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Home > Music > Organs > Æolian
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The Æolian organ is Duke Chapel’s original organ, built
and installed in 1932 by the Æolian Organ Company. This remarkable
instrument was the last major organ made by the Æolian Organ
Company of New York, before it merged with the E.M. Skinner Organ
Company, and is the firm’s only significant organ built for
a church. Designed in the post-Romantic tradition, the organ is
known for its extremes of dynamic expression and the orchestral
voicing of its individual stops according to practice in vogue at
the time of its construction. Warm, rich notes are underscored by
the vibrant sounds of trumpets, trombones, and tubas. Soft strings
and mellow flutes lend an air of ethereal beauty. This rich range
of musical sound is unique to the Duke Chapel Æolian Organ.
The massive pipes visible from the nave only hint at the Æolian’s
size. Approximately 6,900 pipes are located behind elaborately
carved oak wooden screens in large chambers on both sides of the
choir and in front of both transepts. The console is located in
the choir stall, and all of the sounds are controlled from the
console’s four manual keyboards and a pedal keyboard. The
Æolian organ’s action is electro-pneumatic, which
means that the connections between the console and the pipe mechanism
are electrical. When a key is depressed, an electrical circuit
is completed; an electromagnet under the target pipe opens the
pallet, allowing air to flow into the pipe, producing a sound.
The Æolian organ is currently undergoing
a $2.2 million, 18-month reconditioning.
Reinstallation is expected in late 2008.
Follow these links for more information about the Æolian organ:
Recordings of the Æolian organ
Specification and Stoplist
Detailed Description of the olian Organ
Virtual Organ Crawl
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