BY LILY BRYANT
Typically, “pulling out all the stops” is considered a good thing. It’s how you might describe an incredible display from a sports team, or a breathtaking performance from an orchestra. In fact, the phrase originates as a reference to the mechanism of a pipe organ: a ‘stop’ is one of the many knobs that sit either side of an organ console and control which set of pipes the air passes through, with each one responsible for producing a different timbre.
By pulling out these stops, an organist can manipulate the instrument’s sound to mimic the instrument groups of the orchestra, as well as create whatever tonal combination best suits the music they’re playing. But while pulling out all the stops might generally be a good thing to do as a musician, Peter Ellis assures me that for organists, it’s best left as a metaphor.
“If you pull them all out, you’re going to end up with an organ that doesn’t sound in tune. And if you don’t use enough of them, it’s like you’re not there, so you just have to really choose carefully what it is that you work with.”
Peter will be casting this intricate process into the spotlight when he performs Saint-Saëns’ mighty Symphony No. 3 Organ with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra at the Chatswood Concourse. He’s appeared with the orchestra in the past as a conductor and choral director, but this concert will see him wielding an army of musical colours in a brand new way.
“Bizarrely, although I’ve been an organist for my entire performing life, I’ve only ever done the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony as a conductor, so this is the first time I’ve ever actually played the organ part for it,” he says.
An organist himself, Saint-Saëns wrote the piece in 1886, dedicating it to the recently deceased Franz Liszt. The nickname Organ is not Saint-Saëns’ own, but the way he captures the instrument’s majesty is a defining element of the piece, in addition to equally ambitious and virtuosic keyboard writing in the four-hands piano part.
“As an organist, you feel mighty. It’s an incredibly powerful instrument, and when you are playing an instrument which is not just balancing against the orchestra but actually matched with the orchestra as well, it’s enormously satisfying,” Peter says.
The piece is most recognisable for the show-stopping organ chord that precipitates the final movement, and as a listener, it can be tempting to place all the emphasis on this singular (albeit incredible) moment. For the organist, however, there’s a lot more consideration and subtlety that comes into play; that’s where those all-important stops come in.
“Because I’m an orchestral player and an orchestral conductor, and I think a lot about balance and what things sound like in terms of the sound world, I’m probably going to think more about the stop choices I use on the organ, rather than just simply going for a dynamic level. You think about what’s going to blend with the orchestra, and the sound that’s created,” Peter says.
While in many halls, those stop choices would determine the physical pipes down which air is able to travel, in this concert they’ll function a little differently, as Peter will be performing on a digital organ.
“It doesn’t feel any different, it doesn’t act any differently, but rather than blowing air through pipes, you’re putting digital instructions through computer driven samples, which come out of speakers rather than organ pipes,” he explains.
Peter notes that this debate between acoustic and digital can be controversial in the organ world, but that for most listeners, it’s impossible to tell the instruments apart, especially amidst such dramatic and lush orchestrations. More importantly, the use of digital organs expands access to classical music, allowing a much wider audience to come and experience such sublime works as the Organ Symphony, without having to live near an acoustic organ themselves. And as Peter points out, this is the kind of piece everyone should have the opportunity to hear.
“It’s full of melodies, it’s full of drama — everyone waits for that moment where the big organ chord comes in at the start of the last section,” he says.
“It’s possibly the most dramatic chord that any organist will ever play ever, and then it’s backed up with a full orchestra, it’s just everything that everyone would want to listen to, in a hugely exciting organ piece.”
Presented alongside said exciting piece will be Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture, and appearances from didgeridoo soloist William Barton both as a performer in Sculthorpe’s Earth Cry, and as a composer in his own work Birdsong at Dusk. In this concert dedicated to awe-inspiring pieces, Peter hopes listeners will get to appreciate the amazing music being made in their backyard.
“I hope they’re emotionally moved, I hope they’re exhilarated, I hope they’re challenged, and I really hope it inspires them to buy tickets for more Willoughby Symphony Orchestra concerts, and come and see what we have on offer in Chatswood!”
Hear Willoughby Symphony Orchestra present Organ Symphony from 7pm November 7 at The Concourse, Chatswood.
Images supplied.
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