Introducing Handel's Organ

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Our Principal Artist John Butt introduces a spectacular bespoke chamber organ, built to recreate the sounds of Handel's era.
Featuring extracts from Handel's Organ Concerto in G minor, Op.4, No.1
It was built by British organ maker Robin Jennings jennings-organs.co.uk/.
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[@HakureiReimuOfficial]

This man's enthusiasm makes life worth it

[@mrJohnDesiderio]

He really Handels that organ.

[@notabit]

John Butt is one of my all-time heros.

[@WesWaagenaar]

Beautiful organ. I really enjoy how it sounds.

[@rareblues78daddy]

Butt: "Handel's organ was a small unit."

[@enthusedtosing9655]

rareblues78daddy Haaaaahahahahahahah

[@EElgar1857]

Probably smaller than Bach's. ;-)

[@rareblues78daddy]

@@Idle_Hands _...and "Butt," like ASS!!1!_

[@vincenta_2]

Thank you, John *Butt*

[@kevinnguyen552]

xD I’m so immature

[@hamzahaytham3940]

he _Handled_ it very well

[@ivyssauro123]

"This is very close to what Handel himself would have"...Handled! *Badum tss*

[@rawhamburgerjoe]

You take that BACH!

[@zeniktorres4320]

Nicely demonstrated. Beautiful sound.

[@lcarliner]

There is an organ in Paddington that Handel actually performed on. E. Biggs has product fed an album with him performing the Handel organ concertos. The booklet provided with the album contains interesting material concerning the organ. It as a Columbia Masterworks product.

[@praestant8]

Even Handel was aware of larger instruments, as plenty existed. The fascination, however, was with smaller instruments that could be used with orchestra.

[@pbrower2a1]

As I see it from the organ concertos, the idea was to make the organist primus inter pares.

[@kishascape]

Or in the home as well

[@sfbirdclub]

For several years I played a small Woodbury organ in Sudbury MA which, though it has had an electric blower since early on (1910-25?), still also had its original pumping handle. It was great, BUT let me remind you. I learned after the first time (a wedding--they were so hap[py to have no electricity at all in their wedding, and the grooms 12-year old brother pumped the organ) that ONLY another organist would do for any music of even the lightest complexity past a hymn. The pumper needs to know the music well enough to know when stops were going to be added or a change of manual or volume was required. Otherwise--since chest regulators were not...um, as good as they are now shall we say--you could play your new volume huge chord on the combined great and the nearly deflated chests would wheeze and even pitches fail, or if over-pumped create ciphers; my 12 year old was SO enthusiastic he kept needing to be reminded that over pumping could burst a gut valve or send the organ pipes into screeching if playing softly was required and constant pumping continued.

[@gehirndoper]

That's quite the story, and a perspective on joint creation of music that I can hardly envision when being so used (as everyone else is) to the organ just playing forever after I turn it on.

[@alexanderbacklund9835]

There are stories about famous organists like J. S. Bach improvising on the organ, sometimes in friendly competition with a fellow organist, and one wonders how it was done in practice, especially given what you are writing - but also, did they have a couple of boys that could be summoned at any time? In a churchyard, I saw a tombstone (from the 19th century, if I remember correctly) where the title of the person was given in Swedish as "orgeltrampare" (literally "organ blower"), which I thought was unusual.

[@ethanlamoureux5306]

I remember hearing the story of an organist who announced to an audience, “I will now play the organ.” But upon striking what was to have been a grand chord, and no sound being heard, a voice came from the back of the organ which said “We! We will now play the organ.” Bear in mind, the calcant or organ blower did not work for free. And as you state, pumping an organ is not an unskilled job.

[@BCSchmerker]

+OrchestraEnlighten *Thanks for the overview.* The Robin Jennings I/6 (built 2000 for Sir John Eliot Gardiner) uses 8' ranks for the bases of principal (8.4.2.1-1/3) and flute (8.4.1) chori, consistently with the _Rückpositiv_ of many of the mightier builds of Schnitger, Silbermann, and their contemporaries.

[@christopherstube9473]

Thank you for finding the disposition, much appreciated. It does seem more North German than more of the chamber organs in Handel's time, but it is a very nice instrument.

[@pixelatedmushroom]

Great video, and an excellent tour, thank you

[@shashablacksamuraimovement6705]

Really beautiful organ, I wish I could own the organ like that one day In my life ;) love it !!

[@hewie2u]

I would like to handle the handles that Haendel had handled

[@scottklein4844]

I couldn't handle handling Handel's handles.

[@TheCimbrianBull]

Bach off!

[@faaqcee7896]

Mark Hewitt you can't handle the Toots

[@hewie2u]

or the tweets

[@danielj9042]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@ExAnimoPortugal]

I want one of these in my living room

[@gregfolland8452]

Me too!

[@theoven7143]

Your neighbors never miss Sunday school

[@johnp.sullivan6773]

Magnificent and valuable video thank you !!!

[@climbthatmountain]

Beautiful playing! God's own instrument...and my favorite in the "instruments" OAE series.

[@kishascape]

I also love more practical forms of pipe organ like this. It doesn't need to take up a whole church building to make great music. My favorites are the medieval kind with the pipes sitting on top like an upright piano.

[@silverrush2508]

I can’t handle the jokes already, enough is enough!

[@Lurker1979]

That is a neat little organ.

[@misssarahashplant31]

A very informative and enjoyable video. Thank you for the upload.

[@jamesc3753]

Fantastic video.

[@robertoa.m.3984]

Marvelous video! Thank you So much!

[@marcelobrunorodrigues7630]

Very didactic your considerations. In his notes to the concertos 1-12, Oliver Daniel wrote for Vox recording with Walter Kraft and the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra from Stuttgart (circa 1951) that the following disposition was quite enough for the adequate performance: Open Diapason 8' Stopped Diapason 8' Octave 4' Flute 4' Twelfth 2 ⅔' Fifteenth 2' Seventeenth 1 ⅗'

[@billyd10]

I really love this series.

[@Modeltnick]

Very nice demonstration of this small instrument!

[@rosejuliette9180]

Wow... you really pulled out all the stops for this one.

[@begumtosun135]

this is an amazing video. thank you!

[@TheTalemaster]

The amusing thing is that the organ's speech is more precise than John's own.

[@McOuroborosBurger]

The child labor was the best part of the organ.

[@Machodave2020]

Definitely

[@EElgar1857]

Ah yes, a "wind slave"!

[@ericalbany]

There were foot pumped chamber organs, though you couldn't go above 2 or 3 stops without wind issues on sustained notes.

[@zachlafleur6651]

Nice little positif organ that sounds really great, even with only one manual and it looks like no pedals. It could even be a portative in a limited sense if there were heavy duty casters under it to be able to roll it from one room to another.

[@JaneDoe-ci3gj]

Very interesting, thanks for proper subtitles😊👍

[@sambulls]

this guy is talented, not everyone can make it sound so pretty!

[@Thilindel]

"Our Principal Artist John Butt introduces. . . Handel's Organ" That just seems like the title of a whole different adult movie right there.

[@js1.987]

Finish on the Bach

[@anotherhumanbeingblyat8935]

@@js1.987 Start with Debussy

[@1Cyberix]

A very fine demo of a fantastic instrument, thank you. It must cost a fortune to build.

[@capezyo]

Amazing, thank you very much

[@mario9133]

What a wonderful instrument. i am puzzled by people that refer to past cultures as being so much more advanced than ours, or that of our more recent antecedents. I would like to see the Egyptians to have built such an instrument, or to find a relic of a pipe organ amongst the ruins of ancient civilizations. And how well this Gentleman, Mr. Butt, plays it. How expertly he does it, and how dexterous he is while doing it. Indeed a short but most enjoyable video. Bravo Maestro! Blessed hands you have.

[@patrickdestain392]

This channel is a keeper. Amazing, concise demonstration and explanations by enthusiastic and professional players. What else?? Oh yes, it is for all of us to enjoy. You can blame KZbin for capitalism flavors, but let's admit that knowledge has never been so easy to access.

[@joyce_rx]

and the jokes! oh, i just cant handel them.

[@franznarf]

it is a channel for ignorant and gullible people cos this is baroque not enlightrnment

[@patrickdestain392]

Franz Narf enlightenment: 1715-1789 ( French Revolution). Baroque 1600-~1750. Haendel organ work :1740-1751. Never post when you are drunk. Or maybe you are simply an uneducated idiot?

[@garfixit]

I love the sound very nice

[@kolerichard2133]

Thats some nice music Mr. Butt.

[@thegoblinmovie9793]

Awesome!

[@TheCimbrianBull]

What an absolute organ grinder!

[@Sebastian-be8ez]

Excellent Organ!

[@comms9803]

This organ is a bit small even for Handel's time.

[@gehirndoper]

This is a small movable organ that's used in conjunction with an orchestra or ensemble, mostly for playing basso continuo. Of course there were huge organs as well, mostly in bigger churches.

[@rovemonteux]

Incredible instrument really.

[@ABCDuwachui]

Rove Monteux hey sexy

[@Maltravers2011]

The organ in St Mary's Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucs. UK came from St Martin-in-the-Fields, London and was almost certainly played by Handel.

[@julianmisut533]

What are the stops on this organ, Love the video!

[@moresalesoryourmoneyback]

Thank you for sharing

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Wonderful instrument. Interesting that the key colors are opposite of today

[@edwinnickolas805]

Very nice organ,.

[@ignatiosaraber1993]

What book is that, I like the organ solo's!

[@zebra3stripes]

Funny, right before this I was watching another video featuring Butt on organ. I don't think it could be shown on KZbin.

[@Crimsonphilosophy]

This channel rocks

[@SomeoneCommenting]

Imagine if Handel could have put his hands on an organ like the one in the Mormon Tabernacle in Utah...

[@praestant8]

He would have shrieked and left in a hurry at how hideously large it is.

[@user-lh3uz1cp7y]

I would love to have a foot pumped version of something like this but I know I would have to build it myself.

[@WillemvanTwillertOrganist]

nice

[@croatililliouspartridge5822]

Hey, say it don't spray it, John's Butt! Just jokin' lovely organ y'all got. ;)

[@Ianthe22]

Why is my version of handel concerto in G not like the one he plays?? Hmm.. have to check the score again. Havent played it for ages. Maybe i remember it incorrectly.

[@joyce_rx]

different iterations and ideas. soloists are famous because they play solos differently than what was 100% intended for example, look at all the slower/faster performances of Clair de lune all over youtube

[@carpetwalker5914]

You should do one on the baroque guitar

[@oliviermoser9788]

Hello, what a lovely Organ, is that not possible to blown it manual ? Wich temperament did you choose for this organ ?

[@christopherstube9473]

It would not take a whole lot of wind. You could have a couple of bellows to feed it with weights on them and it would not take much effort to lift one when they started getting to the end of the stroke.

[@enriqueandres1998]

is there some kind of blueprints? cause I want to build it!

[@WinrichNaujoks]

That's like asking Coca Cola for their recipe because you want to make your own.

[@christopherstube9473]

There are many good books on pipe organ design. I have occasionally seen some online.

[@andreacosta74]

“Claviorgans” were used in Rome since the birth of the “roman Oratorio”, in S.M. in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) (XVI century)

[@YuutaShinjou113]

I want one.

[@Voe198]

Is the organ he demonstrates most the examples on just or tempered?

[@meefabioo99]

I play on a organ, built in 1755 / 1756.

[@1Ipodtouchfan]

Whats the name of the piece he plays at 3 minitues 54 seconds?

[@Seregium]

I know that when Handel was very old composer there was first compact pianolas (reed organs) in Warshaw and st.Petersburg...

[@Gilmaris]

It's smaller than I expected.

[@christopherstube9473]

It is a single division organ, which means that you end up changing stops when the dynamics change. Also the English tended to use a GG to G compass on the keyboard so they tended not to have pedal boards or organs. But it was lots of fun as a continuo instrument or for accompanying singers.

[@nickdryad]

That’s what all the girls say. Now I want a video on Rasputin’s organ.

[@christopherstube9473]

@@nickdryad The Russians tended toward inorganic music. Although they do have a great oral tradition in singers.

[@Gilmaris]

@@nickdryad They'd never allow _that_ on KZbin.

[@organist660]

this is such a beautifull organ. I wish I could learn to play it. since I am trained on the lowrey organ.

[@Offshoreorganbuilder]

You have my sympathies.

[@christopherstube9473]

A tracker organ is better to practice on because it makes you aware of when the valve opens, so your articulation gains. Electric keyboards tend to not disclose to the fingers when they are sounding due to unevenness in the switches or contacts although you might have haptic feedback but that adds complexity and more adjustments. The tracker has lots of top resistance to the keys until you break the valve opens and then little resistance. It feels like breaking egg shells with your fingers.

[@Offshoreorganbuilder]

@@christopherstube9473 But the point, surely, is that the Lowrey is (how shall I put it) like all of its kind ... crap.

[@christopherstube9473]

@@Offshoreorganbuilder The lowry for all its poverty is still a suitable practice instrument for older electric actions though you will not develop into a fine organist as you would if you play the finest instruments. But if it is a matter of not playing or having some music in life, one should make music as he can until he can have better means. I am not defending Lowry, but i am sympathetic to those who create music, because those who talk about it are merely music critics.

[@Offshoreorganbuilder]

@@christopherstube9473 Very true. If that's all you can manage, then it's a second best. (But, dear me ... what a second!)

[@deaganjones4666]

does it have a pedalboard? I'm assuming not, but still wondering

[@dcllaw677]

What do you do when the person at the pump got tired?

[@joyce_rx]

execute them and get a new one or just have others at the ready

[@WarrenPostma]

Lovely sounding beastie. Suitabler perhaps for one's own Chambers (home). Yet we see these dudes with 8 rank pipe organs in their houses. One wonders if they're all batty. But what a glorious thing.

[@RizalBudiLeksono]

Fancy!

[@shemmoirichards]

4:03 N O B I L I T Y

[@andreacosta74]

This instrument is used by Monteverdi Choir

[@nickreid5613]

Where can I buy one ?!

[@peteacher52]

Say, what a noble clutch of humorous chappies we have commenting here! That's the first time we've heard those funny jokes ... TODAY. And yes, before the industrial revolution gained full steam ahead, the organ was indeed the most complex mechanism man had created, as exemplified by the Dutch masterpieces and the not-so-great but superb looking monster in Weingarten Abbey with its detached console and trackers many meters long, some having to turn corners, especially to reach the crown positive perched way up in the gods of the organ. That Gabler couldn't finish his own work and that other more competent builders had to be brought in to do so, is another story. He had bitten off le grande bite and couldn't chew it.

[@joyce_rx]

I just imagined some dude wearing a $10000 tuxedo with a very heavy, old british accent speaking in my head while reading this

[@wilhelmorangenbaum163]

Did the composers use to write in the scores of their compositions in which parts it should be triggered certain organ stops? Or did they leave this to the interpreter's choice?

[@bartschepens1307]

In German Baroque (Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel) it is quite uncommon, but in French Baroque (for example François Couperin) organ music almost every piece has a title that makes clear what kind of registration is needed (for example Récit de Tierce or Plein Jeu).

[@wilhelmorangenbaum163]

@@bartschepens1307 Thank you very much for the info. And these titles were placed above the staff of the part where a change of register was necessary?

[@Offshoreorganbuilder]

@@wilhelmorangenbaum163 Yes.

[@wilhelmorangenbaum163]

@@Offshoreorganbuilder Thanks!

[@5610winston]

E. Power Biggs commented that he had "...handled the handles than Handel had handled..."

[@jrzzrj]

👍

[@anotherhumanbeingblyat8935]

Is there a pedalboard on this organ?

[@millennial8441]

Flute sounds are seemed like those of the recorders.

[@wade43671]

Handel must have had a rather large family...not too many stops on his organ (Wah, Wahhh!) All kidding aside it's a great introduction. For some reason I've always thought Handel played on a bigger "Bachian" type of instrument. Never realized they came in different sizes

[@MrPaevo]

Where's the keg of beer to sit on and the fowl hanging from the side?

[@PointyTailofSatan]

It's well known how organ were pumped in Germany. For services they used mostly music students. For practice times, they used people off the street, and paid them with beer and wine.

[@geffdek803]

What's the name of the piece in the beginning and at many parts of the video?

[@AML2000]

He's playing excerpts from Handel's Organ Concertos, written as intermission entertainment during his oratorio concerts. He wrote 12 of them. The small chamber organs like this one would not drown out the baroque orchestras of the day like the massive church organs of the time like Bach played.

[@christopherstube9473]

@@AML2000 It is all in what is required. I have found myself well accompanied by a gigantic church organ when singing oratorios by an organist who added just enough stop and harmonics to support the voice line. Just because you have lots of sound resources does not mean you always have to use all of them. There is such a thing as accompanying with a single flute stop or a mild string stop. And the beauty of different stops means that there are some incredibly beautiful effects to be had when you are just accompanying a chamber group.

[@AML2000]

@@christopherstube9473 You're correct of course. What is true though is that Handel used what the German's call a "Truhenorgel" for his organ concertos, among other things because the venues where his oratorios were performed probably didn't have a large organ there.

[@christopherstube9473]

@@AML2000 I am in agreement with you. But in addition he was using very exotic instruments like the claviorganum which is half positif organ and half harpsichord, which is to say that he exploited the best resources to carry forward his compositions. They are difficult to keep in tune, because the strings and flues and reeds all react in different ways to changes in the weather, but they have lots of flexibility in them as musical resources.

[@geoffroydescourtils9206]

But do you know the op number? Thank you

[@FM60260]

Are there any German organs left in the uk?

[@declamatory]

I think it was Bach's organ that didn't have any stops on it. He had 21 children.

[@tedmounsteven621]

When to the organ vocal breath was given, an angel heard, and straight appeared, mistaking earth for Heaven. - Dryden

[@hoilst]

Oh, right. His musical instrument.

[@davemckay4359]

Handel og

[@doristheslug9609]

I want.

[@michaelnancyamsden7410]

ineresting... more music, please.

[@Moucheron1990]

How much does it cost?

[@davidfoust9767]

J Mouch On the builder’s blog he posts about a larger organ he built for a church that was 200k GBP. This organ I would guess 100k.

[@kacperuminski1547]

@@davidfoust9767 I'd place my bet on about £50k-£80k since the larger one probably has way more bass pipes which in theory should be more costly to make than the treble pipes. Just my guess.

[@christopherstube9473]

@@kacperuminski1547 When i did an apprenticeship in the 70's we tended to price them by stops like 10000 dollars per stop, but dollars have shrunken a lot since then. I would guess this has about 5 to 8 stops on it. It has a very nice principle on the facade at least three octaves of it. Mr. Jennings of Dorset apparently did a very good job of laying this instrument out as it has a little more space in it than some positifs that i have seem. He majors in building little chamber instruments and home instruments. It would be fun to have such an instrument on an upstairs balcony. It has a little chimney flute in it, but i was trying to find out if they put any reeds in it. In small instruments if they include beating reeds they tend to name them as Regals.

[@kacperuminski1547]

@@christopherstube9473 Nice to see someone with actual experience in the field. :) I did some simple calculations, adjusted for inflation etc. At 5 stops and about $10k/stop in 1975 which is about $47k in 2018 the value of the organ would be $235k. At 8 stops that goes up to $376k.

[@christopherstube9473]

@@kacperuminski1547 Ja, das stimmt. I just didn't have the guts to do the math because of the extreme future.

[@wigwagstudios2474]

OEHHHHHHHHHHH

[@gamer46653]

so his organ was small eh

[@christopherstube9473]

Not so, some of it is over four feet long.

[@misterflibble6601]

It's not the size of the organ, it's the beautiful music you make with it

[@adrianapartida5888]

What you cant handel it

[@voraciousreader3341]

I’m such a sucker….I always believe the title.

[@arrowfitzgibbon7775]

i'll keep this in mind next time i do a "fugue or voluntary" for harpsichord or organ. all makes sense.