[sinkspur]

Do you actually voice pipes?

I read as much as I can about pipe organs, but I can certainly tell the difference between a pneumatic and an electronic. The older Aeolian pneumatics required the organist to be in good physical condition to work the stops, especially if he's playing a Bach or Widor piece.

I assume you work on concert organs. Has a new theatre organ even been installed anywhere in the last 20 years? Is Wurlitzer even in business?

[fqued]

Yes, I do voice pipes.

(By the way, I have worked in the pipe organ business off and on for twenty years, have a law degree from Cornell University, and sell antiquarian books. so if anyone says ahh, but you're that lawyer dude, or that guy that was talking about ooold books--well, we are all multi-talented)

Mostly our small company does maintenance, repair, and restoration. I have done some voicing, and there are about as many approaches to voicing pipes as there are voicers.

Older organs, those built before 1900, often needed to be pumped by hand to raise the wind. The organist did not do this, but had a helper whose job that was.

However, large mechanical action organs could require a rather heavy touch, becuase your fingers were physically opening the windways. Various builders had various methods for solving that problem.

Theatre organs are largely a thing of the past, as the name implies, they were used in theatres during the era of silent movies. But there are many theatre organ afficianados around who will hotly dispute that first sentence.