Why The Organ Is The Future of Music

the organ is one of the oldest instruments in the world and yet if you think about it the organ really is a huge complicated synthesis [Music] it's common for the organ to be stereotyped as a church instrument as something belonging to our past and while it's true that the organ does have a rich history in our churches and Cathedrals it's so much more than a relic of our past consider the peace you're listening to right now this is actually a work for solo organ yet it's totally modern showing all the technological possibilities of a modern organ this is just a hint of what the modern organ can offer and it's a testament to its vast potential so let's cast aside any stereotypes and explore the untapped potential of this ancient instrument how could the organ this massive multifaceted musical Marvel change the future of music organs didn't start as the Majestic multi-keyboard machines that we know today earliest organs were much more humble in design featuring just a single keyboard known as a manual and just one set of pipes as time went on organ Builders began to add more sets of pipes of different octaves and timbres these could be added and removed at will with mechanical draw knobs called stops in medieval Europe portable Bellows operated organs with two or three stops were popular at dinner parties and other social Gatherings small instruments like these are still being made today Take This Modern chamber organ from Gloucester Cathedral for example in organ terminology a sounding octave is given in feet eight foot plays the pitch that you'd expect the written pitch forfeit plays an octave higher and two foot plays an octave higher than that together they merge to produce a full Rich sound [Music] [Applause] larger organs also had 16 foot and mixtures lots of high-pitched pipes which give that famous organ Sheen organ Builders were still not satisfied however there was still no way to differentiate Melody from accompaniment some Builders experimented with a split keyboard different stops for the treble and different stops for the bass halves the more enduring solution however was just adding more keyboards manuals meant more possible tomorrow variation across the full range of the organ despite the addition of all these manuals the organ is counter-intuitively still fundamentally a One keyboard instrument there is one main manual the great and every other manual can be connected or coupled to the Great if we stop therefore can be played on the great Davey Jones doesn't need to play on three keyboards at once he's just making life hard for himself but still in this early era a big challenge remained freeing up the left hand due to the organ's design the left hand had to constantly hold the bass notes this led to rather cramped hand positions enter the pedal board now organists could start playing additional lines of Melody with their feet by the 19th century the pedal's main role was us the base section of the organ adding a rumbling depth to the organ sound let's listen to a snippet from Bach's Fugue in C major notice how Bach cleverly saves the pedals for the climactic moment the big bass pipes thundering out the return of the Fugue subject [Music] foreign [Music] we're covering a lot of music and history in this video but if you want to explore more of this great music in your own time then Apple music classical is a perfect tool for the job their dedicated organ page for instance showcases curated playlists of great organ music it also shows recent releases popular organists and renowned Works complete with insightful notes let's click on one of these famous works box Takata and Fugue in D Minor now you can read about it you can listen to the editor's choice recordings or you could browse other Renditions which can be sorted by popularity or release date you want more Bach well if you click on his name you can then explore curated playlists popular works by Bach latest albums of his music his biography and even related composers so enjoy this deep and wonderful Rabbit Hole of classical music Discovery with apple music classical click the link below for more and if you're new then you can enjoy a free trial with this link back to to the video as the symphony orchestra grew and developed in the Romantic Period so did the organ composers began using the organ to emulate the orchestra leading to a variety of innovative techniques and additions to work around the organ's lack of a sustain pedal organists develop sophisticated finger Legato techniques such as finger substitution [Music] and thumb Legato scales the organ and organ music also began to explore different families of sounds there was principles flutes [Music] strings and various reads including soft reads such as clarinets and oboes and Loud reads such as tubers and the pedal trombones foreign music rarely mixed the different families romantic music would blend them together into a symphonic melange another significant development were expression pedals for this invention organ notes would be one single sustained volume but these expression pedals control a set of shutters allowing for real crescendos and diminuendos that were previously impossible another new development was these little buttons below the manuals called Pistons these allowed stop changes without taking the hands off the keyboard combining the swell pedal and the Pistons allows for complete Dynamic control from the softest whisper to the loudest Roar [Applause] composers like Guillermo Frank and Vidor in France and list and rhaegar in Germany began writing complex pieces for the organ organ Builders pushed forwards designing new instruments that could accommodate this growing repertoire their Creations like the merseyburg cathedral organ the Thomas kirka organ in Leipzig the sons of Peace organ in Paris and the Hereford Cathedral organ in England are landmarks in the history of organ music the of the Romantic symphonic organ is found in the Anglican Coral tradition here the full symphonic colors of the organ are used not just for full organ solos but even for hymns Psalms and particularly choral accompaniments let's look at the first bars of Herbert Howells like as the heart the organist can orchestrate this short section in several ways they might play it as writ with soft foundations [Music] or they might bring out the melody on a solo color they might start with strings and use solo colors to highlight a contrapuntal line foreign with so many options the organist has to essentially become a co-composer at the same time in France a radical New Movement was developing composers began exploring the unique vibrant colors that only an organ could create early French romantic composers like tunmir and VM started these Sonic experiments but the torch was carried forwards by Olivia Messiah messian's main Innovation was with the mutation stops sound at non-octive harmonics such as the twelfth called the Nazar [Music] and the 15th called the tiers [Music] notice that James is playing the exact same keys on the manual but it produces different pitches messian's genius was exploiting the full potential of the mutations creating ethereal sounds no other instrument could replicate French composers of the 20th century such as Marcel Dupre and Jan demisier also pushed the boundaries of organ virtuosity listen to this segment of as Cash's evocation Katra the interweaving quarter note figure is an oral illusion you can hear the fundamental pitch even though it's not actually being played notice also the expanded role of the feet which are not just freed from the Baseline but even playing two notes at once today we see a rise in organ eclecticism with instruments designed to play any previous style of organ music the increasing standardization of organs makes them more predictable for composers to work with digital organs are also on the rise becoming more accessible than ever they can be integrated into digital audio workstations such as logic Ableton or Cubase and they can even be rented into venues believe it or not the organ you've been hearing in this video is actually a digital instrument Gloucester Cathedral currently has a fully sampled version of the Hereford Cathedral organ using organ software called helped verk while their main organ is being refurbished any music producer can do what has been demonstrated here right from the comfort of their home this has massive implications for the potential of organ music and performance with this digital setup traditional organ sounds can be augmented by any synth or sampler imaginable let's revisit this Courtney Swain piece Courtney created her own virtual instruments in Ableton sampling her own voice singing individual syllables of a text that she also wrote herself these samples are triggered round robin style when any key is pressed Courtney wrote this piece in memory of a friend who had recently passed away her voice merges with the organ and the cathedral acoustic creating an intimate spirituality no other instrument could provide modern technology offers vast potential for the organ take the extraordinary modern organ interface from Saint Peter's Church in Malmo Sweden this console has two large touchscreen interfaces looking almost more like a Tesla than a traditional organ not only does this console control a massive array of stops you can control the tuning of individual pipes the delay of sound between different pipes or even different corners of the cathedral and so much more the potential for musical invention is endless and don't forget when you're playing the organ you're not just playing an instrument you're playing the whole building as we look to the Future there's immense potential for the organ particularly in the realm of its potential for synthesis firstly there's a matter of technique synth players could draw valuable lessons from organ technique looking back at the developments we've covered in this video we see a treasure Trove of techniques that could be applied to solve modern synth player problems from finger Legato techniques that reduce the need for a sustain pedal to the use of expression pedals for the dynamic control of otherwise static sounds the pedalboard in particular could free up a synth player's hands for more creative roles but the organ's rich history also provides a road map for modern synthesized music but rock music offers insights into developing modern polyphonic sounds Romanticism demonstrates how a single keyboard patch can produce symphonic sounds with the right playing techniques modernism pushes the boundaries of what is possible with two hands and feet Corey Henry's famous Lingus solo is a prime example of the intersection between organ and synth technique having grown up playing a Hammond in church the organ influence permeates his whole approach to this solo he Stacks keyboards the Hammond way with the solo keyboard on top even the E piano sounds like an organ with the layered strings listen to how his organ-like chord voicing and voice leading creates an almost religious serenity thank you consider also the potential for live ambient music Rob Scallon has shown how real organs can be controlled through a computer however he barely scratches the surface of what could be done Innovative coding using audio middleware like fmod or wise could lead to unprecedented interactive acoustic possibilities regular organs are also more relevant than ever the popularity of soul and Neo-Soul music could pave the way for the organ to gain new prominence imagine the power of gospel music played on a huge organ and remember the future of live organ music might not be in Grand Cathedral instruments but in the smallest ones their portability intimate sound and convenience make them better suited for Innovative Ensemble work and even Jazz ensembles your local church may have an instrument more inspiring than the largest cathedral in the world so remember the organ isn't just a relic of the past it's an instrument of the future with a symphony of untapped potential waiting to be discovered foreign [Music]

Channel: Inside the Score

Views: 172,037

Keywords:

Id: 2y3s0bg0l0c

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2023