Our church organ has a somewhat limited number of stops and several problems which mean it's quite hard to get much variety.

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=A00849

The Lieblich Bourdon on the pedal doesn't work. The mixtures on the great are a bit deafening. The swell Oboe is a bit feeble, and only really useful as a quiet solo stop. The Sw to Gt couplers don't come through properly, and the Sw sub to Gt also doesn't come through well.

For hymns, you normally need the stopped diapason and both 4fts on the sw; the open diapason and mixtures are too loud, and the dulciana too quiet.

Now, what I'm really looking for is some new ideas for registration, both for hymns and other things; I'm getting bored!

Obviously, we can't afford to have it repaired, and we don't want to get rid of it, so we're stuck (honestly, it does make a nice sound, but it's hard work to play!).

Any suggestions? Also any suggestions for reasonably simple pieces which might suit the combinations (the pedals make a lot of noise!)

David

What do you mean 'The Sw to Gt couplers don't come through properly, and the Sw sub to Gt also doesn't come through well'? Is it that they do not work or that you cannot hear the effect (from the console).

The specification looks much better [in print] than the 2 organs I played in my teens and on which I did ARCO. However I assume the action and leather work has passed its sell-by date. When you say the Open diap is too loud, who says this? Is it just loud for you at the console. Have you heard it away from the console?

If the organ worked properly (and guessing that it is a smallish church; here are some combinations I'd use:

Open Diapason alone (though you say it's too loud)
Using the stop numbers from the NPOR site...

5 + 6
5 7 9 13
5 6 7 9 12 13 14 + 15 (and try deducting things from this)
If you use 5 and 15 with suboctave you could play Peeters' Aria! I think the quiet pedal Bourdon will be the same pipes as the Bourdon but wiht a valve to cut down the wind pressure (this is quite common on a small organ) could you get it fixed?

Do you mean the pedalBOARD makes a lot of noise?

Try http://website.lineone.net/~webduck/music/meditation.htm or http://website.lineone.net/~webduck/music/jenny.htm

Remember that the great principal played down an octave can make a good solo stop in place of Open Diap. Bach's Liebster Jesu with 10 + 11 for LH could work.

Can you have a vertical board placed in front of the Mixture pipes to cut down the sound? This was done on one organ I played!!

Sorry, I mean that the sound doesn't fully come through so it's out of tune.It tends to drown everything else on the organ and the congregation out.Yes, it sounds like a typewriter. Thanks, I hadn't thought of that so will try it.

Possibly not strong enough for a hymn, but have you tried 8' and 2' on the swell?

Will try - it might be OK for an evening service. The trouble is the building is quite big (seats about 200) but the morning congregation numbers about 40 and the evening about 20.

Before ours was restored and enhanced and had nothing of any volume above 8 foot, I would occasionally play the soprano line 8va with the right hand and (depending on the tune) an approximation of or exactly the alto and tenor with the left. Try it out - not an effect to over-use.

It's hard to make suggestions because, of course, a printed specification doesn't really tell one much about the actual sound of an organ. That said, have you considered playing 4' combinations down an octave in order to increase the variety?

It might be worthwhile getting a consultation lesson on your instrument with a local organ teacher who could give you some ideas about what you can do to get variety out of it.

Yes, I'm hoping to possibly get some organ lessons in the autumn; I hope to ask the assistant organist at the Cathedral as he already comes in to practice.

He rang me this morning to say that one of the trackers on the pedals had gone, and notes were sticking on the swell, so currently the swell is unusable! All this was since 7:30pm last night! Oh well, the organ tuner was able to come tomorrow so I hope he can sort it out!

On a slightly different note, I wonder whether it would be worthwhile to complete the specification on NPOR with the missing details of action type and compasses?

Having seen who rebuilt it, I'm not surprised the Great Mixture is rather loud....

Sorry if this is a silly question ( ) but do you do this physically on the keyboard or by pulling out a sub octave stop (always supposing you have one - away from the console I cannot remember what the stops are; blame creeping old age.)

You actually play an octave lower on the keyboard. You could obtain the same effect by using a sub-octave coupler together with a Unison Off stop (which will silence the unison pitch, leaving only the sub-octave coupler in play). However if you don't have many stops it's not very likely that you're going to have a sub-octave coupler, let alone a Unison Off.

I have a Swell sub octave to Gt but I'm fairly sure there is no Unison Off. Must check.

We have a great to swell octave which is just terrible - it makes anything you play sound like the cats' chorus.

This reminds me of the old tale of Gordon Reynolds about an incumbent who told a potential new organist that the congregation is so supportive of their organ that they recently had a massive fund-raising effort, and raised enough money to purchase a 'Unison Off' stop! "Amazing how much warmth this stop has brought back into the organ" said he!

Thanks HG, that is very funny, but there is a serious issue here as well. I did a recital on a very large 4 manual organ last week. On the solo there was both a sub octave and an octave stop, but sadly, no unison off, which would have been a tremendously advantageous stop to have, especially as I had no use for a 16' Cor Anglais. I am told that these things are "difficult" on tracker actions. Could someone perhaps hazard me a reason why?

Yes, because, of course, the key linkage is permanently connected with a tracker organ. With an electric action, it's much simpler for it to be blocked by a switch when you select 'Unison Off'. But, on a tracker action, such a stop would have to disconnect the key linkage for every single key (although would have to keep it on for all the octaves), making the action much more complicated and, probably, less reliable. My mind boggles about how it could be done with mechanical action, to be frank.

Have you seen the William Drake organ now in John Wellingham's house? It's a two-manual tracker. Manual I has a GG compass; manual II stops at fiddle G (like the old English Echo and Swell organs did). It has a stop called "short octave" which, when drawn, clamps down the bottom C and D keys of Man I and makes the E, F# and G# play the C, D and E pipes (this was an arrangement common on Baroque organs). Very clever!

I had an inkling that the explanation would be along those lines. How, therefore, does a traker organ manage octave and sub octave couplers?

That sounds rather clever - typical Bill! I learnt from Welly for a while when in my teens. I wonder whether he would be up to a visit from a certain former pupil who used to bring along modern atonal music to his lessons just to provoke a response....


By having extra linkages for each note at the octave and (much more rarely) sub-octave, which are made to connect when the coupler is drawn. I've been trying to google a diagram of this which would explain better, but can't find anything. Sorry!

John told me that he came across an organ with a similar device somwhere on the continent and said to Bill, "I want one of those!" Bill looked it over, pondered and said he thought he could come up with something a bit better - and did!


I would think so. The Hele Huggers are going in October.

....and for those of us who don't dig the lingo?

Replied by PM