Organ Building References
The following is a list of references I found useful in designing and
building my organ:
Websites
- Laukhuff Orgelteile and Orgelbau - This is a very comprehensive organ building catalog with lots of great pictures of all the components of a mechanical action organ. They also give scales for all the varieties of pipes. These are the pipe scales I used for my organ.
- Organ Supply Industries - This is another organ building catalog with lots of helpful pictures and information. This company was very kind to sell items to me even though I'm not a professional builder. Thanks!!!!!
- Organ Historical Society Catalog - This is a great place to find all kinds of books, CD's and sheet music related to the pipe organ.
- AGO Standard Console Specifications - This is a link to where you can purchase a copy of the AGO Standard Console Specifications.
- Encyclopedia of Organ Stops - This is a great site for descriptions, figures, photos and sound samples of all the different types of organ stops.
- Mechanical Music Digests Technical Library - There are a number of good links on this page. The two most useful to me were “Ising’s formula for pipe mouth dimensions” and “Organ Pressure Regulator and Tremulant”
- McMaster-Carr - This is one of my favorite catalogs to order from because they have just about everything in every size you could ever want. This is where I bought the plexiglass, sound absorbing material, pressure gauge, calipers, feeler gauge, dowel pins and lots of other hardware items and small tools.
- The Leather Supply House - This is where I purchased all the leather and hot hide glue for my organ.
- Tower Hobbies - This is the hobby store where I bought the collars that I used in all the action linkages.
- Matthias Wandel's Homebrew Pipe Organ - This is the only other website I've ever seen about a homemade mechanical action pipe organ.
- Pipe Organs 101 - A good overview of pipe organ basics.
- Colin Pykett's Website - This is a link to an interesting article that explains why double pallets are sometimes used in the bottom notes of a windchest. There are lots of other interesting articles as well so surf around.
- John Belinguier's Website - This website documents the construction of a home organ project.
Books
- The Organ-Builder by Dom Bédos
- Organ Building for Amateurs by Mark Wicks
- The Art of Organ-Building by George Ashdown Audsley
- Organ Stops and Their Artistic Registration by George Ashdown Audsley
- The Art of Organ Voicing by L. G. Monette
- The Organ Reed by Noel A. Bonavia-Hunt and H. W. Homer
- How to Build a Small Two-Manual Chamber Pipe Organ by H. F. Milne
- Practical Organ Bulding by W. E. Dickson
- Organ Voicing and Tuning: A Guide to Amateurs by The John Church Co.
- Modern Organ Stops by Noel A. Bonavia-Hunt
- The Organ, Its History and Construction by Edward J. Hopkins and Edward F. Rimbault
- The History of the Organ in the United States by Orpha Ochse
- Die Wunderbare Welt Der Orgel by Marcel Thomann
- Sound Quality of Flue Organ Pipes by Vincent Rioux
- Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, A Compendum of Known Stoplists by Jesse Eschbach
- Maison A. Cavaillé-Coll, Orgues de tous modèles a reprint of Cavaillé-Coll's catalog
- Les Orgues des Cathédrales de France by Philippe Cicchero
- Louis Vierne, Organist of Notre Dame Catherdral by Rollin Smith
- The Meyerson Symphony Center, Building a Dream by Laurie Shulman
Most of the books can be found in the OHS Catalog. The Wicks and the Audsley books have the most practical information
for the amateur organ builder.
Memberships and Subscriptions
- Organ Historical Society - Membership includes a subscription to The Tracker. This is an interesting journal with lots of pictures and specifications but it doesn't have much technical information on organ building.
- The Diapason - This is a magazine full of current information about organ music, concerts, positions, classifieds etc. but like The Tracker, it doesn't have technical information.
- American Institute of Organbuilders - Membership includes a subscription to the Journal of American Organbuilding. This is a quarterly publication that is full of technical information about organ building. I also ordered several back issues that dealt with interesting topics.
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