Digital Organ Choice

[FelixLowe]

Sometimes, gapped registration is suggested by certain organ textbooks. I have seen cases where authors suggest this for verses or songs that suggest either a reflective outlook or give a sweet melody. And they are often used in non-congregational singing situations and in solo performances. Sometimes, you may hear in In Dulce Jubilo or certain "Passion" ones. And it is mostly the 8' and 2' flutes, often the Gedackt 8' and Spitzflote 2' for Christmas, with the Waldflote 2' for Passion.

Also in Baroque registration, there once appeared 8', 4' and 1 1/3'.

However, many of the earliest German usages (from the time the blockwerk started to be separated), of Renaissance and Reformation, does not apply to the reformed churches in congregational singing of today, it seems. This partly because many organs are much bigger today than in those days, allowing the organist to go heavy on the outset.

But today's reformed churches tend to revert to blockwerk style of playing for congregational singing, only that block of sound can vary by the organist's choice of stops. But that sound normally comes out as blocks rather than like churpy (as in the bird registration in early Germany involving Sifflote 1'). Churpy styles of today can, however, be heard in solo performances of organ works.

At the place where the Kleuker was, I heard only once that there was a gapped registration practice during congregational singing. For the final verse of a tune called Nox Praecessit by a Jean-Baptiste Calkin, which was married to the hymn "God Make My Life a Little Light", there was a sort of gapped registration of involving some 8' stops and the Octave 2', I guess. It belongs to a special effect class of registration. And you can hear that rare tune in the file attached.

[FelixLowe]

I was going to make a mention of Wyvern not for a particular reason, but because I had mentioned many other brands. This would be one of the few indigenous British firms making digital organs. When I first heard somebody say that it was based on the technology of Content, I was eager to visit some Youtube sound clips to see how Wyvern sounds like. Unfortunately the only criticism is that no criticism is possible because I haven't been able to find a single sound clip placed on Youtube about Wyvern. Neither does its website allow assessment of its tonal quality as no audio is available. So I'll only attach its intro page. For the organ listed below, honestly I really think they should make the Quint and the Tierce as a single stop of Sesquialtera, so that one more stop, the Cymbel, should be included, in view of its Mixture stop which shows itself to be rather low-pitched at its lowest octave, though we don't know what composition of the Mixture looks like as the octaves ascend.

Church Organs by Wyvern

Welcome to Wyvern Church Organs
Classical Organs for Church and Home

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Orders taken now for pre-Christmas delivery.



Pedal: Subbass 16, Octave 8, Flute 8, Choral Bass 4, Fagotto 16, Great to Pedal, Swell to Pedal, Mono Bass

Great: Principal 8, Rohrflöte 8, Octave 4, Spitzflöte 4, Twelfth 2.2/3, Fifteenth 2, Mixture 12.15.19.22 IV, Trumpet 8, Swell To Great, Tremulant

Swell: Lieblich Gedackt 8, Viola da Gamba 8, Voix Celeste 8, Rohrflöte 4, Quintflöte 2.2/3, Waldflöte 2, Tierce 1.3/5, Oboe 8, Tremulant

[FelixLowe]

Detlef Kleuker sold its organ to the Causeway Bay Church for quite a bargain. I heard it only cost HK$350,000 (about $US63,000) when the purchase order was placed in 1978. It was delivered in about a year's time. It was said to have been donated as a gift by a church member and owner of a local ice-cream company to remember his daughter.





Kleuker pipe organ in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. It was said to have 15 stops. But it looks like in the picture that it had less than that.

[FelixLowe]

Earlier, I mentioned about another Kleuker built in the late 1970s at CUHK. There is a Youtube sound clip of rather poor quality, that allows you to at least savour the voicing of the organ at that university. This is a slightly bigger instrument when compared to the one in Causeway Bay and another at the Kowloon Methodist Church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bsXVHVw_Y&NR=1

[LastCorpseStanding]

Pedal: Subbass 16, Octave 8, Flute 8, Choral Bass 4, Fagotto 16, Great to Pedal, Swell to Pedal, Mono Bass

Great: Principal 8, Rohrflöte 8, Octave 4, Spitzflöte 4, Twelfth 2.2/3, Fifteenth 2, Mixture 12.15.19.22 IV, Trumpet 8, Swell To Great, Tremulant

Swell: Lieblich Gedackt 8, Viola da Gamba 8, Voix Celeste 8, Rohrflöte 4, Quintflöte 2.2/3, Waldflöte 2, Tierce 1.3/5, Oboe 8, Tremulant

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.

[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/produc...llenvista.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-UY...eature=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.