Stephen Price plays the 4m, 79rk, 1965 Flentrop rebuilt by Paul Fritts 1992-95 & 2011. Price is head of organ studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the first Paul B. Fritts Faculty Fellow and Artist-in-Residence.

*Eurydice Osterman b. 1950: Passacaglia and Fugue in the Style of Bach (1987)

Hugo Distler 1908-1942: Orgelsonate (Trio), op. 18, no. 2 (1939)

Composer *Erland Hildén is Swedish and associated with the Goteborg organ scene; composer *Eurydice Osterman is professor emeritus of Oakwood University, Huntsville, Alabama.

Program Notes, Sparkling Intensity
Notes by Stephen Price

Erland Hildén (B. 1963) is a recognized composer, choral conductor, and organist in Sweden. He has created more than 60 compositions, mainly for the organ, primarily favoring the post-minimalist style. His formal training took place at the Göte­borg Inter­national Organ Aca­de­my, affiliated with the University of Göteborg, where he now teaches organ and church music, and serves on the board of the annual Göte­borg International Organ Festival. His musical interests encompass a range of styles, from medieval music to popular music. 
Sparkling Intensity, composed in 2023, opens with a motif portraying a ritornello character that returns in alternating sections throughout the work. Hildén draws upon the werkprinzip concept of the Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th-­century Organ Reform periods by indicating manual changes, directing the sound coming from different divisions or chambers of pipes. The manual indications mark new sections in the piece and create dialogue as an echo effect.

Hugo Distler (1908-1942) was a native of Nuremberg, Germany, in the province of Bavaria. According to Larry Palmer’s book, Hugo Distler and His Church Music, Distler attended the Leipzig Conservatory, studying organ with Günther Ramin (successor to Karl Straube at St. Thomas Church). Palmer includes that Distler’s composition teacher, Herman Grabner (a student of Max Reger), stated, “It means a special enrichment for a teacher, if, from the great number of students with average talents... a young genius suddenly emerges, showing the promise of a distinguished career.” Distler obtained the organist position at St. Jacobi in Lübeck in 1931, developing the church music program, famed for its musical Vesper services. Subsequently, he taught chamber music at the Lübeck Conservatory and later directed choral activities in Stuttgart. His career ended in Berlin because of the strained political climate of the Nazi Party. Mounting political pressures led to his suicide at the age of 34. His wife and three children carried on with his legacy.

Distler’s organ works – few, but of substance – represented the neoclassical style that permeated the composition circles, paying homage to the older musical styles from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. At St. Jacobi, the Friedrich Stellwagen organ, initially built in 1467, underwent a renovation in 1935 led by Distler. The Rennaissance instrument had a significant impact on Distler’s organ works. According to Palmer, the Orgelsonate (Trio), op. 18, no. 2, is Distler’s last organ work, paying tribute to J. S. Bach. Distler dedicated the work to his brother-­ in-­law, who helped design his house organ built by Paul Ott (15 stops; 2 manual divisions and pedal; upper division and 16’ pedal reed enclosed).

Distler gives thorough and detailed musical directives to help the performer understand his music. Translated, the directive for each movement of the Orgelsonate is: “1. Quick, energetic half-notes; 2. Introduction – Very agitated eighth notes, free in tempo; 3. Quite brisk eighth notes.”

Eurydice Osterman (b. 1950) is a composer and Fulbright Scholar who has distinguished herself within the canon of organ and choral literature. In 2024, the American Guild of Organists commissioned her to submit a new work for the San Francisco National Convention. Subsequent commissions include requests from the American composer, Carson Cooman, and Christmas choral works commissioned by the Harvard University Singers. As the first African American woman to obtain a doctorate in composition from the University of Alabama, she became the Music Department Chair at Oak­wood University in Huntsville, Alabama, and director of the internationally recognized choral ensemble “The Aeolians.” Her faith and practices in the Seventh-day Adventist tradition directly impact her musical output. Dr. Osterman’s music is published by GIA, J. W. Pepper, The Lorenz Corporation, Oxford University Press, and her self-founded company, AWSAHM Music.

According to Dr. Osterman, her organ studies with Cecil Warren Becker at Andrews University in Michigan included Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. Dr. Osterman’s love of the work inspired her to compose a piece in a similar style. The Passacaglia theme was derived from an originally composed hymn tune, and the fugue was composed for her doctoral recital. The intricate coun­ter­point and devel­opment of melodic material truly give this work substantive merits. The work is published by AWSAHM Music in Collage for Organ.

Rachel Laurin (1961-2023) is a celebrated composer who left a legacy of organ compositions that greatly contributed to the viability of the organ profession in the 21st century. Born in Saint-Benoît, Québec, Laurin attended the Montréal Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Gaston Arel, Raymond Daveluy, and Raoul Sosa. Following her studies, she became the assistant organist to Daveluy at Saint Joseph’s Oratory (1986-2002), and subsequently titular organiste at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa (2002-2006). Laurin joined the faculty at the Montréal Conservatory in 1988, according to Daniel Rolland’s The Canadian Encyclopedia and the Canadian Music Centre. Laurin had a successful relationship with the American Guild of Organists, receiving several commissions for festivals, conventions, competitions, and other similar engagements. Her organ music is published by Wayne Leupold Editions. Laurin was awarded an honorary fellowship from the Royal Canadian College of Organists (FRCCO) in 2023.

Laurin’s works include music for solo organ, choir and organ, organ plus instrument(s) and voice, organ transcriptions, solo piano, chamber music, concertos, and a work for guitar and harpsichord. Her composition studies with Daveluy and her love of the French Romantic organ repertoire directly impacted her own writing style. The Three Impressions on KINGSFOLD for Organ, Op. 75 is based on the hymn tune often set to the text, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” by Horatius Bonar. The earliest notation of this tune is attributed to Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Erland Hildén’s Symphony No. 2 for Organ began in the fall of 2024, specifically for this recording project. It was initially created as a through-composed work and later organized into movements. Improvisation serves as the impetus behind the work and is encouraged throughout the symphony, particularly toward the end of each movement. In particular, the B-section of the second movement gives way to improvisation via modal scale patterns indicated by the composer. Elements of rock, pop, and a vigorous rhythmic drive unify the Symphony in its post-minimalist style. The Symphony was composed using the organ built in north German Baroque style, copying Arp Schnitger (1648-1719) instruments, located in the Örgryte New Church, in Göteborg, Sweden. 
Erland Hildén encourages the performer to insert their individual voice and personality when indicated by the score to improvise; therefore, no two performances should be the same.

Stephen Price
Stephen “Stef” C. Price joined the music faculty at the University of Washington (Seattle) in 2023 as the inaugural Paul B. Fritts Faculty Fellow and Artist-in-Residence in Organ. As the head of organ studies, he teaches organ performance and courses in organ literature, church music, and keyboard harmony.

Having received in 2009 his undergraduate degree in music from Western Connecticut State University, he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study historical and modern French organ music in Toulouse, France. His graduate studies were completed at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, including a Master of Music conferred in 2012 and a Doctor of Music in 2019.

Appointed Associate Director of Music at First United Methodist Church, San Diego, California, 2015-17, he subsequently accepted a full-time faculty post teaching organ at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 2018-2023. Dr. Price’s debut album, Paris Impact Organ Suites, was recorded at Ball State and is released as a CD on Raven OAR-168 and in digital distribution. Additionally, Michael Barone has featured his recordings on the Pipedreams radio program and website. Dr. Price mounted on YouTube UW Music: Black Composers Project: Music for Organ. As a church musician, Stephen Price has served as organist and choir director in the Puget Sound region, and is Director of Music at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Seattle.

Peter Hallock (1924-2014), appointed in 1951 as organist and choirmaster of St. Mark’s Cathedral, accepted the position on the condition that the malfunctioning 1902 Kimball organ of 33 ranks would be replaced. Transplanted from St. Mark’s previous edifice to the current building in 1931, it must have received little maintenance as the cathedral suffered financial duress arising from the 1929 Crash and ensuing Depression; in fact, the bank foreclosed in 1941 and a “for sale” sign appeared on the cathedral’s lawn! The U. S. Army rented the building in 1943 for anti-aircraft training. The Cathedral emerged from its closure in 1944 through deft negotiation and somewhat improving finances.  By 1960, the Kimball had become ever less reliable and Peter Hallock took to the search for a new organ.

Reports suggest that Hallock was significantly influenced by E. Power Biggs (1906-­1977), who had been broadcasting a weekly radio program since 1945 on the CBS network, playing the organ at the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. Biggs had commissioned a new mechanical action pipe organ from the Dutch firm, Flentrop, installed in 1958, that was met with great interest in the USA organ world and seen as a threat to most of the USA organbuilding establishment, for the imported Flentrop had replaced at Harvard an Aeolian-Skinner organ, built in Boston. Boston and New York had been the major centers of American organ­building during the 19th century. Boston remain­ed of major influence in the 20th century, until the rise of foreign influences mid-century.

On an organ research tour, Hallock met Biggs in Boston. Biggs recommended Dirk Flentrop (1910-2003). Following more research by Hallock and the cathedral hierarchy, Flentrop installed at St. Mark’s in 1964-65 the largest organ by far his firm had ever built:  55 stops on four manuals and pedal with tracker action, in a free-standing wooden case.

The organ firmly established the growing Organ Reform Movement on the west coast of the USA, already represented by a few smaller tracker organs installed since about 1960. In the eastern USA and Canada, similarly sized or even larger organs had been imported since 1957 from Germany as built by Rudolf von Becker­ath in Hamburg.

These instruments of the Organ Reform Movement were optimized to play music of the Baroque period, usually copying characteristics of European organs remaining from the period — some of them historic organs both Flentrop and Beckerath had renovated or restored, thus placing those firms (and a few other European builders) way ahead of Americans on the “learning curve” to creating organs to meet the expectations of the growing movement.

Hoofdwerk II Great
16 Prestant
8 Prestant
8 Roerfluit
4 Octaaf
4 Speelfluit
2-2/3 Quint
2 Octaaf
1-3/5 Terts
IV Mixtuur (224 pipes)
III Scherp (168 pipes)
16 Trompet* (1995)
8 Trompet* (1995)
4/16 Trompeta † (horizontal, 2011)
8 Trompeta † (horizontal, 2011)
II + I, II + III

Rugwerk I Positiv
8 Prestant
8 Gedekt
8 Quintadeen
4 Octaaf
4 Roerfluit
2 Octaaf
III Mixtuur (168 pipes)
III Scherp (168 pipes)
II Sesquialter (112 pipes)
16 Dulciaan
8 Schalmei
Tremulant
I + III*

Bovenwerk III Swell ‡
8 Prestant
8 Fluit
8 Gemshoorn
8 Zweving (44 pipes, celeste)
4 Octaaf
4 Koppelfluit
2-2/3 Nasard
2 Flageolet
1 Octaaf
V Mixtuur (280 pipes)
8 Trompet
8 Kromhoorn
Tremulant
‡ Mechanical Swell pedal

Borstwerk IV Brustwerk
8 Gedekt (wood)
4 Prestant
4 Fluit
2 Gemshoorn
1-1/3 Larigot
II Cymbel (112 pipes)
8 Regaal
Tremulant
Zymbelstern* (1996)

Pedaal
32 Prestant (12 pipes, ext. 16)
16 Prestant
16 Subbas (wood)
8 Octaaf
8 Gedekt
4 Octaaf
4 Spitsgedekt
2 + 1 Nachthoorn (64 pipes)
VII Mixtuur (224 pipes)
32 Bazuin (8w/24m, 1992-95)*
16 Bazuin
8 Trompet
4 Trompet
2 Cornet
Ped + I, Ped + II, Ped + III

Combinations
6 Combinations per Division
8 General Pistons*
1 General Cancel*
1 Setter Position*

*Solid state combination action (255 memory levels)

56-note manuals, 32-note pedal
Electric stop action
Couplers and general pistons duplicated on toe studs

*work completed in 1992, 1995 and 2011
Suspended key action replaced the original balanced 
action, 1992-95

†In 2011, Paul Fritts replaced the Flentrop horizontal reeds, which are stored in the cathedral, with Spanish-­style reeds in the style of those of the 1762 Jordi Bosch organ, Santanyí, Mallorca, in the Església de Sant Andreu Apóstol.