The Washington times., 1920-05-23
ORGANIRACEDBACK
TO PIPES OF PAN
Shepherd Later Produced Two
Tones at Once and SIN
vented" Harmony.

once upon a time a youth passing
through a thicket cut a hollow reed
and careIessly blowing into the end
discovered that he was producing
sound. a musical note. possibly the
first he had ever heard aside from the
song of the birds round about him.
Cutting another reed he found
sound again. but OF a different pitch
and by combining a number OF these
reeds. after probably many efforts, he
evolved u set OF perhaps an octave OF
consecutive tones, and thus developed
what we now call Pans Pipes, the
first organ.
Then some one discovered that the
adding OF a mouthpiece made the
blowing easier, and that instead of
many tubes, one alone could be
heightened or shortened by the use
of finger holes. and so the shepherds
Pipe. The shepherd soon learned that
by using a pipe in each hand he could
produce two tones at the same time,
and here we have the beginning or
harmony:
The invention OF the bellows, prob
ably in connection with the black
smiths forge. furnishing a means for
BILE to use larger pipes. and more of
them, and in this with the addition OF
a keyboard we have the foundation OF
the modern pipe organ.
Parts of the Organ.
The organ of today has three de,
partments. blowing plant, action and
pipes. The first usually consists of a
fan blower, the wind at pressure
of from four TO ten inches by the
water gauge. being conveyed to the
organ chests. box of about eight
feet in length containing the valves
which admit the wind to the pipes
which rest upon the top in double
rows
The organ keydesk contains the
keys. from two to five sets OF five
octaves each; the pedal keys, which
are the bass OF the INSTRUMENT, and
which are played by the feet: the
| stop knobs or tablets one for each
row of pipes, the couplers. for con-
! Meeting the different keyboards or
! for adding octaves to the notes play
ed; and the combination pistons for
| bringing on certain selected combi-
| nations of stops This keydesk is con-
| nected to the chests by cable of
| hundreds of separate electric wires.
Each keyboard controls section
| of the organ called according TO the
/ quality of its tone the great. swell,
choir, solo, echo or pedal organ In
the great organ are the full, round
tones OF the instrument in the swell
organ are the finer more expressive
stops, while the choir organ is a col
| lection of smooth-toned pipes of me-
| dunn scales. The solo organ contains
few stops but of large scale and upon
a high pressure of wind which makes
them very assertive. The echo organ
! is generally at a distance and sub
dued in tone. The pedal organ is the
bass of the instrument and contains
large pipes mainly sixteen feet,
though sometimes thirty-two and
! even sixty four feet in length.
The pitch is regulated by the length
of the pipe, the normal or piano pitch
being produced by pipe measuring
| s feet in length on the lowest note.
| 4-foot pipe produces a note an &C.
| tave higher, and a 2-foot pipe two
octaves higher. The largest possible
pipe is "a feet high and 2h feet in
| diameter, and vibrates four times =
second. The smallest is thrce-quar-
tiers of an inch in length with 5000
vibrations per second.
| The great variety of tonal qualities
| contained in the modern organ and
| the ease with which il may be CON
/ trolled renders it quite distinct from
the pondcrcus Cathedral instrument
| OF our forefathers, and makes posi-
/ bic it's use as a concert instrument,
as which 1t is becoming very popular.
The possibilities of the contra sting
| Of the various departments OF the
organ, the combinations of the won
derful assortment Of tones, the effects
OF coupling the various keypoards, are
almost endless and call for lifetime
of study to properly manipulate the
organ. well called the king OF instru-
ments.