Bells and Whistles
As is often the case with theater style organs (and sometimes church organs), there are several electromechanical instruments connected to the console. All of these instruments are played from the keyboards, which activate a solenoid (a special purpose electromagnet) causing a rod or other mechanism to pop out and strike or shake the appropriate part of the instrument. I have also included the Leslie speaker in this category, although the previous comments do not apply thereto.
As usual, click the thumbnails for more information.
The Glockenspiel is similar to a xylophone except the tuned bars are made of metal instead of wood.
The term comes from a German word originally used to denote a pipe organ stop that imitated bells (literally "bell play").
The tubular chimes are tuned brass cylinders.
The tubular chimes have their own separate peripheral keyboard mounted at the lower right of the four main keyboards. In the original installation, the tubular chimes are mounted in front of the band box (see below).
The band box has a variety of percussion instruments.
Visible more or less from left to right are: Sleigh bells, wood block which is above the cowbell and castanets, snare drum, triangle surrounding the maracas and above the tambourine. The cymbal is not visible in this photo.
The Leslie speaker is not really an electromechanical instrument, but it seems to fit in the category of bells and whistles. A Leslie speaker is constructed by mounting a loudspeaker on a turntable which spins and causes the speaker to alternately point toward and away from the listener, thus providing a constantly varying amplitude (louder when the speaker points toward the listener, softer when it points away). This is synchronized with a constantly varying shift in pitch due to the Doppler effect (higher when moving toward the listener, lower when moving away). The Leslie speaker has a very unique sound not easily duplicated by other means. (No photo yet.)
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CHORD site maintained by Dr. William Park. Please address comments or suggestions to parkw@ces.clemson.edu
