Pattern Recognition in Music on the Example of Reconstruction of Chest Organ from Kamień Pomorski

The chest organ, which gained popularity at the beginning of the 17th century, is a small pipe organ the size of a large box. Several years ago, while compiling an inventory, a previously unidentified chest organ was discovered at St. John the Baptist’s Co-Cathedral in Kamień Pomorski. Regrettably, the instrument did not possess any of its original pipes. What remained, however, was an image of the front pipes preserved on the chest door. The main issue involved in the reconstruction of a historic instrument is the restoration of its original tuning (temperament). Additionally, it is important to establish the frequency of A4, as this sound serves as a standard pitch reference in instrument tuning. The study presents a new method that aims to address the above-mentioned problems. To this end, techniques to search for the most probable temperament and establish the correct A4 frequency were developed. The solution is based on the modeling of sound generation in flue pipes, as well as statistical analysis to help match a model to the parameters preserved in the chest organ drawing. Additionally, differentalues of the A4 sound values were defined for temperatures ranging from 10 ∘C to 20 ∘C. The tuning system proposed in 1523 by Pietro Aaron proved to be the most probable temperament. In the process of testing the developed flue pipe model, the maximum tuning temperature was established as 15.8 ∘C.

THE GOD-AWFUL SMALL AFFAIR OF THE INVISIBLE ORGANIST: DAVID BOWIE TRANSLATED

Following the sudden death of David Bowie in January 2016, perhaps the least expected tributes were the various organ renditions of his 1973 single ‘Life On Mars’ played by the organists of St Albans Cathedral, Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and Dublin’s St Joseph’s Church. Becoming instant social media sensations, what are we to make of these different versions of Bowie’s song played on the pipe organ, the so-called ‘King of Instruments’, and why did the organists choose ‘Life On Mars’ over any other Bowie song? In this essay, I consider these and other related questions from a range of theoretical perspectives, initially drawing on philosopher and musicologist Peter Szendy’s notion of the musical arrangement as translation, whilst also conceding that as a translation, something in the process of arrangement is lost. What might that ‘something’ be? Understanding him to be one of the most conspicuous musical artists of our time, I go on to employ media philosopher Sybille Kramer’s transmission theory of communication, positing Bowie as a messenger-translator who is also a powerful cultural interferer. As such, he is the antithesis of the church organist who, like the person of the textual translator as outlined by translation theorist Lawrence Venuti, has occupied a marginal if not abject space within musical history. Given this relegated position, how does Bowie’s own use of the organ sit with its use as an instrument of elegy in the various renditions referred to above, and can it tell us anything else about translation?

Tone Recognition Database of Electronic Pipe Organ Based on Artificial Intelligence

In the past few decades, artificial intelligence technology has experienced rapid development, and its application in modern industrial systems has grown rapidly. This research mainly discusses the construction of a database of electronic pipe organ tone recognition based on artificial intelligence. The timbre synthesis module realizes the timbre synthesis of the electronic pipe organ according to the current timbre parameters. The audio time domain information (that is, the audio data obtained by file analysis) is framed and windowed, and fast Fourier transform (FFT) is performed on each frame to obtain the frequency domain information of each frame. The harmonic peak method based on improved confidence is used to identify the pitch, obtain the fundamental tone of the tone, and calculate its multiplier. Based on the timbre parameters obtained in the timbre parameter editing interface, calculate the frequency domain information of the synthesized timbre of each frame, and then perform the inverse Fourier transform to obtain the time domain waveform of each frame; connect the time domain waveforms of different frames by the cross-average method to obtain the time-domain waveform of the synthesized tone (that is, the audio data of the synthesized tone). After collecting the sound of the electronic pipe organ, the audio needs to be denoised, and the imported audio file needs to be parsed to obtain the audio data information. Then, the audio data are frequency-converted and the timbre characteristic information is analyzed; the timbre parameters are obtained through the human-computer interaction interface based on artificial intelligence, and the timbre of the electronic pipe organ is generated. If the timbre effect is not satisfactory, you can re-edit the timbre parameters through the human-computer interaction interface to generate timbre. During the experiment, the overall recognition rate of 3762 notes and 286 beats was 88.6%. The model designed in this study can flexibly generate electronic pipe organ sound libraries of different qualities to meet the requirements of sound authenticity.

Organ Teaching for Children in Norway: An Educational Field in Development

Teaching children how to play the pipe organ represents a radical revision of a well-established instrumental education field. This article provides an overview of organised teaching praxis in teaching children to play the organ, established in Norway in the early 2000s. Commentary on the limited previous research in organ teaching for children is provided, and based upon the findings in these studies and on praxis experience, areas which necessitate further research are identified. The practical teaching experience of the author provides a frame of reference throughout. Selected instrumental teaching studies related to teaching philosophies, motivation and organisational frameworks, as well as teaching materials (textbooks) are also included in the discussion. These aid in identifying areas in which potential and existing tensions in perceptions and methodologies call for study, evaluation and revision. The primary aim of this article is thus to identify and map the educational field’s structural parameters (organ schools) and praxis in Norway, and identify areas where further research is required, in order to understand how childhood introduction to organ playing may inform organ education and the organist profession in general.

Endless Breath? The Pipe Organ and Immortality

The fantasy of never running out of breath has long been alluring. But in the nineteenth century, the idea acquired a distinctive form of material reality. The pipe organ, existing at least from the ancient Greeks, has often been described as figuratively having lungs. But with the adoption of water/gas then electric-powered organ blowers in the nineteenth century, the organ, theoretically, could provide that which nothing else could: breath that could go on for ever. This essay explores two forms of poetic and narrative reflection on the new powers of the organ’s lungs. First, it considers writing that responded to the apparent instrument of endless breath by reinforcing the organ’s association with the eternal. Second, the essay examines writers who thought precisely the opposite and who acknowledged that, if new organ blowing technology implied unexpendable breathing, the reality—amid failed turbines, broken wind supplies, and insufficient power—reminded the listener of the grave.

Research on Slovenian Organs from the Beginning of the Twentieth Century to the Monograph Orgle Slovenije in 2018

The paper analyses the development of the structure and content of pipe organ catalogues that have appeared in Slovenian organology since the beginning of twentieth century. Of seventy catalogues describing multiple organs, particular attention is devoted to ten, especially the inventories of the Maribor (1911) and Ljubljana (1918) Dioceses, and the monograph Orgle Slovenije (2018).

The Phenomenology of the Pipe Organ

An extended illustration from Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception describes the interplay of habit, sedimentation, and intersubjectivity in the practice and performance of a skilled organist. This paper takes up Merleau-Ponty’s example in order to describe some of the phenomenological characteristics of embodied musical performance. These characteristics point toward an intersubjective event of “consecration,” as Merleau-Ponty describes it, in which the musician adopts the role of rhetor, inviting the audience into a shared dwelling place.

Organ accompaniment in silent films, part 1 – the process of cinematic art creation

The idea to write music for silent films, both in a form of written-down scores and composed live has experienced its renaissance for more than ten years. Thanks to a quite decent number of preserved theatre instruments and also due to the globalisation and wide data flow options connected with it, the knowledge and interest in Anglo-Saxon tradition of organ accompaniment in cinema were able to spread away from its place of origin. The article is the first part of four attempts to present the phenomenon of combination of the art of organ improvisation with cinematography and it was based on the fragments of the doctoral thesis entitled “Current methods of organ improvisation as performance means in the accompaniment for silent films based on the selected musical and visual work”. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Karolak and was defended at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2020. The article touches on the initial phase of the development of silent cinema from 1895 to 1909. Having differentiated the terms of typical organ improvisation and the art of improvisation for silent films, the article describes the development of cinema art. From the praxinoscope invented by Émile Reynaud, through the cinematograph and the Kinetoscope (Dickson), Vitascope (Jenkins and Armat) and Bioscop (Skladanowsky brothers), it finally discusses the process how the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph. It its further part, it presents the development of cinematography based on the improvements in theatre introduced by Méliès. The whole text serves as a basis for more parts of the article touching on the issues of the sound added to silent films and the creation of the theatre type of the pipe organ.

Vortices on Sound Generation and Dissipation in Musical Flue Instruments

Musical flue instruments such as the pipe organ and flute mainly consist of the acoustic pipe resonance and the jet impinging against the pipe edge. The edge tone is used to be considered as the energy source coupling to the pipe resonance. However, jet-drive models describing the complex jet/pipe interaction were proposed in the late 1960s. Such models were more developed and then improved to the discrete-vortex model and vortex-layer model by introducing fluid-dynamical viewpoint, particularly vortex sound theory on acoustic energy generation and dissipation. Generally, the discrete-vortex model is well applied to thick jets, while the jet-drive model and the vortex-layer model are valid to thin jets used in most flue instruments. The acoustically induced vortex (acoustic vortex) is observed near the amplitude saturation with the aid of flow visualization and is regarded as the final sound dissipation agent. On the other hand, vortex layers consisting of very small vortices along both sides of the jet are visualized by the phase-locked PIV and considered to generate the acceleration unbalance between both vortex layers that induces the jet wavy motion coupled with the pipe resonance. Vortices from the jet visualized by direct numerical simulations are briefly discussed.