Bulletin Spring 1975

ory of an Organ By Ingeline Nielsen A familiar children's rhyme goes like this: “First comes love, then comes marriage | Then comes baby in the baby carriage.” Although one might dispute the analogy, the Organ Committee went through similar stages in the many years it took to dream about, then plan, raise funds for and finally install the Chung Chi College pipe organ. Here is the story. First comes love and industry were growing increasingly sophisticated, and so too was sophistication growing in the sector of fine arts. For lovers of organ music this seemed to be the right time to get together and decide on a course of action. As far as I know, it was Robert Ascott, then the conductor of the Robin Boyle Singers, who started sounding out various people in Hong Kong about the possibility of forming an organ committee. Mr. Ascott had to leave Hong Kong, however, and I took up where he left off by inviting "all those interested in pipe organs and organ music" to a meeting in my home on April 14th, 1972. Our general aim was to encourage Chung Chi College as well as large churches and places like the City Hall to consider the purchase and installation of pipe organs. We would argue that not only was this a better and cheaper long-term investment than electronic instruments, but also that students, professional musicians and audiences would benefit from proper pipe organs and the musical possibilities they opened. This meeting saw the formation of the Chung Chi College Organ Committee, and it was decided to concentrate efforts in three directions: 1) to gather information from as many organ firms as possible ； 2) to encourage as many organizations, societies and church congregations as possible to initiate organ projects of their own ； and 3) to explore the prospects 6 In the autumn of 1969 the organ students of the Chung Chi College Music Department needed a teacher, and so the then Chairman, Edward Ho, asked me to join the staff. At that time there was in the Chapel only an electronic Hammond "organ", an instrument which imitates—quite poorly—the sound of a pipe organ by means of amplifiers. Therefore it was decided to have the students travel to St. Teresa's Church in Kowloon for two lessons per month, while the other two were given at the Hammond instrument. Even under these adverse and time-consuming arrangements, and to everybody's great surprise, the number of organ students actually increased. It was during this period that I investigated all the remaining six pipe organs in Hong Kong, checking the stops of each, only to discover that none was suffciently large or in good enough condition for teaching or playing recitals. The few visiting organists who dared playing in public on one of these instruments would either give up in despair or experience the humiliation of having the recital spoiled by the instrument itself. What could be done? By now the Music Department was growing rapidly, and there was a corresponding need for proper equipment and a larger variety of instrumental instruction. This coincided with a period of growing affluence and rising expectations in Hong Kong. Commerce