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SMLC Pipe Organ

Organ Information

Organ Stop List
(pdf file)

The Organ in Worship

Basic Organ Information

Pew Side Guide to the
SMLC Organ

Frequently Asked
Questions

Organ Placement in the Church

Good placement can mean the difference between success and failure for an organ. The basics of good organ placement are not complicated.

First, the organ’s pipework must be physically within the sanctuary. Chambers, even those often designed for an organ, dramatically cut an instrument’s effectiveness. The organ should stand totally within the room in which it is to be heard, with open space around it.

Second, the organ should be located on a narrow wall, so that it speaks down the length of the sanctuary. It, and the choir, may be in a rear gallery or in front.

Third, the organ should be housed in a free-standing resonant, sound-reflecting wood case. The presence of a case, quite apart from the striking visual effect it provides, will blend and focus the tone, take the edge off any harshness, and provide clarity.

These principles are the time-tested ones by which the finest organs of the past and the present have been and are being built. Adhering to these principles will achieve the best sounding instrument.

History of the Organ

The earliest organ, the hydraulis, was developed by the Greek inventor Ctesibius (flourished 3rd century BC). It utilized a large chamber partly filled with water. The wide mouth of a funnel-like extension from the wind chest was set in the top of the water; as air pressure in the wind chest fell, water rose in the funnel and compressed the air, thus keeping the air pressure constant. The hydraulis was used for public entertainments in ancient Rome and Byzantium.

Bellows-type organs were also known to the ancient world. This was the organ that reappeared in Europe in the 8th and 9th centuries, imported from Byzantium and from Arabs who had discovered ancient Greek treatises. Although some ancient organs had a stop mechanism, this device was forgotten, and on early medieval organs all ranks sounded at once, creating a formidable effect.

By the 15th century the stop mechanism had been reinvented, pedal keyboards came into common use, and reed stops (not found on ancient organs) were developed. Smaller organs had also become common: the portative organ, carried by a strap around the player's neck, which had only one rank of pipes and was supplied with wind by a small bellows pumped by the player; the positive organ, self-contained and portable; and the regal, a small instrument with one rank of nasal-sounding reed pipes.

Between 1500 and 1800, various national styles of organ building developed, each distinguished by characteristic-sounding ranks. German organs of the 17th and 18th centuries were particularly outstanding, and it was for such organs that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was written.

Organ builders in the 19th century devoted much effort to developing pipes that imitated the sound of orchestral instruments. About the same time, the swell box came into use. These innovations, which the best builders integrated with the traditional features of earlier organs, stimulated the organ works of such composers as the Hungarian Franz Liszt, the Belgian César Franck, the German Max Reger, and, in the 20th century, the French composer Olivier Messiaen. Many 19th-century organs, however, concentrated principally on stops imitating the orchestra and were used for music that was basically orchestral in origin or conception. In the 20th century a movement occurred to revive 18th-century instruments, often incorporating the best of the 19th-century innovations.

How the Pipe Organ Works - A quick explanation

The organ is a wind instrument played from a keyboard. The tone of the organ is produced by pipe made of metal or wood and made to sound by compressed air flowing through the pipes. A single pipe is able to produce only one note of one tone.

The instrument is organized into "rank" of pipes - a set of pipes for each of the "stop" of the organ. The pipes vary in length from a few inches to more than 32 feet.

In order for the pipes to sound, the compressed air flowing through them must set in vibration the column of air inside the pipe. The resulting tone quality of these pipes is determined by factors such as wind pressure, the height and width of the pipe’s mouth, or brass reed, the material of which the pipe is made, as well as the diameter of the pipe.

The pipes of each division stand on a windchest. The windchest contains the apparatus by which valves under the pipes are opened, by pressing a key at the organ console, letting wind into them and causing them to speak. The wind is delivered to the windchest from the reservoir, a bellows-like box, which serves to steady the wind and give and give it a predetermined and constant pressure. The reservoir, in turn, receives the wind from the blower, a large fan driven by an electric motor.

Page Revised October 2008