Brass Chorus

[Ben Madison]

When i am writing specs i like to include a brass chorus, however, i lean towards tubas or trumpets, is their anything other stop i should other than Tubas or Trumpets for the Brass chorus or should i stick to those two stops.

[Leisesturm]

When i am writing specs i like to include a brass chorus, however, i lean towards tubas or trumpets, is their anything other stop i should other than Tubas or Trumpets for the Brass chorus or should i stick to those two stops.

You will be on safe ground sticking with the tried and true. But since you asked... be a rebel. Shake things up and put something different out there for the 21st Century. I triple dog dare you.

[Terpodion]

When i am writing specs i like to include a brass chorus, however, i lean towards tubas or trumpets, is their anything other stop i should other than Tubas or Trumpets for the Brass chorus or should i stick to those two stops.

I assume that you are talking about organ stoplists rather than writing music. We don't call it a "brass chorus" in the organ nomenclature, at least not in the usual usage. I believe the huge Midmer-Losh in Atlantic City may have a brass chorus but that's the only one I know of. Rather it is called a reed chorus. Remember, the organ is not simply an imitation of the orchestra - at least not the modern organ. That may have been true of the theater organ but even that was a stretch.

There are two basic types of reeds when it comes to function; chorus reeds and solo reeds. The tuba falls into the latter category while the trumpet can be either. I have experienced trumpets which were mellow and blended nicely with the flues and I have experienced trumpets which were loud enough to tear your ears off and swallow them. Both were simply called "Trumpet".

You can not tell by looking at the pipes either - not usually. Obviously a small scale trumpet, like that used in a Moller Artiste, isn't going to be very assertive, but the shallot design and pressure determines the nature of the tone more than anything else.

When a builder draws up a specification, he / she specifies exactly how each rank should be constructed by the pipemakers. Perhaps a preliminary plan, which is just a stoplist, will include only the stop names but even at that, if something special is intended, it will be noted. For instance: " Clairon 4' parallel scale to Trompette. Spotted metal resonators instead of plain metal. Open French shallots, double blocks, harmonic at middle C. Flues from #44."