The 4th manual

Yesterday my table from IKEA and Viscount organ bench from Thomann arrived and I started it assembling it for our Hauptwerk setup. At first I dismembered the 3 keyboards and Jaspers keyboard stand as well as the computer monitor with some wiring for the speakers. I was tired of this semi-vertical setup and therefore wanted more proper manual dimensions. Hence I needed the table.

Probably the bench was easier to assemble than the table but in the end they both were put into place. I knew it was just temporary but I wanted to see how the keyboards would look on the table so I used DVD cases to put under the upper manuals. I felt quite tired afterwards so I decided to call it a day and continue the work with keyboards in the morning.

The morning started with me clearing the table and looking for some old thick books to support the upper manuals. We also had unused black-and-white Pinky and Spiky comic books which worked well for this purpose. Parts of Jaspers music sand went into the new setup too.

One by one I plugged in the keyboards and called Ausra to test the distances. She said it was better than before. I thought I would not do this today but I decided to set up the 4th Nektar keyboard which I had secretly bought the day before. Why wait...

I wanted to surprise Ausra and didn't tell her about it when I called to play a duet of Bach's Mein gläubiges Herze with me. Only when I asked her which manuals will she want to use did she notice the change from 3 manuals to 4... Her reaction is best described in this comic I drew afterwards:

So anyway, our 4 manual Hauptwerk setup is still not perfect - the music stand is too far away now that it has to lean against the table and not against the upper keyboard as before. To fix this I looked up on Amazon and ordered table music stand which should arrive next Monday.

Later in the afternoon I practiced my upcoming recital program (Bach, Widor and Lefebure-Wely) and wasn't sure I could comfortably play it before I get the new music stand. This change from Jaspers music stand to the table setup plus the 4th keyboard requires some major mental rewiring in the brain.

It's really like a new organ and takes time to get used to. No rush. Oh and by the way, Ausra said the same thing when she finally tried the 4 manual Hauptwerk herself. She said she will not perform on it until the new music stand arrives and she recommended I'd do the same.

The good news is we finally got our old organ bench where it belongs - next to our pipe practice organ. Maybe we can start playing on it again.