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 pipe scales of broader diameter, 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 by design.
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
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."
