sprondel

Yes it is generally, because the editors, Griepenkerl and Roitzsch, treated the music with much caution and restraint and, in mid-19th century, had access to sources which were lost later. The Bärenreiter edition, however ambitious scientifically, rests on a narrower base in some respect. Best, Friedrich

This I found here: 2007 : reprise de l'entreprise de Rambervillers par Yann Michel et Sylviane Rochotte, le facteur d'orgues Dardassies conservant la partie parisienne de la société. (D'aprés l'Est Républicain du 26/08/2007). Best, Friedrich

It's Sh-krahbl, with ah as in "far", as far as I know. Best, Friedrich

Skrabl have a reputation of doing quality work without being expensive. Apparently, they were at least once chosen as sub-contractor for a substantial new organ in Germany. The organ appeared on Skrabls opus list for a short time, then disappeared again, and the main contractor still has it among his own. I only know their tonal work from CDs, and found it ok, but not very interesting (but that might be the recordings' fault). The same could be said of their casework. A Swedish furniture chain comes to mind more often than not. Best, Friedrich

I'm sorry, it's not in the Verwer book as edited by Günter Lade. The tables (pp. 105 and 107) are incomplete, and the data of bottom C of the Contrebombarde are not included. Stephen B would have had them, I'm sure. Anyone else? Best, Friedrich

Should that read "… that unassisted mechanical action and the 'symphonic' type …"? Best, Friedrich

Is it? What I find so charming about the floating lever is the fact that the action wasn't interrupted, as it is invariably in Barker-based mechanisms, of which the Kowalyshin lever is one, if I get it correctly. To have a lever with shifting pivots, which at the same time move the valves controlling the supporting bellows, is a stroke of genius. The Kowalyshin lever I had the opportunity to try out at Lausanne. Very easy, very elegant. BTW, don't forget the Syncodia system, that couples two of Cynic's one-trick ponys who antagonistically control the valve movement. Best, Friedrich

I have an LP of Franck's A-Minor Chorale, played on a 1953 Ott in Bremen. Paul Ott was one of the earliest, and most radical, proponents of the Orgelbewegung. This organ he planned when being held in a POW camp with Harald Wolff, the organist of the church. It represented the cutting-edge ideas of the day – low pressures, big mixtures, the Great Principal hoarse and spitting, with a very dry Quintaton underneath and a richly equipped, but lean souding pedal. The flutes are exquisite, sweet and colourful; the soft reeds sound quite thin, the chorus reeds often harsh, but never loud. Everything mechanical, no shutters anywhere. Just how radical such an organ sounds is hardly imaginable if you have never heard one. The organist of the recording in question starts the Franck with the full Great chorus, which remains her choice for the fast sections; just before the slow section, she manages an ecxiting crescendo from principal 8 to full, sparkling chorus. The Chorale bits are played on the Vox humana, and as the solo for the slow section serves the noble horizontal trumpet, accompanied by the Rückpositiv. The end, then again, is a dramatic chorus crescendo, in which the pedal Posaune is the only reed that does anything to the sound, the chorus being the dominant power in this instrument. The result is astonishingly musical and dramatic. Besides the flawless playing and beautiful timing, the organist recognised that the organ had neither the fonds nor the anches Franck had in mind, and apparently found out the sound that gave the backbone to this type of instrument – the chorus. With this, she worked out a structurally sound concept of the piece. The organist, by the way, was Lucienne Antonini, a student of the Duruflés and organiste titulaire of Notre-Dame des Doms in Avignon. Friedrich

That, I guess, would depend on how the offset pipes are connected to the soundboard. If they are just tubed off with conductors, they still share their wind with the rest of the stops on the soundboard. Or secondly, they could be on pneumatic motors that are fed from the main soundboard (the Cavaillé-Coll way of doing it with the doubles); then, they usually get their wind directly from the main trunk, perhaps with their own regulator, but are still neatly synchronized with the rest of the division. Or thirdly, they are connected to the action electrically in some way. Then, they don't share anything with their home division except perhaps location, roughly. I see our host's point. I find it frustrating to hear a pedal Bourdon tapering off to the low end and coughing its third partial, where it should provide some quiet, but distinct boom. I guess, a well thought-out stoplist and good scaling and voicing will be much more versatile and musically effective than borrowing of any kind, even if space and costs are restricted. Reading the pedal stoplist of the LA Dobson gives me the creeps. Quoting EM Skinner is fine, of course, but he had quite another style in mind. I do like distinct, unenclosed, divided, direct-sounding pedal divisions, best if speaking from the same position as the Great. He didn't. He was a great man, of course. Best, Friedrich

Not as far as I know. This piece came about as an operatic intermezzo to "Lady Macbeth of Mzensk" mirroring dark conflicts coming up -- there is a dead body nearby while people act fairly normally on stage. The St. Petersburg/Leningrad opera house did have an organ, so the passacaglia was originally written for the instrument. For other performance vernues, the intermezzo was rewritten for orchestra. I imagine that some of DSCH's music would work fine in organ arrangements, given the clear and somewhat cool linear texture of many pieces. Anyone tried the E-Minor piano trio? Best, Friedrich

Me too – thinking of French romantic scaling with its soaring trebles and scales dramatically ascending throughout the compass, whereas, if I am not mistaken, Father Willis preferred much more modest treble scales and fast halving ratios. That would make for a whole lot of differences all through the repertoire, liturgical or concert. Best, Friedrich

Lovely. I once heard it on a sombre, unenclosed 8-foot string, with the echoes played on an open, narrow 4-foot flute with tremulant – very, very sweet. And you mustn't go too slow then, because you're balancing on a fine line between lovely and style saccharine. Very nice it could be on different baroque-style strings with slow, expressive speech; or on a 16-foot Double Geigen all' ottava sopra with the echoes on an enclosed, well-voiced Quintadena with tremulant. Best, Friedrich

Dear Forum members, maybe some will be interested to hear that the famous Vienna Musiverein is going to have a new organ. It will be the fourth in a succession of more or less successful instruments. The original 1872 III/52 Ladegast, behind the beautiful facade in Corinthian style, was replaced in 1907 by a IV/71 Rieger (then Jägerndorf), rebuilt an enlarged to IV/80 in 1948 by Viennese builder Molzer. This organ was replaced entirely by a new IV/100 Walcker, built to a specification by Karl Richter, and not at all up to its task. Forum member Karl Bernhardin Kropf has first-hand-feet-and-ears experience here. The new organ will be built by Rieger of Schwarzach (Vorarlberg, Austria). On the German "Orgelforum" the planned stoplist was posted. It appeared in a Rieger leaflet. So this is going to be the organ that will have to match one of the world's finest – or even the finest, as some believe – orchestras. Here it is: I. Orchesterwerk C-c'''' Liebl. Gedackt 16' Geigenprincipal 8' Viola da Gamba 8' Salicional 8' Wienerflöte 8' Blockflöte 8' Holzgedackt 8' Octave 4' Viola 4' Gedecktflöte 4' Octave 2' Mixtur IV 2' Harm. aeth. II–V 2 2/3' Fagott 16' Euphonium 8' Oboe 8' Klarinette 8' -Tremulant- II. Hauptwerk C–c'''' Principal 16' Violon 16' Principal 8' Flûte Major 8' Gamba 8' Gedackt 8' Gemshorn 8' Octave 4' Salicional 4' Spitzflöte 4' Quinte 2 2/3' Superoctave 2' Großmixtur V–VI 2 2/3' Mixtur IV–V 1 1/3' Cornet V 8' Trompete 16' Trompete 8' Trompete 4' III. Schwellwerk C-c'''' Salicet 16' Principalviolon 8' Gambe 8' Aeoline 8' Voix céleste 8' Flûte harm. 8' Bourdon 8' Flûte oct. 4' Fugara 4' Nazard harm. 2 2/3' Octavin 2' Tierce harm. 1 3/5' Sifflet 1' Fourniture V 2' Basson16' Trompette harm. 8' Hautbois 8' Clairon harm. 4' Voix humaine 8' -Tremulant- IV. Solo C–c'''' Quintatön 16' Diapason 8' Flauto amabile 8' Doppelflöte 8' Prestant 4' Traversflöte 4' Nasard 2 2/3' Flöte 2' Terz 1 3/5' Larigot 1 1/3' Mixtur IV 1 1/3' Englischhorn 8' Tromp. Royal 8' Tuba 8' Pedal C–g' Kontrabass 32' Kontrabass 16' Violonbass 16' Salicetbass 16' Octavbass 8' Flöte 8' Flöte 4' Rauschpfeife III 2 2/3' Kontraposaune 32' Posaune 16' Fagott 16' Trompete 8' Clairon 4' Orchesterpedal Subbass 32' Subbass 16' Violon 8' Gedackt 8' Bassklarinette 16' Koppeln: I/II, III/II, IV/II, III/I, VI/I, I/P, II/P, III/P, IV/P Koppeln el.: I/II, III/II, IV/II, III/I, IV/I, Sub- und Superkoppeln nach Wahl Spieltische: Hauptspieltisch (mech.) fahrbarer Spieltisch (el.) Extras: Rieger Stimmsystem Rieger Aufnahme- und Wiedergabesystem MIDI Spielhilfen: Rieger Setzersystem: 10 Benutzer mit je 1000 Kombinationen mit je 3 Inserts; Archiv für 250 Titel mit je 250 Kombinationen 4 Crescendi, einstellbar geteiltes Pedal Sostenuto, Tutti freie Manualzuteilung (elektrischer Spieltisch) Sequenzschaltung Kopierfunktionen Wiederholungsfunktionen Werkabsteller Generalabsteller Best, Friedrich P. S. As to "Orchesterwerk" and "Orchesterpedal", after some speculation, I tend to believe that these divisions are going to sit below the facade, on orchestra level. The space has been used for pipework of previous organs, but not by Ladegast.

No correction on your assumption needed -- by Clarion I meant a 2-foot rank. You just hit the mark. Best, Friedrich

As far as I know, the name gives it away entirely in both cases (Toulouse as well as Saint-Sulpice). The stop is a Clarion for half of its range, probably notes 1 to 24 or 30, and then changes into a Doublette, i. e. a Fifteenth, principal scale. Best, Friedrich

How do we know? He didn't need to, I think, to build his instruments the way he did. Best, Friedrich

Isn't that a bit different? Usually the second level was conducted off the first and had no windbox of its own. And in the two-and-a-half centuries in between, people were mostly happy with one-level, single-soundboard divisions. Few exceptions in the 17th century, the Compeniuses and maybe Fritzsche. There was no continuity between early Brabant practice and the reinvention of the two-level division by Walcker and his successors. My guess is that this practice allowed for more foundation ranks and doubles per division without the case becoming too deep. Best, Friedrich

Hm. There is lots of worthy stuff, but I venture to choose something quite recent -- if I couldn't take this (it's 19 CDs, actually) I'd turn to this bit out of it. Incredibly beautiful playing, instrument, and recording. Would still leave me longing for the Leipzig chorales or the trio sonatas ... or even for this one, which I only just received for reviewing. Best Friedrich

Sorry, but Google Earth sends me to some, supposedly mostly wet, spot south-west of the Isles of Scilly. So, you're wirting under some nick, and your real name is captain Nemo? Fair's fair -- he's said to have been into organs as well as into the seven seas. Or am I still using the Paris meridian? Best, Friedrich

Might that be a benefit from the enclosure? On Graham's recording, the organ sounds superb throughout. But then, they usually do when played by him. Best, Friedrich

In Graham Barber's recording of the Whitlock sonata at Downside Abbey (Priory), you can hear excellent enclosed reeds of the smooth type right in the beginning. Sounds impressive, if a bit dull when compared to enclosed reeds of more snarly character. But considering the original function of an English Tuba, enclosing it would have been besides the point, wouldn't it? Best, Friedrich

Reading this makes me sad. Of all the people writing about the organ, I know only of one other who does it as witty, knowledgeable, pungent and still benevolent as Stephen did, and that is Peter "Plany" Planyawsky. In all ongoing discussions, in all the critical matters concerning organbuilding these days, I really miss Stephen's voice. There was always much, much to learn everytime it sounded. Friedrich

This came up recently on a South African website. Interested, anyone? Best, Friedrich

I never met a German catholic who could pronounce "Diözese" (German for "diocese") correctly. They all get stuck, lips pointed, on the Umlaut (Di-ö-zöö-se). Well, it sounds pretty alright. And to keep this on-topic: One colleague, having been educated as an organist in London and written a thesis on a British composer, used to say "Dye-EY-pay-zun" when telling about his practice sessions at St Michael's Cornhill. Best, Friedrich

Games horn (not a gem's horn, or "Now there's a gem, Shaun!"). Best, Friedrich P. S. Do the Welsh have their own stop names? If so, this thread might be just the place to discuss them.