BaL 17.11.18 - Rossini: Petite messe solennelle

[visualnickmos]

I listened with the intention of perhaps, finding some new 'depths' (as if that were possible with Rossini! ) but alas - I still basically don't like the piece. Simple as that - my loss, probably; I'm aware of that.

[Master Jacques]

As a footnote on the use of harmonium, it is fairly common in mid-to-late 19th c. French chamber music.

Aside from this Rossini Mass (which like other contributors I've gone "cold" on unfortunately) and the famous Dvorak Bagatelles for harmonium and string quartet, I rather think César Franck holds the palm - he wrote a large amount of very worthwhile music for solo harmonium, in addition to the very haunting Prélude, fugue et variation (for harmonium and piano, which I have in a marvellous performance by Joris Verdin and Jos van Immerseel on a 2-CD Ricercar album.)

[vinteuil]

As a footnote on the use of harmonium, it is fairly common in mid-to-late 19th c. French chamber music.

Aside from this Rossini Mass (which like other contributors I've gone "cold" on unfortunately) and the famous Dvorak Bagatelles for harmonium and string quartet, I rather think César Franck holds the palm - he wrote a large amount of very worthwhile music for solo harmonium, in addition to the very haunting Prélude, fugue et variation (for harmonium and piano, which I have in a marvellous performance by Joris Verdin and Jos van Immerseel on a 2-CD Ricercar album.)

... yes, marvellous :

http://amzn.eu/d/2a82J6R

(nice customer review, too... .)

This is good, too :

http://amzn.eu/d/69ZlDc1

.

[ardcarp]

Slightly off-piste, but I seem to remember that Sigfrid Karg Elert (1877 - 1933) wrote many of his pieces (e.g. The Chorale 'Improvistions') for organ or harmonium. I've never been quite sure how that worked because the ones I've got are laid out on three staves (i.e. with pedals). Maybe they were first published differently? Anyway it suggests the harmonium was widespread at the the time...and Karg Elert presumably wished his oeuvres to be bought more widely!

[Master Jacques]

http://amzn.eu/d/2a82J6R

(nice customer review, too... .)

Forgotten I'd scrawled that one, and I did get to Montmartre soon afterwards! You are too kind - merci, vinteuil.

[oddoneout]

Slightly off-piste, but I seem to remember that Sigfrid Karg Elert (1877 - 1933) wrote many of his pieces (e.g. The Chorale 'Improvistions') for organ or harmonium. I've never been quite sure how that worked because the ones I've got are laid out on three staves (i.e. with pedals). Maybe they were first published differently? Anyway it suggests the harmonium was widespread at the the time...and Karg Elert presumably wished his oeuvres to be bought more widely!

This might be relevant. It also explains why the instrument became so widespread, both in terms of types of buildings(domestic and public)location and geographically.

http://www.mantlethought.org/arts-and-culture/birth-death-and-reincarnation-harmonium

Our family had one briefly, alongside the piano. It was being thrown out and was rescued by some young lads who were part of the musical scene we were involved in at the time(youth orchestra etc) My father refused to have anything to do with it but when he wasn't around we had some pretty entertaining times with a selection of miniature scores, hymn books, vocal scores and whatever instruments and voices were to hand.

[Pulcinella]

During WW2, there was a harmonium under the stairs of the house my maternal grandmother lived in, in Liverpool, and she used to accompany rousing Moody and Sankey hymns while neighbours sheltered during the air-raids. Or so family folklore has it. I can well believe it.

[Barbirollians]

Glad to hear this - not a piece I plan to add to my collection.

[verismissimo]

We went to Brattleboro Vermont in search of Kipling's house, and discovered that the town had been the world centre of harmonium manufacture.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

We went to Brattleboro Vermont in search of Kipling's house, and discovered that the town had been the world centre of harmonium manufacture.

Exceedingly good ones, too.

[ardcarp]

I guess Estey reed organs were made at Battleboro. Presumably, like the better-known Mason&Hamlin make, they were suckers rather than blowers i.e. negative air pressure was created by the 'bellows' which are more correctly called 'extractors'. The generic name 'American Organ' was applied to such instruments, and are the type most frequently found in the UK. The original French harmoniums, often larger and more elaborate, had genuine bellows which blew air through the reeds.

I'm no expert and have just mugged up a bit, so stand to be corrected!

[verismissimo]

I'm no expert and have just mugged up a bit, so stand to be corrected!

Should we consider this as a standard response?

It could have an alternate:

'I know nothing, but I know what I like.'

[ardcarp]

There is a sort of halfway position. 'I know a bit but not much'.

[MickyD]

I remember one of the teachers playing a harmonium during our school assemblies in the 60s....the primary school was a modern one, so heaven knows where the instrument came from.

[ardcarp]

I remember one of the teachers playing a harmonium during our school assemblies in the 60s....the primary school was a modern one, so heaven knows where the instrument came from.

I think the UK was still awash with 'harmoniums' in the 50s and 60s. They were widespread in smaller non-anglican churches (and even in some of those). They were not uncommon in private homes. I bought one for a pound at a junk shop at the age of 12, and patched it up well enough to give me hours of amusement...thanks to forbearing parents. (I also have fond memories of my old grandmother playing hymns A & M on it when she visited us.) Along with with many of those old mid-Victorian wooden frame pianos they are now something of a rarity, most having been smashed up and/or provided fuel for bonfire night.

I even remember an evangelical youth group (the Crusaders?) arriving on the beach in Summer with a collapsible harmonium...ideal for Sankey and Moody.