Italian Opera, German Composer, English Arranger.

     Following on from previous blogposts, Today I talk more about organ-building. Especially the four families of organ tone: PRINCIPALS, FLUTES, STRINGS, and REEDS. This is not an easy subject to teach, especially to those completely new to the world of pipe organs. Hence, we return to the matter of chocolate. There are many schools of organ-building, and this post is for the lovers of smooth milk chocolate. Texture as rich as silk.

    The music for the listening assignment for today is taken out of the Baroque era, with music in a Romantic arrangement by English organist and composer George Clement Martin. This recording is of Massimo Gabba (Organ professor at the "Guido Cantelli" Conservatory of Music in Novara, Italy) at the console of the Mascioni organ of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Alessandria, Italy. He plays the opening aria "Ombra mai fu" from Handel's opera Serse (HWV 40), One commonly known today as Handel's Largo. Please scroll down to find the YouTube link.

As you listen to this gorgeously tender piece of music, I would like to observe how the different families of organ tone interact in a simple work like this:

1. How warm it sounds at the outset. That is because the stops and sounds chosen include a lot of the STRINGS and FLUTES, really building up a tone that seems to be like velvety chocolate that melts in your mouth.
2. At 0:50 though, the organist shows some more restraint. A beautiful solo FLUTE sings out and replaces what would usually be sung in the original Handel piece. The FLUTE is quite lyrical. It takes the limelight, and you might be tempted to give it all your attention, but I must guide you away and to the sounds forming the accompaniment. That straightforward and yet firm sound is the PRINCIPAL stop, the backbone of the Pipe Organ sound and the foundation on which the rest of the organ tone is built. You still have some warmth from the Bourdon bass in the Pedal which is a FLUTE but notice how it works with the PRINCIPAL to paint a nice backdrop for the solo FLUTE to sing in. Perhaps how a raisin is set into your favorite milk chocolate and how even though you can enjoy raisins in isolation, the context of chocolate is paramount!
3. At 2:37 the accompaniment steals the limelight. The foundation of the PRINCIPAL stop is now built upwards with its siblings at various pitches to provide a tone of vibrance and of power, quite majestic. When a full or near full PRINCIPAL chorus is used, like it is here, you get a feeling of chocolate with the finest ingredients and of layers of flavor. This elevated nuance comes from the complexity of the pipework speaking together, a subject I would love to tell you about much later.
4. At 2:59, restraint returns but with a REED stop this time. A REED Oboe takes over the song from the FLUTE and the FLUTES join the PRINCIPALS as the accompaniment. You hear them set the background together, the bright and airy FLUTE and the firm and regimented PRINCIPAL mix and hover gently as the REED Oboe soars over them.
5. The piece closes with near-full organ again, The PRINCIPAL sounds leading and the other stops following and providing that cohesive rich organ timbre that many associate with this instrument.

I hope that this proves more than anything that the organ is an incredibly complex instrument in its many tonal colors and that this instrument that is often thought of as a loud and angry monster is actually a gentle giant. Capable of the grandest roars and the gentlest poetry.