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 Organ inMünster Cathedral, Germany | |
| Keyboard instrument | |
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| Classification | |
| Inventor | Ctesibius |
| Developed | 3rd century BC |
| Playing range | |
 (a standard tuned organ) | |
| Musicians | |
| seeList of organists andList of organ composers | |
| Builders | |
| seeCategory:Organ builders | |
| More articles or information | |
Inmusic, theorgan is akeyboard instrument of one or morepipe divisions or other means (generallywoodwind orelectric) for producing tones. The organs have usually two or three, sometimes up to five or more,manuals for playing with the hands and apedalboard for playing with the feet. With the use of registers, several groups of pipes can be connected to one manual.
The organ has been used in various musical settings, particularly inclassical music. Music written specifically for the organ is common from theRenaissance to the present day.Pipe organs, the most traditional type, operate by forcing air through pipes of varying sizes and materials, each producing a different pitch and tone. These instruments are commonly found inchurches andconcert halls, where they have long been associated withliturgical music and grand ceremonial occasions.
Mechanical or electronic systems are used by non-pipe organs to emulate the sound of pipe organs.
Predecessors to the organ include:
The organ is a relatively oldmusical instrument,[3] dating from the time ofCtesibius of Alexandria (3rd century BC), who invented thewater organ. It was played throughout theAncient Greek andAncient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[4] During the early medieval period it spread from theByzantine Empire, where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial court music, toWestern Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent place in theliturgy of theCatholic Church.[4] Subsequently, it re-emerged as a secular andrecital instrument in theClassical music tradition.
Early organs include:
Medieval organs include:
Thepipe organ is the largestmusical instrument. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from acubic meter to a height reaching five floors,[12] and arebuilt in churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or "portative" (small enough to carry while playing).
The pipes are divided into ranks and controlled by the use ofhand stops andcombination pistons. Although the keyboard is notexpressive as on a piano and does not affectdynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on or off), some divisions may be enclosed in aswell box, allowing the dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are expressive.
It has existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar designs were common in theEastern Mediterranean from the earlyByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as thehydraulic organ, have been found dating to the lateHellenistic period (1st century BC). Along with theclock, it was considered one of the most complex human-made mechanical creations before theIndustrial Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to huge instruments with over 10,000pipes. A large modern organ typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61 notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note)pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[13] Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means "sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit)[citation needed] and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequencyfundamental 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, theWanamaker organ, located inPhiladelphia, US, has sonic resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras. Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony" approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others, and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the instrument itself.
Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found inChristian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally attributed toPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[14] Due to its simultaneous ability to 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 accompanyhuman voices, whether acongregation, achoir, or a cantor or soloist.
Most services also include soloorgan 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.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or electronic organ that generates the sound withdigital 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 thetheatre organ, which is a different style of instrument. However, as classicalorgan repertoire was developed for the pipe organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century,symphonic organs flourished in secular venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as theorgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of the 20th 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 for both secular and sacred applications.
Thetheatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompanysilent movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra. However, it includes many more gadgets, such as mechanical percussion accessories and other imitative sounds useful in creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and bird whistles. It typically features the Tibia pipe family as its foundation stops and the regular use of a tremulant possessing a depth greater than that on a classical organ.
Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as standard organs, relying onextension (sometimes called unification) and higher wind pressures to produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from fewer 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. In the US theAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in programs to preserve examples of such instruments.
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 few voice capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much more intimate. They are usuallytracker instruments, although the modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Keyboard pieces that predate Beethoven may usually be as easily played on a chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is sometimes preferable to a harpsichord forcontinuo playing as it is more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Thepump organ, reed organ or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before the development of the electronic organ. It generated its sounds using reeds similar to those of anaccordion. 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. They were generally limited to one or two manuals; they seldom had a pedalboard.
Thechord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[15] It provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion. Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most notablyMagnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[16]
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.
TheHammond organ was the first successfulelectric organ, released in the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotatingtonewheels to produce the sound waveforms. Its system ofdrawbars allowed for setting volumes for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels. 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. TheLeslie speaker, which rotates to create a distinctivetremolo, became the most popular.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular injazz, particularlysoul jazz, and ingospel music. Since these were the roots ofrock 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 likeEmerson, Lake and Palmer,Procol Harum,Santana andDeep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music around 2000, in part due to the availability ofclonewheel organs that were light enough for one person to carry.
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the company's founder, Jerome Markowitz.[17] Allen continued to advance analog tone generation through the 1960s with additional patents.[18] In 1971, in collaboration with North American Rockwell,[19] Allen introduced the world's first commercially available digital musical instrument. The first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[20]
Frequency divider organs usedoscillators instead of mechanical parts to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the Hammond. They featured an ability to bendpitches.
From the 1940s up until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the predecessor to modern portablekeyboards, 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.
In the 1960s and 1970s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ called thecombo organ was popular, especially with pop,Ska (in the late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound in the rock music of the period, such asThe Doors andIron Butterfly. The most popular combo organs were manufactured byFarfisa andVox.
Conn-Selmer andRodgers, dominant in the market for larger instruments, also made electronic organs that usedseparate oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[21] incorporate a few ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions. Major manufacturers includeAllen, Walker,Compton, Wicks, Marshall & Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs andRodgers.
The development of theintegrated circuit enabled another revolution in electronic keyboard instruments.Digital organs sold since the 1970s utilizeadditive synthesis, thensampling technology (1980s) andphysical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the sound.
Virtual pipe organs useMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital classical organs.
Mechanical organs include:
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of air. The steam organ, orcalliope, was invented in the United States in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound. Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built on wheeled platforms.
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The organ has had an important place inclassical music, particularly since the 16th century. Spain'sAntonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands'Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy'sGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part by Sweelinck and Frescobaldi, theNorth German school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence, with leading members of this school having includedBuxtehude,Franz Tunder,Georg Böhm,Georg Philipp Telemann, and above all,Johann Sebastian Bach, whose contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, theFrench Classical school also flourished.François Couperin,Nicolas Lebègue,André Raison, andNicolas de Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,Handel was famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank, as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to thepiano. Nevertheless,Felix Mendelssohn,César Franck, and the less famousA.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led, independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France (even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in French Romantic organ composition areCharles-Marie Widor,Louis Vierne,Alexandre Guilmant,Charles Tournemire, andEugène Gigout. Of these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
In Germany,Max Reger (late 19th century) owes much to the harmonic daring ofLiszt (himself an organ composer) and ofWagner.Paul Hindemith produced three organ sonatas and several works combining organ with chamber groups.Sigfrid Karg-Elert specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes.
Among French organist-composers,Marcel Dupré,Maurice Duruflé,Olivier Messiaen andJean Langlais made significant contributions to the 20th-century organ repertoire. Organ was also used a lot forimprovisation,[22] with organists such asCharles Tournemire,Marcel Dupré,Pierre Cochereau,Pierre Pincemaille andThierry Escaich.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its dramatic effect, notablyMahler,Holst,Elgar,Scriabin,Respighi, andRichard Strauss.Saint-Saëns'sOrgan Symphony employs the organ more as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to be notated on threestaves. 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, thebar 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.
Electronic organs and electromechanical organs such as theHammond organ have an established role in a number of popular-music 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 asvibrato, rotatingLeslie speakers, and overdrive – became an important part of the sound of popular music.
The electric organ, especially theHammond B-3, has occupied a significant role injazz ever sinceJimmy Smith made it popular in the 1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the standard jazz combo. The Hammond organ is the centrepiece of theorgan trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist (either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use electronic or digital organs, calledclonewheel organs, as they are much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
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Performers of 20th century popular organ music include William Rowland who composed "Piano Rags";George Wright (1920–1998) andVirgil Fox (1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of music.
Church-style pipe organs are sometimes used inrock music. Examples includeTangerine Dream,Rick Wakeman (withYes and solo),Keith Emerson (withThe Nice andEmerson, Lake and Palmer),George Duke (withFrank Zappa),Dennis DeYoung (withStyx),Arcade Fire,Muse,Roger Hodgson (formerly ofSupertramp),Natalie Merchant (with10,000 Maniacs),Billy Preston andIron Butterfly.
Artists using the Hammond organ includeBob Dylan,Counting Crows,Pink Floyd,Hootie & the Blowfish,Sheryl Crow,Vulfpeck,Sly Stone andDeep Purple.
In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated with several sports, most notablybaseball,basketball, andice hockey.
The first baseball team to introduce an organ was theChicago Cubs, who put an organ inWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two games.Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's first full-time organist,Gladys Goodding. Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many organists became well-known and associated with their parks or signature tunes.
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