Posted by AW on February 22, 2003 at 22:44:09:
In Reply to: Re: Tubas and Pipe Organs posted by Rick Denney on February 22, 2003 at 20:42:23:
Hi Rick,
Thanks for your comments. I have never seen or heard the Washington (DC) Cathedral organ in person, so I looked it up. This is one of E.M. Skinner's big ones. Built in 1939, with 10,450 pipes, it includes four stops of 32-foot pitch. I note the presence of a "Bombarde Basse 64" that is electronic. That is certainly not original. My guess is that it is the loudspeaker equivalent of a bunch of jackhammers.
I should mention that there are some other pipe organs with 64-foot pipe stops. These do not extend more than a third or fourth below 32-foot CCCC. As far as I know, there are only two 64-foot stops that are made from pipes and extend all the way down to CCCCC.
There are sometimes 64-foot and 32-foot stops that are synthesized by engaging sets of pipes that play the harmonics that would have come from the big pipes had they been installed. This works just like tuba divisi parts, in which some section members play the root, and others play a fifth above. The resulting beats synthesize a note an octave below the root.
To keep this thread related to the tuba world: There are organists and builders who are so besotted with their instruments and their sounds that they will go too far, and drive away the listening public. This is quite the equivalent of octave dropping, blatting and other high jinks we have heard from some of our peers (and may have even have done ourselves in bursts of youthful enthusiasm). It does seem that every field of music has its range of participants, and they all include some people who could use, shall we say, some coaching from a someone more interested in music than in a particular instrument.
Cheers,
Allen Walker
pipes2000
substitute (AT) for
P.S. I'm not a builder. In the past, I studied organ, and from time to time, I help to fix them.