No. 1 - Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches

Symphony Orchestras.
Mr. Horch remains high in his praise of
Hugh Ross: "Of all the people I've studied
with, I still don't know of anyone who
came near him in the power of communication,
in artistic strength and power. His was
not just academic music-making; it was total
communication. From him, too, I learned
that the secret of great art is to conceal the
art." As his own career was later to demon·
strate, the young chorister was an impressionable
student and a faithful disciple of
the Ross philosophy.
The art of conducting combined the skills
of stage and the concert hall, and it provided
this "belated Romanticist" with the ideal
vehicle for self-expression and communication:
"Something had to get through from
me to the singers to the audience - and
music was the means to do that."
There were other early influences in Mr.
Horch's life. His mother was "a pragmatic
person who would have liked us all to be
farmers; her moral influence was strong."
His father, a craftsman in wood by trade,
was also an organist who felt comfortable
with a wide range of music. "He accepted
music as an art in its own right, without the
kind of religious pragmatism that the church
demanded." Although he gratefully acknow·
ledges both influences, Mr. Horch concedes
that his father's view of art won out in the
end.
Perhaps stronger than the influence of any
one person was the influence of a home
environment steeped in the broad traditions
of Lutheran culture, a culture that did not
make sharp distinctions between sacred and
secular music. The Horch children took
naturally to the works of such musical
giants as Bach, Beethoven and Wagner, and
they were encouraged to master the rudiments
of several musical instruments. "My
father bought me nearly every instrument
I asked for, and what he didn't buy I begged,
borrowed or ... rented."
An older brother, Edward, played the
'cello and piano; Emily played piano and
organ. Two younger brothers are today
widely known in Manitoba music circles,
Emmanuel as a violinist and Albert as a
professional flautist. Both are highly successful
music teachers.
From this matrix of interests and
influences the 21-year-old singer and jackof-all-instruments
emerged in 1928 to begin
a career in teach ing. For seven years he was
choral director and teacher of music theory
Ben Horch
For over 40 years, Benjamin Horch has served Manitoba and the Manitoba Mennonites
through distinguished leadership in the field of choral and symphonic music. Born in
Russia in 1907 of German parentage, Mr. Horch arrived in Canada in 1909. After a number
of years of private study in voice and music theory, he served for seven years as choral
director and teacher of music theory at the Winnipeg Bible Institute (now Winnipeg Bible
College, Otter bourne) an interdenominational school. Four years of formal music studies
followed this period at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola College) in church
music, piano, conducting and history. In this period he was active as a student choral
director in various Baptist and Quaker chruches.
In 1943 Mr. Horch returned to Manitoba, and for the next 12 years - except for a
Sabbatical leave to study at the Detmold Akademie of Musik - he was Director of the
Music Department at Mennonite Brethren Bible College. At Detmold he came under the
tutelage of Kurt Thomas, the thirteenth cantor of St. Thomas since ,J.S.·Bach. During this
twelve-year period he conducted both the Mennonite Brethren Bible College Oratorio Choir,
College A Capella Choir, and the Mennonite Community Choir in Winnipeg.
He founded and conducted the Mennonite Symphony Orchestra (an orchestra that for
some years provided the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra with a "local stock" ofprofessional
musicians). In the summer interims (1943-1950) he was also the leading "Kurseleiter"
(music clinitian, resource person, conductor of choral festivals) for the Mennonite Brethren
Conference in Canada, a position that brought him into close contact with choir directors
and musicians in Mennonite constituencies in Ontario and in the four provinces of western
Canada. In this capacity he also served as one of the musical editors of the Mennonite
Brethren Gesangbuch (Hymnary).
Since 1955, in addition to conducting choirs in Altona and Winnipeg, Mr. Horch has
devoted most of his energies to the field of broadcasting. He was program director of
serious music at KWSO, California (1955-57). In Manitoba he served the cause of broadcast
music from 1957 to 1973 - the last thirteen years as a CBC producer of serious music
programming. At the CBC he also produced a wide range of LP stereo recordings with
Winnipeg artists of both national and international stature.
Although formally retired since June 1973 Mr. Horch continues with the CBC as a freelance
broadcaster. He is a member of the board of directors of the Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra and a member of the Program Committee. He is presently a music consultant to
the editorial Committee charged with the compilation of the first Encyclopedia of Music
in Canada to be published in 1978.
He begins a new appointment in the fall of 1974 as conductor of the Steinbach Community
Orchestra. His wife, Esther Horch, has taught hymnology at both MBBC and CMBC
and also acted as a consultant to the editors of the recent M.B. Gesangbuch. For the last
15 years she has been professionally involved in social work institutions.
14/ mennonite mirror I october 1974
at the Winnipeg Bible I nstitute (now Winnipeg
Bible College). and for eleven years -
until 1939 - he taught voice. ("I was a
lousy voice teacher," he says in retrospect.)
At approximately this time he also formed
and conducted the Wayside Chapel Orchestra
("I t was way out, believe me"), a group of
about 30 players. The orchestra had as its
base the Northend MB Church and it
forayed frequently to Winkler and other
southern-Manitoba towns. "The group played
everything," says Mr. Horch with a bemused
smile; "we played fox trots, vox trots,
waltzes and 'He is Coming Soon'." Although
Mr. Horch refers to this early effort as "an
abortive attempt," he admits that in his own
church "there was very little criticism, no
matter how the feet started to go."
Looking back on this first decade of
teaching and conducting, Mr. Horch assesses
his apprenticeship in this way: "That period
ended in the sure knowledge that I had an ,;,
awful lot to learn about music and also in
the knowledge that I could not get the
training in Canada."
His ardour only slightly dampened, Mr.
Horch left Winnipeg in 1939 to study music
at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now
Biola College). After four years of study he
was invited by Rev. A. A. Kroeker to return
to Manitoba and to divide his professional
time between teaching music at the Winkler
Bible Institute and organizing a music program
in the Winkler public school system.
During the summer months (1943·1950)
he toured Ontario and western Canada in
his capacity as Kurseleiter. The choral workshops
that he conducted stimulated the need
for a music department in the Mennonite
Brethren Bible College and, as a result, in
1944 Mr. Horch was appointed chairman of
the M.B. Bible College music department, a
position that he held until 1955.
These years - immediately after his undergraduate
studies, and while he was working
intimately with Mennonite young people
from across western Canada - confirmed
and brought to a focus several of Mr. Horch's
most deeply-held convictions about the
role of the Mennonite musician and about
the nature and function of music in Mennonite
life and worship.
Next Month: Benjamin Horch's Views on
Music.
Comment in the
Winnipeg Free Press
on the Mennonite Mirror:
In an article on ethnic papers in the July 13,
1974 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press,
staff writer Lee Schacter observed that
the Mennonite Mirror is "Ilvely and alert ....
The magazine is half staff-written, half
free-lance. Poetry flows in, in surprising
volume. The staff, which includes a number
of professional people, newspaper people an<
artists, donate their services free and do th~
work in the.ir spare time." She conclude!
that "through the (Mennonitische) Rund
schau and the Mennonite Mirror, Mennonite'
receive their intellectual and their spiritua
nourishment. It's a neat combination, anI
pleases editors and readers alike."