This is great information, thanks

With pipe organs, cleanliness is next to godliness. When my instrument was releathered, after 50 years of use, I had the blower room cleaned and air filters put on the air intakes. One of the big causes of leather failure is dirty outside air. Maintaining a minimum temperature in the building during winter lessens environmental stress on many instrument components. Some folks simply don't take proper care of their instruments, which causes them to fail prematurely.

Adam

Interested in heavy metal, are we? I once lived for 4 years on property in the northernmost block of Cambridge, MA that was once the site of a tannery in the 19th century. Let's just say things did not grow particularly well in the soil there.

Not to mention that builders who use Direct Electric action (properly called "snake oil salesmen") often resort to unification to artificially increase the size of an organ (I'll let Freud discuss this one), which is a most lamentable trend due to the missing notes.

Unification and duplexing, like the poor, have always been with us.

Duplexing is using a rank of pipes playing at one pitch on a keyboard and then at a different or same pitch on another keyboard. Often you will find a soft 16' like a Lieblich Gedeckt stop playing on the Swell and also available on the Pedal.

When used on a different keyboard at a different pitch it has a different tone color - since pipes usually change in tone color as they rise in pitch - it's called scaling.

Unification takes one stop and, by extending the pipework to play an octave lower and an octave or two higher, permits that pipe rank to be wired to not one stop, but as many as 7 stops on the same keyboard - and also to be available at various pitches on a different keyboard. I played a Robert Morton theater organ with 4 sets of pipes playing from more than 50 stop tablets...

This explains why theater organists - often double the melody by playing octaves - unification is "bad" because a pipe only plays once....so there are notes that have fewer pipes playing when playing a chord on a unified organ...

How to test for unification (important because often names for a stop are changed even though they use the same stops) is simple. Play CEG as a chord starting with middle C. Select an 8' stop - a flute for example. Without letting go, play the 8' flute on another keyboard, first with Db F Ab then C E G. You will hear the first three notes play and the second chord of CEG if it is "straight", meaning not borrowed. If the second chord does not sound it is because that stop has been unified from the first stop you played and the pipes are already playing.

Then, still holding the first chord, try the 16' flute on the second keyboard playing up an octave, the 4' down an octave and then the 2' down another octave.

Why is this a problem? Unification, especially when playing hymns, emphasizes the top and bottom notes being played but not the middle ones. Lack of balance.

Theater organs were highly unified because it made a lot of stops cheaper to buy...since they make the organ look large. The other large buyers of unified organs were Catholic churches, for the same reason - low price for what appeared to be a lot of organ.

Sales people who sold these organs were not all shysters...all builders, including Aeolian-Skinner, used unification and duplexing in very judicious ways. Small organs especially benefit from unification since it provides more stop combinations that are possible in a church where 5 or 6 stops are all that can be afforded.

Judicious stop choices can produce great effects on a unified organ - rather then being stuck with just 5 or 6 stops.

EA organs are very easy to unify, once again making them the choice of many Catholic church pastors. EP organs duplex easily. Tracker organs are difficult to duplex and almost impossible to unify.

Most builders who use EA are using expansion chambers between valve and pipe foot that mitigate the effects of turbulence. In conversations with both Charles Kegg and Pat Murphy, there are voicing challenges, but these can be overcome. There is nothing wrong with judicious unification and duplexing, but I agree with Gavin that this practice can easily be abused. Choruses must be independent!

EP slider seems to be the way to go these days. Check out Goulding and Woods chest design. It's quite ingenious. You get the simplicity of note channels, the speed of a pneumatic fired pallet and a much reduced need for leather. IMHO, this type of action is superior to electric pull-down slider chests.

I remember well when all those Perflex chests began to fail. Too bad it didn't work!

Austin Organs' Universal Windchest is yet another variation--in this case proprietary. And the traditional form of these chests is large enough for a technician to stand upright in while the organ is pressurized and to work on all the moving parts directly. Quite an experience!

Before my time - I was there for the final incarnation....wonderful organ from all that I have heard - I must come visit!

Yes, some of the finest EP and EA organs, including Casavant, have used a toggle switch arrangement to give the feel of tracker touch - the initial stroke has to overcome this tension and then the key falls freely to the keyed, just as the tracker requires you to overcome the tension of the air resisting the palette from falling away and admitting air into the channels under the pipes.

This "tracker" type action matches the stroke required of the harpsichord required to pluck the string - and then the key falls to the keybed, just as it does on the piano.

However, this is very important. On the harpsichord when the key hits the bed there is an audible thump unless the player strokes the key towards them to eliminate the loud thump.

The piano has the same thump but plays so much louder that it is rarely heard.

Why is this important? Early organists spent most of their time playing and compsing even for the organ on the harpsichord and clavichord - which also thumps, because they had to pay someone to pump the organ. So it makes perfect sense that organ technique that they wrote for is based upon the stroke and not downward pressure. The stroke permits much cleaner playing, especially on 16th notes....they sparkle.

I sincerely doubt that there was a "different" organ technique from this - if there were, they would have written about this.

So there are builders that see the modern EP and EA actions as needing the "tracker touch". I never do a design without it, especially on digital consoles.

Digital organs can play more like tracker organs that EP and EA when voices properly and need the tracker touch to work well under the fingers, but that's just my humble opinion.

If the action is not properly balanced, they can get heavy.

At the same time, I am wondering if the stroking action of the harpsichordists - pulling towards you rather then a straight downward stroke which locks at the bottom - might be less prone to cause hand problems since the muscles of the fingers that contract and expand instead of being forced into a locked position with arm weight involved in what is considered typical organ touch.

I have an interest in all of this because of playing the harpsichord but also playing the cello in which there are definite right and wrong ways to use both hands and arms....and I've been prone to do it all wrong!

About heavy tracker actions, I have always relished a heavy action as an added benefit for strengthening one's fingers and attendant muscles. I enjoy the challenge to master it. Every good organ has attributes which require coming to terms with, but, when one forms a bond with such an instrument is when he(she) can enter into new realms and dimensions of the musical craft and liturgical art. It IS another world.

You can have those trackers, and tracker touch. I don't want any part of either. Rampant archaeologism! Might as well park my car and ride a horse, if we are going to live in more primitive times. Interesting that great French organists were impressed with American consoles in the early 20th century, because the French consoles were so primitive. Yes, I know there is a whole school of thought related to authentic early organ performance practice. I would rather approach that from the position of what Bach might have done, if he had organs with decent actions. Eyewitnesses indicate he played organ very slowly. Probably had to.

I suspect his slow playing had something to do with heavy, primitive, slow tracker actions, too. With newer materials and engineering, tracker actions likely perform far better today than they ever did in the past.

To each his own, and my training was fine! This is all the organ fad of the moment. Anyone remember 8' instruments and how everyone who didn't appreciate them was illiterate and uneducated? The fact that you can play something a certain way on a modern tracker doesn't mean it sounded the same on a more primitive instrument. Then there is the assumption that all want to play Baroque music. Not true!

So, @Kevin in Kentucky, you want reduced control vs. a tracker, and more noise than EP? ;-)

I do think the recordings of scherzos at St. Sulpice are charming with all the BL's a-clattering, making as much noise as the quiet stops that are on! C-C's instruments are unbelieveable...all that technology before there was even electricity...and they're musical to boot!

@CharlesW, the question isn't our preference: it's that our ear should hear a difference regardless of opinion. My premise is that (even if you don't like the repertoire, or trackers) if you can't hear a difference, that will play itself out in the musicality of the interpretation, etc. Virgil Fox may not have liked trackers, but you better believe he would have exploited their musical advantages if he was playing on them!

@BruceL. Play a CC and you will appreciate the touch. Yes, they make noise, but ooh la la, they make it fun. I did not understand until I played a CC.

Seriously, the type of action and choice should be practical. There is a Bedient in Memphis with very long trackers (I think 20 feet) and it is not fun. Build the instrument that will work for your space. Trackers, EP,Direct electric. They all disadvantages and advantages.

BTW, BruceL, one of my dear friends helped with your instrument in Birmingham. Have not heard the instrument in quite a while.

Can someone explain slider chests in more detail? I was under the impression that it was sort of the best of both worlds in a modern organ, no? Are sliders only found on trackers and EP, or can they be used on EA as well? Unfortunately, I've not had the opportunity to play on too many different organs to form an opinion on how they feel, but in terms of sound, I can definitely hear the difference between EA and EP, and having an affinity for early music all the pops and clicks of a mechanical action don't bother me a bit (when listening to early music) though I can imagine that trackers may not be ideally suited to contemporary literature.

Seriously, I have the opportunity to oversee the install of a new organ, so I want to learn all I can about the mechanics. In terms of tone color I prefer a rich, warm tone (i.e balanced, not tubby but not too bright). The EA organs that I have heard/play all seem too thin for my ears. Feel free to PM me if you want to comment on a specific builder for better or worse.

ok, so i get mechanically how an EA is different from an EP.
What makes the different method of air delivery cause a difference in tone?
Does it have to due with air-pressure regulation? The gradual opening of the pipe as the leather moves? Nothing inherent, but causally related to poor craftsmanship?

The EA organs that I have heard/play all seem too thin for my ears.

That sounds more like a voicing issue than the type of action.

Dispelling the notion that we know how the organs sounded at Bach's time.

Lawrence Phelps got tired of hearing, "Oh, I heard/played one of the Schnitger Organs and I got to hear how organs sounded when Bach was alive.

Phelps have two identical pipes made and voiced identical. Then locked one in a draw and then had the other one rigged to play for 6 months (in a sound-proof closet).

At the end of the six months they were both mounted on a voicing chest, side by side. It was impossible to return the pipe that had played that length of time to sound just like it's brand-new, played a couple of times and stuck in the drawer full-brother pipe.

The metal of the pipe was changed by being played.

Check out Goulding and Woods chest design. It's quite ingenious.

You can if you come to Colloquium next year. St. John's has a G & W.

proved with cigarette smoke

"the devil's incense" -J. Tucker (in an excellent essay about Casinos)

"I almost didn't write it, because I didn't want anybody to think I was anti-smoking or anything" -J. Tucker (in a personal conversation, later)

@BruceL: I went to school in B'ham and the cathedral was my parish. But it had an old Rodgers then. So much has changed. Great place now. Tis jealous of you....

Back to organs (and actions and Barker levers and builders)....

I know this may sound a bit odd, but when my Schantz was rebuilt in 1994, they worked on the contacts in the console, which had become worn over time. That speeded response time up. This is such a simple thing it could be overlooked.

About a month to 6 weeks, as best I remember. Schantz did the rebuild and we lived with an Allen down front. When they shipped chests back to Schantz, the loft was a cluttered mess. We had to sing from the front.