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Orchestral crescendo

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PCF

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Orchestral crescendo

PostTue Oct 04, 2022 1:24 am

What stops do an orchestral crescendo consist of, and what is the sequence of the introduction of the stops?
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PCF

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Re: Orchestral crescendo

PostTue Oct 04, 2022 1:40 am

I found this helpful website about Virgil Fox's registrations and strategies for the stanzas of a hymn, where the orchestral crescendo is discussed:

"Orchestral crescendo, if you can arrange it (but there should only be one shoe):
[passes through] flutes, strings, celestes, vox humana, weak diapasons, 8' and 4' couplers;
no ensemble reeds or ensemble diapasons; cf 'American ensemble.'"

Source: http://www.columbia.edu/~tb21/vf/Virgil-Hymns-style.html

I would still value any contributions to this topic, particularly the sequence of the stops across the different stages.
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larason2

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Re: Orchestral crescendo

PostTue Oct 04, 2022 8:12 am

I would only try this in an American organ, preferably an EM Skinner. For instance, I would use the Immanuel Presbyterian Skinner, because that is the Skinner organ I have.

http://www.evensongmusic.net/?product=1927-iv-62-em-skinner-1956-iii-37-schlicker-1977-ii-20-hradetsky-hw-5#tab-40753

I would use Hauptwerk's programmable crescendo for this. It's not blind, but this kind of crescendo starts so soft, there wouldn't be a benefit to having it blind in my opinion. Note that the basis of this kind of program would typically be the Swell manual, so it should typically be played on the swell. You can play on the other manuals, but you would miss the vox humana addition unless it were coupled to them. Here's a theoretical program:

Image

I would also either have the pedal programmed to a soft supporting strength for each step, or just couple one of the manuals to the pedal for each step (or both, if it can be achieved tastefully, say swell to pedal, plus appropriate 16' reinforcement when it is called for).

The reason it wouldn't work on many European organs is that typically, the celeste stops are a lot quieter, and often independent of the string on the same manual. For that reason, say on a Cavaille-Coll, usually you start a crescendo like this with the celeste, then add the flute, then the string comes after that. On a British organ, you might start with the string (or a dulciana if there is one), then after the string add the celeste, then the flute to bolster those, unless there is a really quiet flute on the same manual.

The other thing to watch out for is that some organs get really muddy if you pull all the 8' stops! And the culprit is usually one or more soft strings. I'm pretty sure the EM skinner above would be fine, but on some organs you may have to retire some of the dulciana 8/string 8 type stops as you approach the top (particularly if a manual has more than one 8' string type stops).

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