1. HISTORY
According to the Greek mythology Pan, the goat-foot, goat-horn shepherd god fell in love with Syrinx, the beautiful nymph of Arcady and was chasing her to seduce her. He almost caught her at the river Ladon, when suddenly another god transformed the chased nymph into a reed. Pan could not find out which of the reeds was Syrinx so at random he cut out several of them and carved an instrument of them for himself. The pan-pipe which was named after him became the instrument of shepherds in the ancient Hellas.
In the beginning the pan-pipe which consisted of seven different-size pipes was played by the mouth then later it was operated on a wind chest. The number of pipes grew continuously and at the same time a proper amount and strength of wind was needed. The model was again another ancient instrument, the pipe. This instrument, made of a simple leather bag and two pipes, was popular among the Romans. ‘Emperor Nero knew how to make the pipe sound while pressing the bag’ – we can read in Dion Krizostomos, the contemporary historian’s notes.
Now the pipes were able to operate continuously. The next step was to make only particular pipes sound and keep others stay dumb while blowing air to the structure. Connecting the two elements and inserting an open-close valve was attributed to Ktesibios, an engineer in Alexandria. In his invention of the 3rd century BC the wind supply was carried out by a hydraulical press (using water for pumping the bellows), and the different pipe sounds were created by pressing long slats that regulated the valves. The invention already included the four most important components of an organ: the pipes, the bellows, the pallets (valves) and the keys.
Before the fist millennium organs had already been present in churches. The huge bellows and pallets were operated by human strength, and it required two persons to play on the two manuals which, in the beginning, were opposite each other.
Several dozens of people were needed to ensure wind supply in great medieval organs. In the Southern-England cathedral of Winchester, which had been built between 1079 and 1093, then it was rebuilt several times, no less than 70 strong people were required to work the bellows. Later a mechanic structure was applied to make the process easier.