Klarinet Archive - Posting 000436.txt from 1999/04

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: Organ Pipes; was, Materials when decoupled from the performer
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 21:02:01 -0400

> On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
> And, oddly enough, the ranks of pipes that are made of wood on the
> lower notes switch to metal on the higher notes.
>
> > Not on every organ. My wife is an organist, and I have become her
> > emergency tuner. I would say that in most of the organs I have seen
> > there are ranks in which all the pipes are wood.
>
> > Probably either a classier organ than I helped tune, or those were
> > the 16-foot stops. Once the pipes are getting down to pencil size,
> > aren't they generally metal?

I took another look at the organ in our church, an E. F. Walcker, built in
Germany in 1989. Also, I checked with our professor of organ, who has
probably investigated the inner workings of more instruments than just
about anyone. I'm now prepared to say that it is extremely rare that a
rank of pipes which is primarily of wood would include some metal pipes
for the highest pitches. One exception is in one of the organs on our
campus, a Holtcamp built in 1965. There is one wooden rank, a 16' rank
which has a few metal pipes for its highest 5 or 6 notes.

Wooden pipes can be very small indeed. In a portative organ which we
have, some wooden pipes have a speaking length of less than one inch, and
a total length of about 3.5 to 4 inches.

The problem is in part related to a similar situation which exists for the
clarinet. During changes of temperature, the rate of change of pitch of
wooden and metal pipes varies considerably. This is one of the reasons
why saxophonists who double on clarinet sometimes have a problem when
playing in cold orchestra pits.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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