Scan 236
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
8 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1In its entirety the organ has a most complicated structure, but as it is studied it resolves into sections, which add interest and assist the student to comprehend. These sections make possible a system of development dissimilar to that found in other instruments. There is no limit to the individual characteristics which an organ may possess. Modern ingenuity has led the makers so far that musicians have often decried the newer instruments because of the attention which the organist must devote to the various mechanical adjuncts.
3The organ may be regarded as a piece of furniture or preferably as a part of the building in which it is to be used. Many of the finest effects obtainable by good organs are often lost because of the cramped condition of some of the sections or because of its inappropriate position, due to the fact that its requirements have not been considered when building the place to be its home. When a new organ is to be built, the advice of an organ architect is as necessary as are the specifications of the makers. However, the ornamental work may be designed by the building decorator irrespective of the organ maker.
5The vast internal mechanism must be noiseless, hence felt is used in some instances to deaden sound. Rollers must travel in stocks, shutters must open and close, and leathern bellows must expand and contract without adding a single sound to those produced by the pipes. The organ is termed the king of instruments and the accuracy with which some of its pipes bearing corresponding names can imitate such orchestral instruments as the violin, the flute, the oboe and the clarinet makes it the combination of many instruments in one—a veritable orchestra. Its voice is majestic and can create effects impossible to anything else, unless it be the new telharmonium of Dr. Cahill.
7The banks of keys, sometimes five in number, appear sadly confusing to the novice, as do the hundreds, sometimes thousands of pipes above. The pipes are arranged in groups termed stops, capable of imitating some orchestral
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