304 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



In closing I may be allowed to say that much that I have written 

 above was included in a "round table" discussion of organists held at 

 Saratoga, N. Y., in 1900. Among those present were several eminent 

 organists from New York City. Their enthusiastic support of my argu- 

 ment and my own experience during the succeeding years have caused 

 me to maintain with only slight modifications the views I then held. As 

 to piano compositions being played on the organ, they are only satis- 

 factory when by their nature they suggest the organ or orchestra. A 

 long list of such could be made and would be interesting and valuable. 

 Sometimes even a beautiful lyric theme, apparently only suited to the 

 piano, can be most exquisitely interpreted. And again I have in mind 

 Rubinstein's "Hermit" (from Twelve Piano Sketches) which, played 

 on a large organ containing a fine 32-ft. Bourdon in the pedal and 

 soft 16-ft. string and reed stops in the swell, can be interpreted n 

 a manner far nobler than on the piano. It is possibly less excusable 

 to transcribe songs, violin and other solos, for soloists are usually avail- 

 able even in small cities. Arrangements of choruses, particularly from 

 oratorios and masses, can hardly be objected to, as they are in the original 

 so closely identified with the organ. All transcriptions, especially 

 orchestral, are a severe test of an organist's musicianship. Only one 

 who is a broadly educated musician as well as a master of the technique 

 of his instrument can worthily approach an orchestral work, for the 

 technical difficulties — often almost insurmountable, must have become 

 incidental to such an extent that his imagination is not cramped by 

 the limitations of his instrument. He must be for the time being not 

 only an organist, he must be a director exerting, not over a body of 

 orchestral musicians but over his own other self, so to speak, that con- 

 centrated energy of will power and musical personality that is essential 

 to the director of a symphony orchestra. 



