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The tragedy of Aspergers Syndrome

Started by David Pinnegar, February 07, 2011, 05:55:30 PM

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David Pinnegar

Dear All

I have just received a phone call from a great friend who happens to be an organ builder. Comments made by an Asperger's Syndrome sufferer had been brought to his attention . . . Luckily he knows the lad, and his distraught mother who is being driven to tears. We joked about who needs enemies when one has friends with Aspergers . . . It's a serious problem.

On one of my videos on YouTube a comment reads:
QuoteI am a great friend of David's, he has awful hair now...
and an electronic organ that is quite good and has a 62/124 self destruct stop
to which I simply responded "What an epitaph!".

Really the comment speaks for itself in the weight that any sensible person should give to it . . .

Certainly Aspergers Sydrome can cause a Bad Hair Day for all . . . But the question is "HOW CAN WE HELP?"

Suppression? Doesn't really solve the problem.

On a YouTube video of the organ at Albi Cathdral the comment was made:
QuoteVery imposing, but no subtlety at all. I bet it's rubbish with the reeds off, doing quiet stuff like chorale preludes or Romantic pastorales.

I responded patiently:
"Actually this organ is most beautifully voiced with really refined and beautiful solo and chorus flues which play with great sublety and excitement. Similarly the organ at St Maximin and a later instrument at Lorgue near Carces. In the tradition of Dom Bedos, the father of modern organ building, Moucherel and Isnard were masters of their craft."

To which the response was:
Quotefair enough. I prefer a bit more refinement to the reedwork - I'm more of a romantic organ man, but, if pressed, I must admit a soft spot for the Dutch classical organ. And while I do not wish in any way to denigrate the work of Dom Bedos, is he really the father of modern organ-building? Schnitger was building organs that are recognisable as a similar animal to today's organ 20 years before Bedos' birth, and the big Silbermann at Freiberg was build when Bedos was only five years old.

and I replied patiently again:

"The quality and heritage of Moucherel's work at Albi is demonstrated by its capability to have been "preserved" by incorporation into successively romanticised instruments seperated in the 1980s work into two instruments in the two neighbouring buildings, one wholly romantic and this, a restoration of the classical instrument. However St Maximin remained unincorporated into later developments and unaltered since 1776. It's the "unrefinement" of reeds giving real excitement"

We see in this example great intelligence, and that is all the greater tragedy, together with erudition which generally may be misguided or misinformed at times.

I concluded that patience, tolerance and teaching was the only way. . .

What else?

I wrote to him recently suggesting that he take up some academic discipline requiring rigour of the application of strict relevance and a mental training to curtail verbal diahorrea - or that he should steer away from words and train in a practical craft such as musical instrument building . . .

Has anyone any suggestions? Has anyone any experience? What can we do? How can such an intelligent young lad's energies be best directed?

Best wishes

David P