelmed by the architecture, the history, the ancient amid the new. That doesn’t lose its potency, time after time. And it shouldn’t.

Since my last post, I have visited Frankfurt, Halle, Leipzig, Dresden, Naumburg, Merseburg, and Berlin. Still to come: Hamburg, Lübeck, Cologne, Paris, Sherborne, and London. Whenever I visit a new city, I recognize that the current residents live in the present while honoring the past. But I have only the past as a point of reference. I walk into the Dreikönigskirche in Frankfurt and think about Helmut Walcha, who stopped performing in 1981 and died in 1991. I walk into the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and think about JS Bach. (A lot of water has passed under that bridge since Bach's time!) And imagine how reverently I sat in my seat on the train when it made a quick stop in Eisenach, and I read the sign “Eisenach, Geburtsstadt Johann Sebastian Bachs.” I walk past the Dresden Opera and think of Wagner being there, even though he died in 1883!

More recent history comes alive in more minds in such places as, say, the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Or all over the entire city of Berlin, which is simply electric with its WWII history. Finally, in 1999 the choir I was playing for in Houston visited the memorial to PanAm Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. That crash occurred in 1988. By 1999 Lockerbie had moved on, but we first-time visitors were overwhelmed as if it had just happened.

The passage of time changes perspectives, depending on where you are or where you were. I will always wish I had been born a few years earlier, so that I could have heard, say, Dupré or Fox or Crozier or Horowitz perform in their primes. I would love to have met Rachmaninoff. I will always wish we could bring composers back to see how rightly famous they are now and to answer questions for us. I’d especially like to bring back those composers who died too young and let them compose some more and live more life: Schubert, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Distler.

Sitting in Sunday service at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, I kept wondering, Would Bach have approved of that sermon? What would he have done on a typical Monday, after Sunday’s hectic schedule? What would he think of all the attention bestowed upon him now? In which of those upper galleries might he have placed musicians? Did that crucifix exist in his day? Was that paint that color? Was this pew original? And so on.

A trip to our (Western) musical past is nearly indescribably informative and meaningful, as witnessed by this rambling post. So stop taking my word for it, and get yourself to a part of Europe where music history would speak most to you. If in doubt, visit Germany, especially Leipzig.