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Pedal Cornets


justinf

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I remember playing the organ at St Marys Beverley a while back and noticing some very strange mutations on the pedal organ. My memory is not upto listing the exact details and l think most visiting organists decided to stay well clear of them!

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I remember playing the organ at St Marys Beverley a while back and noticing some very strange mutations on the pedal organ. My memory is not upto listing the exact details and l think most visiting organists decided to stay well clear of them!

 

http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N04015

 

Strangely, a Septieme 4 4/7' but no Tierce 6 2/5'.

 

An enormous Pedal, though: 24 of 74 speaking stops!

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Wide flues give a purer, closer to sine-wave tone so it would make sense that the ranks making up the harmonics were as wide as possible (and obviously something like a septieme can't come from the same rank as something tuned to a unison pitch). But the idea of composition of multiple flue ranks making a close approximation to a reed isn't so far-fetched, that's how the Hammond drawbar organ worked after all, and quite effectively. I even saw a very detailed book that listed every conceivable pipe organ sound that was supposedly possible from the drawbars, and the Hammonds so far as I know didn't have the luxury of septiemes or noviemes.

 

The early Mander rebuild of the Gray and Davison at Str Pancras New Church in central London has a "synthetic Clarinet" on the Choir that I thought sounded pretty realistic when I heard it - I wonder what that is made up of?

 

Contrabombarde

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Wide flues give a purer, closer to sine-wave tone so it would make sense that the ranks making up the harmonics were as wide as possible (and obviously something like a septieme can't come from the same rank as something tuned to a unison pitch). But the idea of composition of multiple flue ranks making a close approximation to a reed isn't so far-fetched, that's how the Hammond drawbar organ worked after all, and quite effectively. I even saw a very detailed book that listed every conceivable pipe organ sound that was supposedly possible from the drawbars, and the Hammonds so far as I know didn't have the luxury of septiemes or noviemes.

 

The early Mander rebuild of the Gray and Davison at Str Pancras New Church in central London has a "synthetic Clarinet" on the Choir that I thought sounded pretty realistic when I heard it - I wonder what that is made up of?

 

Contrabombarde

 

 

=====================================

 

 

My introduction to the synthetic tones possible on a big Compton organ, came from the late and very charming Dr Leslie Paul at Bangor Cathedral, North Wales. I was all of 14. and he must have spent an hour of his time showing me all the tones available; especially on the Choir Organ, with the extended Dulcianas etc. We heard synthetic Clarinets, real Clarinets, a synthetic Orchestral Oboe and all manner of things. It was quite fascinating to sit at the console and play with the various sounds as if it were a synthesiser.

 

Far from any sort of classical tradition, I must admit that I still like Compton's work, and often find myself using that overworked word "genius."

 

No other organ-builder in the world ever did extension better, and in addition, they were sooooo well made.....like Spitfires and Ferrograph tape-recorders.

 

MM

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  • 3 months later...

By chance, I ran across a PDF which gives the composition of the Pedal Cornets (or Harmonics of 32' and 16', if you prefer) on the Holtkamp instrument at St. Paul's Episcopal in Cleveland. According to "The Stopt Diapason" #102, Compton provided not only a Polyphone but "complete working details of two pedal cornets," the composition of which is given below. The PDF has more details on pipe scales and the like, for those who want it.

 

Pedal 32' Cornet
 C1  8-12-15-17-19-21b-22-23-25#-27b
 C3  8-12-15-17-19-21b-22-23-25#

  1. 16'	  8	 Principal
  2. 10 2/3'  12	Subbass
  3. 8'	   15	Octave
  4. 6 2/5'   17	Independent: 44 pipes
  5. 5 1/3'   19	Subbass
  6. 4 4/7'   21b   Independent: 44 pipes
  7. 4'	   22	Choral Bass
  8. 3 1/2'   23	Independent: 44 pipes, i.e. 3 5/9'
  9. 2 3/4'   25#   Independent: 44 pipes, i.e. 2 10/11'
 10. 2 1/2'   27b   Independent: 24 pipes, i.e. 2 6/13'

Pedal 16' Cornet:
 C1  8-12-15-17-19-21b-22-23-25#-27b
 C2  8-12-15-17-19-21b-22-23-25#

  1. 8'	   8	 Octave
  2. 5 1/3'   12	Subbass
  3. 4'	   15	Choral Bass
  4. 3 1/5'   17	Extension of 6 2/5'
  5. 2 2/3'   19	Great 8' Flute
  6. 2 2/7'   21b   Extension of 4 4/7'
  7. 2'	   22	Great 8' Flute
  8. 1 3/4'   23	Extension of 3 1/2', i.e. 1 7/9'
  9. 1 3/8'   25#   Extension of 2 3/4', i.e. 1 5/11'
 10. 1 1/4'   27b   Extension of 2 1/2', i.e. 1 3/13'

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