Comparison recording: Organ Sonatas,
Op. 65 #’s 2, 3 & 6, Peter Hurford, organ Argo 414420-2
This recording of the Mendelssohn Sonatas was
made on an electronic organ. The instrument capitalises on many
of the enormous improvements which have in recent years been made
as a result of the development of computers. Also much acoustical
research has been stimulated by unsatisfactory experiences with
older, simpler such instruments, such as the once ubiquitous Hammond
electric organ. This ‘Viscount’ instrument has a real ‘front end,’
that is real organ keyboard, drawstops, couplers, pedals, etc.
These all terminate in electric switches of course, but have been
cleverly loaded with weights, springs, and levers so they feel
to the experienced player like the real thing.
After many frustrating years of trying to perfect
electronic tone generators, electronic musical instruments now
virtually all use actual digital recordings of real acoustic instruments
to produce the basic sound wave form. One digital recording is
made of each note of the scale throughout the range of the instrument;
these recordings, stored in the memory of a computer, are then
selected and played back in tempo either directly from a keyboard,
or by means a computer program. This program can be ‘written’
by a musician playing on a keyboard and may include, besides pitch
and timing, such things as how hard the key is pressed down, as
well as use of pedals, drawbars, etc. Also, computer acoustical
calculations can produce a reverberant environment of astounding
realism. This digital stream is then fed directly into the CD
mastering lathe without requiring the use of loudspeakers, microphones,
or external mixers. The result has naturally been a quantum leap
forward in the ‘realism’ of the sound.
Not mentioned in the notes to this release is
the universal use of this MIDI (‘Musical Instrument Digital Interface’)
computer system which allows the digital recording of every aspect
of a musical performance including attack and release, key pressure
(‘aftertouch’), key force (‘velocity’). This allows the instrument
to reproduce the performance exactly whenever desired with vastly
greater realism than was ever possible with the "piano roll"
player pianos of 200 years ago. The obvious consequence is that
after the recording is made, each of these parameters can be individually
edited, and the performance brought to a virtually absolute level
of perfection. Since Dr. Elson’s performance is almost absolutely
perfect, I suggest he may have made at least some use of MIDI
editing capability although he does not say so.
The further consequence of this is that a person
such as myself with some musical sense but with virtually zero
keyboard skills can produce startlingly brilliant performances
of virtuoso keyboard works just by using computer editing. I am
very proud of my Liszt Dante Sonata, for instance; also
my Shostakovich 24th Prelude & Fugue. This in spite
of the fact that I flunked piano in the third year and never could
actually play anything beyond the simplest of the Purcell keyboard
suites.
I suggest that Dr. Elson has not gone nearly
so far as I do. I suspect he actually enjoys playing the works
at the keyboard and has enough skill to produce at least a creditable
first version and that any use of MIDI editing capability is only
to clear up an occasional difficulty here and there. Keyboard
artists say in interviews that the ability to correct a wrong
note here and there gives them the freedom to play with more emotion
and less worry, and that they produce much better performances
overall, not merely note perfect ones. If the editing were not
available, they would have to play more cautiously, and the many
retakes required to achieve note perfect recordings would result
in fatigue and a more timid approach, with less taking of risks.
In other words Dr. Elson is probably doing nothing more or less
than virtually every other recording keyboard artist today is
doing.
Does this recording sound "natural?"
Well, largely. It sounds like a small church organ in a relatively
dead acoustical environment. Dr. Elson may be feeling tracker
rods and levers and cogs, but they don’t make any sounds, and
in a real organ you can hear them. The "swell shutters"
just turn the circuit gain up and down; they don’t make any ‘frump’
sound, however quietly, and they don’t act differentially on the
harmonics of the sound the way real swell shutters do.
The playing is almost flawless. These are extremely
clear recordings and allow one to hear every detail of the music;
tempi and registrations and thoughtfully chosen and the overall
effect is very musical, but not very emotional, certainly not
exciting. Direct comparison with the Peter Hurford recording —
particularly appropriate since Dr. Elson is a friend of Dr. Hurford
— reminds us that the real organ can gasp and growl and shriek
and makes funny noises now and then whereas the Viscount retains
its dignity.
The price mentioned here, £13,000, for an organ
that never needs tuning or regulating; never drifts with the weather;
is immune to bats, birds, and mice building nests; is immune to
the effects of small earthquakes, heavy trucks driving by, and
sonic booms; is always ready to play at the turn of a switch;
and only uses as much electricity as a small light bulb, will
prove irresistible to churches. Expect one to come to a galaxy
near you very soon, and expect to see real pipe organs quickly
relegated to museums of musical history.
It was actually nearly twenty years ago in Vancouver,
Canada, that I saw the future before me. I was in a large German
restaurant being entertained by an oompah band. Everybody was
in authentic costume and the trumpeters were standing up front
blaring away, accompanied by the expected loud bass tuba — but
wait a minute, I couldn’t see any tuba! Then I saw a young fellow
way in the back playing the tuba part with two fingers on a Yamaha
DX7 synthesiser. The sound was perfectly realistic, and I was
probably the only one who noticed. Today, probably 75% of all
popular and commercial music is synthesized, and you probably
haven’t noticed.
Paul Shoemaker
Reg Elson, Viscount Prestige
[electronic digital sampler sequencer] Organ