New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-09
The Renaissance of Organ Music and
Organ Building

bUcItl Dl JOctpN boiitN' VI 6"'
list Of Notre Dame, Of Paris, serves
to centre the attention Of music lovers
in general and especially lovers of the
king of instruments" as it has frequently
been STYLED, upon organ music and the
evolution of the organ. A. Eaglefeld
Hull. writing of organ playing from the
standpoint of technique and expression
(the book is published by the Boston
Music Company, Boston,, declares that
"the future of the art lies with the young
organiSt Of the present, with the true
student, imbued to the innermost depths
of his consciousness with conception OF
the nobility and importance Of his calling
with a perception of its recent decadence
and with unbounded hope for its future.
This matter Of decadence is thus e!ab-
Grated:
at cannot have escaped the attention, not
only of musicians, but of all those interested
i'm music, that over a period represented by
perhaps the major portion of the last century
organists-vicwcd solely in their relation 10
the higher forms Of musical composition
fell . below the high position 70 when
they were intriusically entitled This falling
away cannot but be regretted when one
thinks of the earlier glorles OF the otgahls'
and his position in the musical world lo'
centuries. stretching back 10 at least the
Middle Ages. To mention the names OF
Reinken. BuxtehUde the Dane, PacheiDeI'
Bohm, Froberger and others in somewhat
remote past; Purcell, Bach and Hahdei'
Adams, and Wesley, in later times IS sum
Gent to show the enormous debt wh'ch 'he
art of music as a whole owes TO orgshiS'S
in the past. and to make 1t matter oil sur
prise to those who study the question tha'
they should have fallen from their hIs"
estate and have been content wltn oee"-
dence which cannot but be transient.
at is unnecessary, perhaps, TO point OUT
how the spirit of the unequally tuned KEY
board Ct the carly organ dominated the
schools Of vocal writing both in the Neither
lands and in Italy-Eow Beetnoyon's early
training at the organ, in the fulress OF time
involuntary it may have been, and perhaps
insensibly) gave Us that grandeur OF su5-
tanned and dCnifed utterance by winch tie
slow movements Of his orchestral and piano
forte works are characterized. Could he pos
siblv have produced the Mass in d without
his intimate knowledge OF the organ: Or.
again. TO give a final instance, the magnih-
cent organ effects Of Brahms's Requiem Arc
not these the direct offspring Of the COM
poser's knowledge Of, and love for, the organ,
as well as his very last opus, that most
beautiful set Of compositions consisting OF
eleven choral prcludss for the king Of instru-
ments, to which he seems. at the supreme
and solemn moment OF existence, when the
lower life commenced to merge into and
blend with the higher, TO have intrusted all
that he thought or saw or felt or hoped?
That the temporary decadence Of the or
canist's art 10 which allusion has been made
is now passing away is certain. We are on
the eve Of great renaissance when mas
been heralded by many delightful modern
wcrks."
1t is, Mr.. Hull insists, important that
the organist of to-day guard zealously
that high heritage which is his. "Un-
fortunately" he observes, "in no other
art or profession are the avenues so lit
tie guarded, the consequence being that
many enter who both by temperament
and lack of training are quite unified
for the work" And further:
at is for the true organist to re-
alize that he is an exponent OF no mean art,
that courage, patience ana perseverance hre
necessary to its cultivation, and that so Tar
from its being relic Of mediayalism, his
instrument is as we'll able to reflect the
complex emotions, ideas and aspirations OF
our twentieth century civilization as were
the few feeble, Uncontrolled pipes and key
boards OF the Middle Ages to give express
sion TO the struggling utterances of a time
when printing was unknown and all the art
science and knowledge Of the age were CEN
tired in the monks cell