The sound itself creates the music
Voicing is in the hands of our experienced specialist Reiner Janke. He has the only home page devoted to voicing: Orgel-info.de.
Voicing is the tonal shaping of the organ pipes. To do this, the mouth (or face) of the pipe is manipulated with special tools, in order to alter the tonal quality and volume of the pipe and to achieve a clear and full sound. On top of this, every stop, or set of pipes, must be evenly balanced in tonal character and volume, both within itself and in relation to other stops, before being finally tuned.
Rather than applying a 'once learnt and always practised' method, the voicing of an organ ensures, right from the start, from a consciously formed tonal conception. Depending on the desired results, various technical parameters of the organ pipes are considered and applied as necessary.
We use 45 differing timbre forming components on labial pipes. An outstanding feature of our instruments is the combination of warmth and softness, with clarity and colour. An great deal of working time is required to reach this aim. Reed pipes are also a speciality of ours. Their style is influenced by nearby Alsace and embody a pure and blendable tonal character which lends our organs strength and colour.
With reed pipes the scaling (dimensioning) is of much greater importance than with labial pipes. We use exclusively our own scales for the reeds, based on long years of experience and historic examples. The uniform produced sound from standard stops from reed suppliers is thus avoided. All the voicing work is done in our workshops.
Our co-operation on several organ research projects, together with dialogue with the scientists involved, continues to give us new stimulus for a better understanding of the way organ pipes work and new ideas for our practical work.
Organ research project