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Water organ

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The water organ or hydraulic organ ( Greek : ὕδραυλις ) (early types are sometimes called hydraulos , hydraulus or hydraula ) is a type of pipe organ blown by air, where the power source pushing the air is derived by water from a natural source (e.g. by a waterfall ) or by a manual pump. Consequently, the water organ lacks a bellows , blower, or compressor .

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42-411: The hydraulic organ is often confused with the hydraulis. The hydraulis is the name of a Greek instrument created by Ctesibius of Alexandria . The hydraulis has a reservoir of air which is inserted into a cistern of water. The air is pushed into the reservoir with hand pumps, and exits the reservoir as pressurized air to blow through the pipes. The reservoir is open on the bottom, allowing water to maintain

84-448: A barber , following his father. During this first career, he invented a counterweight -adjustable mirror . Another of his inventions was the hydraulis , a water organ that is considered the precursor of the modern pipe organ and the first keyboard instrument. He and his wife Thais were reputed to be highly-skilled players of the instrument. He improved the water clock or clepsydra ('water thief'), which for more than 1,800 years

126-405: A conical lower ending. The first 19 pipes have a height from 89 to 22 cm (35.0 to 8.7 in). Their inner diameter gradually decreases from 2 to 1.5 cm. These 19 pipes correspond to the " perfect system " of the ancient Greek music which consisted of one chromatic and one diatonic scale . The pipes No. 20 to 24 are smaller and almost equal in height and they seem to form an extension of

168-509: A direct influence included harpsichordists Ruth Dyson and Davitt Moroney and, as a clavichord and harpsichordist, Jon Baxendale. Jeans bequeathed her house to the Royal School of Church Music for a centre for musicians and it was itself restored and modified using National Lottery money. However the Royal School of Church Music relocated and concentrated its site on Sarum College and it

210-672: A large house (replaced at the end of the century by Cleveland Court) 'Cleveland Lodge' next to Box Hill & Westhumble railway station in Westhumble , Surrey having three children before his death in 1946. Lady Jeans continued to live at the house until she died in 1993. Between 1933 and 1935, she studied intermittently at the Leipzig Kirchenmusikalisches Institut with Karl Straube during which time Jeans acquired knowledge of period instruments, forming her specialisation. Jeans advocated, amongst other theories, that

252-508: A post at the University of Colorado . She championed informed performances and authentic restoration and use of harpsichords, clavichords and organs . Jeans approved of many modern composers from German-speaking countries including her teacher, Franz Schmidt and played works dedicated to her by such composers as Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter ( Toccata Francese ) and Hendrik Andriessen ( Thema met Varieties , written at Cleveland Lodge). Jeans

294-452: A specially-built concert hall. In 1937 this was supplemented by a new mechanical action organ, built into her study by Eule of Bautzen although she later represented it was installed by Hill, Norman and Beard It was the first neo-Classical organ built in Britain in the 20th century. Her first concert tour in Britain, in 1934, was a great success and the following year she returned to play at

336-454: Is a pneumatic organ driven by hydraulically operated bellows). Their mechanism was subsequently misunderstood until the Dutch engineer Van Dijk pointed out in 1954 that air was supplied to the water organ by aspiration, which was the same method used in forges and smelting works in the 16th and 17th centuries. Aspiration is the process by which air is drawn into an opening into which water flows. For

378-509: Is no source evidence for it. A hydraulis is an early type of pipe organ that operated by converting the dynamic energy of water ( Ancient Greek : ὕδωρ , romanized :  húdōr ) into air pressure to drive the pipes ( Ancient Greek : αὐλός , romanized :  aulós ). Hence its name hydraulis, literally "water (driven) pipe (instrument)." It is attributed to the Hellenistic scientist Ctesibius of Alexandria , an engineer of

420-422: Is particularly informative. His book of 1615 includes a short treatise on making water organs, advice on tuning and registration, and many fine engravings showing the instruments, their mechanisms and scenes in which they were used. It also includes an example of suitable music for water organ, the madrigal Chi farà fed' al cielo by Alessandro Striggio , arranged by Peter Philips . Water organs were described in

462-527: Is unknown, but is sometimes suggested to be an Arabized version of the name Ctesibius. By the end of the 12th century hydraulic automata were often seen in Italy and the rest of Western Europe. During the Renaissance, water organs again acquired magical and metaphysical connotations among followers of the hermetic and esoteric sciences. Organs were placed in gardens, grottoes and conservatories of royal palaces and

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504-500: The Bernoulli effect ) into the main pipe from a side-pipe holding its top above the water source. Both water and air arrive together in the camera aeolis (wind chamber). Here, water and air separate and the compressed air is driven into a wind-trunk on top of the camera aeolis, to blow the organ pipes. Two perforated ‘splash plates’ or ‘diaphragms’ prevent water spray from getting into the organ pipes. The water, having been separated from

546-544: The elasticity of air, earned him the title of "father of pneumatics ." None of his written work has survived, including his Memorabilia, a compilation of his research that was cited by Athenaeus . Ctesibius' most commonly known invention today is a pipe organ ( hydraulis ), a predecessor of the modern church organ. Ctesibius was the son of a barber, born c.  300 BCE, probably – but not certainly – in Alexandria. He began his career as

588-436: The trio sonatas by J S Bach were conceived with the pedal harpsichord as the larger instrument of the three involved, rather than the organ, Jeans bought a two manual and pedal harpsichord by Maendler-Schramm of Munich. In ensuing years, she was to make many broadcasts from this instrument and the study organ. Before marriage, the enlarged marital home, Cleveland Lodge had assembled a large three-manual Willis II organ in

630-620: The viol ', 'The contest between Apollo and Marsyas ' and 'Apollo and the nine Muses '. The most famous water organ of the 16th century was at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli . Built about 1569–1572 by Lucha Clericho ( Luc de Clerc ; completed by Claude Venard ), it stood about six metres high under an arch, and was fed by a magnificent waterfall; it was described by Mario Cartaro in 1575 as playing ' madrigals and many other things'. G. M. Zappi (Annalie memorie de Tivoli, 1576) wrote: 'When somebody gives

672-453: The 3rd century BCE . The hydraulis was the world's first keyboard instrument and was the predecessor of the modern church organ. Unlike the instrument of the Renaissance period, which is the main subject of the article on the pipe organ, the ancient hydraulis was played by hand, not automatically by the water-flow; the keys were balanced and could be played with a light touch, as is clear from

714-794: The British Museum there are many miniatures representing interesting varieties of the portable organ of the Middle Ages used in European churches. The Pippin's organ of 757 was a hydraulic organ sent as a gift to the Carolingian empire by the Byzantine emperor Constantine V . A long-distance hydraulic organ that could be heard from sixty miles away was described in Arabic texts and attributed to an ancient Greek figure called Muristus ; this individual's identity

756-570: The Greeks, the hydraulis continued to be used through antiquity in the Roman world. In the Middle Ages, Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, Medieval Europe and Muslim world further developed these instruments. A well-known instance of an early positive or portable organ of the 4th century occurs on the obelisk erected to the memory of Theodosius I on his death in 395 CE. Among the illuminated manuscripts of

798-739: The Handel Festival in Cambridge. Jeans founded the Mickleham and Westhumble Festival in 1954, which was renamed the Boxhill Music Festival in 1966 and subsequently held at Cleveland Lodge until the summer before her death. She also founded and ran an annual summer school for organists. Susi Jeans' concert tours took her throughout Europe, the United States and Western Australia. She adjudicated major international competitions and from 1967 held

840-653: The Royal Palaces at Naples (1746), Villa Doria Pamphili , Rome (1758–1759). Of these only the one at the Palazzo del Quirinale has survived. Kircher 's illustration in Musurgia universalis (1650), long thought to be a fanciful representation of a hypothetical possibility, has been found to be accurate in every detail when compared to the organ grotto at the Quirinale, except that it was reversed left to right. There are still traces of

882-463: The air, leaves the camera aeolis at the same rate as it enters. It then drives a water wheel, which in turn drives the musical cylinder and the movements attached. To start the organ, the tap above the entry pipe is turned on and, given a continuous flow of water, the organ plays until the tap is closed again. Many water organs had simple water-pressure regulating devices. At the Palazzo del Quirinale ,

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924-405: The diatonic scale. The conical end of the pipes is inserted in a metal plate. At a point just before the narrowing part of every pipe there is an opening producing the turbulence of the pressurized air and the sound. The pipes are stabilized by two metal plates. The one facing outwards has decorative motifs. The instrument had one row of keys. The lower part of the organ, with the air-pressing system,

966-486: The first mechanicians such as Ctesibius had the advantage of being under kings who loved fame and supported the arts. Proclus (the commentator on Euclid ) and Hero of Alexandria (the last of the engineers of antiquity) also mention him. Susi Jeans Susi, Lady Jeans ( née Susanne Hock; 25 January 1911 – 7 January 1993) was an Austrian-born professional organist , teacher and musicologist . Born in Vienna, she

1008-602: The gardens at Heilbronn , Württemberg , and parts of one at the Wilhelmshöhe gardens in Kassel . The brothers Francini constructed waterworks and organs at Saint Germain-en-Laye and Versailles , which reached new heights of splendour and extravagance. By the end of the 17th century, however, interest in water organs had waned. As their upkeep was costly they were left to decay and were soon forgotten; by 1920 not one survived (the so-called water organ at Hellbrunn Castle, Salzburg,

1050-510: The instrument at the Villa d'Este but the mineral-rich water of the river which cascades through the organ grotto has caused accretions which have hidden most of the evidence from view. In the early 17th century, water organs were built in England; Cornelius Drebbel built one for King James I ( Harstoffer , 1651), and Salomon de Caus built several at Richmond while in the service of Prince Henry. There

1092-591: The instrument had decomposed, but the surviving metal parts made it possible to reconstruct a working replica now in the Aquincum Museum in Budapest . The exact mechanism of wind production is debated, and almost nothing is known about the music played on the hydraulis, but the tone of the pipes can be studied. The Talmud mentions the instrument as having been played in the Jerusalem Temple . After its invention by

1134-411: The mansions of rich patricians to delight onlookers not only with music but also with displays of automata – dancing figurines, wing-flapping birds and hammering cyclopes – all operated by projections on the musical cylinder. Other types of water organ were played out of sight and were used to simulate musical instruments apparently being played by statues in mythological scenes such as ' Orpheus playing

1176-555: The numerous writings of the famous Ctesibius (3rd century BCE), Philo of Byzantium (3rd century BCE) and Hero of Alexandria ( c.  62 CE). Like the water clocks (clepsydra) of Plato's time, they were not regarded as playthings but might have had a particular significance in Greek philosophy, which made use of models and simulacra of this type. Hydraulically blown organ pipes were used to imitate birdsong, and musicologists Susi Jeans and Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume have suggested that it

1218-671: The order to play, at first one hears trumpets which play a while and then there is a consonance .... Countless gentlemen could not believe that this organ played by itself, according to the registers, with water, but they rather thought that there was somebody inside'. Besides automatically playing at least three pieces of music, it is now known that the organ was also provided with a keyboard. Other Italian gardens with water organs were at Pratolino , near Florence ( c.  1575 ), Isola de Belvedere , Ferrara (before 1599), Palazzo del Quirinale , Rome (built by Luca Biagi in 1598, restored 1990), Villa Aldobrandini , Frascati (1620), one of

1260-427: The pressure on the air as the air supply fluctuates from either the pumps pushing more air in, or the pipes letting air out. On the water organ, since the 15th century, the water is also used as a source of power to drive a mechanism similar to that of the barrel organ , which has a pinned barrel that contains a specific song to be played. The hydraulis in ancient Greek is often imagined as an automatic organ, but there

1302-403: The reference in a Latin poem by Claudian (late 4th century), who uses this very phrase ( magna levi detrudens murmura tactu... intonet , “let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty roarings with a light touch”) ( Paneg. Manlio Theodoro, 320–22). Typically, water is supplied from some height above the instrument through a pipe, and air is introduced into the water stream by aspiration (using

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1344-402: The water flows from a hilltop spring (once abundant, now only sufficient to play the organ for about 30 minutes at a time), coursing through the palace itself into a stabilizing ‘room’ some 18 metres (59 feet) above the camera aeolis in the organ grotto. This drop provides sufficient wind to power the restored six-stop instrument. Among Renaissance writers on the water organ, Salomon de Caus

1386-578: The water organ, a small pipe is arranged so that one end is open to the air and the other extends into a larger pipe that contains flowing water supplied by a stream, pond or stabilizing reservoir. The longer the vertical drop of the water, the more forceful the suction will be and the greater the volume of air sucked in. In 1992, the remains of a 1st-century BCE pipe organ were found at Dion , an ancient Macedonian city near Mount Olympus , Greece , during excavations under Dimitrios Pandermalis . This instrument consisted of 24 open pipes of different height with

1428-509: Was a Greek inventor and mathematician in Alexandria , Ptolemaic Egypt . Very little is known of Ctesibius' life, but his inventions were well known in his lifetime. He was likely the first head of the Museum of Alexandria . He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps (and even in a kind of cannon ). This, in combination with his work On pneumatics on

1470-457: Was a recreational player and public exponent of the clavichord. She performed early and contemporary works on her favourite clavichord, a single-strung instrument by Thomas Goff and maintained that "clavichord technique is the backbone of all keyboard playing, whether this be organ, piano or harpsichord." She published many articles in scholarly journals, as well as editions of scores. Her range of musician pupils included: Those on whom she had

1512-541: Was heard by the organist and composer Charles-Marie Widor . After criticising her pedal technique, which he thought not legato enough, Widor invited her to become a student. She accepted his offer but did not report on his lessons' effects other than to say that he was a very old man at the time. During her 1934-35 tour she met the astronomer and mathematician Sir James Jeans just over 32 years her senior, whom she married, in Vienna, in September 1935. They lived together in

1554-522: Was miserably poor. Laërtius details this by recounting the following concerning the philosopher Arcesilaus : When he had gone to visit Ctesibius who was ill, seeing him in great distress from want, he secretly slipped his purse under his pillow; and when Ctesibius found it, "This," said he, "is the amusement of Arcesilaus." Ctesibius's work is chronicled by Vitruvius , Athenaeus , Pliny the Elder , and Philo of Byzantium who repeatedly mention him, adding that

1596-465: Was missing. In 1995, a reconstruction project started, and by 1999 a working replica of hydraulis was made based on the archaeological finding and on ancient descriptions. The remains of the ancient hydraulis are exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Dion . Ctesibius of Alexandria Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius ( Ancient Greek : Κτησίβιος ; fl.  285–222 BCE)

1638-721: Was one in Bagnigge Vale , London, the summer home of Nell Gwynn (1650–1687), and Henry Winstanley (1644–1703), the designer of the Eddystone Lighthouse , who is thought to have built one at his home in Saffron Walden , Essex. After the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine Prince Friedrich V , de Caus laid out for them the gardens at Heidelberg Castle which became famous for their beautiful and intricate waterworks. A water organ survives in

1680-444: Was the most accurate clock ever constructed, until the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens ' invention of the pendulum clock in 1656. Ctesibius described one of the first force pumps for producing a jet of water, or for lifting water from wells. Examples have been found at various Roman sites, such as at Silchester in Britain. The principle of the siphon has also been attributed to him. According to Diogenes Laërtius , Ctesibius

1722-496: Was the oldest child of Oscar and Jekaterina Hock. She trained as a ballet dancer by the modernist teacher Gertrud Bodenwieser but growing rather rapidly, switched to the piano . From 1925 to 1931, she studied piano at the Vienna Conservatory, with organ as a second study. This became her first instrument from about 1928, when she began studies with the composer Franz Schmidt and the organist Franz Schütz. In 1931, she

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1764-551: Was used to create the sounds of the Vocal Memnon . For the latter, solar heat was used to syphon water from one closed tank into another, thereby producing compressed air for sounding the pipes. Characteristics of the hydraulis have been inferred from mosaics, paintings, literary references, and partial remains. In 1931, the remains of a hydraulis were discovered in Hungary , with an inscription dating it to 228 CE. The leather and wood of

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