St. Agatha Catholic Church - Upper Arlington, OH - 2/43 Bedient

St. Agatha Catholic Church - 2/43 Bedient

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Great Division

Swell Division

Facade

St. Agatha Catholic Church
Upper Arlington, OH
2/43 Bedient
Opus 75 - 2005

Great Division

The Great Division on the organ is supposed to be just that - great. And on the Bedient, it is just that, if not better than great. In fact it can be so great that it can overpower the Swell Division, but an organist with a keen ear will do what is necessary to balance the sound.

	The view from up top! Here's a look into the church from the pipe chamber. This height is about equal to the third colored cross (from the top down) in the windows at the back of the church.
	This angle gives a good view of the relationship between the facade and the front wall. The rest of the pipes in the organ are out of view on the right. Some of the facade pipes are on the left, and the front wall of the chamber is seen in the middle. The previous organ was completely behind a metal grid which rested on this wall. The wood plank is a walkway to allow organ maintenance without stepping on any of the black wind supply pipes. Also note the dummy pipes which do not have black air supply pipes.
	Most of the pipes in the facade belong to the Great or Pedal Divisions of the organ. In addition, most of the pipes speak, but not all. Note that some of the pipes in the facade have blue tuning slides, some do not. Those which don't are "dummy" or non-speaking pipes. The wood pipes to the left are of the 16' Basson rank, and the pipes on the right are from various Great Division stops.
	Here's the same view as above but now looking down toward the floor. Again note that the "dummy" pipes in the facade can be identified by the lack of black air supply line going to them from the wind chest. We can also see the feet of the basson pipes, and the various pipes of the Great on the right.
	This view shows us some of the smallest pipes in the Great Division. Directly in front of us is the IV-V Mixture, and on the far right is the 8' Trompete. The platform in the middle allows a person to gain access to the pipes in the middle without having to reach over everything. Even so, it still can be a tough job to access every pipe.
	This view from the back toward the front again shows some of the smallest pipes, many as thin as a pencil. Note in the foreground the numbers in front of the pipes. The pipe with 61 in front of it would represent the smallest or highest pitch pipe in the rank.
	Looking a little closer we can see the names of the ranks stamped on the wood. The ranks on the first full board in the photo are the 1 3/5' Terz, 2' Octave, 2 2/3' Quinte. The second board has the 4' Spitzflute and 4' Octave. The third board has the 8' Voce Umana and the 8' Rohrflute. The fourth board is made up of the 8' Flute Harmonique. Likely (but unconfirmed) on the last two boards are the 8' Salicional and the 8' Principal.
	Now on the left side of the chamber we again have a look at some of the pipes in the facade. This view also gives a perspective of how high up the pipes are off the floor which in turn makes the pews look very small.
	Each pipe has an inscription hand-written on it for identification purposes. Also note the scratch pattern in the pipe. Since the pipes behind the facade are not plainly visible, often these are left unpolished. Compare the finish to this pipe to the very shiny pipes in the facade.