Organ (music)


This article is about the musical instrument. For other uses, see Organ.
Organ
1741 Pipe organ in Église Saint-Thomas, Strasbourg, France.

1741 Pipe organ in Église Saint-Thomas, Strasbourg, France.
Classification Keyboard instrument (Aerophone)
Playing range
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The organ (from Greek όργανον organon, "organ, instrument, tool") is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with the invention of the hydraulis. By around the eighth century it had overcome early associations with gladiatorial combat and gradually assumed a prominent place in the liturgy of the western church; subsequently it has reemerged as a secular and recital instrument.

Contents

Overview

Many organs are descended from the pipe organ[citation needed] which uses wind moving through pipes of various materials to produce sounds which can vary widely in timbre and volume and are divided into ranks and controlled by the use of hand stops and/or combination pistons. The keyboard touch is not expressive and does not affect dynamics; some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the dynamics to be controlled by shutters. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a cubic yard to a height reaching five floors[1] , and are built in churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are called positive (i. e. easily placed in different locations) or portative (small enough to carry while playing)

Non-pipe organs include the reed organ or harmonium and accordion, which like the harmonica or mouth organ use air to excite free reeds; the electronic organ or digital organ which generates its electronically-produced sound through one or more loudspeakers; and more exotic instruments like the hydraulophone which use pipes but not air. Increasingly hybrid organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic additions; great economies of space as well as cost are possible especially when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be so replaced.

Mechanical organs dispense with the hands and feet of an organist and are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned barrels or book music. The instrument may be powered by an organ grinder or by other means such as an electric motor.

Pipe organs

Main article: Pipe organ
South corp in the duomo di Milano. The big organ (now with about 16.000 pipes) began its history in 1395, and was continuously remodeled until 1986). The present decoration is from the 16th century

The pipe organ is the grandest musical instrument in size and scope, and has existed in its current form since the 14th century (though other designs, such as the hydraulic organ, were already used in Antiquity). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the most complex human-made creations before the Industrial Revolution. Organs (the "pipe" designation is generally assumed) range in size from a single short keyboard to huge instruments which can have over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ typically has three or four manuals with five octaves (61 notes) each, with a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedalboard.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments"[2]. Some of the biggest instruments have 64-feet pipes (a foot here means "sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit), and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest sound to the most powerful, "plein-jeu" impressive sonic discharge, which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic resources comparable with three simultaneous symphonic orchestras. Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony" approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others, and the sounds get truly mixed and interspersed only when they reach the environment, not in the instrument itself (this is the main difference with digital organs, where the sound comes from loudspeakers which plays the resultant electric waveform of several tones being played).

Church organs

Baroque Leżajsk organ by Stanisław Studziński and Jan Głowiński, accomplished in 1693, has mechanical controls (tracker system) and 75 voices altogether.[3] It consists in fact of three separate instruments, this is why three organists can play simultaneously.

The principal purpose of most organs in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand is to play in Christian and Reform Jewish religious services.[citation needed] An organ used for this purpose is generally called a church organ. The introduction of church organs is traditionally attributed to Pope Vitalian in the seventh century. Due to its ability to simultaneously provide a musical foundation below the vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir or a cantor or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the conclusion of the service.

Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Danshui, Taiwan.

Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or electronic organ which generates the sound with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chips or a combination of pipes and electronics. It may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it from the theatre organ, which is a distinctly different instrument. However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a church and a concert organ is hard to draw.

Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals. In the early twentieth century, symphonic organs flourished in secular venues in the U.S. and UK, designed to replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as the Orgelbewegung (Organ Reform Movement) took hold in the middle of the twentieth century and organ builders began to look to historical models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern builders construct organs in a variety of styles and for both secular and sacred applications.

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

Chamber organs

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and sometimes without separate pedal pipes, that is placed in a small room, that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined to chamber organ repertoire, as often, the organs have too little voice capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the classics. The sound and touch are unique unto the instrument, sounding nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.

Theatre organs

Main article: theatre organ
Theatre organ in State Cinema, Grays. (Compton Organ)
Marimba in the solo chamber at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theatre (3/13 Barton)

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra. However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from fewer pipes. This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Since there are sixty-one keys on an organ manual, a classical or concert organ will have, for diapason stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch, a total of 183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ will have only 85 pipes (61 plus 12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97 pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and mutations from a single rank of pipes.

Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more homogeneous than a classically-designed organ, and is very often reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.

Other pipe organs

The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100 flutes made of bamboo.[4]

Reed organs

An electrically blown reed chord organ.
Main article: Reed organ

The reed organ was the other main type of organ before the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.

A development of the reed organ was the chord organ, which provided chord buttons for the left hand, again similar to a piano accordion in concept. A few chord organs were later built using frequency divider technology.

Electronic organs

Main article: Electronic organ

Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments, and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.

Hammond organs

Main article: Hammond organ
Hammond B3 organ, and Leslie speaker cabinet.

The Hammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes for specific sounds, and provided vibrato-like effects. The drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 1-8 for each of the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as 'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker became the most popular, which is a rotating type speaker. The three most popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in amplifiers speakers.

In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44 keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals instead of 25). Other features of the console such as vibrato or percussion were included in the spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie) they sound the same. These smaller all-in-one organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small churches.

Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz, particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the roots of rock and roll, the Hammond organ became a part of the rock and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during the 1960s and 1970s by bands like The Doors, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum, Santana (band) and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that were light enough for one person to carry.

Other electronic organs

Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.

In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments, with Conn-Selmer and Rodgers dominating the larger instrument market, although the larger models were movable but were not considered portable.

A typical combo organ. (Vox Continental)

Conn and others also made electronic organs that used separate oscillators for each note, giving them a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight imperfections in tuning, by not using precise division.

In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop and rock bands, and was a signature sound in the pop music of the period, such as The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Iron Butterfly. The most popular combo organs were manufactured by Farfisa and Vox.

Digital organs

A modern digital organ using DSP technology. (Nord Electro2)

The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution in electronic keyboard instruments. Electronic organs sold since the 1980s utilize sampling to produce the sound.

Also available are hybrids, incorporating a few ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and using digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions. Major manufacturers include Allen (who built the first digital organs), Walker, Wicks, Marshall & Ogletree, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs, Phoenix, and Rodgers who built the first hybrid instruments starting in 1972 and for decades has built more hybrid organs than any other manufacturer.[citation needed]

Hauptwerk Vitrual Organ System.

The latest development in synthetic pipe organs is the Virtual Pipe Organ. Unlike some digital organs that use DSP and processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver the sound samples, Virtual Pipe Organs use MIDI to access samples or real pipe organs stored on a computer. They have incredible polyphony, which is necessary as there is a sample for every single pipe on the organ, plus samples and effects such as pipe wind noise and mechanical action noise. The Hauptwerk Virtual Organ is one such Virtual Organ, which allows the user to play reproductions of considerably large organs using just MIDI keyboards and a high-spec personal computer running the software and holding the stored pipe samples. Addition of touch screen monitors allows the user to control the virtual organ console (drawing stops, operating couplers etc.) In its basic form (without a traditional wooden console) a Virtual Organ with a high specification can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital classical organs. The cost of a Virtual Organ increases with the provision of amplification and speakers. While a 2-channel Stereo audio system can be used to some effect, in order to approach the acoustic realism of a real pipe organ, a multi-channel audio system is required where different pipe ranks are amplified and spoken separately. For example, for most Virtual Organs with a pedal division containing 16ft or 32ft pipes, a subwoofer arrangement is required to reproduce the powerful movement of air at frequencies around 16Hz or lower, as ordinary full-range speakers will not be able to handle these signals properly. The nearest one can get to the sound of a real pipe organ would be to have a separate amplifier and speaker for each pipe, arranged in an appropriately spatial way, however the cost and physical space requirements of this on an organ with 10,000 or more pipes might well be approaching the cost of a real pipe organ.

Calliope on the Minnie-Ha-Ha, a stern-wheeler on Lake George, NY

Steam organ

Main article: Calliope (music)

The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States in 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound. Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been build on wheeled platforms.

Hydraulophone

Main article: Hydraulophone
Outdoor pipe organ (hydraulophone), is open to the public to play on at any time of the day or night, in Ontario, Canada.

A newly invented instrument, the hydraulophone, is a pipe organ that uses incompressible fluid (water) rather than compressible fluid (air). The organ console resembles a flute, and is played by insertion of fingers into one or more "mouths" of the instrument. This allows for very subtle changes in sound pitch, volume, texture, and timbre, giving rise to an ability to play the organ very expressively. In this way the hydraulophone combines the expressiveness of the tin flute (where you can cover up the finger holes halfway, or change the sound in other subtle ways) with the polyphony of the organ.

Because these organs run on water, they are, in a sense, self-cleaning, and are thus useful as outdoor pipe organs. The largest such pipe organ is the main architectural centerpiece out in front of the Ontario Science Centre, and is open to the public 24 hours a day.

Organ music

Classical music

Main article: organ repertoire

The organ has had an important place in classical music throughout its history. Antonio de Cabezón, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Girolamo Frescobaldi were three of the most important composers and teachers before 1650. Influenced by these composers, the North German school then rose to prominence with notable composers including Dieterich Buxtehude and especially Johann Sebastian Bach, considered by many to have achieved the height of organ composition. During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.

After Bach, the organ's prominence gradually lost ground to the piano. Felix Mendelssohn, A.P.F. Boëly, and César Franck led a resurgence in the mid-1800s, leading a Romantic movement that would be carried further by Max Reger, Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, and others. In the 20th century, composers such as Marcel Dupré and Olivier Messiaen added significant contributions to the organ repertoire.

Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves, and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.

Soap operas

From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras, which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.

Popular music

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in popular music. In some cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms which combined the distinctive sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record. Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ pieces – Rick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. George Duke employed the pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation. Dennis DeYoung of American rock group Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James Cathedral on the song "I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. In 2000 Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke played the organ on the Kid A album to great effect, most notably in "Motion Picture Soundtrack". More recently, Arcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and "My Body Is a Cage" on their newest album Neon Bible. Muse have also used a church organ on their album Origin of Symmetry in the form of "Megalomania", played by their frontman Matt Bellamy. It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal Albert Hall.

On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such as the Hammond organ have an established role in a number of non-"Classical" genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music. Billy Preston and Iron Butterfly's Doug Ingle have featured organ on popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", respectively. Well-known rock artist using the Hammond organ include Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish, Sheryl Crow, and Deep Purple.

Recent performers of Popular organ music include William Rowland of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano Rags" which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma; George Wright (1920-1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz" are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox (1912-1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist of the twentieth century.

The American Theatre Organ Society ATOS has been instrumental in programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and bird whistles.

Jazz

The electronic organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the 1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the standard jazz combo.
Panpipes Hydraulis
Portative Positive
 
Regal  

Historical instruments

Predecessor

  • the panpipes is considered as ancestor of the pipe organ

Early organs

Medieval organs

Various instruments

Foot- or hand-powered organs

Main article: Reed organ
A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the case supplies wind to the reeds.
  • the Harmonium or parlor organ, a reed instrument usually with many stops and two foot-operated bellows which the instrumentalist operates alternately;
  • the American reed organ is another foot bellow reed keyboard very similar to the Harmonium but it works on negative pressure rather than positive so it sucks air through the reeds;
  • the melodeon, a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot operated bellows, popular in the USA in the mid-19th century;

Mechanical organs

Main article: Mechanical organ
Barrel organ Fairground organ
  • the barrel organ, made famous by the organ grinder in its portable form, and relatively invisible in its larger form because it was then often fitted out with keyboards to give the option for an entirely human performance;
  • the Orchestrion, fairground organ and dutch street organ; pipe organs which uses mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song;
  • the dance organ, which resembles a fairground organ, but which is especially designed for use in dance halls or ballrooms;
  • various sorts of novelty instruments operating on the same principles.

Sound art

Mouth-played instruments

See also

References

  1. ^ The Wanamaker Organ is built from the 2nd to 7th floors.
  2. ^ The King of Instruments - National Catholic Register
  3. ^ (English) Mirosław Gieroń. "The Bernardine Monastery in Leżajsk". www.wrota.podkarpackie.pl. http://www.wrota.podkarpackie.pl/en/culture/relics/monuments/bernardine_monastery. Retrieved on 2009-03-12. 
  4. ^ http://www.hansvankoolwijk.nl
  5. ^ Hydraulis : The Ancient Hydraulis and its Reconstruction
  6. ^ Greek and Roman Pipe Organs, Bellum Catiline - two items from "The Story of the Organ"  by C.F. Abdy Williams, published in 1903 by Walter Scott Publishing.
  7. ^ The Music of the Bible by John Stainer, M.A.
  8. ^ Henry George Bonavia Hunt, A Concise History of Music, BiblioLife, 2008, ISBN 978-0554753874
  9. ^ William Harrison Barnes, The Contemporary American Organ - Its Evolistion, Design And Construction, Barnes Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1406760231

External links

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Organ music sample
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