Mike Raiford wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
> 
>> Does that answer your questions?
> 
> I think ... It's a rather complicated machine, then? :)

Yep. Learning to play a large pipe organ is like learning to drive a 
car. You need both hands and your feet, and they need to work in a 
coordinated fashion, but after a while you can do it with effortless 
grace. (Depending on exactly what you're trying to do... F1 drivers make 
taking corners at 160 MPH look pretty effortless, but *you* try it 
sometime!)

> OK, so the divisions then are the labeled items in each of the sections:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwalk_Hall_Auditorium_Organ
> 
> eg. Pedal Left, Unenclosed Chior, Great, etc ...

Not entirely...

The divisions are a conceptual entity. Typical division names are 
"peddle", "great", "swell", "choir" and "echo". Usually there is one 
keyboard to each division. (But there can occasionally be "floating 
divisions" that are only accessed by couplers.) Where the pipes 
physically *are* in the building is an entirely different matter.

Pipes can be "enclosed", meaning they're inside a box with movable 
shutters. A peddle on the console opens and closes the shutters, thus 
altering the apparent loudness of the pipes. Apparently this organ has a 
choir division where only some of the ranks are enclosed. (This is not 
uncommon.)

The organ I played has *all* the pipes of the Swell enclosed, and *all* 
the pipes of the Great and Peddle divisions unenclosed. (A completely 
standard design for such a small organ.) At the end of the video you can 
just about see me operating the Swell peddle, which opens and closes the 
shutters.

>  From a different organ:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:String-Division-Middle-Sect.jpg
> 
> Each row of pipes would be a rank, then?

Probably - but not necessarily. The organ builder can arrange the pipes 
any way they damned well fancy. It *looks* like you're right, but it 
might be that, say, each *pair* of rows is a complete rank, with the 
pipes in one row being the next note up, or something.

> So, the string division on this organ has dozens of stops?

This is from the famous Wanamaker, the largest playable pipe organ in 
the entire world. And yes, it is famed for its *vast* string division. 
(The organ I played doesn't even have a single string stop. But then, 
it's a *church* organ rather than a *theatre* organ.)

> OK. When you mentioned stops, you mentioned a 32' (or was it 16'?) stop. 
> Obviously from the sheer size a very low note. How does that relate to 
> the organ.

A "normal" pipe rank is called an 8' rank. Because the lowest note has a 
pipe roughly 8' long - assuming it's an open pipe. Stopped pipes are 
half the length. And actually there are end corrections too depending on 
the width of the pipe and other parameters... But notionally, 8' long.

Thus, any stop marked "8'" will cause the keys to sound at the same 
pitch as a piano. (The organ I played just happens to have a piano sat 
right next to it. Currently the church doesn't have an organist!)

A 4' rank sounds one octave higher, and a 2' rank sounds an octave 
higher again. You can play such a rank on its own, or you can mix it 
with a 8' to add more "brightness" to the sound.

In my recording, I have (from the looks of it) two 8' stops, a 4' stop 
and the 2' pulled (in the Great division), and also a 16' in the Swell.

> FWIW, you really can't appreciate a pipe organ unless you hear it live.

No. My cheap camera mic doesn't do it justice. Why, you can hardly 
*hear* the bass notes I'm playing! And they aren't even that low...

> The church my inlaws go to has a pipe organ that they actually use. It's 
> pretty much brand new. The lowest notes were simply incredible to 
> experience. (It is a legitimate pipe organ, you can see the display 
> pipes, I have no idea where the rest of the instrument is. I've not 
> actually looked at the console.)

The peddle division on this organ makes the flower arrangements audibly 
rattle.

Unfortunately, as I say, only some of the notes work. One of the peddles 
just makes a hissing noise at you! o_O

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