Chapel Organ to Recapture Its ‘Voice’

Photo: Pipes insides the Chapel's Benjamin N. Duke Memorial (Flentrop) Organ.

Just as a professional singer works to maintain his or her voice in top form so too an organ has to be cared for in order to keep its distinctive sound.

This summer specialists will work to “voice” the Chapel’s Benjamin N. Duke Memorial Organ (also called the Flentrop). Voicing is the art of giving a particular voice to each pipe. When pipes are made by the pipemaker, they may not actually make a sound. The voicer manipulates the mouth of the pipe (akin to the mouthpiece of a recorder, or the opening in a whistle) so it speaks promptly and has the right timbre and volume. Each pipe in a set of pipes, called a rank, must match the characteristics of its neighbors, from the lowest sounding pipe to the highest. The ranks of pipes must also blend well with other ranks in the organ. This work is akin to having the right balance of spices in a recipe.

The work will occur on weekdays from July 16 through August 17 and will require complete quiet in the Chapel’s main sanctuary (nave). Visitors will be asked to enter and exit through the side transept doors so as not to disturb the work.

The voicing work will be done by Frits Elshout, the tonal director of the Flentrop Orgelbouw company in The Nethlerands, which built the organ. Elshout was part of the crew that originally installed it in the Chapel in 1976.

The voicing of the Flentrop organ is part of larger four-year maintenance project to remedy age-related issues with the organ’s pipework as well as to replace some mechanical components in its windchests. The Chapel’s organ curator, John Santoianni, is overseeing the project in conjunction with the American organbuilding firm Richards, Fowkes & Co. The renovation schedule allows for the organ to be played during the academic year and will conclude in 2019.

See inside the Flentrop organ in this video about How an Organ Makes Music: