# Alex Ross surveys the state of the organ



## papsrus

Here's the link.

Ross offers a generally upbeat survey of current interest in the instrument and efforts to install / refurbish them in concert halls in the U.S. (where they had been sorely lacking until about the past 10 - 15 years, he says).

Neither Carnegie nor Avery Fisher has one, much to his chagrin. Disney Concert Hall has a beast of an instrument and Philadelphia's Verizon Hall recently installed one as well. The one in Cleveland was refurbished.

Interesting article.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit

He's a really good writer.....Personally I don't always like the organ + orchestra combination but it is a fascinating instrument.....I didn't know it could overpower a hundred-piece ensemble, I mean maybe strings and woodwind but brass?


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## rborganist

It is indeed possible for a large pipe organ to overpower and hundred piece orchestra, especially if it has 75 to 100 ranks of diapasons and mixtures and a bunch of high-pressure trumpets, trombas, ophicliedes, bombardes, and tubas (by high-pressure, I mean 20 - 100 inch wind pressure, though the 100 inch wind pressure is very rare.) You have to factor in the number of notes in the chords and don't forget to add one or two notes in the pedal. That also increases the amount of sound an organ can produce. There are times when the composer may want the organ to outshine the orchestra (for instance, in Bluebeard's Castle, when Judith opens the door onto Bluebeard's kingdom, and the king of instruments comes in full organ.) In Respighi's The Pines of Rome, the organ is used with the orchestra, and it is no shrinking violet, and of course, the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra uses the organ played quite loudly if not full organ.


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## Krummhorn

Brass can out play the pipe organ, hands down. Not because they are louder, rather the position of the instrumentalists in comparison to where the physical pipes are located, whether they are in chambers or out in the open. 

I have heard a recording done at Macy's in Philadelphia (Wanamaker organ) where the brass players were able to just that. 

In my own church, that has a modest pipe organ, the director obtains 6 brass players, and when they are playing we can't hear the organ at all. Thankfully that only happens twice a year, but yegads ... two brass players would be sufficient, especially in a room that only seats 355. 

I am a great admirer of organ/orchestra works. I have many recordings of such and always seeking more. 

Kh ♫

There have been many instances of various concert halls no longer having pipe organs, or a pipe organ adequate enough to be anything other than a solo instrument. In those cases, some orchestras will do their recordings in a large church or cathedral where a powerful organ exists. In those instances, the organ has been voiced for its own building and is not hindered by the lack of acoustics (reverberation). 

The recording that I have of the Poulenc Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Timpani and Strings, was done in an existing church. 

Electronic/Digital (aka "toasters") organs do not do the proper justice in a concert hall environment, mainly because they are a temporary instrument rolled in an set up on the stage. The heavy drapery on the stage (either on the side or being flown) always soak up that sound, so the temporary organ is at a severe disadvantage.


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