Pierre Lauwers

This could be unfair for the synthetizer, because it will sound very, very poor in comparizon. I remember in the seventies when there were trials to combine electric guitars and organ (Yes, for church services!!!). The result was so awful that the guitarists soon disposed of...The organist (of course). Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers

Apart from the artistic reasons that might speak against electronic stops, we need not to forget an organ isn't heard with the ears only, but with all the body. I cannot imagine any loudspeaker able to reproduce that. The different locations of the pipes in the case or the building, the distance between them and the public, their relations with the room's acoustics... While a loudspeaker is nothing else as a piston pushing the sound in front of itself. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This is quite interesting to me, in that I still wonder why the french reeds meet with so much interest in Britain. But maybe the "english french reeds" are something else, a kind of interpretation; I personally would try -in a new organ, absolutely never in any existing one- to have french reeds on the Récit, and english ones on the Great. But that would be something typically belgian. In a genuine english organ I scarcely imagine an ACC's reed chorus, let alone a Trompette like Isnard's at St-Maximin. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This system seems to be quite interesting. Does it have drawbacks? I understand that if the leather of the pneumatic motor does leak, we may end up with a cypher -or a kind of "half-cypher" according to the size of the leakage-. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This makes sense, of course, Malcolm, But I actually believe the builder does some choices, and he has to if he wants to avoid a dead, flat "multi-purpose" voicing style. Of course there are baroque german organs that offer an immense versatility, but the differences of strenght between their stops is limited. But take the french "classic" organ; if you drawn the Tierce, you must mandatorily add the Bourdon 8', Flûte 4', Nazard and Quarte (or Doublette if there is no Quarte de Nazard); you may not drawn any Principal stop with it and any "Plein-jeu", "Fourniture" or "Cymbale" are forbidded... Take a belgian romantic organ: if you draw a mixture, the reeds are mandatory because they are intended for this use only. So I agree too many "guidelines" could be a bad idea, but some are needed, tough. Walcker should have written all names on the console in german -an english builder should do it in english, etc- and have explained the second division is not a "Récit" (nor a "Swell" by the way), but a kind of "secondary", soft division with delicately voiced stops. He could have tell "My reeds have nothing in common with the other ones you already have in Namur", and show how a Pedal 16' Posaune is more versatile by far as a Van Bever Bombarde, which needs absolutely all the pedal couplers drawn with it so it is powerfull! As of today we all know perfectly well the quite severe french baroque registration rules, but near to nothing about the others. Let's imagine an english builder builds a Cathedral organ in Belgium with a tipycal english Swell. He'd write on the console: "Basson, Trompette, Clairon, Mixture", period. What do you think will happen? Not even a month after the english team will have left, a belgian teacher will tell us all here "the Swell mixture you use with Diapason 8', Octave 4' and Fifteenth, nothing else". In Brussels, the former organist of St-Boniface (a 1871 Schyven organ, thus from the Merklin school) never drawn more than one 8' flue at a time... Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

I fully agree with Malcolm. If all organ-builders laid a kind of "owner's manual" with every innovative organ they build, maybe some destructions would not have happened. I am busy with an excellent example: an organ Walcker (the german, not Walker) built in Namur in 1907. This was a two-manual organ with: Manual I Manual II the second being a soft division, according to the "Abschwächungsprinzip". Halas Walcker, in an attempt to be "customer-friendly", called this second, and moreover expressive, division "Récit expressif". Of course the french-speaking belgians compared it with french and belgian "Récits expressifs".....crammed with powerful, free-toned Trompettes! As a result this organ was judged a failure because the "Récit", which had only a free-reed Clarinette as reed stops (the rest was splendid, delicate flue stops like Eoline etc), was "not powerfull enough". The Pedal Posaune was called "Bombarde", which it of course was not, so the regulating screws and the leathering of the shallots were removed... Now, many many years later, we are beginning a time-consuming project to put this organ back in order -I mean in its 1907 state-. I believe the builders should write and explain their design somewhere inside the organ-case. And deliver a brochure to the organist: "Guidelines to the registration of the St-XYZ organ".

Of course, Malcom: http://homepage.mac.com/glarehead/ambrosin...re-ohs2000.html Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This is something explained by Mr Jonathan Ambrosino. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

Yes Schoenstein is really quite interesting. Another one I'd like to see in Belgium. But as far as I know, he gathers different infuences upon a Skinner basis and general disposition design. As to Skinner "people" wanted him to follow the paths of Willis III, but he himself seemed more interested with Harrison (Arthur...) and Lewis. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

The french and the english tastes differ as widely as possible in the matter of reeds. Up to today. ACC would never have tried to voice his reeds as Willis did, and the reverse is also true. French reeds must have sounded, to british 19th century's ears, like something "awfully crude". So what could have crossed the channel is only the idea of chorus reeds in a Swellbox. This said, I personally find a huge difference between Willis's Trumpets and H &H Trombas; two worlds (and two excellent ones). Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This was a quite pragmatic way, like ACC often did when he encountered ancient valuable material. He was -of course from a 19th century's point of view- very respectfull towards the work of the ancient builders. Look at the "Positifs de dos" -actually chair organs- he often kept, while a thing like this do not allow to conceive an "academically correct" romantic "Choir" organ. In the organs he built from scrap, you won't find any Positif de dos, nor a Swell "Plein-jeu", I mean a Mixture intended for a flue chorus in the "classic" sense. He'd place a Cornet instead, or sometimes a Progression harmonique, both intended as "Tutti-binder". Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

The brilliant "full Swell" is actually something british; the french Swell, influenced by Willis as it could be -after all Henry Willis and Cavaillé-Coll were friends- is reed-dominated, often without a mixture at all. This is the case in Belgium too. The english Swell could be an excellent feature on the continent, but in newly built organs! Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

Of course the naming is undifferent, the basic principle remains the same. When you have many 8' flues, you need a bit more 4' stops with differing power and tone. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

The jeux de combinaisons are on a heavier wind than the jeux de fonds. Cavaillé-Coll often placed some soft reeds among the jeux de fond, only to provide them with a lower pressure, and reversely, some louder voiced flue stops with the jeux de combinaisons. He saw the organ as a whole, not as we do today one division at a time. The role of this louder octave you may compare with what is to be find in english organs that have: Octave 4' I Octave 4' II With the I louder and with a wider scale. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

Yes: "Adjoint" is a "second" titulary of a position. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

Fine ! So the dear old Lady is momentarily still alive. And yes, of course, this is above all an accompanimental instrument -for the very very best choral music-. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

The Progression harmonique stops have effectively been reconstitued, but on the Grand-orgue only, the remaining mixtures on the other divisions are still neo-classic ones. I could not find out if the Cymbale was rebuild as the Contre-progression it was. The scheme is as follows: Fourniture 2-5 ranks Cymbale 2-5 ranks, with possibility to cancel the Tierce rank. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This is effectively quite interesting! Having not been in Paris since 20 years, I shall post a question about today's ND-Paris state on the french forum, and report here about the answers I might have. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

This was an extraordinary tentative to introduce the tierce in french mixtures. But it failed; some years later, the mixtures were modified, and it had occured even faster if the then in charge organist, Mr Sergent, had used any mixture or mutation at all -which he never did-. The french are against tierce mixtures since some centuries, while the german and the english romantic organ rely on these particular compound stops to allow the blend of flue and reed stops. Later, Cavaillé-Coll came back to traditionnal mixtures, and also to the Cornets at the same time -to have tierces in the "Grand-choeur"-. The Cymbale harmonique you mention is actually a Contre-progression harmonique -a "reverted" harmonic progression. It must have been quite difficult to realise, but quite effective in any "Progression"'s aim: re-inforce the treble to put the melodic line forward (intended for romantic, homophonic and "harmonic" music, in which polyphony is secondary) Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

The original Récit at St-Clothilde (1859) was: Gambe 8' Voix céleste 8' Flûte harmonique 8' Bourdon 8' Flûte octaviante 4' Octavin 2' Trompette 8' Basson-Hautbois 8' Voix humaine 8' Clairon 4' The Convers Récit in 1933 was: Quintaton 16' Gambe 8' Voix céleste 8' Flûte harmonique 8' Bourdon 8' Flûte 4' Nazard 2 2/3' Octavin 2' Tierce 1 3/5' Plein-jeu 4 ranks Bombarde 16' Trompette 8' Basson-Hautbois 8' Clarinette 8' Voix humaine 8' Clairon 4' The Basson-Hautbois was of course still Franck's, ditto the Trompette, but in a box about two times bigger. So the "presence" of these stops isn't the same, as well as their "response" to the shutter's moves. In fact there are two kinds of Swell divisions: the romantic french, above all solistic. And then the "symphonic", late-romantic big division, with an accent on the ensemble. This ensemble is not a "classic" one, but it is a whole in a classic way: Full-lenght or double lenght reeds 16-8-4 plus a mixture. And who invented that? A belgian beer (Duvel) for the first who finds out! Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

Thanks for these sensible comments. Of course such instruments were above all intended, and designed, to accompany singers. This is exactly the same with contemporary belgian organs. Tough limited in scale, your organ could convince you it is worthwile. I do not know it, but for this reason I suspect it could be more valuable than local people think -something I encountered quite often- Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

One could effectively have planned worse... A Diapason phonon is now probably a rarity, and Hill&N&B organs are by no way unworthy instruments! Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers

Hello Malcolm, Who was the builder of this organ? Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

Anyway, I believe it would be prudent to modify the least possible. And of course, to try to find an organ that was built for as comparable a room as possible. There are invaluable organs in rural, forgetted areas, where there is no money any more since enough time to have old organs left. I always prefer to encounter an original ruin than a spoiled, "working" organ..."updated" every 15 years or so. I am very pleased to see how modern builders -like our host- are prudent and carefull in their restorations today. One can really say we have nowadays a "modern restoration method" that could well stop the endless spoiling of organs with each rebuild, as this is ongoing since...? Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.

I would like now to continue this thread with another aspect of the Dulciana. The late baroque stop was made essentially in 8' and sometimes 4'. In late romantic organs, one finds very often -in english-speaking countries only- a Dulciana chorus on the choir organ (expressive) with sometimes 16', then 8', 4', 2' (Dulcet) and a Dulciana mixture. The composition of the latter may vary, but it seems to have rarely included a tierce rank. There were also "Dulciana cornets" to be find, it seems. The only trace I have of this one is Audsley's writings, where he gives a composition without tierce for this stop(!) The Dulciana choruses I heard were amazing, soft and silvery, and were used to accompany the voices in choral music; I did not hear them with solistic organ music. I'd appreciate any comments from people who know these stops better. Best wishes, Pierre Lauwers.