Lakeview Congregational Church
What exactly is a
THEATER ORGAN
and how is it different from a
Church Pipe Organ?
We
could give you a simple, slightly humorous answer and say that it's a
pipe organ in a theater, but in actuality, the words theater
pipe organ refer to a special class of instruments which
were designed to be substitutes for an or-chestra to provide a musical
accompaniment along with suitable instrumental and other sound effects
to enhance the overall experience of viewing a silent movie. After 1928
when talking pictures were developed, the need for theater organs
declined significantly and the production of these wonderful instruments
halted almost entirely within the following few years. Companies whose
business primarily involved the manufacture of theater organs either went
out of business or turned to other endeavors to survive.
The theater pipe organ differs
in a number of ways from the typical classic church organ. The first difference,
and perhaps the most important, is that each separate set or rank of pipes
is treated as an independent unit. To understand this, let's look first
at a typical church pipe organ. The church organ consists usually of several
divisions, each containing a number of different ranks of organ pipes.
Each division of a church organ is controlled by a particular keyboard,
or the bass pedals, and each may be considered in a sense to be an individual
"mini" organ. This is why you will usually find at least two
and sometimes three or four keyboards on pipe organs. The ranks of pipes
of each division belong to that specific division. These ranks of pipes
may not be played individually from the keyboards of other divisions,
although an entire division may be connected to play from another keyboard
by means of a control called a coupler.
On a theater organ, we will also find two or more
keyboards and bass pedals, but each rank of pipes may be independently
played on any keyboard. Fur-thermore, we will also find that by means
of suitable controls, we may inde-pendently select the point at which
we can "tap into" each set of pipes. Thus, we could have key
number one play pipe number one of a particular rank. Or, we could have
key number one play pipe number thirteen, which is the next octave up.
A little thought on this will show that the treatment of specific ranks
of pipes as completely independent units lets you have much greater tonal
versatility for a given number of ranks. For the complex orchestral effects
that movie accom-paniment required, this system was necessary.
Another difference between the church pipe organ
and the theater pipe organ is the inclusion of many different percussion
instruments and sound effects. As you look at the pictures on this web
site that detail various aspects of this particular theater organ, you
will see these devices as they appear in the instrument. Still another
attribute of the theater organ is that the air pressure which sounds the
pipes is much higher than the pressure you would find in a church pipe
organ. This was done for several reasons. First it makes the instrument
somewhat louder. It makes the response of the pipes faster. It improves
the realism of pipes that imitate brass instruments such as tubas and
trumpets as well as woodwinds and strings, and, in the theater organ,
air pressure is also the motive power to perform many mechanical operational
tasks.
The control of the instrument is electrical, but
the motive power to open pipe valves, to operate the various strikers
of the percussion instruments, and to actuate the various other instrumental
and sound effects is air pressure. If you are going to use air pressure
to perform mechanical work, it is advantageous to have higher pressures
rather than lower pressures as it allows the use of smaller mechanisms
which also respond more quickly. Return to the previous
page, or continue on to see pictures
of the Lakeview Congregational Church Kilgen organ and to see what the
restoration of the instrument involves. Be sure to check this web site
at least on a weekly basis to follow the progress as we continue the restoration
