Bach, the Hook organ and the sounds like ‘heaven’ at Mechanics Hall

Mechanics Hall in Worcester is home to the famed Hook Organ, also known as the Worcester Organ. And GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath sat down with Mechanics Hall principal organist Peter Krasinski, there to learn the history of the instrument and the hall.

We recommend listening to this interview to hear the organ’s music and get the full effect. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: This is amazing. It’s my first time actually in Mechanics Hall, believe it or not, and to sit here with you at this... what a beautiful machine this is, and it really is a machine.

Peter Krasinski: It is indeed a machine. One of the things that makes it difficult as a musician on the organ is to make it sound musical — because it is so much of a machine. And one has to put your own musical self into the instrument.

This instrument is particularly special because it’s pretty much exactly as it would have been in 1864. It went through a period of some degradation and change, but then in 1982, the Noack Organ Company brought it back to life as it probably originally was, including all the original pipes and things. So it’s quite special.

Rath: I want to talk more about the history, but just sitting here as an audio space, talk about this organ: the hook organ. What is special about it? Or do you talk about it also in conjunction with the space that it’s in?

Krasinski: Sure, the acoustics here are of course renowned. They’re lovely — and even Yo-Yo Ma loves to record here. So that’s a well-known fact. And of course this organ speaks into that acoustics, which makes it particularly special.

What’s great about this organ is: It’s got four keyboards called manuals, and also a pedal board. So it’s basically five organs that can be tied together. And if you want I can show you a little bit about the sounds on each of these sections.

There’s a solo section. And it has this beautiful flute-like sound called philharmonia. That’s one of the keyboards.

On top of that same keyboard is a thing called a tuba. And that’s basically called the solo division. So it has all sorts of different colors. You’ll notice that I’m pulling out a stop — or pushing it in — and that’s allowing that particular row of pipes to play. So when all the stops are in, nothing works. But then when they’re out, I can have stuff happen. And you can even have the wind feel a little starved. It’s kind of fun, for an effect, you can have the wind come on. Pulling them out slowly and pushing them in.

Then there’s a swell division. It’s called that because — if you’ll see my right foot is on what looks like a gas pedal and that’s in a box. I can play, but also open and close the box. And that makes a difference in volume.

Then there’s the choir, which is the most demure of the keyboards. That’s on the bottom. It has a particularly beautiful reed stock called the clarinet. So here’s our clarinet, a little familiar piece, “Cat’s Fugue,” that Bach had nothing to do with.

And then finally: The great division, which is called that because it is great. And in fact, I can even play the center pipe in this case is right there.

And this comes into the whole thing about instruments like organs trying to imitate an orchestra. People say, is it a keyboard instrument? Is it a percussion instrument, a wind instrument, a string instrument? Well, it’s really an ensemble instrument. It has many different sounds that all come together to create a bigger, better world in a way.

Rath: I always assume that those big bass pipes, you’re playing those with your feet, but you can play those on a keyboard.

Krasinski: You can. This is a 16-foot — meaning that it’s 16 feet long on the lowest C. And what’s fun about an organ is you actually have these different numbers. There’s a 16, 8, 4, 2-and-two-thirds and 2-foot. So right now we have one, two, three, four, five, six pipes playing with just one finger.

So if I were to play a big chord... you have that effect.

And then you also have mixtures which add upper partials.

And on this fabulous array of re-pipes — a 16, 8 and 4-foot trumpet.

And finally, as you said, the big pipes in the pedal go down to 16 feet, and we have a very aggressive trombone sound here. You don’t want to be caught in an alley alone with that. 

Courtesy of Arun Rath GBH News

Rath: So, when you’re playing Bach with all these different choices, how much of that comes into play? Are you making individual choices? I’m assuming Bach doesn’t tell you what to do.

Krasinski: Well, it’s intriguing because there are definitely agreements as to what Bach would have used. One of them is called the chorus, which basically takes a few stops and chooses them to play, particularly, his preludes and fugues.

And that’s what’s fun about this big organ. I have the same sort of chorus in four different places. I can do that on this keyboard.

So I’m able to make echo effects... between manuals.

Rath: It sounds off stage.

Krasinski: Almost off stage, because it’s way up high.

And then there’s yet another keyboard on the bottom. And what I enjoy doing on an instrument that is this big — and I kind of think Bach would probably have enjoyed it, too — is playing numbers of sections of the piece on different parts of the organ.

So the person who’s listening can say, “Oh, I can hear that” — but it will now hear in another way.

So if you were to start a piece such as the little Toccata and Fugue in D Minor near the end. There’s this wonderful section — which is pretty show-offy, to be quite honest — which I don’t mind doing at all.

Here’s one of them, it’s the great.

Then I could go to this other manual.

Then finally...

And then the pedal all by itself.

Then pull out more stops and get more dramatic.

And then I can start even coupling keyboards together.

And suddenly a machine becomes a musical — because people love the idea of conversation, right? We all like being able to talk to someone else, get a response. And that’s exactly what’s happening in great music, isn’t it? Something is being said with a question maybe, and then an answer comes in.

And on a pipe organ — this one, particularly — you have five different organs that can talk to each other with one person being basically the script writer. And that person being Johann Sebastian Bach, in this case.

Rath: You are central to “The Complete Bach” project because the organ is pretty central to Johann Sebastian Bach. You have got a long relationship with Bach. Talk about how it feels to be part of this.

Krasinski: Well, it’s very exciting. I was actually born on March 21, which was officially sort of Bach’s birthday, and so I’ve always had a relationship, in a way, with him.

In fact, when I was a teenager, I got this letter once, “from Bach.” And my three very talented sisters who were very good artists — and, of course, it was in English, I didn’t question that at the time. But it was this very real burn at the edges, like it had been through hell. And it was saying how much it enjoyed hearing me practicing and that I should continue to practice.

And so Bach has always been a part of my life. And I think the thing that makes me so happy about good music, especially the music of Bach, is that it can be played so many different ways. In so many different, various ways. We had The Swingle Singers. We have people like Stokowski, the conductor, taking the organ pieces and turning them into orchestral pieces.

And you mentioned the concert last year — I had the great pleasure of actually having Stokowski conduct me. We got “Fantasia” up, with him conducting Fantasia, and then I followed him as best I could on the organ the way he would have orchestrated it.

And so there’s always room — in all music-making, in all, I think, human endeavor — to see where there is something different and new that still respects the original. I think that’s important, too. You have to remember that there is the original, and it was made by someone who worked really hard to try to say something. And you try to do something to bring that person back to life.

That’s what’s cool, also, about written music. It’s dead until it’s played. When it’s played to a number of people live, that’s also exciting. And that’s what we’re looking forward to with “The Complete Bach” is having all these performances — not just organ music, but all this great music done live — so people can really feel that human touch that music is. 

Rath: Chris Shepard [artistic director of The Complete Bach] said it really is kind of like an ecumenical sort of approach to Bach. If the question is, are you doing period instruments or modern? The answer was: “Yes.”

Krasinski: That’s right, exactly.

I mean, this instrument really was designed to play many different types of music. Back in the 1800s, a city hall would often be very proud owners — very often in Great Britain — because they actually couldn’t afford an orchestra. And a town wanted to hear the Beethoven symphonies, but you can’t do them if you can’t afford an orchestra. But if your city hall has an organ, maybe the organist could actually play that music.

So this is an instrument that is from that time period that said — not just organ music, but orchestral music transcriptions were also a big favorite of this time period. And what’s wonderful is we have this original example here to be able to see how would that have worked here. And again, it’s about freedom, but also respect.

Rath: Let’s talk about the space here in Mechanics Hall. This is actually the first time I’ve been in here, and I was honestly overwhelmed. I get that kind of like thing where I feel dizzy in spaces like this. Between the beauty of the space and the acoustics, what’s it like to play in here with an audience?

Krasinski: Heaven. Because there’s a communication that happens. I always like to say that conductors and organists are the most rude musicians because they always turn their backs on their audience. And it’s sort of a necessity because you have to face the organ to play it.

However, there is a sort of magic that happens when someone else is listening. In fact, just having you here — there are very few of us in this room, but still, I feel a connection. And that connection is human, and therefore it makes music a very powerful force for good, I think.

This is a room in which many good things have happened. If you look around this room, you will see portraits of incredible people, including Sojourner Truth, and all these incredible people that are now being respected as they should be in history. Many of these people were here and spoke in this space.

I’m not much of a “spooky, spooky” kind of person, but I definitely feel the impact of knowing that these people were here to speak. This is a place of really sacredness, almost a civic sacredness.

Rath: You can really feel it. Let’s talk a little bit more about the organ. The 19th century was an amazing time for organs, right? And tell the Hooke brothers, they’re a great Boston story, aren’t they?

Krasinski: They are a great Boston story. In fact, they’re a really great story in a little bit about the United States.

Boston was a big city, and when it wanted an organ — it was really the first concert hall organ in the United States — in a building at the time called the Boston Music Hall. When this hall was built, it wasn’t initially built as a musical venue. It was originally built as a place to have speeches and listen to lectures and things like that. But the people in the association said, we need an instrument here, and we’re going to be a little different. Because Boston had hired a German organ company, thinking, well, it must be good because it’s from Germany. So we’ll bring it from far away. An expert is someone from out of town.

My organ teacher used to say, “Keep your name Krasinski, but say you’re from Poland, and you’ll get work here.”

Rath: There’s a certain insecurity in American music at that time, would you say?

Krasinski: Absolutely, they weren’t quite sure about their footing. But the beautiful thing about Worcester was it said, “You know what, we’re going to hire Americans. We’re going to hire people that are in our own state to create an instrument for our room.”

The Hooke brothers were already doing great work, and they were able to produce this instrument for this space. The dates for that — the building is 1857 and, again, I get very personal, I was born in 1957. So I kind of like these coincidences. But the organ was originally 1864. So, yes, it came after the Boston organ, but it has a pride of place because it is all as originally built and restored that way. And it speaks into the same room that it’s been in its whole life. And so those are really big check marks in terms of historical realities.

Rath: Tell us about the program, because it’s more than Bach. We get to see more sides of you.

Krasinski: Well, it’s always fun to be told, “Pretty much do what you want.” Which is also dangerous sometimes. But I’ve been very happy with Chris Sheppard and his trust with me in being able to develop these programs.

The idea this time around is: is it Bach? Question mark? Because there’s a lot of pieces that we know that most people would say, “Oh yes, that’s by Bach.”

For instance, there’s this beautiful piece, Bistu by Meir. Let me give you a nice rendition of that just a bit...

Well, we found out later that that wasn’t by Bach. It was in a book for study for his family. And so for many, many years, people thought, “Well, it’s in Bach’s house, so it must be him.” But it’s actually composed by someone else. And we’re gonna be exploring that, in terms of pieces of music that weren’t necessarily by Bach, but may have inspired Bach.

We’re going to be hearing a little bit of the Italian concerto in A minor. And that, of course, is by Vivaldi. But Bach loved Vivaldi, and he said, “I want to play it.” People say, “Oh, well, orchestral transcriptions” — they kind of look down on that as maybe being something an organist shouldn’t do. Well, Bach did it. He took Vivaldi’s music, and he said, “This is great music, and I want to be able to play myself,” and published it. So that’s another example of something that isn’t Bach, but is Bach.

Rath: I guess an example of like — there was a genius as an arranger, right?

Krasinski: Bach learned all of his work, as a young man, being a copyist. So he was copying down many different people’s compositions, and that’s how he discovered all this music.

Rath: Just while we’re on the topic, I got to ask, we’re talking about whether it was Bach or not Bach. And the Toccata and Fugue, the one that was in Fantasia with Stokowski, I’ve heard back and forth over the years. Is that Bach or no?

Krasinski: There’s no autograph copy. In other words, there’s no: “This was written by Bach [in his own hand].” It’s a copy by someone else.

There are some that have proven quite convincingly that it was maybe a violin piece first. And they actually play through the whole thing. And I also happen to be a violinist, and I’m never gonna try it because it looks way too hard for me to do. But hats off to those people that have said, “You know, there’s talk that this might’ve been a violin piece.” And they play the whole thing through — the Toccata and the Fugue, and it’s very convincing as a piece that way, too.

Again, Bach is great. When the music is good, you could play it on a kazoo and it would probably be pretty good.