Sympathetic resonance of the pipe organ and its effects on concert Hall acoustics

The pipe organ stands present at most every famous concert hall and church sanctuary, yet often it serves only as decoration, rarely played. What effects, then, does the world’s largest class of musical instrument have on the acoustics of concert halls that house them? With prominent metal resonators typically positioned as the immediate back wall of the stage, it is difficult to believe that the pipe organ has little sonic effect, even when it isn’t being played. One hypothesis is that the pipe organ makes for some manner of auto-tune, as its pipes sympathetically resonate to the same frequencies they’re tuned to, thus increasing the amplitude of frequencies that align with well-tuned 12-tone notes, and enhancing the overall musical sound of ensembles that play in concert halls with organs. It was verified experimentally that sympathetic resonance does occur in organ pipes due to musical performance, speeches, and noise, at frequencies that align with musical notes, and that overall amplitude increases when the signal matches the resonance of one or several pipes. Ongoing research is being conducted on the significance of these effects on the overall quality of musical performance to listeners in the audience.