In the Beginning

It all started with a gift I had received from a friend of mine. He found this small organ console at an antiques store. I was so happy that he had found such a rare and unique piece. It sat displayed in my room at the college seminary amongst the random organ pipes and statue of Bach.

Now I am back home and I had placed this organ on my desk at work. During lunch one day, I thought to myself, "it would be cool if this had pipes to complete the entire package." Well, now that I'm back in the engineering field (for the time being), I have the software and access to stuff that would make it possible for such an endeavor. I became obsessed with this project. It consumed my mind. Where do I start?

First, I figured out and decided upon the proper scale ratio. The console model is roughly scaled to a 1 inch to 1 foot ratio. Second, I start looking at various pipe organ to get inspiration. What better inspirations than the North German organs of old. Organ designed by Arp Schnitger and played by Bach himself! I took such organs as inspiration:

St. Jacobi Church, Hamburg

Martinikerk, Groningen, The Netherlands

...and others. Yet, there was another organ, not by Schnitger, that I find so very beautiful. It is the Christiaan Müller organ at St. Bavo Church in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

The Great Organ of Haarlem, The Netherlands

With these organs as inspiration and the little knowledge of designing and constructing a facade of pipes around this organ, I began the design and research process. The intention of this blog is to document and share my design and construction process. I am open to comments. Let's see what happens!