The Emperor and the Pope: the Challenge of Orchestrating for the Organ and the Orchestra
The Emperor and the Pope: the Challenge of Combining the Organ and the Orchestra May 7, 2012 Christina Haan Artist Diploma, Opera, CCM, 1999 Master of Music, Accompanying, CCM, 1991 Bachelor of Arts, Piano, Portland State University, 1983 Document for the degree of DMA in Organ Performance Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Keyboard Division Committee Chair: Robert Zierolf, PhD Abstract This paper examines the possible meanings of statements made by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) and Richard Strauss (1864-1949) in Berlioz’s Grand Traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration modernes about the difficulties of composing for organ and orchestra, and their advice on how to solve these difficulties. (Strauss later published this treatise with his own comments interpolated.) Although most orchestral instruments and organs Berlioz could have heard have changed in design since his day, our team—a musician, an engineer, and an engineer-musician—searched present day combinations for the possible existence of the difficulties described. Recordings were made of Principal and Reed stops on three organs built by different companies and installed in different acoustics. The harmonic frequencies of these stops were compared with those of four selected orchestral instruments—violin, flute, oboe, and horn—to determine if there is a fundamental inability to tune with the organ. Our team concluded that flutes and oboes can make instantaneous adjustments and tune perfectly with the organ, but violins and horns produce much dissonance. Berlioz’s Te Deum, Op. 22, Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, and Widor’s Symphony No.
[Show full text]