Pipe organ

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#21
Time after time I have a chance to visit, with a small group of organ lovers, baroque churches here in Prague with pipe organs, most of them originally from 17th century and reconstructed recently. I always try to record a music sample, but only once I had a chance to bring a microphone stand, condenser microphone and recording technique. Other recordings made with camera. I am posting some links from my webpage, unfortunately only in Czech, however there are photos, organ pipes list and music samples.

Bazilika Sv. Mark?ty - varhany

T?nsk? chr?m - varhany

Kostel sv. Ign?ce - varhany
 
#28
djgibson51 said:
Wow. These organs make my e-guitar look as simple as a rock.
Click to expand...
That's because it almost is! 🙂

Legend has it that Gibson big-wigs dismissively referred to Leo Fender's early solid-body Broadcaster / Telecaster as a "paddle" - before it began stealing sales from their expensive hollow archtop electric guitars.

I would say those Gibson execs had a point: a solid-body electric guitar really isn't much more than a band-sawed plank of wood with a couple of pickups and some strings mounted on it.

I love guitars, both acoustic and electric. They are the only musical instrument on which I have any actual competency. And yet, I am frequently acutely aware just how limited these instruments are. Compared to the rich timbre of a cello, an e-guitar sounds like garbage. Compared to the polyphony and power of a piano, an acoustic guitar is a toy.

The ancient organs that this thread is about are at the opposite end of the scale. They have power beyond any normal electric-guitar rig; polyphony beyond any piano; mechanical complexity unmatched by any other musical instrument. And all this was created centuries before e-guitars. Wow!


-Gnobuddy
 
#35
I'm helping install a 12 rank pipe organ in Jeffersonville, IN. Got the shutters (volume control) to work together Friday. Stringing the cable to operate them. Next challenge, the swell engine (that operates shutters) caught fire in January; the $180 replacement boards haven't fixed it yet. A new one is $1000. The master builder is building air channels to fit the revised configuration. We took out the 7 lowest bourdon flues (pipes) last few weeks because they blocked the other bourdon flues from being tuned. A petersen electronic bass will replace them. The master next will build a walkboard so the repairman can reach the harp (which non-organ installers would call a solenoid xylophone).
 
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#36
This is "my" organ. In Tanunda, small town of 900 odd in an old wine making district in South Australia. Its a Hill and Son dated 1877. As everyone has said, the sound of the organ is amazing and can mimic almost any instrument in a full orchestra.
 

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#39
Cathedrale St Pierre Montpellier 12 05 2018 on Vimeo

Cathédrale Saint Pierre in my town Montpellier have orgue players
who take You on strong spiritual and musical experiences journey.
Sounds from heavenly subtile meditative melodys lines to hurricanes and thunders.
Transcendental feeling
..and this huge Cathedral acoustic and orgue instrument "magic" power
can't be reproduced with a good Hi-Fi..only modestly simulated..
I know after experiences this live music from ancestors
 
#40
My choir (North Carolina Master Chorale) occasionally gets to sing in the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, which was built recently (2015-2017). It combines very traditional design with modern materials, construction techniques, and acoustic engineering.

In 2018 they installed Opus 147 from C.B. Fisk, Inc. It's fairly small relative to other major organs - 3,737 pipes, 61 stops, 3 manuals - but it covers the full range from 32'/16Hz to 0.75"/16kHz. Frankly, anything larger would be wasted, as the cathedral interior has an 8-second (!) RT60. That makes it a challenging space to sing in, but the organ sounds absolutely magnificent.

Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral | The Pipe Organ
 
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