Acoustics of Organ Pipes

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 10
At a glance
Powered by AI
The article discusses the acoustics of organ pipes and how research in this area can help organ builders. It also outlines the classification and basic components of a pipe organ.

Organ pipes are classified as either flue or reed pipes. The main components of a pipe organ are the windchest containing the pipes, the wind system, and the control system including the keyboard and stops. Pipes are arranged on the windchest by note and timbre.

Flue pipes produce sound through the vibration of an air stream across an open edge or lip. This excites resonant air columns inside the pipe, producing the fundamental pitch and overtones that characterize the pipe's sound.

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/315100298

Acoustics of Organ Pipes and Future Trends in the Research

Article  in  Acoustics Today · March 2017

CITATIONS READS
6 4,135

3 authors:

Judit Angster Péter Rucz


Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP Budapest University of Technology and Economics
76 PUBLICATIONS   171 CITATIONS    40 PUBLICATIONS   65 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

András Miklós
Universität Heidelberg
157 PUBLICATIONS   1,801 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Applications of physics to environmental science, View project

NiHu: An open source C++ BEM library last.hit.bme.hu/nihu View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Péter Rucz on 16 March 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.


Acoustics of Organ Pipes and
Future Trends in the Research
Judit Angster Knowledge of the acoustics of organ pipes is being adopted in applied
Postal:
research for supporting organ builders.
Fraunhofer-Institut für Bauphysik
(Fraunhofer Institute for Introduction
Building Physics IBP) The pipe organ produces a majestic sound that differs from all other musical in-
Nobelstrasse 12, 70569 struments. Due to its wide tonal range, its ability of imitating the sound of vari-
Stuttgart, Germany ous instruments, and its grandiose size, the pipe organ is often called the “king of
musical instruments” (Figure 1). The richness and variety of sound color (timbre)
Email: produced by a pipe organ is very unique because of the almost uncountable pos-
[email protected] sibilities for mixing the sounds from different pipes. According to the art of sound
generation, there are two kinds of pipes in the organ that are similar in function
Péter Rucz to other wind instruments: flue (labial) pipes and reed (lingual) pipes. Although
Postal: this article focuses on sound excitation by flue pipes, the role of reed pipes is brief-
Budapest University of ly mentioned (see Figure 2). The article also shows how the connection between
Technology and Economics sound character and pipe shape and dimensions can be understood, and it also
Magyar tudósok krt. 2, 1117 considers the trends in the research that focus on helping organ builders in their
Budapest, Hungary practical work.
Email:
Structure of the Pipe Organ
[email protected]
A sketch of a pipe organ is shown in Figure 3. Its main parts are the windchest
with the pipes, the wind system, and the control system (keyboard, tracker action,
András Miklós
and drawstops; Figure 2). The pipes are organized on the windchest according
Postal: to note and timbre. A set of pipes producing the same timbre for each note is called
Fraunhofer-Institut für Bauphysik a rank and each key on a pipe organ controls a note that may be sounded by differ-
(Fraunhofer Institute for ent ranks of pipes, alone or in combination (see
Building Physics IBP) http://acousticstoday.org/organ_stop; for a demo, see http://acousticstoday.org/rank).
Nobelstrasse 12, 70569
Stuttgart, Germany
a b
Steinbeis Transferzentrum
Angewandte Akustik
Weilstetter Weg 36, 70567
Stuttgart, Germany
Email:
[email protected]

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.

Spring 2017 | Acoustics Today | 11


Acoustics of Organ Pipes

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.

12 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2017


fairly wide flute pipe is shown in Figure 6. It can be observed
that the standing waves lay asymmetric in the pipe; they are
shifted toward the mouth. Moreover, the half wavelength of
the first eigenmode (and n times the half wavelength of the
nth eigenmode) is longer than the length of the resonator.
The difference can be regarded as an “end correction” for
practical calculations.
These experimental facts can be understood by taking into
account the physical properties of the organ pipe as an
acoustic resonator. The air column in the pipe has several ei-
Figure 5. Eigenresonances of a tube that is 60 cm long and 31 mm genmodes (standing wave patterns) with characteristic reso-
in diameter. The harmonic partials are marked by v-shaped cursors.
nance frequencies (eigenfrequencies). Their frequencies are
not harmonically related because of the end correction (Nel-
A Second Series of Smaller and Wider Peaks That Are kon and Parker, 1970), which decreases with the frequency
Not Harmonically Related But Are Slightly Stretched (Fletcher and Rossing, 1991). Because the end correction is
in Frequency proportional to the pipe diameter, the stretching of the ei-
The small, broad peaks shown in the spectrum demonstrate genfrequencies is larger for wide pipes than for narrow ones.
the presence of acoustic eigenmodes (standing waves) of the Moreover, the end correction for a small opening (mouth)
pipe. (A so-called standing wave occurs in a pipe when the is larger than that of the larger open end. Therefore, the ei-
sound waves reflected back and forth in the pipe are com- genfrequency stretching of an organ pipe is larger than that
bined such that each location along the pipe axis has con- of a tube with the same length and diameter. Because of the
stant but different amplitude. The locations with minimum different end corrections at the openings, the standing wave
and maximum amplitude are called nodes and antinodes, is located asymmetrically inside the organ pipe (Angster and
respectively. The frequency of the standing wave is the res- Miklós, 1998). Therefore, the sound spectra at the mouth
onance frequency or eigenfrequency of the tube. Standing and at the open end are different, as shown in Figure 4.
waves occur in a tube on several frequencies.) The presence A Frequency-Dependent Baseline
of eigenmodes can be tested experimentally by using ex- The baseline of the spectrum (see Figure 4) is determined
ternal acoustic excitation. If a pipe is placed in the sound by the broadband noise at the mouth of the pipe. This
field generated by a loudspeaker, the pipe will amplify the noise is produced by the airflow at the flue and the upper
frequency components that correspond to the eigenreso- lip (Fabre et al., 1996). Because the resonator amplifies this
nances. Placing a small microphone in the pipe and using noise around the eigenresonances, the amplified noise may
an excitation in a wide frequency range, the eigenresonance dominate the sound of the pipe in the high-frequency range,
spectrum can be determined. Such a spectrum
is shown in Figure 5 for a cylindrical tube. The
eigenresonances are slightly stretched; the ei-
genfrequencies are a bit higher than the har-
monics of the first eigenresonance.
The stretching of the eigenfrequencies is much
more pronounced in open organ pipes. In the
spectrum of a Diapason pipe (Figure 4a), the
ninth eigenresonance lies about halfway be-
tween the ninth and tenth harmonic partials.
The stretching becomes larger for larger diam-
eter-to-length ratios and for smaller openings
Figure 6. Standing waves in an organ pipe. Sound pressure distributions of the first,
at the pipe ends. The measured spatial distribu- third, and fifth eigenmodes in a wide pipe are shown.
tion of the first, third, and fifth eigenmodes in a

Spring 2017 | Acoustics Today | 13


Acoustics of Organ Pipes

to the coupling of the sound to the wall vibrations. For or-


gan pipes, the surface and radiation losses are much larger
than the other two effects. At the same frequency, the surface
losses are relatively larger and the radiation losses are rela-
tively smaller for narrow pipes than for wide pipes. Because
the surface losses decrease and the radiation losses increase
with the frequency, a loss minimum occurs at a certain fre-
quency. Indeed, such a loss minimum can be observed in
narrow pipes. Looked at in another way, the largest ampli-
tude occurs not for the fundamental but for a higher partial.
Measured sound spectra of a normal, a wide, and a narrow
pipe are shown in Figure 7. In the case of wide/narrow pipe
resonators, there are less/more partials, respectively, than by
the normal pipe resonator.
Radiation losses occur through sound radiation at the pipe
openings (mouth and open end). Because the openings are
much smaller than the wavelength of the sound, both of the
pipe openings can be regarded as simple sources (monopoles;
Angster and Miklós, 1998). Measurements by an acoustic
camera system confirm this simple source model (Angster
et al., 2011). Figure 8 shows that the sources of the sound are
really the openings at the mouth and at the open end of the
pipe. Based on the recording of the first partial (fundamen-
tal) in Figure 8a (see http://acousticstoday.org/8a.mp4) the
sound is radiated in phase but with different intensity. The
sound pressure is larger at the mouth. Figure 8b (see http://
acousticstoday.org/8b.mp4) shows that the two sources radi-
ate in opposite phase. The simple source at the mouth is usu-
ally much stronger than the source at the open end.
The envelope of the harmonics of the sound spectrum at
the mouth shows a formant-like structure with a conspicu-
Figure 7. Measured spectra of a Diapason (normal; a), a Flute (wide; ous minimum (see Figures 4b and 7) because of the rela-
b), and a Salicional (narrow; c) pipe. tive position of the harmonic partials and the neighboring
eigenmodes. Due to the stretching of the eigenfrequencies,
the harmonic partials are gradually shifted from the peaks of
where the partials of the fundamental are usually weak. The
the eigenmodes into the valley between them and then fur-
high-frequency noise content can be very effectively reduced
ther toward the peak of the neighboring lower eigenmode.
by nicking, e.g., cutting grooves in the languid (metal plate
If the harmonic frequency is close to the eigenfrequency, the
separating the pipe foot and the pipe body; Figure 2; Ang-
partial will be amplified by the eigenresonance. A harmonic
ster et al., 1997). This method can increase the ratio of the
partial lying midway between two eigenmodes will not be
harmonic partials to the baseline very significantly.
amplified while the partial closest to the minimum between
Envelope of the Harmonic Partials two eigenmodes will be the smallest one. Thus, a formant
The form of the envelope depends on the total losses in the minimum can be observed in the spectra measured at the
pipe that include the volume losses in the air, the surface mouth. Because the stretching is more pronounced for wid-
losses at the pipe wall due to viscosity and heat conduction, er pipes, the position of the formant minimum depends on
the radiation losses at the openings, and the energy loss due the diameter-to-length ratio of the pipe. Sound spectra mea-

14 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2017


Irregularities in the spectrum may also be caused by wall
vibrations. It has been shown that wall vibrations cannot
radiate sound directly (Backus and Hundley, 1965; Angster
et al., 1998). On the other hand, a linear coupling exists be-
tween the air column and the pipe wall for rectangular pipes
(Angster et al., 2011) and also for cylindrical pipes if the pipe
cross section is not a perfect circle but is slightly elliptical
or the wall is very thin (Kob, 2000). In these cases, wall vi-
brations can influence the sound radiated at the openings,
especially during the transient (Angster et al., 1998; Kob,
Figure 8. Sound radiation on the first (a) and second (b) partials.
The colors correspond to the intensity of the sound 2000). If a sharp vibration mode is close to an eigenmode
(see http://acousticstoday.org/8a.mp4 and http://acousticstoday.org/8b.mp4). or harmonic partial of the pipe sound, both modes will be
coupled, which leads to a slight detuning of the correspond-
ing sound component. Nevertheless, such a coincidence is
quite rare in practice.
sured at the mouth of a normal (Diapason), a wide (Flute),
and a narrow (Salicional or string) pipe clearly show this ef- Figure 9 shows the vibration diagrams recorded by a three-di-
fect (Figure 7). For the Diapason pipe, the first minimum mensional (3-D) laser vibrometer of a Diapason G pair of pipes.
lies at the sixth partial (Figure 7a). For the Flute pipe, the Figure 9a (http://acousticstoday.org/9a.mp4) shows the pipes
minimum occurs around the third partial (Figure 7b); for made of plain metal (tin-lead alloy) at the fifth partial (974 Hz)
the Salizional pipe, it is shifted up to the eighth partial (Fig- and Figure 9b (http://acousticstoday.org/9b.mp4) shows the
ure 7c). pipes made of zinc at the fifth partial (same frequency). It is
evident that despite the same measuring frequency, the pipes
Different Spectral Envelopes at the Mouth
made of different materials show very different vibration mode
and at the Open End
shapes. Figure 10 shows the 3-D representation of the analyzed
It has been shown that the radiated acoustic field corre-
attack transients (attack; how the partials will be built up in
sponds to that of two simple sources located at the open-
time) of the same Diapason G pair of pipes (shown up to the
ings of the pipe (see Figure 8). The simple sources radiate
sixth partial), and the noises between the partials are also re-
in phase for the odd partials and out of phase for the even
corded. It is obvious that the attacks of the two pipes are very
partials. The strength is different for both sources, and the
similar. Experiments showed that the differences in the record-
two openings radiate different spectra (Angster and Miklós,
ed attacks with pipes made of different materials are not larger
1998). The spectra of the sound radiated at the openings are
than with two successive attacks of the same pipe.
different because the standing waves in the pipe are asym-
metrically located (see Figures 4 and 6). Because the end
correction is inversely proportional to the area of the open-
ing (Angster and Miklós, 1998), the envelope minimum oc-
curs for the lower partial at the mouth than at the open end.
That is, the spectral envelopes at the mouth and open end
are always different.
Irregularities in the High-Frequency
Part of the Spectrum
Irregularities in the range of higher harmonics can be caused
by the excitation of transverse resonances (cross-sectional
eigenmodes) of the pipe. Pipe ranks may have harmonic Figure 9. Vibration-mode shape of the Diapason G pair of pipes. Red
partials in the range of transverse resonances; therefore, the indicates that the pipe walls are vibrated hard and green means less
transverse resonances can appear in the spectrum between vibration. a: Pipe made of plain metal (tin-lead alloy) at the fifth
partial (974 Hz, see http://acousticstoday.org/9a.mp4). b: Pipe made
the harmonic partials (Figure 7b, first transverse resonance
of zinc at the fifth partial (and same frequency,
around the eleventh partial). These resonances are excited see http://acousticstoday.org/9b.mp4).
by the high-frequency noise at the upper lip.
Spring 2017 | Acoustics Today | 15
Acoustics of Organ Pipes

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-

16 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2017


Figure 11. Top left: sketch of a chimney organ pipe. a–c: Measured monic partials. b: Optimized design enhancing the third harmonic
spectra (black) and calculated input admittance (red) of the experi- (pure fifth) by 15 dB. c: Optimized design enhancing the fifth (major
mental chimney pipes. a: Reference chimney pipe design. Numbers third) by 17 dB. Numbers on the green and yellow backgrounds show
on the blue background are the amplitudes of the first seven har- the relative levels of the harmonics compared with the reference pipe.

bers on the yellow background show the same changes in Biosketches


the levels of the other harmonics. As can be seen, the op-
timized resonators can enhance the targeted harmonics by Judit Angster is a physicist and has been
more than 15dB while keeping the fundamental frequency working at the Fraunhofer Institute of
constant. This amplification can be considered substantial if Building Physics IBP in Stuttgart, Ger-
one takes into account that the experimental pipes only dif- many, since 1992. She established and has
fered in the geometry of their resonators. been head of the Research Group of Musi-
cal Acoustics/Photoacoustics. She lectures
Conclusions on acoustics at the University of Stuttgart
The intention of the authors of this paper was to demon- and the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stutt-
strate that the research on organ pipes leads to a better un- gart. Her research activities are focused on musical acoustics,
derstanding of how they function. Moreover, research can music and room, pipe organ acoustics, and photoacoustics.
provide scientific explanations to support or refute strong She organizes organ acoustics workshops as an international
established beliefs of organ builders and, last but not least, advanced training for organ builders and organ experts. She
can provide new scientific results and tools for further im- comes from the well-known organ builder family Angster.
provement of the art of pipe organ building. Péter Rucz is an electrical engineer
whose main interests are musical and
numerical acoustics and digital signal
processing. He obtained his diploma
(MS) and PhD in electrical engineering
at the Budapest University of Technol-
ogy and Economics, Budapest, Hungary.
Currently, Péter is a researcher at the Laboratory of Acous-
tics and Studio Technologies at the same university.

Spring 2017 | Acoustics Today | 17


Acoustics of Organ Pipes

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
References Rensch, Lauffen am Neckar, Germany, Chap. B., pp. 35-125.
Miklós, A., and Angster, J. (2000). Properties of the sound of flue organ
Angster, J., and Miklós, A. (1995). Documentation of the sound of a histori- pipes. Acta Acustica united with Acustica 58, 611-622.
cal pipe organ. Applied Acoustics 46, 61-82. Miklós, A., Angster, J., Pitsch, S., and Rossing, T. D. (2003). Reed vibration
Angster, J., and Miklós, A. (1998). Sound radiation of open labial or- in lingual organ pipes without the resonators. The Journal of the Acoustical
gan pipes; The effect of the size of the openings on the formant struc- Society of America 113, 1081-1091.
ture. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics Miklós, A., Angster, J., Pitsch, S., and Rossing, T. D. (2006). Interaction of
(ISMA), Leavenworth, WA, June 26 to July 1, 1998, pp. 267-272. reed and resonator by sound generation in a reed organ pipe. The Journal
Angster, J., Paál, G., Garen, W., and Miklós, A. (1997). Effect of voicing steps of the Acoustical Society of America 119, 3121-3129.
on the stationary spectrum and attack transient of a flue organ pipe. Pro- Nelkon, M., and Parker, P. (1970). Advanced Level Physics. Heinemann Edu-
ceedings-Institute of Acoustics 19, 285-294. cational Books Ltd., London, pp. 640-674.
Angster, J., Paál, G., Garen, W., and Miklós, A. (1998). The effect of wall Rucz, P., Trommer, T., Angster, J., Miklós, A., and Augusztinovicz, F. (2013).
vibrations on the timbre of organ pipes. In Proceedings of the 16th Interna- Sound design of chimney pipes by optimization of their resonators. The
tional Congress on Acoustics and 135th Acoustical Society of America Meet- Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 133, 529-537 .
ing, Seattle, WA, June 20-26, 1998, pp. 753-754. Töpfer, J. G. (1888). Die Theory und Praxis des Orgelbaues. Zweites Buch,
Angster, J., Dubovski, Z., Pitsch, S., and Miklós, A. (2011). Impact of the Voigt, Weimar, Germany, pp. 71-83.
material on the sound of flue organ pipes (Acoustic and vibration inves- Verge, M. P., Fabre, B., Mahu, W. E., and Hirschberg, A. (1994). Feedback
tigations with modern measuring techniques). In Birnbaum, C. (Ed.), excitation mechanism in organ pipes. The Journal of the Acoustical Society
Analysis and Description of Music Instruments Using Engineering Methods. of America 95, 1119-1132.
Stiftung Händel-Haus (Handel House Foundation), Halle (Saale), Ger- Yoshikawa, S., and Saneyoshi, J. (1980). Feedback excitation mechanism in
many, pp. 34-41. organ pipes. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan (E) 1, 175-191.

18 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2017

View publication stats

You might also like