The organ is still, to my eyes and ears, the king of instruments.
–Mozart
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
–Northwestern University Motto
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On Sept. 14, 2001, a nation frozen in shock and grief watched our country’s leaders, including four presidents, gather for a service of prayer and remembrance at Washington’s National Cathedral. Representatives from three religions offered words of comfort and hope to a world struggling with the meaning of Sept. 11. Punctuating their words and our weeping was music–the universal language.
The massive ship laden with this cargo of words, music and grief was the great cathedral organ, which thundered and embraced us all as the congregation rose to sing: “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Sacred music doing what it is supposed to do–point people to God. At times of tragedy, trivial music cannot carry such profound sorrow. But the organ can.
On Feb. 2, Toni-Marie Montgomery, new dean of Northwestern University’s School of Music, announced her intention to close the organ department, citing low demand and the “assessment of the likelihood of the program’s achieving recognized excellence.”
The decision defies reason and fact.
Dr. Jonathan Biggers, professor of organ at New York’s Binghamton University, observes: “Northwestern has long been recognized for excellence in organ. It’s as if Eastman [School of Music] were closing its organ department.” Dr. David Schrader, pre-eminent Chicago keyboard artist and Roosevelt University associate professor, said: “Once such a fine department is sacked, it is nearly impossible to rebuild it in the event of increased future interest.”
The School of Music at Northwestern was created in 1895 to train organists and church musicians. Its first dean, Peter Christian Lutkin, was a leading church musician of his day. Over the next 109 years, Northwestern produced some of the finest organists anywhere, playing and recording on the world’s great organs.
Frederick Swann, perhaps America’s best-known living organist, and president of the 20,000-member American Guild of Organists, is among hundreds of distinguished NU organ alumni.
The organ remains the most versatile and complex of all instruments, capable of an inexhaustible variety of colors and range of musical effects. No other instrument comes close. According to Timothy Stevens, NU chaplain, “For many, the only opportunity to hear live music is in worship. The organ expresses the full range of human experience as it encounters the divine.”
Last Halloween, thousands of costumed schoolchildren descended on Symphony Center for a Hallowed Haunts concert. This writer performed an hour of “scary” toccatas and fantasies on the massive Orchestra Hall organ to an electrified audience (perhaps it was the candy). Mingling with the kids afterward, I found they were exceedingly more curious about the organ than my Dracula costume.
“That’s the loudest piano I’ve ever heard! What’s inside that thing? How many pipes are there? Why do you need three keyboards? Your feet sure do move fast!” Children bedazzled by the pipe organ. Priceless.
Northwestern holds an annual concert to celebrate the birthday of Alice Millar, for whom the university chapel is named. Recently, a capacity crowd thrilled to a program that showcased the university’s premiere ensembles–the Millar Brass, NU Symphony Orchestra, Chapel Choir and the celebrated soprano Julianne Baird. The evening’s only solo work was a Joseph Rheinberger organ prelude, impeccably played by student Nathan LeMahieu (a double major in organ and political science) on the chapel’s four-manual instrument.
If Nate is typical, the organ department is alive indeed. According to Dr. Christine Kraemer, NU instructor in German organ literature, “These students are among the finest in my 14 years–bright, talented and hard-working.” As University of Michigan organ professor James Kibbie puts it: “There are plenty of organ students out there. Some come to the organ late, from other majors.”
Why is the elimination of this program cause for concern?
Johann Sebastian Bach is arguably the greatest musician ever. No one has surpassed his influence on Western music. While he lived, Bach was lauded not so much as a genius composer, but as the leading organ virtuoso of his time. At the end of the day, Bach was a humble church organist who insisted that his children learn to play the instrument. He wrote his extraordinary “Orgelbuechlein” to teach them to play the organ using the pedals.
Bach’s organ compositions define the genre and the instrument. They are not the property of organists only, but a bridge over which all musicians must pass. No aspiring performer, teacher, theorist, composer or historian can claim a complete musical education without genuflecting before the altar of Bach’s chorale harmonizations. Because of Bach the organist, a worthy music school cannot ignore the organ, its literature, its role in music history and its future.
What becomes of NU music students who leave Evanston with a performance degree?
Some make it in their particular discipline–landing orchestral positions, singing in opera houses, playing chamber music or carving out solo careers. Others settle for less glamorous musical trajectories. Still others wait tables, sell insurance, program computers and wonder why they spent their time and parents’ money on a music degree.
Yet every NU organ graduate can find employment–in churches with magnificent instruments or small parishes with humble organs. The shortage of organists locally and nationally is acute. Every Sunday, organs in countless houses of worship stand silent because there is no one to play them.
Lest NU’s decision be seen as merely a setback for churches, note the undeniable trend in the world’s concert halls. Major new or renovated venues have boldly embraced the organ as a musical and architectural centerpiece–Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Myerson Concert Hall in Dallas, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall and our own Orchestra Hall. These grand sites boast, or soon will, visually and tonally stunning pipe organs.
Who says interest in the organ is waning? More pointedly, who will be prepared to command these instruments a generation from now if other schools follow Northwestern’s lead? No one would dare propose that Northwestern shut down its superb string, wind and percussion studies.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will always need great violinists and trombonists. They, and the world, will need excellent organists too.
