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The Hill Memorial Organ
This article, written by William Peterson, appeared
in
The
American Organist in May 2002.
 Bridges
Hall of Music, one of the oldest buildings on the Pomona
College campus, now houses a splendid Fisk organ. Pomona
College, the founding member of the Claremont Colleges
located at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County at the
foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, first offered instruction
in 1887. The Dedication of the three-manual Fisk organ, on
12 October 2002, marking the 115th anniversary of the
founding of the College, is the culmination of a planning
effort which has for many years focused on the question of
how best to design a new instrument for an old Hall of
Music. Indeed, Bridges Hall, a gift of the Bridges family,
is not simply a building dating from 1915 but one of the
most distinguished buildings designed by the notable
architect Myron Hunt.
The plan for Bridges Hall provided for an organ above the
stage. The instrument -- with four manuals and 41 stops --
was built by Moeller and installed in 1915. In anticipation
of the completion of Bridges Hall, the College hired a new
faculty member: Walter E. Hartley, having earned degrees
from Yale and having studied with Charles-Marie Widor in
Paris, arrived in Claremont in 1915 to take up his
responsibilities as College Organist. His dedication
concert, played in January 1916, was the first concert in
the inaugural year of a series entitled Artists Course, a
series which continued for many years. The Artists Course
brought distinguished musicians to the campus: among the
concerts arranged for 1917 was one by Joseph Bonnet of
Paris. The organ and its repertoire held a valued place
within the college music program, then, from the time
Bridges Hall was complete in 1915-16.
 The
preparation for the installation of Fisk Op. 117 in Bridges
Hall began in the 1980s when a Department of Music
committee, initiating a long-range planning effort, put
together an historical account of the organ for reference in
assessing budgetary needs associated with the maintenance of
the instrument. The most extensive change took place in 1939
when Moeller incorporated about a dozen ranks from the old
organ into a new design for a four-manual instrument with
over 50 stops, made possible by a gift offered for this
purpose by the Bridges family. This organ was planned by a
team from the Department of Music including Joseph Clokey,
then College Organist, and William Blanchard, working with
the vice-president of the Moeller firm. When Clokey left the
college in 1939 to accept a position in Ohio, Blanchard was
appointed College Organist and he played a dedicatory
recital in 1939. Additional work was carried out in the
1960s and in the 1970s when Moeller built a new console (in
consultation with Blanchard) and Manuel Rosales initiated a
tonal renovation of the instrument (in consultation with
David McVey). Faced with the prospect of allocating a
considerable amount of money for the purpose of maintaining
the organ in playable condition, the committee in the 1980s
reviewed a range of strategic planning options relating to
the instrument in Bridges Hall. Acknowledging that the organ
had provided many decades of service to the community, the
Department of Music recommended that the College replace the
existing organ with a new instrument.
 Several
years later the Department of Music learned that members of
the Hill family of Upland, California, had generously
offered to provide Pomona College with a new organ for
Bridges Hall. John Hill and Eugene Hill, alumni of Pomona
College, gave the new organ in honor of their mother, Carrie
Schnitker Hill. After reviewing proposals from three
outstanding organ builders, Pomona signed a contract with
C.B. Fisk in 1996. The College formed a committee to plan
the renovation of Bridges Hall, recognizing that all
appropriate work on the Hall should be completed prior to
installation of the new organ. The committee included
members of the Department of Music along with
representatives from Campus Planning, an architectural firm,
and a contracting firm. Throughout the planning stage, this
committee maintained regular communication with the Fisk
shop in Massachusetts and with Dana Kirkegaard, acoustical
consultant, in Illinois. The same committee monitored the
renovation carried out while the Hall was closed from 2000
through 2001. Installation and voicing of the Fisk
instrument took place between May of 2001 and April of 2002.
We are all grateful for the expertise, experience,
dedication, and good will brought to the last phase of this
project by the Fisk team working in Bridges Hall.
The new Fisk organ will be heard in Convocations, in organ
recitals, and in concerts presented by ensembles within the
Department. Organ students will have access not only to the
Fisk organ but also to instruments by Flentrop and Von
Beckerath housed in Thatcher Music Building which has, since
1970, been the home of the Department. The Fisk organ is the
most recent addition to the Department's notable collection
of instruments, which also includes pianos, harpsichords, a
fortepiano, a clavichord, and a gamelan made in Bali. The
music program itself, building on the many strengths
developed over the past ten decades, today includes nine
full-time faculty members and almost thirty part-time
faculty members. A sizeable proportion of the College's 1360
students works within the music program each year: between
500 and 600 students are registered for courses, for
lessons, or in the eight standing ensembles offered by the
Department in a typical semester.
 The
inauguration of the Fisk organ within the renovated hall
represents a milestone in the history of a College, which
has for 115 years worked conscientiously to build an
educational environment worthy of the high aspirations of
its earliest advocates. The success of the current project
was made possible by the Trustees of Pomona College, and by
the unfailing support of President Peter W. Stanley. One of
the oldest and most distinguished buildings on the campus,
Bridges Hall, is again ready to provide great music -- and
great organ music -- to all those who come through its
ornate doors. In a book written almost sixty years ago,
Frank Brackett tried to describe the importance and aura of
Bridges Hall:
"Something came into the life of the College with this
building, something not there before, something that grows
in beauty and multiplies with each generation . . . Those
who have entered into its atmosphere and absorbed its
inspiration can never forget the stirring impressions
received."
In celebrating the completion of the splendid Fisk organ in
2002 we are offering a tribute to the power and beauty of
music. The extraordinary Hall that the College built for the
community in 1915, with its magnificent new organ by C.B.
Fisk will, we trust, continue to inspire and challenge new
generations throughout the twenty-first century.
William Peterson
Harry S. and Madge Rice Thatcher Professor of Music
College Organist and Chair of the Department of Music |
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