Mechanics of Poetry – Organs of the Baroque

Instrument & Kontext; edited by Helmut Balk

The organ is a musical instrument that accompanies and shapes European culture. Since ancient times, this instrument has not lost its relevance.

The organ is wonderfully versatile, both a single instruments for a certain era and as a large-scale technical facility - adapted to new needs. In the organ, the highest technical standards and its execution are combined with the idea of pure poetry and religious purpose. The tasks of the "Queen of Instruments" in the Baroque period are to raise hearts to the lord, to give support and direction to the singing of the congregation from the gloriously tuned organ.
This epoch is covered by the multimedia DVD in exemplary examples.

Not any claim to completeness has determined the choice of instruments and musical examples, but a desire to introduce into the history of the idea that determines the essence of complex technical and poetic masterpieces. In the organ, statics, precision mechanics and the control circuit of the wind currents is transfromed into pure sound, purposeful, where music expresses the glory of the knowledge of god or is equated with the word of the Annunciation.
The history of ideas of this instrument does not only begin in the Baroque, and has led to an ever new understanding of its possibilities. The chapters from Antiquity to Baroque and from Baroque to Modernism are reserved for two further DVDs, which will be projected further.

The DVD-ROM is designed for teaching at schools, universities and self-study.

The institute is the interface between research, pedagogy, instrument making, media design and financing.

Inhalt:
200 pages of texts and pictures showing 161 Orgels from Europe and overseas, organ history and manufacture.

90 sound samples, animated keyboard for experiments with different ranks of Störmthal organ, animations of mechanics and pipe manufacture based on  »L’Art du facteur d'orgues« by Dom Bédos de Celles.

6 animated analyses of selected typical composititions.

Free download here for "Mechanik der Poesie II – Die Orgel im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert" (German only)

 
 
 
 

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