Instrument or spectacle? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98KYMpBx9og>
The organ as a wind instrument
41–50 of 108 posts
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#42For an alternate implementation, see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stalacpipe_Organ
I've seen the Stalacpipe in person and it's honestly underwhelming. The idea is neat but it doesn't really work in practice. The stalactites are so quiet and the "organ" covers such a large area that it's pretty much impossible to hear the whole thing without amplification.
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#43The pipe organ is surely one of the most majestic & grand instruments, and I long for the day its most frequent use won't be drab church hymns. It's capable of so much more. It's also difficult to get exposure to. You've basically got make friends with a church music director to let you play theirs. That's not easy, especially as a queer self-taught musician—no religion, no music degree won't get you too far. It's a…
As an amateur pianist trying to learn organ specifically to play "drab" church hymns, I can say that while I admire the complexity and scope of the organ, At the same time, I don't find the organ particularly interesting musically. I just don't think it "sounds" great. I think this explains the lack of popularity of organ more than anything else. In my free time, I would much rather listen to piano music than organ m…
Other organizations have them as well, though they are still difficult to get to — most professional and many college concert halls, theaters (especially, perhaps, those restored to their movie palace glory).
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#44The pipe organ is surely one of the most majestic & grand instruments, and I long for the day its most frequent use won't be drab church hymns. It's capable of so much more. It's also difficult to get exposure to. You've basically got make friends with a church music director to let you play theirs. That's not easy, especially as a queer self-taught musician—no religion, no music degree won't get you too far. It's a…
This being Hacker News, you could consider Knuth's approach: have one built for your home. https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html
Or the similar approach of the guy from This Museum is Not Obsolete, buy an entire Church organ secondhand and retrofit it into your home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVGr3J_LZaE
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#45The pipe organ is surely one of the most majestic & grand instruments, and I long for the day its most frequent use won't be drab church hymns. It's capable of so much more. It's also difficult to get exposure to. You've basically got make friends with a church music director to let you play theirs. That's not easy, especially as a queer self-taught musician—no religion, no music degree won't get you too far. It's a…
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Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#46Although most organ music played for liturgical or academic reasons is terrifyingly boring, there is a decent contingent of symphonic and "theatre" (yes -re) organ people who want something that moves us and maybe erodes some of the concrete work elsewhere in building.
Misc tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzpQHz2dGX8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VN5DGw3OvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm_vvBuH2ts
Also, even some of the classical works from folks like Ravel, Liszt and particularly have some ball busters if played on a big machine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdrwazpZvAQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC3cZ-7-IoI .
TLDR: the folks that want to hear organs sound good go find other people that want to hear organs sound good and we have conventions and listen to organs sounding good.
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#47There's a software that I used to emulate a pipe organ (and also harpsichords). I used it for years and it has a library with a lot of historical organs around the world: https://www.hauptwerk.com , as far as I know this is the only commercially supported PC/Mac software dedicated to this.
There are quite a few high-quality sampled pipe organs out there, most of which run in Native Instruments' Kontakt sampler software. My personal favorites are the RAH ( https://www.royalalberthallorgan.com/ ) and the Rugby and Union Chapel organs from Spitfire Audio ( https://www.spitfireaudio.com/symphonic-organ )
Hauptwerk beats Kontakt in this department, I'm afraid. Certainly the latter two can't compare to the full-featured models that are on offer for Hauptwerk, which include wind models for tremulants and all. If you're not after trying out all registrations, but just want the sound, Kontakt is good enough.
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sound track of Interstellar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_(soundtrack)
Basically, the exception which proves the rule. I sincerely doubt most folks could name other titles which prominently feature organ as a focal instrument in a work. There's more, of course, but Interstellar tends to be people's first example.
Kali Malone’s “The Sacrificial Code” is my favorite musical find of the last year, and is entirely on pipe organ. Very mysterious and meditative.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bpZqFa0Qiro
For a midcentury, modal, classical bent, I love the music of Rayner Brown, who was a church organist in Pasadena. Recordings are rare but worth it to track down. There are a few good examples on YouTube; here’s one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xL8p-MuwzDY
In that same vein, Leo Sowerby: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9O55UTNhHk4
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#49The pipe organ is surely one of the most majestic & grand instruments, and I long for the day its most frequent use won't be drab church hymns. It's capable of so much more. It's also difficult to get exposure to. You've basically got make friends with a church music director to let you play theirs. That's not easy, especially as a queer self-taught musician—no religion, no music degree won't get you too far. It's a…
Hey, just contact your local church music director. You don't even have to become close friends, just explain politely that you would be super grateful to have access to organs. Most of the time things can be arranged if you or the music director aren't obnoxius persons. Being a queer or self-taught musician with no degree is of no interest for anyone involved in this kind of arrangement.
I'd assume not being a member of the said church is the biggest obstacle you can reasonably have here, and it can be non-issue too, especially if you are not hoping to instantly gain regular access. Don't be an ass about your lack of religion and hope that they are not an ass about having a religion. I know a few music directors in churches and they are definitely not very religious and it's mostly just a job for them and they are always eager to talk about organs to everyone interested, of course things vary a lot. One must also understand that giving access to expensive instrument that isn't even their own like organs (especially unsupervised) requires high trust and sometimes it's just too much to ask even if you are a lifelong member of the said church. But asking is cheap, don't hesitate to contact your local church music director(s) if you are seriously interested.
Re: The organ as a wind instrument
#50The pipe organ is surely one of the most majestic & grand instruments, and I long for the day its most frequent use won't be drab church hymns. It's capable of so much more. It's also difficult to get exposure to. You've basically got make friends with a church music director to let you play theirs. That's not easy, especially as a queer self-taught musician—no religion, no music degree won't get you too far. It's a…
If you are in the states and having trouble getting access to church organs, find your local theatre organ club or ATOS chapter. Most of them have some form of access to theatre pipe organs and if you learn on a theatre organ you will be able to transition to a less diverse and more refined beast like a church instrument. It also helps to not be in a high cost of living area.
The lower the cost of living, the lower the cost of auditorium space. The lower the cost of auditorium space, the easier it is to get access to organs (to a point).