Organ matters - Organs matter!

Hi,
the first three clips are most impressive, Nice to hear a Newly Built Pipe organ.
the Electronic Content Organ is nice in a different way ! the Electronic Sound seems to be much closer ( as in distance )  than the Pipe organ recording.

Hi

Last Saturday (26th June 2021) the Coventry & Warwickshire Organists' Association made a return visit to St. Martin, Barcheston, Warwickshire - our first "in person" meeting since Feb 2020.  We had previously visited to see this new organ when nearing completion, and last Saturday was a chance to play it.  Here's 3 pieces I recorded - apologies if the last 2 especially are a bit rough round the edges - I hadn't intended to play them.

Herschel Allegro in F major  https://youtu.be/TXS6gaenuNw

Herschel Allegro in G major https://youtu.be/4c7T7ROPJ4k

Be still improv https://youtu.be/FZGKiqIpukI

Details of the organ by Henry Grove of Nottingham (Consultant Paul Hale) can be found on NPOR:- https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=E02110

I also recorded a couple of things at church on the Sunday morning on the Content 224Compact Digital organ.

Reading – A 1st voluntary in C Major https://youtu.be/3lhmw-UNAJw

Soften my heart  https://youtu.be/sfZy9V97qNY

I'd forgotten just how much real pipes sound than their digital imitations!

Every Blessing

Tony

Next Saturday 19th June at 7.30pm come and hear David Gammie play at St John's Duncan Terrace, Islington. Free entry with collection.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921)
Rhapsody in D, Op. 7/2 (from 3 Rhapsodies on Breton Folksongs)
Fantaisie in E flat
​Con moto - Allegri di molto e con fuoco
'Pro Defunctis', Op 150/6 (from 7 Improvisations)
Prelude & Fugue in E flat, Op. 99/3
Marcel Dupré (1886 - 1971)
Final, Op. 27/7 (from 7 Pieces)
Prelude & Fugue in F minor, Op. 7/2
Invention in A major, Op. 50/11 (from 24 Inventions)
Deuxième Symphonie, Op. 26
​Preludio  -  Intermezzo  -  Toccata

A former Scholar of Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford, David Gammie began playing the organ as a young teenager, and gave his first public recital in London in 1968, when he was 16. He graduated with a degree in Classical Art and Literature, but music has been the focus of his life for the past 40 years. A competition prize in the 1970s led to his joining the BBC's roster of organists in the days when Radio 3 broadcast two recitals every week; in 1977 he gave the first British broadcast of Franz Schmidt's monumental Chaconne, and in 1980 another first - the first programme to be entirely devoted to the music of Charles Tournemire. Since 2001 David has been Organist and Assistant Director of Music at the Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon (home to another famous Walker organ, but very different from this one). His solo performances there have included some of the great masterpieces of Catholic sacred music, including Messiaen's Holy Trinity Meditations, Tournemire's Seven Last Words, Dupré's Stations of the Cross, Maleingreau's Passion Symphony, and Petr Eben's Job. He also enjoys working with other musicians; highlights have included a Handel Concerto with the London Mozart Players, the Saint-Saëns Symphony with the Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra, and in 2013 a rare performance of Franz Schmidt's spectacular Fuga Solemnis for organ and 18 brass instruments. In his parallel career as a writer, David has written booklet notes for over 100 CDs, and programme notes for all of Thomas Trotter's Birmingham City recitals since 1983. In another long-standing collaboration with the late John Scott at St. Paul's Cathedral, he has written commentaries on the complete organ works of Buxtehude, Bach, Frank, Widor, Vierne and Messiaen. This year his comprehensive survey of the music of Marcel Dupré has been reprinted in New York to accompany Jeremy Filsell's performance of the complete works at St. Thomas, 5th Avenue.

Hi Alex,

Thanks you for your interest. The film is showing at film festivals at the moment and then will be realised probably on a streaming website site for purchase - e.g. Amazon.

For the Autumn and Spring (hopefully once Covid is not a concern) we are trying to arrange screenings alongside organ recitals in various locations (churches/town halls etc)  - if you'd like to do that please let me know and we can arrange.  It's going to do a sort of country-wide Road-Show with key contributors coming along to the Q & A. 

Hammerwood would be a great location so I am talking to David about this possibility!

Best wishes
James

The trouble is that sounds and techniques of achieving them change greatly.

The Italian Vox Umani is two flute pipes beating against each other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw8KCZR40Co

The reed version also needs a flute to beat against. If this is done properly as at St Maximin, the sound is sublime. The pipe is very similar to the Cromorne, the transition from Krumhorn to Clarinet, and again at St Maximin built by Isnard in 1775 the sound is sublime.

If anyone has the Hauptwerk St Maximin sampleset perhaps someone might be able to demonstrate. Whilst playing the real instrument the rank of Cromorne is right behind the bench and unsuspectingly one jumps out of one's seat whilst playing.

Best wishes

David P

Hi

There are Vox's and Vox's!  Authentic registration is a good thing - if the organ you're playing has the relevant authentic voices!  Otherwise it's down to compromise and listening to see what works in the context.

The Vox Humana does seem to have fallen out of favour in recent organs.  Not sure why.  They have their uses.  Also, the Vox Humana (often voiced differently to that in classical organs) is a key component in the cinema organ sound.

Every Blessing

Tony

HI,
I can only assume that People's taste may have changed over the years ? But it is a good question as to whether the " Authentic" registration should always be used ?
I don't know !

I have never seen the point of them after over 40 years of organ scholarship and professional playing. Human voice? More like a dying crow. Organists use 'correct' sounds regardless of whether they're any good -- one of the various foibles of our profession that tend to drive away audiences.

What became of it, any idea?

If anybody here can enlighten us on the state of organist orgs outside the 'first world' it'd be great, notably in Latin America. I fear there's simply nothing there anymore.