Pierre Lauwers
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Posts posted by Pierre Lauwers
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I would love to try this organ. One question: what's a "Bourdon Harm. 8"?
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
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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
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This is interesting. Thank you for posting this, David.
At least it will be better than the toaster. The schemes look reasonably useful on paper, apart, perhaps, from the slightly silly name for the solo reed.
Perhaps you would prefer a Tuba ?
Pierre
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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
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Anyone know of any decent shops that sell organ CDs, books and music in Brussells. We are contemplating a trip just prior to Christmas and I feel the need to buy myself some pressies!
Hector
Books and music scores you will find here, the best adress in Brussels:
http://www.pointdorgue.be/index.php?page=welcome
Pierre
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Hmm. Well, now. It can certainly have its place in a recital programme, but, for myself, I don't think I would ever open a recital with a piece by Howells (probably not even Paean, which is about the only one that might qualify). It's just too heavy. The received wisdom is that the opener should be a good-humoured attention grabber that doesn't require too much concentration or intellect from the audience (usually something loud, though that doesn't necessarily have to be the case). Once you've got them in the mood, then you can go on to more searching/demanding stuff.
Vox, do you really think Joe Public is so stupid ?
They entered a church, after all...
Pierre
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If I'm right in identifying the instruments, at the moment, they'd only need to take over 'D', since most of the instrument from 'B' is there mid-restoration.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Hmmm - the darkest colours I can think of in our part of the West of England are at present with H & H being restored - dating from a bit later than the Willis above (1912) - Redcliffe?
A
I meant a virtual part of W.E !
Pierre
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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
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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
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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
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Indeed. I love Sumsion's Elgar Sonata recording, despite some relaxed tempi here and there (i.e. in the trickier bits of the 2nd and 4th mvts). The organ sounds so bright too (as one would expect from a vintage Willis), as well as having such lovely orchestra colours.
.....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
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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
:lol:
Howells
in The Organ
Posted
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