Fascinating. Thank you for giving us the grand tour of all of this magnificence. I visited St. Paul’s in 1994, but missed the opportunity to hear the organ. Do, please, treat us to this glorious sound!
Very nice. But shame no tuba/ fanfare trumpet demonstrations :( Never forget when Huw Williams allowed me to come upstairs after evensong to see it once. I'd love to play it.
This organ is really amazing sounding. Very rich. I was invited to view the console above the choir. This video doesn't really show how massive and grand the console really is, not to mention how it sounds in St. Paul's Cathedral. The 7,189 pipes, 189 ranks makes it the 3rd largest in Great Britain.
Long ago Mankind was able to make these real amazing organs by hand. A big job. I am happy to show this today, have fun listening to this great machine.
I have a question for Simon Johnson himself. What happened to his fabulous stop by stop tour of the St. Paul's organ? Did he get ding'd by youtube for using Harry Potter themes perchance?
+Mark Demmin II, The Vintage Voice That tour was part of a DVD available from Priory Records. That's probably why it was removed. The DVD/CD is still available
Interesting to see behind the scenes. I didn't realise the organ was so spread out. Simon Johnson used to play at my local St. Albans Cathedral, I have him playing some hymns on video.
The pedal organ used to have two open basses plus one open bass on the pedal chancel and a violone 16 in the dome. What happened to those stops?? The pedal organ used to be larger according to the recording from 1960. Wonderful organ still 😊😊 Christopher Dearnleys recording
@RobCharles1981 indeed. A couple of years ago there was an offer up on ebay for just 30 minutes on this organ for 2000 quid! For that amount id expect to take home a rank or two as well.
I've seen a number of videos with hymns being sung at St Paul's but I don't think I've ever heard the organ sound out with what a friend would call "Grand Fleurs" - (sort of a showoff playing...lol). Cheers from Costa Rica and really cool introduction by the way.
Last year i wrote an organ composition, and have itched to hear it on a pipe organ, at our church we have an electronic; if i sent the score, would it be possible for an organist to play it? and possibly record it? Many Thanks
The organ was obviously so much smaller than the present one. it was hand blown like any other organ of that time. there's no way Wren could have built an organ of this size at his time (or any one else)
St Paul's. Visited the Cathedral many times, listened to organ recitals many times and was immersed in the Organ Symphony in the Cathedral. Since then, I am sold to the Cathedral and the organ.
I would say it's just a little improvisation - a thing he made up on the spot. He would think this childishly simple compared to the kind of improvisations he would be used to making as a cathedral organist.
I've just listened to Simon Johnson at the organ in Montserrat (Barcelona). Very good playing Byrd and Walton. Bach was not articulated and Elgar is (pardon) very boring.
I've personally heard this organ in concert while visiting London. There's so much reverb that it's hard to distinguish exactly what's being played. Sometimes, big is TOO big & the sound of the organ gets lost in its own echoes. I'd still prefer a good Baroque tracker with about 20 ranks, 2 manuals & pedal.
If anything, the problem is that there isn't enough of it... a big high-pressure Dome Swell would help to rebalance the organ against the low-frequency rumble that echoes round the dome. A 20-rank tracker job would get hopelessly lost in that acoustic.
That largely depends which rank of pipes, or which stop, is drawn. There is a noticeable delay for the Royal Trumpet 4'/8'/16' because of the sheer distance they are away from everything else which needs the organist to adapt their playing style, but as most of the other pipes are relatively near to each other there isn't much of a delay you'd notice with the other ranks. There was a demonstration video up a while back showing off many of the different stops on this organ that showed off just how pronounced the delay on the Royal Trumpet stops is, but unfortunately it looks like it's been taken down.
Robert bishop Nothing wrong with the Hammond organ, it has a place in musical history, used on literally thousands of recordings, you’re comparing two different styles of instrument...you would never dis a saxophone over a Cor Anglaise so why do it with an organ !
If your a visiting organist/recitalist here u would get a shock if u tried to used the west end royal trumpets ! They are controlled by a special key locked at the console .
