The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments
John Stuart Mill · en
Another kind of harmonics must now be described, called combinational
or Tartini tones (from Tartini, a celebrated Italian violinist of the
XVII century, who first described them). "These tones," says
Helmholtz, "are heard whenever two musical tones of different pitches
are sounded together loudly and continuously." There is no necessity
for giving a table of all of their tones here; we select the two most
useful. If two notes at an interval of a fifth are held down, a note
one octave below the lower one will be heard. So organ builders take
two pipes--one 16 feet long (CCC) and one 10 2/3 feet long (GG)--which
make the interval of the fifth, and, by sounding them together, produce
the tone of a pipe 33 feet long (CCCC). This is the stop which will be
found labeled "32-ft. Resultant." Hope-Jones makes a stop which he
calls Gravissima, 64-ft. Resultant, in his large organs. Many contend
that this system produces better results than if pipes of the actual
lengths of 32 or 64 feet were employed. Indeed, a pipe 64 feet long
would be inaudible; the human ear has its limitations and refuses to
recognize tone lower than 32 feet (just as we cannot lift water by a
suction pump over 32 feet)--_but_, these great pipes _produce
harmonics_ which wonderfully reinforce the tone of the organ.
Therefore their use is worth while.
The other combinational tone to which we refer is that produced by the
interval of a major third. It sounds two octaves below the lower note.
The writer is not aware that this has ever been used as an organ stop,
but it is found written in the organ compositions of Guilmant and other
first-rate composers. It will be seen that a skilful organist, with a
knowledge of these tones, can produce effects from small organs not
available to the ordinary player.
Reverting once more to our Flute, whose tube is shortened by lifting
the fingers from the holes, it is not generally known that this can be
done with an organ pipe; the writer has met with instances of it in
England. The two lowest pipes of the Pedal Open Diapason were each
made to give two notes by affixing a pneumatic valve near the top of
the pipe. When the valve was closed the pipe gave CCC. When the
organist played CCC sharp, wind was admitted to the valve, which
opened, and this shortened the pipe. The device worked perfectly, only
that it was not possible to hold down both CCC and CCC sharp and make
"thunder"! The organist of Chester Cathedral had been playing his
instrument twice daily for ten years before he found this out, and then
he only discovered it when the pipes were taken down to be cleaned. It
is an admirable makeshift where a builder is cramped for room.
Organ pipes are divided into three families--Flues, Reeds and
Diaphones. The flues are subdivided into Diapasons, Flutes, and
Strings, and we now proceed to consider each of these groups separately.
DIAPASONS.