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History Of The Pipe Organ

Construction Of The Pipe Organ

The pipe organ is a keyboard instrument, which produces sound by admitting pressurized air through a series of pipes. Pipe organs vary greatly in size, from portable instruments with only a few dozen pipes, to very large organs with many hundreds, causing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to name it the "King of instruments”. Among the music-making angels, accompanying Domenico di Bartolo's “Madonna of Humility”, Siena 1433, the angel on the right plays a portative organ, with a set of hand-pumped bellows.

The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments still used in European classical music. Its earliest predecessors date back to ancient Greece, (Greek: organon), in the 3rd century BC. The word organ originates from the Latin “organum", the instrument used in ancient Roman circus games, and similar to a modern portative organ.

The inventor most often credited is Greek engineer, Ctesibius of Alexandria, who created an instrument called the hydraulis, a hydraulic (water-powered) instrument, in the 3rd Century BC. The hydraulis was common in the Roman Empire, where its immensely loud tone was heard during games and circuses in amphitheatres, as well as in processions. Organs were also known to exist in the Byzantine Empire, as well as in Islamic Spain.

Characteristics of this instrument have been inferred from mosaics, paintings, literary references, and partial remains; a working, reconstructed instrument is owned by Aquincum Museum, Budapest. The exact mechanism of wind production is still debated, but the tone of the original pipes can be studied. Unfortunately however, almost nothing is known of the actual music it played. The pumps and water regulators of the hydraulis were replaced by bellows in the 2nd Century AD, and thus, the pipe organ as we know it today, was born.

In Medieval times, the portable instruments, (the portative, or portative organ, and the positive organ), were invented. Towards the middle of the 13th century, the portatives represented in the miniatures of illuminated manuscripts, first show signs of a real keyboard with balanced keys, as in the 13th century Spanish manuscript, known as the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Because of their portability, portatives were used for the accompaniment of both sacred and secular music in a variety of settings.

As the instruments became larger, they were installed permanently, in a fashion similar to the church organs of today. At this time, organs did not have sophisticated Stop controls: the organist would usually have the choice of playing on a single 8' foot Principal stop, (see Construction), or what was called the Blockwerk. The Blockwerk consisted of the entire tonal resources of the organ, (known today as Ogano Pleno, or full organ), which in some cases, meant a very large number of ranks ranging from 16' pitch, all the way through to 1' pitch and higher.

Eventually, separate controls were built, to allow the organist to decide independently whether or not each rank in the Blockwerk would sound, effectively dividing the Blockwerk into separate stops. Some of the higher-pitched ranks were still grouped together, under a single stop control. These stops were the forerunner of “mixtures” that would be found in later organs.

During the Renaissance and Baroque eras, the organ became an instrument capable of creating numerous tonal colours, both unique, and imitative. In northern Europe, the organ developed into a much larger instrument, with several divisions, including one or two manuals, and an independent pedalboard. Pedalboards at this time were built “straight”, (parallel to the floor), as opposed to more recent designs, where the pedalboard is more commonly “concave”, (curved). However, pedalboards did not exist on English organs until the 19th century, thought to be introduced by Mendelssohn, in the German style.

These divisions were readily discernible by the case design. This style was labeled the “Werkprinzip” by 20th-century organ scholars. In France, the French Classical Organ came into fashion, a style of building articulated most completely by Dom Bedos de Celles, in his magnum treatise, L'art de facteur d'orgues, (The Art of Organ Building).

The English Romantic organ at the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin In Ewell, Surrey, U.K, is a large instrument typical of its era. It bares 39 independent stops, spanning over 3 manuals, and pedals. In the Romantic era, the organ transitioned from a polyphonic, to a symphonic instrument, capable of creating a massive layered crescendo, from the softest stops alone, to full organ, (the state in which all the stops are engaged). Through the developments of the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the Romantic organ inspired generations of composers, beginning with César Franck, and continuing through the 20th century.

During this period, organs began to be built in concert halls, and became called for in large symphonic works, by such composers as Camille Saint-Saëns, and Gustav Mahler. By now, the organ was described as a one-person’s orchestra, where the organist took the role as conductor. This is easily explained, as the tonal configuration became much advanced, including instrumental stops such as the clarinet, oboe, trumpet, among other reed stops, collectively refered to as solo stops. Other stops, such as the celeste, (imitating a soft string sound), and mixtures, (where two or more stops of differing pitches are combined into a single stop), also became very popular. As a result of this orchestral development, composers such as Charles Marie Widor, and Louis Vierne, introduced the organ symphony, which adopted the same instrumental and tonal variety as an orchestral symphony, in several movements.

A major revolution in pipe organ design took place in the late 19th century, when the development of pneumatic, electric, and electro-pneumatic key actions, made it technically feasible to locate the console, independently of the pipes. There are however, advantages to more historical mechanical actions. Although they can be heavy to play, they allow a much more subtle, touch-sensitive feel to playing. Because the keys are physically attached to the valves that allow wind into the pipe, the organist has a sense of tactile feedback allowing greater rhythmic control. Also, the organist has control over the onset of the speech of the pipes.

When organ builders began building historically-inspired instruments, they returned to mechanical key action to regain the subtle, nuanced control it gives the performer. Due to the benefits of modern technology, modern mechanical actions are often much lighter, and require less effort to play than the original, substantially heavier mechanical actions.

During the 20th century, electrically-controlled stop actions allowed for the development of sophisticated combination actions. Advances in the computer industry, began to be practiced in the construction of new pipe organs, using the techniques developed for pipeless organs, incorporating them as "digital" components, into real pipe organs. This had many advantages, such as actions that were much more simple in concept, as well as the allowance of better combination capture systems. Another development to the organ, is the MIDI recording system, which can record and replay what an organist has previously performed, and can even download files of these recordings onto a computer.

In the mid-20th century, churches and other institutions began increasingly substituting traditional pipe organs, with electronic organs, without pipes, (refered to as pseudo organs). Such manufacturers of these instruments include “Allen”, “Hammond”, “Johannus”, “Rodgers”, “Phoenix”, and “Viscount”. The primary benefits of these instruments are, the lower costs involved, lack of maintenance required, and the small area of space necessary, as opposed to a substantial pipe organ.

These instruments generally depend either on the Hammond electro/mechanical system, (Hammond tonewheel generator), straight electronics, (electronic oscillators and filters), or the more current recorded computer loop sounds to generate the tones. In the later 20th century, digital pipeless organs were developed, which emulate the sound of a real pipe organ, through digital sampling techniques. Although the entire sound of a true pipe organ cannot yet be completely recreated, they are still a viable option to many churches and other organizations.

It is increasingly common for builders of new pipe organs, to use digital stops for the very lowest pedal ranks, owing to the economy of space, and reduction of fabrication costs. Most organ builders and organists agree however, that digital 32' ranks are less acceptable than digital pipes of higher pitches. Since the Baroque era and before, 32' ranks have been appreciated for their ability to augment harmonic richness in the rest of the organ, while stirring the low frequencies in the air, such effects a speaker is unable to replicate. Organs such as that in Trinity Church in Copley Square, Boston, which have acoustical and digital 32' stops side-by-side, demonstrate the psychoacoustical inadequacies of the digital 32' stop.

Pipe organs are still commonly found in Christian places of worship, (Churches and Cathedrals), as well as in some Reform and Conservative Synagogues. They are used to accompany the musical portions of the service, such as choral anthems, congregational hymns, and parts of the liturgy. Pipe organs can also be found in town halls, and in other arts centres, intended for the performance of classical music, especially for transcriptions of orchestral music. During the era of silent films, large theatre organs were installed in many cinemas, intended to provide the film’s audio activity, the image of which is still fondly remembered: the organ, and organist, would appear on a large platform from beneath the main stage, accompanied by an array of small lights, decorating the console.

Large pipe organs, with automatic mechanical player mechanisms, were often found in the stately homes and mansions of the very wealthy, in the early 20th century. Today, small pipe organs, along with their electronic counterparts, are often found in the homes of organists, and organ enthusiasts.