Romantic vs Symphonic

[radagast]

What's the difference between a Romantic voiced organ and a Symphonic voiced organ? I have seen electronic organs with mulitple "suites" have both as a selection. I've heard Cavaille-Coll organs called both Romantic and Symphonic.

[jbird604]

I'm certainly no historical expert on this topic, but when I think of a "Romantic" organ I think of abundant and somewhat tubby 8' stops, emphasis on strings rather than reeds, few or no mixtures/mutations, loud celestes, Vox Humana -- typical of many early 20th century American organs, even in churches.

"Symphonic" brings to mind an organ based on orchestral instruments -- shimmering multi-rank string celestes, realistic oboe, french horn, clarinet, trumpet, and other orchestral solo stops, chimes, harp, maybe a glockenspiel (but not a piano or other theatre-organ-style percussions).

Like the Romantic, the Symphonic would also have little use for mixtures and mutations, but a Symphonic might include a brilliant en chamade. A Symphonic might even include a "tympani" in the pedal division, whether digital or real.

Anyway, that's what comes to my mind. Others may have different interpretations. Nice question.

[michaelhoddy]

I'm not sure there's a hard and fast delineation or definition on this, but I'm also not sure "Romantic" and "Symphonic" are necessarily different terms. A symphonic organ is probably a romantic organ, but a romantic organ might not be a symphonic organ.

Tubby Austins and Mollers with all 8' stops and maybe a 4' Flute D'Amour in a couple divisions are definitely Romantic and probably Symphonic, with lots of foundation tone and probably imitative string stops. But an E.M Skinner with full choruses through 2' and an octave-fifth Harmonics mixture in the Great and an octave-third-fifth Cornet mixture in the Swell would also be Romantic, but Symphonic in a different way, less in its abundance of 8' tone, but more in possessing some very imitative stops especially among the reeds. Cavaille-Coll would also be Romantic, but not Symphonic in the American or English sense at all.

So it's a pretty wide set of definitions.