Continuo |
by Steve Panizza
The description of a post-pandemic course offering at the University of Minnesota titled "Design for a Disrupted World" motivated me to innovate new designs for a family of 43-note cabinet organs. I call this my collaborative classical coffee shop approach to the organ.
I recently finished the design work for a 43-note early 19th-century continuo organ that cost-effectively repurposes available material from the first organ I built into a collaborative instrument for accompaniment, one that will likely benefit an alternative-use art, atrium, performance, or liturgical space.
Think of the organ in terms of tradition. Tradition, though, must evolve to remain relevant. So please think of this 43-note work tool in terms of what it can do, not what it cannot do.
With a continuo design architecture that recycles old organ pipes with new, I evolved tradition to produce a 43-note instrument with a sustainable cost of ownership and the innate ability to invite a diverse set of musicians to participate in its use.
In designing to employ Victorian pipes of broader scale, I combine timbres through the blended use of recycled pipework from eras past to produce tonal diversity in an instrument that maintains a resplendent and unified plenum tone.
With the simplicity of a proven mechanical key and stop action and with everything inside comfortably accessible and maintainable, the 43-note continuo undeniably offers a sustainable cost of ownership that provides a community of musicians with affordable access to the pipe organ, they might not otherwise have.
My grandfather Stefano immigrated to this country from the small village of Vermiglio, located in the northern Italian Alps. The alpine region of Europe is one of shared culture regardless of national borders. This understanding allows me to craft a design narrative that I identify as my own, seemingly passed down through an ancestry of shared cross-border culture that engendered a strong sense of community and purpose through art, architecture, and daily ritual.
The people of this region evolved a pragmatic, community-oriented, and sustainable approach to life and problem-solving. They had to, given harsh conditions and mountainous terrain. I accept that ancestry significantly influenced my bias towards the one-manual, mechanical action continuo organ designed for collaborative use.
The idea for a 43-note blended 19th-century continuo innovatively defines the Gorham Street Pipe Organ Company. The 43-note concept allows me to combine a competent and functional instrument with sustainability.
A commission worth pursuing, I welcome inquiries.
Hohlpfeife 8' (notes 06 - 48, stopped wood)
Bordun 4' Baß (notes 06 - 17, stopped wood)
Flaut 4' Diskant (notes 18 - 48)
Salicet 4' Diskant (notes 18 - 48)
Octav 2' (notes 06 - 48)
Quint 1 1/3' (notes 06 - 48)
43 note manual
In addition to the design alternative described above, I reworked the design of the third organ I built as an independent builder to produce the following 43-note example.
Bourdon 8' Bass (notes 06 - 17, stopped wood)
Flûte du bois 8' Discant (notes 18 - 48, open wood)
Gambe 8' Discant (notes 18 - 48)
Prestant 4' Bass (notes 06 - 17)
Prestant 4' Discant (notes 18 - 48)
Flûte 4' Discant (notes 18 - 48, triangular)
Nasat 2 2/3' (notes 06 - 48)
Doublette 2' (notes 06 - 48)
Or
Bourdon 8' Bass (notes 06 - 17, stopped wood)
Flûte du bois 8' Discant (notes 18 - 48, open wood)
Montre 8' Discant (notes 18 - 48)
Prestant 4' (notes 06 - 48)
Cymbale III (notes 06 - 48)
43 note manual
I use the phrase design efficiency to define the ratio of things that produce sound, such as pipes, to things that support the pipes producing sound, such as infrastructure. The 43-note continuo design best advocates for pipes over infrastructure.
This rendering graphically demonstrates a reasonably accurate comparison between the first organ I built and a 43-note continuo design described here.
The two are nearly equivalent in terms of function, yet the 43-note design architecture is that much more efficient.
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is said to have said, "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
