Questions tagged [organ]
A large musical instrument having ranks of tuned pipes sounded by air from a windchest, and played using one or more keyboards and commonly a pedalboard to produce a wide range of timbres. The ranks of pipes are controlled by stops around the keyboards.
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How does a pipe organist deal with latency or delay?
I've seen church setups (choir loft in back) where the organ console is 30 Meters or more away from the pipes. That implies that there would be a minimum of 100 milliseconds from pipe sounds back to ...
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Why don't organs have weighted keys?
An organ (especially a pipe organ in a church) is the most expensive instrument in the world, I saw some even cost in the millions of dollars. I've read a lot of mixed things about weighted/unweighted ...
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What does a long arrow pointing up and down mean in an organ score?
What is the meaning of this symbol (long vertical arrow) in old organ notation?
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Which accidental continues through the bar?
Messiaen's Prelude for Organ (no opus number, discovered posthumously in 1997, composed probably circa 1929) is rife with ambiguous accidentals. Some can be figured out by examining similar passages, ...
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What does Grt. and Sw. mean in this organ score?
I've come across a piece of sheet music for an organ and I was just curious what the Grt. marking above measure 1 and 17 means and what the Sw. marking above measure 9 means. I've seen it before in a ...
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What's the best method for learning how to play triplets over quavers?
I've always struggled to play pieces where one part is in quavers (or any multiple thereof) and another is in triplets (or any odd number).
I'm going to have to finally conquer it, as I am attempting ...
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How to tune a Roman water-organ (hydraulis)?
I am trying to reconstruct the tuning of the Roman water-organ (hydraulis) of Aquincum. The original instrument had 13 pipes for each of the 4 registers (three stopped pipe registers and one open pipe ...
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J.S.Bach's organ tablature notation
Is anyone familiar with some freely available guide explaining in detail how to read Bach's organ tablature notation?
Apparently, Bach was very comfortable in using the tablature notation, ...
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What does the "+" symbol mean in a keyboard piece when attached to a note?
In a Daquin pipe organ piece, "Noël «Suisse»" from his "Livre de Noëls", I see this notation in the Right Hand system:
This is notated this way in the Oxford Book of Christmas Organ Music. How should ...
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What is distinctive about the Hammond B3 organ?
Reading the credits of a jazz or blues album you might come across a musician who played using a Hammond organ (not just any organ, but a Hammond). I know that the Hammond has a long and storied ...
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What is the reason for the many manuals on a pipe organ?
Pipe organs may have as many as five "manuals", each of them almost the size of piano keyboard, and if would not be enough may even feature the feet keyboard. And my 88 key piano keyboard already ...
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Organ technique for pianists
I've been playing the piano for 15-odd years, so I like to delude myself into thinking that I'm somewhat skilled. However, my question revolves around the organ. I've played the organ for 5-odd ...
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Authorship of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565
An earlier question mentions the disputed authorship of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565. Several musicologists allege that the work has stylistic elements that are problematic for the ...
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Unknown Ornament Notation - Three horizontal short lines
This nonation appears on Partite diverse sopra l'Aria 'Schweiget mir von Weiber nehmen' by Reincken, Johann Adam, IMSLP #04945.
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Are instructions on organ stop settings included in the notation of Baroque organ music?
I am currently listening to a collection of Bach's complete organ works for the organ. I love Baroque music and Bach in particular, but I am not very familiar with the organ from the performer's ...
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How to deal with the extreme reverberation in big cathedrals when playing the pipe organs?
While playing the pipe organs in cathedrals or churches with huge echo/reverberation, I noticed that along with the delay/latency (when the pipes are not close enough to the ears) comes the second ...
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How can I make my keyboard sound like a Hammond organ?
I have a keyboard. It can play the basic MIDI sounds. I would like it to have a Hammond organ sound. Since I'm not sure if I can upload new sounds to its MIDI bank, I'm looking for a way to 'effect' ...
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What is the point of notes lower than human hearing
(Scientific pitch notation)
For example:
Organs can go down to C-1
Hyperbass Flute goes down to C0
And these notes have neglegible overtones on these instruments!
Do they modulate other notes?
They ...
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How to learn to play the pipe organ?
I have been playing piano for about 13 years now. I want to go to the next level: playing church pipe organs.
A few weeks ago, my dream to play a church pipe organ became true, after a Catholic mass ...
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Nomenclature for pipe organ keyboard compass
When going through pipe organ specifications (such as this historic Arp Schnitger's organ in St. Jacobi), I came across a peculiar nomenclature for the manual / pedal compass (as of 1693):
I ...
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Slurred half circle symbol
As an organist-amateur I recently bought "An Easy Bach Organ Album". In BWV 691 there's a symbol which looks like a half of a circle, or a small letter c. Moreover, the symbol is connected with the ...
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Which Bach chorale preludes are appropriate for different times of the liturgical year?
Is there a guide available that assigns all of Bach's organ chorale preludes to appropriate times in the liturgical year?
Bach himself began such a catalog in the Orgelbüchlein. That's the sort of ...
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How do tonewheel organs sound coherent?
So there are notes that the key nominally doesn't play in an organ note if the drawbars are pulled out. Yet if I pull all the drawbars out and play a chord, it sounds like a coherent chord. A C minor ...
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Why don't we see jazz music played on the church organ?
I'm just curious as to what about let's say a saxophone makes it very well suited to jazz music and what about the church organ makes it unsuitable for jazz music.
Is there something innate to the ...
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What do shorter-than-thirty-two-note MIDI pedalboards bar you from playing?
There have been questions before about what utility can be derived from a two-octave keyboard in terms of learning any keyboard idioms. Well, two five-octave MIDI controllers and a volume pedal seem ...
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How does Durufle's Prelude and Fugue on the name of ALAIN translate to musical notes?
I love Maurice Durufle's Prelude and Fugue on the name ALAIN, but I don't understand the mapping of the name "A-L-A-I-N" to the musical notes "A-D-A-A-F".
Various websites such as ...
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Strange Ornamental Symbol on Bach Piece
This is from the marvelous andante from Bach’s organ trio sonata BWV 528. What does this symbol mean on the stave of the second keyboard? I am assuming it is ornamental. Is it just a strange version ...
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Clef for the organ pedals
What type of bass clef is used for the organ pedals: regular bass clef, or 8va bassa?
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What is the minimum pedal keyboard compass needed to play ALL of J.S. Bach's pipe organ music?
Simple straightforward question: What is the minimum pedal keyboard range needed to play ALL of J.S. Bach's pipe organ music?
Optional ways to embellish the answer:
Did Bach ever write a piece for ...
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Linking organ pedals to a keyboard
Having 'rescued' the bass pedals from an old organ, I wish to use them as add-ons to my keyboards, when the bassist can't make it.What is a simple way to connect them so that they work through the ...
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Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality between a mechanical pipe organ and an electronic one?
What I'm trying to get a feeling for is how well an electronic organ can mimic the sound of a pipe organ. I know there are very advanced electronic organs where every single note for every stop is ...
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Is real organ music playable with digital piano?
Is it possible to learn and play some classic organ music like J.S. Bach_ Toccata & Fuga on a 88 key digital piano, after switching the sound generator into "organ" mode? There is only one manual, ...
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Why do some organs have multiple keyboards? [duplicate]
I've seen very different organs: pipe organs, bubble organs, electric organs, steam organs and etc.
Why do some have one keyboard while others have two-three or even more?
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Numbers at the start of hymn [duplicate]
In my school hymn book I always see numbers and a name at the start of a hymn, eg
Slane 10 11 10 10
Or 'irregular'
What do these mean? Are they indications for the organist?
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Practicing pedalling without pedals, or maximizing real practice efficiency
I only get about an hour-and-a-half's access per week to practice on a 'real' organ.
Needless to say, my progress at pedalling is painfully slow.
Are there any ways to practice pedalling without ...
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How can I make my hammond chord organ sound like a keyboard or piano?
I have a Hammond organ and really want to play invisibly shaken by Rodney Atkins and can't seem to find the right tone. In the song the music sounds like it is coming from a keyboard or piano. How can ...
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Understanding Organ notation
I try to arrange an organ work from Maurice Durufle (his Requiem, mid 20th century), but I struggle to understand some of the specific organ notations:
What do "R", "G", "G.R.&...
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How to improvise on organ
I feel quite comfortable doing piano improvisations, but I am very limited when talking about the organ improvisations.
Specifically, talking about the left hand, on the piano I can do the specific ...
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What does "of the first/second/third/etc. tone" mean in Iberian keyboard music?
For example, "Tiento de 5° tono" - The fifth tone? Mixolydian? I'm not sure about whether "tono" refers to a scale mode because the music is scattered with accidentals that don't seem to follow the ...
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Cents vs semi-tones on guitar
I was wondering, since we can tune our guitars by cents we can make them sound anywhere close to the note we need. So we can have open A be not 440 but 448 for instance. What restrictions are there ...
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Could the organ I’m selling be a fire hazard?
I have an '80s electronic organ and have agreed to sell it come the end of this week. I dropped something inside it this morning and tried to take it out and noted that the organ is incredibly dusty ...
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When combining a mechanical and digital manual into a single organ, how would you handle the difference in delay?
When I combine 2 organ manuals, a mechanical and an electronical one into a single instrument, how would you setup the delay from the position of the organ player?
Let's assume the mechanical manual ...
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What is this dial on the organ in the Berliner Dom?
What is this dial on the organ in the Berliner Dom?
I am guessing that the dial may have something to do with air pressure but why would it be needed and what units do the numbers represent?
Here is ...
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what do IV or a I or a III with a 3 or 5 above it mean?
I am a professional organist who has been self -teaching improvisation from an organ improvisation textbook by Marcel Dupre, titled "Complete Course in Organ Improvisation, volume 1."
At ...
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What are the practical uses, what are the techniques that can be invented, for a pitch bender on a combo organ?
Look at this pedal's effects. I'm getting it to use with a combo organ; its delays, rotary simulator, chorus, drive, ring modulator, and reverbs are certainly all useful for an organ, as well as the ...
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Digital home organ bass resonance
I got a home organ in my living room, and I get a lot of bass resonance. I'm looking for easiest ways how to get rid of these. The room is 350x590cm and 260cm high, the organ stands in the corner, ...
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What does Arauxo mean by "primero/segundo/... tono"?
In Francisco Correa de Arauxo's Faculdad Organica, he titles his pieces like "Tiento de primero tono". A complete recording of the Faculdad Organica is here: https://open.spotify.com/album/...
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Are there general rules for playing a three-voice organ piece without pedals?
I've been fixing up an old reed organ, and would love to play some of Bach's organ works on it; for example, I've had my eye on the chorale prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 645).
The ...
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Choosing instrument played by midi pedalboard connected to keyboard
I got a 30 note pedalboard (with a 5-pin midi connector) that I want to use with my two keyboards (Yamaha P-155 and Kaway CA13) to play simultaneously on all three. The problem is that when I connect ...
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Difference between notes and recoding of performed BWV anhang 122
During the past weeks I've been studying BWV anhang 122, the march in D major. Sheet music can be found here.
I'm more or less able to perform the piece, though not yet at the tempo indicated by the ...
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