Intriguing, beautiful and very well played.
Accordion version, anyone?
Accordion version, anyone?
...and now, for something completely different; Bach versatility exhibited.
- Thread starter Ffingers
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Dingo40
Been here for ages!
Interesting: do questions of touch sensitivity, key velocity, bellows direction , tuning, degrees of "wetness", stainless steel organ pipes, etc apply?
What do organists obsess over?
What do organists obsess over?
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Interesting: do questions of touch sensitivity, key velocity, bellows direction , tuning, degrees of "wetness", stainless steel organ pipes, etc apply?
What do organists obsess over?
@saundersbp
They call it "Unda Maris" instead of tremolo, but the same thing, really.Interesting: do questions of touch sensitivity, key velocity, bellows direction , tuning, degrees of "wetness", stainless steel organ pipes, etc apply?
What do organists obsess over?
They obsess over all of these, minus bellows direction (which does not exist on an organ).Interesting: do questions of touch sensitivity, key velocity, bellows direction , tuning, degrees of "wetness", stainless steel organ pipes, etc apply?
What do organists obsess over?
Generally organs have more "voices", but that need not translate to more tuning work because in an accordion every note has 2 reeds in a single voice because of the issue of bellows direction.
Many organs have strange sounds, like "human voice", which of course does not sound like a human voice but it is tuned slightly off I believe.
And then they have a fifth register (meaning a register where every note sounds one fifth higher, like you hit the C key and it sounds like G, perhaps in a higher octave) and such a "fifth" has to be tuned to be an exact fifth higher, not a well-tempered fifth higher if I'm not mistaken.
I'm not an organ expert at all, but I do know from organ players that they obsess over tuning.
Regarding touch sensitivity and key velocity there isn't much the player can change, but of course in a mechanical organ the touch becomes heavier as more and more registers are opened at the same time. For a few decades organs with electro-magnetic connection between keyboard and the valves opening the pipes were in favor, and before that also pneumatic connections (which meant response got slower and slower as you opened more registers). All-mechanical is back on top spot, including its limitations such as the possible position of the keyboard versus the pipes. (You cannot have the whole pipe-assembly at 10 meters from the keyboard.)
My repertoire is already heavily biased towards Bach... so I don't think you will see an arrangement by me any time soon.
Organ pipes do not just need to be tuned but also intoned, making sure they are consistent in their pipe rank regarding loudness and timbre, not just pitch.
Correct, just like a Hohner Imperator VS' fifth reed does.
A late accordion ensemble (and men's choir) buddy of mine had been organ builder with a specialization on pipe building (the other specialization is windchest construction) until he switched to IT because his career path was essentially at a dead end without inheriting a foundry. He shared a lot of stories and knowledge particularly when I hitched rides to choir practices and events. So I have a bit of second-hand pretend knowledge.
The Bochum lecture hall organ has both a mechanical play desk (for organ concerts and its ilk) and a "portable" electric desk that can be rolled out and placed with an orchestra. I was around in university choirs when it got built. I am sort of non-plussed that googling it already turned up its 25-year anniversary. I am getting old, it seems.
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Ventura
Been here for ages!
i always suspected that organs were so well suited to grand huge cathedral
Chruches because it simply took a LOT of faith to be an Organist back in the day
you didn't hear the notes as you played them, because of the delay time for
the air pulses to reach the pipes
so you had to have Faith to be brave enough to play on and on
with such confidence of not making any mistakes
(or some musical angel had to be watching over those organists
to mercifully prevent the errant sour note or chord)
Chruches because it simply took a LOT of faith to be an Organist back in the day
you didn't hear the notes as you played them, because of the delay time for
the air pulses to reach the pipes
so you had to have Faith to be brave enough to play on and on
with such confidence of not making any mistakes
(or some musical angel had to be watching over those organists
to mercifully prevent the errant sour note or chord)
The accordion equivalent of that is voicing. You adjust the gap between reed plate and reed tip, not just to optimize response without the reed choking, but also to give it the right loudness. The larger the gap between reed tip and reed plate the louder the reed will sound.
Another part of this is cassotto construction, but alas whey you buy an accordion with cassotto you cannot really alter the cassotto. A problem, especially on the M register (when L and M are in cassotto) is often that the reeds in the reed block deepest inside the cassotto give a louder sound than the block closes to where the sound comes out. With organs this is a non-existent problem, although pipes being (partly) blocked by other pipes may cause a similar issue.
Interesting: do questions of touch sensitivity, key velocity, bellows direction , tuning, degrees of "wetness", stainless steel organ pipes, etc apply?
What do organists obsess over?
Depends, probably pretty similar to accordions tbh:
1. Those interested in career or people obsess over who is at what cathedral/ made what recording etc.
2. Those interested in music obsess over repertoire, improvisation and performance.
3. Those interested in the organ as a 'thing' obsess over design, construction, the 'best' organ, and other rabbit holes of geekorama. They may or may not be interested in music, often not. Americans tend to be interested in 'biggest' / 'most expensive', oblivious to the fact the an organ in Texas might have a guzillion pipes, notwithstanding the quality of sound of each is vile! IMHO the best organs are those with the fewest possible pipes located in the best possible position.
My own personal obsession is education and any organ worth its salt should be played day and night so it wears out rather than fired up on a Sunday.
PS in general I love Americans!
Thanks, I’m glad you generally love Americans!
. Most of us are not like “most Americans.” Some even play the accordion. But the diversity is huge. With 330 million, the ones dancing at the last polka hall in Michigan are pretty different than the ones at the texmex club in Texas, even to the point of language. There are even strains of English that are incomprehensible regionally. I, in general, love Europeans!
I’m def
I’m definitely in the “2.” category, repertoire, improvisation and performance. Just give me a well built, decent sounding instrument that looks good and plays day after day with no problems or tweaking. Cassotto, a Mano, top brand name, 20 registers, mics, midi, etc. all good but fortunately I have everything I need, a happy camper. And a Roland for quiet practice. Need more repertoire though.
