Tuba Tune

The Hybrid organ is something of an accidental tradition. Many large Cathedrals and Churches are home to an instrument that has been gradually added to and modified over the years, to the point where it is almost impossible to say what builder the organ represents or what style of voicing it conforms to.

A notable example of this was Worcester Cathedral, England, where a large four manual hybrid organ (commonly described as a "hotch-potch") was in place until comparatively recently. This instrument, while flawed, could produce intriguing tones that were uniquely its own.

It was this instrument and others like it that inspired this custom Hauptwerk organ.

It is a large 3-manual instrument with 54 speaking stops of very mixed origin, being made up of sampled pipework from a number of instruments, all modified and revoiced to try to blend them together.

Like many organs of its type, this one is laid out unconventionally.

The main body of the instrument is split out on two sides of the room - Swell pipes and Pedal flutes on the left, Great, Choir and most of the Pedal on the right.

There is then a section located to the far right, in the Transept area of a typical Cathedral. This contains the 32 foot Pedal Contre Bourdon, the Pedal Open Metal 16, the Pedal reeds and the two solo reeds from the Choir - the Tromba Real 8 and Contra Tromba 16.

This recording of Cocker's fantastic Tuba Tune is taken from Daniel Cook's excellent MIDI file, made available on this site.

Hope you enjoy.