Dark Chocolate and the Pipe Organ

    You might claim that this is a rather strange juxtaposition, but it is not my intent to convince you. The king of musical instruments needs no advocate. My own tryst with the pipe organ began late at night one day in campus, that at the time was made sparse by SARS, when after dinner at the mess of Selaiyur Hall, I took a walk to the Bishop Heber Chapel, arriving at the time that the Choirmaster had assigned to me for practice. My first conversation with the two-manual instrument housed within was in C Major, on the 8' Oboe on the Swell.

    Non-organists (or even some amateur organists) would perhaps be confused by the technical terms in the last sentence. Fear not! This is the first of what would be a series of writings on the organ, all inspired by my own experience as someone pursuing organ-building professionally, and with the aim of building an educated group of friends for the pipe organs in India, of those who will play and listen with understanding. Like all good things, the organ takes time to study well. 

It begins with the sound that one must learn to expect. When you listen to any pipe organ, do not expect raucous volume. 

The pipe organ must not feel like gulping down a spoonful of cocoa powder.

Expect a cohesive intentional sound. This is only possible with good registration techniques. Stay tuned (pun intended) for more of my opinions on that subject. An organ where the stops chosen (registration) is good and pleasing will feel like your favorite kind of chocolate. Maybe you like your chocolate with fruits and nuts? Or perhaps you like smooth chocolate. Or one with crackers in it! Whatever your preference, there is a school and manner of organ playing to satisfy your ears as your favorite chocolate satisfies your tongue. The most acquired of accepted organ taste is of course that of dark chocolate. Here the purpose is the clarity of the music and the beauty of the registrations. 

I was moved to write this article today after I had fully processed the relief that I felt from reading that the closure of the Macy's department store in Center City Philadelphia would NOT be affecting the organ that dwells within. So, I share to you the Dark Chocolate of organ music: A long piece that demands a good organ and organist.

This link below takes you to a recording of one of the finest orchestral organists of this era. You hear Peter Richard Conte as he plays Bach at the console of one of the greatest organs of its kind ever built, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ. 

If you can find a quiet spot and listen to the whole work in one stretch and you are moved, you know how to listen well and you might possibly like dark chocolate. If you did not, there is other organ music that I am sure you will like, and I will share in the days to come. Dark chocolate is an acquired taste, after all. However, to them that claim that eating chocolate that is not sweet enough is pointless, I ask you this:

Do you eat chocolate for the taste of chocolate or because you want something sweet?

If you just want something that is ONLY sweet, then you have missed the point of educated listening to the Pipe Organ. One does not listen to the organ because it is loud or full of heavy bass, but for the various kinds tone you can achieve. 

If you just want the most exaggerated bass, you are like someone wanting the sweetest possible chocolate. After a certain point, are you eating chocolate or just sugar? The balance is paramount.

If you want the loudest sound at the cost of clarity, then you are like someone who likes the taste of cocoa so much they would consume it unprocessed. At that point it is avant-garde. No longer chocolate. Raw and noisy. Maybe even pushing the limits of what is considered harmonious.  (Perhaps I will talk of this tomorrow)

The highest form is Dark Chocolate because the focus is the cocoa itself but in the controlled context of chocolate. Any hint of sweetness does not detract from the impact of the chocolate. If you can sit through and slowly savor it like you would with a long and intense piece of organ music with artistic restraint in registration, then you attain the greatest pleasure and satisfaction from what others might call bitter. I myself was moved to tears when I first listened to Mr. Conte's recording. Better writers than I have penned praises of this educated listening. I close this article with this, my favorite-

“The Organ is in truth the grandest, the most daring, the most magnificent of all instruments invented by human genius. It is a whole orchestra in itself. It can express anything in response to a skilled touch. Surely it is in some sort a pedestal on which the soul poises for a flight forth into space, essaying on her course to draw picture after picture in an endless series, to paint human life, to cross the Infinite that separates heaven from earth? And the longer a dreamer listens to those giant harmonies, the better he realizes that nothing save this hundred-voiced choir on earth can fill all the space between kneeling men and a God hidden by the blinding light of the sanctuary. The music is the one interpreter strong enough to bear up the prayers of humanity to heaven, prayer in its omnipotent moods, prayer tinged by the melancholy of many different natures, colored by meditative ecstasy, upspringing with the impulse of repentance—blended with the myriad fancies of every creed. Yes. In those long vaulted aisles the melodies inspired by the sense of things divine are blent with a grandeur unknown before, are decked with new glory and might. Out of the dim daylight, and the deep silence broken by the chanting of the choir in response to the thunder of the Organ, a veil is woven for God, and the brightness of His attributes shines through it.”

- HONORÉ DE BALZAC