KUSC’s Alan Chapman has a lot to say about music, but can he say it in 60 seconds? That’s the Chapman Challenge. We ask a question and Alan has a minute to answer it.
Today’s question is from Bob Marcotte who wants to know “How do you tune a pipe organ and how often do they need tuning?”
Hit play below to listen to this week’s Chapman Challenge on Arts Alive.
Well, I figure the answer should be accompanied by some organ music, so let’s go with some Handel.
Organ technicians will tell you that a pipe organ is a delicate musical instrument. Some are more temperamental than others, but all of them need regular care and service. And the most common maintenance is tuning. Pipe organ tuning is affected by temperature changes, so you might expect to tune an organ when seasons change, when the heat is turned on in the winter and when the air conditioning is turned on in the summer.
Since the pitch of each note depends on the length of the pipe, tuning means making changes in the lengths of the pipes. One method involves tapping up or down on the metal collar at the top of a pipe to raise or lower the pitch. One technician works inside the organ while another sits at the keyboard.
And it can take a while. There’s a set of pipes for each different sound. For example, the organ at Walt Disney Concert Hall has 6,134 pipes. The initial tuning of that organ took a year.
That’s today’s Chapman Challenge. Is there a question you’d like to have answered in 60 seconds? Send it to us at [email protected]
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Alan Chapman
Alan Chapman, in addition to his weekday morning program, is also the host and producer of two weekend programs: Modern Times and A Musical Offering.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he earned a Ph.D. in music theory from Yale University. He is currently a member of the music theory faculty of the Colburn Conservatory. He was a longtime member of the music faculty at Occidental College and has also been a visiting professor at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. His analytical work has appeared in the Journal of Music Theory and in The New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill, winner of the Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing on music.
Well known as a pre-concert lecturer, Alan has been a regular speaker on the L.A. Philharmonic's "Upbeat Live" series since its inception in 1984. He also works closely with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Pacific Symphony. His lectures have been presented by virtually every major performing organization in southern California. He has been heard globally as programmer and host of the inflight classical channel on Delta Airlines.
Alan is also active as a composer/lyricist. His songs have been performed and recorded by many artists around the world and have been honored by ASCAP, the Johnny Mercer Foundation, and the Manhattan Association of Cabarets. His children's opera Les Moose: The Operatic Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was commissioned by LA Opera for its 1997-98 season. Alan frequently appears in cabaret evenings with his wife, soprano Karen Benjamin. They made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 and performed at Lincoln Center in 2006. Their recent CD, Que Será, Será: The Songs of Livingston and Evans, features the late Ray Evans telling the stories behind such beloved songs as "Mona Lisa" and "Silver Bells."
