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french amateur

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Everything posted by french amateur

  1. A bit of french critism... First a good one : the organ sounds more "coherent" now than it sounded since the last restoration. But, as pointed out a very good article by Michel Roubinet : in times of very tight budget for culture, and especially pipe organs, when the Sacré Coeur's ACC organ had to be "restored" with only 150,000 € or so, was it necessary to enlarge again this instrument, and drift it further from its ACC state (already long gone, that's true...) ? Then just a personnal remark, Cattiaux and Quoirin are very good organ builders, but it's strange to have an "ultrasymphonic" organ by two builders that despise any symphonic or post-symphonic organ since two decades... Plus, having seen it and tried it (and several other friends too), the console looks particularly ugly and cheap to me (though it's not, it's actually very fine work and good materials...), and is not very convenient... Just my impressions...
  2. I don't know if such an advertising in in the rules of the forum, but I apologize by advance if it isn't. So, ladies and gentlemen, from the 6th to the 14th of July, will be held the "Académie de Dieppe". http://academie-dieppe.blogspot.fr/ The "Claviers Anciens" ("ancient keyboards") courses are already full packed, but there is still places in the "Claviers modernes" ("Modern Keyboards") and Plain-Chant classes. With visit of the marvelous organs around Dieppe and Rouen (yes, I know what you're already thinking about !). This year, there will be special insight in the XXth century french repertoire and french organs. Quite despised in France at the moment. They will learn to appreciate it in 10 or 20 years, as usual, and regret all they spoiled in between... Usual story ! Dieppe is not that far from UK, there is still ferries from New Haven, if I remember...
  3. To MM : french humour...
  4. Having played it a few times, I confirm that the Manchester Town Hall organ is something like an hybrid of ACC and Lewis. I really hope it will NOT be "rebuilt" but simply restored as such, or just with minor alteration to improve one or two points that could be (in my very very humble opinion). I regret I had no occasion to hear the Rochdale instrument then.
  5. Really interesting ! At the monent, I'm reading the history of the english organ by the late S. Bicknell, and this illustrates it perfectly. Thank you Pierre ! I still regret I did not take the time to try the Samuel Green organ in St Paul, Salford...
  6. I think we do speak about the same person. Being a scientist I use myself lots of open source and commercial softwares, and I understand both points of view. I do not agree on the idea of "small is beautyfull", but that's another point. Good luck for your programmation project! I can't help you, alas, as I have very, very few skills at programming. At lab I'm more an exprimental person than a computer one. Or let's say no more than a basic user... But if you need some translation, I may help, occasionnaly.
  7. A friend of mine actually uses such a program to draw chests since a few years. But it's not open source as he made it himself using both Visual Basic and Autocad. That's a pretty heavy thing, and he begun to build it in 1999 as far as I remember to have it fully working in 2003. It also draws metal foils and wood pieces for pipes provided the scales, pitch and pipes details have been properly put in the system. It allows drawing pipes on the chest to estimate the space required. He is certainly not the only one to use this type of home-made software. You may find people that can help you for programming this, I bet, that would save you some work !
  8. Oh, great, recordings of this instrument are very rare... And those silly ideas you mention about "purity", "decadence" etc. ruined lost of symphonic organs and almost all french post-symphonic organs, alas. Thanks a lot ! N.B. I know this organ, I heard it and visited it, that's really an impressive instrument, with great subtility but also mighty power, and very nice to see inside. I do love the stentor chorus, particularly the 8' stentor, sounding exactly like a horn !
  9. The liverpool link is amazing ! Recording quality, organ quality, organist too... Thanks a lot !
  10. You should try to contact Denis Lacorre, the very good organ builder maintaining this wonderfull instrument.
  11. I heard this instrument a couple of times, and it doesn't sound that bad ! I would certainly not scrap it as easily as it seems intended... There is plenty of redundant organs in UK asking for a roof on them, I hope this will not end with one more neo-baroque or nea-classical instrument...
  12. Sorry, but I already tried to get more info from this friend, but couldn't manage. The only thing I know is that there is some nice things in the organ at the moment (probably the one untouched), and that the cathedral organist hates this organ. I will try however to have some more information...
  13. I think it is from Jardine, as I played several Jardine organs around Manchester, from the same period, and they all seems to suffer the same uncomfortable consoles ! This said, it's not ugly, even if it's a bit heavy. The two "pilars" being doors hiding the old electric combination system, that explains partly the wideness of these pilars.
  14. The console. Extremely uncomfortable, the pedals are too far under the keyboards. A view of the ballroom from the top of the organ. Wonderfull building and very good acoustic in this room. Not dead and not too much reverberating.
  15. As far as I heard from a friend, the former Tarragona organ was something like an Aeolian-Skinner offered by a rich american lady... Slaughtered by Organeria Espanola in the 70's. (At least that's what I have been told, I may have misunderstood...) But the local organist prefered to have a new baroque-like copy made rather than restore the Aeolian-Skinner. Not exactly my cup of tea, I wonder what will happen to the old organ, and if it was possible to have something good from it, despite the "glorious" work of OE.
  16. As I said a few months ago, I regularly played this instrument during the year 2006. Even if it's in rather bad condition, it is still a very very nice instrument. It's no more an ACC organ, as the principals have been modified, some stops added, and the action changed to electropneumatic. But whatever : this is a beautifull instrument, where french music sounds very well. I can only advise you to go there and play it (yes, it's possible, you just have to make an appointment with Margaret Pierrucci of the Town Hall, and that's ok !). The only problem is that feeling such a potencial, it's really frustrating to suffer the lack of wind. I suggest to keep it the way it is : nobody in the world can decently pretend to re-create an ACC, since the ACC company voicers are now long dead... Some can imitate, and approach, but this will only be a copy. Those who pretend the opposite are quite pretentious, I think. The number of ACC suffering bad restorations in France can prove it easily... Edit : I regret I couldn't buy the 1973 vinyle, the organ may have sounded far better then than now.
  17. Well, about the Vierne mass recordings...From the discs I have, I can say that although the Westminster recording is musically perfect, it's perhaps not enough "powerfull" or "violent" ? (sorry, i can't find the proper adjective to describe my opinion right now...). And I think, as ACC said, that the Bouvard/Les éléments version at St Sernin is one of the best. Even if I have huge critics about the organ at that time (just after restoration... It really wasn't great, but time, dust and voicing corrections improved this). It was released by Tempéraments in 1996, and can be found on Toulouse les Orgues festival website, I think with lots of other good recordings (Duruflé, Boëly, Mirepoix organ...)
  18. Yes, that would be something to add, once the wall will have been pushed a little bit further ! This said, of course, it would be one of my first additions.
  19. I could take the easy option and buy one, as a friend of mine did : http://www.orgues-bancells.com/show?ar_id=26 But I rather think I would copy the very small Maurice Puget placed in the Jacobins church in Toulouse : 2MP, 61/32 I) Diapason 8 Bourdon 8 II) Flûte harmonique 8 Flûte octaviante 4 Trompette 8 Ped) Soubasse 16 Pneumatic action (easier to have it adapted to the strange shape of my flat) 16-8-4 couplers, 8-4 tirasses All in box, except the 2 first octaves of the diapason and the soubasse. That sould be enough to go accros most of my favorite repertoire, and more would be unrealistic.
  20. I heard the Ménissier and Leguay opening concerts on this organ. Not my cup of tea at all. The console is very nice, very impressive. It's very good in the french XVIIth-XVIIIth century repertoire, excepted a cromorne I found vulgar. But for the XIXth century music... No comment. About the concept of this instrument, well, I heard people amazed by the barker couplers... invented by Victor Gonzalès in the 20's. So was this type of organ. It is described as "nouveau-classique" instead of "néo-classique" just to stress the fact that the classical part of the organ is really sounding like what we think being a classical french organ at the end of the XXth century. With however rather thin fluework, I think. And the box did not sounds so efficient to me. There is nothing really new for me in this instrument, and if it's a good organ it's because Pascal Quoirin is a good organ builder. Nothing to do with this conventional organ design, in my poor opinion...
  21. How strange... In a french cathedral, a large ACC had some interesting adds around 1920-1930... Which were of course mostly pneumatic, etc. They suffered from lack of maintaining, and when it came to restore the instrument, they were found not to work anymore ! And of course, it never worked and will never work, and let's order the rebuilding of the "pure" ACC, etc. etc. (Some very nasty persons suggest that the expert would have helped them to keep quiet before the restoration, but they are nasty persons...) I also suffered a big III/P electronium in the cathedral I used to play when I was young. They drawn lots of money to buy it 'to replace the great organ being restored'. And while they collected something like 15,000 £ for it, a poor small romantic organ in an other church was let with all it's problems, and I had to repair it myself as I could !
  22. It's strange as this "most confortable" console topic turned to be the worst consoles ever topic... So Here I add my small experience in english organ consoles : The worst console I ever experienced there is the Manchester Town Hall one, with the pedal keyboard being so far underneath that it becomes problematic to play the positif. Even Dennis Martin told me that when the old Thalben-Ball came to play it, they had to change the bench, and as his belly was nearly tuching the keys, he really couldn't play on the positif. (Not to mention the action which is terrible. But the stops arrangement is nice.) I played another organ from Jardine, from the same period (the 70's) and there was the same problem.
  23. I have a vinyl recorded in 1981 on this organ by Daniel Roth, with one side composed of stunning improvisations, in a Tournemire-like style. I think it has been put on CD by Motette. I've been at the organ loft last november, the organ is not that bad, but is certainly far from it's initial glory. I intend to go there soon, I'll tell you about it. If you have any special questions, I can try to ask either the organist I now, or the organ builder.
  24. The old french way to write étude was something like estude, étranger : estranger. And indeed some people with very thick south of France accent (as my grandmother) would still pronounce "estranger", including the S pronouciation. It's a very old love story between french and english languages.
  25. Some organists in France (around Toulouse) suggested that the best quality of the leather used in the XIXth century was due to the quality of the lambs and sheeps themselves. I quite doubt this. Most of the skin used in France is from a town named Millau (pronounce mee-o), and are raised on the Larzac moores. Life there is not much different for the sheeps since once century... So I would tend to think that the tanning methods are the crucial point, as I have to admit that some ACC, Merklin and Puget leather still are there and efficient since more that 100 years, but it was necessary to releather completely the belows of an organ in Toulouse, built in 1981... (For example, the leather on the bellows at the Manchester Town Hall is still the original ACC one, it seems. It's in great need to be changed, but it's still there.) Has anyone experimented such a difference ?
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