Misplaced Pages

#748251

24-400: Doppio Borgato is a Pedal piano made by joining a regular concert grand (Model L 282) with a second piano, activated by a pedal board with 37 pedals (A0 to A3), similar to that of the organ (P 398). Designed and manufactured by Luigi Borgato , it was patented in 2000. Specifically for Doppio Borgato are composed: Pedal piano There are two broad types of pedal pianos: either

48-485: A pedalflügel for Robert Schumann in 1843 , when he was in Dresden . Schumann preferred an upright pedal piano, and his pedal keyboard had 29 notes and was connected with an action placed at the back of the piano where a special soundboard, covered with 29 strings, was built into the case. Schumann wrote much music for the pedal piano and was so enthusiastic about the instrument that he convinced Felix Mendelssohn , who owned

72-425: A church organ or, in the wintertime, to avoid having to practice in an unheated church . Johann Sebastian Bach owned a pedal harpsichord, and his organ trio sonatas BWV 525–530 , Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582 , and other works can be played on the instrument. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart owned a fortepiano with independent pedals, built for him in 1785 by Anton Walter . His father refers to this in

96-692: A good deal of playing experience, most music composed for organ has been written by organists. Since the majority of pre-twentieth-century organs were installed in churches, classical organ literature was almost exclusively written for liturgical use. Many composers, therefore, are equally known for their performance talents, some historical examples being Johann Sebastian Bach , Dieterich Buxtehude , Felix Mendelssohn , Franz Liszt , César Franck , Camille Saint-Saëns , Charles-Marie Widor , Louis Vierne , Marcel Dupré and Maurice Duruflé , as well as improvisers such as Charles Tournemire , Pierre Cochereau , Pierre Pincemaille or Thierry Escaich . In Europe,

120-702: A grand pedal piano, to form a class devoted to it in the Leipzig Conservatory . Charles-Valentin Alkan owned an Erard pedal piano made in 1853 and now in the Musée de la Musique , the historic instrument collection of the Conservatoire de Paris . Alkan composed a number of works for it, in the virtuoso style to be found in his other piano music. Kevin Bowyer has revived some of this music in recent years, though he plays it on

144-417: A large part in the leading of traditional western Christian worship, with roles including the accompaniment of hymns , choral anthems and other parts of the worship. The degree to which the organ is involved varies depending on the church and denomination. It also may depend on the standard of the organist. In more provincial settings, organists may be more accurately described as pianists obliged to play

168-571: A letter to his daughter on March 12, 1785. The autograph manuscript of the Concerto in D minor K 466, composed the same year, shows a series of chords for the left hand plus bass notes an octave lower, covering about 2 1/2 measures. Some believe that the bass notes were intended for the pedal, but there is disagreement about this interpretation. The low bass notes could be an earlier version of the left hand part which Mozart neglected to cross out when he decided to replace them with chords. Louis Schone made

192-511: A low-cost alternative to rebuilding older pipe organs. In the English cathedral tradition the organist is now generally called "Director of Music", although their function is mainly in the training and direction of music rather than actual playing; there will generally be one or more assistant or sub-organists who play for most services and some recitals. Sometimes the organist will be assisted by an organ scholar . The post of organist at most of

216-586: A separate repertoire and playing style, and in its heyday (during the first third of the twentieth century) there were considerable numbers of organists employed, many of whom played on Wurlitzer organs. A few carry on the tradition today. There are many organists employed in the production of popular and jazz music. In the United States most of them play the Hammond organ , and many are classically trained, often in piano rather than organ. In England and Japan, one of

240-450: Is a musician who plays any type of organ . An organist may play solo organ works , play with an ensemble or orchestra , or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists . In addition, an organist may accompany congregational hymn -singing and play liturgical music . The majority of organists, amateur and professional, are principally involved in church music , playing in churches and cathedrals. The pipe organ still plays

264-713: Is the oldest institutions and professional body that regulates organ studies. From that sprang the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde  [ de ] (GdO) in Germany, and the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO). The Incorporated Association of Organists is an international society that fulfills an educational interest in the organ and is the holding company for regional Organist Associations, which regulate organ activities at

SECTION 10

#1733085287749

288-548: The Doppio Borgato , an independent bass-register instrument connected to a pedal board, on which a concert grand can be placed. Borgato expanded the register of the bass piano to 37 notes, A0 to A3 (rather than the standard 30 or 32 on an organ). On September 13, 2011 Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda presented the modern premiere of the Concerto for pedal piano and orchestra by Charles Gounod with Orchestra Toscanini di Parma conducted by Jan Latham Koenig. On April 27, 2012,

312-421: The 1990s, he converted it for MIDI, controlling a Roland piano module running into a Yamaha 200w p/ch stereo mixer amplifier, with the keyboard panned left and right and the pedals panned center. (In addition to the following list of music that is specifically for pedal piano, music written for organ can often be played on the pedal piano by reading directly from the organ score.) Organists An organist

336-611: The American organist and pianist Dana Robinson, Jean Dubé , Olivier Latry , the American organist Peter Sykes , the German organist Martin Schmeding , the Slovenian organist and harpsichordist Dalibor Miklavčič , the American pianist John Khouri , Jean Guillou , Cameron Carpenter , and Roberto Prosseda . Mark Whitty of Australia built his own electric piano with 15 bass pedals in 1980. In

360-522: The Pinchi Pedalpiano System, designed by Claudio Pinchi and Roberto Prosseda, and built by the organ building enterprise Fratelli Pinchi Ars Organi, was presented in a public performance by Roberto Prosseda. It is a pedalboard which works with any two standard 88-key grand pianos. The Pinchi pedalboard has 37 pedals (from A to A three octaves up), but has a total range of five octaves, thanks to its 61 wooden "fingers", some of which can be seen in

384-408: The adjacent picture, and which operate the lower 61 keys (A0 to A5) of the lower piano. These "fingers" are mapped to the 37 note pedalboard in three independent stops of three octaves each (A0-A3 for 16', A1-A4 for 8', and A2-A5 for 4'). In recent years, performance of works for the pedal piano on that instrument, as opposed to on organ, has increased. Recent performers on the pedal piano include

408-448: The feet (e.g. the 18th century pedal piano owned by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the 21st century Doppio Borgato made by Luigi Borgato ), or two standard pianos of which the lower one is played from a pedalboard which acts on its (manual) keyboard through a special mechanism (e.g. the 21st century Pinchi Pedalpiano System). The origins of the pedal piano are found in the pedal clavichord and pedal harpsichord , of which an original of

432-401: The former survives while only descriptions and modern reproductions of the latter remain. The first citation of a clavichord with pedalboard appeared around 1460 in a section dedicated to musical instruments in an encyclopedic treatise written by the scholar Paulus Paulirinus (1413-1471). Organists would use these instruments for practice when no-one was available to work the bellows for

456-505: The great cathedrals includes recital work and choral training. Another function of an organist is often as teacher to future players. Few organists hold historically special positions such as Raùl Prieto Ramitez who is the Civic Organist of San Diego, the last true Civic Organist position still active in the US. Since the strengths and weaknesses of the organ are difficult to understand without

480-616: The historical importance of churches as employers of musicians meant that many composers who now are very seldom remembered for their association with the organ were, nevertheless, engaged as professional organists: for example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Edward Elgar . In English churches, chapels and cathedrals the Organist may also be known as Master of the Choristers , Choirmaster or Director of Music ; however, there are some ancient titles still in current usage: The theatre organ has

504-511: The most popular series of instruments is the Yamaha Electone ; while Electones of recent decades are more properly characterized as digital synthesizers rather than as organs, the player interface, and the skills and coordination required to play, mean that it may be effectively regarded by some, as an organ in these respects. The Royal College of Organists (RCO) in the United Kingdom

SECTION 20

#1733085287749

528-470: The organ for worship services; nevertheless, some churches are fortunate to have trained organists capable of more elaborate "voluntaries" (the solo music before, during and after the service) and improvisation . As most churches can afford to employ only one musician, the organist is usually also responsible for directing and rehearsing the choir(s) . In the twentieth-century, many pipe organs were replaced by pipe-less electronic and digital organs , often as

552-447: The organ. The instrument never became very popular in the 1900s, and it remains a rarity. It is mostly used to enable organists to practice at home, rather like the pedal harpsichord and clavichord were centuries ago, instead of being used to play the pedal piano repertoire. In the 2000s, pedal pianos are made in Italy by Luigi Borgato (who reinvented and patented it). This company makes

576-409: The pedal board may be an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard (e.g. the 19th century Érard pedal grand piano and Pleyel upright pedal piano), or it may consist of two independent pianos (each with its separate mechanics and strings) which are placed one above the other, either a regular piano played by the hands and a bass-register piano played by

#748251