A central record of the references, archives, licenses, and visual materials used across Pipe & Tone.
Instrument references
Introductory instrument pages currently use linked Wikipedia overviews as starting references, then rewrite and reorganize the information for this journal.
Historical archive
The Martin Ott Organ Archive was reconstructed from all 116 surviving former-builder pages in the Internet Archive, the recovered opus list, and legacy URL evidence. Project histories are paraphrased and linked back to their archived source. This independent research archive is not affiliated with the former company.
Independent record checks
Where a venue or university publishes its own instrument record, that source is used to test names, dates, locations, and specifications against the archived builder page. Northern Illinois University independently identifies its concert-hall instrument as Ott Opus 17 from 1983, while Principia College identifies the chapel instrument as Opus 66 from 1992 with 28 stops and 34 ranks.
Verified organ photographs
Venue-specific photographs are used only where the pictured instrument can be tied to the record. Current credits include Saint Brigid Parish for Opus 64, Principia College for Opus 66, Greater Kansas City AGO for Opus 72 and Opus 94, Mount Angel Abbey for Opus 79 and Opus 80, Eric Plutz for the Trinity Lansdale image on Opus 90, Sumner Presbyterian Church for Opus 96, Organist Heidi for Opus 110, and an Organ Media Foundation video still for Opus 114. Copyright remains with each credited source or photographer; publication permission and final licensing must be confirmed before public launch.
Documentary photographs of places
A photograph of a building is not presented as a photograph of its organ. The Opus 99 record uses two views from the Sisters of St. Benedict to show St. Mary Monastery and its grounds; both captions explicitly identify the subject as the place rather than the instrument.
Editorial reconstructions
Opus 17, Opus 51, and Opus 113 currently use newly generated editorial reconstructions because the original linked image files were not available in the web archive. Their captions identify them as reconstructions, and they are not presented as documentary photographs.
Audio and generated scenes
The homepage organ excerpt is a public-domain recording from First Presbyterian Church of Hartford City, Indiana. The Sound Lab scene, Blog hero, Cavaillé-Coll workshop study, album-art desk, and Beethoven premiere scene are original generated editorial images. Historical scenes are labeled as editorial reconstructions and are not presented as documentary photographs.
What a source must do
Music research sources are recorded for the claim they support, not collected as decoration. A citation note should preserve the source title, responsible author or institution, publication or archive date, exact address, and the passage, image, or object that answers the question. A relevant website can still be the wrong evidence for a sentence.
Pipe & Tone prefers records close to the subject: builder documents, institutional collections, programs, contracts, manuals, museums, universities, standards bodies, and named practitioners. Scholarly books, specialist databases, and careful reporting can connect or interpret those records. Wikipedia is useful for orientation and terminology, followed by its underlying references when a claim matters.
Primary sources are not automatically complete or neutral. A maker's catalog can preserve original wording and specifications while promoting the maker's work. A contract can describe a plan that changed during construction. An institution may know its present building but repeat an older attribution. Each source is used for the part it can reasonably establish.
The Martin Ott archive
The Martin Ott Organ Archive begins with the recovered opus list, archived former-builder pages, legacy URL evidence, and project-specific institutional sources. Pipe & Tone is independent from the former Martin Ott company. Restoring an old route preserves research value; it does not restore the former business.
Project identity comes first: opus number, institution, location, and the wording of the surviving record. Dates are labelled by event only when the source names the event. A catalog year is not silently turned into a completion or dedication year. Stops, ranks, manuals, actions, and later work remain separate fields because the terms answer different questions.
Current condition and access are time-sensitive. An old specification, recital program, or photograph cannot prove that an organ remains unchanged or available today. A dated institutional statement or qualified inspection may add current information, but it does not rewrite the earlier source.
Images, audio, and contributor material
Image records keep the creator, source page, caption, date when known, licence or permission, and any modification made for publication. A filename and visual resemblance are not enough to identify a project. Reverse image search can locate earlier copies, but it does not decide ownership or permission.
Generated images may be used as editorial illustration or reconstruction. Their captions state that status. They are not presented as documentary photographs of a specific organ, person, concert, workshop, or historic event. Generated plaques, signatures, stop labels, and documents are not used as evidence.
Audio requires separate attention to the composition, performance, and recording. Credits preserve performer, venue, release, owner, and file source where those facts are available. A recording from one instrument may illustrate a general technique, but it cannot stand in for the voice of another instrument without a clear explanation.
Contributor files also need provenance. The publication records who supplied the material, their relationship to it, preferred public credit, and what reuse was allowed. Contact information can remain private even when the public credit is named. Permission to inspect a file is not permission to republish or alter it.
Corrections and durable citations
Web pages move and disappear. A useful citation keeps enough bibliographic detail to remain meaningful after a broken link. Archive captures may preserve a public page when permitted, but a snapshot proves only what the page showed at that capture time. It does not prove the underlying event or later condition.
Negative findings are recorded too. If a program names a venue but not a builder, or a catalog gives a rank total but no action, that limit remains visible. An unknown field is better than a plausible sentence that a later reader mistakes for evidence.
Corrections follow the editorial policy. A material change keeps the new source attached to the revised claim and may carry a short dated note. The stable route remains in place so earlier citations do not become disconnected from the record they were meant to reach.