Gill Valves

When a pipe organ is activated, air is powered up the wind trunk (a large set of pipes) and squeezed into the wind chest, which sits beneath the pipes. The pipes are controlled by a stop knob. When the stop knob is pulled out, a wooden slat shifts and air begins to flow into the corresponding pipe. When a key is pressed on the keyboard, a pallet opens and air rushes into the key channel, causing the pipes on that channel (whose stops have been opened) to growl, honk, whistle, hum or roar.

This project is an experimentation in prepared pipe organ. Rigby worked with different regions of the pipe organ, from the keyboard to the swell box. She activated the wind trunk with percussion, contact mics and a geophone. Aloft in the swell box (a chamber within the pipe organ that houses a specific set of pipes), she recorded the sounds of the pipes at close range, the hiss of air flowing out of their gill-like mouths, and the vibrations of individual pipes. Each pipe has a unique resonant signature. This project aims to bring our attention to the multitudes of resonant expressions to be heard within and all around a pipe organ.

Pipe organs are akin to sea caves in that they each have their own unique reverberant potential, their own unique resonant signature. Like sea caves, pipe organs are sites from which to think about breathing. They are multi-esophageal bodies that wheeze and hum, sigh and scream. Shifts in a pipe or cave’s aperture—as directed by the pedal, or the tides—conjure shifts in shape, resonance, and sound. Organs feature banks of pipes that tower like trees and breathe like gills. Every pipe organ is uniquely constructed and richly storied, and the process of playing one feels more like a collaboration.

Pipe organs tread a fine line between hearing and feeling. Even if the listener is sitting at the far end of the cathedral, their relationship with the pipe organ is tactile. The instrument is powerful enough to carry a vibrational weight that we feel in our bones. The pipe organ floods our senses like a tidal surge. We listen with our flesh. Pipe organs cultivate more-than-human means of listening, moving beyond the realm of cochlear vibration and into the realm of bone conduction. Elephants, baleen whales and snakes are well-versed in the world of hearing via bone conduction, relying on their toes, unique skull morphologies, and jawbones respectively.

Pipe organs invite us to explore questions like: What can we learn from these relics of ancient worlds when it comes to listening, perception and vibrational communication? What can we learn about our rapidly changing world by finding new ways to experience and to think about listening, new ways to pay attention? What does it feel like to listen through the bones of our face?

Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles.

2025.