went missing in the “brief” edition of that dictionary only confirms that even when in the mainstream, organ music remains marginal.) Rather, Hettinger is more interested in “audience-friendly” works, a category to which Piston’s piece hardly belongs. Indeed, by the au- thor’s own admission, the essay “merely touched” upon topics such as “distinc- tively American organ music” (p. 259). That topic, among others, might have helped to draw the essay out of the or- gan loft and into the fray of a larger and more complex musical world. Two further chapters, like those by
Anderson and Bannister, propose a sin- gle composer as their topic: “György Ligeti (1923–2006)” by Kimberly Mar- shall and “Herbert Howells (1892– 1983)” by Larry Palmer. Marshall’s lively discussion, drawn in part from her experiences performing the com- poser’s organ works for him, argues per- suasively for these few but important pieces, and includes an account of that 1962 concert somewhat at odds with that of Busch and Herchenroeder. Palmer’s chapter, more than most in this volume, can be categorized as a la- bor of love: his essay, as much about Howells as it is the composer’s music, affectionately retells both the com- poser’s life story and opens the door to an appreciation of his organ works. “Twentieth-Century Organ Music in
the Christian Liturgy,” by Benjamin A. Kolodziej, at once closes the volume and proposes a new interpretive angle. The author seeks to explain those por- tions of the repertoire designed for use in church through an understanding of how liturgical and musical preferences work together in the various major Christian denominations in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany. This comparative study of sonic piety brings together theological concepts and instrument types, compositional practices, and improvisation, not for- getting denominationally based music publishers and their offerings. The many liturgical reforms of the 20th cen- tury, to be sure, complicate the picture significantly. In this heady mix, trou- blesome yet nonetheless valuable ideas such as “liturgical character” and “mys- ticism” find a place. This unusual essay would be especially helpful to those— students and professionals alike— whose familiarity with the music asso- ciated with the major Christian de- nominations is one dimensional or lacking altogether. In 1961, Carl Weinrich played a pro-
gram for the Congress of the Interna- tional Musicological Society that in- cluded Ernst Krenek’s Sonata, a work written in the United States by an émi- gré composer. With that work, was Weinrich presenting American organ music? Turning to Twentieth-Century OrganMusic, the Sonata is discussed in
48 THE AMERICAN ORGANIST
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