From then on, organs became an integral part of Northern European culture. Augustine, I suppose, would be no less concerned today. The teeth-rattling rumble of a foot pipe, the blast of trumpets of state, feathery flute sounds barely floating above the mass -- they all affect our thoughts and our meditations.
Today, we expect that. And it came about because the brilliant Ktesibios saw air and water as material motive forces. In that, he was the spiritual father of the steam engine and the Saturn rocket -- as well as the pipe organ. I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work. For more on Ktesibios and the design of his organ, see the 1st century AD account by the Roman engineer Vitruvius e. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. For more on Ktesibios' feedback control contribution to the water clock see Mayr, O.
I am grateful to Carol Lienhard for locating the source and suggesting the story line. Lienhard Click here for audio of Episode Theme music Levenson, T. New York: Simon and Schuster, , Chapter 1. The two ideal organs described in Spiegel contained 15 stops. Schlick's book covers the entire field of organ activity: building, composing, and playing. He suggests that the organ should be constantly played, if only softly, throughout an entire church service.
As time passed and organs became ever more elaborate and capable of producing more colors than ever before, organ characteristics began to develop for specific geographic regions. Differences arose for about every aspect of the organ imaginable, from the operation of keys and the number of keyboards, to the types of stops and how they were operated.
Northern European organs had a higher volume of sound than Italian organs. Different types of wood locally available influenced the design of wind boxes. The types of organs built likely had at least some effect on the nature of the music composed locally. By the middle of the 17 th century, some standardization had developed in the form of the French Classical organ.
This was true both of organ building and musical composition. It came as a result of nearly all of the organ builders in France living in Paris.
The shear number of livres d'orgue organ books suggest a unified organ school existed in the metropolis. When a cathedral installed a new organ, the builder almost always was dispatched from Paris. This is the opposite of how most of the rest of Europe built organs, with noticeable differences in organ construction from region to region. Development of the French Classical organ still progressed, that is, until the French Revolution in It was ripe for further development during the years when the sons of Clicquot a prominent French organ builder were enlisted in the army.
Europe experienced considerable political and social turmoil which finally began to settle down after This gave organ builders a moment to rethink and replan organ design and construction. There was an increase in demand, as some organs had been destroyed or damaged in the turmoil.
At the same time, reformes in the various churches of Europe led to a simplification of church services, and thus a simplification of church organs. A new influence was 'congregational needs,' that is, an organ was thought to complement a congregation while singing church hymns.
For this, only 8 stops was thought appropriate. Another influence during the 19 th century was the widely available assortment of printed music. This resulted in a dilution of regional styles. A vast amount of German music, much of it from Leipzig, was spread throughout Europe. The international revival of the music of J. Bach meant that organists in England, France, Spain, and Italy found their instruments to be inadequate. Thus imported music was responsible for persuading many organists to have their instruments rebuilt.
After the 19 th century, the organ builder had a vast array of techniques to choose from. Even the least experienced builder had countless books and tools available to help with design and construction. Newly built railroads allowed musicians and builders alike to travel to and inspect any kind of organ they chose.
Economic progress of the era brought tremendous amounts of material resources unheard of before. And the enormous amount of experience from building thousands of churches had yielded labor saving designs and techniques. The organ proliferated out from the grand cathedrals of the major cities and into every small town on the continent. For an example of a truely modern organ you can research the one in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. It has ranks with a total of 10, pipes.
The organ is operated by electronic keys linked to valves beneath the organ pipes and has about stops. In a hope to share any interesting historical stories I come across in the future I will be writing and posting articles whenever I can. Hopefully quite often. I'll also be keeping you up to date on any good reads I come across in the Recommended section. Looking for something in particular?
The battle, between builders Harris and Smith, was to decide which builder should build the organ for London's Temple Church. Smith won! The church was soon to become famous as a result of Revere's ride. The organ was enlarged many times and recently a new organ was build by David Moore, of Vermont, and the beautiful Johnston case restored. Organs, an integral part of American society since its very beginnings, were exported to the American colonies before the Revolution.
Samuel Bard to Bard's daughter, who played the instrument for the Father of our country. Composer Joseph Haydn wrote a set of pieces in to be played on a mechanical organ located in a clock.
Mozart and Beethoven were both court organists. Mozart's appointment came in to the court of Salzburg and Beethoven's in to the court of Elector Max Franz. While we often associate J. Bach closely with the organ, many today do not think of Mozart and Beethoven as court organists. These positions were ones of importance to the composers, the courts and the people of western Europe.
In Joshua C. Stoddard of Worcester, England introduced a steam-powered organ called the calliope. The Worcester City Council banned him from playing it within the city limits because it was so loud.
In Laurens Hammond patented an electronic keyboard instrument called the "Hammond Organ". One of the liveliest chapters in American organ history began in when Laurens Hammond owner of a clock manufacturing company patented an electronic keyboard instrument called the "Hammond Organ".
Hammond claimed that the instrument could equal a pipe organ in its range of harmonics and could produce the tone colors necessary for proper rendition of the great works of organ literature.
Counter-claims were made by organ builders in organ periodicals. The outcome: In , the FTC ordered the Hammond company to cease its claims that the instrument could equal a pipe organ. English organ recitalist and composer Elizabeth Stirling passed all of the requirements for a degree in music at Oxford in The degree was not awarded because only males were eligible for Oxford degrees.
Fortunately, times have changed. Today, males and females routinely hold positions as organists throughout our country—and Oxford degrees are awarded to both sexes. While 17th-century audiences consisted mostly of the aristocracy, music lovers from various economic and social strata began attending concerts during the 19th- and 20th-centuries which witnessed an increase in the size of performing ensembles, concert halls and organs.
According to Sir George Grove in his famous Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "The organ is, together with the clock, the most complex of all mechanical instruments developed before the Industrial Revolution. Among musical instruments its history is the most involved and wide-ranging, and its extant repertory the oldest and largest
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