The King of Instruments

An Introductory Lecture-Recital on the Organ

Report by Marie (L6) - 

On Friday 23 February, Lower 6 had the delight of listening to a lecture by the Assistant Head of Music, Mr Roberts. His lecture was titled "King of the Instruments", and gave us an introduction to a rather unusual instrument, the organ. At the beginning, Mr Roberts asked us whether anyone in Lower 6 has ever played the organ, but no one replied. However, when he asked who plays the piano, several people put up their hands, and Mr Roberts stated that piano and organ have many similarities.

We have four organs in school, and he strongly encouraged us to have a go at playing any one of them, particularly because there is a real shortage of female organ players currently. The phrase "King of the Instruments" came from Mozart, who compared the organ to a king due to its huge size and versatility. It is one of the oldest instruments to exist, and it is believed that the first organ was built in the 3rd century BC. Mr Roberts briefly explained how an organ's sound is created - air blows through pipes and the size of the pipes changes the pitch of the note - and then he proceeded to tell us that the organ in the Royal Albert Hall has over one thousand pipes, which I can imagine take a very long time to clean and tune.

We listened to Mr Roberts play a piece by Bach, and he showed us how there are two keyboards for the fingers as well as a keyboard for the feet. There are also stops that can be pulled out, and buttons that can be pressed to control and change the sound the organ makes, and this is also where the phrase "pull out all the stops" comes from. Pulling out more stops builds up the sound, and each stop can replicate a variety of different instruments, including clarinets, strings, flutes, oboes, and trumpets. He then also played "Toxic" by Britney Spears to prove how a wavey Dr Who-esque sound can be created, proving that organs are capable of playing more than just the traditional classical music we hear in chapel every Wednesday morning. He also told us how the foot keyboard can be written to have its own melody, which provides the performer with a challenge. Finally, a few of the Lower 6 students were allowed to attempt to play two of the school's organs, and the repertoire they played included "Chopsticks", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", as well as "O, When the Saints".

This was a great opportunity for everyone and some even proved to be naturally talented organ players!