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The full polished tones of a brass ensemble washed over the Founders' Day audience in Bomberger Hall Auditorium. With authority and pomp, horns announced the first theme of a stately antiphonal piece by Eugene Gigout, bringing the music to a pinnacle.
Then came the answering voice of the new Heefner Memorial Organ, and a thrill ran through the standing-room-only crowd. This sound was not merely large; it was immense. Its penetrating, many-colored vibrations presented a vast range of peaks and valleys. The new organ was truly "king of instruments," as the Rev. Dr. John C. Shetler had said earlier in his dedicatory prayer.
The Founders' Day presentation of the Heefner Organ, and all the ceremony and celebration which surrounded it, were the culmination of months of painstaking work on the part of dozens of people. The organ, a gift of Mrs. Lydia V. Heefner of Perkasie in memory of her late husband, Russell E. Heefner, was built entirely by hand by Austin Organs Incorporated of Hartford, Conn. The instrument is an excellent one which will enable Ursinus to attract artists of world renown, and allow them to perform all literature composed over the centuries for organ. It is the second pipe organ to grace Bomberger Hall in the building's 95-year history, and promises to become known as one of the premier organs in the region. Mrs. Heefner's gift to the College has its origins in her love of music, and her affection for the institution from which her son, William F. Heefner, was graduated in 1942.
In creating the organ's tonal qualities, David Broome, Austin's tonal designer, worked closely with Mr. Heefner; John French, chair of the Ursinus College music department and recipient of the Heefner Chair of Music; and Douglas Tester, organist and director of the choirs at St. Anne's Episcopal Church, Abington, PA.
Work on the massive instrument had begun in Hartford last winter. By summer, construction of the organ had been completed at the Austin plant. Preparations now began at Ursinus. The electronic organ which had served the college since the late 40's was removed, and the stenciled pastel pink pipes--left as decorations from the original pipe organ-- were extracted from the Bomberger stage arch.
Back in Hartford, the completed instrument was dismantled for shipment in late July. By early August, the first truckload of pipes and parts arrived in Collegeville, giving rise to a new sub-culture of "organ groupies" on campus. For those who had regular business in Bomberger, hanging around the auditorium became a popular fall spectator sport. The organ seemed a gigantic puzzle to those watching the gradual placement of 3,593 pipes under the arch. And they observed that an organ builder must be part musician, part construction worker, part contortionist and part mechanical genius to perform all of the functions necessary in putting together such an instrument. Reassembly of the organ took three full months, and "voicings"-- the numerous minute adjustments made in the way the organ's mechanisms affect the sound coming from its pipes--continued through November.
About 50 individuals had a hand in building the instrument. Installation was done by teams from Austin Organ; Eisenhardt Mills of Easton, Pa., which built the casework; Gorski Construction Co. of Collegeville, and the Ursinus Maintenance staff. Hugh Sears of Austin directed the installation, assisted by Zoltan Zsitvay, a tonal finisher for the firm.
In its completed form, the organ's pipes are arranged in 62 ranks, each rank of a different basic size, composition and shape. The lengths of pipes within each rank progresses from shorter to taller. Some of the pipes are zinc; others, an alloy of tin and lead called pipe metal, and still others, wood. There are square pipes and stopped pipes. Their "speaking lengths" range from a quarter of an inch to 32 feet, while their actual physical lengths run from just under 20 feet for the lowest C at the center of the arch to one-and-a-third inches for the highest.
Such an organ is thousands of times more complicated than a piano. Because of the limitless combinations of tones which can be made through the pulling of stops, and the resulting harmonics, the highest vibrations from the organ are beyond the range of human hearing.
The organ has three manuals and 77 stops in four divisions--pedale, recit, grand, and positiv-- and the pipes and stops are enhanced by three electronic 32-foot stops, a 25-note set of chimes and a 61-note harp. The instrument is mounted on a framework of steel beams 20 feet above the floor, with arches rising to its apex 20 feet above that. Its beautifully ornate oak casework was designed and stained to match the existing oak and pine woodwork in Bomberger Hall. Together, organ and casework weigh about eight tons.
Formidable on its exterior, the Heefner Organ nevertheless has a fragile interior. It operates through an electropneumatic action system. Air is pumped through a series of ducts from the basement of Bomberger into its universal chests--pressurized compartments through which air passes into the pipes. The chests vary in the amount of pressure under which they operate depending upon the size of the pipes they serve. Regulators in the chest keep the pressure constant, whether one pipe or hundreds are being sounded.
Austin is the only organ manufacturer in the world which builds instruments whose internal workings may be directly observed from inside their chests., according to Mr. Zsitvay. This has the practical effect of allowing maintenance work to be done quickly and directly. A visit to one of these interior spaces is rather like a trip into the belly of a whale. There, mechanisms composed of thin strips of wood, tiny wires, felt-covered rectangular keys and circular pads allow air into the various pipes and control the combinations of stops as the organist touches keys and pulls knobs. The overall effect is one of an immense loom weaving infinitely varigated music, creating endless combinations of sound.
In her official presentation of the organ to the College on Founders' Day, Mrs. Heefner said that she and her husband had formed "a lasting respect" for Ursinus over the years. "We were agreed to do something that would reflect our gratitude," she said. "I know that he would be pleased by what I am doing today. I am pleased to present this pipe organ to Ursinus College. May it serve the College well. May the music that it makes uplift the hearts of all who listen."
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Ursinus Bulletin article
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Title
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"King of Instruments" Awes Audience
Description
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An account of the new Ursinus organ, named the Heefner Organ after its dedication ceremony. It details specifications of the organ and talks about the process of installing the organ into Bomberger auditorium in the summer of 1986.
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Ursinusiana, Ursinus Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987, p 4.
Date
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1986, 1987
Language
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English
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UC Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987
1986
1987
Bomberger
Bomberger auditorium
Bomberger Chapel
bulletin
Heefner Organ
installation
music
Ursinus College
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For everyone at Ursinus College who loves music, Founders' Day 1986 was the jubilant culmination of a year filled with anticipation.
It was the day the new Heefner Memorial Organ was dedicated. It was the day that the William F. Heefner Chair of Music was officially established, and John H. French, head of the music department, was installed in that chair. It was a day on which the College awarded honorary degrees to two distinguished music educators. And it was the day that the new organ was played publically[sic] for the first time, an exhilarating experience for all who heard it.
Coincidentally, it was also the day of Lydias. Mrs. Lydia V. Heefner, of Perkasie, who gave the new pipe organ to the College in memory of her late husband, Russell E. Heefner; and Lydia French, who turned six that day, and who slept peacefully next to her sister Rachael through their father's installation ceremony.
During the Founders' Day convocation, Ursinus President Richard P. Richter awareded honorary Doctors of Humane Letters to Dr. Joseph W. Polisi, president of The Juilliard School in New York; and to Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt, artistic director and principal conductor of Westminster Choir College. Dr. Polisi was principal speaker at the mid-year commencement exercises. During the ceremony, the college graduated 19 students, conferring one Associate's and 18 Bachelors' degrees.
Highlights of the convocation were the dedication of the Heefner Chair and the official presentation of the new pipe organ to the College by Mrs. Heefner. Her son, William F. Heefner '42, who endowed the Heefner Chair, was first to play the organ publicly, performing the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, for which he received with a standing ovation. Mr. Heefner, a Morrisville attorney, is vice-president and treasurer of the Ursinus Board of Directors, and chairman of the Campaign for Ursinus. As an undergraduate at Ursinus, he had been the organist for the College's daily chapel services. For the past 20 years, he has been organist and music director of Peace Lutheran Church in Perkasie. The new organ was built by Austin Organs, Incorporated, Hartford, Conn.
"May music of all types flourish at this college in the years ahead, and may each one of you be enriched by the extraordinary beauty which is brought to us all by the diverse wonders of the musical world," Dr. Polisi told the degree candidates.
Examing the age-old tension between serious and commercially-successful music, Dr. Polisi said, "As the next generation of individuals to lead and support our society, I would hope that you would understand the primary place which art has in preserving our culture and quality of life. The arts help us to better understand ourselves, and to focus more clearly the experiences and ideas that give value to human life."
In accepting the Heefner Chair, Mr. French thanked the College administration for its "renewed commitment to the arts and their place in liberal education." He praised the members of his choirs and said that they "share this honor with me."
Later on Founders' Day afternoon, a dedicatory concert was given on the new organ by Douglas Tester, organist and choir director at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Abington, Pa. Performing with Mr. Tester were the Ursinus College Choir, the Clarendon Brass Ensemble, and soloists Edwina Dunkle, soprano, who is Mr. French's wife; Nancy Curtis, alto; Alan Gerber, class of '81, tenor; and Reginald Pindell, bass.
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Ursinus Bulletin article
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Founder's Day 1986: A Tribute to Music
Description
An account of the resource
An account of the dedication ceremony of the new Ursinus Organ. It was dedicated in memory of Russel E. Heefner, and the establishment of the William F. Heefer Chair of Music
Source
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Ursinusiana, Ursinus Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987, p 6.
Date
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1986
Language
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English
Identifier
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UC Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987
1986
Bomberger
dedication ceremony
Founder's Day
Heefner Organ
memorial
music
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"A conductor is the most unusual of all musicians," said John French as he was inaugurated into the newly endowed William F. Heefner chair of Music on Founders' Day. "Conducting--the gestures, hand movements, facial expressions--produce no sound. It is a great act of faith that by a wave of a hand, people will respond and produce the sounds the conductor interprets."
John French conducts three choirs at Ursinus, and all of them respond by producing sounds that receive full aclaim[sic]. Mr. French is chair of the music department, and in his eight years here he has dramatically increased the level of participation in music, both in academic courses and the choral program.
"The choirs are an extracurricular activity," said Mr. French. "But to me, they're more than that. They provide an educational experience--one that does not occur in the classroom. Students don't write term papers here; they don't do research necessarily, but they learn something about performance and music through the centuries."
Upon receiving the chair during the Founders' Day convocation, Mr. French stressed that teaching was the objective of his work. And although students may only minor, not major, in music at Ursinus, he says he is "truly amazed at how much one can do with students who are not majoring in the field."
John French believes it is important for students--whether they are majoring in physics or economics or English--to open themselves up to the arts. Likewise, he feels teaching at a liberal arts college, as opposed to a music conservatory, provides a unique and stimulating environment.
"I think the warning to the 20th century arts is to be leery of isolationism--that as artists, we don't put ourselves in a corner where we no longer communicate to people. I find it personally exciting just to come to the College and have colleagues who are not associated professionally with the arts--to have good friends whose disciplines are in the humanities or the sciences. After all, ideas are communicated in music, so one must be aware about what others are thinking, what others are doing."
Amember of the Ursinus faculty since 1979, Mr. French received his bachelor of music degree at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts in 1977 and his masters degree at Westminster Choir College in 1979. He is working towards his doctorate at the University of Concinnati. In 1982, Mr. French was the recipient of the Lindback Award for teaching excellence and a 1978 finalist in the Stokowski Memorial Conducting Fellowship sponsored by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
During the summer of 1986, Mr. French was selected to attend a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Seminar entitled "The Culture of Mass Society."
Three dedicatory concerts were held last November in celebration of the completion of the new Heefner Memorial Organ. Its first public performance was by William F. Heefner, '42, who endowed the Heefner Chair of Music, and whose mother, Lydia V. Heefner, gave the instrument to the College. He played Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fuge in D Minor at the end of the Founders' Day convocation. Later that afternoon, Douglas Tester, organist and choir director at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Abington, Pa., gave the first full dedicatory recital, along with the Ursinus College Choir, the Claredon Brass Ensemble, and four vocal soloists.
Finally on Nov. 19, internationally-known organist John Weaver gave a brilliant solo recital on the organ, which was recorded by WHYY-91 FM, the Public Broadcasting System's station in Wilmington, Del. The concert will be broadcast at 9:00p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11. Mr. Weaver played two encores, took eight curtain calls and received two standing ovations at the conclusion of the recital. He is director of music at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, and head of the organ department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
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Ursinus Bulletin article
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French Installed in Heefner Chair
Description
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Dr. John French, associate music professor at Ursinus College, inaugurated into the William F. Heefner chair position
Source
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Ursinusiana, Ursinus Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987, p 7.
Date
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1986
Language
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English
Identifier
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UC Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987
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Debra Kamens, Director of Communications
Bomberger
Heefner Organ
music
professors
Ursinus College
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Title
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Heefner Memorial Organ
Source
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Ursinusiana, Ursinus Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987, cover.
Date
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1987
Language
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English
Identifier
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UC Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987
1987
Bomberger
bulletin
Heefner Organ
music
-
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Title
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Heefner Organ
Source
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Ursinusiana, UC Magazine, Winter 2007, pg 11.
Date
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2007
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Ursinus Magazine Winter 2007
2007
Bomberger
Bomberger auditorium
Bomberger Chapel
Heefner Organ
installation
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Title
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Installing the Heefner Organ
Description
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Groups of pictures that show the installation and dedication ceremony of the Heefner Memorial Organ
Source
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Ursinusiana, Ursinus Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987, p 5.
Date
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1987
Identifier
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UC Bulletin, 1967-1987, January 1987
Bomberger
Heefner Organ
memorial
music