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Last Thursday I saw the Halle Orchestra play in concert, they did the overture to Tannhauser, Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3 and rahms 1, and it was a lovely concert.

However they got a strange effect on the last chord of the Wagner. It sounded like the organ in the Bridgewater Hall joined in. Which it didn't, because there was no one playing it. I have heard this effect before, most notably on a recording of the Eikanger Bjoersvik Brass Band, playing the love theme from Superman. It was most definitively not planned on that occasion, and the players didn't realise until they heard the recording. Similarly, the Halle members I spoke to didn't realise either.

I presume it has to do with balance/intonation etc etc, but does anyone really know what causes this effect? And is there anyone who knows how to gnerate this on purpose?

Ola

Well, the overture does have quite a lot of E major chords in it so it is most likely not that even though it could otherwise have been a plausible theory.

Sounds to me like something is playing the 5th of the chord in a lower octave to set up difference tones. This was a favorite technique as far back as Gabrielli. After everyone hitting the final chord, one person would drop from the octave to the 5th to set up the difference tones, which also set up an additive tone two octaves and a major third up as well to lock the tuning.