The Classical Organ

The Grande Orgue in the Cathedral of Coutances, France.

The Organ is the most ancient of all keyboard instruments. Dating to some 500 years BC, the technology and mechanical innovations which first placed the wind beneath man's fingertips have been under a constant state of refinement.

The invention of the organ is commonly ascribed to a Greek by the name of Ctesibius. His investigations were prompted, as historical sources tell us, by the forced displacement of air by water filling a vessel.

Organs, are in fact, quite simple inventions. They are, however, complex systems. The definition of this system is the controlled admittance of forced air to pipes which produce sound.

This is accomplished by any mechanical contrivance which will admit pressurized air at the will of the performer to any organ pipe. To state it another way, a valve in a pressurized box of wind (the wind chest) is opened to the atmospheric pressure and admits air to the toe of the pipe required to speak. This valve can be controlled either by direct mechanical linkage, pneumatic power, electric power or any combination of these three.

Pipes come in two basic forms. Each one produces a different type of sound. Flue pipes (such as whistles) produce the foundation and flute sounds of the organ. Reed pipes (built like a clarinet) produce, among other things, the bright and brassy trumpet and brass like sounds of the organ.

Pipes of any variety, when combined in unisons, octaves and fifths produce the recognized power and tonal intensity of the pipe organ. Its variety of sound color and dynamic control come from the organist's ability to select individual sets of pipes of different colors and mix them in any combination. They can range in length from 32' to 1/16".

Most commonly associated with church music, the organ was first know to be used in the Roman arena. Its transition from secular to sacred is unclear at best. After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, the technology and memory of how to build the instruments was preserved in Byzantium until its gradual reintroduction to the west in the 8th and 9th century by the Byzantine Emperors. Much of the rest of this early history is still somewhat unclear. Various instruments begin to appear around Europe not long after this time. Cologne Cathedral in 950 makes refrence to an organ as does Winchester around 990. By the 11th century there appear several accounts of the art of organ building itself. Theophilus (a monk), describes organ building in great detail in his book from early in this century called "De diversis artibus".

St. Sulpice, Paris. The crowing glory of the "symphonic" organ of 19th and early 20th century France.

After its general reintroduction to Western Europe, each country developed its own specific "school", or way of doing things. The French, Spanish, Italians and Germans (amongst many others) all fostered specific types of tonal and mechanical innovation over the next thousand years.

The Magnificent Console of St. Sulpice

By the time the instrument arrives at the 20th cent, the organ as a whole (especially in France) sees a massive revival. It now is providing not just the tonal setting of the mass, but also the playing of a new "symphonic" literature (so called because of the many new colors of instrumental sound that instrument was capable of) as well as the very music of the orchestra itself. From this point was to be born the Theater Organ. The technological innovations which have molded the instrument into its present form after almost 2,500 years continue to shape it and it still makes exciting progress into the futures.

 

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