On Saturday, 18 January 2020, thirty members and friends of the Salt Lake Chapter of the AGO (SLCAGO) met at the home of Dr. Clay Christiansen to learn about Virtual Organs. Dr. Christiansen has a very nice virtual organ installed in his home, the Christiansen III-109 Home Virtual Organ by R. M. Ballantyne Organs, Opus 33. The spec sheet is below.
The event opened with Dr. Christiansen performing a brief recital on the organ. He played his own composition, Suite, described as follows:
The Suite is dedicated to Diane on the occasion of our 50th Wedding Anniversary on 12 July 2018. It opens with a Tribute in the form of a trumpet fanfare. The playful Fugue mimics children at play, while A Mother’s Lullaby is sung while her babe is gently rocked to sleep. The mischievously frolicking Scherzetto brings us back to energetic children while the final Exaltation reflects the sublime joy brought by a devoted wife and mother to her husband and family. The Suite is published by MorningStar Music Publishers.
–Dr. Clay Christiansen
Following his recital, Charles Raasch, the engineer on this organ project, spoke to the group on the topic of virtual organs: the sampling process, software packages, configuration options, basic setup, and advanced setup. And there were questions a-plenty!
Charles Raasch is an electrical engineer by trade, and in addition to a passion for playing organ music, is involved in developing hardware and software for digital organs, having built several himself. He has sampled many pipe organs that are sold worldwide on the Hauptwerk software platform, which was the basis of this organ installation. He is employed as an electrical engineer at Spireon in Irvine and is Past Dean of the Orange County AGO chapter. His presentation deck, which includes a great deal of background information, is attached below:
Following Charlie’s presentation, attendees were offered the chance to play the organ, “open console” style. About a dozen attendees played a variety of selections, each enjoying having Clay as their own personal registration assistant! “I’ve never sounded so good!” exclaimed several attendees. It was a good lesson in the principle that excellent registration choices can transform even the simplest of arrangements into pure magic. While each played, the rest of the attendees enjoyed chatting about organ playing over treats of cookies and grapes.
The SLCAGO Board wishes to thank Dr. Christiansen and Mr. Raasch for donating their time and talent to make this event such an interesting success!