Thu Oct 26, 2017 7:36 am
Recently I watched a Youtube video of VP Barry Holben of Allen Organs demonstrate their new GeniSys addition to their organs. He performed a relatively simple Christmas Carol where he inserted certain sounds from the GeniSys option such as a Flute, Horn of some type, etc. The level of realism of these instruments was stunning, so much so in fact that it made me question how far we want this realism to go before it doesn't even sound like an organ. Does the organist really want to play a keyboard that doesn't sound like an organ at all but an orchestra instead ?
So I was thinking about the evolution of realism of imitative orchestral sounds engraved on organ stop tabs such as the Orchestral Oboe, the Trumpet, Horn (rather a generic term), Piccolo, Clarinet, etc. When pipe organ builders began introducing stops that they intended were to imitate the real instrument I assume that they wished it to be as authentic as possible to the original. Listeners could criticize the level of authenticity. Skinner's French Horn was quite good but not EXACTLY like a French Horn. As good as these sounds were they all sounded like they came from a pipe organ,
Electronic organ builders, throughout their evolution, have attempted to imitate the pipe organ along with the imitative orchestral stops, to varying degrees of success. It was considered successful enough to have been able to just imitate a pipe organs imitation of an orchestral stop, not the actual instrument itself. Now we have an example (GeniSys) of an electronic organ being able to imitate the actual orchestral instrument with a large degree of realism. Quite remarkable.
My own opinion is that I do not want to play an organ (pipe or electronic) that sounds like an orchestra since the organ creates an impression that is different from that of an orchestra. The Wanamaker String Division, as lovely as it is, to me is only string-like.
On the next step of possibly being unreasonably critical, if Allen can imitate an orchestral instrument with such realism, then I would assume the technology is available to faithfully reproduce the pipe organ so that the listener cannot tell the difference. Why then, can we (or at least myself) tell the difference ?
Just a thought.
Antoni