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Home > Music > Organs > Æolian > Description
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Three of the Æolian organ’s manual divisions —
Great, Swell, and Choir — are located on the right side of
the chancel. The Great and Swell organs are housed in a chamber
approximately 22 feet deep and 20 feet high, speaking through an
opening about 12 feet wide by 14 feet high. Approximately 30 pipes
of the pulpit-side case front belong to the Great Diapason 16'.
The remainder of the façade pipes are mute. The Solo division
is housed in a much shallower chamber on the left side of the chancel,
and the Pedal division is distributed on both sides of the chancel.
The console is placed in the choir stall with the organist facing
across the chancel. All of the sounds are controlled from the
console’s four manual keyboards of 73 keys each and a pedal
clavier of 32 keys. Mixtures and certain higher-pitched ranks
go only to 61 notes. Banks of stops to the left and right of the
manual keyboards control sets, or ranks, of pipes. The total number
of pipes is estimated to be 6,900.
The superb casework, built by Irving and Casson of Boston, doubtless
was inspired by A. G. Hill’s famous book of English organ
cases. Much of the work is of hand-carved oak, with repeated elements
carved by Duplicarver, a labor-saving machine that replicates
a hand-carved subject via a kind of pantograph rig.
The action of the organ is electro-pneumatic. The connection
between the console and chambers is electric, with both electric
and pneumatic technology employed for the mechanism in the chambers.
All of the pipes are planted on windchests that contain pressurized
air and the pipe valves. Some of these windchests have hundreds
of smaller pipes representing several different stops. The Æolian
contains more than 15,000 valves, each controlled by air pressure
acting on a thin leather diaphragm.
Twenty-five wind pressure regulators measure the wind pressure
to maintain a steady air supply. The regulators connect the windchests
to the wind supply coming from the basement through an elaborate
system of airtight galvanized wind trunks. The blowing plant,
constructed by the Spencer Turbine Company, generates a considerable
amount of pressurized air for the organ’s greatest requirements
without disturbing the quiet atmosphere of the Chapel.
The elaborate design, superior materials, and meticulously detailed
construction of the Duke Chapel Æolian Organ reflect the
finest, most advanced technology available in 1932.
[picture]
Interior of console showing original 1930s-era rubber tubing,
leather diaphragms, and cotton-wrapped electrical wiring.
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