ETYM Latin organum, Greek.
A musical instrument operated by a keyboard but producing sound by means of pipes arranged in sets supplied with air from a bellows; SYN. pipe organ.
Musical wind instrument of ancient origin. It produces sound from pipes of various sizes under applied pressure and has keyboard controls. Apart from its continued use in serious compositions and for church music, the organ has been adapted for light entertainment.
One note only is sounded by each pipe, but these are grouped into stops, which are ranks or scales of pipes prepared to “speak” by a knob. These, in turn, form part of a sectional organ, one of the tonal divisions comprising the whole organ. These separate manuals are the great, swell, choir, solo, echo, and pedal organs, controlled by the player’s hands and feet. By this grouping and subdivision, extremes of tone and volume are obtained.
The organ developed from the panpipes and hydraulis (water organ), and is mentioned in writings as early as the 3rd century bc. Organs were imported to France from Byzantium in the 8th and 9th centuries, after which their manufacture in Europe began. The superseding of the old drawslides by the key system dates from the 11th–13th centuries, the first chromatic keyboard from 1361. The more recent designs date from 1809 when the composition pedal was introduced.
The electric tone-wheel organ was invented 1934 by the us engineer Laurens Hammond (1895–1973). Other types of electric organ were developed in the 1960s. Electrically controlled organs substitute electrical impulses and relays for some of the air-pressure controls. These, such as the Hammond organs, built during the 1930s for the large cinemas of the period, include many special sound effects as well as color displays. In electronic organs the notes are produced by electronic oscillators and are amplified at will. + prikaži više