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James Chapel on December 15, 1965, taken during one of the three traditional candlelight carol services that were held during the Christmas season each year. The Conductor in the center of the chancel was Dr. Robert S. Baker.
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SCHOOL OF SACRED MUSIC: 1928-73As early as 1839, interest in music instruction prompted students to form a “Haydn Society for the purpose of improving themselves in Sacred Music.” When Henry Sloane Coffin assumed the Presidency in 1926, sacred music received renewed interest. According to Handy, “Early in January 1928, when Clarence and Helen Dickinson asked to talk with [Coffin], he set the time for that very night.... They told Coffin that they hoped that a place could be made at Union for church musicians to receive the best possible professional training and also undertake some study in church history and theology.”
The School of Sacred Music at Union opened in the 1928 -1929 academic year and offered Master and Doctor of Sacred Music degrees. Handy further states, “The School of Sacred Music shared in the mood of expansion that characterized the Van Dusen era, reaching its high point of enrollment at 113 in 1954-55.” Clarence Dickenson retired as its director in 1945, succeeded by Hugh Porter, a graduate of the first class in 1930. After Porter’s death in 1960, Robert S. Baker, well-known organist and holder of both degrees from the school (1940, 1944), was named director and Dickinson Professor.
During a most difficult period at Union after the turmoil of the late ’60s, spilling over into the ’70s, a Planning Group was formed consisting of faculty, students and “at-large” members from outside the immediate Seminary community. Among its recommendations was the closing of the School of Sacred Music. Dean Baker reported to the Group that the school had been living on a shoestring for too long and enrollment had dropped to the low 70s.
"The profound and playful convergence of theological and artistic enterprises is indelibly ingrained in our spirit – nurtured, no doubt, by the deeply coursing heritage of the School of Sacred Music."
Union President Holland Lee Hendrix ’75, at the School of Sacred Music reunion, 1996
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The work of the school was to be continued at Yale with the founding of its Institute of Sacred Music, to which faculty members Baker and Richard French moved, along with the school’s endowment funds and library.
Professor Daniel DayWilliams said that the School’s removal “will cause a very aching void in the community.” For many years, a great number of people, alumni/ae included, harbored bitterness as well as sadness about the closing. The decision to attempt a reunion in 1996 carried risks, but turned out to be a resounding reaffirmation of the arts at Union and the Seminary’s appreciation of its Music School graduates. More than 200 attended. Mina Belle Packer Wichmann [’55], former Assistant Dean of the School, said, “Union Seminary gave us a warm embrace that we will long treasure.” Among the many outstanding alums are Gerre Hancock [’61] organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas Church, New York; Marilyn Keiser [’65,’77], professor of music at Indiana University; and John B.Weaver [’68] director of music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York.
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