Theater organ registrations

[AllanP]

I tried out Jay's ideas about using the trumpet (Tuba) stop. Even with the limited number of stops on my organ, I had never nit upon the effects described. Thank you very much for your comments on registration. This is a topic that is not described very well in any books I have read. Apparently each organist tends to have his own style of registration so that truly new combinations rarely occur in a given text.

The books referenced (Walt Strony, Jelani Eddington) are excellent texts but tend to be for the traditional big organ. The smaller, select registrations such as discussed here that can be used on any organ are not covered well.

Electronic organs don't seem to have the array of flute stops on both manuals like a Wurlitzer does. I find the flutes are the most valuable stops on the organ for both solo, accompaniment, and pedal. The Tibias are most useful for solos, I have been told to avoid using them for accompaniment. The 8' Tibia in the pedal gives a nice bass rhythm line. Is this generally true?

A question: It is stated that a reed or string used as the basis of a registration must be used at the lowest pitch in the ensemble. During organ lessons, some nice combinations that violate this rule have come up. An example is playing chords on the solo manual using Tibia 16', Salicional 8", and Tibia 4'.

Another question: When should the mutations be used?

Another question: When should the 16' metal diaphone be used in the pedal. One suggestion was to use it as a 16' string.

Allan

[Jay999]

Hello fellow Theatre Organists! It's time for a new "chapter meeting" of our little club. Hope you're all perked up and ready toput another theatre organ playing "trick" up your sleeve.

The following registration is one that you have probably used over and over again. It's a general setting of orchestral stops and flutes, and is great for all around playing. I want to use this one to illustrate what sort of "tricks" you can use to make it sound fantastic on your instrument.

Solo: 8' Diapason, 8' String (adjust for blend), 8' Vox Humana, 8' Flute, 4' Flute.

Accompaniment: 8' Diapason, 4' Flute.

Pedal: 16' Bourdon, 8' Flute.

(If your solo and accompaniment Diapason starts running into itself because of the solo notes overrunning the accompaniment notes, swap the accompaniment Diapason out with a similiar, but slightly different sound...perhaps an 8' String and 8' Flute).

If you have an accompaniment 8' French Horn, try substituting that for your accompaniment Diapason. Also, if you find the Vox Humana rather soft on this registration, try blending a 8' Saxophone into the solo registration.

Use all the tremulants.

Now if you play a medium tempo piece on this, it's just an ordinary (well blended) 8' based combination of medium volume. However...if you add the 16' and 4' couplers to the solo stops, and the 4' coupler to the accompaniment stops, you will then have a very pleasant sounding Full Organ registration. If your organ doesn't have couplers, then add to the solo stops you have turned on,all the voices you have in the original 8' combination at 16' pitch and 4' pitch, and the accompaniment Diapason 4' and Flute 2'. In the pedal you might want to add the next louder 16' pedal stop, or 8' pedal stop...but not too much more in the pedal. Not all of these stops are going to be present at 16' and 4'...but add as much 16' and 4' stop duplications as you can find on your stop rail.

You may like your own 8' based combination even better than the one here. And if so, please use your own 8' based combination....the point I want to make with this combination is that you can add the couplers to your basic 8' registration and make fantastic things happen with just the flip of a few tabs. If your stop rail is "open" (where all the pitches of most stops are controlledby individual tabs) it might be a little more work...but the sound will reward you just the same.

Now let's do some "inventive" stuff with this registration. This is what I like to call "The Radio City Music Hall" sound...or better still, "The Dick Liebert Sound". He was the artist that I first heard doing this on the Music Hall organ, and it never has dissapointed me in it's effectiveness.

Here's the set up. Please register the original combination I started with in this post. Then alter the solo stops by putting on the Unison Off Coupler, and the 16' Sub Octave Coupler. (If you have an open stop rail, register the Diapason, String and Vox at 16' only, and include the 8' and 4' Flutes). On the accompaniment, alter the Diapason for something just a little lighter, like, perhaps, 8' Flute and 8' String. The pedal stops are OK as set up.

Here's your first "theory" rule: Always play this registration...(the way we're going to play it here)...in the key of G, or higher. If you play it any lower, it's going to sound aweful!

I have chosen the tune..."That Lucky 'Ol Sun", because it starts on the lowest note you would dare play on this combination....any notes lower than G2 on the solo will kill it's effectiveness. If you have that piece, please do bring it to the music rack and play the tune. You may have to transpose it into the key of G from it's original key.

Play the melody in the LH, starting on G2 of the Solo manual...and chord accompaniment one octave higher in the RH, down on the accompaniment. Wow! There's that big theatre organ sound, rumbling around in your listening room, just like it was Radio City Music Hall itself! Pleaseobserve your chords in the RH as you accompany the bass solo melody...I always duplicate the solo notes of that bass melody on the accompaniment manual, just one octave higher....it's sort of like playing "block style". The top fingers of the RH takes the melody, and the lower fingers of the RH make the harmonies for the chord. The LH is just lazily playing the melody one octave lower, one note at a time. As the bass melody moves up and down, I always move the RH up and down the same distance...always maintaining a one octave spread.

Now, when you come up to the middle part...the bridge....you'll suddenly understand why you have 'overhanging keys'. With the left hand, hold down the last bass note (on the front edge of the key) with your little finger, and with the other fingers of the left hand, reach down to the accompaniment, and pick up the notes you areholding with the RH. (This is a little tricky..you'll want to practice this "bridging" a few times). This will free up your RH so you can reach up to the stops and make a change...which if you have couplers, just take off the Unison Off coupler...the organ will do the rest. If you have an open rail,reach up and turn on the 8' Diapason, 8' String and 8' Vox. (Still holding on to that G Major chord with your left hand, did you notice that nice Crescendo that just happened when you made that stop change, right before you started the bridge....nice!) Then quickly lift both hands from the keys, andswap them around so now the RH is playing in the 3rd octave range of the solo manual, and the LH is playing in the 2nd octave range of the accompaniment manual. Now begin the bridge. The bridge is rather short, and easy to play. However, we're not done yet...when you reach the last chord in the bridge, you willbe playing a melody note A in the third octave, and a D7 chord under it...

Now lets make a "key change" and add some more full organ for our last go round....so,holding down your A melody note, and the D7th chord all together (this time with the right hand)....Reach up with your LH and put on the 4'Coupler on the solo(for open rails, add the 4' Diapason, 4' String, and 4' Vox)...and again, a nice Crescendo sound just happened....Now change your D7th chord to an F7th chord, still holding down that A on the top....and you have a nice "transition chord", that will take you intothe key of Bb. Now finish up the final verse in the key of Bb. Perhaps you might add a soft 2' Flute on the solo...just as you're finishing upthe last phrase of the piece...finish it up with plenty of volume.You know how to improvise some flourishes like this, I'm sure.

So here's a terrific arrangement of"Lucky 'Ol Sun"...just like Dick Liebert would haveplayed it at the Music Hall many years ago.

Please do try to getthe music to this tune..."Lucky 'Ol Sun"...and learn to play it in thekey of G, withpretty much the same stops and technique as I've given here...you won't be sorry for having learned how to play this classic theatre organ piece, especially with this special "trick technique"...andat the same time, you will have become proficient inworking the stops around for this "big organ sound". Don't fret too much about stumbling around on this for a while...it took the better part of a year for me to master this technique. If you can master this faster than I did....well then, you're a pretty good theatre organist!

Best wishes. Next time, we'll do some magic things with the"toy" stop....the Kinura.

[Royal]

Guys (esp Jay & Allen so far)

I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. I am a totally self taught (from books) organist who has never had a lesson. Started rather late in life and had my attention focused on raising a family and other things until recently. Up to now, I mostly concentrated on playing the correct notes with little to no thought about registration. My first exposure to the organ was Radio City in 1955. It was moving. Keep up the good work, there are many (I suspect) who are following your "lessons".

Roy

[AllanP]

Jay,

Do you mean to use the flutes in the Solo or actually the Tibias? Traditionally, the 4' Tibia would be used in such a combination.

I tried the diapason, string, flute, vox, 4' flute registration on bothe single note melody and chords. It sounds really great. Adding the 16's as suggested gives a much fuller sound. As an experiment, I tried using the Tibias instead of the flutes. The result is a heavier, more solid sound. The use of the flutes gives a lighter sound with more harmonic development. When should the flutes be used instead of the Tibia's?

Thank you very much for your registration comments. These discussions are extremely helpful to me.

Allan

[afuller5]

Jay, AllanP, or others,

I have been experimenting with the theatre sounds available on my organ--including the all suggestions here and some from Strony's book. I have been having a great time doing this and learning a lot in the process. I have noticed something about my organ and need clarification from some of you.

First, I want to mention that I have never played a theatre pipe organ nor a theatre electric/digital organ (like Allen, Rodgers, etc.). So, my question to you will probably sound silly, but I do not have a basis for comparison. Okay, now to my question. I have noticed that the theatre tibias or flutes (I'm not sure which they are although my video owner's guide refers to them a tibias) are not as loud in volume as the Vox, Saxophone, Trumpet, String, etc. This is especially true when using some of the these non-tibia stops at both 16' and 8' pitch. If the 16', 8', and 4' tibia/flute is engaged, there is little discernible difference in the sound. The higher pitches are heard a little better. How does the volume level of the tibias and the other stops compare on a "real" theatre organ?

Also, I can boost the volume of the tibias easily but doing so will also boost the volume of one of the other stops. The other two stops that I can have engage will remain unaffected. Actually, I can control the volume of each of these two stops individually. (Also, I cannot have more than three other stops combined with the tibias.) So, if I need to boost the volume of the tibias, do you have any suggestions as which other stop could be used at a louder volume than the others? As point of information here, the tuba seems to be the least "aggressive" of the other stops available. So, it may be a good candidate to have at the same volume as the tibias.

Sorry if this post was too long. I'm just trying to learn more about theatre organ registration.

Thanks in advanced.

Until later,

Allen

[AllanP]

The volume orderon a typical Wurlitzer follows this plan:

Quietest to loudest

Vox, Flute, Salicional, Tibia, Diapason, Trumpet

The registrations that Jay suggested work very well on my organ. The combination of 8" Diapason, Salicional, Vox, Flute with 4' Flute is great! It gives a lighter sound that the typical Tibia based registration.

Allan

[afuller5]

Allan,

Thanks! The Vox is definitely not the quietest upon my organ when first powered up. However, I can adjust the volumes.

Thanks again.

Allen

[AllanP]

Jay,

Your registration
Solo: 8' Diapason, 8' String (adjust for blend), 8' Vox Humana, 8' Flute, 4' Flute.
Accompaniment: 8' Diapason, 4' Flute.
Pedal: 16' Bourdon, 8' Flute.

is excellent played on my Style D. It has a definite lighter, orchestral sound than a registration using Tibias. I have programmed it on a piston as I like it so much. I find that adding almost any 16' gives a fuller sound and adds variety.

Allan