Classical Organ Music Show

[Dave Pierce]

So, I'm taking my wife to an organ performance at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco today. I'm pretty excited about it.

 

I've only seen such a thing once before in my life, and I'm a little nervous that it was the kind of thing that can never be matched -- it was a performance at Westminster Abbey in London. Truly sublime.

 

Grace Cathedral is supposed to have a really great pipe organ too. Hopefully it won't pale against the memory of Westminster.

 

--Dave

[K K]

My very first contact with music was when I followed my parents at the downtown church. I was probably 4 or 5 years old. The instrument there was (and still is) a Casavant pipe organ, one of the tallest in the country.

 

Even after all those years playing on acoustic and digital pianos and synths, when I hear the sound and pedal bass out of a big pipe organ, I get those chills of emotion that no other instrument is capable of (except maybe a full choir or an extraordinary singer).

 

Last time I attended a classical organ recital was with that same instrument some years ago. Among other pieces was the well-known Bach BWV565 Toccata in D minor. The power of a big instrument is such that at the beginning of the opening theme - when you hear that first D major chord sustained for several seconds just after the initial crescendo - the fortissimo chord continues to increase in volume by the physical accumulation of sound resonating into the church, not because the organist increases volume.

[Prague]

Those are fun to see. I saw Virgil Fox christen (pardon the pun) a newly installed church pipe organ.

[cd8]

Yes, it's a truly amazing instrument. I used to go to a Benedictine Monastery near my house where they played an organ on their liturgy. They also sang Gregorian Chant, which is a strange music for someone used to "modern music". I feel at home listening to almost anything from Bach onwards, but that music felt like making a time travel.

[cd8]

P.S.: Cydonia, isn't that a diminished chord on that Toccata?

Maybe I'm confusing the piece though....

[K K]

Originally posted by cd1981:

P.S.: Cydonia, isn't that a diminished chord on that Toccata?

Yes, the crescendo uses a diminished chord, which ends up on that first sustained D major chord.

 

And on big instruments, sustained chords with full ranks opened get gradually louder after a few seconds. Really impressive.

[Dave Pierce]

Well, it was pretty great. I will definitely be going to hear more of those.

 

It wasn't as impressive as Westminster, but then what really is?

 

The recital was performed by the cathedral's Canon of Music (or whatever his title is), instead of the planned performer. Apparently the scheduled guy had a slipped disk, and wasn't able to travel from England. Hope he's OK.

 

I got the sense that the performer was perhaps slightly under-prepared, no doubt because of the last-minute fill-in. Don't get me wrong -- he was clearly the master of his instrument, and played it beautifully. But he seemed a bit stiff in a few places, and I even think I caught a minor flub or two.

 

However, he completely made up for that by giving a short Q&A session about the organ and how it works, then inviting people to wander around during the second half of the recital to hear how the instrument sounds in different locations within the cathedral. It was very cool.

 

--Dave

[Dave Pierce]

One other thing -- it really highlighted for me how interesting the Hammond is. It was created in an attempt to re-create the sound of a pipe organ. By that particular yardstick, it was clearly a complete and utter failure! No way does it sound anything at all like a pipe organ.

 

And yet, it's such a fabulous instrument in it's own right!

 

What a happy accident, no?

 

--Dave