ESSAYS & REVIEWS

EXPLORING MUSIC

Not for Fat Fingers

Not for Fat Fingers

Author
David M. Greene

Publication
MHS Review 212 Vol. 1, No. XIV October 31, 1977

Listen

The Frisian Islands form an archipelago in the North Sea, just off the coast of continental Europe. The West Frisian territories make up the Dutch province of Friesland those of the East Frisians are part of West Germany. The people of both speak various dialects of Frisian which is the Germanic language closest to English. For reasons that aren't clear, the East Frisians have become the targets of German jokes analogous to our "Polish

jokes." E.g. Why do East Frisians wear band-aids on their faces on Mondays? Answer: They eat with forks on Sundays. The North Frisians, whose islands are also German, lying just west of the province of Schleswig-Holstein, suffer no such indignities, probably because they seem not to be Frisian at all.

 

Among the North Frisian islands is one with the poetic-sounding name of Pellworm. Protected from the anger of the sea by dykes, it appears to be something of an unspoiled vacationer's paradise which is rapidly being overrun by vacationers. (Ach, die Wanderlust!) On it, near the western sea-wall, one finds the old Church of Saint Salvator even now lit only by candles. In it in 1711, as a replacement for an earlier one destroyed in the collapse of the spire, the great Arp Schnitger (1648 -1718) built what, to judge from its photograph, was a perfectly splendid baroque organ. To be sure, in the interests of progress and stupidity, it underwent periodic "improvements," but in 1954 it was restored to its original specifications, and the original pipes for several ranks were found in storage and put back in service. I won't go into the particulars of the stops, which you can get from the notes on the record jacket if they're worth $3.75 to you, except to say that the instrument is furnished with a couple of Zimbelsterne. Playing it appears to be fraught with perils, however. For example, the white keys on the manual are extremely narrow, so that organists with fat fingers have to go on a rigid diet before tackling (or tickling) them. And the stops are apparently stiff with age and sometimes have to be wrassled with.

 

Since this is a North German organ it is, here fittingly displayed through music from the North German Organ School--the four "Bs " to be exact. Side one contains Big Familiar pieces by Bach and Buxtehude-- the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in the first instance, the E minor Chaconne in the second. Side two offers a Prelude and Fugue in G minor and a Chorale Fantasia--Big Less-familiar pieces by Nikolaus Bruhns & Georg Bohm, respectively little attention on records; of the two works by him in my personal collection, neither is the one played here. The recording concludes with three workings ­out of the chorale ''Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ " by Bach, Bohm, and Buxtehude, which offer interesting insights into their personal styles.

 

Organist Herfried was born in 1944 and studied at the state conservatory in Hamburg. His organ teacher was Professor Forstemann, and he studied conducting under one of those ubiquitous Bruckner- Ruggebergs whom I had occasion to mention recently. He is regular organist at a church in the Hamburg suburb of Eilbeck, and is frequently heard on German radio.

 

Owing to a last-minute switch of records in this release, I confess that much of my information here has been shamelessly cribbed from the liner notes. But then if you've ever noticed, the magazine reviewers aren't exactly guiltless on that score.

 

Not for Fat Fingers

Not for Fat Fingers

Author
David M. Greene

Publication
MHS Review 212 Vol. 1, No. XIV October 31, 1977

Listen

The Frisian Islands form an archipelago in the North Sea, just off the coast of continental Europe. The West Frisian territories make up the Dutch province of Friesland those of the East Frisians are part of West Germany. The people of both speak various dialects of Frisian which is the Germanic language closest to English. For reasons that aren't clear, the East Frisians have become the targets of German jokes analogous to our "Polish

jokes." E.g. Why do East Frisians wear band-aids on their faces on Mondays? Answer: They eat with forks on Sundays. The North Frisians, whose islands are also German, lying just west of the province of Schleswig-Holstein, suffer no such indignities, probably because they seem not to be Frisian at all.

 

Among the North Frisian islands is one with the poetic-sounding name of Pellworm. Protected from the anger of the sea by dykes, it appears to be something of an unspoiled vacationer's paradise which is rapidly being overrun by vacationers. (Ach, die Wanderlust!) On it, near the western sea-wall, one finds the old Church of Saint Salvator even now lit only by candles. In it in 1711, as a replacement for an earlier one destroyed in the collapse of the spire, the great Arp Schnitger (1648 -1718) built what, to judge from its photograph, was a perfectly splendid baroque organ. To be sure, in the interests of progress and stupidity, it underwent periodic "improvements," but in 1954 it was restored to its original specifications, and the original pipes for several ranks were found in storage and put back in service. I won't go into the particulars of the stops, which you can get from the notes on the record jacket if they're worth $3.75 to you, except to say that the instrument is furnished with a couple of Zimbelsterne. Playing it appears to be fraught with perils, however. For example, the white keys on the manual are extremely narrow, so that organists with fat fingers have to go on a rigid diet before tackling (or tickling) them. And the stops are apparently stiff with age and sometimes have to be wrassled with.

 

Since this is a North German organ it is, here fittingly displayed through music from the North German Organ School--the four "Bs " to be exact. Side one contains Big Familiar pieces by Bach and Buxtehude-- the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in the first instance, the E minor Chaconne in the second. Side two offers a Prelude and Fugue in G minor and a Chorale Fantasia--Big Less-familiar pieces by Nikolaus Bruhns & Georg Bohm, respectively little attention on records; of the two works by him in my personal collection, neither is the one played here. The recording concludes with three workings ­out of the chorale ''Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ " by Bach, Bohm, and Buxtehude, which offer interesting insights into their personal styles.

 

Organist Herfried was born in 1944 and studied at the state conservatory in Hamburg. His organ teacher was Professor Forstemann, and he studied conducting under one of those ubiquitous Bruckner- Ruggebergs whom I had occasion to mention recently. He is regular organist at a church in the Hamburg suburb of Eilbeck, and is frequently heard on German radio.

 

Owing to a last-minute switch of records in this release, I confess that much of my information here has been shamelessly cribbed from the liner notes. But then if you've ever noticed, the magazine reviewers aren't exactly guiltless on that score.

 
Title