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Yeah the feeling that as you get old you become less optimistic about achieving the dream of owning a real pipe organ is something I have heard before.
I sometimes wonder if I will ever realizes my own ambition of owning a pipe organ. As a child it seemed understandable that it wouldn't be until I was older when I could finally start work on fulfilling my ambition (as you wouldn't leave a 12 year old alone with power tools) but as I have gotten older I still don't feel that I have a better chance of fulfilling the dream.
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This is probably going to be the same as a previous thread regarding small organs but one thing that I have been curious about is the popularity of house organs.
One particular instrument I am curious about is a four stop practice organ by Skrabl as I wonder how many of these organs Scrabl have managed to sell.
Below is a link to an article on the Skrabl website regarding this organ.
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This is not really important but a while ago I stumbled across a couple of videos of a rather interesting little studio organ which I thought might be worth posting here.
The specification for this organ as it is listed in the description of the first video.
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The question about when is an organ to big is something that has interested me for a long time and in places like America I feel that there does seem to be a bit of an obsession for Melbourne town hall size instruments. A couple of examples that spring to mind is an Austin organ located at St. Lutheran Church in Hanover Pennsylvania, and the Ruffatti organ at Coral Ridge Presbyterian church in Fort Lauderdale Florida.
Looking at the specification of the Austin organ of St Lutheran I must confess that I do wonder if it is really necessary for an organ to have over 200 ranks. While with the organ at Coral Ridge I am curious as to what the reason was behind adding digital stops to such a massive instrument was.
http://www.stmattlutheran.org/music/the-organ/
As for my opinion of both the Wanamaker and Midmer Losh organs I do feel that yes I don't think it is necessary for these organs to be as big as they are but I do still appreciate both these instruments. I feel that they were both intended to hold the title of being the largest organs or musical instruments in the world but at the same time I think care was still taken to make them more than just show piece.
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I just remembered some videos I stumbled across years ago of a positive organ that was built by the organist Giorgio Questa.
Personally I think the instrument has quite a nice sound but I'm not a fan of how it is designed to be transported as I would design the organ to break apart into several pieces rather than have something reminiscent of a jigsaw puzzle. Another thing I'm not sure about with this organ is the spacing of the pipes on the wind chest as I think it look a little tight.
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Yes I see what in that the idea of a modular design could work. I think it could also certainly help in reducing the set up as pipe organs are kind of like 3D jigsaw puzzles that can take weeks or months to set up.
I hope more information about the Organ of Variable Structure (particularly a specification) surfaces one day as I would love to dive into the nuts and bolts of this proposal. I have thought about getting a copy of Jean Guillou's book L'Orgue, Souvenir et Avenir but I don't want to go to the trouble of buying a book that is not in English and may not have any further information on this organ.
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I just remembered a couple of videos of the Boardwalk organ which I thought would be worth sharing which are of the 32' principle and the 64' Diaphone.
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I remember Reginald Foort mentioned several other people who had toured with a pipe organ in an article he had written regarding his touring organ, but I haven't been able to find any information on any of these other touring organs.
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I see what you mean. I have been meaning to ask what people think of this idea as it may be an idea worth employing if space is tight.
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A Bourdon rank that can play at two different levels of volume by adjusting the lip of the pipes sounds like something I would love to see a demonstration of.
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The description in the video stated that there are only two Wurlitzer organs with these polyphonic pipes, so it's possible that Wurlitzer may not have experimented with this idea as much as Compton.
On a slightly different note it's also worth mentioning a French Romantic positive organ I stumbled across a few months back that contains bass pipes that can play two or three notes.
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Recently a video appeared in my recommendations of a unique Wurlitzer 32' Diaphone where each pipe can play two notes.
I was originally going to post this under Small Organ Design but then decided to create a new topic as I think this is a rather unusual idea that might be worth exploring.
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Extension organs (although not perfect) are quite an effective way of creating a compact and versatile organ. There are videos of a Wicks Fuga organ which the owner had made some modifications to it such as replacing the stop tabs with draw knobs and adding a couple of ranks of pipes, but overall I think it turned out as quite a nice instrument.
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I've recently been thinking about studio practice organs and there are several organs I've come across which although have an electric rather than a mechanical action and some extensions I think they could still be of some inspiration for designing a house organ.
http://www.rdyerorgans.com/curtisinstitute/
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I wish I had posted this a little earlier but it was just today that I suddenly remembered this bizarre video I saw years ago of Diane Bish trying to get her dog to sing along to Jingle Bells.
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This is probably not important but I just thought it would be worth mentioning that the organist Jean Baptiste Monnot had recently set up and performed on his portable organ at the Louvre. There's a few pictures of the event on his Facebook and Instagram page but not much in the way of videos and recordings (or at least at the time I am posting this comment).
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I apologies if this may be a bit controversial as this thread is meant to be focused on tracker organs not extension organs but I remember seeing an extension organ that was built for a private home by an American organ builder called Kegg. The reason why I want to mention this organ is although it's not mechanical I think this organ does have an ideal specification and the size of the instrument is not to big.
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Personally I would compare digital organs to microwave ovens rather than toasters as I think their was some skepticism towards this appliance.
I remember an old TV series called Pie in the Sky starring Richard Griffiths about a detective who dreams of retiring from the police force to run his own restaurant. In some of the early episodes I recall Henry Crabbe being quite critical of microwave ovens.
I faintly remember a scene in a restaurant or cafe where Henry complimented the owner for launch who replied with a thank you and then mentioned that he was thinking of getting a microwave oven. Henry then went into this long about how it would down grade the place and would then start finding all sorts of riffraff coming in through the door.
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To confess I'm not so keen on the use of digital stops but still it certainly sounds like quite an impressive organ.
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I have recently been wondering about the need for 32' stops as I have noticed in America it feels like the vast majority of pipe organs there contain at least one or three 32' stops which I have noticed are often digital.
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Recently while browsing through a list of specifications of organs built by klais I stumbled across a fairly new organ that at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Spain that I have heard about. But what I found interesting is that this particular organ doesn't seem to contain any stops at 32' pith.
It's possible that their may be plans to add any ranks at 32' pitch at a latter date but I can't say for sure as usually any additions are often marked as prepared for.
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Recently I've been working on a future post regarding the use of digital stops in pipe organs as over the last few yeas of noticed digital stops and in particularly 32' voices have became Quite common in a lot of pipe organs mainly in America.
Whenever I brows through a portfolio for an organ builder it feels like nearly half and sometimes even the majority of pipe organs listed contain digital voices. And what I also find interesting is that it doesn't seem to be happening so much with small organs but a lot of the big cathedral and even in concert organs contain digital voices.
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Yes I see what you mean about the sound of some of these deep bass instruments being unpleasant. It reminds me of another experimental instrument called the Octobass which is basically a massive double bass. I feel like the Octobass may have been a good idea but to confess I think the sound is not that great even compared to a 32' organ stops. The Contrabassoon I don't mind the sound of as to me it sounds a little like a 32' reed but the Octobass just has this really harsh sound to it.
I also think the reason why the orchestra can get away without needing such an instrument is with the use of percussion such as timpani and the bass drum, as I think these instruments work really well at adding that low end rumble that would get from a 32' stop.
Another thing that's worth mentioning is that Richard Bobo has also built out curiosity what could be referred to as a 64' Racket.
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Several years ago I stumbled across a proposal for a new bassoon called a a Subcontra bassoon. I can't remember exactly how I came across this but I recall at the time I was curious to see if their are any instruments that could play down to the range of a 32' stop.
As to where this project stands the person behind the project Richard Bobo has made some progress on building a prototype which is a bit of an improvement as in the past he often just made updates to the design.
A chance to own a very special Studio organ.
in The Organ
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Wow that's quite an impressive studio organ.