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December 16, 2024: But Even a Few Minutes Spent in Contemplation of the Organ And My Mind Is Too Blown Apart to Continue


Organ Music Part 1: Kali Malone, Éliane Radigue & Frédéric Blondy, Fibonacci Drone Organ, Rob Frye, Ellen Arkbro, Kassel Jaeger, Daniel Bachman and Friends, Jeff Thompson, Lather, Philip Glass, Allison Jones, Aine O'Dwyer, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Matchess, Olivia Block, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Midnight Sun, Tim Hecker, Huw Morgan, Ozbolt, FUJI||||||||||TA

Carl Aagesen's text message reply addressing the Resurgence of Organ Music ( @totallymoon https://www.carltuner.com/ )

I expect the organ is going to have a renaissance in a way we could never have expected. As a piano technician, it is natural for me to want great things for any instrument, but even a few minutes spent in contemplation of the organ & my mind is too blown apart to continue.

Despite my familiarity with several kinds of sound production, the organ baffles me to no end. It is only a matter of time before people begin to witness in magnitude the mysteries of the organ, which are inextricably linked to the mysteries of the cathedrals, both of which are connected to our birthright & inheritance of true magic in this realm. Even a cursory glimpse of the histories of such things are beyond comprehension.

Once we are able to draw the correct correlations between resonance, architecture, frequency, and the human spirit, people will remember the fact that organs were once built into the bones of cathedrals as the focal point of gratitude for the joy of existence. The need for them will be greater than ever. The search for tone, from Pythagoras cutting pipes to a million people twisting knobs on digital synths, is an unfathomable tradition.

Playing the organ itself is not for mere mortals. Anyone with a skilled command of it is above my pay grade. But their very existence is more puzzling than any living historian can satisfy. I do believe that people en masse will have to return to the organ, to contemplate the obsession of a few people, over a thousand generations, searching for the perfect way to bring us all music.

The organ is easily the most effective & elusive success of civilization, so much that I often wonder if the technology came from elsewhere. "We know" that the first fortepiano mechanism was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1711, but its immediate predecessor, the harpsichord, largely prevalent all over Europe from the 1200s-1700s – nobody knows who created the harpsichord. No one knows for sure who discovered equal temperament, & despite several different arrangements & prototypes, nobody knows for sure who decided to settle on how to arrange the naturals and sharps themselves.

When we look into the pipe organ, there are allegedly records of the first pipe organs from 350 BCE. Flutes of any kind, if the normal historical record says that they appeared 35,000 years ago, I’m fine with that. But several thousand flutes, some the size of a pencil and others 32 feet high, all connected to bellows and stops (usually operated by people other than the player) and ultimately controlled by someone playing two keyboards with their hands & one dancing with their feet?

When & where in history did all of the updates, revisions, and innovations of the pipe organ take place? How did the tradition of building & maintaining them survive? Soon more of us will be asking these questions, not only out of amazement, but for the well-being of all people. Evidence shows that sound is healing. And there was a point in time when people knew this so fundamentally that they ached for millennia, just to strive to build the most technologically advanced instrument of all time. I have yet to express these sentiments to a single person that works with organs, so my fascination might be due to pure ignorance, but I really don't think so.



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