Hi all!
First of all i'm going to tell that I am portuguese. Portugal hasn't a very developed culture of organ meybe because iberian organs are very limited.
I hear records of french organs and german organ and the sound is wonderful.
when I searched for American organs I found several organs. Really big organs! There was organs with 5,6 and even 7 manual.
I took a look on youtube to find some records. So, I searched the 2nd biggest organ in the world, the Wanamaker Organ, Philadelphia. I thought: "Woh! That must be wonderful!"
In my opinion, that organ sound is too artificial. Then I searched other organs in USA and they have all the same artificial sound.
I know that the sound comes from the pipes.
But my questions are: Is that sound from the records? Do they make the pipes to sound more artificially? Do you like the sound that way?
Lombardo :grin:
Well, to me, the bigger is not necessarily the better. Many modern American instruments might be huge both in size and specifications, but they lack in sound depth. You cant really compare European organs with American ones.
In EU organs are all about Baroque, Early music, and Romantic ones.
In the same way that you cant compare a Cavaille Coll with a Silberman you cant compare the EU organs as a whole with the US organs.
So, and American organ might give you the extremes like THE loudest THE biggest THE THE THE blah blah blah, but it will certainly not give you THE best. I am really no big fan of the Wannamaker. I dont say that it is a bad instrument, not at all, it is just not for my taste. What is the point of having all these stops (most of which are exactly the same just stored it different divisions)?
EU organs, as well as many other things have a deeper less superficial history and each of them had a reason for which it was constructed. According the specific period for which we are talking , each organ had some unique characteristics. Lets say, you cant compare the original Spanish trumpets (Trompetta Magna, Tromba di Battala and so on) with a contemporary Chamade stop. It is just different. You might visit 10 organs in the US and remember a single sound colour. In EU, each organ you will visit is almost all the times unique.
As for what makes the sound different...
Each pipe in an organ is constructed out of one or more materials. These are usually Zink, Tin, Wood, and Lead. Now, the material is not the only factor taking place in how a pipe will sound. The procedure and the way the pipe was made (in other word the unique pipe designs) make an organ sound different from another one. For instance lets compare french mixtures, with German ones. They are 2 completely different things!
Also, another factor is the wind supply of an organ. A contemporary instrument most of the time has a clinically steady air flow. Older organs have a more imperfect less clinical air flow which results in a slight fluctuation in the sound that is produced.
One of the biggest factors that make an organ sound unique, is the acoustics and the room itself in which the organ was built, as well as the place that the various divisions of the organ are placed.
Another approach to the matter would be comparing an old steinwey with a new Yamaha. Everything is more factorised (my word
)
You can never really judge from a recording. Since an organ sounds different if you stand in various places in a church or cathedral, what you hear in a recording is the sound of the organ from a particular perspective and not as it would have been in real life.
Hope this answers some of your questions,
Cheers,
Nicholas