Organ database Help


Buttons in the organ list

  Direct link to the surrounding of the organ place in Google Maps.

  shows complete stoplist and specs. together with a brief history;     plus specs. of former organs.

  shows higher resolution pictures.

  shows an extensive picture gallery (church, organ, console...) at a resolution of 8-18 megapixels.

  shows CDs that were recorded on this organ.

  plays sound samples and shows all tracks / CDs in the download portal / online shop of that organ.

  Light buttons indicate that the specific information is available only for subscribers with full online access to the Organ Site – other users may just see a preview of the specific entry. Click here to register online.


The organ database is shown below as a list. In the initial view you can page up and down by clicking on these symbols . To show the entire list - without setting a search criterion or a filter (see next paragraph) - just click on the "search" button.


Filters

By the filters you may select the criteria according which you would like to have the information displayed. You will then get those records that answer to the selected criteria. If several criteria have been selected (e.g. "City" as well as "Size") only those entries will be displayed that answer to all criteria, i.e. the selection fields "and"-linked.

The filter "ZIP code" is only avalibale for subscribers with full access to the Organ Site. Click here to register online.

Some criteria can only be picked from a dropdown list, others, like "City", "Church / location" and "Builder" allow you to type in your own text. In this case any record will be found that contains this specific text (regardless of capitals in spelling).

Example: If you look for "Berlin" all records will be displayed that contain this text, which means that you will also get those containing "Überlingen".
The field "State (US only)" can only be activated if you have picked "USA" on the country list (oh, really ;-)

Note: Use the filter Last update on the left to display only those database entries that have been added or modified during the past days, weeks, months or years. If you also choose sort by last update, the latest and most actual entries will be displayed first.

To show if and where any filters (i.e. search criteria) have been set, they are marked in red. Depending on how filters were set the list of results can be very long and – depending on the speed of your internet connection – set-up and display may take a while. In general it should be completed in a few seconds, though.


Selection of columns

Here you can pick the columns you would like to view. On starting a standard pre-selection is given that does not display all the riches of the database (for one because of limited space on the screen, but also in order to reduce amount of data to be loaded and thus loading time). If you would like to view certain other information activate and deactivate specific columns here.

Selection of the columns "ZIP code" and "Street" is only avalibale for subscribers with full access to the Organ Site. Click here to register online.

Caution: Activating the column "Pictures" will give you the complete list of preview pictures of all organs you selected - now if you did not set any further filter (see above) in the subscriber's version the entire database with more than 3,200 pictures (= 100 megabytes) will be loaded and displayed. So be wise and set some restrictive filters (see above) before activating the "pictures" column.

Database sorting

Here you may select the main criterion according to which you would like to have your organ list sorted. Depending on the criterion the lists will be sorted either upwards or downwards. After you chose the principal criterion the program will automatically select appropriate secondary sorting criteria.

Example: Sorting by "Ranks" will be downwards, secondary criteria will be number of voices, manuals, pipes, etc., if organs with identical number of ranks are to be sorted. If you selected sorting by "Builder" sorting will be upwards, secondary criterion will automatically be the year of construction.
The column from which the principal sorting criterion is taken will be shown in dark orange on the list below.

If a criterion has been picked from a column that was not activated this column will automatically be activated.


Text search criteria

Here you can determine the strategy for the search and filtering functions. You have the following options:

Exact: The search will be for exact matches - without regard to case, though. Umlauts will be replaced by their two-character substitutes (e.g. "ä" = "ae" = "æ"). This seach is the fastest one, but it can happen that not all matches are displayed: if you enter "Matias", entries on "Matthias" will not be found. For this reason I included another seach option:

Phonetic: Similar sounds and syllables will be treated alike. This search will find "Matias" even if the entry is on "Matthias". This search function will ignore special characters. Another option that is even more comprehensive and therefore slower is the search function

Phonetic with translation (default setting): Here about 200 of the most important terms in the areas of city and church have been translated from different languages into one specific, before the search starts. Hence the terms "St.", "Sankt" und "Saint" are treated as one, just as "church", "Kirche", "église", "kostol" etc. This only concerns the terms used most frequently and the names of larger cities, though.

Recommendation: Do not enter too many or too specific terms. This will increase chances for a successful search: if for instance you look for "Hamburger St. Jacobikirche" you miss "Hamburg, St. Jacobi." In this case it would be wiser to enter "Hamburg" in the field [city] + "Jacobi" in the field [church].

Buttons

After you picked the filter, the columns and the sorting criteria please click the button Search / Refresh list.
In case of errors click button Reset all to get back to the initial state.


Hints

Best view with Internet Explorer from 6.0, preferably in full view with at least 1,280 by 1,024 resolution. Column choice, sort and filter functions need activated Java script in your browser.

The organ list is 99% complete for organs with 120 ranks or more, 95% complete for organs with 95-120 ranks, 90% for organs with 80-95 ranks. Research on these is ongoing and updates will be installed on a short term basis. Exhaustive research for organs with less than 80 ranks is just not feasible, organs of that size are innumerable and starting worldwide research on them would definitely blow my schedule.


Back to the organ list   (this link only works with activated JavaScript; if not please press the Back button of your browser)