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  • A stock instrument for Churches

    If we were designing an ideal stock instrument for churches, what would it be like?

    Would you have something along the lines of the old Moller Artistes?

    I would think a 4-rank instrument with 2 manuals should be able to cover most of the needs of your average parish church and would have specifications like this:

    Flute Rank: 97 Pipes
    Diapason Rank: 73 pipes
    String Rank: 85 Pipes
    Reed Rank: 73 Pipes

    The Flute Rank would provide 16', 8', 4', 2-2/3' and 2' pitches
    The Diapason Rank would provide 8', 4' pitches
    The String Rank would be available at 8', 4', 2-2/3', 2' pitches
    And the Reed would be at 8' and 4' pitch Trompette or Oboe

    The whole lot would be enclosed and it would be desirable to get the casework under 8' in height to ensure that it could fit into small chapels. It would be electric action to provide the option of a detached console.

    A stock instrument like this could cut the costs of new organs, since it would be a standard design, with perhaps custom casework, which would not require a specialist organ-builder, and could be accommodated in any number of styles from ones with elaborate carvings, to plain timber boxes.
    Martin Hartley
    Choral Scholar at St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, Australia
    Student at Campion College, Australia
    Assistant Organist at St Margaret Mary's Catholic Church, Merrylands, Australia

    The Novice Organist: http://noviceorganist.blogspot.com.au

  • #2
    This sounds like a great idea, it could put pipe organs in the reach of congregations who were on the fence between being able to afford a pipe organ. I'm sure a lot of organist might consider such an instrument for their homes as well.

    Comment


    • #3
      Let's add a 1-1/3 from the string rank without adding any pipes. The top octave can break back. Let's also add the bottom 12 pipes (half length) for the 16-foot reed octave in the pedal.

      Comment


      • #4
        I'm hoping that such an instrument could be built at a price that would be competitive with electronic instruments. We might have to be less generous with the stops provided for a base-model instrument. A most-basic instrument for small chapels might be more like:

        Flute: 97 Pipes
        Diapason: 73 pipes
        Reed: 61 Pipes

        Flute Available at: 16', 8', 4', 2-2/3', 2'
        Diapason at: 8' and 4'
        Reed (Oboe or Trompette) at 8'

        Couplers:

        Sw16 to Gt, Sw8 to Gt, Sw4 to Gt, Sw to Ped, Gt to Ped.

        Both Manuals would have flutes available at 8' through to 2', the lower manual would have the diapasons, Flutes at 16', 8', 4' for pedal division. If you wanted to save a few pipes, you would have only 61 in the diapason at 4' pitch, and borrow from the flute rank for the bottom octave.

        Again, all pipes enclosed.
        Martin Hartley
        Choral Scholar at St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, Australia
        Student at Campion College, Australia
        Assistant Organist at St Margaret Mary's Catholic Church, Merrylands, Australia

        The Novice Organist: http://noviceorganist.blogspot.com.au

        Comment


        • #5
          The Artiste is the most famous (or infamous) stock model, but several other larger builders (Austin, Wicks etc) also had stock models. Austin's "5-7" model had flute, diapason, string, reed, and 3-rank mixture as the registers, with a celeste rank as an additional option.

          This is an (now non-functional) Austin 5-7 with the optional celeste rank:

          http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/htm...apelCross.html

          I think the real marketing challenge with some of these really small (i.e. 4 rank) electric-action unit organs is that it really is questionable whether such a pipe organ is actually better than an electronic at the same price. I'm out of my league at estimating pipe organ prices, but I would imagine that the BASEMENT price on a 4-rank electric action unit would be $50-60,000. At that price, you can get a stock model 2- or small 3-manual electronic with a lot of bells and whistles, including enough speakers to make an impact. At that price, you could also get a smaller custom 2-manual electronic with about 30-35 stops from the likes of Walker or Phoenix with lots of channels, moving capture, the whole bit, and it would sound quite convincing. Meanwhile, the 4-rank pipe organ would struggle with providing color, variety, or ensemble because of all the unification and borrowing.

          It may be my personal opinion only, but I feel it really takes 8-10 ranks minimum in a pipe organ for it to remain an interesting, inspiring, satisfying instrument for the long term. Maybe a couple less ranks if it's built by one of the premium mechanical-action builders like Fisk or Dobson or Noack, but that'll cost even more.
          Last edited by michaelhoddy; 07-13-2012, 06:58 AM.

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          • #6
            I don't have a problem with unification in a small organ; after all, I played many analog Allens, Rodgers, and Conns over the years, and didn't have a problem with the unification in them. Personally, I would rather see a few more ranks included, and used for the Swell, to give a completely separate division. The larger Artistes did this, with two cabinets for the pipes, one for the Great and the other for the Swell.
            Mike

            My home organ is a Theatre III with an MDS II MIDI Expander.

            Comment


            • #7
              just at a bare minimum...a 4-rank pipe organ with simple casework, basic console without combinations, and reasonable unification with in-console contacts (like the artiste had, so no need for a relay) is going to probably cost about $48,000. that is with minimal mark-up on purchased-in pipework, blower,, and shop built everything else. that amount of $$ will buy a reasonably spec'd 2-manual digital. The benefit of pipes is that, properly made, the pipe organ has the potential to serve it's congregation for much longer than the digital, particularly if the chests are well made and use a durable electro-mechanical action. A well-built, carefully voiced unit organ would compare favorably side by side with an off-the-shelf digital of comparable cost, even tho some sacrifice of tonal variety is going to be made with the pipe organ (only one reed, no string celeste, etc). but as hundreds of Artistes, Wicks Forward-Four's, Kilgen Petite Ensembles and other similar pipe organs prove that they are capable of service in a wide range of circumstances. A large company MIGHT be able to get some manufacturing efficiency by building multiple ranks of flute stops, but one can only reduce costs to a certain point where the enterprise becomes unprofitable, and profit is a necessary part of the equation for the organbuilder if they wish to stay in business.
              Rick in VA

              Comment


              • #8
                I really liked the old Wurlitzer ES organs which were designed by a man who worked for the Moller Pipe Organ. There is info regarding him on the forum here. Anyhow their smallest reed spinette organ the model 44 had the most realistic pipe organ sound I have ever heard in an electric organ. How I wish some organ company would make these again, and I am most sure they could if Suzuki can make the Hammond with the same sound as yesteryear old Hammond's. Yet a pipe organ with the same specs would last for many years vs. any electronic or what they are calling digital these days. So many of the non classical organs as well as a few of the classical organs don't sound any better than the cheap keyboards. They sound like everything but an organ. I never did like the synthesized sounds on any electronic organ.

                I think a pipe organ could be designed such as mentioned above in harleymartin's post, but I would add a 1 3/5' flute in the swell. If a string stop was added I think a Gemshorn rank would be nice with a celeste. It seems that Gemshorn or Salicional were used a lot in the smaller pipe organ.
                Baldwin Church Organ Model 48C
                Baldwin Spinet 58R
                Lowrey Spinet SCL
                Wurlitzer 4100A
                Crown Pump Organ by Geo. P. Bent, Chicago, Illinois


                Organs I hope to obtain in the future:

                Conn Tube Minuet or Caprice even a transistor Caprice with the color coded tabs
                Gulbransen H3 or G3, or V.
                Wurlitzer 44, 4410, 4420, ES Reed Models, 4300, 4500, Transistor Models

                Comment


                • #9
                  I'd avoid using any reeds; they require a lot of attention from tuners, and they add cost.
                  For a little organ in a little church, I'd want:

                  Pedal:
                  16 Subbass (harmonically rich bass)
                  8 Wood Flute (wide scale)

                  Manual 1:
                  8 Diapason (slotted)
                  8 Bourdon (with a warm, rich bass, but soft)
                  4 Tapered Flute (pure and clear)

                  Manual 2:
                  8 Chimney Flute (beautiful, rather loud tone)
                  4 Principal (somewhat stringy; placed behind chimney flute on chest)
                  2-2/3 Nazard (wide bass)
                  2 Octavin (Harmonic from the very bottom, with a wide scaled bass, and a narrower treble)

                  I to P, II to P, II to I

                  The pipes should be placed rather high-up (even the pedal ranks), and voiced with closed toes and wide mouths. The action could be electropneumatic or even direct electric; nicking should be fairly significant, but only on the face of the languid. Expansion chambers beneath each key channel would be wonderful.
                  On the pedal, the Wood Flute gives the illusion of a stronger 16 foot bass, perhaps a Contrebasse, while the 16 Subbass itself is rather gentle, for softer music. On the first manual, the Diapason is in the French style, slotted, and perhaps without ears in the bass, to allow for a warm stringy sound with a little articulation and edge. The Bourdon alone is a genuine soft register, about as loud as the pedal Subbass, but less harmonically rich; combined with the Diapason, it takes off some edge, and adds a little power. The Tapered Flute functions as a Principal of sorts, but is both wider and more nicked; it works well with Diapason and Bourdon, giving some brightness to the former, and forming a chorus with the latter. On the second manual, the Chimney Flute is a wide scaled example, rather like French classical examples, with a little more nicking than usual, for a less articulated and more romantic sound. The Principal is rather like the Tapered Flute from Manual 1, but scaled less grandly, and nicked much less, for a more stringy, articulate sound. The Nazard gives color without being piercing or shrill whatsoever; it is less loud, and more broad. The Octavin is a very modern color; the bass is almost bell like - it takes the place of a mixture - and the treble is keener, combining with the Nazard for a very colorful clarinet-like tone.
                  This design only needs 491 pipes. This is not much. The Nazard could be cut, as could the Wood Flute, to bring it down to 398. The mechanism is much less complex than a very extended design, and the console can be very simple - it's too small to need a combination action. If money is still an issue, the Subbass can be borrowed from the Bourdon, with twelve additional bass pipes.
                  I've often found unitized church organs hard to make sound beautiful. Blend is limited, color is limited, and always, the sound lacks a certain amount of breadth. This is just my very biased opinion, but I have a feeling some may agree with what I suggested.
                  As of 7/16/2013, no longer active on forum.
                  Practice hard, practice well.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    If you really want to get away with the absolute barest minimum, you could get away with just three ranks, a string, a reed and a flute. A reed is a nice thing to have, but it's not absolutely necessary since you could create a synthetic reed with an 8' and your mutations. However, I suppose that the effectiveness of that synthetic reed would probably depend on the voicing of your flues, and considering that the idea here is not to create the finest organ in the world, but rather to create an instrument which would be of great utility in serving most parishes and small chapels and is also affordable, the voicing might have to be a little rough.
                    Also while we're talking stock models, let's not forget that most of the major builders in 19th century America had their catalog models, especially Hook. There was also the Aeolian-Skinner 3000 series of organs, which were just three ranks.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      When you get down to this price level, you have to really ask yourself if a digital substitute is a better choice.
                      The Hauptwerk Virtual pipe organ concept is a game changer. You can't buy a decent packaged electronic for what a killer Hauptwerk setup goes for.
                      Anyone not familiar with this phenomenon should spend some time on the the Contrebombarde forum. Some very talented contributors.
                      http://www.contrebombarde.com/concer...playmusic/7881
                      The quality and variety of sample sets available is mindboggling.
                      Pete

                      Comment

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