Just For Fun and a Little More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mike Dunn posted an amazing video of a singer arguably reaching the lowest known notes recorded buy a human. It sounds very much like the lowest note capable of being played on the grand organ at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. The organ has over 7,000 pipes; one is about the size of a human pinkie finger, and produces a note over 5,000 Hz.. Many people can not hear it, but most dogs in the neighborhood can hear it just fine. The largest pipe is 8 inches in diameter and 32 feet tall. At 16 Hz, the human ear can detect the individual oscillations and the sound is more like a motorcycle driving through a tunnel rather than a note; thus the comment from Mike’s page, “it sounds more like a burp.†I doubt that either note is used in regular musical presentations.

In the earlier years of Biodesign, several classes visited the Army Corps of Engineer’s “Bay Model†in Sausalito, walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, and several points of interest, including Grace Cathedral. Albert Einstein is featured in one of the clerestory stained-glass windows and I had a friend (John Fenstermaker) who gave the students a demonstration of the grand organ. We were not there for “religious†reasons but to explore the spiritual capacity of man which includes science, music, art, architecture and so much more. The cathedral features replicas of the massive bronze “Gates of Paradise,†of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Renaissance masterpiece in Florence Italy.

 Fenstermaker demonstrated how Johann Bach wrote music that would leave the organ, travel down the cathedral and reverberate back. Music lovers who appreciate what he did, can sit in the center of the cathedral and experience waves and waves of music washing over them. It does not need a name, but many students experienced something that was not explainable in human terms. Fenstermaker ended with a version of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue†which blew all the cobwebs out of the cathedral as well as most of our minds.

The students were right next to a world-class concert organ-master and watching him work was extraordinary. He used all five keyboards as well as the foot pedals. Fingers flew up and down and he mastered the pedals with the heel and toe of each foot. This meant that he not only commanded ten fingers, but two heels and toes which meant that at every moment he was in command of an astonishing,  FOURTEEN variables.

 

For those who have read BOFAW, Chip Detro was in one of the lucky classes that got to tour Grace. It is near the top of Nob Hill and we decided to go top China Town for dinner. The street down to China Town is perilously steep, especially for someone in a wheel chair. Chip left his motorized chair home and was therefore at the mercy of his classmates. He described the descent down Nob Hill as the scariest thing he had ever done. We laughed all the way down as he kept shouting, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Don’t let go of me!†Little wonder, as he only had use of his right forearm, thumb and index finger.

In a wonderful synchronicity, I located this U-Tube video of Bach’s Toccata. It gives me goose bumps to listen and watch the video-graphic notes. Musicians may be able to watch the organist’s left hand (upper) right hand (middle) and bass notes (lower) played with heels and toes. I think the different keyboards are also color coded. Simply amazing!