13 July 2017, Hauptwerk recording with Piotr Grabowski

A few years ago, after I learned about Hauptwerk, the virtual organ system, and had downloaded a few organs, for which I paid a fee, I saw a website from Poland with organs for free, although which only a donation is requested. I downloaded an organ (German organ, in Poland), which worked well, so I sent the site a $50 donation, the same amount I had paid for the organ I downloaded of Brescia, from Sonus Paradisi, a commercial company.  I continued to visit the site, found at piotrgrabowski.pl, and downloaded more organs, making more donations.  I knew from the site that the name of the person who was responsible was Piotr Grawbowski, and that he was or had been a student at the Chopin Conservatory in Warsaw, and that the first organ he recorded was at the Conservatory (I haven't downloaded that one, because it is dry.)  When I sent him donations he responded with a personal thank you note, so I knew there was a real person there.  Anyway, when we came to Italy and I went to the Mascioni organ factory, Andrea (Andrew in Italian) Mascioni, the owner, asked me if I wanted to be his representative for selling organs in the US, and I have been working with him and his marketing manager, Andrew Joliffe, who is from England, but lives in Paris.  Myrna and I have visited the Mascioni factory in Azzio, about 90 minutes north and almost on the Swiss border, three times now, and I took my laptop computer with Hauptwerk and showed Andrea how it worked, as he had never seen Hauptwerk.  He was impressed with how easy it is to use and how realistic it sounds.  I told him that if he wants to sell organs in the US, organists there need to be familiar with his brand and that if he had organs on Hauptwerk, that organists could learn about them. So I had an idea and emailed Piotr in Poland and asked him if he wanted to come to Italy to record.  This started the process that ended up with Piotr, who is 27 years old, driving his red car first to Gubliasco, Switzerland to record one of Mascioni's recent organs on Wed. night and the one in Azzio, Italy (which I have played) on Thurs.  I wanted to go watch/help (I told him I could play the notes while he recorded) and he wanted me to, although I later learned he can do most of it himself.  I ended up not going to Switzerland because our car does not have a €40 Swiss sticker, although President Allen told me I could drive another mission car which does.  We went to Azzion last evening and were able to have the experience of meeting Piotr and watching the process of recording an organ for Hauptwerk. Here are a few pics:

Leaving the mission office at 5 pm, our GPS took us through Varese, a city in which we have missionaries (we have been there), and over a high mountain (reminded me of Mt. Graham).  We were worried if we were going to the right place, but otherwise enjoyed the beautiful drive through the forest.  It is much more like Switzerland than Italy--perhaps there is more money, from the houses and cars we saw, etc.  We dropped down into Azzio, a town of only a few hundred people, from the opposite side we have twice been to.  We passed a little church, which was open, from which we could see the organ factory (but had not driven past it because we came in the other end of town).  I went in and found
  
a little pipe organ over the door.

With a little one manual console near the altar up front.  I opened the case, but the "on" switch needed a key (Mascioni organs generally have keys), but I did not see the Mascioni logo.  So there are two two churches within a quarter mile, on either side of the Mascioni factory in Azzio.

So, having 45 minutes to spare before 8 pm, when we agreed to meet at the other church for recording, we drove to this nearby restaurant, to which we have now eaten three times.

Myrna had a salad and I had a prosciuto cotto (cooked ham) with funghi (mushroom) pizza, which was pretty good.

Then we went to the church in Azzio, built before 1,000 AD, where we met Piotr in the parking lot and helped him carry in his microphone stands, etc.  Andrew and two of his workers were in the church, starting to test the organ to make sure everything was okay before it was recorded--they did't want it to sound bad or out of tune.

They found the pipes of the Trombone (reed) stop to be out of tune and one didn't play.

They pulled the sick pipe from it's hole

And Andrea looked at it, blew on it, and it still would't work, so they called his zio (uncle) who is the "reed master" (we had seen him in the shop on a previous visit voicing reeds).  He came within 5 minutes (must live close) and took the pipe apart and found that

a beetle had gone down into the pipe, had died and dried, and was blocking the reed from beating. Zio put it back together and the pipe played fine.
 
All the while Piotr was setting up his microphones on the tall stands he brought.  

He was checking the quality of the sound coming through the mikes.  (He mostly played "O Sacred Head Now Wounded.") Then he sat at the computer and asked me to play on all the various stops.  I mostly played "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet."  Myrna was sitting all this time in the back of the church.  I told Piotr that I liked a lot of room reverb (wet sound) in the organ, and so, after talking with Andrea and moving the mikes around, he moved one of the sets back (from the organ) about 10 feet, which, I think improved the sound.  He used 4 mikes, and got beautiful 4 channel surround sound, which I heard from his headphones.

He used an Apple laptop and what looked like very high quality recording equipment.  His headphones did not have a brand name on them, but were much better quality than any I have every listened to.  I will email him when I get home and ask about them, maybe I can get some.  Of course, the quality of the headphones makes all the difference in the world as to what you can hear.

The console is very comfortable to play, even though the bench isn't adjustable.

The keys themselves are light colored wood (as opposed to bone, which Ruffatti uses), and the sharps are black ebony.

I wanted to record/remember the stops--these are on the left and control the upper manual and pedals.

These are on the right and are for the lower manual and a coupler to bring the stops from the upper manual (II) to the bottom (I).  The Sesqualtera is made of two ranks (Nazard, 2 2/3, and Tierce, 1 3/5, which are a 6th apart), and when the stop is pulled to the middle position only one pipe sounds.  This would otherwise make two stop sliders.  Sliding the stops, instead of pulling them, is very Italian and also works well with the mechanical action Mascioni used for this organ.  They also make electric action.

We could get a good look at the action when the sides were open for tuning the reeds--this is the right side, showing the stop pullers (horizontal slats) and a wind carrying tube (red painted wood).

This is on the left side, showing the stop for the tremolo (tremulant or vibrato), which, when pulled allows air to flow into the small bellows and a wheel, like a tiny water wheel, inside causes it to move back and forth so the air flowing through the pipes shakes, creating a lovely vibrato sound for the softer ranks (never used on the heavy sounds).

It was now about 10 pm, and everything was ready to start the boring, all night, task of recording.  I thought that someone would need to sit at the organ and play each pipe while Piotr listened with the headphones and made sure it was being recorded.  However, when he asked me help put it on, I learned that Piotr made a small device that he taped to his index finger (and later said he would put it on a toe) such that when he depressed an organ key, it activated the computer to do the recording. I thought this was quite ingenious.  He said he bought the device and programmed it to activate the computer.  Then Andrea and his men left and we helped Piotr turn off the lights, which never did put much light in the church.  He was anxious about using electricity.  He is going to have to go back during the day, when there is natural light, to take the pictures of the organ that he will put in the website and to make the console move when it is played. Hauptwerk organs on the (ideally touch sensitive) monitor typically show actual photos and the stops actually move and keys depress when they are played.

Piotr had a nice Apple laptop and a wonderful set of headphones. This shows the 4 channels of the surround sound in which he was recording.

Parting shot of Andrea Mascioni, owner of the company that made the organ, who wants me to be his US representative.  

Me with Piotr Grawboski.  He also took a pix with his iphone (selfie) with me and Myrna.  He is a professional sound recorder who plays the organ for a hobby.  I asked about his Hauptwerk organ, and he said it is just a couple of Casio keyboards and a pedalboard (like my set up), but he does not play it often because has a real pipe organ at his church to play. (He is religious--he knelt every time he went in front of the altar.)  He said, interestingly, that for him Hauptwerk is like being a fisherman who does not like to eat the fish--he likes to record organs but not play Hauptwerk organs.  I gave both him and Andrea Books of Mormon (Andrea in Italian and Piotr in Polish), in which I wrote personal notes, and LDS hymnbooks, Italian to Andrea and English to Piotr, whose English is very good. Actually, Andrea speaks very good English, and his wife is a professional organist.  He said she would like the hymn book. I asked Piotr if he had ever heard of the Mormon Tabernacle organ or choir, and he hadn't.  He said that he may be finished putting the organs on the website for download by about Sept. and I am anxious to download and play it, also the Mascioni organ at Giubilate, Switzerland he recorded the previous night.  









  

12 July 2017, Last Zone Conference, mission office and daily walk

We went to our last zone conference in Alessandria, attending the  combined Torino and Genova conference instead of to ours, so the office anziani could attend it, at Cimiano, so we could be at the office.
 
The capi zoni of the Torino zone are Anziani Harris and Robinson (left and right) who are both from Brigham City, graduating from the same high school.  Anziano Robinson goes home before we do.

Sorella Zombra was there. She is from Sicily and has been home many times (flying) to get her permesso so she doesn't have to go back to Africa.

The Alessandria church has a picture of Christ with a basket of unleavened bread and a bowl (instead of a chalice) reminiscent of what I saw at a catholic church.

And a portable baptismal font in the chapel.

The musical numbers at the conference were very well done.  We have some talented missionaries.

There is always a lot of fun discussion, these three missionaries are currently companions. A large and a small Italian, with an American from Alabama who is going to be a professional musician, attending BYU.

Lunch was fine, but they ran out of meat again, although there was plenty of cheese.

President Allen always does a great job.  Since we are going home, twinkling, we were asked to bear our testimonies.  Myrna's was particularly touching, to everyone, not just me.

The Genova zone pix, which I took.

The Torino zone pix,  including us, which Anziano Brooks took, bless his heart.

On the way home we passed by field after field of ripening tomatoes, but we could never seem to have the camera ready at the right time to take a pix, going 130 kph on the freeway.

The winter wheat had just been harvested.

This is the mission office, at Via Antonio Gramsci 13, Opera, where the scalped magnolia tree is coming out of it.  Our apartment is on the top floor--see our 3 flower plants, and the office is on the ground floor.  The sun was just coming up.

Taken from the intersection, the APs building is to the right, they live on the top floor. Sometimes they look down on my, having just finished their morning run.

Every morning I look at this garden, which is now being harvested and re-planted. The tomatoes, on the poles, are ripening, and he has been getting zucchini and lettuce now for weeks.

So I walk down this road to the park at the end of it.

There is a pretty weedy cornfield on one side,

But with ripe corn.  They don't seem to pick the corn, they wait for the entire plan to die and then they cut sown the entire field, and probably grind it all up for animal food.

I see this couple, with their dog, about every morning.

On the other end of the park is this rice field, usually with standing water, no heads on the rice yet.

There are several sets of exercises for people to do in the park, and there are handicapped ramps, etc.

There is a water fountain.

And play equipment for kids.

And a fenced in area for dogs to run around, without leash.

In Opera there is actually quite a bit of undeveloped land.  I suppose that years from now there will be large apartment buildings on these parcels.

Just before I get to the corner on Gramsci, I see this guys little garden, not as large or as well cared for as the other one, but still productive, with tomatoes and carrots, and, where you can't see them, peppers.

This shows the city maintained water well, where plain and frizzante (sparkling) water can be obtained for free.  Many people carry their bottles here every day, including me.  You can buy 1.5 liters of water at the grocery story for less than 20 cents, but it is fun to get it for free.  The water from the tap is certainly drinkable and sometimes we just fill our empty bottles with it, because Myrna likes just plain water.  I fancy frizzante.

Ciao for now.

8 July 2017, Ruffatti organs, Opera Nabucco and Taylor's mission call.

On Friday, 7 July, we went with President and Sorella Allen first to Padova, about 2.5 hours, to tour the Ruffatti organ factory, which I had pre-arranged.  They seemed to like it.  It was fairly similar to the Mascioni factory, at least they both make pipe organs from "scratch."  Mascioni seemed a little bit more organized, although wasn't quite as large, and the Ruffatti brother who does the voicing was in England installing a new organ, so we didn't get to see and hear that process, as we did at Mascioni. By the time we got there nearly everyone had gone home.  They were nice to stick around late for us.

The factory is located in a residential area of Padova.

In this office the daughter of Piero Ruffatti, one of the owner-brothers, is learning from her father to design organs, all via computer.  She will take over his ownership of the firm. Piero took us on the tour and was a very nice man, who spoke good English.  He said he does marketing and design work, but does not voice pipes. Voicing refers to putting a newly made pipe on a small voicing organ, sounding it along with a standard pipe of the same pitch, and then making adjustments with a file to the mouth or end of the pipe to affect the pitch (tuning) and timbre or quality of the sound.  It is a very difficult process, sort of like tuning a piano, but if you make a mistake the pipe is ruined. We asked if they use machines to voice, as piano tuners sometimes do, and they said they it is all done by ear.  Neither brother is an organist.

They had many new pipes and old pipes being restored. Some were 16 feet long. They do make 32 foot long (bass) pipes for really big organs.

There were lots of trays of ranks (a rank is one pipe of a certain timbre for each of the 61 keys) of pipes ready to be installed in a new organ they were working on.

Some pipes are quite small.  The speaking part of these pipes is only about an inch long, the rest of the tube goes down into the windchest. I put my pen next to them to show the size.  They would play high notes on the upper right side of the keyboard.

This is the left half of a new organ, which is going to Ireland fairly soon.

It's actually a fairly large organ.  This is one of two consoles it will have.  The Tabernacle Organ has 5 manuals, this one 4, so it is not much smaller.  Standing next to it is Piero Ruffatti, one of the brother owners, who took us on the tour.

He showed us where they melt the metal to make sheets to roll into metal pipes.

Then they pour the molten metal in the bucket and on the table for it to harden into a sheet, which they mill thinner and more even, before it is rolled on a wooden mandrill.

They use about 90% tin, and add lead and zinc, which are analyzed (weighed) using these little balls on the scale, to ensure the right composition.

They also make the wooden pipes.  This is an old one, they did not make

But in their restoration of this antique organ, they are added wood to these pipes, rather than just make new pipes. That is quite a lot of work.

These are trays of pipes, including a wooden rank, with additional wood added to the ends.

This is in the wood storage room, with many varieties of hardwood, used for different parts of organs.

Holding a piece of ebony (black wood), which will be used for sharps and flats.

This worker was gluing parts of a wind line, made in wood.  Mr. Ruffatti said that plastic or PVC would work better and probably last longer, but it isn't "traditional."  He said they are experimenting with a lot of new materials which work better and longer than traditional things, including carbon fiber wire to replace wood for trackers.

This worker was gluing white sheep skin on bellows parts.

The organ consoles use computers, made in Italy (Cuneo) specifically for Ruffatti. He said their keyboards come from England, sharps from ebony and whites from cow bones.

Ruffatti said that a man in his 70s hand carves the fancy wood work for the organ cases and consoles. He has no apprentice, because no one wants to do this kind of work.  President Allen said he would love to do it.  We discussed that fact that this wood (oak) work could easily be duplicated using a computer and cut with a laser printer, like Kevin used to do at BYU with metal and wood.  That wouldn't be "traditional" either, but it may have to come to that, Ruffatti admitted.

Piero is holding a hand carved "final" that goes on the top of an organ case, and behind are the reeds of big bass pipes that sound like deep farts.  There is a pile of organ benches in the background.  It was an interesting tour. It would have been better if we could have played an organ, as we did at Mascioni to see how beautiful the finished product sounds, because that's what it is all about.  I tried to get Piero to give me a ballpark cost of a small organ for an LDS church, which he would't do off the top of his head.

We drove the hour from Padova to Verona and found our AirBnB, in the house about in the middle of this pix.

We had a pleasant room, with our own entrance, in a private home, for €101, including tax.

With its own bathroom.

We walked across this bridge over the river, about 1 km, to get to the older part of town.

And reached the arena, built by the ancient Romans.

There were many restaurants in this part of town. It was also hot and humid.

I had this tuna salad, for €15, which was good, but the cold frizzante water was the best thing. I dressed the salad with olive oil and vinegar.  The black thing was sort of a tasteless cracker, used for presentation, I suppose.  Italians eat a lot of canned tuna, which can be very good.

Myrna had this chicken Caesar salad, also with a presentation cracker thing, with a white dressing (the first we have ever been served in Italy--definitely for Americans.)

President Allen had a plate of lasagna. (Sister Allen had what Myrna had.)

And then we found our assigned entrance to the arena.

And entered into the bowels of the 2,000 year old Roman amphitheater. (Actually built in 30 AD and could hold 30,000, now only 15,000 for security reasons.)

Finding our seats among the throng. The lady from the AirBnB loaned us some seat cushions, because the metal chairs, which had backs, have no seat cushions. We had €75 seats, which were actually very good: we saw and heard well, maybe better than if we would have had floor seats, which costs hundreds more, although they come with free wine and antipasti. The opera started at 9 pm, and we got there about 15 minutes early. There was a little lady from Argentina whose seat was between us (we got her to move), who said she goes all over the world, by herself, to see operas.

The sun hadn't yet set when we got there, and we could see very well the large building, a set representing a "temple."  The opera we saw was Nabucco, or Nebuchadnessar in English, written in 1841 by Giuseppe Verde. (Joe Green in English.)  It is about the Israelites being taken captive by the Babylonians in Old Testament times.  When Verdi wrote the music (he didn't write the words), the people in Lombardia (Milan province) were ruled by the Austrians who, of course, they didn't like--they wanted their freedom.  It would have been politically incorrect for Verdi to have composed an opera against the government, because the government was a patron of the arts, but it could have been taken either way (and was): ancient Israel against Babylon or Italians against Austrians. In this production of the opera, the sets and costumes were done in mid-1800s (called Resorgamento) period, with the Italian flag hung over the large and spacious building (or temple of Jerusalem), with the Austrian flag replacing it.  There was lots of violence, e.g,, gun shooting, cannons, etc. a little non-scriptural love story thrown in to make it more interesting, and a very heart rending--patriotic ending.  It is one of the most beloved operas in Italy, the chorus of the Hebrew slaves (Va Pensiero sul ali dorati--Fly thoughts on golden wings) is sung near the end.  It is also the last hymn in our Italian LDS hymnbook, where in the US hymnbook we have the "Star Spangled Banner."  It is very beloved in Italy. When Verdi died in 1901, over a million people lined the streets in Milan to see his hearse go by, and they sang this song.

The large orchestra (there was also a separate band on stage) was directed by a conductor wearing a black Jewish kippah or skullcap, so I assume he was Jewish. The back of the arena was not used for seating (anciently it was), but they had cannons back there which exploded from time to time, for the battles. Although I didn't get good pix of them (it was hard to take pix and the program said no pix) at one time I counted 16 live horses on stage, being ridden by soldiers and pulling carriages, etc.

A few full sized horses are in this pix.

There were two large monitors on either side showing the words they were signing, in Italian on top and English on the bottom, which we greatly appreciated.

The principal divas (women soloists or prima donne ) were very large (like the fat lady sings) and had very powerful voices.  In fact, no one on stage used any kind of microphones and you could hear them very well. There was a PA system for announcing (in Italian, English and German) the intermissions, etc., and the sound quality from that was horrible, but the music from the orchestra was well balanced with the voices, whether solos, duets, or full chorus, with no amplification to over 10,000 in a Roman era stone arena. It was amazing.

In this pix you can see the big crane behind the arena, which is used to move the large sets. In this scene they are having a procession, taking a statue of the Madonna down the street, as they do in Italy.  We have seen these, led by the priest, holding a big cross, with altar boys behind, a statue on a carrying board and a lot of people following behind. I suppose in the opera it was showing how they (Italians) worship their idols vs how the Babylonians worshiped Ball--probably not a lot of difference.

The king, Nabucco, (mid stage) was played a large bass with a powerful voice.

At two points,, the large building turned around to reveal the king's private office.

The building turned again so the Austrian flag, being put up by force of the army, could replace the Italian flag on the building. (Evil replacing good, then good, the Italian flag, at the end.)

The building turned again to become an opera house, with a Jewish menorah on the stage.

Then the menorah was removed so the Babylonian Baal god could be worshiped.  The Hebrew slaves were on the stage singing "Va Pensiero," the famous chorus, and they got an encore, so they sang it again.  It was a tear jerker for me, having sung the hymn at the back of the LDS hymnal. ("Oh mia patria, si bella e perduta!--my country, so beautiful, and lost" is very meaningful.)  In fact, our Navagli ward had a talent show last year, and I sang this number, for which I accompanied myself.

Then, through gunfire, actually from the opera house on stage, the false god Baal was toppled.

Towards the end (fourth act) Nabucco (bottom) sang duets with one of his daughters (on the portico above), before he converted to worship Israel's god, Jehovah.

At that point, the yellow Austrian flag was replaced with the Italian flag.

It was over at 12:30 am when we left the arena, which was quite orderly, and walked back to the AirBnB, which was a pleasant stroll, because it wasn't so hot and we weren't hurrying.

The next morning we drove, a lot, because of detours, through the province of Verona, where they make hard grateable cheese, like Parmesian, but different, not quite as strong.

And found the porcelain factory Myrna wanted to see, where the owner opened the shop (she lives above) and let us in.  We bought some beautiful flowers.

Because we needed to use the restroom, we got to go back into the factory, which wasn't in operation on Saturday, and we saw where her 20 employees work on these colorful works of art.

They sell porcelain objects all over the world, but not much from the showroom, where a 30% discount was given to us.

The restroom back in the shop, which we used, featured an old style Italian squatter.

They even make porcelain dolls there.

From there we drove another hour or so to a factory, near Vicenza (and the American base) where they make ceramic pottery, where the Sorelle bought more beautiful things.

There were several sizes of chicken pitchers.

Lots of cute veggie and animal serving trays

More of the same in different animals and veggies

Salts and peppers of all sizes

And many more of the same

Including cute pigs (think DeLoris).

Dishes and serving trays.

And more and more cute and useful fired and painted pottery.

I thought these asparagus bowls with a hard boiled egg on top were cute, probably appealed more to Italians than Americans, because Americans don't eat them this way.  There were lots of American customers shopping there, from the base.

In fact, Myrna had to wait a while to get her items wrapped, because some American ladies, for whom the government would ship their stuff home, were buying lots of pottery.

On the way back to the freeway, past kilometer after kilometer of fields of corn and wheat, we saw this trattoria (restaurant), where we had a good lunch.

I had this spaghetti alla carbonara (bacon with egg sauce), which was excellent.  I am still working on perfecting my technique for making it.  We finally got home, after a long drive (President Allen drove), and then I took a nap. It was hot and humid and the AC wasn't working well in our bedroom, but I was able to sleep.  Then we set the alarm for 3:45 am so we could go down to watch our grandson,

Elder Taylor Carter, open his mission call on Skype.  He was called to the Argentina Santa Fe mission, entering the MTC on 18 October. I will be wonderful to see him and the rest of our family in a few weeks and to attend his "farewell."

When we went to church today (rode with the Allens), we saw Sorella Ney and her daughter riding to church on their scooters. (She came to our 4th of July dinner.) They come this way every week (they don't own a car), but I have never been there at the right time to take a pix.  They take their scooters in the church, and one of their daughters rides a bike, which she also takes into the church.

Well, ciao for now.