Holy Family Catholic Church - Columbus, OH - 2/25 Schantz

Holy Family Catholic Church - 2/25 Schantz

Holy Family Catholic Church
Columbus, OH
2/25 Schantz
1981

Photos of the Swell Division

Click on the photo to see a larger image

The Swell box is actually built into a space in the back of the church which presumably was set aside for a pipe organ. However, instead of stuffing all of the pipes in the room, organ builder Schantz built a "room within a room" and moved everything forward so that the pipes speak better into the room. In this photo we see the access door at back of the Swell box. The room is being illuminated by the sunlight filtering through a large stained glass window. The ladder allows for access to a few Great Division ranks which are mounted on top of the Swell box.


Just inside the back door of the Swell box is this interesting rank of pipes. Resembling metallic bottle rockets, the Rohr Schalmey is one of only four reed ranks on this organ. Though it shares a common name as the Rohrflöte rank behind it, its construction is much different. The middle photo shows the boot and tuning wire. The Encyclopedia of Organ Stops web page has a sound clip of this rank which can be found here.

	This photo gives a good lateral view of the ranks from back to front. On the far right are the chimes, the tall pipes at the back on the floor are the Rohr Schalmey, next with the gray felt striped tops is the Rohrflöte, next is the Spitz Principal, then the tall pipes toward the middle Viol de Gambe, next is the Hohlflöte, then the Viol Celeste, and just out of view on the far left is the high pitched Tierce.
	All the way in the front of the Swell on the right is the Tierce and on the left is the four rank Scharf which is a type of mixture. Playing one note on the keyboard plays four pipes in the rank.
	Looking like jail cell bars, the black expression shades of the Swell box are open and give us a view toward the front of the church. Opening and closing the shades allows the organist to control the amount of sound emanating from the Swell.
	Here's another view of the various ranks in the Swell. The wood bench gives access to those who need to tune the pipes or perform other maintenance. The sheet of paper is a log of the tunings on the instrument. Most pipe organs are given a full tuning once a year with spot tuning done quarterly or as needed.
	As shown above, the chimes are on the back wall of the Swell box. The chimes are probably the most common percussion found on a pipe organ today. Though located in the Swell, there is no Swell stop on the console for the Chimes. The original spec for the organ shows that the chimes were a prepared stop, possibly indicating that these were added after the organ was installed.

Holy Family Catholic Church - 2/25 Schantz

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