Pipe Organ Discovery 2007

Pipe Organ Discovery 2007

On Friday 28 September 2007, Auckland Organists' Association held a Pipe Organ Discovery day at St Mary's Church Parnell.

One of the items was an activity sheet - here are some of the answers:

Fact Finder

Qn 1: How long is the longest pipe in the St Mary's Pipe Organ?

Ans: 16 feet, or about 5 metres. An open pipe of this length plays a note three octaves below Middle C. You could find this out from the console, or the organ specification on the display stands.

Qn 2: How many pipes are there in the St Mary's Organ?

Ans: Approximately 2100. This was shown on the display stand. The exact number would probably require someone to go inside and count them!

Qn 3: What company is going to rebuild the organ in the Auckland Town Hall

Ans: Orgelbau Klais of Bonn, Germany. This was to be found on the Town Hall stand (at the right rear of the church) where there were photographs and sound recordings of Klais instruments. You can also see the full story on the Auckland Organ website.

Qn 4: Organ pipes are traditionally made from which materials?

Ans: Wood and metal. The metal pipes are most often made of a mixture of tin and lead, but copper and zinc are also used. The type of wood varies. However, you can make a pipe out of almost anything (even paper as in the make-a-pipe table at the back of the church). There is a church in the Philippines where nearly all the pipes are made from bamboo.

Qn 5: What is the nickname given to the Wellington Town Hall organ?

Ans: "Brontosaurus" - this was on the "Four Cities" display and in the book on the organ at one of the tables.

Qn 6: What does a Swell Box do?

Ans: The pipes are enclosed in a large box with shutters on the front, operated with a pedal. Opening the shutters lets the sound out more directly and makes the pipes sound louder, closing the shutters blocks the sound out and it is quieter and has a softer sound. The St Mary's organ has two swell boxes, the "Swell" division (played from the top manual) was shown on the video screen.

Qn 7: What do Roman numerals (eg "III") mean on a stop knob?

Ans: This is the number of ranks of pipes in the stop. "III" means that three pipes sound for each note. This is called a "mixture" stop. Usually the ranks are tuned to different high pitches, and the stop gives the organ a brighter, sparkly sound.

Qn 8: What is the Octopus's name?

Ans: Actually, you can call the octopus whatever you like, he won't answer either way, but the big picture of the octopus playing the organ, which was on the display stand, was titled "Octavian the Organist". Did you notice this was question number 8?

Word Maker

The words from the letters O R G A N - well, we didn't specify which language, and we didn't specify a minimum number of letters, and didn't even say you could only use each letter once! However the following 16 are all valid English words, using each letter no more than once. There may be more:

a O! an go on no ago nag nor rag Gran rang roan argon groan organ

Which pipes are sounding?

Only one pipe will sound - the "C" on the "Gedackt" stop. The stop knob the octopus is holding opens the slider under the Gedackt pipes. The key will let air into the wind channel under the C pipes.