Magdeburger Dom

[Barry Jordan]

Hello,

 

not really a topic for discussion, but I did want to let you know that the on-site work on the installation of our new instrument has begun. A webcam is tracking its progress with a new picture every 10 minutes or so. The address is

 

http://www.aktion-neue-domorgeln-magdeburg.de/webcam.php

 

More about the instrument can be found on my own pages,

www.domorgel-magdeburg.de

 

Thanks

Barry

[pcnd5584]

Hello,

 

not really a topic for discussion, but I did want to let you know that the on-site work on the installation of our new instrument has begun. A webcam is tracking its progress with a new picture every 10 minutes or so. The address is

 

http://www.aktion-neue-domorgeln-magdeburg.de/webcam.php

 

More about the instrument can be found on my own pages,

www.domorgel-magdeburg.de

 

Thanks

Barry

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Barry - thank you so much for this - it is fascinating!

 

Would it be in order (assuming that I can actually do it) to 'capture' the occasional image, please?

 

You are so lucky!!

[heva]

Barry - thank you so much for this - it is fascinating!

 

Would it be in order (assuming that I can actually do it) to 'capture' the occasional image, please?

 

You are so lucky!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Right-mouse click etc. will do it (don't know if Barry allows it).

 

Hopefully all images are kept - would make a nice movie when the organ is finished!

[Barry Jordan]

Right-mouse click etc. will do it (don't know if Barry allows it).

 

Hopefully all images are kept - would make a nice movie when the organ is finished!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Of course it is all right.......... I think!

 

Am actually not sure whether the images are stored. I must ask.

 

Have a great day

 

B

[Pierre Lauwers]

That is extremely interesting!

 

I wish you the best with this project,

and noted this:

 

"Das Instrument soll dennoch nicht ausschliesslich dem französischen Stil verpflichtet sein, sondern für Einflüsse aus anderen romantischen Orgelbautraditionen offen sein."

(Quote)

 

This shows in the specification.

Pierre

[Mark Taylor]

I've been looking in on this web cam from time to time. Anyone who hasn't taken a look for a while might like to take another look now that it's really starting to take shape.

[Barry Jordan]

I've been looking in on this web cam from time to time.  Anyone who hasn't taken a look for a while might like to take another look now that it's really starting to take shape.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There are some more "insider-type" pictures on our "other" web-site at

 

http://www.domorgel-magdeburg.de/html/bilder_neubau.html

 

I will put some more up on Friday; after that the organ builders will take two weeks holiday.

 

Cheers and don't melt in the heat,

 

Barry

[Vox Humana]

Thanks, Barry. Most interesting. The stop knobs on your new console look quite widely spaced by British standards, but I assume they must still be easily reachable for hand registration.

 

[Jeremy Jones]

Vox assumes the stop knobs are reachable, and maybe they are if you have the arms of an Orang-Utan!

[Barry Jordan]

Vox assumes the stop knobs are reachable, and maybe they are if you have the arms of an Orang-Utan! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They are. The norms here are different, and that affects the distances between the stops - but it also means that the manuals are closer together than they would be on an English organ (not saying that I necessarily like it, that's a different matter.....). So judge not the distance from the highest manual, but from the lowest.

 

The group on the left hand side, at the top, hardest to reach, are the solo stops. Hardest of all, the tuba. There is some strategic thinking behind this.

 

German console norms do assume that other people are going to pull your stops, that's not pleasant but it's the way it is. However, this organ does have divisional combinations, an absolute rarity here (very hard to push through) and lots of generals with stepper, so I don't think it'll be problematic.

 

The Germans think the stops are terribly close together, and awfully small.

 

Cheers

Barry

[Pierre Lauwers]

 

.....What to think of these, then?

 

Pierre

[Barry Jordan]

.....What to think of these, then?

 

Pierre

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, tablets are a different matter of course. But I refused to have those.

 

I think it is very unergonomic to make the same movement to cancel a stop as to engage it. And they simply look horrible.

 

Cheers

B

[sprondel]

Well, tablets are a different matter of course. But I refused to have those.

I think it is very unergonomic to make the same movement to cancel a stop as to engage it. And they simply look horrible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Do you know the old Klais ones, those that were made in the pre-Hans-Gerd era? They still exist in some organs, I believe in Erfurt as well, and were copied for the rebuild at Cologne cathedral, because they were very popular with the organists there.

 

These stop-tabs are L-shaped. The upper part looks like an ordinary stop tab, with the stop name written on it, while the lower part protrudes into the stop terrace and looks a bit like the front end of an ivory key. The stops are engaged by pressing this part of the tab vertically, so that certain registrations resulted in "chords". To disengage the stops, one easily runs one's finger over the upper part of the tabs as in a glissando. Very comfortable to handle, I wonder why they are so rarely copied.

 

See an impression on

http://www.orgelsite.nl/kerken43/bonn.htm

E. g., if you wanted the Great chorus to Fifteenth, you would play a Sixte-ajoutée chord on the great tabs (see third picture from the top).

 

Best,

Friedrich

[Barry Jordan]

Do you know the old Klais ones, those that were made in the pre-Hans-Gerd era? They still exist in some organs, I believe in Erfurt as well, and were copied for the rebuild at Cologne cathedral, because they were very popular with the organists there.

 

 

Best,

Friedrich

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I've encountered these at Himmerod. Klais gave them up as well - i wonder if the reason was, that they are comfortable for the Organists, and uncomfortable for registrants?

 

They take a while to get used to.

 

Cheers

Barry

[Jeremy Jones]

Well, tablets are a different matter of course. But I refused to have those.

 

I think it is very unergonomic to make the same movement to cancel a stop as to engage it. And they simply look horrible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It could be worse. You could have had stop tablets between manuals a la Rothwell - see GTB at the Temple Church console: http://www.boychoirs.org/temple/temple004.html

[kropf]

The building of Magdeburg Cathedral Organ has proceeded - just to inform those who did not follow the last photo updates posted by Barry on his website.

I think it is a really great specification, Barry. Is it going to be that one on your website, or will there be alterations?

I was curios about the two celeste stops in the swell - have you thought (of course you have...) about having one of these on the Positive?

I like the presence of stops with higher pitches in the pedal - maybe there are rather few pieces of written music that demand them, but they are so fine for improvisation, und much better than a Sw4'/Ped coupler...

You told us that you will get the Kowalshyn levers - on each division? On the IFO recording of the Lausanne instrument by Fisk, at the Duruflé toccata, the Recit seems to be a bit late and its attack a bit muddy...

Anyway, are you willing to tell us more about the action of Magdeburg and the involved solutions to control 20 and more stops per division? How many chests, how many pallets per note....?

Thanks

Charly

[Barry Jordan]

I was curios about the two celeste stops in the swell - have you thought (of course you have...) about having one of these on the Positive?

I like the presence of stops with higher pitches in the pedal - maybe there are rather few pieces of written music that demand them, but they are so fine for improvisation, und much better than a Sw4'/Ped coupler...

You told us that you will get the Kowalshyn levers - on each division? On the IFO recording of the Lausanne instrument by Fisk, at the Duruflé toccata, the Recit seems to be a bit late and its attack a bit muddy...

Anyway, are you willing to tell us more about the action of Magdeburg and the involved solutions to control 20 and more stops per division? How many chests, how many pallets per note....?

Thanks

Charly

 

Hi Charly,

 

well, there is a vox Coelestis on the positiv. It is the quietest celeste. I wanted it like a Hill Vox angelica, and I wanted it on the swell, with the louder, more french one on the positive, but I lost. I could have done without the Voce umana. But that is what happens when you have a whole army of "Sachverständigen".

 

There are Kowalshyn machines for HW and pos. All the normal couplers work through them. The octave couplers are electric, which was not what I wanted. The awful secret about Lausanne is, that the recording was made from the electric console. There the swell is in the central part of the case directly above the console, whereas the HW and the positive divisions are in the towers, the pedal is behind the organ. If the microphones are concentrated on the towers, I suppose the swell could sound late. But actually its action is extremely direct.

 

There are two chests per division here, with some off-sets. We will see how well it all works. It is too big, of course.

 

Cheers

Barry

[pcnd5584]

Barry, this is a fascinating thread. Thank you for the pictures and the information to-date. I await eagerly the next instalment.

 

If you happened to have any space in your recital schedule....

[sprondel]

... The awful secret about Lausanne is, that the recording was made from the electric console. There the swell is in the central part of the case directly above the console, whereas the HW and the positive divisions are in the towers, the pedal is behind the organ ...

A substantial part of it is in the towers as well. On a chest beneath the Hauptwerk are the Pedal flues from 8' up and the "Bombarde classique"; and of course the Great reeds which are all available on the Pedal as well.

 

About the "awful Lausanne mystery" -- well, I think M. Geiser does care about his hearing. At the mechanical console, the Solo Chamades sound violently intense, and the Great an Pedal come in from either side, sounding only slightly less heavy. I talked to Wolfram Adolph about the recording, and he said that the organ was extremely difficult to catch, being very loud from nearby and losing much of its bite as the sound travels along the long, narrow, and not quite so high nave. He had to go for many compromises for this recording (which were not exclusively related to the acoustics).

 

Best,

Friedrich