The water-powered organ of the Quirinale, Rome

Historical overview

1596	Hydraulic organ built by Luca Blasi
1647-8	Athanasius Kircher & Matteo Marione build a new organ to replace the one built by Luca Blasi
1704	Restoration - Filippo Testa
1732,1736	Restoration - Giovanni Battista Testa
1778-80	Restoration - Antonio Alari
1833	Restoration

Function

The Quirinale organ is powered by water.

Water is used

1. to turn the paddle-wheel which drives the drum with the melody, which moves the keys of the organ, and
2. to provide the wind which enters the chest and is used to make the pipes sound.

Using a technique which was also employed in the iron-foundries of Italy as early as the the sixteenth century, water is made to enter a long vertical tube, usually with a funnel-shaped opening. In doing so, the water forms a gyre, and sucks air into the tube as well, forming an air-water mixture. At the end of its descent through the tube, the water is separated from the mixture in a special container ("Aeolian chamber"), and may be used to drive a paddle-wheel, as in the case of this organ. The air is allowed to exit via another tube which is connected to the windchest. No bellows are involved - the pressure is regulated by controlling the flow of water into the system.

Images

General view	General view - keyboard	Aeolian chamber
Keyboard/drum	Drive wheels	Detail of spring-chest

Bibliography

Latanza, Antonio,

Il Ripristino dell'Organo Idraulico del Quirinale, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, Roma, 1995

"The Hydraulic Organ, the self playing water organs of the Italian Gardens," in Music and Automata, July 1990

Barbieri, Patrizio,

"L'Organo idraulico del Quirinale," in L'Organo,vol. XIX (1981), Bologna, 1985, pp7-61

Barbieri, Patrizio,

"Organo e automi musicali idraulici di Villa d'Este a Tivoli", L'Organo, XXIV, 1990

Morelli, Arnaldo,

"L'Arte Organaria a Roma dal XV al XIX secolo", in Organi e cantorie nelle chiese di Roma, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, Roma, 1994

"I Testa celebri organari romani", in Note d'archivio, I, 1983

Names

Luca Blasi (ca.1545-1609) Organ builder originally from Perugia, active in Rome. Builder of the 24' transept organ of S. Giovanni in Laterano (1599). Blasi was granted an exclusive papal privilege to use a rolling mill to produce organ pipe metal. Athanasius Kircher Jesuit priest and scholar, collaborator with Marione in the re-building of the hydraulic organ, and author of Musurgia Universalis, Rome, 1650, in which the hydraulic organ is described. Matteo Marione Roman organ builder active during the 17th century. Filippo Testa (1665-1726) Roman organ builder, son of Giuseppe Testa. Giovanni Battista Testa (1675-1753) Roman organ builder, brother of Filippo. Antonio Alari (ca.1723-1798) Roman organ builder, son of Lorenzo[I] Alari.