Recent Organ Design Innovations and the 21st-century - Stichting ...

(Example 6). For example, they can be used to provide a blast of accent, or add a controlled tremulant
to a keyboard, not unlike the Bebung effect of the middle manual.
As with Prototype II, the variable wind pressure facilitates a wide range of sounds and pitches in
each rank of pipes. The 4’ flute and mutations, all overblown at the tuning wind pressure of 45 mm WC,
jump down into their 8’ fundamentals and reveal delicate colors at low wind pressures. The pitch of the
Gedackt does not respond to wind pressure change, but rather the rank takes on an impressive variety
of speech characteristics at high and low pressures or through manipulation of the action-transmission
ratio and key dip. At high pressures the pipes in the other ranks overblow into higher partials, including
the seventh and ninth in the tierce. Additionally, one can carefully adjust the wind pressure to the
unstable point just below or above a rank’s break and utilize the Windstösse to pop the rank to an upper
or lower partial. One can also obtain multiphonic effects in some of the stops, particularly at points
where the pipe is overblown into an upper partial but still rests at an unstable point.
Through these three research prototype organs, this extraordinary multidisciplinary project has
realized to a great extent the vision put forth by Daniel Glaus for the “emancipation for the pipes.” 28
Perhaps for the first time in history the organist can take complete control over the wind; shaping
dynamics and pitch from gestures of subtle beauty to blasts of sound and multiphonic spectral
soundscapes comparable to the extended performance techniques developed by other instrumentalists
throughout the 20th century. Composers have already expressed interest in the expressive possibilities
for the instrument, and the research group continues to promote new works and host performances on
the two later prototypes. What is extraordinary is that the technical achievements these instruments
represent are the result of nothing more than brilliant mechanical engineering. With the exception of
the electrical pickups for the wind regulation, there is nothing about these instruments that could not
have been built three hundred years ago.
28 Glaus, “From Wish to Reality,” 83.
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