Registration Help!

[JWAnderson]

Hi everyone,

 

In the next term for school music, I have to do a solo performance on the organ.

The piece I have chosen is the Fantasia in G Major BWV 572.

The only problem is the organ, even though its a 3 Manual, is not the biggest specification.

 

Here is the Speci:

Great Organ

Double Diapason 16 (ext. 8' flute)

Open Diapason 8

Claribel Flute 8

Octave 4

Mixture (15-19-22?)

Swell to Great

Swell Octave to Great

Swell Sub Octave to Great

Choir to Great

 

Swell Organ

Violin Diapason 8

Rohr Flute 8

Gamba 8

Celeste 8

Principal 4

Horn 8

Oboe 8

Tremulant

Octave

Unison Off

Sub Octave

 

Choir Organ

Lieblich Gedact 8

Dulciana 8

Flute 4

Clarinet 8

Tremulant

Swell to Choir

 

Pedal Organ

Sub Bass 16

Lieblich Bourdon 16 (GT)

Bass Flute 8 (ext.)

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Swell Octave to Pedal

Choir to Pedal

 

Any ideas of registration would be very much appreciated.

 

JA

[gazman]

Always tricky without actually hearing the organ, but here's my suggestion.

 

Swell: Rohr Flute 8' Principal 4'

Great: Open Diapason 8' Principal 4' Mixture. If the Double doesn't make things too muddy, add that too.

Pedal: Sub Bass 16' Bass Flute 8'

 

Sw-Gt, Sw-Ped, Gt-Ped

 

Play the first section on the Swell.

Play the second section on the Great.

For the third section add the Swell Horn 8', and continue to play on the Great.

 

Hope this helps.

[AJJ]

Always tricky without actually hearing the organ, but here's my suggestion.

 

Swell: Rohr Flute 8' Principal 4'

Great: Open Diapason 8' Principal 4' Mixture. If the Double doesn't make things too muddy, add that too.

Pedal: Sub Bass 16' Bass Flute 8'

 

Sw-Gt, Sw-Ped, Gt-Ped

 

Play the first section on the Swell.

Play the second section on the Great.

For the third section add the Swell Horn 8', and continue to play on the Great.

 

Hope this helps.

 

'Sounds nice - maybe also try with the Swell Octave?

 

AJJ

[sprondel]

Hi everyone,

 

In the next term for school music, I have to do a solo performance on the organ.

The piece I have chosen is the Fantasia in G Major BWV 572.

The only problem is the organ, even though its a 3 Manual, is not the biggest specification.

 

Here is the Speci:

Great Organ

Double Diapason 16 (ext. 8' flute)

Open Diapason 8

Claribel Flute 8 ...

Any ideas of registration would be very much appreciated.

JA

The stoplist reads as if the organ needed constant change of colour in order not to sound boring. Calls for an unorthodox approach.

 

Here's the layman's guess.

 

First part:

Choir and Swell 4'-stops alternating, the Swell Principal doing the echoes, box closed -- if the Choir flute isn't too timid. If it is, open the shutters and reverse the order. 8-foot Gamba and then Violin Diapason of the Swell can be added in the paenultimative downward arpeggios, the box opens over the ascending scales.

 

Second part:

Foundations 16+8 on Pedal, Great and Swell, plus Principal and Oboe, Gt/P and Sw/P. Try to manage a conctant up and down of the dynamics in generous cycles, along with the texture and as far as the pedal part allows. Tempo mustn't be too slow and with a bit of flexibility. When approaching the end of the section, add Swell sub coupler, then Swell super coupler, then Great Octave.

 

Third part:

Add Swell Horn and Great Mixture, take aim, and hit.

 

Would be profoundly non-classical, but maybe fun .

 

Best,

Friedrich

[Fiffaro]

For my taste, the pedal needs to be independent of the manuals in the second section, as so many times the manual part and the pedal have the same note, and to hear this is important in making sense of the linear aspect of the writing. Hence, I would avoid using the Sw/Ped and Gt/Ped couplers, and the Sw/Gt coupler at the same time.

 

As a first approximation, I'd try for the manuals:

 

Gt:

Open Diapason 8

Claribel Flute 8

Octave 4

Mixture (15-19-22?)

 

and for the pedal part:

 

Ped:

Sub Bass 16'

and Sw/Ped with the swell having

Violin Diapason 8

Rohr Flute 8

Gamba 8

Principal 4

Horn 8

 

Adding the swell Oboe 8' might help give the sound of the pedal some more 'bite' to help make it clearly audible.

[john carter]

As an amateur, I'm not really qualified to advise, but having tried it this morning with Gareth's suggested scheme and Alastair's recommendation to add the Swell Octave, it sounded fine. Of course every instrument and its acoustic is different, so I suspect it will need some experimentation, but Gareth has set a good starting point.

JC

[gazman]

As an amateur, I'm not really qualified to advise, but having tried it this morning with Gareth's suggested scheme and Alastair's recommendation to add the Swell Octave, it sounded fine. Of course every instrument and its acoustic is different, so I suspect it will need some experimentation, but Gareth has set a good starting point.

JC

Thanks, John. The cheque's in the post.

[AJJ]

Thanks, John. The cheque's in the post.

 

And mine!

 

A

[JWAnderson]

Thanks everyone. Some pretty interesting ideas.

I'll try to get into the church this afternoon and see what it sounds like.

 

JA