The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern DevelopmentsMiller, George Laing
Philosophy
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments
Miller, George Laing
Organ (Musical instrument) -- Construction
The next step would be to combine a set of flutes or shepherd's pipes
with the wind reservoir of the bagpipes, placing a little slider under
the mouthpiece of each pipe which could be opened or closed at will, so
that they would not all speak at once. Then some genius steadied the
wind pressure by pumping air into a reservoir partly filled with water.
This was the so-called "hydraulic organ," which name has given rise to
the impression that the pipes were played by the water passing through
them--which is impossible.
And so we come down the ages to the Christian era. The Talmud mentions
an organ (magrepha) having ten pipes played by a keyboard as being in
existence in the Second Century. "Aldhelm (who died A. D. 709)
mentions an organ which had gilt pipes. An organ having leaden pipes
was placed in the Church of S. Corneille, at Compiegne, in the middle
of the Eighth Century." St. Dunstan had an organ with pipes made of
brass. Then we have the organ in Winchester Cathedral, England,
described by Wulfstan of Winchester in his "Life of Saint Swithin."
This was a double organ, requiring two organists to play it. It
contained 400 pipes and had thirteen pairs of bellows. It was intended
to be heard all over Winchester in honor of St. Peter, to whom the
Cathedral was dedicated.
The year was now A. D. 951, and this is an important date to remember,
as modern harmony took its rise about this time. Before this, as far
as we know, there had been no harmony beyond a drone bass, and the vast
companies of musicians described in Holy Writ and elsewhere must have
played and sung in octaves and unison. I quote Stainer again:
"The large pipes of every key of the oldest organs stood in front; the
whole instrument sounded and shrieked in a harsh and loud manner. The
keyboard had eleven, twelve, even thirteen keys in diatonic succession
without semitones. It was impossible to get anything else than a
choral melody for one voice only on such an organ * * * the breadth of
a keyboard containing nine keys extended to three-quarters the length
of a yard, that of the single key amounted to three inches * * * even
from five to six inches * * * The valves of the keys and the whole
mechanism being clumsy, playing with the finger was not to be thought
of, but the keys were obliged to be struck with the clenched fist, and
the organist was often called '_pulsator organum_' (organ beater)."
Gradually the keys were reduced in size and the semitones were added.
By 1499 they had almost reached the present normal proportions. In
1470 pedals were invented by Bernard, the German, a skilful musician of
Venice, the pipe work was improved and so we come to the Sixteenth
Century[1] after which the organ remained almost _in statu quo_ for
hundreds of years.
Since then there have been four great landmarks in organ construction,
viz:
1. The invention of the swell box by Jordan in 1713;
2. The invention of the horizontal bellows, by Samuel Green, in 1789;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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