Contrabombarde

I didn't translate, Google did it for me, and not very well: A giant organ with two faces From: "Factors of French organ" No. 16 The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space is a complex consisting of 4 rooms with representation from 300 to 2,000 seats and a dozen meeting rooms, conference and exhibition. In a city like Tokyo, which has about 20 million inhabitants (including environs) may be a hundred concerts a day for several weeks with an organ. There are no further than 400 organs in the Japanese territory, and although most of these instruments are built in Christian churches, many public rooms have their wish. The first organ builder to have built an organ of French aesthetic was Schwenkedel around 1970. Other buildings were handed over to the Germans, Dutch, Danish ... The second instrument was the French by Marc Garnier, 1983, Kobe University, followed by thirty other instruments including a Osaka Koenig. The specifications for the construction of an organ at the Metropolitan Art Space instrument suggested a 70 to 85 games over 4 manuals, mechanical action, and to play all the directories from baroque to contemporary. Faced with a project as risky for an organ "to play any" examples of which exist are rarely successful, Marc Garnier hesitated a while and then took advantage of a specification simplistic after all, whatever our editors specifications loads too rich! The first difficulty was to explain to the architect that an organ is a set and it is not easy to build an instrument placed on a buffet. Facing a first draft of aesthetics "historicizing" the architect pretended that his room was not a museum. Hence the idea of building a "two-in-one instrument with double buffet and each corresponding to a particular aesthetic. At the end of 1987 a contract is for construction of a double organ totaling 150 records. These 150 records, for 126 games, were divided into 2 back to back buffets that are revealed by turning on the organ itself. However, for reasons of space, three sets of 32 'are still open against the wall. This set presents 14 of the two instruments sound levels corresponding to 8 keyboards and 2 pedal. It is not clear? Let me explain (... well, Mark Garnier said ...): The deal "historic" two instruments controlled by three keyboards and pedal. The first was built in the spirit of the instruments of the Flemish Renaissance. Agreement meantone to 8 pure thirds, from 467 Hz tuning fork The second is modeled after instruments of central Germany from the 18th century. Agreement baroque pitch 415 Hz Face "modern" instrument includes a "transition" with five manuals and pedal. French classical organ with his party "romanticized" style mid-19th century, almost equal agreement, pitch 440 Hz Thus, the organist can choose the instrument best suited to the repertoire that he wishes to interpret with the greatest musicological authenticity. Technique: The mobile unit is in three parts and is arranged on three rotating turrets. Moving from the old organ in the modern organ is to press a button "Historic" or "Modern". The 32 'are located against the back wall and are based on 10 mattresses without mechanical register. Each note is a valve. For the baroque organ there is a "Kontraposaune" real 32-foot, a "Prast" 32 'with mechanical extensions 16' and 8 'in which each pipe is fed by two valves, each corresponding to the mechanics of the organ and historical that of the modern organ. The principal organ of the # given in 415 gives the principal organ granted 440. For the instrument 467, the agreement is an admission by different wind settled by bolts. The French side has a "Contrebombarde" 32 ', actual length too. Traction notes and games through a dispatcher and is disengaged when the rotation buffets The historical part consists of six planes and two audio books for the pedals. On the face indicates that both instruments have in common that the keyboards and the bench. Above the keyboard a lever to select the party Flemish or German. Each button controls the valves via two box springs of a double mechanical traction. To avoid excessive hardness, one of the two mattresses is powered by wind, as the initial choice, and a few little tricks allow a pressure difference and quality of wind speed for each type of organ. There are a total of 48 spring mattresses, a choice dictated for better resistance to the whims of air conditioners. For the French side and contemporary there is only one instrument. The records are drawn by tractors, with electric assist (if I understand everything!), Which allows, among others, have features adjustable combination memorized. A possible breakdown of the electronics would not stop to take the games in hand. Hmmm, the last sentence actually should have translated "the stops are mechanically drawn, with electric assistance" - the mind boggles at an organ whose sliders are pulled by moving tractors! Anyway, it's an interesting solution to an age-old problem - how to design an organ capable of playing different genres of music. You pick whether to play romantic, and the romantic case slides into view, or baroque, and the baroque case turns to face the audience. Or something like that. How that is any different from installing two entirely separate organs I don't know. Probably the hall should really say it has two entirely separate organs (does it say anywhere that you can play both romantic and baroque sounds from the same console?) Not the first time something unusual has been attempted - there are a few instruments in the US that has two sets of stops, each tuned to different temperaments. Similar sort of concept, though it would sound even ghastlier if all the stops were drawn together, for instance see http://www.pasiorgans.com/conference/constcco.html.

Indeed correct. St Alkmunds Shrewsbury has had a series of organs, in the 1960s a three manual Gray and Davison from 1823 somehow went AWOL, to be replaced with a transplanted Kirkland of 1881 two manual. Then in 2006 the RSCM Harrison arrived. It looks very pretty in its white and gold case, though I never did understand the rationale for having a Swell comprising 8, 4, 2 2/3, 2, 16 reed. I'm sure someone far more knowledgeable than I could fully justify such an unusual specification, and I look forward to hearing the logic behind it! http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=R01719

Having never been to NZ I can only say that according to the map of these two buildings they're about half a mile apart, and the town hall is a very modern building in contrast to the arts centre. Again sincere condolences to all those affected by the quake, and especially to the South Island Organ Company, three of whose organbuilders were killed whilst removing the organ of a church that had been badly damaged by the 2010 quake for safekeeping.

I once bought a second-hand telly. When it stopped working I took the back off to see if there was anything that I could fix. It had evidently once belonged to a heavy smoker, as the inside turned out to be absolutely covered in a thick layer of slimy brown grime. I don't know what incense does to organs, but I certainly know what tobacco smoke does to smokers' lungs, and their tellies. If anyone here is considering quitting smoking I'll willingly send them a picture of my old telly so you know what the inside of your lungs looks like. Contrabombarde

There does seem to be something to be said for Schwimmers IF they are fairly inexpensive and maintenance free, given that large and failing reservoirs can spell a death sentence in old organs, especially where they are literally built into the frame. Rock steady wind presumably is not inevitable given that you can still have a tremulant. So why are they not more widely used in rebuilds?

There is something quite remarkable how someone barely able to walk with a stick can do the most incredible gymnastics once seated on an organ bench. I remember hearing Ralph Downes perform on the RFH organ when he was in his eighties after seeing the trouble he had walking up to the console and thinking, is this the same man I just saw hobbling along? Back to Ernie Warrell and indeed King's College. I have no idea how much better the acoustics would have been when its original vaulted ceiling was in place, but many years ago the chapel roof was removed, a flat ceiling put in place, and on top of that went the Anatomy lecture theatre and museum of morbid anatomy. One had to be judicious when practicing to keep the volume down otherwise the Biochemistry department (I think it was then) would complain, as part of the Swell was based there, and I remember many happy hours as a medical student in the anatomy lecture theatre thinking of far more interesting things when someone was practicing a few feet below us. Subsequently one of the rooms overlooking the chapel through the clerestory windows became the Islamic prayer room, further limiting the ability to practice effectively without provoking outrage. As for the organ itself, apart from the rather splendid painted front pipes, it always seemed to me to be rather dull and far too buried in whatever chambers it could find to inhabit, and the Willis III/Bishop specification bears little resemblance to the original Father Willis spec. Nevertheless it somehow managed to get awarded a Historic Organ Certificate.

NPOR had a note to say it was in very poor condition and being replaced by a toaster, though on the Web I found two photos of the church interior, one taken from each end, and neither seems to show any musical instruments. Maybe toasters don't count as musical instruments though...

The otherwise quite splendid Binns at St Mary's Shrewsbury has a distance of 33 inches between Choir and pedals, meaning you don't need organ shoes to play it so much as stilts. And the toe pistons are so close to the sharps that when stretching to play a note I find myself bringing on all sorts of stop combinations. If it ever gets restored I'd hope it would be preserved in all ways save for reducing the abyss between the keys and pedals.

How interesting, Graham. I am also an organ-playing doctor and I'm sure there must be a few more musical medics. I don't suppose you are the same Graham Dukes who used to work for a pharmaceutical company called - wait for it - Organon? If so, what a very appropriately named company to have been with!

Shrewsbury Abbey is very pleased to welcome Tom Edwards, Head of Music at Lucton School, to be our Director of Music from next month.

We have just had several dozen boxes specially made for Shrewsbury Abbey, in fact I think we may have even had to throw some out as we got too many! The cost? Free. The source? An congregational appeal to recycle their old cereal boxes, which we turned inside out so the blank cardboard faces you. If you were fussy about the internal appearance or for extra strength you could always glue the two printed sides to one another. Very simple, very effective. Recommended.

On the subject of having fun, at twenty eight stops (or maybe more, or less) comes this: http://www.bhamorgan.org.uk/organs/031.htm with the proviso that it is in an organ builder's home and he evidently swaps stops around according to what he finds (or needs to pass on) at the time!

Worth mentioning that if you record into MIDI (or for that matter a conventional playback device) to your satisfaction, you can then "replay" it to microphones in the middle of the night, ensuring that you don't stay up all night making multiple takes and getting very tired whilst trying to avoid introducing traffic noises into your CD!

I'm probably being really dumb here, but how do you know what is available on Spotify? I couldn't find a searchable catelogue or list of music, and for instance an earlier post said that many of the Priory label discs were available for listening - except that typing in Priory brought up a single recording on Bridlington Priory. A fine instrument, but not what I was looking for. The Spotify website doesn't help either.

Brilliant! By the end of the third carol service yesterday evening our organ was sounding less asthmatic and rather more terminally emphysematous, necessitating impromptu transpositions and trying to remember which notes from the previous hymn had or hadn't worked when playing the next one. But we made it through. Perhaps in the New Year our true loves will find fit to fund its desperately needed restoration, though to be fair it celebrates its centenary in 2011 and has never had any mechanical changes since its installation, a tribute to Hill's pneumatic actions. A very blessed Christmas to all. Contrabombarde

What happened to it? Is it still there, and why did the Phelps replace it? Excellent as Phelps undoubtedly was, I couldn't help wonder at the specification of the older Normand and Beard (I think) there and wonder why it was not restored, or whether in today's world more sympathetic to Edwardian warhorses it would have been retained.

Wide flues give a purer, closer to sine-wave tone so it would make sense that the ranks making up the harmonics were as wide as possible (and obviously something like a septieme can't come from the same rank as something tuned to a unison pitch). But the idea of composition of multiple flue ranks making a close approximation to a reed isn't so far-fetched, that's how the Hammond drawbar organ worked after all, and quite effectively. I even saw a very detailed book that listed every conceivable pipe organ sound that was supposedly possible from the drawbars, and the Hammonds so far as I know didn't have the luxury of septiemes or noviemes. The early Mander rebuild of the Gray and Davison at Str Pancras New Church in central London has a "synthetic Clarinet" on the Choir that I thought sounded pretty realistic when I heard it - I wonder what that is made up of? Contrabombarde

Shameless continuation of an interesting theme... The German organ site, http://www.die-orgelseite.de/ has a searchable index of organs by size. The smallest five manual in the UK is surely Manchester Town Hall - it erroneously claims Wakefield Cathedral is even smaller. Worldwide, Paris St Gervais is even smaller, though it's a bit of a cheat - one stop on the third manual, two on the fourth and three on the top. The organ site mentions a smaller organ in Dallas Texas, but Googling it found only images of a small auditorium with what looked like a two manual Rodgers or similar electronic organ.

Since this year St Stephen's Day falls on a Sunday, can anyone suggest an appropriate voluntary? I haven't time to learn Petre Eben's variations on Good King Wenceslas, but what else are people thinking of playing on Boxing Day?

Worth scanning Ebay as you have various options that come up from time to time. This one is actually being advertised in America, but similar Conns of two or three manuals pop up in the UK every couple of months or so. I have no idea how they sound, I assume they are analogue not digital, but they look like they have a fairly "straight" - as theatre organs go - specification ie 32 notes pedals not 13 or 25, and no masses of drum rhythms. Has anyone heard them in the flesh? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Conn-Theatre-Organ-M...=item27b6d590c4 Here's a plan for one, you have to put the thing together yourself. Given that there are a number of very good Hauptwerk theatre organ simulations, converting a former console to Hauptwerk (whilst retaining all stop tabs, pistons etc as opposed to playing via a touchscreen) might be another option. I tried one a while back, the gentleman had bought a genuine 1930s Wurlitzer theatre organ console and hooked it up to his PC, and it was incredible. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Theatre-Organ-consol...=item2305012aa5 If you fancy the real thing, a genuine 15 rank three manual cinema pipe organ is currently being offered whole by the Scottish preservation society for £3500: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marshall-Sykes-Theat...=item255f53549e Contrabombarde

Edited and corrected, my apologies. Having seen the organ in pieces last week at the Willis factory I can only being to imagine how it will sound once it arrives in situ. There will be some very happy NZ organists!

Wow that case is spectacular! Nice to know that (assuming it sounds as good as it looks), British organ building is not just alive and well but equal to the finest anywhere else in the world can offer. Congratulations to Harrisons (and thanks as always to Manders who happily allow their competitors to be showcased and openly discussed). New or substantially new four manual cathedral or cathedral size instruments at Worcester, Llanduff, Cirencester, St Edmundsbury, Auckland NZ over the past couple of years - have I missed any? Amidst the doom and gloom of the economy in general, let's hope we are living in a golden age of British organ building!

If you need something warm when practising, how about a toaster (geddit )

Quite apart from keeping the organist alive during extremely cold weather, what should the organist be doing to keep the organ alive? Our tubular pneumatic organ is creaking at the seams with such low temperatures (except on Sundays), and I might add, equally low humidity. I don't know if putting buckets of cold water under the organ would help, since it's so cold that they would hardly evaporate. Bucket of hot water near the blower intake? Industrial sized humidifier? Other suggestions?

And to think that humble little me has played that organ in concert too, totally unaware of the giants who preceded me