to Andrew:
Very well said.
The sad thing about organs is that you can easily rebuild them, alter them, add to them, etc. A few instruments have been improved this way over time, whenever the work of the previous builder was respected, but, regretfully, way too many organs have been maimed by the msucial fashions and tastes, financial greed of organbuilders, and shortsightedness of those organists who want to play all literature on their one organ.
First we had the romantic rage in the 19th century that damaged the coherent integrity of many older organs, and then in the 20th century we had the horrible neo-baroque rage that has equally done so much damage (if not more) to so many instruments.
This eclecticism, I repeat, will never ever result in an instrument that can possibly be authentic to music of all periods and regions. It's simply impossible.
There is absolutely no need in Hauptwerk to follow this sad approach. Just load another instrument. So simple. So easy. So wonderful.
The rich in the orient changed their brown rice to white rice and suffered healthwise.
The rich in the west ate more meat than their poorer country folks and suffered all kinds of health issues.
The richer churches had more money to waste on maiming their organs than the poorer churches, who today have the best preserved instruments.
One salient example: the poorer church of Mensingeweer acquired the Arp Schnitger organ that had been abandoned in favor of a new electro-pneumatic organ that has very little artistic merit. Who is the luckier church? The richer or the poorer? That answer is too obvious to state here.
I'm telling you, often lots of money leads to very poor decision making. How much wonderful old stuff gets dumped to make room for so-called better new stuff?
it takes courage to go against unhealthy trends.
MENSINGEWEER:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/4871418_Mensingeweer_Orgel.jpg
PIETERBUREN, LEICHEL ORGAN (RUGWERK IS A DUMMY FOR SHOW, BY SCHNITGER, AS IS THE BALLUSTRADE):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Interieur%2C_aanzicht_orgel%2C_orgelnummer_1973_-_Pieterburen_-_20417564_-_RCE.jpg
Very well said.
The sad thing about organs is that you can easily rebuild them, alter them, add to them, etc. A few instruments have been improved this way over time, whenever the work of the previous builder was respected, but, regretfully, way too many organs have been maimed by the msucial fashions and tastes, financial greed of organbuilders, and shortsightedness of those organists who want to play all literature on their one organ.
First we had the romantic rage in the 19th century that damaged the coherent integrity of many older organs, and then in the 20th century we had the horrible neo-baroque rage that has equally done so much damage (if not more) to so many instruments.
This eclecticism, I repeat, will never ever result in an instrument that can possibly be authentic to music of all periods and regions. It's simply impossible.
There is absolutely no need in Hauptwerk to follow this sad approach. Just load another instrument. So simple. So easy. So wonderful.
The rich in the orient changed their brown rice to white rice and suffered healthwise.
The rich in the west ate more meat than their poorer country folks and suffered all kinds of health issues.
The richer churches had more money to waste on maiming their organs than the poorer churches, who today have the best preserved instruments.
One salient example: the poorer church of Mensingeweer acquired the Arp Schnitger organ that had been abandoned in favor of a new electro-pneumatic organ that has very little artistic merit. Who is the luckier church? The richer or the poorer? That answer is too obvious to state here.
I'm telling you, often lots of money leads to very poor decision making. How much wonderful old stuff gets dumped to make room for so-called better new stuff?
it takes courage to go against unhealthy trends.
MENSINGEWEER:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/4871418_Mensingeweer_Orgel.jpg
PIETERBUREN, LEICHEL ORGAN (RUGWERK IS A DUMMY FOR SHOW, BY SCHNITGER, AS IS THE BALLUSTRADE):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Interieur%2C_aanzicht_orgel%2C_orgelnummer_1973_-_Pieterburen_-_20417564_-_RCE.jpg