Two Pedal Claviers??

[Philip the organist]

On the One More Seven-Manual Organ thread, someone made a joke about inventing multiple pedal claviers on a single organ. In my reading of Audsley's Organ Stops and Their Artistic Registration, I discovered this quote a few days ago from Locher under HOHLFLÖTE, pages 167-168.

"[A good Hohlflöte is to be found as a 2' stop on the Upper Pedal of the Organ at Ulm Münster]....To explain the term 'Upper Pedal,' I must say that at Ulm, as well as in the Church of St. Paul, Frankfurt-on-the-Main, in the Marienkirche, Lübeck, and in the Stiftskirche, Stuttgart, there are two pedal claviers placed one above the other (like the manuals) instead of the customary single clavier."

To which Audsley adds a footnote:

"In our work, The Art of Organ-Building, Vol. II., pp. 145, 146 we give a Section and Plan of the double pedal claviers of the Ulm Organ, made from drawings furnished by Messrs. Walcker, of Ludwigsburg, the builders of the Organ."

Does anyone have more information about this curiosity? Is the original Walcker organ still at Ulm (actually very near to my grandparents' hometown)? How would one play an instrument of that sort? Is the second clavier shortened, like on a spinet? Any pictures?

[soubasse32]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??



Your wish is my command. [:)]

Here are some pics of Walcker organs - the first is from the Frankfurt Paulskirche:

Petersburg:

Stuttgart, Stiftskirche:

Click on the photos to display a larger version; you can also visit the fascinating Walcker website.

[Menschenstimme]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??



Fascinating, Captain . . .

[Philip the organist]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??



WOW! Way to go, SB. Certainly very curious designs. Have you ever played any of these? It looks like the swell shoes in Stuttgart go between the pedals; is that right?

Does anyone know the current state of these instruments?

[Philip the organist]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??



On perusal of the Walcker site, I discovered that the Ulm organ now has this console:

No more double pedals but it does have those wacky rubber rollers. How comfortable are these consoles to play? At first glance they look tricky, but I imagine I would get used to (and spoiled by) them pretty fast.

[soubasse32]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??



I haven't played any of these organs but have played quite a few with aRollschweller.

It is actually quite a nice device - too bad more consoles don't have them.

Once you get over the sensation of feeling like a dog pawing the grass [:P] you get used to it fairly quickly.

The great advantage is that the roller has a much more seamless crescendo effect, as there is a much greater range of travel than that afforded by a simple crescendo shoe.

You are asking about comfort of these consoles - are you referring specifically to the Rollschweller, or to the flat pedalboard, freie kombinationen, and/or the other accessories?

One swell shoeis indeedwedged amidst theupper pedal clavier at Stuttgart (in the photo; the console was destroyed in the war). I'd imagine the upper pedalboard would not be used for very virtuosic playing. I would tend to use it for softer/slower pedal passages in contrast to the main pedalboard.

[soubasse32]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

[quote user="Philip the organist"]On perusal of the Walcker site, I discovered that the Ulm organ now has this console:

[/quote]I don't think it likely that console is still there; a new Walcker was installed in 1969.

[Austin766]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

I'm still having a difficult time with the idea that there actually were organs built with more than one pedal clavier. I, like so many others have seen the consoles with the impossible number of manuals, and the jambs and rails, with the double boards (you know the ones, they're unplayable, and they're somewhere in the Mid-west like Iowa or somewhere), and I had never considered the fact that there ever were organs built with more than one pedal clavier.

[Philip the organist]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

[quote user="soubasse32"]


You are asking about comfort of these consoles - are you referring specifically to the Rollschweller, or to the flat pedalboard, freie kombinationen, and/or the other accessories?

[/quote]

To me the console just appeared rather oversized and it looked as if a short person would have to twist around to get to the pedal stops.. I guess that's why it was in Germany and not in Pygmyland. [:)]

EDIT: I just noticed that there is no music rack. Was the organist expected to always play from memory?

[regeron]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??



My understanding has always been that the second pedalboard had two basic functions: 1) to provide soft bass lines in contrast to the louder main pedal - this would be handy when there is quick alternation between loud and soft manual passages; 2) to allow the feet to play slower solo lines, either at low or high pitches.

For some reason, in my mind, I'm making a connection to Reger and the music of his time, but I will need to check some sources.

The second pedal board would operate in the plane that most of us use for the Swell shoes, so in that regard, it would feel as comfortable to play as our current Swell shoe assemblies. Like anything else, it would just take a little time to get used to.

Remember, too, that some German organs accomplished their crescendos/decrescendos by registering similar stops on different manuals, with the manuals arranged from stronger/bolder/louder on the bottom manual, and softer/gentler on the top manual. To playa decrescendo, you just walk up from bottom to top, one manual at a time.

Remember, too, that the churches in which one finds some of these organs had tremendous acoustics, far from our North American carpeted, dead, broom-closet style acoustics.

These organs also had typically larger percentages of 16' and 8' stops, which can make the Rollschweller's sound much smoother, no matter how it is mechanically achieved.

[soubasse32]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

[quote user="Philip the organist"]I just noticed that there is no music rack. Was the organist expected to always play from memory?[/quote]I'm sure the music rack was removed for that 'publicity shot' -it shows offsome of the controls that would otherwise be hidden.

[Guest]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

[quote user="soubasse32"]

Your wish is my command.  [:)]

Here are some pics of Walcker organs - the first is from the Frankfurt Paulskirche:

Petersburg:

Stuttgart, Stiftskirche:

Click on the photos to display a larger version; you can also visit the fascinating Walcker website.

[/quote]

I have this faint recollection that the Walcker in St. Petersburg was located in St. Catherine's Lutheran Church.   

[Brandon Tuomikoski]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

How do you operate the roller pedal?

[Austin766]

Re: Two Pedal Claviers??

[quote user="soubasse32"]

I haven't played any of these organs but have played quite a few with aRollschweller.

It is actually quite a nice device - too bad more consoles don't have them.

Once you get over the sensation of feeling like a dog pawing the grass [:P] you get used to it fairly quickly.

The great advantage is that the roller has a much more seamless crescendo effect, as there is a much greater range of travel than that afforded by a simple crescendo shoe.

[/quote]

I'd imagine they operate by either rolling the towards you or kicking them away from you.