Dictionary of Music - Birding America

290 organcloses the shutters, thereby gradually reducing theloudness of the pipes. (Originally the swell pedalcontrolled only the pipes of the swell organ, forwhich it is named. In modern organs it may controlothers as well.)The technique of playing an organ is quite differentfrom that for other keyboard instruments. Theorganist can play on one manual with the right handand on another with the left; in fact, one may evenmanage to use three manuals at once, using four fingerson one manual and the thumb on another. At thesame time, the feet work the pedals, which are laidout like an oversized keyboard. Organ music is ordinarilywritten on three staffs, two for the manualsand one for the pedals. Just as numbers are used toindicate fingering for keyboard instruments, specialsigns are used for the pedals, directing the player touse either heel or toe. Written over the notes, a signmeans right foot; under the notes, it means left foot.The signs ∨ or indicate toe, and ∪ or ∩∨indicateheel. Complicated as it may seem, the organ haslong been used for improvisation, both in earlierperiods (especially the eighteenth century) andtoday.The earliest known organ was the HYDRAULOS,built by the ancient Greeks about 250 B.C. It usedwater power to provide wind for the pipes. Between350 and 400 years later, the water power wasreplaced by bellows, which were pumped by one ormore assistants (in some medieval organs, as manyas ten men were required for pumping). The firstcenter of organ building was Byzantium (Constantinople),where elaborate instruments were constructed.By the eighth century organs were beingbuilt in Europe, where they were associated exclusivelywith the Church (the ancient Romans, on theother hand, had used organ music for entertainmentat gladiatorial contests). These early organs werefairly primitive and loud, being more punched thanplayed. The pipes varied only in length (and hencein pitch) and not width or shape, thus giving littlevariety of tone color. By the thirteenth century, however,the pipes were varied in numerous details.They were also increased in number, so that someorgans now had three manuals plus a pedalboard,and numerous bellows. However, these organs stillhad no stops. Instead, the builder arranged pipes into“mixtures” (groups with different tone color), whichbecame available by pressing a particular key. Ofcourse, the organist could not personally select themixture; it was prearranged by the builder. Alongwith these large, loud, cumbersome instruments,which could be used only in fairly large halls andchurches, small organs were built. These were thepositives, which stood on a table or on the floor,were much softer in volume, and had a more refinedkey action. It was in these that stops were first developed.Eventually they became part of the big organ(see POSITIVE ORGAN). In addition, two types ofportable organ were built, the PORTATIVE and theREGAL.The fifteenth century saw the development ofthree features that gave organs their basic moderncharacteristics: stops, reed pipes, and a couplingmechanism. The resulting rich palette of tone colorsoon attracted many composers, and the first reallyfine organ music, produced mainly by German masters(Paumann, Isaac, Hofhaimer, and especiallyArnolt Schlick), dates from the second half of thefifteenth century. In England, Italy, and Spain, however,the organ of the Renaissance (1450–1600)remained much simpler, with only one manual,either no pedal or a very primitive one, and fewstops. Though some fine music was written for thisinstrument as well—by John Redford (c.1485–1547), Thomas Tallis, John Bull, Marco AntonioCavazzoni (c. 1490–c. 1570), and Antonio deCabezón—it proved inadequate for performing themasterpieces of organ music produced during thebaroque period (1600–1750).The baroque organ, as developed in northernEurope (Germany, Netherlands, France) between1650 and 1750, and the music written for it by suchmasters as Sweelinck, Scheidt, Schein, Buxtehude,Pachelbel, Froberger, and above all Bach, representone of the great high points in music history. (Seealso BACH; BAROQUE.) This extraordinarily richperiod appears to have come to an abrupt end afterBach’s death in 1750, at least with regard to organmusic. For a century or so thereafter little organmusic of note was composed, and few fine organswere built. The romantic movement of the nineteenthcentury, however, gave new impetus to theinstrument, although its ideals, quite different from