Austin organ at Trinity Episcopal Church

This Austin Organ has five divisions: four manual divisions played by the hands, and the pedal division played by the feet. Each part of the specification refers to the stops played on those keyboards respectively.

HOW TO READ THE SPECIFICATIONS: The name on the stop refers mainly to function or musical color. Some organ stops are nonimitative and produce foundational organ tone, e.g. Diapason and Octave. Others resemble wind or string instruments, e.g., Chimney Flute, Harmonic Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Violin Cello.

The numbers following the stop names refer to pitch as a function of the length of the longest pipe in the stop. Eight foot pitch is unison pitch. It agrees with the pitches of the corresponding keys on the piano, for instance. The science of acoustics works on the simple principle that halving or doubling the length of a vibrating body changes its pitch by an octave. Therefore, the shorter and longer designations after stops indicate the pitch at which they sound. The combination of these with unison stops produces the complex ensemble sound of the instrument.

Stops with a Roman numeral preceding the name, or mixtures, correspond to the upper harmonics of the overtone series and have multiple pipes per note tuned to these overtones.

The second number after the stop name, in the rightmost column, refers to the rank or division from which the stop is borrowed. Where fewer are indicated, the stop may be an extension of another stop at another pitch (extensions often have 12 pipes to finish a bottom or top octave), or it may be incomplete for some particular reason. Occasionally, stops will play in more than one location in the instrument and these are indicated by the name of the home division in the final column.

Organ Specifications

1913 Austin Organ, opus 419

Great Division

Choir Division

Swell Division

Echo Division (Restored in July of 2004)

Pedal Division