Pipe Organ

[Halgeir Wold]

Interesting, indeed! Organs have long time been my favourite instrument, and while NOT trying to downtalk this work at all, this is my favourite of them all... heard it several times both before and after the massive 2014 restauration.. keep up the good work !!!!

http://www.nidarosdomen.no/en/
http://www.orgelbau.ch/domains/Orgel...01590_pdf2.pdf
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/t...aros-cathedral

[Kelly Cleveland]

I have found this regal to be much more calming than the one Alan put up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lljdxM8Jp34
I had considered making something like this for my project, it would have been much simpler because it doesn't need a slider chest, just a pallet box with all the reeds mounted to it. My only fear was that it would sound like quacking ducks. I knew I would be able to make flute pipes that sounded good, so I went with the traditional organ.
I put up a clip from the final presentation if anyone is interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOLyEN7e7CQ
If I had the ear for it I might try some other tunings, but for now it is roughly in equal temperament. The tuning sleeves are quite long, so I imagine I wouldn't need to modify anything to change the temperament.
I happen to live walking distance from Cornell, which has many excellent organs I have had the pleasure of playing. Some of you might have heard about the Arp Schnitger organ built here a few years ago. In the same location I gave my presentation is an Italian positiv organ tuned in quarter-comma meantone , which I also recorded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW7mtNbo7yw

[Larry Frank]

I am very impressed by the work this young man has done. Well done!!!,

[Alan Caro]

george wilson,

Tuning! NO, I didn't realize you were doing that all over including well out of town for Mr. D. Given that Williamsburg displayed instruments with the doors opening and closing every three minutes and thousands of people through some rooms, how fussy was maintaining those instruments? Didn't they used to take the harpsichords outside in all the Virginia humidity behind the Music Teacher's? They had that goofy Aluminum soundboard Challis in the 70's- and I took some lessons on it- but I imagined that it disappeared as being unauthentic.

As work somehow I associate that with dentistry- necessary but probably also with a higher incidence of suicide.As if building the instruments wasn't enough. tuning is one of the most controversial aspects of historic keyboards and starting with the decision on the tuning system and the pitch. I don't know of any arguments in the world of music more fierce or more prolonged than tuning. It started centuries ago, when harpsichord makers experimented with keyboards with split accidentals because A flat and G sharp are different pitches. I don't know how they played those things, but there are too many surviving over a long period to suggest it was a flash experiment. Old strings and period tuning forks are analyzed like holy relics to prove pet truths . I like 16th and 17th C. music quite lot- Byrd, Froberger, Sweelinck which would have used meantone at A=415, but then there's JS Bach in equal temperament at 415 and I also like later 18th C. Rameau for which some players use Werkmeister III as it has a lusher, more liquid quality. W III is my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwsFfvasX0 (A=440). Heard next to each to each other, it does make difference. But, the endless historic tuning arguments are vehement and tiring. It matters but really, besides having to tune a harpsichord to some degree every other time it's played, if the temperament is suited to the music, it would need to be tuned every half hour.

But, at least it's not tuning an organ- shaving pipes of crimping scrolls to change the length- over thousands of pipes tucked into tiny chambers in instruments the size of buildings. Did you ever fuss with the Governor's Palace chamber organ? That's one I never heard.

Alan Caro

[Alan Caro]

Kelly Cleveland,

Yes, the regal in the clip posted is a much gentler presence. I've often been surprised by what seems to be the Medieval and Renaissance taste for really raucous sounds- buzzy, boomy, raspy- crumhorms and forms of bagpipes and these contrasted with very gentle, round, and soft- lutes and recorders. That said, with three ranks, a gentler reed could add to an interesting ensemble- perhaps a 4' Hautbois which sounds like an oboe.

Your presentation was excellent- well done all around. The number of high school students that have built pipe organs for an English class is surely less than the number that have walked on the Moon.

I was interested to know the origins of the design- very well thought out and I like the visible joinery- kind of structurally expressive. . The bellows is interesting too. In my unrealized portative design I was thinking about a mechanism to operate the vertical bellows from a foot pedal so it could be played by one person.

Yes, the tuning - and voicing- is something to refine over time- subtle and time-consuming. A lot depends too on the nature of the music played. My favorite tuning over the years has been Werkmeister III as it's equal temperament but a bit sweeter and more liquid, especially in major keys which to me can sound a bit flat and lifeless in strict equal temperament.

The Cornell Arp-Schnitger-based instrument is a terrific accomplishment, thoughtfully designed and beautifully made. The close historical modeling is an interesting choice for Cornell which is so closely associated with technological innovation. While I admire the industrial archaeology, the tonal design and action- lack of combinations makes that instrument much less flexible in use. The Schnitger sound is based on clarity playing horizontal- contrapuntal composition in reverberant spaces, and registration is completely manuals so the sound and operation is going to have a narrow use of music from about 1650- to 1770 - really sort of Purcell to Bach. There was a level of purist historic organ (and harpsichord) aesthetic, but as in the 1960's and into the 70's. As much as I admire the Cornell organ, I should have like to see something more versatile and innovative. There are so many interesting new European, Scandanavian and American pipe organs. Organ playing is changing to cover a wide range of music, improvisation and chamber and symphonic transcriptions played on digitally synthesized organs are transformative - re: Cameron Carpenter and Jonathan Scott. Cameron Carpenter has been very persuasive in promoting highly versatile, highly programmable digital (sampled) organs. Scott is more traditionally-minded as far as the instruments, and creates amazing transcriptions of symphonic and concerto works. Within this range, I think is the future for organ building and playing.

Brilliant work on your project. What are your plans for the future?

Alan Caro

[george wilson]

I did not have to tune the music teacher's harpsichord,fortunately. They did it. That(and all the keyboard inst's I made),were ALL wood construction. None of those modern plastic jacks. But,I caught more GUFF from those ignorant idiots because the all wood construction meant that some maintenance was needed,as well as a lot of playing in to burnish the jacks and their registers-all made of pearwood as was proper. A few of those people were absolutely minimally skilled musicians. One HAD to be given a job after he returned from Vietnam(I can't imagine THAT guy even firing a rifle!!) The only job open was at the music shop. He played a LITTLE recorder BADLY(and NEVER got better in decades!) Those were some of the types I had to deal with.

I think they expected an AUTHENTIC harpsichord to be as stable as the plastic stuff they had at home. Even by 2009,though,my harpsichord had been played SO MUCH,that there were IVORY keys with the ivory completely worn through! So,it really became the workhorse instrument of the music program.

I made an A-420 tuning fork for Marcus. I don't know where they got that figure,nor did it matter to me. The 18th. C. tuning fork I owned,which they were using for many years,might have been 420. It was in the Astor pianoforte I bought years before,and finally sold after fixing it up. It even had the original strings on it. The wires were ANYTHING but ROUND!! They looked like a fried egg in cross section.