Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This September – October 1972 Classic highlights how a generous gift of $100,000 brought the Higginbotham Memorial Pipe Organ in Roxy Grove Hall.
The Opening notes of Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C-minor marked the culmination of a dream for the Baylor School of Music as Dr. Joyce Jones, organist-in-residence, began the dedicatory organ recital on the Higginbotham Memorial Pipe Organ in Roxy Grove Hall on Sunday afternoon, February 13, 1972. The first of two significant new pipe organ installations in the Waco Hall complex had just been completed by the Fratelli Ruffatti Company of Padua, Italy. Negotiations were underway for a tracker organ to be built by the same company for the CHoir Room (formerly the Recital Hall), and its installation in June, 1972, was assured.
In October, 1970 Laura Higginbotham Osborne of Plainview, a Baylor graduate of 1923, fulfilled a long-cherished desire to provide a fine pipe organ for her alma mater in memory of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Higginbotham, with a generous gift of $100,000. For several months thereafter she followed with much interest the progress of the committee appointed to select the instrument and began making happy plans to attend its dedication. Unfortunately, her plans were cut short by her death February 3, 1971. A handsome bronze commemorative tablet for the organ, given by Mrs. Osborne;s son and three daughters in memory of their mother and grandparents, is mounted in the foyer of Roxy Grove Hall.
The three- manual electropneumatic organ made possible by Mrs. Osborne’s gif contains 61 ranks of pipes with 57 stops and 3,474 individual pipes comprising its four divisions- Great, Swell, Choir, and Pedal. Located in spacious chambers at the rear of the stage in Roxy Grove Hall, it presents a dramatic appearance and achieves excellent tonal projection.
The specification of the instrument was drawn up by Dr. Joyce Jones and Dr. Robert Markham of the organ faculty and Dr. Herbert Colvin of the Theory Department, in consultation with Daniel Sternberg. Dean of the school of Music and representatives of the Ruffatti organization. Elements of both classical and modern tonal ideals have been combined so that appropriate registration is available for all periods of great organ literature. The voices of the organ run the gamut from complete sets of sparkling mutations and mixtures in the principal and flute choruses to lush string, flute and gemshorn celeste. The eight ranks of reed pipes include the fiery horizontally- mounted 8’ Trompette de Fete and 32’ Contre Bombarde, the gentle 16’ Dulzian, and the colorful 8’ Cromorne and 4’ Clarion.
The handsome console, made of polished ebony with rosewood trim, is mounted on an elegant parquet platform of inlaid hardwood which can be moved readily to any desired position on the stage. The solid- state combination action includes twelve general pistons (thumb and toe) and eight pistons with cancel for each of the four divisions. An unusual feature of the console is the inclusion of “rappels” (located with the intermanual couplers), which permit the selective exclusion of the various mixtures and reeds from the crescendo pedal and the sforzando piston. These various controls permit exceptional flexibility in the use of tonal resources.
The tracker organ installed in the Choir Room of Waco Hall in June, 1972, is the gift of Margaret Bassett Johnson of Dallas in memory of her husband, Travis Johnson. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, both graduates of the Baylor School of Music, enjoyed over thirty years of success in New York City as musicians on radio and television. Although the organ was heard in a preview concert during the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in June, the dedicatory ceremony and recital are being planned for the Fall Semester.
Higginbotham Memorial Pipe Organ, installed in Roxy Grove Hall, February, 1972.
What is a tracker organ? In a tracker organ there are only mechanical connections between the keys and the valves which control the sounding of the pipes. As a result the keyboards must be adjacent to the windchest and the pipes, which are placed in a functional and often decorative wooden case. The case which stands freely in the auditorium, focuses and enhances the tone. To facilitate the operation of the mechanical action, the pipes are voiced on a light wind pressure which imparts a delightful mellowness and a modicum of chiff in their speech Such an organ affords the player a sense of immediacy not possible with electropneumatic action, a precision of attack and release akin to that of the harpsichord and piano and invaluable in the performance of contrapuntal music.
By way of contrast, electropneumatic action uses a multitude of electric switches to operate the valves at the base of the pipes. Thus a means is provided for controlling a very large organ in which variety and expansiveness of seniority take precedence over subtle keyboard articulation. It also makes for freedom in the placement of the pipes and the console.
The Johnson Memorial Tracker Organ contains 17 ranks of pipes with 13 stops and 926 individual pipes comprising its three divisions-Great, Positive, and Pedal. Housed in a massive oak case, the wooden pipes of mahogany contrast effectively with the gleaming metal pipes of various shapes and sizes, both visually and aurally. In keeping with the tonal structure demanded by baroque organ literature, the specification provides a balance between principal and flute choruses. The carefully planned scaling and beautiful voicing of the flour flute stops at various pitches give each a delightfully distinctive character. A Mixture IV and a Sesquialtera add to the tonal variety. An assertive little reed stop called a Tromnoncini is particularly useful in the playing of Spanish Baroque music.
Completing the facilities of the organ department at Baylor are: the four-manual 52-rank Brooks Memorial Organ in Waco Hall, recently updated with a 10,00 gran from the Hoblitizelle Foundation of Dallas; two Rogers electronic organs- a three-manual and a two-manual,both gifts of Baylor friends; three two-manual practice pipe organs; and a versatile little four-rank, sixstop, one-manual Portative, built by Dr. Markhan in 1962 for use with orchestral and choral productions and with chamber groups.
