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Archive for the ‘Stops & Sounds’ category

The Biography of a Pipe Organ

November 19th, 2015

A NEW BOOK! Read the biography of an organ, and with it, the biography of a city. The Estey pipe organ in Marion’s Memorial Coliseum was one for Estey’s storied “luminous” consoles.  That in itself should make this book worth reading.  But more than that, the organ was a symbol of all that was good, […]

Together, new pipes and old will form a new chorus of sounds for St. Joseph’s Church.

  Today, I want to share some random thoughts about a process that isn’t at all random – designing, or in the case of the Shelbyville organ, re-designing the sound of a pipe organ. It continues to amaze me how many people, even including some otherwise competent musicians, don’t understand the basics of this most […]

Voicing a pipe organ is the process by which each pipe is taught to sing together as a stop, each stop is taught to sing together as a division, and each division taught to sing as an organ. The Rube-Goldberg mechanics of an organ are interesting and impressive, but the “black magic” happens in the […]

I Want a Principal Within

April 9th, 2012

I once was talking with an organbuilder about an instrument I had recently played that had been built by a the ___ Organ Company.   As I recall, I said something to the effect that I really liked the flutes and strings on this organ, but wasn’t wild about the principals.   His reply to […]

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