Organ matters - Organs matter!

http://newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/an_organ_comes_back_to_life/id_27286

I know of installations in Roosevelt High School and Franklin High school, both in Seattle, WA...

Eric
KB7DQH

The American Guild for Organists sponsors these events all over the USA, in the summer months,
so as to allow young musicians the chance to learn about, hear and play the pipe organ.

A few news articles and blogs related to these events follow...

http://www.newstimes.com/entertainment/article/New-England-pipe-organ-Encounter-features-5-537557.php

http://more.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/0/6498315f0b3a07d086257747000567f3?OpenDocument&Click=

http://codymeadlife.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-2010-part-3.html

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/28/2853529/river-park-church-sets-stage-for.html

Eric
KB7DQH

Listing has expired...
Eric
KB7DQH

Link to the website of an organ consultant and journalist...  In particular an article he wrote about a small but historically significant instrument in a small  town not really "near" me, but still a comfortable
day's drive from my doorstep...

http://homepage.mac.com/glarehead/ambrosino/p-walla-walla.html

http://homepage.mac.com/glarehead/ambrosino/index2.html

Sidebar with the article linked below has the concert information...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/music/s_686508.html

Eric
KB7DQH

http://smsgpipeorgan.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/tribute-to-sir-edward-elgar/




Yet another...http://strausnews.com/articles/2010/06/10/new_jersey/arts_and_entertainment/14.txt

Eric
KB7DQH

News story to follow:      http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100603/ARTICLE/6031085/2055/NEWS

For whatever reason I was unable to connect... Server down?  Over a US holiday weekend... and then some...  Glad it's back up...

Eric
KB7DQH

  But it did make it  here...   http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/06/01/festival-set-to-hit-the-right-notes-91466-26560470/&ct=ga&cad=:s7:f1:v0:i0:lt:e0:p0:t1275403654:&cd=YcMKg99rYeo&usg=AFQjCNErqrvE4d1ytdPGnTS36J2pljw0lQ

I would have gotten this posted sooner but this forum went on holiday along with the rest of the USA this past weekend...

Eric
KB7DQH

Here would be a good place (by replying to this post? ;) to list programming that would be of interest, such ashttp://pipedreams.publicradio.org/  orhttp://www.gothic-catalog.com/The_Organ_Loft_s/685.htm  that may be available in your
area of the planet...

Eric
KB7DQH

Here... In Puget Sound... Seattle...

http://www.atos.org/conventions/2010/

Although not the greatest digital representation, let the audio track load and play anyway... Great fun...

Eric
KB7DQH

http://acusticumorgan.com/specification

That's almost scary... :o 8) :o ;D ;D ;D 8)

Now Europe has a floorpounder!

Well, almost... Turns out from reading the general discussion section of the Hauptwerk forum the organ's  Infrabass 64' is actually a resultant ??? :o >:(

Eric
KB7DQH

http://www.ibp.fraunhofer.de/akustik/ma/index_e.html

Link above gives a general idea as to what they are up to...

Eric
KB7DQH

A bunch of articles relevant to this forum, believe it or not.  I started by sticking "pipe voicing" into Google
and this
http://asadl.org/

pops up...   Lots of fascinating stuff there 8) 8) 8)

Would be even more fun to have the full text of the papers online but this would likely require joining the organization in question...  But even the abstracts are fun to contemplate...

Eric
KB7DQH

Following is a link to  the Acoustical Society of America...

A great number of documents exploring a great number of aspects of the science of acoustics...
Even  a surprising number of documents involving, you guessed it, pipe organs...
There are PHYSICISTS writing position papers on of all things, unequal temperament 8)
Not to mention contributions from organ builders...


http://asadl.org/

Eric
KB7DQH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWnzzCCt3Os andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDlVGMESy3Y are two different versions of the same music played on two different organs but in a similar, dry acoustic.
So for the "cd" version the recording was "wetted" with reverb to make the "room sound bigger".

This certainly demonstrates what can happen with doing ( or overdoing?) the reverb...

My personal opinion is the added reverb didn't tail as naturally as a well-built large acoustic structure, like a concert hall.  But it did, I think, simulate perfectly  the effect of slamming up concrete walls in a small room... that is, the sound has "no place to go" so it just rattles around and annoyingly mushes the notes together.   

Too much reverb in a space is relatively easy to remove by hanging tapestries at intervals throughout the space... A very artistic method... and one used by a local university in their concert hall (equipped with a wonderful pipe organ) to adjust the acoustic of the room.

The public high school I attended has a real theater, equipped with a fiberglass acoustical shell
which can be erected to keep the sound of an orchestra or other musical act playing on stage
focused into the auditorium rather than allowing it to get lost in the flyloft.   This device does, however, require a few hours to assemble or disassemble.  But it does effectively move the sound
out into the space where it is meant to be heard.

Although "state-of the art" for 1981 when it was designed, its "electrical-acoustical-unit" sound reinforcement was, and I imagine still is, effective in enhancing the acoustics of the place when used appropriately.  It included a Lexicon digital reverb unit which could be adjusted a number of different ways and could take a sound picked up by a stage microphone (or electronic reproduction equipment)  and could "hold" it for seventy seconds!

Last week I heard a small organ in a small, acoustically "neutral" space-- It sounded much "bigger"
than I imagined it ever could have...  Yes, carpeted floor! But this was coupled with an extremely reflective "vaulted" ceiling... and unpadded,   hardwood pews.  One could speak without amplification and be clearly heard throughout the space... I am guessing 30 meters long by 10 meters wide or thereabouts.

So there you go...

Eric

Has anyone tried this?
May provide an "electricity-free" solution to a problem that manifest itself in the design of
this organ:
http://www.pasiorgans.com/instruments/opus19prop.html

My thought is to employ a "master/slave" cylinder mechanism not unlike what is employed automotively, to, well...   stop... or disengage the clutch if equipped with a manual transmission...
but scaled appropriately for use in opening pallets in windchests with reasonable touch.

Doing this would likely involve a hydraulic mechanism radically different from what one thinks about   
in the previous paragraph to accomplish this.

Tubing material is available from landscape irrigation supply points by the mile at really low cost.
The working fluid would depend on the environment of the organ installation I would think... and one would desire something with similar thermal expansion characteristics as the tubing, otherwise the keydesk could change height with temperature ;D  Nothing too exotic... One could "make do" with a 50/50 mix of glycol engine coolant and water  for starters.

Some low-cost facility would have to be provided upon installation and maintenance cycles to "bleed" the system.  Air in the hydraulics would be disastrous :o :o :o  resulting in a "spongy" action 
up to the extreme condition of a dead note >:(

Yes, something more for the engineers of the world who enjoy beautiful music to think about ;D

Eric
KB7DQH

 8) 8) 8) All I can say is, "WOW"       http://www.pasiorgans.com/instruments/opus19prop.html
8) 8) 8)

All You Dom Bedos fans, pay particular attention to Paragraph Two on the page linked above 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

QuoteThe organ is tuned in "Mark Brombaugh Mild," an unequal temperament that favors the keys nearest to C major while still remaining harmonious in the most distant keys.

Just in case you were wondering...

This is the "big organ" 8)        http://www.saintmarks.org/Worship/Music/FlentropTechnical.php

and good recordings could be found here:

http://www.gothic-catalog.com/

Specifically:http://www.gothic-catalog.com/French_on_Flentrop_Melvin_Butler_p/lrcd-1013.htm

There is a selection from the album linked above which I recorded off-the-air.  Once I get the CD in my hot little hand it should come in handy for abusing home and vehicular audio equipment.  Much more fun than  :o Hip-Hop ;D  8)

And a recently posted Youtube  video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k8pfJozihc