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Organs and organ appreciation in danger - the raison d'etre for this forum

Started by organforumadmin, April 02, 2010, 11:19:01 AM

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organforumadmin

Hi!

Currently on the front page of this forum are photographs of
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D07966

These were taken on the last day of existence of that organ, possibly a Willis, and a delightful small organ arranged over three manuals.

Behind the convent chapel was an enormous pile of broken wood - roof timbers and joists, valuable on the second hand market, just heaped. Nothing was salvaged. The heap was as high as the chapel, and a private second hand fire engine was on hand along the drive to deal with the consequences.

The next day the bulldozers moved in. The chapel was bulldozed. The organ was bulldozed inside the chapel.

Noone cared.

If we are to be able to rebuild our civilisation and what we care for, we cannot just sit back. When you are sliding down a hill, you have to make even greater efforts to progress up the hill.

For that reason this forum exists. In order to reverse the decline, we have to be slightly more evnagelistic about why we think that the organ is worthy of a special place in people's hearts  and I hope that all who care about the organ as an instrument might take an active part in showing people why the organ is so amazing.

Best wishes

Forum Admin

KB7DQH

Occasionally the Organ will sneak into popular culture, "hiding in plain view" so to speak.

Some examples from my music collection include the first minute and twenty seconds of  an Alan Parsons Project "classic", "don't let it show" first appearing on their "I, Robot" album.  Use of a real pipe organ in the beginning of that piece brilliantly sets the stage for the whole song... A friend seemed to think they used a Moog synthesizer but on the CD one trained to listen for such things can clearly make out the sound of the tracker action!  Hauptwerk doesn't do that, at least on the performances I have downloaded from Contrebombarde.com... (Hmmm. topic for another day? ;)

Danny Elfman scored  Batman-The Motion Picture,  and along with the orchestra the organ appears.


All of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies feature some really good stuff...  and not just the Organ! 

And the "new-age" modified pedal harpist Andreas Vollenweider has managed to sneak his father
(and the Organ of the Grossmunster) onto a couple of his albums also.

Now it is possible to look at some of the "stats" on "who watches what" on Youtube, and the organ stuff seems to draw an encouraging audience, most of the vids seem to be enjoyed most by males
aged 13 to 18!  Kind of an interesting demographic, eh?

Eric


The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

revtonynewnham

Hi

Keyboard player Rick Wakeman is another example of the use of organ in more contemporary "popular" music.  Right from his first solo album (The 6 Wives of Henry VIII) which features a track mainly on pipe organ through to more recent work (solo piano albums excepted - obviously).  About 3 or 4 years ago he recorded a CD of improvisations on the organ of Lincoln Cathedral - an interesting listen.  He also had a small transportable pipe organ built to use on tour.

Every Blessing

Tony

organforumadmin

Quote from: KB7DQH on April 07, 2010, 07:45:47 PM
Now it is possible to look at some of the "stats" on "who watches what" on Youtube, and the organ stuff seems to draw an encouraging audience, most of the vids seem to be enjoyed most by males
aged 13 to 18!  Kind of an interesting demographic, eh?

Dear Eric

Firstly thanks for joining this forum and your enthusiastic posts!

Yes - I have also noticed the same phenonomen on YouTube stats and it really is encouraging. There are places on the net where grey people find comfort in talking to each other but I'm really hoping that this forum may encourage young and young at heart with great experience to talk to each other and hand down wisdom, knowledge and enthusiasm.

I have a great friend who I wish would write here but he says:

QuoteAvec le style de ce forum, je ne suis pas motivé. Le niveau est   celui d'une certaine autosatisfaction. Je n'y ai rien trouvé qui rejoint   notre sujet. C'est semer des  graines dans un désert. Je trouve que You   tube est nettement meilleur. Mais Même sur You Tube, j'ai reçu des   injures, c'est pourquoi je ne fait plus de commentaires publics sur You   Tube.   
He continues
QuoteJe ne peux pas éclairer des gens qui refusent de bouger de leur   rocking-chair.
saying that it's necessary to go _with_ an experienced person to see and to hear and there again, Hugh Potton
http://www.youtube.com/v/fe_eJ60PmtM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&

http://www.youtube.com/v/0nrvPmirH7c&hl=en_GB&fs=1&

implores me never to upload a whole piece as then people won't bother to go to or support live performances . . .

Anyway, I hope for the reason of transferring knowledge from old to young that by posts with requests for enlightenment here such people as my French friend will be persuaded to share their knowledge here.

Best wishes

Forum Admin

KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

dragonser


"implores me never to upload a whole piece as then people won't bother to go to or support live performances . . . "
Best wishes

Forum Admin
[/quote]

above  is a good point....
after all if there are not enough people going to concerts then there won't be many concerts being put on. But how do you get people who would not normally go to concerts to be interested in them ? I think youtube does get to a wide audience.
I wonder has anyone done a video basic introduction to the Pipe organ with ( simple ) examples of the different sounds available ( for example the difference between flutes and reeds ) and what all the stops and couplers do ?

regards Peter B





revtonynewnham

Hi

There are 3 introductory presentations that I know of.  There's web site "Young Persons' Guide to the Pipe  Organ" - see http://www.agohq.org/guide/.  This is an American production - not bad.  There's also a DVD with a very similar name "Young Persons Guide to the Organ" IIRC, produced in Australia.  I don't have details to hand, but I have seen it - we used as an exhibit at the Bradford Organists' Assoc organ day last month.  The ending is rather tacky IMHO, but the rest of it is good.

Then there's another DVD (also available on line) "Dan and the Magic Musician" - see http://www.danmagic.org/  This was produced by good friends of mine, Drs. Peter & Lucy Comerford (the inventors of the Bradford Computing Organ, the root of real time synthesis systems used by Copeman-Hart and others).  It's much shorted than the Australian production - but it's British, which can't be a bad thing!  I see that it's won the BBC Education and Communities Partnership Award for Innovation 2009.  I hear rumours that a follow-up is on the way.

Every Blessing

Tony

KB7DQH

http://kitchissippikids.blogspot.com/2010/06/and-operating-pipe-organ-at-st-francois.html

QuoteAnd Operating the Pipe Organ at St. Francois D'Assise Church
What I liked the most about Doors Open Ottawa this year was that the sites we visited weren't busy and they weren't rushed.  The volunteers really had time for us.

The organist - his name is Gilles - at St. Francois D'Assise Church on Fairmont allowed us to "play" the organ, he played us a piece by Bach, he showed us the inside where the pipes are and he brought out a pipe they don't use anymore for us to look at.

Its activities of the type described above that are invaluable to encouraging enthusiasm for the organ...


Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

An old, short, but interesting news story that appeared on ABC's World News Tonight...
waaaay back in 2003...

Titled... Classical Pipe Organs Making a Comeback...

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129626&page=1

With all the new, restored, or proposed restorations of pipe organs going on in Texas right now...

I guess you got to start somewhere...

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

David Pinnegar

Hi!

When popping into this forum I often see that "Guests" are logged on as well as a few "Registered Users". It really would be great if "Guests" might feel welcome to join the forum and add to discussions, and generally provoke greater interest and enthusiasms in the King of Instruments.

Whilst enthusiasm can be somewhat suppressed elsewhere, here we really do want to celebrate the joys that organs can bring . . . Do you know of some interesting instruments? Some "Must Go To" recitals? If not, the organ might as well enjoy a quiet death . . . but that's not what organs are all about . . . !

Are you giving a recital somewhere? Please don't be shy. Please post details . . .

Best wishes

David P


KB7DQH

This blog got dumped into my inbox earlier...

http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/11/the-rarest-church-musician-of-all-time/#idc-cover

The comments and replies were as, if not more, interesting than the blog itself.

Could the "pendulum swing the other way" anytime soon?

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

Holditch

A very interesting link, and it seems to me that the organ in most parts is misunderstood, I wonder why!?

And also the demise of organs in the parts of the world these posts are coming from seems to me due to lack of organists.

Both of the statements above have many questions attached to them! I may digress at a later date, but time to go out now unfortunately.

Thanks for the link
Dubois is driving me mad! must practice practice practice

barniclecompton

i think the main problem is "bad" organists, and the stuffy/snobby attitude that many organists have, as well as many churches. Trying to introduce the organ to people who are new to it has become almost impossible. Many people my own age (20s) WONT go near a church, and the word organ says church, old person trying to play, and out of tune/lots of wrong notes etc, wether its a theatre organ, church organ, concert organ, hammond organ, or anything with the name "organ".

KB7DQH

I took the opportunity earlier today to visit the main branch of my local county public library and found the only book they had on anything remotely associated with organs :o  checked it out, brought it home and read the whole thing save the glossary, index, etc... in one sitting. ;D

"All the Stops-- The Glorious Pipe Organ and Its American Masters"  by Craig R. Whitney.

A fascinating, educational and entertaining read 8)

Its last chapter deals specifically with this topic... ;)

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

revtonynewnham

Hi

How times change!  Only one book on organs - mind you, that's better than out local branch library (only open 2 half-days a week) - they have absolutely nothing relevant.

In my teenage years, our local library usually had Sumner's "The Organ" and one of the Alan Douglas books on electronic organs on the shelf, plus a couple of other relevant books (except when I'd borrowed them, which was quite frequently!)

Every Blessing

Tony

KB7DQH

Follow the link below to something that appeared on the BBC website... and listen to the audio clip embedded...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9327000/9327470.stm

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

Holditch

Excellent , cant belive I missed that on Radio 4 (being an avid listener of the Today programme)

There are also some interesting clips on Youtube of Richard Wright of Pink Floyd in the 60s playing the organ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOwk4BWsiEA

Just goes to show the way the instrument crosses over between musical genre

Dubois is driving me mad! must practice practice practice

KB7DQH

Excellent! 8) 8) 8)     Being a bit of a "Floyd" fan myself :o and noting that much of their music is begging to be transcribed and performed on the pipe organ 8)  It is worth mentioning that the curator of the biggest
such instrument on the planet feels the same way 8)

Eric
KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

NonPlayingAnorak

I think it was the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded a load of Pink Floyd orchestral transcriptions... I think they did some U2 too. Now, it doesn't take much gumption to link that to the way that orchestral works - things like Danse Macabre - got transcribed for Town Hall organs... so who's going to be the first to make the leap? Incidentally...

http://www.heraldscotland.com/organ-recital-backers-aim-to-keep-up-the-volume-1.875744

QuoteThe recitals have predominantly featured organ and classical music but have also included songs by Kylie Minogue, Coldplay and U2.

And I remember reading in Church Times years ago about such artists' music even being used as a source of themes for improvising voluntaries in church!  :o

What cannot be denied is that these Kelvingrove recitals are frequent... like, pretty much every single day of every single week of every year. Plus, factor in practice time, demand for recording sessions, visiting organists just wanting to have a go for the heck of it... Does that poor organ ever get switched off?! I bet it's got to be pretty much the busiest organ in the country, if not the world...

KB7DQH

QuoteI wonder has anyone done a video basic introduction to the Pipe organ with ( simple ) examples of the different sounds available ( for example the difference between flutes and reeds ) and what all the stops and couplers do ?

Posted elsewhere on this forum but here it is for anyone reading through this thread...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPCsLtyrmko ;) :) ;D 8)

Eric
KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."