will doctor who regenerate the organ?

06May07

Marketers say that people need to see or hear about something three times before they respond, for instance, by making a purchase. I think this may be a myth because it doesn’t work with my children: if I’ve told them once, I’ve them a thousand times…

But no matter. Here at the Knackered Hack we like looking for lost causes ready for a comeback, as part of our “curious study of broken things”. And it looks like the church organ is ripe for resurrection, on the basis of recent media coverage. There have been three independent sightings in mainstream popular culture in recent weeks. The church organ is about to go viral – you heard it here first.

Former foul-mouthed, feminist, sea-monster turned lovable middle-aged mum and national treasure, stand-up comedienne Jo Brand must have surprised a great many people this year when she opted to take up the organ (cue obligatory Carry On titter) as part of a BBC strand on mid-life instrument-learning called Play it Again. She later chose it as her luxury item on Desert Island Discs. These are the rare days when we celebrate the good value that is the UK’s TV licence fee.

It comes to light that Canadian indie rock band, Arcade Fire, has been using the church organ in their latest recordings (their second album Neon Bible was released in March). In a recent rocumentary, they lamented the fact that the organ was heard very little these days. Us oldies might regard their adoption as reflecting something of the pretentiousness of youth, but Talking Head David Byrne is a fan. So, suspending any independent judgement, I stand in awe. And any group of musicians to incorporate French horns is providing some service to the world!

To top it all off, yesterday’s episode of Dr Who saw the timelord, who we now discover is an accomplished organist, using the monstrous instrument to generate the appropriate sound frequency to annihilate his latest arch-enemy. As he said, if you spend your time hanging around with Beethoven, something is bound to rub off.

The organ is an instrument for complex times. Friends who play tell me that the most accomplished musicians are put through quite extraordinary cognitive challenges before they are declared fully qualified. For example, whereas reading at sight on most instruments is a matter of being able to play a single line of notes, the organist is expected to look at a full orchestral score, and produce an appropriate rendition of the multi-part work.

And of course there is the multiple keyboard requirement – 2 manual, one pedal – which extends the metaphor of patting the head, rubbing the stomach and chewing gum to untold dimensions.

But this separation of physical and mental functions as a training for more complex intellectual endeavours can’t be bad for us, surely. So much of the music of Bach and Mozart, for instance, is fractal in its construction, something that resonates with points made in my upcoming interview with The Black Swan author, Nassim Taleb. Taleb suggests that the variation of fractal forms, in contrast to Euclidean shapes, may be very good for us.

Anyone interested in taking up the instrument should rush to Howard Goodall’s website. Goodall’s first ever documentary series was called, lewdly enough, Howard Goodall’s Organ Works (1996). Apart from his TV work and composition, I noted recently his appointment as the government’s ambassador for promoting singing in schools. His TV series are not generally available on DVD so far, but Goodall will sell you a copy for legitimate educational purposes.

Donate and help me buy back my Fender ('About' tells you why)