The organ is a musical instrument of twenty-eight centuries. How it is done, how it works, how it works Organ electric musical instrument

The organ is a musical instrument of twenty-eight centuries. How it is done, how it works, how it works Organ electric musical instrument
The organ is a musical instrument of twenty-eight centuries. How it is done, how it works, how it works Organ electric musical instrument
16.06.2019

A source: « In the world of science » , No. 3, 1983. Posted by Neville H. Fletcher & Susanna Thwaites

The majestic sound of the organ is created thanks to the interaction of a strictly phase-synchronized air stream passing through a cut in the pipe and an air column resonating in its cavity.

No musical instrument can match the organ in terms of strength, timbre, range, tonality and majesty of sound. Like many musical instruments, the organ is constantly being improved thanks to the efforts of many generations of skilled craftsmen who slowly accumulated experience and knowledge. By the end of the 17th century. the organ has basically taken on its modern form. Two of the most prominent physicists of the 19th century. Hermann von Helmholtz and Lord Rayleigh put forward opposite theories explaining the main mechanism of the formation of sounds in organ pipes, but due to the lack of the necessary instruments and instruments, their dispute was never resolved. With the advent of oscilloscopes and other modern devices, it became possible to study in detail the mechanism of action of an organ. It turned out that both the Helmholtz theory and the Rayleigh theory are valid for certain pressures under which the air is pumped into the organ pipe. Further in the article, the results of recent studies will be presented, which in many respects do not coincide with the explanation of the mechanism of action of the organ, given in the textbooks.

Tubes carved from reeds or other hollow-stemmed plants were probably the first wind instruments. They make sounds when blowing across the open end of the tube, or blowing into the tube, vibrating with their lips, or, pinching the end of the tube, blowing in air, causing its walls to vibrate. The development of these three types of the simplest wind instruments led to the creation of the modern flute, trumpet and clarinet, from which the musician can extract sounds in a fairly wide frequency range.

In parallel, such instruments were created in which each pipe was intended to sound on one specific note. The simplest of these instruments is the flute (or "Pan's flute"), which usually has about 20 tubes of varying lengths, closed at one end and emitting sounds when blown across the other, open end. The largest and most complex instrument of this type is the organ, containing up to 10,000 pipes, which the organist operates using a complex system of mechanical transmissions. The organ has its origins in antiquity. Clay figurines depicting musicians playing an instrument from many pipes equipped with furs were made in Alexandria as early as the 2nd century. BC. By the X century. the organ began to be used in Christian churches, and treatises written by monks on the structure of organs appeared in Europe. According to legend, large organ, built in the X century. for Winchester Cathedral in England, had 400 metal pipes, 26 bellows and two keyboards with 40 keys, where each key controlled ten pipes. Over the next centuries, the structure of the organ was improved mechanically and musically, and already in 1429 an organ with 2500 pipes was built in the Amiens Cathedral. In Germany, by the end of the 17th century. organs have already acquired their modern form.

Installed in 1979 at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in Australia, the organ is the largest and most technically advanced organ in the world. Designed and built by R. Sharp. It has about 10,500 pipes, mechanically controlled by five hand and one foot keyboards. The organ can be controlled automatically by magnetic tape on which the musician's performance was previously digitally recorded.

Terms used to describe organ device, reflect their origin from tubular wind instruments, into which air was blown through the mouth. The pipes of the organ are open from above, and from below they have a tapered tapered shape. Across the flattened part, above the cone, there is a "mouth" of the pipe (cut). A “tongue” (horizontal rib) is placed inside the tube, so that a “labial hole” (narrow gap) is formed between it and the lower “lip”. Air is forced into the pipe by large bellows and enters its cone-shaped base under a pressure of 500 to 1000 Pascals (5 to 10 cm H2O). When, by pressing the corresponding pedal and key, air enters the pipe, it rushes upward, forming when leaving labial cleft wide flat jet. The jet of air passes across the slot of the "mouth" and, striking the upper lip, interacts with the air column in the pipe itself; as a result, stable vibrations are created, which make the pipe "speak". In itself, the question of how this sudden transition from silence to sound occurs in a trumpet is very complicated and interesting, but it is not considered in this article. The conversation will mainly focus on the processes that ensure the continuous sounding of organ pipes and create their characteristic tonality.

The organ tube is excited by air entering its lower end and forming a stream as it passes through the gap between the lower lip and the uvula. In the section, the jet interacts with the air column in the pipe at the upper lip and passes either inside the pipe or outside it. Steady-state vibrations are created in the air column, making the pipe sound. Air pressure, changing according to the law of a standing wave, is shown with colored shading. A removable sleeve or plug is mounted on the upper end of the pipe, which allows you to slightly change the length of the air column when adjusting.

It may seem that the task of describing an air stream that generates and preserves the sound of an organ is entirely related to the theory of flows of liquids and gases. It turned out, however, that it is very difficult to theoretically consider the movement of even a constant, smooth, laminar flow, as for a completely turbulent air stream that moves in an organ pipe, its analysis is incredibly complex. Fortunately, turbulence, which is a complex form of air movement, actually simplifies the air flow pattern. If this flow were laminar, then the interaction of the air jet with the environment would depend on their viscosity. In our case, turbulence replaces viscosity as the determining factor of interaction in direct proportion to the width of the air flow. During the construction of the organ, special attention is paid to ensure that the air flows in the pipes are completely turbulent, which is achieved by using small cuts along the edge of the tongue. Surprisingly, unlike laminar flow, turbulent flow is stable and can be reproduced.

The fully turbulent flow gradually mixes with the surrounding air. The expansion and deceleration process is relatively straightforward. The curve depicting the change in the flow velocity depending on the distance from the central plane of its section has the form of an inverted parabola, the top of which corresponds to the maximum value of the velocity. The flow width increases in proportion to the distance from the labial slot. The kinetic energy of the flow remains unchanged, so the decrease in its speed is proportional to the square root of the distance from the slot. This dependence is confirmed by both calculations and experimental results (taking into account a small transition region near the labial gap).

In an already excited and sounding organ pipe, the air flow enters from the labial slit into an intense sound field in the slit of the pipe. The air movement associated with the generation of sounds is directed through the slot and therefore perpendicular to the plane of the flow. Fifty years ago, B. Brown of the University of London College managed to photograph a laminar flow of smoke-filled air in a sound field. The images showed the formation of meandering waves, increasing as they moved along the stream, until the latter disintegrated into two rows of vortex rings, rotating in opposite directions. A simplistic interpretation of these and similar observations has led to an incorrect description of the physical processes in organ pipes, which can be found in many textbooks.

A more fruitful method of studying the actual behavior of an air jet in a sound field is to experiment with a single tube in which the sound field is generated by a loudspeaker. As a result of such research, carried out by J. Coltman in the laboratory of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and a group with my participation at the University of New England in Australia, the foundations of the modern theory of physical processes occurring in organ pipes were developed. In fact, Rayleigh gave a thorough and almost complete mathematical description of laminar flows of inviscid media. Since it was found that turbulence does not complicate, but simplifies the physical picture of air strings, it turned out to be possible to use the Rayleigh method with minor changes to describe the air flows experimentally obtained and investigated by Coltman and our group.

If there was no labial slot in the pipe, then one would expect that the air stream in the form of a strip of moving air would simply move back and forth along with all the rest of the air in the pipe slot under the influence of acoustic vibrations. In reality, when the jet exits the slot, it is effectively stabilized by the slot itself. This effect can be compared with the result of superposition of strictly balanced mixing, localized in the plane of the horizontal rib, on the general vibrational motion of air in the sound field. This localized mixing, which has the same frequency and amplitude as the sound field, and as a result creates zero jet mixing at the horizontal edge, remains in the moving air stream and creates a tortuous wave.

Five pipes of different designs produce sounds of the same pitch but different timbre. The second trumpet from the left is a dulciana, which has a delicate, delicate sound reminiscent of a stringed instrument. The third trumpet is an open range, producing a light, sonorous sound that is most characteristic of an organ. The fourth trumpet has the sound of a very muffled flute. Fifth trumpet - Waldflote ( « forest flute ") with a soft sound. The wooden pipe on the left is closed with a plug. It has the same fundamental vibration frequency as other pipes, but resonates on odd overtones, the frequencies of which are an odd number of times higher than the fundamental frequency. The lengths of the other pipes are not exactly the same, as “end correction” is performed to obtain the same pitch.

As Rayleigh showed for the jet type he investigated and as we comprehensively confirmed for the case with a diverging turbulent jet, the wave propagates along the flow at a velocity slightly less than half the speed of air movement in the central plane of the jet. In this case, as it moves along the flow, the wave amplitude increases almost exponentially. Typically, it doubles as the wave travels one millimeter and its effect quickly becomes dominant over the simple reciprocating lateral movement caused by sound vibrations.

It was found that the highest rate of increase of the wave is achieved when its length along the stream is six times the width of the stream at a given point. On the other hand, if the wavelength turns out to be less than the width of the flow, then the amplitude does not increase and the wave can disappear altogether. Since the air jet expands and slows down as it moves away from the slot, only long waves, that is, low-frequency oscillations, can propagate along long streams with a large amplitude. This circumstance will prove to be of no small importance in the subsequent consideration of the creation of the harmonic sound of organ pipes.

Let us now consider the effect on the air stream of the sound field of the organ pipe. It is easy to imagine that the acoustic waves of the sound field in the pipe slot cause the tip of the air jet to mix across the upper lip of the slot, so that the jet is now inside the pipe, then outside it. This resembles a picture when an already swinging swing is being pushed. The air column in the pipe already vibrates, and when gusts of air enter the pipe synchronously with the vibration, they retain the force of the vibrations, despite various energy losses associated with the propagation of sound and air friction against the pipe walls. If the gusts of air do not coincide with the vibrations of the air column in the pipe, they will suppress these vibrations and the sound will attenuate.

The shape of the air stream is shown in the figure as a series of successive frames as it exits the labial gap into a moving acoustic field created in the "mouth" of the pipe by an air column that resonates inside the pipe. The periodic displacement of air in the cut of the mouth creates a tortuous wave moving at a speed half the speed of air movement in the central plane of the jet and increasing exponentially until its amplitude exceeds the width of the jet itself. The horizontal sections show the path segments that the wave travels in the jet during successive quarters of the oscillation period. T... The cutting lines approach each other with decreasing jet speed. In an organ pipe, the upper lip is located at the location indicated by the arrow. The air jet alternately exits and enters the pipe.

The measurement of the sound-producing properties of an air jet can be carried out by placing felt or foam wedges in the open end of the pipe to obstruct the sound, and creating a sound wave of small amplitude using a loudspeaker. Reflecting from the opposite end of the pipe, the sound wave interacts at the cut of the "mouth" with an air stream. The interaction of the jet with a standing wave inside the pipe is measured with a portable microphone tester. In this way, it is possible to detect, increase or decrease the air jet energy of the reflected wave in the lower part of the pipe. In order for the trumpet to sound, the jet must increase energy. The measurement results are expressed in the value of the acoustic "conductivity", defined as the ratio of the acoustic flux at the exit from the section « mouth ”to the sound pressure directly behind the cut. The conductivity curve at various combinations of discharge air pressure and oscillation frequency has a spiral shape as shown in the following figure.

The relationship between the occurrence of acoustic vibrations in the pipe slot and the moment the next portion of the air jet arrives at the upper lip of the slot is determined by the time interval during which the wave in the air flow travels the distance from the labial slot to the upper lip. Organ makers call this distance "undercut". If the "undercut" is large or the pressure (and hence the speed of movement) of the air is low, then the movement time will be long. Conversely, if the undercut is small or the air pressure is high, then the travel time will be short.

In order to accurately determine the phase relationship between the oscillations of the air column in the pipe and the inflow of portions of the air stream to the inner edge of the upper lip, it is necessary to study in more detail the nature of the effect of these proportions on the air column. Helmholtz believed that the main factor here was the amount of air flow delivered by the jet. Therefore, in order for the portions of the jet to impart as much energy as possible to the oscillating air column, they must flow at the moment when the pressure at the inner part of the upper lip reaches its maximum.

Rayleigh put forward a different position. He argued that since the slot is relatively close to the open end of the pipe, the acoustic waves at the slot, which are affected by the air jet, cannot create a lot of pressure. Rayleigh believed that the air flow, entering the pipe, actually hits an obstacle and almost stops, which quickly creates a high pressure in it, which affects its movement in the pipe. Therefore, according to Rayleigh, the air jet will transmit the maximum amount of energy if it enters the pipe at the moment when the maximum is not the pressure, but the flow of acoustic waves itself. The shift between these two maxima is one quarter of the period of oscillation of the air column in the tube. If we draw an analogy with a swing, then this difference is expressed in pushing the swing when it is at its highest point and has maximum potential energy (according to Helmholtz), and at the moment when it is at its lowest point and has maximum speed (according to Rayleigh).

The acoustic conductivity curve of the jet has a spiral shape. The distance from the starting point indicates the conductivity value, and the angular position is the phase shift between the acoustic flow at the exit from the slot and the sound pressure behind the slot. When the flow is in phase with the pressure, the conductivity values ​​lie in the right half of the spiral and the energy of the jet dissipates. In order for the jet to generate sound, the conductivity values ​​must be in the left half of the spiral, which occurs when compensation or delay in the phase of the jet movement with respect to the pressure behind the pipe cut. In this case, the reflected wavelength is higher than the incident wavelength. The value of the support angle depends on which of the two mechanisms dominates in the excitation of the tube: the Helmholtz mechanism or the Rayleigh mechanism. When the conductivity corresponds to the upper half of the spiral, the jet lowers the natural resonance frequency of the pipe, and when the conductivity value is in the lower part of the spiral, it increases the natural resonant frequency of the pipe.

The graph of the air flow in the pipe (dashed curve) at a given deflection of the jet is asymmetric with respect to the zero value of the deflection, since the lip of the pipe is designed so as to cut the jet not along its central plane. When the jet deflects along a simple sinusoid with a large amplitude (solid black curve), the air flow entering the pipe (colored curve) "saturates" first at one extreme point of the jet deflection, when it completely exits the pipe. With an even greater amplitude, the air flow is also saturated at the other extreme point of deflection, when the jet completely enters the pipe. The lip displacement gives the flow an asymmetric waveform, the overtones of which have frequencies that are multiples of the frequency of the deflecting wave.

For 80 years, the problem remained unsolved. Moreover, no new research has actually been carried out. And only now she found a satisfactory solution thanks to the work of L. Kremer and H. Leasing from the Institute. Heinrich Hertz in Zap. Berlin, S. Eller of the US Naval Academy, Coltman and our group. In short, both Helmholtz and Rayleigh were partly right. The relationship between the two mechanisms of action is determined by the pressure of the forced air and the frequency of sound, with the Helmholtz mechanism being the main one at low pressures and high frequencies, and the Rayleigh mechanism at high pressures and low frequencies. For standard organ pipes, the Helmholtz mechanism usually plays a more important role.

Coltman developed a simple and effective way to study the properties of an air jet, which was slightly modified and improved in our laboratory. This method is based on the study of the air stream at the cut of the organ pipe, when its far end is closed with felt or foam sound-absorbing wedges that prevent the pipe from sounding. Then, from a loudspeaker placed at the far end, a sound wave is fed down the pipe, which is reflected from the edge of the slot, first in the presence of an injected jet, and then without it. In both cases, the incident and reflected waves interact inside the pipe, creating a standing wave. By measuring with a small probe microphone the changes in wave configuration when the air jet is applied, it is possible to determine whether the jet increases or decreases the energy of the reflected wave.

In our experiments, we actually measured the "acoustic conductivity" of the air jet, which is determined by the ratio of the acoustic flow at the exit from the slot, created by the presence of the jet, to the acoustic pressure directly inside the slot. Acoustic conductivity is characterized by magnitude and phase angle, which can be plotted as a function of frequency or discharge pressure. If you represent a graph of conductivity with an independent change in frequency and pressure, then the curve will have the shape of a spiral (see figure). The distance from the starting point of the spiral indicates the conductivity value, and the angular position of the point on the spiral corresponds to the phase retardation of the tortuous wave that occurs in the jet under the influence of acoustic vibrations in the pipe. One wavelength lag corresponds to 360 ° around the circumference of the spiral. Due to the special properties of the turbulent jet, it turned out that when the conductivity value is multiplied by the square root of the pressure value, all the values ​​measured for a given organ pipe fit onto the same spiral.

If the pressure remains constant, and the frequency of the incoming sound waves increases, then the points indicating the magnitude of the conductivity approach in a spiral to its middle in a clockwise direction. At a constant frequency and increasing pressure, these points move away from the middle in the opposite direction.

Interior view of the organ of the Sydney Opera House. Some pipes of its 26 registers are visible. Most of the pipes are made of metal, some are made of wood. The length of the sounding part of the pipe doubles every 12 pipes, and the diameter of the pipe doubles approximately every 16 pipes. Many years of experience in organ makers have allowed them to find the best proportions that provide a stable tone of sound.

When the point of magnitude of conductivity is in the right half of the spiral, the jet takes energy from the flow in the pipe, and therefore there is a loss of energy. When the point is in the left half, the jet will transfer energy to the flow and thus act as a generator of sound vibrations. When the conductivity value is in the upper half of the spiral, the jet lowers the natural resonant frequency of the pipe, and when this point is in the lower half, the jet increases the natural resonant frequency of the pipe. The value of the angle characterizing the phase lag depends on which scheme - Helmholtz or Rayleigh - is used for the main excitation of the tube, and this, as has been shown, is determined by the values ​​of pressure and frequency. However, this angle, measured from the right side of the horizontal axis (right quarter), is never significantly greater than zero.

Since 360 ​​° around the circumference of the spiral corresponds to a phase lag equal to the length of the sinuous wave propagating along the air stream, the magnitude of such a lag from much less than a quarter of the wavelength to almost three-quarters of its length will lie on the spiral from the center line, that is, in that part where the jet acts as a generator of sound vibrations. We have also seen that at a constant frequency, the phase lag is a function of the discharge air pressure, on which both the speed of the jet itself and the speed of propagation of the tortuous wave along the jet depend. Since the speed of such a wave is half the speed of the jet, which in turn is directly proportional to the square root of the pressure, a change in the phase of the jet by half the wavelength is possible only with a significant change in pressure. In theory, the pressure can change up to nine times the size before the trumpet ceases to produce sound at its fundamental frequency, unless other conditions are violated. In practice, however, the trumpet starts to sound at a higher frequency until the specified upper limit of the pressure change is reached.

It should be noted that in order to replenish the energy losses in the pipe and ensure the stability of the sound, several turns of the spiral can go far to the left. Only one more such turn can make the pipe sound, the location of which corresponds to approximately three half-waves in the jet. Since the conductivity of the strings at this point is low, the sound produced is weaker than any sound corresponding to a point on the outer turn of the spiral.

The shape of the conduction spiral can be further complicated if the deflection at the upper lip exceeds the width of the jet itself. In this case, the jet is almost completely blown out of the pipe and blown back into it at each cycle of movement, and the amount of energy that it imparts to the reflected wave in the pipe ceases to depend on a further increase in amplitude. Accordingly, the efficiency of the air strings in the mode of generating acoustic vibrations also decreases. In this case, an increase in the jet deflection amplitude leads only to a decrease in the conduction spiral.

A decrease in the jet efficiency with an increase in the deflection amplitude is accompanied by an increase in energy losses in the organ pipe. Oscillations in the pipe are quickly set to a lower level where the jet energy accurately compensates for the energy loss in the pipe. It is interesting to note that in most cases the energy losses due to turbulence and viscosity significantly exceed the losses associated with the scattering of sound waves through the slot and open ends of the pipe.

A section of a range-type organ pipe, which shows that the tongue has a notch to create a uniform turbulent motion of the air stream. The pipe is made of "marked metal" - an alloy with a high content of tin and an addition of lead. When making sheet material from this alloy, a characteristic pattern is fixed on it, which is clearly visible in the photograph.

Of course, the actual sound of a trumpet in an organ is not limited to one specific frequency, but also contains sounds of a higher frequency. It can be proved that these overtones are exact harmonics of the fundamental frequency and differ from it by an integer number of times. Under constant blowing conditions, the sound waveform on the oscilloscope remains exactly the same. The slightest deviation of the frequency of the harmonics from a value strictly multiple of the fundamental frequency leads to a gradual, but clearly visible change in the waveform.

This phenomenon is of interest, because the resonant oscillations of the air column in an organ pipe, as in any open pipe, are established at frequencies that are slightly different from the frequencies of the harmonics. The fact is that with increasing frequency, the working length of the pipe becomes slightly shorter due to a change in the acoustic flow at the open ends of the pipe. As will be shown, overtones in an organ pipe are created due to the interaction of the air jet and the lip of the slot, and the pipe itself serves mainly for the overtones of a higher frequency as a passive resonator.

Resonant vibrations in the pipe are created with the greatest air movement at its holes. In other words, the conductivity in the organ pipe must reach its maximum at the notch. Hence, it follows that resonant vibrations in a pipe with an open long end occur at frequencies at which an integer number of half-waves of sound vibrations fit into the length of the pipe. If we denote the fundamental frequency as f 1, then the higher resonant frequencies will be 2 f 1 , 3f 1, etc. (In reality, as already indicated, the higher resonant frequencies are always slightly higher than these values.)

In a pipe with a closed or muffled far horse, resonant oscillations occur at frequencies at which an odd number of quarters of the wavelength fits into the pipe length. Therefore, to sound on the same note, a closed pipe can be half the length of an open pipe, and its resonant frequencies will be f 1 , 3f 1 , 5f 1, etc.

The results of the influence of a change in the pressure of the discharge air on the sound in a conventional organ pipe. The first few overtones are denoted by Roman numerals. Trumpet Main Mode (in color) covers a range of well balanced normal sound at normal pressure. With increasing pressure, the sound of the trumpet switches to the second overtone; as the pressure decreases, a weakened second overtone is created.

Now let's go back to the air stream in the organ pipe. We see that high-frequency wave disturbances gradually decay with increasing jet width. As a result, the end of the jet near the upper lip oscillates almost sinusoidally at the fundamental frequency of the sounding of the pipe and almost independently of the higher harmonics of the oscillations of the acoustic field near the slot of the pipe. However, the sinusoidal movement of the jet will not create the same movement of the air flow in the pipe, since the flow is "saturated" due to the fact that with an extreme deviation in either direction, it completely flows either from the inner or outer side of the upper lip. In addition, the lip is usually somewhat displaced and does not cut the flow exactly along its central plane, so that saturation is asymmetric. Therefore, the oscillation of the flow in the pipe has a full set of harmonics of the fundamental frequency with a strictly defined ratio of frequencies and phases, and the relative amplitudes of these high-frequency harmonics rapidly increase with an increase in the amplitude of the deflection of the air stream.

In a conventional organ pipe, the deflection of the jet in the slot is commensurate with the width of the jet at the upper lip. As a result, a large number of overtones are created in the air flow. If the lip separated the jet strictly symmetrically, there would be no even overtones in the sound. Therefore, usually some blending is given to the lip in order to preserve all the overtones.

As you would expect, open and closed pipes produce different sound qualities. The frequencies of the overtones generated by the jet are multiples of the fundamental frequency of the jet oscillations. The air column in the pipe will strongly resonate to a certain overtone only when the acoustic conductivity of the pipe is high. In this case, there will be a sharp increase in the amplitude at a frequency close to the overtone frequency. Therefore, in a closed tube, where only overtones with odd numbers of the resonant frequency are created, all other overtones are suppressed. The result is a characteristic "dull" sound, in which even overtones are weak, although not completely absent. On the contrary, an open pipe produces a "lighter" sound, since it retains all overtones derived from the fundamental frequency.

The resonance properties of a pipe are highly dependent on energy losses. These losses are of two types: losses due to internal friction and heat transfer, and losses due to radiation through the slot and open end of the pipe. Losses of the first type are more significant in narrow pipes and at low vibration frequencies. For wide pipes and at high vibration frequencies, losses of the second type are significant.

The influence of the lip location on the creation of overtones indicates the advisability of lip displacement. If the lip separated the jet strictly along the central plane, only the sound of the fundamental frequency (I) and the third overtone (III) would be created in the pipe. When the lip is displaced, as shown by the dotted line, a second and fourth overtones are produced, greatly enriching the sound quality.

Hence it follows that for a given pipe length, and therefore a certain fundamental frequency, wide pipes can serve as good resonators only for the fundamental tone and the nearest several overtones, which form a muffled "flute-like" sound. Narrow tubes serve as good resonators for a wide range of overtones, and since high frequencies are emitted more intensely than low frequencies, a high "string" sound is produced. Between these two sounds there is a ringing juicy sound, which becomes characteristic of a good organ, which is created by the so-called principals or ranges.

In addition, a large organ may have rows of tubes with a tapered body, perforated plug, or other geometric shapes. Such designs are intended to modify the resonant frequencies of the pipe, and sometimes to increase the range of high-frequency overtones in order to obtain a timbre of a special sound coloration. The choice of the material from which the pipe is made does not really matter.

There are a large number of possible modes of air vibration in a pipe, and this further complicates the acoustic properties of the pipe. For example, when the air pressure in an open pipe increases to such an extent that the first overtone will be created in the jet f 1 of one quarter of the fundamental wavelength, the point on the conduction spiral corresponding to this overtone will go to its right half and the jet will cease to create an overtone of this frequency. At the same time, the frequency of the second overtone is 2 f 1 corresponds to a half-wave in the jet, and it can be stable. Therefore, the sound of the trumpet will switch to this second overtone, almost a whole octave higher than the first, and the exact frequency of the oscillations will depend on the resonant frequency of the trumpet and the air discharge pressure.

A further increase in the discharge pressure can lead to the formation of the next overtone 3 f 1 provided the lip “undercut” is not too large. On the other hand, it often happens that low pressure, insufficient for the formation of the main tone, gradually creates one of the overtones on the second turn of the conduction spiral. Such sounds, created with excess or lack of pressure, are of interest for laboratory research, but they are used extremely rarely in the organs themselves, only to achieve some special effect.


Standing wave at resonance in tubes with open and closed upper ends. The width of each colored line corresponds to the amplitude of vibrations in different parts of the pipe. The arrows indicate the direction of air movement during one half of the oscillatory cycle; in the second half of the cycle, the direction of movement is reversed. Harmonic numbers are denoted in Roman numerals. For an open pipe, all harmonics of the fundamental frequency are resonant. A closed pipe must be half the length to create the same note, but only the odd harmonics are resonant for it. The complex geometry of the "mouth" of the pipe somewhat distorts the configuration of the waves closer to the lower end of the pipe, without changing them « the main » character.

After the master in the manufacture of the organ has made one trumpet that has the necessary sound, his main and most difficult task is to create a whole row of pipes with appropriate volume and harmony of sound throughout the musical range of the keyboard. This cannot be achieved with a simple set of pipes of the same geometry, differing only in their dimensions, since in such pipes, energy losses from friction and radiation will affect vibrations of different frequencies in different ways. To ensure consistency of acoustic properties over the entire range, it is necessary to vary a number of parameters. The diameter of the pipe changes as its length changes and depends on it as an exponent with exponent k, where k is less than 1. Therefore, long bass pipes are made narrower. The calculated value of k is 5/6, or 0.83, but taking into account the psychophysical characteristics of human hearing, it should be reduced to 0.75. This value is very close to that which was empirically determined by the great organ masters of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In conclusion, let us consider a question that is important from the point of view of organ playing: how the sound of many pipes in a large organ is controlled. The basic mechanism of this control is simple and resembles the rows and columns of a matrix. The pipes arranged in registers correspond to the rows of the matrix. All trumpets of the same register have the same timbre, and each trumpet corresponds to one note on the hand or foot keyboard. The air supply to the pipes of each register is regulated by a special lever on which the name of the register is indicated, and the air supply directly to the pipes associated with this note and making up the matrix column is regulated by the corresponding key on the keyboard. The trumpet will sound only if the lever of the register in which it is located is moved and the desired key is pressed.

The placement of organ pipes resembles the rows and columns of a matrix. In this simplified diagram, each row, called a register, consists of the same type of pipes, each of which produces one note (the top of the diagram). Each column associated with a single note on the keyboard (bottom part of the diagram) includes different types of pipes (left part of the diagram). A lever on the console (right side of the diagram) provides air access to all pipes of the register, and by pressing a key on the keyboard, air is pumped into all pipes of a given note. Air access to the pipe is possible only when the row and column are switched on simultaneously.

Nowadays, a wide variety of ways can be used to implement such a scheme using digital logic devices and electrically controlled valves on each pipe. Older organs used simple mechanical levers and plate valves to supply air to the keyboard channels and mechanical sliders with holes to control the flow of air to the whole register. This simple and reliable mechanical system, in addition to its design advantages, allowed the organist to regulate the opening speed of all valves himself and, as it were, made this too mechanical musical instrument closer to him.

In the XIX at the beginning of the XX century. large organs were built with all kinds of electromechanical and electro-pneumatic devices, but recently, preference is again given to mechanical transmissions from keys and pedals, and complex electronic devices are used to simultaneously turn on combinations of registers while playing the organ. For example, the largest mechanical organ in the world was installed in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House in 1979. It has 10,500 pipes in 205 registers, distributed between five hand and one foot keyboards. Key control is carried out mechanically, but it is duplicated by an electrical transmission, to which you can connect. This allows the organist's performance to be recorded in encoded digital form, which can then be used to automatically reproduce the original performance on the organ. The registers and their combinations are controlled by electrical or electro-pneumatic devices and microprocessors with memory, which allows the control program to be widely varied. Thus, the magnificent rich sound of a majestic organ is created by a combination of the most advanced achievements of modern technology and traditional techniques and principles that have been used by masters of the past for many centuries.

Organ pipes

Sounding trumpets, used as musical instruments since ancient times, are divided into two types: mouthpieces and reed trumpets. The sounding body in them is mainly air. It is possible to vibrate the air, with which standing waves are formed in the pipe, in various ways. In a mouthpiece or flute tube (see Fig. 1), the tone is caused by blowing a stream of air (with the mouth or bellows) onto the pointed edge of the slot in the side wall. The friction of the air jet against this edge produces a whistle that can be heard when the pipe is separated from its mouthpiece (embouchure). An example is a steam whistle. The trumpet, serving as a resonator, emphasizes and amplifies one of the many tones that make up this complex whistle corresponding to its size. In the reed tube, standing waves are formed by blowing air through a special hole covered by an elastic plate (tongue, anche, Zunge), which comes into vibration.

Reed pipes are of three kinds: 1) pipes (O.), the tone of which is directly determined by the rapidity of the reed vibrations; they serve only to enhance the tone emitted by the tongue (Fig. 2).

They can be adjusted within a small range by moving the spring that presses on the tongue. 2) Trumpets, in which, on the contrary, the air vibrations established in them determine the vibrations of an easily pliable reed reed (clarinet, oboe and bassoon). This elastic, flexible plate, periodically interrupting the blown air stream, causes the air column to vibrate in the pipe; these last vibrations in turn regulate the vibrations of the plate itself in a corresponding way. 3) Pipes with membranous tongues, the speed of oscillation of which can be adjusted and varied within significant limits at will. In brass instruments, lips play the role of such a tongue; while singing, the vocal cords. The laws of oscillation of air in pipes with a cross-section so small that all points of the cross-section oscillate in the same way were established by Daniel Bernoulli (D. Bernoulli, 1762). In open pipes, antinodes are formed at both ends, where the air mobility is greatest, and the density is constant. If one node is formed between these two antinodes, then the length of the pipe will be equal to half the length, i.e. L = λ/ 2 ; this case corresponds to the lowest pitch. With two knots, a whole wave will fit in the pipe, L = 2 λ/ 2 = λ; at three, L= 3λ / 2; at n nodes, L = nλ/ 2. To find the pitch, i.e. the number N oscillations per second, recall that the wavelength (distance λ, over which oscillations propagate in the medium at that time T, when one particle performs its full oscillation) is equal to the product of the propagation velocity ω by the period T fluctuations, or λ = ωT; but T = l/N; therefore, λ = ω / N. From here N= ω / λ, or, since from the previous λ = 2L/n, N = nω/ 2L... This formula shows that 1) an open pipe, with different force of blowing air into it, can emit tones, the heights of which are related to each other, as 1: 2: 3: 4 ...; 2) the pitch is inversely proportional to the length of the pipe. In a closed pipe near the mouthpiece, there should still be an antinode, but at the other, closed end of it, where longitudinal air vibrations are impossible, there should be a knot. Therefore, 1/4 of a standing wave can fit along the length of the pipe, which corresponds to the lowest or fundamental tone of the pipe, or 3/4 of a wave, or even an odd number of quarter waves, i.e. L = [(2n+ 1) / 4] λ; where N " = (2n+ 1) ω / 4 L... So, in a closed pipe, the successive tones emitted by it, or the corresponding vibration numbers, are related as a series of odd numbers 1: 3: 5; and the height of each of these tones is inversely proportional to the length of the pipe. The main tone in a closed pipe is, moreover, an octave lower than in an open pipe (in fact, when n = 1, N ": N = 1: 2). All these conclusions of the theory are easily verified by experiment. 1) If you take a long and narrow tube with a flute ear cushion (mouthpiece) and blow air into it under increasing pressure, you will get a series of harmonic tones in an open pipe that gradually rise (and it is not difficult to reach up to 20 overtone). In a closed pipe, only odd harmonic tones are obtained, and the main, lowest tone is an octave lower than that in an open pipe. These tones can exist in the trumpet and at the same time, accompanying the main tone or one of the lower ones. 2) The position of the nodes of the antinodes inside the pipe can be determined in various ways. So Savart uses a thin membrane stretched over a ring for this purpose. If you pour fine sand on it and lower it on threads into a pipe, one wall of which is glass, then at the nodal points the sand will remain motionless, and in other places, and especially in the antinodes, it will noticeably move. In addition, since the air in the antinodes remains at atmospheric pressure, opening a hole made in the pipe wall in this place will not change the tone; a hole opened elsewhere changes the pitch. At the nodal points, on the contrary, the air pressure and density change, but the speed is zero. Therefore, if you push the damper through the wall in the place where the knot is located, then the pitch should not change. Experience really justifies this. Experimental verification of the laws of sounding trumpets can also be carried out by means of Koenig manometric lights (see). If the gauge box, closed on the side of the pipe with a membrane, falls near the node, then the fluctuations of the gas flame will be greatest; the flame will be motionless near the antinodes. The vibrations of such lights can be observed through moving mirrors. For this purpose, for example, a mirrored parallelepiped is used, driven in rotation by a centrifugal machine; in this case, a light strip will be visible in the mirrors; one edge of which will appear jagged. 3) The law of inverse proportionality of the pitch and length of the pipe (long and narrow) has been known for a long time and is easily verified. Experiments have shown, however, that this law is not entirely accurate, especially for wide pipes. So Masson (1855) showed that in a long Bernoulli, compound flute with a sound corresponding to a half-wavelength of 0.138 m., The air column is really divided into such parts with a length of 0.138 m., Excluding the one that adjoins the ear cushion, where the length turned out to be only 0.103 m. Also, Koenig found, for example, for one particular case, the distance between the corresponding antinodes in the pipe (starting with the ear pads) equal to 173, 315, 320, 314, 316, 312, 309, 271. Here the average numbers are almost the same, they deviate little from the average value is 314, while the 1st of them (near the ear cushion) differs from the average by 141, and the last (near the pipe hole) by 43. The reason for such irregularities or perturbations at the ends of the pipe lies in the due to the blowing of air, they do not remain completely constant, as is assumed in theory for the antinode, but for a free opening of an open pipe, for the same reason, the oscillating air column seems to continue or protrude beyond the edges of the walls outward; the last antinode will therefore fall outside the tube. And in a closed pipe near the damper, if it gives itself to vibrations, perturbations must occur. Wertheim (1849-51) was experimentally convinced that the perturbations at the ends of the pipe do not depend on the wavelength. Poisson (1817) was the first to give a theory of such perturbations, assuming that small thickenings of air are proportional to velocity. Then Hopkins (1838) and Ke (1855) gave a more complete explanation, taking into account multiple reflections at the ends of the pipe. The general result of these studies is that for an open pipe, instead of equality L = nλ/2, need to take L + l = nλ/2 , a for a closed pipe L + l " = (2n + 1 )λ /4. Therefore, when calculating the length L pipes must be increased by a constant amount ( l or l "). The most complete and accurate theory of sounding trumpets is given by Helmholtz. From this theory it follows that the correction at the hole is 0.82 R (R- the radius of the pipe section) for the case of a narrow open pipe, communicating with the hole with the bottom of a very wide pipe. According to the experiments of Lord Rayleigh, such a correction should be 0.6 R if the opening of the narrow pipe communicates with free space and if the wavelength is very large compared to the diameter of the pipe. Bozanke (1877) found that this correction increases with the ratio of the diameter to the wavelength; so ex. it is equal to 0.64 at R/λ = 1/12 and 0.54 at R/λ = 1/20. Koenig also achieved other results from his already mentioned experiments. He noticed, namely, that the shortening of the first half-wavelength (at the ear pads) becomes smaller at higher tones (ie, at shorter waves); the less significant shortening of the last half-wave changes little. In addition, numerous experiments were carried out in order to investigate the amplitudes of oscillations and the air pressure inside the pipes (Kundt - 1868, Tepler and Boltzmann - 1870, Mach - 1873). Despite, however, numerous experimental studies, the issue of sounding trumpets cannot yet be considered definitively clarified in all respects. - For wide pipes, as already mentioned, Bernoulli's laws are not at all applicable. So Mersenne (1636), taking among other things two pipes of the same length (16 cm), but different diameters, noticed that in a wider pipe ( d= 12 cm), the tone was 7 whole tones lower than in a pipe with a smaller diameter (0.7 cm). Mersenne discovered the law concerning such pipes. Savard confirmed the validity of this law for pipes of a wide variety of forms, which he formulates as follows: in such pipes, the pitches are inversely proportional to the corresponding dimensions of the pipes. So ex. two pipes, of which one is 1 ft. length and 22 lin. in diameter and the other 1/2 ft. length and 11 lin. diameter, give two tones, constituting an octave (the number of vibrations in 1 "of the second pipe is twice as much as for the 1st pipe). Savart (1825) also found that the width of a rectangular pipe does not affect the pitch if the slot of the ear cushion is full width. Cavaillé-Coll gave the following correction empirical formulas for open pipes: 1) L " = L - 2p, and R the depth of the rectangular pipe. 2) L " = L - 5/3d, where d diameter of the round pipe. In these formulas L = v "N is the theoretical length, and L " actual pipe length. The applicability of the Cavalier-Kohl formulas has been proven to a large extent by the studies of Wertheim. The considered laws and regulations apply to flute or mouthpiece O. pipes. V reed tubes the node is located at the hole, periodically closed and opened by an elastic plate (tongue), while in flute pipes at the hole through which the air stream is blown in, there is always an antinode. Therefore, the reed tube corresponds to a closed flute tube, which also has a knot at one end (albeit on the other than the reed tube). The reason that the knot is located at the very tongue of the pipe is that in this place the greatest changes in the elasticity of the air occur, which corresponds to the knot (in the antinodes, on the contrary, the elasticity is constant). So, a cylindrical reed tube (like a closed flute) can produce a successive series of tones 1, 3, 5, 7 .... if its length is in proper proportion to the speed of vibration of the elastic plate. In wide pipes, this ratio may not be strictly observed, but beyond a certain limit of discrepancy, the pipe stops sounding. If the tongue is a metal plate, as in an organ pipe, then the pitch is determined almost exclusively by its vibrations, as already mentioned. But in general, the pitch depends on both the reed and the pipe itself. W. Weber (1828-29) studied this dependence in detail. If you put a pipe on the tongue, which opens inward, as is usual in O. pipes, then the tone generally decreases. If, gradually lengthening the trumpet, and the tone decreases by an entire octave (1: 2), we will reach such a length L, which fully corresponds to the vibrations of the tongue, then the tone will immediately rise to its previous value. With further extension of the pipe to 2L the tone will again drop to the fourth (3: 4); at 2L again, the original tone is immediately obtained. With a new lengthening up to 3L the sound will decrease by a small third (5: 6), etc. (if you arrange the tongues that open outward, like the vocal cords, then the trumpet directed at them will raise the tone corresponding to them). - In wooden muses. instruments (clarinet, oboe and bassoon) use reeds; consisting of one or two thin and flexible reeds. These reeds themselves emit a much higher sound than the one they generate in the pipe. Tongue tubes should be considered as tubes closed on the side of the tongue. Therefore, in a cylindrical pipe, as in a clarinet, there should be 1, 3, 5 consecutive tones with increased blowing, etc. Opening the side holes corresponds to a shortening of the pipe. In tapered pipes closed at the top, the tone sequence is the same as in open cylindrical pipes, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. (Helmholtz). The oboe and bassoon belong to the conical trumpets. The properties of reeds of the third kind, membranous, can be studied, as Helmholtz did, by means of a simple device consisting of two rubber membranes stretched over the obliquely cut edges of a wooden tube so that a narrow gap remains between the membranes in the middle of the tube. The air flow can be directed through the slit from the outside to the inside of the tube or vice versa. In the latter case, a similarity is obtained to the vocal cords or lips when playing brass instruments. In this case, the pitch of the sound is determined, due to the softness and flexibility of the membranes, exclusively by the size of the pipe. Brass instruments like a hunting horn, a cornet with caps, a French horn, etc. represent conical pipes, and therefore they give a natural row of higher harmonic tones (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Organ device - see Organ.

N. Gezehus.


Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - S.-Pb .: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what "Organ pipes" are in other dictionaries:

    Sounding trumpets, used as musical instruments since ancient times, are divided into two types: mouthpieces and reed trumpets. The sounding body in them is mainly air. To vibrate the air, and in the pipe ... ...

    - (Latin Organum, from the Greek organon instrument, instrument; Italian organo, English organ, French orgue, German Orgel) keyboard wind music. a tool of a complex device. O. types are diverse: from portable, small (see. Portable, Positive) to ... ... Musical encyclopedia

    A keyboard wind musical instrument, the largest and most complex instrument in existence. A huge modern organ, as it were, consists of three or more organs, and the performer can control all of them at the same time. Each of the organs included in ... Collier's Encyclopedia

    The number of vibrations per unit of time, the speed or frequency of vibrations, depends on the size, shape and nature of bodies. The pitch, determined by the number of vibrations of the sounding body per unit of time, can be determined in various ways (see Sound). ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

    - (physical) assistance or opposition of two or more waves originating from oscillatory, periodically repetitive movements. Waves (see) can occur in liquids, solids, gases and ether. In the first case, I. waves are visible ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Which sounds with the help of pipes (metal, wooden, without reeds and with reeds) of various timbres, into which air is injected with the help of bellows.

Organ playing carried out using several keyboards for hands (manuals) and a pedal keyboard.

In terms of sound richness and abundance of musical means, the organ takes the first place among all instruments and is sometimes called the “king of instruments”. Due to its expressiveness, it has long become the property of the church.

The person who performs musical works on the organ is called organist.

The Soviet BM-13 multiple launch rocket systems were called "Stalin's organ" by the soldiers of the Third Reich because of the sound made by the missiles' tail.

Organ history

The bud of the organ can be seen in as well as in. It is believed that the organ (hydravlos; also hydraulikon, hydraulis - "water organ") was invented by the Greek Ktesibius, who lived in Alexandria of Egypt in 296-228. BC NS. There is an image of a similar instrument on one coin or token of the times of Nero.

Large organs appeared in the 4th century, more or less improved organs - in the 7th and 8th centuries. Pope Vitalian (666) introduced the organ to the Catholic Church. In the 8th century, Byzantium was famous for its organs.

The art of building organs also developed in Italy, from where they were exported to France in the 9th century. Later this art developed in Germany. The organ begins to receive the greatest and ubiquitous distribution in the XIV century. In the XIV century, a pedal appeared in the organ, that is, a keyboard for the feet.

Medieval organs, in comparison with later ones, were of rough work; the manual keyboard, for example, consisted of keys 5 to 7 cm wide, the distance between the keys reached one and a half cm. The keys were struck not with your fingers, as now, but with your fists.

In the 15th century, the keys were reduced and the number of pipes increased.

Organ device

Improved organs have reached a huge number of pipes and tubes; for example, the organ in Paris at St. Sulpice has 7 thousand pipes and tubes. In the organ there are pipes and tubes of the following sizes: at 1 foot notes sound three octaves higher than the written ones, at 2 feet - the notes sound two octaves higher than the written ones, at 4 feet - the notes sound an octave higher than the written ones, at 8 feet - the notes sound like they are written, in 16 feet - notes sound one octave lower than written, 32 feet - notes sound two octaves lower than written. Closing the trumpet from above will lower the sounds emitted by an octave. Not all organs have large tubes.

There are from 1 to 7 keyboards in the organ (usually 2-4); they are called manuals... Although each organ keyboard has a volume of 4-5 octaves, thanks to the trumpets sounding two octaves lower or three octaves higher than the written notes, the volume of the large organ is 9.5 octaves. Each set of pipes of the same timbre constitutes, as it were, a separate instrument and is called register.

Each of the extendable or retractable buttons or registers (located above the keyboard or on the sides of the instrument) drives a corresponding row of tubes. Each button or register has its own name and corresponding inscription, indicating the length of the largest pipe of this register. The composer can indicate the name of the register and the size of the trumpets in the notes above the place where this register should be applied. (Selecting registers for performing a piece of music is called registering.) There are from 2 to 300 registers in organs (most often from 8 to 60).

All registers fall into two categories:

  • Registers with pipes without reeds(labial registers). This category includes the registers of open flutes, registers of closed flutes (bourdons), registers of overtones (mixtures), in which each note has several (weaker) harmonic overtones.
  • Registers that have reed pipes(reed registers). The combination of the registers of both categories together with the potion is called plеin jeu.

Keyboards or manuals are located in the organs of the terrace, one above the other. In addition to them, there is also a pedal keyboard (from 5 to 32 keys), mainly for low sounds. The part for the hands is written on two staffs - in the keys and as for. The part of the pedals is often written separately on one stave. The pedal keyboard, simply called the “pedal,” is played with both feet, alternately using the heel and toe (until the 19th century, only the toe). An organ without a pedal is called a positive, a small portable organ is called portable.

The manuals in the organs have names that depend on the location of the pipes in the organ.

  • The main manual (which has the loudest registers) is called in the German tradition Hauptwerk(fr. Grand orgue, Grand clavier) and is located closest to the performer, or on the second row;
  • The second most important and loud manual in the German tradition is called Oberwerk(louder option) either Positiv(light version) (fr. Rositif), if the pipes of this manual are located ABOVE the pipes of the Hauptwerk, or Ruckpositiv, if the pipes of this manual are located separately from the other pipes of the organ and are installed behind the organist's back; the Oberwerk and Positiv keys on the game console are located one level above the Hauptwerk keys, and the Ruckpositiv keys are one level below the Hauptwerk keys, thereby reproducing the architectural structure of the instrument.
  • A manual, the pipes of which are located inside a kind of box with vertical shutters in the front part in the German tradition are called Schwellwerk(FR. Recit (expressif). Schwellwerk can be located both at the very top of the organ (more common), and on the same level with Hauptwerk. Schwellwerka keys are located on the game console at a higher level than Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, Positiv, Ruckpositiv.
  • Existing types of manuals: Hinterwerk(the pipes are located at the back of the organ), Brustwerk(the pipes are located directly above the organist's seat), Solowerk(solo registers, very loud trumpets located in a separate group), Choir etc.

The following devices serve as a relief for the players and a means for enhancing or weakening the sonority:

Kopula- a mechanism by which two keyboards are connected, and the registers put forward on them act simultaneously. Copula allows the player to play on one manual to use the advanced registers of the other.

4 footrests above the keyboard pedals(Pеdale de combinaison, Tritte), each of which acts on a known specific combination of registers.

Blinds- a device consisting of doors that close and open the entire room with pipes of different registers, as a result of which the sound is amplified or attenuated. The doors are driven by a footboard (channel).

Since the registers in different organs of different countries and eras are not the same, they are usually not indicated in detail in the organ part: they write out only the manual above this or that part of the organ part, the designation of pipes with or without reeds and the size of the pipes. The rest of the details are provided to the contractor.

The organ is often combined with the orchestra and singing in oratorios, cantatas, psalms, and also in opera.

There are also electrical (electronic) organs, for example, Hammond.

Organ music composers

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Adam Reinken
Johann Pachelbel
Dietrich Buxtehude
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Johann Jacob Froberger
Georg Frideric Handel
Siegfried Karg-Ehlert
Henry Purcell
Max Reger
Vincent Lubeck
Johann Ludwig Krebs
Matthias Weckman
Dominico Zipoli
Cesar Franck

Video: Organ on video + sound

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The largest, most majestic musical instrument has an ancient history of development, numbering many stages of improvement.

The most distant ancestor of the organ from us in time is considered to be the Babylonian bagpipes, common in Asia in the XIX-XVIII centuries BC. Air was blown into the fur of this instrument through a tube, and on the other side was a body with pipes with holes and tongues.

The history of the emergence of the organ also remembers the "traces of the ancient Greek gods": the deity of forests and groves Pan, according to legend, invented to combine reed sticks of different lengths, and since then Pan's flute has become inseparable from the musical culture of Ancient Greece.

However, the musicians understood: it is easy to play on one pipe, but on several pipes it is not enough to breathe. The search for a replacement for human breathing for playing musical instruments bore the first fruits already in the II-III centuries BC: the hydravlos entered the music scene for several centuries.

Hydravlos - the first step towards organ greatness

Around the 3rd century BC. Greek inventor, mathematician, "father of pneumatics" Ctesibius of Alexandria created a device consisting of two piston pumps, a water reservoir and pipes for making sounds. One pump supplied air inside, the second supplied it to the pipes, and a reservoir of water equalized the pressure and ensured a smoother sound of the instrument.

Two centuries later, Heron of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician and engineer, improved hydraulics by adding a miniature windmill and a metal spherical chamber immersed in water to the design. The improved water organ received 3-4 registers, each of which contained 7-18 pipes of diatonic tuning.

The water organ has become widespread in the countries of the Mediterranean region. Hydravlos sounded at gladiatorial competitions, weddings and feasts, in theaters, circuses and hippodromes, during religious rites. The organ became the favorite instrument of the Emperor Nero, its sound could be heard throughout the Roman Empire.


Serving Christianity

Despite the general cultural decline in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, the organ was not forgotten. By the middle of the 5th century, improved wind organs were being built in the churches of Italy, Spain and Byzantium. The countries of the greatest religious influence became the centers of organ music, and from there the instrument spread throughout Europe.

The medieval organ significantly differed from the modern "brother" in the smaller number of pipes and the larger size of the keys (up to 33 cm long and 8-9 cm wide), which were beaten with a fist to produce sound. Were invented "portable" - a small portable organ, and "positive" - ​​a miniature stationary organ.

The 17th-18th centuries are considered the “golden age” of organ music. The decrease in the size of the keys, the organ gaining beauty and variety of sound, crystal timbre clarity and the birth of a whole galaxy predetermined the splendor and grandeur of the organ. The solemn music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and many other composers sounded under the high arches of all Catholic cathedrals in Europe, and almost all the best musicians served as church organists.

For all the inextricable connection with the Catholic Church, quite a lot of "secular" works have been written for the organ, including by Russian composers.

Organ music in Russia

The development of organ music in Russia went exclusively along the "secular" path: Orthodoxy categorically rejected the use of the organ in divine services.

The first mention of the organ in Russia is found in the frescoes of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev: the “stone chronicle” of Kievan Rus, dated from the 10th-11th centuries, preserved the image of a musician playing on the “positive” and two calcantes (people pumping air into furs).

Moscow sovereigns of different historical periods showed a keen interest in organ and organ music: Ivan III, Boris Godunov, Mikhail and Alexei Romanovs "subscribed" organists and organ builders from Europe. During the reign of Mikhail Romanov, not only foreign, but also Russian organists such as Tomila Mikhailov (Besov), Boris Ovsonov, Melenti Stepanov and Andrei Andreev became famous in Moscow.

Peter I, who devoted his life to introducing the achievements of Western civilization into Russian society, as early as 1691 ordered the German specialist Arp Schnitger to build an organ with 16 registers for Moscow. Six years later, in 1697, Schnitger sent another 8-register instrument to Moscow. During Peter's lifetime, dozens of organs were built in Lutheran and Catholic churches in Russia, including giant projects for 98 and 114 registers.

Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II also contributed to the development of organ music in Russia - during their reign, dozens of instruments received St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Narva, Jelgava and other cities in the northwestern region of the empire.

Many Russian composers used the organ in their work, it is enough to recall the "Maid of Orleans" by Tchaikovsky, "Sadko" by Rimsky-Korsakov, "Prometheus" by Scriabin,. Russian organ music combined classical Western European musical forms and traditional national expressiveness and charm, and had a strong influence on the listener.

Modern organ

Having passed a historical path of two millennia, the organ of the XX-XXI century looks like this: several thousand pipes located on different tiers and made of wood and metal. Square wooden pipes produce bass low sounds, while tin-lead metal pipes are circular and are designed for a thinner, high-pitched sound.

Record-breaking bodies are registered overseas, in the United States of America. The organ, located at the Macy’s Lord & Taylor Shopping Center in Philadelphia, weighs 287 tonnes and has six manuals. Located in the Hall of Concord in Atlantic City, the instrument is the loudest organ in the world with over 33,000 pipes.

The largest and most majestic organs of Russia are in the Moscow House of Music, as well as in the Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky.

The development in new directions and styles has significantly increased the number of types and varieties of the modern organ, with its own differences in the principle of work and specific features. Today's organ classification is as follows:

  • wind organ;
  • symphony organ;
  • theatrical organ;
  • electric organ;
  • organ of Hammond;
  • organ Typhon;
  • steam organ;
  • street organ;
  • orchestrion;
  • organol;
  • pyrophone;
  • marine organ;
  • chamber organ;
  • church organ;
  • home organ;
  • organum;
  • digital organ;
  • rock organ;
  • pop organ;
  • virtual organ;
  • melodium.

How the organ works aslan wrote in May 12th, 2017

On June 17, 1981, his keys were first touched by the hand of a musician - an outstanding organist Harry Grodberg, who performed Bach's toccata, prelude, fantasy and fugue for Tomsk citizens.

Since then, dozens of famous organists have given concerts in Tomsk, and German organ masters never ceased to wonder how the instrument is still playing in a city where the temperature difference between winter and summer is 80 degrees.


Child of the GDR

The organ of the Tomsk Philharmonic was born in 1981 in the East German city of Frankfurt-on-Oder, at the organ-building company W.Sauer Orgelbau.

At a normal working pace, it takes about a year to build an organ, and the process involves several stages. First, the craftsmen examine the concert hall, determine its acoustic characteristics and draw up a project for the future instrument. Then the specialists return to their native factory, make separate elements of the organ and assemble a whole instrument from them. In the assembly shop of the factory, it is tested for the first time and bugs are corrected. If the organ sounds the way it should, it is taken apart again in parts and sent to the customer.

In Tomsk, all the installation procedures took only six months - due to the fact that the process took place without overlaps, shortcomings and other inhibiting factors. In January 1981, Sauer specialists first came to Tomsk, and in June of the same year the organ had already given concerts.

Internal composition

By the standards of specialists, the Tomsk organ can be called average in weight and size - a ten-ton instrument contains about two thousand pipes of various lengths and shapes. Like five hundred years ago, they are made by hand. Wooden pipes are usually made in the form of a parallelepiped. The shapes of metal pipes can be more intricate: cylindrical, reverse conical, and even combined. Metal pipes are made from an alloy of tin and lead in different proportions, and pine is usually used for wooden pipes.

It is these characteristics - length, shape, and material - that affect the timbre of an individual trumpet.

The pipes inside the organ are arranged in rows: from the highest to the lowest. Each row of pipes can be played individually, or they can be combined. On the side of the keyboard on the vertical panels of the organ, there are buttons, pressing which, the organist controls this process. All the pipes of the Tomsk organ are sounding, and only one of them on the front side of the instrument was created for decorative purposes and does not emit any sounds.

On the reverse side, the organ looks like a three-story Gothic castle. On the first floor of this lock is the mechanical part of the instrument, which, through a system of rods, transfers the work of the organist's fingers to the pipes. On the second floor there are pipes that are connected to the keys of the lower keyboard, and on the third floor there are pipes of the upper keyboard.

The Tomsk organ has a mechanical system for connecting keys and pipes, which means that pressing a key and the appearance of a sound occurs almost instantly, without any delay.

Above the performing department there are blinds, or in other words a channel, which hide the second floor of organ pipes from the viewer. With the help of a special pedal, the organist controls the position of the blinds and thereby influences the strength of the sound.

The caring hand of the master

The organ, like any other musical instrument, is very dependent on the climate, and the Siberian weather creates many problems for its care. Special air conditioners, sensors and humidifiers are installed inside the instrument, which maintain a certain temperature and humidity. The colder and drier the air, the shorter the pipes of the organ become, and vice versa - with warm and humid air, the pipes lengthen. Therefore, a musical instrument requires constant monitoring.

The Tomsk organ is taken care of by only two people - organist Dmitry Ushakov and his assistant Yekaterina Mastenitsa.

The main means of dealing with dust inside the organ is an ordinary Soviet vacuum cleaner. To search for it, a whole action was organized - they were looking for exactly one that would have a blowing system, because it is easier to blow dust from an organ bypassing all the tubes onto the stage and only then collect it with a vacuum cleaner.

- Dirt in the organ must be removed where it is and when it interferes, says Dmitry Ushakov. - If now we decide to remove all the dust from the organ, we will have to completely re-tune it, and this whole procedure will take about a month, and we have concerts.

Most often, facade pipes are cleaned - they are in plain sight, so they often leave fingerprints on them. Dmitry prepares a mixture for cleaning facade elements himself, from ammonia and tooth powder.

Sound reconstruction

The organ is thoroughly cleaned and tuned once a year: usually in the summer, when there are relatively few concerts and it is not cold outside. But a little sound adjustment is required before each concert. The tuner has a special approach to each type of organ pipes. For some, it is enough to close the cap, for others to twist the roller, and for the smallest tubes they use a special tool - a stimmhorn.

You cannot tune an organ alone. One person should press the keys and the other should adjust the pipes from inside the instrument. In addition, the person pressing the keys controls the tuning process.

The Tomsk organ underwent the first major overhaul a relatively long time ago, 13 years ago, after the restoration of the organ hall and the removal of the organ from a special sarcophagus, in which he spent 7 years. Sauer specialists were invited to Tomsk to inspect the instrument. Then, in addition to the internal renovation, the organ changed the color of the facade and acquired decorative grilles. And in 2012, the organ finally got its "owners" - staff organists Dmitry Ushakov and Maria Blazhevich.

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