Rimantas GUČAS

Vilnius Organ Workshop, UAB

ABOUT ORGAN TERMINOLOGY

Little has been written in Lithuanian about organs, and not for very long. Probably the first piece on the subject appeared in 1909 in the journal “Vargonininkas,” published and edited by J. Naujalis. The organ builder and enlightened figure of his time, an active participant in the national revival movement, Jonas Garalevičius (1871–1943), published an article entitled “Organs” over several issues, presenting information about the history and construction of the organ. In terms of content, J. Garalevičius’s piece is still rather naïve and contains errors, although some of its ideas remain relevant today. What is perhaps most noteworthy, however, is that from the very first paragraphs he drew attention to the need to have our own terminology: “I wish first to beg the esteemed readers’ pardon for the impure Lithuanian language that I shall have to use in describing the organ. The organ is a very complicated instrument, possessing thousands of various parts for which Lithuanians have not yet forged corresponding words; therefore, we shall have to use words—so-called ‘international’ words—or, as they say, technical words adopted from other languages.” (“Vargonininkas” 1909, No. 2).

It seems that no significant steps were taken to standardize organ terminology in interwar Lithuania. There is, however, an example of a somewhat different kind—the organ in Kavarskas Church. It was built around 1925 by the Jano Tuček firm of Czechoslovakia. In this organ, for the first and so far only time, an attempt was made to name the stops in Lithuanian (Erdvės fleita instead of Hohlföte, Lendrių fleita instead of Rohrflöte, Stim. Ragelis – Gemshorn, Gluosn. Dūdele – Salicional, and so on), or to write international names with Lithuanian endings: Principalas, Burdonas, Subbasas (instead of Principal, Burdon, Subbass). In this respect, the Kavarskas organ is unique and has therefore been included in the list of monuments.

Around 1965, the musicologist Antanas Venckus (1934–1975), who had begun working at the State Conservatory of the Lithuanian SSR, took the initiative to standardize Lithuanian music terminology. He had extensive contact with the older-generation musician Antanas Krutulis (1887–1979), who had already published “A Brief

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muzikos žodyną“ (1960) ir visaip skatino pastarąjį rengti naują žodyno laidą. Kadangi muzikai, ypač atlikėjai, yra konservatyvi, jeigu nesakytume obskurantiška publika, A. Venckui rimtai susirūpinus ir užsiėmus lietuviškų muzikos terminų tvarkymu bei kūrimu, jis sulaukė daugiau pašalpos ir pasipriešinimo nekaip geranoriškos talkos. Maždaug tuo metu A. Venckaus iniciatyva buvo sudaryta Muzikos terminų komisija.

In 1967, the Theatre and Music Department of the Art Museum began cataloguing Lithuania’s organs and compiling a list of the most valuable historic organs. For this purpose, a special “Organ Questionnaire” was printed. The question of organ terminology then came sharply to the fore, since speaking in jargon is one thing, while writing is quite another. At first, it was proposed that the questionnaire be sent to district heritage officers for them to fill in. One of its items concerned organ-part terminology: ask the local organist what he calls the parts of the organ. However, the questionnaires were never sent out. During visits to churches and conversations with local organists, nothing particularly interesting or useful was heard—almost exclusively distorted German terms were used, and only a handful of them. Most organists had such a poor understanding of organs that no technical discussion could really take place. Even so, a useful term or two was heard from the more educated organists, who also worked as organ builders.

On 16 December 1968, a meeting of the Music Terminology Commission was held to discuss organ terminology. A considerable number of words already in use were approved, and several new terms were also proposed (griežykla, kelmas). Information about this was published in “Kultūros barai” (1969). Some of these terms were established by including them in the new edition of A. Krutulis’s “Dictionary of Music Terms” (1975) and J. Kazlauskas’s book “Musical Instruments and the Score” (1975). The description of the organ in the latter book may be considered one of the most consistent and professional to have appeared in Lithuanian.

In 1972, an organ workshop was established under the Republican Trust for the Restoration of Cultural Monuments. By then, terminology had become a real necessity, since the production process required discussion as well as the writing of estimates and other documents covering every part of the organ and its component parts. Since

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Most of the people who came to work had had no previous experience with organs, so they accepted the newly proposed Lithuanian terms as self-evident and beyond question. The terms discussed and approved up to that point did not yet cover all parts of the organ, and some proved insufficiently precise. Since names were deliberately not proposed for certain parts, simpler Lithuanian words arose spontaneously. As a joke, the dialect word rekečius was once uttered by the carpenter P. Klimas, who came from Dubingiai. But reketis, reketys is a word already found in the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian (1993). It can be used to describe a certain organ component.

As work on organ terminology continues, it would be worthwhile to consult experts in the Lithuanian language and in folk life, who can remind us of forgotten Lithuanian words. We should remember that organs, despite their impressiveness and outward complexity, are in fact a very simple and comprehensible instrument. Many similar parts are found in various structures, tools, and household objects. These include all sorts of brackets, shafts, rods, tracks and ducts, slats, levers and small levers, posts, beams, bridges, cages, holders, and dozens, if not hundreds, of other parts for which there is generally no need to seek special terms: one need only use the proper words that have long been used to name various tools and their parts. One need only be willing to make the effort. Unfortunately, it is precisely this willingness that is most often lacking among both organ builders and, especially, performers. Old, correct Lithuanian words are sometimes even considered ridiculous and crude, while words of foreign origin are seen as meaningful and sonorous. Thus some pianists argue that skambinimas on the piano is merely a superficial matter, whereas the Slavic-origin word grojimas supposedly reflects the creative act.

Organs also have specific features described by words of foreign origin—keys, pedals, stops, barkers (named after their inventor), pallets, resonators, shutters, scales, labia, action, and so on. These are all international terms, although their international character is relative. They are used more widely in countries where organ culture is more closely connected with German traditions. These are Central and Eastern Europe. Lithuania belongs to this group, having been within the sphere of influence of German organ building ever since the first organs appeared in 1408.

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The most prominent masters of the 17th–18th centuries were Germans: J. Koppelmann, G. A. Zelle, M. Janson, and A. G. Casparini (despite his Italian-sounding surname). In the 19th century, too, people studied, purchased organ parts, and so on, mostly in Germany. J. Garalevičius, mentioned above, also studied organ building in Germany—in B. Grüneberg’s workshop in Stettin, where he lived and worked for many years. In general, both organ builders and performers tended to use the terminology of the languages in which they had studied. For example, K. Kaveckas often used French terms, Z. Aleksandravičius Italian ones, and so on. During the Soviet era, the Moscow school exerted an influence, having in turn uncritically adopted German organ aesthetics and terminology. In this respect, the Lithuanian Academy of Music is still influenced by the Moscow school.

Another part of organ terminology consists of stop names. One and the same stop may be given entirely different names in organs built according to different traditions, in different regions and periods, and by different masters. Conversely, the same name may designate different stops in organs belonging to different traditions. Stop names may reflect timbral characteristics, the shape and material of the pipes, pitch, construction, and so on. The major European nations that developed distinctive organ traditions also developed their own systems of stop names, although these are considerably intertwined. Organ builders of old, as well as self-taught builders, often confused the use of names and made grammatical errors. All this can provide the researcher with a great deal of information.

Some names of stops in old Lithuanian organs are of Latin or Italian origin, some German, and some are Polonized forms. When building new organs, we use the traditional stop names used for Lithuanian organs without Lithuanianizing them, while avoiding German or Polish forms where possible.

In general, organ terminology is inseparable from the traditions and heritage of a people’s, country’s, or region’s organ culture. How, for example, can concepts from French organ building be applied to 18th-century Lithuanian organs, whose builders had neither heard nor seen French organs? And the fact that Lithuania’s organ tradition is closely connected with the German one by no means implies that it had no distinctive nuances. Therefore, too,

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as we become better acquainted with our history and surviving instruments, the terms will have to be refined over time: organ terminology must reflect our organ-building tradition.

Tvarkingai aprašyti vargonai V. Bičiūno „Muzikinės akustikos pagrinduose“ (1988), taisyklingos lietuviškos terminijos laikytasi ir Enciklopedijų leidyklos leidiniuose.

A new encyclopedic music dictionary is currently being prepared for publication. On this occasion, the Commission on Music Terminology resumed its work. One meeting was devoted to a discussion of organ terminology. After that meeting, the musician A. Kalinauskas’s article “Vargonai” appeared in Muzikos barai (1996, Nos. 15–16 and 17), presenting not only terms directly related to the instrument but also other concepts needed when speaking and writing about organs. For example, a little over a decade ago, I had a dispute at the Encyclopedias Publishing House over how organs come to be in a church. The wording vargonus įrengė (“installed the organ”), proposed by the editors, seemed to the author both inaccurate and artificial. Prof. J. Pikčilingis, whom I had approached for help, pondered: “How would Vaižgantas have put it?” So organs are dirbami (“made”), and once made, they are pastatomi (“set up”) in the church, where they stovi (“stand”). (Mid-19th-century inscription in Klykolių church: Wargon(us) dyrba Pons Mockiewicz su sunu sawa).

Thus, some progress has already been made in organizing organ terminology.

That is why the new booklet by L. Digris, Kaip groti vargonais (“How to Play the Organ”), published by the Lithuanian Musicians’ Association and the Religious Music Center in 1998, came as something of a surprise and a disappointment. It continues to recommend the use of all sorts of kopuliacijas¹ and Schtraicher’ius, Waltze’us, along with other German words, sometimes misspelled. One might think we were still in J. Garalevičius’s time, as if there had been no discussion of organ terminology, no publications on the subject, and no quite professional literature. Moreover, the meanings of correct terms are completely distorted and confused in many places. Unfortunately, therefore, this booklet, especially its pages about the instrument, cannot be recommended to people interested in organs.

¹ Kopuliacija [Lat. copulatio—union]: 1. “the union of two individuals during sexual intercourse” (Dictionary of International Words, 1985).

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Under no circumstances can it be claimed that organ terminology has been fully standardized. Even now, as the number of organ builders and schools where organ playing is taught continues to grow, the need to communicate arises, and thus the need to review organ terms once again.

Received 1999 09 27

ABOUT TERMS OF THE ORGAN

Summary

The question about the creation of Lithuanian terms of the organ first arose in 1909 in the Lithuanian magazine of music „Vargonininkas“. In pre-war Lithuania there were some attempts to create Lithuanian names for the registers of the organ. In 1967 the systematic registration of organs in Lithuania started. Lists of monumental organs were compiled. At the same time an attempt to look for traditional Lithuanian terms of the organ was made. Only a small number of them was found, but in 1968 the Commission of the terms of music discussed and approved the main Lithuanian terms of the organ. These terms took root in the literature.

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