Talk:Calvin Hampton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
Stub This article has been rated as stub-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
Pipe organ Portal
Calvin Hampton is part of WikiProject PipeOrgan, which aims to develop and expand Wikipedia's content relating to the pipe organ and its associated repertoire, organists, and other articles.
If you would like to participate, you can edit Calvin Hampton, or visit the project page, where you can join the project or contribute to the discussion.

An enormous amount of false information is still routinely repeated about this part of Hampton's work. Let it be made clear that he never used "theatre organ pipes" in his rebuilding work at Calvary, nor did he call for a "theatre organ" at Lincoln Center. To question the neo-Baroque is not the same thing as to advocate for the cinema organ, a point that often escapes those who have undertaken to critique Hampton's career. He was a Romantic, and appreciated theatre organs and their players, but did not himself build or perform in the theatre tradition personally. 172.135.107.64

The article should be all NPOV. If you would regeister and enter into discussion on this page that would be helpful and prevent rvs. I know for a fact that Calvin used at least one rank of pipes from a theatre organ at Calvary as I was there when Randy and he were putting them in. Doc 22:22, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


Hello--I am the original author of the article, and the only person so far who has conducted a thorough study of Hampton's career via his archives and with the full support of Randy Gilberti and others--reinforced by six years of fact-checking with many corroborating sources. I wrote a successful dissertation on Hampton and am about to publish his definitive biography, which has already won an award. The archives, which I rescued from Calvary's basement and which currently reside in my apartment, are shortly to be delivered to Harvard, where they will eventually be made available for study.

In that light, I do not agree that my article should "all" be POV. It is accurate and has received warm commendation from top names in my field. Who are you--please forgive me--to say otherwise? What are your credentials? And are you sure you heard Randy correctly? Wasn't it forty years ago? Did you follow up with him? Did you take notes? How had the pipes been revoiced? What was their intended use and new name, if any? What division were they meant for? What were they replacing? When were they removed again? What did Calvin think of them? What do you actually "know for a fact" after all?

On my end, it appears to be a matter of documented record that CH used Casavant, Skinner, Erben, Johnson, and Hutchings pipework to flesh out the organ...no Wurlitzer, unless (at most, and I have no record of this) on a very brief trial basis, early on, with no impact on the instrument. His goal was to re-Romanticize the organ, with a nod toward the French style. The theatre sound was not on his agenda, as you implied it was. It's a common misconception, but it needs to be corrected. He did not expand the organ with theatrical ranks as you stated, and when he was done with it, the organ had no theatre ranks in it at all.

When Calvin played for, say, ATOS, he "witnessed" the classical cause to them, he did not "go theatrical" along with them. (Hence his Moussorgsky.) It's attractive, but wrong, to imagine some kind of church-theatre hybrid beast in the chancel at Calvary.

I hope you can see that your contention is basically misleading. I submit that your comments, not mine, are POV. Yours are off-the-cuff, mine are based on years of research. My view deserves to prevail.

In any case, as a courtesy, I would appreciate if you would let me leave my name and sources out of the article if you intend to keep tinkering with it. I can get paid for writing without the hassle of defending myself to the not-too-well-informed.

Even more would I appreciate your understanding that Calvin Hampton is now the matter of serious historical and critical appreciation. That legacy is certainly too big to be contained by a website. Thanks for reading.


Thursday update:

GOOD MORNING! Today I spoke with Randy Gilberti for about fifteen minutes around 9 AM. He confirmed that he and Calvin NEVER, not even ONCE, added theatre organ pipes to the Calvary organ. Not even as an experiment. Furthermore, he only remembers a Mr. D. C. McJonathan-Swarm as "oh yeah, there was a guy with four names." I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but our polynomial friend is clearly mistaken and clearly not the most reliable source.

Once, Randy got a 16' Vox Humana from a classical church organ on the Upper West Side; could DCMcJS be mixing that up, misremembering it as from a 'theatre organ'?

Mr. DCMcJS: let's leave this alone. I would never correct you on any point regarding Long John Nebel or homeopathic medicine. Will you reciprocate that courtesy to me regarding Calvin Hampton? I would appreciate if no further edits were made to my article without professional-level conversation first, to save irritation on my side and embarrassment on yours. Thanks again for reading. 172.137.119.15

First I respect your research and am very pleased with the fact that you are preserving the history of a musician that I respect greatly. Secondly, I am glad to know that Randy is still alive, I had lost touch with him many years ago. Please do register with Wikipedia and read some of the Manual of Style guidelines and you will receive a greater degree of the respect that I sincerely believe that you deserve.
Remember, please, that it has not been clear that the previous edits came for a single individual as they were all anonymous edits from a variety of IP addresses. Therefore there was no clear channel to communicate with you. You were not using the discussion/talk page and if you will end your remarks on the talk page here with four tildes (~) it will give your name or ip address and date stamp.
I stand corrected if Randy and your research agree on there never having been theatre organ pipes at Calvary. This is the place for that discussion to have been in the first place, not in the name space.
Keep the article NPOV and in line with the Wikipedia Manual of Style and it will do my heart good to see Calvin honored here. I am an inclusionist on principle and love what is offered here. Do be prepared for the fact that any and many may edit your work, that is a cornerstone of wiki. I have no problem with respecting your expertise, but once again would encourage you to register so that it does not appear that your edits come from random anonymous users. Doc 16:44, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

As you state "I wrote a successful dissertation" I can only construe that you are Jonathan B. Hall. If so register with that name so that we know with whom we are dealing. Why do you keep removing the sources, which I presume that you originally included? Another wikipedian has also restored them and you again rv. Once something such as that has been included, unless you justify or change the information they are subject to many restoring them. Thanks and good luck with your continued editing. Doc 16:53, 9 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] AIDS

Any information on how he contracted aids? in the article itself there is passing mention of the fact that he had the disease but not of how he got it. Also as a notable figure more information on his "private" life in general would be appreciated! librarianofages

I have no personal knowledge of how he acquired the virus, but he was openly gay in NYC at a time before AIDS was known. Doc 02:52, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Current re-write

There seems to be an awful lot of original research in this article, which is expressly forbidden by WP guidelines. Any ideas on how to rectify that? --Wspencer11 (talk to me...) 15:36, 18 June 2007 (UTC)