Olde Englishe organs

[Dorsetmike]

Just discovered that the National pipe organ register also has some sound files recorded on various historic instruments of music by some of the lesser known English composers.

Try this one for starters

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/NPaud...93&Code=3&No=5

For detail of the organ and other pieces played on it

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsear...c_index=N01293

Detail of the sound archive project

http://www.npor.org.uk/hosa_info.shtml

The John Stanley piece was originally written for keyboard and strings; to hear samples of the work with strings click on the tracks highlighted in red on this site --

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/01Web.html

I'll have a browse through more of these and see what other gems I can find.

[drwilx]

Great link Mike!

Thanks for the link (npor)

Dennis

[Dorsetmike]

My browsing today found these

My favourite of the day, (a work I had a go at on GrandOrgue might be interesting to attempt a VPO reconstruction of the instrument, Panos?)

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/NPaud...10&Code=3&No=2

on this organ

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsear...c_index=N04410

-------------------------------------------------

A composer I don't think I've heard before

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/NPaud...12&Code=3&No=4

on this organ

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?F
n=Rsearch&rec_index=D06912

-----------------------------------------------
Something a little better known

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/NPaud...10&Code=3&No=6

On this 1900 Willis

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsear...c_index=N06410

[teddy]

Thanks for the links Mike. I have to admit something unexpected has been happening to me since I joined this forum. I have found an interest in organs and their music.

teddy

[Contratrombone64]

I hate to criticise this thread BUT the national pipe organ register is NOT user friendly. It really needs a rethink.

[Soubasse]

I'd certainly prefer to see more names rather than "catalogue numbers." More photos would be nice too. I guess we've been a little spoiled down here with OHTA's somewhat fastidious attention to detail on their site. Mind you, I don't envy the task of archiving every instrument in the UK, given how long some of them have been around!

Thanks for the links Mike, I'm enjoying them even though some of the Flash links are painfully slow to load (but it does have a long way to come!). I'm sure I've seen some Samuel Long pieces in some collections (possibly the "Old English Organ Music for Manuals" books or such like). I will confess to a fondness for the sounds of an old Willis organ, managed to play one when in the UK. However, the most fun I had there was 3 hours on a Saturday evening on the magnificent Harrison & Harrison in Durham Cathedral.

Nicholson have also made some lovely instruments.

Walker of course ...

sigh, memories

[Contratrombone64]

Ah Durham Cathedral - a glorious space. I must agree, except I think I like Ely Cathedral better.

[Ghekorg7]

OK guys this is a great Link ! Thanks Mike!
I've been in Durham in 1980, great Cathedral, but I like Ely better too !

VPO RECONSTRUCTION - YES ! great idea.

As we are now I can give you in a couple of days a jOrgan v.310 disposition of Russell St.Clement Organ. I have samples (from other English organs) of almost every stop it has except this Hautboy 8' stop. What is it? It's a reed stop? How it sounds? Is there an alternative I can use instead? Some work needed with Viena editor to split stopped diapasson 8' in Bass/treble (like the Italian principale 8'...).
Anyone interested tell me so.

The other one is more difficult. The basic thing is to have these organs sampled on every stop they got and then we can make a .wav bank for use in any VPO program HW3, GO & jOrgan !

[Dorsetmike]

Panos, Hautboy corrupt spelling of hautbois should translate to English as Oboe, There is one in Steihr Mockers.

[Ghekorg7]

Panos, Hautboy corrupt spelling of hautbois should translate to English as Oboe, There is one in Steihr Mockers.

Thanks Mike ! I got some Hautbois 8' stop samples (except SM of course) .
OK, so the main work is to split the stopped diapasson in two (it will take me some time with viena editor...) and can reconstruct a VPO version of Russell Organ (witch btw I liked much !) for jORGAN v.310(latest) !

I'll go for a try....

[Contratrombone64]

Panos, Hautboy corrupt spelling of hautbois should translate to English as Oboe, There is one in Steihr Mockers.

And, of course, as we all studied French in high school "hautbois" is a corruption, literally translates as "high wood" (where high (haut) indicates perfection, not height)

[Ghekorg7]

I try to imagine an oboe as a high wood .......
Is by any chance because the Hautbois stop pipes were placed high on organs ? (!!!!)lol

[Krummhorn]

Mike, thanks for this wonderful thread ... I just got around to looking it through today and fully enjoyed the musical examples.

It's interesting the difference in voicing of English organs in comparison to what we are used to hearing here across the pond. Very different, but completely enjoyable, too.

[Soubasse]

I try to imagine an oboe as a high wood .......
Is by any chance because the Hautbois stop pipes were placed high on organs ? (!!!!)lol

Good question! It would depend on where the Recit division was built since that's where most Hautbois ranks tend to reside.
Some Cornets were placed on a separate, higher windchest to the rest of the pipes (hence the term "mounted cornet" which sounds more like a guy on a horse eating an ice-cream). Haven't heard of a mounted Oboe though (pause and tries to think of some innuendo ... can't ... damn)

Re Ely - certainly loved the building for sure, but didn't get to play the organ there so of the two, I'm kind of biased to Durham!

[Dorsetmike]

Mike, thanks for this wonderful thread ... I just got around to looking it through today and fully enjoyed the musical examples.

It's interesting the difference in voicing of English organs in comparison to what we are used to hearing here across the pond. Very different, but completely enjoyable, too.

Lars, might it be that most of the organs played in this project are older, mainly "village church", instruments rather than more recent ones. IIRC the "newest" one is about 100 years old. Some have been rebuilt and extended but the project seems to be mainly about the sound of these organs when originally built.

Also I believe that some of the older works played they have attempted to use registrations that were available (or preferred) in those earlier days.

One thing that I noticed and am not sure about is a reference to "shifting"

The six concertos in this edition are keyboard arrangements of Stanley's concertos Op.2 for strings. Stop indications are not given but indications for the orchestral Tutti and Soli are. On this single-manual organ the changes are effected by using the shifting movement, which silences stops above 8 and 4 foot pitch by holding down a lever pedal. In this case some noise is occasioned by the operation of the mechanism.

At first I thought it was some means of "splitting" the keyboard so that different stops were played by right and left hand.