The organ is a multiform Musical instrument of which common characteristics sont :

• to be played using one or of several keyboard S, and generally of a pedals   ;
• to produce the sounds using sound whole of pipes supplied with a blower, called plays or registers , or to imitate this type of sonorities.

This article treats only traditional organ with pipes . Other types of qualified instruments of organ sont :

• the Barrel organ   ;
• the Organ Hammond   ;
• the numerical Organ.

Terminology

The word organ is male kind in the singular. However, with the Pluriel it can be either female by speaking about only one instrument ( of beautiful organ , large the organ of Notre-Dame de Paris ), or masculine by speaking about several instruments ( organ manufactured by Clicquot , beautiful organ of Paris ).

Organ division this characteristic with the terms love and delight .

Etymology

The word organ comes from the Greek organon (in Latin organum ), meaning tool or instrument (recovering by there the concept of musical instrument, but without direct link with the organ). The organa of the Middle Ages indicated a liturgical Polyphonie as well as the religious service itself.

The instrument also received many names métaphoriques : king of the instruments (expression allotted to Guillaume de Machault)   ; ancilla Domini , maidservant of Seigneur  ; but also, more pejoratively, bagpipes of the devil .

Mythology and prehistory of the organ

See also: Ctésibios#Hydraule or machina hydraulica

One agrees to say that the first organ was invented by a Greek of Alexandria, Ctésibios, with 3rd before our era. This ancestor functioned with water and accepted the name of hydraulos , or hydraule, i.e. the aulos which functions with water .

But the mythological prehistory of the organ starts with the Greek figure of the satyr Marsyas, a player of Aulos, the “  patron  ” of the futures Organist S, which one can have been in fight with Apollon, the “  patron  ” of the players of Quadrant, and thus of the modern Harpsichordist S and the Harpiste S.

Pétrone, in its Satyricon teaches us that with the circus, the hydraule accompanied the races by tanks.

Small organ comparable with our organ known as of Cruelty was of use among Romans, in particular in the théâtres  ; this explains the mistrust of the first Christian bishops with regard to the players of instruments and of the musicians, all confused categories. Néron would have discovered this instrument during a voyage in Greece, it made wish play about it to celebrate its triumph if the victory were given to him over the Gallic ones at the time of the sedition of 67. Its successors, Elabagal, Alexandre Sévère, Gallien, were enthusiastic admirors of the organ.

With Byzance the organ becomes an instrument of the imperial pump after the transfer of the seat of the Roman Empire because of the cruel invasions. An organ was offered by an embassy of Constantin V, emperor of Byzance, with Pépin the Brief into 750. This reintroduction of the instrument in Occident, which had disappeared after the cruel invasions, was initially used only to raise the profane pump of the palates.

It is only later that it gradually makes its entry in the church catholique : in the cloisters initially (like “  guide-chant  ”) at the 11th century, then at the 12th century in the churches, probably under the impulse of the pope Sylvestre II, which would have built an organ still visible in the cathedral of Rheims at the 12th century. This entry, although progressive, was not done without causing disorder and polemics as well as more or less passion litigations between organists… At the 13th century, the large European churches compete between elles : they increase their instruments or the new ones build some. The organ is definitively recognized by the religious world.

History of the “traditional” organ

See also: History of the organ

One can indicate the instruments thus having a diagrid , body central supporting the pipes and distributing the wind in these pipes under the action of the keys, the movement being transmitted in an exclusively mechanical way.

The diffusion of the organ in the churches becomes important only in connection with that of the Polyphonie to 4 parts. The period of the traditional organ extends roughly speaking from the beginning of the 14th century with that of the 19th century. During this five centuries period, technological advances accompany and cause the development of the repertory, outcome to an apogee during 17th and 18th centuries in the principal centers européens : Germanic Italy, France, countries, Netherlands, England and Spain.

At the 19th century, the invoice joins again with the technological advancements, under the notorious impulse of Aristide Cavaillé-coll: this progress relates to with the first chief the modes of transmission and the production of the wind, but also musical esthetics.

The return of the “mechanical whole”

Observed as from the years 1960 with 1970, after having tried out tractions tire, electromagnetic and electropneumatic, it is the return to a more conventional invoice with motor traction. Factors and organists feel the need for a return to an instrument where the interpreter is not interfaced any more by an inexpressive machine.

The advantages of assisted tractions - lightness of the touch, access to a style of composition plus virtuoso - are considered by certain organists coomme not having sensitivity necessary to obtaining rich and varied touches. But the new organ does not give up all the contributions of technology. It preserves electric blower, and of electronics pulling of the plays, which makes it possible to profit from the systems from crescendo and the combining .

The emergence of daring type-setters like Antoine Tisné, Andre Boucourechliev or György Ligeti, gives a direction and a primacy to the mechanical organ. The control of the depression and the relaxation of the keys is specified, exacerbated, the ties of registers are partially open for désaccorder the play, the mechanical noises specific to the organ are exploited.

But this return of the entirely mechanical organ does not mean regression. A greater control of the use of materials, an engineering enriched by new knowledge (computer tools, the calibration of precision), allow the organ builder to offer to the organist a light and pleasant instrument to the touch. The more so as today the factor is concerned more ergonomics and with praticity.

However, many instruments of symphonic, post-symphonic and orchestral esthetics preserve their pneumatic or electropneumatic tractions, and of many instruments are still built on these technologies in the United Kingdom and the USA for example. Far from being a pledge of bad quality, these tractions make it possible to reach with impossible performances with the mechanical drives, in terms of size and spatialization of the instruments. Pure/electropneumatic the Mécanique opposition which was sails very about it at the beginnings of the " return to the mécanique" regress, each type of traction having its advantages, disadvantages and limitations. It is simply advisable to use judiciously and to put about it in adequacy the type of traction, the style of the organ and the played repertory.

Modern organ - various types

More than for very other, the characteristics can vary considerably one instrument with the autre :

• organ bible and organ Levels   ;
• portable of the smallest instruments, possibly transportable character of the “positive organ” (that one poses), or fixed large instruments of church or concert  ;
• number and extended of the keyboards (from one to seven)   ;
• existence - or not - and extended from a pedals   ;
• number and nature of the plays (or registers) of 1 with more than 400 by instrument  ;
• harmonization, adapted to the place (living room, auditorium, concert hall, church, cathedral) and to the style (temperament)   ;
• standard of transmission, or pulling of the notes and the registers (mechanics, tire, tubular, electromagnetic, electropneumatic…).

Smaller with largest

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