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.

[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!

[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?