Reitze Smits – J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor
An evening pause: Performed live November 29th 2013 at the Lutheran Church, The Hague. There is something hypnotic about this. Watch and try to distinguish the different melodic lines produced by his feet vs his fingers.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
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Wow! That was fantastic!
I’m amazed at the keyboards that played themselves. When was that added to the classical organ?
I’m guessing the high point for pipe organ development and playing technique was the Baroque era in Northern Europe, and if you watch the keyboard closely the self-actuating keys are apparently linked to corresponding bass pedals. The instruments from this period use a fantastically complex system of wooden linkages (trackers) below the various ranks of pipes that control where the air is being directed and as a result generate different tonal qualities, and they are sometimes linked in tandem like this.
And notice how the page turner is kept busy adjusting the stops of the instrument for particular passages as the piece goes on, so that there is a great deal of choreography happening (four hands and two feet) in this enjoyable video.
This deserves to be played on a system capable of 90 dB at 32 Hz. This organ pedal has a 16 foot Bourdon rank, which are stopped pipes, producing sound an octave lower than open pipes. The fourth C below middle C is about 32 Hz.
One of my Saxon ancestors was an organ builder during the time Bach was alive.
i find this piece extremely emotional.
Not a fan of the pipe organ, generally. Too much overtone, and not precise in attack. But: Wow. Noticed the organist ‘pulled out the stops’ at the end.
Maybe easier to fly a helicopter?