May 2020

A. Thompson-Allen Company, LLC, New Haven, Connecticut;

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Worcester, Massachusetts

From the builder

Having tuned and maintained the organ for about ten years, we had a good idea of what was needed to get the organ back into first class condition. There were a number of dead notes, and the organ would not stay in tune. The organ had survived remarkably well, having very little work done to it since 1928 when it was installed as Skinner Organ Company Opus 736.

Marceau Pipe Organ Builders, Inc., Seattle, Washington

Community United Methodist, Church, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Marceau Pipe Organbuilders, Inc., has completed its Opus 36 for Community United Methodist Church of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The organ is significantly influenced by its rather extensive history of over 100 years, incorporating vintage sounds blended with new windchests and a modern digital electrical system.

In December 1516, Pope Leo X revoked Ottaviano Petrucci’s exclusive 1513 privilege to print keyboard intabulations. A lesser-known publisher, Andrea Antico, was awarded rights to the genre. Just one month later, January 1517, Antico delivered Italy its first collection of printed keyboard music, Frottole intabulate da sonare organi, Libro primo (henceforth, Frottole intabulate).

Closing the gates

The way of the world

Jennifer Lucy Bate, 75, born in London, UK, November 11, 1944, died March 25. She was the daughter of H. A. Bate, organist of St James’s Muswell Hill from 1924 to 1978. An international concert organist, she was considered an authority on the organ music of Olivier Messiaen, having befriended him within the last twenty years of his life as his organist of choice.