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could see comfortably over the top of the pipes. From the fourth century AD, however, some taller organs are depicted.158 |
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The player used both hands,159 and we can assume that he often allowed two or more pipes to speak at once. There is some evidence for the use of octave or other concordant chords on the organ,160 and it may be that some instruments were designed to play in parallel fifths or octaves by having ranks of pipes tuned at these intervals apart.161 With more than one rank in play, pressing one key would automatically produce a chord. |
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Certainly the sounds of the organ were considered to be highly agreeable.162 The Romans, at least, were also impressed by its loudness. Seneca groups it with horns and trumpets as producing a louder sound than the human mouth can. Nero, who was greatly interested in the organ and had ambitions to perform on it before the public, is said to have sent an urgent summons to his Privy Council in the night, only to announce that he had discovered a way to make the organ sound both louder and more harmonious.163 |
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One development that increased the instrument's powerwe cannot say whether it had anything to do with Nero, but it came not later than the second century, and must have been due to someone familiar with the bagpipewas the elimination of the water tank in favour of a wind bag inflated by bellows and compressed to force air out to the pipes.164 This made for a much lighter and more easily transportable instrument, not prone to plumbing problems (corrosion, leaks, freezing), and yet capable of producing a stronger head of air. Pollux characterizes the bellows organ as smaller than the |
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158 For further mechanical details and diagrams see Perrot, op. cit. 49-70; Peter Williams, A New History, of the Organ (London and Boston, 1980), 22-8; NG viii. 833 f., xiii. 711-13,725f. |
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159 Cf. Philo of Byzantium, Belopoiika 61, Tert. De Bapt. 8. 1, Julian, Anth. Pal. 9. 365. 6; often suggested by artistic evidence, though the player is generally hidden below the shoulders. |
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160 Ath. 174b, August. Enarratio in Psalmos 150. 7, Prudent. Apotheosis 389. |
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161 Cf. above on the lamp from Carthage. |
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162 Cic. Tusc. 3. 43 (a bast pleasure); Vitr. 10. 7. 4; Pliny HN 9. 24 (the favourite instrument of dolphins); Ath. 174 a (the erudite diners hear the sounds of an organ coming from a neighbour's); Theodoretus in PG lxxxiii. 589 a; Cassiod. in Psalmos 150. 4 (PL lxx. 1053a). |
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163 Sen. QNat. 2. 6. 5, Suet. Ner. 41, 54; Cass. Dio 63. 26. 4. |
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164 The replacement of Ctesibius' plunger pump by bellows is actually independent of the replacement of the water tank by a wind bag. It is quite likely that some water organs were operated by bellows; the pumps were more difficult to make and to maintain. |
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