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Encouraging Interest From The Nightclub Generation


Guest spottedmetal

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being of the prime age to comment on this (18) perhaps i should now wade in.

 

By suggesting stairway to heaven, the same mistake as has been made by everyone trying to make churches 'contemporary' has been done again. Stairway to Heaven is not this generation. A great song yes, but only Classic Rock fans (probably a small 15-20% of people my age at most) will know it. It is a song of the previous generation.

 

If you try and attract youth with the ideas of the previous generation it will not work.

 

So what would work? My own solution is to not change the services, and the music, but merely to make it accessible. Why can't we take the organ into schools, in the same way the voilin is? An electronic could easily be taken in, as this is far muchmore approachable to start wtih. In time, if people want to move onto 'real' organs they will, just like people who listen to EMO bands (fallout boy / my chemical romance etc) eventually move onto 'real' rock music after having served the apprenticeship.

 

But at the same time, not to dumb down. Proclaim the wonders of Bach, but maybe dumbing down to the level of not chucking Messiaen onto unsuspecting 7 year olds is acceptable

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Guest spottedmetal

Brilliant - thanks! It's nice to know that not everyone here needs the "StairLIFT"

 

I'm not talking services here - I'm talking of THE ORGAN as an instrument and SYMPHONIC COMPOSERS who are neglected only because they composed for a dying neglected instrument rather than an orchestra. I'm talking of getting

such momentum going that we can fill a venue for 700 people for some organ-rebuilding fundraising concerts. Challenge:

1. who can do that now (rather than 20 years ago), and

2. with an average age of 40 rather than an average age of 65 or more?

 

I mentioned Led Zep even if of Stairlift generation for the reason that their recent comeback was incredibly successful, also transgenerationally, and personally I happen to have a Led Zep connexion. Of course one must assume that children's diet should not be confined to chicken shapes and chips - we do need a bit of Jamie Oliver of course. That's why in the concerts I'm kicking off with promoting include _whole_ symphonies - none of this Classic FM extract stuff . . . as well as something to make the audience feel that they've had a really good time.

 

I'm wondering beyond StairLIFT transcriptions, whether one come further in bringing even more contemporary music to life on the organ - and I agree wholeheartedly in taking organs into schools. The problem is that toasters have to be of the absolute best quality in order to do the music justice, and the speakers should be massive. I'm using an array of 20 speakers including one 7ft high - and the whole BEAST is now so cumbersome that I wouldn't want to move it even 200 yards to do a concert outside. But it's vital IMHO to get children and adults alike interested in the instrument without having to break the barrier of venturing into a church.

 

As far as being adventurous with programming, today I sent out an email to my members announcing concerts and planning more including an incredible pianist with an interesting set of programme options:

I have wide range to repertoire at the moment including modern composer Isang Yun (twelve tone) and

I could sugar that up with some classics from Chopin,

Ravel, Beethoven, Debussy, Prokofieff, Berg (20th

century), Liszt,....etc.

It will be fascinating to see what the audience choose.

 

Best wishes

 

David P

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Last things first. I once included a transcription of "Bess you is my woman" (Gershwin) at a recital, because the vicar was an avid theatre-organ man. That raised a few eyebrows, I can tell you; especially since it wasn't programmed and I just did it on the spur of the moment.

 

At least I had a good reason for doing this, because the vicar was very supportive of the organ and church music, and yet no-one ever did anything for him.

 

I'm not quite sure why anyone would either want to categorise or hope to appeal to "a nightclub generation."

 

The night-club has a distinguished history which goes back to the "speak-easy" in America, jazz-clubs and the like. Disco changed all that by making the music canned; the only live bit being the DJ. It started first in the gay clubs of New York, and due to the support of divas like the singer Gloria Gaynor, rapidly spread across the western world as a more general phenomenon

 

Nightclubs and discos are nowadays quite specific and quite different, with all sorts of specialised categories of music. Even in the space of only thirty years, I can think of "High Energy," "Punk," "New Age," "Gothic," "Acid House," "Garage," "Hip Hop," "Indie Music," "Jazz," "R & B," "Country & Western" etc etc. I somehow cannot conceive a musical event which could somehow bridge the gap between Marilyn Manson and Marilyn Mason.

 

All forms of "nightclub" (to use a generic and very broad term), are really about the "mating game" rather than about music, and as mankind has known for many a century, dancing is as good a way as any of stumbling accidentally into the person you like the looks of. One suspects that the gregariousness of youth includes a certain hidden-agenda. Moreover, we are almost (not quite) into an age where families tend to operate as a unit on the fringes of society, and all sense of community has now largely vanished. Thus we have unintentional ageism, as each specific grouping enjoy their own cultures and even sub-cultures. The peer pressures involved in that sharply defined differentiation are enormous, as each group excludes the next; yet the very existence of peer-pressure is evidence of a natural desire to conform to a certain basic herd-instinct. The herd, it would seem, has nevertheless become fragmented.

 

So I would suggest that a quite different approach is required, if interest in the organ is to be generated among the young. With less than 10% of families going to church regularly, the influence of religion has dropped almost to the point of insignificance. In fact, it's not very different to grouse shooting. You can beat an entire moor with sticks, but if there only one fowl in every hectacre, you get a small catch; no matter how quickly you reload the 12-bore. Expecting the unfortunate creatures to gather at your feet , is not very realistic I suspect.

 

It's very difficult not to be negative, but if music is no longer reaching the young in church, and music education has become music-appreciation using a CD player, then for many young people, what took centuries to develop, has been wiped out in almost a single generation. Even when I was a boy singer the best part of 50 years ago, organists were very much a minority breed, even among musicians. My own personal organ peer-group consisted of perhaps four others in the same school; one of whom was outstanding. (That worked out at about one boy for each year before 6th form at grammar school) When I joined the local organist's association, that increased to a peer-group of twelve. One of the twelve was the late Charles Macdonald, one went on to study as an organ-scholar at Cambridge and another became an organ tutor at a college. The other eight never really made the grade, and faded into relative obscurity. My point is, that outside the choir-schools and other musical institutions where music matters, the pool of those with the right sensibilities and abilities was very, very small. I would suggest that it has always been like this.....but....there was a time when those few came into contact with the organ almost as a matter of course, due to school assemblies, church or speech-days etc.

 

My own road to Damascus is probably, I believe, quite typical. Interested principally in architecture and photography at age 11, I went around town taking photographs. I stumbled into the local parish church, took a few photographs and then the curate arrived. He started playing the organ, then made himself known as I watched him play. He then went off to do something, and allowed me to dabble with the organ after explaining what things did. That was it; I was hooked; not because I was told to do it, or expected to do it, but simply because something within just reacted to the sound and drew me to it.

That is how people take things up, and it comes down to instinct. There was no-one in the family who was remotely musical, who may have influenced me. Two year later, at the age of 13, I was cycling 40 miles to York once a week during the summer holidays, just to hear Francis Jackson play the Minster organ, when my mother thought I was at a friend's house.

 

I fear that any attempt to appeal to those who like nightclubs and discos, using exploding balloons, is more probably going to appeal only to young children and those who's eyes are too close together.

 

However, I must commend any attempt at making the organ available to young people, and I always (without exception), spend a little time with any kid who shows an interest, and when it comes to one particular annual school attended mass, I always play things which I know will stun them just a little. It's really good when you finish the Mushel Toccata, and a 15 year old boy comes wandering up and asks in front of his friends and peers, "That was cool; what was it?"

 

So I tell them about Russia, Cossack Dancing and high mountains in Central Asia, and they listen wide-eyed. The next year, they ask me if I'll play that wild Russian dance again. Kids love a bit of noise, new things, a bit of excitement and lots of rushing around for the sake of it. Tap into that, and you've achieved something.

 

I can't resist the Carlo Curley story, when he went to the Royal Albert Hall to practice, and found 'Pink Floyd" trying to lift the roof. He hung around until they had finished, and seeing him waiting by the illuminated console, they apologised for the noise. Saying nothing, Carlo drew full organ, pressed the keys, added the big Tuba and Pedal Reeds, then turned and shouted to a stunned band, "Don't worry, that's organ power honey!"

 

We have to face the fact that most organ-enthusiasts are getting on a bit, and time is not on our side. From what I have seen of organ-recital devotees in recent years, it will not be so much "Stairway to heaven" as "Stairlift to heaven."

 

MM

 

 

PS: Humph! I was beaten to the draw with the" Stairlift to heaven" joke. The joke's on me however, because in my impending old age, I was thinking of Johhny Seng playing "Stairway to the Stars" on a 1930's Wurlitzer. How time flies for the unwary!

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I find it difficult to imagine any version of Stairway, or Comfortably Numb, or Angels sounding anything other than totally lame on an organ.

 

And I can't imagine any kind of satisfactory rendition of Langlais' Fete by Coldplay.

 

It's like sheep in a horse race, pickles with ice cream and trainers with pin-stripe suits.

 

Every time someone mentions holding out hands I get an image of a drowning man.

 

The organ isn't just unpopular with the nightclub generation. It's unpopular with the Beatles generation and the Big Band generation. Even people who go to church get up and make a terrible clatter as they flood out as soon as the voluntary starts in many places of worship (according to posts here). In fact you might do better to ask those who go to church in the first place to stay and listen to the voluntary. Get the incumbent to put a note in the service sheet to the effect that the voluntary is part of the service, to which the congregation is invited to sit and listen.

 

The organ evolved into something accessible to the masses. It's called a synthesizer. Rick Wakeman's Six Wives of Henry VIII was a significant point in the evolution, followed by the appearance of synth bands like Kraftwerk. Synths are affordable, portable, useful in ensembles (aka bands) can sample an oboe rather than mimic one with a tin whistle, and through a decent PA can make your bowels break. And they stay in tune whatever the temperature, time of day, and however many people are present. In exactly the same way, the guitar has been popularised by Les Paul and Leo Fender.

 

The pipe organ is an instrument of liturgical accompaniment, saved from extinction by the Church. To popularise it is to trivialise it and, in so doing, to do it a monstrous disservice. Neither it nor its operators were meant to be stars anymore than the people who read lessons. Can you imagine 700 people drawn to a lesson reading fest by the prospect of 1,000 balloons to pop?

 

LOL

 

J

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Guest spottedmetal
I find it difficult to imagine any version of Stairway, or Comfortably Numb, or Angels sounding anything other than totally lame on an organ.

:lol: Well yes - I quite agree with all your sentiment - almost - as yes it's possible. Stairway can be effective on the pipe organ provided it has a good string stop for a start and it's not in too reverberant acoustic. I'm sure there are other things too.

 

I'm still underwhelmed by the numbers of people being confident of filling 700 seats . . . as well as succeeding in lowering the average age at any recital from 60 to 40 . . .

 

I'll stop bleating . . . but hope that I might possibly have fired some imaginations, even if only 2 years down the line. Somehow it's a job that has to be done.

 

Best wishes

 

David P

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Last things first. I once included a transcription of "Bess you is my woman" (Gershwin) at a recital, because the vicar was an avid theatre-organ man. That raised a few eyebrows, I can tell you; especially since it wasn't programmed and I just did it on the spur of the moment.

 

At least I had a good reason for doing this, because the vicar was very supportive of the organ and church music, and yet no-one ever did anything for him.

 

I'm not quite sure why anyone would either want to categorise or hope to appeal to "a nightclub generation."

 

The night-club has a distinguished history which goes back to the "speak-easy" in America, jazz-clubs and the like. Disco changed all that by making the music canned; the only live bit being the DJ. It started first in the gay clubs of New York, and due to the support of divas like the singer Gloria Gaynor, rapidly spread across the western world as a more general phenomenon

 

Nightclubs and discos are nowadays quite specific and quite different, with all sorts of specialised categories of music. Even in the space of only thirty years, I can think of "High Energy," "Punk," "New Age," "Gothic," "Acid House," "Garage," "Hip Hop," "Indie Music," "Jazz," "R & B," "Country & Western" etc etc. I somehow cannot conceive a musical event which could somehow bridge the gap between Marilyn Manson and Marilyn Mason.

 

All forms of "nightclub" (to use a generic and very broad term), are really about the "mating game" rather than about music, and as mankind has known for many a century, dancing is as good a way as any of stumbling accidentally into the person you like the looks of. One suspects that the gregariousness of youth includes a certain hidden-agenda. Moreover, we are almost (not quite) into an age where families tend to operate as a unit on the fringes of society, and all sense of community has now largely vanished. Thus we have unintentional ageism, as each specific grouping enjoy their own cultures and even sub-cultures. The peer pressures involved in that sharply defined differentiation are enormous, as each group excludes the next; yet the very existence of peer-pressure is evidence of a natural desire to conform to a certain basic herd-instinct. The herd, it would seem, has nevertheless become fragmented.

 

So I would suggest that a quite different approach is required, if interest in the organ is to be generated among the young. With less than 10% of families going to church regularly, the influence of religion has dropped almost to the point of insignificance. In fact, it's not very different to grouse shooting. You can beat an entire moor with sticks, but if there only one fowl in every hectacre, you get a small catch; no matter how quickly you reload the 12-bore. Expecting the unfortunate creatures to gather at your feet , is not very realistic I suspect.

 

It's very difficult not to be negative, but if music is no longer reaching the young in church, and music education has become music-appreciation using a CD player, then for many young people, what took centuries to develop, has been wiped out in almost a single generation. Even when I was a boy singer the best part of 50 years ago, organists were very much a minority breed, even among musicians. My own personal organ peer-group consisted of perhaps four others in the same school; one of whom was outstanding. (That worked out at about one boy for each year before 6th form at grammar school) When I joined the local organist's association, that increased to a peer-group of twelve. One of the twelve was the late Charles Macdonald, one went on to study as an organ-scholar at Cambridge and another became an organ tutor at a college. The other eight never really made the grade, and faded into relative obscurity. My point is, that outside the choir-schools and other musical institutions where music matters, the pool of those with the right sensibilities and abilities was very, very small. I would suggest that it has always been like this.....but....there was a time when those few came into contact with the organ almost as a matter of course, due to school assemblies, church or speech-days etc.

 

My own road to Damascus is probably, I believe, quite typical. Interested principally in architecture and photography at age 11, I went around town taking photographs. I stumbled into the local parish church, took a few photographs and then the curate arrived. He started playing the organ, then made himself known as I watched him play. He then went off to do something, and allowed me to dabble with the organ after explaining what things did. That was it; I was hooked; not because I was told to do it, or expected to do it, but simply because something within just reacted to the sound and drew me to it.

That is how people take things up, and it comes down to instinct. There was no-one in the family who was remotely musical, who may have influenced me. Two year later, at the age of 13, I was cycling 40 miles to York once a week during the summer holidays, just to hear Francis Jackson play the Minster organ, when my mother thought I was at a friend's house.

 

I fear that any attempt to appeal to those who like nightclubs and discos, using exploding balloons, is more probably going to appeal only to young children and those who's eyes are too close together.

 

However, I must commend any attempt at making the organ available to young people, and I always (without exception), spend a little time with any kid who shows an interest, and when it comes to one particular annual school attended mass, I always play things which I know will stun them just a little. It's really good when you finish the Mushel Toccata, and a 15 year old boy comes wandering up and asks in front of his friends and peers, "That was cool; what was it?"

 

So I tell them about Russia, Cossack Dancing and high mountains in Central Asia, and they listen wide-eyed. The next year, they ask me if I'll play that wild Russian dance again. Kids love a bit of noise, new things, a bit of excitement and lots of rushing around for the sake of it. Tap into that, and you've achieved something.

 

I can't resist the Carlo Curley story, when he went to the Royal Albert Hall to practice, and found 'Pink Floyd" trying to lift the roof. He hung around until they had finished, and seeing him waiting by the illuminated console, they apologised for the noise. Saying nothing, Carlo drew full organ, pressed the keys, added the big Tuba and Pedal Reeds, then turned and shouted to a stunned band, "Don't worry, that's organ power honey!"

 

We have to face the fact that most organ-enthusiasts are getting on a bit, and time is not on our side. From what I have seen of organ-recital devotees in recent years, it will not be so much "Stairway to heaven" as "Stairlift to heaven."

 

MM

PS: Humph! I was beaten to the draw with the" Stairlift to heaven" joke. The joke's on me however, because in my impending old age, I was thinking of Johhny Seng playing "Stairway to the Stars" on a 1930's Wurlitzer. How time flies for the unwary!

 

 

A superb post, MM.

Every word of it rings true.

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However, I must commend any attempt at making the organ available to young people, and I always (without exception), spend a little time with any kid who shows an interest, and when it comes to one particular annual school attended mass, I always play things which I know will stun them just a little. It's really good when you finish the Mushel Toccata, and a 15 year old boy comes wandering up and asks in front of his friends and peers, "That was cool; what was it?"

 

Or the Year 9s (13 Year olds) who I have been looking at Toccatas with - Bach (D Minor), Widor, Reger etc. - I didn't think it would work but it did. They now know about the organ and how their HOD is hooked on it and they can even play bits and construct Toccata like pieces of their own on all kinds of weird combinations of instrument. Maybe I'll try Howells next Pierre!

 

AJJ

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Guest spottedmetal
I'm not quite sure why anyone would either want to categorise or hope to appeal to "a nightclub generation."

All forms of "nightclub" (to use a generic and very broad term), are really about the "mating game" rather than about music,

 

Thanks for a wonderful post with great enlightenment . . .

 

However, I'm talking not about nightclubs nor the activity that goes on there (some people go just for exercise rather than mating . . . ) but the nightclub generation.

 

This is the nearly universal generation populating the world nowadays - so we have to engage them somehow. There is reason for pessimism*

 

One does not need to be negative and many people are doing positive things and aiming to achieve them in different ways . . .

 

That Carlo Curley story is brilliant - and yes I think that if we can get the young-middle generation to hear the organ and find it AWESOME, that trend can be reversed. Is there only one Carlo? Is he universally still achieving massive audiences?

 

Indeed, were some organists to demonstrate that the spirit of Barbara Dennerlein

is possible on the pipe organ, which with mutations and mixtures it is, they might prevent the onslaught of the happy-clappies throwing the organ out. Yes, this is extreme, but no different in spirit to the organ transcriptions of the popular orchestral repertoire of the 19th century. I'm not suggesting people do this often - but as an encore of a recital, it would drive an audience wild.

 

Whatever it is, it has to be done well, and yes the gimmics work. This is why English Heritage at Kenwood get audiences of thousands to their firework concerts, probably as much as ten times the number that would attend a concert without fireworks.

 

That's actually why I'm planning proper explosions for the 1812 transcription - so often I've been disappointed with pathetic substitutes such as kettle-drums. No-one will come away on Easter Monday disappointed with what they've heard: we're aiming for a standing-ovation level of enthusiasm!

 

Best wishes

 

David P

 

*Pessimism

This is the generation who are about to go out and get their mortgages and be enslaved to a mindless work/freak-out cycle to earn money to pay the interest, then have kids and be too busy to take them anywhere educational. Then on account of mindlessness they split up and each parent competes with whizz-bang instant gratification activity rather than things that lead to long term fullfillment so that they can report to the other parent "Gee I had a great time with (whichever)"

 

Part of the problem is a problem of English tourism at the moment - where it's cheaper to take a plane to Ibiza than it is to take a train or even drive a car a long distance. So historic houses which were at a focus of the past generation's tourism in the 1960s, and other associated educational destinations and activities have been neglected for a generation, leading to a meltdown in audience numbers and visitors to anything which requires activity of the mind.

 

The result is that even where we get audiences, average age is 60-80 rather than 40 and those audience numbers are declining.

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I think there is only one Carlo, but we do need more. If only there was a way that someone could become some sort of Organ amabasador (no jokes please) in the same way that the likes of Katherine Jenkins have for getting into more serious vocal music...

 

But to do that, you would need to get media exposure, and even in the classical music press, that would be no easy feat. The rewards, for someone who achieves it though, could be tremendous

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I find it difficult to imagine any version of Stairway, or Comfortably Numb, or Angels sounding anything other than totally lame on an organ.

 

And I can't imagine any kind of satisfactory rendition of Langlais' Fete by Coldplay.

 

It's like sheep in a horse race, pickles with ice cream and trainers with pin-stripe suits.

 

Every time someone mentions holding out hands I get an image of a drowning man.

 

(snip)

 

The pipe organ is an instrument of liturgical accompaniment, saved from extinction by the Church. To popularise it is to trivialise it and, in so doing, to do it a monstrous disservice. Neither it nor its operators were meant to be stars anymore than the people who read lessons. Can you imagine 700 people drawn to a lesson reading fest by the prospect of 1,000 balloons to pop?

 

===========================

 

 

I'm not sure about sheep taking part in a horse race, but I have seen specially trained steeple-chasing sheep in action at a Yorkshire country show; the original wooly-jumpers in fact. I've seen big, butch lorry-drivers doing a drag-act for charity and all sorts of surprising things which the late Jeremy Beadle would have delighted in. As for pickles with ice-cream, is this any worse then camel's eye in aspic? I recall a tastless-food party at university, when my contribution was greengage-jelly with garlic, topped with tinned anchovies and clotted cream.

 

Being the sort that enjoys a bit of mindless pendantry from time to time, (that's where you dot the t's and cross the i's) I must take issue with the historical assumptions concerning the evolution of the organ. The organ was hugely popular in Roman times, but I'm not quite sure what liturgy may have been practiced in the brothels and pagan festivals, even if they were a type of worship. The organ regularly turned up in Muslim countries thereafter, and had the Christian church had its way, civilisation would have ground to a halt. The first 1,200 years of organ-history are a bit obscure, but they certainly weren't connected with the church.

 

Next surprising fact, is the knowledge that Rick Wakemen likes the organ, and especially the theatre-organ; for the preservation of which he has made several personal appearances and given interviews to the TV and press. "Kraftwerk" were also very good in their day, even if "Pop Music" was their biggest and possibly only major success. (not a patch on ABBA though!)

 

The idea that the organ is a liturgical instrument saved from extinction by the church, is not only wrong, it is positively misleading and parochial. There are organs in Muslim countries and regions of the former USSR, organs in houses, organs in shoppping malls, organs in concert-halls from China to South America via Canada,organs on board ships and even on the streets. In fact, there's an organ in the 'Playboy' mansion, surrounded by scantily clad, but ever so well-educated young ladies.

 

At various times, the organ has enjoyed astonishing popularity. Why else should the organ-hating church authorities of the early Dutch Protestant churches give way to the indignation of townsfolk, and allow voluntaries before and after worship?

Why were cafe organs, dance organs and fair organs so popular? Even Haydn and Mozart went with the flow of popular interest in such mechanised wonders. Like him or loathe him, Virgil Fox didn't play to a few dozen, or a few hundred at a time. Instead, he could fill a concert-hall and have "sold-out" notices placed on the door. Then there were the great orchestral players, which included of course, the best of the theatre-organists. They were the early stars of acetate discs, and people like Quentin Maclean, Reginald Foort and Sidney Torch (I suppose we MUST include Reginald Dixon) were household names. The first three never trivialised anything, and in the case of Maclean and Torch, they enjoyed fantastic careers as multi-talented musicians/pianists/composers/ broadcasters/ arrangers and conductors. (Even Gerald Moore did a spell as a theatre organist for a little while, as did Osborne Peasgood (Westminster Abbey), Norman Cocker (Manchester Cathedral) and Marcel Dupre among others.

 

I could go on, but what is the point?

 

The fact is, the organ has enjoyed exceptional popularity from time to time, and it hasn't exactly done the organ or the music written for it any harm. What is also certain, is the fact that in recent years, the churches have done their level best to kill the organ off and replace it with other things. Fortunately, many of the organs still survive, but the churches in which they stand have closed.

 

As for 700 readers going to a reading festival and popping a thousand balloons, they may as well. It's not that long ago that we had things like the Anita Bryant rallies or the "Festival of Light" with the odious Malcolm Muggeridge, where several thousand people at a time took a pop at almost anything which moved.

 

No, I'm sorry, but if the organ is some sort of exclusive instrument, only to be approached by the perpetually geneflective, then I can well understand why others musicians fall about laughing. There are better ways of belonging to secret societies and exclusive organisations, without burdening the rest of us. I can strongly recommend divination, alchemy and Indian snake-charming.

 

MM.

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Indeed, were some organists to demonstrate that the spirit of Barbara Dennerlein

is possible on the pipe organ, which with mutations and mixtures it is, they might prevent the onslaught of the happy-clappies throwing the organ out.

 

 

===============================

 

 

Isn't she just superb?

 

I think my favourite is "Rankett Rag" closely followed by "A'int misbehavin'"

 

MM

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Guest spottedmetal
I think there is only one Carlo, but we do need more.

 

Hi!

 

Delighted to hear of support for Carlo and acknowledging the need for more. A great mutual friend hearing a CD of our last concert has tipped Hugh Potton to be capable of being the next Carlo, and I have tried to introduce them to do some duets.

 

I have just posted an update on the Organ to be Hated or Loved which will be of great amusement to some . . . Teddybears Picnic is certainly not the nightclub generation, definitely the tea-dance category, and one of my favourites on the organ since the age of 12.

 

Does anyone else play it on their organ? Clearly others in the past have wanted to be a bit more contemporary, and I was pleased to see Gershwin being taught on organ at Eton then. This is clearly a momentum we need to keep going.

 

Has anyone else come across Barbara Dennerlein who I mentioned the other day? It looks as though she is bringing her technique across to the classical in her collaboration with an orchestra. This crossing-boundaries approach has mileage . . .

http://www.barbaradennerlein.com/en/news/index.php

In fact, I see that she is doing things not just with Hammond but her itinerary includes at least two concerts on "church organ":

http://www.barbaradennerlein.com/en/itinerary/index.php Wouldn't it be wonderful to get her doing a tour over here in England??? Where first?

 

Best wishes,

 

David P

 

PS By the way, those who have been decrying my method of achieving bangs for the 1812, have you actually heard 50 units of compressed air being simultaneously detonated, all together, at once? This is no kid's tea party, it's serious stuff.

 

On an encore in our experimental concert, our bangs were so effective that we even achieved a scream in the audience on the first bang, and she'll be back for more. If you want some non-chemical bangs for a special event . . . I know how to do them! Have a listen:

http://www.jungleboffin.com/mp3/organ/hugh...core-beware.mp3

Don't turn up the volume too high on first listening, it will blow your speakers - it nearly did mine even though I knew what might be coming. (By the way, Hugh was just recovering from flu that day and so I hope that no-one will be unkind enough to make the comments which have been made on YouTube.)

 

Finally, with all the wonderful StairLIFT jokers around here . . . I had expected someone to say something about my being Spotted rather than Heavy! :rolleyes:

 

PPS http://www.barbaradennerlein.com/en/projects/index.php - Click on the Church Organ link - WOW - I'm looking forward to hearing this lady! How can we get her over?

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Guest spottedmetal
This is the YouTube clip

Lemmens and balloons.

Hi!

 

PLEASE DON'T WATCH THAT before listening to the MP3 file in the previous post!

http://www.jungleboffin.com/mp3/organ/hugh...core-beware.mp3

The sound quality is so very much better on the MP3 that I linked to - partly on account of the use of much better microphones, and also the central placement. The camera on the YouTube clip was at one end of the room causing a time delay between one end of the organ and the other, muddling the sound.

 

Hugh was doing this as an off the cuff piece purely for fun, and is not at all representative of what he can do. You'll find in the directory there his Vierne 1 which brought serious music to this fun-loving audience.

 

By the way, I'm expecting a certain comment with regard to the sound of this organ in due course . . .

 

Best wishes

 

Spottedmetal

 

QUOTING PREVIOUS POST HERE AS THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS THREAD:

Hi!

 

Delighted to hear of support for Carlo and acknowledging the need for more. A great mutual friend hearing a CD of our last concert has tipped Hugh Potton to be capable of being the next Carlo, and I have tried to introduce them to do some duets.

 

I have just posted an update on the Organ to be Hated or Loved which will be of great amusement to some . . . Teddybears Picnic is certainly not the nightclub generation, definitely the tea-dance category, and one of my favourites on the organ since the age of 12.

 

Does anyone else play it on their organ? Clearly others in the past have wanted to be a bit more contemporary, and I was pleased to see Gershwin being taught on organ at Eton then. This is clearly a momentum we need to keep going.

 

Has anyone else come across Barbara Dennerlein who I mentioned the other day? It looks as though she is bringing her technique across to the classical in her collaboration with an orchestra. This crossing-boundaries approach has mileage . . .

http://www.barbaradennerlein.com/en/news/index.php

In fact, I see that she is doing things not just with Hammond but her itinerary includes at least two concerts on "church organ":

http://www.barbaradennerlein.com/en/itinerary/index.php Wouldn't it be wonderful to get her doing a tour over here in England??? Where first?

 

Best wishes,

 

David P

 

PS By the way, those who have been decrying my method of achieving bangs for the 1812, have you actually heard 50 units of compressed air being simultaneously detonated, all together, at once? This is no kid's tea party, it's serious stuff.

 

On an encore in our experimental concert, our bangs were so effective that we even achieved a scream in the audience on the first bang, and she'll be back for more. If you want some non-chemical bangs for a special event . . . I know how to do them! Have a listen:

http://www.jungleboffin.com/mp3/organ/hugh...core-beware.mp3

Don't turn up the volume too high on first listening, it will blow your speakers - it nearly did mine even though I knew what might be coming. (By the way, Hugh was just recovering from flu that day and so I hope that no-one will be unkind enough to make the comments which have been made on YouTube.)

 

Finally, with all the wonderful StairLIFT jokers around here . . . I had expected someone to say something about my being Spotted rather than Heavy!

 

PPS http://www.barbaradennerlein.com/en/projects/index.php - Click on the Church Organ link - WOW - I'm looking forward to hearing this lady! How can we get her over?

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spottedmetal

 

I'm sorry you felt squashed by earlier comments, some of which may have been mine - to do so was not my intention, but I felt it important to put my view forward as a 'twenty-something'.

 

Having seen the YouTube clip, I haven't changed my mind. An unimpressive electronic synthesiser* plus a few disco lights and some bursting balloons are unlikely to turn people on to the actual pipe organ proper, and children/teenagers are likely to snigger at the half-heartedness of it all - they'll have heard far more realistic explosions in video games and films. There is a lot to be said for a player with an approachable personality playing engaging repertoire on a decent organ.

 

Nh

 

*I appreciate the fact that the recording is not tip-top which may have influenced the sound to some extent, but the point remains.

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