Youtube

[Pierre Lauwers]

"What knots we tie ourselves with such categories."

(Quote)

 

Indeed; doing so, we "file" the objects into distinct cases,

and the real life isn't so.

It is just an help for our thinking, in order to understand.

It works....As long as we do not impone ideas to the things.

 

(I will add one or several Links to Le Picard organs)

 

Here is already a beautiful one:

 

http://p.thimus.free.fr/pages/festival6.html

 

(Note the Sesquialter. It belongs to the Principal chorus).

 

And here is the Le Picard organ of Tongeren/ Tongres, on which the belgian

organist Serge Schoonbroodt recorded....Yes: de Grigny's complete works:

 

http://www.orgues-thomas.com/FR/references/tongres.html

 

(Note the two Sesquialteras, on the Great and the Positive!)

 

Pierre

[Nigel Allcoat]

As for Grigny, I prefer this one:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxPooeWo64k

 

Pierre

Made my day finding this (thanks Pierre) - although the recording is rather close unfortunately for my taste. This is one my favourite Aubertins and I saw it gradually evolve. It is only about 30 mins from Bernard's atalier at Courtefontaine. I have always considered it the most perfect instrument for de Grigny - exactly the correct stops (4 manuals - one being an Echo). It is a smallish town church and quite close to Dôle where Michel Chapuis lives and where he takes some of his students too. I suggested some years ago to Stephen Farr when Collins Classics wanted him to do the complete works of de G that this was perhaps the best vehicle for it all. However, for the intégral I would suggest St Antoine as for so much music, a 16ft Bourdon is really required. Seurre is only 8ft. But when I took Magnus Williamson to visit after its completion, we both thought the 8ft Montre the most wonderful stop we had ever played. Seurre has a French pedal whilst St Antoine is Germanic (because of its restoration links to Scherrer - Lausanne - in 1748). Seurre is yet another high-point in the catalogue of Aubertin instruments and is some 14 years old now and so rarely known. Exceptional and sensational quality from just enough stops.

 

best wishes,

Nigel

[Pierre Lauwers]

Always a favorite of mine:

 

 

(....But it would be even better with more foundation tone in place of those

neo standard mixtures)

 

OH!!!!! AND!!!!!

 

Choral song & fugue played on...the previous Gloucester's cathedral organ!!!:

 

 

I won my day...

 

Pierre

[pcnd5584]

Always a favorite of mine:

 

 

(....But it would be even better with more foundation tone in place of those

neo standard mixtures)

 

OH!!!!! AND!!!!!

 

Choral song & fugue played on...the previous Gloucester's cathedral organ!!!:

 

 

I won my day...

 

Pierre

 

 

Well, I listened again to the second clip (I have the LP at home). It is really quite good, right up until the time that Sumsion draws the Pedal Ophicleide, which pretty much obliterates everything else, until the arrival of the G.O. reeds.

 

Actually, I had forgotten how brassy those G.O. reeds were - not the usual H&H trombe. Presumably, like the 'Willis' G.O. reeds at Exeter, Arthur Harrison decided to leave well alone (or W.C. Jones, if he was working for H&H at the time).

[Ian Ball]

Always a favorite of mine:

 

 

(....But it would be even better with more foundation tone in place of those

neo standard mixtures)

 

OH!!!!! AND!!!!!

 

Choral song & fugue played on...the previous Gloucester's cathedral organ!!!:

 

 

I won my day...

 

Pierre

Very nice and a very well known recording indeed. But it's very much a 'transcription' isn't it? C-compass, full compass pedalboard, pistons, rock-steady wind etc. Not what SSW had at his disposal when he wrote CS&F (go next door to St Mary de Lode for that!).

[Pierre Lauwers]

Indeed; and as far as I know, the "traditionnal british" school of the early

19th century might fit better S-S Howells.

This piece is "too baroque" for the Gloucester organ; as pcnd pointed out,

the pedal reeds are not intended for polyphonic use.

(But we all know to who this organ was suited....)

 

Splendid document, though. Along with the 4th movement of the Elgar's sonata,

which is among the others videos on the right of the page,

the french friends are astonished to ear this organ. And yes, the great reeds

are not the "oily" kind.

 

Pierre

[Ian Ball]

Indeed; and as far as I know, the "traditionnal british" school of the early

19th century might fit better S-S Howells.

This piece is "too baroque" for the Gloucester organ; as pcnd pointed out,

the pedal reeds are not intended for polyphonic use.

(But we all know to who this organ was suited....)

 

Splendid document, though. Along with the 4th movement of the Elgar's sonata,

which is among the others videos on the right of the page,

the french friends are astonished to ear this organ. And yes, the great reeds

are not the "oily" kind.

 

Pierre

Indeed. I love Sumsion's Elgar Sonata recording, despite some relaxed tempi here and there (i.e. in the trickier bits of the 2nd and 4th mvts). The organ sounds so bright too (as one would expect from a vintage Willis), as well as having such lovely orchestra colours.

[Pierre Lauwers]

Indeed. I love Sumsion's Elgar Sonata recording, despite some relaxed tempi here and there (i.e. in the trickier bits of the 2nd and 4th mvts). The organ sounds so bright too (as one would expect from a vintage Willis), as well as having such lovely orchestra colours.

 

.....And this brightness may, among others, rely on the Great Mixture.

It seems to have very few breaks so that "it sings accurately with the rest".

 

(Addenda: indeed, it was a vintage Willis before the A.H. rebuild.

We may suppose he largely kept Willis reeds, whose quality nobody

could discuss...)

 

 

Pierre

[Ian Ball]

.....And this brightness may, among others, rely on the Great Mixture.

It seems to have very few breaks so that "it sings accurately with the rest".

 

Pierre

Well, the whole structure of the principal chorus really - that rare stringy quality - but especially the 2 foots (a la Truro), which are almost quint mixture substitutes in a good Father W.

[Lausanne]

intro for (French) kids. Some very effective jazz Aubertinique at 2'27"! Cool model at 5'. And a visit chez Aubertin at 7'30", continued in 2nd

. Even a brief blast from the Vertus 32' reed - well worth watching. Back to Paris in the

for a tour of St Louis' colours. "Le plein jeu...c'est la signature de l'orgue" I like her!! A brief plug for St John's College, Oxford too, towards the end of clip 3. Enjoy!

 

Can't help thinking that by the middle of the 2nd clip, makers of programmes for British youth would be worried they'd have lost concentration. Such a shame: this is a brilliant lesson in physics and engineering. Nice not to have distracting pop music in the background too. We even get that in 'serious' science/nature progammes for grown-ups in the UK...

 

An excellent introduction to the organ, but such a pity that the description of how both the flue and reed pipes operate were wrong. Even if your french is not fluent you can see that their model of the reed pipe relies on the wind somehow lifting the brass tongue away from the shallot, rather than towards it before springing back open etc. Their description of how air in a flue pipe starts to vibrate is also curious. Apparently after leaving the pipe mouth some of the air goes outside the pipe and some goes inside. That which goes inside we are told creates a compression that travels down to the end where a little escapes, but most bounces off the air outiside the pipe (!) and comes back to the other end of the pipe and the process repeats at the speed of sound. He forgets to explain what causes the vibration of the air in the first place. Well, it doesn't matter, organ builders have been making pipes for centuries without really knowing how they work and TV presenters will continue pretending to teach approximate science.

I wonder how much editorial control M. Aubertin had, most likely non at all.

[Pierre Lauwers]

Aethereal Bach !

 

Played on the former Narbonne cathedral organ,

a post-romantic Maurice Puget, in the 70's:

 

 

 

 

 

Pierre

[Peter Allison]

Found this whilst surfing, coments welcome, the sound is good quality too

[flûte harmonique]

Devernay in NDP. Dead at 53 years old in 1990.

The organ is in very bad condition BUT the essential thing is the talent of this marvelous musician

 

 

Devernay improvises in 1989

[pcnd5584]

Devernay in NDP. Dead at 53 years old in 1990.

The organ is in very bad condition BUT the essential thing is the talent of this marvelous musician

 

 

Devernay improvises in 1989

 

Thank you for this.

 

As far as I am concerned, Yves Devernay is the only person to make this organ sound as exciting as did Pierre Cochereau. Devernay's harmonic language, although possessing some similarities to that of Cochereau, is at least as rich - and with just as much energy and inspiration.

 

A great link - I am going to enjoy trawling through this site later today.

[flûte harmonique]

Thank you for this.

 

As far as I am concerned, Yves Devernay is the only person to make this organ sound as exciting as did Pierre Cochereau. Devernay's harmonic language, although possessing some similarities to that of Cochereau, is at least as rich - and with just as much energy and inspiration.

 

A great link - I am going to enjoy trawling through this site later today.

 

Thank you for what you say on Devernay. I share your opinion on his inspiration which was not impeded by the various failures occuring to the PC's organ at that time!

[pcnd5584]

Thank you for what you say on Devernay. I share your opinion on his inspiration which was not impeded by the various failures occuring to the PC's organ at that time!

 

I agree - thank you again.

 

Was his registrant Jean Fröhlich?

 

I have just been watching this one, and it must also be said that the registrant is extremely competent - and possibly possessing some intuitive ability, since he seems to know exactly what to do and when to do it.

[Ian Ball]

I agree - thank you again.

 

Was his registrant Jean Fröhlich?

 

I have just been watching this one, and it must also be said that the registrant is extremely competent - and possibly possessing some intuitive ability, since he seems to know exactly what to do and when to do it.

Yes it was - an incredible double act!

[flûte harmonique]

Yes it was - an incredible double act!

Jean Fröhlich, his assistant wrote in a CD leaflet: "Before each of Yves' improvised passages, we would exchange a few words as to the the initial registrations, and here the discussion would end (often through lack of time) with a brief "See you at the pause" ("Au point d'orgue").

 

"Since August 1983, the GO had been without electric combinations, so all the stops were pulled out by hand. I myself, said Fröhlich, took over the stop-pulling for 107 stops, 1 pedal divider, 6 pedal couplers, 6 reed couplers, 1 tutti, 14 manual couplers, 1 crescendo. I never used the crescendo pedal to crescendo, only to descrecendo!

 

He added: "It was risky to improvise in these conditions as sequences of registrations were not always coordinated and contrapuntal effects were not controlled, but Yves, ever inventive, was always able to adapt to a new situation"

 

I personally heard him improvising in 1986 at the loft 2 years after Cochereau's death: he was the only one to get up to the level of the Genious!

[DQB123]

So what's the state of the Notre Dame cathedral organ these days?

[AJJ]

So what's the state of the Notre Dame cathedral organ these days?

 

It was working fine last February where a crowd of us had the place to ourselves plus Philippe Lefebvre demonstrating.

 

A

[flûte harmonique]

So what's the state of the Notre Dame cathedral organ these days?

 

The current state of the organ is as good as possible, but it is not exactly the same organ.

[AJJ]

The current state of the organ is as good as possible, but it is not exactly the same organ.

 

I read somewhere about how any rank could be reassigned anywhere and at any pitch via the hardware installed at the last work - does anyone know the point of this - repertoire or improvisation related?

 

A

[Ian Ball]

Good to see

up on YouTube. The whole TV programme has done the rounds for years on VHS copies. This particular clip shows PC improvising a delightful, elegant scherzo after a somewhat less successful attempt by his pupil, Maurice Clerc ("un scherzo funebre?" asks PC ) - not included on this excerpt.

[AJJ]

.............and

the George Baker postlude from the KCC Carol Service.

 

A

[pcnd5584]

The current state of the organ is as good as possible, but it is not exactly the same organ.

No - which I think is unfortunate. I know that there are some who read this board who approve of the attempt to regain the Cavaillé-Coll sound, but I think that a lot of the excitement has now gone from this instrument. In particular, I can see no point in removing both chorus mixtures on the Récit - particularly in view of the fact that Vierne asked for them to be added during his long tenure and Cochereau retained them during his also extended time as Titulaire. Now there are a couple of blank drawstops on the Récit jamb (and presumably two empty slides). One could always have chosen not to draw the stops. Now there are no chorus mixtures on this department at all.