Internal Organs
Dr. Serenus Zeitblom agreed with Levenkühn that “philosophy is the queen of the sciences…it assumed among the sciences about the same place as the organ did among instruments.” (Doktor Faustus, 90) Understood within the context of Hegel’s Preface of the Phenomenology, this correspondence deserves more attention. Serendipity recently graced me with a Sunday filled with the flowing tones of two of the most unique organs in the world. I could not help but ponder what Thomas Mann meant by comparing the culmination of human questioning to the reputation the organ holds in the history of western music.
I attended the morning service at First Congregational Church in Los Angeles (6th and Commonwealth) because Kellyn was due to perform the vociferously difficult harp part of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with choir, organ, and percussion. Not only is the sanctuary home to the “largest church pipe organ in the world,” (Wikipedia thinks its second) it is also the residency of S. Wayne Foster, a powerful player ranked last year as the fifth best organist in the country. The church is also blessed with John Talberg as music director, a seemingly young and light-hearted, professional with a taste of perfection.
The Prelude began with possibly the most well-known work in all of the organ’s vast and mysterious repertoire: Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Having heard this piece ironically innumerable times in subconscious viewings of Simpson’s episodes and Halloween movies, it took a couple seconds to overcome its own comic novelty. But hearing a piece of music that has been so seemlessly absorbed into pop culture for good and ill reasons in the actual venue it was originally intended for is a sublime encounter one can only equate with seeing Star Wars for the first time as a thirty year old in 2009 in an IMAX theater. Sounds were not emanating from the player and the eyes could not predict nor follow the bursts of power from the tall concrete walls around me. I was, whether willingly or not, in some state of prayer, perfectly tuned to detecting a symphony of frequencies in a hall of reverberation. The booms from telephone-pole-sized metal tubes came stomping up from behind me, while fanfares could be heard softly bellowing from the corners ahead. Whispers of faint flute overtones buzzed around chords equally as delicate as brioche and burly as a John Deere in Iowa. Just like you can never fully reproduce the experience of witnessing Beethoven’s masterpieces in your living room, regardless of the pricetag of your system, you do not hear the organ until you experience it in a church. It was like listening to a set of 1000.1000 surround sound speakers with a 12’ subwoofer. This particular organ has over 20,000 pipes and 345 ranks.
The remainder of the Prelude consisted of Franck’s Cantabile, Two Early English Miniatures by Byrd and Parsons, Two Settings on Cwm Rhondda by Carlson and Manz, in addition to a few minute Bach Kyrie pieces, all of which are sultry little devils that live on a more modest branch of the polyphony tree.
A few weeks back, I wrote about experiencing the LA Master Chorale at Disney Hall perform a Chorus + Organ program. I noted the compositions were well curated because they surveyed whispers from all regions of the historical scope of the organ, from Bruckner to Pärt. Though it by no means is as large as the organ at First Church, Disney Hall’s set of pipes is a rich, brilliant, and a beaming salute to the organs of yesteryear. The facade, that mimics a beaver-style log jam in the Snake River, was the result of a collaborative process between Gehry and sound designer and organ consultant Manuel Rosales. Though the organ is always predominantly featured in the hall like a nice ‘chandy’ in a plantation manor entryway, it is rarely heard in conjunction with the LA Phil.
But ultimately you hear the organ more than you experience it in Disney Hall. You are one of many sets of self-aware ears that are acutely exposed to the organ’s tremendous breadth and power, but the only access you have to it is in a venue void of its true meaning, mainly, a lullaby generator for God. Its akin to seeing animals in a zoo. No one is denying it is fascinating to see tigers in the OC, but its not like running from the beautiful beast in the bush. Nor is listening to organ music in Disney Hall anything like confronting its sublime divinity in its historical home, the church.
Verdict: though you won’t hear new music written for the organ in the great palaces of faith (such as Muhly’s work), you will, I hope, more closely appreciate the integrity and intimacy of the world’s largest and wisest instrument. And best of all, you can’t beat the price of admission.
Recommended listening:
Reger: Phantasie und Fuge Über B-A-C-H Op. 46
(Played by what appears to be an 8 year old boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aR4YEDcXBI&feature=related)
Pärt: De Profundis
(Produced by Trekkies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJi10uIizcI)
