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| Photo credit: Don Belshaw, Morel and Associates |
On Sunday, October 23, 2016, Calvary Baptist Church (CBC) in
southeast Denver celebrated the remodeling of its sanctuary and restoration of
its pipe organ with a dedication concert featuring organist Dr. Joseph Galema and trumpet virtuoso Ryan Spencer. The hour-long program included works ranging
from the mid-1700s to 2000, with seven organ-only pieces and three that
featured both organ and trumpet.
The concert opened with “Suite in D Major,” a composition that
takes the music of G.F. Handel—notably passages from the overture to one of his
famous “Water Music” suites—and turns it into a three-movement arrangement for
organ and trumpet by the enigmatic brass instrumentalist Edward H. Tarr. Chief among its themes is the opening
movement’s “call and response” interplay between trumpet and organ. While baroque music is sometimes called
“simplistic” due to its fairly basic orchestration, Mr. Spencer handled the
fiendishly challenging trills with delightful dexterity. Tarr’s arrangement also de-emphasizes lower
notes, thereby providing listeners with a brightly effervescent tour through
the organ’s upper register.
Following works by J.S. Bach—a dark C minor fugue—Cesar
Franck and Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dr. Galema concluded the first half of the
concert with “Tocatta on ‘Amazing Grace’” by American composer J. Christopher
Pardini. This arrangement of the popular
hymn is, at times, bombastic and heroic. It provided Galema with quite the foot-pedal
workout in a musical setting that helped re-imagine an “Amazing Grace” suitable
for a NASCAR event or a patriotic rally, a far cry from its more traditional
pastoral sensibility.
The highlight of the late afternoon’s program was
“Triptyque,” a piece for organ and trumpet by French composer Philippe
Mabboux. Written in 1999 as the
composer’s entry into the International Contest of Wind Instruments, the piece
reflects Mabboux’s scientific training in musical form. In almost mathematical precision, he gives
each instrument an opportunity to show off its versatility in solo passages, as
well as perfectly blended music when playing together. The program concluded with works by Saint-Saëns,
Hovhaness, and Marcel Dupré.
Dr. Galema is principal organist at First United Methodist
Church in Colorado Springs while also fulfilling the role of organ instructor
at Denver University’s Lamont School of Music. He earned his doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Michigan.
Mr. Spencer also has ties to Lamont, having recently earned
his master’s in Music Performance there along with the school’s award for
Outstanding Graduate Student in Performance. He is a member of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra as well as several
other regional ensembles, including the Pikes Peak Brass Band.
Morel and
Associates was awarded the task of restoring the 1980s-era McManis
organ, which CBC had acquired in 2011 from another Denver-area church for the
knock-down price of $5,000. The
instrument was placed into storage while the sanctuary underwent a massive
remodeling effort directed by architect Marc
Applebaum, and then the McManis was installed with a new façade, a host of
new pipes, and an upgraded console that included casters to provide mobility. In addition to the striking display of the 27
lowest-note pipes at the front of the hall, a rank of trumpet-like pipes occupy
the upper gallery at the rear. Rick Morel explained that additional
phases of refurbishment will include a set of rebuilt eight-foot pipes taken from
the McManis inventory to comprise an antiphonal section that will offer greater
tonal depth and range of voice.
