Specification

The organ’s specification is a list of its stops and main features. The stoplist is grouped in divisions, each corresponding to one of the organ’s four manuals (keyboards) and the pedalboard.

A ‘stop’ is a group of pipes of the same timbre, one pipe (or sometimes more) for each note of the keyboard or pedalboard. In the specification, each stop is numbered for reference. The foot-length after its name indicates whether it sounds at written pitch (8ft), one or two octaves above (4ft or 2ft respectively), an octave below (16ft), or other intervals. You may notice slight discrepancies in spelling in the stop names. These are the result of different national organbuilding traditions. For instance, the Great ‘Trompete’ (German) is different in style from the Swell ‘Trompette harmonique’ (French), and the Echo division ‘Trumpet’. The unnumbered items following the stops in each division are its accessory controls. Most of these are ‘couplers’ – for instance, the ‘Swell to Positiv’ couples the Swell to the Positiv, allowing the stops from the Swell keyboard to be played on the Positiv keyboard as well. The Positiv, Swell and Solo divisions have a tremulant, which introduces a gentle ‘wobble’ into the stops by varying the wind supply.

• Manual I: Positiv

  The Positiv is the lowest of the four manuals (keyboards). It contains a smaller, secondary chorus of stops as a contrast to that on the Great manual, with light, bright, clear stops which are particularly suitable for baroque music. Much variety is p... more

• Manual II: Great

  The Great is second manual up, and the main division of the organ. Its most important feature is the organ’s heaviest Principal Chorus, which supplies the solid foundation of organ sound at every pitch (nos. 15,16, 21, 24, 25). This chorus is t... more

• Manual III: Swell (enclosed)

  The Swell is the third manual up. Its pipes are enclosed in a box with shutters that can be opened and closed by means of a pedal, allowing the player to increase (‘swell’) or decrease their volume expressively. Accordingly, it contains e... more

• Manual IV: Solo (enclosed)

  The Solo is the top manual. Its pipes are enclosed in a box like the Swell, and it contains a variety of stops for solo use. They range from delicately expressive flute and reed stops (51, 55-7) to the extraordinarily powerful battery of Chamade trum... more

• Pedal

  The Pedal contains the ‘big guns’ of the organ. The biggest and deepest stops are the 32fts: one firm (67), one very quiet (68), and one very loud reed (78). The other stops provide a very solid, deep bass sound to underpin the rest of th... more

• Consoles and control features

  The organ has two consoles. The console attached to the main instrument has a mechanical action directly linking the keys to the pipes, and an electrical stop action. It has traditional draw-knob stops and its keyboards are made of fir with black nat... more

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