Tuesday, 4/8/97
Show hopes to tune community into organ history
UCLA organist helped coordinate local festival, hopes to carry
on instrument’s tradition
By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Contributor
Some can fit an entire man in their cavity while others wouldn’t
hold his toenail. Some jut out in a ton of spiky directions while
others stay straight in a line. Some reside at the ballpark while
others take up shop under the stained glass windows of the
neighborhood church.
They are the pipes of musical organs, and all kinds are on
display at UCLA’s Fowler Museum through July 6. The "FestivalOrgan"
exhibition includes not only photographs of organs across America
but also involves an interactive aspect with actual organ pieces
visitors can play. Augmenting this traveling show is "Pulling Out
the Stops," a series of photographs revealing local organs, past
and present.
In addition to the museum pieces, a schedule of ongoing organ
events around the greater Los Angeles region invites the general
public to what before had been mostly events already planned by
churches or The American Guilded Organist chapters for their annual
programming. Among the events on the schedule is "Organ Crawl," a
day-long tour of large organs of the Wilshire Boulevard
corridor.
"There probably will be a chance to get inside the organ
chambers of at least one of these instruments," says Dr. Thomas
Harmon, the UCLA university organist who helped to coordinate the
Los Angeles leg of FestivalOrgan’s cross-country journey.
Harmon adds that the bus tour covers five organs in one
afternoon, ranging from one of the world’s largest church organs at
First Congregational Church to a mighty Wurlitzer theater organ
from the 1930s.
Beyond these excursions, three lectures and three concerts will
reveal the finer aspects of the age-old organ. However, one of the
more pleasing dimensions of the entire festival for Harmon is the
reactions of school children to the mighty musical beast. Four days
a week, surrounding schools visit the exhibit and drop by Harmon’s
organ studio in Schoenberg Hall for a live demonstration.
"What I like the most is when the kids first walk in and their
eyes get twice as big as life and their mouths drop open and most
of them say ‘Wow!’ or ‘Cool!’" Harmon says. "When they walk into
that room, the organ looks bigger than it actually is because it’s
a very tall room, as is the organ. To the little kids, it must be
like looking up at a sky scraper. It warms my heart because many of
them have never seen an organ. Especially a baroque organ-style one
where it’s all in one case."
Harmon typically deals with first through fourth graders, and
this week he begins his first work with kindergartners. The efforts
he makes to open children’s awareness to the instrument realizes
the festival’s informational goal. Today, the larger portion of the
public fails to understand the organ’s time-honored role in
society. For this reason, Harmon plays everything from easily
recognizable modern tunes to older classics when entertaining the
children.
"I usually get them to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the organ to
start off the demonstration," Harmon says. "I play everything from
Bach to ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ for them, just to show how
versatile the organ can be."
Educating parents as well, Fowler hosts a family day where
children and adults can craft their own pan pipes from either
plastic or bamboo. A later event involves viewing Prokofiev’s
"Peter and the Wolf" as transcribed to the organ from its original
full orchestra music by one of Harmon’s past doctoral students.
Harmon’s extensive teaching experience has been a labor of love.
"I suppose the organ is my favorite instrument," Harmon admits.
"For me, the organ is my most gratifying means of self expression.
I was originally drawn to the organ by its complexity and its size
and the big sound that it made. As a kid, it was overwhelming to me
and I suppose that’s really the underlying reason."
Carrying on this tradition to students in his 28 years at UCLA,
Harmon has taught everything from music appreciation to his current
routine of instructing graduate seminars for the master and
doctoral students in performance. Usually, he accepts only students
to his program that have already mastered the piano, as the organ
requires both the use of hands and feet. Even then, most trainees
take anywhere from two to three quarters to gain a steady feel for
the instrument. However, as Harmon’s 45 years of organ experience
can attest to, the instrument never gets old.
"Having taken the organ on as a profession, there’s really so
many sides to it that are exciting to me," Harmon relates. "I think
I like the variety of sounds that it makes. It’s literally an
orchestra in one person’s hands. I also like the fact that I can
perform on the organ weekly in church for a sizable audience that
is very appreciative."
One of the strongest forces keeping the organ in the community
forefront is the Christian church, which was typically the largest
building in any given town square. Enclosed in this building would
be the humongous instrument, which existed as the most complex
machine man had up until the 19th century. Yet, with modern
technological developments in other areas, the organ acquired a few
improvements of its own.
Now, electronic additions can create smaller instruments with
huge pipe organ sounds, while pipe organs have the option to be
made bigger and bigger. A prime example of such a change is Royce
Hall’s own organ which is currently being remodeled after the
damage it suffered in the Northridge earthquake. Harmon, as
university organist, has been overseeing the project.
UCLA has spent over a million dollars renovating the organ and
repairing the broken pipes. The university has also taken this
opportunity to enlarge it and update the sound by adding roughly
1,200 new pipes, keeping the organ alive on campus.
ART: "FestivalOrgan" will be at the UCLA Fowler Museum through
July 6. Admission is $5, $3 for seniors and non-UCLA students, $1
for UCLA students, and free to everyone on Thursdays. For more
information, call 825-4361.Jamie Scanlon-Jacobs
Dan Levitt tries out one of many organs at the Fowler Museum’s
show on organs.
Today, … the public fails to understand the organ’s
time-honored role in society.