Our Musical Heritage

Music has been an important part of Chapel service from the very beginning, when “Marion Kline led off the singing in her clear soprano voice, and Mabel Cornelius pulled out all the stops of the little parlor organ … everyone joined in with a good heart if not a melodious voice, [and] the humble room [in the old schoolhouse] rang with old hymn tunes” (Force, 1954, 14).

After Mabel Cornelius and undoubtedly others, Barbara Ross was organist in the 1960’s (and likely earlier). She and spouse Elis and children were Chapel members; Veda Thayer, organist for much of the 1970s, came from St. Paul’s UMC in downtown Ithaca, and as a non-Chapel member, may have been the first organist to be paid. One suspects these local, skilled Methodist women are representative of the early organists who, with the minister, were and continue to be the Chapel’s sole staff. Soprano Bernice Danks directed choir for about 25 years through the mid-1980s, and is remember by the bookplates in the front of the current hymnals. Sue Cotton Chapel member since 1952 until her death in 2017) remembered Bernice as “upbeat and optimistic. And while she was involved in many aspects of the Chapel, her first love was music” (Chapel Archives 2015). Bernice was a registered nurse, and her husband Gordon was a professor veterinary medicine (see Appendix 2 for full list of organists).

When Veda Thayer retired in the late 1970s, no replacement could be found from within the UMC, and for the next 15 years the Chapel employed a series of skilled college Students. Cornell undergraduate Gretchen Horlacher overlapped with Tom Wolfe’s ministry, and as a consequence of their combined student appeal, the choir had 28 participants with a core group of 15. Three Cornell PhD graduates followed Gretchen (photo p 9), serving both as organist and choir director: Byron Adams, who assisted in Cornell’s Music Department and also directed the Cornell Glee Club; Bill Cowdery, who also played for the dedication of our new digital Allen organ in 2005; and composer / organist Christopher Morgan Loy, who was commissioned by the choir to write two works tailored to the choir’s modest abilities, namely a new setting for the traditional words of the Jubilate Deo, and a setting of A Prayer for Today Opus 50, written by Jack Lewis, local Unitarian minister (collection of Christopher Loy).

We were fortunate when Merilee and Tim Nord joined the faculty of the School of Music at Ithaca College (IC). Merilee became our organist and choir director in 1994. Since then, 25 people have sung in the choir, with an active core of six to eight. We are also blessed with talented members and friends who sing and / or play during Sunday services, such as an IC School of Music faculty member who organized an instrumental choir made up of members of the congregation in the early 1960s. The range of our amateur choir was expanded when Nathan Wilson and Beth Reichgott (voice majors at IC) sang with us for three years. Nathan later performed a post-graduation recital for the Chapel in 2005, and choir members provided a Beth’s senior recital at IC. Many Chapel children have also sharpened their musical skills before an always appreciative congregation, and several teens have sung in the choir.

Merilee has been incredibly flexible in handling mixed abilities, schedules, travel plans, and the unpredictability of winter illnesses, tempting members to joke that “one is a solo but two are a choir!” For years the choir adhered to traditional mid-week rehearsals, but for the last several decades has learned all its music in the hour before church, a real feat for volunteers. Choir member share a special fellowship, knowing that together they are a strong and joyful presence in the Sunday Service.

To Be Continued