ORGAN. This is incontestibly the noblest of musical instruments, whether considered in regard to the grandeur and beauty of its sounds, the variety of its powers, or the sacred purposes to which it is usually dedicated. It consists of a vast number of metallic and wooden pipes, divided into different stops, the wind being admitted into the pipes from a bellows. It is played on by means of a key board.
It must have been early discovered that air may be forced into a closed cavity, and then distributed at will into one or more tubes; and pursuing the contrivance a little further, smething like a modern organ was likely to be produced. That an instrument similar in principle, though not in details, to the modern organ, was known in very early times, there is abundant evidence to show. The periodwhen the organ was introduced into the churches of Western Europe is very uncertain. Pope Vitalian is supposed to have been the first to admit the instrument, about the year 070; but the earliest account, to be at all relied on, of the introduction of this instrument in the West is, that about the year 755 the Greek emperor Copronymus sent one as a present to Pepin, King of France. In the time of Charle magne however organs became common in Europe. Before the 10th centurytheywere not only common in England, but of large size. They were however very rude in construction, and extremely limited in means. The keys were four or five inches broad, and must have been struck by the clenched hand, in the manner of the carrilons: the pipes were of brass, harsh in sound, and the compass did not exceed a dozen or fifteen notes in the 12th century; and to accompany the plain. chant no more were required. About that time half notes were introduced at Venice, where also the important addition of pedals or foo•keys, was made in 1470.
Most of the early English organs were de stroyed by the Puritans. The tone of the pipes of the old builders—depending on what is tech nically called the voicing—has never been excel led by later makers ; but in point of Neck, and mechanism generally, the moderns are much superior to their predecessors. In mechanical skill and delicate finishing the English organ builders far surpass their continental rivals, while in tong they at least equal them.
The following are some of the largest foreign organs : Stops. Pipes.
Seville cathedral 100 5330 Goerlitz, in Upper Lusatia 82 3270 Hamburg, St. Michael's 67 Amsterdam, the old church 61 Weingarten, in Snabia 60 6666 Rotterdam (150 feet high) 5500 Tours cathedral 60 Haarlem 60 5000 Among the principal organs in England are those of York Minster, Birmingham Town hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey,
Exeter Hall, Christ's Hospital, and Mr.Willis's noble organ at the Great Exhibition. See also APOLLONICON.
The mechanism of the organ is complicated. The principle of it is—that when the finger of the player presses down a key, or the foot presses down a pedal, a valve opens the lower end of a pipe or pipes, into which air rushes from a chamber wherein it has been con densed by bellows. The length and form of each pipe are so arranged that it may yield a certain definite note. Each stop is a particular set of pipes, differing in pitch, but all haying the same character of sound. Some stops imitate the flute sound, some the trumpet sound, and so on. It is the combination of many stops with many octaves of notes that gives rise to the large number of pipes in an organ.
The barrel•organ is an instrument by which most of the effects of a small keyed-organ are produced by certain machinery. Instead of keys for the fingers, the keys, if so they may be called, are inside the organ, and acted on by means of a cylinder, or barrel, pinned, or studded, in a particular and singularly curious manner. This barrel is made to revolve by a winch, and in those of an expensive kind by wheel-work, moved by a spring.
Under AUTOPHON, it is stated that Mr. Dawson's ingenious contrivance called by that name is an appendage to the barrel organ ; whereas it should have mentioned that the autophon is the complete instrument itself.
It is a self-acting organ, in which, a handle regulates—not the motion of a barrel with pins on its surface—but the admission of air through holes in a perforated card. It will play as many tunes as there are cards pro vided, without limit; and as the cards are sold at Od. each, a player with no more skill than is required to turn a handle regularly can play a range of music, either sacred or secular, to which there is (or need be) no assignable limit.
The organ builders of England and the Con tinent justly think that the present is a fitting opportunity for showing the power of the noblest of instruments in the noblest of ex hibition rooms. The east and west ends of the Palace of Industry each contains one of the finest specimens of modern organ building—the one English and the other foreign ; while the north and south transepts have organs of somewhat smaller dimensions.