Mystery organ quiz

[adri]

OK, this is a quiz; perhaps a very difficult one to answer.

Answer:
1. Which or how many stops.
2. Which temperament.
3. Which sample set.
4. Whose music (fragment).

4/4 : you're awesome
3/4: impressive
2/4 : very good
1/4: not bad
0/4: what? :)

http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/401

Sorry, playing is not terrific; late at night, very tired. But still felt it would be nice to surprise you.

[adri]

Nobody yet?

[Stefanussen]

I'm afraid I'm not quite good enough to be able to listen to an organ piece and tell you exactly which stops are playing. Perhaps a little hint on your organ would help - is it one of the organs with which you've posted music previously to the Concert Hall?

[imcg110]

OK, here goes -

1. Very few
2. unequal
3. A baroque one
4. Yours (well....I presume you did pay for it)

That's as close as I can get. Sounds nice though

[adri]

OK here come some clues:

1. a 16' and 8' stop
2. very mean tuning (it will bite you if you play the wrong notes)
3. organ has been rebuilt many times and I tinkered with the voicing
4. last name starts with S

[fdewitt]

Smecno, Czech Republic.

[adri]

Smecno, Czech Republic.

Sorry, no.

[pwhodges]

All I can say about the organ is that it's not one I've got - but as I've no organs with a similar manual 16', that doesn't say much!

Meantone tuning - the question is 1/4 or 1/5 comma; my feeling is 1/5 comma, as that final glow of purity isn't quite there.

With or without your clue, I was going for Sweelinck as composer, though I don't know the piece.

Paul

[adri]

All I can say about the organ is that it's not one I've got - but as I've no organs with a similar manual 16', that doesn't say much!

Meantone tuning - the question is 1/4 or 1/5 comma; my feeling is 1/5 comma, as that final glow of purity isn't quite there.

With or without your clue, I was going for Sweelinck as composer, though I don't know the piece.

Paul

Paul, wow you were pretty close !!!

OK, here comes the solution:

The organ is the Forcalquier set I have on a 30-day trial period.
Although I am toning down this otherwise overly bright and loud instrument as much as is possible with the voicing controls, I have done very little in this case:

Gamba at +4
Bourdon 16 not adjusted

The stops used are Bourdon 16' and Gamba 8'; it gives the impression of a narrowly scaled vocal sounding Principal 16', as I heard once on a CD with the old organ of Stavanger.

The music is indeed JP Sweelicnk, and the piece is called Prealudium ex F, No. 27 in the VNM Edition, ed. by Gustav Leonhardt, et. al.
I only played the first 40 some bars.

The tuning is meantone, not sure about the comma, I think it was 1/5.

Did you all like the warm sound? Since this organ is of course not a 16th-17th instrument it's a little more muddy than what I would prefer, but still it's not too bad.

[davidgarner16]

Vollenhove Bosch-Schnitger

You are soloing out the melody on the 4' principal on the positive, played an octave lower

accompaniment 8 and 4 flutes

16 +8 in pedal

David.

[imcg110]

At least I was right in thinking Sweelinck (privately!!) . I do like the Forcalquier organ at lot. Maybe not a pure breed organ, but very usable as my slightly odd selection of music at contrbombarde.com will attest!! It certainly is great fun to play - it is one of those sets that "feels good" under the fingers. My audio set up tends to make thinks a bit bright, and this organ screamed out at first. I used the voicing screen to reduce the brightness (not amplitude) of much of the upperwork, and parts of the positif and found I got much better coherence of the ensemble. I specifically left the tierce and Plein Jeu brighter than the rest not to loose all the original character. I have done nothing to even out the varied voicing across stops - it is there for a reason! Every organ should be voiced to the room. Now that I have done it for my room I am very happy with the end result. Despite the big acoustic, it is a very direct sound with the reverb tails relatively quiet when compared to other big wet samples - a very nice contrast to have in the collection. It goes without saying that the quality of sampling is excellent. It is a real voyage of discovery - I discover different subtleties of sound every time I play it.

I think it is quite amazing that Jiri is prepared to offer this set to us with no physical limitations for trial - many, many thanks for this. Such trust is rarely seen these days!! (PS I have paid already!!)