The church organs of Beatenberg (1820 - 2009)

before 1812
Chamber organ

1812
The organ from the church in Eriswil was put in

1903
Organ builder Zimmermann built a new organ with 9 stops (picture below).
The organ stood at the front of the church.
The old instrument was sold to Paris.

1903 - Organ with 9 Stops

1918
Goll builds a new pneumatic organ with 8 stops.
This organ came on the left side wall
(unfortunately we haven’t found any pictures).
The old organ went to the church in Lyss and later to Döttingen AG.

1950
Metzler Dietikon builds the new organ (the present one) with 13 stops.
It was financed by interest free credits by parishioners.

The pipe organ is a keyboard musical instrument that produces sound by venting mechanically compressed air (wind) through resonant pipes. Each pipe produces sound of one fixed pitch, so they are provided in sets with one pipe or more per note, each set or stop having a common timbre and loudness throughout. Most organs have multiple sets of pipes of differing timbre, pitch and loudness which the player can employ singly or in combination. A pipe organ may have one or several keyboards, played by the hands, and a pedalboard for bass notes, played by the feet, each of which controls its own group of stops. Source: Wikipedia

The wind system
Contains the parts which producestore and deliver wind to the pipes.

Tubes delivering air to pipes

Keyboards played by the hands are known as manuals

Keyboards played by the hands are known as manuals (from the Latin manus, meaning "hand"). The keyboard played by the feet is a pedalboard. Every organ has at least one manual (most have two or more), and most have a pedalboard. Each keyboard is named for a particular division of the organ (a group of ranks) and generally controls only the stops from that division. The range of the keyboards has varied widely across time and between countries. Most current specifications call for two or more manuals with sixty-one notes (five octaves, from C to c) and a pedalboard with thirty or thirty-two notes (two and a half octaves). Source: Wikipedia

Manuals with 4 ½ octaves each
Pedalboard with 2 ½ octaves

Therese Jordi explains the stops.
Each of the 13 stops has its own character.
The organist has wonderful possibilities to play very varied.

The stops of Manual I (lower manual)
Mixtur 2' (triple) / Nachthorn 4' / Oktav 4' / Rohrflöte 8' / Principal 8'





The stops of Manual II
Gedackt 8' / Principal 4' / Rohrflöte 4' / Quinte 2 2/3' / Flageolet 2' / Scharf 1'   (Scharf 1' in triple mixture)

A mixture is an organ stop of principal tone quality that contains multiple ranks of pipes. It is designed to be drawn with a combination of stops that forms a complete chorus (for example, principals of 8′, 4′, and 2′ pitches). The mixture sounds the upper harmonics of each note of the keyboard. The individual pitches in the mixture are not perceived by the listener; rather, they reinforce the fundamental pitches of the chorus, adding volume and brilliance to the sound. Source: Wikipedia

Stops - Pedalboard
Pedalboard and Pedalboard stop (flutes only)
Settings of the pedalboard: Kopplungsmöglichkeiten / Mixtur / Scharf

   Stops pedalboard:
   Subbass 16' und Bourdon 8'

A small part of the 900 pipes

Gedackt (also spelled gedeckt) is the name of a family of stops in pipe organ building. They are one of the most common types of organ flue pipe. The name is a German word, meaning "capped" or "covered".

Gedackt pipes can be made of either wood or metal, but in modern organ building, and the majority of historical examples, they are made of wood. They are occasionally square, but much more commonly rectangular in cross-section, the mouth being on the narrow side of the pipe. The mouth has a high cut-up (height to width ratio) to produce the fluty tone. Gedackt is a stopped pipe, as its name implies.

The gedackt produces a moderately soft, bland, flute-like tone, invaluable for basic ensemble sound in the pipe organ. The stoppered design eliminates many high overtones, leaving the classic sound of the gedackt, which blends seamlessly with almost all other stops. It is similar in sound to the bourdon, but is usually softer and somewhat sweeter in tone. The bourdon´s heavier construction and square-walled pipes gives it a more pronounced and weighty tone. Source: Wikipedia

Principal, flutewood, chimney flute, quintize, open and gedackt

Proportions
Organ pipes - person (in foot)