sprondel

It has? I wasn't aware of that. Hadn't it been added on Dupré's suggestion? The photos are from Robert Davy's splendid book, aren't they? A dream of an organ monography it is, especially the drawings truly are a love's labour. Best, Friedrich

Doesn't this order reproduce the Anches-Fonds-division of the chests? Anches left, Fonds right? I guess this is rather practical, since in C-C's concept the Fonds were sort of drawn anyway, the Anches playing the more tricky part in the build-up. The latter could be manipulated with the left, while the right and the feet kept on playing. Together with C-C's system of ventils and couplers, how much more practical can you get in pre-combination-action days? Best, Friedrich

There is a fantastic CD available from the Horos label, Dresden (Horos CD 21102). Three pieces -- Böhm, Partita "Freu dich sehr"; Bach, Pièce d'orgue; Messiaen, Apparition de l'église éternelle (!) -- were recorded before and after the restoration, with the organist -- Hansjürgen Scholze -- using the exact same registrations, and the recording engineer placing the mikes in the same way for both recordings. That way, remote control in hand, you can compare before-after directly. It's stunning, it really is. On the CD Inlay, Horos just give their phone and fax numbers (+49-351-5 63 37-77, -78) and an E-Mail address (info@horos.de). They are on the web at http://www.horos.de. Best, Friedrich

And then, there was the service on Reformation Day in the Dresden Frauenkirche, with a cluster of soft cyphers occuring; it sounded a bit as if someone was vacuuming the hall. The organ had been dedicated the day before. And then, doors had been opened, closed and opened again, the heating was on maximum, and outside it was nicely cold and dry. The air in the church, at the time of the service, was extremely dry, and so the Swell trackers shrunk. Miraculously, this couldn't be heard on the organ loft, because the Swell is at the top and back of the organ. The organist would just have had to push in all Swell stops, but he didn't know what was happening. Neither did the builder who was attending the service from the loft. Thanks, anyway, for your reports so far. Best, Friedrich

On the Beckerath website, it says that the organ was to be inaugurated on 4 February, 2007, by Simon Preston. Has it happened? Did any of you attend the inauguration? If so, what do you think of the organ now that it's ready? Best, Friedrich

Since all this started out as a discussion about Latry's DG Franck set, I' d like to add a thought. Having heard Latry in recital a few times, and on CD very often, I came to think that there is a certain quality in his playing that is not communicated easily in recordings. E. g., when I heard him in a recital in my hometown Freiburg, I kept wondering why he started many pieces so slowly. Usually, however, the effect was that, a few bars into the piece, I was drawn powerfully into his vision of the music. It was like getting caught in a stream. There was something in his playing that made the music completely clear and unsdisturbed, a concentration so deep that you couldn't miss it. It worked even better when I did not know the music, as in the Florentz suite he played. It was like taking a stroll in the performer's mind, watching him meditate the music. In the DG Franck set, I can merely sense that quality, but I think you just have to leave it to a recital to be overwhelmed by something as intensely "live" as that. About other Franck recordings, I think there isn't such a thing as the right one. I liked Demessieux for the poetic spirit in her playing (especially in the most difficult "Prière"); I liked Guillou for his spectacular use of the Saint-Eustache organ without -- in my opinion -- mising the mark. It very much depends on the overall character of the performance, and of the performer's style of making music. There are organists who beautifully sing out Franck, others who turn his pieces to monumental statements of the inherent symphonic spirit, and still others who aim at an epic broadness. Some do survive the dramatic turmoil of Choral III, staying in control until the end, and some don't. I never was surprised as often by unexpectedly good, as well as poor, interpretations as in Franck. Best, Friedrich

And then, there is the fact that the manuals run up to a'''. This allows for ample space for taking the double and flute an octave higher in order to provide soft 8+4-foot accompaniment. Of course, a C-to-C compass would be best in this concern. On the other hand, space seems to have been a consideration here, and there would be six more channels adding to the width of the chest, which equals about twice the travel of the sliders. No, it is very well thought-out as it is, as far as can be said just from reading. Best, Friedrich

Do I get it right from the pictures on Kenneth Tickell's home page that Choir and Great share one soundboard? It might be helpful, then, to consider the two divisions as one. With the double, the Open Diapason, open and stopped flute, Principal and Spitzflute, the Cornet décomposé, Fifteenth, Mixture and Trumpet, this results in a fairly complete Great. The second Principal, small Mixture and Cromorne are the minimum requirement for an independent Choir. This might explain why the Great has no 4-foot flute of its own. If the room is as dead as was hinted at before, the double might be desperately needed to give a feeling of fullness and warmth to the ensemble. About the Gemshorn: It was a favourite 2-foot rank in continental post-war organbuilding, and is to be found in Rückpositivs all around. If well made, it closes the gap between a 4-foot principal and a 1-foot based Scharf in the bass, where is was made as a mild and bright Principal, and completed the flute chorus in the treble, where it grew in scale, while the mouths were kept increasingly narrow, relatively. In other words, when costs and space were limited, it was your standard multi-purpose 2-foot rank. German post-war organbuilders did frequently build unison Gemshorns, usually for the Great. Karl Schuke of Berlin and Klais of Bonn were among them. Both their 8-foot Gemshorns usually start in the bass with a Gamba-like edge to them, and grow wider towards the treble. Klais, in his Greats, often combined the Gemshorn with a Rohrflöte of large scale. When used together, these stops give a very satisfying, full-bodied tone, rather like a Flûte harmonique with edgy bass and singing treble. Best, Friedrich

... who have no other reason but a doubtful one-liner from Forkel and a remark in Griepenkerl's preface to the first Peters volume. I think this is such great writing for the organ, and the piece sounds so comparably unsuccessful on the harpsichord, that the answer to that question is given by the music itself. Peter Williams states that, probably, neither Forkel nor Griepenkerl hardly ever heard the instruments they hinted at. There is some hearsay about Bach's music around that dies very, very hard. For example that the 'cello suites are really by Anna Magdalena (who as a copyist was not very reliable to begin with), that BWV 565 was really a piece for violin solo (Peter Williams merely suggests this and immediately discusses why it is improbable), that the Art of the Fugue was meant for the eye rather than for the ear (even though it just sounds so good on harpsichord or an early fortepiano, much better than in any other "realisation", and the early version, along with the sketch for the assumedly concluding fugue, was written on two staves), or the Passacaglia-for-harpsichord bit. I guess all this comes with the music itself dying hard, and continuing to fascinate, which in turn is a good thing. Best, Friedrich

Almost everything you see there was made by Ahrend, who restored and, in large parts, reconstructed the instrument between 1981 and 1985. The organ was built orginally in 1685/86, the Oberpositiv (playable from the Brustwerk manual) was added in 1692. About 20 stops were lost between 1847 and 1901 due to "improvement"; all front pipes were lost in WW I. The first efforts aiming at restoration were made by Furtwängler & Hammer in 1929/30, followed by another restoration after WW II by Paul Ott, with rather catastrophic outcome. What survives from Schnitger and before (16th and early 17th century) are eight stops in the RP, five in the Werck, three in the Oberpositiv, four in the Brustwerk, and one (the 8-foot flue) in the Pedal. Everything else was reconstructed. A more detailed description can be found at http://www.hwcoordes.homepage.t-online.de/as/as_nord.htm BTW: What you hear when Bernard Foccroulle plays on the upper manual is the Oberpositiv, not the Brustwerk. Both have rather interesting choruses. Best, Friedrich

There are at least two more worth mentioning. First, Tom Murray at the fabulous Woolsey Hall Skinner (Gothic G 49076); then, quite the opposite artistically, Michael Gassmann on a neat south-German instrument near Freiburg (Telos Records TLS 019). The delicate flutes and strings, speaking the dialect of the area, do work charmingly with Elgar's miniatures. Both CDs include the sonata as well, the latter along with the "second" sonata, the "Cantique", and the "Loughborough Memorial Chime". Best, Friedrich

I do -- it's absolutely charming. The sonata especially sounds very, very good in Mr. Fisher's hands, and the organ is fine. Good Tuba, applied as well as possible -- i. e., very, very rarely. Best, Friedrich

I might be wrong, but didn't Cavaillé-Coll build Pos-R couplers in Toulouse, Saint-Sernin, and/or Rouen, Saint-Ouen? I seem to remember the reason was that the Récits there have their own Barker machine, whereas the Positifs-de-dos don't, which was why C-C had the usual R-Pos coupler reversed, notwithstanding the standard he himself had created. In Rouen, there seems to be the additional problem that the chorus reeds of the Bombarde manual come on together (16-8-4) always as soon as one of them is drawn and the Anches Bombarde pedal is activated; a mechanical fault that came up at some point and had never been corrected. Or did I get anything wrong here? Has anyone here been so happy as to play there? I also recall that all this made the interpretation of much of the French symphonic repertoire difficult both in Toulouse and in Rouen. Those being the favourite recording venues for the repertoire says a lot about the musical qualities of the instruments. Best, Friedrich P. S. Happy New Year to all. (Mine is already, my son was born on 12 December. Paul's the name.)

• Roger Sayer at the Klais organ of the Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik (Great European Organs No. 45) • Complete Duruflé by Latry (Saint-Etienne-du-Mont) • Buxtehude, Vogel's vol. 7 (Hamburg) • Bach Passacaglia etc. by Germani at the RFH (since there has to be some Bach on the desert island, and I cannot decide on the recording, I just take the one with the most beautiful playing) • Reger variations by Donald Joyce (Norwich Cath.) Hard choice, though. I wish I could take Latry's Messiaen as well (finally the time to listen through it on that island!), some Orgelbuechlein recording (not MCA), a complete Jehan Alain set ... There was absolutely no doubt about the first two on my list, however. Best, Friedrich

What kind of stop is this? I found it in several more recent Beckerath stoplists. Some new clever manual 16-foot sound? An alternative to Quintadenas, Pommers, Bourdons, Gambas? I felt reminded of our "Portunal" thread earlier this year. Best, Friedrich

There are builders who advocate that there should be a decent 16-foot reed on the Swell before the Clarion comes in, especially in dead acoustics, as in carpeted churches, concert halls etc. Philipp Klais wrote something to that extent in Vol. II of "Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Orgel", the Klais anniversary book of 2001, in an article about their then recent concert hall instruments. He did not give a reason, but I guess it has to do with the fact that in dead acoustics fundamental is needed rather than brilliance. If a Swell ensemble is voiced well, the combination of chorus reeds 16 + 8 with the 4-foot Principal and a regular chorus mixture should deliver all the weight and brilliance you could wish for, even for French repertoire. "Clarion mixtures" I never found sufficient, neither stringy cornets or slotted mixtures. Sometimes I found that French reeds 8 + 4 on the Swell did not give the desired effect of fiery brilliance, but changed the overall sound of the organ to a not-so-graceful fat and reedy character, quite like a harmonium on steroids. Even a Clarion must blend with the foundations, which in turn must not sound obese or woolly. Maybe in this case Clarions are treated with too much caution, are being scaled too narrow or tamed down too much in comparison with the Trumpet. I suspect if you want the regular blast, there is no way to get it except letting the Clarion have its spectacular way. Best, Friedrich

To see all manuals coupled to the first is not unusual in Saint-Sulpice when the organist is dealing with a piece that ends in fff. To the organist, it makes no difference since all couplers run through the Barker machine of the first manual. By allowing wind to the respective chests and pallet boxes via C-C's ingenious system of foot levers, the organist creates the up and down of the sound. All couplers are engaged by foot levers, as are the ventils to the chests and pallet boxes. It is said to be a pedal technique of its own that one has to learn if one wants to play those French beasts, but if mastered, it makes the player capable of incredible control over masses of sound. In Saint-Sulpice, there is another amazing feature. The sliders are moved by pneumatics. If you cut the wind supply from these, you can change the registration to a new one while the previous one is still on. Engaging the wind anew then calls up the new registration. The very lowest row of stop knobs on the terraced stop jambs controls the wind supply of the slider pneumatics, division-wise. All in all, MM, you are not entirely wrong about that steam-engine impression. Only it's actually wind that is regulated by all those features, and not steam. Cavaillé-Coll's organs, in their day, really were high-tech affairs. I think they still are pretty amazing. Best, Friedrich

There were, in Orgelbewegung instruments, some examples of high-pitched mixtures called "Glockenzimbel" or similar. They often included a Third. Then there is the "Stahlspiel" Silbermann mentions in several "Vademecums" he wrote for his new instruments. It was a colourful registration including a 4-foot Rohr Flauta, a 1 3/5' Tertia and a 1-foot Sifflet. Another thing is the "Klingende Zimbel" in some historic North-German organs that was intended to top a chorus of flutes, e. g. 8-4-3-2-Zimbel. In the Norden Schnitger, this stop consists of three ranks, breaking on every C and F. On all C's and F's, the Zimbel sounded the same F-Major triad (f'''' a'''' c'''''), so that the Zimbel contained harmonics just for half the octave, non-harmonics far the other half. The effect is dazzling, quite a realistic bell sound. Best, Friedrich

Well, not entirely so, I think. It is true, Bleicher is not the most vivid of players. The pieces that are rather bucolic in character, though, sound sweet and fine. A big plus are the organs chosen for the recording. They are big Swiss instruments from the German-romantic tradition. This may seem odd at first glance, but there are surprisingly little passages in Saint-Saëns's music which require the full Cavaillé-Coll blast. The instruments are the historical Kuhn at St. Johann, Schaffhausen ( see http://tinyurl.com/yckpf7 ) and the Walcker-Kuhn organ in the Stadtkirche Winterthur. ( see http://tinyurl.com/y9l9og ) The strength of both instruments lies in their beautiful foundations: flutes sweet or full, strings in many shadings from bottomless Violones to edgy Fugaras, and choruses that have quite a bit of romantic weight and sparkle. There also are some intriguingly beautiful free reeds. The organs are very well recorded by Hans Joachim Röhrs, who is an experienced sound engineer and a profound organ scholar as well. He knew what to catch, and did catch it beautifully. The recordings allow for a beautiful as well as inexpensive encounter with all (!) of Saint-Saëns's organ compositions, and with a style of organ sound quite distinguished. Give the recordings some time -- I certainly needed to go back to them time and again --, and you might discover a growing fondness for them. Best, Friedrich P. S. Stephan Bleicher, by the way, is quite some player. I once heard him playing BWV 564 on the wonderful Marcussen in the Münster, Freiburg (Germany). He played the fugue on one single stop: the Rückpositiv 4-foot Rohrflöte, quite a beauty in itself. Bleicher managed to play at breakneck speed, but still completely clean, and with a pedal touch so restrained that it did not disturb the delicate sound.

Yes, that's the one. At second glance, the case seems to be suspended from the arch above it. Quite some provocative design! Best, Friedrich

Yes, please -- there has been one hell of a battle going on on PIPORG-L for days now about meantone, temperament an "out-of-tune thirds". Let's not open that same battlefield again here. About the organ at Bremen: It was built by Kristian Wegscheider of Dresden, who designed it along the lines of Gottfried Silbermann's one-manual organs. Since the three-rank mixture and the temperament, that infact is designed to help the sound. Silbermann is said to have preferred, at least before his major Dresden instruments, a harsh near-meantone temperament, which unfortunately did not survive in any of his organs. But I digress again. In the forst volume of "The Classical Organ in Britain", there is one instrument by J. W. Walker (photograph on p. 97, stoplist on p. 27), that apparently was designed for very limited floor space. Actually, it is a three-rank positive on a high steel frame and with the keyboard underneath. Not that many people would find its design appealing today, but maybe this is another way to go in this particular situation. Best, Friedrich

There is the possibility of installing a small one-manual organ or one with a duplexed manual in the "either-or" way. For example, something along these lines: http://www.stpetridom.de/dom/bauwerk/wegschneid.php for a space-saving, but still beautiful and versatile organ, that fits under any arch or just sits flat to one wall. The floor space, admittedly, would equal perhaps the one taken up by two toasters. The organ is 3m wide, 0,86m deep and 5m high. The stoplist: Manual, C–f''' Bordun 16' Principal 8' Viola di Gamba 8' Gedackt 8' Octave 4' Rohrflöte 4' Nasat 3' Superoctave 2' Mixtur III 1 1/3' Pedal, C–d' Bordun 16' "either-or" stop, borrowed from the manual (This organ is tuned to a 1/6 comma temperament.) Instead of having only the Bourdon borrowed, the entire manual chest could be "either-ored", maybe with the exception of the 8' Principal. The Pedal then would only have the couplers II/P and I/P. Best, Friedrich

To my ears, a Cornet of truly grand scale, like they were built in French organs of the 17th and 18th century, is a very bold and exciting sound. In French classical music, they were often used as a partner for the Cromorne, which is of comparable weight and colour in the bass and tenor range; for fugues, for example, the left hand sometimes played on the Cromorne, the right hand on the Cornet. Some examples are built from pipes that are best described as super-diapasons: very, very large scale, wide mouths, low cut-ups. Such a Cornet, to the French classical organ, is comparable to the Tuba in a victorian English one. The most commanding sound by far, and exclusively for solo purposes. In fact, a friend of mine used it as such after having heard Roger Fisher's recording of the Elgar sonata (on Motette). Mr Fisher pulls the Chester Tuba in the end of the final movement, but just for the up-down arpeggio. My friend, when playing the sonata on a moderate two-manual along French-Alsatian lines, chose the Grand Cornet -- just as exciting, and the feeling of lightning hitting the sound. (The interpretation, by the way, works very well, and a recording was issued on the Telos label [LC02966], no. TLS 019.) Cornets like that one were not built to blend with the chorus. When narrower scaled or toned down, the Cornet will blend better, but lose some of its bold colour. In choruses, I like better Sesquialtera-type 17ths, or the narrow conical 17ths as they were built by Walcker and some of his pupils. Best, Friedrich

Let me add the Trompete 8' here. This stop is, however, the only beating reed in the entire division, which is, according to an article in "Orgel International" (1998/2, p. 19–21), rather lyrical in character, even though it is on 100 mm of wind (about 3 3/4 inches). All the other reeds, the Fagott included, are free. The organ must be quite something -- actually the only German-romantic organ of that builder, era (1839) and scope that survives today. I really wish I could visit there and listen to the organ some day. Until now, eastern Romania was a bit far off my routes. Best, Friedrich

In many German organs from the early-romantic era, you find exactly that: Horizontal shutters controlled by a hitch pedal. Sometimes these shutters are sprung, sometimes they are weighted so that they return to the closed position. Boxes like these usually housed not the enclosed-Great type of Swell division but only the most delicate voices, reeds as well as flues, of the entire organ. Accordingly, the shutter would never open fully but only a few centimeters. It would be news to me, however, if the Sainte-Clotilde had had horizontal shutters -- didn't Cavaillé-Coll build vertical ones exclusively, taht were sprung in his earlier organs? Of todays shutter systems, there are as well the doors folding symmetrically, which are used sometimes for Brustwerk shutters; and there is the Mühleisen system, in which horizontal shutters turn as well as fold, so that two neighbouring shutters form a V-shaped unit when the box is open. By this method, the front of the box can be opened wider than possible with individual shutters, and projection problems with uniformly opening shutters are prevented. Best, Friedrich