The Organ in Manitoba: A History of the Instruments the Builders and the Players PDF
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The Organ in Manitoba This page intentionally left blank The Organ in Manitoba A History of the Instruments, the Builders, and the Players James B. Hartman THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PRESS ©James B. Hartman 1997 The University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 5V6 Printed in Canada on recycled, acid-free paper All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of pho- tocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from CANCOPY (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), 6 Adelaide Street East, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1H6. Design: Karen Armstrong Cover illustration: St. Mary's Academy, Winnipeg, Casavant Freres organ, 1909. All photographs, except as noted, courtesy of the author. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Hartman, James B. (James Barclay), 1925 The organ in Manitoba : a history of the instruments, the builders, and the players Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88755-644-2 1. Organs - Manitoba - History. 2. Organists - Manitoba - History. 3. Organ builders - History. I. Title ML563.7.M3H37 1997 786.5'197127 C97-920152-7 The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing program provided by the Manitoba Arts Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Fed- eration for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction ix Manitoba: The Formative Years 3 Reed Organs 1 5 Manitoba Pipe Organs and Their Builders 25 The Golden Age of the Organ: 1875-1919 49 The Middle Years: 1920-1939 119 A Period of Recession: 1940-1949 157 A Time for Renewal: 1950-1959 169 Recent Times: 1960-1997 183 The Future of the Organ 207 Appendix I: Organ Installations 217 Appendix 2: Specifications of Organs 223 Glossary 279 Bibliography 287 Index 290 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements THE MAJOR INVESTIGATIONS for this book were largely completed dur- ing a six-month research leave from the University of Manitoba in late 1992 and early 1993, and subsequent refinements of the text continued up to the date of publication in 1997. A number of people assisted my research by making available important in- formation of historical significance. Stanley R. Scheer, vice-president, Casavant Freres, Ltee., provided copies of organ specifications, contracts, correspond- ence, and several photographs relating to installations of Casavant pipe organs in Manitoba. Richard Greig, chair of the Winnipeg Centre, Royal Canadian College of Organists, allowed access to the records of that association, estab- lished in the 1923 as the Canadian College of Organists. My appreciation also extends to those organists, members of the clergy, church secretaries, and parishioners who facilitated access to the organs and to church records. Maureen Dolyniuk, volunteer archivist, St. John's Anglican Cathedral, Win- nipeg, was particularly helpful in the latter endeavour. Correspondents in sev- eral urban and rural centres supplied useful information in response to survey questionnaires distributed to churches throughout the province. Librarians and archivists everywhere were most cooperative: Alfred Fortier, La Societe Historique de Saint-Boniface; staff of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library, The Uni- versity of Manitoba; and staff of the Provincial Archives of Manitoba and the Manitoba Legislative Library. The interest in and enthusiasm for this project on the part of all these people is gratefully acknowledged. This page intentionally left blank Introduction THE HISTORY OF ORGANS IN MANITOBA is a neglected aspect of the musical, cultural, and church history of the province. This book portrays the panorama of the organ—the instruments, the builders, and the players—from the mid-1800s to the present. The earliest organs in Manitoba were reed organs, or harmoniums, and these relatively inexpensive instruments served church congregations and provided entertainment in family parlours for several generations. With the construc- tion of larger churches, pipe organs became the instruments of choice: the first installation occurred in 1875. Instruments representative of 28 pipe organ builders in Canada, the United States, England, and Europe are to be found in Manitoba; a few of the imports from the United States are now over a century old, and a number of Canadian-made organs are approaching the centennial mark in age. The documentation of the specifications of these instruments reveals changing concepts of tonal design, which in turn can be related to the type of organ music played and heard by early generations. Because theatre organs were part of the popular musical culture, some reports of these instru- ments and their players have been included. At least a dozen Winnipeg movie theatres, and a few in Manitoba towns, acquired pipe organs in the early dec- ades of the century, but much of the relevant information concerning them has been lost. The few organs in funeral chapels and educational institutions have been documented in the inventory of installations. The information concerning the instruments, the builders, the players, and their public reception, assembled from survey questionnaires, newspaper
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