ORGAN
Psa 150:4, a wind instrument apparently composed of several pipes. It cannot, however, mean the modern organ, which was unknown to the ancients; but refers probably to the ancient syrinx, or pipes, similar to the Pandean pipes, a series of seven or more tubes of unequal length and size, closed at one end, and blown into with the mouth at the other, Gen 4:21 Job 21:12 . See MUSIC.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
organ
(Greek: organon, an instrument)
A musical instrument used and approved by the Church as an aid to public worship. Because of its sonorous and majestic tone it is most appropriate for use in religious services. Organs are of two varieties, the pipe organ and the reed organ. The former, being the more powerful, is generally used in churches. It consists of tubes of wood and metal called organ-pipes, with a bellows and wind-chest, and is equipped with “stops,” by which the tones of various instruments are imitated. There is no authority for the story that the organ was invented or used by Saint Cecilia, the patroness of music, with whom it is associated as an emblem of art. It was evolved gradually from the simple “Pan’s pipes,” or syrinx, a set of tubes bound together by attaching a bellows and a sliding perforated plate which opened and closed the tubes, said to have been invented by a certain Caesibius. Organs of large size, with two or more “manuals,” or keyboards, are mentioned as early as 1350. The “coupler,” an ingenious device for playing two or more notes of different octaves with one key, came into use c.1450, and stops were added c.1500. The “swell” (movable shutters varying the volume of sound), was invented by Jordan, an Englishman, in 1712. Reed organs, having vibrating metal tongues instead of pipes, came into use c.1500. Modern church organs are supplied with air by powerful electric blowers. Other musical instruments are allowed in church under certain restrictions, with the sanction of the bishop.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Organ
(Greek organon, “an instrument”)
A musical instrument which consists of one or several sets of pipes, each pipe giving only one tone, and which is blown and played by mechanical means.
I. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
As far as the sounding material is concerned, the organ has its prototype in the syrinx, or Pan’s pipe, a little instrument consisting of several pipes of differing length tied together in a row. The application of the mechanism is credited to Ctesibius, a mechanician who lived in Alexandria about 300 B. C. According to descriptions by Vitruvius (who is now generally believed to have written about A. D. 60) and Heron (somewhat later than Vitruvius), the organ of Ctesibius was an instrument of such perfection as was not attained again until the eighteenth century. The blowing apparatus designed by Ctesibius consisted of two parts, just as in the modern organ; the first serving to compress the air (the “feeders”); the second, to store the compressed air, the “wind”, and keep it at a uniform pressure (the “reservoir”). For the first purpose Ctesibius used air-pumps fitted with handles for convenient working. The second, the most interesting part of his invention, was constructed as follows: a bell-shaped vessel was placed in a bronze basin, mouth downwards, supported a couple of inches above the bottom of the basin by a few blocks. Into the basin water was then poured until it rose some distance above the mouth of the bell. Tubes connecting with the air-pumps, as well as others connecting with the pipes of the organ, were fitted into the top of the bell. When, therefore, the air-pumps were worked, the air inside the bell was compressed and pushed out some of the water below. The level of the water consequently rose and kept the air inside compressed. Any wind taken from the bell to supply the pipes would naturally have a tendency to raise the level of the water in the bell and to lower that outside. But if the supply from the air-pumps was kept slightly in excess of the demand by the pipes, so that some of the air would always escape through the water in bubbles, a very even pressure would be maintained. This is what was actually done, and the bubbling of the water, sometimes described as “boiling”, was always prominent in the accounts given of the instrument.
Over the basin there was placed a flat box containing a number of channels corresponding to the number of rows of pipes. Vitruvius speaks of organs having four, six, or eight rows of pipes, with as many channels. Each channel was supplied with wind from the bell by a connecting tube, a cock being inserted in each tube to cut off the wind at will. Over the box containing the channels an upper-board was placed, on the lower side of which small grooves were cut transversely to the channels, in the grooves close-fitting “sliders” were inserted, which could be moved in and out. At the intersections of channels and grooves, holes were cut vertically through the upper board and, correspondingly, through the top covering of the channels. The pipes, then, stood over the holes of the upper-board, each row, representing a scale-like progression, standing over its own channel, and all the pipes belonging to the same key, standing over the same groove. The sliders also were perforated, their holes corresponding to those in the upper board and the roof of the channels. When, therefore, the slider was so placed that its holes were in line with the lower and upper holes, the wind could pass through the three holes into the pipe above; but if the slider was drawn out a little, its solid portions would cut off the connexion between the holes in the roof of the channels and those in the upper-board, and no wind could pass. There was thus a double control of the pipes. By means of the cocks, wind could he admitted to any one of the channels, and thus supply all the pipes standing over that channel, but only those pipes would get the wind whose slide was in the proper position. Again, by means of the slide, wind could be admitted to all the pipes standing in a transverse row, but only those pipes would be blown to whose channels wind had been admitted by the cocks. This double control is still a leading principle in modern organ-building, and a row of pipes, differing in pitch, but having the same quality of tone, is called a stop, because its wind supply can be stopped by one action. it is not quite certain what the stops in the ancient organ meant. it is very unlikely that different stops produced different qualities of tone, as in the modern organ. Most probably they represented different “modes”. For the convenient management of the slides each was provided with an angular lever, so that on pressing down one arm of the lever, the slide was pushed in; the lever being released, the slide was pulled out again by a spring.
This organ, called hydraulus, or organum hydraulicum, from the water used in the blowing apparatus, enjoyed great popularity. Writers like Cicero are loud in its praise. Even emperors took pride in playing it. It was used to heighten the pleasures of banquets and was associated particularly with the theatre and the circus. Numerous representations, particularly on coins called contorniates, also testify to its general repute. At an early period we meet organs in which the air pumps were replaced by bellows. Whether in these organs the water apparatus was dispensed with, is not quite certain. It would be strange, however, if this important means of regulating the wind pressure had been discontinued while the hydraulus was still in vogue. About the sixth century organ-building seems to have gone down in Western Europe, while it was continued in the Eastern Empire. It was a great event when, in 757, the Emperor Constantine V Copronymus made a present of an organ to King Pepin. In 826 a Venetian priest named Georgius erected an organ at Aachen, possibly following the directions left by Vitruvius. Shortly afterwards organ-building seems to have flourished in Germany, for we are told (Baluze, “Misc.”, V, 480) that Pope John VIII (872-80) asked Anno, Bishop of Freising, to send him a good organ and an organist. By this time the hydraulic apparatus for equalizing the wind-pressure had certainly been abandoned, presumably because in northern climates the water might freeze in winter time. The wind, therefore, was supplied to the pipes directly from the bellows. To get anything like a regular flow of wind, it was necessary to have a number of bellows worked by several men. Thus, an organ in Winchester cathedral, built in 951, and containing 400 pipes, had twenty-six bellows, which it took seventy men to blow. These seventy men evidently worked in relays. In all probability one man would work one bellows, but the work was so exhausting that each man could continue only for a short time. The bellows were pressed down either by means of a handle or by the blower standing on them. It seems that the device of weighting the bellows — so that the blower had merely to raise the upper board and leave the weights to press it down again — was discovered only in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Another point in which the medieval organ was inferior to the hydraulus, was the absence of stops. There were, indeed, several rows of pipes, but they could not be stopped. All the pipes belonging to one key sounded always together, when that key was depressed. Thus the Winchester organ had ten pipes to each key. What the difference between these various pipes was, we do not know; but it appears that at an early date pipes were introduced to re-enforce the overtones of the principal tone, giving the octave, twelfth, and their duplicates in still higher octaves. Then, to counterbalance these high-pitched pipes, others were added giving the lower octave, and even the second lower octave. In the absence of a stop action, variety of tone quality was of course unattainable, except by having different organs to play alternately. Even the Winchester organ had two key-boards, representing practically two organs (some authorities think there were three). From a contemporary description we learn that there were two organists (or three according to some), each managing his own “alphabet”. The term alphabet is explained by the fact that the alphabetical name of the note was attached to each slide. The modern name key refers to the same fact, though, according to Zarlino (“Istitutioni armoniche”, 1558), in a roundabout manner: he says that the letters of the alphabet placed at the beginning of the Guidonian staff (see NEUM, p. 772, col. 2) were called keys (claves, clefs) because they unlocked the secrets of the staff, and that, hence, the same name was applied to the levers of instruments like the organ inscribed with the same alphabetical letters.
While, in the Winchester organ, the two key-boards belonged to one organ, we know that there used to be also entirely separate organs in the same building. The smallest of these were called “portatives”, because they could be carried about. These were known in France in the tenth century (Viollet-le-Duc, “Instruments de musique”, p. 298). A larger kind was called “positive”, because it was stationary, but it, again, seems to have been distinguished from a still larger instrument known simply as the organ. Later on, when in reality several organs were combined in the same instrument, one of the softer divisions was called “positive”. This name is still retained on the Continent, while in English-speaking countries it has been changed to “choir organ”. There was still another instrument of the organ kind called a “regal”. Its peculiarity was that, instead of pipes, it had reeds, fastened at one end and free to vibrate at the other. It was therefore the precursor of our modern harmonium. In the fourteenth century organs were constructed with different key-boards placed one above the other, each controlling its own division of the organ. Soon afterwards couplers were designed, that is, mechanical appliances by which a key depressed in one key-board (or manual) would simultaneously pull down a corresponding key in another. The invention of a special key-board to be played by the feet, and hence called “pedals”, is also placed in the fourteenth century. Sometimes the pedal keys merely pulled down manual keys by means of a chord; sometimes they were provided with their own rows of pipes, as in some fourteenth-century Swedish organs described by C. F. Hennerberg in a paper read at the International Musical Congress at Vienna, in 1909 (“Bericht”, 91 sqq., Vienna and Leipzig, 1909).
It seems that stops were not reinvented until the fifteenth century. The form then used for a stop action was that of a “spring-box”. About the fourteenth century, it appears, the slider for the key action had been discontinued, and channels (grooves) had been used, as in the ancient hydraulus, but running transversely, each under a row of pipes belonging to the same key. Into these grooves wind was admitted through a slit covered by a valve (pallet), the valve being pulled down and opened by the key action, and closed again by a spring. Such an arrangement is found in some remnants of the fourteenth century Swedish organs (see Hennerberg, l. c.). In these grooves, then, about the fifteenth century, secondary spring valves were inserted, one under each hole leading to a pipe. From each of these secondary valves a string led to one of a number of rods running longitudinally under the sound-board, one for each set of pipes corresponding to a stop. By depressing this rod, all the secondary valves belonging to the corresponding stop would be opened, and wind could enter the pipes as soon as it was admitted into the grooves by the key action. Later on it was found more convenient to push these valves down than to pull them. Little rods were made to pass through the top of the sound-board and to rest on the front end of the valves. These rods could be depressed, so as to open the valves, by the, stop-rod running over the sound-board. From these secondary valves the whole arrangement received the name spring-box.
The spring-box solved the problem in principle, but had the drawback of necessitating frequent repairs. Hence, from the sixteenth century onwards, organ-builders began to use sliders for the stop action. Thus the double control of the pipes by means of channel and slide was again used as in the hydraulus, but with exchanged functions, the channel now serving for the key action and the slider for the stop action. In modern times some builders have returned to the ancient method of using the channel longitudinally, for the stops (Kegellade and similar contrivances; pneumatic sound-boards). Mention should also be made of attempts to do away with the channels altogether, to have all the pipes supplied directly from a universal wind-chest and to bring about the double control of key and stop action by the mechanism alone. Each pipe hole is then provided with a special valve, and key and stop mechanism are so arranged that only their combined action will open the valve. Shortly after the stop-action had been reinvented, builders began to design varieties of stops. The earlier pipes had been all of our open diapason kind, which in principle is the same as the toy-whistle. These were now made in different “scales” (scale being the ratio of diameter to length). Also, the form of a cone, upright or inverted, replaced the cylindrical form. Stopped pipes — that is, pipes closed at the top — were added, and reeds — pipes with a “beating” reed and a body like the “flue” pipes — were introduced. Thus, by the sixteenth century all the main types now used had been invented.
The keys in the early medieval organs were not, it seems, levers, as in the ancient organ and modern instruments, but simply the projecting ends of the slides, being, presumably, furnished with some simple device making it convenient for the fingers to push in or pull out the slides. The invention of key-levers is generally placed in the twelfth century. These were for a long time placed exactly opposite their sliders. When, therefore, larger pipes began to be placed on the soundboard, the distances between the centres of the keys had to be widened. Thus we are told that organs had keys from three to five inches wide. This inconvenience was overcome by the invention of the rollerboard, which is placed in the fourteenth century. The rollers are rods placed longitudinally under the soundboard and pivoted. From each two short arms project horizontally, one being placed over a key, the other under the corresponding slider or valve. Thus the length of the key-board became independent of the length of the sound-board. Consequently we learn that in the fifteenth century the keys were so reduced in size that a hand could span the interval of a fifth, and in the beginning of the sixteenth the keyboard had about the size it has at present.
The number of keys in the early organs was small: only about one or two octaves of natural keys with at most the addition of b flat, Slowly the number of keys was increased, and in the fourteenth century we hear of key-boards having thirty-one keys. In the same century chromatic notes other than b flat began to be added. Then the question of tuning became troublesome. Various systems were devised, and it was not till the eighteenth century, through the powerful influence of J. S. Bach, that equal temperament was adopted. This consists in tuning in fifths and octaves, making each fifth slightly flat so that the 12th fifth will give a perfect octave. About the beginning of the sixteenth century the lower limit of the key-boards began to be fixed on the Continent at C, the c that lies below the lowest tone of the average bass voice and requires an open pipe of about 8 feet in length. In England organ key-boards were generally carried down to the G or F below that C, and only about the middle of the nineteenth century the continental usage prevailed also here. The total compass of the manuals now varies from four and a half to five octaves, that of the pedals from two octaves and three notes to two octaves and six notes (C — d’ of C — f’). In 1712 it occurred to a London organ-builder named Jordan to place one manual department of the organ in a box fitted with shutters which could be opened or closed by a foot-worked lever, a kind of crescendo and decrescendo being thus obtained. This device, which received the name of swell, soon became popular in England, while in Germany it found favour only quite recently.
As we have seen, all through the Middle Ages the blowing apparatus consisted of bellows which delivered the wind directly to the sound-board. It was only in the eighteenth century that two sets of bellows were employed, one to supply the wind, the other to store it and keep it at even pressure. Thus, after an interval of about a thousand years, the blowing apparatus regained the perfection it had possessed in the hydraulus during the preceding thousand years. In 1762 a clock-maker named Cummings invented a square, weighted bellows, serving as a reservoir, and supplied by other bellows called “feeders”. The feeders are generally worked by levers operated either by hand or foot, In quite recent times machinery has been applied to supersede the human blower, hydraulic, or gas, or oil engines, or electromotors being used. The difficulty of regulating the supply is easily overcome in the case of hydraulic engines, which can be made to go slowly or fast as required. But it is serious in the case of the other engines. Gas and oil engines must always go at the same speed, and even with electromotors a control of their speed is awkward. Hence, nowadays, bellows serving as feeders are frequently superseded by centrifugal fans, which can go at their full speed without delivering wind. It is sufficient, therefore, to fit an automatic valve to the reservoir, which will close when the reservoir is full. There is this drawback in the fans: that to produce a pressure as required in modern organs, they must go at a high speed which is apt to produce a disturbing noise. To obviate this difficulty several fans are arranged in series, the first raising the wind only to a slight pressure and so delivering it to a second fan, which delivers it at an increased pressure to the next, and so on, until the requisite pressure is attained by a practically noiseless process.
A genuine revolution in the building of organs was brought about by the invention of the pneumatic lever. Up to the twelfth century, it appears, the “touch” (or key-resistance) was light, so that the organs could be played with the fingers (see an article by Schubiger in “Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte”, I, No. 9). Later on, possibly with the change to the groove and pallet system, it became heavy, so that the keys had to he pushed down by the fists. With improvement in the mechanism a lighter touch was secured again, so that playing with the fingers became possible after the fifteenth century. Still, a difficulty was always felt. In large organs the valve which admits the wind to the key channels (the pallet) must be of considerable size, if all the pipes are to get sufficient wind. Consequently, the wind-pressure which has to be overcome in opening the valve becomes so great that it taxes the power of the organist’s fingers unduly. This difficulty is increased when couplers are used, as the finger then has to open two or more valves at the same time. To overcome this difficulty, Barker, an Englishman, in 1832, thought of using the power of the wind itself as an intermediate agent, and he induced the French organ-builder Cavaillé-Coll to adopt his idea in an organ erected in 1841. The device consists in this: that the key, by opening a small valve, admits the wind into a bellows which acts as motor and pulls down the pallet. Once this appliance was thoroughly appreciated, the way was opened to dispense altogether with the mechanism that connects the key with the pallet (or the draw-stop knob with the slider), and to put in its stead tubular-pneumatic or electro-pneumatic action. In the former the key opens a very small valve which admits the wind into a tube of small diameter; the wind, travelling through the tube in the form of a compression wave, opens, at the far end, another small valve controlling the motor bellows that opens the pallet. In the electro-pneumatic action the key makes an electric contact, causing the electric current to energize, at the organ end, an electro-magnet which, by its armature, causes a flow of wind and thus operates on a pneumatic lever.
With these inventions all the restrictions in organ-building, as to number of stops, pressure of wind, distances etc., were removed. Also means of control could easily be multiplied. Couplers were increased in number, and besides those connecting a key of one manual with the corresponding key of another, octave and sub-octave couplers were added, both on the same manual and between different manuals. In the matter of a stop-control, combination pedals — that is foot-worked levers drawing a whole set of stops at a time — had been in use before the pneumatic lever. They were now often replaced by small pistons placed conveniently for the hands. These pistons are sometimes so designed as not to interfere with the arrangement of stops worked by hand; sometimes they are made “adjustable” — that is, so contrived as to draw any combination of stops which the player may previously arrange. Attempts have also been made to have individual stops playable from several manuals. This is a great advantage, but, on the other hand, it implies inaccessible mechanism. Casson’s “Octave-duplication” avoids this objection, while, by making a whole manual playable in octave pitch, it considerably increases the variety of tone obtainable from a given number of stops.
A special difficulty in organ-playing is the manipulation of the pedal stops. On the manuals quick changes of strength and quality can be obtained by passing from one key-board to another. But, as only one pedal key-board is feasible, similar changes on the pedals can only be made by change of stops. Hence special facilities are here particularly desirable. Casson’s invention, in 1889, of “pedal helps” — little levers, or pistons, one for each manual, which make the pedal stops adjust themselves automatically to all changes of stops on the corresponding manual — is the most satisfactory solution of this difficulty.
II. FAMOUS ORGAN BUILDERS
Ctesibius, the inventor of the hydraulus, and the Venetian Georgius, who built the first organ north of the Alps, have already been mentioned, It is interesting to find a pope among the organ-builders of history: Sylvester II (999-1003), who seems to have built a hydraulic organ (Pretorius, “Syntagma Musicum”, II, 92). We may also record here the first instructions on organ-building since the time of Vitruvius and Heron, contained in a work, “Diversarum artium schedula”, by Theophilus, a monk, who seems to have written before 1100 (Degering, “Die Orgel”, p. 65). After this names are scarce until the thirteenth century. Then we hear in Germany of a large organ in Cologne cathedral, built, probably, by one Johann, while the builders of famous organs in Erfurt Cathedral (1225) and in St. Peter’s near Erfurt (1226) are not known. A Master Guncelin of Frankfort built a large organ for Strasburg cathedral in 1292, and a Master Raspo, also of Frankfort, probably built one for Basle cathedral in 1303. The famous organ at Halberstadt, with four keyboards, was built between 1359 and 1361 by Nicholas Faber, a priest. Of the fifteenth century we will mention only Steffan of Breslau, who built a new organ for Erfurt cathedral in 1483. In the sixteenth century Gregorius Vogel was famous for the beauty and variety of tone of his stops. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Silbermann family were renowned. The first of them to take up organ-building was Andreas Silbermann (1678-1733); his brother Gottfried (1683-1753), the most famous organ-builder in the family, was also one of the first to build pianofortes. Three sons of Andreas continued the work of their father and uncle: Johann Andreas (1712-83), Johann Daniel (1717-1766), and Johann Heinrich (1727-1799), the last two building mainly pianofortes. In a third generation we meet Johann Josias (died 1786), a son of Johann Andreas, and Johann Friedrich (1762-1817), a son of Johann Heinrich. In the nineteenth century we may mention Moser, who, about 1830, built a large organ for Freiburg in Switzerland, where they imitate thunderstorms; Schulze of Paulinzelle, Ladegast of Weissenfels Walcker of Ludwigsburg, Mauracher of Gras, Sauer of Frankfoft-on-the-Oder, Weigle of Stuttgart, Stahlhuth of Aachen.
In England we hear in the fourteenth century of John the Organer and of Walter the Organer, who was also a clock-maker. From the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the names of a large number of organ-builders are transmitted to us, showing organ-building was in a flourishing condition, but the Puritans destroyed most organs, and organ-builders almost disappeared. When organ-building was taken up again, in 1660, there was a scarcity of competent builders, and Bernard Schmidt, with his two nephews Gerard and Bernard, came over from Germany. Bernard the elder was commonly known as Father Smith, to distinguish him from his nephew. At the same time John Harris, a son of Thomas Harris of Salisbury, who had been working in France, returned to England. His son, Renatus, became the principal rival of Father Smith. In the following century another German, John Snetzler (1710-c. 1800) settled in England and became famous for the quality of his organ pipes. His business eventually became that of W. Hill and Son, London. In the nineteenth century the most prominent builder was Henry Willis (1821-1901), who designed several ingenious forms of pneumatic actions and brought the intonations of reeds to great perfection. Mention should also be made of R. Hope-Jones of Birkenhead, whose electro-pneumatic action marked a great step forward.
In Italy the Antegnati family were prominent during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Bartolomeo Antegnati built an organ in 1486 for Brescia cathedral, where he was organist. He had three sons: Giovan Francesco, Giov. Giacomo, and Giov. Battista. Francesco is also known as a maker of harpsichords. G. Giacomo was the organist of Milan cathedral and built for Brescia cathedral a choir organ which was famous in its time. Graziado, a son of G. Battista, built a new large organ for Brescia in 1580. His son Costanzo (born 1557) was an organist and a composer of renown. In the preface to a collection of ricercari (1608) he gives a list of 135 organs built by members of his family (cf. Damiano Muoni, “Elgi Antegnati”, Milan, 1883). Vincenzo Columbi built a fine organ for St. John Lateran in 1549. In France we hear of an organ in the Abbey of Fécamp in the twelfth century. In the eighteenth century a well-known organ-builder was Joh. Nicolaus le Ferre, who, in 1761, built an organ of 51 stops in Paris. More famous is Don Bedos de Celles (1714-97), who also wrote an important book, “L’art du facteur d’orgues” (Paris, 1766-78). In the nineteenth century a renowned firm was that of Daublaine & Co., founded 1838; in 1845 it became Ducrocquet & Co. and sent an organ to the London Exhibition of 1851; in 1855 it changed its name again to Merkhin, Schütze & Co. and erected some of the earliest electro-pneumatic organs. The most famous builder of modern times, however, was Aristide Cavaillé-Col (1811-99), a descendant of an old organ-building family, mentioned above in connexion with Barker’s invention of the pneumatic lever; he was also highly esteemed for the intonation of his reeds.
In America the first organ erected was imported from Europe in 1713 for Queen’s Chapel, Boston. It was followed by several others, likewise imported. In 1745 Edward Broomfield of Boston built the first organ in America. More famous was W. M. Goodrich, who began business in the same city in 1800. The best known of American organ builders is Hilborne L. Roosevelt of New York, who, with his son Frank, effected many bold improvements in organ building. In 1894 John Turnell Austin patented his “universal airchest”, an air-chest large enough to admit a man for repairs and containing all the mechanism, as well as the magazine for storing the wind and keeping it at equal pressure (Mathews, “A Handbook of the Organ”).
III. THE ORGAN IN CHURCH SERVICE
In the early centuries the objection of the Church to instrumental music applied also to the organ, which is not surprising, if we remember the association of the hydraulus with theatre and circus. According to Platina (“De vitis Pontificum”, Cologne, 1593), Pope Vitalian (657-72) introduced the organ into the church service. This, however, is very doubtful. At all events, a strong objection to the organ in church service remained pretty general down to the twelfth century, which may be accounted for partly by the imperfection of tone in organs of that time. But from the twelfth century on, the organ became the privileged church instrument, the majesty and unimpassioned character of its tone making it a particularly suitable means for adding solemnity to Divine worship.
According to the present legislation organ music is allowed on all joyful occasions, both for purely instrumental pieces (voluntaries) and as accompaniment. The organ alone may even take the place of the voices in alternate verses at Mass or in the Office, provided the text so treated be recited by someone in an audible voice while the organ is played. Only the Credo is excepted from this treatment, and in any case the first verse of each chant and all the verses at which any liturgical action takes place — such as the “Te ergo quæsumus”, the “Tantum ergo”, the “Gloria Patri” — should be sung.
With some exceptions, the organ is not to be played during Advent and Lent. It may be played on the Third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete) and the Fourth in Lent (Lætare) at Mass and Vespers, on Holy Thursday at the Gloria, and on Holy Saturday at and, according to general usage, after the Gloria. Moreover, it may be played, even in Advent and Lent, on solemn feasts of the saints and on the occasion of any joyful celebration — as e. g. the Communion of children [S. R. C., 11 May, 1878, 3448 (5728)]. Moreover, by a kind of indult, it would seem, the organ is admitted, even in Lent and Advent, to support the singing of the choir, but in this case it must cease with the singing. This permission, however, does not extend to the last three days of Holy Week (S. R. C., 20 March, 1903, 4009). At Offices of the Dead organ music is excluded; at a Requiem Mass, however, it may be used for the accompaniment of the choir, as above.
It is appropriate to play the organ at the beginning and end of Mass, especially when a bishop solemnly enters or leaves the church. If the organ is played during the Elevation, it should be in softer tones; but it would seem that absolute silence is most fitting for this august moment. The same may be said about the act of Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament. It should be observed that the legislation of the Church concerns itself only with liturgical services. It takes no account of such things as singing at low Mass or popular devotions. But it is fitting, of course, to observe on such occasions the directions given for liturgical services.
IV. ORGAN-PLAYING
In ancient times and in the early Middle Ages organ-playing was, of course, confined to rendering a melody on the organ. But it is not improbable that the earliest attempts at polyphonic music, from about the ninth century on, were made with the organ, seeing that these attempts received the name of organum. From the thirteenth century some compositions have come down to us under that name without any text, and probably intended for the organ. In the fourteenth century we hear of a celebrated organ-player, the blind musician Francesco Landino of Florence, and in the fifteenth of another Florentine player, Squarcialupi. At this time Konrad Paumann flourished in Germany, some of whose organ compositions are extant, showing the feature which distinguishes organ, like all instrumental music, from vocal music, namely the diminution or figuration, ornamentation, of the melodies. With Paumann this figuration is as yet confined to the melody proper, the top part. With Claudio Merulo (1533-1604) we find the figuration extended to the accompanying parts also. More mature work was produced by Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612) in his “Canzone e Sonate” (1597 and 1615). Further development of a true instrumental style was brought about by Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654). Then follow a series of illustrious composers for the organ, of whom we may mention Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1644), Johann Jacob Froberger (died 1667), Dietrich Buxtehude (died 1707), and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), at whose hands organ composition reached its highest point.
After Bach the general development of music, being in the direction of more individual expression and constantly varying emotion, was not favourable to organ composition. Accordingly, none of the best men turned their attention to the organ, Mendelssohn’s compositions for the instrument being a notable exception. In modern times a large number of composers have written respectable music for the organ, among whom we may mention the French Guilmant and Widor and the German Rheinberger and Reger. But none of them, with the possible exception of Reger, can he counted as first-class composers. The scarcity of really good modern organ compositions has led organists to the extended use of arrangements. If these arrangements are made with due regard to the nature of the organ, they cannot be altogether objected to. But it is clear that they do not represent the ideal of organ music. As the characteristic beauty of organ tone lies in its even continuation, legato playing must be the normal for the organ even more than for other instruments. While, therefore, staccato playing cannot absolutely be excluded, and an occasional use of it is even desirable for the sake of variety, still the modern tendency to play everything staccato or mezzolegato is open to great objections. The alternation and contrast of tone-colours afforded by the variety of stops and the presence of several manuals is a legitimate and valuable device. But too much variety is inartistic, and, in particular, an excessive use of solo stops is alien to the true organ style.
A word may he added about the local position of the organ in the church. The considerations determining this question are threefold: the proximity of the organ to the singers, the acoustical effect, and the architectural fitness. The combination of these three claims in existing churches frequently causes considerable difficulty. Hence it is desirable that in planning new churches architects should be required to provide ample room for an organ.
———————————–
There is no good history of the organ. On the ancient organ a good book is DEGERING, Die Orgel (Münster, 1905); cf. MACLEAN, The Principle of the Hydraulic Organ in Quarterly Mag. of the International Musical Society, pt. 2 (Leipzig, 1905), and Schlesinger, Researches into the Origin of the Organs of the Ancients, ibid., pt. 2 (Leipzig, 1901). On the later history, WILLIAMS, The Story of the Organ (London, 1903) is fairly reliable. The historical part of HOPKINS AND RIMBAULT, The Organ, Its history and Construction (London, 1877), though out of date, is still useful. Further works are; RITTER Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels im 14. bis 18. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1884): WANGEMANN, Geschichte der Orgel (Leipzig, 1887); GRÉGOIRE, Histoire de l’orgue (Antwerp, 1865); HINTON, Story of the Electric Organ (London, 1909); BEWERUNGE, Die Röhrenpneumatik in Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch (Ratisbon, 1905); BUHLE., Die musikalischen Instrumente in den Miniaturen des frühen Mittelalters; I. Die Blasinstrumente (Leipzig, 1903); VIOLLET-LE-DUC, Dictionnaire raissonné du mobilier français de l’époque Carolingienne à la Renaissance: II. Instruments de musique (Paris, 1874). On the construction of the organ the principal works are: AUDSLEY, The Art of Organ-Building (2 vols., 4º, New York and London, 1905); ROBERTSON, A Practical Treatise on Organ-Building (London, 1897); TÖPFER-ALLIHN, Die Theorie und Praxis des Orgelbaues (Weimar, 1888) HILL, Organ Cases and Organs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (2 vols., folio, London, 1883, 1891); WEDGWOOD, Dictionary of Organ Stops (London, 1905); MATTHEWS, A handbook of the Organ (London, 1897) (treats also of organ-playing); DIENEL, Die moderne Orgel (Berlin, 1891); SCHWEITZER, Deutsche u. französische Orgelbaukunst und Orgel-kunst (Leipzig. 1906); CASSON, The Modern Organ (Denbigh, 1883); IDEM, The Pedal Organ (London, 1905); IDEM, Modern Pneumatic Organ Mechanism (London, 1908); SWANTON, Lecture on Organ Blowing (London, 1905); International Rules for Organ Building, issued by the Third Congress of the International Musical Society (Leipzig, 1909). The ecclesiastical legislation on organ-playing is contained in the Cœremoniale Episcoporum and in Decrees of the S. Congregation of Rites. The latter, as far as they concern the subject, are conveniently put together in AUER, Die Entscheidungen der h. Riten-Kongregation in Bezug auf Kirchenmusik (Ratisbon and New York, 1901).
H. BEWERUNGE. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Organ
occurs in the Authorized Version as the rendering of the Hebrew ugab’, (Gen 4:21; Job 21:12), or uggab’, (Job 20:31; Psa 150:4), which properly means that which is inflated or blown, from , to blow; hence, a wind instrument. It was applied to a reed or pipe, either simple or complex, and is so understood by most interpreters (see Dudelsack, Hist. Trin. p. 301;, Gesenius, Thesaur, p. 988). Thus the Septuagint, in Psalms 150, renders . , which means properly an instrument for any purpose; but is applied by Plato (Lact. 188 D.) and others to the pipe; and from which comes our word organ. In Job the Sept. vaguely renders by ; but in the other passages this version renders , the word from which guitar is corrupted. This cannot be right, for many reasons; indeed, in two of the passages quoted it is named in connection with the cithara or lyre (Heb. ) as a different instrument (Gen 4:21; Job 30:31). In Gen 4:21 it appears to be a general term for all wind-instruments opposed to kinnor (A. V. ‘harp’), which denotes all stringed instruments. In Job 21:12 are enumerated the three kinds of mystical instruments which are possible, under the general terms of the timbrel, harp, and organ. The ugab is here distinguished from the timbrel and harp, as in Job 20:31, compared with Psa 150:4. Our translators adopted their renderinig, organ,’ from the Vulgate, which has uniformly organum, that is, the double or multiple pipe. The Chaldee in every case has abbuba, which signifies ‘the pipe,’ and is its rendering of the Hebrew word so translated in our version of Isa 30:29; Jer 48:36.
Joel Bril, in his second preface to the Psalms in Mendelssohn’s Bible, adopts the opinion of those who identify it with the Pandean pipes, or syrinx, an instrument of unquestionably ancient origin, and common in the East. It was a favorite with the shepherds in the time of Homer (Il. 18:526), and its invention was attributed to various deities: to Pallas Athene by Pindar (Pyth. 12:12-14), to Pan by Pliny (7:57; comp. Virg. Ecl. 2:32; Tibull. 2:5, 30), by others to Marsyas or Silenus (Athen. 4:184). In the last-quoted passage it is said that Hermes first made the syrinx with one reed, while Silenus, or, according to others, two Medes, Seuthes and Rhonakes, invented one with many reeds, and Marsyas fastened them with wax. The reeds were of unequal length, but equal thickness, generally seven in number (Virg. Ecl. 2:36), but sometimes nine (Theocr. Id. viii). Those in use among the Turks sometimes numbered fourteen or fifteen (Calmet, Diss. in Mus. Inst. Haebr., in Ugolini Thes. 32, p. 790). Russell describes those he met with in Aleppo. The syrinx, or Pan’s pipe, is still a pastoral instrument in Syria; it is known also in the city, but very few of the performers can sound it tolerably well. The higher notes are clear and pleasing, but the longer reeds are apt, like the dervis’s flute, to make a hissing sound, though blown by a good player. The number of reeds of which the syrinx is composed varies in different instruments from five to twenty-three (Aleppo, 1:155,2d ed.). SEE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
ORGAN (, an instrument of any kind), THE, is the noblest and most powerful species of musical instruments. It appears, however, that the word organ was applied indiscriminately to almost every kind of musical instrument used in religious worship by the early Church. But after a time the word came to be reserved to a wind instrument consisting of reeds or pipes, which. the Greeks and the Romans, and also the Eastern Christians, used in civil and private festivals, and which since the 8th century has been used in religious worship in the Western churches. The name is in all probability derived from the fact of its being the instrument of all instruments. It was often called organs, in the plural, and only at a later date in the singular, organ. The original of this kind of instruments is traced back to the syrinx, or pipes of Pan (according to Virgil), and the hydraulos, or water-flute; which was the invention of Ctesibius, a mathematician of Alexandria, B.C. 520, and also noted as a machinist. He is reported to have written several works on hydraulics, which are lost, but his inventions are noticed by Vitruvius (x 13). (See the preceding article.)
I. Description and History. The musical instrument now known as organ is played by finger-keys, and in general partly also by foot-keys, and consists of a large number of pipes of metal and wood made to sound by a magazine of wind accumulated by bellows, and admitted at will by the player. The following description is unecessarily restricted to the most fundamental arrangements of this very complicated instrument:
As met with in cathedrals and large churches, the organ comprises four departments, each in most respects a separate instrument with its own mechanism, called respectively the great-organ, the choir-organ, the swell- organ, and the pedal-organ. Each has its own clavier or keyboard, but the different clanvers are bought into juxtaposition, so as to be under the control of one performer. Claviers played by the hands are called manuals; by the feet, pedals. Three manuals, belonging to the choir, great, and swell-organs respectively, rise above each other like steps, in front of where the performer sits; while the pedal-board by which the pedal-organ is played is placed on a level with his feet. The condensed air supplied by the bellows is conveyed through wooden tubes or trunks to boxes, called windchests, one of which belongs to each department of the organ. Attached to the upper part of each wind-chest is a sound-board, an ingenious contrivance for conveying the wind at pleasure to any individual pipe or pipes exclusively of the rest. It consists of two parts, an upper board and an under board. On the upper board rest the pipes, of which a number of different quality, ranged behind each other, belong to each note. In the under board is a row of parallel grooves, running horizontally backwards, corresponding each to one of the keys of the clavier. On any of the keys being pressed down, a valve is opened which supplies wind to the groove belonging to it. The various pipes of each key stand in a line directly above its groove, and the upper surface of the groove is perforated with holes bored upwards to them.
Were this the whole mechanism of the sound-board, the wind, on entering any groove, would permeate all the pipes of that groove; there is, however, in the upper board another series of horizontal grooves at right angles to this of the lower board, supplied with sliders, which can, to a small extent, be drawn out or pushed in at pleasure by a mechanism worked by the draw-stops placed within the player’s reach. Each slider is perforated with holes, which, when it is drawn out, complete the communication between the wind-chest and the pipes; the communications with the pipes immediately above any slider being, on the other hand, closed up when the slider is pushed in. The pipes above each slider form in continuous set of one particular quality, and each set of pipes is called a stop. Each department of the organ is supplied with a number of stops, producing sounds of different quality. The great-organ, some of whose pipes appear as show-pipes in front of the instrument, contain the main body and force of the organ. Behind it stands the choir-organ, whose tones are less powerful, and more fitted to accompany the voice. Above the choir-organs is the swell-organ, whose pipes are enclosed in a wooden box, with a front of louvre-boards like Venetian blinds, which may be made to open and shut by a pedal, with a view of producing crescendo and diminuendo effects. The pedal-organ is sometimes placed in an entire state behind the choir-organ, and sometimes divided, and a part: arranged on each side. The most usual compass of the manuals is from C on the second line below the bass staff to D on the third space above the treble staff; and the compass of the pedals is from the same C to the D between the bass and treble- staves. The real compass of notes is, as will be seen, much greater. Organ pipes vary much in form and material, but belong to two great classes, known as mouth-pipes (or flute-pipes) and reed-pipes. A section of one of the former is represented in the figure. Its essential parts are the foot a, the body, b. and a flat plate, c, called the language, extending nearly across the pipe at the point of junction of foot and body. There is an opening, de, in the pipe, at the spot where the language is discontinuous.
The wind admitted into the foot rushes through the narrow slit at d. and, in impinging against e, imparts a vibratory motion to the column of air in the pipe, the result, of which is a musical note, dependent for its pitch on the length of that column of air, and consequently on the length of the body of the pipe: by doubling the length of the pipe we obtain a note of half the pitch, or lower by an octave. Such is the general principle of all mouth-pipes, whether of wood or of metal, subject to considerable diversities of detail. Metal pipes have generally a cylindrical section; wooden pipes a square or oblong section. A mouth-pipe may be stopped at the upper end by a plug called a tompon, the effect of which is to lower the pitch an octave, the vibrating column of air being doubled in length, as it has to traverse the pipe twice before making its exit. Pipes are sometimes half-stopped, having a kind of chimney at the top. The reedpipe consists of a reed placed inside a metallic or occasionally a wooden pipe. This reed is a tube of metal, with the front part Cut away, and a tongue or spring put in its place. The lower end of the spring is free, the upper end attached to the top of the reed; by the admission of air into the pipe the spring is made to vibrate, and, in striking either the edge of the reed or the air, produces a musical note, dependent for its pitch on the length of the spring, its quality being determined to a great extent by the length and form of the pipe or be within which the reed is placed. When the vibrating spring does not strike the edge of the reed, but the air, we have what is called the free reed, similar to what is in use in the harmonium. To describe the pitch of an organ pipe, terms are used derived from to standard length of ann open mouth-pipe of that pitch. The largest pipe in use is the 32-feet C, which is an octave below the lowest C of the modern piano-forte, or two octaves below the lowest C on the manuals and pedal of the organ: any pipe producing this note is called a 32-feet C pipe, whatever its actual length may be. By a 32-feet or 16-feet stop, we mean that the pipe which speaks on the lowest C on which that stop appears has a 32-feet or a 16-feet tone.
The stops of an organ do not always produce the note properly belonging to the key struck; sometimes they give a note an octave, or, in the pedal- organ, even two octaves lower, and sometimes one of the harmonics higher in pitch. Compound or mixture stops. have several pipes to each key, corresponding to the different harmonics of the ground-tone. There is an endless variety in the ground-tone. There is an endless variety in the number and kinds of stops in different organs; some are and some are not continued through the whole range of manual or pedal. Some of the more important stops get the same of open or stopped diapason (a term which implies that they extend throughout the whole compass of the clavier): they are for the most part 16-feet, sometimes 32-feet stops; the open diapason chiefly of metal, the close chiefly of wood. The dulciana is an 8-feet mannal stop, of small diameter, so-called from the sweetness of its tone. Among the reed-stops are the clarion, oboe, bassoon, and vox humana, deriving their names from real or fancied resemblances to these instruments and to the human voice. Of the compound stops, the most prevalent in Britain is the sesquialtera, consisting of four or five ranks of open metal pipes, often a 17th, 19th; 22d, 26th, and 29th from the ground-tone. The resources of the organ are further increased by appliances called couplers, by which a second clavier and its stops can be brought into play or the same clavier can be united to itself in the octave below or above.
Instruments of a rude description, comprising more or less the principle of the organ, seem to have existed early. But they were much -smaller in size, and they were supplied with wind in various ways. At first a person was employed to blow into the pipes; later; to:avoid this difficulty, a leathern wind-pouch was attached to the instrument, which pouch was worked by being held under the arm (tibia utriculariac); then, for larger instruments, water-power was used to compress the air in a suitable receptacle (organum hydraulicum); and, finally (some say earlier), the bellows (organum pneumaticum) was employed. Besides these large instruments there was also a small portable organ, sometimes called a pair of Regals, formerly in use, and this was occasionally of such a size as to admit of its being carried in the hand and inflated by the player; one of these is represented among the sculptures in the cornice of St. John’s, Cirencester, and another on the crosier of William of Wykeham, at Oxford.
Nero greatly admired the water-organ (Sueton? c 41: Reliquam diei partem per organma hydraulica novi et ignoti generis circumdixit). In ecclesiastical history pope Vitalian I figures as the introducer of the organ, and the date assigned is A.D. 666. St. Augustine and Isidore of Seville serve as authority for this statement. It appears, however, from the records of the Spanish Church, that the organ was used there two centuries previous to this date. In Africa the organ had been in common use for some time previous, and it is from that country probably that is was introduced into Spain. In the West the organ was not common until the 10th century. St. Aldhelm, who died A.D. 709, describes one with golden pipes in England; but as late as 757; when Pepin the Short received from Constantine Copronymus an organ as a present, it is mentioned as a great wonder. It was placed in the church of St. Corneille, at Compiegne, but whether that instrument was then used for ecclesiastical purposes is a matter of controversy. On the other hand, it is well known that Charlemagne caused an organ to be placed in the cathedral of Aix-la- Chapelle. This organ, which is described by Walafrid Strabo, was undoubtedly the same which was sent him from Constantinople by Constantine Michael, and of which the chronicler of St. Gall said (De Carol. M. 2:10),’ Musicorum organum praestantissimum, quod doliis ex aere conflatis follibusque taurinis per fistulas aereas mire perflantibus ru.gitu quidem tonitrui boatum, garrulitatem vero lyrae vel cymbali dulcedine coeqiuabat. Organ-building was now followed in Germany with such success that in the second half of the 9th century pope John VIII got an organ and singers sent from thence to Rome through the bishop of Freysingen. In the middle of the 10th century organs became quite common in England; and, among others, the Benedictine monks of Winchester became possessed of a large organ with four hundred pipes, and twelve upper and fourteen lower bellows, requiring seventy strong men to work them.
The time when the wind-organ took the place of the water-organ is not ascertained; some say in the 7th century. We have no trustworthy evidence of any improvement having been made in the ‘rgan from that time until the 15th century, when the pedals were invented in Italy by Bernhard, a German organist at the court of the doge of Venice. In the 11th century a monk, named Theophilus, wrote a curious treatise on organ-building, but it was not until the 15th century that the organ began to be anything like the noble instrument which it now is. In the 16th century the system of pipes was divided into registers. The family of Antigriati, in Brescia, had a great name as organ-builders in the 15th and 16th centuries. The organs of England were also in high repute, but the puritanism of the civil war doomed most of them to destruction; and when they had to be replaced after the Restoration it was found that there was no longer a sufficiency of builders in the country. Foreign organ-builders were therefore invited to settle in England, the most remarkable of whom were Bernhard Schmidt (generally called Father Schmidt) and his nephews, and Renatus Harris. Christophet Schreider, Snetzler, and Byfield succeeded them; and at a later period Green and Avery, some of whose organs have never been surpassed in tone, though in mechanism those of modern builders are an immense advance on them. The German organs are remarkable for preserving the balance of power well among the various masqes, but in mechanical contrivances they are surpassed by those of England. In the United States organ-building has been carried to a perfection rivalled only by England. The largest organ in this country is at Boston; it was built by a German, Walcker, of Ludwigsbourg, and has 4 manuals, 89 stops, and 4000 pipes. Many of the large churches have organs built by Americans which nearly rival the great instrument at Boston. One of the largest organs used in churches is that of the Roman Catholic cathedral at Montreal. It was built by R. S. Warren, of that city. The largest organ in the world is in Albert Hall, London, was built by Henry Willis in 1870, and contains 138 stops, 4 manuals, and nearly 10,000 pipes, all of which are of metal. The wind is supplied by steam-power. Thirteen couplers connect or disconnect the various subdivisions of the organ at the will of the performer.
II. Opposition to the Use of the Organ in Christian Worship. The question as to the propriety of using the organ in Christian song in churches has been debated from the days of Hospinian down to our own. It was never adopted in the Eastern Church. In the West it is to the present day excluded from the papal chapel. In the 16th century the abuse which had been made of it was so great as to lead to a strongly supported motion being presented to the Council of Trent for its suppression. It was retained, however; through the influence of emperor Ferdinand. The Reformed Church discarded the organ from the first, and although it has since been reinstalled in the Reformed churches of Basle and some other places, it has never been resumed by the denomination at large. In the Lutheran Church, on the contrary, it has always been used, notwithstanding Luther’s prejudice against it. SEE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, in vol. 6, p. 762, col. i (3). The Presbyterian churches of Scotland have made stout and continued resistance against the use of organs. In the Church of Scotland the matter was discussed in connection with the use of an organ by the congregation of St. Andrew’s, Glasgow. The case was brought before the Presbytery of Glasgow, and no appeal was made. On Oct. 7, 1807, the following motion was carried:
That the presbytery are of opinion that the use of the organ in the public worship of God is contrary to the law of the land, and to the law and constittion of our Established Church, and therefore prohibit it in all the churches and chapels within their bounds.
In 1829 the question was brought up in the Relief Synod, as an organ had been introduced into Roxburgh Place Chapel, Edinburgh. The deliverance, given by a very large majority, was as follows:
It being admitted and incontrovertibly true that the Rev. John Johnston had introduced instrumental music into the public worship of God in the Relief Congregation, Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, which innovation the synod are of opinion is unauthorized by the laws of the New Testament, contrary to the universal practice of the Church in the first and purest periods of her history, contrary to the universal practice of the Church of Scotland, and contrary to the consuetudinary laws of the synod of Relief, and highly inexpedient, the synod agree to express their regret that any individual member of their body should have had the temerity to introduce such a dangerous innovation into the public worship of God in this country, which has a manifest tendency to offend many serious Christians and congregations, and create a schism in the body, without having first submitted it to the consideration of his brethren according to usual form. On all these accounts the synod agree to enjoin the Rev. John Johnston to give up this practice instater, with certification if he do not, the Edinburgh Presbytery shall hold a meeting on the second Tuesday of September next, and strike his name off the roll of presbytery, and declare him incapable of holding office as a minister in the Relief denomination. And further, to prevent the recurrence of this or any similar practice, the synod enjoin a copy of this sentence to be sent to every minister in the synod, to be laid before his session, and read after publlic worship in his congregation, for their satisfaction, and to deter others from following similar courses in all time coming.
An organ having been erected in the new Claremont Church, Glasgow, the same question came up in 1856 before the United Presbyterian Synod, with which the Relief Synod had been for some years incorporated. Again more formally in 1858, when the following motion was carried alike against one for toleration, which had many supporters, and against another, which certainly had few supporters, and contained the assertion, Instrumental music was one of the carnal ordinances of the Levitical economy. The motion which passed into law was:
That the synod reaffirm their deliverance of 1856 respecting the use of instrumental music in public worship, viz., ‘The synod refused the petition of the memorialists, inasmuch as the use of instrumental music in public Worship is contrary to the uniform practice of this Church, and of the other Presbyterian churches in this country, and would seriously disturb the peace of the churches under the inspection of this synod: and at the same time enjoined sessions to employ all judicious measures for the improvement of vocal psalm and the synod now declare said deliverance to be applicable to diets of congregational worship on weekdays as well as on the Lord’s day.
It is to be observed that in each of these three instances a constitutional principle of Presbyterianism was violated, the organ was introduced, and the innovation made without consulting the brethren, without asking the advice or sanction of the presbytery. Presbyterians, Independents, and Methodists now, however, use organs, so that they have ceased to be a denominational characteristic. And why not? The question is one of taste rather than conscience or Scripture. The passage in Eph 5:19, so often appealed to by both parties, says nothing for either (see Eadie, Commentary on the place, and the works of Alford, Ellicott, Meyer, Hodge). Instrumental music was no Jewish thing in any typical sense, the choristers and performers of David’s orchestra were no original or essential element of the Levitical economy. The music of the Temple stood upon a different basis from sacrifice, which has long been formally superseded. The service of song is not once alluded to in the Epistle to the Hebrews as among the things which decayed and waxed old. Its employment in the Christian Church is therefore no introduction of any point or portion of Jewish ritual, nor any digression into popish ceremonial. Indeed, the employment of an organ to guide the music is properly not ritualistic at all. The leader has his pitch-pipe, and the hundred pipes of the organ only serve to guide and sustain the voice of the people. Nobody wishes to praise God by the mere sound of the organ: its music only helps and supports the melody and worship of the church. It has been abused certainly, but the sensuous luxury, of some congregations should: be no bar to the right and legitimate use of it by others. In fact, the proper employment of it might be pleaded for on the same grounds as scientific education in music. Both are simply helps to the public worship of God. See Cromar, A Vindication of the Organ (Edinb. 1854, 12mo); Campbell, Two Papers on Church Music, read before The Liverpool Eccles. Musical Society (Liverpool, 1854).
III. Objections against its Use in modern Jewish Worship. The introduction of the organ in the Jewish religious service, especially in Germany, has excited great and fierce discussion, and a small library could be. filled with the works written pro and con. About the year 1818 an organ was introduced into a temple at Hamburg, When twenty-two rabbins, among them Mordecai Benet and Moses Sopher, gave their decision against such innovation in a work entitled . On the other hand, Shem Tob Samun, a noted rabbi, supported by rabbins of Jerusalem, J. C. Ricanati, of Verona, and the renowned A. Chorin, published an opinion in and in favor of reforms and the introduction in the organ. The first works for and against the reform were in Hebrew. At a later time the reformers and their opponents continued their debates mostly in German, in periodicals and pamphlets. The objections against the introduction of the organ are of three classes.
(1.) It is prohibited to play music on the Sabbath. A Jew is not allowed to play on the Sabbath, and everything prohibited to a Jew we are not allowed to have done by a Gentile.
(2.) In obedience to the prohibition of the Torah, In their statutes thou shalt not walk; and, as the organ is a specific Christian invention used in churches, we are prohibited from its use.
(3.) In obedience to a Talmudical law (Sotah, 49; also copied in Orach Chayim, 560), that, in memory of the destruction of the Temple, Jews should not play any musical instrument.
The first of these objections has been refuted by Wiener in his Referate uber die der ersten israel. Synode zut Leipzg uberreichten Antrige (1871). He argues that to play music on the Sabbath is not among the thirty-nine kinds of labor enumerated in the Talmud Sabbath, nor even among those derived from that class. To play a musical instrument is called an art, and no labor (Rosh Hashanah, 29, c). Music is not only not prohibited, but even commanded for the holidays by the Torah. The Talmud (Erubim, 102) allows repairing a musical instrument in the Temple, but not in any other place: ‘It is allowed to fix a broken string (on the Sabbath) in the Temple, but not outside.’ From this prohibition, Dr. Wiener concludes that to make music must have been allowed, , otherwise the Talmud would have used the words ‘as to make music is prohibited, the more so is repairing,’ and he considers this omission as an evident proof that music was allowed. A prohibition is deduced from the Talmud (Beza, 36, c) by those who are opposed to the use of the organ, but this is an expression whose meaning is differently understood by Maimonides and Josaphath; the latter even allowed the playing of musical instruments. Among the rabbinical authorities we find a great difference of opinion. Thus the Shulchan Aruch, or, rather, Moses Isserles, prohibited playing a musical instrument (Orach Chayim, 349, 3). Rabbi Nissim allowed manual work ( ) unto be done by a Gentile if it were necessary for a religious function. Rema (R. Moses Isserles) also stated (Orach Cchayinz, 276), Some allow a Gentile to light lamps on the Sabbath for a religious meal, and in consequence of such permission some even went so far as to allow this for every meal and festivity. And (ib. 338), Some allow a Gentile to play musical instruments on the Sabbath in honor of a wedding, but in our times they are inclined to lighten the precepts(!). Of Mehril it is related that, at the time he made the nuptials of his son, it was forbidden by the government to make music, and he sent the bridal party to another city in order that they might enjoy music there on the Sabbath (see Rema, 339, and Eliah Rabah).
To the second objection it is replied by those who favor its use in the synagogue that the organ did not come to be generally used in the churches until musical instruments were used in the synagogue of Bagdad, as reported by the German traveler Petachya, of. Regensburg. The venerable Alt-Neu synagogue of Prague possessed an organ in the commencement of the 17th century, while for some time previous to this a similar instrument existed in several synagogues in Spain and Corfu, as authentically reported. Certainly song and music formed an essential part of the religious service of the Temple, and was highly esteemed by the Jewish sages (see Erubim, ch. ii). The Talmudists declare religious singing a Biblical precept, and explain the importance of that command, that singing disperses melancholy, as we see with Saul, and excited a divine spirit, as seen with Elisha. Music must therefore be pronounced an ancient institution with the Israelites, and by no means an imitation of the worship of other creeds. The organ also forms no part of any religious statute with other creeds, and the objection cannot be raised for that reason. But even if such were the case, or would still cause some scruples, there is against it all answer in the Talmud (Sanhedrin, 39, c). While Ezekiel in one passage reproached the Israelites. Neither have ye done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you (Eze 5:7), in another passage he says, And ye have done after the mannere of the nations that are round about you (Eze 11:12). This apparent contradiction the Talmud reconciles by paraphrasing, You have conformed with those that are bad, and disregarded those that are good. Rashi, in explaining that passage of the Talmud, remarks. Good acts are such as that of Eglon, king of Moab, who honored the name of God by rising from his seat (Jdg 3:20), which is recommended for imitation, although a heathen custom. Rabbenu Nissim says positively, The law does not prohibit or imitating idolatrous customs, except foolish acts, but customs founded in reason are admissible (To Aboda Sara, 33).
Against the third objection, that the Talmud (Sotah, 49; Gittin, 7) prohibits the playing of a musical instrument because of the destruction of the Temple, it is answered that the enjoyment of music was at all times allowed without any objection by the rabbinas. Rabbi Shem Job Samun, of Leghorn, in his decisions, published in , relates, In Modena, a very pious and important city, where many learned and wise Italian and German rabbins lived, among them Padubah, Lipschitz, and Ephraim Cohen the latter German scholars of great renown existed a musical society, without any objection from the rabbins. One of the most esteemed and learned rabbins, R. Ismael Cohen, gave permission, on inquiry, to a person to attend the performance of that society on the night of Hoshana Raba. The whole literature of the Middle Ages, moreover, proves that, wherever song and music were cultivated, the Jews participated and showed great talents, and, according to the assertion of D’Israeli, the Jewish race is peculiarly fond of music. Even a pious scholar, author of the book of the pious, who lived at a very dark time, asserted that the practice of music is allowed on Chanuka, Purim, and at weddings. The practice of music was also allowed to disperse melancholy in hard times, and to incite to the study of the law, which formed the center of all activity. See Deutsch, Die Orgel in der Synagoge. See, for a full account of the structure of the organ, Hopkins and Reinbault, The Organ, its History and Construction (2d ed. Lond. 1870); Topfer, Lehrbuch d. Orgelbaukunst (Weimar, 1855, 4 vols. 8vo); and the literature referred to under MUSIC.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Organ
some kind of wind instrument, probably a kind of Pan’s pipes (Gen. 4:21; Job 21:12; Ps. 150:4), which consisted of seven or eight reeds of unequal length.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Organ
uwgab from agab “to blow.” (See MUSIC.) A wind instrument, a perforated pipe. Pandean pipe or syrinx (still a pastoral instrument in Syria) as distinguished from the HARP, stringed instruments (Gen 4:21; Job 21:12; Job 30:31; Psa 150:4).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Organ
ORGAN.See Music, etc., 4 (2) (b).
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Organ
organ. See MUSIC.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Organ
uggab, ugab. A wind musical instrument, of either one or several pipes. The Egyptian monuments show a double pipe, with holes as in a flute: several pipes of different lengths were also joined together. Gen 4:21; Job 21:12; Job 30:31; Psa 150:4. The syrinx, or Pan’s pipe, is still used in Syria, and sometimes has as many as twenty-three pipes.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Organ
See Music, Instruments of
Music, Instruments of
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Organ
Organ. Gen 4:21, A V., “pipe,” R. V., meaning a wind instrument of music, like a flute or clarionet.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Organ
Organ. Gen 4:21; Job 21:12; Job 30:31; Psa 150:4. The Hebrew word, thus rendered, probably denotes a pipe or perforated wind-instrument. In Gen 4:21, it appears to be a general term for all wind-instruments. In Job 21:12, are enumerated three kinds of musical instruments, which are possible under the general terms of the timbrel, harp and organ. Some identify it with the pandean pipe or syrinx: an instrument of , unquestionably, ancient origin, and common in the East. See Music.