Robert McCormick Hymn Workshop, November 16, 2010

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On Tuesday, November 16, 2010, the Potomac Chapter of the AGO had a Hymn Workshop at St. Paul's Parish, K Street, Washington, DC, presented by Robert McCormick.

This is the facade of the Shoenstein organ.
This is the Festival Trumpet at the rear of the nave.

This is the console of the organ, which is located on the right side, opposite the facade.

Closer view of the console.

Couplers, including the tabs that modify the Utility shoe, so it may control several functions.

Pedalboard, expression shoes, toe studs and spoons.

Robert McCormick explained some of his techniques as we began the workshop.

For most of the workshop Mr. McCormick was at the organ console, so he could demonstrate what he described. He demonstrated many techniques that he uses to modify the basic organ accompaniment of hymns, adding variety and interest. For the last verses he changes the harmony; for the bulk of the verses he simply rearranges the existing harmony.

Following the workshop there was a reception in the atrium, which featured a birthday cake honoring Ken Lowenberg's and David McCahan's birthdays.

The Potomac Chapter wishes to thank Mr. McCormick and St. Paul's Parish for this wonderful event, which was enjoyed by members of the DC Chapter, as well as the Potomac Chapter.

PipeSpectacular XI, October 24, 2010

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On Sunday, October 24, the TriChapter Committee, representing the three AGO Chapters in the Washington DC area (District of Columbia, Northern Virginia and Potomac) presented PipeSpectacular XI, this year featuring two prize winning organists, Dongho Lee and David Baskeyfield, at the Washington National Cathedral.

Dongho Lee and David Baskeyfield. (photo by Margo Truslow)

"PipeSpectacular returned to Washington Cathedral on October 24th, and in his welcoming remarks, Cathedral Organist Scott Dettra said that it was a pleasure for the Cathedral to host this event again, especially in the context of the revived weekly recital series. Due to budgetary constraints and other factors, the Cathedral suspended its weekly series for three years, but it seems it is back on track now, thankfully! An audience of over 650 heard Dongho Lee, the winner of the repertoire competition, and David Baskeyfield, the winner of the improvisation competition from last summer's national convention, in a stunning display of musicianship and virtuosity. Playing such as was heard that day will go a long way towards winning new friends for the art of the organist, as will our continuing efforts at providing stimulating programs and other events for our chapter members and friends." John Brooks, Dean, Potomac Chapter

Scott Matthias, Dean of the Northern Virginia Chapter, Charles Miller, Dean of the DC Chapter, Dongho Lee, David Baskeyfield, John Brooks, Dean of the Potomac Chapter and Clarice Snyder, SubDean of the Potomac Chapter. (photo by Margo Truslow)

"Recitalists Dongho Lee and David Baskeyfield played an inspired concert at Washington National Cathedral for the 11th annual PipeSpectacular program. The Oct. 24 event was sponsored by the TriChapter of the AGO. The program on the four-manual, 189 rank Skinner organ featured pieces by Elgar, Durufle, Manari and Vierne. Baskeyfield also played an improvisation on two seasonal themes: the signature song from the 1960's TV show "The Munsters" and Sine Nomine. Both recitalists won prizes at the 2010 National Convention in Washington, DC. Lee, a doctoral student at Indiana University, won first prize and the audience prize in the National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance. Baskeyfield, a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music, won first prize and the audience prize in the National competition in Organ Improvisation." From THE COUPLER, the DC Chapter newsletter

"An event that I never miss during this season is PipeSpectacular. This year's concert was particularly special for two reasons: National Cathedral was able to host us again because of delays in their organ project, and the recital featured the two winners of AGO national competitions. The Cathedral ushers counted 562 ateendees in the audience, which is an astounding number for a pipe ogan event. Dongho Lee and David Baskeyfield brought new life to works by Elgar, Durufle, Manari and Vierne. Mr. Baskeyfield enhanced his repertoire selections with a delightfully wild improvisation on submitted themes, which turned out to be Sine Nomine (For All the Saints) and the theme from The Munsters television show." Scott Matthias, Dean, Northern VA Chapter.

Potomac Chapter Guild Installation Service

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The Potomac Chapter of the American Guild of Organists held their Guild Installation Service on Sunday, September 19 at 7:30 at the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church of Bethesda, Maryland.

Officer and members gather for the service.

Dr. Cheryl Tatham, Chaplain of the Potomac Chapter, is at the pulpit.

The choir of Bradley Hills Church is directed by Kyle Babin, at the console of the Holtkamp organ.

At the reception following the service.

Officers of the Potomac Chapter of the AGO: Tom Bast, Cheryl Tatham, John Brooks, Clarice Snyder, Judy Daffer, Becky Lee, David McCahan.

All the members of the chapter that were present.

Dean John Brooks presents the Past Dean's pin to Peter Crisafulli at the reception.

My thanks to Clarice Snyder and Becky Lee for these pictures.

Gerald Piercey, Editor

The Heel & Toe, Newsletter of the Potomac Chapter, AGO

Baltimore Organ Crawl, Saturday, May 8, 2010

On Saturday, May 8, 2010, members and friends of the Potomac Chapter, American Guild of Organists, made a crawl to three notable churches in Baltimore. We began at Christ Lutheran Church, to see their recent Andover organs.
This is the chancel of the church.

And this is the rear gallery.

The front organ cases feature the names of composers on the casework.

Beautiful flowers were already in place for the services on Sunday.

The cases are identical, except for the console on the left side. The large pipes are painted; the smaller pipes are polished tin.

Console; the mirror can be concealed by pulling down a panel. The left stops are Gallery Pedal, Main Pedal, and Swell. The right stops are Great, Positiv and Gallery. The drawer on the right contains controls for the combination action.

Closer view of the console. The Great, Swell and Positiv are in the case with the console; the Pedal is opposite. The Gallery organ is in two cases on either side of a window.

First to try the organ was our SubDean, Clarice Snyder.

Next up was Emily Koons.

Then our Dean, John Brooks.

Then past Dean Peter Crisafulli.

Two manual console in the gallery.

The pistons above the upper manual are the General pistons of the main organ, so that you can play the main organ from the Gallery organ. On the main console the Gallery division is floating; here it is divided into two manuals and pedal.

View of the chancel from the gallery.

The hooded Tromba inside the right gallery case. When this was being played against the front organ, standing in the gallery, it sounded like the Tromba was ahead of the main organ. The two are just that far apart.

Peter Crisafulli trying the gallery organ. We found many beautiful sounds in this division, which we admired more than the front organ.

The church has many beautiful windows.

We also found a four rank Kilgen organ in the chapel on our way out.

From Christ Lutheran we were blown to the inner harbor by the strong winds that day, and we had a delightful lunch at Phillips Seafood Restaurant.

Our second stop of the day was the historic Basilica of the Assumption, America's First Cathedral.
Clarice Snyder and David McCahan are admiring the Basilica. The red and yellow umbrella on the right is the Papal Umbrella, from the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1995.

The organ case in the left transept. The center section is the original casework from the Hall organ of 1819. When the organ was enlarged by Roosevelt in 1884, the case was widened to be the full width of the gallery. When the organ was renovated by Schantz in 1989, they painted the Roosevelt pipes on the side flats brown, to make them disappear, so that the original profile of the Hall organ stands out, making it again the proper scale for the gallery, while maintaining the space necessary for the organ. Peter Crisafulli is playing, and Bill Daly is beside him. Bill is past Dean of the Central Missouri Chapter.

The main altar. The building was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect of the US Capitol. When completed in 1821, the two buildings were of similar size.

Closeup of the carvings of the Hall case, which are very elegant.

View across to the opposite right transept, which has a slave gallery above. The rear gallery also has a slave gallery.

The dome with skylight; originally the windows and skylights were the lights.

Schantz console from 1989, built to resemble an old style of console, but with every modern convenience.

Carolyn Booth is playing, while Judy Daffer and Peter Crisafulli look on.

Dave McCahan thought it was interesting to have an EXIT sign on the organ case; there is an emergency exit route down what was the original stairway to the gallery. Present day organists can use the elevator. The Roosevelt pipes that have been painted brown are visible in this picture, too.

Another view of the carvings on the Hall case.

This view from the organ loft shows the Bishop's Cathedra or chair, with canopy above, the main altar and the pulpit with canopy. With all that marble, the acoustics are incredible.

Nameplate on right side:

Hall 1819

Roosevelt 1884
Schantz 1989

Next John Brooks played.

Our third and final stop was Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church.

We were met by Dr. John Walker, Director of Music, who told us a brief history of the church. Then, as Virgil Fox had been organist of this church and had worked out his arrangement of "Come, Sweet Death" on this organ, John played it for us.

Then Mike Hart told us the history of the Skinner organ. While having no major tonal changes, the console had been rebuilt several times, so he was quite proud of his restoration work, which returned it to the original appearance, but with all the necessary modern controls, as well as removal of previous damages.

First to play was Carolyn Booth.

She was followed by Emily Koons, with Dave McCahan turning pages.

Past Dean Dave Haykin and Dave McCahan looked on while Emily played.

And here Dave McCahan is also acting as registrant, pulling stops.

Then John Brooks played a Tuba Tune.

Then Mike Hart took us up into the chambers. The Great, Swell & Choir are on the side opposite the console. These are the pipes of the Great division.

Choir division, with the Clarinet rank in front. To get to the Swell involved climbing a ladder and opening a door and swinging inside, so we declined.

Looking down on the console from the walk between the chambers.

The wooden Pedal 16' Open Diapason pipes begin a story below, with their tops up where the tuner can reach them. The facade pipes on both sides are real pipes from a former organ, but they no longer speak.

The pedal Trombone and Bourdon pipes are on the far wall beyond Dave McCahan and Peter Crisafulli.

In the Solo division, the English Horn is in front, and then the French Horn.

Brown Memorial Church has a variety of windows by Tiffany. This is one of the two transept windows, which are said to be the largest they produced.

This is the rear window above the door and gallery.

This is the second transept window.

These are side windows.

Whitechapel Handbells on display in their cases.

One transept was given over to a Labyrinth.

The Potomac Chapter wishes to thank Dr. Walker, Mike Hart and Brown Memorial Church for letting us visit and learn about the church and organ.