Classical Notes: Boom time as Pipeworks pulls out all the stops
Nowadays, the organ still reigns supreme in church music
You may not believe it, but the organ – that enormous instrument that looms majestically in practically every cathedral and church in Christiandom – had its origins in the third century BC, when a Greek engineer, Ctesibus of Alexandria, devised a contraption called a hydraulis, which used wind to pump air through a set of pipes. This apparently provided half-time entertainment for the baying mob, though it is highly unlikely slaves and gladiators ...
