Compensating Mixture English Compensation Mixture English Compensationsmixtur German Corroborating Mixture English

The Compensationsmixtur was invented by Musikdirektor F. Wilke of Neu-Ruppin, Germany, and first installed in the organ in the Church of St. Catherine, Salzwedel, Germany by Turley in 1838. It is a pedal mixture intended to provide clarity to the lower notes, which in Wilke's time had a tendency towards dullness and slowness of speech. To accomplish this goal, this stop descreases in strength as it ascends. Seidel, by way of Audsley, gives the composition of Wilke's stop as follows:

Each rank descreased in volume as it ascended until it was nearly inaudible. While it was reported to be successful in fulfilling its mission, the stop was never widely adopted. Audsley criticizes it as being “insufficient and inartistic”, and goes on to recommend the following compositions:

Wedgwood gives two distinct definitions for Compensating Mixture, the first consistent with that given by other sources, and the other as follows:

A soft Mixture intended to represent the natural harmonics in which the organ, in comparison to orchestral instruments, is deficient. This type of Mixture is sometimes named Corroborating Mixture. A Compensating Mixture of VI ranks occurs on the Pedal organ, and a Corroborating Mixture of V ranks (string-toned) on the second subdivision of the Swell organ in the organ designed by Dr. Audsley for the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 (Art Organ Co., Los Angelos [sic]).

It is interesting to note that Audsley does not mention Corroborating Mixture in either The Art of Organ Building or his stop dictionary, though he does repeatedly mention “harmonic-corroborating” mutations and mixtures. The St. Louis organ eventually became the Wanamaker organ.

Examples

These are the only known examples, other than those mentioned above.

Compensating Mixture III, Pedal; Church of Our Lady of Grace, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA; Wirsching 1909 (designed by Audsley).

Corroborating Mixture V, Swell; John Wanamaker Store, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Bibliography