Repertoire And The American '' Bread And Butter" Organs 1850-1930

[Guest]

Looking back into US organ history it seems that repertoire began to become a larger concernas the civic organs were built as well as the Atlantic crossings to the Uk and the Continent by US organ students. Some early indications are the not-so-bread-and butter organs of Emmanuel Church in Boston designed by Lynwood farnum and built by Casavant and then the brick Presbyterian Church designed in conjunction with Dr Clarence Dickinson and EM Skinner the organs builder.

The Boston organ had a very comprehensive design and was a double organ with many accesories. The New York organ was written about as having stops rarely found outside of France such as the Nazard. While many large and fine organs caught much public attention the lowly 2m from the mid-nineteenth century tracker to tubular and later electro-pneumatic and even direct electric actions were becoming the ''bread and butter'' organs mostly for ecclesiatical purposes.I have seen one such. Ten ranks: 9 medium to soft and one enormous open diapason with the toes wide open that was for filling up the space whilst the other 9 were support ranks for it,

The 2ms of the 19th and early 20th centuries were as stated primarily for ecclesiastical uses. As repertoire became more important at some point the organs started to grow so that even little tiny towns like this one had a 4m by 1921 replacing an 1865 2m tracker. The recital series that ensued saw the stellar personalities of the 20s taking the train to this little industrial town to play the big bad 4m with 4 expressive divisions harp chimes and a celeste on every manual including the great!

Now, what of the 2ms? What lit can be rendered on these/ There are ever so many still around. Some have been replaced , others altered and still some have endured time and fashion and exist largely as they did on day one. What can you play on these organs from the body of lit besides the hymns and choir and service material?What lit can be played?

[Havoc]

Re: Repertoire And The American '' Bread And Butter" Organs 1850-1930



Everything except that literature that demands more than 2 manuals. That would be excluding the baroque french Quatuors and some 20th century modern literature. You don't "need" more than 2 manuals for anything else. It can be convenient because needing less registration changes but not needed. So you could limit yourself to about 90% of the complete organ literature...

 

EDIT: typo

[steverequiem]

Re: Repertoire And The American '' Bread And Butter" Organs 1850-1930

I tend to think having 3+ manuals is a must, even for basic church purposes. Even if it's only a fanfare/specialty division, it adds so much versatility.

[Guest]

Re: Repertoire And The American '' Bread And Butter" Organs 1850-1930



[quote user="steverequiem"]I tend to think having 3+ manuals is a must, even for basic church purposes. Even if it's only a fanfare/specialty division, it adds so much versatility.
[/quote]

Mr Quimby has reiterated your view in an email that organists really want 3-4 manuals instead of only 2. But the fact remains most pipe organs are only 2. So what can you play on these?

[Austin766]

Re: Repertoire And The American '' Bread And Butter" Organs 1850-1930

Havoc has hit the nail squarely on the head. The vast majority of organ literature can be played on an instrument of two manuals. While I agree that having three or more manuals is very nice (and very much appreciated) since the extra manuals create more flexibility (and usually more possibilities of color). Three plus manuals are by no means an absolute necessity to play most organ literature, but, usually the instruments of three plus manuals have a greater variety of possible colors. I know that a certain amount of literature can be played on positive (or chair) organs (which usually ocnsist of one manual, and about three to five ranks of pipes), however, I consider these a seperate instrument from the regular organ. I really only consider an instrument to be "organ sized" if it has two or more manuals.

To summarize, you need at least two manuals to play the vast majority of organ literature. Most organ literature can in fact be played on a two manual organ. That said, organs with three or more manuals are nice because they usually offer more tone colors and have a greater flexibility.

[Havoc]

Re: Repertoire And The American '' Bread And Butter" Organs 1850-1930

But the fact remains most pipe organs are only 2. So what can you play on these?

What do you want more as a reply? Do you think that composers only had 2 manual organs but only wrote for 3 and more manuals so their works never got played?

I'll spell it out , you can play: all of Bach (J.S., C.Ph.E., W.F.), Buxtehude, Bruns, Reinken, Thunder, Pachelbel, Frescobalbi, Bohm,Titelouze, Weckman, Byrd, Schlick, de Arauxo, Scheidt, D'Aquin, Marchand (except the quatuor), Corrette, Couperin, Sweelinck, de Cabezon, Bruna, Seger, Brixi, Krebs, Muffat, Kirnberger, Rinck, Clerambault, Froberger, Kagel, Leyding, Poglietti, Reubke, Stanley, Marini...

This is just scratching the surface of baroque composers (there is 1 modern and 2 early romantics in there) as it are maybe 20% of the copposers that wrote dedicated organ music. About 90% of this can even be played on a single manual and pedal and about 60% on just a single manual without a pedal. I haven't touched a pedal for more than 5 years and honestly I don't even miss it, there is music enough to learn until I die.

For the romantic and modern period someone else might give you a list, I don't play that mush but for some of those works you might need assistance with the registration (but likely you will need it anyhow never mind how many manuals you have).

Your problem is either you need to go out more often and widen your horizon on composers or you don't understand organs and organ music.