Bach Organ At Dordrecht

[Colin Harvey]

Without affordable instruments, fewer young players will have the opportunity to take up the instrument. I think that is the greater danger to organ culture.

 

I note with sadness that in London alone, there is no organ in the Barbican concert hall and a half hearted re-installation in the Royal Festival Hall. Without its "software" i.e. people to play and listen, there is no future for the organ in the UK.

 

Clearly you believe that you alone know what is right for organ culture and I am labelled a danger if I disagree, so I propose to make no further comment.

JC

Without good instruments, young players will not want to take up the instrument at all! Young players need to be inspired! But, as you rightly say, they also need opportunities to take it up.

 

I think it is a little premature to judge the RFH organ at present. These things can take time and in William McVicker and Mark Venning there are extremely capable and dedicated people working away on that organ's behalf. Of course it needs to be fully re-installed and there are plans to complete it.

 

As the ex-CEO of a major international congolomorate said to me - "accentuate the positive"! London is a great place for organs - the RAH organ is newly restored and has well-publicised concerts; there are superb organs in Westminster Cathedral, Abbey, St Pauls, Southwark, etc, etc. Look at the London organ concerts guide! There is a lot to be positive about!

 

With redundant organ clearing houses groaning at the seams with unwanted Hills, Willises, Walkers, etc, do we really need to make more cheap pipe organs? Didn't people like Walkers in the 1960s with their positive series try this using modern technology and materials? What about Peter Collin's batches of EOS organs in the 90s? You could get a new mechanical 2 man and ped for less than 20k - a new 6' Steinway grand costs over £40k! But perhaps it's time for a builder to try again...

[john carter]

Without good instruments, young players will not want to take up the instrument at all! Young players need to be inspired! But, as you rightly say, they also need opportunities to take it up.

 

I think it is a little premature to judge the RFH organ at present. These things can take time and in William McVicker and Mark Venning there are extremely capable and dedicated people working away on that organ's behalf. Of course it needs to be fully re-installed and there are plans to complete it.

 

As the ex-CEO of a major international congolomorate said to me - "accentuate the positive"! London is a great place for organs - the RAH organ is newly restored and has well-publicised concerts; there are superb organs in Westminster Cathedral, Abbey, St Pauls, Southwark, etc, etc. Look at the London organ concerts guide! There is a lot to be positive about!

 

With redundant organ clearing houses groaning at the seams with unwanted Hills, Willises, Walkers, etc, do we really need to make more cheap pipe organs? Didn't people like Walkers in the 1960s with their positive series try this using modern technology and materials? What about Peter Collin's batches of EOS organs in the 90s? You could get a new mechanical 2 man and ped for less than 20k - a new 6' Steinway grand costs over £40k! But perhaps it's time for a builder to try again...

I do not disagree with anything you have written, but please don't offer me an unwanted Hill or Willis. Returning to my motoring analogies - I loved the Morris Minor fifty years ago, but I don't want one now!.

JC

[Colin Harvey]

Lol! I know, I love simple, elegant, cheap things that work well - like Morris Minors. I think that's part of the attraction of simple mechanical organs for me - very large and complex organ end up depressing me for some reason after the initial excitement's worn off. It's a bit like working out how the code for a simple but elegant computer programme works compared to working out the code behind Windows Vista...

[john carter]

Dear John, London is one of the wealthiest cities on earth.

If I were a londoner, I would not accept the idea we must compromise our instrument

in a City where zig Billions are exchanged -and sometimes binned!- everyday.

Have I ever used the word "compromise"? Innovation does not necessarily mean something worse, with lateral thinking we might find something better.

JC

[John Robinson]

It is successfull.....As a synthesis of french and southern german organ -already influenced by french and

italian styles.

The next step was J-N Holzhey.

 

Here is a beautiful example of Holzhey tone:

 

http://www.orgelbau-link.de/assets/multimedia/Schiessen.wma

 

The next one was....Guess who ?

 

Pierre

 

Thanks Pierre

 

Yes, of course, it sounds nothing like the North German organ. In fact, to me its sound is unique. Yes, it can produce typical French tonalities but, apart from that, sounds like no other South German organ I have heard. One of my favourites!

 

One of the attractions to me, by the way, of the South German organ is that they are all different, unlike the North German and French organs, which each seem to follow their own distinctive style.

 

Thanks also for the sound sample.

 

John

[Pierre Lauwers]

Yes, Holzhey -some gems-. The MP3 features Giessen,

there is also Rot an der Rot as a pilgrinage....

 

There is a good Pdf here about that area, with some more gems:

 

http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/events/t...urotour2006.pdf

 

And yes, romantic music rendered "clear", here is an interesting case, on a Walcker organ

designed by Helmut Bornefeld:

 

http://www.walckerorgel.de/gewalcker.de/20...er_Fantas52.mp3

 

Pierre

[MusingMuso]

Thanks Pierre

 

Yes, of course, it sounds nothing like the North German organ. In fact, to me its sound is unique. Yes, it can produce typical French tonalities but, apart from that, sounds like no other South German organ I have heard. One of my favourites!

 

One of the attractions to me, by the way, of the South German organ is that they are all different, unlike the North German and French organs, which each seem to follow their own distinctive style.

 

Thanks also for the sound sample.

 

John

 

 

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For anyone who is seriously interest in Holzey and Rot-an-der-Rot in particular; the original broadcasts of the Geraint Jones "Historic organs in Europe" is still availble, I believe, from the Organ Historical Society in America (OHS). I think I still have almost all the recordings on 7" tape.

 

An entire programme was given over to this instrument, broadcast (I would think) around 1967 or 1968, and I vividly recall how, even with the dated recording techniques, I was absolutely bowled over by the beauty of that particular instrument.

 

Interestingly, the organ I play has certain features in common with that instrument: namely a very sombre and rather slow 8ft Principal, broad, warm-toned flutes, a 4ft Octave which brightens everything up, and then a wonderfully rich Mixture and Sesquialtera which provide all the glitter and reediness above that.

 

The other programmes included Steinkerken (a Geraint Jones favourite), Oothuezen (Sp?), The Riepp at Otterbouren, the Silver Kappel at Innsbruck and numerous other instruments.

 

What a great pity that around that time, the iron curtain had gone up, and so we never got to hear anything to the East of that divide. I now realise, as do many others, that our whole perceptions were limited by the political geography of the day. With the lid of a second European treasure-chest now lifted, we can see things in a very different light, and appreciate a quite different organ and musical history.

 

 

MM

[MusingMuso]

As the ex-CEO of a major international congolomorate said to me - "accentuate the positive"! London is a great place for organs - the RAH organ is newly restored and has well-publicised concerts; there are superb organs in Westminster Cathedral, Abbey, St Pauls, Southwark, etc, etc. Look at the London organ concerts guide! There is a lot to be positive about!

 

 

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Statistically, London is impoverished. Three cathedrals and an Abbey, plus one complete monster concert-organ; to serve what? 13 million people is it, these days?

 

On that basis, Birmingham would have a couple of two-manual organs, and Liverpool a one manual in addition to a portable positive.

 

Much as I would like to accentuate the positive, it's when you look at somewhere like Prague that the truth hits home. Haarlem in the Netherlands has three major organs; only one of which is the property of a church, and then there are all sorts of other instruments scattered around. What's the population there I wonder? 60,000 or so, at a rough guess.

 

Of course, in Warsaw, there are over 40 organs to choose from; some of them very new.

 

These people must be gutted to know that we get all the pop-concerts and stage musicals.

 

 

MM