Darwin Wolford was my most intimidating college professor. As a music student I took several of his classes, but it was his organ lessons that scared me most. Now and then I still have nightmares of showing up in his studio unprepared. He was very proud of having been a student of Alexander Schreiner (1901-1987), the most famous organist associated with the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Schreiner was taught by Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937), who was a student of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881). Lemmens studied with Adolf Friedrich Hess (1809-1863), who had been taught by a student (his name escapes me) of Wilhelm Freidemann Bach (1710-1784). W.F. Bach, of course, was taught by his father Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). That means there are only six generations, musically speaking, between myself and the man who wrote the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Brandenburg Concerti, and the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. I guess that’s worth a few nightmares.
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