h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there this is Gemshorn here! I very much enjoyed reading the article that underlined the basics of the organ in Society. The person who wrote it is very much in ‘the know’ and it’s good to find that there are other people with the same interests.

The organ is one of the most complex of musical instruments and having been a pipe organ building trainee myself; I can safely say that there is a lot more that ordinary people may not know or even appreciate and that includes organist’s! I frustrates me sometimes when organists complain about the imperfections about the pipe organ, without taking into consideration the thought and hard work that has gone into producing his instrument. Here is an example. I was watching an organ tuner tuning a cathedral organ recently. By the time the tuner had finished, the organ sounded perfect without any faults to report. A few weeks later I was talking to the organ scholar and asked him how the organ was. He said that the tuning was very bad and blamed it on the organ tuners – the ones who I saw! Instead of looking at other solutions such as climatic changes, then I am sure that his complaint would have been more justified! This is a prime example of what I’m getting at. I will always maintain that the pipe organ is an imperfect instrument, just like the piano, harpsichord, flute, clarinet and etc. etc.

The other thing is that whilst being at the Conservatoire I have began to value the use of mechanical action. The reason? Well, with mechanical action the organ does have a certain degree of touch sensitivity, despite what many people believe. They say that if you hit a piano key hard, then you get a hard, load, sound and vice versa. However, if you to do the same on the organ it would not affect the sound. There is a certain amount of truth with this, but you can still have a soft or hard sound depending on how you play the key, because all the trackers are connected to the pallet below the pipe. Of course with electro pneumatic and tubular pneumatic action, you don’t get any resistance. However electro pneumatic and tubular pneumatic actions can still be as responsive as mechanical actions. The organ at Gloucester Cathedral for example has a direct electric action, which works according to the amount of stops drawn. All the organist is doing is completing an electric circuit. The result is fantastic! I have never known such a fast action in an English Cathedral organ.

I hope to write some more articles about the organ and organbuilding in the next few weeks, but I would be grateful for any comments or feedback.

Trackers do unquestionably allow a degree of expression, although modern electric actions are not too shabby I understand; 1970s electro-penumatic actions are a different story, though.

Any organist (I am not one, but my wife is) knows that the tuning will change with the weather, although cathedral organs are usually less prone to this due to the immense thickness of the walls in the average ancient cathedral; interior temperatures (though not humidity) are remarkably consistent. Turning on the heating is the problem, I reckon

I know that Peter Hurford prefers tracker actions, anyway.