That said, it shines on a real auditorium sized pipe organ.
> you have to wonder where we'd be today musically if not for him.
Err, probably using lute music[1] transposed for organ[2] and adapted[3] as film soundtracks[4] I guess.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM6hd8EPFl0
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nf3eU-Y6Ew
I bought a guitar amp in 1982 via the local paper (Perth, Western Australia) and went out to pick it up - turned out to be in Kevin Peek's back woods recording studio and had an afternoon of noodling about.
I've had some fun restoring DX-7's and sometimes they (or the wreckage) come with stories and previous owners attached.
I'd say an electric guitar orchestra beats an organ on this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqgQ7IYhvRg
My own limited attempts at organ playing have shown me that I’m not an organist. Among other things, the fact that the console and pipes are frequently separated by enough distance that the speed of sound plays a role in aural feedback while playing can make playing a pipe organ a challenge, and that’s before the role of stops, foot pedals and the lack of a sustain pedal² come into play
⸻
1. The piece that I’m remembering required frequent changes of the stops on the organ.
2. AKA, the sloppy keyboardists’ savior.
I’ve never had the opportunity to play a pipe organ, and other sorts don’t tend to lean into stop banks that you can rapidly swap between so much, and this drawbar organ doesn’t have that kind of thing at all—changing mid-piece is much more impractical, and so done much less. All up, I’m confident it’s an easier instrument to play than a pipe organ, but still with a lot of the same qualities. (But it’s not just an inferior pipe organ—it’s its own thing.)
I’ve found it fascinating what works and what doesn’t: I played a wide variety of things, my expectation of how well a piece will transfer has not always been correct, in one direction or the other.
Anyway, pianos and organs are definitely quite different instruments, but there’s also a lot of overlap in the techniques and skills, and playing one will improve significant aspects of your playing of the other.
(Nice three-em dash, BTW. I settled on —⁂— as a divider, but seriously contemplated two-em and three-em dash, which I do still use in other situations.)
There was a full-on national news article a year or two back about some suburban house somewhere with a pipe organ that was for sale but only for someone who’d appreciate and use it. Pipe organs are part of the house; but these organs, I dunno, I feel that they’re big enough most buyers wouldn’t want to let you leave ’em behind.
Oh look, another interesting one in the Melbourne area now, https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/frankston/keyboards-pianos/c.... Uncommon indeed. Hmm, if it’s still on the market when I get back in March… even if I need to get rid of some furniture to fit it conveniently… drawbar organ, electric organ, upright piano and digital piano quartet? Sigh, really wish I had more space to conveniently fit all this and a grand piano or two. They’re all such different instruments despite seeming similar in some ways that I kinda want ’em all.
Yes, this can get quite extreme. And then there are churches where some of the organ sounds are purposefully piped to the other side of the building to be injected in different places. That can really add to the delay and the confusion.