Harpsichord, anyone?

[AdamSmith]

In the video, that shot of the lone person in back pumping the bellows, providing sufficient wind for this large organ, reminds how these old tracker instruments (also correct new ones) were voiced on very low wind pressure. Thus you can hear subtle variations in tone as the different ranks 'pull' against one another in the wind supply.

 

The big Flentrop at Duke has a series of small intermediate bellows called winkers at each wind chest that can be unlocked (activated) to stabilize the wind supply and eliminate this pulling effect, for performance of the 19th-century French repertoire by Franck et al. that was written for the great organs of Cavaillé-Coll, and their rock-steady wind supplies.

[whipped guy]

WG, your notes made me remember that Chapuis wrote somewhere that he specifically wanted these videos he has been making over several recent years to give listeners/viewers a sense of what performance feels like to the organist. As opposed to the 'conventional' recorded sound on his many discs. On YouTube he has many other similar videos of himself performing, a lot of them in a series he titled 'Notes Personnelles.'

 

P.S. I see they are available on CD: http://www.amazon.com/Notes-personnelles-vol-Michael-Chapuis/dp/B000NOK1K2

This reminds me of a review of an organ recording that I read about 30 years ago when CD's were newly on the market. The review was demonstrating the clarity of the then new technology. It began with the reviewer saying that he heard a strange noise throughout the recording. After giving the CD a thumbs up review he ended the piece by saying something to the effect, "Oh yes! That strange noise! It was a buzzing vibration every time a certain F-sharp (or whatever pedal) was struck." I guess that was a quirk of that particular instrument that was captured in what was then called "Perfect Sound Forever"! Of course listening to some of those early digital recordings we now know that they were not exactly "perfect"! Hence the multiple remasterings of many recordings since!

[AdamSmith]

Of course it can go either way as you have pointed out before. My old vinyl Telefunken recordings of Chapuis' performance of the Bach repertoire have markedly clearer, better-fidelity sound than their transfer to CD, where a lot of sonic detail got lost: http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Organ-Complete-Michel-Chapuis/dp/B00004RJSX

 

Besides which Telefunken included long program notes by Chapuis -- and the scores for all the pieces! -- in the big luxurious 2-disc boxes in which it issued those recordings.

[whipped guy]

Of course it can go either way as you have pointed out before. My old vinyl Telefunken recordings of Chapuis' performance of the Bach repertoire have markedly clearer, better-fidelity sound than their transfer to CD, where a lot of sonic detail got lost: http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Organ-Complete-Michel-Chapuis/dp/B00004RJSX

 

Besides which Telefunken included long program notes by Chapuis -- and the scores for all the pieces! -- in the big luxurious 2-disc boxes in which it issued those recordings.

You are indeed correct. A lot of vinyl sounded much better, except for the scratches, pops, and clicks that is! Some of those early CD's sounded beyond harsh. Of course the early CD players exaserbated that harsh sound, but most people have tin ears and could not tell the difference. I was an early adopter and the sound bothered me for years. It was funny how audiophiles developed all sorts of alchemy to try and correct the sound. For example, there was a period where green magic markers were in vogue. You used them to color the edge of the CD and the green reflection somehow made the CD sound better. Several players later and with corrective remasterings things sound better. Still, I think that there was a basic flaw in the original CD Red Book standard where higher frequencies were cut off because they were supposedly not in the realm of human hearing, among other parameters such as the sampling rate chosen, etc. I think a lot of overtones got lost in the conversion to CD and that made things sound not quite correct.

 

Of course, I am sure that my hearing is not what it was 30 years ago so that's probably one reason why some things do sound better. However, if I listen to one of those original CD's they still sound like nails on a chalkboard.

 

Plus, as you say, LP sets often did come with lavish annotations. I mentioned Sutherland's Art of the Prima Donna album above and that was a case in point. Both CD versions that I own (yes, that got a corrective remastering!) don't have nearly the documentation of the original LP box set.

[AdamSmith]

Looking again at that encyclopedia of organ stops, it has this funny (real) page:

Vox Inaudita

 

Blinder Zug German

Ductus inutilis Latin

Manum de tabula (unknown)

Pro forma Latin

Summer Zug German

Vox Inaudita Latin

Vox Ineffabilis Latin

Exaudire (unknown)

Nihil Latin

Reliqua (unknown)

Rest English?

Swyger Dutch?

Vacant Latin

Vacat Latin

 

These names have been used for “dummy” stop controls which do not operate any stop. While Wedgwood characterizes them as “A facetious pleasantry indulged in by some mediaeval organ builders”, Mahrenholz points out that they were often provided for future expansion or for physical symmetry. The names translate as follows:

 

Blinder Zug “blind stop”

Ductus inutilis “useless stop”

Exaudire "to hear plainly"

Manum de tabula "Enough!"

Nihil “nothing”

Pro forma “for appearance”

Reliqua "leftover"

Summer Zug “silent stop”

Swyger “keep silent”

Vacant “missing”

Vacat “missing”

Vox Inaudita “unheard voice”

Vox Ineffabilis “unutterable voice”

 

http://www.organstops.org/v/VoxInaudita.html

[gallahadesquire]

In one of Kurt Vonnegut's novels [Slaughter House V, I do believe ...] the Army Chaplain had an instrument with two stops:

Vox Humane and Vox Celeste.

I was too young at the time to appreciate the joke.

 

A magnificent Casavant is in Leominster, MA, in the largest Gothic church in New England. Apparently, a young fellow had decided to join the Clergy of the Church. He was buddies with the Casavant Freres.

"I am going to be a priest," the fellow noted.

"We will build you the best organ we can."

 

Six second reverberation at the crossing. All the pipes are full length, including the Contra Bombarde at 32', and the 16' Trompette with full length resonators.

WOOF

 

http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=187

 

 

 

 

Looking again at that encyclopedia of organ stops, it has this funny (real) page:

Vox Inaudita

 

Blinder Zug German

Ductus inutilis Latin

Manum de tabula (unknown)

Pro forma Latin

Summer Zug German

Vox Inaudita Latin

Vox Ineffabilis Latin

Exaudire (unknown)

Nihil Latin

Reliqua (unknown)

Rest English?

Swyger Dutch?

Vacant Latin

Vacat Latin

 

These names have been used for “dummy” stop controls which do not operate any stop. While Wedgwood characterizes them as “A facetious pleasantry indulged in by some mediaeval organ builders”, Mahrenholz points out that they were often provided for future expansion or for physical symmetry. The names translate as follows:

 

Blinder Zug “blind stop”

Ductus inutilis “useless stop”

Exaudire "to hear plainly"

Manum de tabula "Enough!"

Nihil “nothing”

Pro forma “for appearance”

Reliqua "leftover"

Summer Zug “silent stop”

Swyger “keep silent”

Vacant “missing”

Vacat “missing”

Vox Inaudita “unheard voice”

Vox Ineffabilis “unutterable voice”

 

http://www.organstops.org/v/VoxInaudita.html

[Battle]

I had forgotten this riveting discussion of essentially all the history of the organ:

 

https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Historical_Perspective_Fenner_Douglas.pdf

 

It was, again, one of the peak experiences to study with the author. It was presented in the curriculum as a music history and theory class, but once in there, he delightfully forced every one of us into actual practice, terrifying as it was. (Unlike a piano or harpsichord, an organ is punishingly revealing of every aspect of one's touch etc.)

Thank you

[AdamSmith]

The Duke Flentrop has ~5000 pipes.

 

My fear of heights did not help climbing the high rickety ladders up near the Chapel roof

Just came across this picture of some of those ladders.

 

http://www.manring.net/photos/Duke_Chapel_Flentrop_Organ_4-3-08/thumbs/391%20Duke%20Chapel%20-%20Flentrop%204-3-08.jpg

 

From this site, where you can get a bigger view of that image and others: http://www.manring.net/photos/Duke_Chapel_Flentrop_Organ_4-3-08/index.html

[AdamSmith]

Pardon for putting this in this thread, but the readers herein may like it. Marchand is hard to find well performed, but this recording by my god Chapuis does the trick I think:

 

[AdamSmith]

The big Flentrop at Duke has a series of small intermediate bellows called winkers at each wind chest that can be unlocked (activated) to stabilize the wind supply and eliminate this pulling effect, for performance of the 19th-century French repertoire by Franck et al. that was written for the great organs of Cavaillé-Coll, and their rock-steady wind supplies.

Again for the 3 or 4 of us here who like this kind of thing, I just remembered a story by Fenner Douglass who together with Dirk Flentrop architected the Duke organ: Dirk's workshop had already fabricated the wind chest in the pure high North German style when Fenner swooped in with his new research into Cavaille-Coll and said, You have to completely re-drill the wind chests to accommodate all these French reeds that will let this organ perform the 19th-century French repertoire.

 

Dirk grumbled, but saw the beauty and did it.

[whipped guy]

Pardon for putting this in this thread, but the readers herein may like it. Marchand is hard to find well performed, but this recording by my god Chapuis does the trick I think:

A pleasant way to spend a half hour. I enjoyed the parts where the score was available so one could follow what was being performed.

[whipped guy]

Again for the 3 or 4 of us here who like this kind of thing, I just remembered a story by Fenner Douglass who together with Dirk Flentrop architected the Duke organ: Dirk's workshop had already fabricated the wind chest in the pure high North German style when Fenner swooped in with his new research into Cavaille-Coll and said, You have to completely re-drill the wind chests to accommodate all these French reeds that will let this organ perform the 19th-century French repertoire.

 

Dirk grumbled, but saw the beauty and did it.

I just noticed this post. I love the harpsichord, but somehow this thread got diverted to the king of instruments and that is not a bad thing. Accordingly, I think that we need a thread that is entitled "Organ, anyone?" I can assure you that would attract more than "3 0r 4 of us here". Plus, it could open up a whole new vista for many others. I certainly have learned quite a bit about the organ from this thread alone! Plus, who knows!?!? Some who love the organ might have never even checked things out down here!

[Rudynate]

No need to be sorry ! LOL! It reminds me of the fact that even though I was not a music major in college I did spend quite a bit of time at the School of Music. The piano practice rooms were open to all. However, there was a special room that was reserved only for special students and required a special key. It was the "Organ Room". I always wondered that the deal was and what actually happened in there. I guess now I know!

 

Of course we made quite a few jokes regarding what transpired in that room and many did involve the use of the stops and the pedals, and especially the swell pedal! The fact that it was virtually sound proof only added to the mystique!

 

Of course that reminds me of the punch-line to a joke about a cellist, "He played it between his legs." Unfortunately I can't recall the actual joke.

 

Still all kidding aside:

 

http://www.organduo.lt/home/6-tips-for-using-swell-pedal

 

A student at the Eastman School in Rochester gave me a tour once. There was a corridor along which there were several little sound-proof practice rooms. Each one was a pipe organ.

[body2body]

I just booked a ticket to a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert in February. Salonen is returning to conduct concerts focusing on French music called "City of Light". One concert will have the the Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani by Francis Poulenc ( along with a work for voice and Orchestra "Correspondances" by Dutilleux, and the complete Ravel "Mother Goose"). Reading this thread made me aware that I'd never heard the Disney Hall Organ. It is magnificent looking ( Frank Gehry was involved in the design). I know nothing about organs, or organists, but I adore Poulenc, so thanks to you all I'm off to rectify that situation in February.

Attached is a link to the complete stop list:

http://disneyhallorgan.com/stoplist/

Since that seems to be of interest to those with real knowledge in this area as well as this video

[AdamSmith]

Stop knobs of the Arp Schnitger organ in the Jacobikirche, Hamburg, depicting various composers.

 

http://www.arpschnitger.nl/hamburg-jakobi-speeltafel-oud1.jpg

 

http://www.arpschnitger.nl/hamburg-jakobi-speeltafel-oud2.jpg

 

http://www.arpschnitger.nl/hamburg-jakobi-speeltafel-oud.jpg

 

http://www.arpschnitger.nl/shamb-e.jpg

 

Source: http://www.arpschnitger.nl/shamb.html

[whipped guy]

Somehow more than 50 percent look as though they could be death masks of Igor Stravinski who looked like death even when he was alive. I'm not sure I could identify any of them definitively and even those who are obviously sporting 18th Century style wigs. Though I think I recognized Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi, possibly that is!?!?

 

In any event, this is Beethoven's death mask:

 

[AdamSmith]

Somehow more than 50 percent look as though they could be death masks of Igor Stravinski who looked like death even when he was alive. I'm not sure I could identify any of them definitively and even those who are obviously sporting 18th Century style wigs. Though I think I recognized Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi, possibly that is!?!?

 

In any event, this is Beethoven's death mask:

 

I had the almost identical thought that many of them looked like death masks. I will root around for info on these knobs -- maybe they were.

[whipped guy]

To @AdamSmith I appreciate that you ignored my misspelling of Stravinsky. I had just had a discussion with my Polish neighbor about 20 minutes previously and we decided that to spell most Polish names you start with a given consonant, put a whole bunch of z's alternating with a couple of vowels, and then add ski at the end. So I had ski on my mind!

[AdamSmith]

To @AdamSmith I appreciate that you ignored my misspelling of Stravinsky. I had just had a discussion with my Polish neighbor about 20 minutes previously and we decided that to spell most Polish names you start with a given consonant, put a whole bunch of z's alternating with a couple of vowels, and then add ski at the end. So I had ski on my mind!

LOL! One (minor, but still) strain of my ancestry is Welsh, to speak which you omit all the vowels except "y," then pronounce even that as a consonant.

[whipped guy]

LOL! One (minor, but still) strain of my ancestry is Welsh, to speak which you omit all the vowels except "y," then pronounce even that as a consonant.

Like this?!?!

 

 

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/pedright.jpg

 

[body2body]

The Germans spell it Strawinsky, the Poles spell it Strawinski, and the Russians spell it Стравинский. Everything except the Russian in the original Cyrillic is a transliteration. To my eye WG you didn't misspell anything.

[whipped guy]

The Germans spell it Strawinsky, the Poles spell it Strawinski, and the Russians spell it Стравинский. Everything except the Russian in the original Cyrillic is a transliteration. To my eye WG you didn't misspell anything.

 

Спасибо! Thank you!

 

May the gods bless transliteration!

[AdamSmith]

Spanish trumpets sticking out the front of the Duke Flentrop. "To blast those Methodist bishops down the aisle!" said Fenner Douglass, co-architect of the organ with Dirk Flentrop.

 

http://magazine.uc.edu/content/dam/magazine/images/0607/organbuilder4_large.jpg

[whipped guy]

Spanish trumpets sticking out the front of the Duke Flentrop. "To blast those Methodist bishops down the aisle!" said Fenner Douglass, co-architect of the organ with Dirk Flentrop.

 

http://magazine.uc.edu/content/dam/magazine/images/0607/organbuilder4_large.jpg

 

And hopefully not risk shattering a stained glass window in the process!

 

http://agoabq.org/WP/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Pipe-Organ-trumpets.jpg

[AdamSmith]

And hopefully not risk shattering a stained glass window in the process!

 

http://agoabq.org/WP/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Pipe-Organ-trumpets.jpg

The Duke organ is a marvel of tonal balance & correctness at the same time as an extraordinarily well controlled mix of 3 different styles that Flentrop initially fought against: foundation the high North German school, then Fenner insisted on the Spanish trumpets and some interior Spanish stops so the instrument could properly perform the 17th/18th-century Spanish repertoire. Then, after the wind chests had been fabricated and drilled, Fenner came swooping in with his new research on Cavaille-Coll and somehow persuaded Dirk to re-drill them to accommodate a bunch of French reed pipes so that the instrument could also perform the great 19th-century French Romantic pieces by Franck et al.

 

It is no wonder that the thing ended up costing $550,000 in 1977 dollars.