What are the organ pipes made of?

Er… wood and metal, I said confidently.

The whispery ones are made of wood and the boomy ones are made of metal.  There are many pipes hidden in the boxes and there are some really deep ones in the North Transept.

I decided it was time to do a bit more homework.

The metal is usually lead with some tin, and zinc if you need a really big pipe (the biggest ones in the Cathedral are 32’).  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.

As Salisbury Cathedral’s organ has 65 stops, which means 65 different collections of pipes each producing a different noise, 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 are NOT stops 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.

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 get all those pipes into those two little boxes?”  Click on that link with caution because there are loads of interesting videos there too…

The “Theatre Organ Fact Finder” site has tons of information but a pretty terrible menu structure, so the link above takes you to the general search for “pipe”.  Although it is supposed to be about theatre organs, it gives tons of information about classical ones and clearly explains where they are different.

Enough from me.  Here are 12 minutes of John Challenger explaining the sound it produces.  The little writing down each side of the screen shows you which stops/controls he is using.

One of the best bits of guiding in the cathedral is when the organ is being played.