Organs: A Dissertation in Umpteen Parts; Preamble

Hello, and welcome to the Adam Sullivan Music Theory Blog!  My name is Dallas.  I'm a friend and colleague of Sulli's; he's been trying to get me on here to do a couple series for months now.  For various and sundry reasons I never could get around to it, but lo and behold, here I am! 

Let me first give an honest disclaimer:  this is not really a dissertation in any way.  Not officially, at least.  However, as you may come to notice while reading through this series, writing such a thing about the pipe organ can make you feel like you're writing a senior thesis.

I'd like to begin with a few vague points about myself... however, there's a time and place for autobiographical ramblings.  (Namely my own personal blog, which will come online in tandem with the publication of this series.  More on that later!)  For know, suffice to say that I'm a young organist/pianist/violist/bassist/random percussion neophyte/composer living in Rock Hill, SC.  Music is my lifeblood.  And I have quite a lot to say about certain subjects in the musical spectrum in which we all situate ourselves as musicians.

Which brings us to the point at hand!  If you hadn't guessed by now, this is going to be a series all about organs.  The lauded "King of Instruments," as it were.  Pipe organs have been around for several hundred years, and their evolution over that time frame is staggering.  Now, with the advances of modern technology, electronic and digitally-sampled organs are vastly popular; there are even digital organs that have sample sets advanced enough to (fairly) convincingly reproduce the sounds (and seconds of acoustical reverb) of famous organs in vast cathedrals such as the great organ of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, or the historic and awe-inspiring instrument in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.  In this series, I am going to walk you through everything I know—and some things I don't know yet, I'm sure—about the world of the organ.  My major focus will be on actual pipe organs, but I can promise to include a wealth of information on their increasingly capable digital counterparts.

By the time this series is completed (which is a daunting thought), you will understand the difference between a Principal and a Stopped Diapason.  And what all this business about "feet" seems to be (that is to say, what the heck they mean by 8', 4', 2', and so on when naming stops).  And why playing middle "c" with a 2 2/3' mutation rank won't do you any good in representing the pitch of ANY "c" at all.  You'll know all about resultants and mixtures and celestes and cornets and what is actually meant by stops called such things as "viola," "trumpet," "tuba," and so on.  And of course, the most important bit of all:  you'll know the storied journey of the pipe organ from antiquity to the present, and just where its perilous path may or may not take it in the days to come.

This series will publish on Thursdays—not on Tuesdays.  As it goes on, the specific flow of things may change, but to begin with, I've listed a very general idea of what you can expect to see, and in what order.  Note that certain parts, like II and III, may end up being posted in subsections, as they can get to be QUITE long and involved.  Furthermore, these labelled parts do not constitute the entirety of the series.  There will be rather less specific "filler" posts here and there along the way as I continue in my constant endeavour to raise interest in and awareness of the incredible world of the organ.

I hope you enjoy the adventure we're about to embark upon.  If you don't, well... you will be assimilated.  But in all honesty, I can not stress the importance of raising awareness of the (pipe) organ within the musical community.  Especially the subsection therein that is in my generation; it is up to us to carry the elements of our forebears into the future.  If we're not careful, the organ, King of Instruments as it may once have been called, may not make that journey with us.

Thanks for reading.  Have an awesome day, and be sure to thank a music educator somewhere.

—

Part I:  The Storied Journey [the history and evolution of the pipe organ, and where it stands today]

Part II:  Anatomy and Physiology 101 [an introduction to the inner structures and workings of pipe organs]

Part III:  Divisions Conquered [an in-depth look at the different kinds of pipes found on various instruments]

Part IV:  Pulling Out the Stops [an in-depth look at how different kinds of pipes work together... or don't!]

Part V:  The Language Barrier [a brief instalment, to include a breakdown of linguistic variations]

Part VI:  Anatomy and Physiology 202 [a really in-depth expansion on A&P 101]

Part VII:  Literature of the Organ (I) [an introduction to organ music of the Baroque and Classical eras]

Part VIII:  Literature of the Organ (II) [an introduction to organ music of the Romantic and early 20th century eras]

Part IX:  Literature of the Organ (III) [an introduction to modern organ music]

Part X:  The Digital Crux (I) [part one of the subseries devoted to digital organs and their development; introduction to the epic debate of pipes vs. digital sampling]

Part XI:  The Organ as a Concert Instrument [a small dissertation of its own, going into the organ's often enigmatic role as a concert instrument]

Part XII:  The Organ in Liturgy [everyone's most familiar aspect of organ music:  the church]

Part XIII:  The Digital Crux (II) [how digital organs relate to the concert hall, as well as the church]

Part XIV:  The Digital Crux (III) [the most current advances for digital organs, and how they're starting to overtake even the greatest pipe organs in many ways; further debate on the pipes/digital argument]

YouTube Ad Campaign: Intro and Revisiting the blog series

Hey everyone! Sulli here with a quick announcement! I've created an intro/ad for the blog! We're getting to the point of needing this so let us know what you think of the ad! Also, I'm revisiting the old episodes of the blog and working out a new video series for them. First episode will be posted on here and I'll try to post the announcements on here as I get them uploaded. I felt really bad about the stats nearly at 5K and then stopping the reason you all subscribed so I'm doing that before I start continuing with the series. So, there isn't going to be anything new for a little while but when there is, it will be better than before!

So here's the Intro:




As always, don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments below, share us (please?!?) and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And don't forget to stay tuned for more thrilling adventures of... The Adam Sullivan Music Theory Blog! (*applause!*)

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The World Music Experiment: Introduction

Hello to all of you out there to all of you who subscribe to this blog. Allow me to more formally introduce myself. My name is Lester St. Louis, I also for other creative purposes go by the pseudonym Distonal. I am a 19 year old multi - instrumentalist, (primarily cellist and bassist), and composer based in New York city. I like to believe that I have accumulated a considerable amount of knowledge on various styles, forms, types of music, and sound art from the world. With said information I hope to help you all become better acquainted with world music and other topics in music ranging from style and form, to history, theory and everything in between. For this to be thoroughly interesting, I will need a lot of user feedback letting me know if they want more or if something is hard to follow and so on. You can do so via the Facebook page, or leave a comment on the articles. Now that we are all better acquainted lets start off lightly. I believe that we shall start with the music of Latin America. Latin American music is music that originates from the regions of Central America to South America (Mexico downward connected land). Latin America has had a very substantial amount of genres and styles to come out; such as the Samba, Forro, and Bossa Novas of Brasil, The tango, and Chacarera's of Argentina, as well as the Salsa, Merengue, Bolero, raggaeton, and many other forms from these regions. In the coming time we will cover all the different forms of Latin American music as well as enjoying a lot of it along the way. Don't worry we will also cover every other region of the world and their native music styling, as well as their contemporary scenes. I hope this doesn't sound too over ambitious, but we have all the time in the world. I will (try my very best) to post a new volume every Wednesday here, so look out for it. In the mean time enjoy one of my favorite tunes from Brasil. This is a Bossa Nova by Joao Gilberto called ''O sapo''. The language is Portuguese for all of you wondering.
 Side note- Joao Gilberto played a seminal part in establishing the form known as Bossa Nova.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C2ZJDbFGmQ

Episode 10: Introduction to Chords (FINALLY!)

Hey guys! Welcome back to my music theory blog! I know I've been a bad blooger and broke the big rule of blogging (always post something once a week), but as my first semester in college is wrapping up I have a very evil thing to take care of called exams. They have been stressing me out and I had to make a decision to either go with grades or go with you guys... And as cool as you all are, the grades are what will actually get me into grad school so I have been studying. However, I have a surprise for you guys though... I am going to do a new video series on YouTube  It'll be the basics of Finale, which a couple of people have recommended I try and do. So if that interests you then stay tuned! Now, as you can tell in the title we have hit my favorite part of learning music, the basics of chords. I honestly have been waiting for this day ever since I started the blog. So without further ado, let's go right into it! Don't forget to share this with Facebook, Twitter, or by email and don't forget to follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter and (officially) YouTube!

Now that we have discussed the differences in half steps, and whole steps and the basics of intervals we can now go into chords. The basic chord is a tonic pitch, a third above it and a third above that or another way to think about it is a tonic note with a third and fifth above the bass. So let's take a look at the four basic chords of music.

First is a Major chord. It is composed of a major 3rd and a perfect 5th, or a major 3rd followed by a minor 3rd.  So let's construct a C Major Chord. C will be our bass note and we need a major 3rd above it, which would be an E. Now we can say either a minor 3rd above E or a perfect 5th from C which would be G. So a C Major chord is a C, E, and G. Let's try B major. B will be our bass note, followed by a major 3rd above B which will be a D#. Now, as said before we can either use a minor 3rd above D# or a perfect 5th above B (which are the same notes) and get a F#. So B Major is B, D#, and F#. One last example, Eb Major. Eb will be our bass note, followed by a G and Bb. So an Eb Major chord is an Eb, G, and Bb.

Next we have a Minor chord. It is composed of a minor 3rd and perfect 5th or a minor 3rd followed by a major 3rd. So a C minor chord is a C, followed by a minor 3rd to Eb, and a 5th (or a major 3rd above the minor 3rd) G. So a C minor chord would be a C, Eb, and G. An E minor chord would be an E, G, and B. One thing that help me with this is if you look at the notes and think about which scale it would fit in. For example, if you went to play E minor it is the relative minor of G, so only F sharp while E major would have 4 sharps (F, C, G, and D).

Following the minor chords we have Augmented chords. Just as I've said before, you can have augmented intervals which are a half step above a perfect interval. So an augmented chord would be a major third and augmented 5th or two whole steps above the bass. So let's make a C Augmented (+) chord. First is C, followed by a half step above which is E and another half step above that which is G# So a C+ chord is C, E and G#. Another example is F#+, which would be F#, A# and Cx (C double sharp, or enharmonically equivalent to D). One last example would be Bb+ which would be Bb, D and F#. As I have shown, it is possible to have sharps and flats in the same chord, though it isn't as easy as it is with Diminished chords.

Finally, the last one in the group of chords are Diminished chords. They are composed of a minor third and diminished 5th or 2 minor 3rds. So we can make a Bb diminished (dim or  ° if you are able to type the degrees symbol) by starting with the tonic note; Bb, then going up a minor third to Db, and another minor third to Fbb (F double flat, or enharmonically Eb) Another example would be F# dim. would be F# followed by a minor 3rd to A and a diminished 5th from the tonic, Cb. As you may have noticed, you can have flats and sharps in the same chord when it comes to diminished chords.

So, I hope this has helped you guys out. Keep following the blog and don't forget to share!