Organ

Definition and Meaning

The organ is a keyboard instrument in which keyboards and pedals direct wind through a set of pipes to produce sound. In a broader sense, the term also includes the reed organ, which sounds by means of vibrating metal reeds, and electronic and digital organs, which generate sound electronically. In Korea the reed organ was commonly called the pungeum. In the church the organ is a principal instrument of church music, used to accompany hymns and to play the prelude before worship and the postlude after it.

Biblical and Historical Background

The organ as it exists today does not appear in the Bible. The King James Version renders the Hebrew word ugab in Genesis 4:21 and Psalm 150:4 as "organ." Many, however, regard this instrument as a wind instrument of the pipe or flute type, and the Korean New Korean Revised Version translates it as tungso (a vertical bamboo flute).

The earliest form of the organ is generally identified as the water organ (hydraulis), built in Alexandria in the third century BC. Over the course of the Middle Ages, the Western church gradually introduced the organ into worship. The Eastern Orthodox Church, by contrast, still uses no instruments in worship and sings with the human voice alone.

During the Reformation, the reformers differed in their attitudes toward the organ.

• Lutherans made active use of the organ alongside congregational hymn singing.
• Zurich under Huldrych Zwingli removed the organ from worship.
• Geneva under John Calvin sang the Psalms without instruments.

Some within the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions long opposed the use of instruments, holding to the principle that only what Scripture commands may be admitted into worship (the regulative principle of worship). Some churches still maintain unaccompanied psalm singing. They cite passages such as Ephesians 5:19 to emphasize singing "in your heart." Those who support the use of instruments point to Old Testament texts, such as Psalm 150, that call for praise with instruments.

Practice in the Korean Church

Reed organs were introduced to Korea by missionaries and became widespread in churches and schools. The first pipe organ in Korea is generally said to have been installed at Chungdong First Methodist Church in 1918. Thereafter many churches accompanied worship with the reed organ, and later with electronic organs and pianos. Some larger churches have installed pipe organs.

In Korea most denominations, including the Presbyterian churches, use instruments in worship. The organ often provides quiet accompaniment during the silent prayer, accompanies congregational hymns and the choir, and plays the postlude after the benediction. In denominations that emphasize liturgy (prescribed forms of worship), such as the Anglican Church of Korea and the Lutheran Church in Korea, the organ tends to stand at the center of worship music.

Since the spread of the praise and worship movement, services centered on a worship band have become more common. Such services use keyboards, guitars, and drums in place of the organ, and some churches hold separate services in different styles within the same congregation (see Traditional and Contemporary Worship). The debates surrounding this shift are treated in Worship Music Controversy.