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Messages - David Pinnegar

#81
In researching for a lecture about tuning in the 18th century I discovered that perhaps it's time to challenge the big assumption about Bach.

In 1787 the harpsichordist Christian Schubart wrote about the effects induced by playing in the different keys of the scale. https://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html

Playing Mozart piano sonatas on a piano tuned . . . to Meantone . . . is particularly revealing.

So I decided to go for the jugular to prove how ghastly playing the Well Tempered Clavier on an organ tuned to meantone is - and I discovered that it's not the tuning that's ugly - it's the registration. In the "bad" keys Bach wrote quite differently and if you register them on a sensitive stop with suppressed harmonics such as a Stopped Diapason or Lieblich Gedakt . . . the pieces in Ab major and Bb minor and all the rest are not only playable but make sense in the emotional Affects recorded by Schubart.

Those with access to Hauptwerk or another meantone capable organ please try it. What do you think?

Start in C major with registration on a simple plain Diapason and then in the major keys add registration according to Schubart's scale of Affekt.

And if you perform or record them please give a link and credit to this post!

Best wishes

David P
#82
A couple of weeks ago Rowan Williams from Gloucester 6th Form College came to see research historic performance times of known repertoire and we were able to do some recordings. With sight of a score we were able to register the instrument to make some sense of the music in places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohSZlBTMJqw is the Overture to Antaxerxes.

Best wishes

David Pinnegar
#83
Electronic Organs / Re: Ahlborn H5 voice issue
August 12, 2018, 10:18:05 AM
Thanks for this update

I have Ahlborn expansion modules which have gone the same way :-(

Best wishes

David P
#84
Nous sommes ravis de vous annoncer l'édition 2018 du Festival International d'Orgue de Lille.
Cette année encore , tous les dimanches après midi (16:30), du 01/07 au 27/08, et le 15/08 , nous accueillerons le fleuron des organistes européens, autour de l'orgue, de st Martin d'Esquermes à Lille . Quartier de Vauban Esquermes.

Sur la console ( lieu où joue le musicien) mobile dans la nef, les auditeurs découvriront la virtuosité des musiciens, en temps réel.
Français du nord, de Paris , Belges, Américains, Italiens,  Anglais et autres Canadiens viendront défendre leur talent dans des programmes éclectiques et virtuoses.
Une occasion 'facile' de se familiariser avec l'instrument, la musique classique, et découvrir de nouveaux horizons artistiques.

Pour découvrir nos artistes invités :

le 15 juillet : https://duoeolien.weebly.com/

le 5 aout : Thomas Mellan des etats Unis, lauréant de concours Jeunes Organistes à San Diego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybzPUXSTIg0

le 15 Aout : nicolas PICHON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezu85-TzZZ0

Le 1 juillet : l'ensemble Vocal Clara Voce
http://claravoce.fr/

Clôture du Festival par Josep Scolle COL, Organiste de St Pierre de ROME !!

http://orgue.eu/
#85
The barrel organ of c1790 from the Colt Collection has now been acquired for public access and study - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgBjksRoX9g

With a repertoire of 60 items spread across 16 rolls drawn from opera, popular and sacred music as well as two of Handel's concertos the instrument is a unique insight into 18th century performance style.

Best wishes

David P
#86
I was at a church in Staines the other day and the organist said that Harrisons had put a replacement value on their instrument http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N00973 of £800,000

Best wishes

David P
#87
Ian - thanks for your wonderful contributions and although the path might seem lonely, contributing from the wealth of knowledge you, and others, have is the only way of encouragement forward into the future generations.

Best wishes

David P
#88
The Silk Road from China to the west has received a lot of attention recently with the publication of Peter Francopan's book on the subject linking the dots of the routes in the rise of production of and export of silk in the second half of the first millennium BC.

For some time I've been saying that the Gospel of Thomas is Buddhist in its spirit with a sprinkling of Confucius, and others say that John shows origins in Zoroastrianism.

The reason why the Church isn't mainstream any more is that people are seeing that its singular approach to the Divine isn't the whole picture, not relevant to the real world and for many I believe the Cross and the figure of Jesus is an idol.

Only when the Church moves in a more holistic approach to the Divine will it find relevance, and the future of the Organ survive.

We don't give credit to the ancients, their facility for transcontinental trade, communication of goods and communication of thought in any way as different brands of a common currency. It was with this, perhaps that Jesus gave in a reform to Judaism.

"Sacred by thy Name"

In other words - it should not be pronounced. In the Name of Jesus, we replace a name that should not be pronounced by another Name, and it should not be pronounced, uttered.

It's worth contemplating perhaps the similarity with http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/tao-te-ching.htm

QuoteThe Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

"I am the Light. I am the Way" says Jesus. Was he usurping competing religions? Or was he bringing them together? Not to replace but be part?

Those "pagan" religions oh so to be derided . . . In the wisdom of Apollo, again representative of light, the Name was never to be uttered. Light not of the world but of the mind. Holman Hunt's painting is misleading in so far as depicting a light of material form.

Ideas of the ancient world were much more universal perhaps than we give credit for, and now to be shown up as such in the universalism inherent in a World Wide Web. We think that modern technology is so much more effective than that of the ancients but perhaps in the days of old our ideas were bound by the communication spawned by a web of silk.

Best wishes

David P
#89
It's good to see you back. 

The Organ needs INSPIRATION from such proponents as you!

Best wishes

David P
#90
The reason why I try to push the boundaries of what the Christian religion can mean is that without churches the organ is dead.

Meanwhile churches are dying because people don't see them as being capable of being relevant to or in their lives.

It's only by the explorations of meaning that people might not perhaps throw the baby out with the bathwater in the rejection of the wisdom of Jesus with which their lives can be enhanced, and the resulting death of the church . . . and of organs.

The two go hand in hand and unless the church finds understandings which make its texts relevant to every day people, both organ and church will die.

Best wishes

David P
#91
Perhaps let this joyous day to come be a celebration of the idea of the Creator which can echo in us the power of creation even when others don't understand how to create.

Not the Creator known by Religion.

By Creator I don't mean that person who people ask about external to the cosmos who created the cosmos, but that power of creation within the cosmos of which the cosmos is its own mind, and of which we are part.

Quarks come together to make protons. The ones that haven't aren't here.

Protons come together to make atoms. The ones that haven't aren't here.

Atoms come together to make molecules. The ones that don't aren't here.

Molecules come together to make . . . etc etc etc

That ability to work together to Create is the Creator.

When we understand that then we are part of the work of the Creator creating.

Today, if you're alone perhaps see if you can find other people who celebrate the birth of the idea of the son of the creator, who understand. Those who don't understand cause troubles because they don't know how to create.

They cause the pains of others and most of all themselves - but they don't understand that.

Only when people have discovered pain do they really understand the Creator better. Unfortunately some people cannot get enough pain and so create it themselves. It's best to avoid them and instead find people who understand.

Working together - the cosmos is self fertilising - if it can happen it will happen and what produces produces more than what creates less and what creates less produces more than that which produces nothing at all. So what creates nothing at all isn't here - or it dies. What doesn't work with the rest of creation and doesn't create becomes irrelevant.

There are many who believe time for the human race is short. That's because humans who have only the understanding of animals will be victim of their own uncreation. But if humans understand their part in creation and create in harmony with all else created by the process I've described above, then humans will flourish as part of the mind of the cosmos.

For anyone interested, the little baby whose birth we celebrate was visited by three Magi. It was Hermes Tre-Magistus who taught that the universe, cosmos, was
- eternal
- self fertilising
- itself the mind of God

So today perhaps we may find somewhere to sing praises to the power of creation, working together, love in the real sense. And in doing so, goodness knows who else we might meet who also understands. And we might find transformation.

We're made of the stuff that at every level of sophistication has followed the spirit and power of working together - quarks, protons, atoms, molecules, proteins, DNA, genes, species . . . . but so many people have forgotten what we're made of.

Even though some people might feel having been kicked in the teeth this year, to compost are those who don't understand how to create, mere raw materials to be used by that which understands how to do it. And a rather wise bloke whose birth we celebrate today talked of the mathematics of it all. So in life we don't need to be that compost to feed what creates most, that talent buried in the ground.

Praise to the invisible, all powerful and everywhere, that process of creation of love and working together that brings us about. May we recognise all our part in it.

Today's the day to find the other people who understand. Forget those who haven't understood - go find those who do.

That's what Christmas is about, and all the more to rant about!

Best wishes

David P
#92
Electronic Organs / Re: Viscount CM100
December 16, 2017, 11:23:22 AM
Yes I will.

For a one manual capable of supporting hymn singing to the full, the effectiveness of this setup is rather extraordinary. Effectively it's a 11 rank Great with a Viol d'Amour to give the versatility often supplied by another manual.

If one could put a split between stops so as to achieve a split manual it would very ably achieve the effectiveness of French Baroque instruments with the absolutely superb variety of Cromorne and Vox Humana stops.

Speakers are also important and I'm using original style Lowther Acousta cabinets fitted with dual units, one an Audio Nirvana Super 8 fed on a 100uf capacitor and the other a Tannoy 8 inch unit at the side to reinforce bass fed by a 3.5 or 7 mH coil.

The Gamba 16 is extraordinarily effective in absence of a pedal organ and the secret of the whole thing is to voice the 16 and 8ft stops to diminish in the bass so as not to make the left hand muddy.

For the 8 Principal I chose one of the Diapasons with a discordant semitone harmonic chiff, and toned back the power so that it's more delicate rather than in-your-face, and likewise with the 4 Principal, choosing a chiffy one, and also a Spitz Flote for the 4ft.

The voicing allows adjustment of "Character" of the stop. This adjusts the presence of the 2nd harmonic in particular and the harmonic structure above.

To get more chiffy stops to blend, it's effective on the unit to tone back "character" by a notch or two, and also to adjust the delay of attack so that the chiff shines through.

Attack of chiff on a 4ft stop is a trick used by the French Baroque organs to achieve an attack without the 8fts doing so in an in-your-face sort of way.

Playing with the setting up of the unit is helped by a smidgeon of knowledge of pipe organ voicing and likewise is an interesting sound laboratory to work with in giving ideas for new pipe organs.

Very intriguingly the repertoire of Christmas Carols works wonderfully, even best, in Meantone. Equal Temperament makes them sound both insipid, unexciting and impure in comparison.

Best wishes

David P
#93
Electronic Organs / Viscount CM100
December 15, 2017, 02:06:08 AM
The local church has been declared redundant . . . but there's still demand for a carol event in the Village Hall. We thought of accompanying carols on a strident Sperrhake harpsichord . . . but perhaps it might not support singing if there are enough people.

So I resurrected a Viscount CM100 expansion unit and found an old Midi keyboard and from the library of stops set up
16 Gamba
8 Gamba
8 Viol D'Amour
8 Principal
8 Stopped Diapason
4 Principal
4 Flute
2 2/3 Twelfth
2 Fifteenth
Sesquialtera II
Mixture
8 Trompette

Of course the effectiveness is governed by voicing and relative balance between stops but after a little work on this the result of the unit working just with one manual is remarkably impeccable. Much better than ever I expected and actually better than many more complete electronic instruments I've heard.

If anyone's thinking of selling a CM100 I'm possibly a willing buyer!

Best wishes

David P
#94
Hi!

Please can you email me photos? It would be nice to get them on the site somewhere

Best wishes

David P
#95
Electronic Organs / Re: Ahlborn Owners Group
November 16, 2017, 10:46:24 PM
I'm not greatly active on facebook. Perhaps you might encourage some of them to post here? Facebook isn't searchable so it's not really helpful in terms of helping people solve any problems.

I have a number of their extension units which are truly excellent and inspiring in sound. But a few have been damaged by battery chemical attack on the board. Are these boards at all repairable if this has happened?

Best wishes

David P
#96
H J Nelson 1921
East Stanley Methodist Church
Chester Road DH9 0TU
Grid ref: NZ204531
NPOR G01406
2mp/12
Tracker/Mechanical action
Dimensions
Width: c.13 ft
Depth: c.6 ft 8 ins
Height: c.16 ft
Approximate sizes
Front to back wall = 80"
Height above center peak = 105"
Width of peak (lefthand side) = 29.5"
Width of peak (righthand side) = 30.5"
Floor to base of peaks = 89"
Footwell = 105" Wide x 36" High x 15.5" Depth
Keyboard window = 48" Wide x 33 " High
Each side from keyboard window to outer edge = 25.5"
Organ stool = 53" Long x 30" High x 10" Wide
The Church is closed and the organ is immediately available.
Department and Stop list
Pedal Key action Tr  Stop action Me  Compass-low C  Compass-high f1  Keys 30
             1 Bourdon 16
             2 Bass Flute 8
Great Key action Tr  Stop action Me  Compass-low C  Compass-high a3  Keys 58
             3 Open Diapason 8
             4 Hohl Flute 8
             5 Dulciana 8
             6 Principal 4
             7 Gedact Flute 4

Swell Key action Tr  Stop action Me  Compass-low C  Compass-high a3  Keys 58
Enclosed
             8 Lieblich Gedact 8
             9 Voix Celeste 8
             10 Viol D'Orchestre 8
             11 Gemshorn 4
             12 Oboe 8
             13 Tremulant
Console
Console type  Attached   Stop type  Drawstop   Pedalboard  Radiating Concave  
Couplers
Swell to Pedal
Swell to Great
Swell octave
Great to Pedal
The buyer is responsible for removal.
All enquiries to the contact below please.
Church Contact:
Mr Cyril Robinson
Woodlands,  3 Park Close,  Annfield Plain,  Stanley,   Co Durham,  DH9 7UW
Tel. 01207 234215
Email cyrilr@talktalk.net
#97
I'm wondering if with the new figures showing the dead end of the Church of England with so few children attending church that the organ is now finally a dinosaur . . . ?

Best wishes

David P
#98
In my browser none of the links to other pages are working . . . :-(

EOCS has now been added to the front page of this forum

Best wishes

David P
#99
I'm wondering how many people have enthusiasm having built their own organs fir home?

Sometimes I hear of people talking about having a spare rank of pipes or a soundboard or two. . . And wonder the extent of home enthusiasms for pipe organs? And how many have built or are building a software virtual organ?

Best wishes

David P
#100
:-) I'm not sure about being bright enough to understand the IOSCS joke but the society has a broad spectrum of members interested in all aspects of organs, pipe, electronic analogue, digital and software, as well as pipe control systems.

It's a worthwhile gathering of people and minds, many of whom are increasingly white haired and who need to pass on knowledge to younger members.

www.eocs.org.uk

Best wishes

David P