Organ reform movement

Last updated

The Organ Reform Movement or Orgelbewegung (also called the Organ Revival Movement) was a mid-20th-century trend in pipe organ building, originating in Germany. The movement was most influential in the United States in the 1930s through 1970s, and began to wane in the 1980s. It arose with early interest in historical performance and was strongly influenced by Albert Schweitzer's championing of historical instruments by Gottfried Silbermann and others, as well as by Schweitzer's opinion that organs should be judged primarily by their ability to perform with clarity the polyphonic Baroque music of J. S. Bach (1685–1750). Concert organist E. Power Biggs was a leading popularizer of the movement in the United States, through his many recordings and radio broadcasts. The movement ultimately went beyond the "Neo-Baroque" copying of old instruments to endorse a new philosophy of organ building, "more Neo than Baroque". [1] [2] [3] [4] The movement arose in response to perceived excesses of symphonic organ building, but eventually symphonic organs regained popularity after the reform movement generated excesses of its own.

Contents

Characteristics

Holtkamp Organ #1,939 (1978-2015) at University of Notre Dame Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame) Holtkamp organ (1978).jpg
Holtkamp Organ #1,939 (1978–2015) at University of Notre Dame

The Organ Reform Movement sought to turn away from many of the perceived excesses of Romantic or Symphonic organ building and repertoire, in favor of organs understood to be more similar to those of the Baroque Era in Northern Germany, especially those built by Arp Schnitger. This took the form of a "vertical" style of tonal registration in which ensembles were ideally built up with no pitch being duplicated in the same octave, and then the ensembles were crowned with high-pitched mixture stops. The movement endorsed the so-called Werkprinzip, in which each division of the instrument's pipework was based on a principal-scale rank of a different octave. [2]

Organ voicers strove for an articulate pipe speech characterized by a short burst of "chiff" sound at the start of each note, and avoided "nicking" the pipe edges and other techniques of achieving symphonic-style "smoothness". Low wind pressures were revived. Casework was sometimes eschewed in favor of open standing pipework, and shuttered swell boxes became less common. [3]

In Europe the movement was indelibly connected with tracker action (mechanical instruments). In North America this was less emphatic, and many US and Canadian instruments characteristic of the Organ Reform Movement had electro-pneumatic or direct electric action. [2] North American buildings tend to have substantial architectural and acoustical differences from the European churches where most organ music was written, and this also had implications for successful organbuilding. [5]

Some of the leading organ-builders of the movement were: [2]

Reversals

A common criticism of the Organ Reform Movement is that its principles were often taken to extremes and became more dogmatic than musical, [7] while ruining many fine symphonic organs and disappointing many listeners. [8] Many of the Reform instruments survive, but some of the alterations that the movement executed on pre-movement instruments have since been reversed to support a wider range of repertoire, such as on the notable pipe organs of Auckland Town Hall, [9] Princeton University Chapel, [10] and Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clavichord</span> Musical instrument

The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles-Marie Widor</span> French organist and composer (1844–1937)

Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher of the mid-Romantic era, most notable for his ten organ symphonies. His Toccata from the fifth organ symphony has become one of the best known and most often performed works for organ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipe organ</span> Wind instrument controlled by keyboard

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass. Most organs have many ranks of pipes of differing timbre, pitch, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organ (music)</span> Keyboard instrument

In music, the organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe divisions or other means for producing tones. The organs have usually two or three, up to five manuals, for playing with the hands, and pedalboard, with the feet. With the use of registers, several groups of pipes can be connected to one manual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565</span> Organ music by Johann Sebastian Bach

The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music written, according to its oldest extant sources, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The piece opens with a toccata section, followed by a fugue that ends in a coda. Scholars differ as to when it was composed. It could have been as early as c. 1704. Alternatively, a date as late as the 1750s has been suggested. To a large extent, the piece conforms to the characteristics deemed typical of the north German organ school of the Baroque era with divergent stylistic influences, such as south German characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aristide Cavaillé-Coll</span> French organ builder (1811–1899)

Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was a French organ builder. He has the reputation of being the most distinguished organ builder of the 19th century. He pioneered innovations in the art and science of organ building that permeated the profession and influenced the course of organ building, composing and improvising through the early 20th century. As the author of scientific journal articles about the organ construction details, he published the results of his research and experiments. He was the inventor of the symphonic organ being able to follow smooth and immediate dynamic changes like a symphonic orchestra. This goal was reached by: a) invention of harmonic flue and reed stops, such as the ''flûte harmonique'', ''trompette harmonique'', ''clairon harmonique'', b) invention of divided windchest with 2-3 different wind pressure sections, c) creation of groups of stops allowing for fast dynamics changes without taking hands out of the keyboards by the organist, d) organ specification planning on the base of ''orchestral quartet". His most famous organs were built in Paris in Saint-Denis Basilica (1841), Église de la Madeleine, Sainte-Clotilde Basilica (1859), Saint-Sulpice church, Notre-Dame Cathedral, baron Albert de L'Espée's residence in Biarritz, and many others. After Cavaillé-Coll's death, Charles Mutin maintained the business into the beginning of the 20th century. The organ reform movement in the 20th century sought to return organ building to a more Baroque style; but since then, Cavaillé-Coll's designs have come back into fashion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedal keyboard</span> Musical keyboard played with the feet, usually used for low-pitched notes

A pedalboard is a keyboard played with the feet that is usually used to produce the low-pitched bass line of a piece of music. A pedalboard has long, narrow lever-style keys laid out in the same semitone scalar pattern as a manual keyboard, with longer keys for C, D, E, F, G, A and B, and shorter, raised keys for C, D, F, G and A. Training in pedal technique is part of standard organ pedagogy in church music and art music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre organ</span> Type of pipe organ

A theatre organ is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest M. Skinner</span> American organ builder (1866–1960)

Ernest Martin Skinner was an American pipe organ builder. His electro-pneumatic switching systems advanced the technology of organ building in the first part of the 20th century.

The organ repertoire is considered to be the largest and oldest repertory of all musical instruments. Because of the organ's prominence in worship in Western Europe from the Middle Ages on, a significant portion of organ repertoire is sacred in nature. The organ's suitability for improvisation by a single performer is well adapted to this liturgical role and has allowed many blind organists to achieve fame; it also accounts for the relatively late emergence of written compositions for the instrument in the Renaissance. Although instruments are still disallowed in most Eastern churches, organs have found their way into a few synagogues as well as secular venues where organ recitals take place.

George Donald Harrison was responsible for the design of some of the finest and largest pipe organs in the United States. Born in Huddersfield, England, he first worked as a patent attorney in 1914 but after military service he began to pursue an interest in pipe organ building, working with Henry Willis & Sons of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schnitger organ (Hamburg)</span>

The organ of the St. Jacobi Church in Hamburg, was built from 1689 to 1693 by the most renowned organ builder of his time, Arp Schnitger. The organ boasts four manuals and pedal with 60 stops, 15 of which are reeds – and has approximately 4000 sounding pipes. All in all, from the organ's original installation and its condition today not much of its conception has changed. The old pipework and the prospect pipes have been preserved in almost original format. It is the largest organ in existence from before 1700 and is one of the most eminent Baroque instruments that have been preserved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pasi Organ Builders</span>

Pasi Organ Builders, based in Roy, WA, manufactures mechanical action organs and restores historic instruments. Martin Pasi received his first formal experience in organ building during a four-year apprenticeship with the Rieger Company in his native Austria. After working in Austria and in the United States, Pasi set up his own studio, Pasi Organ Builders, in 1990 in a former school building in Roy, Wash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Straube</span> Musical artist

Montgomery Rufus Karl Siegfried Straube was a German church musician, organist, and choral conductor, famous above all for championing the abundant organ music of Max Reger.

J. L. van den Heuvel Orgelbouw is a firm of pipe organ builders, based in Dordrecht, Netherlands. The company specialises in the construction of instruments in the French Symphonic tradition.

Marcussen & Søn, also known as Marcussen and previously as Marcussen & Reuter, is a Danish firm of pipe organ builders. They were one of the first firms to go back to classical organ-building techniques, and have been producing mechanical-action organs since 1930. Aside from their many instruments in Denmark, they have built organs in northern Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, South Africa, Japan, and the United States.

Otto Hofmann was a pipe organ builder and the first American president of the International Society of Organbuilders.

The Concerto pour orgue, cordes et timbales in G minor, FP 93, is an organ concerto composed by Francis Poulenc between 1934 and 1938. It has become one of the most frequently performed pieces of the genre not written in the Baroque period.

Richards, Fowkes & Co. is an American organ-builder. They make historical-style mechanical-action pipe organs. The firm is located in rural Ooltewah, Tennessee, just outside Chattanooga and was founded in 1988 by Bruce Fowkes and Ralph Richards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organist</span> Musician who plays any type of organ

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational hymn-singing and play liturgical music.

References

  1. Schweitzer, Albert (1906). Deutsche und französische Orgelbaukunst und Orgelkunst (in German). Breitkopf & Härtel. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Phelps, Lawrence I. (Spring 1967). "A Short History of the Organ Revival". Church Music. Concordia. 67 (1). Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  3. 1 2 Ambrosino, Jonathan (Spring 1999). "Present Imperfect". The Tracker. Organ Historical Society. 43 (2). Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  4. Owen, Barbara (1987). "Rosales Opus 11: The Trinity Cathedral Organ". Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Portland, Oregon). Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  5. Barnes, William Harrison (1952). The contemporary American organ, its evolution, design and construction. New York: J. Fischer. pp.  330–334.
  6. "The Schlicker Organ Company" . Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  7. Hendrickson, Charles (1976). "Nicking". The American Organist. American Guild of Organists. 10. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  8. 1 2 Gerber, James (May 2012). Ernest M. Skinner and the American Symphonic Organ (PDF) (D.M.A. thesis). Arizona State University. pp. 67–78. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  9. "Restored Auckland Town Hall organ ready to sing". City Scene. Auckland City Council. 7 March 2010. p. 1.
  10. "Princeton University Chapel". Mander Organs. 10 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2018.