page_title: Pipe organ
section_title: Console
hierarchical_section_title: Pipe organ / Construction / Console
caption_attribution_description: A head-on photo of the console of the organ at the United States Naval Academy chapel
context_page_description: The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass. Most organs have many ranks of pipes of differing timbre, pitch, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops.
  A pipe organ has one or more keyboards played by the hands, and a pedalboard played by the feet; each keyboard controls its own division, or group of stops. The keyboard, pedalboard, and stops are housed in the organ's console. The organ's continuous supply of wind allows it to sustain notes for as long as the corresponding keys are pressed, unlike the piano and harpsichord whose sound begins to dissipate immediately after a key is depressed. The smallest portable pipe organs may have only one or two dozen pipes and one manual; the largest may have over 33,000 pipes and seven manuals. A list of some of the most notable and largest pipe organs in the world can be viewed at List of pipe organs.
context_section_description: The controls available to the organist, including the keyboards, couplers, expression pedals, stops, and registration aids are accessed from the console. The console is either built into the organ case or detached from it.
caption: The five-manual, 522-stop detached console at the United States Naval Academy Chapel crafted by R. A. Colby, Inc.[76]
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