Look at me, i took a 1957 strat and turned into a guitar hero controller. Call me luddite but that's just sad. And if you really care about technology, the organ is the real wonder.
What's especially sad is that pipe organs (not often from the 14th century, but still old and incredible ones) are being gutted daily to make way for digital music systems. It ends up being less expensive for churches, and frees up more seats for theaters where ranks of organ pipes take up a lot of prime space in the wings.
I'm all for digital music, I even make my own, but it's depressing to think that there isn't really a home for a dislocated organ unless you're an obsessive tinkerer with oodles of spare space on hand. Fortunately those tinkerers do exist in little pockets around the globe.
As the pipe organs replaced orchestras, the digital music system replaces the pipe organ. There will still be organ players, just as there are still orchestras. With modern electronic 'organs' allows a person to recreate even more complicated scores from a single console. In dragon pajamas, if that's your thing. e.g. http://youtu.be/f_5lYvdwgwg
We have a number of phenomenal pipe organs in Philadelphia, and I've been lucky enough to wander around behind the scenes of a couple of them. The various voices are represented by what are essentially one-note versions of the instruments they represent. Trumpets, flutes, oboes, and so forth, it was fascinating. It's very likely that the best of the best organs will remain for decades, if not centuries to come, but lesser examples of the art form will inevitably fall away as interest moves on to newer instruments and performance styles. As common as it is to lament the loss of music appreciation, music of all eras is seeing more authentic performance and attention now than perhaps ever, you just have to know where to look. I saw a 14 minute long Renaissance choir piece performed by an amazing group of chamber singers in Lawrence, Kansas earlier this year, it's probably been centuries since anyone has heard that piece, and likely never performed by singers as good as these.
If you want to see pipe organs stick around, don't just post about it online, be sure to go to where they play music on a large organ and look into who's helping keep it up.
Anyhow, the chipophone performances made me feel nostalgic, and now I'm listening to the Minibosses Megaman 2 Medley, louder than I should be. Good post
