If it were used for equine sporting events, would
it be called MARCO Polo? |
In
1969, the year I graduated from Westminster Choir College, the first
men traveled to the Moon, using earthbound computers costing millions
of dollars to help them plot their course. And, in the Lunar Excursion
Module (LEM) was a MARCO 4418 (for Man Rated Computer). The computer measured
5.0 by 8.0 by 23.75 inches, weighed 32.7 pounds, and consumed 90 watts
of power. It had 4Kb of memory, only 2KB of which was user-programmable. |
| In
the early 70s I was visiting with a programmer friend in New York
City, and he asked if I had ever thought of making electronic organs .
. .the word on the street was that Rockwell International had a bang-up
new chipset which allowed for digital sound reproduction. Turns
out they were ready to license it to anyone who asked . . . I didn't.
Too bad . . . Cause if I had, we all might be spelling the name of a certain
digital organ a little differently today. . . |
The Osborne 1 |
In
1982, I purchased my first computer, an Osborne 1. It was a "portable"
computer weighing in at a cool 24.5 pounds. It had 64Kb of programmable
memory, two 128Kb floppy disk drives (no hard drive), and a built-in
monochromatic 5" monitor. It cost me $1,795.00, and when I powered
it up one day in July 2005, it still worked. Think how much easier trip
to the moon would have been with one of these on board. But then, think
of the extension cord... |
In
early 2005, I bought a new office computer. It has 1 Gb of programmable
memory, 256k of cache memory, two 1.2Gb hard disk drives, and two 19"
color monitors. And a 24-bit sound card powering a 5.1 Home Theatre
speaker system that allows me to reproduce the sound of a symphony orchestra.
Or of an organ. It cost me a little over $2,000.00 . . .
And
no, that isn't my office pictured. It is not now and never will
be, world without end amen, that neat . . . but it is just as
fuzzy at times . . . |
 |
 In
late April of 2006 I was pleased to have attended a recital in Rotterdam
by the Dutch organist Arjen Leistra. Included on the programme was the
World Premiere performance of "Variations on Est-ce Mars", which I had
written for Arjen. We then spent almost two weeks travelling around the
Netherlands hearing the magnificent old organs. My very long-time friend
and colleague Guy Henderson, and another friend from France, Steve Viger,
travelled with Arjen and I, Johan Stolk, and various of Arjen's organ
students. 
On the last day of our visit, Arjen. Guy, and I drove to Ede, and visited
the impressive facilities of Johannus Orgelbouw. We were met by Gert Stoffer,
and he gave us a tour. We were ushered into the great Concert Hall, where
in the back balcony resided the two-manual "Bach" organ, and in the front
presided the impressive four-manual concert organ.
We put both those organs through their paces, and were most pleased and impressed with the sound. We walked out into the corridor to
look for Gert, and there, in the hallway, stood an absolutely gorgeous one manual Portatif, with six stops. We turned it on
and started to pley. Anhour later, Gert came out of his office to find us still playing this wondrous little organ. In fact, we were so busy playing this organ, that I forgot to take pictures of it!
 It
had an intimate, articulate sound which was simply captivating. We had
held note after note, some for as long as 3 minutes, trying to find the
'loop point' - that place where the audio sample looped back on itself
- and had found the transition so skillfully done that we could not hear
it. (And remember that Guy and I, as tonal finishers, have between us
more than 50 years experience in listening carefully for sound patterns.)
Wow! What an experience.
|
