Organists and Me

Book excerpt: At the beginning of the twentieth century the pipe organ was a major source of music for live audience consumption. As the century unfolded the organ had to yield a portion of the stage to upstart symphony orchestras, but despite rapidly changing musical tastes it remained a major player. The second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, however, had become a challenging period for both organists and their booking agents. This is the story of one of the two agencies which dominated the American scene during that period, as told by the man who ventured from a Lutheran pulpit in New York City into the highly competitive and somewhat rarified world of performance musicians, with a stop along the way in the city room of a major American daily newspaper. Were these organists and their agents a bickering mostly gay tribe defined by jealousies, or a self-protective band of loyalists defined by mutual love of and sacrifice for the King of Instruments? This book is part memoir, part historical account, and part commentary. It is also a peek behind the scenes of how the art of organ performance survived into the 21st century.