A Complete History of Music / for Schools, Clubs, and Private Reading

by W. J. Baltzell

The Germ of the Organ.—The invention of the organ is veiled in deepest darkness. Its development from its earliest forms to its present state has occupied a period of almost two thousand years. Doubtless, the first idea of a wind instrument was suggested by the breeze blowing across the open ends of broken reeds, the discovery naturally following that reeds of different lengths gave forth sounds of varying pitch. In course of time, reeds or pipes, differing in length, began to be joined together, conveniently arranged so as to produce a succession of musical sounds, the players blowing them with the mouth. These instruments were called Pan’s Pipes, the Syrinx of the ancient Greeks.

The First Stage of Development.—As the number of pipes was increased, the moving of the head back and forth in order to blow them became difficult. The pipes were then placed in a sort of box or wind chest, a tube being added through which the player could blow, the pipes not intended to sound being closed by the fingers. Furthermore, as the pipes were increased in number and in size, it became necessary to employ various mechanical accessories to furnish adequate wind supply, and to open and close the pipes at will, the breath and fingers of the player proving insufficient. A device was invented in the form of a slide, rule or tongue of wood, which was placed beneath the aperture of the pipe, and perforated so as to shut off or admit wind to the pipe as it was drawn back or forth. The earliest form of bellows might be suggested by the leathern bag of the bagpipe. In this the wind pressure was unsteady and the tone necessarily disconnected.

The Hydraulic Organ.—The first attempts to secure regular or steady wind pressure were made by Ctesibus, who lived at Alexandria, about 180 B. C. To him is ascribed the invention of the so-called “Hydraulic Organ.” This term seems somewhat of a misnomer, since the water was used merely to give the necessary pressure to the bellows, and to regulate the wind supply. This method was never developed, since the device did not seem applicable to instruments of any considerable size. The trend was rather toward a wind supply from a bellows operated on the same principle as that of the blacksmith’s. In the Hydraulic Organ the water was thus applied: An inverted air receiver, into which the wind was forced by a bellows, was immersed in a tank of water, the pressure of the water around and above the receiver forcing the air through an aperture at the top into the pipes, the pressure being regulated by the volume of water in the tank. The hydraulic organ continued more or less in use up to the early part of the 14th century.

The Earliest Organs.—The organ developed little as to size or mechanical improvements during the first ten centuries of the Christian Era, and it is difficult to trace the progressive stages in point of time, place or mechanical invention. The first organ known to the people of Western Europe was a present from the Byzantine emperor, Constantine, to Pepin the Short, Major-Domo of the Frankish Kingdom, in 742. It had brass pipes and the “keys” were struck by hands and feet. Eastern organs also came into France in the time of Charlemagne, son of Pepin. The first organ used in Germany was made in 812, modelled after the one just mentioned. In 880, the Pope ordered an organ and an organ builder from Germany, which seems to indicate that the art had found support there at an early date. Although not considered absolutely indispensable, the organ from that time on seems to have been generally adopted for use in churches. Its many imperfections gave ground for criticism, yet today it is considered, par excellence, the ecclesiastical instrument.

Increase in the Size of Organs.—The organ builders of these early days were mostly monks, Pope Sylvester II (1003) being eminent, under the name of Gerbert, prior to his election to the papacy. They built small organs called “Portative,” and large organs called “Positive.” The old hydraulic organ, owing to its excessive weight, was called “Positive” to distinguish it from the “Portative” or portable organ, and these terms have been perpetuated to the present time. An organ built for the Cathedral at Winchester, England, had ten keys, four hundred pipes and twenty-six bellows, which were operated by seventy men, “in the sweat of their brows.” Since forty pipes were attached to a single key, it may be readily understood why its tone was compared to thunder. The keys were very large, having a deep fall, and required the whole force of the hand to press down a single one.

Mechanical Improvements.—The pipes in the early organs were made of copper, lead, tin, silver, glass, ivory and various woods, but experiments finally showed tin or wood to be best suited for the purpose. The earliest organs had about twelve pipes, and the larger instruments three octaves, but without the chromatic intervals. The pipes were arranged according to the sequence of tones in the old Church modes, the octave containing but three semitones: between E-F, A-B flat and B-C. The chromatic tones were added gradually, the breadth of the keys being correspondingly reduced as the increased number of keys occupied the same space as before. Heretofore, the wind had usually been forced from the bellows by the weight of men standing upon them, but in the 10th century use began to be made of a lever, the bellows presumably being weighted.

The Keyboard is Adopted.—In the 11th century, the keyboard appeared, supplanting the levers and slides, previously in use. The first organ containing this marked improvement was made for the Cathedral at Magdeburg, Germany. It had sixteen keys. In 1350, a monk at Thorn built an organ with twenty-two keys, and in 1361 an organ was built for the Cathedral at Halberstadt with fourteen diatonic and eight chromatic tones in a compass extending from B, second line, bass staff, to A, second space, treble. This organ had three keyboards, now termed manuals.

The Pedals.—The invention of pedals is variously ascribed to Albert Van Os (about 1120), to Van Valbeke, of Brabant, and to a German named Bernhard (1470), an organist of Venice. The latter probably improved, but did not invent the pedals. The pedals at first did not exceed the compass of an octave, and were used only for sustaining prolonged tones. They were fastened to the broad manual keys by stout cords, thus enabling the performer to draw down the desired key with the foot. About the year 1418 the pedals began to be attached to independent pedal-pipes, thus imparting to the organ a certain dignity and sonority, still a chief characteristic of the instrument. After 1475, all important organs were built with pedal keyboard.

The Introduction of Stops.—Up to the 14th century, the different registers (set of pipes with uniform tone quality) could not be sounded separately, that is to say: all the pipes belonging to any one key sounded when that key was depressed. At the close of the 14th century it was found possible to add valves to the pipes in such a manner as to cause the wind to pass through or be cut off from any series of pipes at will. The opening and closing was managed through a spring. The next improvement was to introduce a slide to open or close the passage of wind into the pipes. With these improvements it became possible for builders to set themselves to the improvement of the various “stops” or registers.