Firenze, Santa Maria del Fiore

[SomeChap]

Is Florence Cathedral's the most impossible reverberation in the world?  I read somewhere it's about 20 seconds - certainly I remember the building just never fell silent during a service when I was there.

Mascioni did a major rebuild in 2017 and I found their solution interesting (if perhaps not surprising) given the ocean of reverberation.  There are eight manual divisions in six different locations around the dome, and four consoles!

- NE segment of the dome = Great Organ (and main pedal organ, I think)
- SE segment of the dome = Swell Organ
- On wheels = Positive Organ (with its own pedal stops) (added 1990)
- S of the dome at floor level = Choir Organ (with its own pedal stops) (c. 1970?)
- N transept = 'Chapel Great' (with its own pedal stops)
- N transept = 'Chapel Swell'
- S transept = 'Echo Great' (with its own pedal stops) (added 2017)
- S transept = 'Echo Swell' (2017)

It seems the transepts are used as separate liturgical spaces so it seems to make sense for each to have its own organ.

The five-manual and four-manual consoles control the whole lot (don't know why you need both); a 3-man console in the N transept controls the chapel organ plus the Great Organ, and a 2-man console in the S transept controls the Echo organ and the Swell organ.

Phew!  Anyone heard it?  There's an impromptu demo here (terrible audio): link (youtube) - and a verbal description here which I've used as a basis for this post, though my Italian is far from reliable:  link (youtube)

[James Goldrick]

Improvised Sortie Excerpt - Florence Duomo 10 Dec 2017

Here's a link to the improvised Sortie after the Sunday morning Gregorian Mass in December 2017. Taken the morning after the inaugural concert with Latry playing the Poulenc Concerto.

Sounded absolutely spectacular.

 

 

[Aeron Glyn Preston]

https://www.mascioni-organs.com/en/florence-cathedral/

[pcnd5584]

On 02/10/2019 at 19:47, James Goldrick said:

Improvised Sortie Excerpt - Florence Duomo 10 Dec 2017

Here's a link to the improvised Sortie after the Sunday morning Gregorian Mass in December 2017. Taken the morning after the inaugural concert with Latry playing the Poulenc Concerto.

Sounded absolutely spectacular.

 

 

It does indeed. And, even listening through average quality speakers, the reverberation appears to be somewhat livelier than that at Saint Paul's Cathedral.

[sbarber49]

On 02/10/2019 at 19:47, James Goldrick said:

Improvised Sortie Excerpt - Florence Duomo 10 Dec 2017

Here's a link to the improvised Sortie after the Sunday morning Gregorian Mass in December 2017. Taken the morning after the inaugural concert with Latry playing the Poulenc Concerto.

Sounded absolutely spectacular.

 

 

Spectacular, maybe. Am I the only person who thinks it's "sound and fury signifying nothing"?