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Is the Unit Organ an extraordinary concept?

Started by David Pinnegar, February 05, 2011, 08:29:09 AM

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David Pinnegar

Hi!

Reading a comment by a facebook contact about an organ console:
QuoteI might be mistaken, but this looks like A482 at Ibstock Methodist Church, which was actually a transfer of A43 - a Model 4 dating from 1929 at the Grotrian Hall (now Wigmore Hall) London. It was a standard four rank spec of Diapason, Flute, Salicional and Tuba with no pedal relay. Removed from Ibstock some years ago and bought by Damon Willetts.
. . .

can one really imagine an instrument based just upon these four ranks? Isn't it a strange conception to do this or do these sounds really mix homogenously to produce something of which the whole is more than the parts?

Best wishes

David P

revtonynewnham

Hi

Compton were the masters of building this sort of organ - both for church and theatre use - and they are pretty effective.  Obviously, they have the normal problems of small extension jobs with adjacent octave extensions leading to "missing notes" and the inevitable voicing compromises when one rank of pipes has to function in multiple roles.  But they are musical and surprisingly effective organs.

Up until the 1970's, organs of this sort of style were built by many firms.  Many of my organ lessons were on a 4 rank extension job by Osmonds - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N08479

At that time, there was a market for small organs - electronics were no where near as good as they are today, with a couple of expensive exceptions sounded pretty poor for serious church use.  The only other viable alternatives were reed organs (and a good number of 2mp's were built for pipe organ substitute and home practice purposes) or a piano.  The advent of modern digital organs has virtually put an end to this as a substantial market segment - the last builder turning out basically "production line" extension organs being Walker with their "Positive" line until the ?late 1970's.  I've played a couple of these - and they're quite musical, and more satisfying than many electronics.

Compton had a range of small organs - the "miniatura" - many still exist, although I've not yet got to play one.  I have played some of their slightly larger extension jobs - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=E01335 has recently been rebuilt (still in Compton style) by Keith Bance.  I played it a few years back - very nice, except that it's all in one swell box.

If I was offered a small extension organ FOC I'd take it!  No problem.  Ultimately, a straight organ is going to be potentially better tonally - but for a similar degree of versatility, will be larger.  Like every organ, you need to learn the instruments vagracies and register with your ears, not your eyes.  Maybe more later!

Must go now - church coffee morning looms!

Every Blessing

Tony

Holditch

Sixsmith and sons are quite famous for building these types of organs, and considering as Tony mentions the sophistication of electronic instruments at the time then these were welcome and in my opinion more suitable and reliable instruments for a church which didn't have a large amount of money to spend on an organ.

The instrument I play upon on Sundays has only two ranks, however on the single manual there are 7 stops and 3 in the pedal. I think this is about as small as you can make the instrument but nevertheless it just about works.

A more interesting extension organ that was built by Rushworths is here http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N10804

It has 22 stops from basically 4 ranks. This organ is now no longer in use and I would love to move it round the corner to our church, but again we face the financial issues of trying to this

Best wishes

Marc
Dubois is driving me mad! must practice practice practice

revtonynewnham

Hi

Another 4r Rushworth extension job that I used to play is http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=E00165  This is the location where, when I was playing for a special meeting every evening, someone came in on the Tuesday and reset all the pistons. Grrrr.

Extension organs range from 1 rank (often a Stopped Diap or Gedackt) to 40+ (Southampton Guildhall) in this country - there are larger theatre organs in the States.

Many years ago "The Organ" carried an article on a 1 rank practice organ - interesting.  There are obvi9ous limitations - but for a small organ, extension does have some advantages - especially where space is at a premium.  They're likely (on average) to need an overhaul sooner than tracker, simply because of the wear/dirt on the key contacts, etc. - and if solid state relays are used (as is the norm these days) the potential for electronic problems after many years.  There have been a handful of extension organs built in recent years - I think Sixsmith did one a couple of years back, so the concept isn't dead, although the trend is still in favour of tracker for very small organs.

Even Grant, Deagan & Bradbeer built a few - some of their early instruments were very much in the 1960's Compton vein - not surprising since the organ builders were ex-Compton men, and it wasn't (according to his biog) Maurice Forsythe-Grant started to take a more active interest that they got onto the neo-baroque designs - and in later years, they built a couple more interesting extension jobs:-
http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=E00172 - since replaced by a new organ by Bill Drake, this instrument going to a church in Greenwich; and http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=E01317 (one of a pair).  I played this a couple of years ago - it's very interesting - and there's no adjacent octave extension on the manuals, so the "missing note" problem is virtually non-existent.

A limited amount of extension/duplexing was done in earlier days - sometimes to the extent of a whole department being playable - with separate stop control - from 2 different manuals - and that on Tracker action, and some pneumatic jobs had extended reed ranks, such as http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N07334 where the Swell/Pedal reed unit (not playable at the time) was derived via a pneumatic action on an otherwise all tracker (including the Nave section) organ.

Cinema/theatre organs take extension & duplexing to the ultimate, with virtually everything available in several places and at different pitches - so that a small (6 rank) organ can have well over 60 stop tabs.  Registration needs some thought - but the results can be good.

Every Blessing

Tony

David Pinnegar

Hi!

Yes - it was the specific of this instrument - just Diapason, Flute, Salicional and Tuba(!!!) - that really raised my eyebrows. I was really wondering if these would be used in combination to make synthetic stops, as Wurlitzer often did according to Percy Vickery (mentioned on the thread about Bilston Town Hall) and noted on a local instrument - http://www.organmatters.co.uk/index.php?topic=116.0

The concept of any of these stops really working with a Tuba seems rather extraordinary - hardly a subtle stop - and perhaps an idea going right back to Hope Jone's concepts.

Best wishes

David P

revtonynewnham

Hi

I wonder if there's a cinema organ influence here - the cinema organ Tuba isn't the all-dominating stop that is often the case on concert/church instruments, but rather a smooth chorus reed - you can get an idea from the (free) Wurlitzer simulation Miditzer - theatre organ stops are laid out from soft (left) to loud (right) within each pitch band, so that gives some idea of where it fits in the tonal spectrum of that design.

As always, the paper stop list only tells part of the story.

Every Blessing

Tony

comptonplus

Hi,

I'm probably one of the few that played this little organ, shortly before we removed it.

The Tuba/Trumpet was actually, if i remember from the pipework, marked up Tromba. The Salicional was quite piercing! Flute and Diapason as you would expect. The Salicional, Flute and Tromba went down to 16ft. It filled the Church well (considering half the shutters didnt work!) and I would think it would be effective in its job. I am not a Chruch organist, however!!

The 16ft Bourdon was actually marked up for the Regal Guernsey, so this must have been added when Compton had it back at the factory before installation at Ibstock.

One other thing to note, in the absence of a weight, the Tremulant and a hymn book nailed to the top of it!!! ;D

Sadly, the organ was broken up for parts, nothing to do with me I hastily add!!!!!

I also play a much larger 'mixed' job at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, a 40 rank Compton (all still there and un-altered since Compton left it in 1938, except the removal of the Melotone) with four ranks of theatre organ pipework added. There are about 15 unit chests on this job, the rest are as you would expect.

Did Wurlitzer make sythetic stops? I have never come accross any. I have, however, on Compton. Our own Compton from the Picture House Douglas on the Isle of Man has Synthetic Clarinets.

Regards,

Cameron Lloyd

revtonynewnham

Hi

It's not uncommon for Compton organs to contain ranks labelled for other jobs - it seems that on packing day, whatever was appropriate and ready went into the box!    So the stop with another job number isn't that unusal.

Every Blessing

Tony

David Pinnegar

#8
Hi!

The information from Percy Vickery came from the recordings that he did for members of the Electronic Organ Constructors Society library - which Tony nobly manages - and when Percy passed on leaving me the beast that he constructed, his family and (probably unofficially) the EOCS allowed me to put these onto YouTube.

Most of the recordings were on his home instrument, on which he gave a splendid series of registration tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WlwMCW8f-w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuWNetonZyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPa_wSTDEEA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qf2Lbylddw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-lM5wTM2E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA9wTNZnEdw
which I think are a helpful resource as first hand evidence from a player of the time of these instruments but the information about synthetic stops would have come from his recording of a guide the 7 rank Christie at Waltham Cross:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-D6B815ku4

Best wishes

David P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-D6B815ku4
05:00 Trumpet blending with Tuba
05:07 Sythetic rank  - Saxophone
05:22 Sythetic rank - Clarinet

comptonplus

Hi,

yes, I have listened to these, very interesting to hear that Christie, particulalry the rather good synthetic Clarinet!!

Cheers,

Cameron.

KB7DQH

This reminded me that several manufacturers of pipe organs in the USA built "standard spec" unit organs as practice instruments or for installations in small churches.

Follows is an example listed on the Organ Clearing House...

Quote#  2381
"Not Quite a Martini, perhaps a Gimlet?"
Walter Holtkamp Sr. was an innovative genius who made meaningful contributions to the liberation of pipe organ sound in the middle of the twentieth century. His trademark visual designs with most of an instrument's pipes exposed were his reaction to the concealment of organs in remote chambers. He experimented with low wind pressure and created specifications with plenty of mutations, and built the first American Ruckpositiv divisions. This is a seven-rank unit organ, three of which combine to form a Mixture adding the brilliance of a real Mixture to a unified specification. Appropriate for small church or residence, Holtkamp organs of similar design are popular as practice instruments in University organ departments. Organ Clearing House director John Bishop recalls countless hours of practice on the nearly ubiquitous Holtkamp Martini model, very similar to this instrument.

The Moller "portable" and "Artiste" models come to mind also.

Mentioned elsewhere here on the forum is the Austin installed in what is now Daniels Recital Hall... some 3000 pipes
all on "unit" windchests... Will have to research that one to see if it is as we are discussing here a "unified" instrument or merely "straight" pipework on "unit" chests :o  What I do recall about this instrument is the fact that the 32 foot flue basses were mounted upside down so the unit chests wouldn't obstruct the mouths :o

I will say this however... The "unit organ" would certainly serve as an "evolutionary step" made possible by electric action that couldn't reasonably be done with mechanical actions... allowing for the production of instruments with greater tonal flexibility at very little additional cost compared to instruments built with "pre-electric" facilities...  At least it "looks good on paper" ;D ;) 

Eric
KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

comptonplus

Sounds OK off paper too!! ;)

Would the man in the street know the difference in sound? Hmmmm. I know this has been pondered for a long time by many, the missing 'notes'/pipes discussion.

If the organ does its job, unified or not, I dont think it's extraordinary really, just building people an organ that will do what they want it to do...ok, there were/are disasters! lol

Cheers,

Cameron.