very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?

[timothy42b]

I'm a very amateur beginner organist, but I'll play for anybody who asks, and I've been playing services lately on a small Viscount electronic organ that I never was able to make sound the way I wanted.

This Sunday services were moved to a small chapel off the main cathedral area, newly renovated. When I saw the organ I cringed, it looked like one of those home Wurlitzers you see at the thrift store for $5. And aren't tempted.

But on closer look it was a real pipe organ. One manual, no pedals, and four stops on big Frankenstein levers, and a square seat with a blower in it connected to the console with a big hose. The stops had no fancy names in foreign languages - just marked 8, 4, 2, 1 1/4.

It sounded good to my ears. The church area is small and acoustically live stone, you didn't need much to fill it. The organ didn't seem to get louder with more stops - blower maxed out, maybe? I know nothing about these, this is actually the first pipe organ I've played. Most of the churches I help out have had various types of electronic organs, usually Allens.

Is there a name for this type of organ? And how can you have an 8 foot pipe in a cabinet no more than 3 feet high, 2 feet deep, and a little over 3 feet wide? I'd like to know more about howit works, it was fun to play. This is in central Germany; the name on the organ was Willi Peter Koln, not findable with google.

[davidecasteel]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



First off, the "Koln" on the nameplate most likely is the location of the organ builder--Köln is the German name for Cologne, and there should be an umlaut (2 dots) above the "o" (I don't know how to make my keyboard produce those letters). I guess the organ builder would then be "Willi Peter". I found this link to an organ builder in Köln with that name: http://www.orgelbau-peter.de/so you could check that out. (I had no trouble with Google finding that link.) Click on the "Truhenorgel" link in the sidebar and see if that looks something like the little organ you played.

If your organ is really just contained in a single cabinet (with separate blower), it is still possible to have an 8' stop by making it a "stopped" flue or a reed; if those pipes are still too long (a flue definitely would be) they can be "mitred" to fit in a smaller space. The Truhenorgel described above does not have a full-sized keyboard, either, so the largest pipe lengths are not required. A cabinet of that size will not have room for more than a couple of ranks, possibly only one, so the stop names are just indications that the few pipes can be played in several registers--unification. The inability to get much dynamic difference may be a blower limitation, but it could also be the result of the unification--when multiple ranks are played from a key there are several pipes sounding by that one action and varying the number of stops selected brings more or fewer pipes into play; however, in a unified instrument the different stops are controlling the same pipes and this results in fewer additional pipes being engaged when more stops are added--so less sound increase. Simple example: draw the 8' register and play Middle C--one pipe sounds. Play Middle C and Tenor C--two pipes sound. Draw the 4' register and the 8' register and play Middle C--two pipes sound. Play Tenor C--2 pipes sound. Play both Middle C and Tenor C--only 3 pipes sound instead of 4 because the 4' register of Tenor C and the 8' register of Middle C are the same pipe. This is a problem with unification that receives a lot of discussion: I think the general conclusion is that a little unification in a moderate instrument is not detrimental but too much is; in a small instrument the effect of dropouts can be quite noticeable.

I visited Bonn, Germany back in 2001 to visit the Orgelbau Klais factory--our church was strongly considering them as the builder of a new organ for our new church facility (and we did hire them). I attended a worship service in the Basilica there, which has an organ built by Klais. However, that organ was deep into renovation and cleaning and could not be played. I knew that (we were working with the builder, after all) and did not expect to hear any organ music at the service. Much to my surprise, there was organ music and it could be heard throughout the space. I looked around and could not see a portative or other permanent instrument so wondered where the sound was coming from (I certainly did not think there would be an electronic instrument there--and I was right). What I found when the service was over was a box about the size of a large desk sitting down front, which had a keyboard extending from it and a few controls for several stops. These devices could be slid back into the box and closed up for movement. There were a couple of large rear doors that could be opened and the inside was crammed with pipes; this one even had the blower internally. The volume of sound produced by this simple instrument was uncanny--it easily supported the singing of the congregation and the organist was even able to produce a credible Prelude, Offertory, and Postlude with it. I noted that it, too, was made by Klais--when I asked them about it I was told that they had loaned the little organ to the church for use while they cleaned the large instrument. The excellent acoustics of that basilica certainly contributed a great deal to the success with the little box organ. This seems to be true in your case, too. Isn't it amazing how much music can be produced from such a small instrument!?

David

[Guest]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



Franz Heissler GmbH of Bad-Mergentheim-Markelsheim has a portativ model that is exactly the same portable cube organ design as described above, andit's distributed in the US by Darwin Klug of Lakeland, FL (my dad knewhim from when he worked for Darwin's late father, whowas president of the tracker organ manufacturerKlug & Schumaker, Inc., now defunct).

The little Portativ Edelfingen has a pullout single 51-notekeyboard, with an 8' Holzgedeckt, 4' Rohrflote, 2' Gemsprincipal, 1' Mixtur 1-3f., and a 1' Octave, the longest length pipes mitered inside the casework. I assume the tiny blower is inside the case, since the bench is completely open, and there are handles on each side for carrying it about. I have never heard one, but have seen one at the K&S shop back in the early '80s, and my dad says they're a decent sounding instrument that, like the Klais, can fill agood size churchof excellent sonics withgreat sounding music!

[timothy42b]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



Thanks David, the Truhenorgel is the one, though mine has 4 stops instead of the 5 shown.

I didn't know about unification, I'll listen for it this Sunday. I play once more in Germany before returning to the US.

[Havoc]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?

There is no need at all for unification and in a fully mechanical organ (most likely if it is of German origin) this will not be used. Often they are easy to open at the top and front to tune after moving them. Take a peak inside, they are marvels of organ building.
I guess the 1'1/4 will be a 1'1/3 as I have never heard of a 1'1/4.

That the organ doesn't become louder is normal and part of the tonal design. The registers are designed to fill out at the top and make the sound different, not louder. It does become slightly louder, but that isn't the primary objective.

Truhe-organs do not need to be small. I do know of one that has 2 manuals and about 8 stops.

[timothy42b]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



[quote user="Havoc"]
That the organ doesn't become louder is normal and part of the tonal design. The registers are designed to fill out at the top and make the sound different, not louder. It does become slightly louder, but that isn't the primary objective.

[/quote]

Sorry about the typo on 1 1/3. Yes, it obviously opens easily but was locked with a key, and as a guest I didn't want to be too demanding. I sure would have liked to see the insides though. (I opened up my accordion and those linkages are an engineer's dream, or maybe nightmare.)

With no expression pedal there seemed to be no way to play quietly when accompanying a lone singer. Interesting that this is basically a one volume instrument.

[soubasse32]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?

[quote user="timothy42b"]With no expression pedal there seemed to be no way to play quietly when accompanying a lone singer. Interesting that this is basically a one volume instrument.[/quote]It is interesting tokeep in mindthat the sort of expression we take for granted today is a relatively recent development.

As has been mentioned, one way to gain a bit of expressivity is to scale and voice the pipes so they crescendo slightly as the scale ascends.

Ona small instrument (one assumes will be used for accompanying) another helpful thing is to have a very gentle 8' stop.If the stop has some harmonic developmentthevocal soloistwill have less difficulty hearing it.

Another trick for accompanying is to try the 4' Flute (if there is one) down an octave. Sometimes that willbe softer than the 8'stop, and it also provides variety (assuming it is not borrowed from the 8').

[mpsnknox]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



Get a 10-14 rank unit organ that is compleatly enclosed in a case raised off the floor via legs or an extention of the case. Make the bottom octaves of the 16' capped flute electronic... and if funds are avalible get a 16' electronic reed as well.

Organs need a minimum of two manuals and all they expression you can get.

[Havoc]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?

Organs need a minimum of two manuals and all they expression you can get.

Complete and utter BS. Organs need organists that know what to play and what not to play on them. Uninformed opnions like this have already ruined more very good organs than any other reason.

Back to the original question about how to fit everything in such an organ. I knew I had some pictures of it and found them back. This is of a small 4 rank one as it stood at the builder and wasn't completely finished yet so you could have a reasonable look inside.
front view:

front view through the opening. You can see the horizontal pipes in the back (8' stopped) and part of the same rank as mitred pipes. Front rank is a regal:

view from the top:

[mpsnknox]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



excuse me? BS? Re-read what I said and think critticaly about what I proposed. You have shown us a portative organ... not very good for service playing... or anything past the 1700s.

The vast majority of oganist prefer two manuels to one.. and to accompany a choir of adults to children expression is a must.

....BS... grow up.

[thevanderploegs]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?

BS or not, your comments did nothing to answer the question of the original poster. However, Havoc's pictures spoke volumes (pun intended).

[mpsnknox]

Re: very small church organ, how do you fit pipes in it?



Oh... well thank you for pointing that out. I feel so foolish.. ta he he he...