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2004-11-13

 
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 08:58:22 -0500
Subject: [CB] KOK DVD
From: Timothy J Tikker

Hi Contrabassers,

Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but an organ recording of mine is about to be released -- on DVD.  The organ is a 4-manual, 68-rank Skinner with a wonderful 32' full-length Bombarde as well as several 16' stops, so should be of interest here.

_________

Timothy Tikker announces that on December 7, 2004 the Criterion Collection will release a 2-DVD set of Cecil B. DeMille's silent film classic "The King of Kings."  This special release features both the original 155-minute 1927 version of the film -- not seen for many years, and here fully restored -- as well as the more familiar 112-minute version.  The latter disc includes Mr. Tikker's specially-prepared improvised organ score, recorded on the magnificent 1925 E. M. Skinner organ at Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit, and recorded in CD-quality digital sound by Jim Stevens of Praestant Recordings.  Also included as an alternate soundtrack is the original 1928 Photophone score for orchestra & chorus realized by Hugo Riesenfeld; the 155-minute version has a new score by Donald Sosin.

For more information see: 
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=266
The DVD set will be available from the Organ Historical Society catalog:

http://www.ohscatalog.org/

...as well as all usual video outlets.

Mr. Tikker is organist at Ascension Lutheran Church in East Lansing, and College Organist at Kalamazoo College.  He won First Prize in the San Anselmo Organ Improvisation Competition in 1987, and Third Prize in the AGO Improvisation Competition in 1996.  He won the Holtakmp-AGO Award for Organ Composition in 1993.  He has recorded for the Arkay, OHS  and Raven labels.

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Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 09:05:44 -0600
From: "Gregg Bailey"
Subject: [CB] organ recordings featuring low notes


Dear List,

On the subject of pipe organs, since they can play lower than any other musical instrument if they have 32' stops, I wanted to point out a couple of recordings of organs where low stops are demonstrated.  There is an absolutely wonderful 2 CD-set of professor Thomas Murray giving an audio tour of one of the best organs in the world--the Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall at Yale where he is professor.  The first CD is the audio tour (which he narrates between his artful stop demonstrations), and the 2nd CD is a recital he gave there.  In CD 1, the Pedal 32' Violone and 32' Bombarde are demonstrated, as are several 16's.  The audio tour is a marvelous display of the many orchestral sounds that that organ posesses.  I think any musician or person interested in art music would enjoy this.

Another recording which may have been mentioned on this list sometime is a demonstration recital played on the world's largest organ at Atlantic City Convention Hall.  There is a track where the 64' Diaphone is demonstrated.  I don't know if the recording engineers were able to use recording equipment that could truly capture the fundamentals down to 8 Hz, because I have only played it on my little stereo.  However, you can at least hear the "beaters" vibrating down to 8 Hz!

Just thought some might be interested to know about these...

-Gregg


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Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 09:19:44 -0600
From: "Gregg Bailey"
Subject: [CB] P.S. organ recordings


By the way, I forgot to mention that I have the ordering information for the recordings I mentioned if anyone is interested.

-Gregg


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Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 08:53:12 -0800
From: "Chuck Guzis"
Subject: Re: [CB] organ recordings featuring low notes


On 11/13/2004,  Gregg Bailey  wrote:

>On the subject of pipe organs, since they can play lower than any other
>musical instrument if they have 32' stops...

Gregg, that's technically not true. 


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Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 09:15:44 -0800
From: "Chuck Guzis"
Subject: Re: [CB] organ recordings featuring low notes


On 11/13/2004,  Gregg Bailey  wrote:
>On the subject of pipe organs, since they can play lower than any other
>musical instrument if they have 32' stops...

Sorry for the incomplete prior posting, but my finger hit "send" too quickly.

Gregg, that's technically not true.  Many tuba players can flutter or double-tongue their instruments for some truly low-frequency notes.

At any rate, this begs the question if an 8 Hz note is really "musical" in the sense that it can be heard as a tone.

Cheers,
Chuck
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Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 11:06:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Andrew Phillips
Subject: Re: [CB] organ recordings featuring low notes


> There is an absolutely wonderful 2 CD-set of professor Thomas
> Murray giving an audio tour of one of the best organs in the world--the
> Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall at Yale where he is professor.

Did anyone else catch the article in Invention and Technology about that organ?  It was a terrific article and gives you a look at the scale of that enormous instrument (197 ranks)  It also describes the pneumatic relays that can be used to program - yes, program - sets of stops, which is usually done with electronics today, but the original 1920's system was painstakingly preserved.  Anyway, see if you can find that article, it's fascinating.
                     --Andrew Phillips

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