October 2020

Organ and Church Music at The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas;

The twenty-fifth year of the Bales Organ Recital Hall and Hellmuth Wolff Opus 40

The Bales Organ Recital Hall and Hellmuth Wolff Opus 40

Organ study at the University of Kansas began in 1875. In 1898 the “Department of Organ Playing and Church Music” was founded. Since that time the organ and church music program at KU has grown to be one of the largest and most active programs in the country. It now boasts twenty-five organ and church music majors studying across a variety of different undergraduate and graduate programs.

“Miss no opportunity to practice on the organ; there is no instrument that takes such immediate revenge on the impure and the careless, in composition as well as in the playing, as the organ.”¹ This description from Schumann was likely referring to the organ’s ability to execute—one might even say affinity for—complex counterpoint.

Editor’s note: the first part of this series is found in the August 2020 issue, pages 12–13.

This is the second installment of a photographic essay comparing two very different organbuilders. As a photographer, my goal is to show artisans and visual artists transforming their materials into works of beauty. In the case of artisan businesses, this transformation of materials is constrained by the need to run a profitable operation. 

The beat goes on.

At Oberlin College, January is a month of independent study between the fall and spring semesters known as winter term. During the fall, students propose projects to their principal teachers for approval. Projects can be off campus, and sometimes they are vacations disguised as serious research. I do not remember much about some of my winter term projects, but winter term of 1977, my junior year, was special.

The toccata principle

Barbara Benefiel Elder, 88, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, died July 23. She was born September 3, 1931, in Coffeyville, Kansas. She began taking piano lessons at age 5 and played her first solo recital at age 13, receiving musical honors during her school years in Coffeyville. Benefiel graduated summa cum laude in 1953 from Hastings College, Nebraska, with a Bachelor of Arts degree, the second person to graduate with a 4.00 average in the history of the college. She earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Tulsa with a 4.00 average in 1960.