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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fig. 1. — Antique Sculpture in the Mu- 

 seum OF Arles, dated XX. M. VIII, 

 represeuting organ blown by the 

 mouth. 



board. There are drawings of that period extant, which repre- 

 sent the organ as an instrument having but few pipes, blown by 

 two or tliree persons, and usually performed on by a monk. The 

 keys, which were played upon by hard blows of the fist, were 

 very clumsy, and from four to six inches broad. About the end 

 of the eleventh century semitones were introduced into the key- 

 board, but to all appearances its 

 compass did not extend beyond 

 three octaves. The introduction of 

 pedals, in 1490, by Bernhardt — giv- 

 ing a compass B flat to A — was 

 another important contribution to 

 the instrument. These were merely 

 small pieces of wood operated by 

 the toe of the player. 



Jordan's " swell organ," which 

 was introduced about 1712, in Eng- 

 land, is deservedly ranked as one 

 of the greatest advances in organ- 

 building known up to that year. 

 Jordan was renowned among the builders of his century. Green, 

 another noted English builder of the period, improved the swell 

 and added a score of lesser innovations which give him a promi- 

 nent place in histories of the instrument. Milton was cheered 

 and consoled in his blindness, as we learn from his biographers, 

 by a portable organ. This was a form of instrument called the 

 regale, which was in use during the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries. It has, however, been obsolete for over a century. 



From being a mere accessory to church choral services, the 

 organ has been improved in time by the introduction of stops, 

 instrumental effects, and the 

 extension of pedal and man- 

 ual compass, until it has at- 

 tained such a recognized po- 

 sition as a solo instrument 

 that it might now be called 

 an orchestra in itself. In the 

 last century the men no"* ably 

 associated as builders with its 

 progress were Jordan, Green, 

 Schroder, Silberman, Snetzler, Harriss, Avery, By well, and Father 

 Schmidt. Frescobaldi, the organist, who wrote the first fugues 

 and musical compositions according to the highest capacities of 

 the organ in his lifetime (1580-1640), gave the development of the 

 instrument a great impetus. Stradella, J. S. Bach, Handel, and 

 Albrechtsberger followed as executants and composers of organ 



Fig. 2. — Kepresentation of an Organ on an 

 Obelisk at Constantinople, erected in the 

 fourth century. 



