[LAU] New Bach from Aeolus and me

[M Watts]

On 06/17/2010 07:44 PM, david wrote:

> Organ registrations are a mystery to me, too. How can I learn about them?
>

Try this book:

Organ-Stops and Their Artistic Registration by George Ashdown Audsley 
(ISBN: 9780486424231)

This link has some info on how the various foot lengths relate to the 
harmonic series etc.:

http://www.lawrencephelps.com/Documents/Articles/Beginner/pipeorgans101.html

There's a stop dictionary at http://www.organstops.org/

Basic crash course:--

The main manual stops are at 8' pitch; it takes an open pipe of 8' 
sounding length to produce the C under the bass staff.  The main pedal 
stops are 16', an octave lower.  The pedals are usually, but not always, 
coupled to whatever manual is currently in use.

Flue stops:
The main 'organ' sound is the Diapason or Principal; these are either 
open pipes (Principal, Octave, Fifteenth) or stopped, with a plug in the 
end, sounding softer (Dulciana, Salicional).  A stopped pipe sounds an 
octave lower than its length would indicate.

Mutation stops and mixtures are also diapason-type, not used by 
themselves; mutations are single ranks, sounding one of the harmonic 
series other than the octave (Twelfth, Quint, Septime, None, Tierce, 
Larigot); mixtures are multi-rank, for adding brightness (Cymbel, 
Furniture, Cornet, Sesquialtera).

There are flutey-sounding flue stops (Claribel, Hohlflute, Gedact, 
Gemshorn, Suabe), and stringy-sounding flues (Geigen, Gamba, Violone).

Reed stops:
These use reed, usually of brass, to produce the sound; they range from 
smooth and quiet (Cornopean, Oboe, Vox Humana) or loud & agressive 
(Ophecleide, Posaun, Bombarde, Trumpet).

Couplers etc:
These couple various manuals together, allowing stops from one manual to 
be played on another.  Sometimes there are octave- and suboctave-couplers.

E.g. in Aeolus, the Great to Pedal coupler is labelled P+1, meaning the 
pedals will play the stops drawn on Manual I, as well as its own.

So in Aeolus, a basic organ sound is:

Manual I: Principal 8, Principal 4, Octave 2
Pedal: Subbass 16, P+I

 From here, add any or all of Octave 1, Quint 2 2/3, Mixtur; Add or swap 
Principal 16 for Subbass on the pedal.

(Sorry for thread hijack :))