The Parish Magazine February 2024

the parish noticeboard — 7
An organ only makes music
through the person playing it
By Richard Meehan, director of music, St Andrew's Church Sonning
When someone describing a pipe
organ refers to its size, they would
generally not be talking about the
size of its console or casing, but
about the number of stops it has.
Most stops on an organ connect a
set of pipes to either a keyboard or a
pedal board.
In larger organs, stops might
be geographically separated. The
speaker positions in St Andrew’s
Church represent this, with one set
near the old pipes, two on the north
and south transepts, and one in the
nave so that the sound better reaches
the singing congregation.
The idea is that the organist
playing a larger instrument has the
power to create a complete nearorchestral
effect which engulfs the
listener.
Each stop produces a different
sound. About two thirds are flutelike
designs and these include the
whistle-shaped pipes generally on
view.
More strident sounds are created
by vibrating metal reeds, and are
referred to as such.
These can often be rather loud,
and almost every organist can
'The first thing Christians can do
in response to war is to pray for
peace and for those affected, says
the Archbishops of Canterbury and
York.
The Archbishops are praying for
'those mourning, those injured, and
all those fearing for their safety,' and
for 'restraint on all sides, and renewed
efforts towards a just peace for all.'
The Archbishops and Bishops
are also encouraging Christians
throughout the UK to join them in
prayer, and to consider practical
action, by supporting organisations
'working to promote peace and human
flourishing in the Middle East.'
The following are posted on the
Church of England website:
— Christian Aid is the official
ecumenical arm of Churches in
recall with horror an occasion on
which they, during a quiet passage
accidentally let rip with the sound of
doom.
Stops for the great manual
tend to be louder than the swell
one, while the choir manual often
comprises sounds of more distinctive
characters.
However, the most powerful
aspect of the way they are ordered is
their relative size.
VIBRATO
Stops marked 8' (eight foot pitch)
sound at concert pitch, whereas ones
marked 4' and 2' sound at one and
two octaves above this respectively.
Similarly 16' and 32' play one and
two octaves lower than concert pitch,
giving increased weight and body to
the resulting sound.
Other sizes of stops include some
which are made deliberately slightly
out of tune so that they create
vibrato like beat-frequencies when
played with the others.
Some, such as the 2 2/3 stop plays
a note an octave and a half above the
main note, creating an emphasised
second harmonic in the resulting
Britain and Ireland and has been
working with the poorest and most
vulnerable people in the Middle
East since the early 1950s, when
it provided humanitarian relief to
Palestinian refugees.
— The Church Mission Society is
a historic Anglican mission society
which supports mission partners
across the region.
The Council of Christians and
Jews — is a leading interfaith
charity which works to help
Jews and Christians to meet, to
understand each other better and
to create meaningful engagement
between the communities.
— Embrace the Middle East is
an ecumenical Christian charity
working to help marginalised and
vulnerable communities.
The Parish Magazine - February 2024 19
From
the
organ
bench
sound and so, if played on its own,
would in fact be playing the wrong
notes.
Learning to combine the stops
to create expressive and pleasing
sounds can be daunting for the
beginner organist.
It is one of those situations where
there are in theory no wrong choices,
but context can almost always make
any combination unsatisfactory.
I have always found it to be a
joyful experience when organs
thought to be pedestrian are brought
to life in vivid sound colour by a
good organist, reminding us that,
for all its technical achievement, an
organ only makes music through the
person playing it.
Gaza-Israel War: bishops urge us all to pray and to act
— Friends of the Holy Land is a
non-political Christian Charity whose
mission it is to secure a resilient and
enduring Christian community in the
West Bank, Gaza, Israel and Jordan.
— The Jerusalem Middle East
Church Association has supported
the life and work of the Anglican
Church across Jerusalem, the Middle
East and North Africa for more than
120 years and in many other ways
for individuals to get involved in
supporting the Church in the Holy
Land.
— United Society Partners in
the Gospel (USPG) is an historic
Anglican mission agency having a
long-standing partnership with the
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and
the Middle East.