# Organ sounds



## Rach d minor (Apr 21, 2014)

If one was writing an orchestral composition and one wanted to mimic the sound of an organ, which instruments would one have playing


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Berg did this in the second movement of his Violin Concerto, with a group of clarinets, but there are a good many registrations that you can get with an organ.

Usually, you want to focus on winds: clarinets, bassoons, trombones.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Al organs have Reed and Brass sounding pipes, so this would be the first thing to explore in the orchestra as Mahlerian says, I believe it is essential to learn how the good organ composers phrase for this instrument. You also have to familiarize Yourself with for how long an average wind musician can hold a certain tone, I remeber Christian Lindber (of Trombone Fame) telling that he had to practice "Circular breathing" for years before attacking some piece by Ligeti or Xenakis (IRC), but I don't think that this would apply for an average orchestral musician(?)..

I think it will be harder to mimic the lower organ registers (played with the feet), but writing pedal notes for double basses and something parallel with a number of contra bassoons (or celli and "normal" bassoons) might be a way forward, unfortunately, a standard symphony orchestra don't carry that many contra bassoonists or even regular bassoonist, which is a pity cuz these are very underused instruments!

This makes my mind wander, I remember a concert I attended about 25 years ago where some genius heretic had collected all the bassoonist in the region where I lived, maybe 12 of them to play some original works and a bunch of arrangements for this band of oddities, one of the most fun concerts I've heard over my 40 active years as a concert goer! :trp:

/ptr


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Exposing oboes and trumpets on the top would be essential for capturing the coarse nature of organ sound. The only strings involved should be double basses. Pedal notes by trombones suggested by ptr are also standard way to achieve this sound.

And for another example of organ-like sound rendered by orchestra, see 3:26 here:


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