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The great division of an organ, the main manual.
Printed as Gt. or Great over or between organ staves to assign a passage to the main manual; it holds until another manual is named.
Abbreviations: Gt.
The great carries the principal chorus of diapasons and is the loudest manual on most organs; use it for main lines and climaxes. Contrast it with the swell or choir for echo effects and for dialogue between manuals, which needs only a change of hand. Give registrations when you need a particular colour, since the same manual sounds very different from one organ to another.
Great is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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