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The Art of Organ Building, Vol. 1
The Art of Organ Building, Vol. 1
The Art of Organ Building, Vol. 1
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The Art of Organ Building, Vol. 1

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Volume 1 of the fullest repository on organ building and history in English language. Includes outline of organ history, external design and decoration, internal arrangement and mechanical systems, acoustics and theories of sound-production in organ pipes, tonal structure and appointment, compound stops of the organ, more. Complete with illustrations, tables, and specifications. "the most significant republication in our field for the past twenty years . . . an incomparable, invaluable book." — American Guild of Organists Quarterly.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 8, 2013
ISBN9780486316987
The Art of Organ Building, Vol. 1

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    The Art of Organ Building, Vol. 1 - George Ashdown Audsley

    FIRST.

    THE ORGAN

    "The Organ is in truth the grandest, the most daring, the most magnificent of all instruments invented by human genius. It is a whole orchestra in itself. It can express anything in response to a skilled touch. Surely it is in some sort a pedestal on which the soul poises for a flight forth into space, essaying on her course to draw picture after picture in an endless series, to paint human life, to cross the Infinite that separates heaven from earth? And the longer a dreamer listens to those giant harmonies, the better he realizes that nothing save this hundred-voiced choir on earth can fill all the space between kneeling men and a God hidden by the blinding light of the sanctuary. The music is the one interpreter strong enough to bear up the prayers of humanity to heaven, prayer in its omnipotent moods, prayer tinged by the melancholy of many different natures, colored by meditative ecstasy, upspringing with the impulse of repentance—blended with the myriad fancies of every creed. Yes. In those long vaulted aisles the melodies inspired by the sense of things divine are blent with a grandeur unknown before, are decked with new glory and might. Out of the dim daylight, and the deep silence broken by the chanting of the choir in response to the thunder of the Organ, a veil is woven for God, and the brightness of His attributes shines through it."

    HONORÉ DE BALZAC

    CHAPTER I.

    THE ORGAN HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED.

    N the estimation of the general reader and the student of the art of organ-building a work like the present would, in all probability, be considered incomplete without some particulars relating to the origin and development of the Organ. The subject has, however, been discussed in so many other works that it is only necessary to pass what has been gathered from numerous sources in hurried review in these pages.

    At the outset it must be clearly understood that the Organ, even in the crudest and simplest form with which we are acquainted, cannot be said to have been invented. The modern Organ is an evolution from what may be called, by way of comparison, a musical moneron—in other words, from the first single hollow reed pipe or whistle sounded by the breath of man. In the natural order of things the discovery would quickly follow that reeds or whistles of different dimensions yielded musical sounds of different pitches. The imaginative mind can easily follow the slow application of this discovery, until the syrinx, or so called Pipe of Pan, formed of a number of hollow reeds of different lengths, stopped at one end, and bound together, and yielding, when blown across their open ends, a more or less regular series of musical sounds, became the first mouth organ and the germ from which the modern Organ has grown, through a thousand progressive stages, to its present lofty position as the King of Instruments, and one of the greatest achievements of human ingenuity and skill.

    There is no doubt that in Greece the syrinx was of a very high antiquity, its invention being ascribed to Pan, the god of pastures and forests. In the Museo Nazionale, at Naples, is an ancient sculpture representing Pan teaching Apollo to play the syrinx. Tradition explains the double name given to this primitive instrument by the following legend:

    Syrinx, a lovely water-nymph of Arcadia, daughter of Ladon the river-god, was beloved by Pan, but she did not reciprocate his passion. To escape from his importunities, the fair nymph fled from him and besought the aid of her sisters, who immediately changed her into a reed. Pan, still infatuated, possessed himself of the reed, and cut it into seven, or according to some versions nine, pieces, joined them side by side in gradually decreasing lengths, and formed the musical instrument bearing the name of his beloved. Henceforth Pan was seldom seen without it. In Greek and Roman art the syrinx has at all times been the chief attribute of Pan and the Satyrs.

    FIG. I.

    The syrinx is mentioned several times in Homer’s Iliad and in the Hymn to Mercury. Theocritus, a Greek pastoral poet of Syracuse, who flourished in the third century B. C., gives a version of the above legend in one of those curious poems which were known as Idyllia figurata, because they pictured an object by means of the number, disposition, and varied length of the lines. The Idyllia figurata in question represents a syrinx by an arrangement of twenty lines, each succeeding pair of lines forming a reed. In this case the instrument is supposed to have ten reeds.

    The syrinx was formed of reeds differing in number according to the time and place of construction; seven and nine appear to have been most frequently adopted, but a greater number was sometimes used. Virgil tells us that seven pipes of different lengths were employed:—Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis Fistula. (Virgil, Ecl. II, 37.) He also tells us that wax was first used, by Pan, to join the reeds together:—Pan primus calamos cera conjungere plures Instituit. (Virgil, Ecl. II, 32.) Tibullus likewise mentions the use of wax, and speaks of the arrangement of the reeds:—Fistula cui semper decrescit arundinis ordo Nam calamis cera jungitur usque minor. (Tibullus, lib. II, 5, 31.) The accompanying illustration, Fig. I, taken from an Etruscan bas-relief, shows the syrinx of antiquity in its most complete form, comprising nine tubes. Kathleen Schlesinger, in her interesting paper on the Origin of the Organs of the Ancients,* remarks:—The syrinx is evidently of the highest antiquity and its invention must have followed closely on the discovery of the single reed. The principle on which the syrinx works is practically that of the stopped pipe of the present day. Reeds were first used for the purpose—those growing on the shores of Lake Orchomenus being very greatly esteemed by the Greeks—later horn, ivory, bone, wood, and metal were all used to make the pipes. We must not imagine that these various materials were adopted to vary the tone of the instrument, it has been practically demonstrated in our day that material has very little influence on timbre; but it was rather for the sake of durability, and because in some countries reeds were not available. These pipes composing the syrinx were stopped at one end, … giving a note nearly an octave lower than that produced by an open pipe of equal length. The breath was blown horizontally across the open end, impinging with force against the sharp inner edge, and setting the whole column of air in vibration. Many of the ancient Egyptian flutes were sounded in a similar manner.

    From the simple syrinx, constructed, as has been said, of tubes closed at one end, and made to emit musical sounds of different pitches by air forced across their open ends, an important step was made toward the inception of the true organ pipe, by the discovery that similar sounds could be produced by blowing across a hole perforated in the side of a tube in the neighborhood of its closed end. Probably the next step was the invention of a fixed mouth-piece, whereby the direct action of the lips was done away with, and the wind stream was properly directed so as to at all times produce the desired musical sound. When this was accomplished the true whistle was created—the precursor of the organ labial pipe, which is simply a perfected whistle. The invention of the first musical instrument in which the sound was produced by means of a vibrating tongue or split reed was doubtless long after that of the mouthed pipe or whistle.

    We have been alluding to extremely remote times. The representations of long flutes and reed pipes have been found in Egyptian paintings and sculptures, showing that the invention of such musical instruments is of the highest antiquity. Specimens of these instruments have been found in Egyptian tombs, and are now to be seen in different museums in Europe. The following remarks by William Chappell cannot but be interesting:

    "It was the custom of the Egyptians, in the early dynasties of the empire, to deposit a musical pipe by the side of the body of a deceased person, and, together with the pipe, a long straw of barley. The pipes were played upon by short pieces of barley-straw, which were cut partly through, to perhaps a fourth of the diameter, and then, by turning the blade of the knife flat, and passing it upwards towards the mouth end, a strip of an inch or more in length was raised, to serve as a beating reed, like the hautboy reed, and thus to sound the pipe. The principle is the same as the old shepherds’ pipe, and as shepherds are no longer as musical as in former days, boys bred in the country have taken up the art. One of the pipes in the British Museum has still the cut piece of straw with which it had been played within it, and a similar piece is to be found within a pipe in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Turin. Entire straws which were thus deposited are preserved in the Museum at Leyden, and in the Salt Collection at the British Museum. … We learn from these pipes that the early Egyptians understood the principle of the bagpipe drone, and that of the old English Recorder, alluded to by Shakespeare in ‘Hamlet’ and in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Also that they played music in the pentaphonic inches in length, and has four holes for musical notes, besides two round apertures, opposite to one another, and bored through the pipe, at within an inch of the mouth end. If those had remained open, there could have been no sound produced; but, by analogy with the English Recorder, they were covered with the thinnest bladder, such as that of a small fish, the object being to produce a slightly tremulous tone by the vibration of the bladder, making it more like the human voice than the pure and steady quality of an English flute, such as was blown at the end, or of a diapason pipe in an organ. This pipe is also remarkable for being on the pentaphonic or Scotch scale, and that the pitch should be precisely that of a modern harmonium, and the notes to correspond with the black keys upon a pianoforte.

    The first note of this scale is produced by the whole length of the pipe.

    inches in length, which has also four holes for notes.

    inches in length, and has only three holes."

    In continuation and elaboration of the same subject we return with pleasure to the able essay by Kathleen Schlesinger:

    Although the Egyptians used so many different kinds of flutes and pipes, and were familiar with the principle of the drone, we do not find the syrinx among the musical scenes depicted on the tombs, but it was known to the Chinese, to the Hebrews, and to the Greeks. A probable explanation of the absence of the syrinx in Egypt, is that the object of the Pandean-pipe being to provide a scale or sequence of sounds by means of columns of air of different lengths, the simplest means of attaining this end was to cut several reeds of the requisite sizes. The Egyptians, however, had discovered a still more ingenious method of obtaining columns of air of different lengths, which did not necessitate removing the lips from the embouchure of one pipe to the next; they found out the principle of shortening the column of air in any given open pipe by boring lateral holes in it, and of stopping these with the fingers in order to lengthen the column. This discovery, which may have caused the Egyptians to relegate the more primitive instrument to the shepherds and nomadic tribes, was a very important one for the history of wind instruments; and to the system of boring lateral holes in tubes or pipes we owe all the wood-wind and much of the brass in the modern orchestra. But although the priestly class of musicians in Egypt may have despised the syrinx, a time came when other nations valued it, and experimentalizing upon it in many directions gave us what by degrees developed into the lordly Organ. Henceforth the stopped pipe of the syrinx and the open pipe of the flute went their several ways, diverging more and more, until some there were who even forgot that their common ancestor was the primitive pipe. The musical instruments of China supply a very valuable link in the history of the Organ, and according to Chinese authorities their antiquity is such as to command attention next to those of Egypt; unfortunately, however, the difficulties of the language preclude any possibility of independent research in this field, and one can but repeat what others have said before, accepting Chinese reports and traditions with reserve.

    Of all the instruments of antiquity which seem to foreshadow the Organ, the cheng of the Chinese holds the most noteworthy position. Respecting this interesting musical instrument, Engel writes: "This is one of the oldest instruments of the Chinese still in use, and may be regarded as the most ancient species of organ with which we are exactly acquainted. Formerly it was made with a long spout for a mouth-piece, which gave it the appearance of an old-fashioned coffee-pot. The cheng is also popular in Japan, and a similarly constructed instrument, though different in outward appearance, is the heen of Burmah and Siam. The Siamese call their heen ‘The Laos organ,’ which indicates that they consider it to have been originally derived by them from Laos. Moreover, there deserves to be noticed another Chinese instrument of this kind, simple in construction, which probably represents the cheng in its most primitive condition. It is to be found among the Meaou-tsze, or mountaineers, who are supposed to be the aboriginal inhabitants of China. They call it sang. This species has no bowl, or air-chest; it rather resembles the Pan-pipe, but is sounded by means of a common mouth-piece consisting of a tube, which is placed at a right angle across the pipes. The Chinese assert that the cheng was used in olden time in the religious rites performed in honor of Confucius. Tradescant Lay, in his account of the Chinese, calls it ‘Jubal’s organ,’ and remarks, ‘this seems to be the embryo of our multiform and magnificent organ.’"*

    The cheng consists of a small wind-chest, usually in the shape of half an egg, formed of wood hollowed out, or from a gourd, and covered externally with lacquer, usually black. From its side projects a short tube or mouth-piece, against which the lips are pressed while supplying the instrument with compressed air. On the flat cover of the wind-chest are planted a number of slender bamboo tubes containing free reeds, or vibrating tongues, of metal. The tubes are of different lengths, and vary in number from seventeen to twenty-four. The cheng with seventeen tubes usually has thirteen which speak, the remaining four tubes serving as supports. The tubes are arranged in a circular fashion close to the edge of the wind-chest. Each speaking pipe has a small lateral hole near its lower end; and it sounds only when this hole is covered by a finger. The cheng has been tuned in different ways at different periods. While the thirteen tubes were commonly tuned to yield notes of the pentatonic scale, the ancient cheng was tuned according to the chromatic scale. Beyond the cheng no steps seem to have been taken by the Chinese toward the construction of an instrument of the organ class.

    A considerable amount of discussion has obtained in certain quarters as to whether or not the Organ, in some primitive form, was known to the Jews in ancient times: but as absolutely nothing has been accomplished by this discussion it is unnecessary to dwell upon it here beyond the following brief remarks. Special attention has been paid to the Chaldee word mashrokitha, used by Daniel (580 B. C.), in his third chapter, in describing the music at the worship of the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up. Athanasius Kircher, in his Musurgia, written about the middle of the seventeenth century, gives a drawing of what he conceives the mashrokitha or magraketha of the Chaldee orchestra to have been. Of course, as we do not know his authority for this representation, we must look upon it as in all probability a work of his imagination. We give, in Fig. II., a rendering of Father Kircher’s instrument. He describes the magraketha, from its supposed whistling sounds, as an instrument formed of several pipes, supported on a wooden box, and arranged in proper order according to their tones. He tells us that they are open at top, and closed below by a flexible skin, inclosed in a wooden chest, and inflated by means of a tube blown into by the mouth. The holes which admit the compressed air into the pipes are opened and closed by the action of the fingers. From his drawing it would seem that the instrument was furnished with small slides or levers for admitting the air to the pipes. With all due deference to the opinion of this imaginative writer of the seventeenth century, we are convinced that no such instrument as he describes existed in the time of Daniel.

    The facts that have been outlined in the preceding pages show at what an early date in the world’s history the knowledge of the art of forming musical instruments from hollow reeds and straws was attained. So advanced were the ancient Egyptians and the early Greeks in the fabrication of such wind instruments that it is a matter of wonder that an instrument more closely resembling the Organ was not immediately conceived. It is possible that some isolated and tentative efforts may have been essayed of which no record has been made or preserved. Certain it is that at what date and by what people the first attempt was made to produce a compound instrument of the true organ class cannot now be known: but in imagination we can form some reasonable idea respecting the progressive stages which led to the first appearance of what may be considered an Organ in the true meaning of the term.

    The steps or stages in the evolution of the primitive Organ were, in all probability, somewhat as follows: Possessed of the syrinx, the whistle with a fixed mouth-piece, and such reed pipes as the Egyptians in all likelihood invented, it naturally followed, in the course of time, that attempts should be made to associate several whistles or reed pipes together in such a manner as to render it easy to sound them singly or in groups, in rapid succession, by the breath of a single performer. To accomplish this it was only necessary to mount a series of pipes on a long and narrow box, or wind-chest, provided with a tube, through which the chest was charged with air from the mouth, and furnished with some simple means of controlling the admission of wind to the pipes. At this stage the instrument would resemble, in all essentials, the magraketha of Father Kircher (Fig. II). Some writers have suggested that before any mechanical means of controlling the admission of wind were adopted, the pipes that had to remain silent were simply stopped by the fingers: but this most inconvenient method, if it ever obtained, must soon have been abandoned in favor of a mechanical device which the inventive genius of the ancients was quite capable of supplying. That such an initial step was taken at some early date, unknown to us, there can be no reasonable doubt; and that it led, through the difficulty experienced in supplying the necessary amount of compressed air by the lungs of the player, to the next important step in the evolution of the Organ—namely, the addition of some artificial or mechanical means of collecting, storing, and compressing the air—is, we venture to think, also unquestionable. There appears to be good grounds for believing that the idea of supplying wind to the earliest form of the Organ by other means than directly from the mouth of the player was suggested by the primitive bagpipe. No record exists of the use of the bagpipe by the ancient Egyptians; but we have satisfactory evidence, from ancient paintings, that the bellows, in the form of a leather bag, was used in Egypt for blowing the smelting furnace so early as the fifteenth century before Christ.*

    FIG. II.

    constituted a pair of bellows. These were furnished with valves adjusted to the natural apertures at one part for admitting the air, and a pipe inserted into another part for its emission. Such primitive bellows, probably placed between boards hinged together at one end, formed an essential piece of furniture in every forge and foundry. We find the bellows alluded to in the Iliad (1200–850 B. C.), in which there is a vivid description of the forge and bellows presided over by Vulcan. We read that when Thetis entered his forge she found the lame god hurrying from fire to fire blowing the roaring bellows; and as he ceased from his labors to offer hospitality to his visitor he moved the bellows away from the fires. So much for the primitive bellows.

    , which has been translated bumblebee pipers, and, by Blaydes, droners on the bagpipes. The use of this word clearly shows that in Greece, at that early time, the bagpipe had the drone pipes, and that the instrument was so well known that the satirist did not consider it necessary to mention it by name.

    was invented. From that time the Organ, in what may be considered its true form, became an established fact; and from it starts the history and development of the grandest and most complex musical instrument fabricated by the hand of man. Further conjecture is unnecessary, for we can now enter on the historical period.

    . Its pipes were partly of bronze and partly of reed. The number of its stops, and consequently of its rows of pipes, varied from one to eight, so that Tertullian describes it with reason as an exceedingly complicated instrument. It continued in use so late as the ninth century of our era: in the year 826, a Water-Organ was erected by a Venetian in the church of Aquisgranum, the modern Aix-la-Chapelle."*

    Neron, the great Alexandrian mathematician who lived in the third century before Christ, has left us in his work on Pneumatics (preserved in a fragmentary state) a tolerably clear outline of the Organ of his time; but for what is practically a detailed description of the early Hydraulic Organ we must turn to the pages of the interesting work on Architecture by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who lived sometime in the first century before Christ. His work was probably written about the year 25 B. C. In the XIII. chapter of the Tenth Book, he says:

    in Greek. Between this table and the canon, rules are interposed, with corresponding holes, well oiled so that they may be easily pushed in and return; they are called pleuritides, and are for the purpose of stopping and opening the holes along the channels, which they do by passing backwards and forwards. These rules have iron jacks attached to them, and being united to the keys, when those are touched they move the rules. Over the table are holes through which the wind passes into the pipes. Rings are fixed in the rules [?] for the reception of the feet of the organ pipes. From the barrels run pipes joined to the neck of the wind-chest, which communicate with the holes in the chest; in which pipes are closely fitted valves; these, when the chest is supplied with wind, serve to close their orifices, and prevent its escape. Thus, when the levers are raised, the pistons are depressed to the bottom of the barrels, and the dolphins, turning on their pivots, suffer the valves attached to them to descend, thus filling with air the cavities of the barrels. Lastly; the pistons in the barrels being alternately raised and depressed with a quick motion, cause the valves to stop the upper holes: the air, therefore, which is spent [which fills the barrels], escapes into the pipes, through which it passes into the wind-chest, and thence, by its neck, to the box. By the quick motion of the levers still compressing the air, it finds its way through the apertures of the stops, and fills the channels with wind. Hence, when the keys are touched by hand, they propel and repel the rules, alternately stopping and opening the holes, and producing a varied melody founded upon the rules of music. I have done my utmost to give a clear explanation of a complex machine. This has been no easy task, nor, perhaps, shall I be understood, except by those who are experienced in matters of this nature. Such, however, as comprehend but a little of what I have written, would, if they saw this instrument, be compelled to acknowledge the skill exhibited in its contrivance."*

    Apparently clear as this description is, it has, in the absence of any diagram, given rise to much ingenious speculation. No one has been able to construct a satisfactory instrument in strict accordance with the descriptive text. The purely hydraulic portion presents great difficulties from a practical point of view. Dr. Burney, in his History of Music, remarks: Neither the description of the Hydraulic Organ in Vitruvius, nor the conjectures of his innumerable commentators, have put it in the power of the moderns either to imitate, or perfectly conceive the manner of its construction; and it still remains a doubt whether it was ever worthy of the praises which poets have bestowed upon it. From the text of Vitruvius we gather certain facts. It is clearly shown that means were provided for collecting and compressing the wind, the water in the brazen box having, doubtless, an important office in sustaining and equalizing to some extent the pressure of the wind in its passage from the blowing apparatus to the canon musicus and the pipes. We cannot imagine the hydraulic part of the instrument having any other office in the economy of the Organ; but the description gives no direct clue to the part played by the water. Considering the name given to this Organ, it is remarkable that so little stress is laid on its hydraulic arrangements. Means were also provided, apparently in a very complete form, for controlling the different ranks of pipes, and for enabling the performer to admit the wind into any pipe at pleasure. Some description of lever suitable for the hand or fingers was provided for each note, the moving of which opened the slider or rule under the pipe—Hæ regulæ habent ferrea choragia fixa et juncta cum pinnis, quarum pinnarum tactus motiones efficit regularum. Gwilt translates "pinnis by the word keys;" but it is most improbable that the Organ of Vitruvius’ time had anything in the nature of finger keys. The invention of keys for the fingers is attributed to an age more than a thousand years later than that of Vitruvius. To the above we may add the following remarks from the pen of Dr. Rimbault:

    "The mechanical operation of the water-organ is scarcely intelligible; this much, however, is certain, that the hydraulicon was provided with pipes and a wind-chest, and registered like the wind-organ. We must not suppose that the water directly produced the wind, but that it served merely to give the wind, by means of counterpressure, equality and power. Ctesibius’ object was ‘to employ a row of pipes of great size, and capable of emitting the most powerful as well as the softest sounds.’ He is also said to have invented, or perfected, the perforated slide by which means he was enabled to open and shut the mouths of the pipes with greater facility."

    The Organ as described by Vitruvius, with, perhaps some slight improvements, seems to have been held in high esteem by the Romans in the early years of the first century after Christ. As Yates remarks: "The Organ was well adapted to gratify the Roman people in the splendid entertainments provided for them by the emperors and other opulent persons. Nero was very curious about Organs, both in regard to their musical effect and their mechanism. A contorniate coin of this emperor, in the British Museum, [of which an illustration is given in Fig. III.] shows an Organ with a sprig of laurel on one side, and a man standing on the other, who may have been victorious in the exhibitions of the circus or the amphitheatre. It is probable that these medals were bestowed upon such victors, and that the Organ was impressed upon them on account of its introduction on such occasions. The general form of the Organ is also clearly exhibited in a poem by Publilius Porphyrius Optatianus, describing the instrument, and composed of verses so constructed as to show both the lower part which contained the bellows, the wind-chest which lay upon it, and over this, the row of 26 pipes. These are represented by 26 lines, which increase in length each by one letter, until the last line is twice as long as the first." The pipes are represented with the treble on the left and the bass or larger pipes toward the right—the reverse of the modern arrangement.* It is to be regretted that the representation on the contorniate coin gives us no idea of the mechanical part of the instrument. It looks like a portable Pneumatic Organ.

    FIG. III.

    The Organ described by Heron, in his work Pneumatika, differs in no essential point from that described by Vitruvius. It had, however, only a single stop or rank of pipes, while the later Organ of Vitruvius had four, six, or eight ranks of pipes, marking a decided advance in tonal appointment. Vitruvius does not tell us in what manner the rules (pleuritides) return when the levers actuating them are released by the hands of the performer, but Heron furnishes the necessary information. From his description, we gather that from the portion manipulated by the player an arm swings down, from the hinge, and is connected at its lower end with the corresponding slide or rule. When the lever is depressed the slide is pushed in, and the holes which admit the wind into the corresponding pipe or pipes take their places opposite each other. When the lever is released the reverse action takes place, the slide being drawn out by a spring of horn, attached to the slide by a sinue.

    According to the foregoing descriptions, we have to realize an instrument of considerable complexity, which comprised a piston blowing apparatus, an air reservoir in which a certain pressure was imparted to the condensed air, a draw-stop mechanism, a manual action by means of which the pipes were made to sound at the will of the player, and ranks of pipes extending to so many as eight, presenting a state of perfection scarcely reached a thousand years later. We can understand why the Organ of this early time was highly prized, and what induced Tertullian, the celebrated ecclesiastical writer (A. D. 150–230), to exclaim: Behold the marvellous art of Archimedes, I allude to the Hydraulic Organ; so many members, so many parts, so many joints, so many sound conduits, so much tonal effect, so many combinations, so many pipes, and all at one touch.

    After the preceding somewhat lengthy dissertation on the Hydraulic Organs of Ctesibius, Heron, and Vitruvius, the reader, interested in the early history of the Organ, will probably glance with some interest at the accompanying diagrams, in which we have depicted what we conceive the general construction and disposition of the ancient Hydraulic Organ to have been in the first century of our era. Of course, no attempt has been made to draw the several parts to scale. The larger diagram is a Longitudinal Section through the center of the instrument; while the smaller diagram is a Transverse Section through the front portion of the wind-chest, showing the manual appliance by means of which the performer sounded the pipe-work.

    . On the right and left of the brazen vessel are placed the air-pumps F and G, supported by the uprights and cross-pieces H. These air-pumps are cylindrical and carefully formed of brass, entirely open at bottom, and closed at top, with the exception of a central orifice, about three inches in diameter, and the opening for the pipe which connects each pump with the wind reservoir. The pumps are fitted with the pistons M and N, made of brass, and having their broad rims covered with leather well padded with wool, so as to allow them to move easily and practically air-tight. To the center of the pistons are pivoted rods which connect them with the blowing levers K and L. Suspended within the air-pumps, and directly under their central orifices, are the valves I and J, attached by chains to small rocking levers, weighted, ornamentally, with small brazen dolphins, as indicated. From the tops of the air-pumps the pipes O and P conduct the wind, forced by the pistons, into the wind reservoir. These pipes are furnished with the flap-valves Q and R, which allow the compressed air to enter the reservoir, but prevent its escape. We have now to describe the wind-chest. E is the lower chamber directly communicating with the wind reservoir C. S is one of the channels which conduct the wind to the different ranks of pipes planted on the wind-chest. At T is shown a contrivance by means of which the wind is admitted into the stop-channel S. The external bent lever moves an internal slide which opens or closes a series of holes in the bottom of the stop-channel. As the ancient writers are far from clear respecting the draw-stop action,* we have ventured to imagine a probable one, similar to that described for the manual action. In our diagram the slide is drawn outward and the holes of communication are closed. When the handle is pressed down, as indicated by the dotted lines, the slide is pushed in and the holes are opened. The top of the wind-chest, U, is formed of two boards, between which are transverse bearers and sliders (pleuritides. C. D. E. The operation of the Hydraulic Organ, as here represented, is very simple. The piston N is shown at the extreme limit of its downward stroke; and the cylinder G is filled with air drawn in through the orifice of the hanging valve J. The other piston M is shown at the extreme limit of its upward stroke. It has allowed the valve I to close its orifice, and has pressed the air in the cylinder F, that was above the piston, through the conduit O and the open valve Q into the wind reservoir C. The air in the reservoir, being considerably condensed, presses against the surface of the water within the reservoir and lowers its level, in the manner indicated at D. The amount of condensation in the wind contained in the reservoir C is regulated by the difference between the levels of the water in the reservoir and in the vessel B. This regulation is, however, not constant, for as the difference between the levels is increased the degree of condensation, or the weight of the wind, is also increased. In the Hydraulic Organ, therefore, a steady wind was never possible, however carefully the air-pumps were operated. The instant the suction ceases in the cylinder G, and the piston N starts to ascend, the valve J is lifted, by the weight of the brass dolphin, and closes its orifice, and the valve R is pressed open by the condensed air rushing from the cylinder through the conduit P. On the other hand, the instant the piston M commences to descend, the valve Q closes, and the suction within the cylinder F instantly opens the valve I, and allows the external air to fill the cylinder above the descending piston. Accordingly the alternate action of the two air-pumps keeps the wind reservoir charged with compressed air. The action connected with the wind-chest has already been described.

    FIG. IV.

    PLATE I

    , planted, in front, with nineteen pipes. On a ledge, at what we may consider the rear of the instrument, stood the figure of the organist; but, unfortunately, only its legs and lower part of its garment remain. The organist was evidently represented standing at what we may call the manual clavier of the Organ. This clavier appears occupying a position (similar to that indicated in Fig. IV.) elevated above the sliders (pleuritides). The free ends of the sliders appear, immediately under the pipes, in the front of the Organ. No parts of the manual action are represented, as it was impossible to execute minute or detached work in terra cotta. It would appear from the manner in which the air-pumps are supported that their pistons were operated from above; and in all probability the two curious holes at the ends of the wind-chest, in front, had blowing handles inserted into them. There are, it would seem, three ranks of pipes, although the indications of the second and third are extremely unsatisfactory.* This terra cotta is an object of the greatest interest to the student of the art of organ-building, being a veritable landmark in the history of the King of Instruments.

    Although no additional information has been handed down respecting the construction of Hydraulic Organs, it seems certain that they were made and used up to a comparatively late period. In the Chronicle of William of Malmesbury we find, in the portion which alludes to Pope Silvester II., who died in the year 1003, mention made of a Hydraulic Organ, the construction of which was due to his scientific knowledge and skill. This instrument, which was placed in the Church of Reims, is stated to have been in existence in the year 1125, and is described as being sounded by air escaping in a surprising manner by the force of heated water. This, in truth, seems to have been a Hydraulic Organ, for, as Mason says, the word ventus used by the Chronicler evidently meant steam, because the sound was produced by means of heated water.* The original passage is as follows: Aquæ calefactæ violentia ventus emergens implet concavitatem barbiti, et per multiforatiles transitus æneæ fistulæ modulatos clamores emittunt.

    There seems to be no reasonable doubt that purely Pneumatic Organs were constructed and used at the same time as the later Hydraulicons; for it was found that the action of water was at all times most unsatisfactory. In the following Greek enigmatical epigram, attributed to the Emperor Julian (the Apostate), who died in A. D. 363, allusion is certainly made to a Pneumatic Organ:

    , makes them, as they smoothly dance, emit melodious sounds."

    From the words just quoted, it is quite evident that the instrument alluded to was an Organ blown by a bellows made of stout leather, probably in the form of a large bag pressed between boards, the upper one of which was weighted or pressed down by the blower standing upon it. It may have been an entire bull’s hide, tied and stitched, and made airtight in the seams. From the expressions used we may arrive at the conclusion that the instrument had a considerable number of pipes of brass, and that each one was furnished with a valve controlled by a rod, lever, or key, easily depressed by the nimble fingers of the highly-gifted performer. In any event this somewhat poetical description of a Pneumatic Organ is of the highest value in the early history of the instrument.

    Saint Augustine (A. D. 354–430), in his Commentary on the LVI. Psalm, alludes to the Pneumatic Organ in the following words: "Organa dicuntur omnia instrumenta musicorum. Non solum illud organum dicitur, quod grande est et inflatur follibus, sed etiam quidquid aptatur ad cantilenam et corporeum est quo instrumento utitur qui can tat, organum dicitur; which may be translated thus: All instruments of music are designated by the word organs. The term is not confined to the instrument of large dimensions in which the air is furnished by bellows; but is employed to designate any instrument on which the musician performs a melody."

    FIG. V.

    The earliest known representation of a Pneumatic Organ is that found on the obelisk erected at Constantinople by Theodosius the Great (A. D. 346–395). The sculpture, which is of considerable length, contains the representation of two small Organs, formed of pipes planted on wind-chests, and supplied with wind from detached bellows, of the diagonal form, on the upper-boards of which men are standing. Between the Organs are ranged ten figures, three of which are represented as performing on the tibia pares, while the rest are apparently singing and gesticulating. The accompanying illustration, Fig. V., is an outline sketch showing the two Organs of this early and rude work of art. Each Organ has a performer who is seated behind it, in the neighborhood of the bellows. It will be observed that in one case the pipes are represented of different lengths, while in the other they are represented of equal lengths. In all probability such irregularity did not obtain in the original sculpture; but is due to the carelessness of the artist who made the first drawing from the actual work; and which drawing has subsequently been copied and handed down without any attempt at correction.*

    Another rude representation of a Pneumatic Organ of the fourth century is to be seen in an interesting sculpture of the Gallo-Romaine period, preserved in the Museum at Arles, France. The accompanying illustration, Fig. VI., has been drawn from this early work of art. It shows a wind-chest, supported on a wind reservoir, and planted with eleven pipes, unless the two end features are intended as supports, between which is the pipe-stay. Two figures are represented in the act of blowing. The blowing apparatus is merely expressed, without any attempt at detail.* While this sculpture is commonly accepted to represent a Pneumatic Organ, it may, with equal propriety, be pronounced to represent a Hydraulicon.

    FIG. VI.

    Cassiodorus (A. D. 468–560), in his Commentary on the CL. Psalm, says: Organum itaque est quasi turris quædam diversis fistulis fabricata, quibus flatu follium vox copiosissima destinatur; et ut eam modulatio decora componat, linguis quibusdam ligneis ab interiori parte construitur, quas disciplinabiliter magistrorum digiti reprimentis, grandisonam efficiunt et suavissimam cantilenam. This may be translated: The Organ is as a tower, constructed of divers pipes, which blown by the wind of the bellows produces a very full sound; and that a proper modulation may be rendered practicable, it is provided with certain wooden tongues internally, which, skilfully pressed by the fingers of the performer, produce very grand and melodious music.

    From the above it is clearly demonstrated that the Pneumatic Organ was well known in the latter part of the fourth century; and was becoming recognized as an important musical instrument in the fifth century, when Cassiodorus wrote. It is highly probable that it would have entirely superseded the Hydraulic Organ had means been readily found for regulating and imparting a uniform pressure to the wind from the bellows. It was centuries later before this wind regulating was successfully accomplished.

    For a considerable time after the invention of the Organ, in both its hydraulic and pneumatic forms, it seems to have been used exclusively in places of amusement. When and where it was introduced into the service of the Church is not clearly decided. According to Bishop Julianus, the Organ was used in public worship in Spain in the middle of the fifth century. Platina, in his Lives of the Popes, says that it was first used in the Church by Pope Vitalianus (A. D. 657–672). The Organ is stated to have been used in an English church about the year 640. It is probable, however, that it was occasionally used in public worship at an earlier date than the middle of the fifth century. St. Ambrosius, Archbishop of Milan (A. D. 374–397), encouraged the use of instrumental music, and it is only reasonable to suppose that his attention was specially directed to so important an instrument as the Organ. The history of the Organ during the early centuries of our era is, however, so unsatisfactory that it may be passed over without great loss to the student.

    Pepin, King of the Franks, and father of Charlemagne (A. D. 752–768), in his great zeal for the Church of Rome, whose ritual he was the active means of establishing in France, sent to the Byzantine Emperor Constantinus, V., surnamed Compronymus (A. D. 741–775), an urgent request to be furnished with an Organ fit for the service of the Church; the art of organ-building and, indeed, the instrument itself being then unknown in France. This request was complied with about the year 757, by the Byzantine Emperor sending him, as an offering to his church, in charge of a special embassy, headed by a Roman Bishop named Stephanus, a great Organ with leaden pipes.* This instrument was placed, we are told, with great pomp and ceremony, in the Church of Saint Corneille, at Compiègne. This Organ is generally believed to have been of the hydraulic class in favor at the time.

    About the year 812 Charlemagne had an Organ constructed for his church at Aix-la-Chapelle, after the model of his father’s Organ at Compiègne; but in this instance the instrument seems to have been purely pneumatic. Apparently alluding to this Organ, Walafrid Strabo writes:

    "Dulce melos tantum vanas deludere mentes

    Coepit, ut una suis decedens sensibus ipsam

    Foemina perdiderit vocum dulcedine vitam."

    This must indeed have been a wonderful instrument, for Strabo, in these lines, assures us that its dulcet tone caused the death of a female. This statement must, however, be accepted with caution. Rimbault says: It also appears that an Organ, constructed by an Arabian named Giafar, was sent to Charlemagne by the renowned ‘Commander of the Faithful,’ the Caliph Haroun Alraschid. Later, or about the year 820, a Priest at Venice constructed an Organ for Louis le Débonnaire, King of France, which was erected in Aix-la-Chapelle. Theophilus, Emperor of the East (A. D. 829–842), a great lover and patron of the arts, caused two large Organs to be constructed by Byzantine artists, the pipes and other portions of which were richly gilded, and the cases embellished with gold and precious stones.

    The erection of the Organs at Compiègne and Aix-la-Chapelle was sufficient to give an impulse to French artists; and, accordingly, we find that before the close of the ninth century the building of Organs became an established industry in France and Germany, and the finest instruments were fabricated there. Pope John, VIII. (A. D. 872–882), in a letter to Bishop Anno, of Friesingen, acknowledges this fact in requesting him to send him an Organ and an organist to teach the art of playing it to Roman students. A passage in his letter is as follows: Precamur ut optimum organum cum artifice, qui hoc moderari, et facere ad omnem modulationis efficaciam possit, ad instructionem musicæ disciplinæ nobis aut deferas, aut mittas. (Sandini. Vit. Pont.) About this time Bavarian organ builders were invited to practice their art in Italian cities. The first Organ of any great size was constructed in Munich.

    England does not seem to have been much behind France and Germany, for we learn that fair Organs, with pipes of copper mounted in gilded frames, were constructed there. During the reign of Edgar (A. D. 957–975), St. Dunstan, Primate of England, erected, as we are told by William of Malmesbury, an Organ in Abingdon Abbey, which must have been one of the most perfect instruments fabricated up to that time. Thus speaks this historian: "Ideo in multis locis munificus, quæ tunc in Anglia magni miraculi essent, decusque et ingenium conferentis ostenderent, offerre credo. Itaque signa sono et mole præstantia, et organo ubi per æreas fistulas musicis mensuris elaboratas, ‘dudum conceptas follis vomit anxius auras.’ Ibi hoc distichon laminis æreis impressit:

    "Organo de Sancto Præsul Dunstanus Aldhelmo;

    Perdat hic æternum qui vult hinc tollere regnum."*

    St. Dunstan also had an Organ erected in the church of the Abbey of Glastonbury; and it is probable that other Organs were constructed under his patronage, and placed in English churches.

    In the Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Benedict, the following passage occurs: Triginta præterea libras ad fabricandum cupreos organorum calamos erogavit, qui in alveo suo, super unam cochlearum denso ordine foraminibus insidentes, et diebus festis follium spiramento fortiore pulsati, prædulcem melodiam et clangorem longius resonantem ediderunt. This alludes to an Organ presented to the Convent of Ramsey by Earl Elwin, sometime in the tenth century. It may be thus translated: Moreover he paid out thirty pounds for the construction of copper pipes for the Organ, each of which, in the case, rested on one of the concave perforations, located close together; and which on festal days, being played with a powerful bellows, gave forth an exquisite melody and a far resounding clang.

    An important Pneumatic Organ was erected in the Monastic Church of Winchester in the time of Bishop Ethelwold (A. D. 963–980), as we are told by the contemporary Chronicler Wolstan in his poetic life of that great ecclesiastic. The passage in the poem describing the Organ is as follows:

    "Talia et auxistis hic organa qualia nunquam

    Cernuntur, gemino constabilita solo.

    Bisseni supra sociantur ordine folles,

    Inferiusque jacent quatuor atque decem.

    Flatibus alternis spiracula maxima reddunt

    Quos agitant validi septuaginta viri;

    Brachia versantes, multo et sudore madentes,

    Certatimque suos quisque movet socios,

    Viribus ut totis impellant flamina sursum

    Rugiat et pleno capsa referta sinu

    Sola quadringentas quæ sustinet ordine musas

    Quas manus organici temperat ingenii.

    Has aperit clausas, iterumque has claudit apertas

    Exigit ut varii certa camæna soni.

    Considuntque duo concordi pectore fratres,

    Et regit alphabetum rector uterque suum.

    Suntque quaterdenis occulta foramina linguis,

    Inque suo retinet ordine quæque decem:

    Hue aliæ currunt, illuc aliæque recurrunt

    Servantes modulis singula puncta suis;

    Et feriunt jubilum septem discrimina vocum

    Permixto lyriei carmine semitoni:

    Inque modum tonitrus vox ferrea verberat aures,

    Præter ut hunc solum nil capiat sonitum.

    Concrepat in tantum sonus hinc illincque resultans,

    Quisque manu patulas claudat ut auriculas,

    Haudquaquam sufferre valens propiando rugitum,

    Quem reddunt varii concrepitando soni:

    Musarumque melos auditur ubique per urbem,

    Et peragrat totam fama volans patriam.

    Hoc decus Ecclesiæ vovit tua cura Tonanti,

    Clavigeri inque sacri struxit honore Petri."

    Wackerbarth, in his Music of the Anglo-Saxons, gives the following translation:

    "Such Organs as you have built are seen nowhere, fabricated on a double ground. Twice six bellows above are ranged in a row, and fourteen lie below. These, by alternate blasts, supply an immense quantity of wind, and are worked by seventy strong men, labouring with their arms, covered with perspiration, each inciting his companions to drive the wind up with all his strength, that the full-bosomed box may speak with its four hundred pipes which the hand of the organist governs. Some when closed he opens, others when open he closes, as the individual nature of the varied sound requires. Two brethern (religious) of concordant spirit

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