The Casavant pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Montreal

The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the western musical tradition, with a rich history connected with the Christian religion and civic ceremony. Its sound output is continuous rather than decaying, i.e., the sound continues for as long as a key is depressed and does not depend on how hard the key is struck-—as is the case with a (velocity sensitive) piano--, and does not automatically decay quickly, like the harpsichord, and clavichord. However, some modern electronic organs have the capacity for velocity sensitivity. Many organs do not have aftertouch (pressure sensitivity) and so do not respond to how hard a key is held down. Download high resolution version (397x604, 49 KB)The pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica Photo by Montrealais. ... Download high resolution version (397x604, 49 KB)The pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica Photo by Montrealais. ... The Casavant pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica Casavant Frères is an illustrious and pre-eminent Canadian company that builds fine pipe organs. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is part of the Pipe Organ Refactor Project. ... Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica The Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal (commonly called Notre-Dame Basilica) is a basilica in the historic district of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. ... Montreal courthouse in 1880. ... A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... Keyboard expression often shortened to expression is the ability of the keyboard of a keyboard instrument to respond to the dynamics of the music. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the modern musical instrument. ... Jump to: navigation, search Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ... Image:Clavichord. ... Keyboard expression often shortened to expression is the ability of the keyboard of a keyboard instrument to respond to the dynamics of the music. ...

Organs range in size from a single, short keyboard to large instruments intended to play a full range of repertoire which typically have three or four manuals and may have as many as seven, plus a two-and-a-half octave pedalboard. This electronic organ has two offset, four-octave manuals, a typical configuration for a great many popular home and professional instruments. ... Pedalboard is the name of a large keyboard at the base of an electronic or pipe organ console that the organist plays with her feet. ...

Most classical music for the organ is written on three staves; the upper two for the manuals and the lower one for the pedals. The bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves. Jump to: navigation, search Classical music is generally thought of as sophisticated and refined; it may stem from a regional tradition, but aspires to universal form of communication. ... In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ... In musical notation, a bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. ...

Pipe organs

See the main article at pipe organ for more details and the history of the pipe organ. Jump to: navigation, search This article is part of the Pipe Organ Refactor Project. ...

The original organ was the pipe organ, and many organ enthusiasts still regard all other forms as imitations. Jump to: navigation, search This article is part of the Pipe Organ Refactor Project. ...

Pipe organs may be broadly divided into three categories:

• The church organ was developed originally for congregational singing, and is still found in many houses of worship. Accompaniment of human voices, whether a congregation, a choir or a cantor or soloist is the primary purpose of the church organ, and it is highly developed to be suitable for this task. Often just called a pipe organ (whether it actually has pipes or not), it may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it from the theatre organ, which is a distinctly different instrument. However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the church organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a church and a concert organ is hard to draw. Instruments of any size may include some stops designed for independent performance of this music rather than for accompaniment.

• The theatre organ (see that article) or cinema organ was designed to replace orchestras or instrumental ensembles that accompanied silent movies with a single performer. These instruments differ from church organs in three main ways:
  • Their pipes are designed and voiced for this role, rather than as accompaniment to voices.
  • They may include a far greater variety of non-organ sounds, notably drums and other percussion and sometimes a piano in larger instruments.
  • Even the largest instruments tend to rely unashamedly on extension to produce the maximum variety of sound from the minimum number of pipes.

• The concert organ or symphonic organ which flourished during the first third of the twentieth century in town halls and other secular public venues, particularly in the United States and the UK. As these were developed primarily to perform repertoire originally written for the church organ, the line between the two types can be hard to draw, to the point that two identical instruments, one in a church and the other in a concert hall, might be termed one a church organ, the other a concert organ.

The word Cantor can mean more than one thing: Cantor is another name for a Hazzan, a member of the Jewish clergy Cantor is the title of a member of a student society who is the main singer at a cantus Famous people named Cantor include: Eddie Cantor, singer & entertainer... Jump to: navigation, search A theatre organ is an organ installed in a movie theatre, most often modelled after the style originally devised by Robert Hope-Jones, which he called a unit orchestra. Such instruments were typically built to provide the greatest possible variety of timbres with the fewest possible... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... An extension organ is a pipe organ that uses one or more ranks of pipes longer then the length of its keyboards to serve several different organ stops at different pitches. ... The symphonic organ is a style of pipe organ which flourished during the first third of the twentieth century in town halls and other secular public venues (particularly in the United States and the UK). ...

Reed organs

Prior to the development of electric and electronic organs, the only alternative to the pipe organ was the reed organ, which generated its sounds using similar reeds to a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare. A reed organ is an organ that generates its sounds using free metal reeds, similar to an accordion. ... a piano accordion An accordion is a small portable free-reed wind instrument with a keyboard, the smallest representative of the organ family. ...

An electrically blown reed chord organ.

A development of the reed organ was the chord organ, which provided chord buttons for the left hand, again similar to a piano accordion in concept. A few chord organs were later built using frequency divider technology. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x618, 96 KB)A toy organ with displacement sensitive keys. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x618, 96 KB)A toy organ with displacement sensitive keys. ... A chord organ is an air-powered musical instrument. ...

Electric and electronic organs

See the main article electronic organ for more details and history. The classic Hammond electronic organ, invented in the 1930s and popular for decades thereafter. ...

Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments, and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.

Electric organs

The Hammond organ (see that article) was the first successful electric organ, and was sold beginning in the 1930s. It utilized mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the sound waveforms. Jump to: navigation, search The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was designed and built by Laurens Hammond in April 1935. ...

The Hammond controlled registration by a system of drawbars that took advantage of the possibility of setting the volume of each set of tonewheels individually, rather than merely imitating the on/off function of a pipe organ stop. It also provided new vibrato-like sounds, both by devices that acted on the drive belts and later by revolving loudspeakers. These features gave it new sounds that organists eagerly explored.

The Hammond organ became popular in jazz, particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the roots of rock and roll, the Hammond organ became a part of the rock and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s the polyphonic synthesizer became popular, replacing the organ in most pop acts. The Hammond enjoyed something of a resurgence in popularity in pop music around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that were light enough for one person to carry. Jump to: navigation, search Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Soul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong blues and gospel influences in music for small groups featuring keyboards, especially the Hammond organ. ... Jump to: navigation, search Gospel music may refer either to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the 1930s or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by white southern Christian artists. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 2000. ...

Frequency divider organs

With the development of the transistor, electronic organs that used no mechanical parts to generate the waveforms became practical. The first of these was the frequency divider organ, the first of which which used twelve oscillators to produce one octave of chromatic scale, and frequency dividers to produce other notes. These were even cheaper and more portable than the Hammond. Later developments made it possible to run an organ from a single radio frequency oscillator. Jump to: navigation, search High-power transistors used in a switching power supply. ... Jump to: navigation, search Radio Wave is also the name of a commercial radio station in Blackpool, North West England. ...

Frequency divider organs were built by many companies, and also offered in kit form to be built by hobbyists.

A few of these have seen notable use, such as the Lowrey played by Garth Hudson. Its electronic design made the Lowrey easily equipped with a pitch bend feature that is unavailable for the Hammond, and Hudson built a style around its use. Eric Garth Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian musician born in Windsor, Ontario and raised in London, Ontario. ...

During the period from the 1940s through approximately the 1970s, a variety of more modest self-contained electronic home organs from a variety of manufacturers were popular forms of home entertainment. These instruments often simplified the traditional organ stops into imitative voicings such as "trumpet" and "marimba" and as technology progressed they increasingly included automated features such as one-touch chords, electronic rhythm and accompaniment devices, and even built-in tape players. These were intended to make playing complete, layered "one-man band" arrangements extremely easy, especially for those not necessarily trained as organists. While a few such instruments are still sold today, their popularity has waned greatly, and many of their functions have been incorporated into more modern and inexpensive portable keyboards. The Lowrey line of home organs is the epitome of this type of instrument.

In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop and rock bands, and was a signature sound in the pop music of the period (e.g. The Doors, Iron Butterfly). The most popular combo organs were manufactured by Farfisa and Vox. Jump to: navigation, search The Doors, Legacy (Clockwise from top right): Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek The Doors (formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California) were a popular and influential American rock band. ... Iron Butterfly was a U.S. hard rock and psychedelic band, mostly known for their sole hit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Their heyday was the late 1960s, but the band has reincarnated several times with various members. ...

Digital organs

The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution in electronic keyboard instruments. Electronic organs sold since the 1980s utilize digital sampling to produce the sound. Jump to: navigation, search Optical Microscope image of an integrated circuit showing defects in the aluminium layer deposition. ... Jump to: navigation, search Digital sampling is the recording, playback, looping and editing of sound in a musical context using a computer to convert the sound into a series of numbers representing the measurement of the amplitude of the sound. ...

Also available are hybrids, incorporating a few ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and using digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions. Major manufacturers include Allen Organ and Rodgers. There are also custom digital organ builders like Phoenix Organs[1]with several representatives throughout the US[2]. Allen Organ Allen Organ Company is the worlds largest builder of organs. ... Rodgers Instruments designs and manufacturers classical organs, using digital technology and sometimes incorporating traditional wind blown pipes. ...

Similar instruments

Other instruments which are played from a reservoir of gas and have separate tone-producing mechanisms for each pitch include:

• the accordion and concertina, in which the bellows is operated by the squeezing action of the instrumentalist;
• the melodeon, a reed instrument with an air reservior and a foot operated bellows, popular in the USA in the mid-19th century;
• the Harmonium or parlor organ, a reed instrument usually with many stops and two foot-operated bellows which the instrumentalist operates alternately;
• the steam calliope, being essentially a pipe organ operated on steam rather than air;
• the band organ, essentially a pipe organ, but instead of a keyboard, mechanical means are used to play a prepared song.
• the barrel organ made famous by the organ grinder in its portable form, and relatively invisible in its larger form because it was then often fitted out with keyboards to give the option for totally a human performance
• the portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
• the positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable medieval instrument
• various sorts of novelty instruments operating on the same principles.

Other wind instruments that have no reservoir of gas but use a separate tone-producing mechanism for each pitch A button accordion An accordion is a musical instrument of the handheld bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as squeezeboxes. ... Jump to: navigation, search English concertina made by Wheatstone around 1920 A concertina, like the various accordions, is a member of the free-reed family of instruments. ... Hand bellows The bellows is a device for delivering pressured air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location. ... The terms melodeon and melodion can refer to any of several related musical instruments of the free reed aerophone family: A type of 19th century reed organ with a foot-operated vacuum bellows, and a piano keyboard. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is on the musical instrument; for information on other kinds of harmonia, see harmonium (disambiguation). ... Circus calliope, lithograph by Gibson & Co. ... A barrel organ player in Vienna, Austria. ... An Austrian organ grinder with his barrel organ in Vienna The organ grinder was a musical novelty street preformer of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. ... A portative organ (or portatif organ) was a small medieval organ carried by the performer, who manipulated the bellows with one hand and fingered the keys with the other. ... A positive organ (or portable organ) was a medieval chamber organ that could be carried from place to place without being taken to pieces. ...

• the harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the reeds is also known as a mouth organ;
• the pan-pipes

Other wind instruments that are played from a reservoir of gas but do not use a separate tone-producing mechanism for each pitch Jump to: navigation, search A harmonica A harmonica is a very common free reed musical wind instrument (also known, among other things, as a mouth organ, French harp, blues harp, simply harp, or Mississippi saxophone), having multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze reeds, each secured at one end over an... A harmonica is a free reed musical wind instrument (also known, among other things, as a mouth organ, french harp, simply harp, or Mississippi saxophone), having multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze reeds, each secured at one end over an airway slot of like dimension into which it can freely... Pan pipes (also known as the panflute or the syrinx or quills) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting usually of ten or more pipes of gradually increasing length. ...

• bagpipes

Jump to: navigation, search A bagpipe performer in Amsterdam. ...

See also

• Organ repertoire
• American Guild of Organists
• Pipe organ

The following is a list of organ repertoire, pieces that are commonly played by organists who have studied the Western tradition of pipe organ music. ... The American Guild of Organists, or AGO, is a national organization of church and concert organists in the USA. It is divided into regions and chapters and publishes a monthly magazine, The American Organist. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is part of the Pipe Organ Refactor Project. ...

External links

• Pipe Organs 101
• The World's Largest Organs
• OrganFocus.com Link Directory
• D.L. Simmons & Company Church Organs