Music World Fun Facts

Author: Shi Feng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-11-01
Features: This is a popular book about music knowledge. The book is divided into twenty-three chapters, covering topics such as the nature and function of music, musical instruments, musical scores, as well as visual, color, imagery, and literary knowledge related to music. The language is simple and easy to understand, with interactive illustrations, making it suitable for a broad readership.
11. The History of the Organ
When people think of the organ, many imagine the foot-pedal organ, as if the name "organ" refers exclusively to it. In fact, the term "organ" originally referred to the pipe organ in many Western countries. However, with the rapid development of reed organs and the increasing variety of organ forms, the name "organ" now encompasses a wide range of instruments, including ancient console organs, large organs that combine pipes and reeds, small foot-pedal organs, as well as hand organs, mouth organs, and electronic organs, among others. The foot-pedal organ is one of the most popular types, which is why it is commonly associated with the term "organ."
The common feature of the organ family is that they produce sound by blowing air through a set of pipes or reeds with fixed pitches. The organ is a family with a long history, holding an important position in the history of music and making significant contributions. In today's rapidly advancing science and technology, its traditional forms have seen new developments. Electronic organs and electronic hand organs have emerged as a new generation, gaining popularity worldwide. Although they differ from traditional organs in structure and sound production principles, they are still considered descendants of the organ family in terms of musical function and form.
Electronic organs have only been present in China's musical scene for a short time, but due to their beautiful tone color and rich expressiveness, as well as their ability to overcome the drawback of traditional organs requiring foot-pedal bellows, some even feature percussion rhythms and automatic harmony accompaniment functions. As a result, they have gradually become one of the most popular keyboard instruments, showing a trend of replacing traditional organs. This modern instrument, equipped with advanced electronic technology, can be seen as a new development of the pipe organ in terms of its historical emergence.
The ancient pipe organ, with a history of over two thousand years, was once hailed as the "king of instruments." Compared to the electronic organ, which has only a few decades of history, it is undoubtedly the senior predecessor. Of course, from the perspective of organ characteristics, the ancient Chinese instrument, the sheng, predates European organs by a much longer time. The sheng is one of the oldest instruments in China and, along with ancient Jewish flutes and pan pipes, can be considered the true ancestors of various types of organs.
In European history, the pipe organ was once the renowned "king of instruments." From the 16th to the 17th centuries, with the advancement of industrial technology and musical skills, pipe organ manufacturing became increasingly sophisticated and larger in scale. In Germany and England, the pipe organs produced at that time were often enormous. The pipes of large organs could be as long as 16 feet, while the largest pipes could reach up to 32 feet. The foot-pedal keys were made of wood and lead, and due to their large size, they were often exposed outside the organ body. Even larger bass pipes existed, with some reaching up to 40 feet in height—equivalent to the height of five or six people—while the smallest pipes were only as big as a regular glass cup.
A single pipe organ could have hundreds of pipes arranged like a forest, creating a spectacular appearance. However, such a large organ also brought many challenges in terms of bellows and construction. Therefore, after the 18th century, pipe organs primarily focused on improving manufacturing techniques, becoming more refined and compact. To mimic the tones of brass and string instruments, reeds were added, and attention was paid to both aesthetic design and rich sound quality. Composers like Bach composed early fugues on the organ, and Beethoven performed his works on it. Schubert, too, had used the organ during his time.