Books › A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904 › scan 104
Scan 104
A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904
10 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Organs and other Instruments
2CONTAINING
3Organ Pipes or Tongues of Metal.
5PREFACE.
7THE origin of the Organ is lost in remote antiquity. The idea, however, of a polyphonic instrument, suggested by the primitive pan-pipe, or the association of two reed pipes placed in the mouth together, and yet further improved by the addition of a wind reservoir as in the bagpipe, must have taken some practical shape before Ctesibries, in the early part of the third century B.C., produced his hydraulus or water organ. In fact, it is more than probable that the invention of this celebrated mechanician chiefly existed in applying the principle of water pressure and a new slider or key action to some crude form of pneumatic organ. His work, nevertheless, stands as the earliest example yet known of the instrument, and from the description given by his friend Hero of Alexandria, it is evident that the water was used to compress the air in the same way as in the modern instruments weights are employed. The key mechanism at first was improved by later makers—ranks of pipes, both flue and reed, were added—and at the commencement of our era we have a complete organ furnished with a practical keyboard for the fingers, and supplied with stops. This was the instrument so enthusiastically described by Roman poets and technical writers, and closely associated with the games and musical contests of the imperial days.*
9* A working reproduction of the ancient hydraulus is included in the Exhibition. The details have been copied from a pottery model of the instrument discovered at Carthage, and it is constructed from the descriptions given by Hero (B.C. 200) and Litruvius (A.D. 180), and dating from the early part of the second century A.D. A full description, with illustrations and diagrams, will be found in "The Reliquary," July, 1904.
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