June 1928
The present building was completed and a 32 stop, 3 manual organ built by the Vottler/Holtkamp/Sparling Company of Cleveland was installed in the church. This instrument was a gift of the Carl Edson family.
September 1959
A new instrument of 34 stops (43 ranks) distributed over three manuals and pedal built by Walter Holtkamp, Sr., was installed at a cost of approximately $42,000. This instrument was envisioned by St. Peter's organist and director of music, Professor Fenner Douglass, who worked closely with Mr. Holtkamp in designing an organ which would reflect the essential elements of the Organ Reform Movement as it took shape in mid-twentieth century America.
July 2001
Some refurbishing of the organ's wind sysem and a complete replacement of the memory system with technology designed by Solid State Logic Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia was unddertaken by the Holtkamp Organ Company of Cleveland. the cost of this work was $16,100 and it was funded from the Music and Light Fund of St. Peter's Church. The replacement value of the St. Peter's instrument is well in excess of $340,000.
The above material was prepared by John M. Russell
Specifications of the current organ
Recit
8 Rohrflöte
8 Dulciane
4 Gedackt
2 Principal
1 1/3 Larigot
III Zimbel
8 Dulzian
4 Schalmey
Great
16 Quintadena
8 Principal
8 Gedackt
4 Octave
4 Spitzflöte
2 Octave
IV Mixture
8 Trumpet
Positiv
8 Copula
4 Principal
4 Rohrflöte
2 Octave
2 Blockflöte
II Sesquialtera
III Scharf
Pedal
16 Subbass16 Quintadena (Gt.)
16 Gedackt
8 Principal
8 Gedackt
4 Octave
4 Flute
IV Mixture
16 Posaune
8 Trumpet (ext.)
4 Trumpet
couplers
Recit/Great 8, Recit/Great 16, Positiv/Great, Recit/PositivRecit/Ped, Great/Ped, Positiv/Ped
The organ is entirely unenclosed.
Labels: Holtkamp
My song is love
Love to the loveless shown
And it goes up
You don't have to be alone
My song is love
My song is love unknown
And i'm [sic] on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own
Stanzas 1 and 4 from "A Message" from Coldplay's X and Y
Lyrics from: http://www.alwaysontherun.net/coldplay.htm#x
In Coldplay's "A Message," one hears direct quotes from the first stanza of Samuel Crossman's "My Song is Love Unknown" (text).
These excerpts are notable not just for their textual similarity to the hymn, but also for their musical distillation of key melodic motives from the tune by John Ireland.
Coldplay have distilled two key elements from the first line: the opening five notes, and the tell-tale ascent of a perfect fourth that occurs twice in the hymn tune proper ("to me" and "-less shown" in the first stanza).
It goes something like this:
This synthesized motive appears in conjunction with the words drawn from the hymn, but Coldplay don't borrow anything else melodically.
Thanks to Frenchie for the tip.
Strangely, there are very few mentions of this on the web right now: a Times (of London) article on the Live 8 concert and a mention from Andy on the go.
Sadly, many people believe the second line in "A Message" is not "Love to the loveless shown," but "love to the lovely song."
Surely other quasi-religious imagery in X&Y is best explored by people who have listened to it more than I have, but I think there's probably a whole lot there. Am I missing something, or is Coldplay a lot like U2 as far as British spiritual rock goes?
Labels: hymn
"There's a spot on this form for major and degree. Isn't that, like, the same thing?"
The below specification is printed on the glossy Holtkamp advertisment which serves as this month's feature article in The American Organist.
This 1927 instrument at St. Peter's, my former church, was completely unknown to me. (Currently, St. Peter's has a very nice Walter Holtkamp, Sr. instrument from 1958.)
(The American Organist has really gone downhill if it allows an advertisement to take center stage, and, as of this writing, the Holtkamp website appears to be four years out of date.)
Pedal
16 Diapason
16 Bourdon
8 Cello (Gt)
8 Flute (Sw)
IV Choralbass (Ch)
16 English Horn (Sw)
Gt to Ped
Sw to Ped
Ch to Ped
Great
16 Violone (TC)
8 Diapason
8 Flute Symphony
8 Second Violin
8 Cello
4 Klangflote (Sw)
2 Flautino (Sw)
Gt 16
Gt 8
Gt 4
Swell
8 Geigen Principal
8 Stopped Diapason
8 Violin
8 Vox Angelica
8 Echo Choir (Double enclosed)
4 Flute
16 English Horn1
8 Horn1
Sw 16
Sw 8
Sw 4
Choir
16 Contra Dolce (Gt)2
8 Viola (Gt)3
8 Concert Flute
8 Ludwig Tone4
8 Viol d'Amour (Gt)3
4 Orchestral Flute (Gt)3
III Harmonics (Gt)3
2 Dulcitone (Gt)3
Ch 16
Ch 8
Ch 4
Couplers
All manuals to ped
Sw to Gt, Ch to Gt and Sw to Ch each at 16, 8 and 4
1. These order of these two reeds was switched in the published specs but I can't imagine why.
2. Borrowed from which stop on the Great? There's nothing at 16 pitch!
3. How these stops are borrowed from the Great is sort of a mystery.
4. Ahh, Ludwig Tone, how I long to play upon thee!
Labels: Holtkamp
Paul writes too much, but I he has some good things to say. I think bulleting this weeks epistle helps me understand it. Maybe this will help you too.
- Let love be genuine;
- hate what is evil,
- hold fast to what is good;
- love one another with mutual affection;
- outdo one another in showing honor.
- hate what is evil,
- Do not lag in zeal,
- be ardent in spirit,
- serve the Lord.
- Rejoice in hope,
- be patient in suffering,
- persevere in prayer.
- Contribute to the needs of the saints;
- extend hospitality to strangers.
- Bless those who persecute you;
- bless and do not curse them.
- Rejoice with those who rejoice,
- weep with those who weep.
- Live in harmony with one another;
- do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;
- do not claim to be wiser than you are.
- Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
- If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
- Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;
- for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
- No,
- "if your enemies are hungry, feed them;
- if they are thirsty, give them something to drink;
- for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads [purification or punishment? Compare Isaiah 6:6 with the original from Proverbs]."
- Do not be overcome by evil,
- but overcome evil with good.
I checked in next to Jared Fogel (of Subway commercial fame) at the Delta ticket counter in Indianapolis today.
He was going to Puerto Rico— first class.
Tangent:By rearranging the letters in "Subway's Jared Fogel," you can spell "Jesus'goal? Dewy barf."
Voluntaries for Sunday 21 August 2005:
Prelude
Pastorale on Psalm 23:1
Percy Whitlock
Offertory
Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, S. 623
J.S. Bach
Postlude
Prelude XXIII
Carl Neilsen
I just happen to be turning 23 the day before (August 20), so I thought I'd have some fun this week.
Tangents: Did you know that Shakespeare was born and died on April 23?
President James Buchanan (pictured above) was also born on April 23. When he was 23, the metronome had not yet been invented by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, but former Vice President Elbridge Gerry died. Years later, David Sinden would visit Gerry's mansion in New York.
My son's middle name will probably be Nepomuk.
Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President, was born on my birthday, August 20, in 1833. That same year, Oberlin College, my alma mater, was founded. Twenty-three years later, some Madiera wine was brewed in a bathtub. David Sinden drank this 1856 wine in Elbridge Gerry's mansion in 2005.
Labels: Oberlin
The new "Popular Genres" liturgy being proposed for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's new book of worship is remarkable. It is a musical and theological effort of subtlety and grace.
The appeal of this liturgy will be incredible. Young people in particular will be drawn to this liturgy like Icarus to the sun. Several years from now, I envision a gaggle of goth Lutheran skateborders grinding rails outside the church whilst humming portions of the service. Night clubs will go out of business as young people and other fans of "popular genres" go to bed early on Saturday evening. They will attend a double header of the new liturgy (should their church have the foresight to offer two services) with a break for Fair Trade coffee in between.
See for yourself
For further information or to follow along you'll want a couple documents from Renewing Worship:
- Liturgical music proposal [PDF] (this is a table of contents for the . . .)
- Proposed music [PDF] (1.8 MB). The setting that interests us, Popular Genres (setting 10) starts on page 90.
Kyrie
This opening liturgical piece makes a bold statement and recasts the tired Kyrie text in a new, hip light worthy of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
Kyrie eleison, on our world and on our way.
Kyrie eleison, ev'ry day.
The troping of the text is a special kind of genius that the composer shrouds in a mysterious double meaning. "Kyrie eleison" means "Lord have mercy," but the comma after this phrase breaks the text into two separate strands. If the composer had intended for God to have mercy "on our world" there would be no need for a comma. One strand is directed to God, but the other is ingeniously spliced inward, toward the congregation: "[We're] on our world and on our way ev'ry day." This will resonate with an young, upwardly mobile congregation who see themselves as individuals who are not only on their way to greatness, but on their "world."
The key signature of E Major is an obvious reference to J.S. Bach and to the symbolism of the Cross created by the four sharps. The soulful second-beat entrances and numerous syncopations are clearly a musical mea culpa designed to appease God by avoiding that which He has ordained as tactus. As we shall see, syncopation creates a metaphysical unity between the disparate elements of the Pop Genre liturgy (PGL).
At first, I assumed the Kyrie was composed by a woman named Dakota Road, but I was relieved to learn that I did not have to credit a single person with a work of this caliber. Dakota Road Music must surely represent the best that South Dakota has to offer.
Gloria
In a mere seven bars, Dennis Friesen-Carper has managed to express the sentiments of the Lukan multitude at the Nativity. The phrase "the highest" is sung twice with the syllable "high" extending over a barline both times, adding a special, urgent quality to the word. Fortunately, since the congregation is only entrusted with this seven-bar refrain, they will sing "highest" this way a total of eight times, a numerological representation of the resurrection. Thus, Friesen-Carper weds the Nativity story with Easter in a triumphal outpouring of memory and hope. And to think, all this through syncopation!Inexplicably, this movement lacks chord symbols, and Friesen-Carper's biography reveals a dearth of popular music training, but I trust that someone has thought this through.
Credo
Evangelical Lutherans don't sing the Credo.
But they sing liturgical pieces called "This is the Feast" (an alternative to the above Gloria) by John Ylvisaker and a Gospel Acclamation and a Lenten Acclamation (one assumes the Gospel is still read and acclaimed even during Lent) by Robin Cain and Phil Kadidlo. These pieces of music serve not only as ecclesiastical gebrauchtmusik but also as statements of belief.
"This is the Feast" quickly takes on the air of a festive drinking song by ascending the span of an octave in only three notes. "The" is actually pitched higher than "Feast" reminding us that this isn't just "the Feast," it is "THE Feast." I must agree with Ylvisaker's implication that putting this kind of careful thought into the PGL is a wonderful way to inculcate the catechumenate with theological truth.
The two acclamations reveal the work of two musicians who believe in congregational manipulation.
"I knew they had something special the first time I stepped into the pulpit after them," says Rev. Rich Melheim, who served at [Cain and Kadidlo's] church back in the last millennium. "They had a way of readying the crowd for worship and the Word that was amazing. They'd set the mood and hand the congregation right to you, ripe and ready to listen. What more could a preacher ask of a worship team?"
Here the chord symbols return, along with a telltale herald of the Gospel: ample room for brief guitar solos amongst the seven repetitions of word "Alleluia." The 20 beats of rest allow the instruments room to contribute their own brand of Alleluia, bringing the total number of iterations to eight, the Resurrection number. The Lenten acclamation is appropriately morose, quickly introducing a B below the staff. This pitch can only be sung by the congregation's elderly, smokers, and elderly smokers which will remind young people of their own mortality and impending death, appropriate Lenten sentiments indeed.
Sanctus
Jay Beech is, according to his biography, "one of the most heralded artists in the Church." Beech titles this part of the liturgy "Holy." This minimalist moniker is not matched by the multiple manifestations of the word "hosanna." Sung twelve times, this Hebrew shout of praise circles around the figure of Jesus as it comes to represents the twelve apostles who accompanied Jesus during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The changes in time signature lend an air of unpredictability and help to foster a dialogue with the choir of all the Saints with whom we sing.Agnus Dei
Beech looses focus here and fails to put in chord symbols. (And now this review looses focus and fails to maintain its witty sarcasm.) Also absent from the piece:- any sense of melodic integrity
- a rhythmic approach that is conducive to the meaning of the words
- an explanation for marking accidentals for the same pitches every time they occur rather than changing the key signature (at least for the congregational copy)
- a compelling reason why he should not be sued for copyright infringement by Marty Haugen (see Now the Feast and Celebration)
Conclusion
I would summarize this liturgy in the same way Jay Beech describes his oeuvre:
[the PGL manages] to hold intensionn elements such as heritage and innovation, excellence and participation, theological integrity and a really good groove.Wow, yo, this liturgy is, like, mad popular.
The 90-year-old founder of the Taize community in southern France has been murdered.
"Christ of compassion, you enable us to be in communion with those who have gone before us, and who can remain so close to us. We confide into your hands our Brother Roger. He already contemplates the invisible. In his footsteps, you are preparing us to welcome a radiance of your brightness."
Gentle Lord Jesus, grant him eternal rest.
1877/86 Roosevelt, St. Joseph's Chapel, Lake Delaware Boys' Camp, Delhi, New York
See specs for this organ.
Labels: LDBC
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