| Contents |
Introduction. Christendom ; Organs in Christian Europe ; Historical 'evidence' ; The wider significance of organs ; Conclusion -- Organs before they became church instruments. The Roman water-organ ; The Greek water-organ ; Some Psalm-commentators ; A Christian poet ; Byzantine organs ; Arabic organs ; The court of the Christian Franks: Pippin ; The court of the Christian Franks: Charlemagne and Louis -- Organs as church instruments. The question ; Emblem of a saint ; Introduced by a pope? ; The Benedictines and various reforms ; The situation by c.1000 ; The earliest-known church organs? ; Anglo-Saxon origins ; Eleventh and twelfth centuries ; Organa in various kinds of documents ; Examples from the thirteenth century -- What did early organs do? Processions and other events ; The origins of 'organ music'? ; Organs and organum ; Where were organs put? ; Some influential locations ; Problems with the evidence ; The example of Notre-Dame organum -- What were early organs like? Further on the evidence ; Hints given by two early theorists ; Other treatises ; Hints in medieval drawings ; The most complete remains: Aquincum, c.225 ; The most complete description: Wulfstan, c.990 ; The most complete treatise: Theophilus, c.1125 ; Woodworking, casework, key-action and bellows ; Hints of the organ to come? |
| Abstract |
If in the early seventh century travellers had crossed Christendom from Iona in Scotland to Basra on the Persian gulf, they would not have seen organs in churches anywhere. Half a millennium later, they would have come across organs in one area only: the north-west corner of a circle radiating from Rome and stretching as far north as the English Wash. This book unravels the mystery of why organs were first known in places like Winchester, Rheims and Cologne, far from the centres of culture in the eastern Mediterranean. This book--part history of music, part detective story--reveals much, not only about the story of how the organ came to be so enthusiastically embraced as 'the king of instruments', in Mozart's phrase, but about the development of Christianity in Europe. |
