The history of the organ in the church of Forcalquier is very turbulent and only a part of the material remained from the baroque period, from the original organ. Most of it comes from a 19th and 20th century restorations.
It is generally agreed by experts, that it is the wind behavior which makes the beauty of the organ sound. In early times, wedge bellows were used in organs which were pulled up by "calcants". There were usually several sets of bellows to feed the organ so that the wind achieved some stability. Nevertheless, the procedure of pumping and also the changing torque of the falling moving board as the bellows were deflating, caused slight changes in pressure, slight oscilations which affected the pipe speech. Also, the wind stability was so delicate that playing on one manual with just one or two stops affected the speech of pipes played on a different manual. After the parallel rise bellows were invented, and after organ blowers invaded churches, these subtle wind behavior was lost to great deal. With the help of Hauptwerk, we can now model the original situation of the hand pumped bellows. Together with carefully modelled response of pipes, it is completely new experience of the organ sound.
Forcalquier Wet Organ Hauptwerk
The samples are available in 24bit/48kHz resolution. Hauptwerk v.4.20 and higher supported. There are multiple releases and, at times, also multiple attack samples. It is wet sample set. The amount of reverberation is rather high (about 4 seconds). The spatial difference of the location of the Positif de dos and the rest of the instrument is well pronounced in the recording. The Positif appears to be more "near" to the performer than the rest of the organ. The virtual model offers very clear, present and detailed sound.
Large compass of manuals as well as of the pedal board allows for the performance of almost any organ music. The wide range of sound colors also contributes to the sound possibilities of this mid-sized instrument. Therefore, it seems to suit the needs not only of the French compositions, but also other musical traditions, including modern organ music.
It is generally agreed by experts, that it is the wind behavior which makes the beauty of the organ sound. In early times, wedge bellows were used in organs which were pulled up by "calcants". There were usually several sets of bellows to feed the organ so that the wind achieved some stability. Nevertheless, the procedure of pumping and also the changing torque of the falling moving board as the bellows were deflating, caused slight changes in pressure, slight oscilations which affected the pipe speech. Also, the wind stability was so delicate that playing on one manual with just one or two stops affected the speech of pipes played on a different manual. After the parallel rise bellows were invented, and after organ blowers invaded churches, these subtle wind behavior was lost to great deal. With the help of Hauptwerk, we can now model the original situation of the hand pumped bellows and indeed, it is completely new experience of the organ sound.
Four bellows are seen, all feeding one common trunk where all the divisions are fed from. The bellows are of the wedge type and are operated by hidden calcants (in fact, a hidden blower operating only when the bellows is being filled). When the bellows are full, they are attached to the wind trunk of the organ and the air begins to flow from the bellows to the organ. In this way, the bellows are emptied after some time and they are filled again by calcants. The indication of the bellows extension is shown. The small icons above this indication are showing the state of the inlet and exhaust valves of the given bellows. The left is inlet, the right is the exhaust valve. These operate automatically, but they are also clickable, so you can detach any bellows at any moment from the wind system of the organ if desired! Besides the moving board indicators, there are also the pressures inside the bellows and inside the windchests indicated. This setting of the bellows imitates the ancient way of the organ wind system construction and adds to the aliveness of the pipe sound due to small instabilities generated in the wind ways when under heavier load. In the left bottom corner, there is the blower switch (you can turn the "calcants" off or on) - if you switch it off, the bellows will deflate after a while and the organ will be without wind - i.e. without any sound. Also, you can alternatively choose to bypass the non-return valve present at the foot of each the set of bellows. This can produce different behavior of the wind system if desired. In the right bottom corner, there is the main valve shown in a form of continuous controller. Clicking on the valve, you can make the aperture of the wind trunk wider of narrower, allowing more or less air to the whole system if desired.
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