A.S. at St. John The Divine - A.S. at Girard College Chapel
The acoustics are splendiferously superfantabulous at both places.
The Solo Division at St. John and its Flauto Mirabilis 8, Cello and Cello Celeste 8, French Horn 8, Vox Baryton 8, and Flugel Horn 8 are wonderworkers imho. Of course, the State Trumpet 8 in dialogue with the rest of the organ - Heavenly!!!
Girard College Chapel has that apocalyptic Bombarde 32 on 30" W.P. - YEOWSA!!!
Of the ones I've played (not that many, unfortunately) I might pick St. Mary the Virgin, NYC, Trinity Church, Boston (though it is a mixture of several different instruments), or Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
Methuen is also 'up there', since it is such a famous and historic instrument (but difficult to play).
Mormon Tabernacle Organ. Beware playing trumpet solos using the Trompette Harmonique - the pipes are on the side of the case opposite where the console is. What happens is that you hear the accompaniment 1 second after you play - and the trumpet solo 3 seconds after you play. Brain meltdown follows.
[quote user="soubasse32"]Methuen is also 'up there', since it is such a famous and historic instrument (but difficult to play).[/quote]
Is that organ difficult to play for the same reason the Tabernacle organ is difficult to play? (pedal flies right over your head, and the sound doesn't properly mix until about 30 feet from the organist, resulting in the organist hearing a fairly chaotic mix of sounds)
Yes, that transcription of *The Planets* recorded at the Girard College Chapel is stupendously splendiferous. I had it cranked up whilst cruising on the tourist strip Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. Lots of *thumbs-up* from the visitors. < 8 - D
Well, I've only played one Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner, the organ(s) in the sanctuary at Church of the Covenant in Cleveland. The core of the instrument is a 1930 E.M. Skinner, rebuilt in 1958-59 when the gallery organ (2 man + Ped) was installed. The whole thing was rebuilt in 1996 by Holtkamp, but is still very much a Skinner/Aeolian Skinner (Holtkamp added a couple stops and provided a new main console with Solid State and MIDI). The church is within spitting distance of Severance Hall (1929 Skinner op.816), the Cleveland Museum of Art (was originally a Skinner, but was rebuilt several times by Holtkamp, the current form is a 1971 Holtkamp) Epworth-Euclid UMC (known to locals as the Holy Oil Can for the shape of part of the building, the organ there was originally a Skinner but was rebuilt by Holtkamp in 1954) and a couple of other institutions in the University Circle area.
I thought that the organ at Covenant was pretty neat, not entirely my thing, but certainly nice, I think it was slightly unnerving to see many classic Holtkamp features controling Skinner pipework, the most potent reed on this thing is the 8' Hooded Trumpet, I think it's in the gallery, but I'm not sure, but boy, that thing is LOUD. I heard it first hand in the Gallery when Todd Wilson was demoing the organ for a couple of people.
[quote user="Stefanussen"][quote user="soubasse32"]Methuen is also 'up there', since it is such a famous and historic instrument (but difficult to play).[/quote]Is that organ difficult to play for the same reason the Tabernacle organ is difficult to play? (pedal flies right over your head, and the sound doesn't properly mix until about 30 feet from the organist, resulting in the organist hearing a fairly chaotic mix of sounds)
[/quote]That describes it rather well. A lot of the pipework is below the impost level,and it is very difficult to hear parts of the organ. One must have help when registering pieces. It is an odd acoustic too...
parts of the organ at trinity college hartford conn 1931 [gdh's first job where he felt free to depart from ems practice] has found its way into smokey mary
the hartford organ was replaced in 1971 by austin retaining an 1880s 32 open wood by roosevelt and very low cuttup
the smokey gdh is the first to have all chorus reeds using the modified french-type shallot circa 1933
it was circa 1934 that gdh toured the continent and saw some nice things and thus he began his revival efforts upon return to the states in the 30s he and emerson richards vacationed and talked of low pressure french-type trompettes as low as 3-1/2'' or even less such as the 1936 job at calvary on park ave [ calvin hamptons place] where the reeds in the swell of the new french type are on circa 3''
the smokey swell reeds were intended to go into the bombarde later so they may be of the #2 a-s french which would be a wider diameter shallot and throat
the tabernacle has #2 french on the swell reeds
in the 70s a-s offered an extensive proposal to rebuild the tabernacle organ including replacing all the #2 french sw chorus reeds
the proposal never flew
the reeds still there are the #2 french but slightly revised by schoenstein in 1988
[quote user="NYCFarmboy"]this is an EASY one: The Aeolian-Skinner at St. Mary the Virgin, NYC. perfect marriage of a brilliant French organ in a stunning beyond live accoustic (I've never been in a more reverberant space in the USA). I've been in alot of churches and played alot of organs...nothing else to date has came close to the thrill of this one.[/quote]I dunno... maybe Grace Cathedral would give it a run for the money - it is a larger organ in a larger acoustic. The 32' stops are awe-inspiring and there is a new high-pressure Tuba that is appropriately regal. I might post a recording of it if there is any interest... [*-)]
I can't say that I've had the opportunity to play and/or hear in person probably nearly as many Aeolian-Skinners as many on here. But one seemingly sizable A-S instrument that seems never to get much attention that I like quite a bit is the 4-manual 1959 Aeolian-Skinner (Whiteford) at St. Pauls United Church of Christ in Chicago, opus 1328. Curtis Institute young star Nathan Laube was associate organist at St. Pauls before going off to Curtis, and he's been known to play there in the summer when he's back 'home' visiting his family in Chicago.
You know, I'm not enough of an A-S expert to know what separates a 'good' A-S from a 'great' A-S, but I will say that I definitely tend to prefer the St. Pauls UCC instrument to the one at Fourth Presbyterian, Chicago, that gets much more attention. Anyway, I actually haven't played it for more than about 3 minutes or so, but definitely have spent quite a bit of time hearing it as a parishioner at that church while I was in seminary. A detailed specification with pictures is still up on the website from the AGO 2006 convention: http://www.agohq.org/2006/html/venues.html
Looks like you’re enjoying the discussion, but you haven’t signed up for an account yet.
Tired of scrolling through the same posts? When you create an account you’ll always come back to where you left off. With an account you can also post messages, be notified of new replies, join groups, send private messages to other members, and use likes to thank others. We can all work together to make this community great. ♥️
We process personal data about users of our site, through the use of cookies and other technologies, to deliver our services, personalize advertising, and to analyze site activity. We may share certain information about our users with our advertising and analytics partners. For additional details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
By clicking "I AGREE" below, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our personal data processing and cookie practices as described therein. You also acknowledge that this forum may be hosted outside your country and you consent to the collection, storage, and processing of your data in the country where this forum is hosted.
Tweet
Comment