It was a member here on this forum who helped me to grapple with my faith and belief and finally junk the anthropomorphised analogue of the Creator with the simple statement "God is Love".
There are many who grow up without Love and don't understand it. What is it? Working Together in the widest, deepest, most holistic sense with everyone, every living being, everything, the planet, the universe, circumstances . . . Because Working Together is truly the Creator . . .
invisible
everywhere
all powerful
eternal
responsible for creating everything . . .
Three quarks work together to make a proton. Protons and electrons work to make atoms . . . right the way up to biological structures . . . and our organs (forgive the pun) working together to give us the Divine (what is Divine? Working Together) gift of the breath of life. And the breath of life works together as the sound that gives the name which must never be said . . . . Aahay or Aayah . . . . and the understanding of which gives to the heart of the religions in worship of Yahweh and A**ah (ll as in Mallorca, Maiyorca) - the saying of which destroys the sound that they represent and its significance. Thus the second line of the Lord's Prayer.
So what has the Church got to do with pronouncements on sex? Sex is just one way of people working together. Abuse of sex comes through not working together. How people want to enjoy sex in the form of working together not a matter on which religions should pronounce as long as it leads to . . . Working Together.
The recent pronouncement by the Church of England is a prohibition against different ways of different people working together and contrary to "Working Together"
The law of the universe is that stuff that doesn't work together isn't here . . . it either never existed or ceases to exist pretty fast.
If the human race doesn't work together with its planet, then the human race will cease to exist.
Where would you be if your father's sperm had not worked together with your mother's egg.
Where would you be if your organs stopped working together?
Where would you be if your genes didn't work together?
Decisions have to work together to produce an event. If the decisions don't work together, then no event results. So working together is the creator in more than the material world, it is the creator in the time domain too, the domain of process, and leads to the Sea of Circumstances upon which I've written before.
Religions that don't acknowledge Love, Working Together, as the source of creation will cease to exist and those religions which don't work together with other religions are seen for what they are, empty of Working Together.
Unfortunately the Church Of England has fallen to base animal instinct of tribalism, and together with the organs in its churches, will cease to exist.
In my opinion the Hauptwerk project and associated sample sets are really important for being able to introduce us to different types and styles of instrument, and repertoire.
But Hauptwerk is . . . well people make criticisms of Hauptwerk that are well known. Not only that but getting any sort of response for a request for help is simply out of the question unless upon a very commercial basis. Goodwill is held for naught.
And then there are creators of sample sets created for version 4.2 which simply don't run on version 4.1. In this category is one of the instruments sampled by Piotr Grabowski http://www.piotrgrabowski.pl/ as well as all the organs painstakingly sampled in Malta https://maltesepipeorgans.webs.com/ where there is an extraordinary collection of pipe organs both original and of historic importance as well as a number imported, installed, restored and maintained by Robert Buhagiar.
So it's a real pleasure to see two new software projects coming along.
One is Organteq from the makers of Pianoteq. The piano software is really extraordinary and the organ software from the same stable works really well - https://www.modartt.com/organteq and it will be a pleasure to see future development of this.
The other is Grand Organ which I haven't had the opportunity of trying yet but looks interesting and created with an ethos of helping and promoting the future of real existing pipe organs. https://digitalvpo.com/
Andrew Jones designed the software from scratch, he says, following the maths of the appropriate tasks. He writes:
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However, this isn’t just yet another VPO up for sale. Our project from the outset was to try and make VPO less threatening and actually help the pipe organs they imitate. It was also important to us to encourage more young organists by offering it to them for free, and any proceeds that come from the software and sample sets, actually goes back to help protect and maintain the real thing.
Our staff donate their time freely. The costs of running the company are relatively low, so we are able to pass on more than just token donations to the organ funds.
We also specialise in helping create a new sampled organ, perhaps which may need some help and restoration, and making a digital replica available, to raise funds for that organ. In most cases we offer this without taking any proportion of the proceeds. On a case by case basis.
We also like to intervene as early as possible for organs which are otherwise playable but at risk, which can be sampled and at least preserved digitally before they rot. Again, if we can help stop that organ being at risk, then we will. We are only limited by how much support we get from the organ community.
In my opinion this is the true spirit of organ enthusiasm and just what the organ world needs.
It seems utterly impossible to get any response from Milan Digital Audio to the point of driving one to distraction.
Hammerwood has been given a particularly wonderful 4 manual Hauptwerk instrument but with some rather old technology now, and takes ages to load.
I've bought a 1Tb SSD. Can anyone advise me what should be loaded onto the SSD? I understand that SSD units should be read from but not written to very much so it seems that for longevity it's rather vital to ensure the right software components are stored there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk4iVold0eU is a Positif instrument, hand blown, demonstrating how with manual manipulation of the bellows phrasing can be extremely natural and beautiful . . .
Pianoteq software has led computer synthesis of pianos for some time and is an incredibly valuable resource for research of sounds of different instruments, and importantly, tunings.
Modartt have now launched Organteq which promises to be hard competition for Hauptwerk . . . .
It's well worth trying and we're going to see advances apace.
Based on the philosophy of synthesis rather than replay of recorded sounds, the advantage of Modartt software is a low footprint on memory and processor resources. Their piano software https://www.modartt.com/pianoteq is demonstrably good even on basic laptop facilities and reasonably well brings the character of different nuances of pianos to the fore. When they refine and expand their sources beyond Cavaillé Colle, this software will be the go-to solution for easily configurable organs.
I haven't been particularly enamoured with a certain high profile performer but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGbVnxj8DyE puts him into a very different light. Perhaps as he matures we'll find that respect is very much deserved.
HAMMERWOOD PARK presents The Importance of Tuning for Better Performance Monday 6th May 2019 - Arrival 10.30 for 11am - 5pm
This unique seminar day organised by Hammerwood Park, supported by the Finchcocks Charity for Music Education and PIANOTEQ, aims to look importance tuning plays in the appreciation of musical performance, creativity in music and the ability of music to communicate. The day will be hosted by tuning specialist David Pinnegar and will include presentations and demonstrations given by professional musicians who have experienced creative differences from tuning in different ways. These musicians include the international renowned pianist and Chopin expert Adolfo Barabino and a host of musicians with international performance and recording experience. The day will include tea/coffee and refreshments, but will not include lunch. Please bring your own lunch. Tickets for the day are £30 and include access to all presentations and performances. For further information and ticket sales please contact Hammerwood Park on : 01342 850594 Website : http://www.hammerwood.mistral.co.uk/ concerts.htm Tickets are also available on PayPal at the following email : antespam@gmail.com Hammerwood Park, Hammerwood, East Grinstead, East Sussex, RH19 3QE
Among electronic organ facilities I have a soft spot for the versatility of their CM100 extension module. For that reason I was looking at their site and found https://viscountorgans.net/st-lukes-church-pipe-organ/ with news of an instrument needing urgent rescue.
Electronic manufacturers have been thought of as the deathknell of pipe instruments but when one sees enthusiasm such as we see here, it's really wonderful to see where David Mason's heart is.
I was inspired by Percy Scholes' question "How could the Bach 48 have been played on Dr Burney's piano?". In the late 18th century pianos in England were tuned to Meantone. How long did this endure? My researches into Mozart suggested that Meantone was important to interpretation of Mozart's music.
What about Beethoven? A friend visited and kindly recorded The Tempest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV0bkcSr_Kg . In my view it adds to the magical atmosphere alluded to in the presumed association with Shakespeare's play.
The apparently increasing decline of interest in organs is depressing. I think it's associated with a lack of familiarity and a failure of the Church, which is why in the pasty I have encouraged philosophical contemplation of theology and a rebellion against the evangelical simplitism of the 1970s to encourage something deeper. Such, indeed is encouraged "When we are a child we see as a child . . . etc . . . but then we put away childish things. . . . We see as through a glass darkly but then face to face."
The problem is that because none are encouraged to grow from the child view and the child view doesn't measure up to really what is the source of creation of all, it's rejected. For this reason the modern church is empty, barren of meaning in common sense and experience, and dying.
This instrument is for sale on account of the passing of its builder. Originally working with a pipe-organ organ builder he went on to become a connoisseur of instruments and of French Baroque in particular and the console is constructed to perfection.
Anyone interested please contact me and I will put you in touch with his widow.
I've recently completed research which led me into writing a paper to be published shortly in being asked to talk to the Friends of the London Mozart Players about "The Colour of Tuning in Mozart's time"
A video of the lecture is on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt-ttLY5ex8 . It was as a result of Arthur Ord-Hume writing in respect to 18th century barrel organs that the tuning made one wince, and that it was intended to, that the penny dropped that Mozart should be auditioned in no less than 1/4 comma meantone. Upon doing so, his piano sonatas revealed most interesting results - it was like developing a photograph, and Mozart's Fantasias in F minor made more sense on two ranks of pipes, as written for, rather than the muscular interpretation we've all enjoyed on full organ with equal temperament.
According with and making audible Schubart's description of the character of each key, written in 1787, I wondered if we might have got the wrong end of the stick with regard to Bach's 48 preludes and fugues for well tempered clavier. The lecture includes demonstrations and those with meantone tuned organs might experiment starting in C with a plain diapason, registering the keys known to Schubart for increasing brightness, and registering the dark keys as in the lecture demonstration, with a mournful Stopped Diapason or Leiblich Gedakt. The cycle of compositions seems to make sense and to work, indicating that it might not have been written to celebrate new tuning but actually to exploit the emotional "Affekt" of each key.
I've recently completed writing a paper for a lecture about "The Colour of Tuning in Mozart's Time" and made some interesting discoveries.
The Mozart Fantasias written for Mechanical Organ are usually given an enjoyably muscular treatment in performance on the organ and no doubt we've all enjoyed them that way.
However, they were actually written in F minor, as most things of the period were written in F minor, on the subject of death, death of a Hero. He'd been valiant in the Battle of Belgrade and an art installation was created to commemorate his death and life, rather in the nature of what one might see at the Tate Modern. He was to be seen encased in a glass coffin, surrounded by mirrors asking for our reflection upon the scene, a mourning Turkish woman and guards, mournful, standing to attention. Surmounted by a clock, the inevitable issues of time were to come to mind, eternity, truncation of life, marching on of events, of soldiers marching.
How much of this scene does a conventional interpretation evoke, or rather if you can imagine the scene, how would a conventional interpretation add to the melancholy and to the reflection upon the sight before you?
The secret was in the tuning of the organ pipes to Meantone. Only then could the F minor evoke all the passions of
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Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave
And the next secret was to register the performance on the ranks of pipes which would have been used by the mechanical organ of a mechanical clock.
Contemporary accounts referred to the sound of flutes and a bassoon. So a Stopped Diapason and a reed with truncated resonators, not taking up much space in the clock organ, for the bass.
The performance was said to have taken 8 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJVisln4ghM goes some way to that. But even that performance on a mechanical organ doesn't quite convey the emotion which a performance in Meantone has automatically inherent.
Topics - David Pinnegar
