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Amazing Instruments

We are fortunate at St John's to have two organs: a mechanical-action pipe organ built in the style of the seventeenth-century North German baroque, and a digital organ voiced in the American Classic tradition, using open source software (jOrgan) and sampled sounds from organs around the world.

The pipe organ is particularly suited to the music of Bach, Buxtehude, Sweelinck and their contemporaries, as well as music written in the twentieth century as part of the organ reform movement (e.g., Pepping, Walcha, Schroeder).

The digital organ contains more symphonic sounds, with several celeste ranks, various solo stops, and an extensive pedal division which includes four 32' stops. This organ lends itself well to music of the Romantic period, especially the French symphonic school (Widor, Vierne, Franck), as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century English music requiring colourful solo stops (Whitlock, Willan, etc).

Hymns and choral accompaniments can be played on whichever organ suits them best.


Pipe organ

built by Gabriel Kney, London, Ontario 1977

Mechanical key and stop action

Wind pressure 44-60 mm

Standard couplers by hitch-down pedals







Manual I

Prinzipal 8'
Bourdon 8'
Oktav 4'
Nasat 2 2/3'
Blockflöte 2'
Terz 1 3/5'
Mixtur IV
Trompette (horizontal) 8'

Manual II (enclosed)

Gedackt 8'
Offenflöte 4'
Prinzipal 2'
Quintflöte 1 1/3'
Zimbel II
Dulzian 16'
Schalmei 8'
Tremulant

Pedal

Subbass 16'
Prinzipal 8'
Choralbass 4'
Rauschpfeife IV
Posaune 16'

 

The sound of the tracker organ is clear and bright.

The Schalmei 8' has an almost plaintive sound - I Call To Thee, Lord Jesus Christ (J.S. Bach)

The flutes sparkle, with just the right amount of chiff - Unter die Linden grune (J.P. Sweelinck)

The principal chorus is capped with brilliant mixtures - Chaconne in C (Dieterich Buxtehude)

 

Digital organ

built 2010 using jOrgan software running in Ubuntu Linux
Soundfonts by Phoenix Organ Company, Peterborough, Ontario
12 general pistons, 6 pistons per division, 68 levels of memory
Solo playable through main or antiphonal speakers
Console rebuilt and refinished in 2014

 

Great (I)

Bourdon 16
Open Diapason 8
Principal 8
Harmonic Flute 8
Chimney Flute 8
Octave 4
Prestant 4
Spitz Flute 4
Twelfth 2 2/3
Superoctave 2
Wald Flute 2
Larigot 1 1/3
Mixture IV
Cymbel III
Cornet V
Double Trumpet 16
Trumpet 8

Swell (II)

Contra Salicional 16
Geigen Diapason 8
Lieblich Gedackt 8
Salicional 8
Voix Celeste 8
Flute Celeste II 8
Principal 4
Traverse Flute 4
Fifteenth 2
Plein Jeu IV
Mixture III
Contra Fagotto 16
Cornopean 8
Oboe 8
Vox Humana 8
Clarion 4
Tremulant

 

Fanfare (IV)
Festival Trumpet 8

Solo (III)

English Diapason 8
Stopped Flute 8
Viola Pomposa 8
Viola Celeste 8
Unda Maris II 8
Spitz Principal 4
Lieblich Flute 4
Aetheria II 4
Nazard 2 2/3
Block Flute 2
Tierce 1 3/5
Sifflote 1
Petite Mixture IV
Clarinet 8
Orchestral Oboe 8
Panflute 4
Fog Horn 16
Klingon Battle Horn 8
Tremulant
Zimbelstern
Chimes

Pedal

Principal 32
Butt Rumble 32
Open Diapason 16
Bourdon 16
Violone 16
Quinte 10 2/3
Principal 8
Bass Flute 8
Choralbass 4
Nachthorn 4
Mixture IV
Contre Bombarde 32
Kontra Posaune 32
Bombarde 16
Posaune 16
Trumpet 8
Chalumeau 4


The sound of the digital organ is rich and warm. 

The strings celeste have a silvery, other-worldly sound - Benedictus (Max Reger)

The Solo Tuba and Fanfare Trumpet are majestic and bright - Trumpet Tune and March (Jeremiah Clarke)