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    Frederik Magle
    Administrator

    Krummhorn
    Co-Administrator

Pianist playing an organ

ella88

New member
Hi there. Hopefully someone will be able to help me. I am a competant pianist and have been voulenteered by family to play something at my grandma's funeral next week on the church organ. I'll hopefully be able to practice at least once on the organ. I have a few questions that maybe some of you can help me with, and any advice would be appreciated. I am a novice, so please excuse me if the answers to these questions seem very blatant.

The organ has three manuals and is electric, that's about all I know about it. Does an organ like this have a similar sound and impact to that of a pipe organ?

I've chosen to play Pachelbel's Chaconne in F minor, as it's managable for me to learn and seems fitting. I've listened to various recordings, and can hear the voices changing all the time. I have no idea whether this is the organist pulling out and pushing in stops or changing manuals. How and when do you decide which manuals to play on (since it's not marked on the notation), or is that at the organist's descretion?

I'm right in that the organ's keyboard is not touch sensitive and that there is an expression pedal. Is there way to create your own balance between different manuals? Can the keyboard action be likened to that of a digital keyboard?

Generally, are there any dos and don'ts to organ playing?

Thank you for reading!

Ella
 

marval

New member
Hello Ella, welcome to the forum, I am sorry to hear about your grandma. Do stay around and I am sure one of our many talented organists will be able to help you.


Margaret
 

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
You'll find preset knobs (white ones) beneath each manual, these are set by the manufacturer and are supposed to be pleasant combinations of ranks to produce differing levels of volume, I suggest you play around with these and pick ones that you might think are suitable.

For soft playing avoid Principal or Diapason pipes (as they tend to be more fuller in tone).
 

dll927

New member
Why do they do such things when it's going to be with an audience?

First off, the touch is different, as you wll quickly find out.

Second, those "knobs" below the manuals are called pistons, and if it's any kind of organ, you set them yourself. Many organists keep the "how" as a trade secret unless the organ has different "levels".

On most three-manuals, the first and third manuals have expression pedals. That should help the "balance" matter. (Manuals are counted from the LOWEST up.)

Good luck, and I hope everything sounds acceptable.
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Hi Ella,

Welcome to the forum :). Please accept my condolences on the loss of a beloved family member.

Most electronic/digitals with 3 manuals also have a stop tablet labeled "All Swells to Swell" ... I would certainly strongly recommend that you utilize this if it's available. All the expressions will then be controlled by one pedal, the swell pedal. The Swell shoe, if it's an American organ, should be located between the middle D# and F# of the pedalboard (per AGO specs).

Another alternative to manually selecting stops is to utilize the Crescendo shoe (pedal) which slowly adds stops from pp to fff as it is moved.

You can experiment with the pistons ... some organists will set those in such a manner that a lower number will engage fewer stops (a quieter registration) and a higher number will engage more stops.

I hope these, and the other suggestions above are helpful to you. Please feel free to ask any additional questions - we are all here to help one another. :)
 

Ghekorg7 (Ret)

Rear Admiral Appassionata (Ret)
Hi Ella and welcome !

Our friends here gave you the best advice there is.
I'll add something here to your post, that I think you'll find interesting.

As I'm a keen piano player who loves most the pipe organ and studies it for years, I know exactly your kind of situation . It happens that I also work these days on Pachelbell's Ciacona in Fm - I downloaded the score from IMSLP - and I believe it's a work that inspired many others to come to our days.

I stuck with Helmut Winter's performance in February 1965 because he builds the whole work as a real story : starts ppp goes to fff and gradualy returns to ppp to fade. I believe it's the best approach to tell the story. See it as a Chopin's Nocturne, regarding the dynamics, and you'll be ok.

As for the registrations, Winter starts with a simple 8' flute and adds a stop (4' then 2' then a fifth ect untill the peak of the work (the one with the pedal movement adding chords) where he adds the mixture. Best way to do this is the use of pistons, as Krummhorn says, they can do small miracles just to push one with one of your fingers as you play, given that you prepared them before.
Goin' to the end Winter start to close one by one to the closing theme repeat, playin' it with the first 8" flute.
I hope I helped

best regards
Panos
 
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