Demo of the mean-tone Fisk Organ at Wellesley College, MA | Bálint Karosi

[@mitebee]

I can hardly describe how much I love this instrument! Every stop has such a warm and unique sound, and the meantone temperament adds worlds of colour and contrast. Trechteregal and rohrflote (9:44) may be one of the most magical sounds I have ever heard. Thank you so much for sharing this with everyone!

[@piter_sk]

Regal itself is an "ancient" stop... Gives that "medieval" feel to it, I absolutely love it in combination with Röhrflute

[@KravchenkoAudioPerth]

Like a drink of clear cold spring water on a hot day. Totally refreshing! Thanks for sharing.

[@Tom-Lahaye]

This is the perfect organ for me, can't decide which stop I like the best, everyone has a clear but warm sound, and the acoustics of the church round it off, I don't like massive amounts of reverb as it often blurs the sound, but reverb in this church is just perfect and adds to the clarity.

[@parrotlover9035]

The voices on this organ are baroque heaven. Oh, to have access to such a treasure! Fisk organs are outstanding. Thanks for demo/posting this.

[@rob1978]

I enjoy your smile when you find a particularly charming flute stop.

[@stephenhetzel8437]

Thank you! I love meantone!

[@chamadeJJ]

17:15 Louis Vierne symphony 1 finale on Neo-Schnitger? HOLY DASH;;; That is A GEM😎😎👍👍

[@marcvcivsnoveboracensis]

Very special instrument. Sesquialter is extraordinary, particularly with scharf.

[@bertspeggly4428]

I like the positioning of the stops for the Ruckpositiv (I presume). I've never seen that before but it makes sense. Organ sounds great! Balint does the best organ demonstration videos.

[@InventorZahran]

That was a common arrangement on early baroque organs. I imagine it was easier to put the positiv's stops on its own case instead of building long and complex trackers to link them to the main console.

[@user-74652]

Hearing Vierne on an organ like this was quite an interesting experience

[@orgelnimnorden]

I love how you're always smiling while playing. Well done!

[@prophetofwellbeing]

Such purity of sound - tonal perfection!

[@jimfowler5930]

Great demonstration for us Cellists! Two hands, two feet??!! Out of my league...thank you sir for your play/performance for us.

[@zfm1097]

I really like the Quintadena 8' setting at 6.05 and the tone after that, the 'bleating' Trommeten 8' at 4.08 minutes, Spillpfeife 8' after it (Gedackt 8' also), and Quintadehn 16 after that, but they're all pretty majestic. I'm less keen on the 'glassy' ones with many combinations like the one immediately after Posaune 16'.

[@jrzzrj]

👍...One of the best demos of individual voices (stops) and popular combinations (all notated in text)...Thankss....JRZ

[@OldPannonian]

A very interesting and informative demonstration of this organ. Thank you Balint.

[@wilfriedkrups8777]

Eine sehr schöne Orgel...sie klingt auch gut...ich bin ein Orgelfun...habe früher selber gespielt...übrigens haben Sie gut gespielt...Lg...

[@markrocovich2234]

Balint..BRAVO!!!Finally someone demonsrating the tonal landscape of a superb instrument in context!! Hearing the stops blended together really highlights the options available to the organist..Once again, Excellente!!!

[@comms9803]

These videos are always amazing!

[@sifridbassoon]

I love your videos. You are such a good player. Thank you for helping me become more knowledgeable about the different registrations.

[@guillaumedabosville]

Beautiful sounds .

[@James_Bowie]

14:14 ah, the diesel train horn stop. 😀

[@garsametube324]

Thank you 🇪🇹

[@gregfolland8452]

I’m still trying to decide which stop combo I like best!

[@danburns79]

Super interesting! Your videos are great!

[@OneLSBHymnaWeek]

The Positiv gedackt was a breath of fresh air.

[@stthomasmore4811]

This has to be the most "Balint Karosi" video of all the videos made by Balint Karosi 😂 😍

[@mikewenger9526]

I would give anything to have an instrument like this on which to play. Wonderful! I volunteer to tune the regals, though. Ha, ha!

[@DavidArdittiComposer]

Very artistically played.

[@MilsteinRulez]

Thanks! In many ways, this organ owes to the Stellwagen in Lübeck which you portrayed as well. I would be curious as to how they compared.

[@danielgolden5352]

Interesting instrument.

[@danielgolden5352]

You should do a video about the organ at St. Peter's, or at least some other organs in NYC. I'd be happy to help if you need!

[@bkarosi]

@@danielgolden5352 Yes, I am planning on doing a video about some of the major instruments in NYC and will appreciate your help!

[@viiciusberabacutumba]

@BalintKarosi you can to improvisat a some variations on "I Know my redeemer liver (Duke Street)" on this organ in baroque style ?

[@bkarosi]

Of course :-)

[@drdylanman]

It's always so much fun to hear the different stops, how they differ or are similar from division to division, and how one builder's stops compare to another builder's same stops! I wish I could understand what temperament was all about though. I always thought that the notes you hear are universal from organ to organ, but I guess that isn't so? Anyways, your demos are a blast to watch so thank you for doing them!

[@edifyguy]

Temperament is the necessary bending of the laws of physics so that a keyboard instrument with fixed tuning (as opposed to many other instrument where the pitch can be bent by the player) can be played in more than one key without retuning the instrument, which would be necessary if it were tuned completely according to physics in any one key. Here's a link to a piano tuner explaining it and demonstrating it. kzbin.info/aero/PLgox-lBVT1PG9eNYlndaEjeaasaT2Xi59 I hope you discover something fascinating!

[@drdylanman]

@@edifyguy Thank you! I'll look at it right now!

[@edifyguy]

@@drdylanman Did it help you?

[@drdylanman]

@@edifyguy Well, I think it made me more confused! haha I assumed that like the symphony that tunes to A=440, that pianos and organs are tuned to the same frequency. I don't understand why you couldn't play a piece that was written in F# on the same organ/piano that you can play a piece written in C major. And maybe I am just missing the whole point! haha Like some of these european organs have two sharp keys in-between the same note because d# and e flat sound differently. (which i don't get either.... it's the same tone.) So, I looked at a couple of your links and I tried to look at some other links about temperament and it didn't help. I guess since I've never studied music theory that I have to just accept that it is a valid and necessary thing. :-) I greatly appreciate you trying to help me understand!

[@edifyguy]

@@drdylanman I guess I'm still trying LOL. Yes, you did miss the whole point. You're stuck in the paradigm of equal temperament tuning. If you'll read this whole thing I think I can un-stuck you. :) D# and Eb are NOT the same tone according to physics; they're a little less than a quarter tone apart. Yes, on most keyboard instruments made in the last few hundred years they are played as the same tone, but that raises the necessity of a compromise. If you have to FORCE D# and Eb to use the same tone, as you do on a keyboard instrument without split chromatics, you have to decide how best to adjust the pitches to make it so that it won't sound goofy in either role. Nowadays we typically just average it all out (equal temperament tuning) so that every half-step interval is exactly the same size, but while that makes all notes in all keys usable, it is totally out of line with the physics of music, and makes many intervals much less harmonious than they would otherwise be. Essentially, according to physics, an equal-tempered instrument has every interval slightly out of tune so that no interval is severely out of tune. This is why you hear "beats" in the intervals; the frequencies don't quite match, and the "beats" are where the sound waves actually collide. In times past, different tuning systems were devised to deviate UNequally from the ideals of harmony physics so that the half steps were NOT all the same size as tuned on the instrument, but certain important intervals resonated in perfect harmony. Of course, this also put other intervals slightly out of tune, and in some tuning systems, certain intervals were far enough out of tune that they sounded very unpleasant, and could not be used. These were called "wolf" intervals. Meantone tuning, probably the first of these compromises, had a few intervals which sounded hideous, which is why it was important not to use them in your writing, and composers didn't use them for several hundred years while meantone tuning was the norm. This made it completely impossible to use certain keys because they depended on those intervals. In the late 17th and early 18th century, other tuning systems, called "well tempered" tuning, were coming into common use. These systems allowed the use of all keys because they distributed the out-of-tune intervals, called "tempered" intervals, in such a way that no interval was so out of tune that it was unpleasant. This is why Bach's "Well Tempered Klavier" was so revolutionary at the time; up until that point there was VERY little keyboard work in certain keys because in Bach's time, until very recently no tuning scheme had existed which allowed those keys to sound good. The various well-tempered tuning systems did that, though some did it better than others, and of course "better" is a matter of opinion. However, because the slightly-out-of-tune intervals were distributed unevenly, both in meantone and well-tempered tuning, with some being slightly more out of tune than others, different intervals, and thus the keys that depended on them, sounded different. This is where the concept of "key color" originated; because each key used different notes, with the well-tempered tuning forming intervals of slightly different sizes, each key had a unique sound. By key I mean C major, C# major, F# minor, for example; I'm not talking about single notes. Interestingly, because the various well-tempered tuning systems placed those differences differently, the same key sounded slightly different in a different temperament. If one clavichord player played a piece, it might resonate differently than if another did, because he tuned his instrument with a different temperament than that other player. There was an endless variety of colors as the tuning of the instrument interacted with the music being played and shaped it. Equal temperament tuning destroyed that. Every key sounds exactly the same, and no key or interval sounds perfectly harmonious. A change of key makes the chords higher or lower only, but doesn't change their color, because the intervals are exactly the same size. In essence, all the sound flavors except vanilla became impossible to produce. That's not to say that beautiful music isn't still made (and who doesn't like vanilla ice cream?) but there are more tonal flavors that are possible with keyboard music than most people will ever realize because the relentless pursuit of harmonic uniformity destroyed harmonic variety. If you got this far, please tell me if I succeeded, even a little, in getting you un-stuck. :)

[@antoinecaron6747]

Very very nice! What are the keys that can be played reasonably in tune on this instrument? I guess some of the notes are hardly ever used?

[@shawardara]

Antoine Caron I’m open to correction, but I think it’s right to say that the more accidentals you add to the key signature, the more out of tune it sounds.

[@bkarosi]

The most commonly used thirds are pure in mean-tone temperament. When the instrument have subsemi tones, it has more pure thirds. So without subsemi tones (split keys) the diatonic Major thirds plus F# and the Diatonic Minor thirds plus Eb and Bb are pure. This organ has split keys for Eb/D# and G#/Ab for the thirds of the corresponding triads

[@antoinecaron6747]

Balint Karosi. Thanks for your response! I understand what you say mostly, except what you mean by "...plus F#" So, F# interval with what other note? Can I see a picture of the split keys somewhere?

[@meantoneorgan]

All keys except for four major and three minor are all good and the same as each other: the bad major keys are B major, F# major, C# major, and G# major; the bad minor keys are F minor, Bb minor, and Eb minor. The sub-semitones (extra sharp/flat keys) are provided on this instrument in a few octaves but not all octaves (G# has an Ab above it; Eb has a D# above it). That can help with the occasional D# to use in B major if it's in the octave where the key is provided, and the same with the Ab (A-flat) to use in F minor. Historically these were mainly used to allow for transposition to match singing range in chant (15th century) or congregational singing (17th century).

[@stephenkunst7550]

Love this organ, puts to shame most neo-classic organs built in the 20th century. With the room being dry, I find the mixture over kill. Heard it an OHS convention.

[@agogobell28]

Playing Vierne on this meantone German-style organ is distinctly hilarious to me....

[@bifeldman]

I would have liked to hear the meantone “blue notes.”

[@CurtisBooksMusic]

You couldn't hear them?

[@danielponder690]

Op. 72 not 71 according to the website, this instruments beats some of their more...recent projects....

[@bkarosi]

Corrected...

[@danielponder690]

@@bkarosi thank you, love your videos! Really like the walk throughs of the organs, will have to let you know when I'm in NYC again, love to see some organs up close there some time.

[@fnersch3367]

Wonderful music. Who wrote it? Love the unequal tempered tuning, it adds a pungent quality to the sound.

[@timjungmann718]

What kind of microphone do you use

[@jsb7975]

Is it me I am hearing ?

[@bkarosi]

We all hear ourselves :-)

[@jeffreyerdmann1017]

I love it when you demo a organ , but the mean tone thing is a bit off putting. Where are you actually from, don’t know anything about you, yet.

[@edifyguy]

If you're used to equal temperament, the meantone tuning (temperament) is very different to be sure. I love the color and flavor it adds, but some do not readily adjust to it. As a string player who also plays keyboard instruments, I can accept some variation in intervals as still being in tune and pleasing, but it does vary from person to person.

[@principals16842]

What a fascinating instrument! Thank you for demonstrating not just the latest instruments, but also those in different styles from past decades as well. I believe this is Opus 72 however (minor typo in your description): cbfisk.com/opus/opus-72/

[@melvis24]

A pity the reeds are out of tune, otherwise a great organ and a great demonstration! So powerful and pure sounds.

[@TheJakeman789]

No thanks tbh. Just not my style

[@CurtisBooksMusic]

Well we're not all 500 years old

[@edifyguy]

@@CurtisBooksMusic I'm at least that old LOL

[@petermacander5039]

ATROCIOUS SOUNDING REPLICA OF AN INSTRUMENT FROM THE CENTURIES BEFORE MEN DISCOVERED HOW TO BUILD REAL PIPE ORGANS OF BEAUTIFUL AND GLORIOUS SOUND AND BEFORE THEY KNEW HOW TO COMPOSE REAL MUSIC. IT BELONGS IN THE DUMPSTER!

[@bkarosi]

Peter Macander show me a REAL pipe organ then!

[@DRBiblicalMD]

What the hell haha

[@robertbangkok]

Limited, narrow, uninformed, misinformed and arrogantly wrong

[@kennethpalmowski-wolfe7923]

This comment is a sick joke, right?

[@edifyguy]

@@bkarosi My guess is that the commenter is stuck in equal temperament and can't handle the purer and occasionally odd (to an ET ear) intervals of the meantone tuning. It's a fine instrument, and you play it well. Thank you for taking the time to share this!

[@jeffreyerdmann1017]

I love it when you demo a organ , but the mean tone thing is a bit off putting. Where are you actually from, don’t know anything about you, yet.

[@jeffreyerdmann1017]

I love it when you demo a organ , but the mean tone thing is a bit off putting. Where are you actually from, don’t know anything about you, yet.

[@jeffreyerdmann1017]

I love it when you demo a organ , but the mean tone thing is a bit off putting. Where are you actually from, don’t know anything about you, yet.