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99-663: The South Island Organ Company is a manufacturer of pipe organs in Timaru , New Zealand. The company, in business since 1968, has manufactured and restored over 300 pipe organs throughout New Zealand , Australia and Oceania . South Island Organ Company was established by Garth Cattle (from Osmond of Taunton) and Vic Hackworthy (from Hill Norman & Beard of London). During the 1970s employed John Gray, of Hill Norman & Beard, London as voicer , John Hargraves, of John Lee, Feilding as an organ builder and Neil Stocker as an apprentice. The new Company made an immediate impact with

198-419: A fipple , like that of a recorder , whereas reed pipes produce sound via a beating reed , like that of a clarinet or saxophone. Pipes are arranged by timbre and pitch into ranks. A rank is a set of pipes of the same timbre but multiple pitches (one for each note on the keyboard), which is mounted (usually vertically) onto a windchest . The stop mechanism admits air to each rank. For a given pipe to sound,

297-432: A 4′ Octave. When both of these stops are selected and a key (for example, c′) is pressed, two pipes of the same rank will sound: the pipe normally corresponding to the key played (c′), and the pipe one octave above that (c′′). Because the 8′ rank does not have enough pipes to sound the top octave of the keyboard at 4′ pitch, it is common for an extra octave of pipes used only for the borrowed 4′ stop to be added. In this case,

396-402: A chamber generally called the swell box . At least one side of the box is constructed from horizontal or vertical palettes known as swell shades , which operate in a similar way to Venetian blinds ; their position can be adjusted from the console. When the swell shades are open, more sound is heard than when they are closed. Sometimes the shades are exposed, but they are often concealed behind

495-412: A commanding tone is desired but it is impossible to mount an en chamade on the case, a hooded reed is used. This type of pipe stands vertically and has a 90-degree bend at the top which acts to project the sound outward in the same way an en chamade does, but can be placed in the interior of an organ. The pitch produced by an organ pipe is determined in two fundamentally different ways. For a reed pipe it

594-406: A flue pipe is produced with no moving parts, solely from the vibration of air, in the same manner as a recorder or a whistle . Wind from the "flue", or windway is driven over an open window and against a sharp lip called a Labium . By Bernoulli's principle this produces a lower pressure region just below the window. When the vacuum under the window is large enough, the airstream is pulled under

693-539: A full-length 64' Diaphone-Dulzian is installed in the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ in Atlantic City . The Diaphone pipes are used for the bottom 12 or 18 notes of the 16' Diapason rank, and also for its bottom 32' octave, on those few Theatre Organs that go that low. Hope-Jones also developed an imitative version of the diaphone called the diaphonic horn , which had a more reed-like quality than

792-741: A gift to Pepin the Short , King of the Franks , in 757. Pepin's son Charlemagne requested a similar organ for his chapel in Aachen in 812, beginning the pipe organ's establishment in Western European church music. In England, "The first organ of which any detailed record exists was built in Winchester Cathedral in the 10th century. It was a huge machine with 400 pipes, which needed two men to play it and 70 men to blow it, and its sound could be heard throughout

891-480: A helper from Christchurch was also killed. The deceased were a part of a team of eight which was removing the organ of Christchurch's Durham Street Methodist Church which had been badly damaged by an earthquake the previous September, and was reduced to rubble by the February earthquake. Pipe organs The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called wind ) through

990-409: A key is depressed. The stop action causes a rank of pipes to be engaged (i.e. playable by the keys) while a stop is in its "on" position. An action may be mechanical, pneumatic, or electrical (or some combination of these, such as electro-pneumatic). The key action is independent of the stop action, allowing an organ to combine a mechanical key action with an electric stop action. A key action in which

1089-417: A large range of timbres, organ stops exist at different pitch levels. A stop that sounds at unison pitch when a key is depressed is called an 8′ (pronounced "eight-foot") pitch. This refers to the speaking length of the lowest-sounding pipe in that rank, which is approximately eight feet (2.4 m). For the same reason, a stop that sounds an octave higher is at 4′ pitch, and one that sounds two octaves higher

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1188-473: A lighter touch, and more flexibility in the location of the console, within a roughly 50-foot (15-m) limit. This type of construction was used in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and has had only rare application since the 1920s. A more recent development is the electric action, which uses low voltage DC to control the key and/or stop mechanisms. Electricity may control the action indirectly by activating air pressure valves (pneumatics), in which case

1287-437: A long flat surface. Once the metal cools, it is cut into pieces, which are then rolled into shapes around molds called mandrels and soldered together. Thus, the cross-section of a metal pipe is usually circular. The low melting point, solderability and malleability of the organ metal makes the construction of pipes relatively easy. The body of a wooden pipe can be made of either a coniferous wood (softwood) or hardwood, although

1386-427: A payment in 1332 from the clergy of Notre Dame to an organist to perform on the feasts St. Louis and St. Michael. The Notre Dame School also shows how organs could have been used within the increased use of polyphony, which would have allowed for the use of more instrumental voices within the music. According to documentation from the 9th century by Walafrid Strabo, the organ was also used for music during other parts of

1485-511: A pedalboard with thirty or thirty-two notes (two and a half octaves, from C to f′ or g′). A coupler allows the stops of one division to be played from the keyboard of another division. For example, a coupler labelled "Swell to Great" allows the stops drawn in the Swell division to be played on the Great manual. This coupler is a unison coupler, because it causes the pipes of the Swell division to sound at

1584-402: A rank of pipes is based on the size of an open pipe that would produce the same pitch, regardless of the type or size of the actual pipes in the rank. For example, a rank of open pipes labeled as 8 ′ (pronounced "eight-foot") would have a pipe for C two octaves below middle C that is approximately 8 feet long. An 8 ′ stop is said to sound at "unison pitch": the keys on the organ console produce

1683-455: A resonator, much like a reed pipe, but a spring-loaded pallet instigates the vibration instead of a reed. Possessing a powerful bass groundtone, the pipe is generally made of wood and can be voiced at various wind pressures. The diaphone is usually found at 16' and 32' pitches, however there are a few examples of 8' diaphones. There are two 32' Diaphones in Philadelphia's Wanamaker Organ , and

1782-466: A row of facade-pipes or a grill. The most common method of controlling the louvers is the balanced swell pedal . This device is usually placed above the centre of the pedalboard and is configured to rotate away from the organist from a near-vertical position (in which the shades are closed) to a near-horizontal position (in which the shades are open). An organ may also have a similar-looking crescendo pedal , found alongside any expression pedals. Pressing

1881-692: A second new tracker organ at Old St Paul's Cathedral (2/20) Wellington in 1977 and the first notable historic restoration, the 3 manual 1878 Halmshaw & Sons organ at Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament Christchurch (3/27) in 1978. Historic restoration brought with it a new appreciation of tubular pneumatic action organs culminating in the restoration in 1985 of the 1906 Norman & Beard 4 manual concert organ in Wellington Town Hall . The success of this project led to further pneumatic action restorations and overseas interest and in 1990

1980-419: A stop labelled "Open Diapason 8′ " is a single-rank diapason stop sounding at 8′ pitch. A stop labelled "Mixture V" is a five-rank mixture. Sometimes, a single rank of pipes may be able to be controlled by several stops, allowing the rank to be played at multiple pitches or on multiple manuals. Such a rank is said to be unified or borrowed . For example, an 8′ Diapason rank may also be made available as

2079-400: A stopped pipe, such as a gedackt , produces a tone with odd-numbered partials. The tone of a stopped pipe tends to be gentler and sweeter than that of an open pipe, though this is largely at the discretion of the voicer. Certain organ pipes are also mounted horizontally in the shape of a trumpet horn so as to project the sound farther. These pipes are known as en chamades . However, when such

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2178-508: A warmer, richer sound than was common in the 18th century. Organs began to be built in concert halls (such as the organ at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris), and composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns and Gustav Mahler used the organ in their orchestral works. The development of pneumatic and electro-pneumatic key actions in the late 19th century made it possible to locate the console independently of

2277-463: A water U-tube manometer , which gives the pressure as the difference in water levels in the two legs of the manometer. The difference in water level is proportional to the difference in pressure between the wind and the atmosphere. The 0.10 psi above would register as 2.75 inches of water (70  mmAq ). An Italian organ from the Renaissance period may be on only 2.2 inches (56 mm), while (in

2376-691: A way that the divisions of the organ were visibly discernible. Twentieth-century musicologists have retroactively labelled this the Werkprinzip . In France, as in Italy, Spain and Portugal, organs were primarily designed to play alternatim verses rather than accompany congregational singing . The French Classical Organ became remarkably consistent throughout France over the course of the Baroque era, more so than any other style of organ building in history, and standardized registrations developed. This type of instrument

2475-421: A wide diameter will tend to produce a flute tone, a pipe with a medium diameter a diapason tone, and a pipe with a narrow diameter a string tone. A large diameter pipe will favor the fundamental tone and restrict high frequency harmonics, while a narrower diameter favors the high harmonics and suppresses the fundamental. The science of measuring and deciding upon pipe diameters is referred to as pipe scaling , and

2574-415: Is alloyed with tin along with trace amounts of antimony and copper . The percentage of each metal in the alloy influences the characteristics of the resulting pipe. A high proportion of tin results in a slightly brighter colour (optical colour, not timbre). In addition, high amounts of tin give a gleaming and long-lasting polish, which may be desired if the pipe is clearly visible. The cost of each metal

2673-408: Is also a factor, as tin is more expensive than lead. Cost considerations may also lead to the use of the inferior rolled zinc especially for the lower tones that take a lot of material. In addition, pipes have been made of many metals, including copper , aluminium , gold electroplate , silver , brass , and iron . Metal pipes are generally made by first casting the desired lead alloy onto

2772-438: Is at 2′ pitch. Likewise, a stop that sounds an octave lower than unison pitch is at 16′ pitch, and one that sounds two octaves lower is at 32′ pitch. Stops of different pitch levels are designed to be played simultaneously. The label on a stop knob or rocker tab indicates the stop's name and its pitch in feet. Stops that control multiple ranks display a Roman numeral indicating the number of ranks present, instead of pitch. Thus,

2871-459: Is credited with inventing the organ in the 3rd century BC. He devised an instrument called the hydraulis , which delivered a wind supply maintained through water pressure to a set of pipes. The hydraulis was played in the arenas of the Roman Empire . The pumps and water regulators of the hydraulis were replaced by an inflated leather bag in the 2nd century AD, and true bellows began to appear in

2970-441: Is determined mainly by the mechanical properties of the reed and the length of the protruding part. For the flue pipes it is determined by the shape of the air column inside the pipe and whether the column is open at the end. For those pipes the pitch is a function of its length, the wavelength of the sound produced by an open pipe being approximately twice its length. A pipe half the length of another will sound one octave higher. If

3069-652: Is one of the oldest instruments still used in European classical music that has commonly been credited as having derived from Greece. Its earliest predecessors were built in ancient Greece in the 3rd century BC. The word organ is derived from the Ancient Greek ὄργανον ( órganon ), a generic term for an instrument or a tool, via the Latin organum , an instrument similar to a portative organ used in ancient Roman circus games. The Greek engineer Ctesibius of Alexandria

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3168-494: Is used to connect the console to the windchest, electric actions allow the console to be separated at any practical distance from the rest of the organ, and to be movable. Electric stop actions can be controlled at the console by stop knobs, by pivoted tilting tablets, or rocker tabs. These are simple switches, like wall switches for room lights. Some may include electromagnets for automatic setting or resetting when combinations are selected. Computers have made it possible to connect

3267-599: The urghun (organ) as one of the typical instruments of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire . It was often used in the Hippodrome in the imperial capital of Constantinople . A Syrian visitor describes a pipe organ powered by two servants pumping "bellows like a blacksmith's" played while guests ate at the emperor's Christmas dinner in Constantinople in 911. The first Western European pipe organ with "great leaden pipes"

3366-459: The French term fonds ) sound of an organ is composed of varying combinations of these three tonal groups, depending upon the particular organ and the literature being played. The different sounds of these tonal families of pipes arise from their individual construction. The tone of a flue pipe is affected by the size and shape of the pipes as well as the material out of which it is made. A pipe with

3465-580: The Organ Reform Movement . In the late 20th century, organ builders began to incorporate digital components into their key, stop, and combination actions. Besides making these mechanisms simpler and more reliable, this also makes it possible to record and play back an organist's performance using the MIDI protocol. In addition, some organ builders have incorporated digital (electronic) stops into their pipe organs. The electronic organ developed throughout

3564-545: The musical scale . The greater the length of the pipe, the lower its resulting pitch will be. The timbre and volume of the sound produced by a pipe depends on the volume of air delivered to the pipe and the manner in which it is constructed and voiced, the latter adjusted by the builder to produce the desired tone and volume. Hence a pipe's volume cannot be readily changed while playing. Organ pipes are divided into flue pipes and reed pipes according to their design and timbre. Flue pipes produce sound by forcing air through

3663-476: The organ pipes selected from a keyboard . Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks , each of which has a common timbre , volume, and construction throughout the keyboard compass . Most organs have many ranks of pipes of differing pitch, timbre, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops . A pipe organ has one or more keyboards (called manuals ) played by

3762-602: The 12th century there is evidence for permanently installed organs existing in religious settings such as the Abbey of Fécamp and other locations throughout Europe. Several innovations occurred to organs in the Middle Ages, such as the creation of the portative and the positive organ. The portative organs were small and created for secular use and made of light weight delicate materials that would have been easy for one individual to transport and play on their own. The portative organ

3861-587: The 13th century, the portatives represented in the miniatures of illuminated manuscripts appear to have real keyboards with balanced keys, as in the Cantigas de Santa Maria . It is difficult to directly determine when larger organs were first installed in Europe. An early detailed eyewitness account from Wulfstan of Winchester gives an idea of what organs were like prior to the 13th century, after which more records of large church organs exist. In his account, he describes

3960-418: The 20th century. Some pipe organs were replaced by digital organs because of their lower purchase price, smaller physical size, and minimal maintenance requirements. In the early 1970s, Rodgers Instruments pioneered the hybrid organ, an electronic instrument that incorporates real pipes; other builders such as Allen Organs and Johannus Orgelbouw have since built hybrid organs. Allen Organs first introduced

4059-663: The Blockwerk remained grouped together under a single stop control; these stops developed into mixtures . During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the organ's tonal colors became more varied. Organ builders fashioned stops that imitated various instruments, such as the krummhorn and the viola da gamba . Builders such as Arp Schnitger , Jasper Johannsen, Zacharias Hildebrandt and Gottfried Silbermann constructed instruments that were in themselves artistic, displaying both exquisite craftsmanship and beautiful sound. These organs featured well-balanced mechanical key actions, giving

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4158-605: The Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th or 7th century AD. Some 400 pieces of a hydraulis from the year 228 AD were revealed during the 1931 archaeological excavations in the former Roman town Aquincum , province of Pannonia (present day Budapest ), which was used as a music instrument by the Aquincum fire dormitory; a modern replica produces an enjoyable sound. The 9th century Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 913), in his lexicographical discussion of instruments, cited

4257-553: The French manner with grander reeds and mixtures, though still without pedal keyboards. The Echo division began to be enclosed in the early 18th century, and in 1712, Abraham Jordan claimed his "swelling organ" at St Magnus-the-Martyr to be a new invention. The swell box and the independent pedal division appeared in English organs beginning in the 18th century. During the Romantic period,

4356-538: The Labium lip. Then the process works in reverse, with a low pressure region forming over the Labium which pulls the airstream to the other side again. This 'fluttering' airflow creates high and low pressure waves within the pipe's air column. A high and a low pressure wave form a single "cycle" of the pipe's tone. (See Wind Instrument .) Flue pipes generally belong to one of three tonal families: flutes , diapasons (or principals ), and strings . The basic "foundation" (from

4455-862: The Principale were 8', the "Vigesimanona" was ½'). The highest ranks "broke back", their smallest pipes replaced by pipes pitched an octave lower to produce a kind of composite treble mixture. In England, many pipe organs were destroyed or removed from churches during the English Reformation of the 16th century and the Commonwealth period. Some were relocated to private homes. At the Restoration , organ builders such as Renatus Harris and "Father" Bernard Smith brought new organ-building ideas from continental Europe. English organs evolved from small one- or two-manual instruments into three or more divisions disposed in

4554-456: The Sea (1899, 3/38) West Melbourne. South Island Organ Company operates out of its third factory built in 1985 at Washdyke Industrial Park. The Company regularly tunes and maintains over 300 pipe organs over Australasia. On 22 February 2011, an earthquake struck Christchurch , New Zealand taking the lives of South Island Organ Company's foreman Neil Stocker and factory hand Scott Lucy. Paul Dunlop,

4653-554: The Swell super octave, which adds the octave above what is played on the Swell to itself), or act as a coupler to another keyboard (for example, the Swell super-octave to Great, which adds to the Great manual the ranks of the Swell division an octave above what is played). In addition, larger organs may use unison off couplers, which prevent the stops pulled in a particular division from sounding at their normal pitch. These can be used in combination with octave couplers to create innovative aural effects, and can also be used to rearrange

4752-700: The United States, two in a private collection in West Virginia and one in a private collection in Virginia. The image at left shows the Wilhelmy American Flag Glass Pipe Organ that was created as a part of a Memorial Proposal for Ground Zero after the events of September 11, 2001. The bodies of organ pipes are generally made in three shapes: cylindrical, conical, or rectangular. Cylindrical pipes are simple cylinders , while conical pipes are in

4851-419: The action is electro-pneumatic . In such actions, an electromagnet attracts a small pilot valve which lets wind go to a bellows (the "pneumatic" component) which opens the pallet. When electricity operates the action directly without the assistance of pneumatics, it is commonly referred to as direct electric action . In this type, the electromagnet's armature carries a disc pallet. When electrical wiring alone

4950-439: The bottom than at the top. The internal shape of the pipe is a major factor in tone color. The end of the pipe opposite the reed or mouth may be either open or closed (also known as stopped ). A closed flue pipe with a uniform cross-section sounds an octave lower than a similar open pipe of the same length. Also, such an open pipe produces a tone in which both the even-numbered and the odd-numbered partials are present, while

5049-473: The church service—the prelude and postlude the main examples—and not just for the effect of polyphony with the choir. Other possible instances of this were short interludes played on the organ either in between parts of the church service or during choral songs, but they were not played at the same time as the choir was singing. This shows that by this point in time organs were fully used within church services and not just in secular settings. Organs from earlier in

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5148-564: The city." Beginning in the 12th century, the organ began to evolve into a complex instrument capable of producing different timbres . By the 17th century, most of the sounds available on the modern classical organ had been developed. At that time, the pipe organ was the most complex human-made device —a distinction it retained until it was displaced by the telephone exchange in the late 19th century. Pipe organs are installed in churches, synagogues, concert halls, schools, mansions, other public buildings and in private properties. They are used in

5247-532: The company's first project in Australia, transplanting and rebuilding the 1868/1891/1953 (3/32) George Fincham organ from St Kilda Blind Institute for Paton Memorial Uniting at Deepdene. This was soon followed by the restoration of the George Fincham organs at Church of All Nations (1876, 2/13), Carlton and Trinity Uniting (1884, 2/14), Brighton in 1992, and in 1993 Victoria's prime historic organ at St Mary Star of

5346-485: The console and windchests using narrow data cables instead of the much larger bundles of simple electric cables. Embedded computers in the console and near the windchests communicate with each other via various complex multiplexing syntaxes, comparable to MIDI. The wind system consists of the parts that produce, store, and deliver wind to the pipes. Pipe organ wind pressures are on the order of 0.10 psi (0.69 kPa). Organ builders traditionally measure organ wind using

5445-569: The crescendo pedal forward cumulatively activates the stops of the organ, starting with the softest and ending with the loudest; pressing it backward reverses this process. Organ pipe Organ pipes are generally made out of either metal or wood . Very rarely, glass , porcelain , plastic , paper , Papier-mâché , or even stone pipes may be seen. A historical organ in the Philippines has pipes made exclusively of bamboo . Metal pipes are usually made of lead ; for increased rigidity it

5544-484: The diaphone and was voiced on lower wind pressures. Wurlitzer built a version of the diaphonic horn for their theater organs at 32' and 16' pitches with huge wooden resonators as extensions of its Diaphonic diapason, and at 16' with metal resonators as an extension of its smaller-scale Open diapason. The Austin Organ Company also developed a metal diaphone at 16' pitch known as a Magnaton. Due to its penetrating tone,

5643-452: The drum, chimes , celesta , and harp have also been imitated in organ building. The controls available to the organist, including the keyboards , couplers , expression pedals , stops, and registration aids are accessed from the console. The console is either built into the organ case or detached from it. Keyboards played by the hands are known as manuals (from the Latin mănus , meaning "hand"). The keyboard played by

5742-497: The electronic organ in 1937 and in 1971 created the first digital organ using CMOS technology borrowed from NASA which created the digital pipe organ using sound recorded from actual speaking pipes and incorporating the sounds electronically within the memory of the digital organ thus having real pipe organ sound without the actual organ pipes. A pipe organ contains one or more sets of pipes, a wind system, and one or more keyboards. The pipes produce sound when pressurized air produced by

5841-406: The expected pitch (e.g. the key for middle C causes a middle C pipe to speak), like a piano. In a rank of stopped pipes, the lowest pipe is 4 feet in length but sounds at unison pitch—that is, at the same pitch as an 8 ′ open pipe—so it is known as an 8 ′ stop. Reed pipes are also labeled the same as that of an open pipe with the same pitch, regardless of the actual length of the pipe. The sound of

5940-421: The extreme) solo stops in some large 20th-century organs may require up to 50 inches (1,300 mm). In isolated, extreme cases, some stops have been voiced on 100 inches (2,500 mm). With the exception of water organs , playing the organ before the invention of motors required at least one person to operate the bellows . When signaled by the organist, a calcant would operate a set of bellows, supplying

6039-506: The feet is a pedalboard (from the Latin pēs , pĕdis , meaning "foot"). Every organ has at least one manual (most have two or more), and most have a pedalboard. Each keyboard is named for a particular division of the organ (a group of ranks) and generally controls only the stops from that division. The range of the keyboards has varied widely across time and between countries. Most current specifications call for two or more manuals with sixty-one notes (five octaves, from C to c″″) and

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6138-428: The first 32' contre-bombarde was installed in the great organ of Nancy Cathedral, France. Enclosed divisions became common, and registration aids were developed to make it easier for the organist to manage the great number of stops. The desire for louder, grander organs required that the stops be voiced on a higher wind pressure than before. As a result, a greater force was required to overcome the wind pressure and depress

6237-535: The full rank of pipes (now an extended rank ) is one octave longer than the keyboard. Special unpitched stops also appear in some organs. Among these are the Zimbelstern (a wheel of rotating bells), the nightingale (a pipe submerged in a small pool of water, creating the sound of a bird warbling when wind is admitted), and the effet d'orage ("thunder effect", a device that sounds the lowest bass pipes simultaneously). Standard orchestral percussion instruments such as

6336-496: The hands, and a pedal clavier played by the feet; each keyboard controls its own division (group of stops). The keyboard(s), pedalboard, and stops are housed in the organ's console . The organ's continuous supply of wind allows it to sustain notes for as long as the corresponding keys are pressed, unlike the piano and harpsichord whose sound begins to dissipate immediately after a key is depressed. The smallest portable pipe organs may have only one or two dozen pipes and one manual;

6435-460: The keys are connected to the windchests by only rods and levers is a mechanical or tracker action . When the organist depresses a key, the corresponding rod (called a tracker) pulls open its pallet, allowing wind to enter the pipe. In a mechanical stop action, each stop control operates a valve for a whole rank of pipes. When the organist selects a stop, the valve allows wind to reach the selected rank. The first kind of control used for this purpose

6534-434: The keys. To solve this problem, Cavaillé-Coll configured the English " Barker lever " to assist in operating the key action. This is, essentially, a servomechanism that uses wind pressure from the air plenum, to augment the force that is exerted by the player's fingers. Organ builders began to prefer specifications with fewer mixtures and high-pitched stops, more 8′ and 16′ stops and wider pipe scales. These practices created

6633-430: The largest organs may have over 33,000 pipes and as many as seven manuals. A list of some of the most notable and largest pipe organs in the world can be viewed at List of pipe organs . A ranking of the largest organs in the world—based on the criterion constructed by Michał Szostak , i.e. 'the number of ranks and additional equipment managed from a single console'—can be found in the quarterly magazine The Organ and in

6732-420: The longest pipe, C, is 8 feet (2.4 m) in length, the pipe one octave higher will be 4 feet (1.2 m) long, and two octaves above (middle C) will be 2 feet (0.61 m) long. A closed (stopped) pipe produces a sound one octave lower than an open pipe. For example, a stopped pipe 4 feet (1.2 m) long will produce the same pitch as an open pipe 8 feet long: two octaves below middle C. The nomenclature of

6831-555: The lower section of the pipe (comprising the metal foot (on some pipes), cap, block and mouth) will nearly always be made from hardwood to provide a precise edge for the pipe's mouth. Using screws and glue, the pipes are assembled from wooden pieces of various shapes and sizes. In contrast with the circular cross-section of a metal pipe, the cross-section of a wooden pipe is most commonly square or rectangular. Glass pipes have been created using warm glass and stained glass techniques by Xaver Wilhelmy . Three Wilhelmy glass ranks exist in

6930-405: The medieval period are evidenced by surviving keyboards and casings, but no pipes. Until the mid-15th century, organs had no stop controls. Each manual controlled ranks at many pitches, known as the "Blockwerk." Around 1450, controls were designed that allowed the ranks of the Blockwerk to be played individually. These devices were the forerunners of modern stop actions. The higher-pitched ranks of

7029-574: The mid 1970s, in addition to building new pipe organs and rebuilding old instruments, South Island Organ Company began promoting conservation and preservation of New Zealand historic organs. This developed from a growing realization of the fragility of the resource in a largely unregulated market, and a conviction that the future of the organ was as a work of original artistry and craftsmanship. By 1980 South Island Organ Company had built, rebuilt, and restored seven Cathedral organs in New Zealand, including

7128-594: The online journal Vox Humana . The origins of the pipe organ can be traced back to the hydraulis in Ancient Greece , in the 3rd century BC, in which the wind supply was created by the weight of displaced water in an airtight container. By the 6th or 7th century AD, bellows were used to supply Byzantine organs with wind. A pipe organ with "great leaden pipes" was sent to the West by the Byzantine emperor Constantine V as

7227-458: The order of the manuals to make specific pieces easier to play. Enclosure refers to a system that allows for the control of volume without requiring the addition or subtraction of stops. In a two-manual organ with Great and Swell divisions, the Swell will be enclosed. In larger organs, parts or all of the Choir and Solo divisions may also be enclosed. The pipes of an enclosed division are placed in

7326-485: The organ as "the king of instruments", a characterization still frequently applied. The Halberstadt organ was the first instrument to use a chromatic key layout across its three manuals and pedalboard, although the keys were wider than on modern instruments. The width of the keys was slightly over two and a half inches, wide enough to be struck down by the fist, as the early keys are reported to have invariably been manipulated. It had twenty bellows operated by ten men, and

7425-569: The organ became more symphonic, capable of creating a gradual crescendo. This was made possible by voicing stops in such a way that families of tone that historically had only been used separately could now be used together, creating an entirely new way of approaching organ registration. New technologies and the work of organ builders such as Eberhard Friedrich Walcker , Aristide Cavaillé-Coll , and Henry Willis made it possible to build larger organs with more stops, more variation in sound and timbre, and more divisions. For instance, as early as in 1808,

7524-448: The organ with wind. Rather than hire a calcant, an organist might practise on some other instrument such as a clavichord or harpsichord . By the mid-19th-century bellows were also operated by water engines , steam engines or gasoline engines. Starting in the 1860s bellows were gradually replaced by rotating turbines which were later directly connected to electrical motors. This made it possible for organists to practice regularly on

7623-477: The organ. Most organs, both new and historic, have electric blowers , although some can still be operated manually. The wind supplied is stored in one or more regulators to maintain a constant pressure in the windchests until the action allows it to flow into the pipes. Each stop usually controls one rank of pipes, although mixtures and undulating stops (such as the Voix céleste ) control multiple ranks. The name of

7722-603: The organist precise control over the pipe speech. Schnitger's organs featured particularly distinctive reed timbres and large Pedal and Rückpositiv divisions. Different national styles of organ building began to develop, often due to changing political climates. In the Netherlands, the organ became a large instrument with several divisions, doubled ranks, and mounted cornets. The organs of northern Germany also had more divisions, and independent pedal divisions became increasingly common. Organ makers began designing their cases in such

7821-403: The pallet opens, wind pressure augments tension of the pallet spring, but once the pallet opens, only the spring tension is felt at the key. This sudden decrease of key pressure against the finger provides a "breakaway" feel. A later development was the tubular-pneumatic action , which uses changes of pressure within lead tubing to operate pneumatic valves throughout the instrument. This allowed

7920-489: The performance of classical music, sacred music , secular music , and popular music . In the early 20th century, pipe organs were installed in theaters to accompany the screening of films during the silent movie era; in municipal auditoria, where orchestral transcriptions were popular; and in the homes of the wealthy. The beginning of the 21st century has seen a resurgence in installations in concert halls. A substantial organ repertoire spans over 500 years. The organ

8019-597: The pipes, greatly expanding the possibilities in organ design. Electric stop actions were also developed, which allowed sophisticated combination actions to be created. Beginning in the early 20th century in Germany and in the mid-20th century in the United States, organ builders began to build historically inspired instruments modeled on Baroque organs. They returned to building mechanical key actions, voicing with lower wind pressures and thinner pipe scales, and designing specifications with more mixture stops. This became known as

8118-455: The portative and positive organs to the installation of larger organs in major churches such as the cathedrals of Winchester and Notre Dame of Paris. In this period, organs began to be used in secular and religious settings. The introduction of organ into religious settings is ambiguous, most likely because the original position of the Church was that instrumental music was not to be allowed. By

8217-458: The rebuilding of St Johns, Invercargill (1931 3/37 HN&B/Lewis), the restoration of All Saints (1877 2/18 Bevington) and the rebuilding of St Matthew's (1879 3/26 Bevington) Dunedin and Christchurch Cathedral Nelson organs in the first two years. These soon led to our first new organ at Craighead School (2/15), Timaru in 1970 and in 1973 the first 4 manual organ built in New Zealand for many years at St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin (4/61 Willis). In

8316-566: The resonator pipe expands outward to conical, the geometry allows the production of both even- and odd-numbered partials, resulting in the fuller tones of Trumpet and Oboe stops. These are quite uncommon; see "Free reeds" in the "Reed pipe" article . The diaphone is a unique organ pipe. Uncommon in church and concert pipe organs, they are quite common in Theatre Organs. Invented by Robert Hope-Jones around 1900, it has characteristics of both flue pipes and reed pipes. The pipe speaks through

8415-481: The resulting measurements are referred to as the scale of the pipe. The sound of a reed pipe is produced by a beating reed : wind is directed towards a curved piece of brass (the reed). A partial vacuum is created by higher velocity air flowing under the reed which causes it to be pulled closed against a hard surface called the shallot . This shuts off the vacuum and allows the reed to spring open again. A tuned resonator extends above this assembly and reinforces

8514-401: The same pitch as the keys played on the Great manual. Coupling allows stops from different divisions to be combined to create various tonal effects. It also allows every stop of the organ to be played simultaneously from one manual. Octave couplers , which add the pipes an octave above (super-octave) or below (sub-octave) each note that is played, may operate on one division only (for example,

8613-560: The same year organbuilder Gerald Green (of Hill Norman & Beard, Lewes) joined the company. By 1973 South Island Organ Company purchased both existing South Island sole-trader organ builders and built a new factory at Washdyke . In 1974, South Island Organ Company extended to the North Island of New Zealand. The first North Island installation being a new organ for Our Lady of Lourdes in Palmerston North (2/3 rank extension). In

8712-426: The shape and volume of the resonator, as well as the thickness and shape of the reed), a reed pipe can produce a wide variety of tonal colors. This allows reed stops to imitate historical musical instruments, such as the krumhorn or the regal . Because the resonator is partially stopped/closed by the reed, odd-numbered partials/harmonics are dominant (in the hollow tones of Krumhorn and Clarinet stops, for example). If

8811-448: The shape of a tapering or expanding cone . Rectangular pipes form cuboid shapes with either a square or rectangular cross-section when viewed from above. There are some irregular shapes as well: the Flûte triangulaire, for example, has a triangular cross-section when viewed from above. In addition, a cylindrical or rectangular pipe can be tapered : that is, it can be made to be wider at

8910-593: The sound of the organ: "among them bells outstanding in tone and size, and an organ [sounding] through bronze pipes prepared according to the musical proportions." This is one of the earliest accounts of organs in Europe and also indicates that the organ was large and more permanent than other evidence would suggest. The first organ documented to have been permanently installed was one installed in 1361 in Halberstadt , Germany. The first documented permanent organ installation likely prompted Guillaume de Machaut to describe

9009-540: The sound produced. The principle is the same as that of the orchestral clarinet . The pitch of a reed pipe is determined primarily by the length of the reed but the volume of air in the resonator supports that frequency. Most reed pipes have a slide to adjust the vibrating length of the reed to fine-tune it. Because of the precision required in the making of the vibrating reed, resonator pipe and its accompanying parts, reed pipes are more complicated to manufacture than flue pipes. By altering any of several parameters (including

9108-448: The stop governing the pipe's rank must be engaged, and the key corresponding to its pitch must be depressed. Ranks of pipes are organized into groups called divisions. Each division generally is played from its own keyboard and conceptually comprises an individual instrument within the organ. An organ contains two actions, or systems of moving parts: the keys, and the stops. The key action causes wind to be admitted into an organ pipe while

9207-737: The stop reflects not only the stop's timbre and construction, but also the style of the organ in which it resides. For example, the names on an organ built in the north German Baroque style generally will be derived from the German language, while the names of similar stops on an organ in the French Romantic style will usually be French. Most countries tend to use only their own languages for stop nomenclature. English-speaking nations as well as Japan are more receptive to foreign nomenclature. Stop names are not standardized: two otherwise identical stops from different organs may have different names. To facilitate

9306-399: The wind pressure was so high that the player had to use the full strength of their arm to hold down a key. Records of other organs permanently installed and used in worship services in the late 13th and 14th centuries are found in large cathedrals such as Notre Dame , the latter documenting organists hired to by the church and the installation of larger and permanent organs. The earliest is

9405-455: The wind system passes through them. An action connects the keyboards to the pipes. Stops allow the organist to control which ranks of pipes sound at a given time. The organist operates the stops and the keyboards from the console . Organ pipes are made from either wood or metal and produce sound ("speak") when air under pressure ("wind") is directed through them. As one pipe produces a single pitch , multiple pipes are necessary to accommodate

9504-400: Was a "flue-piped keyboard instrument, played with one hand while the other operated the bellows." Its portability made the portative useful for the accompaniment of both sacred and secular music in a variety of settings. The positive organ was larger than the portative organ but was still small enough to be portable and used in a variety of settings like the portative organ. Toward the middle of

9603-433: Was a draw stop knob , which the organist selects by pulling (or drawing) toward himself/herself. Pulling all of the knobs thus activates all available pipes, and is the origin of the idiom " to pull out all the stops ". More modern stop selectors, utilized in electric actions, are ordinary electrical switches and/or magnetic valves operated by a rocker tab. Tracker action has been used from antiquity to modern times. Before

9702-423: Was elaborately described by Dom Bédos de Celles in his treatise L'art du facteur d'orgues ( The Art of Organ Building ). The Italian Baroque organ was often a single-manual instrument, without pedals. It was built on a full diapason chorus of octaves and fifths. The stop-names indicated the pitch relative to the fundamental ("Principale") and typically reached extremely short nominal pipe-lengths (for example, if

9801-460: Was sent from Constantinople to the West by the Byzantine emperor Constantine V as a gift to Pepin the Short King of the Franks in 757. Pepin's son Charlemagne requested a similar organ for his chapel in Aachen in 812, beginning its establishment in Western European church music. From 800 to the 1400s, the use and construction of organs developed in significant ways, from the invention of

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