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The Casavant pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Montreal
Organs date back to classical antiquity. Early organs were often hydraulic; the inventor most often credited is Ctesibius of Alexandria , an engineer of the 3rd century BC, who created an instrument called the hydraulis . The hydraulis was common in the Roman Empire, and was capable of being immensely loud; this instrument was used in games, circuses, amphitheatres, and processions. Characteristics of this instrument have been inferred from mosaics, paintings, literary references and partial remains, but knowledge of details of its construction remain sketchy, and almost nothing is known of the actual music it played.
Organs were also known to exist in Byzantine times, as well as in Islamic Spain, though there is no evidence that the European organ came by way of Spain. In medieval times, the portable ("portatif" or "portative") instruments were invented, and these were used for accompaniment for both sacred and secular music, in a variety of settings--since unlike other organs, they were easily moved. As the instruments became larger, they were installed permanently in a fashion similar to the church organs of today. (These were called "positif" organs; today the word tends to label a division.)
The word organ, which has nothing to do with anatomical organs, originates from the Latin word "organum", the earliest predecessor of the instrument used in ancient Roman circus games and similar to a modern portative.
Organs were the first keyboard instruments, even though technically they belong to the most complex products of human craftmanship one can possibly imagine.
The organ's typical, stable and broad sound has become associated with divinity, having been established in churchThis article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation . Stanford University. A church is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, confessional, dome, nave, pew, pulpit, ses and cathedralA Cathedral is a Christian church that serves as the central church of a bishopric. As cathedrals are often particularly impressive edifices, the term is sometimes also used loosely as a designation for any large important church. The term is not officials for hundreds of years, although many major concert halls around the world boast organs too. Saint-Saens' popular Organ Symphony is a good example of how the sound of a large organ can be effectively combined with that of a symphony orchestra.
The sound-producing elements in pipe organs are generally reeds and fluteThis article pertains to the musical instrument. For the sailing ship class that has a variant spelling using this word, see Fluyt. The flute (technically transverse flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. A musician who plays the flute is slike pipes. The flutelike pipes, which work using vibrating columns of air, are to be found in organs of all sizes. Reeds--thin strips of metal fastened at one end with the rest allowed to vibrate freely--are only used commonly on instruments above a certain size.
The versatility of the organ is attributable to the builders' ability to attach any number of instruments, or 'voices', to the keyboards which can be selected individually or in multiples (and often, at multiple pitches) by the operator. A good organist can produce a complex symphony of sounds simply by selecting which voices are used by which keyboard.
Another invention that added to the versatility of the organ is the swell box. It allows for a crescendo effect, or for the organist to vary the volume of the tone. The swell box is a box containing a number of ranks of pipes. The front of the box has wooden shutters similar to a Venetian Blind . The shutters are controlled by a pedal on the organ console. To lower the volume of the pipes contained within the swell box, the organist will close the shutters, and to increase the volume the organist will open the shutters.
Voices are selected by ' stopsAn organ stop is any of the characteristic sounds timbres available on a pipe organ. A particular stop is usually selected by pulling a knob (also called a stop by the side of the keyboard. Stops have particular names according to the kind of pipes used t'. The colloquial phrase "to pull out all the stops" originates from the simultaneous use of the multiple voices of an organ to produce a rich and complex sound. Much air is used to power an organ when all the stops are pulled out, and in days when there were no electric motors, the profligate use of air required much labor, and was used only for special occasions.
One of the most important factors in the success of any specific organ is the room acoustic where the organ is installed. A process called voicing or tonal finishing is employed to adjust the tone and balance of each pipe to produce the best effect given the location's size and reverberation properties.
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