'Dr. William Maul Day' in Rye Honors Musician

Dr. William Maul, 78, internationally acclaimed concert organist, harpsichordist and composer, retired yesterday after playing his final Mass at Rye’s Church of the Resurrection.

The 12:30 Sunday Mass was filled with hauntingly beautiful solos, improvisations and original compositions played by the honoree, music director and organist at Resurrection for more than 22 years.

Dr. Maul –just plain “Bill” to his worshipful choral members –was feted at a reception in the Church Hall afterwards. Assemblyman George Latimer presented him with a proclamation declaring Sunday “Dr. William Maul Day” in honor of his inspirational years at Resurrection, years that included playing at countless Masses, weddings and funerals.

Setbacks following surgery, including the lingering after-effects of anesthesia, caused Dr. Maul to retire from his post at Resurrection after a career that included composing the music for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, including the music for the lighting of the Olympic flame.

Other highlights ranged from composing great religious works to acclaimed recitals for the “On the Artist Series” at the National Shrine in Washington, D.C.

Maul was also a Fulbright scholar with a Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, and studied at the acclaimed Ecole Normale under some of the world’s great organists, Andre Marchal, Jean Langlai and Anton Heiller among them.

His final Sunday Mass at Resurrection was a time for looking back as well as moving forward. Maul received a standing ovation from the Resurrection parishioners after the final notes of his rendition of the toccata from Vidor’s Fifth Symphony.

“I was thinking about playing the notes, about doing justice to the composer, about getting everything just right,” said Maul of his final performance.

“It was recovering from the after effects of the anesthesia, not the surgery, that made me decide to retire,” he said.

For months afterward, he couldn’t play at all, he couldn’t get his fingers to work and he had to be cared for by his daughter, Danielle, a lighting technician, and his son, Andre, a physicist. With the loss of his wife, Shirley, three years ago, and the nearly two-hour reverse commute to Resurrection from his Lincoln Center apartment Maul decided it was time to retire.

His career also included 16 years as organist and choirmaster of St. Raymond’s Church in the Park Chester section of the Bronx prior to coming to Resurrection.

With a Steinway, an organ, a harpsichord and an electronic keyboard in his apartment, music has played a great role in his life.

“A musician never retires, he keeps on playing, he keeps on composing,” said Dr. Maul, who intends to keep on doing all that and more during the next year, including returning to Resurrection to play still more weddings and funerals.

Maul has composed many great religious works including his Hebrew Sacred Service, Corpus Christi Mass, the Beatitudes, Ave Maria and That Easter Day.

He served for many years on the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY, Potsdam teaching organ, harpsichord, music history, music theory and music composition and is currently Professor Emeritus. He has also been conductor of the Bronx Choral Society and Orchestra.

“Bill Maul is the musician’s musician, a scholar, a wit, a historian, a brilliant man with a brilliant mind, and just listening to him and performing with him is an honor and feeling you can’t put into words,” said Leslie Middlebrook Moore, a professional choral vocalist who has sung with Dr. Maul for years.

Rev. Msgr. Edward D. O’Donnell, Administrator and acting pastor of Resurrection, celebrated the farewell Mass and paid tribute to Dr. Maul at the end of the Mass:

“Thank you Dr. Maul for your more than 20 years of dedicated service to enhancing the Liturgy through music at the Church of the Resurrection, from weddings to funerals to Masses and so much more,” said Rev. O’Donnell.

The real tribute came in the hushed several minutes of silence as the congregation remained in place while Dr. Maul played that final toccata from Vidor’s Fifth Symphony. The rise and fall of the swelling organ notes filled the cathedral with waves of sound glorious to hear.

“I know it sounds almost sacreligous but I never wanted the music to end, I almost almost wanted to never leave the church, it was so beautiful,” said one of the listeners, summing up the congregational reaction.

When Dr. Maul finished, there was a stunned silence that evoked the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson posted outside the church sacristy: “Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God.”

Having heard that whisper magnified in the sound of the organ, the congregation gave Dr. Maul a standing ovation that echoed the words of the exodus hymn “God’s Blessing Sends Us Forth” that included the lines: “Strengthened for our task on earth…joyfully our hearts have heard…refreshed in soul… and renewed in mind…may we in fruitful deeds gladly serve others’ needs...as God's blessing sends us forth.” 

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