Organ History/Design Quiz 3

Question 1

What are the order of manuals in a three-manual organ in Europe?

Answer 1

Top-Recit
Middle-Positif
Lowest-Grand orgue

Question 2

What are the order of manuals in a three-manual organ in the U.S. and England?

Answer 2

Top-Swell
Middle-Great
Lowest-Choir

Question 3

True or False: Two types of coupling in mechanical action are a drumstick coupler and a sticker affixed to the lower manual.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

True or false: Coupling in electrical action amounts merely to cables and switches.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

In electric action, why is a gang switch necessary in coupling manuals?

Answer 5

It used so that, when coupling one manual to the other, both manuals do activate all the pipes of the other, but instead only activate all the pipes on one manual while the other still only activates its own divisional pipes.

Question 6

True or false: For a reversible switch to work it needs 3 solenoids

Answer 6

False, it only needs 2

Question 7

Name the different types of combination actions

Answer 7

Cavaille-Colle Ventil system
Machine Stop
Setter board toggle switches
Capture combination

Question 8

The sforzando or full organ is operated from a reversible toe stud or manual piston. What does it mean that the device functions in a blind fashion?

Answer 8

It means that it does not pull stops or respond to what is pulled by the player. It directly goes to the stops.

Question 9

True or false: An ancestor of the swell box is the echo on French organs.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

True or false: The English used crude sliding doors on swell divisions until 1789 when Samuel Green adapted the Venetian shades to the organ

Answer 10

True

Question 11

What is a balanced swell pedal?

Answer 11

It was an innovation where the swell shade will remain in place when the pedal controlling them is released. The builder balances weight of the mechanism’s parts and the springs in the shades.

Question 12

True or false: A type of swell engine is the whipple-tree type

Answer 12

True

Question 13

What is a rheostat?

Answer 13

It is a machine that controls the amount of current entering a device. By controlling the amount of current, the swell shades can close with the varying current.

Question 14

What is the best aid to registration of all?

Answer 14

To assist and have an assistant

Question 15

True or false: Sound is wave motion within a specified band of relatively fast frequencies

Answer 15

False, it’s relatively slow

Question 16

The span of time required for a single cycle is termed the frequency and is the determinant of ________ ?

Answer 16

Pitch

Question 17

True or false: Frequency is measured in cycles per second

Answer 17

True

Question 18

A single cycle is called a ______ and abbreviated ___.

Answer 18

Hertz, HZ

Question 19

The greater the amplitude of a wave, the _______ the sound, the smaller the amplitude, the ________ the sound.

Answer 19

Louder, quieter

Question 20

True or false: In the overtone series, the first overtone is the first partial

Answer 20

False, it is the second partial

Question 21

What is the electronic machine with a screen which can display the wave forms of various musical sources?

Answer 21

Oscilloscope

Question 22

What is another name for the overtone series?

Answer 22

Harmonic series

Question 23

True or False: The relationship between any two partials is a ratio derived from their respective numbers in the series. Hence the octave is 2:1 with the larger number representing the higher of the tones of the interval.

Answer 23

True

Question 24

What is the a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth?

Answer 24

3/2, 4/3

Question 25

What is the Pythagorean comma? How is it found?

Answer 25

It is the difference found between tuning 12 pure fifths and seven octaves, resulting in a sharper B# than the C, by about 23.46 cents

Question 26

What is the syntonic comma? How is it found?

Answer 26

It is the difference found between two pure major seconds and a major third, with the former being sharper than the later by 21.5 cents

Question 27

What are two ways to achieve a Resultant 32'? Which is more successful and why?

Answer 27

One way is to wire the 16' pipe in the bass to have a perfect fifth placed alongside it. This does not work very well since organs use temperaments that will not have pure perfect fifths sound. A more successful method is a 10 2/3 pitch which is the third partial in the overtones series playing with the 16', the second partial.

Question 28

A celeste stop is usually tuned ______

Answer 28

sharp

Question 29

English organs often call the 2 2/3 the _______ (the third partial)

Answer 29

twelfth

Question 30

English organs often call the 2 the ________ (the fourth partial)

Answer 30

Fifteenth

Question 31

Another name for a flue stop is a labial stop. What does "labial" mean?

Answer 31

Labial stands for "lips," since air flows across the mouth

Question 32

Harmonic pipes are approximately twice as long as their nominal pitch demands. What causes them to produce the correct pitch?

Answer 32

A cut is made halfway up the pipe to allow it still be the correct length. A process known as overblowing

Question 33

How much of a wave length is present in an open pipe?

Answer 33

Half

Question 34

True or false: Open pipes are capable of producing all overtones simply because it is possible to obtain antinodes at each end of the pipes for each partial of the fundamental wave.

Answer 34

True

Question 35

True or false: Stopped pipes stress the even-numbered harmonics and suppress the odd-numbered ones.

Answer 35

False, it stresses odd

Question 36

The reeds in organ pipes are made of what type of metal?

Answer 36

Brass

Question 37

Another name of reed stop is lingual stop. What does lingual mean?

Answer 37

It means tongue, reed stops are named that because of the vibrating tongue that makes a sound.

Question 38

If the tuning wire is pushed down, it ______ the pitch

Answer 38

raises

Question 39

If the tuning wire is pulled up, it _______ the pitch

Answer 39

lowers

Question 40

Trumpets and oboes use what type of resonators?

Answer 40

Conical resonators that are long in length

Question 41

Krumhorns and clarinets use what type of resonatores?

Answer 41

Cylindrical resonators about half their nominal length

Question 42

How is equal temperament achieved?

Answer 42

Lowering all fifths by a 1/12 of the Pythagorean comma

Question 43

True or false: In quarter comma mean-tone tuning, eight out of twelve major thirds are pure

Answer 43

True

Question 44

What are the two most common metals used in organ pipes?

Answer 44

Tin and lead

Question 45

What two metals are used less frequently in organ pipes? Why are they used less frequently?

Answer 45

Copper and zinc, copper is very expensive and zinc is ugly and is difficult to trim.

Question 46

What is a mandrel?

Answer 46

A circular rod where pipe's metals are put on

Question 47

What are the most common woods used in organ building?

Answer 47

White pine, spruce, fir, and sugar pine. Hardwoods are oak, cherry, and walnut.

Question 48

What does it mean to say that a mixture "breaks back"?

Answer 48

It means that as a mixture gets higher, small enough pipes are not there, so they begin to play lower pipes instead

Question 49

True or false: Gedeckts and bourdons are stopped

Answer 49

True

Question 50

True or false: A doppel flute has two mouths on opposite sides of its wooden body.

Answer 50

True

Question 51

True or false: Another name for a Rohrflote is a chimney flute

Answer 51

True

Question 52

If flutes are wide scale pipes, what are strings?

Answer 52

Narrow scale

Question 53

What are the pitches in a cornet?

Answer 53

8, 4, 2 2/3, 2, 1 3/5

Question 54

True or false: The Clarinet emphasizes odd numbered partials

Answer 54

True

Question 55

name three examples of toy stops

Answer 55

Rossignol/ vogelgesang Cymbelstern Glockenspiel