Piston (organ)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Piston, design around 1970

Pistons are foot-operated switches that are installed in modern organs , mainly with electric and pneumatic action. These are installed above the pedal board so that the organist can easily operate them with their feet.

function

Pistons are used to make it easier for the organist to play. By pressing a piston, for example, registers are pushed off or pulled. This opens up many new possibilities for the organist.

The pistons can be assigned as follows, for example:

  • Tutti / Plenum: The piston « Plenum » or «Tutti» (all) switches on a fixed combination of the organ stops.
  • Free combination: A free combination is a mix of stops (including coupling ) that the organist can set himself before playing.
  • General store : This store rejects all registers that are being used at once.
  • Tongue holder: This serves to switch off all lingual pipes (tongue registers) at once.
  • Coupling : allow several manuals to be connected to each other or manuals to the pedal (in order to use registers of another manual, e.g. also in the pedal).

advantages

The fact that the organist can alternatively change his register combination while playing the organ means that there is often no need to involve a registrant who pushes or pulls the registers or couplings while the organist is playing. Another advantage is the speed at which the combination of registers is changed.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. How the organ works at www.die-orgelseite.de , accessed on January 18, 2017