Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-07-20
ny DAY THORPE
star Music Critic

stAf susie Crttic
I am happy to see that
Dean sayre has found 80
able and urbane a cham
pion Of the Cathedral organ
as Philip Hubert Frohman.
The sauce 10 a good dispute
Is q capable adversary. and
though Mr.. Frohman is. Of
course. not responsible for
the validity Of my arguments.
he at least gives zest to my
unfiagging efforts In q
worthy cause.
In combining myself 10 the
particular points raised by
Mr.. Frohman In his letter TO
the Editor. published July
II. I would like TO call at
tention 10 my article in The
Star Of June is, The Ca
thedral Organ. Dead but I'M
buried?". since the points in
my original review Of June
2. TO which Mr.. Frohman
takes exception, represent
my position only partially.
Mr.. Frohman does not
disagree with anything I
have said in his paragraph
numbered ID, but I suggest
he is q bit disingenuous in
the implication that the, or
gan was unusually out Of
tune on the day Of the john
son recital. 1t is pos
sible that the organ tuner
did not have time to do a
thorough Job Of tuning every
one Of the organs more
than 5000 pipes within a
few days before the recital"
Authorities at the Cathedral
tell me that the organ has
not been tuned since the
June 2 recital. that 1t had not
been tuned for at least a
year before the recital and
that while the reeds are
trimmed from time to time,
It has been 20 months since
q temperament was set and
the more than 5000 pipes
we're tuned at one time.
Now. for the bleating Of
the goats in paragraph ca:
1t seems at first blush that
Mr.. Frohman has a good
point. Most goats do bleat
alto or tenor, and certainly
terror-struck goats bleat a
fifth, or perhaps a full octave.
above their natural range.
] could say. in my own de-
Tense. that my analogy was
to the timbre Of the bleating
rather than to the pitch, but
the truth is I was thinking Of
q different breed Of goats.
Has Mr.. Fohman ever heard
the goat Of the eighth chap
ter Of Daniel. with q notable
horn between his eyes,? I
assure him this he-goat
bleats bass or even contra
bass.
In the same paragraph, Mr..
Frohman, who says he did
not attend the recital, sug-
gests with admirable cour-
age that perhaps the organ
ist. Mr.. johnson, had not
practiced sufficiently on the
Cathedral organ" To criti-
CHE recitals in dbsentid is a
skill amateur critics have
never been known to attain:
only professionals land only
the best of them can ac-
quire 1t.
Mr.. Frohman's third OBJ
lection is to my statement
that the church was built in
bland unconcern with any
laws Of acoustics. whether Of
music or Of voice" I can see
how this statement might
disturb him, an architect of
exceptional authority and
prestige, a man unusually
interested in the science of
sound. an amateur Crganist,
and an artist known for his
precise and painstaking at
tention to detail. That he
gave continued thought to the
problem Of organ sound dur
ing his original work on de-
sign Of the Cathedral is at
tested by a great body of
memoranda and letters. still
on file in the Cathedral.
Nevertheless. I hold it to be
true that no modern cathe-
dral. erected as it inevitably is
in Slavish imitation of one or
many models built hundreds
OF years ago. can evidence in
It's design the slightest con-
cern with acoustics, except in
a few inconSpicuous and
futile details. Good acoustics
were no part of the original.
they must be alien to the
replica.
The early cathedrals which