This section of First Stop! provides resources that explain and explore the many fascinating aspects of the organ – variously considered among the oldest, the largest, the loudest, the most complex, and the most versatile musical instrument in the world.

Dubbed ‘the King of all the Instruments’ by Mozart, the organ’s unique design makes it capable of producing many different types of sound at all pitches and volumes, from the softest whisper to a thunderous roar. This versatility has inspired – and continues to inspire – a vast repertoire of music, from medieval to modernist, church music to minimalism, jazz to pop & rock.

And as well as being musically remarkable, the organ represents an outstanding feat of human engineering endeavour – considered, together with the clock, as the most complex of all mechanical instruments developed before the Industrial Revolution.