Parlor Organs

It's after midnight and I'm waiting to get tired enough to be able to fall asleep so I could wake up early tomorrow and go to the Community Legal Service in EPA where I'll be volunteering. Maybe I shouldn't be stimulating myself if I want to go to sleep, but whatever. I'll write something here anyway. I decided to do something different and write something recreational instead of ideological. After all, my ideology is all about amusement.

I've been recovering from my weekend galavant in SD, where I spent time with three of the people I love most. Out of random curiosity this afternoon I looked up "parlor organ" on youtube (my great uncle wrote about memories of Aunt Cese playing a parlor organ) and came across numerous videos of people playing their parlor organs, most often called reed organs, harmoniums, and pump organs. They're kinda like big harmonicas with keyboards and bellows that you have to pump with your feet, and at first glance they look just like upright pianos. They're not as versatile as electronic organs, but this might be the thing that attracts me to them. Reed organists seem to respect the instrument. They know its limitations, and they know what it can do, and so they play music that is most fit for that instrument. And it's music that I like. Toned-down, somber music which, if ever uplifting, is so only with a ray of hope. Old hymns and chorals are popular. Silly things could be played on them too, and that's okay. My favorite three so far are here, here, and here. My favorite version of "Abide With Me" is here. What's very difficult to do with a reed organ is play that blasphemous roar that cathedral organists seem to find aurally pleasing. That stuff that's like Liszt with all the pointless broken chords and pointless runs. And that noise in the cathedrals never sounds full and rich anyway. It sounds like a series of belches interspersed with drawn out trills. Reed organ music, on the other hand, is humble, rich, and comforting. It is music I would want to hear while on mushrooms. It sounds like a thick blanket around your shoulders, flickers of a silent horror film, and kisses from a cuddle buddy.

It has been speculated that the reed organ declined in popularity partly due to a lack of original composition for it. Though there may have been a lack of original composition for the instrument, it can't be said that the instrument has no niche. Any day-long browse on youtube can show that the reed organ is fit for a particular kind of music, that those who enjoy playing the instrument know what this kind of music is, and that this kind of music can be relished.