The Classical - Liturgical Pipe Organ

There is nothing to playing the organ. You only have to hit the right notes at the right time and the instrument plays itself.   - Johann Sebastian Bach

The organ is the grandest, the most daring, the most magnificent of all instruments invented by human genius.
- Honore de Balzac

To my eyes and ears the organ will ever be the King of Instruments.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

 

The pipe organ is the grandest musical instrument in size and scope, and has existed in its current form since the 14th century (though other designs, such as the hydraulic organ, were already used in Antiquity). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the most complex man-made creations before the Industrial Revolution. Organs (the "pipe" designation is generally assumed) range in size from a single short keyboard to huge instruments which can have over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ typically has three or four manuals with five octaves (61 notes) each, with a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedalboard.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments". Some of the biggest instruments have 64-feet pipes (a foot here means "sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit), and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest sound to the most powerful, "pleine-jeu" impressive sonic discharge, which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic resources comparable with three simultaneous symphonic orchestras. Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony" approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others, and the sounds get truly mixed and interspersed only when they reach the environment, not in the instrument itself (this is the main difference with digital organs, where the sound comes from loudspeakers which plays the resultant electric waveform of several tones being played).

Today's organ may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it from the theatre organ, which is a distinctly different instrument. As music was developed for the pipe organ and influenced the evolution of the instrument, the differences between a church and a concert organ becomes difficult to hear.

- with material explained from Wikipedia