Crocodile Rock by Elton John

Played on the Wells Family Gavioli 89 key V.B. Scale.
Nothing like a good pop song to get the pulse racing. This piece makes a really good riding tune. The Gallopers Organ at Hollycome has it and it has gone down a storm.

[@dominicallen7839]

Very much like seeing the organ playing with the back open as you can see the registers operating !!

[@Mekanixmuzak]

Yes I thought it would be good to see as much of the works in operation. Glad you like the idea.

[@SeattleBoatdog]

I’ve been in the pipe organ and mechanical music works for almost 50 years, and this is awesome 🤣🤣

[@HannahSmith3]

This is ART 😤

[@andrewbarrett1537]

NICE!

[@MatecaCorp]

That’s brilliant!

[@RichardMontgomeryYT]

Awesome

[@Pickelhaube808]

this is hot

[@mizuqatsi]

It's porridge ! It needs to be lightened up a lot

[@nicolek4076]

At times barely recognisable. This kind of acoustic mess is what happens when every player in an ensemble plays as loudly as they can with no sense of dynamic and without listening to the others. This is a mess and, in my opinion, not worth the effort involved in its creation. I suppose there is no swell available on a fairground organ.

[@Mekanixmuzak]

Thanx for comment. This was arranged as a riding tune on a set of Gallopers and in the open, sounds good. Admittedly it sounds a bit full in a confined space.

[@nicolek4076]

@@MekanixmuzakAhh! That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation and for taking my rather barbed comment so well.

[@Mekanixmuzak]

No worries, Glad you show such interest in these wonderful old instruments@@nicolek4076

[@SueMucklowe]

​@@nicolek4076 Also take into account that it is being listened to from the rear of the organ, so it will be bass and accompaniment heavy in comparison to listening from the front. I have put this book through a few times on the gallopers and it does sound really good!

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Yes the musical balance is really different when listening to an antique fairground organ from the rear vs the front. The designers were careful to voice the pipes and place them in the case in such a way that they would fulfill their musical roles: so the quieter bass and accompaniment pipes, which were not normally supposed to solo or play important musical lines (well the bass is, but mainly when it's joined by the trombones in forte), are located underneath the organ and also in the back, meaning anyone lying on the ground next to the organ or standing in the back will hear them more prominently. But with the rear cover panels closed, and people standing in front of the organ some distance away, these divisions are quieter and the louder melody/countermelody/piccolo divisions predominate, as they are supposed to do. It is also worth noting that in the original organs, there are many more ranks of pipes on the "important" musical divisions like melody and countermelody, than there are in bass and accompaniment. So typically in an organ like this, the bass section might have like 4 ranks of pipes; the accompaniment 3 or 4; and the melody section may have at least 7 and sometimes as many as 9 ranks of pipes (with the larger 110-key organs having more). The countermelody section will have at least 3 ranks and as many as 5. The piccolos, due to high pitches being very prominent to our ears in the science of acoustics, do not need as many ranks to be clearly heard. The 87-key organs often only have 2 ranks, and the 89-key organs can have maybe 2 to 4 ranks, plus the glockenspiel added in forte. I should mention also that in the 89-key organs (with registers) other musical divisions are strenghtened in the forte register as well, to maintain musical balance so these parts are not totally inaudible in loud passages: often a reed rank (saxophones etc) will be added to bass and accompaniment in forte. Some organs have the lower bass pipes come on in forte (and/or higher octave accompaniment pipes), but most have them playing continuously.