Let me tell you —It’s been a rough week! I’m writing this in the lobby of United Airlines at Honolulu International Airport as I wait for my flight to Seattle. I have always been a lousy sleeper but this week takes the cake. The pseudo-jet lag is like when I’ve just come back from Europe, a twelve hour time difference! I figure I’ve had eight hours of sleep TOTAL over the last three days!

Before I elaborate on this, I want to express my appreciation for the great experience of playing the Beckerath organ over the last forty-six years—it’s been the grandest privilege of my life! We have always known how special this instrument has been in the worship life of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu and in the community arts life of Honolulu. Most organists never get the experience of playing a world-class instrument of this ilk—and I have spent years playing it for lessons, weddings, concerts and services.

While I retired from the church music staff nine years ago, I have continued to teach my students there, played recitals and concerts for the American Guild of Organists, Early Music Hawaii and the First Mondays concert series at the church. It’s still “my parish,” and I regularly tithe, as my husband and I have done over the last forty-plus years.

It was the legendary organist, Marie-Claire Alain, who proclaimed this as one of the finest organs in North America, and for myself, even though I have heard (and played) scores of organs across the globe, I always enjoy coming home to the Beckerath.

In recent weeks, however, there has been a movement to add a digital instrument running the software called Hauptwerk to the mix of pipe organs, piano and harpsichord to the keyboard arsenal at the church. To this notion many of my organist friends asked, “Why? Why would you want to add another instrument, and a digital one at that?”

It is important to know that an organ cannot be all things to all people, and no one organ can play the entire literature satisfactorily. Yet, while the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is stunning on the Beckerath, so is music of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) and many other contemporary composers. Even the Mendelssohn sonatas, the chorale preludes of Brahms, and music of German romantic Max Reger, sound more than adequate. I am always amazed when guest organists come to the Beckerath and bring out hidden colors. I’ll never forget when Jonathan Dimmock played the music of Maurice Duruflé and made the Beckerath sound like a 19th-century French Cavaillé-Coll.

Look what I found on the PipeOrgans.com: (Please click the link to read this comprehensive article)

Pipe Organs vs. Electronic Organs

Put a real pipe organ and an electronic organ in the same room, play them separately, and you will hear the difference—a dramatic difference!

This is because pipe organs and electronic organs make sounds in different ways. Electronic organs are mass-produced in factories to generate generic sounds. In contrast, every pipe organ is a unique, custom-designed instrument made to order for a particular sanctuary or other listening space.

 I wrote a comprehensive response to some questions about the instrument which you can download here.

Richard Houghten, the organbuilder who installed the combination action on the Beckerath described it this way: The sound of the sampled organs will, at first, be interesting, but in the end it’s no different than listening to a recording — sounds coming from a speaker that doesn’t move the air. Singers are wind instruments. So is the organ.

The difference between electronic organs and pipe organs is analogous to the difference of monophonic sounds compared to stereophonic sounds multiplied many, many times over. 

On Thursday night a question-and-answer session was held over Zoom for the congregation. There were several statements made which went unchallenged and I would like to address several points now.

The elephant in the room: We heard an example of the digital organ through Zoom on our phones, tablets and computers. One cannot evaluate the choice of an instrument without physically being in the room, the church. The sounds of the pipe organ emanate from many different locations on the case, while the digital organ’s sound comes from speakers.

The Beckerath only has two manuals, when “most churches have three or four manuals.” This is false. I believe that of the churches in America that have organs, two is the norm, not three or four. The LCH Worship and Music Committee deliberately chose an instrument which was different from the Aeolian-Skinner symphonic organs at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Central Union Church and Kawaiaha’o Church.

Tracker action is hard to play and the LCH Beckerath’s action is sluggish. This is a matter of opinion. I personally feel that the action is a dream to play. Because the keyboards are extremely sensitive and dependent on how deeply the key is depressed, it allows the organist to control its speech and be musically expressive, much more so than on a digital instrument. The organ actually “breathes.”

Nobody in this town wants to give a recital on the Beckerath. It is because the majority of organists are not concert material—and why should they be? They are church organists because they are there to support the worship of their congregation. Given the choice, though, they’d LOVE to have the Beckerath in their churches! Besides, all week, Facebook has been reminding me of this concert.

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