Acoustics of Organ Pipes
Acoustics of Organ Pipes
Acoustics of Organ Pipes
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Figure 1. a: Research organ in the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics IBP in Stuttgart,
Germany, built by Mühleisen (Leonberg, Germany) in 2011. The pedals can be seen under the
bench. Photo by Roman Wack. b: Pipe organ in the Stiftskirche in Stuttgart, Germany, built
by Mühleisen (Leonberg, Germany) in 2004. The frontal pipes can be clearly seen. Photo by
Theo Holder.
10 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2017 | volume 13, issue 1 ©2017 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved.
The required pressure of the wind in the pipe organ is set
by the organ builder by placing weights on the top of the
bellows. (4) Finally, the wind duct connects the wind system
with the pallet box (lower part of the windchest), thereby
providing the air supply for the pipes. In large pipe organs,
multiple wind systems can be present and operate at the
same time, but each provides air to a different set of ranks.
As mentioned above, there are two kinds of pipes that are
similar in function to other wind instruments: flue (labial)
pipes (like a recorder or a transverse flute) and reed (lingual)
Figure 2. The parts of a reed (lingual; a) and a flue (labial; b) organ pipes (like a clarinet or a saxophone). The sound of a reed
pipe. As shown in b, the cut-up is the distance between the lower pipe is produced by a vibrating brass strip known as a reed
and upper lip.
(tongue). Air under pressure (wind) is directed toward the
reed that vibrates at a specific pitch. This is in contrast to flue
The ranks can be activated by a drawstop. The so-called slid- pipes, which contain no moving parts and produce sound
er (Figure 3) is a wooden plate that has a number of holes solely through the vibration of air (see Figure 2). In a typical
in it, corresponding to the position of the pipes standing pipe organ, there are considerably more flue pipes than reed
in a row. By activating a stop by one of the drawstops, the pipes. The main parts of a reed and a flue pipe are shown in
holes of the slider plate let the air flow from the tone chan- Figure 2.
nel into the pipes having the same timbre. All organ pipes In the next sections, the physics of flue pipes is discussed.
produce sound by means of air flowing into the pipe so that The discussion is based on an earlier publication (Miklós and
each sounding pipe “consumes” a certain amount of air. A Angster, 2000) complemented by certain results of European
tracker action is both the connection between the keys of the research projects carried out in cooperation with several or-
keyboard and the tone valves in the windchest (sound tract) gan builder enterprises. In this paper, the reed pipes won’t
and is also the system for switching the stops (registers; reg- be examined (but see Fletcher and Rossing, 1991; Miklós et
ister tract). When a key is pressed, the corresponding valve al., 2003, 2006).
in the pallet box opens and air
flows into the tone channel and
the pipes selected by the draw-
stops. When the key is released,
a spring closes the valve, block-
ing the airflow.
The pressurized air is provided
by the wind system that consists
of four essential parts. (1) The
blower (electrical fan) is the air
supply of the instrument. The
blower pumps air into the wind
system according to the “wind
consumption” of the instru-
ment. (2) The roller valve regu-
lates the airflow from the blower
into the bellows. (3) The bellows
ensure that the pressure in the
windchest remains constant.
Figure 3. A sketch of a pipe organ and its most important parts.
Flue Pipes
Although the main features of the sound of flue organ pipes
have been investigated extensively (Yoshikawa and Saneyo-
shi, 1980; Verge et al., 1994; Fletcher, 1996), the connection
between sound character and pipe shape and the dimen-
sions are still not well understood. In the tradition of organ
building, however, the sound character of the different ranks
is unambiguously associated with pipe shape, material, and
dimensions (Töpfer, 1888; Mahrenholz, 1987). Although the
timbre, and especially the speech (attack) of the pipe (the
very beginning of the pipe sound), may be changed signifi-
cantly by voicing adjustments (changing the geometrical pa-
rameters of the pipe such as the diameter of the foothole and
the width of the flue and cutting up the mouth [upper lip]),
the main characteristics of the sound are quite stable for a
given rank and primarily depend on the form and progress
of dimensions with note (scaling) of the pipes. It is of inter-
est to scientists that only a very narrow range of all the pos-
sible dimensions (diameter, wall thickness, cut-up height,
Figure 4. Typical stationary spectrum of a flue organ pipe at the open
flue width) and materials are actually used for organ pipes.
end (a) and at the mouth (b). See text for details.
Some of these limitations can be explained by technological
reasons, but most of them have no basis in science.
(fast attack). The Diapason or principal family produces the
characteristic sound of the pipe organ and is not intended
Experimental Results
to imitate any other instrument or sound. They are medium
Although flue pipes offer a very wide variety of sounds, the
scaled and are often prominently featured in the façades
measured properties of these sounds contain several com-
of pipe organs. They can be characterized by their strong
mon elements that can be used to characterize them. To de-
second partial, especially in the attack. String pipes are the
termine such characteristics, three measurements are used:
narrowest flue pipes. They produce a bright sound that is
the stationary spectra (the spectrum of the sound of a con-
low in fundamentals and rich in upper partials. One of the
tinuously sounding pipe) at both the mouth and the open
most common string stops is named Salicional. String stops
end and the attack transient at the mouth. To do this, sta-
are often named after bowed string instruments such as the
tionary spectra are measured by microphones placed close
Violoncello, the Gamba, and the Geigen (from the German
(~3-5 cm) to the two openings of the pipes and the attack
Geige, for violin; see http://acousticstoday.org/flue). They
transients at the mouth are analyzed using a special com-
have very bright sounds with more than 20 harmonic par-
puter program (Angster and Miklós, 1995).
tials but with a slow attack (Miklós and Angster, 2000).
Steady-Sound Characteristic Features The characteristic features of the sound spectra of a flue or-
and Related Physical Phenomena gan pipe can be listed and the related physical phenomena
The stationary spectra of a flue pipe and the characteristic can be explained as follows.
features of the sound spectra can be seen in Figure 4.
A Series of Harmonic Partials
The flue pipe ranks are divided into three groups according It is well-known from the elements of the Fourier theory
to their characteristic sound. The widest flue pipes (flutes) (Korn and Korn, 1975) that the spectrum of a periodic sig-
produce tones with the most fundamental and the least har- nal contains a series of harmonic components (partials).
monics among flue pipes, and they start to speak the fastest These partials can be seen in Figure 4.
style pipe organs should have a sound rich in the pure fifth
(third harmonic), while romantic-style instruments require
more major third (fifth harmonic) in the sound. To be able
to fulfill these requirements, special design rules are needed
for determining the dimensions of the pipes so that the de-
sired character of the sound can be achieved. The process of
determining the appropriate geometrical dimensions of or-
gan pipes with the purpose of attaining a predefined timbre
is referred to as “sound design.”
The chimney pipe construction was studied by different
researchers, most notably Helmholtz. His conclusion was
that to reinforce the fifth harmonic in the sound, it is best to
have a chimney with a length two-fifths of that of the main
resonator (Helmholtz, 1954). Apparently, in a more recent
examination, the configuration proposed by Helmholtz
turned out to be the least favorable one (Kokkelmans et al.,
1999). In the study initiated by the organ builders and per-
formed by the authors of this article, a novel methodology
for the sound design of chimney pipes was established and
implemented in a software tool.
The idea of the proposed sound design approach is to tune
the eigenfrequencies of the resonator so that they become
Figure 10. A 3-D representation of the analyzed attack transients of coincident with the frequencies of predefined harmonic
the Diapason G pair of pipes (same as shown in Figure 9). The graph
partials of the sound (Rucz et. al., 2013). When a harmonic
shows the onset of the pipe sound and thus how the partials of differ-
ent frequencies are built up in time. a: Made of plain metal (tin-lead partial overlaps with an eigenfrequency, the corresponding
alloy). b: Made of zinc. eigenmode gets excited very efficiently and hence the ampli-
fication of the harmonic can be expected.
By computer simulation, the so-called input admittance is
The explanations given above show that several different calculated. The peaks of the input admittance correspond to
mechanisms influence the steady sound of pipes. On the the peaks of eigenresonances. It is important that the peaks
other hand, even the most complicated features could be as- of the red curves in Figure 11 match the partial to be en-
signed to the measurable and understandable physical prop- hanced.
erties of flue organ pipes.
The measured steady-state sound spectra are displayed in
The research results in flue pipe acoustics can be adapted in Figure 11a-c. In each diagram, the sound pressure mea-
the applied research for supporting the daily work of organ sured at the pipe mouth and the calculated input admittance
builders. The next section presents an example of the trends are displayed by the black and red lines, respectively. Fig-
in applied research. ure 11a shows the reference pipe with the amplitude of the
first seven harmonics, indicated by the numbers on the blue
Sound Design of Chimney Pipes background. The reference pipe has a strong fundamental
Chimney pipes are semiopen flue organ pipes whose resona- component in its sound while the higher harmonics are very
tor consists of two main parts: a straight cylindrical main part weak. Figure 11b,c displays the results of the chimney pipes
and a shorter and thinner chimney attached to its top (Fig- optimized for the third and fifth harmonics, respectively.
ure 11, top left). The length and the diameter of the chimney The numbers on the green background indicate the ampli-
may vary, and this makes it possible for the organ builder to fication of the targeted harmonic partial compared with the
adjust the timbre. For example, chimney pipes in baroque- levels measured in the case of the reference pipe. The num-
András Miklós is a physicist whose Backus, J., and Hundley, T. C. (1965). Wall vibrations in flue organ pipes
main interests are photoacoustics, musi- and their effect on tone. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
39, 936-945.
cal acoustics, and theoretical and solid- Fabre, B., Hirschberg, A., and Wijnands, A. P. J. (1996). Vortex shedding in
state acoustics. He was a senior scientist steady oscillation of a flue organ pipe. Acta Acustica united with Acustica
at the University of Heidelberg, Heidel- 82, 863-877.
Fletcher, N. H. (1996). Sound production by organ flue pipes. The Journal of
berg, Germany. He has been director of
the Acoustical Society of America 60, 926-936.
the Steinbeis Transfer Center Applied Fletcher, N. H., and Rossing, T. D. (1991). The Physics of Musical Instru-
Acoustics in Stuttgart, Germany, since 2003. Since 1986, ments. Springer-Verlag, New York.
he has carried out pipe organ research with Judit Angster Helmholtz, H. (1954). On the Sensation of Tone. Dover, New York.
Kob, M. (2000). Influence of wall vibrations on the transient sound of flue
and has taken part in the international advanced training organ pipes. Acta Acustica united with Acustica 86, 642-648.
courses at the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics IBP Kokkelmans, S. J. J. M. F., Verge, M.-P., Hirschberg, A., Wijnands, A. P. J.,
in Stuttgart, Germany. and Schoffelen, R. L. M. (1999). Acoustic behavior of chimney pipes. The
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 105, 546-551.
Korn, G. A., and Korn T. M. (1975). Mathematical Handbook for Scientists
and Engineers. McGraw-Hill, New York, Chap. 4.11.4, pp. 140-142.
Mahrenholz, C. (1987). Berechnung der Mensuren. Orgelbau Fachverlag
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