Organ shortage, but instrument making comeback_110303

Posted: 10/31/03

Organ shortage, but instrument making comeback

By Hannah Lodwick

Associated Baptist Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) –Suncoast Baptist Church, a congregation of about 70 people in rural Homosassa, Fla., has been looking for an organist for almost two years.

“I always ask first-time visitors if they can play,” said Pastor John Fizer. “There is just no one who knows how.”

The job description calls for playing hymns on the congregation's electronic organ for two services on Sundays and one on Wednesdays. Accompanying the choir on anthems would be an added blessing, the pastor said, but that may be asking too much.

The Cliburn Organ at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth is the largest in the state, with 10,615 pipes. Organs come in many styles and sizes, however, and often are used in smaller churches as well.

“We have a real small church, and we can't afford to pay a lot,” Fizer conceded. “We're strapped. I've told the church they can take it out of my salary, but we just can't find anyone.”

Suncoast is typical of thousands of congregations that have an organ but no organist. And the odds are against them finding one. There is a nationwide shortage of organists, especially in smaller churches–which is most of them.

“There are plenty of fine players, but they usually compete for the larger, downtown, society churches that have big music programs,” said Howard Maple, executive secretary for the American Institute of Organ Builders. “They'll always be able to attract players. It's the small, country churches … that are the ones that suffer.”

Shifting musical trends and a lack of money and time are most often blamed for the shortage. With the growth of contemporary and “blended” worship styles, fewer young people grow up hearing the organ played in their churches. Praise choruses and soccer practice have replaced hymns and music lessons, some say.

Perhaps because of the shift in worship styles, fewer of the musically inclined are learning to play the organ–which is no easy task anyway. The number of organ majors in universities and conservatories has dropped almost 28 percent since 1985, according to the National Association of Schools of Music.

By one account, the number of churches using mostly traditional worship declined from 49 percent of American congregations in 1993 to 38 percent in 1999. Traditional churches still outnumber contemporary churches, which accounted for 22 percent of congregations in 1999. But contemporary congregations are larger on average.

According to a study published in Your Church magazine, the average Sunday morning attendance in contemporary churches is more than double that of congregations using traditional music (223 to 105).

Most organist jobs are part time, but the demographics of the modern job market have dried up the once vast pool of players able or willing to work part time.

First United Methodist Church in Duncan, Okla., looked for a part-time organist for three months, finally convincing a local college teacher to moonlight.

“We drew in candidates from (all over) Oklahoma,” church administrator Phil Greenwald said. “But at 10 hours a week, we weren't looking for someone to move here.”

The shortage is largely due to job demand and salaries, explained Tony Thurman of the American Guild of Organists in New York. “Most churches don't always support the musician as a full-time employee. With a husband and wife working full-time jobs, there is less of a chance a person will take a part-time job that pays $10,000.”

Some organists say theirs can be a thankless job, with long or unpredictable hours and little recognition or pay, which discourages potential players from joining their dwindling ranks.

An official position statement of the American Guild of Organists says, while religious institutions that offer “professional salaries for professional service rendered” have not suffered from the shortage, “institutions that are unable or unwilling to offer attractive salary packages have most often experienced difficulty.”

The difficulty of learning to play the organ contributes to the shortage of players as well.

The instrument itself, which emerged at least by the third century, is a machine of sorts. It has pipes to produce sound, a chamber to store “wind,” pressure produced by mechanics and a keyboard to control the pipes.

An organ with a modest 36 stops–knobs used to turn sound on or off–can produce more than 68 billion sound combinations. Along with the stops, most organs have at least three keyboards and some have as many as seven. Add more than 20 foot pedals and this “king of instruments” gets complicated.

Now some organ teachers are hoping that by starting with simple methods at a young age, they can develop a new generation of organ players to fill the void.

Joyce Jones, Baylor University's organist-in-residence, has written a method book for piano players who want to learn to play as quickly as possible. She taught the method in two summer music camps this year–one for adults and one for youth age 11 to 18.

“I tried to do a streamlined organ method,” Jones said. “So many of the organ methods are formidable-looking. It's so overwhelming to see 200 pages (in a music book). People say, 'I don't have time to do this.'”

The standard method for learning the organ involves working on hand and foot exercises for several weeks at a time, Jones said. Her book, “King of Instruments,” teaches the same techniques but gives fewer exercises.

“This is not a scholarly method to be used in a college,” she said. “It is for the pianist who needs to learn to play immediately.”

Jones' camps, which have run for more than 10 years, draw people from all over the nation, as well as Canada, Colombia and Japan. With the help of some of her assistants, Jones lectures to half of the class while the other half practices with organs and headphones. Then the two sections switch.

The American Guild of Organists puts on its own children's institutes throughout the country.

Encouraging young players is one way to address the shortage, Thurman said. While a part-time salary is often not enough to lure adults, younger players might find the pay desirable.

Some organ enthusiasts predict a revival of interest in churches.

“There are a number of churches who didn't use their organs who have started to use them again,” said Lester McCullough, minister of music at Lakeside Baptist Church in Lakeland, Fla. And some churches that shifted to contemporary or blended worship have started singing hymns again, he said.

“Youngsters tend to want to come back to the traditional flavor,” said McCullough, former assistant music director for the Florida Baptist Convention. “They want something deeper–more depth and theology in the songs–so hymns are coming back.”

While organs can't handle the syncopated beats of praise songs, he said, restructured hymns work well with the organ.

With prices ranging from $80,000 to more than $1 million, some smaller churches simply aren't able to afford a pipe organ. Like Suncoast Baptist in Homosassa, many turn to less-expensive electronic organs. Smaller both in sound and size, they don't use pipes at all but produce sound by amplifiers and speakers. While pipe-organ makers design unique instruments for individual churches, most electronic organs can fit in any area. Organ purists make a disdainful distinction between electronic and pipe organs, but for many congregations, electronic organs are a financial necessity.

Spanish missionaries brought the first pipe organs to the United States in the 1700s. And organ enthusiasts insist the organ is not going to disappear any time soon.

“I get so discouraged when you have so-called 'church planting experts' come in and say, 'If you want to have a growing congregation, the first thing to do is get rid of the organ,'” said Jones, the Baylor professor. “In the future, I think people will continue to realize the organ is not a dead instrument.”

Indeed, there are as many organs in use now as in 1993. Howard Maple of the American Institute of Organ Builders said organ sales have been stable in recent years–about 100 organs and 100 “rebuilds” annually–and some manufacturers have backlogs of more than six years.

Enthusiasts like the AGO's Thurman are optimistic about the organ's future. “I see organ playing as always very strong,” Thurman said. “There are enough positions in mainline churches. And there's no shortage of instruments.”