Vox humana - the human voice in the organ | Netherlands Bach Society

The vox humana is a stop of the organ that imitates the human voice. In combination with a tremulant, this approaches the way people used to sing, explains organist Leo van Doeselaar.
Recorded for the project All of Bach on September 16th 2020 at Freiberger Dom Sankt Marien, Freiberg, Germany. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating bit.ly/3J5uprM.
We thank MWH4impact foundation for their generous support of this recording. MWH4impact aims to achieve social and cultural impact and joins the Netherlands Bach Society in their mission Bach for All.
For the interview with Leo van Doeselaar on the Silbermann organ in Freiberg go to • The Silbermann organ i...
For more information on the Silbermann organ please visit www.freiberger-dom.de/en/concerts/organs-by-silbermann/great-organ-by-silbermann.html
All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society, offering high-quality film recordings of the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society and its guest musicians. Visit our free online treasury for more videos and background material on www.bachvereni.... For concert dates and tickets go to www.bachvereni....
Leo van Doeselaar, organist
Organ: Gottfried Silbermann, 1711-1714

[@timmy9796]

always a special occasion when the NBV decides to upload on a tuesday

[@cadedundon8616]

I remember when they used to upload Tuesdays and Thursdays

[@timmy9796]

@@cadedundon8616 those were the days

[@handavid6421]

I demand a video for every historical stop!

[@lacrimis_solis]

yup

[@AlexanderWinkler]

Truly, this instrument really sounds like voices

[@KwangMarkEleven]

I support your demand 👍

[@RalphLooij]

Good luck with that, but great idea ;)

[@jotaro63748]

i love bach

[@DanielMasmanian]

And he loves us.

[@kumo-kun1831]

This is a brilliant showcase!! The music being played tricked my brain into thinking that’s really human voice, what an astounding instrument 😍

[@Photoshock]

In seinem Werk "Doktor Faustus" hat Thomas Mann die Amsterdamer "Vox humana" Orgel sehr ausführlich und mit großer Begeisterung beschrieben. Das Buch habe ich vor mehr als 40 Jahren gelesen, jetzt weiß ich genau, was ihn so sehr beeindruckt hat.

[@johanngottliebgoldberg1055]

I wasn't expecting anything today! Let alone something this good! Thanks Leo and NBS!

[@CaptJackAubreyOfTheRoyalNavy]

It's like pre-electricity synthesis. So cool.

[@jameslouder]

"[Sweekinck's tremulant] was repaired often, so it must have been used a lot..." This is surely true, though many other things in an organ are used all the time without failing. But as an organbuilder who has made many tremulants of this kind (the so-called "tremblant doux") I can affirm that the more delicate and refined the tremulant is, the less reliable it may be! So one may need to return to the organ often to keep the tremulant happy--and also the organist!

[@ProdigyImprovisation]

This sounds more fit for chants rather than full score organ music.

[@jameslouder]

Vibrato is the essential determinant of the Vox Humana, Voix humaine, etc. The proof of this lies in the Italian "Voce umana" stop, already present in the 16th century. This was not a short-length reed, as here, but rather a principal *celeste*--a rank slightly de-tuned so as to beat against the 8' Principale. We frequently have heard that "early singers didn't use vibrato"--which may be true if one means the 'bel canto' style of later opera. But these organ stops tell us that in earlier centuries vibrato was thought part of the the human voice's very nature.

[@jaikee9477]

Thanks again, NBS and Leo! Learned something new about the most astonishing instrument there is!

[@tommunyon2874]

Their was an old pioneer pump organ in the house where my grandmother lived for a time. The Vox Humana stop leaked by, so that no matter whatever other stops were pulled the Vox Humana was ever present when one pumped the billows pedals.

[@jsb7975]

Everything about this vid is unique ! FABULOUS really !!!

[@lenanielsen5903]

Bach's music is so beautiful and this organ sound absolutely wonderful love it 🍃thank you NBS

[@schlangengrube157]

Wunderbar.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

This reminds me of other descriptions of instruments that were said to sound like the human voice. I'm especially reminded of hearing the cornett/cornetto/zink for the first time. It just sounded like a more nasal trumpet to me, but then I heard it in combination with the operatic style of singing that was used at the time, and sometimes I couldn't even tell the difference. The Armenians often claim that the duduk has the closest sound to the human voice, which I didn't believe either, despite how beautiful I find the sound of the instrument, but then I heard the way they sing, and again, it made sense. I guess this goes to show how flexible the human voice really is.

[@agnesgrey4799]

Interesting and expert explanation of the great virtuoso and conductor Leo van Doeselaar 🎵🙂🎶 Thank you NBC 🙂

[@mauriciomello5576]

Sensacional ! Quantos efeitos maravilhosos podem ser obtidos desse insólito recurso ! Por isso, NBS é um dos meus canais favoritos do KZbin.

[@hannibalbarca1147]

Hola :D Hablas portugués pero aún te entiendo. Y estoy de acuerdo de que NBS es un canal maravilloso, y su música es hermosa!

[@luismartinez-hd8rj]

Grande Bach. No deja de sorprender

[@homamajidi3827]

Thank you very much, your insightful, very informative was very important. Again thank you ❤

[@hiberniancaveman8970]

“That means little to us today” - I could imagine it being used in film music, or in a science fiction series.

[@Kurtlane]

That was absolutely beautiful. At first I thought somebody was singing. I'd love to hear the Lapland / Northern Finland singing this emulates. Anyone can provide a link? Thanks. “That means little to us today” -- not to me. Don't give up on this, guys, old things like these are precious.

[@litoboy5]

GREAT

[@davidpowell3347]

The first music synthesizer !

[@markhartfield8186]

I remember listening to the opening bars of migration by James taylor in 1974. Sat up straight to listen to that I can tell you. 😁

[@oludotunjohnshowemimo434]

The singing initiative, short resonator reed Vox Humana pipes, used with the tremulant,.which intercepts and shakes the air as it goes into the pipes to add the wobble to the sound.

[@PeterFamiko-lw8ue]

Great

[@NickHoffmanSound]

amazing

[@davidwright8432]

The tremolo playhng just one tone sounds uncannily like an electronic synthesizer - metrnomically precise and never finishes an exhalation! It sound artificial - an endless up-and-down 'ahahahahahah ... ' Of course, played simultaneously with other tones, that effect is less noticeable.

[@ClassicalRingtoneComposer]

I like these exra video's very much. I think they are collected in the Interviews playlist. But it seems this video hasn't yet been added to it.

[@SYLVESTRIVS]

E fotos do registro? Poderiam ter fotografado o tubo....

[@SilvioNobre]

Quanta beleza! 😍

[@CarmeloLucaSambataroMusician]

Which piece is Mr Leo van Doeselaar playing during this video?

[@Quintade8]

Christe, aller Welt Trost - BWV 670

[@henriruissen156]

Een vraag voor Leo: moet dit register altijd worden ondersteund met een prestant 8 / octaaf 4, of kan dit register los worden gebruikt in de uitkomende stem?

[@rsns311257]

An interesting thing: the Italian Vox humana was achieved by means of a pair of slightly detuned principals. Does that mean that in Italy singing was similar to our own way of doing it? I do think so, but then what about the case of, say Schütz (among others) that went to study in Italy and as far as I know never mention the difference?

[@burgexpress]

Interesting point of view! In cinquecento e seicento the real Italian organs never had reeds (sometimes only one or two pipes for special musette-effects). In Italy they found their own way to imitate the voce umana, i.e. with a little higher tuned Principale in combination with the main Principale (as a variation on Principale con Tremulant as used by Frescobaldi in his Toccate per l‘Elevazione?). This would imply that also in Italy one of the main characteristics of the human voice would have been the use of vibrato….. And in this sence not different, but exactly similar as in Dresden or Amsterdam!

[@rsns311257]

@@burgexpress Yes; but the northern Vox Humana was also meant to produce vibrato, by means of the tremulant. As one can hear in many organs there may have been a strong tremulant and another, less pronounced, one (tremblant fort, tremblant doux). Does the strong tremulant mean that, in singing, the vibrato effect was much more pronounced in the North than in Italy (and the south, generally)? I think not necessarily, as the tremulant was sometimes used to conceal out of tune stops. If I remember correctly, Don Dédos cautioned against the use of the tremulant with the grand jeux (!). But the strong tremulant does suggest a completely different concept from the gently undulating Italian Vox humana.

[@joseleonido3479]

The first midi

[@holmespianotuning]

What a terrific sound, the ones we have in England are simply horrid and dull sounding. The best of a very bad bunch are those by Willis but even those are insipid and constrained sounding.

[@homamajidi3827]

❤

[@homamajidi3827]

❤

[@luke-dd7rl]

Can someone show me an example of the throaty singing of lapland/northern finland/bulgaria that he refers to?

[@NuisanceMan]

Dude is cool

[@Mashterpz]

🤘

[@arjenbij]

What piece is Leo playing here?

[@johanngottliebgoldberg1055]

BWV 670

[@aangtonio5570]

So, pipe organs are actually the real "analog" (acoustic) synthesizers!

[@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536]

🌎👍❤.

[@patriziadanna-mauder2793]

Bach Orgelmusik

[@GarGlingT]

Someone sings “HERE A A A A A “

[@ultrahypexz]

psst

[@raisharessy610]

The overconfident fireman decisively untidy because ostrich ultrasonographically nest after a aberrant semicircle. brawny, tacky swedish

[@Bach6032]

A simply wonderful video.