Providing the highest quality pipe organ services to the Atlanta and the Southeast since 2003
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Where do you think we could put a 32' Principal in this church?
With the preponderance of electronic 32' packages, it seems like EVERY organ these days must have a 32' Principal, 32' Bourdon and 32' Bombarde.
The truth is while most every organ will benefit from some type of 32' sound, most churches are not large enough to allow for a true 32' flue rank. The effectiveness of Resultants is well known, but they can work just as effectively for larger sounds as well. A 10 2/3' taken from the 16' Principal can provide a strong 32' Principal resultant. Another option is a set of 12 independant quint pipes. With independant quint pipes, they can be voiced and tuned to perfectly produce a 32' tone.
Typically if there is a 16' pedal reed already, with creativity one can find space for a 32' octave. The distinct advantanges to real pipes lay in the ability for the pipe maker to perfectly match the new 32' to the existing 16'. Through careful consultation with your pipe organ builder, you can decide all of the parameters for the new 32'. (Smooth, dark, loud, soft, bright)
If space for 32' pipes can not be made available, another option is the 32' Cornet. Just as a tradtional French Cornet will produce a strong, reedy 8' tone, a Pedal Cornet can produce as strong a 32' reed type sound. Here is an example where some space could be made available but not enough for 32' reed pipes.
32' Cornet Derived from;
16' Principal
10 2/3' from Subbass
8' from Subbass
6 2/5' Tierce or from Subbass
5 1/3' Quint or from Subbass
4 4/7' Septieme
With the addition of between 24 and 48 pipes, an effective 32' reed sound can be created with out speakers.
There are instances where an electronic package may be the only option, but in our opinion they are never the best choice. With careful consultation with your expert pipe organ builder, often times a better, more musical solution can be found.