Organ (music)

In music, the organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe divisions or other means for producing tones. The organs have usually two or three, up to five manuals, for playing with the hands, and pedalboard, with the feet. With the use of registers, several groups of pipes can be connected to one manual. Varieties of organs include: Pipe organs, which use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. The air is supplied by bellows, an electric motor or water (water organ). Since the 16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which can vary widely in timbre and volume. Increasingly hybrid organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electric additions; Non-piped organs, which include: pump organs, also known as reed organs or harmoniums, which like the accordion and mouth organs (both Eastern and Western), notably the harmonica, which use air to excite free reeds; electronic organs (both analog and digital), notably the Hammond organ, which generate electronically produced sound through one or more loudspeakers; Mechanical organs, which include the barrel organ and Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor. Predecessors to the organ include: Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor of the pipe organ. Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone). The organ is a relatively old musical instrument, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games. During the early medieval period it spread from the Byzantine Empire, where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.