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Fair Organs Should Play More Modern Music
By Peter Neilson

There are two points that might have been overlooked in this lengthy
discussion:

1) The organ is a target.  The purpose that youth have in proclaiming
their dislike of band-organ music is often to show you (or their
buddies) that they are superior to you.  They are younger, and -- they
feel -- ipso facto better.  Nothing that you like is anything that they
would like, except maybe your car.

2) The organ is a time machine.  Those who are fascinated by automatic
instruments and their music seem to enjoy the history and the engineering.
"It's an 88-channel paper tape computer!" exclaimed one newcomer upon
first seeing my player piano.

"When did they stop making scrolls for these," some people ask.  (My answer
is to glance at my wristwatch, and then say, "At five P.M. on Friday,
but they'll start right up again first thing Monday morning.")

I think the key to the preservation of our hobby (or profession, for
some lucky few) is to make the equipment and the music available, and
to understand that a great many people will have zero interest or less.
They are not our audience, at least not now.  After their grandparents
or parents have passed away, they may acquire a new-found interest in
old things. "My grandmother had one of those, but she threw it away."

The briefest glance at the Internet reveals a large interest in
history.  There are loads of people reading history, writing history,
re-writing history, and having bitter edit-wars on Wikipedia about
re-written history.  We rebuild and recreate history.  Some of us make
new history.

Peter Neilson


(Message sent Fri 1 Aug 2008, 10:52:47 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Fair, Modern, More, Music, Organs, Play, Should

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