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The organ is very capable of producing a wide range of "un-organ" sounds long before electronic synthesizers were created, starting with the Theater organs used in movie theaters and ice rinks and tonewheel organs made by Hammond...

Organist here! First of all, thank you for this video as a member of this communitiy! It contains everything I always say about the organ. It isn't some dusty, old instrument. It is one of the most interesting instruments of all. It has the potential for being the "Future of music". I like your point with the small chamber-music-organs, that they might be more inspiring than any large cathedral organ. This is an interesting concept I will take with me. In contrast to that, I must say: Go to churches and listen to these organs!!! It is a more physical and more emotional experience than with most rock concerts. The organ has everything from 20 Hz (sometimes even below that!) and 20.000 Hz. The experience of a 32' rattling your chest can't be reproduced with any technology. You have to bear in mind: Nothing is amplified! Everything you hear is being produced as it is in the room! With a large, loud chord there might be several hundreds of pipes playing at once! This instrument isn't dusty and boring and whatever. So isn't its music. Of course, you can play gospel, jazz and pop. But there's nothing more magnificient than the organ repertoire that exists/is written today and is/was written for the organ and it's special characteristics. Like I said, go to churches and listen to the organs! If you are a musician/composer/music producer and have interest in the instrument. Go to your local organist, write them an e-mail, phone them. They will be delighted by your interest and willing to show "their" instrument to you! (Yes, concert halls and everything, but there's nothing more astonishing than an organ in a cathedral acoustic!)

Mozart's comment on the organ: “In my eyes and ears the organ will forever be the King of Instruments." I arrange game, anime, tv series music for the organ and I must say organs are like human beings, each organ has its own sound, each one sounds different. I encourage people to listen to more organ music, for example Ultimecia Castle Theme Organ Arrangement :) Thank you for this video ^^

Following a hunch, TIL that "pull out all the stops" comes from organs!

As a piano player I have great respect for all organ players. I still sometimes struggle with one keyboard, but organ players have to master several manuals for hands one one for foot. Great respect.

The Organ is certainly a magnificent instrument, and it takes advantage of the human anatomy in a way that is unrivaled by other instruments in its complexity. We are lucky to live in a time where affordable Synthesizers can give us access to such wonderful sounds. Thanks

I love how you use the most basic editing and make it into overwhelming fascination

We need more organ music in video games too. Games like Ultrakill and Mechanicus show how unique and awesome organ music can be.

I recently got the opportunity to start playing on my church's "small" organ with 12 voices and pedals + 1 manual. It is such a lovely instrument, that truly fills the relatively small room it is within. Build in 1844, it is also among the oldest in Denmark, certainly in a small church like this.

Very interesting and informative. I love the fact that “Look Mum no Computer” has installed a church organ in his museum studio. He stripped the entire thing from the building it was in and has reassembled it and got it working (also it now has midi) with no organ experience at all. I started to really appreciate organ music since hearing Toccata at an early age, but the Interstellar soundtrack really made me sit up and listen.

Thanks for letting me be a part of this, was super fun to do! If anyone needs an organ recorded for anything or needs any organ-related help do hit me up, would love to help out if possible :)

it was my dream to learn to play an organ from childhood. my parents even found me the single organ tutor in the country. I'm going to study it when I attend conservatory I hope

As an organist who's starting musical academy this year, this video gave me even more motivation for my studies. I've been playing for 6 years, but I know that there is so much more to learn and experience, which I'm super excited about. What I love about the organ is the variety of sound, structure and purpose of it's use. Each organ has it's own personality. Thank you so much for this video! 💜

What a great video! As an organist, it's so great to hear that the instrument is being appreciated by other genres. I really like your breakdown of how the instrument functions, as well as its history. And thanks too for showing Davy Jones--he's who inspired me to begin learning the organ!

My fathers best friend is a organist and I’ve been to many of host concerts. The organ has thusly become one of my favourite instruments. Everyone needs to experience the power of and sound of a big church organ. The sheer power of the music and the mini earthquake it unleashes as you sit in your pew in a massive cathedral is something I will never forget. There is nothing else like it.

Depends on what counts as “organ”. The Roland fantom “synth” engine is basically a modern organ, it’s all about layering to the extreme, but gives you ability to put motion into the sound. Pipe organs have either/or states, but Hammond organ and the Roland give you continuous control over some variables. I used to be against “layering” in keyboards, multiple sounds playing the same note, but that was back when it was two or three sounds at a time, piano and strings etc. now you can layer 10 sounds, have a different filter per sound, it’s a whole new frontier

I am glad to know that it can go Bach in the future.

scottbrothersduo have some incredible organ pieces on their channel. Love some organ music!

8:12 I let out an audible squeal of delight, as I sung this with the college choir a couple years ago and it was (and is) one of my favorite choral pieces ever.

Brilliant video! But, can I say that the tierce isn't a 15th. The 15th plays two octaves above unison pitch, the tierce is a 17th, 1 3/5' in length as opposed to the 15th which is 2' in length.

The Poulenc organ concerto is an absolute masterpiece, was happy to hear it at the start

Great video! I write a lot of organ music and it was good to see it cast in such a positive light. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic video, as always. I've spent a lot of time around organs, though I don't play it. I sung in a church choir growing up and I used to enjoy volunteering as the organist's page turner! My granddad is a carpenter and had an organist mate. One of my granddad's hobbies was accompanying his friend to churches to dismantle old church organs. It's quite sad really - lots of churches are getting rid of their traditional mechanical organs and replacing them either with modern electronic ones or going fully digital. However, for my granddad, the upside for him was getting to keep all this beautiful wood used for the pipes, which he made all kinds of things out of (including some of the furniture in my flat!). It was fun going with my granddad and his friend to churches and helping out dismantle them (and hearing them played). I just found it so interesting looking at the innards of these utterly spectacular instruments - there's just so much going on behind the scenes and if you've got any interest in mechanics and engineering you could spend many hours studying how they're put together (and I did!). Musically, I am excited to hear the future of organ music. I think it's interesting just how engrained they are in western cultures. Like, organs are used in churches, but they're also used in the circus and fairgrounds, baseball games and have a surprisingly rich heritage in rock music - Deep Purple love their Hammond organs! Thank you for introducing me to some new music to check out. My favourite line from this video has to be, 'You're not just playing the instrument: You're playing the whole building'! I think that's exactly right. They are just spectacularly powerful instruments and, irrespective of your religious views, there's nothing quite like being sat in a church hearing some Bach (or whatever!) being played by a pro on the organ.

Lovingthis. I had the opportunity to attend an organ recital last November at the Walt Disney Music Hall in Los Angeles. The concert Hall was was designed by Frank Gehry; and he partially designed the organ, which is derisively described as resembling a carton of McDonald's French Fries. However, it is a truly majestic, glorious instrument.

Thank you! I'm launching my organ and electronics solo project later this year, I'm so thrilled that the organ is gaining traction in the popular sphere. I've been wanting to combine the pipe organ with popular song forms and trying to find an audience that appreciates the merging of the old technology and the new. Thank you for promoting the pipe organ, it means a lot to small creators like me who are trying to bring the beauty of this instrument to a wider public. Your videos are always great, Oscar, keep up the amazing work!

I love the organ in all its forms (church, Hammond etc) and it's hard to beat the feeling of those low notes hitting your chest in a concert hall or church. Interesting that you talk about the use of organ technique with synths. As a self-taught keyboard player I learned more from organ than piano technique for sure. The intersection of organs and synths is definitely there.

church organist here, i'm really happy to see the organ gaining a little traction in recent years--it has a unique and complex sound that i just love. hoping to study more in college ^^

"When you play the organ, you're not just playing an instrument; you're playing the building." Seriously, when you think about it, we have the most fantastical world of all. Ancient people built buildings that could play music. Magic? It surely must have felt magical to the people of the time.

Im 21 yo and recently I started thinking about learning organs. Well, this video definately pushes me to it even more.

Support your local Organ Pizza place like Organ Stop Pizza Mesa, AZ, Organ Piper Pizza outside of Milwakee, WI, and if it starts music again, Beggers Pizza Lansing, IL. The Mesa one's "Mighty Wurlitzer" is pretty amazing and one of the worlds largest.

Again great work keep it up!!

I'm a big prog rock fan and the organ has always been one of my favorites with its versatile sounds and applications. I accept any coming music using organs with open arms!

It would probably be a good idea to also mention the theatre organ. As opposed to being meant for classical works, the theatre organ was designed to accompany silent films. They function as a full symphony orchestra and also have percussion instruments, both tuned (glockenspiel, xylophone, etc.) and untuned (bass drum, cymbal, etc.). They were in many ways the original synthesizer. Theatre organs were originally developed in the 1920s, but have since been used in many films including "Home Alone" and "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" to name just a few. Completely different sound than classical organs, but also able to mimic the classical organ sound. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l9aArcKDuprDcpc.html

You just inspired me to go listen to the Widor Toccata - a staple that my mom played on Easter and that she used for her master's performance. It still gives me chills.

Wonderful! Many thanks.

Amazing work!!!!

Fantastic! Thank you.

Well done. Thank you.

That piece on the small organ at the end is beautiful! The organ does indeed have great potential, especially applied to new arenas and amphitheaters. Immersive audio even

Excellent presentation !!!

What a great video, as a pianist I always wonder how it works and the possibilities. What a work❤

Absolutely! Thank you for this : )

O órgão é um instrumento que toca a alma diretamente.Tem sons baixos inimagináveis, sons agudos leves e sons médios que conseguem equalizar e harmonizar nossos sentimentos. Belo.

As a German speaker, the only thing funnier than your pronunciation of Merseburger Dom is your pronunciation auf Thomaskirche Leipzig😂😂 If I didn't know these organs, I had no clue what you are trying to say. (I don't mean it in a bad way, my english is not the best, too🙈)

There's a certain type of harsh timbre that I absolutely love-- in organs, bagpipes, harmonicas, synths, etc. It's so high energy and sharp and exciting. Idk how to explain it

Whenever you upload a video,my day gets brighter ❤, awesome job as always ... Keep up the good work 💪❤

Organ stills being the king of instruments.❤

As an organist for the past 30 years, I thank you. :)

As an organist myself, this was a great video! Thank you for making this! It's a great way to showcase in video form how I've been trying to explain to others what makes the organ the "King/Queen/Monarch of Instruments" and much more than the "church instrument" stereotype. Regarding how I'm using the organ, my main focus nowadays is producing covers/arrangements of pop culture & soundtrack music for the instrument. With the organ's immense versatility, I know it can play almost anything you can imagine, even with the latest technologies incorporated into the instrument. A good friend of mine who's also an organist once said, "There is not one song that the organ cannot play." that holds true even to this day, with how the organ is the future of music. I also have to credit Hans Zimmer's Interstellar OST for inspiring many in the organ world (including myself) to keep the interest in the organ going.

Hell yes my guy. This is awesome. I am doing exactly everything you mentioned in here, but with death metal. Thanks for bringing attention to this.

The organ is such a beautiful instrument,! Musically, visually, technically… 🥰

First, thank you for that Video. I would like to point out that the organ is not only good when it is used to create a mountain range of sound. At 1:39 the marvelous Catalina Vicens plays a contemporary piece on her organetto. I recommend her album „Organic Creatures“ to experience how more simple and even the smallest organs can be overwhelming - under the right hands.

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! This is a MUCH NEEDED video about the most versatile musical instrument in the world! Hans Zimmer is certainly taking full advantage of the Organ's vast possibilities!

Bach was ahead of his time immensely!! Bach is the goat!

I'm glad you produced this. So many good points. the first and foremost being the huge universe of sound, impossible in any other way. The second which is what bI would call a sub-text is the organ appears to be a machine but is really an organism. One only needs t0o consider each instrument is hand built and unique (in the traditional sense; and uniquely orogrammable in gthe digital sense. The third and most important in an aesthetic sense is the relationship of the instrument to the space that contains it. Thanks again for the article and for not using Bach's toccata and fugue in d minor.

This was such a nice video. I've always been facinated by organ and loved the sound and possibilties, though I agree more people need to push the envelope more and break the stereotypes, rather than sticking to tradition, so it's super cool seeing where things could be heading! After many years trying to find my own organ, I finally managed to fix up an old Yamaha 70s combo organ and it's a dream come true! Swell and bass pedals, 2 manuals, lots of stops to choose from (though no couplers or pistons), and with the right knowhow and effects it can be a synth, hammond style, pipe organ style or something else entirely! I love the small chamber organs too. Feels like they're so often overlooked compared to the grander instruments :)Thanks for sharing this!

Thank you for the wonderful overview of the subject. My favorite aspect is the French composer segment. I would have been delighted to hear of one of my favorites; Jehan Alain. Thanks again for this nice documentary.

The ultimate Hauptwerk ad. Thank you so much, I was looking for a great organ synthesizer

The organ at Gloucester isn't being refurbished. It is being replaced in its entirety. The new instrument by Nicholson will reuse only one wooden Pedal rank from its predecessor, which has otherwise been scrapped.

There’s even an organ in Luray Caverns, Virginia. There is the console where the player plays however the instrument uses percussion hitting the cavern’s stalactites instead of wind blowing metal pipes to produce music. The stalactites connected to the console are chosen carefully to correctly match the musical scale.

Words cannot describe the respect I have for organ builders.

i was love that little organ at the end at 15:00 its amazing i like that gentle sound. would like to hear some music like that

Man, I love your work. And that brief part where you spoke about the Anglican churches and had a section showing the church singing the hymn 'O Come Let Us Adore Him' brought me back.

After watching: My best instrument is the violin, my favourite is the electric guitar but I seem to gravitate towards the keyboard. This video confirms how the organ is just in its infancy. Thanks for posting!

Thank You so much for this video! This instrument is so incredible and capable of the most weird avantgarde sounds and so similar to electronic sounds! You didn't mention for example percussion stops (bells, marimbas, harps etc) as can be found e.g. in the famous organ of St Peter in Cologne. So much fun to play with!

I personally love it when a video game makes use of religious style music for a boss fight. Some examples: Bayonetta franchise Fortitudo-In Labors and Dangers Temperantia-In Foregoing Pleasures Iustitia-In Giving Every Man His Due Sapientia-In The Choice Between Good and Evil Dea Jubileus-The Greatest Jubilee Hollow Knight Radiance Boss fight A lot of those sound like a metal version of religious choral music with an orchestra and even a church organ. It is pretty intense and gives a feeling of divine fury.

I just got goosebumps: )

had the pleasure of hearing and feeling Toccata and fugue at the royal albert hall once hope get to do that again as was mindblowing

Bravo on this passionate layman's account of the ultimate musical instrument! It's helping this lifelong organist love it anew. The organ produces higher and lower tones than any other instruments and its literature is, I've been told, vaster than the piano's.

What a lovely video, I certainly hope you're correct about organs regaining their popularity soon- my 150+ year old reed organ really needs a tune-up, but the experts simply do not exist anymore. From the grandson of Randall Dyer, organ builder extraordinaire, thank you for this video.

I remember when my dad got a Thomas Organ (1964) and it had the tag line in its advertising copy, "An orchestra at your fingertips." My problem was that my fingertips were not up to the challenge. Fifty years later, I got MuseScore - and voila!

I so pleased you did this! The organ is a a hiuge expansive universe of frequency and vibration, I like that you rightly said the organ and the space are co-equal. Consider that the organ was traditionally built by hand as a one-off. The sound of a particular stop sound the way ot does because of the space into which it speaks. This means the same stop will be different between buildings. Theres much more, but sitiung at a console and playing a composition or improvisation is an indescribable visceral emotional experience.

I love this video! And I love that you included Cory Henry! 🙌🏽

The organ creates an unparalelled, rich sound that inspires a feeling of resounding reverance. Not in the religeous context, but of the instrument itself. It is the instrument incarnation of the word grand. It, along with my other favourite instrument, the harpsicord, are two of humanity's best inventions.

I like blues and rock music and I really like the hammond organ paired with rotating speaker

Pipe organs are awesome. I wish I got a chance to play one. Closest I got was a 1980s Casio keyboard.

Such a cool and informative video! Thank you! P.S. Such cool musical socks of the organist !!!

...excellent video A couple additional points. In the mid 19th century, organ builders in France employed ventils (controlled by the feet) as "presets" for adding pre drawn sets of pipes (like the reed choruses) which were sort of the forerunner of the present day combination actions (pistons) the latter having been facilitated by the introduction of electricity in organ building. Along with the expression pedals most organs today also have "crescendo peal" which adds stops to slowly as the pedal is depressed build the intensity. This became also more widely used with electrification of the stop mechanism as the machinery for doing so with a purely mechanical action would have been cumbersome and unwieldy. While this video only touched on cinema organs these were designed to replace orchestras in early motion picture houses (much less costly to pay one performer than say 20) and were even more imitative of orchestral instruments than their romantic counterparts as the also included percussions a piano, as well as providing sound effects to accompany the silent films of the day. These instruments greatly relied on a concept known as "unification" which basically employs expanded ranks (sets) of pipes to cover the various octaves (16', 8', 4', 2') for given stop instead of an individual rank for each octave. again this could only be accomplished more efficiently with electrical stop action and allowed for a "big sound" from a modest number of ranks compared to its classic counterparts as space for hte pipes and wind chests in cinemas was far more limited than a cathedral or concert hall did (organs in smaller churches or those on a budget often used this concept as well ) Cinema organs were often referred in the early days to as "unit orchestras". The "horseshoe" design with stop tabs instead of draw knobs was out of practicality as it allowed the performer to change individual stops or couplers on the fly, in addition to using the instrument's combination piston action. Basically there were no set divisions (great, swell choir, positif) assigned to a particular manual as "divisions" or sections tended to be "floating", meaning that stops could be assigned to any of the keyboards. Other effects also included what was known as "double touch" whereby pressing the keys down beyond a certain "stop" point added more voices . In a sense they were basically "one person orchestras". I did like the mention of the Hauptwerk Virtual Organ as it gives the "home" organist a variety of different organs of different periods (including cinema organs) to perform on. all of which are fully sampled to give hte provide the most faithful sound. colleges and music schools can benefit from this as well not needing large practise studios to house even a modest pipe instrument while allowing the student to better grasp registration from different periods of music and instruments. I also appreciated the mention of Louis Vierne and Olivier Messiaen who being a composer, I've always looked up to as my "mentors".

Thank you so much for this creation! I have loved the organ since childhood church-going: but the instruments being built today are simply superb. Organists ought to have the 'virtuotic' status of Racing Drivers, seeing them master the manuals, stops, pedals and pistons. Usually, when visiting a great cathedral or church (or even the Sydney Opera House!) they will have CDs on sale with recordings of the 'home' instrument for sale. We need to buy these. I visited Taiwan around six years ago; and had no idea that the Country has some magnificent modern concert organs. KZfaq is wonderful for enabling Content-Creators, like you, ITS, to post these brilliant clips.

Don't forget that in Rock music organs are used too and they are totally rocking it. Right off the bat I can think of 2 songs, Hitch a ride by Boston and Child in time by Deep Purple.

Bro make content like you did "How to compose a massacre" again! It was such an influential and haunting video which introduced me to 11syphony of Shostakovich

Amazing

Can't wait to see a renessaince of the organ

Poulenc organ Concerto is one of the reasons I started to compose

Great video as always, I'd love to hear your take on the future of brass music! I've always thought that brass music has many parallels to the grandness and scope of organ music. You outlined the potential of the organ to enter the digital workspace, do you believe acoustic instruments have the same potential?

and for certain one shall not forget also the little sibling of the church organ: the street or fair organ! With pretty much all these same capabilities (plus percussion!) - just very mobile!

Thank you for the video, always wondered how old instruments music survive in this era.Your video just answer that some instruments doesn't belong to any place only 👍🏻

Very informative video. I am a Organist with over 40 years of playing in Churches in the UK . U probably not hear this story before. But a lady comes to Church as she does on a Sunday to take her pew. But to a horror someone else is sitting in it. She says to the person I normally sit here. So when the service was about to begin the vicar makes a announcement. There is one seat in this church that no one else occupies at all times. And that's the Organist seat lol

I'm a church, theatre and concert organist from South africa, next year 2024 I will celebrate my 30th year as an organist, I've grew up with church music but after the death of my parents in 2001 I started to expand my organ skills by trying rock n roll, hip hop, pop, jazz, country etc etc, in 2002 wurlitzer was introduced to me at a pizza restaurant in Arizona USA, pizza stop I think is the restaurant's name, as my love for the organ grew so did my skills and knowledge grew too, now I can build, play, tune and fix pneumatic, mechanical, theatre and electric organ, I miss doing shows full time but I will never regret choosing the organ as my career, with the cathedral organs I loved to use the verity sounds on the different manuals but I still got what I whished for, to play on the largest pipe organ on this planet the midmer losh, thanks for this video and hope to meet organists from other countries again in near future

Totally agreed

I agree

with great power comes great responsability

You got me geeking out about organs again

The mechanical action organ, which you didn't even mention, is exploding in the U.S. and Canada. Duke CHapel has a very sizable tracker action instrument, and who doesn't dream of having their very own Cavaille-Coll Organ in their own living room. (Marcel Dupre grew up with one.)

Great video. Just need to point out the examples of music are very soft compared to the voice over. The mix might benefit from reducing voice over volume and increasing music examples volume. All the best to you!!

As a big fan of organs this video makes me happy, also great to see you showcase Cory Henry. He's a great artist!

We're pulling out all the stops, let's go!

I am way ahead of this video. My first instrument was organ 55 years ago. 10 years later I added piano and guitar, then, 10 years later added synthesizers. My studio is full of different synths and digital pianos, all with expression pedals, sustain, soft, pedal switches, after-touch on the keyboards, and just unlimited sonic possibilities from sound design to layering synths of different architectures like layering a digital subtractive synth with a FM synth. I can now play my entire orchestration compositions on the fly, in one take to a multi-track recorder. Combining analog, digital, FM, sampler, and new sounds created by sampling analog synths and combining them for a large stereo field in a mix of synths on a sampler. I can launch complex sequences that I played in and are not locked (quantized) to a grid, but repeat precisely what I played in. I have made this all work together using a very complex MIDI network and setting up synths ergonomically so I have 5 workstations that can be played in one chair...but...then turn the chair 45 degrees and I have another, and anther, and another all in about a 5x8 foot space. Playing the entire orchestration without overdubbing tracks allows me the freedom to play my composition with all the love and expression and passion it deserves. On the simple side, I have set up 4 workstations in a square so I can play any two keyboards I wish. One station has a piano and complex synthesizer; another has 3 synths, another 2synths and a very complex station has 5 synths. All MIDI controlled so I can remotely play as many synths at once I desire. The 5th workstation is a single synth that can be used as a modular synthesizer with polyphony layering up to 32 modules per patch. All my keyboards and sampler have multiple outputs for audio so each can be separately processed in the mixer for EQ, effects, levels, and depth on a 32 channel mixing board. The mixer is sub mixer outputting 8 channels to a mult-track recorder and then mixed down to the final song in stereo. All this is accomplished without a computer, just instruments working together.

Well the organ is really really cool so it deserves to be the future of music