Comments & Suggestions

This page summarizes the significant comments & suggestions that were received during the public review period. Some of these will be incorporated into the final version 1.0 standard, but probably not all of them.

Not Incorporated (Yet?)

Location of Drawknobs on Console
"Iain Stinson" Iain.Stinson@liverpool.ac.uk / 21 Oct 02
How do I say that the console has drawstops and on which side each division's stops are located? Does this need an additional division attribute... control=drawstops controlposition=left

Proposed Solution: This XML standard is not intended to model all aspects of a pipe organ. The location of stop controls can be placed in a "Remark" element, should that information be desired. This information doesn't seem important enough to warrant its own elements and/or attributes.

Add "Percussion" Element
"Beames, Peter" peter.beames@dsto.defence.gov.au / 21 Oct 02
From a TO perspective I think that there needs to be a PERCUSSION element. The RANK element does suggest the the number of pipes could also apply to the number of bars or bells but I believe that a seperate element would be more appropriate. Piano serial numbers are also important, to some people, and have been used to identify organs. where no other markings exist.

Add "Source/Destination" Element or Attribute
"Beames, Peter" peter.beames@dsto.defence.gov.au / 21 Oct 02
To allow for tracking moving (between instruments) parts SOURCE / DESTINATION should be added to each RANK / PERCUSSION / TRAP / BLOWER / CONSOLE etc. e.g. this rank came from ...., and when. Stopping people moving parts around would be a good idea from some people's perspective but I think it will never stop so it needs to be recorded.
[This was from the Theatre Organ perspective.]

Proposed Solution: Add an attribute named "origin" to the elements "Accessory", "Case", "Console", "Rank", and "Stop". The value of the attribute is free-form text which describes where the accesory, stop, etc. came from.

Proposed Solution: Add an element named "Origin" which may appear zero or more times within the elements "Accessory", "Blower", "Case", "Console", "Division", "Rank", "Trap", "Relay", and "Stop". It contains the same attributes as the existing "Location" element.

Add "Material" Element
"Iain Stinson" Iain.Stinson@liverpool.ac.uk / 6 Dec 02
... the "material" attribute needs to handle rank where the bottom ocatve are wood and the top part metal (say). You can either allow the material to be "wood and metal" and use a REMARK to explain or you might want to elevate MATERIAL to an element with attributes of pipes and compass and attribute material. ... A similar construction might be useful for saying if part of of stop is stopped or open or harmonice or haskelled....

Add "Pipe" Element
"Kieren Richard MacMillan" kieren_macmillan@sympatico.ca" / 26 Dec 02
In my (admittedly limited) experience, it appears that sometimes a single pipe may derive from a separate source than the rest of the rank or division -- therefore, I might suggest considering the further branching of or into elements (which could be optional, for "alien" pipes only?). Besides being a much more granular approach (which is almost always better than a coarser approach), this would have the additional benefit of assisting in the maintenance or development of a real "history" of an organ (right down to the pipe level).

Add "Phone" Attribute to "Location"
"Kieren Richard MacMillan" kieren_macmillan@sympatico.ca" / 26 Dec 02
More specific contact information might be beneficial in the element -- maybe an attribute for ... "contactPhone"? -- especially when it comes to maintaining the database through updates (which might/would require contacting the current owner/technician).

Incorporated

Inadequate Support for Borrowing
"Iain Stinson" Iain.Stinson@liverpool.ac.uk / 21 Oct 02
The organ I pay each sunday has some "artistic unification": the pedal 16 bourdon has 12 notes of its own, then borrows 12 from the Grt Stopped Diapason, then has the remainder of the stop from a flute unit. The pedal 8 Flute uses the same lower 12 pipes from the great Stopped diapason and uses the bourdon flute unit for the rest of its compass. The pedal flute 4 is derived from this same flute unit. I think the current XML model can't deal with this!

Proposed Solution: Remove the "borrowed" attribute from the "Stop" element. Add a new element called "Borrow", which may appear zero or more times within the "Stop" element. The "Borrow" element contains the following attributes:
"compass" : what notes are borrowed; if omitted, indicates the entire stop
"from" : the ID of the stop or rank borrowed from (required)

[incorporated 9 Nov 02]

Inadequate "Console" Element
"Michael Davidson" MichaelDavidson@pacbell.net / 21 Oct 02
"console" doesn't seem to be very useful in describing instruments which do, in fact, have more than one console. consider Liverpool Cathedral as it was in the 1970's - there was a 5 manual console and a 2 manual console - I don't see where you would put the number of manuals (other than in the remarks) or the list of stops which could be controlled from the second console.

Proposed Solution: As of 1 December 2002, the OrganSpec standard has the necessary flexibility to handle multiple consoles.

Enhanced "Compass" Attribute
"Michael Davidson" MichaelDavidson@pacbell.net / 21 Oct 02
wouldn't it be possible to deal with historic instruments with short octaves by allowing "compass" to contain a comma separated list of individual notes as well as ranges, giving something like this:

CC,DD,EE-a'''

Proposed Solution: Redefine the "compass" attribute of the "Division" element to allow a sequence of single notes or ranges, separated by commas.
[incorporated 9 Nov 02]

Add "Traps" Element
"Beames, Peter" peter.beames@dsto.defence.gov.au / 21 Oct 02
There needs to be a TRAPS element for non-tuned percussions which do not fit the definition of ACCESSORY which appears to be for console controls only. EFFECTS could be a seperate element or possibly be included in TRAPS.

Proposed Solution: Add a new element named "Trap", which describes a single trap. A trap is a sound-producing element whose pitch does not change when played from different notes, e.g. a drum, cymbal, etc. It may occur zero or more times within the "OrganSpec", "Division" or "Chamber" elements, and may contain zero or more "Remark" sub-elements. It is referenced from the "rank" attribute of the "Stop" element. It contains the following attributes:
"dateInstalled": the date of installation.
"dateRemoved": the date of removal.
"id": the unique identifier.
"installedBy": the builder who installed it.
"removedBy": the builder who removed it.
"maker": the name of the manufacturer of the trap.
"name": the full unabbreviated name of the trap.

[incorporated 17 Nov 02]

Add "Blower" Element
"Beames, Peter" peter.beames@dsto.defence.gov.au / 21 Oct 02
BLOWER would seem to be a major ommission. It should include MANUFACTURER / TYPE / SERIAL_NO / STAGES / OUTLET(s) / PRESSURE(s) / VOLUME / MOTOR_TYPE / POWER(units) / VOLTAGE / SPEED / SERIAL_NO

Proposed Solution: Add a new element named "Blower", which describes a single blower. It may occur zero or more times within the "OrganSpec" element, and may contain sub-elements "Remark" and "Pressure". It contains the following attributes:
"manufacturer" : the name of the manufacturer.
"serial" : the serial number.
"voltage" : the voltage.
"speed" : an integer indicating the number of revolutions per minute.
"hp" : the horsepower rating.
"cfm" : the output volume in cubic feet per minute.

[incorporated 9 Nov 02]

Add "Relay" Element
"Beames, Peter" peter.beames@dsto.defence.gov.au / 21 Oct 02
RELAY should include the type of system used, where appropriate.
[This was from the Theatre Organ perspective.]

[Incorporated 1 December 2002.]