Robert Glasgow

I first met Robert Glasgow in 1981 when my family moved to Ann Arbor from West Lafayette, IN where I was organist at the First Baptist Church playing a Hook & Hasting tracker action organ. My previous organ teachers were Paul Robinson of Wake Forest University and Robert Shepfer, Music Director and organist at the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis. When Shepfer knew that I was moving to Ann Arbor, he contacted Glasgow to recommend me as a student. Glasgow graciously accepted me,...

As Bob was about to play with orchestra for his Performers Certificate at Eastman, he broke his ankle. I was to be his substitute, also getting my performers. Later, my son Charles was privileged to study with him for his Masters. I mostly remember him playing some Schumann pieces in Grand Rapids, MI A total unique style and grace.

A great memory of RG was at one of my first lessons. I played the Choral from Widor's Symphonie Romane, and afterwards he demonstrated the beginning of that movement for me. Swell 8 and 4' flutes, yet he played it as if a soloist were singing the top line. I had never heard anything like it, and wondered how it was even possible. He was a true musician who could manipulate that unwieldy machine called an organ and make it a musical instrument.

I first heard Robert Glasgow play when I was 15 years old. It was about 1:00 a.m., and I was painting the dining room for my mother who was out of town. The freshly painted dining room was to be a surprise when she returned home. To make the work go faster, I tuned the radio to WUOM and turned up the volume. After a bit of general programming, they announced a broadcast of an organ recital by Professor Robert Glasgow recorded earlier that year at Hill Auditorium. As I listened to the...

I knew Bob from 1949 on, in counterpoint classes when we were students at Eastman as well as in the organ department, where he studied with Gleason and I with Crozier. I heard his performer's certificate concerto conducted by Hanson, and I remember his mastery and communication in this and other works to this day. A truly splendid musician to the core. His quiet humor and his artistic integrity will be missed.

He was a most extraordinary gentleman, musician and teacher. In searching for the meaning of a particular piece of music, he once asked me to define the 'grand line'- the emotional effect over time. How like a piece of music life is! He has masterfully concluded his grand line, but the emotions and effect will remain with me long after the final chord has sounded.