Michael blowing the bellows for J S Bach's Fugue in g BWV 578

In the days of J.S. Bach, the organ could only sound with the help of an organ-blower. The ancient Freytag-organ in Noordwolde (the Netherlands), beautifully restored by Dutch organ-builder Mense Ruiter, still has the original device to make this possible. As a result, the sound is more supple and fluent than by using the organ's motor. Michael Kruiper blows the bellows, while Willem Tanke plays J.S. Bach's fugue in g minor BWV 578 ('the Little'). Recording: Marcel van den Tol

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bach
• classical
• organ
• fugue
• minor
• willem
• tanke
• mense
• ruiter
• blow
• bellows

[organboi]

fantastic. what a totally gorgeous sound. great video. it should go viral actually. something truly fascinating about it.

[pgandhiyt]

Beautiful. Very different from other organ renditions.

[Enofrappini]

....I could give up the internet, my cellphone and television and just listen to this for the rest of my life....

[Txboy85A]

So, the idea here is to make sure that those levers never rise above a horizontal line. Also, the number of stops selected dictate which of those bellows needs to be filled faster.

[claviolino]

could you explain why the sound is more supple and fluent? fantastic!

[Ianthe22]

hehe, behind evey great organ is a .. hardworking BBB(Bellow Blower Boy). Nice video.

[Arjunai]

Thanx for video. A nice, clean sound, played beautifully. Even perfectly blowed:-)

[bw4t]

@HerrWarja No real system. As the beams come up you push them down. The wedge-shaped bellows may have slightly differing weights on them in order to maintain the correct wind pressure in the organ. (The bellows usually all feed into a common wind line which branches out to supply the various parts of the organ.) A bellows with a slightly heavier weight will collapse more quickly. (Of course, a leaky bellows will also collapse more quickly!)

[HerrWarja]

Interesting job. Does he have a system of somesort of do you just do it randomly?

[Quintade8]

very nice!

[YouNeverMind00]

crazy i never knew that

[SilverlakeDehners]

Clear, unforced tone on bouyant wind, elegantly played, unrushed with just the right amount of rubato giving the organ tone time to develop and the listener the opportunity to luxuriate in the polyphony and sonorities. The flexible wind is clearly heard in the sustained soprano starting at 2:34 to 2:40 when the pedal is also playing adding yet another dimension to the sound.