New Friday Anniversary Thoughts—Communities Converge for a Forgotten Musical Luminary
Grafly memorial of David D. Wood, 1914
When St. Stephen’s first reopened as a church in 2017 with a new team, learning about a compelling memorial relief for a “David D. Wood” in the nave set us on a journey that drew far-flung communities.
David D. Wood, we discovered, was St. Stephen’s celebrated organist from 1864 and eventually also its choirmaster for over 40 years, literally until his death. He played the organ and directed choirs at various churches but was pivotal to St. Stephen’s fame for its music and its championing of the disabled. Blinded in childhood, he trained in music at Philadelphia’s new Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind and gained renown as a concert organist, performing nationwide. He was acclaimed as a sensitive interpreter of Bach, shaping a new generation of musicians. David Wood was also an especially influential teacher and mentor, with legions of organists who credited him as their inspiration. They and his friends, the inscription on St. Stephen's marble relief tells us, contributed the memorial. His sacred compositions, including oratorios, were performed for decades when published after his death. After a centennial celebration of his birth in 1938, public recognition even of his legacy faded.
Our research at St. Stephen’s coincided with efforts within the regional music community to reintroduce this forgotten luminary; the two missions meshed easily and fruitfully. Our posted finds on Dr. Wood’s life and career in 2018-9 attracted the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO Philadelphia), opening an energetic exchange of information and questions on Wood and his organs. Leading the quest was an organist who’d been working to restore Wood’s reputation and legacy for three years, Dr. Jeff Fowler, longtime church organist and choirmaster in the Philadelphia area and chair of the archive committee of the AGO Philadelphia housed at Stoneleigh (Villanova, PA), where the committee works closely with the Organ Historical Society (OHS). St. Stephen’s posts and the “DDW” restoration campaign drew the attention of Wood’s descendants spread across the globe, some of whom met for the first time at Stoneleigh, St. Stephen’s and the Overbrook School for the Blind, the present form of Wood’s school.
The family generously shared material with St. Stephen’s and agreed to deposit Wood’s archives within the OHS state-of-the-art archive at Stoneleigh for preservation and accessible study. Last November (2022), the Philadelphia organ community celebrated the collection’s arrival, accompanied by a descendant, with a musical “Woodfest.”
We look forward to new work on David D. Wood, thanks to the archives and support at Stoneleigh. His two organs at St. Stephen’s are long gone and the current 1953 Wicks slumbers, ailing, so his music can’t be played here now. We hope it’s performed beyond, as it once was.
This quest to reintroduce David D. Wood, presented here near the day he died in 1910 (March 27), says much about diverse communities that converge and collaborate generously to honor a remarkable man, his music and his legacy. Bravi tutti!
—Suzanne Glover Lindsay, St. Stephen’s historian and curator