An introduction to the wild 5 manual organ at Hammerwood Park. It incorporates a section as a shrine to Dead Elephants with antique and vintage ivory stop-heads because the organ, as an instrument, is an endangered species and must be revered as elephants in a conservation reserve, seen, heard, listened to and appreciated rather than murdered for scrap or by the onslaught of electronic reproductions in places which should properly house a real pipe organ.
There is wonderful music written for this instrument and its composers are not known as Beethoven and Brahms only because they wrote for the organ rather than the orchestra.
We have to work hard for the organ not to end up as dead elephants.
Organists are very welcome to practice, play, experiment and perform here.
I'm fed up of people hearing and loving Widor 5/5 without knowing the other four movements nor the other 9 symphonies. Widor, Vierne, Guilmant (the Grande Choeur Diologue is wonderful!), Pierne, Bonnet and Gigout come immediately to mind. Anyone up for doing a recital?
In addition, the instrument will do justice to Balbastre, Beauvarlet Charpentier, M. Charpentier, Dandrieu and Couperin . . . is anyone up for doing such a recital?
What I did not cover in this video is the basic English organ at the heart of the instrument. Now almost all of the instrument sounds through special speakers and the Tuba would do justice to Harrison and Harrison and, throughout the development of this concert instrument, the pipe organ behind provides immediate and direct comparison for tonality and balance for the best possible sound to have been achieved from this instrument.
It's in a concert room at a Historic House which was built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1792 and formerly owned by Led Zepellin. The room is not large enough for more than a 10 rank pipe organ and so the Londonderry Cathedral temporary organ formed the basis for this much enlarged wild beast. "Toasters" as electronic organs are known to organists are normally second rate, however good, from the commercial manufacturers but for one attraction or another are a danger to pipe organs.
However, this instrument goes way beyond toaster that anyone can buy off the shelf and provides a versatility and breadboard for tonal experimentation that is an inspiration to pipe-organ building. From the point of view of performance and repertoire appreciation, I have given minute attention to the detail of how each sound is produced, culminating in my Moucherel Trumpet and Gabrieli Clarion, which no commercial manufacturer can replicate, except the pipe-organ builders.
The instrument is particularly valuable as an introduction to the organ to new audiences on account of the intimacy between organist and audience as normally experienced by chamber musicians. Everyone can see what the organist is doing, not indirectly through a screen, but there, in action, before them. Children are always invited into the front row so that they can see, and they become fascinated.
For forthcoming concerts see http://www.hammerwood.mistral.co.uk/concerts.htm Audiences are encouraged to bring children and grandchildren. The organ is not just for grey-haired crumblies and anoracs. It is a living, breathing instrument capable of all emotion from the greatest calm to earth-shattering awe.
From the latter point of view, this instrument is great fun for organists as it's a rare privilege to be able to draw a 64ft stop. This instrument is fun, because whilst the overall promotion of conservation intention is deadly serious, I do not take electronics seriously and regard them as digital toy-boxes that are to be played with giving us new ideas for registration of performance on pipe organs and inspiration for pipe organs to be built in new configurations. Experimentation with pipework is expensive: this instrument provides a platform for experiment so that expensive mistakes are avoided in pipe-organ design.
For instance I had never before considered the value of a Regal or Dulzian in giving just an ounce of definition to pedals. This is really the value of experimentation with digital toy-boxes, because one might not dream of commissioning a conventional pipe organ without a Baroque slant to include such a stop. But with digital experimentation, one can try it out to find out how useful it might be! This is also the value of providing a MIDI output from pipe organs so that possible additions can be tried out.
The area in the inner console identified as the shrine to dead elephants is the result of just such an experiment, putting a Gamba and Sesqualtra together with little else.
We are much looking forward to a programme from Hugh Potton concentrating on Liszt's Ad Nos and Liszt's pupil Reubke who died at an early age of tuberculosis but wrote one sonata in particular which transports one from heaven, to hell and back again.
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What a harsh-sounding electronic piece of machinery. Hearing this, I am sure that many people will be really put off when choosing whether to replace their old pipe organ with an electronic instrument.
nistorgxx1 11 months ago
@nistorgxx1 Search "Hugh Potton Reubke" and "Latrobian Whirl" and please comment there: sound depends entirely on what registrations organists choose.
latribe 11 months ago
A very mad organ! Is it entirely pipe?
Ophicleide4 3 years ago
In the video responses above, you'll find a wonderful 4 manual pipe organ which will be scrapped in January 2009 if a home cannot be found for it. The problem is that people don't appreciate the wonderful variety of music that the instrument can produce - and this is the purpose of putting together this digital concert instrument.
So please come and play it!
latribe 3 years ago
Hi! No - it's entirely digital but with a pipe organ behind. This means that we can make exact comparison to get the electronic as best as can be achieved and the result is an instrument on which lots of different types of repertoire and combinations of registrations can be experimented with.
The result is that organists can come and give inspiration to audiences and hopefully this instrument will be inspiration for the maintenance and building of the biggest pipe organs.
latribe 3 years ago