Pictured below: Overall view of the large church organ |
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Pictured below: Large church organ bandstand |
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Pictured below: Small and medium-sized church organ performance |
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The picture below shows the Grundtvigs Church (Danish: Grundtvigs Kirke) in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, which is rare in the world and is shaped like a pipe organ. It is also known as the Pipe Organ Church. Its biggest sound tube is 10 meters long and weighs 425 kilograms. Minimum length is only 5 cm. |
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1. History: Pipe organ, as its name implies, relies on sound pipes to produce sound. The ancient origins can be traced back to the flute. In the 3rd century BC, ancient Greek engineers invented a "Hydraulic Organ", which was the earliest pipe organ recorded in history. The bellows organ was first recorded around the 2nd century AD. Due to the early church's insistence on rejecting instrumental music, it was only a secular instrument popular among nobles. In 824 AD, the first pipe organ was installed in the Cathedral of Achen, Germany. After that, pipe organs gradually entered the church. Every Sunday morning, the sound of the pipe organ sounded in the city, as if to inform and call people to attend services. In 950 AD, the largest pipe organ in Europe was built in Winchester Cathedral, England. The organ had 400 pipes and 26 bellows. It required 70 people to blow the wind during the performance, and its sound resounded throughout the city. In the 12th century, the pipe organ officially became an important instrument in Western Christian liturgies and an important part of church architecture. From the 13th to the 14th century, standard-sized keys were established, and the hand keyboard completely replaced the slide bar that previously controlled the sound. The Renaissance brought people from the Middle Ages to modern civilization. Progressive people during this period received great inspiration from ancient Greek art. Many structures and functions of the pipe organ were improved. The sound pipes of the pipe organ appeared in open pipes, closed pipes, Different styles such as tapered and barrel. At the end of the 14th century, the German organ produced a pedalboard. In the 15th century, pipe organs equipped with reed pipes appeared. Various timbres and styles of pipes were increasingly perfected, and the expressive power of musical instruments was richer than in the Middle Ages. Influenced by Martin Luther's Reformation, the organ has become an integral part of religious worship services. Since the 16th century, organ solo concerts have been held every Sunday in many Christian churches in North Germany and the Netherlands. By this point, all the basic elements for a pipe organ were in place, and builders began to mass-produce pipe organs throughout Europe. The Baroque period was the golden age of organ manufacturing, and its manufacturing technology reached its peak. After the mid-18th century, the power of the church declined, music began to become secular, and polyphonic music developed into main-key music. During this period, the structure of the modern sonata form and the genres of various chamber music such as symphonies and concertos were established. In addition, The rise of piano, orchestral instruments and opera in modern times has made the organ gradually withdraw from the stage of secular music.
It was not until the mid-19th century that, under the influence of French organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899), the organ ushered in a revival. The symphonicization of the pipe organ attracted many composers, such as Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, etc., who all tried to integrate romantic style and symphonies into the pipe organ, and created a large number of gorgeous and symphonic pipe organs. The organ thus reappeared in secular music. Not only was it a hit in the church, but it also went outside the church and became a concert instrument. Since the 20th century, pipe organs have entered the era of electrically controlled bellows, and have begun to use electric blowers to supply air. In addition, pipe organs have also made use of a large number of modern electronic technologies, such as using electronic signals to replace some of the traditional mechanical linkages in pipe organs; using programmable The button-type sound stops replace the traditional lever-type sound stops; the installation of programming buttons for preset timbres allows players to set each set of timbres in advance and save them, so that they do not have to be busy with various sound stops when playing more modern organ music. switch. In addition to the new development of church organs, a theater organ is also popular in the secular world. As the name suggests, theater organs are placed in movie theaters and mainly provide soundtracks for silent movies. The sounds of theater organs are designed for plots and special effects. The rapid development of science and technology in the 20th century. The release of the world's first sound film "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 caused the entire film industry to shift to the development of sound films. The theater organ gradually faded out of the stage along with silent films.
In 1934, American Lawrence Hammond invented the Hammond organ. It is considered the first successful electronic organ. The appearance of the Hammond organ made the organ more popular among people. The image in people's heart has completely changed. The electronic pipe organ is an electronic musical instrument. From the appearance of the bandstand and the way it is played, the Hammond organ is no different from the traditional mechanical pipe organ, but there are essential differences inside. The biggest difference is that it does not have a sound pipe. Pronunciation is simulated by electronic equipment. Just because its pronunciation and appearance are similar to that of a pipe organ, people are willing to call it the Hammond pipe organ. It is mainly composed of power supply, audio source, keyboard, peripheral controller and other parts. The sound source is the timbre resource library, which is the core device of the electronic organ. It contains all the timbres built into a piano when it leaves the factory. These timbres are collected and sampled from real musical instruments through electronic devices such as microphones. In terms of size, the electronic organ is relatively small and flexible, making it more convenient to play. At this point, the traditional church organ of more than two thousand years and the new era "pipe organ" represented by the Hammond organ are competing side by side on the world music stage, each showing its unique abilities. The history of pipe organ's rise and fall in the past 2,300 years is amazing, and its tenacity of vitality leaves a deep impression on people.( Refer 01，02）
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Below: Small church organ |
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2. Structure: The pipe organ is a type of organ and a pneumatic keyboard instrument. In the early days, playing the organ usually required two people, one to blow wind and another one to play. This method lasted for more than 2,000 years. Later, the scale of the pipe organ became larger and larger, and it was no longer enough to rely on manual blowing, so mechanical equipment began to be used to blow the wind. As a result, a more complex mechanical keyboard structure was developed, which generally consisted of sound pipes, sound stops, and keyboards. , rail rod machine, bellows, piano box and other components. The sound pipe is made of copper or wood and is used to produce sounds; the other two important parts are the keyboard and the sound stops, both of which are provided to the player to manually control the sound of the sound pipe: the keyboard is used to control the melody. Most manual keyboards have 61 keys, and most foot-operated keyboards have 32 keys. The sound stops are mainly used to control the airflow entering a certain group of sound tubes. There are main stops, flute stops, string stops, reed stops, change stops, mixed stops, joint stops, etc. The control buttons are mostly placed on the performance platform in both sides |
3. Features: The pipe organ has a loud volume, majestic momentum, beautiful and solemn timbre. It can imitate the effects of orchestral instruments and play rich harmonies. It is known as the "King of Instruments"
Sound Example  （Video Cologne Cathedral Organ）
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4. Example of Morricone's music
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