I’ve received some questions from various people about my organ article, which I’m happy to answer. I figured I’d compile them here for all to read.

• Q – What’s the deal with electronic organs?
  A – Due to the cost of obtaining a full-fledged pipe organ (one rank of pipes can cost $20k nowadays), electronic organs are a popular alternative for chapels and meeting halls. They emulate the sounds of a real pipe organ via sampling, and newer ones can sometimes sound pretty close, although of course there is no substitute for the real thing. The sound comes out of speakers installed in the room and the organ itself. There are even “hybrid” organs, that have real pipes that are supplemented by electronic voices as well. Functionality-wise, electronic organs try to mimic pipe organs as much as possible: they have stops, expression (“volume”) pedals, etc.
• Q – $20k/rank?! How many ranks do pipe organs usually have?
  A – A small pipe organ might only have 5 ranks of pipes. Very large ones, like in the Tabernacle (which is the 12th largest in the world), have over 200. The largest organ at BYU has 51 ranks. (Fun fact: The largest pipe organ in the world (by total pipes) has 7 keyboards and 449 ranks (for a total of over 33,000 pipes, including one that is 64 feet high). It’s located in Atlantic City.)
• Q – Do pipe organs require constant tuning, like pianos?
  A – Pipe organs do need to be tuned, and doing so is an expensive process. However, depending on the tuning method used, they can hold their tunings for a very long time. Day-to-day environmental factors also affect pipes: sudden changes of temperature can cause them to sound “sour,” and things like humidity are also a factor.
• Q – If you turn on the wrong harmonizing stops, will your playing sound dissonant (i.e. harmonize poorly)?
  A – No, the stops that harmonize do so at conservative intervals, like the perfect fifth. If you want to sound dissonant, you have to do it yourself :)
• Q – How come I don’t see the shutters you mentioned on (some organ)?
  A – Many times, to save space and to make things look prettier, the shutters will be located behind other pipes. They can be tough to spot on certain organs. (Also, the proper term for these shutters is “swell shades” or “louvres”.)
• Q – Sometimes in organ performances, the organist has one or more assistants who fiddle around with things occasionally. What are they doing, and are they absolutely necessary?
  A – Though assistants are never strictly necessary, they can definitely improve the listener’s experience in many cases by minimizing downtime in between musical passages. For one thing, due to the variety among organs and the complexity of the music, organists tend to play with sheet music instead of by memory like pianists. If an assistant doesn’t help turn the pages, the organist has to do it, which means he has to stop playing with at least one hand for a bit. More importantly, however, the assistants are there to help change the organ’s sound at the desired times by turning on and off stops. Though many organs let you save configurations of stops (they have memory slots — even non-electronic ones can do this), some organs don’t have this feature. In those cases, the assistants are there to make changing the stops go quicker. (Also note: often the organist is playing on a fairly unfamiliar organ, whereas the assistants are locals who know where everything is. Remember, organs vary widely!)