Klarinet Archive - Posting 001368.txt from 2004/03

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] RE: pipe organs (was: To Lelia Loban.... I think)
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 10:25:49 -0500

From: ormondtoby@-----.net

<<<Is 28 ranks, 2000+ pipes, and a 25 hp turbine blowing into a 22" main
'duct' truly special as far as organs are concerned?>>>

I'm not an organist, but I have been married to one for 44 years, and as
a result have heard many organ recitals, looked at and inside many
organs, been on a committee charged with evaluating organs and making
recommendations to a church, and have lectured on "The Acoustics of Pipe
Organs." Commenting on only the number of pipes and ranks, I would say
that an organ such as you describe would be considered a modest-sized
instrument, perhaps in the range that might be considered medium-sized,
but toward the lower end of that spectrum. A very large pipe organ
might have 8,000 pipes or more, and might have over 50 ranks of pipes.
A small, home-sized portative organ might have two, three or four ranks.
Still, there are many factors to consider in addition to the physical
size of the instrument, including how the pipes are voiced. A small
organ can play very loud, if that is what is desired. The determining
factor is the pressure of the air, measured in inches or millimeters of
water. In other words, the question is, if the pressure of air in a
given wind chest were applied to one end of a curved glass tube, how far
would a quantity of water in the other end of the tube be raised? That
can vary considerably within a single organ due to the proportions of
the various air ducts in the instrument.

The question of the resources or range of sounds that can be produced
comes into play more as a matter of determining what literature can be
played on the instrument. The organ works of Bach generally were
written for organs smaller than the one you describe. However, if you
wanted to play the repertoire of the French late Romantic era, or some
20th century literature, you might wish for still more sounds.

BTW, if you are on an organ advisory committee for a church, the most
difficult issue you will have to deal with is what system of tuning or
temperament will be chosen. Organists are as divided on this issue as
clarinetists are on the relative "darkness" or "brightness" of sound of
various clarinets.

Please don't consider this a definitive answer to your question. For
one thing, my answer is necessarily too brief; for another, I am a
player of woodwind instruments, not the organ. Many books have been
written on the subject you raise.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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