How to select registration

[Corno Dolce]

Hi Soubasse,

Been awhile since we had some banter betwixt us - Whats happening on the organ front in Oz? Any new major organ projects?

Cheers,

CD

 

[Soubasse]

Hi CD,

Well apparently we were supposed to be getting a 2nd-hand Casavant installed in our cathedral at the end of this year, but that's been put off until next year whilst they add yet another huge room to the Sacristy (to accomodate what I don't know since the Sacristan's former housing at the rear has already been part of a previous extension, thus forcing him off the actual cathedral grounds and into a nearby apartment). My guess is that the more they decided to give priority to other, less significant projects, the more time it gives them to forget about the organ (even though they've already bought it).

But it's no use asking me any questions about the future of an organ at our cathedral because I'm only the organist.

It's not exactly a swell situation and doesn't leave me feeling very positf about it :grin:

 

[Corno Dolce]

Hello Soubasse,

A church I worked at many years ago had a similar decision-making process, or lack thereof. They had gotten a bid on a really nice instrument and they had the werewithal to buy it. Then the Council started bickering, hemming, and hawing about it which dragged on for about a year, at which point the original deal fell through and another instrument would cost an additional $100K. The Council couldnt understand the increase in price and why it cost so much to build. Neddless to say, they were removed post-haste.

Cheers,

CD

 

[Krummhorn]

Good point there, CD ... Church councils have no conception of time limits - they believe everything is "eternal motion".

From past experience doing Institutional Sales for an Allen Organ dealer, I know firsthand of those frustrations. The council meets once a month, and half the meetings are mulling over last months things that couldn't be resolved the month prior to that, then the time runs out and the "new business" gets deferred to the next month.

 

[Contratrombone64]

Goodness - this seems to be one of those unanswerable questions ... I guess it all boils down to personal preference a lot of the time AND what you have at your disposal quite frankly.

 

[Krummhorn]

I quite agree, CT64,

That's really it ... in a nutshell, and quite realistic.
Being limited by the 9 ranks my church organ has, I do have to be very creative at times. That's part of being an adaptive organist - we all can't have 3 or 4 manuals and 100's of ranks.

 

[Contratrombone64]

Yeah - and the number of keyboards can be quite irrelevant assuming there's a pleasant enough assortments of reeds and flues: from soft to noisy. I've seen too many mediocre church organs where they have a Bassoon 16' as the primary reed on the pedal, all they do is fart, so not very useful.

 

[Krummhorn]

My only real complaint about the pipe arrangement in my church pipe organ is that they placed the reeds in front, right behind the shades, instead of at the rear wall.

But it could have been part of the design, as the Swell chamber is on a Western wall, which gets full sun all year in the afternoons. The bottom 12 of the reed rank is mitered and on the North wall, but still pungent enough as I had the tech open the sardine cans a bit. I like a reed that bites a little, but not too brassy.

 

[acc]

a Bassoon 16' as the primary reed on the pedal, all they do is fart

A good thing, then, that Contrabassoons 64' do not exist. :grin::grin::grin:

 

[Soubasse]

Since we're getting mildly eschatalogical here, this reminds me. Many years ago, a mate of mine wrote a very jokey article about The Orchestra for a choir magazine. In it, he gave each section a Latin "genus" name: Woodwind - Tonus Angelicus, Strings - Felix Abdominus, Percussion - Impactus Freneticus, and Brass were of course Flatulans Tremendibus.

 

[contraophicleide32]

Hi everybody! I'm an italian organist, playing an organ of 2 manuals in a little city near Padua. The "fonic material" as we call "pipes" in Italy, came from a bigger instrument (a 4-manuals organ, made by "Veggezzi-Bossi", great organ builders in the early 1900's) laying till 1971 in a hall dedicated to Marco Enrico Bossi. I began play this organ in 1998, when I was an organ student in the "Conservatorio C. Pollini" of Padua. First, in my young studies, I hate so much his very "large" and dark sound, because I thought taht Bach and generally baroque masters, were the best and so.. I was able to love only baroque sound!!! Growing up..finishing my studies..I could see much many things: I began to play J. Bonnet, Vierne and Widor.. and since, through many registrations or mp3s, I heard the incredible "american organ sound", I began to love the instrument I still play, in a way that.. I can't stay far from it!!?!
So.. I think that every period has had his masters and ideals, may be very different from ideals of other periods, and with these ideals.. organbuilders of each period made organs like. Every instrument has to be respected and constantly works and repaired when necessary, as a witness of a precise period in the history of music!!!
Here in Italy, in some very little church scattered in Alps or in the South region of Italy.. there're many instruments build in the Classic period, and all of these instruments share with the others of that historical period by the presence of the first manual octave incomplete, named "ottava scavezza o in sesta".
It's very difficult playing during the church service, and it's impossible to play a Bach's prelude or a Widor's sinphony in one organ of these, but they still works efficiently and many concerts are promoted on these instruments, with pieces of the time they belong.
I think that's great!!!

 

[jvhldb]

How do youpick a quick registration on a strange organ? On our church organ I know exactly which stop produces what sound, which ranks to avoid when it is hot or cold and what combinations produce which sound. This morning I palyed on another organ for about ten minutes and realised that nothing sounds the same. The pedal for example had a 32' flute, our biggest pipe is a 16'. Strangely this organ had 13 registrations for the pedal (compared to our 7), but only 8 for the swell and 9 on the great. The strange organ has an 8' prestant on both the swell and great. Their trumpet is on the great, ours on the swell. Even the ranks with the same names sounded different.

It sounds like I might be playing at more funerals in the future and won't always have time to do a "sound test" beforehand.

 

[Flute'n'Pedal]

I have to play on several organs that are very different, and I don't think there's any quick solution to the problem of registration. My advice is to use the little time you have to find a few suitable combinations. Then write down what you've found, and when you perform, you'll have at least something to go by. The regular organist may also be able to give you some hints about what works best.

LlL