Music Director's Page

Looking ahead to the 100th anniversary celebration on March 27, 2011, we will have with us the faculty brass quartet from the University of Tampa, of which Lyle Manwaring is a member. Lyle is a part of our extended family, having played at Trinity several times. (He will next be with us on reformation Day at the end of October. ) We are in the process of compiling a list of names and addresses of "choir alumni" whom we will invite to sing with us at the festival service on March 27. We have the recent names, but welcome input if there are any we may not be aware of. If you know of someone who has been away for awhile, please write their name and address on your attendance card and place it in the offering.

One of the journals I read each month is The American Organist which is the journal of the American Guild of Organists. Two obituaries in the most recent issue are of interest to those who were involved in church music during the twentieth century. The first is Austin C. Lovelace, a prolific composer of anthems still widely sung in American Protestant Churches. In his 91 years, he saw many changes in styles of sacred music and remained "current" without compromising his musical integrity. He served mainly in Methodist and Presbyterian churches, but his music has wide appeal across denominational lines.

Also of note was the passing of Donald M. Gillett (age 90), last president of the organ-building firm of Aeolian-Skinner. The Aeolian-Sinner firm came about in 1932 as the result of a merger between the E. M. Skinner organ firm and the organ division of Aeolian Corporation. From that time until Aeolian-Skinner's demise in 1972 (Their last organ is in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.) they were considered the "Cadillac" of American organs. During this period the firm built organs for many notable churches in America, as well as most of the important concert hall organs of the time.

Just one year after the merger, G. Donald Harrison, who had been a member of the E. M. Skinner firm, became tonal director. Under his direction, the firm pioneered the "American Classic" organ, which eschewed the over-weighty, "muddy", and musically uninteresting sound of the late eighteenth-century and early twentieth-century organs. It aimed instead at a synthesis of sounds from organs from various locals, based on a brighter ensemble having its routes in the great eighteenth-century instruments of Europe. In this endeavor Harrison was following the "Organ Reform Movement" which had begun a decade or so earlier in Europe. One of his most famous organs was the instrument at Harvard University which E. Power Biggs played for many years on his weekly radio broadcasts. Harrison died in 1956 while preparing the organ at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue for the American Guild of Organists convention. Thanks to persons like Donald Gillett, however, Aeolian-Skinner continued to build superlative organs into the early 1970's.

A PERSONAL NOTE: I have played a number of Aeolian-Skinner organs over the years, but my most person encounter was with Aeolian-Skinner Opus 876 in the Hershey Community Theater in Hershey, PA. I had a part-time job as a teenager assisting in the renovation of this organ. It is a grand organ in a grand building and the experience was unforgettable. The organ was only the fourth to carry the Aeolian-Skinner nameplate after the merger of 1932 and, indeed, much of the pipe work dates from the E.M. Skinner firm. I am happy to report that the latest information I have is that the organ is sounding as good as ever, and is making magnificent music in a very special place.