Carillion of Westminster at Westminster

[Contratrombone64]

I love the photo montage, especially the fabulous mixture stops shown at the beginning of this wonderful piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hyli...eature=related

[Krummhorn]

And, of course, Simon Preston playing which is always superb .

[wljmrbill]

As usual well done by Preston..; Enjoyed very much. I always like the sound of this instrument anyway.. love those big old echo cathedrals.... even if they are hard to play in.. or with the delay was at times for me.

[Contratrombone64]

Mr Bill - yes, I agree, as glorious as the big echo-cathedrals seem (as you so quaintly put them) they must muddy the sound a lot. To be sure, the wonderful Louis Vierne, and his contemporaries who were trail-blazing with "orchestral" organ compositions, was accutely aware of the reverberation of such venues. I mean, those thunderous reeds that the French (C-Coll especially) conjured up are to be heard and dumbfounded by, yes?

The English, whilst amazing organ builders, just couldn't match the sound of their noisy French pedal monsters, eh?

[Krummhorn]

I would thoroughly enjoy playing in a reverberant building after nearly 28 years playing in a church whose acoustical properties resemble a carpet lined closet, filled with clothing. I stay at this church primarily because it's the only Lutheran church in the southern part of the state with a pipe organ.

Actually, having played in both types of venues (live building versus dead) over the years, playing in the dead acoustic environment requires lots more skill ... every note, including the wrong ones, are heard .

It's true, what you say about the English organs David. The french reeds, especially those in the C-Coll's are magnificient ... even the smaller scale solo reeds have a special quality all their own.

[Dorsetmike]

I'm only a listener, not a player, so I'm not an expert on reeds, but I quite enjoy the sound of this orchestral trumpet, a snippet from Gigout's Grande Choeur Dialogue on Wimborne Minster organ played by Martin Schellenberg.

[dll927]

I sometimes wonder how much of the sound of a piece is the organ and how much is the acoustics. Needless to say, they go tegether, but any given organist in one of those big cathedrals has the reverberation matter to attend to. My own suspicion would be that you have to watch tempi, certainly in such things as contrapuntal music (Bach, e.g.) or a romping toccata. Too fast, and it just all goes unnoticed.

Yes, Vierne, or anyone in that situation would surely be aware of it, and I doubt if the acoustics in either Notre Dame or West. Abbey have changed to any serious degree.

As for voicing of pipes, that seems to be as much talent as anything --and some of them certainly know how to do it.

[Drawstop]

As far as I am concerned the English organ is built to accompany the worship of the church, something quite different to French organs. I love our cathedral organs and have been privileged to play many of them.