Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Matou, Taiwan

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The organ is a keyboard instrument with one or more manuals, and usually a pedalboard. In contrast to most other keyboard instruments, the organ's sound output is produced by wind and therefore continuous and constant for as long as a key is depressed. more...

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Unlike the piano or clavichord, the volume of the sound does not depend on how hard the key is struck, though some modern instruments are touch-sensitive. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the Western musical tradition, with a rich history connected with Christian liturgy and civic ceremony.

The most well-known type of organ is the pipe organ, so named because it produces its sound through pipes, although many people simply refer to it as the "organ". Another type is the electronic organ, which does not have pipes, is technically not an organ, and propagates its electronically-produced sound through one or more loudspeakers. There are many other instruments that fall under the category of "organ"; see below.

A musician who plays the organ is an organist. A person who builds or maintains organs is an organ builder. The organ repertoire encompasses a wide variety of styles and eras; the most famous composer of music for the organ is Johann Sebastian Bach.

Pipe organs

The pipe organ is the grandest musical instrument in size and scope, and has been around in its current form since the 14th century (though other designs, such as the hydraulic organ, were already used in Antiquity). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the most complex man-made creations before the Industrial Revolution. Organs (the "pipe" designation is generally assumed) range in size from a single short keyboard to huge instruments which can have over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ typically has three or four manuals with five octaves (61 notes) each, with a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedalboard.

Church organs

The principal purpose of most organs in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand is to play in Christian and Reform Jewish religious services. An organ used for this purpose is generally called a church organ. The introduction of church organs is traditionally attributed to Pope Vitalian in the seventh century. Due to its ability to simultaneously provide a musical foundation below the vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir or a cantor or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the conclusion of the service.

Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), or it may be an electronic organ which synthesizes the sound with computer chips. It may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it from the theatre organ, which is a distinctly different instrument. However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a church and a concert organ is hard to draw.