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February -April issue The Organ magazine - GREAT - Cranleigh, Westminster Abbey

Started by David Pinnegar, February 17, 2011, 06:11:01 PM

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David Pinnegar

Hi!

It is a pleasure to see the current issue of The Organ magazine and I encourage people to subscribe . . .  It's a bumper issue in which photos of wonderful pipe organs throughout the magazine make the obiquitous advert for Johannus electronic keyboards on the back look significantly plastic in contrast . . . :-)

The current issue includes an article on the new organ at Cranliegh School built by an English organ builder which I'm very very much looking forward to experiencing. It's built as a two manual with a "mock" third manual . . . designed to give greater versatility coupled permanently to both Great and Swell, clearly perhaps with the spirit of the French Grand Orgue in mind. Most wonderfully, it's tuned to an unequal temperament, Kellner, and it will be great to hear how this works out in practice on the wider repertoire. From my own explorations on the piano, both client and organ builder are to be very much congratulated on their enlightenment in this area.

It's a bumper crop of articles on the organs at St Johns' Smith's Square, Westminster Abbey, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, a new instrument at Jorkunde Denmark, the Matthew Copley restoration of the Snetzler at Hastings, and a new Ruffatti at Midwestern College Campus. It's good to see that the economic climate has reduced advertisements for electronics to just two, with Skrabl marketing pipe organs whilst the UK organ builders are well featured in the articles.

The magazine will be good detailed reading in due course and I hope that members here will enlarge interest in these particular organs in this column.

Best wishes

David P

Barrie Davis

I had cancelled my subscription, but after seeing the current issue I will renew.

Barrie

David Pinnegar

Hi!

[edited]

From my experiments with the piano repertoire, were there to be calls for the Kellner instrument to be tuned to Equal Temperament, it would be a very retrograde step and a very sad one for musicological research and experience, as well as tonally in the appreciation of so much of the repertoire.

Musicians often fear being accompanied by Good Temperament instruments, but in reality have nothing to fear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJcOSUnGSsk demonstrates the extent to which musicians being accompanied in unequal temperament need have no worries. A friend of mine has tuned his instrument likewise and visiting string trio players have not noticed.

[edited]

It's for this reason that one of the purposes of the Hammerwood instrument is to enable proper exploration of unequal temperament so that expensive decisions can be made with certainty and it would be great to work with (an) organist(s) willing to try a broad range of repertoire in unequal temperaments in the way in which I have been privileged enough to be able to work with the piano leading recently to a modern instrument being used for such experiments:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=modern+piano+unequal+temperament
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=modern+piano+historic+temperament

In my experience in the realm of piano repertoire am sure that we are missing a lot in composers up to at least Cesar Franck and Mendelssohn on the organ and, having heard so much more on the piano in unequal temperament,  such explorations on the organ are musicologically and musically important . . .

Best wishes

David P


David Pinnegar

Hi!

The Cranleigh Mander organ tuned to Kellner temperament has inspired a year of concerts including the complete works of Bach - http://www.cranleigh.org/music-news/1752-bach-project-opening-concert

Please can anyone with knowledge of dates keep this thread up to date for those wishing to experience this inspirational instrument?

Best wishes

David P