Large pipe organs include stops sounding one or two octaves below foundation pitch
Evidence
Often, ranks that speak an octave below the foundation pitch of 8′ (manuals) and below the foundation pitch of 16′ (pedals) are provided, particularly on large instruments. Thus a 16′ bourdon, double open diapason or double trumpet might be found on a manual, and a 32′ contra open bass or double open diapason might be found on the pedals. Extremely occasionally, stops that sound two octaves below might be found, such as a 32′ contra violone on a manual or a 64′ gravissima or contra trombone on the pedals, as found on the John Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia and the Centennial Hall in Sydney, respectively. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1563
Categorization
- CANDY: The 64-foot contra trombone on the Sydney Centennial Hall organ is a delightful low-note fact.
Related
- Only a few organs worldwide have 64-foot sub-bass stops (similarity 0.90)
- Organ pipes begin notes one brief harmonic above their sustained pitch (similarity 0.83)
- Stopped organ pipes trade space savings for weaker harmonic spectra (similarity 0.82)
- Organ builders exploit a pitch illusion to extend sub-bass without actual low pipes (similarity 0.80)
- Stopped organ pipes sound the same pitch at half the length (similarity 0.80)
- Organ resultant stops create the sensation of pitches below any note actually sounding (similarity 0.80)
- Wide organ pipes suppress upper harmonics in their output (similarity 0.80)
- Organ builders exploit missing-fundamental perception to create bass notes no pipe actually sounds (similarity 0.78)