Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the dedicatory concerts by McNeil Robinson at the Beckerath organ of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, which in itself is an auspicious occasion — but whatʻs REALLY SCARY is that I was there in person, fifty years ago! Yikes! There were two dedication concerts, but since so much enthusiasm was generated and demand was high, a third concert was added. I went to all three!

I was most fortunate to take about 20 hours of private lessons with Neil, as we called him, and he taught me everything about playing a tracker organ. In my last post I told you that my teacher, Joan Lippincott, was responsible for being the greatest influence on my teaching — but McNeil Robinson was the greatest influence on my performance of Bach.

The actual dedication service of the instrument took place a couple of weeks earlier, on May 18, 1975, and here is a scanned copy of the dedication program:

Yes, I was there at the dedication — along with about 600 other people! And I know what youʻre thinking … 600 people in the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, thereʻs no way! And yet — people were crammed into every nook and cranny and there were even about 50 people on top of the board room roof, which in those days was a lot more precarious and dangerous. Of course, with all those people in there, the organ sounded so small and not at all like it really sounds in an empty room.

So much buzz was created in Honolulu even among non-organists, that there were 27 articles in the print media about the German tracker organ.

Last Friday night, current organist Barry Wenger played a concert which opened with Bachʻs “Komm, heiliger Geist,” BWV 651, which, if you viewed the PDF of the original dedication, was Carl Crosierʻs postlude on May 18, 1975. I wonder whether that was intentional or a coincidence!

For me, the most interesting pieces were by Arvo Pärt, his “Annum per annum,” and “Pari intervallo.”

Donors to the organ each received vanda orchid leis in recognition of their gifts. The American Guild of Organists board was well represented at the concert, as shown by the following photo.

Two new ranks were added to the instrument: an 8′ Trompete in the pedal, and an 8′ Salicional in the swell division. I really haven’t had a chance to use them yet, and so far I’ve lived without them for 50 years! It’s crazy to think that I’ve played this organ for FIFTY YEARS but on the other hand, I’ve been most fortunate to have had this opportunity.

I had dinner with organbuilders Hans-Ulrich Erbslöh and Bernd Becker before they returned to Germany.

Sorry, I WON’T be around for the 100th anniversary of the organ!