Get Bach! He has a run-in with marathon

CANTON — The organ at Gunnison Memorial Chapel at St. Lawrence University will be huffing and puffing Saturday during a Johann Sebastian Bach marathon.

Select area organists and vocalists were invited to the four-and-a-half hour marathon by Sondra Goldsmith Proctor, musician-in-residence at St. Lawrence University. The marathon will celebrate the 350th anniversary of Bach's birth by playing his music. The German composer lived from 1685 to 1750.

Mrs. Goldsmith Proctor, for nearly three decades, was the director of music and arts/organist for Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C. She held a similar Bach marathon there several years ago and decided to host one locally.

Her first step in finding fellow organists for the marathon was through the American Guild of Organists, a professional organization promoting organ awareness and education.

"I looked at the roster and I asked them to join me," Mrs. Goldsmith Proctor said. "Not a person said 'no.'"

Bach was one of the most popular composers during the Baroque period, from around 1600 to 1750, which was characterized by highly embellished melodies.

Throughout his life, Bach was employed as a court and church organist and was required to write scores of cantatas, which are musical compositions for voices and orchestra based on religious texts.

"Even what most people perceive as the most simple compositions are so incredibly beautiful," Mrs. Goldsmith Proctor said.

As Bach's fame grew, he was asked to dedicate and test organs in various towns. "His tests were extremely thorough and critical," according to a Bach biography on baroquemusic.org. "He used to say for fun, 'Above all I must know whether the organ has a good lung,' and, pulling out all the stops he produced the largest sound possible, often making the organ builders go pale with fright."

Invited organists are from Malone to Watertown. Carl A. Bingle, organist of First Presbyterian Church of Watertown and for the Northern Choral Society, said he appreciated being invited.

"Any time we get the chance to celebrate Bach, we're going to do it," he said.

He said it took some work for him to get used to a strange organ at Gunnison, but he's adjusting well at practices.

He said audience members don't have to stay from beginning to end.

"It's a Bach menu," he said. 'You can pick and choose something or come in at any time and have pot luck."

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The Saturday marathon begins at 4 p.m. with Kyle P. Ramey, organist and choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Watertown performing Fantasia in G Major and Prelude and Fugue in E flat major.

Next up, at 4:30 p.m., will be Mr.. Bingle. He will perform Concerto in A Minor a chorale prelude and Prelude and Fugue in B Minor.

Other scheduled performers:

5 p.m.: Nelly Maude Case, organist and handbell choir director at Unitarian Universalist Church, Canton, and the Ad Hoc Singers, directed by Mrs. Goldsmith Proctor.

5:30 p.m.: Lansing Laraway, director of music at First United Methodist Church, Canton, and "friends": the Ad Hoc Singers; Julia Sprague, contralto; Barbara Phillips-Farley, piano; and Arlene Babich, flute.

6 p.m.: Benjamin Stone, senior at Potsdam High School.

"Benjamin was selected because he is studying organ as a scholarship student of the American Guild of Organists, St. Lawrence River Chapter," Mrs. Goldsmith Proctor said. "He is a student of Laura Toland, co-organist at First Presbyterian Church, Potsdam."

6:15 p.m.: Laura Toland, director of music and co-organist at First Presbyterian Church, Potsdam.

6:40 p.m.: Natasha Wolpin, a north country substitute organist.

7 p.m.: Ralph Hastings, dean of the St. Lawrence River chapter of American Guild of Organists.

7:30 p.m.: Rebecca MacKellar, organist and choir director, Trinity Episcopal Church, Potsdam.

8 p.m.: SLU's Early Music Singers, directed by Barry A. Torres.

8:30 p.m.: Mrs. Goldsmith Proctor will end the marathon with Praeludium and Fugue in G Minor, followed by Bach's most famous organ piece and one that's associated with many spooky soundtracks: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.