Organ

occurs in the Authorized Version as the rendering of the Hebrew ugab', עוּגָב (Ge 4:21; Job 21:12), or uggab', עֻגָּב (Job 20:29; Ps 150:4), which properly means that which is inflated or blown,

from עָגִב, to blow; hence, a wind instrument. It was applied to a reed or pipe, either simple or complex, and is so understood by most interpreters (see Dudelsack, Hist. Trin. p. 301;, Gesenius, Thesaur, p. 988). Thus the Septuagint, in Psalm 150, renders . ὄργανον, which means properly an instrument for any purpose; but is applied by Plato (Lact. 188 D.) and others to the pipe; and from which comes our word "organ." In Job the Sept. vaguely renders by ψαλμός; but in the other passages this version renders κιθάρα, the word from which guitar is corrupted. This cannot be right, for many reasons; indeed, in two of the passages quoted it is named in connection with the cithara or lyre (Heb. כַּנּוֹר) as a different instrument (Ge 4:21; Job 30:31). "In Ge 4:21 it appears to be a general term for all wind-instruments opposed to kinnor (A. V. 'harp'), which denotes all stringed instruments. In Job 21:12 are enumerated the three kinds of mystical instruments which are possible, under the general terms of the timbrel, harp, and organ. The ugab is here distinguished from the timbrel and harp, as in Job 20:29, compared with Ps 150:4. Our translators adopted their renderinig, 'organ,' from the Vulgate, which has uniformly organum, that is, the double or multiple pipe. The Chaldee in every case has אִבּוּבָא abbuba, which signifies 'the pipe,' and is its rendering of the Hebrew word so translated in our version of Isa 30:29; Jer 48:36. Joel Bril, in his second preface to the Psalms in Mendelssohn's Bible, adopts the opinion of those who identify it with the Pandean pipes, or syrinx, an instrument of unquestionably ancient origin, and common in the East. It was a favorite with the shepherds in the time of Homer (Il. 18:526), and its invention was attributed to various deities: to Pallas Athene by Pindar (Pyth. 12:12-14), to Pan by Pliny (7:57; comp. Virg. Ecl. 2:32; Tibull. 2:5, 30), by others to Marsyas or Silenus (Athen. 4:184). In the last-quoted passage it is said that Hermes first made the syrinx with one reed, while Silenus, or, according to others, two Medes, Seuthes and Rhonakes, invented one with many reeds, and Marsyas fastened them with wax. The reeds were of unequal length, but equal thickness, generally seven in number (Virg. Ecl. 2:36), but sometimes nine (Theocr. Id. viii). Those in use among the Turks sometimes numbered fourteen or fifteen (Calmet, Diss. in Mus. Inst. Haebr., in Ugolini Thes. 32, p. 790). Russell describes those he met with in Aleppo. The syrinx, or Pan's pipe, is still a pastoral instrument in Syria; it is known also in the city, but very few of the performers can sound it tolerably well. The higher notes are clear and pleasing, but the longer reeds are apt, like the dervis's flute, to make a hissing sound, though blown by a good player. The number of reeds of which the syrinx is composed varies in different instruments from five to twenty-three (Aleppo, 1:155,2d ed.)." SEE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

⇒Bible concordance for ORGAN.

ORGAN (ὄργανον, an instrument of any kind), THE, is the noblest and most powerful species of musical instruments. It appears, however, that the word organ was applied indiscriminately to almost every kind of musical instrument used in religious worship by the early Church. But after a time the word came to be reserved to a wind instrument consisting of reeds or pipes, which. the Greeks and the Romans, and also the Eastern Christians, used in civil and private festivals, and which since the 8th century has been used in religious worship in the Western churches. The name is in all probability derived from the fact of its being the instrument of all instruments. It was often called organs, in the plural, and only at a later date in the singular, organ. The original of this kind of instruments is traced back to the syrinx, or pipes of Pan (according to Virgil), and the hydraulos, or water-flute; which was the invention of Ctesibius, a mathematician of Alexandria, B.C. 520, and also noted as a machinist. He is reported to have written several works on hydraulics, which are lost, but his inventions are noticed by Vitruvius (x 13). (See the preceding article.)

I. Description and History. — The musical instrument now known as organ is played by finger-keys, and in general partly also by foot-keys, and consists of a large number of pipes of metal and wood made to sound by a magazine of wind accumulated by bellows, and admitted at will by the player. The following description is unecessarily restricted to the most fundamental arrangements of this very complicated instrument:

⇒Definition of organ

"As met with in cathedrals and large churches, the organ comprises four departments, each in most respects a separate instrument with its own mechanism, called respectively the great-organ, the choir-organ, the swell- organ, and the pedal-organ. Each has its own clavier or keyboard, but the different clanvers are bought into juxtaposition, so as to be under the control of one performer. Claviers played by the hands are called manuals; by the feet, pedals.ῥ Three manuals, belonging to the choir, great, and swell-organs respectively, rise above each other like steps, in front of where the performer sits; while the pedal-board by which the pedal-organ is played is placed on a level with his feet. The condensed air supplied by the bellows is conveyed through wooden tubes or trunks to boxes, called windchests, one of which belongs to each department of the organ. Attached to the upper part of each wind-chest is a sound-board, an ingenious contrivance for conveying the wind at pleasure to any individual pipe or pipes exclusively of the rest. It consists of two parts, an upper board and an under board. On the upper board rest the pipes, of which a number of different quality, ranged behind each other, belong to each note. In the under board is a row of parallel grooves, running horizontally backwards, corresponding each to one of the keys of the clavier. On any of the keys being pressed down, a valve is opened which supplies wind to the groove belonging to it. The various pipes of each key stand in a line directly above its groove, and the upper surface of the groove is perforated with holes bored upwards to them. Were this the whole mechanism of the sound-board, the wind, on entering any groove, would permeate all the pipes of that groove; there is, however, in the upper board another series of horizontal grooves at right angles to this of the lower board, supplied with sliders, which can, to a small extent, be drawn out or pushed in at pleasure by a mechanism worked by the draw-stops placed within the player's reach. Each slider is perforated with holes, which, when it is drawn out, complete the communication between the wind-chest and the pipes; the communications with the pipes immediately above any slider being, on the other hand, closed up when the slider is pushed in. The pipes above each slider form in continuous set of one particular quality, and each set of pipes is called a stop. Each department of the organ is supplied with a number of stops, producing sounds of different quality. The great-organ, some of whose pipes appear as show-pipes in front of the instrument, contain the main body and force of the organ. Behind it stands the choir-organ, whose tones are less powerful, and more fitted to accompany the voice. Above the choir-organs is the swell-organ, whose pipes are enclosed in a wooden box, with a front of louvre-boards like Venetian blinds, which may be made to open and shut by a pedal, with a view of producing crescendo and diminuendo effects. The pedal-organ is sometimes placed in an entire state behind the choir-organ, and sometimes divided, and a part: arranged on each side. The most usual compass of the manuals is from C on the second line below the bass staff to D on the third space above the treble staff; and the compass of the pedals is from the same C to the D between the bass and treble- staves. The real compass of notes is, as will be seen, much greater. Organ pipes vary much in form and material, but belong to two great classes, known as mouth-pipes (or flute-pipes) and reed-pipes. A section of one of the former is represented in the figure. Its essential parts are the foot a, the body, b. and a flat plate, c, called the language, extending nearly across the pipe at the point of junction of foot and body. There is an opening, de, in the pipe, at the spot where the language is discontinuous. The wind admitted into the foot rushes through the narrow slit at d. and, in impinging against e, imparts a vibratory motion to the column of air in the pipe, the result, of which is a musical note, dependent for its pitch on the length of that column of air, and consequently on the length of the body of the pipe: by doubling the length of the pipe we obtain a note of half the pitch, or lower by an octave. Such is the general principle of all mouth-pipes, whether of wood or of metal, subject to considerable diversities of detail. Metal pipes have generally a cylindrical section; wooden pipes a square or oblong section. A mouth-pipe may be stopped at the upper end by a plug called a tompon, the effect of which is to lower the pitch an octave, the vibrating column of air being doubled in length, as it has to traverse the pipe twice before making its exit. Pipes are sometimes half-stopped, having a kind of chimney at the top. The reedpipe consists of a reed placed inside a metallic or occasionally a wooden pipe. This reed is a tube of metal, with the front part Cut away, and a tongue or spring put in its place. The lower end of the spring is free, the upper end attached to the top of the reed; by the admission of air into the pipe the spring is made to vibrate, and, in striking either the edge of the reed or the air, produces a musical note, dependent for its pitch on the length of the spring, its quality being determined to a great extent by the length and form of the pipe or be within which the reed is placed. When the vibrating spring does not strike the edge of the reed, but the air, we have what is called the free reed, similar to what is in use in the harmonium. To describe the pitch of an organ pipe, terms are used derived from to standard length of ann open mouth-pipe of that pitch. The largest pipe in use is the 32-feet C, which is an octave below the lowest C of the modern piano-forte, or two octaves below the lowest C on the manuals and pedal of the organ: any pipe producing this note is called a 32-feet C pipe, whatever its actual length may be. By a 32-feet or 16-feet stop, we mean that the pipe which speaks on the lowest C on which that stop appears has a 32-feet or a 16-feet tone.

"The stops of an organ do not always produce the note properly belonging to the key struck; sometimes they give a note an octave, or, in the pedal-

organ, even two octaves lower, and sometimes one of the harmonics higher in pitch. Compound or mixture stops. — have several pipes to each key, corresponding to the different harmonics of the ground-tone. There is an endless variety in the ground-tone. There is an endless variety in the number and kinds of stops in different organs; some are and some are not continued through the whole range of manual or pedal. Some of the more important stops get the same of open or stopped diapason (a term which implies that they extend throughout the whole compass of the clavier): they are for the most part 16-feet, sometimes 32-feet stops; the open diapason chiefly of metal, the close chiefly of wood. The dulciana is an 8-feet mannal stop, of small diameter, so-called from the sweetness of its tone. Among the reed-stops are the clarion, oboe, bassoon, and vox humana, deriving their names from real or fancied resemblances to these instruments and to the human voice. Of the compound stops, the most prevalent in Britain is the sesquialtera, consisting of four or five ranks of open metal pipes, often a 17th, 19th; 22d, 26th, and 29th from the ground-tone. The resources of the organ are further increased by appliances called couplers, by which a second clavier and its stops can be brought into play or the same clavier can be united to itself in the octave below or above."

Instruments of a rude description, comprising more or less the principle of the organ, seem to have existed early. But they were much -smaller in size, and they were supplied with wind in various ways. At first a person was employed to blow into the pipes; later; to:avoid this difficulty, a leathern wind-pouch was attached to the instrument, which pouch was worked by being held under the arm (tibia utriculariac); then, for larger instruments, water-power was used to compress the air in a suitable receptacle (organum hydraulicum); and, finally (some say earlier), the bellows (organum pneumaticum) was employed. Besides these large instruments there was also a small portable organ, sometimes called a "pair of Regals," formerly in use, and this was occasionally of such a size as to admit of its being carried in the hand and inflated by the player; one of these is represented among the sculptures in the cornice of St. John's, Cirencester, and another on the crosier of William of Wykeham, at Oxford.

Nero greatly admired the water-organ (Sueton? c 41: "Reliquam diei partem per organma hydraulica novi et ignoti generis circumdixit"). In ecclesiastical history pope Vitalian I figures as the introducer of the organ, and the date assigned is A.D. 666. St. Augustine and Isidore of Seville serve as authority for this statement. It appears, however, from the records of the Spanish Church, that the organ was used there two centuries previous to this date. In Africa the organ had been in common use for some time previous, and it is from that country probably that is was introduced into Spain. In the West the organ was not common until the 10th century. St. Aldhelm, who died A.D. 709, describes one with golden pipes in England; but as late as 757; when Pepin the Short received from Constantine Copronymus an organ as a present, it is mentioned as a great wonder. It was placed in the church of St. Corneille, at Compiegne, but whether that instrument was then used for ecclesiastical purposes is a matter of controversy. On the other hand, it is well known that Charlemagne caused an organ to be placed in the cathedral of Aix-la- Chapelle. This organ, which is described by Walafrid Strabo, was undoubtedly the same which was sent him from Constantinople by Constantine Michael, and of which the chronicler of St. Gall said (De Carol. M. 2:10),'" Musicorum organum praestantissimum, quod doliis ex aere conflatis follibusque taurinis per fistulas aereas mire perflantibus ru.gitu quidem tonitrui boatum, garrulitatem vero lyrae vel cymbali dulcedine coeqiuabat." Organ-building was now followed in Germany with such success that in the second half of the 9th century pope John VIII got an organ and singers sent from thence to Rome through the bishop of Freysingen. In the middle of the 10th century organs became quite common in England; and, among others, the Benedictine monks of Winchester became possessed of a large organ with four hundred pipes, and twelve upper and fourteen lower bellows, requiring seventy strong men to work them.

The time when the wind-organ took the place of the water-organ is not ascertained; some say in the 7th century. We have no trustworthy evidence of any improvement having been made in the 'rgan from that time until the 15th century, when the pedals were invented in Italy by Bernhard, a German organist at the court of the doge of Venice. In the 11th century a monk, named Theophilus, wrote a curious treatise on organ-building, but it was not until the 15th century that the organ began to be anything like the noble instrument which it now is. In the 16th century the system of pipes was divided into registers. The family of Antigriati, in Brescia, had a great name as organ-builders in the 15th and 16th centuries. The organs of England were also in high repute, but the puritanism of the civil war doomed most of them to destruction; and when they had to be replaced after the Restoration it was found that there was no longer a sufficiency of builders in the country. Foreign organ-builders were therefore invited to settle in England, the most remarkable of whom were Bernhard Schmidt (generally called Father Schmidt) and his nephews, and Renatus Harris. Christophet Schreider, Snetzler, and Byfield succeeded them; and at a later period Green and Avery, some of whose organs have never been surpassed in tone, though in mechanism those of modern builders are an immense advance on them. The German organs are remarkable for preserving the balance of power well among the various masqes, but in mechanical contrivances they are surpassed by those of England. In the United States organ-building has been carried to a perfection rivalled only by England. The largest organ in this country is at Boston; it was built by a German, Walcker, of Ludwigsbourg, and has 4 manuals, 89 stops, and 4000 pipes. Many of the large churches have organs built by Americans which nearly rival the great instrument at Boston. One of the largest organs used in churches is that of the Roman Catholic cathedral at Montreal. It was built by R. S. Warren, of that city. The largest organ in the world is in Albert Hall, London, was built by Henry Willis in 1870, and contains 138 stops, 4 manuals, and nearly 10,000 pipes, all of which are of metal. The wind is supplied by steam-power. Thirteen couplers connect or disconnect the various subdivisions of the organ at the will of the performer.

II. Opposition to the Use of the Organ in Christian Worship. — The question as to the propriety of using the organ in Christian song in churches has been debated from the days of Hospinian down to our own. It was never adopted in the Eastern Church. In the West it is to the present day excluded from the papal chapel. In the 16th century the abuse which had been made of it was so great as to lead to a strongly supported motion being presented to the Council of Trent for its suppression. It was retained, however; through the influence of emperor Ferdinand. The Reformed Church discarded the organ from the first, and although it has since been reinstalled in the Reformed churches of Basle and some other places, it has never been resumed by the denomination at large. In the Lutheran Church, on the contrary, it has always been used, notwithstanding Luther's prejudice against it. SEE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, in vol. 6, p. 762, col. i (3). The Presbyterian churches of Scotland have made stout and continued resistance against the use of organs. In the Church of Scotland the matter was discussed in connection with the use of an organ by the congregation of St. Andrew's, Glasgow. The case was brought before the Presbytery of Glasgow, and no appeal was made. On Oct. 7, 1807, the following motion was carried:

"That the presbytery are of opinion that the use of the organ in the public worship of God is contrary to the law of the land, and to the law and constittion of our Established Church, and therefore prohibit it in all the churches and chapels within their bounds." In 1829 the question was brought up in the Relief Synod, as an organ had been introduced into Roxburgh Place Chapel, Edinburgh. The deliverance, given by a very large majority, was as follows:

"It being admitted and incontrovertibly true that the Rev. John Johnston had introduced instrumental music into the public worship of God in the Relief Congregation, Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, which innovation the synod are of opinion is unauthorized by the laws of the New Testament, contrary to the universal practice of the Church in the first and purest periods of her history, contrary to the universal practice of the Church of Scotland, and contrary to the consuetudinary laws of the synod of Relief, and highly inexpedient, the synod agree to express their regret that any individual member of their body should have had the temerity to introduce such a dangerous innovation into the public worship of God in this country, which has a manifest tendency to offend many serious Christians and congregations, and create a schism in the body, without having first submitted it to the consideration of his brethren according to usual form. On all these accounts the synod agree to enjoin the Rev. John Johnston to give up this practice instater, with certification if he do not, the Edinburgh Presbytery shall hold a meeting on the second Tuesday of September next, and strike his name off the roll of presbytery, and declare him incapable of holding office as a minister in the Relief denomination. And further, to prevent the recurrence of this or any similar practice, the synod enjoin a copy of this sentence to be sent to every minister in the synod, to be laid before his session, and read after publlic worship in his congregation, for their satisfaction, and to deter others from following similar courses in all time coming." An organ having been erected in the new Claremont Church, Glasgow, the same question came up in 1856 before the United Presbyterian Synod, with which the Relief Synod had been for some years incorporated. Again more formally in 1858, when the following motion was carried alike against one for toleration, which had many supporters, and against another, which certainly had few supporters, and contained the assertion, "Instrumental music was one of the carnal ordinances of the Levitical economy." The motion which passed into law was:

"That the synod reaffirm their deliverance of 1856 respecting the use of instrumental music in public worship, viz., 'The synod refused the petition of the memorialists, inasmuch as the use of instrumental music in public Worship is contrary to the uniform practice of this Church, and of the other Presbyterian churches in this country, and would seriously disturb the peace of the churches under the inspection of this synod: and at the same time enjoined sessions to employ all judicious measures for the improvement of vocal psalm and the synod now declare said deliverance to be applicable to diets of congregational worship on weekdays as well as on the Lord's day." It is to be observed that in each of these three instances a constitutional principle of Presbyterianism was violated, the organ was introduced, and the innovation made without consulting the brethren, without asking the advice or sanction of the presbytery. Presbyterians, Independents, and Methodists now, however, use organs, so that they have ceased to be a denominational characteristic. And why not? The question is one of taste rather than conscience or Scripture. The passage in Eph 5:19, so often appealed to by both parties, says nothing for either (see Eadie, Commentary on the place, and the works of Alford, Ellicott, Meyer, Hodge). Instrumental music was no Jewish thing in any typical sense, the choristers and performers of David's orchestra were no original or essential element of the Levitical economy. The music of the Temple stood upon a different basis from sacrifice, which has long been formally superseded. The service of song is not once alluded to in the Epistle to the Hebrews as among the things which "decayed and waxed old." Its employment in the Christian Church is therefore no introduction of any point or portion of Jewish ritual, nor any digression into popish ceremonial. Indeed, the employment of an organ to guide the music is properly not ritualistic at all. The leader has his pitch-pipe, and the hundred pipes of the organ only serve to guide and sustain the voice of the people. Nobody wishes to praise God by the mere sound of the organ: its music only helps and supports the melody and worship of the church. It has been abused certainly, but the sensuous luxury, of some congregations should: be no bar to the right and legitimate use of it by others. In fact, the proper employment of it might be pleaded for on the same grounds as scientific education in music. Both are simply helps to the public worship of God. See Cromar, A Vindication of the Organ (Edinb. 1854, 12mo); Campbell, Two Papers on Church Music, read before "The Liverpool Eccles. Musical Society" (Liverpool, 1854).

III. Objections against its Use in modern Jewish Worship. — The introduction of the organ in the Jewish religious service, especially in Germany, has excited great and fierce discussion, and a small library could be. filled with the works written pro and con. About the year 1818 an organ was introduced into a temple at Hamburg, When twenty-two rabbins, among them Mordecai Benet and Moses Sopher, gave their decision against such innovation in a work entitled אלה דברי הברית . On the other hand, Shem Tob Samun, a noted rabbi, supported by rabbins of Jerusalem, J. C. Ricanati, of Verona, and the renowned A. Chorin, published an opinion in נרגה הצדק and אור נגה in favor of reforms and the introduction in the organ. The first works for and against the reform were in Hebrew. At a later time the reformers and their opponents continued their debates mostly in German, in periodicals and pamphlets. The objections against the introduction of the organ are of three classes.

(1.) It is prohibited to play music on the Sabbath. A Jew is not allowed to play on the Sabbath, and everything prohibited to a Jew we are not allowed to have done by a Gentile.

(2.) In obedience to the prohibition of the Torah, "In their statutes thou shalt not walk;" and, as the organ is a specific Christian invention used in churches, we are prohibited from its use.

(3.) In obedience to a Talmudical law (Sotah, 49; also copied in Orach Chayim, 560), that, in memory of the destruction of the Temple, Jews should not play any musical instrument.

The first of these objections has been refuted by Wiener in his Referate uber die der ersten israel. Synode zut Leipzg uberreichten Antrige (1871). He argues that "to play music on the Sabbath is not among the thirty-nine kinds of labor enumerated in the Talmud Sabbath, nor even among those derived from that class. To play a musical instrument is called an art, and no labor חכמה ואינו מלאכה (Rosh Hashanah, 29, c). Music is not only not prohibited, but even commanded for the holidays by the Torah. The Talmud (Erubim, 102) allows repairing a musical instrument in the Temple, but not in any other place: 'It is allowed to fix a broken string (on the Sabbath) in the Temple, but not outside.'" From this prohibition, Dr. Wiener concludes "that to make music must have been allowed, במדינה, otherwise the Talmud would have used the words 'as to make music is prohibited, the more so is repairing,"' and he considers this omission as an evident proof that music was allowed. A prohibition is deduced from the Talmud (Beza, 36, c) by those who are opposed to the use of the organ, but this is an expression whose meaning is differently understood by Maimonides and Josaphath; the latter even allowed the playing of musical instruments. Among the rabbinical authorities we find a great difference of opinion. Thus the Shulchan Aruch, or, rather, Moses Isserles, prohibited playing a musical instrument (Orach Chayim, 349, 3). Rabbi Nissim allowed manual work (מלאכה גדולה) unto be done by a Gentile if it were necessary for a religious function. Rema (R. Moses Isserles) also stated (Orach Cchayinz, 276), "Some allow a Gentile to light lamps on the Sabbath for a religious meal, and in consequence of such permission some even went so far as to allow this for every meal and festivity." And (ib. 338)," Some allow a Gentile to play musical instruments on the Sabbath in honor of a wedding, but in our times they are inclined to lighten the precepts(!)." Of Mehril it is related that, at the time he made the nuptials of his son, it was forbidden by the government to make music, and he sent the bridal party to another city in order that they might enjoy music there on the Sabbath (see Rema, 339, and Eliah Rabah).

To the second objection it is replied by those who favor its use in the synagogue that the organ did not come to be generally used in the churches until musical instruments were used in the synagogue of Bagdad, as reported by the German traveler Petachya, of. Regensburg. The venerable Alt-Neu synagogue of Prague possessed an organ in the commencement of the 17th century, while for some time previous to this a similar instrument existed in several synagogues in Spain and Corfu, as authentically reported. Certainly song and music formed an essential part of the religious service of the Temple, and was highly esteemed by the Jewish sages (see Erubim, ch. ii). The Talmudists declare religious singing a Biblical precept, and מהרשא explain the importance of that command, that singing disperses melancholy, as we see with Saul, and excited a divine spirit, as seen with Elisha. Music must therefore be pronounced an ancient institution with the Israelites, and by no means an imitation of the worship of other creeds. The organ also forms no part of any religious statute with other creeds, and the objection חקת הגוים cannot be raised for that reason. But even if such were the case, or would still cause some scruples, there is against it all answer in the Talmud (Sanhedrin, 39, c). While Ezekiel in one passage reproached the Israelites. "Neither have ye done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you" (Eze 5:7), in another passage he says, "And ye have done after the mannere of the nations that are round about you" (Eze 11:12). This apparent contradiction the Talmud reconciles by paraphrasing, "You have conformed with those that are bad, and disregarded those that are good." Rashi, in explaining that passage of the Talmud, remarks. "Good acts are such as that of Eglon, king of Moab, who honored the name of God by rising from his seat" (Jg 3:20), which is recommended for imitation, although a heathen custom. Rabbenu Nissim says positively, "The law does not prohibit or imitating idolatrous customs, except foolish acts, but customs founded in reason are admissible" (To Aboda Sara, 33).

Against the third objection, that the Talmud (Sotah, 49; Gittin, 7) prohibits the playing of a musical instrument because of the destruction of the Temple, it is answered that the enjoyment of music was at all times allowed without any objection by the rabbinas. Rabbi Shem Job Samun, of Leghorn, in his decisions, published in ניגה הצדק, relates, "In Modena, a very pious and important city, where many learned and wise Italian and German rabbins lived, among them Padubah, Lipschitz, and Ephraim Cohen — the latter German scholars of great renown — existed a musical society, without any objection from the rabbins. One of the most esteemed and learned rabbins, R. Ismael Cohen, gave permission, on inquiry, to a person to attend the performance of that society on the night of Hoshana Raba." The whole literature of the Middle Ages, moreover, proves that, wherever song and music were cultivated, the Jews participated and showed great talents, and, according to the assertion of D'Israeli, the Jewish race is peculiarly fond of music. Even a pious scholar, author of the book of the pious, who lived at a very dark time, asserted that the practice of music is allowed on Chanuka, Purim, and at weddings. The practice of music was also allowed to disperse melancholy in hard times, and to incite to the study of the law, which formed the center of all activity. See Deutsch, Die Orgel in der Synagoge.

See, for a full account of the structure of the organ, Hopkins and Reinbault, The Organ, its History and Construction (2d ed. Lond. 1870); Topfer, Lehrbuch d. Orgelbaukunst (Weimar, 1855, 4 vols. 8vo); and the literature referred to under MUSIC.