PF Baron

I cannot remember where I got this english joke : Question : What is the definition of a gentleman ? Answer : "An organist fit enough to play Tournemire, but who does not dare to do it !" Let's be serious now : the very best record I know containing some works by Tournemire is Triton ref. TRI331137, played by François Lemanissier on the organ in Notre Dame / Saint Lô (Beuchet + Kern). There are also works by André Fleury This record is totally marvelous, and leaves everything else I know about Tournemire far behind. I do not know wether or not it is easy to find in the UK Best regards PF Baron

As Pierre told you, Bordeaux / Ste Croix is fantastic (initially built by dom Bédos, restored by P. Quoirin), and one of the greatest monuments of the french classical organs. The cathedral in Bordeaux is very standardised. Try also the Cathedral in Blois, a Merklin (3 decker) recently restored, probably very interesting. Driving down : Rouen, St Ouen is for me the top masterpiece of Cavaillé Coll, although a one-off in his production. This organ is really very unique. Nice holidays ! PF Baron

That is certainly true, and this organ definitely looks like a Mutin, from the very first years of the XXst century. At this period, and for a short while, Mutin still used the name-plate "A. Cavaillé-Coll, à Paris", but with a wood substrate of ligther colour, as it is the case there (under Aristide, the substrate was dark, the name of this wood is "palissandre", in french, but I cannot find my english dictionnary back...) The shape of the stop-knobs and the stop labels (with a coloured ring aroud them) are also typically Mutin. On the photos, it can be seen that the organ has been fitted with tuning slides, which of course are not original. Although I do not know this organ, this can have a big impact, as instruments similar to this one are generally meant to be tuned at approx A3 = 435 Hz. When they are tuned higher (which can easily be the case with tuning slides), the tuning slots generally come out of proportion, and the sound generally becomes quite round and rather confused. When making a general tuning on such instruments, if you are not sure of the pitch, the best is really to look for the best pitch and sound on the first stop, and to only continue once you are sure of the pitch (the reeds, if at their original length, are generally able to give good indications) But on such organs, with tuning slots ("pavillons", as Cavaillé called them), please never move away from the original pitch. On the sound , the effects are desastrous Best regards to all of you PF Baron

Dear All, Pardon me if I am wrong. I heard the Ely organ in 1992 (maybe some work has been carried on since), and, as being basically a frenchy, I can tell you that this instrument has nothing of french influence in it. To be honnest, I have been quite disappointed about it, and found it rather dull, loud, opaque and confused. I think that the original Harrison was probably rather dark, but certainly homogenous, which did not seem to be the case of this organ in 1992. More broadly, cpncerning "frenchyfying" organs, I think it is a bad mistake. Building a new organ according french lines is of course another matter But as a general matter of fact, I think that your top-class english organs have to be preserved, even with their original key and stop actions when still existing. It is probably to late for Ely. But there still are other organs to be preserved ! Please do not medernise them, but do keep them as masterpieces of their time. I do not want to badly teach lessons, but e.g. Mr Roth in Paris / St Sulpice, and other concertists do not hesitate to present brilliant and very difficult programs on this organ : although absolutely magnificient, the console is relatively far drom being really comfortable....! Please, be courageous ! England has been an incredible place for organ builiding during the two last centuries, and everybody needs the instruments from this period which are still there untouched or almost. I do regret that Ely has been modified, and do regret not having been able to hear it before ! Best regards to all of you PF Baron

Dear Malcolm, Go by yourself and make the journey to Lausanne because for me, the whole thing is totally unmusical and opressing in this beautiful Cathedral. It is the only Fisk I have heard, but what a disappointment.... Listening to this instrument, I think that no european organ builder (continental nor english) has any lesson to take from this instrument. The former Kuhn was nicely voiced, but badly disposed. Now the disposition is only a little bit better (th Great is at the top of the towers with the basses just behind the front pipes.......), but the voicing is loud and dull, I found. I also find the winding is rather unstable. This organ cannot be compared to the various glorious organs (although very different from continental ones !) there are in the UK !!!!!! This is of course a personal opinion. And I only heard it during concerts, but did not really visit it yet.

That is true that the recordings show a fabulous organ.... The case was also incredible, and I do hope it will be recreated withits 32 ft front. Does anybody knows how was the original action ? Tubular penumatic ? How were the windchests built ? Slider ones ? Thnking you in advance, PF Baron

I am very surpised by this quotation from Cavaillé-Coll for STH, and never heard about it before ! Best regards PFB

Dear Mr Goldrick, This is of course not the true reason. When the reeds are out of tune, adding more reeds does not improve anything !!! Isnard "just" constructed an extremely original instrument, and included not only one but two Chamade trebles : one on the Grand-Orgue, one on the Réseonnance. When you look at photos, the one is on one side, chromatic, and the other one on the other side, symmetrical. The outermost flats and tower are just there for decoration? The right big tower and adjacent flat hides the Grand-Orgue, in chromatic disposition, and symmetrically, you have the Résonnance, played on the third keyboard, and which alos serves as pedals, using a pulldown. This also means that the organ is a "double" 16ft : on the left side : Montre 16 from Grand-Orgue, on the right side, Flute 16 from Résonnance on the right side. Just also imagine, inside the organ, the sight on the Résonannce reeds : Bombarde 16, two 8ft trompettes, and a 4ft clairon, with the clairon in 8ft on the last octave.....; No, the two chamades have nothing to do with any kind of savings on the tuning....!

Dear Dave, It is a fact that this organ case (Bordeaux Cathedral) has indeed been containing the soundboards and a good part of the original pipes (completely mixed up ! Finding which each pipe had to go back has been a very sportive puzzle) of the dom Bédos organ from Bordeaux / Ste Croix from 1815 I think, to the end of the 1970's. But the case by dom Bédos (16' front) never moved away from Ste Croix (except for thorough restauration some years before) where it contained a romantic organ by Wenner, which has been dismantled to make room again for the restored soundboards and pipework by dom Bédos, coming back from the cathedral. The indication in your book is hence not totally correct, ..........but mine is !!!!!!!! Kind regards PF Baron

Be careful, the front in Bordeaux cathedral is a vast assemblage of many pieces of wood, but has never had something to do with dom Bédos ! The reality(a little bit confusing) is that the dom Bédos organ of Ste Croix has been installed in this case at the beginning of the XIXst century, the dom Bédos case and front pipes remaining in Ste Croix. The dom Bedos organ has finally recently been restored by Pascal Quoirin (fantastic job), and installed back in Ste Croix, in its original case. The facade, being very damage by "disease of the tin" has been installed behind the organ, and replaced by a new one (actually manufactured by Rodgers) The current cathedral organ is a Danion/Gonzalez from the 80s PF Baron

On my side, I wouldn't have imagined something like the organ in Disney hall / Los Angeles, but I like very much the design, which really surprised me. This is something really looking at the same time new and modern, but also primitive. To some extend, isn't it the representation of the condition of human beings, perpetually stuck between primitive instincts of the original jungle (that is what evocates, for me, this forest of pipes) and an explosion in direction of modernity (beautifully expressed by the curvature of all these big pipes, I just hope they used a proper and durable glue !!!!!!). Ok, I stop there the philosophy, but I like the visual result very much. But, on the other hand, it cannot really be a new way : it has been done once, and that's it ! In echo to Mr Mander, forced to submit projects of organs hidden behind something (I know tha a company has to live, and refusing to bid cnnot be a long or even medium term choice), things should look what they really are, instead of always fearing to offense somebody ! A little bit of open mind and tolerance can do the remaining ! All the builders, architects, etc... of the XXst century, insisted on the fact that there should be a strong link between function and the aspect. So, organs should look like organs. Concerning the RAH façade, I had the chance, 10 years before, to listen to a concert given in the RAH (all the music schools from Sussex, and a really passionating moment, including even the smallest kids, butno organ). I found the had acquired a kind of dark reflect you can sometime see on high tin content façades. Maybe it is better just to keep it as it is, as I this dark reflect is rather warm and nice. Wouldn't b a treatment to have these pipes back to a polished and shiny condition too aggressive ? It would certainly mean removing at least a thin layer of metal (but I guess these pipes are certainly vert thick ?) PFB

Let us go from 20 to 15 stop ! Please find hereafter an exemple of a really fantastic one (its is a real organ). Of course, its spirit is very different from what has been proposed before this post. Just imagine that it is placed above the west door, in a rather important roman village church. The church in itself is marvelous, and so is the acoustic. The sound of the organ just flies into the building ! No need to make a lot of noise, (specially in the bass), and yet, the global effect of this organ is breathtaking. I must say that the 3 sounding plans are very much differentiated, although II and III are on the same soundboard, with alternate grooves (I do not know the proper term in english, but on the soundboard, you have one groove for II, one groove for III, one groove for II, one groove for III, etc...) The idea is that the III is designed as a "Resonnance" in the french sense of the term, i.e. that the corresponding registers can be used as manual registers, or as pedal registers using the corresponding pulldown. This is very economic, and if properly done, works wonderfully. The very celebrated french classical organ of St Maximin, by Isnard, has such a "Résonnance" keyboard, on that same principle (and no pedal registers, the ones from "Résonnance" being intended to serve also as pedal ones). In this organ, this even leads, as the organ has chromatic windchests (!) for great and Résonnance to have the great organ in one half of the case, and the Résonnance symetrically in the other side... ....and the left side of the façade consists in the Montre 16 from Great, from CCC, and the other side the Flute 16 of Résonnance from CCC (so a "double" 16-ft front !), this organ being of course a one-off in the french classical period, and its visit remaining a shock for organ builders, or those interested in organ building. But back to our 15-stop organ, by Ph. Hartmann, 1977 I think: I Positif de dos (56 notes) Bourdon 8 Flute conique 4 Principal 2 Larigot 1 1/3 Cromorne II Grand orgue (56 notes) Gemshorn 8 Prestant 4 Flageolet 2 Plein Jeu VI Sesquialtera II III Résonnance (56 notes) Soubasse 16 Montre 8 Flute à cheminées 4 Dulcian 16 (reed stop) Trompette 8 I/II, III/II, III/I, II/III I/Ped, II/Ped, III/Ped Tremblant Pos. You would not imagine the endless possibilities this instrument provides, and a no moment does it sound "small" ! This also leads me to some thinking about organs with numerous sounding plans for relatively small numbers of stops. Such organs, if properly designed can give fantastic possibilities. E.g. another "real"organ, this one of course bigger, and really sounding splendidly (the acoustic is fantastic too, and this organ never sounds agressive or "loud", even in the tutti, but with an incredible richness and fullness, supported by very calm, deep, and transparent basses) The 4 keyboards and Pedal are spatially very differentiated, and this reinforces the fact that each keyboard is a world in itself, although complementary of the others. And "only" 42 stops for 4 keyboards. I : Positif de dos II : Grand orgue III : Bombarde (altenated groves with II, but the stops on the soundboard are also alternated with the ones of II, in order to avoid that one keyboard tonally masks the other) IV : Récit expressif : each side of the console Pedal : behind Suspended tracker action throughout. All the organ cone tuned, excepted the façades, and the Dulciane from IV, slotted in the romantic way. So : Organ by Philippe Hartmann and Jean Deloye, 1981, includind some material by Callinet, and some older pipes (16, 8, 4 of III, and Cornet of II) I Positif de dos (56 n) Bourdon 8 Montre 4 Flute 4 Doublette 2 Nazard 2 2/3 Tierce 1 3/5 Larigot 1 1/3 Plein jeu IV-VI Cromorne 8 II Grand orgue (56n) Montre 8 Flute harmonique 8 Prestant 4 Doublette 2 Fourniture VI Cornet V Trompette 8 Clairon 4 III Bombarde (56 n) Bourdon16 Bourdon 8 Flute 4 Quarte 2 Sifflet 1 Bombarde 16 (full length basses) Trompette 8 IV Récit expressif (Swell), 56 n. Dulciane 8 (i.e. Gamba) Unda Maris 8 Flute conique 8 (open and tapered from C1) Flute 4 Principal 2 Fourniture IV (with tierce) Basson 16 (1st octave half length) Trompette 8 Chalumeau 4 Voix humaine 8 Pedal (30n) Flute 32 (real, open) Flute 16 Flute 8 Octave 4 Mixture V Bombarde 16 Trompette 8 Clairon 4 I/P, II/P, III/P, IV/P I/II, III/II, IV/II, IV/III Appels d'anches II, III, IV, and P Tremblant doux I Tremblant fort IV Such a disposition is extremely flexible. It also makes me think of the spirit of the disposition of the Mitchell and Thynne "Grove" organ in Tewkesbury Abbey (which I know only on the paper), also with 4 very concise keyboards. I would say that such organ are "organ builders" instruments, in the sense that the buider was so inspired that he transcended traditions and usual schemes to propose something unique? And the result is so rich that the possibilities are immense. So, finally back to the subject : why not considering a 20-stop organ with 3 keyboards instead of 2 ? I just stop with this a little bit provocating suggestion ! Remaining at your disposition, PF Baron