Re: [LAU] New Bach from Aeolus and me

From: Ken Restivo <ken@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Fri Jun 18 2010 - 04:25:11 EEST

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 09:26:12AM +1000, M Watts wrote:
> On 06/17/2010 07:44 PM, david wrote:
>
>> Organ registrations are a mystery to me, too. How can I learn about them?
>>
>
> Try this book:
>
> Organ-Stops and Their Artistic Registration by George Ashdown Audsley
> (ISBN: 9780486424231)
>
> This link has some info on how the various foot lengths relate to the
> harmonic series etc.:
>
> http://www.lawrencephelps.com/Documents/Articles/Beginner/pipeorgans101.html
>
> There's a stop dictionary at http://www.organstops.org/
>
> Basic crash course:--
>
> The main manual stops are at 8' pitch; it takes an open pipe of 8'
> sounding length to produce the C under the bass staff. The main pedal
> stops are 16', an octave lower. The pedals are usually, but not always,
> coupled to whatever manual is currently in use.
>
> Flue stops:
> The main 'organ' sound is the Diapason or Principal; these are either
> open pipes (Principal, Octave, Fifteenth) or stopped, with a plug in the
> end, sounding softer (Dulciana, Salicional). A stopped pipe sounds an
> octave lower than its length would indicate.
>
> Mutation stops and mixtures are also diapason-type, not used by
> themselves; mutations are single ranks, sounding one of the harmonic
> series other than the octave (Twelfth, Quint, Septime, None, Tierce,
> Larigot); mixtures are multi-rank, for adding brightness (Cymbel,
> Furniture, Cornet, Sesquialtera).
>
> There are flutey-sounding flue stops (Claribel, Hohlflute, Gedact,
> Gemshorn, Suabe), and stringy-sounding flues (Geigen, Gamba, Violone).
>
> Reed stops:
> These use reed, usually of brass, to produce the sound; they range from
> smooth and quiet (Cornopean, Oboe, Vox Humana) or loud & agressive
> (Ophecleide, Posaun, Bombarde, Trumpet).
>
> Couplers etc:
> These couple various manuals together, allowing stops from one manual to
> be played on another. Sometimes there are octave- and
> suboctave-couplers.
>
> E.g. in Aeolus, the Great to Pedal coupler is labelled P+1, meaning the
> pedals will play the stops drawn on Manual I, as well as its own.
>
> So in Aeolus, a basic organ sound is:
>
> Manual I: Principal 8, Principal 4, Octave 2
> Pedal: Subbass 16, P+I
>
> From here, add any or all of Octave 1, Quint 2 2/3, Mixtur; Add or swap
> Principal 16 for Subbass on the pedal.
>
> (Sorry for thread hijack :))

It occured to me, as I was playing the B3, and explaining to someone that it was the original nerd instrument-- an additive synth with lots of mad-scientist buttons and knobs-- that it wasn't really the first. The original nerd instrument is the one that the B3 was built to simulate: the pipe organ. An 18th century total nerdgasm. Knobs! Butttons! Amplificazione! Big huge sound and tremendous power from just playing one instrument. Exactly the kind of techno-power we nerds obtain from computers and DSP and synthesized instruments, the nerds of the 18th century got from playing the pipe organ. I'm thrilled that I can fit a B3, or a Fender Rhodes suitcase, or even a pipe organ, in a backpack, and that I can play the equivalent of an entire band from inside a laptop, and having endless control of sounds from a command line in linux, but could you imagine the geeky thrill of someone being able to play the equivalent in power and tonal and dynamic range of an entire orchestra from
  just sitting at a console of three keyboards and pedals?

If Bach were alive, he'd be on LAU.

-ken
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Received on Fri Jun 18 08:15:01 2010

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