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The organ as a wind instrument

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Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#91

Post by elihu »

sambapa wrote: post #87
cptcobalt wrote: post #3

The 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…

There is this thing called "Organteq". It's made by mad scientists (well, mathematicians and engineers) from France and is based on physical modelling. Look it up, it's great!

Also Hauptwerk, or if you prefer something open source there's GrandOrgue

https://github.com/GrandOrgue/grandorgue

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#92

Post by thinkmcfly »

conductr wrote: post #81
tigerlily wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even weird and I'm on the other side of the world. I know at least one gay organist in my town, and over half my local church choir are unbelievers. Most do it for the repertoire and keeping their pipes in good nick for their real passion: musical theatre.

Also here to say "queer self-taught musician" describes every church music director I've ever known (3)

I'm not gonna brush off the idea that it's tough as a gay person or someone who thinks gay people have the right to exist to get in with a crowd that often thinks lgtbq people deserve to die

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#93

Post by Aidevah »

PathOfEclipse wrote: post #11
cptcobalt wrote: post #3

The 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…

We are much of the same mind. The organ may be the queen of the instruments, but the human voice is king, and I much prefer singing without distracting organ accompaniments.

That being said, I don't think you can get a full picture of Bach's achievements without having some appreciation for his organ work, particularly the chorale preludes. Those are some of the most magnificent pieces he ever wrote, and I adore them despite my ambivalence towards the sound of the organs.

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#94

Post by irrational »

IanCal wrote: post #22
PathOfEclipse wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> No one is stopping you or any other secular organization from building your own organs. It seems weird to complain that churches were the only organizations willing to spend the money to build and maintain organs. If anything, you should be grateful they invested the resources in the first place. Without these churches, is it not possible the organ would be virtually extinct at this point? I think its reasonable to…

Now that so many people are non-religious, I wonder why groups are not being formed to take the place of churches, and have choirs and organ music. Clearly there is a desire for such things. If churches can do it, surely secular non-profits could do the same thing. Gather together one or more times a week to sing and listen to music. Maybe have talks about whatever people want to talk about (hopefully avoiding things like politics so everyone feels welcome). Organizations to replace the community that churches used to provide. It could provide service opportunities, a resource for the poor and needy to get help. Even a place to find a boardgame group. It would need a one word name like church/synagogue/mosque so people could move into an area and ask “Where is the local …”

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#95

Post by noyoudumbdolt »

cptcobalt wrote: post #3

The 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…

I bet half the organists at Catholic churches are gay.

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#96

Post by yareally »

PathOfEclipse wrote: post #11
cptcobalt wrote: post #3

The 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…

There's some great classical organ pieces, but I suspect you've heard most of them :)

I had the pleasure of hearing this guy[1] perform with the local symphony the other year and was impressed by his take on the instrument. He not only played classics like Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3, but also his own creations.

He also built his own electronic organ that he takes on tour. Hacker and a musician.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Carpenter

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#97

Post by vintermann »

PathOfEclipse wrote: post #11
cptcobalt wrote: post #3

The 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…

I think organ music loses more in recording than most other forms of music. Not only the earth shaking acoustics, but also all the improvisation that's typically part of liturgical organ music.

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#98

Post by jacquesm »

jgraham wrote: post #51
cptcobalt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Anna von Hausswolff [1] performs "pop" music on the organ. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_von_Hausswolff

On that note: Barbara Dennerlein.

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#99

Post by Doxin »

throwaway0b1 wrote: post #83

As someone who is both an organ nerd and... I'll say very religiously conservative (although that's only relevant to some points), a couple things people in this thread might find interesting: - If you're looking for pipe organs and are in the US, check out https://pipeorgandatabase.org/ . It's very comprehensive, has stoplists for most organs, and has pictures for many of the larger ones. - I see quite a few people…

re point 3: It's really hard to overstate how impressive the sound an organ makes is. I've had the pleasure of being in a proper old-timey church with a proper old-timey organ when the organist decided to play a couple songs.

It felt like the whole building was shaking. Imagine that, meter thick walls being shook by sound. It was impossible to talk to anyone, even at centimeters away. It's not simply that organs are loud, which they are, They also simply fill the air with sound. To call the experience soul-shaking would be an understatement.

I can totally see why people would associate organs with god. When the organist stopped playing the silence was absolutely deafening.

Re: The organ as a wind instrument

#100

Post by vintermann »

irrational wrote: post #94
IanCal wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one is stopping you or any other secular organization from building your own organs. It seems weird to complain that churches were the only organizations willing to spend the money to build and maintain organs. If anything, you should be grateful they invested the resources in the first place. Without these churches, is it not possible the organ would be virtually extinct at this point? I think its reasonable to…

Now that so many people are non-religious, I wonder why groups are not being formed to take the place of churches, and have choirs and organ music. Clearly there is a desire for such things. If churches can do it, surely secular non-profits could do the same thing. Gather together one or more times a week to sing and listen to music. Maybe have talks about whatever people want to talk about (hopefully avoiding things…

Maybe people aren't so non-religious as they seem. I see a lot of claims in here that there are no believers in church choirs etc. At best that's wishful thinking, at worst it's maybe even a lie to draw people in.

In my experience, most groups that have Christian hymns in their repertoire are closet Christians at least on average. Even in the choirs that sing strictly secular songs, believers are overrepresented just from selection effects, since they sing a lot more.

But yes, there are choirs that stick strictly to secular repertoire. There was a "red" choral revival in the 70s, and of course worker and patriotic choirs go a long way back. They got to have something that unites them besides the singing, though. In my town the main secular choirs are the opera choir, which is united by their love of opera and classical music, and the chamber choir, which is 90% doctors and nurses from the local hospital.

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