This is a question to all of you reading this forum. I'm curious as to what your connections/interests are regarding the pipe organ. What got you interested in the organ? What are your areas of interest regarding organ music, technique, and the instrument itself?
Thomas Dressler
What I'm drawn to is the versatility, and the extreme dynamic possibilities, including (a bit childish) the opportunity to make so enormous noise, beating the electric guitar and the whole rock-world with lengths...
Mainly, it's the music that I'm interested in, though I'm sure I will find the nature of the organ exciting to study some day. But at the time, it's the works of especially Rued Langgaard on which I spend my time - not to mention the considerable challenge it is simply to learn how to play that thing.
HAHA well I'm 43 and I still like playing on the plenum (full organ!) (So it's not childish. Or maybe I'm still childish. LOL)
Again, I'd love to hear more about people's interests. Are there any organ BUILDERS reading this? How many people have tried early techniques, like early fingerings? What composers do you like? What kinds of organs do you like?
My first great impression was from attending an organ concert of Virgil Fox in Los Angeles many many years ago. The organ console was buried in a pit and they had place a large angled mirror on top of the console, so that all could see this virtuoso organist play!!
I have patterned my personal playing techniques on the two greats of my era: The late Virgil Fox and the late E. Power Biggs. I like to employ the schmulz of Fox as well as the exact performance style of Biggs, but not both at the same time!!
As tom said, it's the versatility and power of the instrument that is so attractive. And there is a special something in its sound, something I can't put my finger on.
I don't play the organ so I can't say anything about technique and instruments. But being mechanically minded, my interest in the instrument itself is in the way it works: windchests, different kinds of mechanisms etc. Its history also interests me. Bach's organ music really got me interested in the instrument.
Music wise I'm mainly interested in the Baroque; Bach and pre-Bach. Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel are the ones I listen to. I would like to hear more of Reinken, Lübeck, Sweelinck, Böhm, Bruhns and Strunck. Hardly come across their music.
After coming to this forum I have started exploring modern organ music like Widor, Vierne, Franck, Reger. I quite like some of it!
I'm surprised this question has got such a low response. Why is no one posting?
Cheers,
Drinklicafix
Well ok, I'll add a reply thenOriginally Posted by Drinklicafix
I'm surprised this question has got such a low response. Why is no one posting?! I can't hear a pipe organ without feeling (or imagining I'm feeling) something deep & profound - I don't know why that is - and as has been said, the range of the instrument is without peer. I tend towards French modern - Franck, Widor, Vierne, Tournemire, Alain, Langlais & Durufle. As I've only been having lessons for a couple of months, I can't ever imagine being able to play most of it unfortunately. I remember being particularly inspired by a performance in Paris St Sulpice, but that was long before I ever imagined I might learn to play. I'm not mechanically minded but I like the versatility of the instrument and the fact that you need to move around a lot to play it!
Wils
OK, here is my case. I feel an irresistible attraction to the sound of the organ, and especially to the timbre and the details of the sound. No other music instrument attracts me so much with the sound alone. Then there is the unbelievable diversity of organs and the uniqueness of each of them. The very long uninterrupted history of this instrument, from ancient Greece up to now, is for me one more factor that helps to build more fascination around the organ. Also, the massive decorations that many older organs have, are today a precious historical and artistic element, different from music but created to serve visually the music performed on the organ.
And last but not least is the polyphony for which the organ is capable. It is the polyphony instrument by excellence, requiring all the members of a human to be used in order to be played properly (in that sense I view it as an element symbolising life). Now the point is that I consider the polyphonic perfection achieved by J. S. Bach as one of the most important conquests of the human spirit, because this is not just music. It has many intellectual elements in it reflected in the balance between mathematical perfection and "rigid" techniques from the one hand, and the incredible expressivity and the wealth of musical ideas on the other hand. But the hearer needs special training and knowledge before being capable to approach this new world and appreciate it as it deserves. And this only adds to the intellectual value of the contrapunctual nature of this music. Other composers followed the paradigm to some extend (my favorite is M. Reger) and reached new levels. But the organ is the only genuine carrier and fertile ground for such ideas.
Oh, after all that, the power of the tutti in a big organ is an extra bonus.
Well... I'm drawn by the irresistable feeling to play and hear the wonderfully virsital sounds the organ can produce.[With a little love and affection
I'm also interested in the amazing complexity of how it all works.
I got interested in organ by pure accident and happenstance. But I have always been drawn to the incredible sound of hundreds of "voices" at the same time, and can listen to a well-played organ for hours and hours, just taking in the sounds if not neccesarily melody and organist skill.
What catches me about the organ is probably the sheer power of having hundreds or thousands of pipes underneath your fingers - the power of sending chills down peoples neck and, in church situations, of determining HOW and WHEN they sing, and WHAT they sing
I also absolutely love to pull everything and make the organ thunder with all that it has out in an full-packed churchroom - maybe it is a quite common notion? The opposite is also true: A single, beautifull 8" flute, and a 16" bass in the pedals with the 8" coppled to the pedals, and then play simple, medium-pace compositions (or just the 8" for pieces without pedal notes).
Another thing that makes me all fuzzy and warm are all the old organs with stories older than methusalem - from the 1700's, 1800's etc. I can spend hours snooping around a little (or big) old organ, retrieving bits and pieces of the past, reconstructing its history, puzzling about how it might have looked originally, scoff at misplaced changes and admire well integrated modernisations. (My grandpa was a carpenter, it has stuck). Sometimes the snooping and looking thing is better than the actual *playing*.
My ambition? Learn. Everything there is to know about organs. Everything that can be played. Play beautifull music and communicate the beauty of the hundreds of thousands of pipes to the "common man". I also want to learn how to play bells (word?) and learn how to combine those two things. (Here in Løgumkloster we have a transportable set of bells that can be rolled off its dolly and into a church room, for example - and a concert for choir, organ and bells is really something to be heard)
Last edited by Danmakine; Jan-10-2007 at 22:05.
Hurrah to you! And especially admirable is the desire to communicate the beauty of the organ to the "common man." This has been my desire as well, from the time I was about 15 or so. I have gone down some esoteric pathways in studying performance practices, but my position has always been that it is the job of the performer to know the intricacies of performance, but present them as simply as possible to the audience. And in our present society which understands less and less about "classical" music, we need to present our music carefully and with LOTS of enthusiasm. Looks like you've got the enthusiasm! Terrific!
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