Calling All Bass Heads: - 32 ft. Bombarde!

TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.


The pandemic has resulted in an explosion of music on line. Organists seem to have come into their own, with transcriptions leading the way
I have highlighted the work of the Scott Brother's Duo, on at least a couple of occasions, I think. They continue with concerts every two weeks, the latest from St. Leonard's Parish Church Ludlow. This lovely old town is in the Marches in Shropshire just over the border from Herefordshire. This town is very close to where my sister in law and brother in law live. I spend time in this lovely old town whenever I visit. It has England's oldest hotel, the Feather's Inn. This dates from the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century.



So now England's cathedral organists are joining the party. There are recent recitals from Salisbury and Arundel Cathedrals.

Now Hereford Cathedral joins the list, again very close to where my sister in law and brother in law live. This is one of my favorite Willis organs, with pipe work spread around the cathedral.
The first photograph is of the massive 32 ft. Bombarde division. In the video below it will really test your subs, in Walton's Orb and Scepter March and the final number with is the Toccata from Widor's 5th symphony, where this Bombarde is utilized to the full. It is deep and loud! That will really test your bass.

 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
I don't know if you caught my post in one of the What Are You Listening To threads, but my grandfather and father were both master organ builders in Vienna. My grandfather had worked on the organ in Vienna's Musikverein, completed restoration work on an organ used by Liszt, and built a custom organ for day use in Vienna's Votive Church. As a teen I got to help my father do restoration work on a church organ in Stratford, Ontario which was a great summer job and time well spent together. Last time my wife and I were in Europe we caught a concert in Budapest's St Stephen's Basilica, and I've heard St Stephen's organ in Vienna as well. My one regret is missing a concert in Passau, Germany, that has the largest organ in Germany (funny, that was St Stephen's as well). We took the family on a bike tour from Passau to Vienna and the tour guide was late on arrival so I missed the concert. ;_; Thanks for sharing. Will definitely check this out, though I may wish I had gone with a ported sub instead of sealed. ;) Don't think mine will reach down to 16 Hz even with wall coupling.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Excited to check this out later, too.
Been too d@mned busy lately and my audio life is what is suffering! (I'll get back to that PM soon, Mark! I haven't forgotten.)
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I don't know if you caught my post in one of the What Are You Listening To threads, but my grandfather and father were both master organ builders in Vienna. My grandfather had worked on the organ in Vienna's Musikverein, completed restoration work on an organ used by Liszt, and built a custom organ for day use in Vienna's Votive Church. As a teen I got to help my father do restoration work on a church organ in Stratford, Ontario which was a great summer job and time well spent together. Last time my wife and I were in Europe we caught a concert in Budapest's St Stephen's Basilica, and I've heard St Stephen's organ in Vienna as well. My one regret is missing a concert in Passau, Germany, that has the largest organ in Germany (funny, that was St Stephen's as well). We took the family on a bike tour from Passau to Vienna and the tour guide was late on arrival so I missed the concert. ;_; Thanks for sharing. Will definitely check this out, though I may wish I had gone with a ported sub instead of sealed. ;) Don't think mine will reach down to 16 Hz even with wall coupling.
Great to know you have spent time with organ builders. I have spent some, but not as much as you. You can learn a lot about acoustics from organ builders, to say the least.

It has been great to have some many of these great UK organs from the 1870s through about 1920 or so come on line. If I'm honest I do actually prefer them to the continental organs. Those UK organs that Jonathan Scott has been playing have a huge section of colors. I find most of the continental organs pour on the 'acid' rather excessively. Those wonderful Willis, Harrison and Harrison, Hill, Lewis and many others are such wonderful instruments. They solo so well, and they are great for accompanying the choirs. I'm glad so many are being restored now, without being wrecked by modernizers. Many of them have never sounded better than they do now.

Yes, a sealed sub may be a problem. My TL systems without subs acquit themselves really well, and powerfully reproduce the full range of these wonderful instruments. It is on this type of program that TLs just ace out all other forms of loudspeaker loading.
If you really want to hear these instruments in the home as they really sound, a TL based system is basically a requirement.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Any suggested time stamps for the deep bass examples? After about 5 minutes, just not my kind of listening music generally.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Any suggested time stamps for the deep bass examples? After about 5 minutes, just not my kind of listening music generally.
The second number and the last. However he plays some really nice pieces in that recital.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
The second number and the last. However he plays some really nice pieces in that recital.
Thanks, it was somewhere during the second I turned it off. Just not my particular cup of tea by then at least.
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Well I enjoyed that but, yeah, not everyone's cup of tea. Our local church's organ went through a major restoration a few years ago. I remember my dad saying it was too "airy" (typical for that manufacturer). A Montreal firm did a complete overhaul and it sounds more full and lively now.

A picture of my grandfather from a booklet on Austrian organ builders and the organ he built for the Votive church in Vienna. When we took the kids on the bike tour we stopped in the church and I asked the caretaker to open the organ so that I could show it to my family. He was very gracious and my daughter was quite thrilled to look it over. I still have a few small pipes, wooden and sheet metal, that I inherited. I think I would have enjoyed that line of work.
20210511_212038_copy_2016x1134.jpg
 
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