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Barbara Owen (organist)

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Barbara Owen
Colour publicity photograph of elderly woman with makeup, permed grey hair and earrings, wearing a chintz-printed blouse and pale jacket.
Owen in the 1990s
Born(1933-01-25)January 25, 1933
Utica, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 14, 2024(2024-10-14) (aged 91)
Topsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education
Occupations
  • Organist
  • Musicologist
  • Music librarian
Organizations
Awards
  • Curt Sachs Award

Barbara J. Owen (January 25, 1933 – October 14, 2024) was an American organist and scholar of the organ, who also worked as a university librarian and in executive positions for the American Guild of Organists and other organizations around the organ.

Life and career

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Born in Utica, New York, on January 25, 1933,[1][2] Owen attended Westminster Choir College, studying organ and receiving a bachelor's degree in music in 1955.[1][2] She achieved a master's degree in musicology from Boston University in 1962 where she had studied with Karl Geiringer.[1][3] In 1975 and 1977 she took summer classes in Europe at the North German Organ Academy; in 1985 she attended a similar course at the Academy of Italian Organ Music.[1]

Organist

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Interior of Saint Anne's Episcopal Church

Owen began her performing career at churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts soon after graduating from Westminster. She became music director of the First Religious Society Unitarian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1963. In 2002, she moved on to an appointment at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she remained until 2007. Concurrently, she was pipe voicer for the organ builder C. B. Fisk from 1961 to 1979.[1]

Research

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For much of her career, Owen focused on the study and promotion of American music.[3] She initiated the study of Anglo-American organs as a sub-discipline in the 1950s.[1] She founded the Organ Historical Society in 1956 and served as its president.[1][4]

In 1985, she became librarian of the Organ Library of the American Guild of Organists at Boston University. She held numerous other positions for the Guild, serving as dean and councilor for several of its regions. She was named an advisory member of the board of the Instituto de Organos Historicos de Oaxaca in 2005, and in 1990 became a trustee of Methuen Memorial Music Hall.[2] Owen retired from her librarianship in 2012, receiving the title of "Librarian Emerita" for her service.[5]

She was active in many fields around the organ, as builder, restorer, researcher, writer, editor, lecturer, hymn writer and librarian.[6][4] Her books include standard works about 19th-century organ builders and players, books about Baroque organ registrations and the organ music by Brahms, a biography of E. Power Biggs, and monographs of individual organs including the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ and the Methuen Memorial Music Hall organ.[4]

Her scholarship in the field of organ music led to numerous prizes, such as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1974–75); the Westminster Choir College Alumni Citation of Merit (1988);[2] the Organ Historical Society Distinguished Service Award (1988); the American Musical Instrument Society Curt Sachs Award (1994);[1][2] and the AGO Organ Library Max Miller Book Award (2009).[2] In 2014, her leadership in the American Guild of Organists garnered her the organization's Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award,[7] "in recognition of her unparalleled knowledge of the King of Instruments, lifelong scholarship and publications, and devoted service to the AGO".[8] In 2005, the Organ Historical Society published a festschrift in her honor, Literae Organi: Essays in Honor of Barbara Owen.[2]

A collection of nineteenth-century hymnals donated by Owen is owned by the School of Theology Library at Boston University.[9] Owen versified or wrote a number of hymn texts.[10]

Personal life

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Owen died at Masconomet Healthcare in Topsfield, where she was a patient after breaking her hip, on October 14, 2024, at the age of 91.[4]

Publications

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  • The Organ in New England, Sunbury Press, ISBN 978-0-915548-08-8, 1979.[11]
  • The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-531107-5, 2007.[12]
  • Pioneers in American Organ Music 1860–1920: The New England Classicists, The Leupold Foundation, ISBN 978-1-881162-75-9, 2021.[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Ogasapian, John (January 17, 2023). "Honoring Barbara Owen at 90". The Boston Musical Intelligenzer. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Oxford University Press. January 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-531428-1.
  3. ^ a b Jordan, Jeannine (November 17, 2015). "An Interview with Barbara Owen, Church Musician, Organist, Historian, and Lecturer". Promotionmusic.
  4. ^ a b c d "Barbara Owen (1933–2024)". Organ Historical Society. October 15, 2024. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  5. ^ "Appointment of New Librarian at the Organ Library" (PDF). Boston Pipings. American Guild of Organists, Boston Chapter. March 5, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2024. When Barbara Owen, founding Librarian of The Organ Library, announced her intention to retire from the position at the end of 2012, a search was begun for a successor. ... The Committee also named Barbara Owen "Librarian Emerita" in recognition of her long service to the Library (since 1984).
  6. ^ "Barbara Owen celebrates 90th birthday". The Diapason. January 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  7. ^ "Organ Historian Barbara Owen received the Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award" (PDF). Boston Pipings. July 14, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  8. ^ "John Walker president of AGO". The Diapason. 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  9. ^ Duran, Stacey. "Research: STH: Special Collections: Barbara Owen Hymnal Collection". library.bu.edu.
  10. ^ "Barbara J. Owen". hymnary.org. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  11. ^ "The Organ in New England". Organ Historical Society. 1979. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  12. ^ "The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms". The Organ. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  13. ^ "Barbara Owen, Pioneers in American Organ Music 1860–1920: The New England Classicists". Organ Historical Society. 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
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