The
first successful electronic organ was developed in 1928 in France by
Edouard Coupleux and Armand Givelet. It used electronic oscillators in
place of the pipes of a conventional organ and was operated with
keyboards and a pedal board.
One of the most
important and well known of the electronic organs is the Hammond
organ, a sophisticated instrument having two manuals, or keyboards,
and a set of pedals operated by the feet. It was patented by its
American inventor Laurens Hammond in 1934. Unlike most other
instruments of its type, it produces its sound through a complex set
of rotary, motor-driven generators. By means of a series of controls
affecting the harmonics, or component tones, of the sound, a great
variety of timbres (tone colours) can be reproduced that to some
degree imitate the sound of other instruments, such as the violin, the
flute, the oboe, and the orchestral percussion instruments.
(source Britannica) |