The largest, most majestic musical instrument has ancient history emergence, with many stages of improvement.
The most distant ancestor of the organ from us in time is considered to be the Babylonian bagpipe, widespread in Asia in XIX-XVIII centuries BC. Air was pumped into the bellows of this instrument through a tube, and on the other side there was a body with pipes having holes and reeds.
The history of the organ’s origins also remembers “traces ancient greek gods": the deity of forests and groves Pan, according to legend, came up with the idea of combining reed sticks of different lengths, and since then Pan's flute has become inseparable from musical culture Ancient Greece.
However, the musicians understood: it’s easy to play one pipe, but there’s not enough breath to play several pipes. The search for a replacement for human breathing for playing musical instruments bore the first fruits already in the 2nd-3rd centuries BC: in music scene Hydraulos came out for several centuries.
Hydraulos is the first step to 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 tank and tubes 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 the hydraulics by adding a miniature windmill and a metal spherical chamber immersed in water. 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. Hydraulos sounded at gladiator competitions, weddings and feasts, in theaters, circuses and hippodromes, during religious ceremonies. The organ became the favorite instrument of Emperor Nero; its sound could be heard throughout the Roman Empire.
In the service of Christianity
Despite the general cultural decline observed 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 churches in Italy, Spain and Byzantium. Countries with the greatest religious influence became centers of organ music, and from there the instrument spread throughout Europe.
The medieval organ differed significantly from its modern “brother” in the smaller number of pipes and larger keys (up to 33 cm long and 8-9 cm wide), which were struck with a fist to produce sound. The "portable" - a small portable organ, and the "positive" - a miniature stationary organ were invented.
The 17th-18th centuries are considered the “golden age” of organ music. The reduction in the size of the keys, the organ's acquisition of 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.
Despite the inextricable connection with the Catholic Church, quite a lot of “secular” works were written for the organ, including by Russian composers.
Organ music in Russia
The development of organ music in Russia followed an exclusively “secular” path: Orthodoxy categorically rejected the use of the organ in worship.
The first mention of an organ in Rus' is found on the frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv: “stone chronicle” Kievan Rus, dating back to the 10th-11th centuries, preserved the image of a musician playing the “positive” and two calcantes (people pumping air into bellows).
Moscow sovereigns of different ages showed a keen interest in the organ and organ music. historical periods: Ivan III, Boris Godunov, Mikhail and Alexey Romanov “extracted” organists and organ builders from Europe. During the reign of Mikhail Romanov, not only foreign but also Russian organists became famous in Moscow, such as Tomila Mikhailov (Besov), Boris Ovsonov, Melenty Stepanov and Andrei Andreev.
Peter I, who devoted his life to introducing Russian society achievements of Western civilization, back in 1691 he ordered the German specialist Arp Schnittger 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 gigantic projects with 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 were received in 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; just remember Tchaikovsky’s “The Maid of Orleans,” Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Sadko,” Scriabin’s “Prometheus,” etc. Russian organ music combined classical Western European musical forms and traditional national expressiveness and charm, had a strong influence on the listener.
Modern organ
Having passed historical path two millennia long, the organ of the 20th-21st centuries looks like this: several thousand pipes located on different tiers and made of wood and metal. Square-section wooden pipes produce bassy, low-pitched sounds, while tin-lead metal pipes have a round cross-section and are designed for a thinner, high-pitched sound.
The record-breaking organs are registered overseas, in the United States of America. The organ, located in Philadelphia's Macy's Lord & Taylor shopping center, weighs 287 tons and has six manuals. The instrument, located in Atlantic City's Concord Hall, is the loudest organ in the world and has more than 33,000 pipes.
The largest and most majestic organs in Russia are located in the Moscow House of Music, as well as in the Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky.
The development of new directions and styles has significantly increased the number of types and varieties of modern organ, with their own differences in the principle of operation and specific features. Today's classification of organs is as follows:
- wind organ;
- symphony organ;
- theater organ;
- electric organ;
- Hammond organ;
- Typhon organ;
- steam organ;
- street organ;
- orchestrion;
- organola;
- pyrophone;
- sea organ;
- chamber organ;
- church organ;
- home organ;
- organum;
- digital organ;
- rock organ;
- pop organ;
- virtual organ;
- melodium.
In contact with
When the inconspicuous door, painted beige, opened, only a few wooden steps were visible from the darkness. Immediately behind the door, a powerful wooden box, similar to a ventilation box, goes up. “Be careful, this is an organ pipe, 32 feet, bass flute register,” my guide warned. “Wait, I’ll turn on the light.” I wait patiently, anticipating one of the most interesting excursions of my life. In front of me is the entrance to the organ. This is the only musical instrument that you can go inside
Fun tool - harmonica with bells unusual for this instrument. But almost exactly the same design can be found in any large organ (like the one shown in the picture on the right) - this is exactly how “reed” organ pipes are designed
The sound of three thousand trumpets. General diagram The diagram shows a simplified diagram of the organ with a mechanical structure. Photographs showing individual components and devices of the instrument were taken inside the organ Great Hall Moscow State Conservatory. The diagram does not show the magazine bellows, which maintains constant pressure in the windlade, and the Barker levers (they are in the pictures). There is also no pedal (foot keyboard)
The organ is over a hundred years old. It stands in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, that very famous hall, from the walls of which portraits of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Beethoven look at you... However, all that is open to the viewer’s eye is the one turned towards the hall back side an organist's console and a slightly pretentious wooden “prospectus” with vertical metal pipes. Observing the façade of the organ, an uninitiated person will never understand how and why this unique instrument plays. To reveal its secrets, you will have to approach the issue from a different angle. Literally.
Natalya Vladimirovna Malina, an organ keeper, teacher, musician and organ master, kindly agreed to become my guide. “You can only move in the organ facing forward,” she sternly explains to me. This requirement has nothing to do with mysticism and superstition: simply, moving backwards or sideways, an inexperienced person can step on one of the organ pipes or touch it. And there are thousands of these pipes.
The main operating principle of the organ, which distinguishes it from most wind instruments: one pipe - one note. The Pan flute can be considered an ancient ancestor of the organ. This instrument, which has existed since time immemorial in different parts of the world, consists of several hollow reeds of different lengths tied together. If you blow at an angle at the mouth of the shortest one, a thin high-pitched sound will be heard. Longer reeds sound lower.
Unlike a regular flute, you cannot change the pitch of an individual tube, so the Pan flute can play exactly as many notes as there are reeds in it. To make the instrument produce very low sounds, it is necessary to include tubes of long length and large diameter. You can make many Pan flutes with pipes from different materials and different diameters, and then they will blow the same notes with different timbres. But you won’t be able to play all these instruments at the same time—you can’t hold them in your hands, and there won’t be enough breath for the giant “reeds.” But if we put all our flutes vertically, equip each individual tube with a valve for air inlet, come up with a mechanism that would give us the ability to control all the valves from the keyboard and, finally, create a structure for pumping air with its subsequent distribution, we have just it will turn out to be an organ.
On an old ship
The pipes in organs are made of two materials: wood and metal. Wooden pipes used to produce bass sounds have a square cross-section. Metal pipes are usually smaller, cylindrical or conical in shape, and are usually made from an alloy of tin and lead. If there is more tin, the pipe is louder; if there is more lead, the sound produced is duller, “waddier.”
The alloy of tin and lead is very soft, which is why organ pipes are easily deformed. If a large metal pipe is placed on its side, after some time it will acquire an oval cross-section under its own weight, which will inevitably affect its ability to produce sound. When moving inside the organ of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, I try to touch only the wooden parts. If you step on a pipe or awkwardly grab it, the organ builder will have new troubles: the pipe will have to be “treated” - straightened, or even soldered.
The organ I am inside is far from the largest in the world, or even in Russia. In terms of size and number of pipes, it is inferior to the organs of the Moscow House of Music, the Cathedral in Kaliningrad and the Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky. The main record holders are located overseas: for example, the instrument installed in the Convention Hall of Atlantic City (USA) has more than 33,000 pipes. In the organ of the Great Hall of the Conservatory there are ten times fewer pipes, “only” 3136, but even this significant number cannot be placed compactly on one plane. The organ inside consists of several tiers on which pipes are installed in rows. To allow the organ builder access to the pipes, a narrow passage in the form of a plank platform was made on each tier. The tiers are connected to each other by stairs, in which the role of steps is performed by ordinary crossbars. The organ is cramped inside, and moving between tiers requires a certain amount of dexterity.
“My experience suggests,” says Natalya Vladimirovna Malina, “that it is best for an organ master to be of a thin build and light in weight. It is difficult for a person of different dimensions to work here without causing damage to the instrument. Recently, an electrician - a heavyset man - was changing a light bulb above an organ, tripped and broke a couple of planks from the plank roof. There were no casualties or injuries, but the fallen planks damaged 30 organ pipes.”
Mentally figuring that my body could easily fit a couple of organ builders perfect proportions, I glance warily at the flimsy-looking stairs leading to the upper tiers. “Don’t worry,” Natalya Vladimirovna reassures me, “just go forward and repeat the movements after me. The structure is strong, it will support you.”
Whistle and reed
We climb to the upper tier of the organ, from where a view of the Great Hall from the top point, inaccessible to an ordinary visitor to the conservatory, opens up. On the stage below, where a string ensemble has just finished rehearsing, little people with violins and violas are walking around. Natalya Vladimirovna shows me close to the pipe of the Spanish registers. Unlike other pipes, they are located not vertically, but horizontally. Forming a kind of canopy over the organ, they blow directly into the hall. The creator of the Great Hall organ, Aristide Cavaillé-Col, came from a Franco-Spanish family of organ builders. Hence the Pyrenean traditions in the instrument on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow.
By the way, about Spanish registers and registers in general. "Register" is one of key concepts in the design of the organ. This is a series of organ pipes of a certain diameter, forming a chromatic scale corresponding to the keys of their keyboard or part of it.
Depending on the scale of the pipes included in their composition (scale is the ratio of the pipe parameters that are most important for the character and sound quality), the registers produce sound with different timbre colors. Being carried away by comparisons with Pan's flute, I almost missed one subtlety: the fact is that not all organ pipes (like the reeds of an ancient flute) are aerophones. An aerophone is a wind instrument in which the sound is formed as a result of vibrations of a column of air. These include the flute, trumpet, tuba, and horn. And here is the saxophone, oboe, harmonica They belong to the group of idiophones, that is, “self-sounding”. It is not the air that vibrates here, but a tongue flown around by the air flow. Air pressure and elastic force, counteracting, cause the reed to tremble and spread sound waves, which are amplified by the bell of the instrument as a resonator.
In an organ, most of the pipes are aerophones. They are called labial, or whistle. Idiophone trumpets constitute a special group of registers and are called reed ones.
How many hands does an organist have?
But how does a musician manage to make all these thousands of pipes - wooden and metal, whistle and reed, open and closed - tens or hundreds of registers... sound in right time? To understand this, let’s go down for a while from the upper tier of the organ and go to the pulpit, or organist’s console. The uninitiated, at the sight of this device, is filled with awe, as if in front of the dashboard of a modern airliner. Several hand keyboards - manuals (there may be five or even seven of them!), one foot keyboard, plus some other mysterious pedals. There are also many pull levers with inscriptions on the handles. What is this all for?
Of course, the organist has only two hands and will not be able to play all the manuals at the same time (there are three of them in the organ of the Great Hall, which is also a lot). Several manual keyboards are needed in order to mechanically and functionally separate groups of registers, just as in a computer one physical hard drive is divided into several virtual ones. For example, the first manual of the Great Hall organ controls the pipes of a group (German term - Werk) of registers called Grand Orgue. It includes 14 registers. The second manual (Positif Expressif) is also responsible for 14 registers. The third keyboard is Recit expressif - 12 registers. Finally, the 32-key foot keyboard, or “pedal,” operates in ten bass registers.
Speaking from the point of view of a layman, even 14 registers for one keyboard is somehow too much. After all, by pressing one key, an organist is able to make 14 pipes sound at once in different registers (and in reality more due to registers like mixtura). What if you need to play a note in just one register or in a few selected ones? For this purpose, the pull levers located to the right and left of the manuals are actually used. By pulling out a lever with the name of the register written on the handle, the musician opens a kind of damper, allowing air access to the pipes of a certain register.
So, in order to play the desired note in the desired register, you need to select a manual or pedal keyboard that controls this register, pull out the lever corresponding to this register and press the desired key.
Powerful blow
Final part Our excursion is dedicated to the air. The very air that makes the organ sound. Together with Natalya Vladimirovna, we go down to the floor below and find ourselves in a spacious technical room, where there is nothing from the solemn mood of the Great Hall. Concrete floors, white walls, antique timber support structures, air ducts and an electric motor. In the first decade of the organ’s existence, calcante rockers worked hard here. Four healthy men stood in a row, grabbed with both hands a stick threaded through a steel ring on the stand, and alternately, with one or the other foot, pressed on the levers that inflated the bellows. The shift was scheduled for two hours. If a concert or rehearsal lasted longer, the tired rockers were replaced by fresh reinforcements.
The old bellows, numbering four, are still preserved. As Natalya Vladimirovna says, there is a legend going around the conservatory that once they tried to replace the work of rockers with horsepower. A special mechanism was allegedly even created for this. However, along with the air, the smell rose into the Great Hall horse manure, and the founder of the Russian organ school, A.F., who came to the rehearsal. Goedicke, having struck the first chord, moved his nose displeasedly and said: “It stinks!”
Whether this legend is true or not, in 1913 muscle power was finally replaced by the electric motor. Using a pulley, he spun the shaft, which in turn, through a crank mechanism, set the bellows in motion. Subsequently, this scheme was abandoned, and today air is pumped into the organ by an electric fan.
In the organ, the forced air enters the so-called magazine bellows, each of which is connected to one of the 12 windladas. Vinlada is a container for compressed air that looks like a wooden box, on which, in fact, rows of pipes are installed. One windlad usually accommodates several registers. Large pipes that do not have enough space on the vindlad are installed to the side, and an air duct in the form of a metal tube connects them to the vindlad.
The windlades of the Great Hall organ (the “slueflad” design) are divided into two main parts. In the lower part, constant pressure is maintained using a magazine bellows. The upper one is divided by airtight partitions into so-called tone channels. All pipes of different registers have output into the tone channel, controlled by one key of the manual or pedal. Each tone channel is connected to the bottom of the vinlada by a hole covered by a spring-loaded valve. When a key is pressed, movement is transmitted through the tracture to the valve, it opens, and compressed air flows upward into the tone channel. All pipes that have access to this channel should, in theory, begin to sound, but... this, as a rule, does not happen. The fact is that so-called loops pass through the entire upper part of the windlady - flaps with holes located perpendicular to the tone channels and having two positions. In one of them, the loops completely cover all pipes of a given register in all tone channels. In the other, the register is open, and its pipes begin to sound as soon as air enters the corresponding tone channel after pressing a key. The control of the loops, as you might guess, is carried out by levers on the remote control through a register structure. Simply put, the keys allow all the pipes to sound in their tone channels, and the loops define the chosen ones.
We thank the leadership of the Moscow State Conservatory and Natalya Vladimirovna Malina for their assistance in preparing this article
The King of Instruments - this is how the organ is often called, appearance which evokes a feeling of delight, and the 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 a more familiar size 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 the 16th-17th centuries. In glorious known era Baroque masters learned to create instruments that, with their powerful sound, could easily compete with the whole 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 foot part is traditionally located on a separate stave directly below the hand lot.
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 distribution 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.
How the organ works aslan wrote in May 12th, 2017
On June 17, 1981, its keys were first touched by the hand of a musician - the outstanding organist Harry Grodberg, who performed Bach's toccatas, preludes, fantasies and fugues for Tomsk residents.
Since then, dozens of famous organists have given concerts in Tomsk, and German organ builders have never ceased to be amazed how in a city where the temperature difference between winter and summer is 80 degrees, the instrument still plays.
Child of the GDR
The organ of the Tomsk Philharmonic was born in 1981 in the East German city of Frankfurt an der Oder, at the organ-building company W.Sauer Orgelbau.
At a normal working pace, building an organ takes about a year, and the process involves several stages. First, the masters examine concert hall, define it acoustic characteristics and draw up a project for the future instrument. Then the specialists return to their home factory, make individual elements of the organ and assemble them into a whole instrument. In the assembly shop of the factory, it is tested for the first time and the shortcomings are corrected. If the organ sounds as it should, it is again disassembled in parts and sent to the customer.
In Tomsk, all installation procedures took only six months - due to the fact that the process took place without any hiccups, shortcomings or other inhibitory factors. In January 1981, Sauer specialists came to Tomsk for the first time, and in June of the same year the organ was already giving concerts.
Internal composition
By the standards of experts, the Tomsk organ can be called average in weight and size - a ten-ton instrument can accommodate about two thousand pipes of different lengths and shapes. Just like five hundred years ago, they are made by hand. Wooden pipes are usually made in the shape 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 for wooden ones they usually use pine.
It is these characteristics - length, shape and material - that affect the timbre of the sound of an individual pipe.
The pipes inside the organ are arranged in rows: from highest to lowest. Each row of pipes can play separately, or they can be combined. On the side of the keyboard, on the vertical panels of the organ, there are buttons, by pressing which the organist controls this process. All pipes of the Tomsk organ are sounding, and only one of them on the front side of the instrument was created in decorative purposes and doesn't make any sounds.
WITH reverse side the organ looks like a three-story Gothic castle. On the ground floor of this castle there is a mechanical part of the instrument, which, through a system of rods, transmits 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 for the upper keyboard.
Tomsk organ has mechanical system connection of keys and pipes, which means that pressing a key and the appearance of sound occurs almost instantly, without any lag.
Above the performing platform there are blinds, or in other words, a channel, which hide the second floor of organ pipes from the viewer. Using a special pedal, the organist controls the position of the blinds and thereby influences the strength of the sound.
The caring hand of a master
The organ, like any other musical instrument, is very dependent on the climate, and the Siberian weather creates many problems in caring for it. 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, the musical instrument requires constant monitoring.
The care of the Tomsk organ is provided by only two people - organist Dmitry Ushakov and his assistant Ekaterina Mastenitsa.
The main means of combating dust inside the organ is an ordinary Soviet vacuum cleaner. To search for it, a whole campaign was organized - they were looking for one that would have a blowing system, because it is easier to blow dust from the 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 tune it again, and this whole procedure will take about a month, and we have concerts.
Most often, façade pipes are cleaned - they are visible, so fingerprints of curious people often remain on them. Dmitry prepares the mixture for cleaning façade elements himself, using ammonia and tooth powder.
Sound reconstruction
Major cleaning and tuning of the organ is carried out 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 pipe. For some, it is enough to close the cap, for others, tighten the roller, and for the smallest tubes they use a special tool - a stimmhorn.
You won't be able to tune an organ alone. One person must press the keys and the other must adjust the pipes while inside the instrument. In addition, the person pressing the keys controls the setting process.
The Tomsk organ experienced its first major overhaul relatively long ago, 13 years ago, after the restoration of the organ hall and the removal of the organ from a special sarcophagus in which it spent 7 years. Specialists from the Sauer company were invited to Tomsk, who inspected the instrument. Then, in addition to internal renovation, the organ changed the color of the facade and acquired decorative grilles. And in 2012, the organ finally got “owners” - full-time organists Dmitry Ushakov and Maria Blazhevich.
An organ is a keyboard-wind musical instrument. The organ is considered the king of musical instruments. It is difficult to find an instrument as huge, complex, and rich in sound colors.
The organ is one of ancient instruments. Its ancestors are considered to be the bagpipes and the wooden pan flute. In the oldest chronicles of Greece of the third century BC there is mention of a water organ - hydraulos. It is called water because air was supplied to it into the pipes using a water pump. It could make unusually loud, piercing sounds, so it was used by the Greeks and Romans at horse races, during circus performances, in a word, where a large number of people gathered.
Already in the first centuries of our era, the water pump was replaced by leather bellows, which forced air into the pipes. In the 7th century AD, with the permission of Pope Vitalian, organs began to be used for worship in catholic church. But they were played only on certain holidays, since the organ sounded very loud and its sound was not soft. After 500 years, the organs began to spread throughout Europe. The appearance of the instrument has also changed: it has become more pipes, a keyboard appeared (previously, the keys were replaced by wide wooden plates).
In the 17th and 18th centuries, organs were built in almost all major cathedrals in Europe. Composers have created a huge number of works for this instrument. In addition to sacred music, entire concerts of secular music began to be written for the organ. Organs began to be improved.
The pinnacle of “organ construction” was an instrument with 33,112 pipes and seven keyboards. Such an organ was built in America in Atlantic City, but it was very difficult to play, so it remained the only “king of organs” of its kind; no one else tried to build such a large instrument.
The process of sound production in an organ is very complex. There are two types of keyboards on the organ pulpit: manual (there are from 1 to 5 of them) and foot-operated. In addition to the keyboards, there are register knobs on the pulpit, with the help of which the musician selects the timbre of sounds. The air pump pumps air, the pedals open the valves of a specific block of pipes, and the keys open the valves of individual pipes.
The pipes of the organ are divided into reed and labial. Air passes through the pipe, causing the reed to vibrate - thus creating sound. In labial pipes, sound occurs because pressurized air passes through holes at the top and bottom of the pipe. The pipes themselves are made of metal (lead, tin, copper) or wood. An organ pipe can only produce sound of a certain pitch, timbre, and strength. The pipes are combined into rows called registers. The average number of pipes in an organ is 10,000.
It should be noted that pipes containing a large amount of lead in their alloy become deformed over time. Because of this, the sound of the organ becomes worse. Such pipes usually have a blue tint.
The sound quality depends on the additives that are added to the alloy of the organ pipes. These are antimony, silver, copper, brass, zinc.
The organ pipes have different shapes. They are open and closed. Open pipes allow you to produce a loud sound, closed pipes muffle the sound. If the pipe expands upward, then the sound will be clear and open, and if it narrows, then the sound will be compressed and mysterious. The diameter of the pipes also affects the sound quality. Small diameter pipes produce intense sounds, large diameter pipes produce open and soft sounds.
