A call from an organ console in France

     As I was typing out what was originally planned to be the blog for today (A study of pipe organ mutations) I got a call from a friend who I had not spoken to in a little while. We had become friends after running into each other at multiple choirs in Chennai and performing choral music together for many years. The call was surprising since she was currently a teacher in France! The video preview of the call was more intriguing though. She was grinning while sitting on a high bench that looked very much like an organ bench, and it was!

    It was a beautiful experience to see the joyful face of my student, because for some time, I had been her organ tutor. While I do not take classes formally, I have imparted my knowledge of the organ to many a curious musician and it is always so rewarding to see them take up the matter with interest. I had been tutoring my friend on the basics of understanding the pipe organ and had provided her homework. I shall post a copy of the last bit of teaching I shared and the homework also below along with a few pictures of the organ she called me from:

The French style organ you play has:

1. "Grand" - the main Grandest manual of your organ. The one in the middle, great power. Usually has the richest texture.
2. "Récit" - Something like the English "Swell" but without active dynamic controls. (If it does, it is a Récit expressif. You DON'T have this in your organ) commonly it features solo stops. (We will cover those later) This is for certain kinds of playing styles generally not common in India. (We will cover this later)
3. "Positif de Dos" - similar to the English "choir" division in that it is milder. I guess you can understand the construction internally from the name. It is at the very back, like the choir organ is on English organs like at The Kirk, Egmore. You can use this to add a lot of brightness to the sound or have the gentlest accompaniment. When the Grandorgue is too loud, the Positif can be used. 

Homework: Next time you get access, I want you to pull out all stops marked Bourdon and see which manual each one of the bourdons connect to. See how even with the same name, they have their own slight differences. (The one marked as 16' will speak an octave lower than the others for instance) So meet the Bourdons. Play scales/arpeggios with just that one Bourdon stop in its respective manual and get a feel of it. See how it responds to the acoustic and listen as intently as you can. You will understand how the position inside the organ changes the sound and the organ-builder's tonal vision in how this most basic foundation sound should be.

Since she had become busy with work shortly after, we had temporarily suspended classes. Imagine then, when she video calls me, plays me some Bach and the homework live and cheekily claims that the homework has been completed! Truly there are few sources of bliss. Music is one of the highest and how greater does it grow as one gives to the eager student!