Blog by-the-Sea

"Like a Fire": A New Pipe Organ in an 11th Century Church

Danish Pipe organ composer Frederik Magle recorded a 2-CD set of improvisations on a new pipe organ at the 11th century Jorlunde Church near Copenhagen.  The church's regular organist brought in the composer to help with the organ design process.  Here is a YouTube video sent to me yesterday by the composer.  What a delightful surprise!  Magle is Protestant, baptized and raised in the Danish national church.  Writing about the two days of improvisation for the recording, he described the experience as one of being "completely and utterly withdrawn from the world outside (while outside the church walls, the worst snowstorm in many years raged - making the real world itself seem like a fantasy in many ways."

Also, there is more information about the organ on the composer's website.

 

All Saints Day Organ Improvisation and Songs

From St. Anne's Church of Budapest (panoramic interior photo), an organ improvisation by Barnabas Balasi, for yesterday's observance of All Saints Day:

Messiaen: 2 Videos

Regard VI: Par lui tout a été fait:

Regard XI: Première Communion de la Vierge:

By Olivier Messiaen, organist for 62 years at L'Église de la Sainte Trinité in Paris, performed by Roger Muraro.

UCE Birmingham Conservatoire and the University of Sheffield are planning a 2008 Messiaen  International Centenary Conference to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen.  It will be held in June 2008 in Birmingham, England.

10 Organ Videos

This is a collection of organ videos from YouTube and Videomotion.  Some show cathedral organs, two show monastery organs, and there is also an assortment including an outdoor organ, barrel organ, and a baseball park organ.

1. The organ at l'Abbaye de St. Pierre, Solesmes, France, from Tien Ming on You Tube:

2. The organ at the Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris, from Amy7252 on You Tube:

3. The organ at Balboa Park, San Diego, California, from Mgonyou on You Tube:

Also, here is an audio recording from the Balboa Park organ to download: Download 03_fujik_entry_of_the_gladiators.mp3

4. The organ at l'Abbaye de St. Michel, Thierache, France, from Reprocessed on Dailymotion:

Orgue St Michel en Thierache
Uploaded by reprocessed

5. The organ at the Cathedral of Barcelona, Spain (short clip) from Jean-Philipe at Dailymotion (The video clip identifies this video as from the Gothic Quarter, which is where the cathedral is located, so I am assuming that this is the cathedral organ.):

église du quartier gothique
Uploaded by jean-philipe

6. The organ at the Cathédrale St. André in Bordeaux, France, from Madem at Dailymotion:

DSCF3853
Uploaded by madem

7. The barrel organ, still playing from perforated sheets of paper, at Saint-Nizier-de-Moucherotte, France, from  Julie70 at Videomotion:

Orgue de Barbarie 1
Uploaded by julie70

8. Thalben-Ball pedal solo in Lansing, Michigan (probably at St. Mary Cathedral, but I'm not sure), by Soofan 83 ("Joe") on Videomotion:

Thalben-Ball Pedal Solo
Uploaded by soofan83

9. Baseball game music on a Yamaha 100 from Sebrickhouse on YouTube:


10.  The organ at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England from Pacific42 on YouTube:

The Sound of the Master's Trumpet

In an earlier post, here, I wrote about the work of Dom Daniel Saulnier and Kenneth Levy on the history of Gregorian chant, and about the great transitions in Church music that took place around the year 1000.  That post also used quotations from the letters of Gerbert of Aurillac about church organs, as he is known to have played the organ and possibly to have built organs in that era.  The advent of the Christianity as the state church of Kyevan Russia also dates to roughly around that time, with chants being brought from Constantinople to Kiev, and the beginning of Kiev chant.

Here is a quote about organs from Symeon the New Theologian, who was a monk at that time from Constantinople, and who is considered an important saint in the Orthodox Church.   Using church organs as a metaphor to describe his role in guiding younger monks and providing spiritual guidance through his writings, in a discourse called "On Works of Mercy", he wrote:

"I ought never to have ventured at all to address you, nor occupy the place of a teacher in the presence of your charity.  As you well know, an organ built by a craftsman does not play of its own accord.  Only when its pipes are filled with air and the fingers of the player touch [its keys] in due order will it make its sound and fill the ears of all with sweet music.  So too in my own case you must remember to ignore how poor an instrument I am.  Rather, look to the grace of the Spirit, which from on high inspires and fills the souls of the faithful, to the very "finger of God" (Luke 11:20) that plucks at the strings of the mind and incites us to speak.  Listen with fear and trembling (Eph. 6:5) to the sound, as it were, of the Master's trumpet, or more correctly, to the King of all things as He speaks to us as through an instrument.  Listen with understanding and in great quietness!"

- Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses, Discourse IX.

It is interesting, first of all, to see references to organ music in writings from this era.  It was an important instrument to their worship, as it is to ours, although their organs were quite simple as compared to some of the massive, complex machines we have today.

But the point he is making is a more timeless one, a simple point written in beautiful language as he introduces his ninth discourse, on the topic "On Works of Mercy".  This is the Discourse's first paragraph, introducing it as spoken through the power of the Holy Spirit although he, himself, is a "poor instrument". 

It brings to mind Scriptures using different metaphors to describe similar concepts:

 

"When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,

and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom,  but with a demonstration of spirit and power,so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God." (I Cor. 2:1-5)

"But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us." (II Cor. 4:7)

In his role as a teacher, he describes himself as a poorly made musical instrument played by the Master's hands, filled with the air of the Spirit, and asks his readers to listen, not to him, but to the sweet music they hear when the Holy Spirit "fills the soul of the faithful" and the fingers of God have control of that poor instrument. 

Elsewhere, Symeon uses other metaphors to describe the workings of the Holy Spirit: fire, lamp, light, sun, and water, among others, are mentioned by Orthodox Archbishop Basil Krivocheine in his book about Symeon, The Light of Christ.  Here, the Spirit is the air that fills the pipes of a mediocre organ played by the Master's hands.

The concept of his own brokenness echoes those letters of St. Paul quoted above.  It also conveys a message about his role as a spiritual guide and spiritual father -- one that he may not have always followed as well in life as he might have wished, but that is true of all of us. 

In his book on spiritual guidance, Soul Mending, Orthodox historian and theologian John Chryssavgis writes of the theme of brokenness, drawing in part from Catholic theologian Henri Nouwen.  Chryssavgis wrote that "all Christians are called to 'ministry' in one form or another", and it is easy for us to "become distracted from the centrality of humility and the significance of vulnerability in the Christian life."  Yet, ministry arises precisely from that "and leads to the cross."  So, in accepting and admitting our own brokenness, rather than pretending to be whole, being "broken for others and shared with others", we offer more of God.  Henri Nouwen, quoted by Chryssavgis, wrote, "Making one's own wounds a source of healing . . . does not call for a sharing of superficial personal pains but for a constant willingness to see one's own pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition which all men share." (Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer) 

That, I think, is basically what Symeon was saying here.  Rather than pretend to be more than he was, he sought to teach what he knew of God through his brokenness, beginning as a "poor instrument."