Organ- unique musical instrument, which has a long history. One can only talk about the organ in superlatives: the largest in size, the most powerful in sound intensity, with the widest sound range and enormous richness of timbres. That is why he is called the “king of musical instruments.”
The ancestor of the modern organ is considered to be the Pan flute, which first appeared in Ancient Greece. There is a legend that the god of wild nature, shepherding and cattle breeding, Pan, invented a new musical instrument for himself by connecting several reed tubes different sizes to make wonderful music while having fun with merry nymphs in luxurious valleys and groves. To successfully play such an instrument, great physical effort and a good respiratory system were required. Therefore, to facilitate the work of musicians in the 2nd century BC, the Greek Ctesibius invented a water organ or hydraulic organ, which is considered the prototype of the modern organ.
Organ development
The organ was constantly improved and in the 11th century it began to be built throughout Europe. Organ building reached its greatest flourishing in the 17th-18th centuries in Germany, where musical works for the organ were created by such great composers as Johann Sebastian Bach and Dietrich Buxtehude, unsurpassed masters of organ music.
The organs differed not only in their beauty and variety of sound, but also in their architecture and decor - each of the musical instruments had individuality, was created for specific tasks, and fit harmoniously into the internal environment of the room. 
Only a room that has excellent acoustics is suitable for an organ. Unlike other musical instruments, the peculiarity of the sound of an organ depends not on the body, but on the space in which it is located.
The sounds of the organ cannot leave anyone indifferent; they penetrate deep into the heart, evoke a wide variety of feelings, make you think about the frailty of existence and direct your thoughts to God. Therefore, in Catholic churches and cathedrals there were organs everywhere, best composers wrote sacred music and played the organ with their own hands, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach.
In Russia, the organ was classified as a secular instrument, since traditionally in Orthodox churches The sound of music during worship was prohibited.
Today's organ is a complex system. It is both a wind and keyboard musical instrument, having a pedal keyboard, several manual keyboards, hundreds of registers and from hundreds to more than thirty thousand pipes. Pipes come in a variety of lengths, diameters, type of structure and materials of manufacture. They can be copper, lead, tin or from various alloys, for example, lead-tin. The complex structure allows the organ to have a huge range of sound in height and timbre and have a wealth of sound effects. The organ can imitate the playing of other instruments, which is why it is often equated to a symphony orchestra. Most large organ located in the USA concert hall Atlantic City Boardwalk. It has 7 manual keyboards, 33112 pipes and 455 registers.
The sound of an organ cannot be compared with any other musical instrument, or even a symphony orchestra. Its powerful, solemn, unearthly sounds have an immediate, profound and stunning effect on the human soul; it seems that the heart is about to burst from the divine beauty of the music, the sky will open up and the secrets of existence, until that moment incomprehensible, will be revealed.
The king of instruments is the name often given to an organ whose appearance evokes a feeling of delight, and whose sound fascinates and inspires. A large, heavy stringed keyboard instrument with a wide range of sound, it is rightfully considered something of a “legend in the flesh.” Who invented the organ and what makes this heavyweight unique?
Who invented the unusual instrument?
The history of the legendary instrument, which not every professional musician can learn to play, goes back hundreds of centuries.
The name “organum” is mentioned in the ancient writings of the great Aristotle and Plato. But it is not possible to answer exactly who invented this miracle. According to one version, its ancestor is the Babylonian bagpipe, which produces sound by directing air jets towards the edges of the tube. On the other hand, there is a pan flute or a Chinese sheng, which operate on the same principle. Playing pipes connected to each other was not very convenient, since the performer sometimes did not have enough air in his lungs. The idea of pumping air while playing with bellows was a real salvation.
The organ's close brother, its water counterpart, was invented by the Greek craftsman Ctesibius back in the 200s BC. It's called hydraulics. Later, the hydraulic design was replaced by bellows, which made it possible to significantly improve sound quality.
Musical instruments of more familiar sizes and appearance began to appear in the 4th century. During this period, thanks to the efforts of Pope Vitalian, organs began to be used to accompany Catholic services. Starting from the first half of the 5th century, the stringed keyboard instrument became an invariable ceremonial attribute not only of the Byzantine, but also of the entire Western European imperial power.
The legendary “keyboard player” became widespread in European countries by the middle of the 14th century. The instrument of that time was far from perfect: it had fewer pipes and wider keys. For example, in a manual keyboard, with the width of the keys themselves being about 50-70 mm, the distance between them was 15-20 mm. To extract sounds, the performer had to not “run” his fingers over the huge and heavy keys, but literally knock with his elbows or fists.
Organ building acquired its greatest scope in XVI-XVII centuries. In the famous Baroque era, craftsmen learned to create instruments that, with their powerful sound, could easily compete with an entire symphony orchestra. The sound capabilities of the instruments made it possible to imitate the ringing of bells, the roar of rockfalls, and even the deep singing of birds.
The apotheosis of organ building is rightfully considered to be 1908, when a model including 6 manuals was presented at the world exhibition. The world's largest working organ weighs just over 287 tons. Now he is decorating shopping mall Macy's Lord & Taylor in Philadelphia.
What a connoisseur of organ music observes from the hall is the façade of the instrument. Behind it lies a spacious room, sometimes including several floors, filled with mechanical elements and thousands of tubes. To understand the principle of operation of this miracle, it is worth considering at least its brief description.
The organ is one of the loudest musical instruments. This effect is achieved through registers that include several rows of organ pipes. These registers, based on the color of their sound and a number of other unifying characteristics, are divided into several groups: mixtures, aliquots, gambas, flutes, principals. Register pipes sound in accordance with musical notation. They can be turned on individually or simultaneously. To do this, use the handles located on the side panels of the keyboard.
The control panel of the performer working at the instrument is the manuals, pedal keyboard and the registers themselves. The number of manuals, depending on the modification of the “keyboard player,” can vary from 1 to 7. They are located on a terrace: one directly above the other.
A pedal keyboard can include from 5 to 32 keys, through which the registers that form low sounds are activated. Depending on the fingering of the musical instrument, the performer presses the pedal keys with his toe or heel.
The presence of several keyboards, as well as all kinds of toggle switches and levers, makes the game process quite complicated. Therefore, often his assistant sits at the instrument with the performer. For ease of reading notes and achieving synchronized performance, the part for the feet is traditionally located on a separate staff directly below the part for the hands.
In modern models, the function of pumping air into the bellows is performed by electric motors. In the Middle Ages, this work was performed by specially trained calcantes, whose services had to be paid separately.
Despite the widespread use of organs, today it is almost impossible to find two identical models, since they are all assembled according to individual projects. The dimensions of installations can vary from 1.5 m to 15 m. The width of large models reaches 10 m, and the depth is 4 m. The weight of such structures is measured in tons.
Record holders in various nominations
The oldest representative of the legendary instrument, whose “life” dates back to 1370-1400 years, can be found in the Stockholm Museum. It was brought from a church parish on the Swedish island of Gotland.
The leader in the "loudest organ" category graces the Concord Hall in Atlantic City. The record holder includes 7 manuals and a fairly extensive timbre set, formed by 445 registers. You won’t be able to enjoy the sound of this giant, since its sound can cause listeners to rupture their eardrums. This musical instrument weighs over 250 tons.
The instrument, which adorns the Church of St. Anne, which is located in the Polish capital, is notable for containing the longest pipes in the world. Their height reaches about 18 meters, and the sound produced can literally deafen. The frequency range of the instrument is within limits that even cover the ultrasonic region.
Alexey Nadezhin: “The organ is the largest and most complex musical instrument. In fact, an organ is a whole brass band, and each of its registers is a separate musical instrument with its own sound.
The largest organ in Russia is installed in the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International House of Music. I was lucky enough to see a side of him from which very few people have seen him.
This organ was manufactured in 2004 in Germany by a consortium of companies Glatter Gotz and Klais, considered the flagships of organ building. The organ was developed specifically for the Moscow International House of Music. The organ has 84 registers (in a regular organ the number of registers rarely exceeds 60) and more than six thousand pipes. Each register is a separate musical instrument with its own sound.
The height of the organ is 15 meters, weight is 30 tons, cost is two and a half million euros. 
Pavel Nikolaevich Kravchun, associate professor of the Department of Acoustics at Moscow State University, who is the chief caretaker of the organs of the Moscow International House of Music and who took part in the development of this instrument, told me about how the organ works. 
The organ has five keyboards - four manual and one foot. Surprisingly, the foot keyboard is quite complete and some simple works can be performed with only legs. Each manual (manual keyboard) has 61 keys. On the right and left are handles for turning on registers. 
Although the organ looks completely traditional and analog, in fact it is partly controlled by a computer, which first of all remembers presets - sets of registers. They are switched using buttons on the ends of the manuals. 
Presets are saved on a regular 1.44″ floppy disk. Of course, disk drives are almost never used in computer technology anymore, but here it works properly. 
It was a discovery for me to learn that every organist is an improviser, because the notes either do not indicate a set of registers at all or indicate general wishes. In all organs the only common basic set registers, and their number and tonality can vary greatly. Only best performers can quickly adapt to the huge range of registers of the Svetlanov Hall organ and use its capabilities to the fullest.
In addition to the knobs, the organ has foot operated levers and pedals. Levers enable and disable various computer-controlled functions. For example, combining keyboards and a rising effect controlled by a rotating pedal-roller, as it rotates, additional registers are connected and the sound becomes richer and more powerful.
To improve the sound of the organ (and at the same time other instruments), an electronic Constellation system was installed in the hall, which includes many microphones and mini-speakers-monitors on stage, lowered from the ceiling on cables using motors and many microphones and speakers in the hall. This is not a sound reinforcement system; when it is turned on, the sound in the hall does not become louder, it becomes more uniform (spectators in the side and distant seats begin to hear the music as well as spectators in the stalls), in addition, reverberation can be added, which improves the perception of the music. 
The air with which the organ sounds is supplied by three powerful but very quiet fans. 
To supply it evenly,… ordinary bricks are used. They press the furs. When the fans are turned on, the bellows are inflated, and the weight of the bricks provides the necessary air pressure. 
Air is supplied to the organ through wooden pipes. Surprisingly, most of the dampers that make pipes sound are controlled purely mechanically - by rods, some of which are more than ten meters long. When many registers are connected to the keyboard, it can be very difficult for the organist to press the keys. Of course, the organ has an electrical amplification system, which makes the keys easy to press when turned on, but high-class organists of the old school always play without amplification - because this is the only way to change intonation by changing the speed and force of pressing the keys. Without amplification, an organ is a purely analogue instrument; with amplification, it is digital: each pipe can only sound or be silent.
This is what the rods from the keyboards to the pipes look like. They are wooden, since wood is least susceptible to thermal expansion. 
You can go inside the organ and even climb a small “fire” ladder along its floors. There is very little space inside, so it’s difficult to get a sense of the scale of the structure from the photographs, but I’ll still try to show you what I saw. 
Pipes vary in height, thickness and shape. 
Some pipes are wooden, some are metal made of tin-lead alloy. 
Before each major concert, the organ is tuned anew. The setup process takes several hours. To adjust, the ends of the smallest pipes are slightly flared or rolled with a special tool; larger pipes have an adjusting rod. 
Larger pipes have a cut-out petal that can be twisted or twisted slightly to adjust the tone. 
The largest pipes emit infrasound from 8 Hz, the smallest - ultrasound. 
A unique feature of the MMDM organ is the presence of horizontal pipes facing the hall. 
I took the previous shot from a small balcony that you can access from inside the organ. It is used to adjust horizontal pipes. View auditorium from this balcony. 
A small number of pipes are only electrically driven. 
The organ also has two sound registers or “special effects”. These are “bells” - the ringing of seven bells in a row and “birds” - the chirping of birds, which occurs due to air and distilled water. Pavel Nikolaevich demonstrates how the “bells” work. 
An amazing and very complex instrument! The Constellation system goes into parking mode, and here I end the story about the largest musical instrument in our country. 
- In Latin organum the stress falls on the first syllable (as in its Greek prototype).
- The frequency range of wind organs, taking into account overtones, includes almost ten octaves - from 16 Hz to 14000 Hz, which has no analogues among any other musical instruments. The dynamic range of wind organs is about 85-90 dB, the maximum value of sound pressure levels reaches 110-115 dB-C.
- Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel. The organ: An encyclopedia. New York/London: 2006. ISBN 978-0-415-94174-7
- “The organ sound is motionless, mechanical and unchanging. Without succumbing to any softening finishing, he brings to the fore the reality of division, attaches decisive importance to the slightest temporal relationships. But if time is the only plastic material of organ performance, then the main requirement of organ technique is the chronometric accuracy of movements.” (Braudo, I. A., On organ and keyboard music - L., 1976, p. 89)
- Nicholas Thistlethwaite, Geoffrey Webber. The Cambridge companion to the organ. Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-521-57584-3
- Praetogius M. “Syntagma musicum”, vol. 2, Wolffenbuttel, 1919, p. 99.
- Riemann G. Catechism of the History of Music. Part 1. M., 1896. P. 20.
- The connection between the flute of Pan and the idea of the organ is most clearly seen in the anthological epigram of Emperor Flavius Claudius Julian (331-363): “I see reeds of a new kind growing separately on one metal field. They make sound not from our breath, but from the wind, which comes out of a leathery reservoir lying under their roots, while the light fingers of a strong mortal run through the harmonic holes...” (Quoted from the article “On the Origin of the Organ.” - “Russian” disabled person", 1848, July 29, No. 165).
- “It has 13 or 24 bamboo tubes fitted with metal (bronze) reeds. Each tube is 1/3 smaller than the next. This set is called piao-xiao. The tubes are inserted into a tank made of a hollowed out gourd (later made of wood or metal). The sound is produced by blowing into the reservoir and drawing in air.” (Modr A. Musical instruments. M., 1959, p. 148).
- Brocker 2005, p. 190: “The term organum denotes both polyphonic musical practice and the organ, which in the Middle Ages had drone pipes. It could serve as a model when it comes time to call hurdy-gurdy, since its type of polyphony is probably not very different from hurdy-gurdy. “Organistrum” can then be understood as an instrument identical or similar to an organ. Hugh Riemann interpreted the name this way when he saw it as a diminutive of "organum". He thought that, just as "poetaster" came from "poeta", "organistrum" came from "organum" and originally meant "small organ". The term "organum" denotes both a polyphonic musical practice as well as the organ, which in the Middle Ages had drone pipes. It could have served as a model when it came time to name the hurdy-gurdy, since its type of polyphony was probably not very different from that of the hurdy-gurdy. The "organistrum" then can be understood to be an instrument identical with or similar to the organ. Hug Riemann interpreted the name in this manner when he saw it as a diminutive of "organum". He thought that, similar to how "poetaster" came from "poeta", "organistrum" came from "organum" and meant originally "little organ")»
- Each instrument has its own image, description of form and appearance, and allegorical interpretation, necessary for a kind of “sanctification” of biblical instruments so that they enter the Christian cult. The last mention of the Instruments of Jerome is in the treatise of M. Praetorius Sintagma musicum-II; he took this fragment from S. Virdung’s treatise Musica getutscht 1511. The description first of all emphasizes the unusually loud sonority of the instrument, which is why it is likened to the organ of the Jews, which is heard from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives (paraphrase from the Talmud “From Jericho is heard...”) . Described as a cavity of two skins with twelve bellows pumping air into it and twelve copper tubes emitting a "thunderous howl" - a kind of bagpipe. Later images combined elements of bagpipes and organ. Furs were very often not depicted; keys and pipes could be depicted very conventionally. Virdung, among other things, also turns the image upside down, since he probably copied it from another source and he had no idea what kind of instrument it was.
- Chris Riley. The Modern Organ Guide. Xulon Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59781-667-0
- William Harrison Barnes. The Contemporary American Organ - Its Evolution, Design and Construction. 2007. ISBN 978-1-4067-6023-1
- Apel 1969, p. 396: "described in a 10th century treatise entitled (G.S. i, 303, where it is attributed to Oddo of Cluny) is described in 10th-century treatise entitled Quomodo Organistrum Construatur (G.S. i, 303 where it is attributed to Oddo of Cluny))»
- Orpha Caroline Ochse. The History of the Organ in the United States. Indiana University Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0-253-20495-0
- Virtual MIDI system "Hauptwerk"
- Kamneedov 2012: “Each key actuated switches connected to various register sliders, or drawbars.”
- ? An Introduction to Drawbars: “Sliders are the heart and soul of your Hammond organ sound. There are two sets of nine sliders, sometimes referred to as tone bars, for the upper and lower manuals, and two pedal sliders located between the upper manual and the information center display. (English) The Drawbars are the heart and soul of the sound of your Hammond Organ. There are two sets of nine Drawbars, sometimes referred to as Tonebars, for the Upper and Lower Manuals and two Drawbars for the Pedals, located between the Upper Manual and the Information Center Display)»
- HammondWiki 2011: "The Hammond organ was originally developed to compete with pipe organs. Sliders were a unique innovation of Hammond keyboard instruments (register buttons or shortcuts were used to control airflow in the pipes of wind organs)... The Hammond organ was originally developed to compete with the pipe organ. Much of the discussion that follows is easier to understand if you have a little knowledge of pipe organ terminology. Here's a link to A Crash Course in Concepts and Terminology Concerning Organs. the hammond organ, pipe organs most commonly used stop buttons or tabs to control the flow of air into a specific rank of pipes. Pipes can sound flutey with few harmonics or reedy with many harmonics and many different tonal qualities in between The stops were two. position controls; on or off. The organist blended the sound produced by the pipe ranks by opening or closing the stops. The Hammond organ blends the relatively pure sine wave tones generated by the ToneGenerator to make sounds that are harmonically imitative of the pipe organ (obviously Jazz, Blues and Rock organists aren’t always interested in imitating a pipe organ). The Hammond organist blends these harmonics by setting the position of the drawbars which increase or decrease the volume of the harmonic in the mix. .
- Orchestras include a variety of self-playing mechanical organs, known in Germany under the names: Spieluhr, Mechanische Orgel, ein mechanisches Musikwerk, ein Orgelwerk in eine Uhr, eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel, Flötenuhr, Laufwerk, etc. Haydn and Mozart wrote especially for these instruments , Beethoven. (Music Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysh. 1973-1982.)
- Spillane 1892, cc. 642-3: “The peculiarity of the American cabinet (salon) organ lies primarily in the reed structure system invented in this country, with the help of which the tone of the sound was changed, which distinguished this organ from reed instruments foreign production. Several other features in its internal structure and external decoration, however, distinguish it from reed instruments called harmoniums. The "free reed", as it was first used in American accordions and seraphins, was by no means an internal invention, as writers rashly claim. It was used by European pipe organ builders for register effects, as well as in individual keyboard instruments before 1800. The "free reed" is named to distinguish it from the "breaking reed" of the clarinet and the "double reed" of the oboe and bassoon. The individuality of the American parlor organ rests largely upon the system of reed structure invented in this country, upon which a tone has been evolved which is easily distinguished from that produced by the reed instruments made abroad. Several other features in its interior construction and exterior finish, however, distinguish it from the reed instruments called harmoniums. The "free reed," as it was first applied in American accordions and seraphines, was not by any means a domestic invention, as writers recklessly assert. It was used by European pipe-organ builders for stop effects, and also in separate key-board instrument, prior to 1800. The "free reed" is so named to distinguish it from the "beating reed" of the clarionet and the "double" reed" of the wallpaper and basson)»