Digital Organ Choice

[FelixLowe]

I found this a very interesting registration. It's not really what you'd expect for a two manual instrument. It's more like a one manual instrument with a solo manual. I'm not complaining, just an observation. If it's intended use is for practice, I'm sure it would be quite functional.

The disposition is definitely functional (I wouldn't call it particularly interesting, but very basic and the routine stuff on a small instrument), but there is no prevention of coupling many of the Swell stops to the Great for ensemble playing, even, as you say, the Swell stops can be used for solo purposes. However, what I was reccomending is that since the 17th cannot usually be used by itself without the 12th, why not combine them as a single Sesquialtera stop and make room for a Cymbel III, which is very necessary, in my view, regardless of whether or not the Mixture is high- or low-pitched. The Cymbel is an important element in the tonal palette.

 

[Clarion]

Hear this version of All Things Bright and Beautiful with Royal Oak. I guess it is an Anglo-American organ again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXVURJ1lQ3Y.

The only criticism of the playing is that the organist leaves no breathing rest between the refrain and the verses. At least he should be "hands off" the manual during those little breaks, while keeping the pedal notes sustained if he wishes to produce a sense of continuity. But now everything in Royal Oak clumps together like a mess.

Perhaps, he tried to do this, thinking that since he was not actually supporting a congregation singing, but merely giving a demo, so he thus became a bit slack in maintaining proper diction.

Sounds to me like a typical ever-so-familiar routine double-speed practice session technique.

 

[FelixLowe]

Talking about practice and rehearsal at the place where the Kleuker was in Causeway Bay, I can write a sidebar about singing rehearsal for the congregation. Before the service began, there would normally be a practice session of about five minutes just before 11am. There, the Royal College trained organist, if she was on duty, would rehearse the three songs selected for the service for congregational singing. For those songs, she would rehearse them by playing them with a registration that sounds like two 8' flutes, Octave 4' and Waldflote 2' and had them coupled to the pedal of Subbase 16'. For each of the songs, two to three verses would be selected where the leader from the chairperson's lecturn would explain a little about the spiritual significance about them. When the same song was sung for the second time, she would usually add in the oboe 8' which started to sound like a small swarm of bees. For the third selected verse to be rehearsed for the same song, she would add the trumpet also, which made the whole ensemble sound like the bees, hornets and wasps all appear. That's what I call her "Wasp Registration" for rehearsal. When the songs were sung for real in the service, the registrations would be completely different.

For the Yale-trained organist, things are a bit different. She would play the SATB with hands only during the organ demo at the rehearsal session. Only when the congregation started singing would she start the pedalling. Perhaps her presumption is that when the congregation was not singing, there was no need for the Subbasse 16'. She also didn't like the idea of "Wasp-like" registration during rehearsal, as she would play only with some kind of 8', 4' and 2' ensemble. But when she actually played the songs during the actual service, the demos she gave were played with the pedal, even when the congregation hadn't joined in.

If a reharmonisation was to be introduced for a song, or there would be a prelude or interlude for those songs, the congregation would be alerted in advance in the rehearsal and would get to hear them also before the service.

Two different schools were observed during the actual support of congregational singing. For the Royal College-trained one, she would play with the demo of a hymn from start to finish. And just before the congregation started singing the first verse, she would draw an extra stop, which I suspected was an 8' flute or something, in order to thicken the ensemble as two-third of the organ tone would be drowned out during the singing. This bodes well with the Anglican way of playing hymns, where you may have noticed that after their demo playing of the first line, a bunch of stops would pop out to add strength to the ensemble to be used. I guess her idea stemmed from that practice. However the Kleuker was only a small organ, so she only needed to draw an extra stop to reinforce the registration, but without changing the basic character of the registration used in the demo.

Another school of playing is that the demo and the first verse were played with exactly identical registration with no addition or subtraction in the first verse. But in the second verse, even when the overall registration was to be maintained, one of the stops would go. I was unable to see from afar what exactly was gone in the second verse. But the overall tonal character remained largely unchanged, which leads me to suspect that it would either be one of the 4' or an 8' stops that was pushed back, as the volume was slightly affected. I guess the idea behind is that once the congregation had warmed up, the tonal volume could slightly take it easy.

 

[FelixLowe]

The disposition is definitely functional (I wouldn't call it particularly interesting, but very basic and the routine stuff on a small instrument), but there is no prevention of coupling many of the Swell stops to the Great for ensemble playing, even, as you say, the Swell stops can be used for solo purposes. However, what I was reccomending is that since the 17th cannot usually be used by itself without the 12th, why not combine them as a single Sesquialtera stop and make room for a Cymbel III, which is very necessary, in my view, regardless of whether or not the Mixture is high- or low-pitched. The Cymbel is an important element in the tonal palette.

The Cymbel II, for example, on a small tracker organ would be the only major sharp mixture instead of a dull-tone mixture. It may be a more sensible alternative to introduce the 1 1/3' Quint, the Sesqualtera and Cymbel III, and do away with the Nasard, Tierce, Vox Celeste and the Mixture IV, if indeed it were considered a small organ.

 

[Ntalikeris666]

The Cymbel II, for example, on a small tracker organ would be the only major sharp mixture instead of a dull-tone mixture. It may be a more sensible alternative to introduce the 1 1/3' Quint, the Sesqualtera and Cymbel III, and do away with the Nasard, Tierce, Vox Celeste and the Mixture IV, if indeed it were considered a small organ.

If i wanted to turn a Cymbal II into a Cymbal III what rank should i add?
Generally, combining a cymbal with a Mixture IV lets say, has a really nice result. what should you add if you want to make your plenum even brighter?

 

[FelixLowe]

If i wanted to turn a Cymbal II into a Cymbal III what rank should i add?
Generally, combining a cymbal with a Mixture IV lets say, has a really nice result. what should you add if you want to make your plenum even brighter?

I think the first two ranks of the Cymbel are a fifth apart, and the last two ranks a fourth apart. So it would be (29.33.36). So I guess your Content organ only has the first two ranks. But for a pipe instrument, the brightness really has to do with the material of the pipes of the Cymbel, which, in one case, is said to be of 95 per cent tin. Only the rest is lead and some trace elements. Other pipes, like the Principals, only have about 60 per cent to 70 per cent tin normally. The flutes have about 21 per cent tin only. So, the more tin, the brighter the tone.

So, the Cymbel in fact has almost an identical series of rank notes in the various octaves with the Mixture stop; only the materials of the pipes are different. The Mixture stop is cylindrical principal pipes or conical pipes, with tin content similar to the principal pipes. Only the Cymbel is cylindrical pipes that have tin content of 90 to 95 per cent. You can say that the Cymbel amplifies the brightness of the Mixture stop.

I am planning to have a two-rank Cymbel to save cost and space if I were to make one for home practice. Two ranks are definitely enough for the home. In large cathedrals, they fear people can't hear clearly, so they need many more ranks. Some ancient instruments had a Cymbel VII (15.19.22.26.29.33.36). But the series of figure is indicative of the lowest octave only. As the octaves ascend, the figures are different as they have to break back.

My organ at home has three Cymbels III: one from the Ahlborn module, whose Cymbale III leaves much to be desired in quality. The better ones come from the Allen module: the Cymbel III and Zimbel III, which rings even sharper. I guess the latter is the North German one. Both are of far better quality than the Ahlborn one. The Principal Sesquialtera of Allen is also excellent.

But the Allen MDS-II's Mixtures IV (both A and B) are awful. Both are thin silvery voices that don't sound like real Mixtures at all. In digital organs, it seems the most difficult voice to make is the Mixture stop, not the Cymbel.

 

[Ntalikeris666]

I think the first two ranks of the Cymbel are a fifth apart, and the last two ranks a fourth apart. So it would be (29.33.36). So I guess your Content organ only has the first two ranks. But for a pipe instrument, the brightness really has to do with the material of the pipes of the Cymbel, which, in one case, is said to be of 95 per cent tin. Only the rest is lead and some trace elements. Other pipes, like the Principals, only have about 60 per cent to 70 per cent tin normally. The flutes have about 21 per cent tin only. So, the more tin, the brighter the tone.

So, the Cymbel in fact has almost an identical series of rank notes in the various octaves with the Mixture stop; only the materials of the pipes are different. The Mixture stop is cylindrical principal pipes or conical pipes, with tin content similar to the principal pipes. Only the Cymbel is cylindrical pipes that have tin content of 90 to 95 per cent. You can say that the Cymbel amplifies the brightness of the Mixture stop.

I am planning to have a two-rank Cymbel to save cost and space if I were to make one for home practice. Two ranks are definitely enough for the home. In large cathedrals, they fear people can't hear clearly, so they need many more ranks. Some ancient instruments had a Cymbel VII (15.19.22.26.29.33.36). But the series of figure is indicative of the lowest octave only. As the octaves ascend, the figures are different as they have to break back.

My organ at home has three Cymbels III: one from the Ahlborn module, whose Cymbale III leaves much to be desired in quality. The better ones come from the Allen module: the Cymbel III and Zimbel III, which rings even sharper. I guess the latter is the North German one. Both are of far better quality than the Ahlborn one. The Principal Sesquialtera of Allen is also excellent.

But the Allen MDS-II's Mixtures IV (both A and B) are awful. Both are thin silvery voices that don't sound like real Mixtures at all. In digital organs, it seems the most difficult voice to make is the Mixture stop, not the Cymbel.

I see. Actually my organ has a Cymbal II (33,36) so the lower rank is missing. Though, if you add the mixture IV, the 29 is added as well. Yes indeed Cymbal is one of the brightest mixtures.

In the small organ in the Concert hall where i take my lessons, the organ has 7 stops and 2 manuals (8-4 diapasons on swell, and on Great, 8 chimney flute 8, principal 4' Principal 2' and Mixture II) The mixture II is a high pitch one, but definately not a cymbal. The big organ though, has many mixture including a Cymbal III as well as Scharff V, Acuta VI, Harmonia Aetheria V (strange one) and so on.
But indeed, for a house installation, you certainly dont need a VII rank mixture. Generally if you put to many mixture stops on a house organ, you will get a screamy irritating tone.

Fortunately, my organ has a really nice full Mixture IV, which is certainly German. (so is Cymbal of course). Though there is not a sesquialtera stop, there are quite a few mutation stops to create one.

By the way, could you tell me the disposition of your home organ?

 

[FelixLowe]

I see. Actually my organ has a Cymbal II (33,36) so the lower rank is missing. Though, if you add the mixture IV, the 29 is added as well. Yes indeed Cymbal is one of the brightest mixtures.

In the small organ in the Concert hall where i take my lessons, the organ has 7 stops and 2 manuals (8-4 diapasons on swell, and on Great, 8 chimney flute 8, principal 4' Principal 2' and Mixture II) The mixture II is a high pitch one, but definately not a cymbal. The big organ though, has many mixture including a Cymbal III as well as Scharff V, Acuta VI, Harmonia Aetheria V (strange one) and so on.
But indeed, for a house installation, you certainly dont need a VII rank mixture. Generally if you put to many mixture stops on a house organ, you will get a screamy irritating tone.

Fortunately, my organ has a really nice full Mixture IV, which is certainly German. (so is Cymbal of course). Though there is not a sesquialtera stop, there are quite a few mutation stops to create one.

By the way, could you tell me the disposition of your home organ?

The Organ Encyclopedia said the original Cymbel only contained the octaves and fifths. That means there was no fourths in it. However today's Cymbel's of seven ranks are listed as this by Audsley. So I guess you have the last two ranks from CC to c4.

Audsley gave the following atypical example: http://www.organstops.org/c/Cymbal.html of Cymbal VII.

As for my home organ, I was only using two Ahlborn modules and MDS-Expander II of Allen from a decade ago. None of them are working properly by now. And I am not paying to repair them as one of them was taken back for repair, but the repair was unsuccessful. So I may not do so for the other two. Plus Allen is no longer making MDS-Expander II, but has a new version. The MDS was in fact compiled back in 1992 -- almost two decades old.

They now have this called Allen Vista. See the list of voices available: http://www.allenorgan.com/www/products/vista/allenvista.html. Watch two videos on an organist demonstrating this gadget: (1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-NxEVihwKQ and (2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv-UY4zlCaY&feature=related.

Allen Vista

Overall, I am quite pleased with the tonal quality of the voices of the instruments and their fine nuances in the MDS-Expander II.

As for my two Ahlborn modules, I haven't been able to find them on their website recently. I am not sure if they are making any more of those.

How does the Mixture IV sound like on your Content? Is it like what you attached before, where a guy played BWV 565? That was certainly very German, and was like between High Baroque and Classical.

 

[FelixLowe]

It would be a shame if Ahlborn were to stop making its sound modules. However at least if they can, they should resume making the module model 201, even if they were to cease production of the other three. Someone writing in another blog has said that he recently failed to secure a processed order for the instrument from Ahlborn-Galanti. He wonders if they were still making them.

At the moment, I find no such product intro on the Ahlborn-Galanti.com website.

On the other hand, I have heard praises from someone writing separately that said that model 201 has a very heavy Baroque flavour in it, and he was very pleased with it. And if you look at the stop list, it is almost the only module of a rather complete stop list of a smaller organ; the others making similar devices are currently Content of Holland (that gives North German Baroque voicing) and Hoffricter of Germany (that gives switcheable South German Baroque and French Classical voicings).

Model 201 of Ahlborn is a specification of a small South German Baroque instrument, and I honestly think it benefited the organ junkies greatly in the past, particularly those who may not have been able to afford a complete instrument (with manuals and pedalboard), but wanted to play with more realistic organ sound. For a device of 20 stops you really can't ask for too much given the following disposition. The only criticism is that there is a lack of Waldflote 2', which I believe is packed in the Cornet III. Let's hope that if Ahlborn is making it again, it will include the flute stop.

Bourdon 16'
Principal 8'
Flûte à cheminée 8'
Unda Maris 8'
Octave 4'
Spitzflöte 4'
Nasard 2 2/3'
Superoctave 2'
Mixture IV
Trompete 8'
Tremulant

Gedackt 8'
Gamba 8'
Nachthorn 4'
Cymbale III
Cornet III
Oboe 8'
Tremulant

Subbass 16'
Octave 8'
Bourdon 8'
Posaune 16'

 

[FelixLowe]

Someone may well be questioning why I am writing about organs since I have quit church completely. This indeed is a very curious question -- a question even I had asked about it myself: is the organ really a religious instrument?

The answer, as you would expect, is negative. Not only is the instrument not an exclusive church instrument (as you obviously find many in town halls and concert venues), even much of J S Bach's organ music is not considered to be religious. And honestly how many times did you attend church where you were presented with a feast of the ears from the BWV numbers? In Hong Kong, seldom does that happen. I learnt much of my organ music from CDs I had bought from HMV. So I really think that unless those BWV numbers have a title that alludes to Jesus or some other significant personalities, they are not strictly church music. But I guess it has to do with German philosophy. However, the Roman Catholic Church has printed certain Bach's titles in its organ songbooks, for whatever reasons I am not really concerned about. But to me, they belong to German works, if they were written by J S Bach. But do you think even the Church has necessarily a close connection with Jesus?

I have spoken to a professional concert organist myself in Hong Kong, who actually told me that many of the BWV numbers are secular music -- which means that it is not directly to do with Jesus or Lutheranism, much less with the Roman Catholic Church. It is to do with the German society on a secular plane.

Similarly many of the Dutch organ music was variations on secular folk musical themes.

Believe it or not, it's true.

 

[Bad Organist]

It would be a shame if Ahlborn were to stop making its sound modules. However at least if they can, they should resume making the module model 201, even if they were to cease production of the other three. Someone writing in another blog has said that he recently failed to secure a processed order for the instrument from Ahlborn-Galanti. He wonders if they were still making them.

At the moment, I find no such product intro on the Ahlborn-Galanti.com website.

On the other hand, I have heard praises from someone writing separately that said that model 201 has a very heavy Baroque flavour in it, and he was very pleased with it. And if you look at the stop list, it is almost the only module of a rather complete stop list of a smaller organ; the others making similar devices are currently Content of Holland (that gives North German Baroque voicing) and Hoffricter of Germany (that gives switcheable South German Baroque and French Classical voicings).

Model 201 of Ahlborn is a specification of a small South German Baroque instrument, and I honestly think it benefited the organ junkies greatly in the past, particularly those who may not have been able to afford a complete instrument (with manuals and pedalboard), but wanted to play with more realistic organ sound. For a device of 20 stops you really can't ask for too much given the following disposition. The only criticism is that there is a lack of Waldflote 2', which I believe is packed in the Cornet III. Let's hope that if Ahlborn is making it again, it will include the flute stop.

Felix,

The Ahlborn Archive modules have not been made since about 2005. I doubt that any new modules will be coming out soon.

The exact purpose of these modules was to be an add-on to a Midi equipped organ. They were not meant as stand alone complete instruments. As an augmentation to an existing organ they were great, but as an instrument by itself it was not really complete. As you say, the 201 was the closest. I could go into detail why they were not really complete organs, but I will say briefly that they did not have sufficient hardware in them to be as good as a complete Ahlborn organ.

The 201 is more baroque sounding than typical Ahlborn organs, especially the ones shipped to North America. However, there is a special specification out there called "Silbermann", which sounds more baroque, more beautiful, and is even better as a complete instrument. I have done a number of conversions of these, and the results always satisfied the end user.

Another trick to making these modules sound better, is to branch out the audio to 6 channels. Internally each division has a left and a right output channel. Using the additional channels allows for greater creativity in tuning and wind chest layouts as well as localization of the sound of each division.

All in all, these modules had their day, and are now no longer made, and only available as used items. I have sold 2 used ones in the last few months, one using the Silbermann spec., basically a modified 201.

Bad Organist

 

[FelixLowe]

Felix,

The Ahlborn Archive modules have not been made since about 2005. I doubt that any new modules will be coming out soon.

The exact purpose of these modules was to be an add-on to a Midi equipped organ. They were not meant as stand alone complete instruments. As an augmentation to an existing organ they were great, but as an instrument by itself it was not really complete. As you say, the 201 was the closest. I could go into detail why they were not really complete organs, but I will say briefly that they did not have sufficient hardware in them to be as good as a complete Ahlborn organ.

The 201 is more baroque sounding than typical Ahlborn organs, especially the ones shipped to North America. However, there is a special specification out there called "Silbermann", which sounds more baroque, more beautiful, and is even better as a complete instrument. I have done a number of conversions of these, and the results always satisfied the end user.

Another trick to making these modules sound better, is to branch out the audio to 6 channels. Internally each division has a left and a right output channel. Using the additional channels allows for greater creativity in tuning and wind chest layouts as well as localization of the sound of each division.

All in all, these modules had their day, and are now no longer made, and only available as used items. I have sold 2 used ones in the last few months, one using the Silbermann spec., basically a modified 201.

Bad Organist

When was their series of Silbermann modules released? About 13 years ago when I started my project, I never saw any allusion in their leaflets that said they had a sub-category of their line using Silbermann samples.

Also for the ordinary line of the four modules, their info seems to have taken off their website only about half a year to a year ago, I guess. If you say that happened in 2005, that surprises me a little.

I did see somebody advertise a discard for sale in 2005, that said it was a tailor-made archive module by Alhborn, that had a French classical specification.

What you told me is what I was totally unaware of. But Thanks for the info.

And I guess Ahlborn must have upgraded their engine and sound quality as I just heard a short course they upload onto the Ahlborn-Galanti.com website that introduces the many tonal elements of a classical organ: http://www.ahlborn-galanti.com/Listen.html. I bought a similar course many years ago from Organ Historical Society, which was a CD containing two LPs recorded by Donald G Harrison, who introduced the many tonal resources of the American Neo-classical specification which he used to change his then extant line of Romantic organs of his firm in the mid-1950s.

 

[FelixLowe]

Felix,

The Ahlborn Archive modules have not been made since about 2005. I doubt that any new modules will be coming out soon. The exact purpose of these modules was to be an add-on to a Midi equipped organ. They were not meant as stand alone complete instruments. As an augmentation to an existing organ they were great, but as an instrument by itself it was not really complete. As you say, the 201 was the closest.

To me I may have different definition of what is complete. As I wrote in my previous posts, the Kleuker organ that served that church in Causeway Bay only had 13 stops. And I found that a sort of complete organ already. For a real pipe instrument, depending on the size of the environment it serves, 13-18 stops can be said to be a complete instrument if they have the proper office of tonal appointment.

I had also listened to organs in other congregations before, that were digital instruments, very big ones, but they did not sound as interesting and polyphonic even though they were professionally installed.

 

[FelixLowe]

In J S Bach's works, there is a title, a Chorale Prelude called All Men Must Die (BWV 643) http://www.virtuallybaroque.com/audio/bwv643_ss4ch.mp3. Instrument: Marcussen & Son Organ / St. Stefanuschurch / Moerdijk (Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands) (1965) - Samples by Ariaan Hoogendijk.

Chorale Text
German:
Alle Menschen müssen sterben,
alles Fleisch vergeht wie Heu,
was da lebet, muss verderben, soll es anders werden neu.
Dieser Leib, der muss verwessen,
wenn er ewig soll genesen
der so grossen Herrlichkeit,
die den Frommen ist bereit.

English:
Hark! a voice saith, all are mortal,
Yea, all flesh must fade as grass,
Only through Death's gloomy portal,
To a better life ye pass,
And this body formed of clay
Here must languish and decay,
Ere it rise in glorious might,
Fit to dwell with saints in light.
--Tr. C. Winkworth

Do you believe it? The English translation is only euphemism. The German says All Men Must Die. In actual fact, that song is related to another used in Easter called At the Lamb's High Feast. Luke Mayernik performs an improvisation on "At the Lamb's High Feast." This performance was recorded at Octave Hall on a four-manual Allen organ. This is part of a new DVD, Inspired by the Masters, available from Allen Organ Company:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP9ZV-yjTdI

Nice and flowing tune, but I am not sure if the hymn text suggests some form of transubtantiation. It obviously does as it is a translation from Latin, and that should be to no one's surprise. Also there seems to be some contrived phrasing of the theology in the text.

Hymn text:
At the Lamb's high feast we sing
praise to our victorious King,
who hath washed us in the tide
flowing from his pierced side;
praise we him, whose love divine
gives his sacred Blood for wine,
gives his Body for the feast,
Christ the victim, Christ the priest.

Where the Paschal blood is poured,
death's dark angel sheathes his sword;
Israel's hosts triumphant go
through the wave that drowns the foe.
Praise we Christ, whose blood was shed,
Paschal victim, Paschal bread;
with sincerity and love
eat we manna from above.

Mighty victim from on high,
hell's fierce powers beneath thee lie;
thou hast conquered in the fight,
thou hast brought us life and light:
now no more can death appall,
now no more the grave entrall;
thou hast opened paradise,
and in thee thy saints shall rise.

Easter triumph, Easter joy,
sin alone can this destroy;
from sin's power do thou set free
souls newborn, O Lord, in thee.
Hymns of glory and of praise,
Risen Lord, to thee we raise;
Holy Father, praise to thee,
with the Spirit, ever be.

Words: Latin, 1632;
trans. Robert Campbell, 1849
Music: Salzburg, melody from Jakob Hintze, 1678; harmony by J S Bach, 1685-1750. Listen to the hymn tune on the Moller organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaS63-rLv-k
Meter: 77 77 D

 

[Bad Organist]

When was their series of Silbermann modules released? About 13 years ago when I started my project, I never saw any allusion in their leaflets that said they had a sub-category of their line using Silbermann samples.

Also for the ordinary line of the four modules, their info seems to have taken off their website only about half a year to a year ago, I guess. If you say that happened in 2005, that surprises me a little.

I did see somebody advertise a discard for sale in 2005, that said it was a tailor-made archive module by Alhborn, that had a French classical specification.

What you told me is what I was totally unaware of. But Thanks for the info.

And I guess Ahlborn must have upgraded their engine and sound quality as I just heard a short course they upload onto the Ahlborn-Galanti.com website that introduces the many tonal elements of a classical organ: http://www.ahlborn-galanti.com/Listen.html. I bought a similar course many years ago from Organ Historical Society, which was a CD containing two LPs recorded by Donald G Harrison, who introduced the many tonal resources of the American Neo-classical specification which he used to change his then extant line of Romantic organs of his firm in the mid-1950s.

Felix,

The Ahlborn Archive modules were GeneralMusic (Italy) products. They were probably made in batches of several hundred at a time, and warehoused until ordered. I don't believe there are any new ones to be found anymore. Part of the reason for them being discontinued is the fact that they came out with new technology organs about 5 years ago. The Archive models were then old technology which dated back to the early 90s. The Archive modules came out about 1996.

The 4 standard specifications were the only ones advertised. The story on the Silbermann and Cavaille-Coll specs. is that they were derived from custom organs that Ahlborn in Germany made. They were indeed different sounding, as the sampling and processing was done in Germany, not in Italy at GeneralMusic. From recordings I heard, these organs sounded better than the standard models.

Anyways, the Silbermann samples are really quite interesting. You can find the spec. here, http://www.organworks.ca/Content/Downloads/Tone Generation/COW-AG-Archive Brochure-lowres.pdf

Hopefully, I answered all your quesitons.

Bad Organist

 

[FelixLowe]

Felix,

The Ahlborn Archive modules were GeneralMusic (Italy) products. They were probably made in batches of several hundred at a time, and warehoused until ordered. I don't believe there are any new ones to be found anymore. Part of the reason for them being discontinued is the fact that they came out with new technology organs about 5 years ago. The Archive models were then old technology which dated back to the early 90s. The Archive modules came out about 1996.

The 4 standard specifications were the only ones advertised. The story on the Silbermann and Cavaille-Coll specs. is that they were derived from custom organs that Ahlborn in Germany made. They were indeed different sounding, as the sampling and processing was done in Germany, not in Italy at GeneralMusic. From recordings I heard, these organs sounded better than the standard models.

Anyways, the Silbermann samples are really quite interesting. You can find the spec. here, http://www.organworks.ca/Content/Downloads/Tone%20Generation/COW-AG-Archive%20Brochure-lowres.pdf

Hopefully, I answered all your quesitons.

Bad Organist

Certainly, you can't emphasise enough to try to separate the two teams. I guess you were referring to the Alhborn AG. It is interesting that you should emphasise this in your last email. In certain leaflets I got when I was starting my project, GeneralMusic was advertised as a joint venture of Italy and Germany. I guess something happened around about 2005, that caused something more to happen. Alhborn recently posted a disclaimer in connection with what appeared to be communist defamation of the company. A week ago, the message no longer appeared. I wonder what really happened. Some said they had been producing in China, other said the company went into certain difficulties. When you said they came up with new technology in 2005, I guess you were referring to the period of Americanisation of the company, where perhaps America injected new technology in their design and then started outsourcing production in China. Is it fair to make that guesstimation?

Now at hindsight, as early as 2004, they might have planned to move to China. They might have been itching to move in mid-2003. I would believe you with regards to things happening in around 2005. I guess Ahlborn became more Americanised around about that time, probably moving their organ branch from Italy to America. And America may want to own the brand outright, I guess.

However, from their website, I can guess that 2009 has not been an uneventful year for the company. What I can guess is that the team is split. This sort of thing is not difficult to guess. Factually, I had no idea that the company had moved its production base to China until someone talked about it at this site. But as with many American stuff, the production will be shifted to the third world. It is the great struggle America is succumbing to. But personally I had no concrete knowledge about the rationale as to why digital organs were made in China. One possibility, I guess, is that it may have been to do with signing some joint agreements. But to me it has no significance with regards to shifting the production base. If the quality control can be maintained, then it would be the same in Europe as in the third world. Somebody, however, had once emailed me that one church was using Ahlborn in China. I don't see why that church was so special that it had to suddenly come to my knowledge. So there might have been something. But to me the production of the digital organs there is just another computerised products made there. It is just another piece of electronics. From what I know, there is no indigenous pipe organ companies in China, which means that they don't really know how to assemble a true pipe instrument -- the real thing. To be honest, China needs jobs -- the more the better. But I don't think it wants to lead the world. For China, the world is the PRC. And the PRC is basically a strictly communist bunch of provinces. I don't think it wants to govern Europe or America. I am not sure if certain church-related products need special approval from the Church when production bases become shifted to certain realm. Earlier I have written that this instrument is not an exclusively church instrument for start. At least half of the repertoire performed is secular music. The problem is we are talking about an Italian brand -- maybe the RC wanted to take interest as well.

The truth is that when you study the history of organs, the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans had them all in the ancient history.

There was a bow-tied guy from Italy, that posed stylishly for a picture on the Alhborn site, who also no longer appeared in the intro info. I guess there must have been some personnel changes.

Talking about Silbermann, I have a CD, that records a very rare Chaconne by Pachelbel, that was played on one of the Silbermanns, which I believed was quite original. It sounds quite different from other organs. It has wide-scaled flutes, and one of the featured sections of the music even sounds like the Xylophone with percussion-like effects, which I suspect were just chiffiness. It's nice but quite weired in terms of the ancient nuance that can rarely be found today. The Silbermann organ is powerful in terms of its tonal style, that even if just one or two flutes are used, you can already tell that you are not listening to a small organ.

The Module 201 is a sort of complete organ, as I checked it against certain Baroque organ stoplists that many organs didn't have the Waldflote 2' on them in those days. However, without it, it is a problem because some of the hymn tunes call for its use, like this one: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee_fmMl9trg. Watch this as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx1eMwlDFb8.

For my own taste, I do think the first verse should be played with: Principal 8', Rohrflote 8', Octave 4', Quintflote 2 2/3' and Waldflote 2', with the chorus requiring two more stops of Gedackt 4' and Superoctave 2' to be coupled to those stops. The pedal Subbasse is of course required, with the five stops coupled to the pedal.

For reharmonisations of verses 2 and 3, the Quintflote 2 2/3' can go.

When it gets to the final verse, which is a reharmonisation already included in the hymnbook, the registration for my own taste would be: Principal 8', Rohrflote 8', Octave 4' and Waldflote 2', Gedackt 4', Superoctave 2' and Trumpet 8' (the very buzzy type), with five stops (the original five without the Quintflote 2 2/3', and the Trumpet 8') coupled to the Subbasse. Then when it gets to "Praise him!....", the Cymbel III can be added.

 

[FelixLowe]

Do you think this guy's playing "I would be True": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ0FYaxIdvA&feature=PlayList&p=4F6A5B785BB6E38E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=16
is a bit contrived, by putting in the Chimes in the first verse?

At the place where the Kleuker was, I have heard the Royal College-trained organist play with both manuals like him, but with a different registration, roughly: Principal 8' and Rohrflote 4' for the left hand and Principal 8', Rohrflote 4' and Octave 4' and for the right hand. The pedal, I guess, was the Subbasse 16' and Gedackt 8'.

 

[FelixLowe]

Finally, I have spotted some sound clips about Wyvern organ. Here is one on Matt Porter playing Buxtehude's Prelude in C Major on the organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXJCXGNblQ. But it was only alleged to be a Wyvern by those who commented on the clip. If it is, then it is very clearly an instrument in the middle between South German and North German Baroque schools, with a stronger proclivity towards the Southerly school. I am wondering if Wyvern could be one of the best in UK.

 

[FelixLowe]

Meanwhile, there is another firm called Marshall and Ogletree of Boston. Some of the samples here show the organs to be of Anglo-American tradition. I guess they are American Neo-Classical instrument of eclectic schools. Hear a number of pieces performed on this brand: http://www.marshallandogletree.com/events/ and http://www.marshallandogletree.com/.

 

[FelixLowe]

Any new idea for registering the English hymn Jerusalem?

I think I would have for the little short prelude with: Principal 8', Rohrflote 8', Octave 4, Gedackt 4', Sesquialtera II, Waldflote 2' and Mixture IV.

Pedal: Subbasse 16', Gedackt 8, Choralbass 4'

Then the first verse would be: Mixture IV off.

The interlude: Mixture IV on again with the same stops

The second verse would start by drawing the Trumpet 8' (the very buzzy type) with the same stops and Mixture IV.

Postlude: same stops as the second verse.

Hear this version that has another idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAA0A5WpZE4&feature=related.