An organ is a collection of “stops”, each of which is a set of pipes producing a specific noise for every key on the keyboard.  Salisbury Cathedral’s organ has 65 stops, which means 65 different collections of pipes, so it has a LOT of pipes – 3,870 of them or maybe 3,852 depending on who you believe.  The stops have names which could feature in a somewhat specific pub quiz:

“Question: Which of these is NOT a stop on our organ:

• Hautboy
• Salicional
• Nazard
• Fagotto
• Octave Flute”

“Answer: I hope that you spotted that we don’t have a “Fagotto” – ours is a Contra Fagotto!!”

Hearty laughter and much rueful thigh slapping from the assembled quiz participants.
All these pipes are crammed inside in the two boxes either side of the quire, except for the really tall deepest-sounding ones which are so much bigger than the boxes that they have had to be put in the North Transept.

Our “Father Willis” Organ was made by Henry Willis & Sons who have a Facebook page here with some great photos including these which help to answer your next question: “How do they fit (almost) all those pipes into those two little boxes?”  Click on that link with caution because there are loads of interesting videos there too…

The whispery ones are made of wood and the boomy ones are made of metal.  The metal is usually lead with some tin, and zinc if you want your really big pipes to be strong enough to stand up (the biggest ones in the Cathedral are 32’ tall).  The metal pipes are mainly cylindrical.  Tin and lead don’t form an alloy and they separate when they are mixed and cooled, so the result is called “spotted metal”.

The wood is usually hardwood although softwood can be used on the bigger ones.  The wooden pipes are mainly rectangular.

And here are 12 glorious minutes of John Challenger demonstrating the sound it produces.  The little writing down each side of the screen shows you which stops/controls he is using.

As you look up at the organ from the floor of the quire, you may also be thinking:

Why is the organ box not aligned with that pillar?

Was the organ always at the sides of the quire?

When was that wall painted?

Why does the Moses window look different to the other windows?

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