The organ inside an orchestra

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a brilliant performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms of William Walton’s oratorio, Belshazzar’s Feast . It was an unusual performance because the massive Royal Albert Hall organ (9,999 pipes) was being integrated into the orchestra with spectacular impact. Even a very full orchestra and the two brass bands that Walton asked for were almost drowned out by organ.

It is often not recognized that many composers have included important roles for an organ in their scores beyond using it as a concerto instrument. Although Saint-Saëns a virtuoso organist, incorporated the organ into his Third Symphony it would be incorrect to see this as an organ concerto. For example, in the second movement the organ is playing very quietly as it supports the orchestra. Another very audible contribution can be heard at the end of the opening section of Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, used to memorable extent in the film 2001 A Space Odyssey. Perhaps not surprisingly Widor wrote four symphonies which include the use of an organ.

There are two comprehensive lists of music in which the organ is used as an orchestral instrument.

Wikipedia Category:Music for orchestra and organ

https://pipedreams.publicradio.org/pdf/organ_orchestra_repertoire.pdf (Richard Barone)

With over 600 entries the Pipedreams list is the most comprehensive though omits the use of the organ in the Second Symphony of Edward Elgar. Every entry in the Wikepedia list is linked to a description of the piece of music.

In an orchestral score the three staves for the organ are usually placed just above the staves for the strings. Since the organ is often only used for short periods the organist has to follow the conductor’s beat very carefully and count equally carefully. The challenge for both the organist and the conductor is to balance the organ against the orchestra and also hope that the organ is tuned to Concert Pitch C=440 as there is no way that the organ is going to be retuned for the occasion.

This was a major problem for Peterborough Cathedral. To quote from its web site in 2014

“Peterborough’s organ is tuned at ‘Old Philharmonic’ pitch which is well on the way to half a semitone sharper than standard. The organ has 5,286 pipes - essentially 5,286 individual instruments all operated by one player. It is a huge job to alter the pitch of every pipe. The Cathedral has set about the enormous task to achieve the pitch change that will bring it in tune with the rest of the world.

Currently, we cannot use the organ with orchestras or brass bands, because they all play slightly lower - just under half a semitone lower. Worse still, for the Cathedral’s day-to-day services we are asking the choir to adapt their singing to a pitch very different to that of all the music they hear and perform outside the Cathedral. That is both very difficult, causing the choir serious tuning problems and potentially damaging to young, developing voices.”

The project was a complete success.