Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/902

Rh 836 ORGAN Swell Organ (3-inch wind). Lieblich bourdon 16 Open diapason 8 Stopped diapason 8 Dulciana 8 Vox ccelestis l 8 Principal 4 Octave dulciana 4 Fifteenth 2 Mixture 2 in ranks Contra fagotto 16 Cornopean 8 Oboe S Vox humana 8 Clarion. . 4 Choir Organ (2|-inch wind). Dulciana 8 Keraulophon 8 Stopped diapason 8 Principal 4 Flute 4 Piccolo 2 Corno di bassetto (reed) 8 Solo Organ (6-inch wind). Harmonic flute 8 Orchestral oboe 8 Tromba 8 Pedal Organ (4-inch wind). Open diapason (wood) 16 i Violone (metal) 16 Bourdon (wood) 16 i Violoncello (metal) 8 Trombone (wood tubes) 16 Couplers. Solo to great. Swell to pedal. Swell to great. Great to pedal. &quot;iolo to pedal. Choir to pedal. Pneumatic action to great organ and its couplers. The arrangement of the stops and compositions is as follows : teft. Over the keys. Right. Solo. Couplers. Swell. Choir. Tremulant. Great. Pedal. (Knob below swell keys.)

Is Composition Pedals. Swell. Great and pedal combined /. 1 1 // mf p Great to pedal in and out. 1, I P mf f ff Reduce pedal to violone, / Great to pedal in. The swell pedals control two sides of tlie swell box and the orchestral oboe. The vox humana is in a box which is always shut. These swell pedals are on a new system, which admits of fixing them at any point, so that the tone can be determined to any strength. HISTORY or THE ORGAN. The early history of the organ is very obscure. 3 As far back as classical times literary allusions occur occasionally to wind instruments involving the use of pipes and chan- Early nels and reservoirs of air. Some form of bagpipe appears allusions, to have been alluded to in this way. Vitruvius has left a description of the hydraulicon, or hydraulic organ. It is clear that it must have been a machine of some com plexity ; but the way in which it acted is not intelligibly described. Athenaeus also has an account of the water organ. There is a treatise on pneumatics by Hero of Alexandria, which contains apparently actual drawings of a pneumatic organ and of an hydraulic organ, with fairly clear descrip tions. If these drawings are authentic they are remark able ; for the pipes shown present very much the appear ance of modern organ-pipes, and they are arranged in a row with the longest in the middle, just as pipes are often arranged now. There is a bit of sculpture on the obelisk of Theodosius at Constantinople (latter part of 4th century) which represents an instrument having eight pipes stand ing in a row. The mouths are not shown, and the manipu lation is apparently going on on the farther side, so that its nature is not shown. The wind is furnished by a sort of blacksmith s bellows, on which two men are standing, as if to give the pressure or &quot;weight to the wind.&quot; It appears probable that organs were introduced into churches during the latter half of the first millennium A.D. As the keyboard does not appear to have been invented till after the close of this period, the notes can only have been sounded one at a time, and rapid successions can not have been used. The notes seem to have been few in number, about ten, but each note had latterly a number of pipes. A treatise on the construction of organs by a monk named Theophilus is assigned to the early part of the llth 1 This stop consists of a soft stop slightly out of tune, producing a waving tone with the dulciana. 2 These are the old mixtures. 3 As regards this section the writer desires to acknowledge his obli gations to Rimbault s History of the Organ, published with Hopkins s treatise. Key board. century. While some of the practical work is recognizable, most of the descriptions are unintelligible. It appears clear, however, that no keyboard is mentioned. The first keyboard is said to have been introduced into the organ in the cathedral at Magdeburg about the close of the llth century. There were sixteen keys; and a drawing exists in a work of the 17th century 4 which pur ports to represent them. They are said to have been an ell long and 3 inches broad. The drawing represents a complete octave with naturals and short keys (semitones), arranged in the same relative positions as in the modern keyboard. As it is generally admitted that the semitones were not invented till later, it would seem that this draw ing is probably not authentic. In early organs with key boards the keys are said to have required blows of the fist to put them down. In these cases probably sounding the notes of the plain song was all that could be accom plished. As to the precise time and conditions under which the keyboard assumed its present form we know nothing. It is commonly said that the change to narrow keys took place in the course of the 14th century, and that the semitones were introduced about the same time, But all these statements rest on the authority of writers long subsequent to the dates in question, and the actual facts appear to be unknown. Many examples of organ key boards still exist, both in England and on the Continent, which have black naturals and white short keys (semi tones). The organ in the church at Heiligenblut in the Tyrol had in 1870 two manuals, one having black naturals and white semitones, the other white naturals and black semitones. In this organ the stops were acted on by iron levers which moved right and left. It possessed a reservoir bellows of great capacity, and was altogether a remarkable instrument. Harpsichords with black key boards also exist. The mode of blowing practised about the time of the in- Bellows, troduction of the first keyboard appears to have been that which ultimately developed into the method still generally used in Germany. There were a great many separate bellows, each like a magnified kitchen-bellows, but provided with a valve, so that the wind could not return into the bellows. One man had charge of two of these. Each foot was attached to one bellows, and the blower held on by a bar above. It was possible, by raising each of the two bellows in turn and then resting his weight upon it, to produce a constant supply of wind with the pressure due to his weight. A great many such bellows were provided, and it seems that each pair required one man ; so that great numbers of blowers were employed. This description is again drawn from the 17th-century work before alluded to ; and its very completeness and the clearness of the accom panying drawing seem suspicious. A slight modification is enough to change this method into the German one. Instead of fastening the feet to the bellows and pulling them up, the blower treads on a lever which raises the bellows. The bellows being loaded then supplies the wind of itself. The bellows thus used have diagonal hinges, and various expedients are employed to make them furnish steady wind. But the English system of horizontal reser voirs and feeders appears far superior. While the notes were still few, and many pipes were connected with each note, the system of forming a chord on each note appears to have originated, which survives in the modern mixture. There was not at that time any thing of the nature of stops ; all the pipes connected with any one note sounded without exception whenever the note was made use of. The object probably was to give 4 Pnetorius, Theatrum Instrumentorum.