Monday Music Appreciation #9 -- The Davis Concert Organ and Nathaniel Gumbs

I've never really been a fan of organ music -- until now. As someone who grew up after church music was "modernized," I always found the dirgy stuff played at church was depressing, and the only time our church organist, Joe Rolheiser, made me happy was when he sometimes played a rollicking version of It's a Small World after mass ended. In days when applause in church was unheard of, we all applauded when he finished; he was that good!

Last week, my wonderful niece, Charlotte, made me into a definite organ music convert. She took me to hear Dr. Nathaniel Gumbs play the Davis Concert Organ at the Winspear Centre for music (where she and I both work), and I'm already looking forward to hearing that organ played solo once again.

The Davis Concert organ is a wonder in itself. It has 6,551 pipes that make more than that many different sounds. Remember Nimrod from my moodling on Elgar back in March? It also sounds beautiful on the organ. 

I never knew a concert organ could have bells and trumpets and soft harp-like tones. Here's a little video that kind of blew me away -- I had no idea the organ took up so much space behind the concert hall's back walls!

And Nathaniel Gumbs is a wonder, too. At Thursday's concert, his hands flew over the keyboards and his feet flew on the pedal board, even though he's recovering from an injury that messed up his ability to play a more complicated Bach piece. Charlotte was telling me that he taught himself to play piano, then started to sneak into churches to learn how to play the organ, too, and eventually got a doctorate. 

Dr. Gumbs is currently director of Chapel Music at Yale University, and holds posts in a few other places as well. In the video below, he plays the finale from Sonata No. 1 by Florence Price, an African American composer whose works were almost lost through neglect. It's a powerful piece, and I'm so glad he played it to show off the Davis Concert organ last week, and for the making of this video. I'm so grateful to Charlotte for taking me (still on crutches at the time) to hear him play live. Char, the next organ concert is on me!

Please enjoy Sonata No. 1 as your music appreciation for today. It's worth wondering at.