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MUSIC FOR SPECIAL ORGANS There has always been a lot of experimentation in organ building. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that there are a variety of ways in which the tones can be generated and combined; on the other hand, it is also due to the uniqueness of each instrument, which means that the organ builder always becomes an inventor. The history of the organ goes back to ancient times, when the engineer Ktesibios in Alexandria built it in 246 BC. a »Hydraulis« developed. Wind pressure made the instrument sound bronze whistles, with water ensuring even pressure. In Roman times, the organ sounds, which were considered profane at the time, accompanied the bloodthirsty events in the arena, and it was only in the Byzantine Empire that the instrument, which had meanwhile been further developed, was used for high ceremonies, which finally paved the way for it to be used in the church. The peculiarity of the organ lies in the fact that different tones, sounds and dynamics can be produced with the help of different registers on the same keys. A register consists of a row of pipes with a uniform design and timbre, which can be coupled with a key manual. In the normal position, the deepest whistle measures 8 feet, with a foot being about 30 centimeters; you now play a tone C, that's how this tone sounds C. A 16-foot register will sound an octave lower, since each pipe is twice as long as an 8-foot register - and a 4-foot register will sound an octave higher. There are also registers that produce a fifth tone or a third tone. The timbre can be influenced by the fact that rows of pipes can be built differently: A distinction is made between lip pipes (labial pipes), which produce sounds similar to a recorder, and reed pipes (lingual pipes), which produce a sound similar to that of a clarinet. Lip pipes can be closed at the top, which transposes the sound down an octave; these are called stopped pipes. The possibilities of a register are almost endless: tremulants make the sound vibrate, drums, thunder, carillons or other noises can emerge through an effect register, and many an organ builder invents a fun register such as the "Rauschwerk" in the Ratzeburg Cathedral, which has a drawer with whisky opens. Since each organ has different registers, it is also up to the organist to find the most suitable combination for the works he is playing. On the other hand, composers can take advantage of this uniqueness to conceive their works for very specific organs and their peculiarities. This CD features works by and with Hans Eugen Frischknecht, who went one step further and interpreted his compositions for very special organs: for instruments in meantone tuning, for quarter-tone instruments and for the "wind-dynamic" organs INNOV-ORGAN-UM . Today, keyboard instruments in Western countries are mostly tuned to the same degree; that is, all semitones have the same pitch distance (which is exactly 100 cents) to their neighboring keys. However, this has disadvantages, because all intervals are somewhat impure compared to the pure intervals of the overtone series. Before this intonation became the norm, keyboard instruments were also initially tuned in, i.e. in relation to the vibration ratios of the respective intervals discovered by Pythagoras. This practice was quickly abandoned, because the vibration ratios always referred only to one key: modulation from one key to another was almost impossible, since the intervals related to the new key were clearly impure and therefore sounded “off-key”. Mean tone tuning, which was common from the 16th to the 18th century, made things easier: pure thirds served as the basis, but the fifths were slightly narrowed. So modulations were possible, but only for a limited number of keys. Only certain late baroque tunings made it possible to modulate in all 24 keys without restrictions, which Johann Sebastian Bach called his masterpiece Well-Tempered Clavier with preludes and fugues through all 24 keys, or made this possible in the first place. From the well-tempered to today's equal temperament there is only a very small difference. The trick used is that the impurities are cleverly distributed among all the tones so that the ear hardly notices them at all. In order to be able to modulate into distant keys even with mean-tone tuning, some instrument makers added additional upper keys. As a result, the upper keys were divided, e.g. B. on the lower part of a key Es and on the upper part Dis be played, with the distance corresponding to about 1/5 tone. Some instruments also had (slightly smaller) black keys between them H and C as well as between E and F. In his compositions for the mean-tone tuned organ, Hans Eugen Frischknecht accesses these divided upper keys and savors the contrast between the sub-semitones. The turn of the 20th century brought countless innovations: people dreamed of progress and modernity. In music, too, people wanted to break new ground and break all previous norms. While composers of the Second Viennese School around Arnold Schönberg dared to step into free tonality independently of a fixed keynote and from there started attempts to relate the 12 semitones to one another, others were not satisfied with the given range of tones. Ferruccio Busoni had a third-tone harmonium built to explore the intermediate sounds; Béla Bartók and Charles Ives, on the other hand, used quarter tones to enrich their compositions. The experiments of Alois Hába became famous in this field, who penetrated into the sixth and twelfth tones in an even narrower space and even invented new instruments in order to be able to implement his sound ideas. Microtones can be produced on fretless stringed instruments, but keyboard instruments have to be limited to the given pitches of the keys. In order to go beyond the usual range of tones, quarter-tone instruments with twenty-four keys per octave were built; In German-speaking countries, organs that enable quarter tones can be found in Christian communities in Zurich, Basel, Bern and Hamburg. Experiments in organ building continue into the 21st century. The INNOV-ORGAN-UM project has set itself the task of changing the volume even after the attack. The organist Daniel Glaus has so far produced three prototypes together with the southern German organ builder Peter Kraul. The prototypes allow the wind pressure to be varied in various ways, thereby increasing or decreasing the volume. At the same time, however, the pitch changes as well. When the keys are pressed lightly, a tail valve opens a wind box, allowing unchanging wind pressure to flow into the pipes. From a certain key depth, which can be changed by an action, the key gradually responds to a cone valve, depending on the exact depth. This leads to a second wind box, the pressure of which can be varied. Higher pressure means louder dynamics, with some pipes it can also lead to overblowing. Foot boots and footsteps also affect the wind pressure, which can be read on a wind scale on the side. As the pressure decreases, the pitch drops in a kind of glissando until the tone finally frays into the overtones. The wind pressure particularly affects the overblowing registers, where the air column in the pipes vibrates not as a whole but in parts; depending on the pressure, the tone changes from the fundamental to the octave or even higher. The prototypes of INNOV-ORGAN-UM also have a register called "wind harp" that is hung a little too high, causing the wind to cut the edge of pipes that don't have a labium. This is how flute-like »wind tones« sound, blowing noises on fixed pitches. Another prototype of INNOV-ORGAN-UM is in the town church of Biel: The Metzler company from Dietikon (Switzerland) designed an instrument with three conventional manuals and one wind-dynamic one based on the principles of prototypes 2 and 3. This enables the tones of the different manuals to be reproduced to confront. In his pieces and pictures for the »special organs«, Frischknecht goes into the characteristics of the respective instruments in detail and emphasizes their peculiarities. These are mostly shorter works, each emphasizing certain aspects of the instruments. References to the early forms of the preludes or toccatas could be found: With these, the instruments were "explored", the properties explored in a playful way and brought closer to the player and the listener alike. Oliver Fraenzke THE ORGANS When new organs are built today, organ builders often use historical models as a guide. In the project INNOV-ORGAN-UM various prototypes were created. It was followed by a prototype 3 with three manuals and a range of five octaves. The registers can be played on the first and third manual. The two prototypes were in the town church in Biel when they were recorded and were later transferred to the Bern Minster. The fourth manual of the new Organ in the town church of Biel is built to be wind dynamic and has the following registers: * overblowing: Here the air column in a whistle does not vibrate as a whole, but in parts. This results in a higher tone. It is possible that a whistle only overblows above a certain level of wind pressure. program:
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