Taking a step back, the story need not look so bleak.
I did a double take the other day as I browsed the music-themed blog called Slipped Disc.
As many of you music-minded readers might know, this is the daily blog put out by the sharp-tongued British critic Norman Lebrecht. It’s read religiously by people in the classical music world, both for the steady stream of music news Lebrecht provides, but also for the acerbic commentary he freely dispenses. It gathers music-related bulletins from all over the world.
I was surprised, to say the least, that one of the items he recently chose to include was a piece on the Hartt School’s decision to close down its Organ Performance major, and to sell the pipe organ that had been the major’s central instrument for 45 years.
The item was brief, and we were spared any really Lebrechtian critique of the decision. But it reminded me that when things cease to exist, people notice.
(I should disclose that Hartt is my alma mater. In addition, I was the director of Instrumental Studies when the decision was made to discontinue the organ program.)
A little history: Hartt’s modest organ program took a decisive step forward in 1970, when the school acquired and dedicated its handsome new Gress-Miles pipe organ.
Guiding the program at the time was its chairman, John Holtz. John was a tireless advocate for his department, and for the culture of organ music in general. Among many other accomplishments, he founded the International Contemporary Organ Music Festival, and became a globally-recognized champion of new music for the instrument.
John retired in 1991; ten years later, at the too-young age of 65, he died.
The program had a long and honorable run. It produced hundreds of graduates, many of whom have gone on to enjoy really distinguished careers.
News of the organ program’s demise has brought forth a bunch of chatter on social media, especially Facebook. There have been several news stories about it, including a well-reported piece by Ray Hardman for WNPR. And, of course, there was Lebrecht’s mention.
Inevitably, I suppose, there has been a certain amount of misinformation about the decision to close the program, as well as some wild, gossipy conjecture.
So just in the interest of setting the record straight, here’s the way it went down:
Four years ago, the University of Hartford – of which Hartt is a founding member – announced a large internal initiative, the purpose of which was to assess the effectiveness and viability of virtually every single program and major at the university. There are more than 300 of these. The initiative, called Foundation of the Future, was charged with deciding which programs were flourishing and should therefore be continued or even expanded, and which were underperforming and should be discontinued.
A statistics-filled summary of each program was prepared.
These summaries were then reviewed not by a bunch of academic bean counters, but rather a panel of senior faculty and staff, drawn from the university’s various schools, including Hartt itself.
This group, over a period of months, sifted through all the summaries.
In the case of the Hartt organ major, the summary that went to the panel featured one sobering, ineluctable fact: the number of organ majors, which had been declining steadily over the past ten or 15 years, was by now down to a single student.
So it was really no surprise, when the results were eventually announced, that the panel recommended the organ major be designated for elimination (or “divestment,” in the university’s slightly gentler language).
Now, it is true that at this point the Hartt School, according to the rules of the process, had the theoretical option of challenging the panel’s recommendation. (And in fact it did challenge – successfully -- another one of its recommendations concerning the school’s classical guitar program.)
But everybody understood that to challenge the organ decision would be futile. Just the other day, in light of the recent attention given to this issue, I asked one of the school’s senior administrators what he thought the chances would have been had we undertaken such a challenge.
He said, “Nada.”
The die was indeed cast. The decision was duly ratified by the university administration, and the elimination of the organ program – along with dozens of others -- was publicly announced. As with all the programs designated for divestment, the school was obliged to continue operating it until all students currently enrolled (again, in this case the total number was one) graduated.
In a few days, that one student will, in fact, be handed a degree -- the last one, it would seem, that the Hartt School is destined to confer in the area of organ performance.
Which brings us up to date.
But why did all of this happen?
Primarily, I would answer, because of changes in the wider world. Organ majors historically go on to make their living as church musicians. But as some older congregations consolidate, or downsize their music positions to part-time status, or quietly just shut their doors, those jobs become scarcer. Meanwhile, many of the newer evangelical congregations – in a bid to attract younger members – have eschewed organs altogether in favor of electronic keyboards and other instruments associated with so-called “praise” music.
In turn, the traditional organ students who are still determined to give the profession a try, are understandably drawn to those schools that boast large departments with multiple instruments. In this context, as someone expressed it the other day, the Hartt program found itself a kind of tiny mom and pop operation battling the rising tide of big boxes. In the end, like the corner pharmacy, we just couldn’t be competitive.
I don’t mind saying there is a note of sadness in all of this.
But, taking a step back, the story need not look so bleak.
The program had a long and honorable run. It produced hundreds of graduates, many of whom have gone on to enjoy really distinguished careers. The legacy of John Holtz and his successors is secure. The end came with eyes appropriately open and with a deep awareness of and respect for all that has come before.
But it was time.
To quote John Updike (he was referring to a marriage, but it applies): “… all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.”
As a footnote, I find it pleasing to know that the Gress-Miles instrument, upon which so many talented young fingers (and feet) have played, will be going on to a new life in a Methodist church on Long Island. I wish it, and its new congregation, many more years of music-making.
Perhaps one Sunday morning, in the not too distant future, the organist down there might pull out all appropriate stops and, with the choir and congregants standing and giving voice, celebrate the organ’s Hartford history, as well as its new home, with all four verses of “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” which concludes:
Ever singing, march we onward,? Victors in the midst of strife,? Joyful music leads us Sunward In the triumph song of life!
?Steve Metcalf was The Hartford Courant’s fulltime classical music critic and reporter for over 20 years, beginning in 1982. He is currently the curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series at The Hartt School. He can be reached at spmetcalf55@gmail.com.
