Renaissance Theatre
1
Section I
DESCRIPTION OF STOPS
PITCH FOOTAGE
The number appearing on each stop along with its name indicates the “pitch” or “register” of the
particular stop. It is characteristic of the organ that notes of different pitches may be sounded
from a single playing key. When this sound corresponds to the actual pitch of the playing key,
the note (or stop) is referred to as being of 8’ pitch; therefore, when an 8’ stop is selected and
middle C is depressed, the pitch heard will be middle C. If it sounds an octave higher, it is
called 4’ or octave pitch. If it sounds two octaves higher, it is called 2’ pitch, while a stop
sounding three octaves higher is at 1’ pitch. Likewise, a 16’ stop sounds an octave lower, and a
32’ stop sounds two octaves lower.
Stops of 32’, 16’, 8’, 4’, 2’, and 1’ pitch all have octave relationships, that is, these “even
numbered” stops all sound octaves of whatever key is depressed. Pitches other than octaves
are also used in organ playing. Their footage number always contains a fraction, and they are
referred to as mutations. Because they introduce unusual pitch relationships with respect to the
fundamental tone, they are most effective when combined with other stops, and are used either
in solo passages or in small ensembles.
TONAL FAMILIES
Organ tones divide into two main categories: flues and reeds. In a pipe organ, flue pipes are
those in which the sound is set in motion by wind striking directly on the edge of the mouth of
the pipe. Flues include principal tones, flute tones, and string tones. Compound stops and
hybrid stops are “variations” within these three families.
The term “imitative” means that the organ stop imitates the sound of the corresponding
orchestral instrument; for example, an imitative “Viola 8’” would be a stop voiced to sound like
an orchestral viola.
In reed pipes, a metal tongue vibrates against an opening in the side of a metal tube called a
shallot. The characteristic sounds of different reeds are produced through resonators of
different shapes.
Your Renaissance™ Allen Theatre Organ provides authentic examples of various types of
voices as listed above. Some of these are protected by copyrights owned by the Allen Organ
Company. The voices stored in memory are covered by United States copyright laws, pursuant
to Title 17 of the United States Code, Section 101 et seq.
UNIFICATION
In theatre organs, and occasionally in classical organs, the system of “unification” was used.
This allowed the same “rank” of pipes to be used at multiple pitches and on several manuals.
Unification was the system theatre organs used to have large numbers of stops on the console
with relatively few ranks of pipes as compared to a classical organ. For example, a Tibia
Clausa rank may be drawn at 16’, 8’, 5 1/3’, 4’, 2 2/3’, 2’, and 1 3/5’ on a given manual and then
