Pierre Lauwers

So far, so good. It makes me think to the Rose growers forums ! During the 19th century only, about 50,000 rose varieties have been obtained; during the 20th, even more. After 20 years of "top 10 bests" listings, we have about 8,000 left. The rest went into the scrapyard, maybe along with Zinc pipes, Hope-Jones work etc.... Do we want to end up in 100 years with 5 Toccatas, some Chorals and some pieces from Widor and Vierne left ? Remember mighty General Motors; while "building what the customer wants", they rationnalized out all "Substanz" from their brands, up to the final collapse absolutely all in Detroit knew was to come. "We are at the summit of the cliff; now it is time to make a big step forward, guys!" Pierre

The "Bourdon harmonique" is a triple-lenght stopped Diapason, exactly like Thynne's "Zauberflöte" in England. The difference with the Zauberflöte is the scale, which is larger; while the Zauberflöte may be understood as an "harmonic Quintatön", the Bourdon harmonique is an harmonic Gedackt. Schyven also built Bourdons harmoniques in Belgium. Of course the pipes are harmonic only from c! Would you want to visit the organ, you can contact Ludo Geloen through this Website: http://users.telenet.be/geloen/orgiep.html ludo.geloen@pandora.be He is a big friend of this organ. Pierre

It is interesting to note that Ieper's organ is not huge at all (40 stops!). What counts -besides the dark colours etc- is the generous acoustics; it is better to have 40 stops with 5 seconds + reverberation than 100 stops in a dry acoustics ! This is particularly important for Howell's music, and another example comes to mind: Messiaen, who composed his organ works for the Eglise de la Trinité, where we also have more than 5 seconds reverberation. "Acoustics" may be taken for the most important organ stop ! Pierre

Perhaps you would prefer a Tuba ? Pierre

Not with Howells, but Elgar: http://www.andriessenorgelbouw.be/en/ISM-info.html (Links to the sound files above the Specifications) Do not mind the "frenchy" stops names ! Pierre

Has anybody tried to play Howells on a french organ ? At Ieper Cathedral (Anneessens) the results are surprisingly good. Pierre

Books and music scores you will find here, the best adress in Brussels: http://www.pointdorgue.be/index.php?page=welcome Pierre

Vox, do you really think Joe Public is so stupid ? They entered a church, after all... Pierre

Oooh, they may complete the work first, no problemo. We aren't in an hurry, we wait already since 30 years for that recording. This leaves us some time to repair the (1950's) trucks of the belgian army; they would not even reach Zeebrugge in the state they are in nowadays... Pierre

I do not think it is the same B... Pierre

As an alternative, Belgium could take two british towns over (one whose name begins with a "B", the other one with a "D"). The flemish would build the wall round one of them, the waloons round the other. No exports, OK, save towards the continent. This would be mandatory anyway as the customs paperwork may only be in french and dutch languages. Pierre

Gloucester was originally a Willis I, and a recent Video lend to believe there was still something of it to be heard. Aaaah, you see, there are some reasons to keep out-of-fashion organs sometimes, despite the lightheartly "needs" to stay à la page in the comme il faut circles! Pierre

On the continent, the Vox angelica is most a soft Salicional, not an undulating stop. Sometimes, it is even a reed stop the kind of the Vox humana. This is the form known in Belgium (Pierre Schyven) under the name "Voix angélique". Schyven built it as a free-reed stop. It would be interesting to know how Willis develloped his own version as a celeste. Pierre

So weit, so gut. Now who will record the complete organ works on a fine A.H for us ? (Cynic clearly indicated which instruments are to be used for that) The market is there. A big add will be placed (for free!) on the first french-speaking organ forum. Pierre

"is it worth learning?" (Quote) Yes! (At least to play it the other side of the Chunnel) Pierre

There are several means to obviate this: have the mouths of both ranks on opposite sides, have one rank higher placed than the other... Pierre

As already mentionned, here is the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDVsvPZv-vo...feature=related By the way, when Eugen Casparini went back in Silesia from Italy, he brought the Principale and the Voce umana with him....It was circa 1700. Italian stops already existed before him in german-speaking Europe, in border areas, in hybrid style organs. Casparini tried to combine a german Plenum with Ripieno parts....And got something else in the end. The italian Principal is sweeter than the german one, and Casparini had the first "soft stops" also, complementing the louder ones. His Görlitz organ had two undulants, a Voce umana (named "Vox humana"!) und an "Ondamaris", whose wooden pipes are the only that still exist today. Germany became an Unda-Maris party soon afterwards. But after 1750, these stops fell into disgrace there, and were suppressed. The taste came back relatively late in the 19th century, to the point Walcker built his first Voix céleste towards the end of his life, and this, in an organ built for Alsace ! Pierre

This must have been before Cromwell, in a time when stops were doubled in british organs; say, two 6' Diapasons (one on each side of the case), with one slightly off-tune.... As a reward you will cry: "Welcome, Herman"!!!!! :lol: Pierre

Fine, then ! It would be the option which would avoid scraping any historic material, all the "Substanz" would be valorised; the Marx chests and pipework, rare treasures,one side, and the neo-classic Sauer organ, on another side. Such a solution would satisfy both the historian and the musician. Pierre

I meant a virtual part of W.E ! Pierre

Indeed: Father Willis remained fair to his own style up to the end, so that several distinct styles co-existed in that time. That was my point, though I do effectively appreciate *somewhat darker* colors as well! (see towards western England). Pierre

I got a CD today which deserves a mention here: http://www.pipeworksfestival.com/heritage.html This organ was the last big one by Henry Willis I, "Father Willis". It dates 1900, and has fully pneumatic action. I did not know about it and it comes with a surprise: it would be untouched since then ! The CD with an interesting programme -as well as the belgian player- displays an organ full of character -Mixtures included!-, beautifull, and clear, Miles away from the modern preconceptions against organs from that period. Queue here. Pierre

Dear Karl, I won't fire the guns against, among others, our host, organ builder, who did see and hear the organ ! I am just a "paper tiger", and did not hear that one! Someone cited on the german forum said "this" (neo-classical pipework) does not go with this (romantic voicing with feet regulation etc) nor with this (baroque soundboards from Ernst Marx, a J. Wagner pupil by the way). Important stuff...And there is this difficult location (an huge Fernwerk). Some ideas to be played with, fully open to discussion (and firing!): -"Pseudo-Baroque" pipework voiced by post-romantic trained voicers are quite common in that time: Victor Gonzalez, Oscar Walcker, Klais... they all did it. I call it "néo-classique première ( first) manière". This is a style in itself, and suits Tournemire, Messiaen, Dupré, Duruflé... -An organ-builder said (again, read on the german forum): "this pipework would work better on Taschenladen" (membrane chests with grooves for stops, not by notes), and I think this is quite interesting an advice. -If we lived in an ideal world, why not imagine to recuperate the Marx chests and -if not transformed beyond the imaginable- pipework to reconstitute a medium-size baroque organ, and rebuild a coherent, neo-classical instrument (with Taschenladen or another kind of sliderless chest, with electro-pneumatic action) ? One of the two would go in another place in the church, while the other might better "breathe" in the former place if enlightened a bit (less stops, but better disposed). Now I really need to buy that ticket to the Falklands ! Pierre

.....And this brightness may, among others, rely on the Great Mixture. It seems to have very few breaks so that "it sings accurately with the rest". (Addenda: indeed, it was a vintage Willis before the A.H. rebuild. We may suppose he largely kept Willis reeds, whose quality nobody could discuss...) Pierre

Indeed; and as far as I know, the "traditionnal british" school of the early 19th century might fit better S-S Howells. This piece is "too baroque" for the Gloucester organ; as pcnd pointed out, the pedal reeds are not intended for polyphonic use. (But we all know to who this organ was suited....) Splendid document, though. Along with the 4th movement of the Elgar's sonata, which is among the others videos on the right of the page, the french friends are astonished to ear this organ. And yes, the great reeds are not the "oily" kind. Pierre