Slide 4

From the history

The art of building organs also developed in Italy, from where they were exported to France in the 9th century. This art later developed in Germany. The organ began to receive its greatest and most widespread use in the 14th century. In the 14th century, a pedal appeared in the organ, that is, a keyboard for the feet. Medieval organs, in comparison with later ones, were of crude workmanship; a manual keyboard, for example, consisted of keys with a width of 5 to 7 cm, the distance between the keys reached 1.5 cm. The keys were struck not with fingers, as now, but with fists. In the 15th century, the keys were reduced and the number of pipes increased.

Slide 5

Organ around the world

The largest organ in the world is located in Los Angeles. The largest existing organ in Europe is located in the Roman Catholic cathedral of the German city. The largest organ with a mechanical structure is in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in the city of Liepaja (Latvia). Main body Cathedral in Kaliningrad it has 4 manuals, 90 registers, 8500 pipes.

Slide 6

Organ structure

Exist Various types pipes that create a variety of sound effects. Pipes are made of tin, lead, copper and various alloys (mainly lead and tin), in some cases wood is also used.

Slide 7

Authority management

An organ console is a console with all the tools necessary for an organist, the set of which is individual for each organ, but common: gaming - manuals and pedal keyboard (or simply “pedal”) and timbre - register switches. There may also be dynamic channels, various foot levers or buttons for turning on copulas and switching combinations from the memory bank of register combinations, and a device for turning on the organ. The organist sits at the console on the bench during the performance.

Which sounds with the help of pipes (metal, wooden, without reeds and with reeds) of various timbres, into which air is pumped using bellows.

Playing the organ carried out using several hand keyboards (manuals) and a pedal keyboard.

By sound richness and abundance musical means The organ ranks first among all instruments and is sometimes called the “king of instruments.” Due to its expressiveness, it has long become the property of the church.

A person who plays music on an organ is called organist.

Soldiers of the Third Reich called the Soviet BM-13 multiple launch rocket systems “Stalin’s organ” because of the sound made by the missiles’ tails.

History of the organ

The embryo of the organ can be seen in, as well as in. It is believed that the organ (hydraulos; also hydraulikon, hydraulis - “water organ”) was invented by the Greek Ctesibius, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in 296 - 228. BC e. An image of a similar instrument appears on one coin or token from the time of Nero.

Large organs appeared in the 4th century, more or less improved organs - in the 7th and VIII centuries. Pope Vitalian (666) introduced the organ into the Catholic Church. In the 8th century, Byzantium was famous for its organs.

The art of building organs also developed in Italy, from where they were exported to France in the 9th century. This art later developed in Germany. The organ began to receive its greatest and most widespread use in the 14th century. In the 14th century, a pedal appeared in the organ, that is, a keyboard for the feet.

Medieval organs, in comparison with later ones, were of crude workmanship; a manual keyboard, for example, consisted of keys with a width of 5 to 7 cm, the distance between the keys reached one and a half cm. They struck the keys not with their fingers, as now, but with their fists.

In the 15th century, the keys were reduced and the number of pipes increased.

Organ structure

Improved organs have reached a huge number of pipes and tubes; for example, the organ in Paris in the Church of St. Sulpice has 7 thousand pipes and tubes. An organ has pipes and tubes of the following sizes: at 1 foot, notes sound three octaves higher than written, at 2 feet, notes sound two octaves higher than written, at 4 feet, notes sound an octave higher than written, at 8 feet, notes sound as written, at 16 feet - the notes sound an octave lower than the written ones, at 32 feet - the notes sound two octaves lower than the written ones. Closing the pipe at the top lowers the sounds produced by an octave. Not all organs have large pipes.

There are from 1 to 7 keyboards in an organ (usually 2-4); they are called manuals. Although each organ keyboard has a volume of 4-5 octaves, thanks to the pipes sounding two octaves lower or three octaves higher than the written notes, the volume of a large organ has 9.5 octaves. Each set of pipes of the same timbre constitutes, as it were, a separate instrument and is called register.

Each of the push-in or pull-out buttons or registers (located above the keyboard or on the sides of the instrument) activates a corresponding row of tubes. Each button or register has its own name and corresponding inscription, indicating the length of the largest pipe of this register. The composer can indicate the name of the register and the size of the pipes in the notes above the place where this register should be used. (Selecting registers for execution piece of music called registration.) There are from 2 to 300 registers in organs (most often from 8 to 60).

All registers fall into two categories:

• Registers with pipes without reeds(labial registers). This category includes registers of open flutes, registers of closed flutes (bourdons), registers of overtones (mixtures), in which each note has several (weaker) harmonic overtones.
• Registers that have pipes with reeds(reed registers). The combination of the registers of both categories together with the mixture is called plein jeu.

Keyboards or manuals are located in the organs in a terrace, one above the other. In addition to them, there is also a pedal keyboard (from 5 to 32 keys), mainly for low sounds. The hand part is written on two staves - in the keys and as for. The pedal part is often written separately on one staff. The pedal keyboard, simply called a "pedal", is played with both feet, using alternately the heel and the toe (until the 19th century, only the toe). An organ without a pedal is called positive, a small portable organ is called portable.

Manuals in organs have names that depend on the location of the pipes in the organ.

• The main manual (having the loudest registers) - in the German tradition is called Hauptwerk(French Grand orgue, Grand clavier) and is located closest to the performer, or on the second row;
• The second most important and loudest manual in the German tradition is called Oberwerk(louder option) or Positive(light version) (French Positif), if the pipes of this manual are located ABOVE the Hauptwerk pipes, or Ruckpositiv, if the pipes of this manual are located separately from the other pipes of the organ and are installed behind the organist’s back; The Oberwerk and Positiv keys on the game console are located a level above the Hauptwerk keys, and the Ruckpositiv keys are located below the Hauptwerk keys, thereby reproducing the architectural structure of the instrument.
• A manual, the pipes of which are located inside a kind of box that has vertical shutters in the front part, in the German tradition is called Schwellwerk(French: Recit (expressif). Schwellwerk can be located either at the very top of the organ (the more common option) or at the same level as the Hauptwerk. Schwellwerk keys are located on the gaming console at a higher high level than Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, Positiv, Ruckpositiv.
• Existing types of manuals: Hinterwerk(the pipes are located at the back of the organ), Brustwerk(the pipes are located directly above the organist's seat), Solowerk(solo registers, very loud pipes located in a separate group), Choir etc.

The following devices serve as relief for players and as a means to enhance or weaken sonority:

Copula- a mechanism by which two keyboards are connected, and the registers extended to them act simultaneously. Copula allows a player playing one manual to use the extended registers of another.

4 footrests above the pedal board(Pеdale de combinaison, Tritte), each of which acts on a known specific combination of registers.

Blinds- a device consisting of doors that close and open the entire room with pipes of different registers, as a result of which the sound is strengthened or weakened. The doors are driven by a step (channel).

Since the registers are in different authorities different countries and the eras are not the same, then in an organ part they are usually not indicated in detail: only the manual, the designation of pipes with or without reeds and the size of the pipes are written over one or another place in the organ part. Other details are provided to the contractor.

The organ is often combined with an orchestra and singing in oratorios, cantatas, psalms, and also in opera.

There are also electrical (electronic) organs, e.g. Hammond.

Composers who wrote organ music

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Adam Reincken
Johann Pachelbel
Dietrich Buxtehude
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Johann Jacob Froberger
George Frideric Handel
Siegfried Karg-Ehlert
Henry Purcell
Max Reger
Vincent Lubeck
Johann Ludwig Krebs
Matthias Weckman
Dominico Zipoli
Cesar Frank

Video: Organ on video + sound

Thanks to these videos, you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch a real game on it, listen to its sound, and feel the specifics of the technique:

Selling tools: where to buy/order?

The encyclopedia does not yet contain information about where you can buy or order this instrument. You can change this!

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 4

Slide 5

Slide 6

Slide 7

Slide 8

Slide 9

Slide 10

Slide 11