Pipe Organ 101
Do you notice that often when a good thing is a part of our lives continuously we rarely think much about it? Well, it may be like that for you with our church pipe organ. I confess to not giving much thought to the actual instrument and its workings. So, how about a short “Pipe Organ 101” article?
Since each organ is a “one of a kind”, this article is about our specific instrument. As you may know, our organ is a Reuter and was built sometime before 1952 and was dedicated on Sunday, March 23rd 1952. A pipe organ is all built by hand and can take years to complete.
The first thing we easily see is the Console which is a large cabinet containing some of the parts of the organ. In the Console our organ has three Keyboards. Two of these keyboards are played with the hands and one with the feet. So if it appears that the organist is unable to sit still they may just be doing a bit of a dance while playing.
Each Keyboard has a name. The two for the hands are the Swell Manual (the upper one) and the Great Manual(the lower one). These two Keyboards look like the keyboard on a piano. The keyboard played with the feet is called the Pedalboard and is much larger than the keyboards for the hands.
Under the Swell and Great Manuals are four buttons for each manual called Pistons. These are also called Pre-Sets because you set them ahead of time for the combination of Stops you want to hear. These are great because the organist can change a whole group of sounds quickly by just pressing one of these buttons. A good time to use one of these Pre-Sets is after the Offertory when we go right into the Doxology.
The second thing you notice on the organ is the panels of knobs on both sides of the upper keyboards. These knobs are called Stops and turn on the different sounds or voices of the organ which come from the Pipes. The knobs on the right side are for the Great Manual and some of the knobs on the left are for the Swell Manual and some for the Pedalboard. We recently purchased a new stop for our organ with the generosity of Levan and Mary Thurman Thanks Levan and Mary!
Down by the Pedalboard is an opening large enough to put both feet in that contains two large pedals. One is called the Expression Pedal and the other the Crescendo Pedal. To the right of this opening is a knob called the Toe Stud.
The Expression Pedal controls the loudness by opening and closing the vertical wooden Slats on the wall between the Pipe Room and the Choir Loft. When the slats are closed, the sound is quiet and distant. As the slats open, the sound grows louder and seems to move closer.
The Crescendo Pedal turns on all the Stops on the Great Manual one at a time as it is opened. Bob Daniel just put a new light where the person playing the organ can better see all the pedals. Thanks Bob!
You might notice the Organ Bench is made so it can fit over the Pedalboard and be moved closer to or farther from the Keyboards depending on how long your legs are. There is a shelf under the Bench to store things in (like music, slippers or a snack). Our Bench has a back rest so the Organist can lean their weary back on it. Jerry Cole added this for us a couple of years ago. Thanks Jerry!
Behind the Organ Console is a room that we call the Pipe Room. It is full of, what else?, Pipes. One Pipe can play only one pitch or note. So if we pull on the Trompette 8’ Stop there must be a Pipe for each note we can play. This row of Pipes is called a Rank. One Rank usually equals one Stop. This is why there are so many Pipes. Next month I’ll count them for you. All the musical sounds you hear come from the Pipes in this room. Some Pipes are made of metal and some are wood. Some are round and some are square. Some have caps and some don’t. Some are straight up and down and some are tapered. It would be a good thing if everyone could see them because they are very nice to look at.
The Pipes make the different sounds but without air or Wind getting into the Pipes there would be no sound at all. An electric blower, which is in the basement in a box the size Mildred Wilde could stand up in, blows air into a Reservoir and then into the Bellows, which is under the Pipes. Then the wind is blown into the Windchest, which is directly under the Pipes. From there the Wind can flow into the Pipes so they can speak.
When the Organ is turned on you can hear the Wind fill the Bellows and the Organ is then ready to “Make a Joyful Noise”!
Next month for those of you interested, there will be a little more information. In the meantime see if you can hear some of what is happening from up there. Do you see the slats opening and closing? If you sit in some places in the sanctuary you can see some of the pipes. This Sunday the light will be on in the Pipe Room for anyone who would like to take a look after church.
Patricia (who sometimes dances sitting down)
