I spent August 11-14 in Syracuse, New York at the 59th
annual Organ Historical Society convention along with over 300 other people who
love organs. It was a chance to connect
and reconnect with good friends and to see and hear 19 organs played by skilled
organists. The mission of the Organ
Historical Society is to celebrate, preserve, and study the pipe organ in
America, in all its historic styles, through research, education, advocacy, and
music.
We visited organs at two universities (University of
Syracuse and Cornell University) twelve churches, and a Jewish Temple. Each organist includes a hymn in her/his
program, so the churches and auditoriums are filled not only with beautiful
organ music, but also with robust singing.
The convention attendees ride busses to the various venues and bus rides
are often a place to meet new friends and catch up with current friends. We all received a book that lists the organists’
programs and the organ’s builders and stop lists. The organs were created anywhere from 1748 to
2011. Both the oldest and newest organs
were at Cornell University. The 1748
organ was built by Augustinus Vicedomini of Naples, Italy. The 2011 organ was a collaboration between
Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Gothenburg Organ Art Center (GOArt)
at the University of Göteborg, Sweden.
This organ recreates the tonal design of an Arp Schnitger organ (1706) in
Charlottenburg Castle, Berlin, Germany. Each
of the nearly 2,000 pipes was handcrafted in Sweden under the direction of
project designer Munetaka Yokota. In
addition, we heard three organs from the 19th Century and 14 organs
from the 20th Century.
There was a wide variety of music from renaissance, baroque,
classical, romantic, and contemporary time periods, all played expertly. We also heard two lectures. One lecture was on the building of the GOArt
organ and the other was on organist and composer, I.V. Flagler.
You can see some photos from the convention at:
You can watch and hear the convention recital by Christopher
Houlihan performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach and César Franck at Sage
Chapel at Cornell University playing Aeolian-Skinner organ, Opus 1009 (1940):
This runs about an hour and twenty minutes.
The Syracuse convention handbook can be downloaded:
With Matthias Schmelmer, Sarah Johnson, and Fran Morton at
Syracuse’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Shantz organ, Opus 1594
(1980) which is a rebuild of Frank Roosevelt organ, Opus 520 (1892)
