How
to Register a Complaint
The Behemoth of
Instruments
part one: the console
part two: the pipe room
part three: how to register a complaint
The organ isn't merely
another instrument. It's a whole lot of other
instruments! Each "stop" controls an entire section,
or rank, of pipes with a specific sound. Activating
that stop allows the organist access to that
particular sound. Deep in the bowels of the organ,
however, the airflow has been prevented, or stopped,
from flowing through the other groups of
pipes, which is what gave someone in the distant past
the strange notion of calling the thing a stop rather
than a start.
It isn't necessary to use
only one stop at a time, however, and the endless
combinations of groups of two, three, or a dozen stops
is part of what makes organ playing so fascinating.
Actually, it is a lot like orchestration.
Suppose you are writing a
piece for an orchestra, and you decide that you'd like
a flute to come in and play a melody by itself. Or,
suppose you change your mind and decide to give the
tune to both the flute and the oboe player. Or the
flute, the oboe, the horn, and a couple of xylophones
(yikes!). One stop could represent each of these
players, and pulling the knobs (or, in some cases,
pushing buttons) for each one would cause each
"player" to join his colleagues in playing whatever
noise they are making at the moment.
Unlike a modern
orchestra, however, no two organs are quite alike.
They don't have the same list of stops, some have
quite a few more than others, and the ones they might
have in common often have slightly different sounds
according to the way they are built. When used
in combination, some stops might overpower other stops
on some organs and be well balanced on others. And
that doesn't even begin to address the vast
differences in organ building in different countries
or different centuries. The organ has quite a history.
All of which has caused
some composers to throw up their hands when it comes
to indicating what types of sounds they want from
their piece. Most pre-nineteenth century composers
don't bother to indicate what stops they wanted for
their music (including Bach), so the organist tries to
make an informed decision, mixing practicality,
historical authenticity, and his imagination.
The art of making these
sorts of decisions is called "registration". In many
recent compositions the composer may have indicated
which sounds he or she wants with a set of
instructions at the head of the composition that may
closely resemble the recipe for cousin Ed's pastry:
Sw. fl 8',4', pr 8'
gdt. 16' ns. 2 1/3'
Gt.
trpt. 8'
sqst. 4'
ob. cl. 4'
ped. 16' fl 32' bombard
couple sw. to gt.
(incidentally, this would
call forth a rather odd sound)
Add some vinegar, or a 4
foot flute
traverso in
measure 9 (where the score politely asks you to "add
4' flute traverso") and you are good to go.
In such a case it is up
to the organist to attempt to come as close to these
as possible to these concoctions on their own
particular instrument. Sometimes that calls for some
ingenuity, particularly if your composer worked in a
large French cathedral and you are playing a small
Midwestern organ which does not have many of your
composer's favorite stops.
Still, there are some
things most organs have in common. On most modern pipe
organs there are three basic families of sound. The
first is the flutes. Their ranks consist of flue
pipes (missing T) and they sound
like...well, flutes. While this may seem a bit dull,
there is quite a lot you can do with flute
stops. For one thing, you can brighten up
your basic tone considerably by combining it with the
upper octaves. Using an 8 foot flute in combination
with a 4 foot flute (one octave higher) and/or a 2
foot flute stop (2 octaves higher) would have an
effect
like this. It is a bit of
Brahms, called "Es ist ein Rose entsprungen" (lo, how
a rose e'er blooming). Notice the change in the sound
with the start of each section--first you are listen
to an 8 foot flute alone, and then in combination with
4 and 2 foot stops. Since the entire piece can be
played on one keyboard, without pedal, that makes a
grand total of 3 stops during the 'loud' parts.
Sensitive ears will notice that even 8
foot flutes stops are not created equal. For example,
the one on the upper manual of our organ (called a
"Bourdon,") does not sound quite like the 8 foot rohr
floot on the lower one. In this setting of Bach's "Lord Jesus, I
Call to you" (ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu
Christ) I use the Bourdon for the melody and the rohr
flute for the accompaniment, as well as a soft 8 foot
flute for that throbbing bass line in the pedals.
There was a time when
organs sounded like that, when only one sound was
available instead of many. But the plain vanilla days
went out about 400 years ago in most churches; there
are still a few very tiny organs with only one or two
stops in their arsenal in small chapels and small
rooms. One particular organ installed in a
conservatory practice room comes to mind. It was
possessed of an 8 foot flute and a 4 foot "Regal"
whose very unique noise simply can't be communicated
in writing. Unfortunately I did not have my digital
recorder in those days so you can't hear it. Let me
simply suggest that the devil will certainly want one.
The regal, like it or
not, is a kind of reed stop. This
family of stops adds some unique sounds to the organ.
Reed pipes have reeds inside them which vibrate when
the air is pushed through them, the same way a
clarinet or an oboe produce sound. (Most of the pipes
on the organ are known as flue pipes (no T), with no
moving parts inside; they produce sound purely by the
vibrating column of air rushing through.) On smaller
organs, reed stops are rare; the organ at Faith church
has only two, one on each manual. Reed pipes
generally sound like some sort of woodwind or brass
instrument. our upper manual is equipped with a
trumpet stop on our upper manual, the swell.
The lower manual on the organ at Faith U.M.C.
comes with a stop called a krummhorn. I'm not generally
a fan of krummhorns. I sometimes call them crummyhorns
because of their grating and abrasive sound. This one
sounds pretty good, I think. Maybe not too
pleasant, though. It still seemed like a good idea for a
short piece by Bach illustrating the sinfulness of
mankind: "Durch Adams fall ist ganz verderbt" (Through
Adam's fall everything got corrupted). It was Bach's
idea to introduce the falling 7ths (get
it?) in the foot pedals, and the chromatic
discomfort in the inner voice; I thought I'd help out by
using a somewhat gritty registration, featuring
krummhorns throughout. Have a
listen.
Then there are the string
stops. Some of them pull together two ranks
of pipes which are intentionally out of tune with each
other in order to make them pulse a bit. While I don't
think they sound very much like violins, string stops
do have a pacifying sound. I have developed a fondness
for music from the Renaissance (1400-1600 or
so). One of these pieces, a short number by
Michael Praetorius entitled "A Solis Ortus Cardine"
I've decided to register for strings alone (despite
the fact that Mr. Praetorius probably didn't have any
on his organ). It puts me in a contemplative mood.
Mutation stops have a
really curious sound. You can spot them right away
because they have interesting fractions below their
names: instead of flute 8' or flute 4' you get things
like nazard 2 2/3' or tierce 1 2/3.' Playing a
mutation stop by itself is quite an experience, since,
for example, the nazard 2 2/3' yields a note one octave
and a fifth higher than what you played--thus, a middle
C sounds like a high G. Usually they are used in
combination with some more down to earth stop like an
8-foot flute, as in the piece I'm going to play for you
here. It is a beautiful meditation on the baptism of
Christ, Dietrich Buxtehude's "Christ, Our
Lord, Came to the Jordan"
and the melody comes to us by way of an 8' bourdon and a
2 2/3' nazard acting in combination. However, for a
little fun, I also played the first minute of the piece
using the mutation stop alone without "grounding it"
with the 8-foot stop and you can listen to the results
here. I assure you that I played the same
notes in both versions. In the second version,
however, much of the melody (particularly at :41) sounds
as if it is in the wrong key. If you've ever heard an
organist who seems to be playing in two keys at once
(unintentionally), this may be the problem. However,
something even more interesting happens on this
recording. When the accompaniment enters, there are
times when the melody sound mixes with the 8-foot sounds
of the accompaniment and sounds as if it is in the
proper key again; then, as soon it is left alone, it
veers away again. If you love
overtones, the pipe
organ is certainly an instrument for you!
In addition to the flutes, reeds, and
strings, are the mixture stops. This
is probably the most interesting part of the organ; when
you deploy a mixture stop, several banks of pipes are
activated at once. If you depress a C, you might get a C
in one band of pipes, and a G an octave higher in
another band of pipes, and perhaps an E even higher up
on yet another band of pipes; the recipes are quite
various, really. Usually the roman numeral on the stop
tells you how many pipes are sounding at once, though
there is no single recipe for which ones. The mixtures
can be really rich (or really harsh) and are generally
used as part of a full organ sound, and only then.
Violating this rule results in a rather hollow sound.
I've done that on purpose in this little duet by Bach in
which the master of counterpoint is playing a joke
(note: the term duet here refers to two melody lines,
not two players). Listen to the goofy opening 'theme'
(merely a rapid up-and-down scale) and tell me Bach was
being serious. In order to 'play along' I come up with
this rather
weird registration.
In combination with a solid foundation
of principle flute stops, reeds, and possibly strings,
mixtures really enrich the sound. There is a majesty
that only that full organ can provide, which is why I
want to close with a piece by Eugene Gigout called
"Grand Cheour Dialogue" in which one loud grouping of
pipes alternates phrases with an even louder grouping of
pipes, which is pretty close to what our organ sounds
like when it is on full blast. It is a long way from the
top of the page, when a single 8 foot flute stop was
sounding alone. As if that weren't enough, I've piled on
the trombones in the pedals for a really bubbly bass.
Have a
listen.
Incidentally, you were
wondering about the title of this page? This will come
as a shock to my wife, but I have an occasional
weakness for awful puns. This is one of them. A
"Complaint" is actually a type of music. It is a
lament, and was quite popular during the Middle Ages,
as a sung dirge. In rare instances, more modern
composers for the organ have titled their pieces after
the French version of this "plantus," that is, a
"Complainte." If you play one of them, you naturally
have to make decisions about what stops to pull, that
is, to "register" them. You can send your unflattering
responses to this revelation to my cat. I'll be
busy practicing.
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