We have interesting programs in store for you this spring! Please mark your calendars.
Our February program is a field trip led by Curt Sather to visit three wonderful organs in Shelton, starting with Fritts Op. 1 at Shelton United Methodist Church and also including Fritts Op. 2a at St. David’s Episcopal Church plus the Pilcher organ at Faith Lutheran Church. He will be assisted by Paul Thornock and April Kuhr, and Paul Fritts will provide an introductory overview. Please reserve Saturday, February 10 starting at 10:30 a.m. for this special day-long meeting, which includes lunch provided by St. David’s parish. Since we do need a head count for lunch, please register by visiting this page. Sign-up is easy and does not require logging in to our site.
On Monday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m., you can sit back, relax, and enjoy beautiful music in the delightful space at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in North Tacoma as we bring you a collaborative concert featuring the organ plus vocal and instrumental soloists: sopranos Carlyle Jacinto and Patricia Hendrix, violinist Gwendolyn Taylor and our own cellist Karen Bredberg. We will also introduce to you our scholarship recipient Collin Whitfield as soloist. He and others will provide accompaniment for our soloists on the Casavant organ.
In April, we are very proud to be presenting a masterclass by renowned concert organist Bruce Neswick — on Monday evening the 16th at 7:30 p.m. Bruce will open the evening with a short performance on the Fritts Op. 8 organ in Kilworth Chapel at University of Puget Sound, and he will end it with an improvisation. In between, he will work with four performers on either prepared repertory or improvisation — one of them could be you! See the accompanying article for more details, and sign up hereto participate. We are limited to four slots, which will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis; so, hurry!
That leaves our final meeting of the year in May, which will include the installation of new officers. Details on that final meeting for this program year will be coming soon. Please stay tuned!
February 10, Saturday at 10:30 a.m., Shelton United Methodist Church for a day-long exploration of three Shelton organs. Please sign up to give us a head count for lunch, which will be provided!
March 12, Monday at 7:30 p.m., Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tacoma for a collaborative concert with organ plus vocal and instrumental soloists.
April 16, Monday at 7:30 p.m., Kilworth Chapel at University of Puget Sound for a masterclass with concert organist Bruce Neswick. Please sign up for one of four slots to play!
May 21, Monday at 7:30 p.m. Details TBA. Stay tuned!
“The 1820’s were good years to become an organ builder in the United States.” So explains Tim Drewes, who, along with Cheryl Drewes, presented our January 2018 program at St. Matthew-San Matteo Episcopal Church in Auburn, Washington. In the 1820’s, the country was growing, expanding westward, and becoming home to many Western European immigrants who were accustomed to having organs in their churches. In addition, the tenor of religion in the Northeast, previously largely Calvinist, was becoming more diverse and more open to using organs in church services.
In this promising business environment, two brothers in Salem, Massachusetts became interested in organ building and apprenticed with established organ builder William Goodrich. They eventually moved to Boston, where they became successful builders, moving ultimately to a large, steam-powered factory where, at the height of their popularity, they produced a new organ each week. As they looked toward the ends of their own careers, and the future of their company, they selected Frank Hastings, one of their employees, to become a partner. Beginning in 1871, the organ name plates were engraved with the names “E and GG Hook and Hastings.”
In about that same year, the Hook and Hastings company produced Opus 591, a 10-stop 2-manual organ, for Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Tim Drewes points out that it was common for small organs to move from church to church, often many times. Opus 591 moved from Philadelphia to Camden, New Jersey, then to Auburn, Washington in 1999. One of the oldest organs in Washington, it is largely unchanged. It was restored by Patrick J. Murphy and Associates prior to its move to Washington, at which time the oboe, having been removed, was replaced with a similar one. The pitch was lowered from A450 to A440.
Tim Drewes explains the hitch-down swell
There may have been one additional modification prior to its 1999 move. The organ has a “hitch-down” swell–a lever to control the swell shades rather than a balanced swell pedal in common use now. This swell arrangement is similar to that used by César Franck on the Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Clotilde, Paris. The swell lever can be hard to reach while playing, and this organ has an extra piece of wood attached–which, according to Tim Drewes, looks suspiciously like a dining room table leg.
Cheryl Drewes practices before the meeting
Once each year, the Tacoma and Seattle AGO chapters hold a joint meeting, and on the occasion of today’s program, the Tacoma chapter was joined by our Seattle colleagues as Cheryl Drewes opened the program by reading from a Hook and Hastings catalog. “The object of this little circular is to briefly invite attention to our claims as superior organ builders.” Their stated goal was to provide pipe organs that “shall be simple, durable, inexpensive, portable, and effective. ” Organs could be had for as little as $400. “No church can afford to be without one of these really excellent and useful instruments.”
Providing musical examples to demonstrate the various tone colors available for $1500, Cheryl Drewes began with the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Sonata in F Minor. This magnificent piece uses the Great and Swell divisions in dialog, features the oboe, and filled the church with its robust sound. Proceeding to two pieces meant to showcase “the flutes to die for,” Cheryl played a Sweelinck echo fantasy and Bach Pastorale in F Major, pointing out that the organ made her feel as if she were playing an actual flute–surely a hallmark of a well designed instrument.
Perhaps to demonstrate the flexibility of the organ, and definitely demonstrating the flexibility of the organist, Cheryl Drewes ended her musical examples with her own theater-organ style transcription of Cole Porter’s “Another Op’nin’ Another Show,” made famous in the 1948 musical Kiss Me Kate. Her transcription included a little surprise–a quote from César Franck’s “Pièce Héroïque”.
Tim Drewes continued the demonstration, pointing out that the organ has quirks that one has to consider when choosing and performing literature. There are cost saving measures–for example, the oboe doesn’t include the lowest octave. The pedalboard is only 25 notes–enough to play most pieces, but still holding the possibility of a surprise if the organist is not expecting to run out of pedal. The layout of the keyboard is a little odd. Possibly cost saving, or possibly as a way of making organs narrower, the keys are smaller and closer together than normal. This innovation didn’t last long, as organists didn’t like getting their fingers stuck between black notes.
The Auburn organ has knobs facing the player that adjust the key depth. Most organs have such a feature, but accessible only from within the case. Offered as an innovation in the 1860’s, the purpose was to be able to adjust for key depths that changed because of cold or dry buildings. The feature was not popular and subsequently removed. Tim Drewes speculates that those particular knobs might have been tempting to 1860 children who came up after church to see the organ.
Tim Drewes continued the musical examples with “Response” by George Whitefield Chadwick, a major American composer of the late 19th century. The piece was chosen to demonstrate the organ’s flutes and strings, individually and in combination with each other. Continuing with Franck’s Pastorale, Tim began with oboe alone, and changed stops many times to demonstrate the organ’s colorful possibilities.
Using only the diapason and 4-foot octave, Tim Drewes ended the program with Bach’s 9/8 C Major Prelude. The sound was clear and distinct, filling the room and proving that it was capable of rendering Bach in addition to the Romantic literature for which it was designed.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Cheryl and Tim Drewes for an extraordinary program showcasing one of the historical gems of the Pacific Northwest, and giving us a glimpse into the history of an important American organ builder. Thanks also to David Dahl for program guidance, to Una Hwang, our program chair, to Karen Bredberg for providing refreshments, and to Father Antonio Illas and St. Matthew-San Mateo Episcopal Church for hosting the meeting.
Additional Images
Side view showing the Great pipes and swell shades
A view into the swell box
Stop jamb, left side
Stop jamb, right side
1871 E. and G. G. Hook and Hastings organ at St Matthew-San Mateo Episcopal Church in Auburn, WA
Handout
The handout provided at the meeting is attached as a PDF file. it includes the list of musical examples, portraits, a drawing of the Hook factory, and additional historical information.
The Tacoma Chapter is very proud to present a masterclass with concert organist Bruce Neswick on Monday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Kilworth Chapel at University of Puget Sound. Mr. Neswick will begin the evening with a short performance and end it with an improvisation. In between he will work with four performers on either repertoire or improvisation (free or hymn-based).
To sign up as a performer for this masterclass, please visit this page and register before Monday, April 2. There are four slots which will be assigned to members on a first-come/first-served basis. We encourage all who are interested to start practicing and register!
*****
Bruce Neswick
Bruce Neswick is Canon for Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon. Prior to this appointment he was the Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he directed the choirs and had oversight of the musical life of that historic Cathedral.
Mr. Neswick holds the Fellowship degree from the Royal School of Church Music, for whom he has conducted numerous courses for boy and girl choristers. He has served on the faculties of, and performed for, several church music conferences, including the Association of Anglican Musicians, Westminster Choir College Summer Session, the Sewanee Church Music Conference, and others. Recital engagements in 2016-17 have taken him to Seattle, Vancouver, Silver Spring (MD), Sacramento, and Detroit. He was a featured recitalist at the National AGO Conventions in Washington, DC (2010) and Boston (2014).
A celebrated composer of organ and choral music, Mr. Neswick’s music is published by Paraclete, Augsburg- Fortress, Selah, Vivace, Hope, Plymouth, and St. James’ presses. Mr. Neswick’s skill at improvisation garnered him three first prizes from the 1989 San Anselmo Organ Festival, the 1990 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Boston, and the 1992 Rochette Concours at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland.
He is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University and the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. His teachers include Robert Baker, David Dahl, Gerre Hancock, Margaret Irwin-Brandon, and Lionel Rogg. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2016 by the University of the South, Sewanee, TN.
Bruce Neswick is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.
Anthem: How Dear to Me Is Your Dwelling by David Dahl
In commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of their founding, the congregation of First Lutheran Church of West Seattle commissioned David Dahl to write a celebratory anthem. That anthem, entitled “How Dear to Me is Your Dwelling,” will be published by The Sacred Music Press. Its premiere performance will be at First Lutheran Church, West Seattle, in September 2018 during a commemorative service.
Andrew King, organist at First Lutheran, and one of David Dahl’s first organ students at Pacific Lutheran University, asked for a setting of the opening verses of Psalm 84, to be followed by the last stanza of the Lutheran Chorale “Praise to the Lord the Almighty.” David admits, “It became a challenge to write ‘new’ music for a hymn text wedded to such a familiar chorale tune as Lob den Herren.”
The finished work consists entirely of newly conceived music, inspired by the various poetic texts of the psalm and the hymn, featuring alternating accompanied and unaccompanied sections, mostly four parts. The organ accompaniment is inspired by the organ in the church–an eighteen-stop mechanical organ built by the Fritz Noack company in 1976.
Drawing of Noack Opus 83 in first Lutheran Church of West SeattleDavid P. Dahl
David Dahl is organist emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University, a member of the Tacoma Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and a prolific composer of organ music and choir anthems.
For our January joint meeting with Seattle, AGO members Cheryl and Tim Drewes will present a program entitled “Wonderful Things Come in Small Packages: E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings – Opus 591, 1871”.
Join us on Saturday, January 20 at 10:30 a.m., when Cheryl and Tim Drewes will present a description and history of the 1871 E. & G.G. Hook and Hastings organ at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Auburn. They will illustrate the versatile sounds and breadth of this small instrument by performing literature spanning the centuries and styles. Join us in exploring this exquisite gem, and bring some music to try it out for yourself!
About the 1871 E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings, Op. 591:
1871 E. and G. G. Hook and Hastings organ at St Matthew-San Mateo Episcopal Church in Auburn, WA
This 2-manual 10-stop organ was originally built for Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA. and moved to Christ Lutheran Church, Camden, NJ. It was restored and moved to St. Matthew’s in 1999 by Patrick J. Murphy & Associates, Stowe, PA. The Swell oboe, which had been removed, was replaced with pipes from Johnson & Son Opus 572 (1882), and the pitch was lowered to A-440 from approximately A-450.
(Thanks to Cheryl Drewes, Tom Clark, and Mark Brombaugh for contributing to this post.)
