Pep Organ is an Australian KZread channel created by Titus and Kim Grenyer, devoted to sharing high-quality music dedicated to you, the listener. Titus is currently serving as the Organist for the Sydney Town Hall, which has the beautiful 1890 Hill & Son organ, the largest organ in the world when completed and one of only two in the world with a 64' stop.
This channel was created because there are not enough high-quality recordings of good organ music. We feel that the public deserves to hear music which is accessible and engaging, rather than academic, overly complicated music that is incomprehensible.
Our channel offers the alternative: music that only requires a heart to appreciate.
Пікірлер
And sorry to hog the comments but where is that huge grand piece you composed and played at the last or second to last recital? It had increasing volume and majesty.
Are you referring to Threnody, or Discovery?
@@peporgan they were both wonderful! I think it must have been Discovery. Pretty sure it was one of yours. Great concert tonight in the Town Hall with light show.
A jewel in Sydney's crown and congratulations on your appointment now as University of Sydney organist!
I'm not impressed. At all. This is a typical sales pitch that would be more effective selling a new dishwasher.
I’m not selling anything. I just make music and have opinions to share.
Hey! This is very beautiful! I always wanted to improvise in this style but i am still a bit of a begginer as a improviser, any tips to improvise on this style?
Don’t play any 7th chords. Keep it simple. Best way to learn a style is to play repertoire from the period- try Gibbons keyboard music
@@peporgan thanks!
Beautiful!
Just for fun, pop over to London and have fun at the Royal Albert Hall!
So very English!
An incredible piece of work, Titus. Bravo, Maestro!!
Why is there a dog?!?🐶
Assistance dog
Good to hear that young composers are still writing serious church music. Keep on composing Titus.
Unreal! How beautiful!! What an incredible composition!! I had no idea you could do that!
Thank you so much!
Awesome. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you Titus, and congratulations.
Thank you Matt!
Love the music, thanks, take care
That must have been a barrel of fun!
Here's a carillon video y'all might find interesting: kzread.info/dash/bejne/YnaC1sOHfsm7gps.htmlsi=gwQj38tNz-Y16aro Joey Brink talks about how the bell overtones emphasize the minor 3rd (making some music sound "out of tune") and how the octatonic scale addresses that.
This is really cool! I had to listen a few times!
Thanks for listening!
Heavenly!
a most difficult instrument to learn.
How difficult it is to play! An electro-mechanical drive is clearly needed.
They are discouraged. They should be fully mechanical, adding electrics may reduce dynamic range
This is great! 🎶
PepDingin'
😂
What a revelation. I had no idea such an instrument existed let alone someone is learning to play the thing. It looks a little hard to take on tour 😂. What are the foot pedals connected to?
The foot pedals activate the lowest notes of the keyboard as we can see in the video.
Fabulous! Most impressive! Bravo!
Wonderful !!! We look forward to further instalments. Every church should have one ;)
un pur moment de grâce ! MERCI !
Great video, thanks for sharing
Remember that these playback machines are doing just that - playing recorded sounds that were digitally recorded from the real think. The recordings are tweeked to they are in perfect physical tune and pipes back to make a sound emitted through a single point source - speakers. The weakest part is the speaker system. As far as an Allen having good sound, well it should, the sounds it makes are all stolen from real pipe organs, not other cheap imitations. By the way, when you look at these contraptions, look at the construction - Plywood, chip board with stick on paper fake wood. and a lot of circuit boards that last about 20 years and fail. The idiots who thought they were getting a bargain, with not fees for tuning, end up having to pay for new electronic components - IF THEY ARE STILL AVAILABLE. In the end young man, the real pipes organs which you seem to disparage are the source of sound for these cheap imitations that are way overpriced. Real pipe organs, with proper care last 300 to 400 years. No one really knows how long. There are organs built in 1600 still playing. So when you buy a new digital synthisiser every 20 years or so eventually you will pay less than you will for a pipe organ over the span of its life. AND you get the real thing, not a bunch pf printed circuits wrapped up on chip board and colored paper. You get the impression that I don't like fake organs. You bent on that. build the real ones and this kid is pretty pretnesious in his youthful opinions.
We don't have electronic organs from 1600, but if we did, I would love to compare the maintenance costs between that and a real organ from 1600. Just thinking about today, an electric organ may need servicing every 5-10 years. A pipe organ has faults more regularly than that, with much higher costs - and that's not even mentioning tuning! Perhaps some churches know not to waste their money, when the congregation often cannot tell the difference.
I already know a lot like some playing and other stuff
Teach them Ausländer Raus.
I'm the music director at our church, which didn't have an organ when built about ten years ago. Due to some very generous donors, my organ dreams came true a couple years ago. As a member of the organ committee, i insisted that we must have an organ scholarship program in place so our keyboardists can learn not just how to play organ, but be immersed in organ culture. From there, the organ culture can spread through the choir to the parish community. Without that education, the organ would be a dead duck, an expensive, unused piece of furniture. I'm happy to report that in the sixteen months since our organ was installed, nine of us have been studying through our organ scholarship program, and slowly, but surely, our organ culture is growing, the organ is finding its rightful place in the liturgy, the parishioners are growing in their appreciation of organ, and even the pastor, who isn't a huge fan of organ, is pleased. Btw, three of the students are teenagers. We have every reason to hope.
This sounds a lot like what the Pep Organ dude is doing in his church :)
The Anglican Cathedrals are not doing themselves any favours with their exclusive and regimented pipe organ requirements. In Melbourne one must provide their resume to the Director of Music to access the instrument; similar situation in Perth. And in Adelaide, one must make a booking weeks in advance along with making a payment for the use of the instrument; Trinity College Chapel in Parkville also charges for the use of the pipe organ which are largely university students. So much for the generosity and hospitality of the church.
Unfortunate.
To your comment and mine. In Sydney, it's principally the liberal denominations (i.e. not Anglicans) which the Sydney Organs initiative has been able to engage and visit to increase interest in the organ. I'd say about 80% of the churches they visit are Uniting Churches. This is coming from someone who is not Uniting at all, just noticing that.
Until organists are paid a respectable or professional fee for playing the pipe organ in a church or cathedral business, there is very little incentive. It seems to be only the inner city churches and cathedrals that are paying musicians the market standard and accepted rates. Those in the regional areas are lucky to receive 50% of what those in the suburbs receive; the balance unfortunately seem to be doing it for free. But realistically, why should one roll out of bed at 7am on a Sunday morning, play for an 8am then 10am service and thus loss half of one's day of rest for a measly $110 when our capital city organists are receiving $500 for doing exactly the same thing. The playing field needs to be levelled and the professional skills of competent players recognised - letters after one's name is not everything either.
Pipe organs are very expensive and valuable instruments that you cannot allow 'any Tom Dick & Harry' on unsupervised. For a time I presided over a 140 year old tracker action instrument which gave great reliability over a quarter of a century in my sole care. Then a new incumbent came along (who also broke a pedal pulldown on her first practice from standing with their entire weight on the pedalboard) who made it a free for all. This other man-child also left the organ blower motor on for 4 days straight (which could have resulted in an electrical fire); left stops and couplers out regularly; would always leave the swell box closed so the instrument was half out of tune for the next player for the first hour; and a myriad of other damage and wanton vandalism. I could foresee the pipe organ becoming a total wreck so ceased playing over a year ago now. I miss it but did not wish to be held liable for the abuse the instrument was sustaining at the hands of amateurs. I keep my hand in now playing pipe organs all over Australia instead in environments where the clergy and parishioners are truly Christian and appreciate great pipe organ music.
With the amount of spiritual abuse, mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and other evils still taking place in churches and cathedrals across Australia, at this point in time I would discourage a young person from taking up the pipe organ. Yes, I am a victim of the above and it is currently being investigated on my behalf.
The danger with some scholarships is that it creates a toxic culture of servitude. Some clergy, lay canons and such gate keepers start to be too controlling with contracts, binding documents and even interfering with the personal lives of church workers. I am aware of a certain incumbent that has put forward a totally inadequate scholarship fund for young church musicians to the value of $1500. It is essentially peanuts. A church should pay for all tuition fees as they are the benefactor of the skills and training.
Ideally yes, scholarships should not be a tiny amount. I have made sure the scholarships we offer are on par with wages.
Thank you so much for your wonderful efforts to showcase the organ. I’m an Organist too, it may interest you to know that the organ features throughout Freemasonry too. I’ll teach or inspire anyone that’s wanting to give it a go. No $ needed. It’s a wonderful and dynamic instrument and always an experience to play. I am in completely in support of your thoughts.
Seems to me that the key problem is the creeping replacement of traditional services with the so-called happy clappy 'contemporary' service wherein guitars, drums and sometimes electronic keyboards prevail. These services are usually ministered by clergy who themselves are unfamiliar with -- if not also uninterested in -- the organ. In those churches which still have traditional services with hymns accompanied by organ, the congregations are often principally grey/white haired and it's not difficult to predict the likely future of those services and their associated organs. @Titus: as a reasonably well-known local ambassador for the organ, and the current Sydney City Organist, it would make sense for you to help arrange Meet the Organ events for young people, especially those who have attained (say) Grade 5 piano. Familiarity with the organ is the first step towards igniting an interest in it.
No constraints should be placed on introduction programs. It angers me when people carry on about 'you must have this grade in piano' and 'you must have studied piano for 3 years' etc. It just puts up unnecessary barriers.
'Must' is _your_ term, not mine, so save your anger for something else. In my experience, kids with a good grip on piano and theory are excellent candidates for having a go and then actually sticking with the organ.
Titus, et. al., what a treat to hear your reviews of the contestant works and particularly the competition finalists. What you are doing each year with your contest can only enhance the public appreciation of this ancient instrument. Bravo All!
Thank you as always, Titus. Are you friends with Ben Maton, in Salisbury, England? Ben is another excellent promoter of old churches and organ restoration. I also teach free local organ lessons to anyone, young or older, at the Mendocino Presbyterian Church on the north Coast of California.www.youtube.com/@SalisburyOrganist
There needs to be a revival of interest in traditional music and culture of all kinds. The problem in countries like Australia is that everything is about 'scholarships', 'classical music', and 'funding', it's all very academic and astroturf. I travelled to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and there you see traditional music like tango, bossa nova, etc. being played in local bars or at outdoor food markets, etc. and it's still maintain a grassroots support. Australian culture has become really corporatised and astroturf because of the American style suburban city (originally the Australia city was what is now called the 'inner city', which is the actual natural city) with shopping malls and it's a dead city full of dead spaces. Ie., it's the astroturf city. So then traditional music has no place to evolve because of lack of organic spaces that you still get in European and South American cities. I don't think that 'scholarships' or any astroturf culture schemes are the way to go. For example, tango music in Australia got govt funded and it remains a marginal and purely academic despite a push to promote it. Some academic musicians got funding, went to Argentina, came back, recorded a CD, and now it's a website where you can buy the CD, that's it. Gone. State funding kills culture by astroturfing because all that happens is that you get the musicians to pander to some cultural state apparatchik forking out the cash. Australians need to get out of the state funding mindset if you want your culture back! A better approach is like the traditional architecture channels that are promoting traditional building and are organising conferences around that. What is needed is a holistic approach to traditionalism because music needs to be taken out of the academia and state funding industrial complex and made local. There needs to be a large more all-encompassing movement for that, eg., starting on Facebook and KZread otherwise your organ playing will remain marginalised and for old people who still attend churches or these sorts of things.
Hi there, you have some great suggestions. I do think a grassroots approach can do wonders. However, the organ culture in Australia is tiny. We don't even have a real 'grassroots', so to speak. If grassroots in this instance simply means local organists giving free lessons to local students, then that's not sustainable and it's not practical. We need to give students opportunities to learn the organ. Scholarships are the way to remove financial barriers. I don't think many exceptional musicians have been created without institutional support. Sure, you can have a grassroots approach for tango music etc, but they are not as rigorous and difficult as learning the organ, objectively.
@@peporgan First, you didn't read my post to the end. Please reflect on the final two sentences. You cannot make any progress if you have all these different things in isolation and so you will always be a slave to the corporate state which will ask you to put a bunch of virtue signalling things in your funding application and will evaluate that against all the other stuff. So you see in tango it's increasingly LGBT because that's what 'community' means to the govt bureaucrats. Tango is actually played on the bandoneon which was designed as a portable church organ. My point is that you won't make any progress unless you thing bigger and join forces with traditionalists in other disciplines, and so you will fail, because the only way to recover traditionalism is by opposing it to modernism. Other than that you will get some funding but it won't go anywhere.
@@TomTabaczynski Look, I don't really have a stake in the game. Traditional, modern, what does any of that mean? I don't really care. What I do care about is results. Before I established scholarships and my music program, our church had 0 trained organists. Now we have 6. The system works. And I don't see how this is the 'corporate state', this is supported by the church, not government. Is my system perfect? No. There's more to be done.
@@peporgan "Supported by the church"? I'd like to know more where the money's coming from. Churches nowadays are getting state money in all sort of ways. If the money is private then I'm for that, but I still think that the corporatisation of Australia will eventually take over everything and your church will probably be turned into a library teh way that the churches around my area have been, or worse. So yeah, you can have your little WASP enclave and that's what I'm seeing, white flight. Given this people like myself are packing up and leaving this continent permanently because it has no future given that people like yourself believe that you can keep going on boomer $$, which will soon run out.
Titus, I play pipe organ for services at three separate churches each weekend. Unfortunately, there are no young people at any location. In a desperate attempt to garner some interest, I am doing a tour and recital at one church for summer-school students, grades K-5 this week.
That's a very good idea. Engaging schools is important.
Hi Titus! Very good information expressed! There is a school in Philadelphia that has a wonderful organ program and the students are assigned internships at the many churches around the city playing their instruments. It seems to work out quite well. It’s Curtis Institute which is hard to get into and quite expensive. Thanks, Titus!
That sounds excellent. The US has some great systems in place to get students into churches.
You’re an amazing inspiration for people who love organs , pipe organs, I feel it is the king of all instruments, when I pass I have it in my last wishes , to have a pipe organ for my funeral, I played the organ when I was a child, I kept it till I bought my own home I had to donate it to my church, I think your great , thank you so much , I love Australia , I live in New York 🇺🇸for me it would be a dream to visit your beautiful country ❤
Thank you!
About access to pipe organs, another initiative in Sydney that's been gaining traction over time has been Sydney Organs (Facebook group and KZread). They do visits ~2-3 times a week to places in Sydney to churches / the odd other place that are normally closed. And different people try the organ. It's great to raise interest and exposure, also giving hope and another thing to do for parishioners in those churches ... It's especially helpful for those who don't normally have access to any pipe organs like myself.
You are a great ambassador for the organ. Your words were well-spoken. Thank you for your encouraging words. Keep up your excellent work!
Thank you so much!
An Allen Organ IS an organ. I think a church could do so much more with the money to help people directly. 99.9% of congregants cannot hear the difference between digital and pipe organs. As long as the music touches people, the delivery system isn’t important.
Well said!
Thank you.
Hats off to you young man, excellent show 👏🏾🎩👌🏾 The coupling of the Whitehouse with the Létourneau must sound amazing when there's a full house?!😃