Pumps and bellows

The organ's repertoire extends from the late Middle Ages and works by artists such as Jacob Obrecht (c1450-1505) and Pierre Attaignant (c1494-1551) to several masterpieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. The great Belgian, César Franck, considered it his favourite instrument, and Olivier Messiaen, always an organist-composer, withdrew to his personal world of the organ to create his Livre d'orgue (1951).

More than two centuries earlier, Handel had composed concertos for it, and long before JS Bach confirmed its artistic supremacy through a body of more than 300 works, the organ had inspired the baroque musicians of France and Italy. Indeed, the young Bach had trudged some 200 miles on foot to hear the Danish master, Dietrich Buxtehude, play the organ in his adopted city of Lübeck.

Irish organist Peter Sweeney will perform Joseph Jongen's challenging Symphonie Concertante Op 81 as part of the Pipeworks Festival Gala Concert at the NCH on June 24th. At 35 minutes in length, it showcases the many voices of the organ.

Despite its extraordinary range and grandeur of tone, the organ is probably the most underestimated of instruments, confined in the popular imagination to church services. Although its natural home is the church and its natural repertory sacred music, the organ - which has never had a regular place within the orchestra - is extraordinarily versatile. The traditional pipe organ, as perfected by the French organ-builders of the 16th century (who had looked to the Italian tradition), is a wind instrument in which the wind is supplied by pumps and bellows, not the player.

French organist Nicholas de Gringy (167201703) followed his father and grandfather as organist of Rheims Cathedral and would achieve a mastery surpassed only by Bach who nonetheless studied and performed the Frenchman's work.