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Independent Lens: "Pipe Dreams"/organ competition


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This is a very fine documentary concerning the Canadian International Organ Competition, focusing on four of the contestants. There are many very human moments throughout. You see the stresses and familial connections presented with style & heart. There are plenty of good laughs in it as well, with backstage moments that have a slight rock show aroma.

 

It also incites BIG Organ Lust. Several organs are played through the buildup and you get to see even the very guts where individual pipes are tuned. The enveloping feel of the instrument is omnipresent. I'm not equipped to take up Hauptwerk or the like, but this makes it more tempting to try! I've played a real pipe organ a *bit* and if you have as well, you'll get the added thrill of recognition from this. 58:00+. Highly recommended. :thu:

 

PBS "Pipe Dreams"

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Hi, I caught this the other night and really enjoyed it; well made, enjoyable, and educational. i personally will never be in that league, and that;s ok. I can appreciate the commitment, discipline and sacrifices the families made for these talented people. L.C.'s final piece was outstanding. Catch it if you can folks. Joe.
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Thanks for the heads-up on this, I'll have to try and watch that.

 

...and you get to see even the very guts where individual pipes are tuned. The enveloping feel of the instrument is omnipresent.

 

Back in high school, I played trumpet in a brass choir at work, but the priest knew I also played the organ. So I spent one entire Saturday with him helping him tune the literally many hundreds of tiny, small, medium, large and HUGE pipes and even inspecting the bellows and all the various levers and linkages that made it work -- it is quite a mechanical contraption even without all the beautiful sounds it produces!

 

Anyway, when we were done -- as my reward, he allowed me to sit INSIDE of "The Oldest Three Manual Pipe Organ in New England" while he played Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

 

Wow...

 

Without a doubt -- it was the most magical musical moment (dare I it was orgasmic?) that I have ever experienced!

 

He let me play it too, but the roughly half-second delay between pressing a key and hearing the sound threw me off...

 

...and we talk about latency concerns today...

 

Old No7

Yamaha MODX6 * Hammond SK Pro 73 * Roland Fantom-08 * Crumar Mojo Pedals * Mackie Thump 12As * Tascam DP-24SD * JBL 305 MkIIs

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Back when we were all still on campus pre-covid, the music department at Cornell would give monthly organ concerts in the chapel across the quad from my office (including some really silly, fun Halloween concerts). I got to be a really big fan of the instrument. I also was lucky enough to be able to use it to overdub a couple of parts on my band's last record (a proggy song cycle that was just begging for it). Even though I was basically playing big doomy pads, it was a highlight of my recording career.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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I also was lucky enough to be able to use it to overdub a couple of parts on my band's last record (a proggy song cycle that was just begging for it). Even though I was basically playing big doomy pads, it was a highlight of my recording career.

 

Your posture in your avatar is the correct one for doomy pipe organ pads. :)

 

My parents were co-chairs of the committee to select a pipe organ for my home church in the mid-70s. We met an organ designer from Tom's River, NJ who drew up plans for a modest seven rank instrument. Wicks was selected to build it. When it was delivered I helped unload the semi and we laid the pipes out in the pews. Then we put it together over a long weekend, pipe by pipe. The first notes out of it were just awful as it wasn't tuned. Then it was and it was glorious. Not fancy, but beautiful. Just the basics: flute, principal, reed, mixture and a Voix Celeste. Very cool to be a part of that.

 

Looking forward to watching the documentary.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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I visited the Wicks factory in Highland IL maybe 15 years ago. I just kind of barged in and talked my way into an impromptu tour.

 

I got to see everything from metal pipes being rolled and voiced to wooden pipe and console construction to various completed organs - from small all in one organs with just a few ranks to large 4 manual instruments. My tour ended by playing one that was set up on the shop floor right in front of its 20 foot long wall of wind chests and pipes.

 

It was a most excellent day!

Moe

---

 

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I visited the Wicks factory in Highland IL maybe 15 years ago. I just kind of barged in and talked my way into an impromptu tour.

 

I got to see everything from metal pipes being rolled and voiced to wooden pipe and console construction to various completed organs - from small all in one organs with just a few ranks to large 4 manual instruments. My tour ended by playing one that was set up on the shop floor right in front of its 20 foot long wall of wind chests and pipes.

 

It was a most excellent day!

 

 

When I was finishing my degree the organ prof took a few of us on a road trip to Wicks. It was indeed an excellent day!

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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I'm pleased you all enjoyed it. It was a big part of my road to being a better "synthesist" that I got to sit and drink in the world's biggest additive synth, if you will. All of those stops are semi-easily translated into synth parameters, from a certain creative angle. I'm much more a Full Swell type than one who is into the sotto voce settings, for which I blame Wakeman & Lord, heh, but also Anthony Newman. His organ cover of "Ride of the Valkyries" knocked me off my feet. :o

 

I'm sure its a proud parent who has to chase their kid away from the >pipe organ< for dinner time. :thu::rawk:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Really enjoyed this. Thanks, David, for posting. The players were all so good and the music so formidable.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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