Obertonzug and Walsingham (an unlikely combination)
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Well, I've asked several people, including one of our world renowned organ professors in Houston, looked in all my organ books and the Harvard, tried the internet, and have come up with naught. Do any of my colleagues here, or German scholars, know what an obertonzug is? I have encountered this in a piece by Joseph Ahrens which will be on a recital, but am at a loss as to what it is. The particular registration calls for an 8' flute + obertonzug on manual II. I am guessing that it might be a super coupler, but have no idea if this is correct. We have an oberton on the von Beckerath at UofH, which is a rather shrill high-pitched mixture with a ninth in it. Help!

    Now, for the Walsingham part. For any who may be planning to come to the AGO Convention here next summer, do plan to come Sunday, because there will be solemn evensong at Walsingham as an official pre-convention event. Also, if you are here Sunday morning, you can come to high mass.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    From the Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation:

    Selected Organ Works of Joseph Ahrens:
    A Stylistic Analysis of Freely Composed Works and Serial Compositions

    by Eun Hye Kim

    at the University of Cincinatti, 2013:
    In 1956, Ahrens and Schuke built a two-manual house organ for Ahrens’s house. The organ contains a small Organo Pleno of four stops in the first manual, and the rich colors of six stops in the second manual. The 16’, 4’, and 2’ stops of the pedal allow playing the cantus-firmus melody in the pedal part. The organ has slider chests and tracker action (see Table 4).

    Table 4. Berlin, House Organ of Joseph Ahrens, built by Karl Schuke, 1956.
    MANUAL I • C—g3
    Principal 4'
    Rohrflöte 8'
    Waldflöte 2'
    Mixtur 3-4fach
    3 Normalkoppeln

    MANUAL II • C—g3
    Holzgedackt 8'
    Rohrflöte 4'
    Rohrquinte 2 2/3'
    Rohrquinte 2'
    Tertian 2fach 2/3', 2/5'
    g°: 1 3/5' 1 1/3'
    Obertonzug 2/7', 2/9'
    Obertonzug
    g°: 1 1/7' 8/9'
    Tremulant

    PEDAL • C—g'
    Quintadena 16'
    Rohrpommer 4'
    Weitprincipal 2'

    From this, it sounds as of the Obertonzug is indeed a high-pitched mixture, well known to Ahrens, since he was involved in the building of his home organ. The "zug" part of Obertonzug suggests to me that it might be a borrowing, but that is speculation on my part.

    The organ in the Auditorium of the Church Music Department of the Berlin Academy of Music, built by Karl Schuke, 1960, has in its Schwellwerk an Oberton 2fach 11/7' 8/9' which prompted my speculation about the Obertonzug being a borrowing. At any rate, whatever it is, the Oberton and Obertonzug seem to feature that shrill ninth, in agreement with the U of H Beckerath.

    Jackson, which piece by Ahrens? The Fantasie und Ricercare (1967) has some really interesting compositional ideas, including octatonic and whole tone scales plus note clusters, various symmetry constructions, plus both sub- and superset relationships.

    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn eft94530
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Many thanks, Chuck - something told me that you could 'put your finger on it'!
    I had thought that it was either a super (oberton) coupler or some kind of mutation or high mixture. This really helps, except that I will have to finagle other sounds for the instruments on which I will be playing this recital. One is a wonderful Fisk at First Pres, Santa Fe; the other is (with eyes lowered) a schoenstein at St Basil's, Houston.

    The pieces of his that will be on this recital are from his Cantiones Gregorianae pro Organo: Puer natus and Osteralleluja. I have had about four volumes of his works for decades but have never performed any of them publicly until now. These are all delightful and exciting pieces in a very modern idiom. I commend them to any here who aren't afraid of adventurous literature. The Osteralleluja would make an absolutely thrilling organ noise to introduce Gloria on Easter Even, or as a prelude on Easter Day. I could see the Puer natus as communion music at Christmas. There is much more in his oeuvre, all of it intelligent.

    I'll have a look at the Fantasie und Recercare, though this recital is all chant-based. I think his writing is scintillating!
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    A bit more info.

    Which got me to look up this:

    And then I found that ZUG often is used a general term for "pulling together".

    I bet that those mutations "pull" the mixtures together and provide a smoother transition to the reed chorus. An organ builder I knew had studied the Septieme at Notre Dame, Paris as well as the Harmonics stops on that organ. What do you think?
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Thanks to both of you.
    I think this is very helpful and clear enough.
    Only, what does that suffix '-zug' mean in relation to music-organs?
    I've looked on the internet and it means dozens of things from trains, trams, bird migrations, draughts, stroke, bell pull, tension, and on and on, but nothing musical.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    For what it's worth:

    Oberton translates to "harmonic"

    Obertonzug translates to "overtone"

    It would seem that Oberton and Obertonzug are nearly cognates.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn eft94530
  • CGM
    Posts: 699
    From NJ's second link:

    "Still more recently some organ builders have tried to push the idea even further, providing new and unusual off-unison ranks in order to offer the player new and unusual timbres. As these effects have been explored mostly by builders whose tonal ideal is concentrated at the bat level of the spectrum. The 'new and unusal timbres' turn out mostly to imitate small angry birds and alarm clocks. Germany in the 1960s was awash with Aliquots, Obertons, Nonenkornetts, Schreipfiefen and other insects."

    MJO, do the organs you'll be concertizing on have an insect stop?
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    This really gets more fascinating by the minute!
    An insect stop? Ha! You mean something on the order of a four rank cicada?
    Methinks that my obertonzug will have to be something like a 2' princ and a larigot.
    Or, maybe I could get a couple of my scholars to mimic insect sounds.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Jackson, the Oberton on the U of Houston von Beckerath is a 3 rank mixture.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Yes, and it's very strong, piercing, and Robert Bates told me that it had a ninth in it. It's a wonderful organ, of course, but the oberton is a strange encounter. There is an interesting story accompanying that organ and the room it sits in. UofH is a state university, and before the organ was delivered the state cut the funding so that the room is only half as large as was originally planned. Von Beckerath was so enraged that he refused to come to the dedication.

    All the information that you and Noel and CGM have discovered is very helpful for 'getting the picture'. This is the only literature that I have ever encountered that called for an 'oberton'. Quite interesting!
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    I have heard about the strange harmonics built in those days, although I am not an expert for German organs of the 60s (ironically I usually play on one from that era; but its fanciest harmonic is a tierce). But as a German I can offer explanation for the term Zug in relation to pipe organs:

    The Zug comes from ziehen, pull; alle Register ziehen, pull all stops. The word Registerzug is simply the stop knob, so an Obertonzug is not necessarily an extraction; it could as well be simply a stop with harmonics.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn eft94530
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    My best understanding of the Obertöne at UH (having played often upon that instrument) is that it is probably intended to model a reed in an artificial, additive synthesis, manner. This is the only way I ever used it; it sounds something like an Allen reed from that time period. I use it when I need a loud, piercing reed, such as at the end of Dupré's Placare Christe Servulis.

    I would ask - is the Obertönzug used in a solo registration? If so, I would suggest a bright trumpet stop as a replacement. If not, perhaps a Cymbale or a more moderate mixture with a supercoupler.
    Thanked by 4BruceL M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen Salieri
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Thanks, Gavin (and Protasius!) - the context is Ahrens' Puer natus setting, which is sort of a trio between two manuals and pedal. I say sort of, because each 'voice' often has 'divisi' moments. Gavin's observation seems quite accurate. In fact because this UofH obertone sounds rather 'like an Allen reed' I have always very studiously avoided using it when playing that organ.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Salieri
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    It is ALWAYS a bad sign when an organ builder refuses...I've fond the flatted 7th and 9th very effective if voiced so that it is hard to tell that they are playing, but noticeable when they are tuned off.

    I did a design for a university in which the President put his foot down - no acoustical deadening - then when we installed we found the transept left and right was all acoustically deadening material. Never got the organ sounding as it could have - and choral director has nothing but problems...sound form the back balcony is great, but there is extreme filtering on any sound that passes through the transept.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    'like an Allen reed'

    Thanks for that, I'll re-lable my 'Krummhorn' accordingly!
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