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	Here, I put on my other hat and share my real passion. Please take time to enjoy these clips.

Alleluya Mr Handel	Luca di Donato and Stefano Pellini - These performers show the joy of playing one of these instruments, and their hand gestures at the end are THOROUGHLY warranted. BRAVO!!
Danse Macabre	This one starts quietly but gets very lively
Saint Paul's Cathedral London	As well as the organ, the views of the Cathedral are wonderful
Westminster Abbey London	Bro. Purcell wrote the tune, we think
St Sulpice, Paris	Philip Roth is playing. You will hear what an organist hears. The clicking and clacking in this recording (and a lot of the others) is the mechanical part of the instrument (known as the "action") at work.
St Sulpice, Paris	In this clip, you will clearly see some keys going down although the performer's hands are nowhere near them. These keys are "coupled" to the keys that he is actually using, and the pedals that he is playing with his feet.
Bruges Cathedral	I have included this clip because the organ was built by the builder who built the one in the QPAC concert hall.
West Point Military Academy USA	This lady has superb pedal technique. You MUST WATCH this
The Organ Historical Trust of Australia	Some major local instruments
The Grand Organ UGLQ	Our own organ in Grand Hall, Brisbane

Some facts about Pipe Organs which you may not know.

Pipe Organs trace their ancestry back to very early times. The ancient Romans had an instrument called the "hydraulis" which was driven by water pressure, and which made a sound so loud it could be heard 3 miles away.

On a modern instrument, the sound is made by pipes which are composed of metal or wood.

The material, and the ratio of the cross section to the length determine the character of the sound. The length determines the pitch. The pitch is also affected whether a pipe is "open" or "closed". An open pipe has an open top end, and a closed pipe has a stopper in the top. Tuning in an open pipe is controlled by either a sleeve fitted to the top so that the length can be adjusted, or a tag cut out of the top which can be bent to open or close a little more or less length. A stopped pipe is adjusted by moving the stopper up or down.

Sound is produced in two ways:-
1
By blowing air over an embouchure as in a flute or other woodwind instrument. These are called "flue" pipes and have 3 main characteristics of sound or timbre
Diapason - the rolling "organ" sound so typical of English and European instruments
Flute - a hollow, sweet sound
String - a "thin" sound, much likened to the strings of an orchestra.

2
By passing air over a metal reed fixed by the embouchure. These are called "reed" pipes, and make a distinctive, sharp sound, which can be very strident, or soft and plaintive. Tuning in these pipes is adjusted primarily by adjusting the length of the metal reed.

Some ranks of pipes are tuned an octave (or more) higher or lower than others. The main ranks are tuned to concert pitch and are referred to as 8Foot pipes. This means that the lowest note in that rank has a pipe 8 feet long. The organist knows what pitch the other ranks will sound by the notation 4', 2', 12/3', 1' 32', 64' etc on the stop knobs or switches. Yes.16 Foot and 32 Foot pipes are quite common. Many big instruments have booming 64 foot ranks that you feel rather than hear.

Naturally, I am describing a continuum and no two organs are the same. Organists use these tone colours in various combinations to enhance the music they play. Every time a player sits at an instrument, even one which he has played many times, is a real adventure. Often a thought "I wonder...this should sound good with that...." pops up from nowhere, and the result is a delight and he is left with the thought "Why didn't I think of that one before ?!".

Pipes are arranged in rows on a wind chest. The rows are called "ranks" and the pipes in each "rank" are built so that they all have a matching sound or timbre.

An instrument may have several wind chests with ranks of pipes mounted on them. Each of these is known as a "department" and is usually controlled by a keyboard. There is usually a different keyboard for each department, including the pedals.

It is common for one department to sit out in the open, and some or all of the others to be enclosed in boxes with louvres on the front (known as "swell boxes") which can be opened or closed by the player manipulating a pedal to increase or decrease the volume (this is called the "swell pedal") and there may be several of these, depending on the size of the instrument.

As mentioned before, there is a keyboard for each department of pipes arranged so that the player can control them with his hands. There is also a keyboard for the feet, usually of 21/2 octaves. Both feet are employed, and either the heel or toe of the foot may be used.

Air is supplied to the wind chests by sets (or a set) of bellows, these days driven by an electric blower. In early days, someone had to be paid to pump the bellows by means of a wooden handle. Typical wind pressure is not very high. Too much pressure produces a very harsh sound.

The wind chests are arranged so that air can stopped off from the various ranks of pipes, giving the player control over the type of sound the instrument makes. The method for doing this is by levers or switches called "stops".

There is often the abililty to "couple" some of the keys together, so that when the player plays a note on one keyboard, some of the other keys or pedals will sound, too. This is known as "coupling.

The method of actually making the keys and pedals open the pipes to produce sound varies. In the early days, mechanical means were employed. This is known as "tracker action". During the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, a pneumatic system was common. It allowed the console to be located separate from the pipes, but it caused a delay between when the key was pressed, and when the pipe sounded. It lost favour to an "electric" action in which the key closed a circuit which caused a solenoid to open the pipe. This had a lot of advantages, but proved expensive to build and maintain and tracker (or mechanical) action again became popular. These days, a hybrid tracker action for the keys and electric for the stops is very popular, especially on large, complex instruments.

The complexity of instruments gives the player command over some interesting effects. In some cathedrals in Europe, there are pipes on either side of the nave, and the organist can play "antiphonally" That is, he can make a statement on one side of the building, and "answer" it from the other. The instrument in the first clip on this page is one instrument controlled by two players from two consoles. There is a wonderful instrument in the Philippines which is made entirely from bamboo! Some early Spanish instruments have nothing but "reed" stops, giving them a very strident sound. To my ears, they are a bit like bagpipes on steroids!

In addition to the complexity of the instrument, a player, in a large hall, has to cope with the delay in the time it takes the sound from the pipes to reach the other end of the hall, where he may be trying to coordinate his music with other players. Quite often, a large, empty stone building will have a pronounced echo, which can further confuse the player. Someone new to this environment has quite a lot to learn to develop a "feel" for how the whole building responds to his efforts.

All instruments are different, some large, some small. On first acquaintance with an instrument, a player needs to familiarise himself with it to see what he can do with it.

When he is in action, an organist is a very busy fellow.

Ask any organist, and he or she will tell you they would have it no other way! For myself I will be forever thankful that the pipe organ has been a wonderfully rich and rewarding part of my life.

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