Organs are amazing instruments but most people have little idea of how they are constructed and indeed, why they can cost so much! For those who may be interested, we have put together some explanations.

A Layperson’s Guide

Our organ will, eventually, be four instruments in one (each, a “division“).  Three of them are played from the three keyboards (“manuals“), each with 61 notes, and the fourth is played by the feet on the pedalboard, with 32 notes.

Each division is a set of pipes which sits on a box of compressed wind (a “windchest“) supplied by an electric blower. The wind is stored in large bellows (“reservoirs“) made of wood and sheepskin, which keep the wind at even pressure. Pressing a key operates a mechanism that allows the wind into a pipe or several pipes, so producing the sound. Normally there is one pipe per note for each different sound. Continue reading…

How does the wind get into the right pipe?

The new organ will have 2 blowers producing air (‘wind’) which is held in large reservoirs. How does the wind get from the reservoir into the right pipes when the keys are pressed?

The pipes sit in ranks on a board full of holes (the ‘soundboard’) on top of an airtight wooden box (the ‘windchest’) which is full of wind from the reservoir under the right pressure.  If there are 61 keys on a manual, each stop on that manual will have 61 pipes. Continue reading…

The Console

The console is the ‘desk’ from which the organ is played.  It was given to us by St George’s Anglican Parish in Wyke, Chichester when it had a completely new organ built in early 2014.  Roger Lanigan and Keith Ainsworth transported it to Coventry themselves.  It matches the woodwork of the organ case at All Souls, which is being refurbished, and is around 20 years old (almost brand new in organ terms!).  It is currently being remade and will have 3 keyboards (“manuals”), each of 61 notes, and a pedal keyboard of 32 notes.  There will be around 40 drawstops, 20 on each side of the manuals. Continue reading…