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Tech Lines

by Herbert L. Huestis
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A computer makes keeping shop records easy

I can say from personal experience that it is possible to voice and regulate organ pipes without keeping any notes or data whatsoever--voicing by the "seat of the pants," hoping that you will stumble upon a solution to the particular problems of that day. Unfortunately, this method leads to a kind of mental blackout when one tries to analyze just what it is that one has done or is trying to do.

The heart of analysis is comparison of data, and the computer makes these comparisons a piece of cake, and a bit of fun, too. Reed pipes invite the keeping of data--especially tongue thickness and length of the resonators. If you are tuned in to keeping scaling sheets in your shop records, you can grab a blank sheet and simply fill in the blanks, as you work on the pipes.

Figure 1 is a typical data sheet on a Trumpet stop. Five items provide a wealth of information to the voicer, all of which contribute to the quality of work that can be done on those pipes. They include:

* Tongue thickness

* Resonator length

* Top diameter

* Bottom diameter

* Boot hole

If there is a disparity in any of these factors, you are likely to hear it as the pipe speaks. They are items that should fall into a logarithmic scale from the bottom to the top of the rank. If there is an oddball, you can find it and remedy the situation.

If you think of a computer spreadsheet as a digital calculator, you can understand what is going on in a typical spreadsheet that renders these data in logarithmic format. Each "square" or "cell" of the spreadsheet can hold a number or a formula. With these building blocks you can lay out a pipe scale like checkers on a criss-cross board.

Here is a typical spreadsheet calculation of the top two octaves of a trumpet, representing these five important data items. (Again, see Figure 1)

Another handy recording device is a simple database for sample pipes, perhaps each "C" in the rank. Here is a format that will work for the same set of Hutchings Trumpet pipes. (See Figure 2)

Data for sample pipes may be kept using spreadsheets, database software, or a combination of both. Interpolations may be made for data that lies between samples. (See Figure 3)

Organ technicians who wish to obtain samples of these spreadsheets and databases may contact me at:

[email protected] or

[email protected]

I will be happy to send samples that may be incorporated into various types of shop records. Spreadsheets are in generic format, and may be read in Excel or any typical spreadsheet program. Databases will be in .DBF format and may be read in database software like FoxPro or imported into Microsoft Access. Send five dollars and your mailing address, and I'll send you a diskette so you can give it a try! (H.L. Huestis, #1502, 1574 Gulf Rd., Point Roberts, WA 98281)

Related Content

Project 2000 makes Y2K deadline

by Herbert L. Heustis

Herbert L. Heustis is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

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In the process of building an electronic index, the immense value of the Internet became apparent. The most difficult challenges were exemplified by two problems: the first was the need for easy data entry and the second was a need for universal access, once the work was completed.

Ease of data entry required a way to get data into the computer without bogging down in a laborious time and cost intensive process.  Funds were not only "limited"—they were nonexistent. The solution to this problem was the work of volunteers who were retired organ enthusiasts. Typing assignments were organized into 10-hour blocks. Each volunteer had an assignment and, upon completion, sent the diskette to us. They could use any word processor and pace themselves at their best rate.

The second problem was not so easily solved. A "beta" version of the software was circulated with mixed results. Some users praised the work we had done and others replied with a litany of complaints relating to the software—they were very frustrated if it didn't work on their computer! It was obvious that we were facing a problem of universal access, as well as distribution, packaging and the like.

The answer to these problems became apparent one evening when your lowly scribe was surfing the net and came across the Early Music Archive at the University of Vienna School of Economics. It was our enormous good fortune that Gerhard Gonter, administrator of the archive, offered us a place on the "Osiris" computer. Thus, the Osiris Archive of organ specifications was born and with it, a home page for Herbert L. Heustis Index.

Technically, the Osiris Archive is a "Unix FTP Site" which means that it is completely transparent and "software free." The files on this site can be downloaded to any computer with any net browser or ftp software.

The reader can now see that we achieved both universal data entry and universal access. By eliminating the requirement for any particular software, we removed barriers to the use of the program and the acquisition of information. Over the last decade, there have been numerous announcements of "organ databases," but few actual accomplishments. It is a good guess that the gremlin that stops progress on these project is the need for specific software, formatting and hardware requirements. The Internet and the free-form databases that it makes possible solve these problems and allow database projects to go forward to completion. In its ninth decade of publication, Herbert L. Heustis salutes the Internet for making its electronic database possible.

In the wind . . .

John Bishop

John Bishop is executive director of the Organ Clearing House.

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Measure up
When I was an apprentice working in Oberlin, Ohio, we had a particularly bad winter, with several heavy storms and countless days of difficult driving conditions. As part of our regular work, my mentor Jan Leek and I did a great deal of driving as we serviced organs throughout northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Jan owned a full-size Dodge van—perfect for our work as it was big enough to carry windchests, big crates of organ pipes, and long enough inside to carry a twelve-foot stepladder with the doors closed, if the top step was rested on the dashboard near the windshield. All those merits aside, it was relatively light for its size and the length of its wheelbase, and it was a simple terror to drive in the snow. There can’t have been another car so anxious to spin around.
Jan started talking about buying a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and one afternoon as we returned from a tuning, he turned into a car dealership and ordered a new Jeep Wagoneer—a large station wagon-shaped model. He wanted it to have a sunroof, but since Jeep didn’t offer one he took the car to a body shop that would install one as an aftermarket option. As we left the shop, Jan said to the guy, “I work with measurements all day—be sure it’s installed square.” It was.
Funny that an exchange like that would stick with me for more than thirty years, but it’s true—organbuilders work and live with measurements all day, every day they’re at work. A lifetime of counting millimeters or sixty-fourths-of-an-inch helps one develop an eye for measurements. You can tell the difference between 19 and 20 millimeters at a glance. A quick look at the head of a bolt tells you that it’s seven-sixteenths and not a half-inch, and you grab the correct wrench without thinking about it. Your fingers tell you that the thickness of a board is three-quarters and not thirteen-sixteenths before your eyes do. And if the sunroof is a quarter-inch out of square, it’ll bug you every time you get in the car.
And with the eye for measuring comes the need for accuracy as you measure. Say you’re making a panel for an organ case. It will have four frame members—top, bottom, and two sides—and a hardwood panel set into dados (grooves) cut into the inside edges. The drawing says that the outside dimensions are 1000mm (one meter) by 500mm (nice even numbers that never happen in real life!). The width of the frame members is 75mm. You need to cut the sides to 1000mm, as that’s the overall length of the panel. But the top and bottom pieces will fit between the two sides, so you subtract the combined width of the two sides from the length of the top and bottom and cut them accordingly: 500mm minus 75mm minus 75mm equals 350mm.
You make a mark on the board at 350mm—but your pencil is dull and your mark is 2mm wide. Not paying attention to the condition of the pencil or the actual placement of the mark, you cut the board on the “near” side of the mark and your piece winds up 4mm too short. The finished panel will be 496mm wide. Oh well, the gap will allow for expansion of the wood in the humid summer. But wait! It’s summer now. In the winter your panel will shrink to 492mm, and the organist will have to stuff a folded bulletin into the gap to keep the panel from rattling each time he plays low AAA# of the Pedal Bourdon (unless it’s raining).
You can see that when you mark a measurement on a piece of wood, you must make a neat clean mark, put it just at the right point according to your ruler, and remember throughout the process on which side of the mark you want to make your cut. If you know your mark is true and the length will be accurate if the saw splits your pencil mark, then split the pencil mark when you cut!
I’ve had the privilege of restoring several organs built by E. & G.G. Hook, and never stop delighting at the precision of the 150-year-old pencil marks on the wood. The boys in that shop on Tremont Street in Boston knew how to sharpen pencils.
Another little tip—use the same ruler throughout the project. As I write, there’s a clean steel ruler on my desk that shows inches with fractions on one edge and millimeters grouped by tens (centimeters) on the other. It’s an English ruler exactly eighteen inches long, and the millimeter side is fudged to make them fit. The last millimeter is 457, and the first millimeter is obviously too big. If I were working in millimeters and alternating between this ruler and another, I’d be getting two versions of my measurements. While the quarter-millimeter might not matter a lot of the time, it will matter a lot sometimes. I have several favorite rulers at my workbench. One is 150mm long (it’s usually in my shirt pocket next to the sharp pencil), another is 500, and another is 1000. I use them for everything and interchange them with impunity because I know I can trust them. With all the advances in the technology of tools I’ve witnessed and enjoyed during my career, I’ve never seen a saw that will cut a piece of wood a little longer. The guy who comes up with that will quickly be wealthy (along with the guy who invents a magnet that will pick up a brass screw!).
My wife Wendy is a literary agent, with a long list of clients who have fascinating specialties. In dinner-table conversations we’ve gone through prize-winning poets, crime on Mt. Everest, multiple personalities, the migration of puffins, flea markets, and teenagers’ brains (!). Her client Walter Lewin is a retired professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is famous for his rollicking lectures in the course Physics 8.01, the most famous introductory physics course in the world. On the first page of the introduction to his newly published book, For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time—A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics, Lewin addresses his class: “Now, all important in making measurements, which is always ignored in every college physics book”—he throws his arms wide, fingers spread—“is the uncertainty of measurements . . . Any measurement that you make without knowledge of the uncertainty is meaningless.” I’m impressed that Professor Lewin thinks that inaccuracy is such an important part of the study of physics that it’s just about the first thing mentioned in his book.
The thickness of my pencil lines, my choice of the ruler, and the knowledge about where in the line the saw blade should go are uncertainties of my measuring. If I know the uncertainties, I can limit my margin of error. I do this every time I make a mark on a piece of wood. And by the way, if you’re interested at all in questions like “why is the sky blue,” you’ll love Lewin’s book. And for an added bonus you can find these lectures on YouTube—type his name into the search box and you’ll find a whole library. Lewin is a real showman—part scientist, part eccentric, all great communicator—and his lectures are at once brilliantly informative and riotously humorous.
Now about that panel that will fit into the dados cut in the frame members. Given the outside dimensions and the width of the four frame pieces, the size of the panel will be 850mm x 350mm (if your cutting has been accurate). But don’t forget that you have to make it oversize so it fits into the dado. 7.5mm on each side will do it—that allows for seasonal shrinkage without having the panel fall out of the frame. So to be safe, cut the dados 10mm deep allowing a little space for expansion, and cut the panel to 865mm x 365mm—that’s the space defined by the four-sided frame plus 7.5mm on each side, which is 15mm on each axis. Nothing to it.
Now that you’ve all had this little organbuilding lesson, look at the case of a good-sized organ. There might be 40 or 50 panels. That’s a lot of opportunity for error and enough room for buzzing panels to cover every note of the scale.

§

For the last several days I’ve been measuring and recording the scales and dimensions of the pipes of a very large Aeolian-Skinner organ that the Organ Clearing House is preparing to renovate for installation in a new home. I’m standing at a workbench with my most accurate measuring tools while my colleague Joshua Wood roots through the pipe trays to give me C’s and G’s. Josh lays the pipes out for me, I measure the inside and outside diameters, thickness of the metal (which is a derivative of the inside and outside diameters—if outside diameter is 40mm and the metal is 1mm thick, the inside diameter is 38mm. I take both measurements to account for uncertainties.), mouth width, mouth height, toehole diameter, etc. As I finish each pipe, Josh packs them back into the trays. With a rank done, we move the tray and find another one. Now you know why I’m thinking about measurements so much today.
When studying, designing, or making organ pipes, we refer to the mouth-width as a ratio to the circumference, the cut-up as a ratio of the mouth’s height to width, and the scale as a ratio of the pipe’s diameter to its length. If I supply diameter and actual width of the mouth, the voicer can use the Archimedian Constant (commonly known as π - Pi) to determine the mouth-width ratio, and so on, and so forth.
Here’s where I must admit that my knowledge of organ voicing is limited to whatever comes from working generally as an organbuilder, without having any training or experience with voicing. My colleagues who know this art intimately will run circles around my theories, and I welcome their comments. From my inexpert position, I’ll try to give you some insight into why these dimensions are important.
The width of the mouth of an organ pipe means little or nothing if it’s not related to another dimension. Using the width as a ratio to the circumference of a pipe gives us a point of reference. For example, a mouth that’s 40mm wide might be a wide mouth for a two-foot pipe, but it’s a narrow mouth for a four-foot pipe. A two-foot Principal pipe with diameter of 45mm might have a mouth that’s 40mm wide—that’s a mouth-width roughly 2/7 of the circumference, on the wide side for Principal tone. The formula is: diameter (45) times π (3.1416) divided by mouth-width (40). In this case, we get the circumference of 141.372mm. Round it off to 141, divide by 40 (mouth-width), and you get 3.525, which is about 2/7 of 141. Each time I adapt the number to keep things simple, I’m accepting the inaccuracy of my measurements.
The mouths of Flute pipes are usually narrower (in ratio) than those of Principals. Yesterday I measured the pipes of a four-foot Flute, which had a pipe with the same 40mm mouth-width, but the diameter of that pipe was about 55mm. That’s a ratio of a little less than 1/4. The difference between a 2/7 mouth and a 1/4 (2/8) mouth tells the voicer a lot about how the pipe will sound.
And remember, those diameters are a function of the scale, the ratio of the diameter to the length. My two example pipes with the same mouth width are very different in pitch. The Principal pipe (45mm in diameter) speaks middle C of an eight-foot stop, while the Flute with the 40mm mouth speaks A# above middle C of an eight-foot.

§

You can imagine that the accuracy of all these measurements is very important to the tone of an organ. The tonal director creates a chart of dimensions for the pipes of an organ, including all these various dimensions for every pipe, plus the theoretical length of each pipe, the desired height of the pipe’s foot, etc. The pipemaker receives the chart and starts cutting metal. Let’s go back to our two-foot Principal pipe. Diameter is 45mm. Speaking length is two feet, which is about 610mm. Let’s say the height of the foot is 200mm. The pipemaker needs three pieces of metal—a rectangle that rolls up to become the resonator, a pie-shaped piece that rolls up into a cone to make the foot, and a circle for the languid.
For the resonator, multiply the diameter by π: 45 x 3.1416 = 141.37mm (this time I’m rounding it to the hundredth)—that’s the circumference of the pipe, so it’s the width of the pipemaker’s rectangle. Cut the rectangle circumference-wide by speaking-length-long: 141.37 x 610.
For the foot, use the same circumference and the height of the foot for the dimensions of the piece of pie: 141.37mm x 200.
Roll up the rectangle to make a tube that’s 45mm in diameter by 610 long, and solder the seam.
Roll up the piece of pie to make a cone that’s 45mm in diameter at the top and 200mm long, and solder the seam.
Cut a circle that’s 45mm in diameter and solder it to the top of the cone, then solder the tube to the whole thing. (I will not discuss how to cut the mouth or form the toehole.)
But Professor Lewin’s adage reminds us that no pipemaker is ever going to be able to cut those pieces of metal exactly 141.37mm wide. That’s the number I got from my calculator after rounding tens-of-thousandths of a millimeter down to hundredths. You have to understand the uncertainty of your measurements to get any work done.

§

As I take the measurements of these thousands of organ pipes, I record them on charts we call scale sheets—one sheet for each rank. I reflect on how important it is to the success of the organ that this information be accurate. I’m using a digital caliper—a neat tool with a sliding scale that measures either inside or outside dimensions. The LED readout gives me the dimensions in whatever form I want—I can choose scales that give inches-to-the-thousandth, inches-to-the-sixty-fourth, or millimeters-to-the-hundredth. I’m using the millimeter scale, rounding hundredths of a millimeter up to the nearest tenth. As good as my colleagues are and as accurately as they might work, they’re not going to discern the difference between a mouth that’s 45.63mm wide from one that’s 45.6mm.
And as accurately as I try to take and record these measurements, what I’m measuring is hand made. I might notice that the mouth of a Principal pipe is 16.6mm high on one end and 16.8mm high on the other. A difference of .2mm can’t change the sound of the pipe that much—so I’ll record it as 16.7. I know the uncertainties of my measurements. I adapt each measurement at least twice (rounding to the nearest tenth and adapting for uneven mouth-height) in order to ensure its accuracy. Yikes!

§

Earlier I mentioned how people who work with measurements all the time develop a knack for judging them. I’ve been tuning organs for more than 35 years, counting my way up tens of thousands of ranks of pipes, listening to and correcting the pitches, all the time registering the length of the pipes subconsciously. With all that history recorded, if I’m in an organ and my co-worker plays a note, I can reach for the correct pipe by associating the pitch with the length of the pipe.
π (pi) is a magical number—that Archimedes ever stumbled on that number as the key to calculating the dimensions of a circle is one of the great achievements of the human race. How can it be possibly be true that πd is the circumference of a circle while πr2 is the area? Here’s another neat equation. A perfect cone is one whose diameter is equal to its height. The volume of a perfect cone is exactly half that of a sphere with the same diameter. How did we ever figure that one?
There are no craftsmen in any trade who understand π better than the organ-pipemaker. When you visit a pipe shop, you might see a stack of graduated metal rectangles destined to be the resonators of a rank of pipes. The pipemaker knows π as instinctively as I can tell that the first millimeter on my ruler is too big. Imagine looking at a tennis ball and guessing its circumference!

§

When you’re buying measuring tools, you must pay attention to accuracy. Choose an accurate ruler by comparing three or four of them against each other and deciding which one is most accurate. Choose an accurate level by comparing three or four of them. You’ll be surprised how often two levels disagree. Just as mathematics gives us the surety of π, so physics gives us the surety of level. There is only one true level!
I’ve been showing off all morning about how great I am with measurements in theory and practice, so I’ll bust it all up with another story about van windshields. I left the shop to drive to the lumberyard to pick up a few long boards of clear yellow pine. They had beautiful rough-cut boards around thirteen feet long, eight and ten inches wide, and two inches thick. Each board was pretty heavy, and as they were only roughly planed, it was easy to get splinters from them. I put the first one in the car, resting the front end on the dashboard right against the windshield. Perfect—the door closed fine, let’s get another. I slid the second one up on the first, right through the windshield. Good eye! 

OrganNet Report

by Herb Huestis
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One of the leading events to make news on the OrganNet--technical name, PIPORG-L--was the 1995 convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders in San Jose, California. Dave Schutt, a founding member of Piporg-L, lives in San Jose and, with several members of the list, gave play-by-play descriptions of events as they occurred. High points included presentations on San Francisco Bay area organbuilding, including a visit to the Schoenstein Organ Shop, hosted by Jack Bethards. Robert Bates' presentation of the three fabulous organs (Fritts, Murray Harris and Fisk) at Stanford University was unforgettable. E.M. Skinner organs played a prominent role in the presentations with Nelson Barden's humorous  presentation of a serious subject--"Secrets of Successful Restoration." A riveting lecture, followed with a video presentation of the "demystification" of pitman chests by Joseph Dzeda and Nicholas Thompson-Allen, curators of the organ at Yale.

This was high powered stuff.

As various secrets and suggestions were let out of Pandora's box, they soon hit the net, often the same day they were presented. Once on the wire, they mushroomed into "threads" or lines of discussion. One of the most interesting topics was that of tuning, always good for many points of view.

For example:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:49:47 -0500

From: Eugene Blackstone

Subject: AIO Convention (Day Three)

Dave Schutt reports:

Bill Visscher talked about the tuning of mixtures. He had some little felt cones that had been fabricated to keep some pipes in the mixture from playing. They seemed to be very effective, and you don't end up with cotton all over the place. Bill had a 7-rank note that he tuned and a big scale Cornet that he tuned (one note).

Dave: while we have been using felt cones for tuning mixtures at home, when it has come to tuning the V Cornet, felt cones stuck in the top of the pipes have  been ineffective in preventing the pipes from speaking (off pitch, of course). So we have used cotton wads on sticks. I gather there must be something special about  Bill V.'s felt cones that silenced the large scale Cornet? If so, I'd like to try it. (And I presume that others of you use felt cones, too, and could tell me in what way they are constructed to silence a wide scale Cornet).

A quick reply came in:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:58:19 -0700

From: Peter Schmuckal

Subject: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three)

I was also at that talk. Bill was using bushing cloth, not felt to construct his cones.  They were a lot heavier than felt.

And another.

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 21:04:21 -0700

From: Jim Tyler

Subject: Tuning Mixtures (Was: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three))

Another approach is a handful of tuning "mops." These amount to a bundle of short pieces of string or yarn taped to the end of a long thin rod. They can be gently lowered into the pipe, where the mop effectively interferes with the pipe's speech. The ones I've used have been thin metal rods, but I should think thin acrylic (perspex) rods would be lighter and perhaps less likely to damage the languid if accidently dropped into the pipe, rather than gently inserted. You have to have quite a collection of these mops, in a variety of sizes, but they last quite a while if  carefully made. They don't "shed" the way cotton does. Cones are, however, better for the *really* tiny pipes near the top of the compass.

Hope this helps!

Another reader was concerned for the health of languids:

I am personally fearful of placing anything that has any weight on the languids.  I use bushing cloth cones. They can be placed on the top of the pipe or inverted. The largest one that I use will fit over a 2¢ pipe (the lowest pitch mixture I presently tune is a 2-2/3¢). The smallest ones are about 3/8≤ dia by 1≤. There is something strange about the conical shape that stops the pipe from speaking. They are also very light weight and only rarely move the tuning slide. During tuning seasons I carry them nested in my shirt pocket (try that with your paint brushes and rods!).

Lanny Hochhalter

And another:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:06:26 -0400

From: Cullie Mowers

Subject: Mixture-tuning caps

The "felt" (actually heavy bushing cloth) caps for Tuning mixtures are *great,* and I've used them for years. I've also presented sets of them to organ maintenance colleagues after seeing bits of cotton, slivers of paper, etc. scattered on the walk- and rack-boards of organs they service!  The last set I bought (1989, under the name "K-D Kaps") cost $15.00; they were made by Kathy Foley. The address at that time was: K-D Kaps, PO Box 9223, Bolton, CT  06043. These are cones very professionally sewn out of heavy red bushing cloth. Each set contains several sizes; I forget just how many, and how many caps of each size, but they do the job on virtually every mixture I've encountered. Only exceptions have been the lowest-pitch rank of one Pedal mixture, and one bizarre mixture we ran onto which had slotted pipes in the lower pitch ranges. I hope that Ms. Foley or her heirs and assigns are still in business; *everyone* oughta have these gadgets in the tool box.

I could not resist sticking in my two cents:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 23:26:03 EDT

From: Herbert Huestis <[email protected]>

Subject: Tuning Mixtures

For what its worth, I have found that the most effective "mop" for tuning high mixture pipes is a very small artist's paint brush--or two for bigger pipes and mops for the biggest. They completely silence the pipe as well as clean the dust from the languid. Artist's brushes are invaluable when tuning coned pipes, since the removal of the dust is often all that is necessary to "tune" the pipe.

This "cleaning" of the languid tends to return the pipe to its original tuning. And if the brush is carefully inserted, the tuning mechanism will not be altered.

These tuning procedures are the mark of the most careful and sensitive technicians--for example, Robert and Richard Lahaise, who take care of the famous Hook organs in the Boston area. Of their work, Thomas Murray wrote:

The First Church of Jamaica Plain (where the Hook brothers are said to have been members) is a superb Hook instrument of 3 manuals and 31 speaking stops, built in 1854 and surviving in virtually unaltered condition. The smaller pipes, most of which are still cone tuned, are well preserved thanks to careful tuning procedures employed over the years.  The writer recalls watching with great interest as the Mixture and Sesquialtra stops were "tuned" prior to our recording sessions by the removal of dirt from the pipes with a tiny camel's hair brush, a practice which significantly reduces the risk of damage to the pipes by the use of tuning cones. (Liner notes from Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas, Sheffield label.)

Could there be any better recommendation for this technique?

Well, there you have it. That's how a "thread" works on the OrganNet. To follow threads, you log on and read all the messages on a particular subject. Often it will start with some inoccuous comment and balloon into a full-fledged discussion that may take you well into uncharted territory.

Let's hope you don't have to navigate through any storms, or get "burned" by a "flame."  And who knows what you will find?  There is so much to learn!

Many thanks to these volunteers who have typed specifications or made other contributions to the Osiris Archive! Thanks to these efforts, there are more than 1100 organ specifications and other data housed at this World Wide Web site.

Martin Chalton                  England

Walter Davis     United States

Albert Falop      United States

Glen Frank         United States

Richard Greene                United States

Kernin Ilkka      Finland

Carl Kishline     United States

Kenneth Matthews        United States

Ian McClelland                 Ireland

David Lowry    United States

Peter Rodwell  Spain

Richard Sedcole               New Zealand

Jonathan Tan    Singapore

Timothy Tikker                United States

Herb Huestis, Editor

The Osiris Archive, housed at the Vienna University of Economics, Austria

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/pub/earlym-l/organs

Sidebar

Subject: Some Tuning Humah....

Date: 14-Oct-95 at 05:58  

From: Edward Peterson

INTERNET: [email protected]

TO: 70771,1047

----------------------------

REEDTUNE.EXE

----------------------------

Ed's Practice-Makes-Perfect Tuning Program   (c)1995

This program is not guaranteed in any way and works only for reed organs. For tuning pipe organs get Ed's Practical ComputerChromoTune Your Pipe Organ v2.7b.

Please check your Autoexec.Dingbat file before running this program;

It must contain the line "SET Tongue-in-cheek"!

Start:

Tune_Organ:

                  if "out-of-tune badly" run subroutine1;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Tune_Reed;

                  if In_Tune leavewellenoughalone;

                  if "flat" GoSub2Flat;

                                    Sub2Flat:

                                                      withdraw - scrape, scrape;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      play - assess;

                                                      if "nowsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "stillflat" GoSub2Flat;

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      else goto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                  if "sharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                    Sub2Sharp:

                                                      withdraw - file, file;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      listen;

                                                      if "stillsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "nowflat" GoSub2Flat; 

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      if "error" returnto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                 

                  expect "InTune"

                  ifandwhen In_Tune goto Next_Reed;

Next_Reed:

                  goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

                  if Not_In_Tune loopback else;

                  when "temperamentbad" gosub4 Find_Wolf;

                  if "temperamentgood" find Distrust_Ears_Anyway;

                   expect "In_Tune"

                  quitif In_Tune;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Find_Wolf:

                  gosub1 Set_Temperament;

                  endif "In_Tune";

                  next;

[Subroutine1]:

                  Set_Temperament:

                                    if "bad" goto Start_Over;

                                    else goto Call_Tuner;

                                    ifgood Thank_God;

                                    if "UknowwhatURdoing" proceed;

                                    then goto Tune_Organ;

                                    endif "notknowwhatURdoing";                                                   endsubroutine1;

                                    next;

                                    quit;

Call_Tuner:

                  goto Call_Number;                          wait;

                  wait months;

                  wait manymonths;

                  iftuned pay handsomely;

                  else goto Start_Over;

                  quit;

                  next;

 

Pull_Hair_Out:

                  then goto Start_Over; 

                  ifnot hairy gosub1;

                  quit;

 

Start_Over:

                  call Subroutine1;

                  ifgood loopback Tune_Organ;

                  else goto Pull_Hair_Out;

                  if "understandthis" goto ITT Tech;

                  if "notunderstandthis" goto music school;

                  failquit;

                  quit;

                  endif "last resort":

                  call Call_Tuner;

                  end

                  end

Keeping Up with the OrganNet Or, &quot;Try Not to Spin Your Wheels in Cyberspace&quot;

by Herbert L. Huestis
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It seems like eons have passed since personal computers appeared in our lives--but it has only been a little over a decade since I bought my first grey box with a green phosphor screen--a 1984 Kaypro. It was built like a truck, was a great word processor, made no fan noise, and the cursor did not blink. Unfortunately, this super typewriter was considered obsolete in three years, and I replaced it with a "PC" with a fan so loud I thought it was going to take off. Nowadays, when I acquire a computer, I kill the blinking cursor and fuss with the fan to make it as quiet as the old Kaypro. So much for "keeping up!"

Today, the Internet challenges us as much as those first computers did. Kenneth Matthews writes to Piporg-L from San Francisco:

All right. If someone will explain to me, I promise to pay attention this time. I can't figure out (or remember) where Osiris actually is . . .

--Kenneth (spinning my wheels in cyberspace) Matthews

Ken's problem is not unique on the Internet. There are thousands of offerings, but you have to know where to find them. The Osiris Archive is no exception. Ken is trying to keep up, too.

There is so much activity on the OrganNet (Piporg-L) that most "cyber-organists" are panting to keep pace. Piporg-L started with 40 subscribers and has since passed the 600 mark. I long resisted Windows software, thinking I could avoid clicking on icons in favor of the ten commandments of DOS. Finally, I gave in so I could "surf the net" when Piporg-L joined the World Wide Web with their own "web page." This "hypertext" presentation of Piporg-L includes a link to the Osiris Archive as well.

What does all this mean?   Well, it means that you can load "Mosaic" or "Netscape," set your sights on http://albany.edu/~piporg-l or http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/ftp/pub/earlym-l/organs

and a page will appear on your computer screen to guide you through the OrganNet (Piporg-L) or The Osiris Archive.

From these "web pages" you can investigate a variety of organ topics from the Organs of Glasgow, to over six hundred specifications in the Osiris Archive. This is a big jump from just a few years ago, when this whole business was just getting started.

Here in a nutshell, are a few corners of cyberspace that organists can enjoy:

Piporg-L: Pipe organs and related topics

http://albany.edu/~piporg-l

The Piporg-L web page will introduce you the contents of the list, starting with a quick guide to searching the archives, biography files, the Osiris Archive, and recordings of organ music in the CD-Connection catalog.

Osiris Archive

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/ftp/pub/earlym-l/organs/

The Osiris Archive web page describes how to search for over 600 organ specifications in the Osiris database. It lists help files that answer the most frequently asked questions about the archive--how to search for files, upload and downloadspecifications and how to volunteer to type new specifications for the archive. Last but not least, it provides a link to The Diapason Index --some 14,000 entries from the annual reviews that are published each year.

The Osiris Archive is growing daily with submissions from all over the world. The archive is located at the Vienna University of Economics and is part of the Earlym-L archives (a sister list to Piporg-L).  As hoped, it contains not only organ specifications, but playing impressions, recording discography and builders' notes. This material is kept in a free form database and is listed by organ builder, site, city, country and date of construction.

The Diapason Index

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/ftp/pub/earlym-l/organs/diapason.index

The Diapason Index may now be searched online from the Osiris Archive web page, or may be downloaded into your own word processor. These files are "comma delimited text files" and may be imported into your favorite database program, such as Dbase or FoxPro.  Downloading the file takes a bit of time --usually about 20 minutes if you have a fast modem.

Organ CDs

http://albany.edu/~piporg-l/organcds.@cd-conn

This spring, Ben Chi, co-owner of Piporg-L, posted an announcement that he had downloaded the organ catalog of The CD Connection, a well known catalog order firm. He culled out some 1,500 organ CDs and saved them on Piporg-L. To download this CD list by email, send this message to

[email protected]:

get organcds.@cd-conn

Be prepared for a moderate length download. This is a 27 page text file. Once you have loaded this file into your word processor, you may search for title, composer and artist, using your own word processor's "search" command. Prices of the organ CDs in this catalog are reported to be very competitive.

Residence Organ

The Isle of Man

From Peter Jones, the Offshore Organbuilder
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This article is coming to you from the Isle of Man, an island some 30 miles long by about 14 miles wide, and sitting midway between Ireland and England. Its longest river--the Sulby--stretches for a full 10 miles or more, and Snaefell--the highest mountain--reaches a height of over 2,000 feet. Anyone with a world atlas and a magnifying glass to hand will have no trouble in locating the "Island," as those who live here often term it, off the west coast of England, facing Liverpool.

 

 

The Isle of Man may be little known in the wider world (or even on the "adjacent island" of England--we don't say "mainland," of course!) but like most places it does have its peculiar features which mark it out for those with special interests. It is an off-shore finance center, for example, with relatively low rates of tax. It is known for its motorcycle races (the "TT Races") which take place on the public roads--one of the largest (and arguably most dangerous) circuits of its kind in the world. For those who like unspoiled countryside to look at or walk over, and a quiet and relatively unhurried way of life, the Isle of Man is the place to be. It is an island of Fairies, one of the largest water-wheels you are ever likely to see, Celtic stone crosses and much more. Most important to me, and I hope of interest to readers, its small area is home to a surprising variety of some 50 or so pipe organs, and I am more than happy to have been the resident organ builder here for over 20 years.

For those of us with a fascination for the King of Instruments, there is much to be said about life here--too much for one article such as this--and rather than describe the organs as a whole in greater or lesser detail, I thought it might be better to describe some of the incidents which make the life of "the organ man" anything but tedious.

Looking back over the work undertaken in the recent past, I see one job which will be of interest to the great majority of organ players, from the professional recitalist to the home enthusiast who plays only for his own enjoyment. I refer to an ambition which attracts so many organists, and which eludes all but a few--the luxury of a real pipe organ in one's own home.

How many have investigated this possibility, only to find that the cost (and sometimes the space) involved ensures that the pipe dream remains just that? True, there is the electronic substitute--smaller and cheaper, with a great variety of Golden Tones of one kind or another--and then again the organ in church is usually available to the serious player--albeit not so attractive in the winter, nor so convenient for that odd 30 minutes practice at the end of the day. But for those badly infected by the organ bug, the unfortunates with an acute case of "organitis," there can never be any hope of a cure until they can see for themselves those gleaming ranks of metal and wooden pipes and the console with its several keyboards, waiting in the music room for their sole use!

So it was with The Reverend Alec Smith. His love of the organ had actually led him to start an apprenticeship in organ building as a young man, but he quickly saw the light, heard the call, and became an ordained priest in the Church of England. At that time, he assembled a worthy (if somewhat ungainly) collection of pipes, old keyboards, bits of mechanism, etc., into a Frankenstein creation which crouched in the corner of one of the large rooms of the vicarage in his country parish in England. This creation was a credit to its owner, but more than a little ponderous for anything other than a large house (preferably not your own) with plenty of spare rooms. When, in the fullness of time, Alec became an army chaplain, and he and his wife Jean were inevitably posted abroad, the organ was dispersed, almost all of it never to be seen again.

On retirement from the army, Alec settled in the Isle of Man and became Organ Advisor to the Diocese. It was now that the organ-building bug, which had lain dormant for so many years, was re-awakened, and the idea of a house organ was again proposed. There were, of course, several problems. The usual ones--centered around lack of space and finances--were, quite rightly, pointed out by Jean, and in any case there was a seemingly adequate 2-manual electronic, with its equally large speaker cabinet, already taking up far too much room in their small cottage in the Manx countryside. Jean correctly pointed out that it was more room they needed, not a pipe organ!

In a attempt to save some space, and acting on the advice of the local music shop, new and much smaller speakers were fitted to the electronic by an "expert" from Douglas, the Island's capital. After a day spent fitting the new speakers into the ceiling (with the novel use of a screwdriver to create some suitable holes in the plaster), the expert switched on, at which point there was an impressive bang followed by an ominous burning smell. It seemed, on later examination, that the amplifiers (intended to power two large speaker banks in a church setting) had seen the modern speakers as a virtual short circuit in electrical terms, with the inevitable result. The expert withdrew, promising to "work something out." I believe he left the Island, and, in any case, was never seen again. The electronic was no longer adequate. It was dead.

At this point, a further discussion took place on the subject of a new pipe organ, and Jean was persuaded, but only agreed on one seemingly-impossible condition: aside from the console, the new organ must not project into the room any further than the line of the first ceiling beam (some 14≤ from the end wall). Since there was no possibility of siting anything behind the walls (three of them being external, and the fourth taken up with the fireplace) the situation appeared hopeless, and it was at this point that Alec called me in.

Impossible situations regarding space are a challenge to the organ builder. More than one has succumbed to the temptation to push too-large an organ into too-small a space, with disastrous results, and I have seen the consequences of several of these unhappy situations. In one such case, an instrument was built in which the Great and Choir (mounted one above the other and in front of the Pedal pipework) "speak" into a solid masonry wall some 3 feet thick. Tuning/maintenance of such an organ is difficult if not impossible, and a warning to any organ designer. Alec's requirement was for the cheapest possible instrument, with a fair selection of stops over two manuals and pedals, all within a depth of 14≤. It had to fit into one small room of a cottage which has only three rooms on the ground floor (the other two being the kitchen and porch) and it must not be a monster from the tuning/maintenance standpoint.

There was space for only two or three sets of pipes, but Alec stated from the outset that, "I want more than three wheels on my car," so we were obviously looking to something other than mechanical action with two or three stops. This need to make the most of the available pipework suggested an "extension organ" of some sort. This, and the restrictions of the site, dictated electric action, and financial considerations suggested the simple mechanism as shown in the sketch. The question of electric versus mechanical action is one of those subjects likely to provoke strong opinions both for and against. In my view, each system has its merits and I am happy to work with either, but when a client requests more stops than the room or budget will allow, the obvious way forward is for a stoplist extended from a small number of ranks, and this means an electric mechanism. The design shown, if correctly made, is reliable, very quick (giving good repetition) and quiet. Incorrectly handled, it is none of these things, and has thereby acquired a poor reputation in some circles. With sufficient funds, and more space, an electro-pneumatic action would have been more sophisticated, but with enough care taken in its design and construction, direct electric action (as shown) is almost as good.

Some readers may be unfamiliar with the idea of an "extension" organ. This is an instrument in which a set, or "rank," of pipes is available to be played at more than one pitch. For example, a set of flute pipes could be played at 8' pitch (via a console stop labeled, say, Stopt Diapason 8') and the same set could also be available at 4' pitch (via a console stop labeled Flute 4') or at 16'  pitch (in which case the console stop might be labeled Bourdon 16') and so on. Clearly, the idea has its uses and abuses, as in the case of the 2-manual and pedal organ in which every console stop was actually taken from a single rank of Dulciana pipes!

The final stoplist is one which I have used successfully on various occasions. It is based on three ranks representing the three main tone-colors of the organ:  Diapason, Flute and String. Each of the three ranks consists of 73 pipes, and are listed below as:

Rank A/ Open Diapason, running from C13,

Rank B/ Stopt Diapason, running from C1, and

Rank C/ Salicional, running from C13.

In addition there are 12 stopped Quint pipes (shown below as "Q") running from G8 (at 8' pitch) for the pedal 16' stop (see later).

(Reed tone was not included, as it is difficult to have conventional reeds sufficiently quiet for such a small setting. In any case, there was no space available.)

Note that the Open Diapason is of small scale, and this made it much more suitable, for our purpose, than the more usual scaling of such a stop. When selecting second-hand pipes for a home extension organ, a Principal would be the first choice  to provide the Open Diapason--Principal--Fifteenth "stops," as they appear on the console, and I have even known a Gamba to make a very acceptable open metal extension rank, once it had been re-scaled and re-voiced. Ideally, where finances are not a limiting factor, new pipes should be made for all ranks, so that their scaling can be suited to the room and stoplist.

If an "extension" scheme is to work, musically, it is important to avoid the temptation of too many stops from too few pipes. I know of one organ with the stops simply repeated on each keyboard, and though this gives maximum flexibility, it is very confusing from the player's point of view, and the instrument as a whole is strangely bland and characterless. The three sets of pipes for Alec's organ were made available at different pitches, under the guise of different stop names, to make registration more straightforward from the player's point of view. In this way, some 15 speaking stops are available to the organist, instead of three which would result from the use of mechanical action.

The specification shown has only one stop (the Stopt Diapason) actually repeated on each manual. This is because it is so frequently used, and blends with the other two ranks at 8' pitch.  None of the other manual stops are repeats, and they have been arranged so as to discourage the use of the same rank at only one octave apart. (E.g.,  the Open Diapason 8' is intended to be used with the Salicet 4', or the Flute 4', not the Principal 4', as you might expect.) Using the stops of an extension organ in this way reduces or (more usually) eliminates the well-known "missing note" problem, which occurs when one strand of the music runs across another, and both need a pipe from the same rank, albeit from different extended "stops." If, for instance, the Stopt Diapason 8' and Flute 4' are drawn on the same manual and key C25 is held down, the pipes heard, as counted from the flute rank, will be C25 and C37. Now add manual key C13, which will sound pipes C13 and C25 (which is already playing from key C25). In this example a pipe at the pitch of C25 should appear twice, but actually appears only once. The missing note will be most obvious if either of the two manual keys is held down while the other is repeated.

One of the most important criticisms to be levelled at an extension scheme is this problem of missing notes, which can lead to a lack of clarity. For all practical purposes, this drawback can be completely overcome by a combination of the organ builder (in preparing a modest stoplist) and the player (in thoughtful use of the instrument, so that the smallest number of stops is drawn at any one time, preferably from different ranks, or at least from ranks separated by more than one octave). In actual practice, this kind of stop selection becomes automatic to the organist who realizes the limitations of the instrument.

Another important factor in the success of this type of organ is the regulation of volume and tone quality of the pipes within a stop, and also the regulation of the stops in relation to each other. Each stop is regulated with a very gradual crescendo from bass to treble. This requires subtle handling, but when correctly carried out results in a clear ensemble in which the treble parts can be heard above the tenor and bass.

The ranks themselves are regulated with much less distinction in power than would usually be the case, so that equivalent pipes of the Stopt Diapason are similar in volume to those of the Open Diapason, and the Salicional, while quieter, is not far behind. This results in much less contrast in power among the 8' stops and this is a compromise, of course, though you still have variety of tone. The blend between ranks played at different pitches is much better than if they are regulated in a conventional manner, with the Open Diapason much louder than the Stopt Diapason and Salicional distinctly quieter. In an instrument such as this, contrast in power is created more by contrasting combinations of stops than between the ranks themselves. Regulating the ranks as if they were separate stops (a mistake often found in both church and house extension organs) results in the Open Diapason and Principal obliterating everything else, while the Fifteenth screams. 

I have used the specification shown several times, including my own house organ, and find it to behave very much as a 'straight' instrument would. I seldom use the couplers, though there are occasions when they become necessary. While it requires thoughtful registration to get the best from an extension organ, a scheme such as this, with a small number of stops, arranged so as to discourage the use of the same rank in two stops separated by only one octave, is very successful.

To cut down costs, Alec agreed to the use of his old electronic as a console, and also to the use of any other second-hand parts which could be obtained. He was also interested and able to lend a hand in the actual construction, when his earlier experiences in organ building were a great asset. The need to keep within 14≤ maximum depth was easily dealt with, by taking up the entire width of the room, side-to-side.

Knowing the number and range of the ranks and the space available, the first step, in a job such as this, is to measure the pipework, in order to see how best to arrange the pipes, and, indeed, if they will fit in at all!

Metal pipes need to be measured in height and in diameter, wooden ones in height only (including any stoppers). In practice, nearly all metal pipes run to a standard scaling (i.e., the rate at which the diameters reduce from note C1 through to the top pipe). Wooden pipes vary considerably, both in scaling (the internal width and depth) and in the thickness of the wood used, which in turn decides the external width and depth. There is also the question of the foot, which, in second-hand wooden pipes (and some new ones) can be bored well off-center. For these reasons it is best to make a paper template of the bottom of each wooden pipe, as described later.

I already had a small scale (i.e., relatively small diameter) Open Diapason rank, and a Salicional, both running form C13 (so the longest pipe in both sets was about 4' speaking length) and Alec located, from a friendly organ builder on the mainland, the Stopped Diapason pipes (running from C1) and a bundle of miscellaneous stoppered wooden pipes for the pedal Quint.

The necessary measurements were taken and noted down in the form of a table. I find it convenient to have a sheet of paper with the 12 notes C through to B in a column down the left-hand edge, followed by vertical columns headed "1--12" then "13--24" then "25--36" and so on, up to "73--84," placed from left to right across the page. This forms a table which will cover an 84-note rank, the biggest usually needed. (Note C85 is only necessary in the case of a rank which runs from 8' pitch to 2' pitch, where the organ has a manual key compass of 61 notes. This C85 pipe needs an additional square to itself.) Every square represents a pipe, and in each one can be written the length and diameter (if metal), together with other details such as size of a rackboard hole, and toe hole etc., which are also measured at this time.

Notice that only the Stopped Diapason rank has its bottom octave (in organ building terms, a "Stopped Bass") the largest pipe of which is, like the other two ranks, something over four feet long. The Salicional and Open Diapason share this bottom octave, as does the 16' pedal stop (the "Harmonic Bass") which produces an acceptable 16' substitute, in the first 12 notes of the pedalboard, by playing the Stopped Bass pipes with the appropriate Quint pipe (from a separate and therefore very soft, 12-note rank of wooden pipes). The resultant note (actually a low hum) which is created from a combination of any stop of 8' pitch and its quint is at 16' pitch. Admittedly, this is much softer than the two pipes actually sounding. The pedals from C13 up play the Stopped Bass again, and then the rest of the Stopt Diapason, thereby sounding at true 16' pitch. These compromises are necessary to reduce the size of the organ, and, if carefully carried out, are soon accepted by the player and listener, especially in a small room.

While there is no substitue for the soft, heavy, warm tone of a full-length Bourdon bass, I have asked many players (including several professionals) their opinion on this "resultant" 16' pedal stop. So far, no one has realized what he was playing until it was pointed out. They all accepted it as a pedal 16'  stop, like any other. The least convincing notes in the bottom octave are, predictably, the smallest three or four. If there is room for full-length pipes down to, say, F#7, so much the better.

It is worth noting that a quinted 16'  effect which uses the pipes of the Stopt Diapason rank only is almost always a failure, because the quint will be too loud. If you have no room for the extra Quint pipes, it is better to use the 8' octave of the Stopt Bass on its own (from pedal keys C1 to B12) before completing the pedal compass by repeating the Stopt Bass followed by the rest of the Stopt Diapason. Another possibility worth considering is a 16' bottom octave in free reeds.

Full-size card or paper templates are needed to represent the metal pipes, as seen from above. It is not normally necessary to make these for every pipe, as different stops usually reduce in diameter, note for note, to a more or less standard pattern. If this pattern is known, the set of templates need cover only the range of diameters from the fattest metal pipe in the organ (in this case C13 of the Open Diapason) down to the minimum spacing dictated by the pipe-valve mechanism. (As direct electric action was being used and the smallest magnets were 3/4≤ wide, with pipes placed directly above the valves, minimum pipe spacing = 3/4≤ + 1/8≤ clearance [= 7/8≤] no matter how small the pipes.)

Like most organ builders, I have a set of these circular templates for general use, so templates for the metal pipes were already at hand, but the wooden pipes had to have paper templates individually made to show their exact shape and the center of the pipe feet. Such a template is made by taking an over-sized piece of paper, drawing on it a circle which equals the diameter of the pipe foot, cutting this out, and sliding the paper up under the pipe and creasing around the four sides. Once the paper is removed and trimmed to size, the original circle can be taped back into place, resulting in an accurate template.

Alec's wooden Stopt Diapason (reputedly by the well-known Victorian organ builder, William Hill) was over 100 years old, and may have been in more than one organ during its lifetime. Its mouths were rather high, which made the tone breathy, and some of the pipes had been mitred, or were cut too short, possibly where they had been in a crowded swell box. But it was basically sound and we went on the basis that it could be made acceptable by repairs, lowering the mouths and re-voicing. The Salicional and Open Diapason ranks were also Victorian, from a local Methodist church. Again, they were not perfectly scaled or voiced for a house  organ, but were basically well-made and capable of re-voicing. All the pipes were measured, and with the tables of measurements and templates to hand, and a given space into which to fit the pipes and action, the process of "setting out" could begin.

An instrument with direct electric action enables the builder to arrange pipework in almost any pattern, within the limits of the room and the physical space taken up by the pipes themselves (or, in the case of the tiny treble notes, the size of their magnets and valves). My preferred system of setting out is slightly unusual, in that I like to place the taller pipes behind the smaller pipes, regardless of their rank. Most other builders would plant pipes in rows, each row being made up from pipes of the same rank.

Secondly, and in common with many of my colleagues, I prefer to plant pipes in "sides," i.e., pipe C1 on the extreme left of the organ, and C#2 on the right, working down to the treble pipes in the middle. In this way, all the pipes of the "C side" (C, D, E, F#, G#, A#) will be on the left, and those of the "C# side" (C#, D#, F, G, A, B) will be on the right.

These two underlying principles result in a pipe set-out which is visually attractive, compact, and which offers the greatest accessibility for tuning and maintenance. Admittedly, it does lead to some complications in the cabling patterns between the console and the magnets, but this is not an insurmountable problem. (In fact, the many cables for this organ were made up, wire by wire, by my school-boy workshop assistant, with no errors at all.)

Alec and I set out our templates on strips of white paper, as wide as Jean would permit, (the 14≤ maximum) and as long as the space available (i.e., the width of the room: 157≤ or just over 13 feet). After a day or two of pushing the templates around, and, bearing in mind the many details such as how the pipes could be best faced away from each other, the space to be allowed for rack pillars, cable registers, assembly screws and many other essentials beyond the scope of this account, we decided upon the ideal arrangement, with the pipes set out on three chests. The chests were placed one above the console, for the treble pipes, and one on each side at a lower level, for the bass pipes. The central chest was just under 13≤ from front to back, and the two other chests were only 9≤ wide. The whole organ would stand in the maximum ceiling height of 91≤ (barely over 71/2 feet). The actual planting pattern was so tight that every possible space has been used, given the limited width and length available. Even so, no pipes are crowded, and all of them have been accommodated. The fronts of the three chests were made from oak-veneered ply salvaged from the old speaker cabinet and console back of the electronic. Consequently, they matched the finish of the console exactly.

Admittedly, there was no room for any casework or building frame, and we had yet to solve the problem of space for the blower, wind pressure regulator, wind trunks, low voltage current supply and one or two other essentials, but these are minor obstacles to the true organ fanatic!

The actual construction of the instrument started with the chests--comprising the pipe ranks, toe boards, or top boards (on which the pipes stand) "wells"  (the sides and ends) and bottom boards. Details of each chest varied with the numbers of rows of pipes, but the sketches showing the basic mechanism will give a good idea of a typical chest in cross-section.

Strips of mdf (a sheet material available in 3/4≤ thickness) were cut for the top boards for each of the three chests, and the pipes centers were punched directly onto them, using the paper setouts, taped down, as a template. Based on these centers, the magnets, valves, pipe racks and the many other details of the mechanism can be marked out and fitted. Unfortunately, a detailed description of this procedure is beyond the scope of a general article such as this. While the basis of the mechanism is shown clearly in the sketch, there are a great many practical details which must be finalized in design and observed in manufacture, if this deceptively simple idea (drilling a hole, screwing a magnet and valve under it, and planting a pipe on top of it) is to be carried through to create a reliable musical instrument. Such a mass of information has not, to my knowledge, ever been written down, as it is essentially based on practical experience over the years. If any readers are interested in further practical details, it may be possible to describe some of the problems involved, and how they are overcome, in a future article, but only a practicing organbuilder can have all the necessary skills and knowledge to cope with every situation, and this makes it impossible to give a general "recipe" for building an organ.

The wind supply is provided by a small electric blower of course, but this one is unusual, in that it was passed on to Alec by an organ-building friend from the days of his original house organ. Indeed, it turned out to be the very same blower, which had returned to him, after an absence of 30 or more years! It proved to be an excellent machine, and very quiet when housed in a new silencing cabinet.

It was necessary to regulate the wind pressure to a value suitable for the pipes and their setting, and, of course, we had no space for traditional bellows. In a case such as this, I used my own design of wind pressure regulator (basically a hinged plate of 1/2≤ sheet material, "floating" over a rubbercloth diaphragm, and supporting some suitably-tensioned springs). Movement of the plate controls a valve which allows wind from the blower through to the chests. As the pipework makes a demand on the supply, the valve opens just far enough to maintain pressure to within 1/8≤ or less at peak demand. This is an acceptable degree of control, and only a very critical ear will notice the slight fall-off in power. Every builder has his favorite design for such a regulator (sometimes called a 'schwimmer' or, in my case, a 'compensator') and they all bear a strong family resemblance. Not all are equally effective, however, and some are prone, under adverse conditions, to fluttering (creating an effect like a very rapid Tremulant). Again, only experience of such devices can provide a way out of trouble, though there are some basic rules in compensator design.

The steady, regulated wind from the compensator is fed to the chest by a rather broad, but shallow, wind-trunk (made in mdf, like the blower box and compensator). This is fixed to the back wall, out of sight, behind the console.

With all the basic elements designed, there still remained the question of the 14≤ limit on width. Obviously, the blower box and compensator were too wide to keep within the limit, so it was decided to camouflage them, together with the circuit boards, transformer/rectifier unit, and other large components.

In the final design, the three chests were screwed to plates of 3/4≤ ply, previously fixed, in a true vertical position, to the rather uneven stone wall. The console was placed centrally, with the two outer chests (holding the bass pipes) low down on each side. The third chest (containing all the treble pipes) was fixed centrally on the wall, just behind and above the console's music desk. Two bookcases were made to fill completely the gap between the sides of the console and the side walls of the house. They were set rather further forward than would be usual, with a broad top which ran back to the wall behind, effectively disappearing under the side chests.

On the left of the console, the bookcase is a real one, with its top extending over the circuit boards and transformer/rectifier unit hidden behind. To the right of the console the seemingly identical bookcase is, in fact, a dummy. Its shelves and books are only about 11/4≤ deep. (One of the more bizarre scenes in the workshop was that of pushing large quantities of scrap books through the circular saw, leaving their spines and an inch or so of paper and cover. These truncated volumes look convincing when glued, side-by-side, onto the foreshortened bookcase back.) The space under the dummy bookcase top contains the blower box and compensator. The bookcases, blower box, compensator, etc., all sit on 3/4≤ ply panels which have been leveled onto the floor.

Once Alec had installed his real books and ornaments, the organ (while visually dominating such a small room, as it must) blended into its domestic setting beautifully, with a spectacular visual touch being provided by a trumpet-blowing angel, carved in oak, which had been salvaged from a local church altarpiece,

What of the finished product? Naturally, the instrument is a compromise--but then this is true of all but the largest organs. It is a pity, for instance, that there was no room for a swell box, or another rank, but it is a wise builder or player who knows when he has gone as far as space and finances will allow. The wooden Stopt Diapason rank had its top lips lowered, and was re-voiced to produce a charming, rather quaint sound, with none of the original's unattractive, breathy tone. The Open Diapason had to be softened to just short of dullness, and now adds considerable fullness and warmth. The Salicional has made an excellent quiet voice, and is also very useful in its other pitches, where it adds brightness without shrillness. This is most important in a small room, and it is worth noting that, the larger the room (up to cathedral proportions) the brighter and more cutting the treble pipework can, and must, be. But the opposite is true for a small space, where top notes can easily become uncomfortably piercing--hence the lack of Mixtures on small house organs with no swell boxes. Many visiting organists, both professional and amateur, have played Alec's instrument since its completion, and all have been pleasantly surprised by its resources and the fact it is possible to produce satisfying performances of both classical and romantic works, albeit with some ingenuity on the part of the player.

True, it would have been possible to install a "large" electronic with three or four manuals, a wide range of stops and artificial reverberation, and I can see the attraction of such an idea, especially for the player whose interest lies in large-scale, romantic works. But, I cannot imagine anything less convincing than the sound of pedal and manual reeds, with Diapasons and mixtures, echoing with a five-second reverberation, across a room some 16 feet long and 8 feet high. The sound of a small organ in a small room, with no reverberation at all, is an authentic one and has a special charm. Whether it be two or three ranks of pipes offered with mechanical action as two or three stops, or whether, as in this case, the ranks are extended to several "stops," the small domestic instrument has a sound and fascination all its own, and is capable of giving much pleasure, both visually and musically, over many years.

 

Peter Jones will be pleased to receive comments, either on this article, or relating to readers' own experiences, at: The Bungalow, Kennaa, St. John's, Isle of Man, 1M4 3LW, Via United Kingdom

 

Manual I

                  8'            Open Diapason A

                  8'            Stopt Diapason B

                  4'            Salicet C

                  4'            Flute B

                  22/3'    Twelfth C

                  2'            Fifteenth A

                                    Man II/Man I

Manual II

                  8'            Stopt Diapason B

                  8'            Salicional C

                  2'            Salicetina C

                  11/3'    Nineteenth C

Pedal

                  16'         Harmonic Bass B & Q

                  8'            Bass Flute B

                  4'            Fifteenth A

                  2'            Salamine C

                                    Man I/Ped

                                    Man II/Ped

Summary

                  A              Open Diapason 73 pipes

                  B              Stopt Diapason 73 pipes

                  C              Salicional 73 pipes

                  D              Quint 12 pipes

Tech Lines

by Herbert L. Huestis

Herbert L. Huestis is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

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Technical support: real assistance or smoke and mirrors?

There are lots of jokes about technical support, especially in the world of computers and the geeks who know them best. I am most fortunate that my son, well-trained in binary matters, arrives at my home for a waffle breakfast almost every Saturday, and in the process invariably attends to some small problem on Dad's computer. Last week it was slow printers--something about "spooling." Well, he unspooled it, and I thought it was more like untangling a fishing line than de-installing bits and bytes that were out of place in the infernal machine.

Pipe organs embrace the oldest technologies in the form of sticks and levers to make pipes speak, while at the same time tantalizing players with a myriad of buttons and other computerized gizmos that stretch the imagination to new heights of perversity. I was more than a little shocked to learn that Canadian conservatory training for organists "requires" the use of an organ with expression shoes and a combination action for the edification of an advanced student. The implication is that a lowly tracker organ built in the historical style is somehow insufficient for the practice of literature these students need to learn. Before I elicit too many howls of protest, I'll concede that technological "advances" are perceived as a necessary part of the education of the pipe organist, regardless of the many and varied aesthetics of the instrument.

With technological advancement  comes the responsibility of managing resources and, from a professional builder's point of view, making sure that all systems included in a pipe organ work reliably. In the world of business that governs the creation, construction and installation of pipe organs, most high-tech components of the organ are "sourced"--that is, they are made by specialty firms that sell their products directly to organ builders. Builders install these products in their organs and the client (i.e., the player) is the actual "user" of these materials. Put another way, the source company is a "third party supplier," the organ builder is the "contractor," and the church or other institution is the "client," who hires an organist, who in turn is the poor sap with all the questions when things go wrong just as he begins the doxology.

Most suppliers of electronic goods are quick to provide a high level of technical support. This means that they will hold hands with both "users" and "contractors" in assuring that their goods are put to the right application and that, indeed, all the parts are working as they should. Many will go way beyond the mere requirements of a guarantee to stand behind their product. However, there are a few caveats that might help illuminate the situation.

Most organ builders know how to ask the right questions, but the organists whom they serve may not know how to ask for help when it comes to managing the buttons. Often an itinerant technician will discover (if they are listening) that an organist has been "working around" a problem that could easily have been solved if it had been identified.

When a problem is brought up and head scratching ensues, players should feel confident that technical support will be swift, sure, and helpful. Delays and finger pointing do far more damage to a supplier's (and a contractor's) bottom line than the cost of a quick phone call and decent explanation of how to proceed in specific situations. A frustrated technician can only pass on subliminal "Don't buy" messages!

The point of all this is that organ technicians owe it to their clients to evaluate the suppliers of high-tech components of pipe organs with questions relating to technical support before any other aspect of the product is considered. Forget the bells and whistles for a moment--even how many memory levels are available or what the "programming" options are. The first questions that should be asked--and answered satisfactorily--are: "How good is the technical support?" "How prompt is the response to a problem?" Success in this department will be reflected in a better bottom line for the builder and reliability for the player.

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