What's so special about the organ?
Last week we announced to the parish that WE ARE GETTING AN ORGAN FOR OUR CHURCH!!!! In the next few weeks we will feature short articles to help us understand the breadth and depth of this great blessing!
Week 3: What's so special about the organ?
No other musical instrument is so specifically designed to accompany the human voice. The pipe organ accomplishes this by being a wind instrument like the human voice, by incorporating specific tone colors that blend beautifully with singing, and by its ability to sustain its sounds for as long as its keys are pressed.
Unlike almost any other acoustical instrument, the pipe organ can produce an enormous variety of sounds: contrasting tone colors, very low and very high notes that cover the entire scope of human hearing, and a huge dynamic range: very soft to quite loud!
When properly constructed and voiced, these various sounds contrast with each other in interesting ways, and yet also blend beautifully with each other. Together, they constitute a magnificent tonal architecture, an audible iconographic embodiment of the principle of Unity in Diversity that comes to us from the heart of the Holy Trinity.
