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The history of the creation of the organ musical instrument. Organ - musical instrument

The king of instruments is often called the organ, the appearance of which evokes a feeling of delight, and the sound fascinates and inspires. A large, heavy stringed keyboard instrument with the widest register of sound is rightfully considered something like a “legend in the flesh”. Who invented the organ and why is this heavyweight unique?

Who invented the unusual tool?

The history of the legendary instrument, which not everyone can learn to play professional musician, is hundreds of years old.

The name "organum" is mentioned in the ancient writings of the great Aristotle and Plato. But it is not possible to answer exactly who invented this miracle. According to one version, its ancestor is Babylonian bagpipe, which forms sound due to the direction of air jets towards the edges of the tube. According to another, the pan flute or the Chinese sheng, functioning on the same principle. It was not very convenient to play on interconnected pipes, because sometimes the performer did not have enough air in his lungs. The idea of ​​pumping air while playing with mechs was a real lifesaver.

A close brother of the organ, its water analog, was invented by the Greek craftsman Ktesibius back in the 200s BC. It's called hydraulics. Later, the hydraulic design was replaced by bellows, which made it possible to significantly improve the sound quality.

Musical instruments of sizes and appearance more familiar to us began to appear in the 4th century. During this period, thanks to the efforts of Pope Vitalian, organs began to be used as an accompaniment to Catholic services. Starting from the first half of the 5th century, the stringed keyboard instrument became an invariable ceremonial attribute not only of the Byzantine, but of the entire Western European imperial power.

The legendary “keyboard player” became widespread in Europe by the middle of the 14th century. The instrument of that time was far from perfect: it had fewer pipes and wider keys. For example, in a manual keyboard, with the width of the keys themselves about 50-70 mm, the distance between them was 15-20 mm. To extract sounds, the performer had to not “run” over the huge and heavy keys with his fingers, but literally knock with his elbows or fists.

Organ building gained its greatest scope in the 16th-17th centuries. In gloriously known era baroque masters learned how to create instruments that, with their powerful sound, could boldly compete with the whole symphony orchestra. The sound capabilities of the instruments made it possible to imitate the ringing of bells, the rumble of a rockfall, and even the effervescent singing of birds.

The apotheosis of organ building is considered to be 1908, when world exhibition a model was presented, including 6 manuals. The world's largest functioning organ weighs just over 287 tons. He now adorns the Macy's Lord & Taylor shopping center in Philadelphia.

What the connoisseur of organ music observes from the hall is the facade of the instrument. Behind it lies a spacious room, sometimes including several floors, lined with mechanical elements and thousands of pipes. To understand the principle of this miracle, it is worth considering at least its brief description.

The organ is one of the loudest musical instruments. This effect is achieved through registers that include several rows. organ pipes. These registers are divided into several groups according to the color of the sound and a number of other unifying features: potions, aliquots, gambas, flutes, principals. Register pipes sound in accordance with musical notation. They can be enabled individually or simultaneously. For this, the handles located on the side panels of the keyboard are used.

The control panel of the performer working at the instrument is the manuals, the pedal keyboard and the registers themselves. The number of manuals, depending on the modification of the “keyboard player”, can vary from 1 to 7. They are located on a terrace: one directly above the other.

The pedal keyboard can include from 5 to 32 keys, through which registers are launched that form low sounds. Depending on the fingering of the musical instrument, the performer presses the pedal keys with his toe or heel.

The presence of several keyboards, as well as all kinds of toggle switches and levers, quite complicates the game process. Therefore, often, along with the performer, his assistant sits at the instrument. For the convenience of reading notes and achieving synchronization of performance, the part for the legs is traditionally located on a separate musical staff directly below the hand part.

In modern models, the function of forcing air into the furs is performed by electric motors. In the Middle Ages, this work was carried out by specially trained calcane, whose services had to be paid separately.

Despite the wide distribution of organs today, it is almost impossible to find two identical models, since they are all assembled according to individual projects. The dimensions of the installations can vary from 1.5 m to 15 m. The width of large models reaches 10 m, and the depth is 4 m. The weight of such structures is measured in tons.

Record holders in various categories

Himself ancient representative the legendary instrument, the terms of the "life" of which date back to 1370-1400, can be found in the Stockholm Museum. It was brought from the parish of the Swedish island of Gotland.

The leader in the nomination "the loudest organ" adorns the Concord Hall in Atlantic City. The record holder includes 7 manuals and a fairly extensive timbre set, formed by 445 registers. You will not be able to enjoy the sound of this giant, since its sound can provoke a rupture of eardrums in listeners. This musical instrument weighs over 250 tons.

The instrument that adorns the Church of St. Anne, which is located in the capital of Poland, is notable for the fact that it includes the world's longest pipes. Their height reaches about 18 meters, and the sound they make is capable of literally deafening. The frequency range of the instrument is located within the limits, covering even the area of ​​ultrasound.

The organ is the embodiment of grandeur and grandeur, it is rightly called the "king" in the world of music. This is the only instrument whose resonator is often the room itself, and not the wooden case. His closest relatives are not the piano and grand piano, as it might seem, but the flute and button accordion.

This amazing instrument is magnificent in everything: a powerful sound that does not leave the listener indifferent, an inspiring appearance that amazes with its scale, unusualness and a certain charm of antiques, as well as the complexity and intricacy of the design.

Organ device

The tool has a fairly complex structure, consisting of huge amount various elements: pipes, manuals, pedalboard, bellows, filters and electric compressors (in old days they were replaced by people - up to 10 people), registers with switches and much more.

The console, or pulpit, is the place from which the musician controls the instrument, contains manuals, a pedal keyboard, various switches, and so on.

Manual - manual keyboard. One organ can have up to seven such manuals.

Register - a certain number of pipes belonging to the same "family", they are united by timbre similarity. Register combinations are called "copulas" (from Lat - "bundles", "connections"). At the request of customers, masters can add separate registers to the organ, imitating the sound of a particular instrument.

Pedal keyboard - foot, looks the same as manual. With its help, the performer controls the bass pipes. To play the pedal keyboard, organists wear specially made "sensitive" and tight shoes with very thin soles.

Organ pipes - metal, wooden and wood-metal hollow pipes of different lengths, diameters and shapes. According to the method of sound production, they are divided into "reed" and "lobial". The instrument can contain up to 10,000 such pipes, the largest of them are bass pipes, their height can reach up to 10 meters, and their weight can be up to 500 kg. Sometimes the lowest sounds of the instrument are given a name, such as "whale voice".

And also the organ contains a foot roller that connects and disconnects the registers, so you can play a crescendo or diminuendo, since the organ manuals themselves are not sensitive - the volume of the sound does not depend on the force of pressing the key, such as in the piano.

The facade side of the organ, visible to the audience, is only a small part of it, the rest of the "content" is behind the wall. Despite the external strength of organ pipes, they are still easy enough to bend, so outsiders are rarely allowed "inside" the instrument.
Abstracts are special thin wooden slats that connect keys to pipe valves. Some of them can reach a height of 13 meters.

The largest organ in the world is located in the American city of Atlantic City in the Boardwalk Hall concert hall. The instrument has thirty-three thousand pipes and one thousand two hundred keys.
Fans drive air into the pipes, which rotate electric motors with a capacity of 600 liters. With. The state of the body is currently not working. In 1944, it was damaged during a hurricane, and in 2001, workers negligently destroyed part of the main pipes. The organ is subject to restoration, but this requires several years.

Etymology of the name of the instrument

Translated from the ancient Greek "organum" means "tool", or "tool". And in medieval Rus'“organ” was called “every sounding vessel”.

Historical information

The organ is one of the most ancient instruments. The exact date its occurrence cannot be determined. In the II century. BC. The Greek master Ktesebius invented an organ that plays with the help of hydraulics - air is pumped with a water press. And in the Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Nero (I century), the instrument was depicted on coins.

The most ancient predecessor of the organ is the Pan flute, which has a similar structure - connected tubes of various lengths, each of which produces a sound of a certain height. Then, having decided to improve the system, they added furs that pump air and a keyboard in which the number of keys coincided with the number of pipes.

These were hand-held organs that the musicians wore on their shoulder straps, pumping air into the bellows with one hand and playing a melody with the other; nearby, on a special stand, there were pipes into which air was supplied under pressure.

Medieval organs were not distinguished by the fineness of their workmanship - the size of the keys reached 5-7 cm, and the distance between them was sometimes 1.5-2 cm.

Therefore, they played on such a keyboard not with fingers, as on modern instrument, but with fists and elbows, making considerable effort.
The organ became a widespread instrument after its introduction in the 7th century. Catholic liturgical practice. In the same period, the organs from small transport instruments transported on carts turned into large stationary musical "instruments" - installed in churches.

In subsequent eras, the organ was gradually improved (Italian and German masters made a special contribution to its development), which is happening to this day - new developments are being introduced in order to make the instrument even more convenient to perform and increase its functionality.

Varieties

Depending on the principle of work, the following types of organs are distinguished:

  • wind;
  • Strings;
  • Theatrical;
  • Mechanical;
  • Electronic;
  • Steam;
  • hydraulic;
  • Digital

The role of the "king" of instruments in the art of music

Since its origin, the organ has occupied a certain place in cultural life humanity, having various degrees popularity and importance depending on historical era. The heyday, or the "golden age of the organ", is considered the Baroque era - XVII-XVIII centuries. During this period, such great composers as Bach, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi and others worked.

Also, different role performs organ in Eastern and Western Europe, or, to be more precise, in Orthodox and Catholic countries.

If in Western European Catholic countries, in each city there can be up to several hundred organs located in churches, then in Orthodox countries it is concert instrument, which is not available in every city. But here, during organ performances, the halls are overcrowded with those wishing to enjoy the luxurious organ sound.

It is impossible to find two identical organs, so this instrument is literally unique. The pipes of some specimens are capable of emitting ultra and infrasounds that are not caught by human hearing.

The organ is an instrument that has such unique and inimitable possibilities of imitation and combination of different timbres that even the simplest melody "in its performance" turns into a chic piece of music, the brightness of perception of which is enhanced by the power of sound and bewitching appearance tool.

Video

Watch the video below to listen and enjoy the sound of the instrument.




XYLOPHONE

Ding-ding, tone-tone,
Xylo-xylo-xylo-background.
The xylophone climbed onto the cabinet,
He was afraid of the flamingo.
- You, flamingo, wait!
Do not knock hard with your beak,
Better get a wand.
And you will hear a gentle sound.
Just a miracle - a xylophone.
"Xylophone" in Greek means singing tree. The first xylophone appeared, perhaps when primitive hit a dry tree with a stick and heard an unusual sound. Currently, similar simple xylophones are found in Africa, Asia and South America. It was brought to Europe by itinerant musicians.
The xylophone is made up of a large number wooden blocks that make sounds of different heights when struck. Bars are made of maple, alder, walnut, sometimes rosewood. They are placed on a braided rope made of straw, matting or rubber. The design is usually installed on a table, sometimes resonators are fixed under the bars - hollow metal cylinders. The sound of the xylophone is jerky, dryish and clicking. It is extracted with the help of "goat legs" - wooden sticks with thickenings at the ends, similar to spoons.
Sometimes, instead of wooden blocks, metal ones are used. This is a metallophone or vibraphone. He has all the records on the same level, while on the xylophone the bars corresponding to the black keys of the piano are slightly raised. Vibraphone - complex structure. It is placed on a special three-frame table-stand, moved on four wheels. Appeared in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to its characteristic timbre and great virtuosity, the vibraphone is widely used in music. But if you attach a keyboard mechanism like a piano to a metallophone, you get a celesta instrument. It was made by the master Auguste Müster in 1886. It is more convenient to play the celesta than with sticks on a metallophone. And the sound is just as gentle and sonorous. During his visit to Paris, P. I. Tchaikovsky heard the celesta and was so fascinated by its magical sound that he introduced the part of this instrument into his compositions: the ballad "Voivode" and the ballet "The Nutcracker".
The xylophone was first used in an orchestra by Ferdinand Cauer in mid-nineteenth V. in "Seven Variations" One of the most famous writings in which the xylophone is involved is the symphonic poem by Saint-Saens "Dance of Death". The Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov in The Tale of Tsar Saltan entrusted the xylophone with the song “In the garden, in the garden” to depict a squirrel gnawing golden nuts.


ORGAN

The organ is the largest musical instrument, a unique human creation. There are no two identical organs in the world.
The giant organ has many different timbres. This is achieved through the use of hundreds of metal pipes different sizes, through which air is blown, and the pipes begin to hum, or "sing". Moreover, the organ allows you to pull the sound for an arbitrarily long time with a constant volume.
Pipes are located horizontally and vertically, some are suspended on hooks. IN contemporary organs their number reaches 30 thousand! The largest pipes have a height of over 10 m, and the smallest - 1 cm.
The management system of an organ is called a chair. It is a complex mechanism controlled by the organist. The organ has several (from 2 to 7) manual keyboards (manuals), consisting of keys, like on a piano. Previously, the organ was played not with fingers, but with fists. There is also a foot keyboard or just a pedal with up to 32 keys.
Usually the performer is assisted by one or two assistants. They switch registers, the combination of which generates a new timbre, not similar to the original one. An organ can replace an entire orchestra because its range exceeds that of all instruments in an orchestra.
The organ has been known since ancient times. The creator of the organ is considered to be the Greek mechanic Ctesibius, who lived in Alexandria in 296-228. BC e. He invented the water organ, the hydraulics.
Now most often the organ is used in worship. Some churches and cathedrals host concerts or organ services. In addition, there are organs installed in concert halls. The largest organ in the world is located in the American city of Philadelphia, in the McCases department store. Its weight is 287 tons.
Music for the organ was written by many composers, but he revealed its capabilities as a virtuoso performer and created works unsurpassed in depth as a genius composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
In Russia, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka paid considerable attention to organ art.
It is almost impossible to learn how to play the organ on your own. It requires a lot of musical experience. Training on the organ begins in schools, if you have the skills to play the piano. But it is possible to master this instrument well by continuing your studies at the conservatory.
MYSTERY
That tool from a long time ago
Decorated the cathedral.
Decorate and play
The whole orchestra replaces
(Organ)


VIOLIN

It is considered that the first bowed string instrument invented by the Indian (according to another version - Ceylon) king Ravana, who lived about five thousand years ago. That's probably why distant ancestor the violin was called the ravanastron. It consisted of an empty cylinder made of mulberry wood, one side of which was covered with the skin of a broad-scaled water boa. The strings were made from the intestines of a gazelle, and the bow, curved in an arc, was made from a bamboo tree. Ravanastron has been preserved to this day by wandering Buddhist monks.
The violin appeared on the professional stage at the end of the 15th century, and its “inventor” was the Italian from Bologna, Gaspard Duifopruggar. The oldest violin, made by him in 1510 for King Franz I, is kept in the Nidergey Collection in Aachen (Holland). The violin owes its present appearance and, of course, sound to the Italian violin makers Amati, Stradivari and Guarneri. The violins of the master Magini are also highly valued. Their violins, made of well dried and varnished maple and spruce plates, sang more beautifully than the most beautiful voices. The instruments made by these craftsmen are still played by the world's best violinists. Stradivari has designed a violin that is still unsurpassed, having the richest timbre and exceptional "range" - the ability to fill huge halls with sound. It had kinks and irregularities inside the body, thanks to which the sound was enriched due to the appearance of a large number of high overtones.
The violin is the highest-pitched instrument of the bow family. It consists of two main parts - the body and neck, between which are stretched four steel strings. The main advantage of the violin is the melodiousness of the timbre. It can play both lyrical melodies and dazzling fast passages. The violin is the most common solo instrument in the orchestra. The Italian virtuoso and composer Niccolo Paganini greatly expanded the possibilities of the violin. Subsequently, many other violinists appeared, but no one could surpass him. Remarkable works created for the violin by Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and others.
Oistrakh, or, as he was called, "Tsar David", is considered an outstanding Russian violinist.
There is an instrument that looks very much like a violin, but is slightly larger. This is an alt.
MYSTERY
Carved in the forest, smoothly hewn,
Sings-poured, what's the name?
(Violin)

When the inconspicuous beige-painted door opened, only a few wooden steps caught my eye out of the darkness. Immediately behind the door, a powerful wooden box resembling a ventilation box goes up. “Careful, this is an organ pipe, 32 feet, bass flute register,” my guide warned. "Wait, I'll turn on the light." I patiently wait, anticipating one of the most interesting excursions in my life. In front of me is the entrance to the organ. This is the only musical instrument you can go inside


funny tool - harmonica with bells unusual for this instrument. But almost exactly the same design can be found in any large organ (like the one shown in the picture on the right) - this is how “reed” organ pipes are arranged

The sound of three thousand trumpets. General scheme The diagram shows a simplified diagram of an organ with a mechanical tracture. Photographs showing individual components and devices of the instrument were taken inside the organ Great Hall Moscow State Conservatory. The diagram does not show the bellows, which maintains constant pressure in the windlad, and the Barker levers (they are in the pictures). Also missing is a pedal (foot keyboard)

The body is over a hundred years old. It stands in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the very famous hall, from the walls of which portraits of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Beethoven are looking at you ... However, all that is open to the viewer's eye is the organist's console turned to the hall with its back side and a slightly artsy wooden " Prospect" with vertical metal pipes. Watching the facade of the organ, the uninitiated will not understand how and why this one plays. unique tool. To reveal its secrets, you will have to approach the issue from a different angle. Literally.

Natalya Vladimirovna Malina, the curator of the organ, teacher, musician and organ master, kindly agreed to become my guide. “You can only move forward in the organ,” she explains sternly to me. To mysticism and superstition, this requirement has nothing slightest relation: simply, moving backwards or sideways, an inexperienced person can step on or touch one of the organ pipes. And there are thousands of pipes.

Main principle the work of the organ, which distinguishes it from most wind instruments: one pipe - one note. Pan's flute can be considered an ancient ancestor of the organ. This instrument, which has existed since time immemorial in different corners of the world, is several hollow reeds connected together different lengths. If you blow at an angle at the mouth of the shortest one, you will hear a thin alt. Longer reeds sound lower.

Unlike an ordinary flute, you cannot change the pitch of an individual tube, so Pan's flute can play exactly as many notes as there are reeds in it. To make the instrument produce very low sounds, you need to include tubes in its composition. great length and large diameter. You can make many Pan flutes with pipes from different materials and different diameters, and then they will blow the same notes with different timbres. But playing all these instruments at the same time will not work - you cannot hold them in your hands, and there will not be enough breath for giant "reeds". But if we put all our flutes vertically, provide each individual tube with an air inlet valve, come up with a mechanism that would give us the ability to control all the valves from the keyboard, and, finally, create a design for pumping air with its subsequent distribution, we have just get an organ.

On an old ship

Pipes in organs are made of two materials: wood and metal. Wooden pipes used to extract bass sounds have a square section. Metal pipes are usually smaller, cylindrical or conical in shape and are usually made from an alloy of tin and lead. If there is more tin, the pipe is louder, if there is more lead, the extracted sound is more deaf, “cotton”.

The alloy of tin and lead is very soft, which is why organ pipes are easily deformed. If a large metal pipe is laid on its side, after a while it will acquire an oval section under its own weight, which will inevitably affect its ability to extract sound. Moving inside the organ of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, I try to touch only the wooden parts. If you step on a pipe or awkwardly grab it, the organ master will have new troubles: the pipe will have to be “healed” - straightened, or even soldered.

The organ I am inside is far from being the largest in the world and even in Russia. In terms of size and number of pipes, it is inferior to the organs of the Moscow House of Music, Cathedral in Kaliningrad and Concert Hall them. Tchaikovsky. The main record holders are overseas: for example, the instrument installed in the Atlantic City Convention Hall (USA) has more than 33,000 pipes. In the organ of the Great Hall of the Conservatory, there are ten times fewer pipes, “only” 3136, but even this significant number cannot be placed compactly on one plane. The organ inside is several tiers on which pipes are installed in rows. For the organ master's access to the pipes, a narrow passage in the form of a plank platform was made on each tier. The tiers are interconnected by stairs, in which the role of the steps is performed by ordinary crossbeams. Inside the organ is crowded, and movement between tiers requires a certain dexterity.

“My experience is that,” says Natalya Vladimirovna Malina, “it is best for an organ master to be thin and light in weight. It is difficult for a person with other dimensions to work here without damaging the instrument. Recently, an electrician - a heavyset man - was changing a light bulb over an organ, stumbled and broke a couple of planks from the plank roof. There were no casualties or injuries, but the fallen planks damaged 30 organ pipes.”

Mentally estimating that a pair of organ masters of ideal proportions would easily fit in my body, I cautiously glance at the flimsy-looking stairs leading to the upper tiers. “Don't worry,” Natalya Vladimirovna reassures me, “just go forward and repeat the movements after me. The structure is strong, it will withstand you.

Whistle and reed

We climb to the upper tier of the organ, from where a view of the Great Hall from the top point, which is inaccessible to a simple visitor to the conservatory, opens up. On the stage below, where the rehearsal of the string ensemble has just ended, little men walk around with violins and violas. Natalya Vladimirovna shows me the Spanish registers near the chimney. Unlike other pipes, they are not vertical, but horizontal. Forming a kind of visor over the organ, they blow directly into the hall. The creator of the organ of the Great Hall, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, came from a Franco-Spanish family of organ masters. Hence the Pyrenean traditions in the instrument on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow.

By the way, about Spanish registers and registers in general. "Register" is one of the key concepts in the design of the organ. This is a series of organ pipes of a certain diameter, forming a chromatic scale according to the keys of their keyboard or part of it.

Depending on the scale of the pipes included in their composition (the scale is the ratio of the pipe parameters that are most important for the character and sound quality), the registers give a sound with a different timbre color. Carried away by comparisons with the Pan flute, I almost missed one subtlety: the fact is that not all organ pipes (like the reeds of an old flute) are aerophones. An aerophone is a wind instrument in which the sound is formed as a result of the vibrations of a column of air. These include flute, trumpet, tuba, horn. But the saxophone, oboe, harmonica are in the group of idiophones, that is, "self-sounding". It is not the air that oscillates here, but the tongue streamlined by the flow of air. Air pressure and elastic force, counteracting, cause the reed to tremble and spread sound waves, which are amplified by the bell of the instrument as a resonator.

Most of the pipes in the organ are aerophones. They are called labial, or whistling. Idiophone pipes make up special group registers and are called reed.

How many hands does an organist have?

But how does a musician manage to make all these thousands of pipes - wooden and metal, whistle and reed, open and closed - tens or hundreds of registers ... sound in right time? To understand this, let's go down for a while from the upper tier of the organ and go to the pulpit, or the organist's console. The uninitiated at the sight of this device is trembling as before the dashboard of a modern airliner. Several manual keyboards - manuals (there may be five or even seven!), One foot plus some other mysterious pedals. There are also many exhaust levers with inscriptions on the handles. What is this all for?

Of course, the organist has only two hands, and he will not be able to play all the manuals at the same time (there are three of them in the organ of the Great Hall, which is also quite a lot). Several manual keyboards are needed in order to mechanically and functionally separate groups of registers, just as in a computer one physical hard drive is divided into several virtual ones. So, for example, the first manual of the Great Hall organ controls the pipes of a group (the German term is Werk) of registers called the Grand Orgue. It includes 14 registers. The second manual (Positif Expressif) is also responsible for 14 registers. The third keyboard - Recit expressif - 12 registers. Finally, the 32-key footswitch, or "pedal", works with ten bass registers.

Arguing from the point of view of a layman, even 14 registers for one keyboard is somehow too much. After all, by pressing one key, the organist is able to make 14 pipes sound at once in different registers (actually more because of registers like mixtura). And if you need to play a note in just one register or in a few selected ones? For this purpose, the exhaust levers located to the right and left of the manuals are actually used. Pulling out the lever with the name of the register written on the handle, the musician opens a kind of damper that opens the air to the pipes of a certain register.

So, in order to play the desired note in the desired register, you need to select the manual or pedal keyboard that controls this register, pull out the lever corresponding to this register and press the desired key.

Powerful breath

The final part of our tour is dedicated to the air. The very air that makes the organ sound. Together with Natalya Vladimirovna, we go down to the floor below and find ourselves in a spacious technical room, where there is nothing from the solemn mood of the Great Hall. Concrete floors, whitewashed walls, arched timber support structures, air ducts and an electric motor. In the first decade of the organ's existence, calcante rockers worked hard here. Four healthy men stood in a row, grabbed with both hands a stick threaded into a steel ring on the counter, and alternately, with one foot or the other, pressed on the levers that inflated the fur. The shift was scheduled for two hours. If the concert or rehearsal lasted longer, the tired rockers were replaced by fresh reinforcements.

Old furs, four in number, have survived to this day. According to Natalya Vladimirovna, there is a legend around the conservatory that once they tried to replace the work of rockers with horse power. For this, a special mechanism was allegedly even created. However, along with the air, the smell of horse manure rose into the Great Hall, and the founder of the Russian organ school A.F. Gedike, taking the first chord, moved his nose in displeasure and said: “It stinks!”

Whether this legend is true or not, in 1913 the electric motor finally replaced muscle strength. With the help of a pulley, he spun the shaft, which in turn set the bellows in motion through the crank mechanism. Subsequently, this scheme was also abandoned, and today an electric fan pumps air into the organ.

In the organ, the forced air enters the so-called magazine bellows, each of which is connected to one of the 12 windlads. Windlada is a compressed air tank that looks like a wooden box, on which, in fact, rows of pipes are installed. On one windlad, several registers are usually placed. Large pipes, which do not have enough space on the windlad, are installed to the side, and an air duct in the form of a metal tube connects them to the windlad.

The windlads of the organ of the Great Hall (the “loopflade” design) are divided into two main parts. In the lower part, with the help of magazine fur, constant pressure is maintained. The top is divided by airtight partitions into so-called tone channels. All pipes of different registers, controlled by one key of the manual or pedal, have an output to the tone channel. Each tone channel is connected to the bottom of the windlad by a hole closed by a spring-loaded valve. When a key is pressed through the tracture, the movement is transmitted to the valve, it opens, and the compressed air enters upward into the tone channel. All pipes that have access to this channel, in theory, should start to sound, but ... this, as a rule, does not happen. The fact is that so-called loops pass through the entire upper part of the windlad - dampers with holes located perpendicular to the tone channels and having two positions. In one of them, the loops completely cover all the pipes of a given register in all tone channels. In the other, the register is open, and its pipes begin to sound as soon as, after pressing a key, air enters the corresponding tone channel. The control of the loops, as you might guess, is carried out by levers on the remote control through the register path. Simply put, the keys allow all pipes to sound in their tone channels, and the loops determine the favorites.

We thank the leadership of the Moscow State Conservatory and Natalya Vladimirovna Malina for their help in preparing this article.

Which sounds with the help of pipes (metal, wooden, without reeds and with reeds) of various timbres, into which air is blown with the help of bellows.

Organ playing is carried out using several keyboards for hands (manuals) and a pedal keyboard.

By sound richness and abundance musical means the organ ranks first among all instruments and is sometimes called the "king of instruments". Due to its expressiveness, it has long been the property of the church.

A person who plays music on an organ is called organist.

Soldiers of the Third Reich called the Soviet multiple launch rocket systems BM-13 "Stalin's organ" because of the sound made by the plumage of the missiles.

History of the organ

The embryo of the organ can be seen in, as well as in. It is believed that the organ (hydraulos; also hydraulikon, hydraulis - “water organ”) was invented by the Greek Ktesibius, who lived in Alexandria of Egypt in 296-228. BC e. Image similar instrument is available on one coin or token from the time of Nero.

Large organs appeared in the 4th century, more or less improved organs in the 7th and VIII centuries. Pope Vitalian (666) introduced the organ into catholic church. In the 8th century, Byzantium was famous for its organs.

The art of building organs also developed in Italy, from where they were sent to France in the 9th century. Later this art developed in Germany. The organ began to receive the greatest and ubiquitous distribution in the XIV century. In the 14th century, a pedal appeared in the organ, that is, a keyboard for the feet.

Medieval organs, in comparison with later ones, were of crude workmanship; a manual keyboard, for example, consisted of keys with a width of 5 to 7 cm, the distance between the keys reached one and a half cm. They hit the keys not with fingers, as they do now, but with fists.

In the 15th century, the keys were reduced and the number of pipes increased.

Organ device

Improved organs reached a huge number of pipes and tubes; for example, the organ in Paris in the church of St. Sulpice has 7 thousand pipes and tubes. In the organ there are pipes and tubes of the following sizes: at 1 foot, notes sound three octaves higher than written, at 2 feet, notes sound two octaves higher than written, at 4 feet, notes sound an octave higher than written, at 8 feet, notes sound as they are written, at 16 feet - notes sound an octave below written, at 32 feet - notes sound two octaves below written. Closing the pipe from above leads to a decrease in the emitted sounds by an octave. Not all organs have large tubes.

There are from 1 to 7 keyboards in the organ (usually 2-4); they are called manuals. Although each organ keyboard has a volume of 4-5 octaves, thanks to the pipes sounding two octaves below or three octaves above the written notes, the volume big organ has 9.5 octaves. Each set of pipes of the same timbre is, as it were, a separate instrument and is called register.

Each of the retractable or retractable buttons or registers (located above the keyboard or on the sides of the instrument) actuates a corresponding row of tubes. Each button or register has its own name and a corresponding inscription, indicating the length of the largest pipe of this register. The composer can indicate the name of the register and the size of the pipes in the notes above the place where this register should be applied. (Selection of registers for execution piece of music called registration.) Registers in the organs are from 2 to 300 (most often found from 8 to 60).

All registers fall into two categories:

  • Registers with pipes without reeds(labial registers). This category includes registers of open flutes, registers of closed flutes (bourdons), registers of overtones (potions), in which each note has several (weaker) harmonic overtones.
  • Registers with pipes with reeds(reed registers). The combination of registers of both categories together with a potion is called plein jeu.

The keyboards or manuals are located in the terraced organs, one above the other. In addition to them, there is also a pedal keyboard (from 5 to 32 keys), mainly for low sounds. The part for the hands is written on two staves - in the keys and as for. The pedal part is often written separately on the same staff. The pedal keyboard, simply called "pedal", is played with both feet, using the heel and toe alternately (until the 19th century, only the toe). An organ without a pedal is called positive, a small portable organ is called portable.

Manuals in organs have names that depend on the location of the pipes in the organ.

  • The main manual (having the loudest registers) - in the German tradition is called Hauptwerk(French Grand orgue, Grand clavier) and is located closest to the performer, or on the second row;
  • The second most important and loud manual in the German tradition is called Oberwerk(louder version) or Positive(light version) (fr. Рositif), if the pipes of this manual are located ABOVE the pipes of Hauptwerk, or Ruckpositiv, if the pipes of this manual are located separately from the rest of the pipes of the organ and are installed behind the back of the organist; The Oberwerk and Positiv keys on the game console are located one level above the Hauptwerk keys, and the Ruckpositiv keys are one level below the Hauptwerk keys, thereby reproducing the architectural structure of the instrument.
  • The manual, the pipes of which are located inside a kind of box, which has vertical shutters in the front part of the blinds in the German tradition are called Schwellwerk(fr. Recit (expressif). Schwellwerk can be located both at the very top of the organ (more common), and on the same level as the Hauptwerk. Schwellwerka keys are located on the game console at a higher level than Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, Positiv, Ruckpositive.
  • Existing types of manuals: Hinterwerk(pipes are located at the back of the organ), Brustwerk(pipes are located directly above the organist's seat), Solowerk(solo registers, very loud trumpets arranged in a separate group), Choir etc.

The following devices serve as relief for the players and a means for amplifying or attenuating sonority:

copula- a mechanism by which two keyboards are connected, with the registers advanced on them acting simultaneously. The copula enables the player on one manual to use the extended registers of another.

4 footrests above pedal board(Pеdale de combinaison, Tritte), each of which acts on a certain combination of registers.

Blinds- a device consisting of doors that close and open the entire room with pipes of different registers, as a result of which the sound is strengthened or weakened. Doors are set in motion by a footboard (channel).

Since registers in different bodies different countries and epochs are not the same, then in the organ part they are usually not indicated in detail: they write out only the manual, the designation of pipes with or without reeds, and the size of the pipes above this or that place in the organ part. The rest of the details are provided to the performer.

The organ is often combined with the orchestra and singing in oratorios, cantatas, psalms, and also in opera.

There are also electric (electronic) organs, for example, Hammond.

Composers who composed organ music

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Adam Reinken
Johann Pachelbel
Dietrich Buxtehude
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Johann Jakob Froberger
Georg Friedrich Handel
Siegfried Karg-Elert
Henry Purcell
Max Reger
Vincent Lübeck
Johann Ludwig Krebs
Matthias Weckman
Domenico Zipoli
Cesar Frank

Video: Organ on video + sound

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