Some years ago I was chairman of a church committee to purchase
a new pipe-organ. We were an ambitious congregation, and nothing
but the biggest and the best would suffice. We purchased a
magnificent instrument--three manuals, tracker, pneumatic
action, 1,944 pipes, and all the necessary swells and stops;
cost $5,000. It was a “thing of beauty,” and we expected it to
be a “joy forever.” The congregation was pleased; the committee
was delighted.
But somehow things did not go well. Sister Jones, the old
organist, would not touch the new-fangled thing. “Too much
machinery and too much show,” she said. Of course, we were
adverse to going outside of the congregation for an organist.
So we tried Minnie Wright, the deacon’s daughter; but Minnie
could not manipulate the stops and swells. We next tried Josie
Grayson, an orphan girl, who really needed the place. Now, Josie
could play with her hands, but when it came to playing with
her feet also she could not do it. We next tried Seth McGraw,
who had been to college and who, in addition to his musical
ability, was able-bodied and strong. Seth put all the power on
the motor, pulled out all the stops, and kicked and pawed with
might and main. The organ shrieked and bellowed and roared.
As for noise, the bulls of Bashan were outclassed. But as for
music--well, it requires more than a big organ and a big man
to produce that. The congregation was disappointed, disgusted,
and fast becoming desperate. They said that the organ was too
big, too complicated, and that it had at least nineteen hundred
pipes too many. There were charges of mismanagement and even
fraud against the committee, and hints that “something might
be doing.” Now, Indiana lies in the north central portion of
the lynching belt of the United States, so the committee felt a
trifle uncomfortable.
To my way of thinking, there is a marked similarity between the
musical experience of this congregation and the educational
experience of many communities in this country. We have built
great schoolhouses and prepared elaborate courses of study,
with more manuals, stops, and swells than characterized the
great organ of Newtown. The old course of study, which was so
simple that even Sister Jones could play it by ear, has given
place to a new, elaborate, and highly organized course which is
difficult--entirely too difficult--for the Minnie Wrights and
Josie Graysons, no difference if the one is a relative of some
member of the school-board and the other is the daughter of a
poor widow. It requires more, too, than an able-bodied man to
get proper results from the course of study, even if he has been
to college and played fullback on the football team. He may make
a great ado about it, but the results will be very similar to
Seth McGraw’s music on the pipe-organ--calculated to incite a
riot.--J. W. CARR.
(1982)