In creating the music and sound design aspects for my audio paper, I decided that recording a real church organ was imperative in informing the meaning of the text. Thankfully, I have access to my local church and the key for its organ due to my employment history. During quarantine, I spent a lot of time playing the organ there alone, and in light of this project, I thought it should return to it.
St. Michael the Archangel, in Penhurst, East Sussex was built in 1390, far before the period of history that I focus on. That fact, combined with its rural isolation makes it less connected to active colonisation. I think in my text I will frame it as more of a precursor, part of the culture of the church; a staging ground.
In the church, long reverb tails are created from the organ positioned at the back. Alongside the organ, I recorded room tones in the space, to accompany the narration. I had considered for a long time recording the narration itself in the church, to further situate the audio paper within the culture of its making. However, due to transport concerns and being able to closely monitor recording, I settled on constructing it. Rendering the appearance of speaking in the church instead. The building is not solely mine, people are free to enter and pray, I did not want to dominate the space. Ontologically, also, I felt uneasy about reciting a diatribe about the cruelties of the church in a church. Less for any kind of religious reasoning, but more to avoid a sneering, puerile shock value quality. To do that alone would feel uncomfortable and weird.
Unlike the organs I discuss in the audio paper, Penhurst’s is electric. But with the diffusion of a few speakers, the emulation of pipes is very convincing. Listening to the recordings, I am reminded how it’s an instrument that is almost impossible to replicate through a sound file or physical media. It should primarily be experienced within the spaces they occupy. This brings me to the theoretical studies of Paul C. Jasen’s 2016 book, Low End Theory: Bass, Bodies and the Materiality of Sonic Experience.
In the book, there is a distinctly pertinent section referring to the church organ and its frequencies in manipulating sacred sonic space. He writes about listener perceptions of the organ, how it ‘would have also confronted non-participants and non-believers – those not in the church but in its proximity, permeated by modulations – with a striking, perceptual encounter combined with the promise/threat of something altogether more transformative ‘inside’.’ I believe this will prove useful in critically examining the organ’s affect when situated within the church, how that affects the community surrounding it. The symbiotic relationship between the organ, the church and the requirement of people to bodily experience it.
I used the Zoom H1n to record the organ, piano and room tones in the church. Previous experiences with recording this particular organ proved frustrating; I had used an AKG C451b, but the microphone placement became critical to the quality of sound. In the case of this project, extended time spent reworking inadequate recordings, especially when I am recording on-site with limited time, I saw fit to use the simpler Zoom to capture the larger picture.
I also created a number of recordings using the church piano. Unrelated to my organ thesis, yet closely related to the history of worship song, I felt it fitting to record this instrument as I was adopting the entire building and everything it contained as an instrument, in a sense.
Bibliography:
Jasen, P. C. (2016) Low End Theory: Bass, Bodies and the Materiality of Sonic Experience. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.