Piano or Organ?

Gina0887 · March 2014

I'm walking down the aisle to the traditional (not recording) Canon in D, but I can't decide organ or piano. What did you do?

Maggie0829 · March 2014

I always prefer a piano over an organ unless you want that huge, over the top entrance that an organ can give you.

A piano, to me, sounds more romantic.

RedJacks25 · March 2014

I'm partial to organs only because FI had an organist playing our song leading up to when he proposed to me, but I think I do like a piano more for a ceremony.

mlg78 · March 2014

I prefer piano but I'd be more concerned about acoustics in the church and if the piano would be loud enough.

doeydo · March 2014

Personally, I prefer the sound of the piano.

AddieCake · March 2014

I prefer piano.

Jen4948 · March 2014

I prefer piano also.

CMGragain · March 2014

I am a retired pianist/organist. The Canon in D is best played on an instrument where the different parts can be most easily contrasted. This would be the organ, for which the piece was originally written. The original bass line is carried throughout the piece on the foot pedals while the organist plays the variations with his/her hands, constantly changing the registers for different sound effects.
The piano did not exist in Bach's time. The transcriptions for the piano cannot include all the parts, unless you have two performers playing together, and there can be no variation in tone color at all, unlike the organ which can have different settings on the various keyboards.

[Deleted User] · March 2014

I had it done on the organ. But the church I got married in had a very large pipe organ and we were very fortunate to find an organist who really knew who to play the pipe organ and use all the features of it so it sounded amazing. The pipe organ is one of the big reasons I picked the church we got married in and I wanted to utilize it. If you go on youtube & search "Canon in D" you'll be able to find both piano and organ to listen to and deside which one you like best. With the organ a lot depends on the type of organ the church has and how good the organist is. If your organist is comfortable using all the features on the organ to get the full effects then I would say go with the piano because then you won't miss some of the finer details of the song.

Marzipan13 · March 2014

I vote organ, for the same reasons @CMGragain mentioned (I was a music major, I'm all about this stuff :P )

I would set up a meeting with your church's organist - have them play it for you on both instruments while you sit in the pews or take a walk down the aisle. You'll get a better idea of how it sounds on organ vs. piano, and how it sounds in the space of your church as well. Rather than guesswork, why not take the piece for a test run?

Piano or Organ?

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