The Art of Organ-Building, Vol. 1 by George Ashdown Audsley

Author:George Ashdown Audsley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications, Inc.
Published: 2013-04-21T04:00:00+00:00

It is impossible to overrate the utility of the full complement of couplers in an instrument of two manuals and, say, fifteen or twenty speaking stops. Allowing that all the stops have been carefully selected with reference both to individuality of tone and mixing qualities, the three manual couplers add immensely to the variety of tonal effects as well as to the general power of the instrument.

Let us note, as an illustration of our meaning, what can be done with two manual speaking stops and the three manual couplers. Supposing that a TRUMPET, 8 FT., is drawn on the Great manual and a FLUTE, 8 FT., on the Solo manual, we find that, placing our fingers on the Great keys, no fewer than seven combinations or different tonal effects are producible by the simple manipulation of the three couplers, thus:—

I.—Drawing the Unison coupler gives the combination of TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 8 FT., throughout the entire compass = CC to c4.

II.—Drawing the Octave coupler gives the combination of TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 4 FT., from CC to c3

III.—Drawing the Sub-octave coupler gives the combination of FLUTE, 16 FT., and TRUMPET, 8 FT., from tenor C to c4.

IV.—Drawing the Unison and Octave couplers gives the combinations of TRUMPET, 8 FT., FLUTE, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 4 FT., from CC to c3; and TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 8 FT., from c3 to c4.

V.—Drawing the Sub-octave and Unison couplers gives the combinations of FLUTE, 16 FT., TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 8 FT., from tenor C to c4; and TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 8 FT., from CC to BB.

VI.—Drawing the Sub-octave and Octave couplers gives the combinations of FLUTE, 16 FT., TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 4 FT., from tenor C to c3; TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE 4 FT., from CC to BB; and FLUTE, 16 FT., and TRUMPET, 8 FT., from c3 to c4.

VII.—Drawing the Sub-octave, Unison, and Octave couplers gives the combinations of FLUTE, 16 FT., TRUMPET, 8 FT., FLUTE, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 4 FT., from tenor C to c3; TRUMPET, 8 FT., FLUTE, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 4 FT., from CC to BB; and FLUTE, 16 FT., TRUMPET, 8 FT., and FLUTE, 8 FT., from c3 to c4.

With the above illustrations of what are possible in the case of two stops only, it is unnecessary to enlarge on the utility of the three manual couplers, or to direct attention to the practically countless tonal effects they are the means of producing in an Organ of only twenty speaking stops.

In important instruments having three manual claviers, the following couplers should certainly be introduced:

I. Choir to Great, Unison coupler.

II. Choir to Great, Sub-octave coupler.

III. Choir to Great, Octave coupler.

IV. Solo to Great, Unison coupler.

V. Solo to Choir, Unison coupler.

VI. Great to Pedal.

VII. Choir to Pedal.

VIII. Solo to Pedal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.