Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 For some time I have been trying to dig up information regarding a proposal made by Jean Guillou for a modular pipe organ called L'Orgue a Structure Variable. Which if I'm correct had originated from a book he had written back in the 70's called L'Orgue, souvenir et avenir (The Organ, Remembrance and Future). Bellow I've included a video of an interview with Jean Guillou where he mentions this proposal and the reasons for this organ. Their isn't a great deal of information available regarding the design of this proposal such as the specification. But from what I know the organ would be made up of fifteen units electronically connected to a console with four manuals and pedals. Each unit would contain one or three ranks of pipes, an independent wind supply and keyboard. Their uses to be website dedicated to this project long gone but I have managed to successfully gain access to the site through an internet archive called the Way Back Machine which I have included a link to bellow. although their still isn't a great deal of information regarding the design of the organ. https://web.archive.org/web/20121115093815/http://osvguillou.pagesperso-orange.fr/index.htm As to where this project stands in development I think it is safe to say that it is pretty much at a stand still but I can't say for sure if it has been completely abandoned. But regardless of whether this organ will become a reality their has however been some development with organs like this. For example the organist Paolo Oreni has his own mobile pipe organ called Organo Wanderer, and Jean Baptiste Monnot for years has been working on a small but versatile organ called L'Orgue du Voyage. Link to post Share on other sites
Choir Man 0 Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Of course our hosts have already built a portable concert organ: https://mander-organs.com/the-flavour-conductor/ Link to post Share on other sites
Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 Ah yes the flavour conductor. I think that commission must have been a bit of a pain as I don't think the clients knew much about organs which probably wouldn't have helped. Link to post Share on other sites
Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share Posted December 23, 2019 This is probably not important but I just thought it would be worth mentioning that the organist Jean Baptiste Monnot had recently set up and performed on his portable organ at the Louvre. There's a few pictures of the event on his Facebook and Instagram page but not much in the way of videos and recordings (or at least at the time I am posting this comment). Link to post Share on other sites
MusingMuso 0 Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 How, I wonder, does a modular organ differ from the idea of a unit extension organ? Crawl around any purpose-built Compton organ (not the Muggle variety, where old organs have been re-built) and you would find separate pipe units of almost identical construction, placed in neat rows, side by side. It doesn't take much imagination to see how such separate units could be placed on wheels, and rolled around to create almost anything you want. I think I would call such an instrument "L'Orgue de Lego". Let's see if I can find a photograph....... Each of the units has its own wind-supply or one shared with another unit. Often, the only difference between one unit and the next, is restricted to the top-boards, which are drilled to accept particular types of pipes. The same idea doesn't need to be restricted to extension organs. It could be used in perfectly straight situations. Link to post Share on other sites
Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted February 13, 2020 Author Share Posted February 13, 2020 Yes I see what in that the idea of a modular design could work. I think it could also certainly help in reducing the set up as pipe organs are kind of like 3D jigsaw puzzles that can take weeks or months to set up. I hope more information about the Organ of Variable Structure (particularly a specification) surfaces one day as I would love to dive into the nuts and bolts of this proposal. I have thought about getting a copy of Jean Guillou's book L'Orgue, Souvenir et Avenir but I don't want to go to the trouble of buying a book that is not in English and may not have any further information on this organ. Link to post Share on other sites
MusingMuso 0 Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 8 hours ago, Niccolo Morandi said: I think it could also certainly help in reducing the set up as pipe organs are kind of like 3D jigsaw puzzles that can take weeks or months to set up. Compton's were so organised, they could install a 10 ranks cinema organ in just two weeks! Standardised "modules" were at the heart of their success, and made organ-building a VERY profitable undertaking. Unless the aim is to build a neo-classical, bespoke tracker-action instrument, there's much to be learned from "modular" methods of manufacture and construction. MM Link to post Share on other sites
Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 I just remembered some videos I stumbled across years ago of a positive organ that was built by the organist Giorgio Questa. Personally I think the instrument has quite a nice sound but I'm not a fan of how it is designed to be transported as I would design the organ to break apart into several pieces rather than have something reminiscent of a jigsaw puzzle. Another thing I'm not sure about with this organ is the spacing of the pipes on the wind chest as I think it look a little tight. Link to post Share on other sites
Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 Recently I've come up with the idea to put together a list documenting various touring or portable pipe organs. Besides Reginald Foort's touring organ it's difficult to find information on any other portable pipes organs, as many of the organs I'm aware of I have discovered purely by accident. So anyway here is a list I've put together documenting both pipe and electronic portable organs, along with the names of the artist or builders. Pipe Organs Orchestrion – Georg Joseph Vogler 1746 – 1814 Portable Pipe Organ – W. W. Kimball Organ Company Link Unit Organ – Charles Sharpe Minor 1885 – 1957 Touring Organ by Harrison & Harrison – George Thomas Pattman 1875 – 1961 Moller Opus 6690 – Reginald Foort 1893 – 1980 Organo Portativo – Giorgio Questa 1929 – 2010 Portable Organ – Pierre Cochereau 1924 – 1984 Open air konzert Orgel – Hoffmann & Schindler Organ Builders Mobile Orgue – Plaisance du Gers Organ Builders Anywhere Organ – Mathew Borgatti The Flavour Conductor – Mander Organ Builders Orgue du Voyage – Jean Baptiste Monnot 1984 – Organo Wanderer – Paolo Oreni 1979 – Electronic Organs Black Beauty – Virgil Fox 1912 – 1980 Allen Touring Organ – Carlo Curley 1952 – 2012 Allen Touring Organ – Virgil Fox 1912 – 1980 Rogers Touring Organ – Felix Hell 1985 – Touring Organ – Raul Prieto Ramirez International Touring Organ – Cameron Carpenter 1981 – There is probably still other organs out there but I'm impressed with what I have done so far considering this kind of feels like trying to document steam powered airplanes or 21st century steam locomotives. Link to post Share on other sites
Tony Newnham 0 Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Hi I can add one more - a small (2 rank IIRC) 2 manual organ built by our hosts here for Rick Wakeman. I understand that he still has the instrument but that it's currently out of use. I'd be interested in links to the info on the various instruments you list, Niccolo. Compact at church - 2mp, and Viscount also sell a 2m with optional stand & pedals in their Cantorum range (not to mention the single manual keyboard style organs by Viscount & others) In the realm of electronic "organs" a couple of firms are building portable versions of some of their small organs. I have a Content 224 Every Blessing Tony Link to post Share on other sites
Niccolo Morandi 0 Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 On 23/06/2020 at 18:31, Tony Newnham said: Hi I can add one more - a small (2 rank IIRC) 2 manual organ built by our hosts here for Rick Wakeman. I understand that he still has the instrument but that it's currently out of use. I'd be interested in links to the info on the various instruments you list, Niccolo. Compact at church - 2mp, and Viscount also sell a 2m with optional stand & pedals in their Cantorum range (not to mention the single manual keyboard style organs by Viscount & others) In the realm of electronic "organs" a couple of firms are building portable versions of some of their small organs. I have a Content 224 Every Blessing Tony Sorry for the late reply, but anyway yes I see what you mean about adding links. My original intention was to just list both the name of the instrument and the artist or builder as I felt like that would be enough for anyone to track down the instruments, but thinking about it now it probably would help to include a link to a page or article. I've also decided to included a section for pipe organs that are not designed to be moved to different venues but are designed to be moved around within the space they are installed in. Pipe Organs Orchestrion – Georg Joseph Vogler 1746 – 1814 https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000020409 Link Unit Organ – Charles Sharpe Minor 1885 – 1957 http://www.theatreorgans.com/btoc/history.htm Touring Organ by Harrison & Harrison – George Thomas Pattman 1875 – 1961 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pattman Moller Opus 6690 – Reginald Foort 1893 – 1980 http://theatreorgans.com/travellingmoller/index.htm https://pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/33188 Organo Portativo – Giorgio Questa 1929 – 2010 https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Questa Open air konzert Orgel – Hoffmann & Schindler Organ Builders https://orgelbau-hoffmann.de/open-air-konzert-orgel-mieten/ Mobile Orgue – Plaisance du Gers Organ Builders http://birouste.free.fr/Mobilorgue/description/descr.html Anywhere Organ – Mathew Borgatti https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gianteye/the-anywhere-organ Weiße Orgel – Močnik Organ Builders https://orgel-kirchenmusik.kug.ac.at/en/institute/information/instruments/weisse-orgel-white-organ-mocnik/ The Flavour Conductor – Mander Organs https://mander-organs.com/the-flavour-conductor/ Orgue du Voyage – Jean Baptiste Monnot 1984 – https://www.jeanbaptistemonnot.com/lorgue-du-voyage/ Organo Wanderer – Paolo Oreni 1979 – h ttp://www.paolooreni.org/ Electronic Organs Black Beauty – Virgil Fox 1912 – 1980 http://cdmnet.org/Julian/schemes/elec/black.htm Allen Touring Organ – Carlo Curley 1952 – 2012 http://cdmnet.org/Julian/schemes/elec/cjc.htm Allen Touring Organ – Virgil Fox 1912 – 1980 http://cdmnet.org/Julian/schemes/elec/fox.htm Rogers Touring Organ – Felix Hell 1985 – https://www.felixhell.com/touring-organ Touring Organ – Raul Prieto Ramirez https://www.raulpr.com/enghome International Touring Organ – Cameron Carpenter 1981 – https://www.marshallandogletree.com/opus-8---international-touring-organ Semi Portable Pipe Organs Opus 86 – Schlicker Organ Co. https://pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/28059 Adelaide Festival Theatre – Rieger Organ Builders https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/AdelaideFestTheatre.html Portable Pipe Organs that Remain on Paper Orgue à Structure Variable – Jean Guillou 1930 – 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20121115093815/http://osvguillou.pagesperso-orange.fr/index.htm The Grand Positive – Niccolo Morandi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN_rAx8lWxY A couple of the organs I have removed as I found little to no information on. One was a portable organ built by the Kimball organ company and the other was a touring organ used by the organist Pierre Cochereau. The portable organ built by kimball I had only heard about from another forum and the touring organ of Pierre Cochereau I have seen photographs online. Looking back I feel like I probably should have left some of the instruments off the list until I had some information to back them up. I had also heard that Edward George Power Biggs also had a small touring organ but I never include it on the list as I couldn't find a single mention of this organ anywhere. Edit I've decided to also include a section for organs that remained on paper such as Jean Guillou's Organ of Variable Structure. But the main reason why I've done this is because I wanted to include my own proposal for a portable organ. I am passionate about designing a portable pipe organ but much like my dream house organ I don't have much to show you. Although I have still included a link for it which I can assure you that it's not some sort of joke involving a Rick Astley music video. Link to post Share on other sites
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