With reference to the Auckland Town Hall Organ
The 21st century organ is the culmination of an instrumental journey that began five thousand years ago. Back then, the Chinese had the Cheng, a number of pipes of different lengths, standing upright in a bowl made from a gourd. By blowing into a mouthpiece and covering and uncovering holes with the fingers, the pipes sounded. Flutes and pan pipes were well-known to the Egyptians and Greeks in 2500BC.
The Greeks
The organ as we might recognise was developed in 250BC by a Greek engineer named Ktestibios. He placed rows of pipes of different lengths on a wind chest which sounded when the air in the chest was compressed by water pressure. This was the Hydraulis which became known throughout the Middle East. The Roman Emperor Nero had one brought from Greece to Rome and became a noted player. After the decline of the Greek and Roman civilisations, the organ continued its development in the Eastern Empire based on Constantinople (Istanbul). Over time, water power was replaced by bellows (similar to those used by a blacksmith) pumped by teams of men which, with a few variations, became the norm until the advent of the electrically driven blower.
German Influence
From the 1500s Northern Germany led developments in the organ. A hundred years later, famous German builders such as Schnitger and Silbermann were building organs with three or four keyboards. These had comprehensive pedal organs played with the feet, and pipes up to 10 metres tall.
It took more than 200 years for the rest of the world to catch up with the Germans. It is not surprising that the organ's greatest composer and the outstanding player of the day, Johann Sebastian Bach, grew up in this environment. Today, Germany (and especially the Hanseatic North) is still considered by many to be the modern organ's heartland.
French Influence
Early in the 19th century, the focus of organ design moved to France. The Baroque era's polyphonic music, with its strict rules and interweaving melodies, was giving way to romantic ideals. French organ builder Astride Cavaill-Coll was at the forefront of a new kind of instrument, the symphonic organ. These impressive instruments, characterised by their powerful trumpet pipes, inspired a whole generation of French composers to write organ music. Soon his organs were in most of France's cathedrals, on the orders of Napoleon III. Today their music, along with that of J.S. Bach, forms the core of the organ's repertoire.
The Organ in Great Britain
The organ in Britain has a chequered history. Records show that before the 1700s few organs were larger than one keyboard and a handful of stops. The notable exception was the 10th century Winchester Cathedral instrument which had 400 pipes and was said to have required 70 men to work its bellows!
In the 1500s the organ was banned entirely in Scotland and at the same time its continued use in England and Wales squeaked though the House of Convocation by just one vote. By 1658 most existing organs had been destroyed by Cromwell and the Puritans anyway, often melted down for bullets and pewter plates. Bach wasn't known in Britain until after 1800 and the German composer Mendelssohn refused to play in London when organs there didn't meet his expectations. It was impossible to play Bach on most British organs of the time.
However, in the mid 1800s this changed very quickly. The industrial revolution, Imperialism and civic pride resulted in the United Kingdom taking centre stage. Not only were churches and cathedrals furnished with impressive instruments but opulent town halls rose throughout the country, complete with a new version of the king of instruments: the Town Hall Organ. Grand town halls with organs to match were built all over the Empire. Britain rapidly graduated from small organs to spawning what was in 1890 the largest in the world: the Sydney Town Hall, built by UK firm Hill and Son.
The British town hall organ evolved into the modern concert hall organ, and today throughout the world no major concert hall is considered complete without its organ.
New Zealand
Most of the organs in New Zealand are products of the Victorian and Edwardian eras and reflect the British experience; the French and German traditions are almost unknown here.
Initially, small English-built organs were shipped to the new colony's churches, but as in the rest of the Empire, it wasn't long before New Zealand embraced the current fashion, the romantic symphonic organ. The grandest examples were erected in the town halls of Wellington (1906), Auckland (1911) and Dunedin (1930). These instruments were built by the London and Norwich firm Norman and Beard, whose 200 organ builders were turning out a new organ every week.
Organ building in New Zealand has never been on a large scale. Augmentation, rebuilding or restoring existing imported instruments, is the mainstay of the industry today. However, there have been two periods of major activity. In the 1930s, many of the original small mechanical-action organs were enlarged and re-arranged and converted to electric or pneumatic action, and some new instruments were built. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the world-wide organ reform movement (see below) swept New Zealand, resulting in many organs being altered. This included the organ in the Auckland Town Hall. A number of new organs were also built locally at this time using imported pipes and other parts.
Tonal Design
Fashions and the musical needs of the day have had a major influence on organ design. The two major designs handed down to us over the centuries are
- the baroque organ, and
- the symphonic organ.
The baroque organ of Bach's time is characterised by low wind pressure and ranks of pipes of roughly the same power with strong blending qualities. (Wind was a precious commodity because it was supplied by teams of men pumping bellows.)
Harmonic pyramids (the building up of ranks of several pitches) is the means of gaining dynamic variation. In addition, each keyboard is centred on a different pitch, and the sound has great clarity and transparency. This suits polyphonic music with its interweaving melodies: the music of J. S. Bach, his contemporaries and predecessors. The organ is usually situated in a gallery at a church's West End where it sounds unimpeded down the length of a large reverberant building.
The romantic symphonic organ of the early 20th century uses a variety of wind pressures. (There is no shortage with an electrically driven blower). Its ranks of pipes cover a wide dynamic range from ethereal string-like sounds to extremely powerful trumpets. Each keyboard controls a division with a particular function and many of the pipes are enclosed in swell-boxes to enable the sound to swell. The baroque-era idea of building harmonic pyramids to vary the dynamics applies to a limited degree but the symphonic organ is mainly dependant on its swell boxes and its soft and loud stops. The sound tends to be grand rather than transparent. This kind of organ suits orchestral transcriptions and the romantic-styled music of such composers as Widor, Franck, Guilmant, Liszt, Vierne and Messiaen.
Organ Reform Movement - "Back to Bach"
In the early 1930s a group of German scholars formed the Orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) which sought a return to the ideals of Bach's time. They believed design had lost its way and had veered too far from its tradition. After the hiatus of the Second World War, the movement spread around the world. During the following 30 years most romantic organs were drastically altered and internationally thousands of new organs were built on the Bach model.
Today
The pendulum has now swung back to a more moderate approach and most new organs avoid extremes unless built for a specific part of the repertoire. The modern concert organ brings together the best elements of the German baroque and the French romantic, along with significant developments since those times. It is designed to do justice to all aspects of the instrument's considerable repertoire.
More than 200 composers have written significant works for organ solo, many orchestral and choral works call for the organ, and there are organ concertos. Its use for orchestral transcriptions is well-established. A recent survey indicated there are at least 158 orchestral works with a major organ component and a further 115 with organ included in the orchestration.
Keyboards
The organ is the earliest keyboard instrument, although the keyboard we recognise today didn't appear until the 14th century.
Why does the organ often have more than one keyboard? In the ancient church it was common to see two separate organs, one large, one small; it was the only way known then to deal with soft and loud. The organist sat in front of the large organ with a smaller one at his back, in Britain called the chaire organ, in Germany, the ruckpositiv. The inconvenience of having to turn around to play the small organ was eventually eliminated by a system of levers. These passed under the organist's feet from the small organ to a second keyboard at the large organ. It was only a matter of time before the number of keyboards grew, along with the number of organs that could be commanded by one player. The character of each organ varied according to the country it was in.
The largest organ ever built was in Atlantic City, USA, where in the 1920s, the convention hall organ had seven keyboards and 33,000 pipes.
Four keyboards is the usual maximum today with extra divisions treated as floating, able to be connected to any keyboard. Organ keyboards are usually referred to as manuals to distinguish them from the pedal board, the keyboard played by the feet.
Pedal Board
The pedal board is a concave and radiating set of 32 large wooden keys arranged in sharps and flats just like the keyboards for hands, but with much wider spacing. It controls the pedal organ. A rudimentary pedal organ first appeared in the 14th century in Northern Europe where, by the 17th century, it was as complete, tonally, as the manual keyboards. Britain was tardy in adopting pedal organs and anything approaching the German ideal didn't appear there until the beginning of the 20th century -one reason for Mendelssohn's difficulty when visiting England.
Stops
Stops are ranks of pipes of the same tone. Generally, there are as many pipes to a stop as there are keys on a keyboard -in most modern organs it's 61. Stops are activated by drawing the stop knobs on the organ console which are arranged at either side of the keyboard. The name stop derives from ancient instruments where all the pipes allotted to one note or key sounded at once there was no way to stop them, until someone invented the stop! A stop's name indicates the type of sound its rank of pipes will make, as well as its pitch.
Stop Names
Apart from representing the tone and the pitch of their pipes, stop names give a sense of the organ's long and rich history. Organ builders over the centuries, from all over Europe have given names to the stops they have invented. In an English-designed organ one can trace its German, French and Italian origins as well as note the significant contributions made by British and North American organ builders
Secular and Sacred
In its first thousand years, the organ was used for purely secular purposes: entertainment and court ceremonials. During the 8th century, monks in England and France saw the organ's value in service to the church and began building small instruments. The craft spread throughout Europe with each country developing the organ in its own way. In time, it often became second only to the altar in importance.
During the past 150 years the king of instruments has reclaimed its secular role and is now found in schools, universities, town halls and concert halls around the world.
Concert Repertoire
The concert organ continues to be a significant instrument, whether it is used for civic functions, solo recitals, to accompany choral works or as the focus of orchestral works. A recent search of orchestral repertoire revealed 158 orchestral works with a major organ component and a further 115 with organ included in the orchestration.
Many of today's composers write for organ, adding to a repertoire that spans 600 years.
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