Notre Dame Cathedral

Steamhead

Jean-David Beyer said:

Most tracker action organs did not have a valve for every pipe; they had a valve for every note on each organ. But the stops were selected by operating sliders in slider wind chests. I do not imagine electro-pneumatic action (such as used by Robert Hope-Jones) was any different in this respect. Although anything is possible.

Tuba is easy enough to pick up after a fashion, but is a bear to play beautifully.

If you think that is hard, consider playing the toy piano beautifully. A friend of mine does this (she also plays the adult piano). I believe she is the first person to play one in Carnegie Hall.

Here, she plays two toy pianos at once: one with each hand.
Can your kid play that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKrV50a01s

Here is a more familiar work, played on just one toy piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMXVlJoHUSw

Calling Schroeder!

lager

I Pray they can rebuild, what an awful fire

St Mary's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, is located in Covington Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati OH
The Sanctuary design was based on a smaller scale version of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, I have toured it several times, it to is beautiful.

And 1 way to get there from Cincinnati is to cross the Roebling Suspension bridge, which is a smaller version of the Brooklyn Bridge.

I purchased a former Church Building in 2010, to turn it into a residence. It was built starting in 1859 finished 1865.
It is not that big, but changed ownership and congregations, and of course there was a war going on.
It was originally a Lutheran Church, and there was a lot of turmoil and disagreements in town over the Civil war and congregations were dividing.
That and the patrons also argued over whether the services should be in English or traditional German.
The building still houses the pipe organ installed in 1912, the hand pump bellows is still there, although they added an electric blower at some point and weighted down the bellows with bricks. I have a recently deceased Uncle, whose job on Sunday mornings was to access the area behind the Organ and pump the bellows on command.
You should see the motor on that blower, I know people who drive cars that are smaller.
The knobs on the organ are in German
My Mother and Father were married in this Church and my older brother was baptized there, I missed being baptized in it by mere months.
After I purchased the building (I never knew these, existed prior to)
I found documents in my parents closet, rolled up in boxes, old certificates of births, baptisms, confirmations & deaths, of family members from the late 1800's earlier 1900's
Some of them signed by a Reverend whom they dedicated one of the stained glass windows to, he was there in the late 1880's
and was the last Pastor to do services in both English and German.

Steamhead

Does the pipe organ still work?

Does the building have radiators (gotta stay on topic, you know)?

foresthillsjd

@Steamhead, I played oboe through college, but when I was in high school, there was a band requirement that you had to attend three concerts per quarter and write a report. We lived in a college town with a decent musical department, so there was no shortage of free concerts. But I always procrastinated, and it always happened that the last three concerts of the quarter were during the university's “Octubafest.” I have attended more tuba concerts than 99.9% of the population, but I really grew to enjoy them!

This isn’t from any of those concerts, but here is one of my favorite YouTube tuba (“YouTuba”, if you will ) clips:
<a href=“https://youtu.be/_OO7sityUwE”>https://youtu.be/_OO7sityUwE&lt;/a&gt;

Steamhead

Inspired by Mnozil Brass, no doubt. But Canadian Brass is as good as it gets.

You might want to check to see if there is a TubaChristmas near you- those are always lots of fun.

Dave in QCA

Here is one of my favorites! It was composed by Louis Vierne, the organist at Notre Dame from 1900 to 1937. He died while playing the organ at Notre Dame. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7XPjRq3q6c

Steamhead

Excellent performance!

And I can't think of a better way to check out than while you're doing something you love................

lager

Steamhead, the organ was working when I purchased the building, at least it made sound. It more than likely had not be serviced or tuned in many years.
Sadly, no radiators.
From capped chimneys in several locations I would guess they started with stoves, there is an old coal bin, that I exposed, had been framed in and drywalled, newly exposed stone foundation still has chunks of coal wedged in.
Forced air was added at some point
My plan in the future is to add boilers & a mix of radiant & fintube

Steamhead

Pics!

Erin Holohan Haskell

The French government is holding a design competition to rebuild the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Here are some of the most unique ideas: https://www.fastcompany.com/90347839/the-race-to-redesign-notre-dame-is-heating-up-here-are-6-of-the-wildest-ideas

Sal Santamaura

Erin Holohan Haskell said:

The French government is holding a design competition to rebuild the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Here are some of the most unique ideas...

That whir you hear is the sound of dead men (those who designed and built the cathedral) spinning in their graves.

The only "modernization" potentially necessary is finding a way around lack of suitable old growth timber for the roof assembly. In my humble opinion.

DanHolohan

I can just imagine what more light would bring to Notre Dame. Consider Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It's beyond spectacular.

The Steam Whisperer

I'd say the idea of more light into the space fits right into the original concept of gothic architecture. The gothic structural system allowed for walls to essentially disappear, replaced with walls of glass. I strongly suspect that if the gothic builders had the technology to build a roof of glass, like the walls of glass that were built,they probably would of done it. As an interesting aside, I understand that the stone columns in Gothic Cathedrals are under so much compression that the stone rings when rapped. IMHO, Gothic architecture is essentially a forerunner of the modern steel skeleton building that has nearly completely open walls. Besides Notre Dame wasn't just built, but it evolved over the very long period from start to finish, so I'm pretty sure there were many changes made along the way as building technology advanced. A truly great architect or builder knows how to respect the current design and build upon the older technology with the best tools we have today.

John Mills_5

Dave, I love that Vierne piece too. Heard about his death, way to go!

Jamie Hall

John Mills_5 said:

Dave, I love that Vierne piece too. Heard about his death, way to go!

Me too. And I've played it... decades ago, Senior (college) recital at Carleton College in Minnesota.

On the old growth timber which was mentioned. Quite true -- but well designed an engineered glulam is pretty wonderful stuff. Will it last 800 years? Probably not -- but it's pretty durn good.

Dave in QCA

@Jamie Hall I am duly impressed. I took lessons a couple different times in my life for about a year each time. My instructor, a PhD of organ could play it like a breeze. I had trouble even following along to turn his pages.