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A residence organ (also known variously as a house, box, cabinet, choir, continuo, home, practice, trunk, or chamber organ) is a
musical organ installed in a personal home. Strictly speaking, the names ''residence'' and ''house'' organ are the most correct, the others being types of organs that can physically be used as residence organs, but that are not restricted to use solely in that context, and can also be used in, say, small churches, theatres, and so forth. A
portative organ
A portative organ (from the Latin verb , "to carry"), also known during Italian Trecento as the , is a small pipe organ that consists of one rank of flue pipes, sometimes arranged in two rows, to be played while strapped to the performer at a ri ...
or a
positive organ
A positive organ (also positiv organ, positif organ, portable organ, chair organ, or simply positive, positiv, positif, or chair) (from the Latin verb ''ponere'', "to place") is a small, usually one-manual, pipe organ that is built to be more o ...
(which are also, but imprecisely, known as ''box'', ''trunk'', and ''cabinet'' organs) can be used in a residential setting, but the notion of a residence organ strictly embodies a permanence of place that is belied by the notion of portability embodied by the portatives and positives. Similarly, a
chamber organ
Carol Williams performing at the United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel.">West_Point_Cadet_Chapel.html" ;"title="United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel">United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel.
...
(also known imprecisely as a ''cabinet'', ''desk'', or ''bureau'' organ) is in general a small organ for a room, but not necessarily for a room of someone's home.
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Use, construction, and evolution
The overlap of definitions parallels an overlap of uses. Residence organs can be used as ''practice'' organs, for practice at home by a professional organist, or as home instruments for amateur organists.[ Their use can be traced as far back as the 16th century where ]Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
owned more than a dozen residence organs, as did many members of his nobility.[
In construction, they are generally less elaborate than ]church organ
Carol Williams performing at the United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel.">West_Point_Cadet_Chapel.html" ;"title="United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel">United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel.
...
s, being constricted by the relative paucity of space for the mechanisms in a residence as opposed to a church, theatre, or other larger building. They commonly have no pedal
A pedal (from the Latin '' pes'' ''pedis'', "foot") is a lever designed to be operated by foot and may refer to:
Computers and other equipment
* Footmouse, a foot-operated computer mouse
* In medical transcription, a pedal is used to control p ...
s, a few stop
Stop may refer to:
Places
* Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
s, and a single manual. They are also generally less ornate than other kinds of organs, having plainer façades as the major effort in their construction goes towards miniaturization of the mechanism and achieving a church organ sound with domestic acoustics.[
Various construction techniques are employed in pursuit of the latter goal. The lengthy pipework of the low registers in a church organ simply doesn't fit into a home, and so devices such as a quint, a Haskell bass, and a ]stopped pipe
Acoustic resonance is a phenomenon in which an acoustic system amplifies sound waves whose frequency matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration (its '' resonance frequencies'').
The term "acoustic resonance" is sometimes used to na ...
are employed to achieve the same sound but with more compact mechanisms.[
The ]action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
is also engineered for compactness. In early designs, the action was very simple and comprised a sprung arrangement where air was compressed in the lower chest of the organ, and depressing a key would open a pallet that would release the air up to the pipe ranks. Later designs, as technology progressed, started to encompass more of what could be found in church and other organs and more complex mechanisms, including rollerboards, pedalboards, reed organ
The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
s (rather than pipes), and eventually electric rather than mechanical actions.[
Such residence organs were the province of professional house organ makers (who continue to exist even today) in the main, with a notable exception of ]Toggenburg
Toggenburg is a region of Switzerland. It corresponds to the upper valley of the river Thur and that of its main tributary, the Necker. Since 1 January 2003, Toggenburg has been a constituency (''Wahlkreis'') of the canton of St. Gallen ( ...
where (at that time) residence organs were often constructed by amateurs and enthusiasts themselves. Several such purpose-built residence organs survive from centuries past, including Claudio Merulo
Claudio Merulo (; 8 April 1533 – 4 May 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He wa ...
's organ in the Conservatory of Music in Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
, and the residence organ of Marie Antoinette that is preserved at Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
.[ For comparison, out of the 761 residence organs built by Aeolian between 1894 and 1932, only 65 survived to the end of the 20th century. (One such was the one at ]Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens is a botanical garden that consists of over 1,077 acres (436 hectares; 4.36 km2) of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier h ...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.)[
Residence organs rose to greater popularity in the 17th century, and by the 18th century much larger ones were being built, in England, Holland, and France. It was the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th that saw the advent of large and complex purpose-built residence organs in the private homes of those wealthy enough to afford such things, usually not played by the owners themselves but by professional organists whose services they would hire, for private concerts and the like. A four-manual organ was built in Blenheim Palace in 1891 by the Willis company, for example, and such things were symbols of ostentation and opulence on the parts of their owners.][
But things changed in the 20th century with the advent of new technologies. Right at the start of the century the paper-roll playing mechanisms of the pianola were incorporated into residence organs, which had the side-effect of eliminating the profession of residence organist, requiring the operator to do no more than operate the organ stops and expression pedals (which, in its turn, was eliminated within a decade, that too being encoded onto the paper roll itself). Residence organs in the 1930s grew to encompass an even wider range of instruments with the advent of the ]electronic organ
An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...
and (later) the analogue synthesizer as home organs. There has been a "purist" backlash against these; and even today one can find companies that will build "real" (i.e. not electronic) residential organs, customized for individual homes.[ But by the turn of the 21st century, with a few occasional exceptions, it was the electronic organ and the synthesizer to which professionals and amateurs now turned to for practice and informal use at home.][
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See also
* Aeolian-Skinner
Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts was an American builder of a large number of pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner (1866–1 ...
References
Works cited
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External links
Donald Knuth's pipe organ
{{Authority control
Keyboard instruments
Organs (music)