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SomeChap

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  1. Just stumbled across this pic - it's the only one I've so far seen of the grand organ of Chartres since the paint-job, hope it's of interest:
  2. Thank you for your detailed reply; do let us know if you learn anything!
  3. Has the new paint-job changed the acoustics do you think? What do the locals think of it (it's highly controversial if anyone doesn't know)?
  4. Yes surely, though Bach must have been in a vindictive mood when he wrote the F major prelude! I have a vague memory of Nigel Allcoat saying that none of the classic registrations at St-Antoine l'Abbaye needed more than about six stops simultaneously for this reason.
  5. PPPS The catholic version of verse 2 doesn't scan very well as given here. Two lines are too long for the tune, not least on the word "Röselein" itself. If it were going to use apostrophes, that's where we would have seen them. This version abbreviates 'und' at the beginning of line 5 for space-on-the-page purposes, and uses a visual symbol to do so. The protestant version misses out the 'i' in the middle of 'ewigem' without an apostrophe. I'm not sure whether that's a matter of abbreviation or spelling variation. If its the former then the protestant version is using abbreviation without apostrophes for scansion purposes, and therefore it would be possible that an 'e' on the end of 'Roeß' and in the middle of 'Roeßlein' could have been dropped without leaving any trace, making those words closer to 'Rose'.
  6. PPS Latin 'Ros' is dew. German 'Roß' is knight / cavalier / horse. Swedish 'Ros' is rose. French 'Ros' is comb! Danish 'Ros' is praise I think I'll stop there!
  7. PS I should add that German is only my 3rd language, so corrections are very much welcome from a native speaker such as tiratutti!
  8. Fascinating. 'Spross' is cognate with 'sprout' in English, and its primary meaning is now 'scion' according to linguee. I wonder if Rowland knows anything about what happened to the 'Sp' on the beginning of the word? The Luther Bible (I can only find the 1912 version online) give Isaiah 11:1 as "Und es wird eine Rute aufgehen von dem Stamm Isais und eine Zweig aus seiner Wurzel Frucht bringen". 'Rute' is rod or tail and 'Zweig' is branch (presumably cognate with 'twig' in English). The Vulgate (with which Luther would presumably have been familiar) has "Et egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet". 'virga' is a twig or rod and 'flos' is a flower. There are two early versions of the second verse of the carol, a Catholic one and a Protestant one. The Catholic one is the earliest, from 1599 is in the Speyerer Gesangbuch as mentioned by Rowland), which can be inspected here on wikipedia - I've deliberately preserved the original spelling and capitalisation below. There is no punctuation other than a slash between each line and a full stop at the end of each verse; no apostophes are used: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen auß einer wurzel zart Als uns die alten sungen auß Jesse kam die art und hat ein blümlein bracht mitten in kaltem winter wol zu der halben nacht Das Röselein das ich meine Darvon Isaias sagt Ist Maria die reine Die uns das blümlein hat bracht Auß Gottes ewigem raht hat sie ein Kindlein gboren Und blieben ein reine Magd. Speyer is in the south west of modern Germany, I think it would have been in an out-growth of Bavaria politically at the end of the 16th century but correct me if that's wrong. It's not far from Strasbourg so I would expect these spellings to reflect Alsatian usage to some extent. The spelling is not very consistent here but it's tempting to attach significance to the 'e' in the middle of 'Röselein' in verse two. That does suggest the intended meaning was a little rose, at least in the Speyer printer's mind, and the Catholic text here makes it very clear that the Röselein is Mary. This fits in with the late mediaeval tradition of Mary being a rose on the tree of Jesse, but I don't know how widespread that tradition was in 16th century 'Germany'; certainly Mary was associated with roses more widely though (eg. distributing garlands of roses in Albrecht Durer the younger's Rosenkranzfest of 1506). Of course roses don't flower in the winter so you don't see them associated with Christmas imagery much. Christ is unambiguously referred to as a little flower ("blümlein"). Praetorius's 1609 part-books can be inspected on IMSLP - again no apostrophies or punctuation other than slashes between lines and a full stop at the end of the verse: Es ist ein Roeß entsprungen aus einer Wurzel zart als uns die alten sungen aus Jesse kam die art und hat ein blümlein bracht mitten im kalteb Winter wol zu der halben Nacht. Das Roeßlein das ich meine darvon Esaias sagt hat uns gebracht alleine Marii die reine Magd aus Gottes ewgen raht hat sie ein Kind geboren wol zu der halben Nacht. These were printed in Wolfenbüttel in north-east Germany, politically in protestant Brunswick for whose ducal chapel Praetorius was Kapellmeister. I don't quite know what to make of the spelling of 'Roeß' here (linguee hasn't even heard of it), but it's certainly further away from modern German "Rose" and the 'e' is missing from after the ß in Roeßlein so there isn't the same hint of roses to my mind. Here, the Roeßlein isn't Mary, it just brings us Mary. It seems to me that the tradition of seeing Mary as a rose is a more characteristically catholic one and I wouldn't be surprised that it was being de-emphasised here. A lot hinges on those spellings though! I checked them all on linguee.com and none of them is in any common use in modern german except as surnames and acronyms!
  9. Agreed, it might need miking up to fill the Nave but in that acoustic I'm sure it sounds wonderful. I was surprised to learn the Grand Orgue isn't a Cavaille-Coll; maybe that's held back the restoration project?
  10. More about the orgue de choeur in case it's of any interest - it was a gift from the Dupres after WW2
  11. (Just in case of confusion, there's no mention of a digital organ in the article about Rouen; the orgue de choeur will be used for services while the grande orgue de tribune is out of action.)
  12. I have long coveted Paul Isom's organ in Mersault! Paul, your lovely Gite in Mersault came up in a tripadvisor search when we were shopping for a holiday a few years ago; I did try to persuade my wife that we should stay there but we ended up in Normandie. Another time... For those who don't know this little organ, you must listen to the audio tracks at Paul's web-site; it sounds extraordinary! I would never ever have guessed it was a 1-manual, 9-stop organ. Is there progress on restoring it? See http://www.meursaultorgue.com/audio.html (@Paul again - the final track [IV Final - Toccata] doesn't seem to be 'clickable' in google chrome?) Combining this remarkable achievement with the Bigelow either-or idea linked above seems likely to be productive. I have 'normalised' Mutin's somewhat idiosyncratic stop nomenclature. I'm not sure the three-way borrowing for the pedal would be possible with mechanical action though. I've leaked up to 13 stops in order to include a 4' flute - basically I've added a Cor de Nuit 8, a Voix Celeste 8, a 4' Flute and an Hautboy to the original 9 stops. All enclosed as at Mersault. I am assuming a church acoustic rather than a house. Available on Man I: 16 Bourdon 8 Montre 8 Flute Harmonique 8 Salicional 4 Prestant 4 Flute Octaviante III Plein Jeu 16 Bombarde 8 Trompette 4 Clairon Available on Man II: 8 Montre 8 Flute Harmonique 8 Cor de Nuit 8 Salicional 8 Voix Celeste 4 Prestant 4 Flute Octaviante 8 Trompette 8 Basson-Hautbois Available on Pedal: 16 Bourdon 8 Montre 8 Flute Harmonique 4 Prestant 16 Bombarde 8 Trompette I don't think it would sound very different from the Mersault organ. but it would be greatly more versatile. Baroque music? Not today!
  13. Agreed, these are minor, reversible changes. No cultural heritage is being irrevocably destroyed, no money is being irresponsibly wasted, no employment law s being breached, no-one's health and safety is being endangered, asset values are not being diminished, you are not compromising the building's accessibility. I don't see the harm in this instance.
  14. Pleasing to hear that our armchair musings might be of some practical help! I don't know for sure of course, but I have a hunch that claribel might be too loud at 4ft? Suck it and see, I suppose. Good luck!
  15. PPS With a real 4' flute you'd also get access to 8 OD + 4 Fl combination as a step down in volume from the 8+4 Principals - v useful at mp / mf, and not possible with the octave coupler option. ------- Warning: cheeky second-glass-of-red-wine suggestion coming! If you kept your ear to the ground regarding redundant / derelict organs in the area you might even be able to get the pipework for free! Then you and an accomplice can just swap the pipes across in the dead of night, tune them up, and you'll have cost the church nothing. No fund-raising, no faculty, no Parish Council politics. Take care of the old pipes, and you'll have done nothing irreversible; indeed, you could possibly try different things out until you get what you feel you need. (I won't tell anyone if you don't!) I feel like I'm about to get told off. Ooh, my glass is empty ...
  16. Cross posted with Colin. Also just spotted your manual compass only goes up to F3 which means that any combinations made using the octave coupler would conk out from F# at the top of the treble stave. HTH.
  17. Sorry, I can't comment on expense / feasibility of adding octave couplers in small organs. However when I was a lad I had an organ with a nearly identical stop list to play on Sunday mornings (1870s Bevington I think), and the same backbone of a good set of 8 4 2 diapasons. It did have an octave coupler, but (critically I think) it didn't have the stop diapason treble. The claribel with its own octave was disgusting. The principal chorus 8 4 2 with octave coupler was, shall we say, to be used sparingly. The dulciana was useless with or without the octave coupler (except to give some temporary relief from the claribel). In other words, the octave coupler got used rarely! Still, I would probably have used it more if I'd had a stopped diapason. Of course I haven't heard your instrument so I could very well be on the wrong track, but prima facie I'd be much more inclined to send the Claribel Flute and Dulciana to the scrap yard (I don't get why Victorian organ builders were so keen on them!) and replace them with a nice, gentle, warm, wooden stopped 4ft flute and a twelfth. If the twelfth is also gentle and not too bright then you might then get some value of having the octave coupler with Diapasons 8, 4 and 2 2/3 to make something approximating a mixture chorus?? I'm dubious though. I guess you'd also be able to make a flutes 8, 4, 2 approximation with your octave coupler. How fat is the Open D? It might be over-bearing with its own octave? On balance I don't personally think the octave coupler would add that much tbh. You'd also need to be sure the wind supply would hold up. (ps I've been rude about my Bevington but we were good friends really! It was the right size for the building, which was small but had a bit of reverberation, and the congregation sang really heartily which they wouldn't have done if it had been a bad organ.)
  18. Hi, I don't know the organ well and only had 2 mins to take a couple of photos. Below the keys of each manual is a wooden bar running the length of the keyboard (most organs have them). Based on the notes on the music desk, these bars seem now to have the facility to act as Sequencer Advance controls if you push them. I didn't try. As far as I can see, the only registration aid is a sequencer which can be set up for many different organists, operated either by the combination pedals to the right of the swell box, or by the coloured buttons on the new slidy-thing to the left of the keys, or by the touch-screen to the right of the keys. I could be wrong though, and will leave it to someone who knows the instrument better if you want to know the full gory details! I understand there were no registration aids at all previously.
  19. OK, they should be working now. (I won't bore you at length but that was a right old mission! Google Drive obfuscates the URLs of your images, and is very thorough about it. I ended up transferring them to flickr so I could get hold of direct URLs. Grrr. The good news is I added in two extras, including one of Trinity Chapel looking gorgeous in the sunlight!)
  20. Apologies, I'll try to fix this evening. Must be something to do with google.
  21. I quickly grabbed a few photos in the organ loft at Trinity the other day in case they were of interest. I was jealous of the nice little colour lcd screen nestled neatly in the woodwork above the music desk for watching the conductor. I believe the wooden bars between the manuals act as sequencer advance buttons. It looks like there's USB connectivity of some sort as well. The stop action is still mechanical of course. The list of people having their own memory level made some interesting reading!
  22. Is Florence Cathedral's the most impossible reverberation in the world? I read somewhere it's about 20 seconds - certainly I remember the building just never fell silent during a service when I was there. Mascioni did a major rebuild in 2017 and I found their solution interesting (if perhaps not surprising) given the ocean of reverberation. There are eight manual divisions in six different locations around the dome, and four consoles! - NE segment of the dome = Great Organ (and main pedal organ, I think) - SE segment of the dome = Swell Organ - On wheels = Positive Organ (with its own pedal stops) (added 1990) - S of the dome at floor level = Choir Organ (with its own pedal stops) (c. 1970?) - N transept = 'Chapel Great' (with its own pedal stops) - N transept = 'Chapel Swell' - S transept = 'Echo Great' (with its own pedal stops) (added 2017) - S transept = 'Echo Swell' (2017) It seems the transepts are used as separate liturgical spaces so it seems to make sense for each to have its own organ. The five-manual and four-manual consoles control the whole lot (don't know why you need both); a 3-man console in the N transept controls the chapel organ plus the Great Organ, and a 2-man console in the S transept controls the Echo organ and the Swell organ. Phew! Anyone heard it? There's an impromptu demo here (terrible audio): link (youtube) - and a verbal description here which I've used as a basis for this post, though my Italian is far from reliable: link (youtube)
  23. ... hmm, I'm even wondering, assuming the wifi connection carries a MIDI-compatible data protocol, whether pipe organs might start to be played on a regular basis from arbitrary consumer MIDI controllers. Perhaps organ builders (or even third parties) could provide cheap portable wireless control boards for stops / combinations, which you simply prop up next to your clavinova? You could even integrate a score/pdf reader app on your tablet computer (OK, iPad!), having hot-spots in the score which link directly to registration changes when tapped, set up offline and ready to use when you get to church. I'm not suggesting the traditional console's days are numbered, but as e-books complement paper editions, so diverging control paradigms could help the organ evolve, and allow non-organists to play organs much more easily. Sorry, I've gone off-topic ...
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