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Articles - Seewen/Welte
Items relating to the Philharmonie organ in the Hall of Auditory Arts
Museum der Musikautomaten, Seewen (Solothurn/Switzerland)
together with its collection of around 1,600 historic early 20th century recordings
and the remarkable world of M. Welte & Söhne and organ roll
recordings
2014
The Britannic Organ and
Geisterhand continue ... an award winning CD series ...
Volume 3 (Music on the high seas) Volume 3
corrigenda
Volume 4 (Gigout and Bonnet)
Volume 5 (Wagner)
Volume 6 (British organists) Notes Volume 6
Volume 7 (Swiss organists)
Volume 8 (Reger) Notes Volume 8
Volume 9 (US organists and Lemare)
Volume 10 (German organists and music)
click on CD tracklistings (left) for more detail and some important links
Complete Seewen-
Britannic series details and samples from the Oehmsclassics web-site
wie von Geisterhand continues with
Swiss National Funding
The finalizing of a catalogue of all known Welte rolls and major research projects by
Dominik Hennig (Gigout) and Nicola Cittadin (Bossi) are among the highlights of
Geisterhand between now and 2017.
Two articles by David Rumsey, "The Speed of Welte's Organ Rolls" and "Welte's
Philharmonie for Turin 1911 - the evidence of the rolls", should be available by late
2014. This will be a publication of the Museum der Musikautomaten, Seewen (SO) and
contain other articles from participants at the "wie von Geisterhand" conference held at Seewen during March
2013
Two musical examples from the article "Welte's Philharmonie for Turin 1911 - the
evidence of the rolls"
474: Franz Philipp playing Canzonetta ("star vicino al bel
idol") which is wrongly attributed to Salvator Rosa
482: excerpts from Rossini's William Tell ("Trio"
Potpourri)
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The issue of roll speeds and the vagaries of the Welte "three-phase" pneumatic motor is
currently a topic of discussion and research in the context of Geisterhand. The motor
needs to be carefully controlled so that its speed does not vary - a common failing with this
pneumatic device. In a Swiss TV program from 13th February 2014 pianist Manuel
Bärtsch presented this problem in relation to a Mahler song. The accompaniment is
played by Gustav Mahler himself from a piano roll he made of it over 100 years ago. It is
sung by Jeannine Camenzind. The discussion revolves around the tempo of the music when
the correct speed of the motor is set and maintained - now somewhat faster than previously
thought. (In Swiss German)
click to watch
2013
Montgomery Rufus Karl
(Carl) Siegfried
Straube
and his cousin, Gertrude Palmer
Selected aspects of two distinguished musical careers
article by David Rumsey, Sydney Organ Journal - December 2013
(Click here for an on-line
copy)
The Britannic Organ
Volume 5: Wagner played on the
organ
Celebrating the 2013 bicentennial of Wagner's birth, Volume 5 of the
OehmsClassics series, The Britannic Organ, appeared in November 2012. The series
presents historic recordings and demonstrations of the Seewen Welte organ and its
unique collection of early masters, and - especially in the case of the Wagner volume -
"drawn" rolls. Also called "designed" rolls these are not recordings of live performances but
are hand-made by skilled musician-technicians transcribing notes and musical expressions
from scores and their own experience to make a perforated player-roll. All performances
present a fascinating insight into the performance paradigms around early 20th century
Freiburg.
OehmsClassics "Britannic Organ" website
An extended set of program notes to Volume 3 can be found on this web-site (in German,
French and English):
Extended program notes to Volume 3
Bonnet's In Memoriam Titanic
- additional information
Of the many pleasures in working with the historic Welte rolls at Seewen one of the greatest
is the constant stream of interesting visitors and correspondence that it generates. While the
recordings of Gigout and Bonnet were being produced (The Britannic Organ Volume
4), one of our most treasured contacts in this connection suddenly came out of the blue: the
daughter of Joseph Bonnet, Mme Francoise Brown-Bonnet, made herself known to us. In a
letter of 29th November 2012, one of a number of communications between us, she
touchingly thanks us for the gift of the CDs of her father's performances and provides some
fascinating additional information about "In Memoriam Titanic". At the time of the sinking
Bonnet had not yet crossed the Atlantic, but within the following 3 decades he had spent
some years in North America and recorded this work twice, once in Germany for Welte in
February 1913 (The Britannic Organ Volume 3) and again for Victor Records in
1941 on 78s (Album 18213-18216 - recorded on the organ of the John Hays Hammond
Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts USA).
Mme. Brown-Bonnet provided us with some most interesting additional information about
just how the work developed. This is summarized at the end of the "Titanic's final Concert"
article on this web-site. We are extremely grateful for this information. She also provides
up-dated information and corrections regarding the "78" recordings that Bonnet later made
(more information is available on the Association Joseph Bonnet web-site).
link to dedicated Gigout material on this web-site.
Link to the article Titanic's final Concert Adobe Acrobat
format (.PDF)
Link to the article Titanic's final Concert WordPerfect
format (.WPD)
Link to the web-site of the Association Joseph
Bonnet
Two articles courtesy of the Museum der
Musikautomaten, Seewen (SO-CH)
David Rumsey deals with aspects of Welte's roll-recordings and the procedures he uses
to rescue, edit and play them again - a background to the transfers used in producing the
recent CD recordings released by OehmsClassics under the banner of "The Britannic
Organ".
The big picture - Welte's instruments, rolls, recording,
digital editing (PDF)
Pearls and rarities of the Welte organ roll collection
(PDF)
from "Wie von Geisterhand. Aus Seewen in die Welt. 100 Jahre Welte-Philharmonie
Orgel" Ausstellungskatalog/Exhibition Catalogue, Seewen 2011 ed. Christoph E.
Hänggi. .
Improvisations
The Seewen roll collection contains around 20 improvisations. A large number of these
will be recorded as Volume 11 of The Britannic Organ series, due for release in late
2015.
Ramin and Hofner's improvisations are among the earliest recorded that we know of:
Hofner's from about 1911 (will appear in Volume 11), Ramin's 1925-26 (in Volume 2). A
remarkable improvisation by Marcel Dupré from 1926 (Volume 1) is also already
included. For recordings of the Ramin and Dupré improvisations see OehmsClassics
Seewen-Britannic releases.
Other
recordings
(these are samples only, some await further editing)
Welte # 1106 - Harry Goss-Custard (1871-1964) playing
Elgar's Imperial March Opus 32
Welte # 1004: M. E. Bossi playing his own work
Fatemi la grazia
(Note: sound levels are sometimes very low in the Bossi recording)
Welte # 1041 - Alfred
Sittard playing Franck's Grande Pièce Symphonique (part II).
Most of the above sound samples are an adjunct to David Rumsey's article, "Welte's
Philharmonie roll recordings 1910-1928: My afternoons with Eugène Gigout" -
which appeared in "The Diapason", March 2011.
Click here for an on-line version of this
article.
Others formerly listed here - amongst many others - are now available on The
Britannic Organ CDs
Please note that, as recordings appear in the OehmsClassics "The Britannic" Organ"
series in better-edited versions with full CD quality, .mp3 sample versions above are
removed from this site.
OehmsClassics "Britannic Organ" website
2011/12
The Britannic Organ on Swiss
TV
in dubio pro regio Telebasel program of 7th December 2012 (in Basel German -
preceded by a short advertisement)
Click here for a link to the
Telebasel program (For the Welte/Britannic Organ segment start at around 18
Minutes; David Rumsey appears at around 20 minutes).
The Britannic Organ
Volume 4: Eugène Gigout and
Joseph Bonnet
Click here for the Volume 4 track-listing
(pdf)
The Britannic Organ is an OehmsClassics series: historic recordings,
demonstrations of the unique Seewen Welte organ, the earliest organ recordings played
"live": Volume 1 was released in June 2011, Volume 2 ("Christmas aboard ship") in October
2011, Volume 3 ("Music on the High Seas") appeared in early 2012, and now Volume 4 in
August. For the 2013 bicentennial of his birth an all-Wagner disk (Volume 5) appeared in
late 2012. This will be followed in 2013 by another two CD-pairs, one of early-20th century
British organists (Volume 6 due mid-year) and the other of Swiss organists (Volume 7 due
end of year).
OehmsClassics "Britannic Organ" website
Museum der Musikautomaten: "Shop" (in German, French, Italian, English)
Further samples of these historic recordings can be found on this web-site by clicking
on
the "Articles - Seewen/Welte" page.
An extended set of program notes to Volume 3 can be found on this web-site (in German,
French and English):
Extended program notes to Volume 3
Marco Enrico Bossi and
Welte
MARCO ENRICO BOSSI AL "WELTE PHILARMONIE ORGEL" - an article in
Italian by Nicola Cittadin (CH), published in Arte Organaria e Organistica, n.79, Anno
XVIII,
Aprile-Giugno 2011. See also the sound recording above
Click here for an on-line version of this
article.
2010/11
Titanic's final concert Published in the Sydney Organ
Journal Vol 42, No. 1. Summer 2010-2011.
A German translation of "Titanic's last Concert" was published in the Swiss Titanic
Society's magazine, TITANIC POST, Nr. 76 June 2011. It has some additional information
including a number of memorials that quote the tune "Horbury".
Click here for the on-line German language
version of this article
2010
Database of scanned Welte organ rolls held at the Museum der Musikautomaten
in Seewen (interim release - updated 30th April 2013). Available formats are Paradox
(.db),
QuattroPro (.qpw) and Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).
Database of Seewen's scanned Welte organ rolls
(DB)
Database of Seewen's scanned Welte organ rolls
(QPW)
Database of Seewen's scanned Welte organ rolls
(XLSX)
Key to the database (PDF)
2010 - updated December 2012
A summary history of recording with special reference to historical organ recordings is
available.
A brief history of organ recording (PDF)
2010
Appearances by David Rumsey and other members of the "wie von Geisterhand" project team on Television:
Swiss Television SF1 "Einstein" Programme of 14th January 2010 (link 1)
or
Swiss
Television SF1 "Einstein" Programme of 14th January 2010 (link 2)
2009
"Wie von Geisterhand" - ein Projekt zur Digitalisierung von
Musikrollen (German only: description of the National Swiss project for the digitisation
of music rolls with particular reference to Seewen's organ and its unique roll collection.)
2008
The Origins of Seewen's Welte Philharmonie ("The
Diapason" - published article, English version)
Herkunft der Seewener Welte-Philharmonie-Orgel
(Deutsche Fassung)
L'origine de l'orgue Welte-Philharmonie de Seewen
(version française, 2010)
2008
L'orgue du Britannic de Seewen et ses
rouleaux (Traduction par Guy Bovet pour La Tribune de l'orgue #60, 2008)
The Seewen-Britannic organ and its
associated
rolls (English version)
2007
Appearance by David Rumsey and other members of the "wie von Geisterhand" project team on Television:
Swiss Television Cultural program of 31st October 2007
Press releases
Ocean Liner Britannic's organ found (press
release 24th May 2007, English)
Orgel des gesunkenen Ozeanriesen Britannic
entdeckt (Pressetext 24. Mai 2007, Deutsch)
2005
Reger und die Aufführungspraxis seiner Zeit - die Welte-Aufnahmen u.a.
Regers aus der Sammlung des Museums für Musikautomaten Seewen (Solothurn,
Schweiz). Referat gelesen an den Internationalen Reger-Tagen, (Leitung: Brett Leighton),
Bruckner-Univsersität, Linz, Österreich,
Mittwoch 13. April 2005.
Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Deutsche Fassung
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Reger and the Performance Practice of his Era - the Welte recordings,
including Reger's own, from the collection at the Museum für
Musikautomaten, Seewen (Switzerland). Paper given at the International Reger Symposium
(Direction: Brett Leighton) Bruckner University, Linz, Austria, Wednesday 13th April
2005.
All rights reserved.
English translation
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First published in German in 'Querstand II' (2006/7), house journal of the Anton
Bruckner University, Linz, Austria. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Museum
für Musikautomaten, Seewen
and Nelson Barden of Boston, USA, for permission
to use the sound files.
2002
"Organists on a roll" Conference paper delivered
in 2002 in Arizona, "Organists on a roll - the Welte organ's mechanically-recorded
performances" (updated 2010)
© David Rumsey 2009, 2010 and ongoing
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