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Think you're a slick keyboardist? This is nuts!


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Thanks for the post. He"s certainly a very accomplished player! Nice bloke too.

 

I saw Richard play this on the Compton organ at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre here in the UK, probably not long after that video was recorded.

 

I"m not a huge fan of the 'Theatre Organ Sound' as such, it tends to have a bit too much trem. for me, but the Compton I saw him play this on, was designed as a dual purpose Theatre and Concert organ. The Concert side was included to accompany the then Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, now better known as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

 

John Compton apparently spent quite a time personally on site, voicing the organ, as it was the first such 'dual purpose' one they had built.

 

Richard, unlike some other theatre organ players who don"t explore that aspect, can make that more 'concert' side of the organ sound great too.

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I"ve met a few church organists in my day who have mastered some enormous contraptions. Aside from the stops, jumping manuals and the feet - the timing, latency from the pipes on the opposite sides of a really large room, slap back reverb - annoying as hell. I guess you just need to move your body in rhythm and ignore what you hear. A dying art form but I"m glad it still attracts enough talented people to keep the instruments in use and congregations in awe.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Theater organs are quite a trip for me. Back when Spitfire was doing that series of videos of film composers studios one the guy purchased the massive theater organ from 20th Century Fox studios when they decided to sell theirs using in many movies over the decades. The video showed the new installation and got into all the percussion and special effects big theater organs have along with all the musical sounds. I never knew there was so much but considering they were for silent movies all the special effects make sense.

 

The new studio designed the new installation so the organ would be quieter for recording moving all the bellows and effects into their own separate rooms only the big pipes were still in the studio up high with shutters to close them off when not in use. The studio owner into old instruments and had the first upright piano. It looked like a work of art the harp of the piano was exposed and no case quite interesting to see. Studio was still in process of restoring it so they didn't play it

 

When I lived in Oakland CA the old Fox Theater (I think was the name) still had their old theater organ. I loved to look at it all those keyboards and switches and levelers. I was told they still have someone come in on a weekend night and play before the movies. I never made it to hear the organ hope its still there I believe the Fox Theater is.

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The Fox Theater (aka Showplace of the West) in San Francisco had a 36-rank Crawford Special Wurlitzer (as I found out when I looked it up just now). The organ was sold and the theater torn down in 1963, but not before a series of 'Farewell to the Fox' concerts in February that year.

 

I was living in Berkeley at the time and was fortunate enough to attend the first of the farewell concerts. Quite a thrill to see the console rise up out of the orchestra pit with George Wright* at the keyboard. Not many details of the music remain in my memory, but he took the time to talk to the audience about the instrument and demonstrate many of the special effects it provided, including snare drum and church bells. The highlight was the sound of the largest pipe, which brought showers of dust down from the ceiling.

 

After the last concert, all the interior fittings of the theater were sold off and the building torn down.

 

 

*He didn't play anything as fancy as the video at the top of this thread - that is just sick!

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I got to see the master organist of Westminster Abbey do a concert christening a fairly stout chapel organ. He not only played a few traditional pieces, but did a couple of avant-garde-ish things and ended with a hilarious sitcom-ish exaltation that was a serious keeper. It was like a meaningful workstation composition that had some real tread on it. Theater organs have too high a cheese content for me, as a wannabe pipe organ snob, but that means zip to this guy's mastery. Had some Red Bull pre-show, eh? (A nob in the balcony yells "Do 'Freebird!'" and an usher threatens him with Mace.)

 "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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Theatre Organ players really don"t have anything better to do, do they?
There was a member of the school board at my district growing up that was (fortunately) a big supporter of music education and its associated programs. The only trouble was, he was a diehard theater organ aficionado, and he was determined to pass his appreciation on to the next generation. He used to haunt the middle school cafeteria and solicit students to join his Theater Organ Club, which took bus trips to various old Pennsylvania theaters that still had these organs functioning. He would hover over you while you were eating with your friends, occasionally sit down next to you if you seemed interested, coerce you into signing his contact list, and leave you with Xeroxed informational literature. Basically, any minute chance of anyone finding these instruments cool, he snuffed out completely. Even the high school band director had trouble taking this guy seriuosly.

 

Mr. FancyPants... let's seem him do that on pyanna...
I did get to watch ragtime piano virtuoso Terry Waldo play this piece in college, and it's pretty breathtaking. He had a humorous introduction where he described the original key, tempo, etc and after each would say "...but that's really hard, so I'm going to transpose it down to C" and take the tempo down and that sort of thing. He lurched into a lackluster rendition for a chorus or so, then winked and launched into orbit with the intended key and tempo. Irrestistable.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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I was going to rain on this parade, as there were at least 762 buttons & levers that he doesn't touch. Then at 2:15 he does something and it looks like all 762 move at once. Bravo!
Then at 2:40 some of the levers come back up, and at 3:30 most of the rest come back up, then at 4:10 you see the levers go down again. I can't see what he's doing to do that.
These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise.
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I was going to rain on this parade, as there were at least 762 buttons & levers that he doesn't touch. Then at 2:15 he does something and it looks like all 762 move at once. Bravo!
Then at 2:40 some of the levers come back up, and at 3:30 most of the rest come back up, then at 4:10 you see the levers go down again. I can't see what he's doing to do that.

 

I believe there are preset foot switches that move the tabs, similar to the registration presets on a pipe organ.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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This is serious badassery. I am also with Math's comment. I only made it 2/3 of the way before I'd heard/seen enough. I have come to really appreciate this whole vibe after a few years playing organ for the Padres, studying the axes some of the other organists get to play around the league and getting to record a ton of organ content for Sony's MLB: The Show. These instruments are fun and definitely a dying niche.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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I was going to rain on this parade, as there were at least 762 buttons & levers that he doesn't touch. Then at 2:15 he does something and it looks like all 762 move at once. Bravo!
Then at 2:40 some of the levers come back up, and at 3:30 most of the rest come back up, then at 4:10 you see the levers go down again. I can't see what he's doing to do that.

 

I believe there are preset foot switches that move the tabs, similar to the registration presets on a pipe organ.

 

There are preset buttons between each manual as well as toe pistons that can change every stop on the organ.

Moe

---

 

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Organ Pistons vs stops ~= Synthesizer / workstation Setups / Multi's vs individual patches.

 

On big organs, each manual has its own pistons, which are dynamically customizable, for selectively turning on 1-to-N stops. Whatever stop combination has been set (from zero to all stops in that manual) will be selected with one button push. In addition, there are "general" pistons which affect multiple manuals. Just as there are pushbuttons below the manuals (for easy thumbing), there are also lovely large piston buttons above the pedals.

 

But wait, there's more!

 

In addition to the swell pedals, which open and shut wooden vertical blinds to modify the sound of one or more manuals, there is usually an additional pedal called the Crescendo pedal, which incrementally adds more stops as you push it down, until you reach (presumably) full organ when fully depressed. It's reversible, taking stops out as you pull the pedal back.

 

Last but not least is a foot piston usually adjacent to the crescendo pedal, the Sforzando piston, which instantly turns on the whole works -- and is reversible, so you can press it again to pull back to the original stop setting.

 

It's not for nothing that the organ is the King of the instruments.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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