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Organ San Giovanni Battista

Description     Screenshots     The Stop List     Demo Songs     Pictures 

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Description

The organ of  San Giovanni Battista Church was built in about 1750, probably by the organbuilder of Atri Adriano Fedri of the Family Fedeli Rocchetta di Camerino. The organ is located in the Choir and was completely restored in 1993 in the workshop of Pier Paolo Donati of Florence. This organ is of special interest  because  it is one of the rare historic Italian organs that has a reed stop in the front,  placed horizontally, as in Spanish organs, and another reed stop placed in the swell.

The pipes in this organ are all original and its restoration has allowed us to recover the instrument as it was designed by the manufacturer in the 1700s. It has a very low pressure of the wind chest  down to just 48 mm at the water column that gives the organ a very pleasant, round sound.  The temperament of this instrument is a medium tone (Extended Meantone irregular) with four pure fifths.

 The registration of the organ has maintained both the original tuning of 435 Hz and the temperament, so the virtual organ has the same temperament as the original instrument. For this reason, a set of files were included in the installation package such as temperament equable at 440 Hz and Vallotti Tartini, both generated with the software of MidiPipeOrgan, TemperamentMaker.


The organ is placed in the choir of the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Atri (Vulgar San Domenico). The church was built in 1322 and underwent several changes until 1758 or so.   The lower part of the facade, still in Romanesque style, is preserved from the 1300s.  The Convent of the Benedictine monks was attached to church  who had dedicated  it to their saint St. Dominic. Inside the Church  there is a  splendid decoration on the vault, recently restored, which represents the transit of Blessed St. Dominic.

The Dominican fathers  commissioned the organ in the 1500s and the original base of the bellows is still preserved. All subsequent renovations, in about 1750 also commissioned by the Dominican fathers, made it an accompanimental instrument for  the  singing of the friars and  people during the liturgy.

The church is located in the town of Atri situated on a hill about 10 km from the Adriatic Sea. Atri is called “the queen of the hills”,thanks to its position 442 metres above sea level overlooking the Adriatic Sea to the mountain group of the Gran Sasso of d'Italia. Atri is a city which dates back to three thousand years before the founding of Rome. Its first name was Idria, then it became Hatria which gave the name to the Adriatic Sea.

In Roman times, in 299 BC, Atri was allied with Rome to defend it against the Gauls,  offering an army of 20,000 pedestrians and 4,000 horsemen.  This gesture garanteed  Atri a form of autonomy which allowed this town to  mint its own coins  and to become a holiday resort for the  Romans.  The Dukes of Acquaviva resided in Atri in a  palace which is still preserved today as the Town Hall. The House of the Dukes of Acquaviva includes the Blessed Rudolf Acquaviva who died as a martyr in India .

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The organ was recorded at original temperament which is a meantone irregular with  tuning to A 435 Hz. The sample set  includes three new temperaments:

Equal A = 435 - Modern Temper, but the original pitch.
Equal A = 440 - Temperament to be used with other modern instruments.
Vallotti Tartini-A = 435 - Temperament of 1700s in northern Italy.
Original Temperanment A = 435 - Original temperament of the instrument

 

The pattern of temperament in the instrument

 

Feedback

Dear MdiPipeOrgan-Team,

after discovering the link to midepipeorgan.com on the Hauptwerk homepage and immedeately listening to the demo songs for San Giovanni Batista, I got really fascinated by the instrument right away! This first impression resulted from my permanent search for medium sized organs, where especially virtuous parts of organ music would not get blurred by long duration reverberations and, furthermore, this organ seemed to have an extraordinarily balanced set of stops from both of the important families, pipes and reeds! Allthough even Midipipeorgan itself, as a company in Italy, had only just entered the scene for Hauptwerk instruments and there where no reviews available, I simply placed an order in full confidence to my ears, i.e. the acoustic samples on the web.

Today I can consider myself very happy to have taken this decision and it has become a real desire to thank your small team for this excellent product! (The only restriction to this appreciation might be the fact that the most "relevant" genius to have conceived this instrument has lived a few centuries ago and seems out of reach for a thankful email...)
This doesn't detract from the merits, though, that the recording team deserves: The digital representation of the organ has been created with very high ambitions so that all stops sound in highest audio quality and in a fascinating "live" mannor!

And here I must say that all my first impressions from sound examples on the web were all highly confirmed: The distribution of sounds to the pipe and reed stops seems just perfect to my needs (until today I had owned 3 organs from the franco-iberian tradition and "some Silbermann's"). Not only the number of stops from the two families is in "perfect equilibrium" but the correspondent loudness as well! Combining pipes and reeds is a real pleasure and never results in sounds that get too harsh after a few minutes of playing. On the contrary: the overall impression always remains very delicate even in the presence of multiple reed stops! To mention it separately: Especially the Vox Humana is exquisite!

To come to a conclusion here, I can really say that the San Giovanni Batista is an absolute gem in the world of organs, may that refer to the real or the virtual instrument respectively! Though small, the organ should be adequate for a very large part of classical european(!) organ literature, not restricting the user to the franco-iberian nor e.g. german tradition exclusively. It may be extremely useful to musicians - like I am - who love to play free improvisations on their instruments! Extending the limited possibilities of an ancient instrument by the advanced combination options and the stepper in contemporary Hauptwerk software provides an even greater pleasure, so that the potential for creativity is almost unlimited with San Giovanni Batista!

Kind regards

Klaus Stumkat
Berlin, Germany

Requirement

The sample set have 2 attacks in different sample, 8 loops for sample and 4 releases for sample . It require:

1) Software Hauptwerk licensed  version  4 (Milan Digital Audio). The sample set is tested with haptwerk Version 4.0.

2) 5300 MB about of Ram for load  the virtual Organ with 24 Bit Uncomperssed with all loops, all attack and all release.

3) Attention: the samples are protected and works only with hauptwerk licensed edition (Basic Edition or Advanced Edition) and required the update the dongle Hauptwerk.

 

 

Screenshots

 Console

 

 Combinations

 

Bellows

 

 

The Stop List

Manual

 Name

Stop

Principale 8' Principale
Ottava 4' Ottava
Decimaquinta XV
Decimanona XIX
Vigesimaseconda XXII
Vigesimasesta XXVI
Vigesimanona XXIX
Violini      (in the swell)

Violini

Trombette Soprane Trombette Soprane
Tromboncini Bassi Tromboncini Bassi
Voce Umana Voce Umana
Flauto in Duodecima Flauto Traverso
   

Pedal

Tromboni 8' Tromboni
Union Pedal to the manual (always) --
Blower
Blower Ventola

 

Demo Songs

The demo tracks were recorded with Hauptwerk 4  advanceded edition and the virtual organ San Giovanni Battista version 2 . . No additional effect processing have been added to the recording. The tail of release is the original of the samples. All traks were recorded with the original temperament of the organ with the exeption of tracks by J.S.Bach that were recorded with equal temperament..

  Pasquini Bernardo . Partita 2 Stop:

Principale + Voce Umana

 

  Adriano Banchieri -. Fantasia 4 Stop:

a) Principale + Ottava + XV + Voce Umana + Flauto Traverso + Violini + Tromboncini Bassi

b) Principale + Voce Umana

  Adriano Banchieri - Fantasia 5 Stop:

a) Principale + Ottava + XV

b) Principale + Voce Umana+ Violini

  Padre Davide da Bergano - Elevazione in Re Minore Stop:

a) Principale + Ottava + XV + XIX + XXII + XXVI + XXIX

b) Principale + Flauto Traverso

  Padre Davide da Bergano - Elevazione in FA Stop:

a) Principale + Ottava + XV + XIX + XXII + XXVI + XXIX  + Tromboni

b) Principale + Flauto Traverso

  Paradisi Pietro Domenico - Toccata Stop:

a) Principale + Ottava

b) Principale + Ottava + XV + XXII

  Pasquini Bernardo - Toccata con lo scherzo del Cu Ců Stop:

Principale + Ottava

 

  Zipoli Domenico - Elevazione I Stop:

Principale + Voce Umana

 

  Bach J. S. - Contrappunto 5 Stop:

Principale + Ottava + Trombette Soprane + Violini

 

  Bach J.S. - Corale Bwv 617 Stop:

Principale + Ottava + XV + Trombette Soprane

 

 Galuppi Baldassarre -  Sonata Op1 n*3 Stop:

Principale + Ottava + XV + Trombette Soprane

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures

 

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