Interesting organ installation - Schnitger- organ Performance

[wljmrbill]

Pieter Pilon plays Purcell " Trumpet Tune".. Great sounding instrument:but man those reaches to pull stops..must need an assistant.

http://youtu.be/N6FA7k9vwVQ

[GoneBaroque]

Very nice Bill. Nice sounding instrument. It appears that many of the Organs in the Netherlands are set up that way. Guess it discourages too many registration changes.

[John Watt]

Even as a Canadian resident in Welland Ontario, near Niagara Falls, I can understand this "organs in the Netherlands",
saying "guess it discourages too many registration changes. As a generous offer to me, as John Watt mayoral candidate,
the son of a Pastor phoned me and offered me his 1969 Ford Custom, his antique car he drove to the local car nights,
winning awards, totally quiet with no squeaks or rattles, what I liked. Driving like I was sitting on a couch, arm out the window,
was really nice too.

His father is Pastor of Rosedale Baptist, so I thought I'd attend a few Sunday services just to be truly thankful.
Most of the congregation described themselves as Dutch, and I was singing along for hymns I never heard before.
I thought these hymns were very musical, the congregation very musical, with nice acoustic guitars and piano up front.
So I can see how Dutch, not listeners, but singers, would want more continuity, and less mechanical intrusion,
for their united and heartfelt output.

And considering, say, the global overview of Dutch culture, even as a fellow congregation member with mostly seniors,
I did experience a very more mellow attitude overall, something else that kept me coming back.
Flatlanders, even lower than flatlanders, getting along with a highlander like me. More than nice!

[AllanP]

The instrument sounds good, the console does not look comfortable. It appears that dutch organists need to be more flexible to fit the console.

[Marc]

Thanks for the link.

Pieter Pilon knows this instrument very well. Each summer he's one of the organists giving demonstrations of this beauty.

Another one of them, Sietze de Vries, once took me upstairs with a handful other lucky demonstration attenders.
There I was, standing next to those massive 32ft (actually 24ft, because otherwise they would not fit) Schnitger pedal towers. Even though I felt quite shy among those grey-haired connaisseurs I asked: man, don't you need an assistant to handle those Rugwerk stops? (They're behind the organist's back.)
Nope, he said (and smiled). They're all in me head. It's just 'reach out and touch'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eml6w6-tsH4

Btw: it's (mainly) a renaissance/baroque organ. To play works from that period, it isn't really needed to change registers all the time. A whole different thing compared to 19th century compositions (and newer).

[Nikam]

Very interesting link Marc. Thank you.

Found this one too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWT6...eature=related

Painstaking work.

There is a two-manual, 21-stop Ahrend (built in 1978) in the Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, though I haven't yet heard it. I quote here, 'It is the only organ by this firm in the UK. Inspiration for the design (by Peter Williams and Gustav Leonhardt) came from early eighteenth-century German instruments. The main case is high on the hall's end wall and houses the pipes for the Hauptwerk manual and Pedal division. The pipes and stop-knobs for the Ruckpositiv are behind the player. There are no registration aids, intermanual coupling is by manual shove-coupler, and a short, flat and parallel pedalboard tests the player's pedal technique. Tuned to unequal temperament, the organ has lucid, clear voicing, played via an unbushed mechanical action of exceptional refinement.'

[Soubasse]

Next time I take a class into our school chapel to demonstrate the organ, I think I might show them that video afterwards. If they can't be impressed over the craftsmanship to make a single pipe like that, and then the fact that it's done a few thousand times over (often just for one instrument), then there's something wrong with them IMO!

[John Watt]

Someone "liked" my last reply here, so I looked to maybe continue the thread.
But it was very disappointing to see how it looked, not how I left it.
There are punctuation errors and the broken up lines with a word is uncomfortable to read.

And this is from someone who likes keyboard players to have a stack of keys in front of them,
maybe a nice retro organ behind, with more beside them, playing sometimes with arms out sideways.
If a keyboardist wants to barricade himself onstage so he can't be seen, that's fine with me.
And suspended chords sound best played on suspended organs.
I just gotta tell'ya that.

[chrishandoko]

really interesting sound, but the organ stops are 'unusual'.

[Marc]

really interesting sound, but the organ stops are 'unusual'.

For a modern instrument, yes, but not for a historic baroque organ. If you search YouTube for Schnitger of Silbermann you will find much more.

In this area (north Germany/Netherlands) there are a 'zillion' of them.
Many of them are restored during the last 50/60 years. And companies like Ahrend (and many others) are still building organs like that, including those stops. It's all part of preserving the cultural heritage here.

Here's a nice clip about the early 19th century organ (built by Nicolaas Lohman) in the village church of Zuidwolde, Groningen, NL.
This instrument was restored in 2009/2010 by the builders of organ company Mense Ruiter .... assisted by the children of the local school.

[Marc]

Here's an example of a smaller Schnitger organ: Uithuizen, Jacobikerk, Groningen, NL.

Menno van Delft plays Vater unser im Himmelreich of Georg Böhm:



And a beautiful arrangement of a certain chorale prelude by a certain J.S. Bach. Organ in Bolsward, NL built by a certain Albertus Anthoni Hinsz (pupil of a certain Arp Schnitger) in 1781. Organist is a certain Willem van Twillert:

[Marc]

Very interesting link Marc. Thank you.

Found this one too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWT6...eature=related

Painstaking work..

Yes, I know the film, and I always wonder: is it really safe to work with material like lead and pewter without nose/mouth protection?