20 Facts About Pipe organ

Pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard.

Pipe organ has one or more keyboards played by the hands, and a pedal clavier played by the feet; each keyboard controls its own division, or group of stops.

Origins of the pipe organ can be traced back to the hydraulis in Ancient Greece, in the 3rd century BC, in which the wind supply was created by the weight of displaced water in an airtight container.

From that time, the pipe organ was the most complex man-made device—a distinction it retained until it was displaced by the telephone exchange in the late 19th century.

Pipe organ devised an instrument called the hydraulis, which delivered a wind supply maintained through water pressure to a set of pipes.

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The Halberstadt Pipe organ was the first instrument to use a chromatic key layout across its three manuals and pedalboard, although the keys were wider than on modern instruments.

Different national styles of Pipe organ building began to develop, often due to changing political climates.

The French Classical Organ, became remarkably consistent throughout France over the course of the Baroque era, more so than any other style of Pipe organ building in history, and standardized registrations developed.

The Italian Baroque Pipe organ was often a single-manual instrument, devoid of pedals.

Pipe organ contains one or more sets of pipes, a wind system, and one or more keyboards.

The key action is independent of the stop action, allowing an Pipe organ to combine a mechanical key action along with an electric stop action.

Organ builders traditionally measure Pipe organ wind using a water U-tube manometer, which gives the pressure as the difference in water levels in the two legs of the manometer.

The names on an Pipe organ built in the north German Baroque style generally will be derived from the German language, while the names of similar stops on an Pipe organ in the French Romantic style will usually be French.

Every Pipe organ has at least one manual, and most have a pedalboard.

Goal of tuning a pipe organ is to adjust the pitch of each pipe so that they all sound in tune with each other.

Main development of Pipe organ repertoire has progressed along with that of the Pipe organ itself, leading to distinctive national styles of composition.

The earliest Italian Pipe organ music is found in the Faenza Codex, dating from 1420.

Sacred Pipe organ music was based on chorales: composers such as Samuel Scheidt and Heinrich Scheidemann wrote chorale preludes, chorale fantasias, and chorale motets.

In France, Pipe organ music developed during the Baroque era through the music of Jean Titelouze, Francois Couperin, and Nicolas de Grigny.

The development of symphonic Pipe organ music continued with Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire.