Barry Jordan

Hang on, I did say it was just a joke.....I rather like Glass's music, as it happens, was mad about Reich and Riley when I was a student, and I even studied with Feldman for a while. But there is a serious point behind this, and that is simply that composers like Reich and Glass use the principle of repetition for a purpose which is not to be found in the music of Mozart, whose principle is development, motivic, tonal, whatever. Things which don't interest Glass. Feldman famously said "I like music which lets you hear what you want to hear", which for him happened to include Mozart and Josquin; music was for him "bubbles on the suerface of silence", a beautiful description of this kind of aesthetic. So don't get your knickers in a twist! Cheers b

Gosh how useful. If Bach had had one of those, he'd have been able to write truly great music. Bloody tracker action. Barry

Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Philip Glass It's just a joke.... B

Yes. But modern instruments, high pitch and plenty of vibrato. But I liked them. B

"Krebs" is a composer, and something you eat, and "Orgel" is a musical instrument, and refers to no part of the body whatsoever, that word being, as in English, "Organ" except for that bit which everyone things of in English when you say the word "organ", which is rather "Glied", meaning "member" - oh this is complicated. But my son had teachers in primary school called "Frau Glied" and "Frau Brust". Probably just as well that it was primary school. I HAVE heard of I Musici. I have even heard them. Old fashioned, but good. Cheers B

You mean, of the "What's worse than lobsters on your piano?" sort? Yes, possibly. One of the reasons I moved to a German-speaking country. B

Eisi? I hadn't heard this, but it's funny. B

Well, who mentioned Harrison? I know I didn't..... But there was Hill, too, and also Lewis. B Why would one want to imitate the English organ? Because if you are looking for an instrument on which you can play Reger AND Franck, you really can't do better, even if neither are "authentic", that terrible word, which is in danger of reducing the possible repertoire of any instrument at all to almost nothing. What can you really play authentically on a modern Steinway? Even Rachmaninov wouldn't recognise the beast. And Brahms wouldn't have recognised Rachmaninov's piano either.

Should I really? Well, here goes. In the pictures you can see the setters for the combinations very well. In this case they are little drawstops. You can set up up to 5 registrations. These are then activated by pressing the appropriate combination pistons or pedals - you see these very well in picture no. 5. Normally they would be cancelled again by a button labelled "HR" (Handregister) or "Auslöser", which strangely enough I do not see. There is unfortunately no close-up of the row of pistons under the first manual, which is probably where it is lurking. Sometimes the "Auslöser" is a sort of general cancel, whereas you have to press "HR" in order to get going... you have to watch out for this. If you are playing, for example, on combination 3, you can add stops to the registration by drawing the appropriate stop on that level - that is, not using the rocker tablet, but the green drawstop "3" above the stop you want. (You can do this with the "glass box system too, of course, if you have someone standing by to do it). The row of pistons directly above the 4th manual can be used in order to remove couplers from the crescendo - a Gt to Ped which comes on too soon can be a real nuisance when playing Reger, for example. This piston can then be released when the coupler is needed. I can't see what is behind the music desk, but these are likely to be "Zungenabsteller", by means of which reed stops can be turned off so that they do not sound in the Walze either - a real boon if you've been sloppy about tuning your reeds. The crescendo pedal was usually set by the builder. Modern combination systems usually allow for programming at least 4 different crescendos. But I've never actually played an organ on which more than one had actually been set up. Theoretically it could be useful, I suppose. I think "Walze" is more of a slang term, incidentally. "Walzen" means to roll something out flat, a steam roller is a "Dampfwalze", for example. Builders tend not to use the term. Divisional combinations are indeed a rarity. Our new organ will have them, but that is because I grew up with them and like them, because I find that they are useful in service playing, and also in playing Reger, for example. Germans tend to use up lots of Generals instead. It's a question of what you're used to. Now that English organs are all the rage amongst younger Germans, I imagine that they will become more common here. The combination systems used here nowadays are pretty universally made by Laukhuff or Heuss. Probably the front runner is Heuss's MP 92, which can be delivered to provide either 4000 or 10 000 generals. They work exactly like the equivalents by SSOS or anyone else - set up your combination, push the setter button, go away, come back later, all gone..... Just remains to be said that the "free combinations" were of course pneumatic - quite a luxury, to have adjustable combinations on a pneumatic instrument. That made them very bulky, of course, so that even a fairly modest console tends to be look pretty complicatd from behind: http://www.gewalcker.de/SpieltischeWeb/images/1757o2.jpg Cheers Barry In picture No 4 you can see that the three couplers (bottom row on the right) are also equipped with setter draw knobs (four for each rocker tab) Cheers B

Really? I never have been. Makes me feel a bit left out. But then, I'm not properly English, am I, being a colonial. Perhaps theymake exceptions. B

It would of course be absolutely impossible to play the "Marche Pontificale" on an Italian organ of 1630. I would surmise that a new or newer organ resides inside one half of the case, whereas the other case contains either the unrestored rest of a divided organ, or the rest of the second organ - or even nothing at all, any more. Cheers Barry

After abiut three months it started to sag a little........

Good morning and welcome.... this may perhaps amuse you for a minute or so..... http://www.aktion-neue-domorgeln-magdeburg.de/webcam.php Cheers Barry The voicers arrive on Tuesday.

Charly, I checked my score and found that I had exaggerated - it's only 3 (or actually 2 plus english horn). 2 Flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 Bassons, Timps and strings. Cheers Barry

Charly, I played the Heiller for my Konzertexamen. The Hochschule was not pleased, it cost a fortune. It needs flocks of oboes (4, if I remember correctly) and lots of other wind - and a very good conductor. The last movement particularly is a cracker though. The Jongen will be played at the dedicatory concert of the new organ here (18th May 2008, attendance compulsory.....) soloist Martin Haselböck, conducted by me. There's a recording by Pierre Pincemaille, organ sounds excellent, orchestral playing seriously scrappy. Cheers Barry

Yes it does, I've just looked at it!

Well, the principle on which they work is identical. Essentially they are duplicate groups of stop controls on another circuit. Of course the little coloured lolly sticks are messy, and nobody builds them any more. But they had the advantage of being easy to set up, easy to see, and, since they were not intended to replace registrants, of being manipulable while actually playing. "Kropf", generally known as "Charly", has a Schnitger organ (yes, Neuenfelde), so, no, it diesn't have a combination system. Although in England it might have, by now..... Cheers B

These "free combinations" haven't benn used for years - in fact, English and American builders used them too, but the fact that they looked different obscures the fact. Or have you never played an organ with little "soldiers" in a drawer next to the organ, or complicated setters, Rushworth style, in a cupboard behind the console? If not, it's possibly because the English update their consoles all the time, whereas Germans like to restore the consoles to their stone-age condition. Setter buttons as we know them only really became universal when solid state technology started to be affordable. Most builders over here now equip their instruments with the ubiquitous Heuss stuff, which starts with stepper and 4 000 generals. 10 years ago, having 64 was really a lot. May I ask how old you are, Sean? As to your second question, Germany does not actually have a tradition of accompanied choral music at all, unless ccompanied by orchestra, of course. Or continuo. Cheers Barry

Can you tell me who publishes "Mad Rush"? I looked for it on the site of my usual online suppler and came up blank. Thanks B

Hi Charly, well, there is a vox Coelestis on the positiv. It is the quietest celeste. I wanted it like a Hill Vox angelica, and I wanted it on the swell, with the louder, more french one on the positive, but I lost. I could have done without the Voce umana. But that is what happens when you have a whole army of "Sachverständigen". There are Kowalshyn machines for HW and pos. All the normal couplers work through them. The octave couplers are electric, which was not what I wanted. The awful secret about Lausanne is, that the recording was made from the electric console. There the swell is in the central part of the case directly above the console, whereas the HW and the positive divisions are in the towers, the pedal is behind the organ. If the microphones are concentrated on the towers, I suppose the swell could sound late. But actually its action is extremely direct. There are two chests per division here, with some off-sets. We will see how well it all works. It is too big, of course. Cheers Barry

Amen. But if you haven't got an instrument at the moment, you've probably got a lot of spare time. (Joke, you know). Still waiting for your programme...... Cheers Barry

Yes, indeed. The interesting thing is the wide range of styles evident in American organ building, which are not however slavishly copied but serve as models for flights of creativity and imagination. One of the most beautiful organs I have ever had the joy of playing a recital on was certainly this one: http://www.frittsorgan.com/opus018.htm Look at that case work, clearly based on Stellwagen, St. Marien, Stralsund - but note the swell. The whole thing is unbelievably versatile, colourful and singing, with a stunningly responsive action, crisp, but not hard. If anyone's interested, you might like to read an article I wrote for piporg-l which concerns itself mainly with organ building in America today; you can find it at: http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/FS/bj.html On Sunday I played a recital on the 6-year-old Marcussen in the cathedral in Wesel on the lower Rhine. Nowhere near the same quality, I'm afraid. Sloppy voicing, slow electric couplers, non-functional slider motors and a very temperamental combination system - and worst of all, 60 stops in a case which has room for 45 at the most. An expensive mistake. However - America not only has possibly the best organs being built today, it also has the worst. Cheers Barry

A single note on a single stop? How can this happen on a slider chest? Is this on an electric off-set? B

http://www.pipesounds.org/Dream.htm Best B

I too must confess that I have no experience with HW, although it certainly interests me. But I assume that one is once again at the mercy of loudspeaker sytems, often the weakest part of such sampled set-ups anyway. And then: these organs are no sounding into "wrong" acoustical surroundings - please don't tell me that these have been sampled too - and, more importantly, are being played from on-off keys, are they not? Which particularly in the case of an organ like a Silbermann could really make a huge difference, since the touch is so responsive. A calcant bell doesn't reduce that problem to irrelevancy, I'm afraid. B