Organ (music)
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Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Matou, Taiwan |
The
organ is a
keyboard instrument with one or more
manuals, and usually a
pedalboard. In contrast to most other keyboard instruments, the organ's sound output is continuous and constant for as long as a key is depressed. Unlike the
piano or
clavichord, the volume of the sound does not depend on how hard the key is struck, though some modern instruments are
touch-sensitive. The organ is one of the oldest
musical instruments in the
Western musical tradition, with a rich history connected with
Christian liturgy and civic ceremony.
The most well-known type of organ is the
pipe organ, so named because it produces its sound through
pipes, although many people simply refer to it as the "organ". Another type is the
electronic organ, which does not have pipes and propagates its electronically-produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers. There are many other instruments that fall under the category of "organ"; see below.
A musician who plays the organ is an
organist. A person who builds or maintains organs is an
organ builder. The
organ repertoire encompasses a wide variety of styles and eras; the most famous composer of music for the organ is
Johann Sebastian Bach.
See the main article at pipe organ for details on history and construction.The
pipe organ is the grandest
musical instrument in size and scope, and has been around 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 man-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.
Organs vary widely in design and in sound according to geography and time. In north
Germany during the
Baroque era, organs were built in such a manner that each division was readily apparent from the case design. The Hauptwerk (main-work) would be in the center of the case, with the Oberwerk (over-work) above and the Rückpositiv (back-positiv) on the balcony rail at the organist's back. The pedal division was usually set up in towers set at either side of the main case. This design is now called the
Werkprinzip. Each division would routinely house complete principal and flute choruses and at least one reed stop. Meanwhile, in France, the separate divisions of the organ would not be evident from the case. Furthermore, the placement of stops followed a system whereby each division served a single musical purpose: the Grand orgue (great organ) would contain a complete principal chorus from 16' up through a high-pitched mixture, while the Echo division might have nothing more than a five-rank cornet stop from middle C up. And during the early twentieth century in America, organs were built to play transcriptions of
orchestral literature. This required that each division be home to several stops designed to imitate orchestral instruments and that most of the divisions be enclosed in
swell boxes, enabling the organ to create seamless crescendos and diminuendos.
Church organs
The principal purpose of most organs in North America and Europe is to play in Christian and Reform Jewish religious services. An organ used for this purpose is generally called a
church organ. 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 soloist. Most services also include solo
organ repertoire, often as a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the conclusion of the service. The introduction of church organs is traditionally attributed to
Pope Vitalian in the seventh century.
Concert organs
Organs, especially large ones, are also used to give concerts, called
organ recitals. Generally, any instrument of a large enough size (twenty ranks or more) outside of a church is a
concert organ. 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.
Theatre organs
The
theatre organ or
cinema organ is designed to accompany
silent movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra. However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussions 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 times 3). The same chorus of diapasons on a theater organ will have only 85 pipes, or 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 homogenous than a classically-designed organ, and does not work very well for polyphonic music unless a larger number of reed stops and chromatic percussions are added. Unification also allows pipe ranks to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
See the main article at electronic organ for more details and history. 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. However, because its sound is emitted into relatively still air (as opposed to air which is being both taken into the organ and pushed back out at a rate of several cubic feet per second), electronic organs lack the gutsy sound that
a good pipe organ has.
Hammond organs
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 Hammond organ 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. 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 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 '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
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
Baldwin,
Johannus,
Eminent,
Content,
Viscount,
Makin,
Wyvern,
Allen Organ and
Rodgers.
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An electrically blown reed chord 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.
Classical music
See the main article at organ repertoire for details on specific countries and styles.The organ has had a strong 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. Many new organ pieces are composed today, many sponsored by the
AGO and made for use in church services.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, most organ music is 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, bottom, stave. To aid the eye in reading so many staves at once, the
bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves. The larger number of staves often makes organ music published in landscape format more convenient than the more commonly used portrait format, and for this reason many publishers print organ music in 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.
Jazz
The organ 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.
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A harmonium. Notice the two large pedals at the bottom of the case; operating these pedals supplies wind to the reeds. |
* Early instruments
** the
Hydraulos, ancient Greek water-powered instrument
** the
Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ
** the
portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
** the
positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable medieval instrument
* Hand- or foot-powered instruments
** the
accordion and
concertina, in which the
bellows is operated by the squeezing action of the instrumentalist;
** the
Harmonium or parlor organ, a reed instrument usually with many stops and two foot-operated bellows which the instrumentalist operates alternately;
** the
melodeon, a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot operated bellows, popular in the USA in the mid-19th century;
* Entertainment instruments
** 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 steam
calliope, a pipe organ operated on steam rather than air;
** the
fairground organ, a pipe organ which uses mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.
** various sorts of novelty instruments operating on the same principles
* Mouth-played instruments
** the
harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the reeds is also known as a
mouth organ;
** the
pan-pipes
**
bagpipes*
Pipe organ*
Electronic organ*
Dutch street organ*
Organist*
Organ repertoire*
Organ recital*
List of organ composers*
Encyclopedia of Organ Stops - Information on construction and sound of various organ stops
*
Organlive.com - Over 3600 tracks of free organ music, delivered via
streaming audio*
Tuning* Pipe organs
**
ibiblio: The Pipe Organ**
The American Guild of Organists - A professional association serving the organ and choral music fields
**
The Organ Historical Society - The Society promotes a widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding through collection, preservation, and publication of historical information, and through recordings and public concerts.
**
Pipedreams - organ radio broadcasts, articles, and more
**
Pipe Organs 101**
The World's Largest Organs* Theatre organs
**
American Theatre Organ Society**
TheatreOrgans.com**
The Walker Digital Unit Orchestra* Electronic organs
**
Allen Organ Company history**
Hammond organs history**
Electronic Organ Constructor's Society**
Rodgers Instruments (electronic and hybrid electronic/pipe organs)
