As the holidays keep coming, I'm busy posting new material on my
web page where the music of the Aeolian organ is used to celebrate
each holiday. My latest posting is the lively "American Fantasie",
by Victor Herbert, as played by Firmin Swinnen.
This posting will give organ buffs an opportunity to analyze how this
roll is rendered. At about the half way point, when Stephen Foster
music is being used, the organ plays the theme on the Vox Humana rank
and the tremulant is off. The way I have wired my organ, when the
rolls play it, the Vox may be heard with or without tremulant. The
console wiring turns on the tremulant when the Vox is drawn during hand
playing, and the Vox cannot be played without Trem from the console.
In some of the theatre rolls by Lew White, when he draws the Vox, the
first measure is played without Trem, and then he turns it on. The
effect is quite pleasing, as the Vox rank just "blooms" as the theme
develops.
It is for this reason, that I have wired the player so that the Vox can
be played without the Trem. But in the case of this roll by Swinnen,
I'm not sure he meant the Vox to be played without Trem.
It has been my theory that coding on the Duo-Art organ rolls is
a bit inconsistent. And of course, each installation could be wired
differently. But most of the time when the Vox is used by the player,
the coding also turns on the Trem. Leaving the Trem off on occasion
does offer more variety. The web page can be reached at
http://web.me.com/bobtaylor5/aeolian/Holiday_Page.html
Bob Taylor
Missouri
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