Math Orchid plays the organ

I spent two months reading the score for Widor's Toccata and practising it for several hours a day, EVERY day. For weeks on end.

In a village far, far away... the local villagers kindly gave me permission to play their church organ. This video is the result. How neat is that?!

Unfortunately, the organ is currently in need of repair, so it doesn't sound that great. (And my camera's microphone is rather rubbish.) If you watch closely, you can see the keys in the Swell division move when I play the Great division!

(Before anybody else comments on it: YES, I REALISE I AM NOT AS GOOD AS A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIST. YOU DO NOT NEED TO TELL ME THIS. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN DO BETTER, BE MY GUEST, HOT-SHOT!)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• widor
• toccata
• pipe
• organ
• classical
• music

[MathematicalOrchid]

All the people who offered words of encouragement: Thank you. It's taken me bloomin' AGES to reach this stage! Obviously there's still some way to go, but I don't plan on stopping just yet... ;-)

[19lfm12]

This is a good tempo for the piece! Not bad at all for not using the pedal! Seriously!

Seems like a cute little 19th century tracker (mechanical action ) organ. Did you have the stop list? Just curious....:P

*applause* :)

[MathematicalOrchid]

The organ was built in 1857 by A. Hunter of London. It has a mechanical key action and electric blowers. (For some combinations of couplers, some of the keys jam.)

The organ has a grand total of 13 stops. What can I say? It's a small village church organ. If you REALLY want to know...

Bordon 16', Open Diapason 8', Closed Diapason 8', Dulciana 8', Principal 4', Flute 4', Fifteenth 2', Double Diapason 16', Horn Diapason 8', Lieblich Gedact 8', Principal 4', Mixture III and Cornopean 8'.

[19lfm12]

Thanks! A very nice little instrument! British organ builders of that era made fine, solid instruments - very versatile. Many similar US organs have either been destroyed or "restored" (translation: tonally revised to death!).

The Bourdon 16 & Double Diapason are both on the pedal? The couplers prolly just need to be regulated to solve that problem.

Don't be afraid to play music for manuals only - there is lots of it that is quite good!

[MathematicalOrchid]

The Bordon 16' is in the pedel division. The Douple Diapason 16' is actually in the swell division. (And it lacks the bottom octave. This happens to be the octave controlled by the peddles if you couple them.)

The whole organ is due to be taken apart, leaned, tuned, etc. in the next few weeks. It should hopefully work much better after that.

[MathematicalOrchid]

Yeah, I deliberately had the coupler on. I tried to write that in the video description, but YouTube wouldn't let me. (Maybe there's a maximum character limit or something?)

Thanks for the encouragement! :-D

[goodboy694]

This piece just doesnt't work without foot-pedals,,, nice try though..fluffed notes,,, timing and 'flow' flawed, fingering poor, but a nice try.

[PlazaOrganist]

Wonderful - thoroughly enjoyed your playing, and your interpretation of this piece!

Thank you,

Andrew

[joeyboi87]

you didnt do a very good job, where are the arppegios?

[Cindermakers]

Great achievement for just 2 months! I'm a pianist, and I've wanted to play the organ ever since I can remember. None of the local churches will allow me to use their organ, which is rather sad.

[lostnyc2]

The heck with the purists and perfectionists and armchair 'organists' who nit-pick a performance to the degree of obsession! You did fantastic!

The organ is old, it works and sounds just fine, besides-it IS after all 150 years old!

The mechanical coupling is why the Sw keys move with the Gt, that's the drawback of mechanical action- the more stops and couplers you add the heavier the keys become.

[GoldOrganist]

why not Right hand it hands over and over again with no tune

[organist12345]

What happened to right hand part

[mtjsmith]

*shock*