Pipe organs in Themiclesia

Pipe organs in Themiclesia are often installed in civic, religious, and artistic spaces where music is needed. There are more than 2,000 pipe organs in Themiclesia, the majority whereof are located in churches. Organs were introduced to Themiclesia in the late 14th century and evolved under both foreign and domestic influence, foremost from the Ostlandic and Sieuxerrian traditions, and since the 18th century Themiclesian organ-building was often done under a domestic, synthetic tradition of tonal design. Organs function as solo instruments and as an ensemble instrument in the modern Themiclesian orchestra.

History

It is uncertain when the first pipe organ was introduced to Themiclesia, but the instrument is recorded and illustrated in Creations of the World, a Shinasthana encyclopedia, in 1395. The early name of the instrument was bri-kwar (排管), which is the same as a pan flute, and only later was the pipe organ specified as "keyed" or "erect" (建排管, kar-bri-kwar) to differentiate it. The first organs in Themiclesia were probably portative or positive organs, used for the accompaniment of theatrical and musical performances. The illustrated instrument in the encyclopedia was a portative organ with a bellows partly obscured by the pipework, but the provenance of this organ, if it was an illustration of an actual one, is uncertain.

In the 15th century, the pipe organ became popular in music ensembles but was rarely used as a solo instrument in secular contexts. In particular, it was valued for its ability to produce bass notes that other instruments lacked. In early Christian churches, the organ supported congregational singing and also was used for solo performances. It appears, however, that positive organs were still the dominant type of instrument in both secular and religious spaces that employed it. The larger organs in the 1400s had up to 16 ranks of pipes, with no stop action, and the longest pipes were slightly less than 8', because the Themiclesian gamut started on the pitch equivalent of D. Other than the unison rank, upper voices played octaves and fifths, with more pipes towards the top of the spectrum to provide sufficient volume.

In the 16th century, the organ in Themiclesia began taking on both local and foreign influences in a more visible manner. Reed stops are first recorded in 1548, which is intimately connected to the presence of Sylvan explorers in the Meridian Ocean, where Themiclesian merchants regularly traded. To accommodate Casaterran pieces requiring a bottom C, the compass was then extended on some instruments. Stop actions appeared no later than 1572, but their early iterations divided only one or two bass stops from upperwork. It was likely introduced in the interest of flexibility as an ensemble instrument, since a constant "full organ" effect would drown out smaller ensembles or solo singers. Additionally, the ability to play a bass voice alone would allow an ensemble to execute a melody line without interference from upperwork. These considerations would have been made current by the expansion of organs, with up to 50 ranks in 1554, when they were made permanent installations.

By the early 17th century, both stationary and mobile organs were present in Themiclesia, used for accompanimental performances. However, compared to contemporary instruments in Casaterra, the Themiclesia organ was a less elaborate instrument: it had one manual with a compass of two to three chromatic octaves, no pedals, and a handful or stop controls. There was little employment of imitative voices, in an age when these were becoming common in Casaterra. This was probably attributable to the organ's popularity as an ensemble instrument, designated like other instruments to provide but one kind of voice; since the organ was not expected as much to change its tone and colour, instrument-makers focused on making its voice flexible in dynamics, rather than colour. It is recorded that the grand organ in Gwreng Hall had 64 ranks but only four stops, one for the 16' principal, and three others controlling groups of ranks of varying pitches.

In the late 17th century, the Themiclesian organ came under heavy Ostlandic influence as its settlers colonized parts of northern Maverica, which Themiclesia then ruled as an imperial province. Ostlandic artisans and their instruments gained the favour of many Themiclesian aristocrats, who often hired those artisans' services to elaborate their organ in a more "fashionable" style. This new school of organ design led to fundamental alterations in most Themiclesian organs, leaving few built before its advent unaltered, attesting to its appeal. The Ostlandic school called for a more elaborate stop action, secondary organs situated apart from the main instrument, an independent pedal division, and greater variety of "colour" stops that were not principal flues.

Even though Ostlandic influence was potent, traditions of Themiclesian organ-building were incorporated to, and were not replaced by, the newer style. This preponderance of mixtures, especially away from bass stops, not only persisted in the inherited organ, now renamed Hauptwerk, but also penetrated into the newer, Ostlandic divisions, in order to make them useful or friendly for accompanimental work. From the early 18th century onwards, it became common for organ-builders like Krel and Sip to build instruments with a 1:1 ratio between ranks in stops and mixtures; that is, in an example division of 20 ranks, 10 would be in a single mixture, while the others formed separate stops. Ordinarily, only the bottom rank of the principal chorus would be separately drawable to play the bass or basso continuo, while other principal ranks were in mixtures.

Organs in Themiclesia increased in size as newer divisions became standard. Secondary instruments appeared as the Positiv(e), Oberwerk, Brustwerk, Echowerk, and Hinterwerk divisions. In Ostlandic tradition, these were typically based on higher pitches than the Hauptwerk, which, in larger instruments, was usually on the 16-foot pitch. In 1701, the organ at the Old Cathedral was augmented by a 32-foot Praestant in the Hauptwerk and a 32-foot Contra-Posaune in the Pedal, the earliest recorded use of this pitch in Themiclesia. These two stops, on which the Great and Pedal organs were to be based, became the sine qua non of Themiclesian organs of the first magnitude in the 18th and 19th centuries. While 32-foot stops were generally uncommon, smaller instruments often recapitulated the rule that the Great and Pedal organs could, in the stead of pitch, differ in timbre.

In other aspects, the late 17th and early 18th century Themiclesian organ followed the Ostlandic tradition, where organs had dual roles in supporting congregational singing and solo performances. Divisions like the Positiv and Brustwerk usually centred on successively higher pitches for emphasis and delineation of counterpoint in Robaque music. Thus, on a large four-manual instrument, the Hauptwerk was likely based on 32-foot, the Hinterwerk on 16-foot, the Positiv, 8-foot. On a smaller four-manual instrument or three-manual one, the Hauptwerk would likely be on 16-foot instead. On a two-manual one, the Hauptwerk would be on 8-foot, and the Positive on 4-foot. This arrangement of divisions led to a nomenclature of "triple", "double", and "single organ", referring to the number of cases the pipes were housed in.

A new treatment of the mixtures that descend from the medieval blockwerk emerged around 1720. Two new mixtures were supplied in place of the ancient mixture, which typically had multiple ranks of the octave, fifth, and their respective octaves. The major or grand mixture possessed multiple ranks of the octaves, fifths, and their octaves, while the minor mixture possessed only one rank of each octave and the two lowest fifths. The former encompassed all the upperwork range of older instruments, from the unison's octave to ​¹⁄₈′, while the latter typically ended at 1′. The grand mixture was used for louder passages and was voiced to be more prominent, and the minor mixture to be softer. The two mixtures could each support a foundational voice, or be used together to synthesize the tutti. Builders experimented with third- and seventh-sounding ranks later in the century and in the 19th century, but these tended to be independent stops due to temperament difficulties.

The major mixture was later divided into a sub-mixture and a super-mixture to distinguish their musical uses. The sub-mixture, typically called only "Mixture" and consisting of 8′, ​5 ¹⁄₃′, 4′, ​2 ²⁄₃′, 2′, ​1 ¹⁄₃′, 1′, and ​²⁄₃′, ended at ​¹⁄₂-foot and was non-breaking, i.e. pipes ascend in pitch chromatically, without interruption. The super-mixture or repeating-mixture, consisted of ranks at ​¹⁄₃′, ​¹⁄₄′, ​¹⁄₆′, and ​¹⁄₈′ that break back, or descend to a lower pitch at given intervals, which is necessary owing to the impracticality of manufacturing or tuning very small pipes in the upper compass above the pitch of ​¹⁄₂-foot, whose smallest pipe measured but ​³⁄₄ inches. In the 20th century, the super-mixture may start at ​²⁄₃′ or even 1′ as the standard compass extended to five octaves, rather than the four-octave range common up to 1850 or so.

There was a trend in the 18th century to standardize the composition of mixtures, which could have incorporated arbitrary numbers of octave and quint ranks up to that time. The lowest rank was typically a twelfth above unison pitch, and one rank was added to each successive octave above (the octave above unison was typically independently drawable and not in mixture). Thus, over a 32′ unison, the sub-mixture began with one rank of ​10 ²⁄₃′ (the twelfth above), two ranks of 8′ and ​5 ¹⁄₃′, and so forth, ending at six ranks of ​¹⁄₂′. The super-mixture followed the opposite pattern and decreased the number of ranks for every successive octave, to prevent undue shrillness. Each successive rank at the same pitch was built to a slightly smaller scale to prevent sympathy or phase-cancellation. This practice led to the scaling of instruments in terms of repetitions in mixtures: ratings known in the 1700s and 1800s were "sixfold" through "twofold". The gargantuan City Hall Organ was putatively a "sevenfold" organ, as the Pedal mixtures there began (anomalously on the octave) at 32′ and ​21 ²⁄₃′ to support a 64′ foundation; however, reckoned from the Great division, as is ordinarily done, it is still a "sixfold" organ on 32′.

In the early 19th century, Sieuxerrian influence began to take root in Themiclesia with the settlement of Merovingian colonists. The largest part of this heritage is the addition of expressive departments to the larger Themiclesian organs, used to play colour or solo lines. The need for these departments arose as the organ repertoire in Themiclesia evolved to include symphonic music, which required greater expressive capability and colour variation. These departments are treated in a very distinct manner by Themiclesian organ builders who adopted them: they were not subject to the strictures of principal choruses that characterized the Great, Ruck-Positive, and Hinter-Positive organs. The main expressive department was ordinarily named Récit, and a secondary one would be Echo. These divisions are usually based on a 8-foot foundation, as is the case on Sieuxerrian organs.

Depending on the usage of enclosures, Recit and Echo divisons became more common in large instruments in both religious and secular contexts, while the older Brustwerk and Oberwerk divisions predominated in smaller instruments and those in religious settings. Nevertheless, there was a tendency to identify the Recit division with the Brustwerk and the Echo with the Oberwerk, and actual stoplists were not always very distinct between divisions under either label. Brustwerk and Oberwerk divisions, however, tended to have the traditional mixture work, while Recit and Echo divisions possessed more colour and string stops in the Romantic tradition.

Though an instrument of more than 70 ranks would qualify as a large one in the 18th century, organs grew in the mid-19th century to become centrepieces in civic spaces, whose scale and appointment were a point of civic pride. They provided music for both official, commercial, and artistic activity, and their competitive construction was underwritten by municipal money. In 1855, Sngrak became the first city to house an organ in a purpose-built civic hall, and this example was immediately followed by other cities like Rak and Kien-k'ang. This competition in organ-building sparked a flourishing in the organ-building trade and culminated in the City Hall Organ in Kien-k'ang, a gargantuan instrument of 13,100 pipes in 259 ranks, completed in 1905.

Tonal design

Divisions

The basic plan for an instrument in Themiclesian tradition is outlined by the number of divisions or bri (徘), which could be a "flue" division (管徘) or "instrument" division (樂徘). A flute division is dominated by the pipe organ's natural sound or principal chorus, while an instrument division serves to imitate a range of musical instruments. A division usually corresponds to a manual on the organ console, save for floating divisions which could be coupled to one or more manuals, and the manuals are typically in this order from the lowest:

1. Principal, containing the most powerful principal chorus.
2. Positive, containing a secondary principal chorus and in its own, smaller case located behind the console.
3. Récit, containing mainly imitative stops and under expression; this is usually dominated by string and flute stops.
4. If a fourth manual is present, it could be:
   • Echo, containing softer imitative stops and enclosed, typically located behind the console so as to produce an occluded voice;
   • Over-positive, similar to an echo division but unenclosed.
5. If a fifth manual is present, its position not necessarily at the top of the console, it could be:
   • Hind-Positive, containing a third principal chorus, between the principal and positive in prominence;
   • Under-positive, similar to Echo but located under the main organ if located on an organ loft;
   • Solo, containing high-pressure reeds.

Aside from the number of divisions, the size of the instrument is also conveyed in terms of its longest (i.e. lowest) rank in the principal division. Most two-manual organs are 8-foot instruments, while large instruments often have 16-foot tone in the principal division. There are five organs in Themiclesia known to be 32-foot instruments, which have 32-foot tone in the principal division.

The terminology of "onefold" through "sixfold" organs technically refers to the number of chests of mixtures that span the front of the organ case, where a "twofold" instrument has two ranks or chests, and so on; the depth of the case is usually limited to two chests, and the size of each chest is restricted by the feasible number of palettes that could be opened by a tracker. Owing to the fixed way in which Themiclesian organ-buildings since the late 17th century have added mixtures, the number of chests provides a loose indication of the size of the division.

The Pedal division in a Themiclesian organ has a complex history, and some older organs preserve an older design for the pedal division. It is usually thought that the early pedal either had no independent stops, merely pulling down on the manual compass, or controlled only a set of stopped flues known as bordonen. Up to about 1800, the pedal division typically had no stop action, and where multiple ranks were available, they typically played parallel octaves and never fifths (16′-8′ or 32′-16′-8′). This design suited the playing of the accompaniment or cantus firmus, because the duller but purer tone of stopped flues allowed the singing voices to dominate. 4′ and 2′ stops did not exist on early pedal divisions because they would cloud the singing pitches.

A more modern pedal division became common around 1750, organized in much the same way as a non-imitative manual division with bass imitative stops inserted to support similar treble voices where present.

See also

• Themiclesia
• List of pipe organs in Themiclesia