Hartford

Organist Moves Us Beyond Thunderous Calamity

by Jamil Ragland | Mar 20, 2024 12:31 pm

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Posted to: Music

Trinity College Organ Series: Twilight Tuesdays
Christopher Houlihan
Trinity College Chapel
Hartford
March 19, 2024

Despite being a student and an employee at Trinity College for seven years, I never attended a concert in the famed on-campus Chapel. I corrected that mistake by attending the Twilight Tuesdays Organ Series that the college hosts. The organist was Christopher Houlihan, the John Rose Distinguished College Organist and Director of College Music.

As with many people, my exposure to organ music comes almost exclusively from media soundtracks. It’s been in the background of movies, television and videogames, almost always to express a sense of foreboding and dread.

I learned on Tuesday that the organ is capable of so much more than just being the background music for a thunderous calamity. Organ music is not only slamming on scary chords. It’s also quite technical and extraordinarily beautiful in the hands of a master like Houlihan. 

Take the Prelude from Trois Pieces, op. 299 by Gabriel Pierne. The opening of the piece is an impressive series of runs that showcases Houlihan’s dexterity and his ability to play quickly while still retaining the expressiveness of each note. As the song continued, the sound swelled until the entire chapel was full of music.

Organ music is also not only the domain of dead European composers writing hundreds of years ago. Houlihan performed Suite No. 1 for Organ, a piece written by Florence Price in the 20th century. Price was the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have her music performed by a major orchestra. The movement I recorded is called Air; I was impressed by the organ’s ability to invoke such an ethereal feeling with its range of sound.

Of course, the most fun to be had at an organ concert is when the performance leans all the way into the thunderous calamity that the music is so well known for. Houlihan did not disappoint there either. His finale, Final, from Symphony No. 3,op. 28, was a piece in F sharp minor. As a non-musician I have no idea what that means, but as a listener it made me smile. I could see storm clouds brewing in my mind as the pipes blasted out their ominous tones.

The piece concluded, and the crowd jumped to its feet, showering Houlihan with applause and calls for an encore. After a moment, he obliged, concluding the concert with a delicate piece that again demonstrated the incredible range of the organ and its maestro. 

I spoke with Houlihan after the concert, and asked him what his favorite kind of music is to perform. 

“The unexpected sounds are my favorite,” he said. ​“I like to produce what people don’t expect from the organ. It’s so much more than Halloween music.”

Consider me one of those people whom Houlihan has successfully educated. His performance is one of my favorite concerts ever, because it was one of the few that has left me genuinely surprised and awed.

NEXT
The Trinity College Organ Series presents Lunchtime Thursdays with Clara Gerdes on Thursday, April 4.

Jamil continues his search for the perfect Happy Hour.