The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1920-03-30
THE MODERN ORGAN
AND ITS ANCESTORS

once upon time a youth passing
through thicket cut a hollow reed
and carefully blowing into the end
discovered that he was producing a
sound, musical note, possibly the
hrst 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.
ana by combining a number Of these
REEDS, after probably many efforts. he
ecVeiVed set of perhaps an octave of
consecutive tones, and thus deveioped
what we now call Pans Pipes. the
first organ
Then some one discovered that the
AIDING of a mouthpiece made the
blowing easier and that instead OF
many tubes, one alone could be
iengthened or shortened by the use
or hnger holes, and SO the Shep-
nerds Pipe. The shepherd soon
learned that by using pipe in each
nand he could produce two tones at
the same time, and here we have the
beginning of harmony. s4
The invention of the bellows, prob
ABLY in connection with the black
smiths forge, furnishing means for
obtaining more wind made it possible
10 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.
The organ Of today has three de-
partments. blowing plant, action and
pipes. The first usually consists of
Tan blower, the wind at a pressure
OF from to 10 inches by the blower
gauge, being conveyed to the organ
chest, box of about eight feet in
length containing the valves which
ADMIT the wind to the pipes wnicn
rest upon the top in double rows
The organ keyboard contains the
Keys. from two to five sets of five
octaves each; the Pedal keys. which
are the bass of the instrument, andi
which are played by the feet the
stop knobs or tablets one for each
row of pipes, the couplers, for con-.
nectin~ the different keyboards or for
adding octayes to the notes played;
and the combination pistons for bring
ing on certain selected com binations
OIL stops, This keydesk is connected
to the chests by cable of hundreds
of separate electric wires
Each keyboard controls a section
OF the organ called according to the
quality OF its tone the Great. Swell,
Choir. Solo. Echo. or Pedal organ
In the Great oragan 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 med
ium 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 l
dued In tone. The Pedal organ is
the bass of the instrument and con-
tatns large pipes mainly sixteen feet.
though sometimes thirty-two and sew
en- 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 eight fet In length on the
lowest note. A four foot pipe pro-
duces a note an octave higher. and
two foot pipe two octaves higher
The largest possible pipe Is sixty-four
feet in diameter. and vihrates four
times a second. The smallest Is three
quarters of an inch in length with FIVE
thousand vibrations per second
The great variety of tonal qualities
contained in the modern organ and
the ease with which it may be con-
trolled renders it quite distinct from
the ponderous Cathedral instrument
of our forefathers, and makes posi-
Bile it's use as a concert instrument
as which it is becoming very popular
The possibilities of the contrasting
of the various departments OF the
organ, the combinations of the won
derful assortment OF tones, the eff
fects OF coupling the various key
boards, are almost endles and call
for a lifetime of study to properly
manipulate the organ, well called the
King of instruments.