Mighty Holtkamp

The venerable CG, Charlie Gardiner, my esteemed cohort at Houghton who graduated in my class, who I maintain an e-mail friendship with, sent me an e-mail enquiry last week.
He was apparently going through his barn, and stumbled upon a hoary old vinyl recording of Don Hustad on the mighty Holtkamp at Houghton.
The mighty Holtkamp was the fabulous pipe-organ in the John & Charles Wesley Memorial Chapel-Auditorium.
The chapel is a giant box built shortly before we arrived — i.e. about 1960; we arrived in the fall of ‘62.
It has a giant pipe-organ off to one side: the mighty Holtkamp, 47 stops, 45 voices, 61 ranks, 3,153 pipes; installed in 1962. It’s a glorious instrument, specked by Charles Finney, FAGO (Fellow of American Guild of Organists), at that time the head of the Music Department at the college.
Since Finney was heavily into Bach, the Holtkamp is a Bach instrument, very baroque sounding. It’s electronic — electronic keyboards and actuation, as opposed to tracker (mechanical), but the pipes and sound are baroque.
I thought the world of that Holtkamp. By comparison a mighty Wurlitzer is glitzy and bombastic — sort of an ElectroGlide.
I used to detour through the chapel during off-hours. The Holtkamp was also used by organ-majors for practice. The Music-Building had a pipe-organ, but it was small. The mighty Holtkamp was the goal.
Finney played the Holtkamp during chapel-services. The last verse of hymns was sung in unison, and Finney would “hymprovise.” I’d listen in silent awe. Finney often drove himself into a box, but sometimes he’d do it right. (It was glorious when he did!)
Houghton couldn’t require chapel-attendance. If they had, they would have had no National Defense Student Loans; the way I financed my last two years at Houghton (along with Mahz-n-Wawdzzz). Chapel could be cut; but I don’t think I ever did, thanks to that Holtkamp.
The largest stop on the mighty Holtkamp was 16’; Finney couldn’t afford a 32’. But it had a coupler that played all the overtones of a 32’ to mimic a 32’ stop; although it didn’t actually have the 32’ voice — more of a throb.
Sometimes Artist-Series concerts were held on the Holtkamp; e.g. Don Hustad in December of 1962. The entire concert was recorded and turned into an LP; except the pickup mike was in the organ-loft, so the recording is dead.
Hustad played Bach’s “Tocatta, Adagio and Fugue in C-Major,” very well suited to the mighty Holtkamp, since the Tocatta is all pedal-work on the trumpet-stop.
That concert was the first and last time I ever took out Mary Jo Newland, who was in my freshman “Principles of Writing” (English) class.
Mary Jo was fairly attractive, but very weird. She was my first date after summer-school.
I think she was also frightened by my enthusiasm for the mighty Holtkamp — how can anyone get turned on by a pipe-organ; especially one played by a flagrant show-off?
Houghton had a defacto custom whereby anyone who took out a girl had to ask twice. The girl was also required to go out twice.
But not Mary Jo. Once was enough. I had another girl (from Altoony) who refused to go out with me at all. So much for the vaunted custom.
Mary Jo and I went up into the organ-loft to visit Hustad after the concert. Hustad and I talked up how wonderful the Holtkamp was.
Mary Jo stood quietly with her hands folded.