Things that interest me

I suppose we all have things that interest us; things that others can possibly understand what would be so interesting or so inviting. For me it's the pipe organ.

I was thinking of this the other day when I picked up a copy a new book by Katie Hafner, entitled "A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano" Gould was one of the greatest interpreters of Bach in the 20th century and was also one of the most eccentric of performers. He would hum audibly during his performances and recording sessions, often wore an overcoat or even a heavy scarf on stage for fear of catching a cold, refused to shake hands with people because of a phobia or germs , and played on a special piano stool that had the legs sawed down by his father so that it appeared that he was literally reaching up to the piano from the floor.

Glenn Gould was highly critical of his own playing and recording and was usually unsatisfied by almost all of the instruments that he played, until he came across a particular Steinway piano, a "concert and artist" piano owned by Steinway and made available to famous musicians. This piano was called "CD 318" and Gould himself called his relationship with this particular piano "A Romance on Three Legs", hence the title of the book that I mentioned earlier.

I bring all of this up because this type of obsession is certainly not limited to pianists. In fact, I think that of all instrumentalists, organists are the individuals who have the greatest "personal" relationship with an instrument. Think of it; the instruments that organists play on are never owned by them, since a real pipe organ is well outside of the bounds of the budget of any person who has ever tried to play simultaneously with both hands and feet.

I began studying the organ early on when I was seven and still unable to reach the foot pedals but I fell in love with the pipe organ and soon discovered, unlike pianos, that there are really no two instruments that are alike. First of all, some have 56 notes on the manuals, some have 58 keys, although today the "standard" today is 61 notes in the manuals and 32 notes in the pedal. However, sometimes the pedal board is 30 notes, or even 25 notes, and sometimes it is flat, sometimes it is concave, sometimes it is concave and radiating..............

But wait, there is more. The types of individual sounds or stops, and even where they are located can be in different places. One stop labeled "rohrflote" ( a chimney flute) can be a totally different sound from one instrument to the next.

There is a group called the Organ Historical Society. Check out their website www.organsociety.org Yes, it will be the "meeting of the tribe" in just a few weeks because there is an annual convention where people who love the pipe organ in all of it's shapes and sizes and various permutations come together just to enjoy seeing how different the instruments can be. This year's convention is in Seattle and you can go, even if you don't play the organ. More than 2000 people usually show up for this convention each year.

Oh yes, and organists also know how to party.......................

If you are interested in the organ as a musical instrument I would recommend Craig Whitney's wonderful book "Pulling out all of the Stops". Craig Whitney is the Assistant Managing Editor of the New York Times and has been a reporter and foreign correspondent for the Times in New York, Saigon, Bonn, Moscow and Paris. He is also an amateur organist and his book is a homage to the instrument that he also fell in love with, just like the young kid from the east side of Detroit who was captivated by it many years ago when he was seven years old and could not yet reach the foot pedals.