When did the first organ musical instrument appear? History of the organ

The organ is an ancient instrument. Its distant predecessors were, apparently, the bagpipe and the Pan flute. In ancient times, when there were no complex musical instruments yet, several reed pipes of different sizes began to be connected together - this is the Pan flute.

The remains of the oldest organ-like instrument with a hydraulic drive were found in 1931 during excavations at Aquincum (near Budapest) and dated to 228 AD. e. It is believed that this city, which had a forced water supply system, was destroyed in 409. However, in terms of the level of development of hydraulic technology, this is the middle of the 15th century.

The structure of a modern organ.
The organ is a keyboard-wind musical instrument, the largest and most complex of existing instruments. They play it like a piano, pressing the keys. But unlike the piano, the organ is not a stringed instrument, but a wind instrument, and its relative is not a keyboard instrument, but a small flute.
A huge modern organ consists of three or more organs, and the performer can control all of them simultaneously. Each of the organs that make up such a “large organ” has its own registers (sets of pipes) and its own keyboard (manual). Pipes lined up in rows are located in the internal rooms (chambers) of the organ; Some of the pipes may be visible, but in principle all the pipes are hidden by a façade (avenue) consisting partly of decorative pipes. The organist sits at the so-called spiltish (cathedra), in front of him are the keyboards (manuals) of the organ, arranged in terraces one above the other, and under his feet is a pedal keyboard. Each of the organs included in
“large organ” has its own purpose and name; among the most common are “main” (German: Haupwerk), “upper”, or “overwerk”
(German: Oberwerk), “ruckpositive” (Rykpositiv), as well as a set of pedal registers. The “main” organ is the largest and contains the main registers of the instrument. The Ryukpositif is similar to the Main, but is smaller and softer sounding, and also contains some special solo registers. The “upper” organ adds new solo and onomatopoeic timbres to the ensemble; Pipes are connected to the pedal, producing low sounds to enhance the bass lines.
The pipes of some of their named organs, especially the “upper” and “rukpositive”, are placed inside semi-closed louvers-chambers, which can be closed or opened using the so-called channel, resulting in the creation of crescendo and diminuendo effects that are not available on an organ without this mechanism. In modern organs, air is forced into the pipes using an electric motor; Through wooden air ducts, air from the bellows enters the vinladas - a system of wooden boxes with holes in the top lid. Organ pipes are reinforced with their “legs” in these holes. From the windlade, air under pressure enters one or another pipe.
Since each trumpet is capable of reproducing one sound pitch and one timbre, a standard five-octave manual requires a set of at least 61 pipes. In general, an organ can have from several hundred to many thousands of pipes. A group of pipes producing sounds of the same timbre is called a register. When the organist turns on the register on the pin (using a button or lever located on the side of the manuals or above them), access to all the pipes of that register is available. Thus, the performer can select any register he needs or any combination of registers.
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.
The length of the pipes can be from 9.8 m to 2.54 cm or less; The diameter varies depending on the pitch and timbre of the sound. Organ pipes are divided into two groups according to the method of sound production (labial and reed) and into four groups according to timbre. In labial pipes, sound is generated as a result of the impact of an air stream on the lower and upper lips of the “mouth” (labium) - a cut in the lower part of the pipe; in reed pipes, the source of sound is a metal reed vibrating under the pressure of an air stream. The main families of registers (timbres) are principals, flutes, gambas and reeds.
The principals are the foundation of all organ sound; flute registers sound calmer, softer and to some extent resemble orchestral flutes in timbre; gambas (strings) are more piercing and sharper than flutes; The reed timbre is metallic, imitating the timbres of orchestral wind instruments. Some organs, especially theater organs, also have percussion sounds, such as cymbals and drums.
Finally, many registers are constructed in such a way that their pipes produce not the main sound, but its transposition an octave higher or lower, and in the case of the so-called mixtures and aliquots, not even one sound, as well as overtones to the main tone (aliquots reproduce one overtone, mixtures – up to seven overtones).

Organ in Russia.
The organ, the development of which has since ancient times been associated with the history of the Western Church, was able to establish itself in Russia, in a country where the Orthodox Church prohibited the use of musical instruments during worship.
Kievan Rus (10th-12th centuries). The first organs in Russia, as well as in Western Europe, came from Byzantium. This coincided with the adoption of Christianity in Rus' in 988 and the reign of Prince Vladimir the Saint (c. 978-1015), with an era of especially close political, religious and cultural contacts between Russian princes and Byzantine rulers. The organ in Kievan Rus was a stable component of court and folk culture. The earliest evidence of an organ in our country is in the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral, which, due to its long construction in the 11th-12th centuries. became the “stone chronicle” of Kievan Rus. There is a fresco of Skomorokha preserved there, which depicts a musician playing positively and two calcantes
(organ bellows pumpers), pumping air into the organ bellows. After death
During the Mongol-Tatar rule (1243-1480) of the Kyiv state, Moscow became the cultural and political center of Rus'.

Moscow Grand Duchy and Kingdom (15-17 centuries). In this era between
Moscow and Western Europe developed ever closer relations. So, in 1475-1479. Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti erected
The Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, and Sophia's brother Paleologus, niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI and since 1472 the wife of the king
Ivan III, brought organist John Salvator to Moscow from Italy.

The royal court of that time showed a keen interest in organ art.
This allowed the Dutch organist and organ builder Gottlieb Eilhof to settle in Moscow in 1578 (the Russians called him Danilo Nemchin). A written message from the English envoy Jerome Horsey was dated 1586 about the purchase of several clavichords and an organ built in England for Tsarina Irina Feodorovna, sister of Boris Godunov.
The organs also became widespread among the common people.
Buffoons traveling around Rus' on portables. For a variety of reasons, which was condemned by the Orthodox Church.
During the reign of Tsar Mikhail Romanov (1613-1645) and further, up to
1650, except for Russian organists Tomila Mikhailov (Besov), Boris Ovsonov,
Melenty Stepanov and Andrey Andreev, foreigners also worked in the amusement chamber in Moscow: the Poles Jerzy (Yuri) Proskurovsky and Fyodor Zavalsky, the organ builders, the Dutch brothers Yagan (probably Johan) and Melchert Lun.
Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, from 1654 to 1685, Simon served at court
Gutowski, a “jack of all trades” musician of Polish origin, originally from
Smolensk. With his multifaceted activities, Gutovsky made a significant contribution to the development of musical culture. In Moscow he built several organs; in 1662, by order of the Tsar, he and four of his apprentices went to
Persia to donate one of his instruments to the Shah of Persia.
One of the most significant events in the cultural life of Moscow was the founding of the court theater in 1672, which was also equipped with an organ.
Gutovsky.
The era of Peter the Great (1682-1725) and his successors. Peter I was keenly interested in Western culture. In 1691, as a nineteen-year-old youth, he commissioned the famous Hamburg organ builder Arp Schnittger (1648-1719) to build an organ for Moscow with sixteen registers, decorated with walnut figures on top. In 1697, Schnitger sent another one to Moscow, this time an eight-register instrument for a certain Mr. Ernhorn. Peter
I, who sought to adopt all Western European achievements, among other things, commissioned the Görlitz organist Christian Ludwig Boxberg, who demonstrated to the Tsar the new organ of Eugen Casparini in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz (Germany), installed there in 1690-1703, to design an even more grandiose organ for the Metropolitan Cathedral in Moscow. The designs for two dispositions of this “giant organ” with 92 and 114 registers were prepared by Boxberg ca. 1715. During the reign of the reformer tsar, organs were built throughout the country, primarily in Lutheran and Catholic churches.

In St. Petersburg, the Catholic Church of St. Catherine and the Protestant Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. For the latter, the organ was built by Johann Heinrich Joachim (1696-1752) from Mitau (now Jelgava in Latvia) in 1737.
In 1764, weekly concerts of symphonic and oratorio music began to be held in this church. So, in 1764 Imperial Courtyard was captivated by the playing of the Danish organist Johann Gottfried Wilhelm Palschau (1741 or 1742-1813). At the end
1770s, Empress Catherine II commissioned the English master Samuel
Green (1740-1796) construction of an organ in St. Petersburg, presumably for Prince Potemkin.

Famous organ builder Heinrich Adreas Kontius (1708-1792) from Halle
(Germany), mainly working in the Baltic cities, and also built two organs, one in St. Petersburg (1791), the other in Narva.
The most famous organ builder in Russia at the end of the 18th century was Franz Kirschnik
(1741-1802). Abbot Georg Joseph Vogler, who gave in April and May 1788 in St.
St. Petersburg, two concerts, after visiting the organ workshop, Kirshnik was so impressed by his instruments that in 1790 he invited his assistant master Rakwitz, first to Warsaw and then to Rotterdam.
The thirty-year activity of the German composer, organist and pianist Johann Wilhelm left a famous mark on the cultural life of Moscow.
Gessler (1747-1822). Gessler studied organ playing from a student of J. S. Bach
Johann Christian Kittel and therefore in his work adhered to the tradition of the Leipzig cantor of the Church of St. Thomas.. In 1792 Gessler was appointed imperial court conductor in St. Petersburg. In 1794, he moved to
Moscow, gained fame as the best piano teacher, and thanks to numerous concerts dedicated to the organ work of J. S. Bach, he had a huge influence on Russian musicians and music lovers.
19th – early 20th century. In the 19th century Among the Russian aristocracy, interest in playing music on the organ in home conditions spread. Prince Vladimir
Odoevsky (1804-1869), one of the most remarkable personalities of Russian society, a friend of M. I. Glinka and the author of the first original works for organ in Russia, at the end of the 1840s invited the master Georg Mälzel (1807-
1866) for the construction of an organ, which went down in the history of Russian music as
“Sebastianon” (named after Johann Sebastian Bach). It was about a home organ, in the development of which Prince Odoevsky himself took part. This Russian aristocrat saw one of the main goals of his life in awakening interest among the Russian musical community in the organ and in the exceptional personality of J. S. Bach. Accordingly, the programs of his home concerts were primarily devoted to the work of the Leipzig cantor. Exactly from
Odoevsky also issued a call to the Russian public to raise funds for the restoration of the Bach organ in the Novof Church (now the Bach Church) in Arnstadt (Germany).
M. I. Glinka often improvised on Odoevsky’s organ. From the memoirs of his contemporaries we know that Glinka was endowed with outstanding improvisational talent. He highly appreciated the organ improvisations of Glinka F.
Sheet. During his tour in Moscow on May 4, 1843, Liszt gave an organ concert in the Protestant Church of Sts. Peter and Pavle.
It did not lose its intensity in the 19th century. and the activities of organ builders. TO
In 1856 there were 2,280 church bodies in Russia. German firms took part in the construction of organs installed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the period from 1827 to 1854, Karl Wirth (1800-1882) worked in St. Petersburg as a piano and organ builder, who built several organs, among which one was intended for the Church of St. Catherine. In 1875 this instrument was sold to Finland. The English company Brindley and Foster from Sheffield supplied its organs to Moscow, Kronstadt and St. Petersburg, the German company Ernst Rover from Hausneindorf (Harz) built one of its organs in Moscow in 1897, the Austrian organ-building workshop of the brothers
Rieger erected several organs in churches in Russian provincial cities
(in Nizhny Novgorod - in 1896, in Tula - in 1901, in Samara - in 1905, in Penza - in 1906). One of the most famous organs of Eberhard Friedrich Walker with
1840 was in the Protestant Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. It was built on the model of the large organ built seven years earlier in the church of St. Paul in Frankfurt am Main.
A huge rise in Russian organ culture began with the founding of organ classes at the St. Petersburg (1862) and Moscow (1885) conservatories. A graduate of the Leipzig Conservatory, a native of Lübeck, Gerich Stihl (1829-
1886). His teaching activity in St. Petersburg lasted from 1862 to
1869. B last years His life was the organist of the Olaya Church in Tallinea Stihl and his successor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory lasted from 1862 to 1869. In the last years of his life he was the organist of the Olaya Church in Tallinea Stihl and his successor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory Louis Gomilius (1845-1908), in his pedagogical practice focused primarily on the German organ school. In the early years, organ classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatory were held in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, and among the first organ students was P. I. Tchaikovsky. Actually, the organ appeared in the conservatory itself only in 1897.
In 1901, the Moscow Conservatory also received a magnificent concert organ. For a year this organ was an exhibition piece in
Russian pavilion of the World Exhibition in Paris (1900). In addition to this instrument, there were two more Ladegast organs, which in 1885 found their place in the Small Hall of the Conservatory. The larger of them was donated by a merchant and philanthropist
Vasily Khludov (1843-1915). This organ was in use at the conservatory until 1959. Professors and students regularly participated in concerts in Moscow and
Petersburg, and graduates of both conservatories also gave concerts in other cities of the country. Foreign performers also performed in Moscow: Charles-
Marie Widor (1896 and 1901), Charles Tournemire (1911), Marco Enrico Bossi (1907 and
1912).
Organs were also built for theaters, for example for the Imperial and for
Mariinsky theaters in St. Petersburg, and later for Imperial Theater in Moscow.
Jacques was invited to succeed Louis Gomilius at the St. Petersburg Conservatory
Ganshin (1886-1955). A native of Moscow, and later a citizen of Switzerland and a student of Max Reger and Charles-Marie Widor, he headed the organ class from 1909 to 1920. I wonder what organ music, written by professional Russian composers, starting with Dm. Bortyansky (1751-
1825), combined Western European musical forms with traditional Russian melos. This contributed to the manifestation of special expressiveness and charm, thanks to which Russian works for organ stand out with their originality against the backdrop of the world organ repertoire. This also became the key to the strong impression that they make on the listener.

ORGAN (from the Greek - instrument, instrument) - a wind keyboard musical instrument. The organ is one of the most majestic musical instruments. He is like a whole orchestra.

The history of the organ dates back to ancient times. The oldest type of organ is the hydraulic organ; its invention is attributed to the ancient Greek mechanic Ctesibius (Alexandria). The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantium used the organ to perform secular music. Brought from Byzantium to Western European countries, the organ was introduced in the 7th century. to a Catholic church to accompany the choir during services.

The design of the organ has changed greatly over the past centuries. He wasn't always so huge. In the era early Middle Ages there were small portable organs (portables). They had only one keyboard and one row of pipes (from eight to fifteen), so their sound was monotonous. There were even hand organs - if desired, they were hung from the neck.Pieces of a secular nature were usually performed on small instruments. During the Renaissance, the design of the instrument was improved and its sound improved.

By the end of the 14th century. the organ already had two or three manual keyboards, almost modern in appearance. The Dutch organist Louis van Walbeke (died 1318) invented a special keyboard for feet - a pedal keyboard. Numerous improvements in the design of the organ turned it, starting from the 14th century, into a rich virtuoso solo instrument. The most intensive spread of the organ in Europe occurred in the 16th-18th centuries. The flourishing of organ music also dates back to this era.

The organ consists of

a set of pipes (wooden and metal) of different sizes

pneumatic system (air injection device and air ducts) enclosed in a common housing

Department of Management.

In addition to manual (manual) and foot (pedal) keyboards, the control department contains handles for various levers that serve to connect keyboards together, turn on registers and devices that amplify and attenuate sound.

In the organ there is:

1-5 manuals (each from 48 to 77 keys)

1 pedal (usually 32 keys)

Some modern organs sometimes add a 2nd pedal.

The number of pipes in an organ sometimes reaches several thousand. Each pipe produces only one sound of a certain pitch, timbre and volume. A group of trumpets of the same timbre, but with different heights sound is called register.

The total number of registers in an organ (from 1 to 150 or more) depends on the size of the instrument. The number of pipes in the register usually corresponds to the number of manual keys. Each register has its own characteristic timbre and is activated by the corresponding lever or button, which indicates the name of the register and the length of the pipes (for example, Principal 16 1 ).

An organ pipe produces a sound of the same pitch, constant timbre and strength. Various devices are usually used to achieve sound amplification and attenuation effects. The most common: amplification box, which regulates the sound strength by opening (more or less), blinds, and turns on or off additional groups of pipes. Some organ systems have both devices.

Pipes of different manuals can be turned on simultaneously using special levers - copulations; connecting (using copulations) all manuals and pedals, as well as turning on registers.

Music for organ is written on three staves, usually without indicating registration.

In all organs until the end of the 19th century. transmission (tracture) from the keys to the pipes, as well as the activation of other devices, was carried out using cords (abstracts), and the air was pumped by bellows, depending on the size of the organ, by one or more workers. An organ with such a structure is called mechanical. In the 20th century organs with pneumatic and electro-pneumatic structures are introduced, in which air is pumped by fans operating from an electric motor. Recently, electrified (with electric power) and electric organs have appeared.

The organist sits at the so-calledplaying table In front of it are handles, buttons and levers forregister management. There are several manuals on the table (from lat. manus - “hand”) - keyboards for hand playing; There is a pedal keyboard at the bottom.

Register The organ's functions are turned on and off using certain keys. When you press the key, special valves open, through which air enters the pipes. The valves, in turn, are placed in special “air boxes” - vindals, on which the organ pipes stand.

Pipes, vindals, valves that supply air, and other mechanisms are usually enclosed in the body of the organ. Its facade, called the avenue, is also filled with pipes, but some or even all of them may have a purely decorative purpose (in this case, the pipes are not connected to the mechanisms of the instrument).

When the inconspicuous beige-painted door opened, only a few wooden steps were visible from the darkness. Immediately behind the door, a powerful wooden box, similar to a ventilation box, goes up. “Be careful, this is an organ pipe, 32 feet, bass flute register,” my guide warned. “Wait, I’ll turn on the light.” I wait patiently, anticipating one of the most interesting excursions of my life. In front of me is the entrance to the organ. This is the only musical instrument that you can go inside

A funny instrument - a harmonica with unusual bells for this instrument. But almost exactly the same design can be found in any large organ (like the one shown in the picture on the right) - this is exactly how “reed” organ pipes are designed

The sound of three thousand trumpets. General diagram The diagram shows a simplified diagram of the organ with a mechanical structure. Photographs showing individual components and devices of the instrument were taken inside the organ of the Great Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory. The diagram does not show the magazine bellows, which maintains constant pressure in the windlade, and the Barker levers (they are in the pictures). There is also no pedal (foot keyboard)

The organ is over a hundred years old. It stands in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, that very famous hall, from the walls of which portraits of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Beethoven look at you... However, all that is open to the viewer’s eye is the organist’s console turned to the hall with its back side and a slightly pretentious wooden “ prospect" with vertical metal pipes. Observing the facade of the organ, an uninitiated person will never understand how and why this one plays unique instrument. To reveal its secrets, you will have to approach the issue from a different angle. Literally.

Natalya Vladimirovna Malina, an organ keeper, teacher, musician and organ master, kindly agreed to become my guide. “You can only move in the organ facing forward,” she sternly explains to me. This requirement has nothing to do with mysticism and superstition: simply, moving backwards or sideways, an inexperienced person can step on one of the organ pipes or touch it. And there are thousands of these pipes.

The main operating principle of the organ, which distinguishes it from most wind instruments: one pipe - one note. The Pan flute can be considered an ancient ancestor of the organ. This instrument, which has existed since time immemorial in different parts of the world, consists of several hollow reeds of different lengths tied together. If you blow at an angle at the mouth of the shortest one, a thin high-pitched sound will be heard. Longer reeds sound lower.

Unlike a regular flute, you cannot change the pitch of an individual tube, so the Pan flute can play exactly as many notes as there are reeds in it. To make the instrument produce very low sounds, it is necessary to include tubes of long length and large diameter. You can make many Pan flutes with tubes of different materials and different diameters, and then they will blow the same notes with different timbres. But you won’t be able to play all these instruments at the same time—you can’t hold them in your hands, and there won’t be enough breath for the giant “reeds.” But if we put all our flutes vertically, equip each individual tube with a valve for air inlet, come up with a mechanism that would give us the ability to control all the valves from the keyboard and, finally, create a structure for pumping air with its subsequent distribution, we have just it will turn out to be an organ.

On an old ship

The pipes in organs are made of two materials: wood and metal. Wooden pipes used to produce bass sounds have a square cross-section. Metal pipes are usually smaller, cylindrical or conical in shape, and are usually made from an alloy of tin and lead. If there is more tin, the pipe is louder; if there is more lead, the sound produced is dull, “cotton-like.”

The alloy of tin and lead is very soft - which is why organ pipes are easily deformed. If a large metal pipe is placed on its side, after some time it will acquire an oval cross-section under its own weight, which will inevitably affect its ability to produce sound. When moving inside the organ of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, I try to touch only the wooden parts. If you step on a pipe or awkwardly grab it, the organ builder will have new troubles: the pipe will have to be “treated” - straightened, or even soldered.

The organ I am inside is far from the largest in the world, or even in Russia. In size and number of pipes it is inferior to the organs of the Moscow House of Music, Cathedral in Kaliningrad and the Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky. The main record holders are located overseas: for example, the instrument installed in the Convention Hall of Atlantic City (USA) has more than 33,000 pipes. In the organ of the Great Hall of the Conservatory there are ten times fewer pipes, “only” 3136, but even this significant number cannot be placed compactly on one plane. The organ inside consists of several tiers on which pipes are installed in rows. To allow the organ builder access to the pipes, a narrow passage in the form of a plank platform was made on each tier. The tiers are connected to each other by stairs, in which the role of steps is performed by ordinary crossbars. The organ is cramped inside, and moving between tiers requires a certain amount of dexterity.

“My experience suggests,” says Natalya Vladimirovna Malina, “that it is best for an organ master to be of thin build and have light weight. It is difficult for a person of different dimensions to work here without causing damage to the instrument. Recently, an electrician - a heavyset man - was changing a light bulb above an organ, tripped and broke a couple of planks from the plank roof. There were no casualties or injuries, but the fallen planks damaged 30 organ pipes.”

Mentally estimating that my body could easily fit a pair of organ makers of ideal proportions, I glance warily at the flimsy-looking stairs leading to the upper tiers. “Don’t worry,” Natalya Vladimirovna reassures me, “just go forward and repeat the movements after me. The structure is strong, it will support you.”

Whistle and reed

We climb to the upper tier of the organ, from where a view of the Great Hall with top point. On the stage below, where a string ensemble has just finished rehearsing, little people with violins and violas are walking around. Natalya Vladimirovna shows me close to the pipe of the Spanish registers. Unlike other pipes, they are located not vertically, but horizontally. Forming a kind of canopy over the organ, they blow directly into the hall. The creator of the Great Hall organ, Aristide Cavaillé-Col, came from a Franco-Spanish family of organ builders. Hence the Pyrenean traditions in the instrument on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow.

By the way, about Spanish registers and registers in general. “Register” is one of the key concepts in organ design. This is a series of organ pipes of a certain diameter, forming a chromatic scale corresponding to the keys of their keyboard or part of it.

Depending on the scale of the pipes included in their composition (scale is the ratio of the pipe parameters that are most important for the character and sound quality), the registers produce sound with different timbre colors. Being carried away by comparisons with Pan's flute, I almost missed one subtlety: the fact is that not all organ pipes (like the reeds of an ancient flute) are aerophones. An aerophone is a wind instrument in which the sound is formed as a result of vibrations of a column of air. These include the flute, trumpet, tuba, and horn. And here is the saxophone, oboe, harmonica They belong to the group of idiophones, that is, “self-sounding”. It is not the air that vibrates here, but a tongue flown around by the air flow. Air pressure and elastic force, counteracting, cause the reed to tremble and spread sound waves, which are amplified by the bell of the instrument as a resonator.

In an organ, most of the pipes are aerophones. They are called labial, or whistle. Idiophone trumpets constitute a special group of registers and are called reed ones.

How many hands does an organist have?

But how does a musician manage to make all these thousands of pipes - wooden and metal, whistle and reed, open and closed - tens or hundreds of registers... sound at the right time? To understand this, let’s go down for a while from the upper tier of the organ and go to the pulpit, or organist’s console. The uninitiated, at the sight of this device, is filled with awe, as if in front of the dashboard of a modern airliner. Several hand keyboards - manuals (there may be five or even seven of them!), one foot keyboard, plus some other mysterious pedals. There are also many pull levers with inscriptions on the handles. What is this all for?

Of course, the organist has only two hands and will not be able to play all the manuals at the same time (there are three of them in the organ of the Great Hall, which is also a lot). Several manual keyboards are needed in order to mechanically and functionally separate groups of registers, just as in a computer one physical hard drive is divided into several virtual ones. For example, the first manual of the Great Hall organ controls the pipes of a group (German term - Werk) of registers called Grand Orgue. It includes 14 registers. The second manual (Positif Expressif) is also responsible for 14 registers. The third keyboard is Recit expressif - 12 registers. Finally, a 32-key footswitch, or “pedal,” works with ten bass registers.

Speaking from the point of view of a layman, even 14 registers for one keyboard is somehow too much. After all, by pressing one key, an organist is able to make 14 pipes sound at once in different registers (and in reality more due to registers like mixtura). What if you need to play a note in just one register or in several selected ones? For this purpose, the pull levers located to the right and left of the manuals are actually used. By pulling out a lever with the name of the register written on the handle, the musician opens a kind of damper, allowing air access to the pipes of a certain register.

So, in order to play the desired note in the desired register, you need to select a manual or pedal keyboard that controls this register, pull out the lever corresponding to this register and press the desired key.

Powerful blow

The final part of our excursion is dedicated to the air. The very air that makes the organ sound. Together with Natalya Vladimirovna, we go down to the floor below and find ourselves in a spacious technical room, where there is nothing from the solemn mood of the Great Hall. Concrete floors, white walls, antique timber support structures, ductwork and an electric motor. In the first decade of the organ’s existence, calcante rockers worked hard here. Four healthy men stood in a row, grabbed with both hands a stick threaded through a steel ring on the stand, and alternately, with one or the other foot, pressed on the levers that inflated the bellows. The shift was scheduled for two hours. If a concert or rehearsal lasted longer, the tired rockers were replaced by fresh reinforcements.

The old bellows, numbering four, are still preserved. As Natalya Vladimirovna says, there is a legend going around the conservatory that once they tried to replace the work of rockers with horsepower. A special mechanism was allegedly even created for this. However, along with the air, the smell of horse manure rose into the Great Hall, and the founder of the Russian organ school, A.F., came to the rehearsal. Goedicke, having struck the first chord, moved his nose displeasedly and said: “It stinks!”

Whether this legend is true or not, in 1913 muscle power was finally replaced by the electric motor. Using a pulley, he spun the shaft, which in turn, through a crank mechanism, set the bellows in motion. Subsequently, this scheme was abandoned, and today air is pumped into the organ by an electric fan.

In the organ, the forced air enters the so-called magazine bellows, each of which is connected to one of the 12 windladas. Vinlada is a container for compressed air that looks like a wooden box, on which, in fact, rows of pipes are installed. One windlad usually accommodates several registers. Large pipes that do not have enough space on the vindlad are installed to the side, and an air duct in the form of a metal tube connects them to the vindlad.

The windlades of the Great Hall organ (the “stackflad” design) are divided into two main parts. In the lower part, constant pressure is maintained using a magazine bellows. The upper one is divided by airtight partitions into so-called tone channels. All pipes of different registers have output into the tone channel, controlled by one key of the manual or pedal. Each tone channel is connected to the bottom of the vinlada by a hole covered by a spring-loaded valve. When a key is pressed, movement is transmitted through the tracture to the valve, it opens, and compressed air flows upward into the tone channel. All pipes that have access to this channel should, in theory, begin to sound, but... this, as a rule, does not happen. The point is that throughout top part Windlades pass through so-called loops - flaps with holes located perpendicular to the tone channels and having two positions. In one of them, the loops completely cover all the pipes of a given register in all tone channels. In the other, the register is open, and its pipes begin to sound as soon as air enters the corresponding tone channel after pressing a key. The control of the loops, as you might guess, is carried out by levers on the remote control through a register structure. Simply put, the keys allow all pipes to sound in their tone channels, and the loops define the chosen ones.

We thank the leadership of the Moscow State Conservatory and Natalya Vladimirovna Malina for their assistance in preparing this article

1. In Latin organum the stress falls on the first syllable (as in its Greek prototype).
2. The frequency range of wind organs, taking into account overtones, includes almost ten octaves - from 16 Hz to 14000 Hz, which has no analogues among any other musical instruments. The dynamic range of wind organs is about 85-90 dB, the maximum value of sound pressure levels reaches 110-115 dB-C.
3. Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel. The organ: An encyclopedia. New York/London: 2006. ISBN 978-0-415-94174-7
4. “The organ sound is motionless, mechanical and unchanging. Without succumbing to any softening finishing, he brings to the fore the reality of division, attaches decisive importance to the slightest temporal relationships. But if time is the only plastic material of organ performance, then the main requirement of organ technique is the chronometric accuracy of movements.” (Braudo, I. A., On organ and keyboard music - L., 1976, p. 89)
5. Nicholas Thistlethwaite, Geoffrey Webber. The Cambridge companion to the organ. Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-521-57584-3
6. Praetogius M. “Syntagma musicum”, vol. 2, Wolffenbuttel, 1919, p. 99.
7. Riemann G. Catechism of the History of Music. Part 1. M., 1896. P. 20.
8. The connection between the Pan flute and the idea of ​​the organ is most clearly seen in the anthological epigram of Emperor Flavius ​​Claudius Julian (331-363): “I see reeds of a new kind growing separately on one metal field. They make sound not from our breath, but from the wind, which comes out of a leathery reservoir lying under their roots, while the light fingers of a strong mortal run through the harmonic holes...” (Quoted from the article “On the Origin of the Organ.” - “Russian” disabled person", 1848, July 29, No. 165).
9. “It has 13 or 24 bamboo tubes fitted with metal (bronze) reeds. Each tube is 1/3 smaller than the next. This set is called piao-xiao. The tubes are inserted into a tank made of a hollowed out gourd (later made of wood or metal). The sound is produced by blowing into the reservoir and drawing in air.” (Modr A. Musical instruments. M., 1959, p. 148).
10. Brocker 2005, p. 190: “The term organum denotes both polyphonic musical practice and the organ, which in the Middle Ages had drone pipes. It could serve as a model when it comes time to call hurdy-gurdy, since its type of polyphony is probably not very different from hurdy-gurdy. “Organistrum” can then be understood as an instrument identical or similar to an organ. Hugh Riemann interpreted the name this way when he saw it as a diminutive of "organum". He thought that, just as "poetaster" came from "poeta", "organistrum" came from "organum" and originally meant "small organ". The term "organum" denotes both a polyphonic musical practice as well as the organ, which in the Middle Ages had drone pipes. It could have served as a model when it came time to name the hurdy-gurdy, since its type of polyphony was probably not very different from that of the hurdy-gurdy. The "organistrum" then can be understood to be an instrument identical with or similar to the organ. Hug Riemann interpreted the name in this manner when he saw it as a diminutive of "organum". He thought that, similar to how "poetaster" came from "poeta", "organistrum" came from "organum" and meant originally "little organ")»
11. Each instrument has its own image, description of form and appearance, and allegorical interpretation, necessary for a kind of “sanctification” of biblical instruments so that they enter the Christian cult. The last mention of the Instruments of Jerome is in the treatise of M. Praetorius Sintagma musicum-II; he took this fragment from S. Virdung’s treatise Musica getutscht 1511. The description first of all emphasizes the unusually loud sonority of the instrument, which is why it is likened to the organ of the Jews, which is heard from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives (paraphrase from the Talmud “From Jericho is heard...”) . Described as a cavity of two skins with twelve bellows pumping air into it and twelve copper tubes emitting a "thunderous howl" - a kind of bagpipe. Later images combined elements of bagpipes and organ. Furs were very often not depicted; keys and pipes could be depicted very conventionally. Virdung, among other things, also turns the image upside down, since he probably copied it from another source and he had no idea what kind of instrument it was.
12. Chris Riley. The Modern Organ Guide. Xulon Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59781-667-0
13. William Harrison Barnes. The Contemporary American Organ - Its Evolution, Design and Construction. 2007. ISBN 978-1-4067-6023-1
14. Apel 1969, p. 396: "described in a 10th century treatise entitled (G.S. i, 303, where it is attributed to Oddo of Cluny) is described in 10th-century treatise entitled Quomodo Organistrum Construatur (G.S. i, 303 where it is attributed to Oddo of Cluny))»
15. Orpha Caroline Ochse. The History of the Organ in the United States. Indiana University Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0-253-20495-0
16. Virtual MIDI system "Hauptwerk"
17. Kamneedov 2012: “Each key actuated switches connected to various register sliders, or drawbars.”
18. ? An Introduction to Drawbars: “Sliders are the heart and soul of your Hammond organ sound. There are two sets of nine sliders, sometimes referred to as tone bars, for the upper and lower manuals, and two pedal sliders located between the upper manual and the information center display. (English) The Drawbars are the heart and soul of the sound of your Hammond Organ. There are two sets of nine Drawbars, sometimes referred to as Tonebars, for the Upper and Lower Manuals and two Drawbars for the Pedals, located between the Upper Manual and the Information Center Display)»
19. HammondWiki 2011: "The Hammond organ was originally developed to compete with pipe organs. Sliders were a unique innovation of Hammond keyboard instruments (register buttons or shortcuts were used to control the air flow in the pipes of wind organs)... The Hammond organ was originally developed to compete with the pipe organ. Much of the discussion that follows is easier to understand if you have a little knowledge of pipe organ terminology. Here's a link to A Crash Course in Concepts and Terminology Concerning Organs. Drawbars were a unique Hammond innovation to keyboard musical instruments. Prior to the hammond organ, pipe organs most commonly used stop buttons or tabs to control the flow of air into a specific rank of pipes. Pipes can sound flutey with few harmonics or reedy with many harmonics and many different tonal qualities in between. The stops were two position controls; on or off. The organist blended the sound produced by the pipe ranks by opening or closing the stops. The Hammond organ blends the relatively pure sine wave tones generated by the ToneGenerator to make sounds that are harmonically imitative of the pipe organ (obviously Jazz, Blues and Rock organists aren’t always interested in imitating a pipe organ). The Hammond organist blends these harmonics by setting the position of the drawbars which increase or decrease the volume of the harmonic in the mix. .
20. Orchestras include a variety of self-playing mechanical organs, known in Germany under the names: Spieluhr, Mechanische Orgel, ein mechanisches Musikwerk, ein Orgelwerk in eine Uhr, eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel, Flötenuhr, Laufwerk, etc. Haydn and Mozart wrote especially for these instruments , Beethoven. (Musical Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, Soviet Composer. Edited by Yu. V. Keldysh. 1973-1982.)
21. Spillane 1892, cc. 642-3: “The peculiarity of the American cabinet (salon) organ lies primarily in the reed structure system invented in this country, with the help of which the tone of the sound was changed, which distinguished this organ from reed instruments made abroad. Several other features in its internal structure and external decoration, however, distinguish it from reed instruments called harmoniums. The “free reed”, as it was first used in American accordions and seraphins, was by no means an internal invention, as writers rashly claim. It was used by European pipe organ builders for register effects, as well as in individual keyboards before 1800. The "free reed" is named to distinguish it from the "breaking reed" of the clarinet and the "double reed" of the oboe and bassoon. The individuality of the American parlor organ rests largely upon the system of reed structure invented in this country, upon which a tone has been evolved which is easily distinguished from that produced by the reed instruments made abroad. Several other features in its interior construction and exterior finish, however, distinguish it from the reed instruments called harmoniums. The "free reed," as it was first applied in American accordeons and seraphines, was not by any means a domestic invention, as writers recklessly assert. It was used by European pipe-organ builders for stop effects, and also in separate key-board instrument, prior to 1800. The "free reed" is so named to distinguish it from the "beating reed" of the clarionet and the "double" reed" of the wallpaper and basson)»

The largest type of musical instrument.

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Subtitles

Terminology

In fact, even in inanimate objects there is this kind of ability (δύναμις), for example, in [musical] instruments (ἐν τοῖς ὀργάνοις); about one lyre they say that it is capable of [sounding], and about another - that it is not, if it is dissonant (μὴ εὔφωνος).

The kind of people who make instruments spend all their labor on it, such as the cithared, or the one who demonstrates his craft on the organ and other musical instruments (organo ceterisque musicae instrumentis).

Fundamentals of Music, I.34

In Russian, the word “organ” by default means brass organ, but is also used to refer to other varieties, including electronic analogue and digital, that imitate the sound of an organ. Organs are distinguished:

• by device - wind, reed, electronic, analog, digital;
• by functional affiliation - concert, church, theater, fair, salon, educational, etc.;
• by disposition - baroque, French classical, romantic, symphonic, neo-baroque, modern;
• by the number of manuals - one-manual, two-manual, three-manual, etc.

The word "organ" is also usually qualified by reference to the organ builder (for example, "Cavaillé-Cohl Organ") or trademark(“Hammond Organ”). Some types of organ have independent terms: antique hydraulics, portable, positive, regal, harmonium, barrel organ, etc.

Story

The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments. Its history goes back several thousand years. Hugo Riemann believed that the ancestor of the organ was the ancient Babylonian bagpipe (19th century BC): “The bellows was inflated through a tube, and at the opposite end there was a body with pipes, which, no doubt, had reeds and several holes.” The embryo of the organ can also be seen in the Pan flute, Chinese shen and other similar instruments. It is believed that the organ (water organ, hydraulos) 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 8th centuries. Tradition credits Pope Vitalian with introducing the organ into Catholic worship. In the 8th century, Byzantium was famous for its organs. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine V Copronymus donated the organ to the Frankish king Pepin the Short in 757. Later, the Byzantine Empress Irene gave his son, Charles the Great, an organ that was played at Charles’s coronation. The organ was considered at that time a ceremonial attribute of the Byzantine and then Western European imperial power.

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 became widespread in Western Europe starting in the 14th century. 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.

The oldest example of a medieval organ with relatively intact mechanics (the pipes have not survived) is considered to be an organ from Norrlanda (a church parish on the island of Gotland in Sweden). This instrument is usually dated to 1370-1400, although some researchers have doubts about such an early dating. Currently, the Norrland organ is kept in the National History Museum in Stockholm.

In the 19th century, thanks primarily to the work of the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who set out to design organs in such a way that they could compete with the sound of an entire symphony orchestra with their powerful and rich sound, instruments of a previously unprecedented scale and sound power began to emerge , which are sometimes called symphonic organs.

Device

Remote controller

Organ console (“spieltisch” from German Spieltisch or organ department) - a console with all the tools necessary for an organist, the set of which is individual in each organ, but most have common ones: gaming - manuals And pedal keyboard(or simply "pedal") and timbre switches registers. Dynamic ones may also be present - channels, various foot levers or buttons to turn on copul and switching combinations from register combination memory bank and a device for turning on the organ. The organist sits at the console on the bench during the performance.

• Copula is a mechanism by which the switched-on registers of one manual can sound when played on another manual or pedal. Organs always have copulas of manuals for the pedal and copulas for the main manual, and there are almost always copulas of weaker-sounding manuals for stronger ones. The copula is turned on/off by a special foot switch with a lock or button.
• Channel - a device with which you can adjust the volume of this manual by opening or closing the blinds in the box in which the pipes of this manual are located.
• Register combination memory bank is a device in the form of buttons, available only in organs with an electric register structure, which allows you to remember register combinations, thereby simplifying register switching (changing the overall timbre) during performance.
• Ready-made register combinations are a device in organs with a pneumatic register structure that allows you to include a ready-made set of registers (usually p, mp, mf, f)
• (from Italian Tutti - all) - button to turn on all registers and copulas of the organ.

Manuals

The first sheet music with an organ pedal dates back to the mid-15th century. - this is a tablature by the German musician Adam from Ileborg (English) Russian(Adam Ileborgh, c. 1448) and the Buxheim Organ Book (c. 1470). Arnolt Schlick in “Spiegel der Orgelmacher” (1511) already writes in detail about the pedal and encloses his plays where it is used very masterfully. Among them, the unique treatment of the antiphon stands out especially Ascendo ad Patrem meum for 10 voices, of which 4 are assigned to the pedals. To perform this piece, it was probably necessary to wear some kind of special shoes that would allow one foot to simultaneously press two keys spaced apart by a third. In Italy, notes using an organ pedal appear much later - in the toccatas of Annibale Padovano (1604).

Registers

Each row of pipes of a wind organ of the same timbre constitutes, as it were, a separate instrument and is called register. Each of the retractable or retractable register knobs (or electronic switches), located on the organ console above the keyboards or on the sides of the music stand, turns on or off a corresponding row of organ pipes. If the registers are turned off, the organ will not sound when you press a key.

Each knob corresponds to a register and has its own name indicating the pitch of the largest pipe of this register - feet, traditionally indicated in feet when converted to the Principal register. For example, Gedackt pipes are closed and sound an octave lower, so such a sub-octave C pipe is designated as 32", when the actual length is 16". Reed registers, the pitch of which depends on the mass of the reed itself, and not on the height of the bell, are also designated in feet, similar in length to the pitch of the Principal register pipe.

Registers according to a number of unifying characteristics are grouped into families - principals, flutes, gambas, aliquots, mixtures, etc. The main ones include all 32-, 16-, 8-, 4-, 2-, 1-foot registers, and the auxiliary (or overtone) registers ) - aliquots and mixtures. Each main register pipe produces only one sound of constant pitch, strength and timbre. Aliquots reproduce an ordinal overtone to the main sound, mixtures produce a chord that consists of several (usually from 2 to a dozen, sometimes up to fifty) overtones to a given sound.

All pipe arrangement registers are divided into two groups:

• Labial- registers with open or closed pipes without reeds. This group includes: flutes (wide-scale registers), principals and narrow-scale registers (German Streicher - “streichers” or strings), as well as overtone registers - aliquots and mixtures, in which each note has one or more (weaker) overtone overtones.
• Reed- registers in the pipes of which there is a reed, when exposed to the supplied air, a characteristic sound appears, similar in timbre, depending on the name and design features of the register, with some wind orchestral musical instruments: oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, etc. Reed registers can be positioned not only vertically, but also horizontally - such registers form a group that is from French. chamade is called "shamada".

Compound various types registers:

• Italian Organo pleno - labial and reed registers along with mixture;
• fr. Grand jeu - labial and lingual without mixtures;
• fr. Plein jeu - labial with mixture.

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. The choice of registers for performing a piece of music is called registration, and the included registers are register combination.

Since the registers are in different authorities different countries and eras are not the same, then in an organ part they are usually not indicated in detail: only the manual is written over one or another place in the organ part, the designation of pipes with or without reeds and the size of the pipes, and the rest is left to the discretion of the performer. Most of the musical organ repertoire does not have any author's designations regarding the registration of the work, since composers and organists of previous eras had their own traditions and the art of combining different organ timbres was passed down orally from generation to generation.

Pipes

Register pipes sound different:

• 8-foot trumpets sound according to musical notation;
• 4- and 2-footers sound one and two octaves higher, respectively;
• The 16- and 32-footers sound one and two octaves lower, respectively;
• The 64-foot labial pipes found in the largest organs in the world sound three octaves below the recording, therefore, those operated by the pedal and manual keys below the counter-octave produce infrasound;
• The labial pipes, closed at the top, sound an octave lower than the open ones.

A steamhorn is used to tune the organ's small, open, metal pipes. This hammer-shaped tool is used to roll or flare the open end of the pipe. Larger open pipes are adjusted by cutting a vertical piece of metal near or directly from the open edge of the pipe, which is bent at a particular angle. Open wood pipes usually have a wood or metal tuning device that can be adjusted to adjust the pipe. Closed wood or metal pipes are adjusted by adjusting the plug or cap at the top end of the pipe.

The front pipes of the organ can also play a decorative role. If the pipes do not sound, then they are called “decorative” or “blind” (English: dummy pipes).

Traktura

An organ structure is a system of transfer devices that functionally connects the control elements on the organ console with the organ's air locking devices. The playing texture transmits the movement of the manual keys and pedals to the valves of a specific pipe or group of pipes in the mixture. The register structure ensures that an entire register or group of registers is turned on or off in response to pressing a toggle switch or moving the register handle.

The memory of the organ also operates through the register structure - combinations of registers, pre-arranged and embedded in the structure of the organ - ready-made, fixed combinations. They can be named both by the combination of registers - Pleno, Plein Jeu, Gran Jeu, Tutti, and by the strength of sound - Piano, Mezzopiano, Mezzoforte, Forte. In addition to ready-made combinations, there are free combinations that allow the organist to select, memorize and change a set of registers in the organ’s memory at his discretion. The memory function is not available in all organs. It is absent in organs with a mechanical register structure.

Mechanical

Mechanical texture is standard, authentic and the most common at the moment, allowing the widest range of works from all eras to be performed; The mechanical structure does not give rise to the phenomenon of sound “lag” and allows you to thoroughly feel the position and behavior of the air valve, which allows the organist to better control the instrument and achieve high performance technique. When using a mechanical tractor, the manual or pedal key is connected to the air valve by a system of light wooden or polymer rods (abstracts), rollers and levers; occasionally, in large old organs, cable-pulley transmission was used. Since the movement of all the listed elements is carried out only by the effort of the organist, there are restrictions on the size and nature of the arrangement of the sounding elements of the organ. In giant organs (more than 100 registers), the mechanical structure is either not used or is supplemented by a Barker machine (a pneumatic amplifier that helps press the keys; these are the French organs of the early 20th century, for example, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris). Mechanical playing is usually combined with mechanical register tracture and windlady of the shleiflade system.

Pneumatic

Pneumatic tracture - the most common in romantic organs - from the end of the 19th century to the 20s of the 20th century; pressing the key opens a valve in the control air duct, the supply of air into which opens the pneumatic valve of a specific pipe (when using a windlade shleiflade, this is extremely rare) or a whole series of pipes of the same tone (windlady kegellade, characteristic of a pneumatic tractor). It allows you to build instruments with a huge range of registers, since it does not have the power limitations of mechanical structure, but it has the phenomenon of sound “delay.” This often makes it impossible to perform technically complex works, especially in “wet” church acoustics, given that the delay time of the sound of the register depends not only on the distance from the organ console, but also on its size of pipes, the presence in the structure of relays that speed up the operation of the mechanics behind due to the refreshing of the impulse, the design features of the pipe and the type of windlade used (almost always it is a kegellade, sometimes it is a membranenlade: it works on air emission, extremely fast response). In addition, the pneumatic structure decouples the keyboard from the air valves, depriving the organist of the feeling of “feedback” and worsening control over the instrument. The pneumatic structure of the organ is good for performing solo works of the Romantic period, difficult for playing in an ensemble, and is not always suitable for Baroque and modern music.

Electric

Electrical transmission is a circuit widely used in the 20th century, with direct transmission of a signal from a key to an electromechanical valve opening-closing relay through a direct current pulse in an electrical circuit. Currently, it is increasingly being replaced by mechanical technology. This is the only treatise that does not place any restrictions on the number and location of registers, as well as the placement of the organ console on the stage in the hall. Allows you to place groups of registers at different ends of the hall, control the organ from an unlimited number of additional remote controls, perform music for two and three organs on one organ, and also place the remote control in comfortable spot in the orchestra, from which the conductor will be clearly visible. Allows the connection of several organs in common system, and also provides a unique opportunity to record a performance and then play it back without the participation of an organist. The disadvantage of the electric tract, as well as the pneumatic one, is the break in the “feedback” of the organist’s fingers and the air valves. In addition, the electrical structure can cause a sound delay due to the response time of the electric valve relays, as well as the switch-distributor (in modern organs, this device is electronic and does not provide a delay; in instruments of the first half and mid-20th century it was often electromechanical). Electromechanical relays, when activated, often produce additional “metallic” sounds - clicks and knocks, which, unlike similar “wooden” overtones of a mechanical texture, do not at all decorate the sound of the work. In some cases, the largest pipes of an otherwise completely mechanical organ receive an electric valve (for example, in a new instrument from the Hermann Eule company in Belgorod), which is due to the need, with a large air flow rate of the pipe, to maintain the area of ​​the mechanical valve, and as a result, playing efforts, in the bass within acceptable limits. The register electrical circuit can also make noise when changing register combinations. An example of an acoustically excellent organ with a mechanical playing texture and at the same time a fairly noisy register texture is the Swiss organ from the Kuhn company in the Catholic Cathedral in Moscow.

Other

Largest organs in the world

The largest organ in Europe is the Grand Organ of the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Passau (Germany), built by the German company Stenmayer & Co. Has 5 manuals, 229 registers, 17,774 pipes. It is considered the fourth largest operating body in the world.

Until recently, the world's largest organ with a completely mechanical playing structure (without the use of electronic or pneumatic controls) was the organ of the Cathedral of St. Trinity in Liepaja (4 manuals, 131 registers, more than 7 thousand pipes), however, in 1979, an organ with 5 manuals, 125 registers and about 10 thousand pipes was installed in the large concert hall of the performing arts center of the Sydney Opera House. Nowadays it is considered the largest (with mechanical structure).

The main organ of the Cathedral in Kaliningrad (4 manuals, 90 registers, about 6.5 thousand pipes) is the largest organ in Russia.

Experimental organs

Organs of original design and tuning have been developed since the second half of the 16th century, such as the archorgan of the Italian music theorist and composer N. Vicentino. However, such organs have not become widespread. They are now exhibited as historical artifacts in musical instrument museums along with other experimental instruments of the past.