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The
Swell
Organ
The Swell Organ division is located on the left side of the
chancel, in a louvered box behind the visible Great pipes, and is played
from the third manual (counting up from the bottom.)
The vertical louvers open and close, controlled by the organist
using a foot pedal, to provide dynamics to the pipes contained in the
box. This is the only method
an organist has of controlling the volume of a given stop.
The name of the division comes from the fact that the sound can
“swell,” or get louder. The
former organ had two divisions “under expression;” the new console controls three.
The Swell is the primary “color”
division of the organ, used to accompany choral and solo singing, and to
add richness and weight to the sound. There are several reed stops:
two trumpets (brass in the orchestra, reeds on the organ) and a
bassoon, which on the organ is actually imitative of an oboe. Formerly
there were two ranks of strings, another example of
imitative stops. With the new
console we added a second, larger set. String
stops are most commonly used in Romantic and Contemporary music. Organists usually refer to them as the “slush” stops, with
great fondness!
Formerly, there were 12 ranks of pipes on the Swell, controlled
by 16 stop knobs. The new
console added extensions to three of these ranks, extending them an
octave lower for more sonority and versatility.
We also added three digital ranks, the strings and a soft
reed stop, all of which increase versatility for service playing and
choral accompanying. The
Swell grew grow from 16 stop knobs to 21.
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