The words of the house · La Casa dell'Organo

Temperament: The way the octave is divided into notes. Not all keys sound equally pure: temperament decides which keys sound purer and which more open. Every era used its own.
Flue pipe: An organ pipe that sounds when air is blown against a lip, like a flute. These are usually the visible pipes on the front of the organ.
Reed pipe: A pipe whose sound comes from a vibrating metal tongue. The sound is more piercing: the organ's trumpets are an example.
Stop: The control that switches on a group of pipes with the same tone colour. Pulling or pushing it changes the colour of the sound.
Windchest: The wooden box under the pipes that delivers air to each one and opens the right valve when a key is pressed.
Bellows: The bellows that fill the organ with air. On old organs they were worked by hand or by foot.
Voicing: Adjusting the sound of a pipe: its pitch and tone. It is done with small changes to the lip or the tongue.
Tuning cone: A wooden or metal cone inserted into a pipe. Widening or narrowing its opening changes the pitch.
Bridge: The small wooden support on which an instrument's strings rest. It affects the vibration and the pitch.
Analogue synthesiser: An electronic instrument that makes sound with analogue circuits (oscillators, filters, envelopes), not with recorded samples.
Drum machine: A device that plays drum sounds and rhythms with programmed sequences.
Portative organ: A small, portable pipe organ used in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to accompany singing. Some are still made to measure today.
Nyckelharpa: A traditional Swedish instrument: it is played with a bow and with keys that press the strings. Some strings sound on their own, as drones.