Post by KTJ on Feb 16, 2019 18:33:49 GMT 10
Dutch organist Sietze de Vries is an internationally-acclaimed concert musician who specialises in the art of improvisation. In this series of videos, he performs on the historic French renaissance organ (built in 1557) at Saint-Savin en Lavedan in France. This organ dates back to 128 years before the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. Typical of most organs of its era, it has limited compass with the single short-octave manual containing only 36 notes and with a limited short-octave pedalboard.
These performances, recorded in July 2017, are composed entirely of improvisations being played on this historic organ, which has tonal character in spades, but which requires particular attention to correct phrasing. Note in particular the en fenêtre keyboard action where the keys project foward of the organ's casework and the trackers are suspended in such a way that they attach to the individual keys foward of the pivot point at about the half-way position. This is completely different to more modern organs which use a balanced key action whereby each individual key is a fulcrum with the trackers being suspended below and attached to the rear of the keys, resulting in the necessity for reverse cranks in the action. Also note the stop action levers which directly control the sliders in the windchest stopping each rank of pipes or allowing individual ranks to speak when the lever is moved sideways.