Pierre Lauwers

Thanks, Vox ! Pierre

Here is a convincing interpretation of Mozart, not to mention the organ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4alRHinHCg...feature=related Pierre

.....Recorded with a very special organ: it contains pipes from Michael Engler!!!! Pierre

Well, as far as a baroque organ designed for baroque music is concerned, do we really need that "Brol" ? ("Brol" means: an useless pile of things of doubtfull quality). If I was given free hand in a church, I'd have a Bach organ AND a modern one (with all the gadgetry), both consequently developped in a credible way. One may like electric windows, powersteering etc in a Cadillac, while at the same time enjoy an MG, naked as it is. Pierre

There are excellent ideas there, up to the 10 2/3' -Like Casparini's "Fullbass"-. Pierre

Here is a lecture with Jacques Van Oortmerssen about Tempo: (in four parts, the three others are to be find at the right) Pierre

....A turbocharged wheelchair. Pierre

Here we are, how interesting are those two last postings. There is indeed a questionning about Bach these last years, and this is, among others things, due to the rediscovery of the central european baroque organs and their features which are often the exact opposite to the neo-baroque concepts. This I already have enough explained here and elsewhere. Maybe it would be interesting to think of Bach, his music, and his time, as transitionnal; a transition between Buxtehude and Mozart, from the "contrapuntal" to the "galant" styles; a transition between european schools -normal for a "central" area: Italy, France, northern Europe; and a transition organ, as precisely this central european baroque organ is the direct origin of the romantic organ. Pierre

Well, perhaps this article dispays a slight bias... Here is a testimony one does not need to hold the 1970-typical Mantra "Schnitger über alles" for true, even for a classic-minded composer as Rheinberger: Pierre

"repetition - fast trills tended to sound as 2 adjacent notes sounding together." (Quote) This is a typical maintenance problem Mr Michel Gaillard in France has specialized in adressing ! Ask the one (s?) here who played pneumatic organs restored by him. Pierre

Another finding featuring the Gloucester cathedral organ as Herbert Howells knew it with an extract from Elgar Sonata: Pierre

Another finding featuring the Gloucester cathedral organ as Herbert Howells knew it with an extract from Elgar Sonata: Pierre

"a well-designed tracker action will respond faster than any electro-pneumatic action." (Quote) I am slightly uncomfortable with this sentence, first because it is physically impossible (As Mr Skinner wrote, an EP action with Taschenlade or Pitman chest works faster than any pipe itself), second, because when man experiments how the true, historic tracker actions were made, and how they work, one realizes those mega-light, modern actions, are bound to modern materials and/ or ditto design means and to neo-baroque, foundation-less kind of specifications. The tracker action, like any other, has its plus and its minuses, no more, nor less. It is quite sure its fashion has been exagerrated in an ideological way during the second half of the 20th century. Pierre

Well, maybe ! Pierre

There is of course a common period, also a comparable technology. This said, the central german organs had heavier actions -and this was a concern for J-S Bach- than the northern ones, for obvious reasons! Pierre

"Erbam dich...", J-S Bach, by Gehrard Weinberger on the Treutmann organ (1737) of Grauhof (D): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovFjxHj7PxE...player_embedded The organ is a northern one, but with much central and eastern Germany influencies (No "Werkprinzip", but an Hinterwerk, a fair amount of foundation stops including Gambas etc). See here about the Treutmann organ: http://www.marktplatz-goslar.de/orgel/orgeleng.html Pierre

I mean: from a strict historical point of view, the Van Hagerbeer-Franz-Caspar Schnitger organ of Alkmaar, more, in the state it was during H. Walcha's recordings, is exactly as far from the organs Bach played as the one in Birmingham's Town Hall. Bach never went in the Netherlands, he did not know the dutch style. He lived 800 kilometres away. When he spent some time in the north, he knew an organ Schnitger said "it was just good for the scrapyard". Later, he played a Schnitger once or twice; 99,999% of the time, he played thuringian and saxon organs, thus, instruments that are as different from Alkmaar as a Willis or a Walcker can be. (Indeed: the Mixtures in the Walcker organ of Riga Cathedral are closer to Trost's ones than Alkmaar's). The craze for dutch organs for Bach I cannot understand as an historian. Rather, it is the fact the dutch had kept ancient organs that attracted much players there, because anything "baroque" would do better than the instruments they had at home. So far, so good; good recordings resulted, no doubt. Bach sounds exactly as well on a Walcker: beautiful, but not authentic ! any "truth" there is an invented one. Pierre

"It may or may not be "authentic"" (Quote) It is no more, nor less, authentic, than it would be on the Birmingham Town hall organ. Pierre

Indeed, to have Jacques van Oortmerssen at Waltershausen would be rather great....And his registration demonstrates he would be happy with its specifications. Now can an organ with six 8' flue stops on the Hauptwerk and tracker action be "light, quick, responsive, sensitive, with a distinct pluck (etc)", akin to a clavichord ? The question is open, but it is sure Waltershausen is the complete antithesis to a neo-baroque organ. It is fully about tone, boldness, warmth and colors. Pierre

....And here, with Zimbelstern and a splendid Tierce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ianrMfr6s...feature=channel Here is an interesting page about this organ: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgel_der_Sta..._1730.2F1755.29 Do not miss the Mixture's specifications ! The BW Mixture, for example, ends up exactly like a 4 ranks Cornet... Pierre

Another interesting one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrFVTfGASpk A bit fast maybe. But now THAT is a baroque Prinzipal chorus ! The Pedal won't go through little PC speakers, you need a Hi-Fi installation to realize the Gravität. Pierre

May I suggest we go on with this interesting topic without "the good, the bad and the ugly" games ? There are interesting ecclectic organs, and less interesting ones, like with every other style; now to expect of them to add this and that like a pile of bits is an ideological vision, not necessarily shared by the builders of such organs. In short, there are the claims of the consultants,experts, amateurs, players, on side, and the actual organs, on the other side. It might be interesting to concentrate on them, leaving the bumps and the whamoos round them to the human, I mean, strictly human, history. Pierre

Another interesting Video with the Waltershausen Trost organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqdkm_-ldQ...feature=related Note the tempo, and the soft string stop -this organ has several ones-. Pierre

Perhaps the interesting comment of MM suggest we introduce a distinction between "ecclectic organ" and "multicultural style". All baroque organs in Europe and America (Mexico etc) ultimately evolved from two late-Renaissance models, in two areas: -The Brabant (roughly today: the flemish Brabant province, the Province Antwerps, and the Northern Brabant in The Netherlands) -The northern Italy So strictly speaking, only those are "pure styles": the Niehoff kind of organ and the italian "Ripieno" organ with no reeds stops, a Principal chorus with separate ranks and an undulating stop. So of course all organs are more or less ecclectic ones, and all styles, even the "purests" we know, for example the french baroque organ and the northern german ones, actually evolved from several influencies. Maybe an organ might be said to be "ecclectic" when its builder knew he did a synthesis, when it was intentionaly done. Here again, Silbermann and his pupil J. Wagner are excellent historic examples. When you find in Angermünde, close to the polish border, also more than thousand kilometres away from the nearest french-speaking area, a Vox humana so "french" that it was built according to french metrology -in the middle of the 18th century, this says quite a lot!- it is clear the intention of the builder was to introduce french traits in his organ. Now if we look at the vast number of builders who belonged to the Silbermann or the Wagner school, Buchholz, for example, or indeed Schulze, we no longer find such "blatant mixes". These are no more ecclectic organs, but they belong to a muticulturally based style. As for the influence of the theatre organ, it already obtains in the Neo-baroque style, which owes something to it and indeed Hope-Jones. This is logical, since each style of organ was marked by its predecessors. No disclosure obtains in the History of the organ. Pierre

"the craft of making music is 'above' that of creating great organs." (Quote) This idea is 100% typical for the Néo-baroque period; it was forbidden to search "beautiful tone" -decadent!-. Instead, the "polyphonic textures" were favorised. But this, still with the post-romantic herited "Mixtures as colors", i.e., you heard nothing else... It was rather strange to come back from eastern Germany (then DDR) to be confronted again with such ideas, but the conviction was as strong as those reigning then the other side of the iron curtain -about slightly differing matters-. This said, this does not mean "Néo-baroque" means "wrong"! A majority of néo-classique organs have electro-pneumatic actions, though Victor Gonzalez himself built tracker actions wherever he could. It was for this reason Rudolf Von Beckerath worked with him before WWII, because "this art was lost in Germany", he said. He enriched Gonzalez's craft with northern ideas, and as a result there are extremely precious organs from that period, up to tierce Cymbels! This period was the best for Gonzalez and may be compared with Holtkamp at the same period. André Marchal knew and played Holtkamp organs in the US, so maybe Gonzalez knew them. But we have no documents for this, while we do have about cooperations between Holtkamp and Kuhn and Metzler in Switzerland. Ecclectism is not always an "historic" matter. A majority of baroque organs in Belgium, England, eastern France, central Germany, were indeed ecclectic organs. BUT....The different styles that they mixed were from the same epoch, not different ones. It is THAT which defines the Néo-classique organ: for the first time, styles from different epochs were mixed. For the rest, those organs do not differ from the late post-romantic ones. Whenever we draw Specifications which mix elements from the late-romantic period, in different countries (Orgellandschafte), we get Post-romantic designs. The modern ecclectic organ is a successor to the Néo-classique one, but the voicing methods, the scalings and general construction differ. But it is clear there obtains never any "disclosure" in organ-building, despite the claims. Pierre