Why ENTHUSIASM for the organ is ABSOLUTELY necessary in the face of philistines

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

A little while ago I was called in to see what I could do for an instrument under immediate threat:
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=A00257

A last concert was played by a brilliant organist, Mark Cyphus, and I recorded and "YouTubed" the concert and thanks to an enthusiastic organist and builder Paul Derrett, it was taken to a church in South Wales,
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=K00892
where I hope to hear of its inaugural recital in due course.

A comment this morning on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngpKoX9hzWs
demonstrates just why everyone's contributions to this forum are SO important:

what??

why would anyone spend money nowadays for something like this?

I hope that people will demonstrate the answer to that with even more vigour.

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

Which is why I am somewhat befuddled by the few (one?) reply to the posts I made about the cathedral in Montreal, Canada, that the Archdiocese wants to destroy a 100+ year-old cathedral
to build low-income housing on the property... 

There are "extenuating" circumstances... The local Fire Department closed the building a year ago
for "safety reasons"...

I am sure its condition is far better than Hammerwood when you first saw it...

And inside the cathedral lives a very recently restored and fully playable Cassavant pipe organ for which Henry Willis back in the 1920's had the occasion to visit and play...

Eric
KB7DQH

[barniclecompton]

helps more if the enthausiams is shared......

[David Pinnegar]

helps more if the enthausiams is shared......

Hi!

I'm sorry to say that enthusiasm is only generated when one shows people something so fantastic that they sit up and take notice. What you have been doing in recent posts is absolutely superb. If one _beleives_ that something is worthy of enthusiasm, then by enthusing enough, other expressions of enthusiasm will come to join you and assist in multiplications of your work as a product of your belief.

Following your path can be a lonely and painful process, but it's always worthwhile in the end.

My experience with discussion boards are that there are always lurkers, greatly interested in everything but who sometimes rarely come out of the shadows. It sometimes takes a lot to get them to be brave enough to start talking. All comments on discussion-boards have to be taken with a smile on one's face and no-one should ever take offense, as offense is very very rarely intended. Some people are just blunter than others . . . and one has to understand this. So PLEASE just carry on expressing your enthusiasm with your long background and knowledge of the King of Instruments - after all that's why the Wurlitzer was popularly referred to as mighty  . . . wasn't it?

Best wishes

David P

[Holditch]

David is completely correct with his comment that showing more people the majesty and magnificence of the organ generates enthusiasm.

Fundamentally, in this current day and age, the showing of organs to the unconverted (I mean in a non religious manner) is getting increasingly more and more difficult because the masses choose not to go to the buildings containing these wonderful instruments, i.e. church. We can discuss until the cows come home about the demise of congregations, but fundamentally the organ needs to be made aware of outside of its normal home.

I would love to see city councils take redundant organs and put them into city or town council buildings. The Victorians used to build halls for meetings, which would normally contain pipe organs; Manchester Town hall has a very significant Cavaillé-Coll, somewhat unused unfortunately. I know this is obviously a crazy idea and the finance department would frown upon such frivolous things, however not such a crazy idea when it comes to the survival of the pipe organ.

The pipe organ's repertoire is so vast that it is not limited to the classical greats, but is also capable of show casing modern pieces, for example

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKgOZX3DcU

To the aficionado this would not be top of the list of musical choices, but to the unconverted it would ignite a spark and a connection between modern day life and the pipe organ.

I know that many see the pipe organ purely in the context of religious worship in a holy place, however it is multitalented and I believe it can draw people's enthusiasm from outside the normal religious environment if given a chance.

Just my thought for the day!

Marc 

[David Pinnegar]

David is completely correct with his comment that showing more people the majesty and magnificence of the organ generates enthusiasm.

Fundamentally, in this current day and age, the showing of organs to the unconverted (I mean in a non religious manner) is getting increasingly more and more difficult because the masses choose not to go to the buildings containing these wonderful instruments, i.e. church. We can discuss until the cows come home about the demise of congregations, but fundamentally the organ needs to be made aware of outside of its normal home.

Dear Marc

Yes - spot on. The people who threw bad eggs and rotten tomatos at me on the Hauptwerk Forum do not understand this nor what I have been doing in bringing my "Beast" out of the cathedral and into a secular venue.

My next ambition is to construct a portable instrument - I have four manuals at the ready - to take into schools - but there is only a point in doing this if it's going to be used - so that means schools and school beaks who are receptive and interested - and organists better than I who see the point of such enthusiasm and are ENTHUSIASTIC to come and play it, whereever, and of course there's no money in it (unless we can find sponsorship) so very much for the pure desire of the spread of enthusiasm.

Why stop at schools? Town centres and shopping arcades? If buskers can busk then why can't organists be the Kings of busking?

It's for this reason that I hope that this forum might call together people with enthusiasm to join together in such projects.

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

Every now and again I see something like thishttp://www.waterlandblog.com/2010/10/11/go-from-bach-to-broadway-at-des-moines-united-methodist-church-nov-6/

So, it appears we are not alone in our battle to "bring the king" to the people or in this case the church is throwing its doors open to all to enjoy an instrument that they are rightly proud of and see it as a resource to further their ministerial goals.

I find it intriguing that the Calvinist churches in Northern Continental Europe did NOT use the organ for their religious services (Choral music unaccompanied by instruments of any type being the order of the day)  but had large instruments installed anyway for the performance of secular music when the building was not otherwise used for religious purposes... Especially as the church building was often the largest structure in town...

I found another interesting blog which was geared to Basketball fans, having to do with what could be done to make better the "fan experience" at games... 

And the first half-dozen reply comments were all Organ related!  Like... "More Organ Music, Please!"
and such...

Large municipal baseball parks built in the 1920's here in America generally included a significant pipe organ,  as much a part of the stadium as home plate...  Usually with the console oriented so the organist could view the action on the field and play whatever music seemed appropriate 'based'
(I know, bad pun ;) on what was observed.

I know of no surviving pipe organs currently in service at baseball parks, although they make do with electronics feeding the Public Address... Yuck. (Probably why I would rather attend an Organ Concert than a baseball game given a choice ;D

Basketball and Hockey venues are actually ideally suited to the installation of REAL pipe organs
especially if the pipework could be made light enough to suspend from the ceiling, ideally above the
central scoreboard/video display unit that generally has a huge stack of speakers for Public Address purposes as the seating is arranged around a much smaller court than say, "football".......

Until a new, modern stadium was built, the Chicago Blackhawks  Hockey team was accompanied by
a monster of a Barton "theater" organ... Six Manuals!  Alas, no room was made for the organ in the new stadium, the pipework was destroyed when a fire enveloped the facility where it was being stored, and only the console survives.



The recent Nobel Prize in Physics was given to a pair of fellas who may have developed a material
that might be the key to such installations...http://www.deccanherald.com/content/104044/promise-graphene.html

Moreover, virtually all of the new concert halls being constructed here in the USA all are equipped with 4000+ pipes arranged over 3-5 manuals and pedals, many with mechanical action and attached consoles, most of them having been built by C. B. Fisk & Company of Boston,  although a European company completed an organ in a concert hall in of all places, Madison, Wisconsin......

That "house organ" I mentioned in that section of the forum was at one time installed in a public High School...

Two Public High Schools in the Seattle School District have pipe organs installed in their respective
auditoriums... Franklin High contains what was once a cinema organ, a Kimball originally installed in
a theater in Everett, Washington, sold to the Seattle School District, and installed originally in Queen Anne High until the closure of that school in 1960.  The organ was removed, restored, and installed
at Franklin... http://www.pstos.org/instruments/wa/seattle/franklin.htm Roosevelt High School contains a redundant organ rescued by the Pipe Organ Foundation, rebuilt and rehoused at the high school.http://www.pipeorganfoundation.org/index.html 

The Washington School for the Blind in Vancouver, WA, also has a pipe organ, an Estey I believe...
with an interesting history. http://organsociety.bsc.edu/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=24886

A blind friend of mine who works for the state indicates the organ has in fact been restored and is again playable ;) 8)

A bit closer to home the South Kitsap School District has purchased land to be used to construct a badly-needed second High school,  so an opportunity exists here to  ensure that space for a suitable organ  is included in the building plans 8)   The Performing Arts Center in the current building just does not have any available space for a pipe organ.  :'(

But more needs to be done...

As far as a 'Touring Pipe Organ'  The Foort Moeller has been installed in a concert hall... In California... so its wandering days are over.  Guess I'm going to have to "bump" another thread...
Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

Changed my mind and am bumping this one instead, mainly because I found the link to a page on Youtube where an organist has been improvising his own transcriptions of music more familiar to
younger ears...

http://www.youtube.com/user/pgsoundtube

There is also a rather amusing one where someone played a song entitled "Mr. Crowley" on their church pipe organ, and then overdubbed the original song... Might be over on the "suggestions" column if you look at the link above but not promising anything...

There are some really talented organists on Youtube,  I just wished they all had decent audio recording facilities...

Eric
KB7DQH

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Eric - sorry to interrupt your line of thought but on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXx_IWTc_9c
this evening there is the comment:

I'm by no means an organ expert, but that really sounded wonderful - I really like the low bass notes on the pedals such as at 0:26 - they really add character to the piece.

YouTube is a great tool . . .

It's for this reason that it's great when performers are happy for people to post extracts from inspirational concerts and frustrating when performers are "prissey" about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IUG2YM1aHE is a magical performance - and uploaded over 2800 times . . .

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

And to take the thread in yet another direction.

I finally saw an announcement for an organ concert to be performed on an electronic instrument...

The SECOND electronic instrument installed at that church to replace an "aging" Moller pipe organ...


http://petersmusicnews.com/2010/10/organist-to-play-all-new-digital-organ-at-church-of-good-shepherd/

[KB7DQH]

The new Rogers organ is the result of nearly 20 years of development by technologists who insisted that a digital organ could be just as—if not even more—exciting in performance and sound that an air-driven pipe organ.

Quoted from the article linked to above... Really???  Likely a gimmick to get folks to attend the concert?
Or sell "supertoasters" :o :( >:(  :'(

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

OK..... Following the previous commercial announcement :o It is time to get back to the program...

and uploaded over 2800 times . . .

I suppose you mean "viewed"... But the performance was "posted" or "uploaded" to Youtube only ONCE...

I found a "non-traditional" organ performance that was so amazing and exciting for those who attended the concert (and brought video recording equipment) it was "uploaded" over 50 times to Youtube... So, there are more than 50 recordings of this performance from different locations within the hall, all of varying quality in terms of audio and video, some watched more than others, and the total number of "views"... I didn't bother to count but its in the TENS OF THOUSANDS... 8)


Well, the performance was, to a "classical organ fan" likely to be less than inspiring, :o
However, to the audience that didn't matter.  All one has to do is read through the thousands of comments on the 50-plus uploads to realize that the younger generations seem to be content with
a "mediocre" organ performance at best :-\   

One must bear in mind the music was actually written for and recorded in album form  with
a real pipe instrument.  Its performance live has very rarely taken place because of the lack of an available instrument :(  and thus a real treat for the audience of fans to "hear it live"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33WTdVRuBUs&feature=related
or evenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IwXyWnqgU&feature=related

So... Could we get them to play Boardwalk Hall when the Midmer-Losh 5550 roars back to life?
Now that would really be exciting...

Eric
KB7DQH

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Changed my mind and am bumping this one instead, mainly because I found the link to a page on Youtube where an organist has been improvising his own transcriptions of music more familiar to
younger ears...

http://www.youtube.com/user/pgsoundtube

There is also a rather amusing one where someone played a song entitled "Mr. Crowley" on their church pipe organ, and then overdubbed the original song... Might be over on the "suggestions" column if you look at the link above but not promising anything...

There are some really talented organists on Youtube,  I just wished they all had decent audio recording facilities...

Eric
KB7DQH

I think that the cleric of said church might have had something to say about his organist playing "Mr Crowley" on the organ... it's a song by former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne (off his 1980 album, Blizzard of Ozz), and the eponymous Mr (Aleister - sic) Crowley was a notorious occultist, promiscuous homosexual, freemason and drug abuser... I can say this for Muse, they're good musicians. Their frontman, Matt Bellamy, may not be much cop at the organ, but he's bloody marvellous on the piano (when he was buying a piano, he avoided today's excessively-bright, metallic Steinways and went straight to Bosendorfer - a man of taste, I think you'll agree! - and bought one of their huge Imperials). Incidentally, here's the organ on which that Muse song was originally recorded:
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=A00519

Unfortunately, the song itself seems to be vaguely anti-religious, anti-Christian (take a look at this to decide for yourself: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/megalomania-lyrics-muse/67baca79de767f2048256bc700109818) and, when it was being recorded, the priest at Bathwick asked to see the lyrics, and Bellamy just wrote a new set of (very innocuous) lyrics to deceive him.

[David Pinnegar]

Unfortunately, the song itself seems to be vaguely anti-religious, anti-Christian

. . . It's common knowledge that the Devil has all the best tunes . . . isn't it?

This is one reason why organs should be able to be enjoyed outside ecclesiatical surroundings. (For those who enjoy Religion, one might hope that if people enjoy the instrument then the call of the instrument might enable people to find christianity. I have remarked elsewhere however that historically Christianity has not been a brilliant advertisement for the power of Christs's teachings.

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

This event certainly shows some promise... Some selected quotes from the following article...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/10/music-review-los-angeles-bach-festival-concert-at-the-first-congregational-church.html

Everyone in the classical music business is trying to attract new and younger audiences to the great Western tradition, and First Congregational Church of Los Angeles is no exception. But who knew that the oldest Protestant church in the city could also be one of the coolest venues around for spreading the musical gospel? On Friday, five  food trucks were serving eager lines of customers at the curb, while KCRW's Tom Schnabel spun everything from jazzy saxophone riffs to Bollywood favorites in the church's spacious forecourt.

It was all part of a pre-concert party for the concluding weekend of the 77th Annual Los Angeles Bach Festival, which ends Sunday at the church with a performance of the composer's "St. John Passion." According to R. Scott Colglazier, senior minister, it's "the oldest Bach festival west of the Mississippi."

But before the concert, people could be heard talking about the church's organ. Indeed, in the benign war to keep classical music thriving,  First Congregational houses a secret weapon -- the largest church pipe organ in the world. Virgil Fox performed on it; so did Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. And when it came time to unleash the monster, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the church's organist-in-residence, S. Wayne Foster, did not disappoint. As the piece began, the chandelier lights flickered on and off a la "Phantom of the Opera," delighting a capacity audience that remained enthralled until the score's rousing climax shook the rafters.

After the concert, it was clear Bach's music, which no doubt put people in a good mood back in the 18th century, had not lost its special magic in 2010. One smiling guy in his twenties exiting among the diverse crowd was overheard telling a pal how much he enjoyed the music. But, he added, "Your butt sure gets sore sitting in a pew." Sit he did, however, from 9 p.m. until the concert ended at 10:45. Considering that the church's elaborate presentation was an experiment, that's probably a good sign that it succeeded.

-- Rick Schultz

So here is an example of an organ enjoyed WITHIN an ecclesiastical surrounding ??? ;) 8)

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

And yet another reason......

http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com/2010/11/good-luck-finding-organist.html

Now, it seems, many organs have gone silent due to a lack of people skilled to play them.  Well, actually, it is a lack of skilled people who are willing to put in the hours for what has become a low paying and high maintenance job.

The matter is not always money in a parish, I've had numerous organists who refused to be paid, in this case one must make sure that your volunteers have the best possible instrument and that it is in good condition, as well as encouragement,(do what you can to make their efforts a joy) support and the occasional workshop if they're so inclined. I also visited my in-laws recently renovated Catholic church, everything was repaired, restored, refinished except for the Pipe organ, that was left to rot away by choice while a keyboard is used instead. The money was there for repair and restoration, but it wasn't seen as a priority.

I have as of yet not looked at the ABC news article linked to in the blog, but will when I "get a minute"...

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

And now for a spot of "good news" 8)

  Occasionally the "average blogger" posts something like this:http://materfamiliasknits.blogspot.com/2011/01/loving-san-francisco.html

from which I will quote:

Serendipitously discovered Grace Cathedral during an organ rehearsal -- magnificent! if you've never heard a pipe organ played by a superb musician -- and not a recording, but on site, in the sacred acoustics it was made for -- put it on your list for 2011. I walked the indoor labyrinth (there's also an outdoor one I'd like to walk later) there as I listened, testing out the meditative, spiritual benefits on behalf of my good friend and neighbour Carol -- I may be a convert!

Town centres and shopping arcades? If buskers can busk then why can't organists be the Kings of busking?

And then This event http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU which has gone "completely viral"...
shows just what can happen a hundred years after you purchase a disused pipe organ, install it in your department store and expand it over the next two decades into one of the world's biggest musical instruments...

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

I " found" a "church organ discussion" if you will-  in a VERY unlikely place...

and follows is the link...

I would encourage all who stumble here to "Stop, Open, and REED!"

http://www.stainlesssteelcoffeepercolator.net/would-you-rather-have-your-church-go-all-organ-music-all-the-time-or-be-stuck-making-the-coffee-every-sunday.htm

My father, earlier in his life taught English and Music... Even won a substantial cash prize for one of his compositions...  invented a word that adequately described most of the coffee served at church on Sunday...

"Churchy"

Basically, the opposite of "Truckers' Coffee

For the uninitiated in these matters, "Truckers' Coffee" is brewed so as to hold up a spoon placed vertically into the cup...  Not unlike Espresso...

You can guess, I think, what "churchy" coffee is like.

All too often there I believe is a perception that the Organ is "churchy"...  Especially in Church?

Some of the responses in the link above seem to think so and thus they care not for the sound of the "King of Instruments"... the balance being far more "positiv" ;D Great ;D Swell ;D...etc...

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

... Because people write letters to the editor of newspapers like this...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8338853/Going-electric-to-keep-the-church-organ-in-tune.html#disqus_thread

Eric
KB7DQH

[Holditch]

"Only the discerning purist can detect the sound differences between the two."

There must be lots of purists out there, because I can definately tell the difference!