Dear Patrick and List -

There is indeed much room for this subject to be developed as a term paper.
Certainly it has been suggested here that one treatment would be the organ
as an instrument of the orchestra. Though Mahler is one of the first that
comes to my mind and though he is on the cusp of the 20th century, he
probably was not the first to use the organ as an orchestral instrument and
I think any paper would want to research the antecedents of this practice.
Remember that Verdi used organ in one of his operas. Respeghi also used
organ in this respect - there is no shortage of examples. More interesting
might be an exploration of WHY composers felt the need for organ especially
when so many concert venues were lacking organs.

Another subject for exploration might be reverse orchestrations - composers
who transcribed their own organ compositions i.e. Concertos arranged as solo
works (Guilmant). Copland re-arranged his organ concerto to become his
Symphony #1 is another example that comes to mind.

A completely different approach might be an exploration of the "Symphonic
Organ." It is a legitimate school of organ design. How did it come about?
What might be its signature characteristic? How does it relate to modern
organ design specifications? And what about all those composers who arranged
symphonic works for the organ? It wouldn't have happened without a market
(performers and audiences). How did that demand come about?

Term paper? This could be a doctoral thesis!

Good Luck!

Jon in Aspen

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  GET LSVCMMDS.TXT  or see  the  web
page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::