Pipe Organs
Beginning in the nineteenth century, it became common for one or more divisions of pipes in a pipe organ to be enclosed in a wooden box, at least one side of which would consist of palettes that open and close in a manner similar to a Venetian blind. A mechanical (later electrical) mechanism connected the box to a pedal that the organist would use to open and close the shutters, adjusting the perceived loudness of the sound. When the box is shut (or closed), less sound is released into the venue. In American and British organs, the enclosed division is usually named the Swell, and the box surrounding the pipes is usually referred to as the swell box. Thus, the expression pedal is sometimes known as the swell pedal or swell shoe. Larger organs may have two or more expression pedals, allowing the volume of different divisions to be individually controlled.
No matter how well a swell box is designed, the sound of the pipes is altered by their enclosure. Even when the shutters are fully opened, the pipes do not speak as clearly into the room as they would if they were otherwise unenclosed.
On pipe organs, the expression pedal should not be confused with the crescendo pedal, which progressively adds stops as it is opened.
Read more about this topic: Expression Pedal
Famous quotes containing the words pipe and/or organs:
“I am dead against arts being self-expression. I see an inherent failure in any story which fails to detach itself from the authordetach itself in the sense that a well-blown soap-bubble detaches itself from the bowl of the blowers pipe and spherically takes off into the air as a new, whole, pure, iridescent world. Whereas the ill-blown bubble, as children know, timidly adheres to the bowls lip, then either bursts or sinks flatly back again.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (18991973)
“Words are finite organs of the infinite mind. They cannot cover the dimensions of what is in truth. They break, chop, and impoverish it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)