THE ORGAN FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT
The ancestor of the modern organ; pneumatic and hydraulic
organs of classical antiquity--The organ in early mediæval
times--The tenth and eleventh centuries: cloister and minster
organs; the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: introduction
of the ‘portative’ organ and balanced keys; the fourteenth
century: chromatic keyboard; pedals; organ blowing--Fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries; cathedral and church organs;
the _Rückpositiv_; the Spanish _partida_; builders--The
seventeenth century: mechanical development; tuning;
union of manuals; the eighteenth century: the ‘Swell’;
English builders; the Silbermanns--_Rococo_ adornment of
cases; the nineteenth century and the birth of the modern
instrument--Pneumatic action; electric action; the Universal
Air Chest; duplex stop control; tonal improvements--The
chamber organ; the concert organ; conclusion.
Far back in the mist of ages some primal prototype of civilized man
found that by blowing a hollow reed he produced a pleasing sound. This
was probably the first step in the long process of evolution which
has resulted in the concert organ of to-day. From the single reed of
antediluvian times to the grouped reeds of the dawn of history was a
logical transition; the early peoples of the Orient, the Egyptians, the
Indians and the Chinese had accomplished it; but classical antiquity
is, perhaps, our most definite point of contact, and it might be said
that the bucolic Pan’s pipes or Syrinx of the Theocritan shepherd is
the ancestor of the ‘king of instruments.’
The _Syrinx_ of pastoral Greece consisted of a series of reeds (tubes)
without sound-holes, of graduated length and blown across the ends,
each tube giving forth one note of the diatonic scale. In the course
of time men hit upon the idea of allowing a bellows to take the place
of the human lungs and thus produce sound by artificial instead of
natural wind-pressure. Hence, even before the second century B. C. we
have the first pneumatic organ--a series of variously tuned pipes, with
mouthpieces, placed upon a box or chest, into which the air was pumped
by bellows, the pipes sounding when the player opened the primitive
valves which admitted the air to each pipe.
Following the pneumatic came the hydraulic organ, in which
water-pressure[92] took the place of wind-pressure. The invention of
this _organon hydraulicon_ is ascribed to the Alexandrian mechanician
Ktesibos, who flourished during the second century B. C. The
description[93] left of the instrument by the inventor’s pupil Heron
has been corroborated in its essentials by the discovery of a small
baked clay model of an hydraulic organ, found in the ruins of Carthage
in 1885 and preserved in the _Musée Lavigérie_ at Carthage. This model,
7-1/16 by 2-3/4 inches (which it is estimated would represent an actual
instrument 10 feet high and 4 feet across), was made by the potter
Possessoris, whose name is engraved on it, about 120 A. D., and is
important as verifying the fact that a primitive keyboard was in use at
the beginning of our era.
It is clear that both forms of the organ, pneumatic and hydraulic,
existed side by side for centuries--the hydraulic principle being
best adapted to the construction of large instruments, powerful in
tone, for permanent placing in amphitheatre, palace or coliseum, and
the pneumatic better suited to smaller ones, easily carried about
and enjoying, perhaps, a more general popularity. The stationary and
moveable organs of the Roman empire thus anticipate the ‘positive’ and
‘portative’ instruments of a later day.
Yet it is the hydraulic organ which is principally associated with the
palmy days of Roman imperial rule. Though the poet Cornelius Severus
(28 B. C.) celebrates the organ (_cortina_) which, ‘so rich in its
varied strains under the master’s skill, with liquid sound makes music
in the vast theatre,’ evidence tends to prove that the Romans were,
musically, not a highly advanced people--their ideal was quantity and
loudness of sound rather than quality, an ideal which the hydraulic
organ might realize better than the pneumatic. Hence the _organon
hydraulicon_, or _hydraulus_, was a luxury in vogue among the wealthy
patricians of the empire. Nero, whose musical attainments history views
with such grave suspicion, possessed two hydraulic organs. That they
were heard in the Coliseum we know by the testimony of Petronius, the
_arbiter elegantiarum_ of Nero’s Augustinian circle, who speaks of
gladiators struggling to the sound of the water-organ. It is strange
to note that among later Roman emperors the depraved and degenerate
Heliogabalus (A. D. 219-222) and his immediate successor, the good and
noble Alexander Severus, were both good performers on the water-organ.
I
With the universal spread of the Christian faith the organ found its
way into the service of the Church, and even during the decline of the
empire and the dawn of western civilization the art of organ-building
never altogether died out. And this, despite the fact that originally
the instrument had come under the ban of the Church because of its
heritage of evil associations with the gladiatorial combats, saturnalia
and theatrical representations of Pagan Rome; possibly, also, because
the emperor Julian the Apostate was the owner of a fine _hydraulus_.
Yet this prejudice was ere long overcome, for the Spanish bishop,
Julianus, in the fifth century, asserts that organs were commonly used
in the churches throughout Spain.
And such is the esteem in which the finer examples of the builder’s art
are held that they are considered a gift fit for kings. The Emperor
Konstantine Kopronymus presents one to Pepin, king of the Franks, in
the year 757; and another Byzantine emperor sends one to Charlemagne in
812, of which the chronicle says: ‘Its bellows were of hide, its pipes
of bronze, its tones as loud as thunder and sweet as the sound of lyre
and psaltery.’ A pneumatic organ (as distinct from the hydraulic one
installed in his palace) was secured by the son of Charlemagne, Louis
le Debonnaire, for the royal chapel at Aix-la-Chapelle. And before
the tenth century the use of the organ in church and monastery was
well-nigh universal. Three treatises on organ-building written during
the tenth century testify to the fact. No doubt these early hydraulic
instruments had stops of some kind, but if so, their secret has
perished with them.
The tenth century (as well as the eleventh) was one of great activity
in organ-building. Numerous small organs were made in France, England
and Germany for use in cloister schools, where they supported the
singing of the Gregorian melodies. They usually consisted of a series
of from eight to, at the most, twenty-two pipes, tuned in the scale
of C major, from the tenor C upward. The pipes resembled the modern
diapasons in construction and stood behind a species of manual with
small keys (upright at first, but later horizontal) which allowed the
wind to enter the pipes when they were pressed down. Into these organs
the wind was pumped by bellows and water-power was not used to regulate
the pressure.
The passion for cathedral building which had broken out even before
this time conditioned the building of great organs in keeping with
the size and splendor of the ministers. These large organs were all
built on the hydraulic principle. In England we find a monster organ
(described in verse by St. Wolstan) installed in Bishop Alphege’s
church at Winchester about 980 A. D. It had four hundred pipes of
bronze, twenty-six bellows and two manuals (for two players) of twenty
keys (or rather levers) each, every key governing ten pipes. These
pipes were probably tuned in octaves of different pitch or, perhaps,
with fifths. The instrument required the services of some seventy
men to pump the wind! William of Malmesbury mentions ‘a fair organ
with pipes of copper, mounted in gilded frames,’ which St. Dunstan
presented to his monastery in the chronicler’s native town. And in
the _Vita S. Oswaldi_ we are informed that the Saxon Earl Elwin gave
the Convent of Ramsay an organ of spiral form, having copper pipes,
which ‘on feast-days emitted a sweet melodie and a clangour resounding
a long way.’ Large organs were also installed in Cologne, and in the
churches and monasteries of many other German and French cities during
this century. The ‘clangour’ of the Ramsay organ mentioned by the
chronicler we may take for granted, for in these instruments no special
distinction of tone-quality was sought, power and sonority being the
first essentials.
II
Prior to the tenth and eleventh centuries, with their monster
instruments, the organ had been comparatively easy to play. But with
the enormous increase in size and a correspondingly complicated
mechanism the organist had to be somewhat of an athlete, so great was
the actual physical exertion required to depress the broad levers which
produced the tone (no actual keyboard existed before 1200 A. D.).[94]
The clenched fist was used and originated the mediæval term _organum
pulsare_, to ‘beat’ the organ. During this century and the succeeding
one the compass of the organ was enlarged from one to three octaves,
and progress in organ-building was also made in other directions.
In the twelfth century the pipes were first divided into registers and
stops, and the small ‘portative’ organs, easily carried, came into
use. Not until a hundred years later did the balanced keys, _depressa
lamina_, a genuine keyboard, appear in connection with the portative
organs, and in the fourteenth century their use was general in the
larger organs as well. Before the introduction of the keyboard, the
performer had ‘beaten’ levers or pulled out stop-like sliders to
produce the tone, and the great exertion entailed by the ‘beating’ of
the levers in the great organs is supposed to have led to the invention
of ‘mixtures’ some time after 1300.
The fourteenth century also offers the first instance of the use of a
chromatic keyboard, that of the organ at Halberstadt, built in 1361
and restored in 1495, in which an inscription on the keyboard states
that it formed part of the original organ, which had the semi-tonal
arrangement of keys. During this century organ-building received a
temporary check owing to both the Greek and Roman churches declaring
against the use of the instrument in public worship. It was soon
restored in the Roman Church, but has never been reintroduced in the
Greek.
[Illustration: Handel’s Organ in Whitchurch]
_From a photograph_
During the fourteenth century the ‘positives’ and ‘regals,’[95]
small stationary organs, were perfected; and the organ pedals, said
to have been invented by Ludwig van Valbeke, an organist of Brabant,
about 1300, were first introduced. The change from broad to narrow
and more easily played keys in the larger organs is also supposed
to have taken place at this time. The ‘blowers’ of these days, and
for centuries to come, however, did not have an easy time of it. In
many of the large organs the wind was pumped by continual shifting
of weights of lead or stone. This was not the case with the bellows
at Magdeburg and Halberstadt. Here each blower manipulated two heavy
bellows, pressing down the upper plate of one while he raised the other
with a foot shod with an iron shoe. These blowers were appropriately
enough termed ‘tramplers.’ Another method of pumping was in use in the
Seville Cathedral up to comparatively recent times. Here the blower
walked continually from one to the other end of a fifteen-foot plank,
on the principle of a see-saw, alternately raising and depressing the
feeders as he reached either end. The ‘portatives’ of this time usually
consisted of a small wind-chest between two standards, planted with two
ranks of keys, of eight pipes each, and with a clavier of eight flat
diatonic keys, with single bellows like the ordinary domestic article.
The smaller ‘portatives’ may be said to have furnished the reed stops
for the organ proper.
III
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries organs of great beauty and
variety of tone, and rich in external adornment (there is a legend of
an organ with pipes of pure silver erected by Philip II, king of Spain,
in the _Escorial_), were built throughout Europe, the Germans enjoying
the greatest reputation as builders. In France (Amiens Cathedral,
Church of St. Bernard of Comminges, Chartres Cathedral); in Italy
(Basilica di San Petronio, Bologna; Orvieto Cathedral, Church of St.
John Lateran); in Spain (cathedrals of Salamanca, Zaragoza, Tarragona,
Barcelona), and in Germany (churches and minsters in Vienna, Erfurt,
Brunswick, Strassburg, Salzburg, Bamberg, Nürnberg) are still to be
found organs and cases which excite admiration. In England small
organs were principally used in the churches during the fifteenth
century, though toward its close and during the sixteenth larger organs
were imported from the Continent. During the sixteenth century the
_Rückpositiv_ (back positive), a small portable organ for liturgic
ceremonies, located at the organist’s back and communicating with a
keyboard in the principal organ by means of trackers running under his
feet, was invented and used until well into the nineteenth century,
especially in France.
A curious feature of the sixteenth-century cathedral organ of Spain,
and one which influenced Spanish religious composition, was the
_partida_, or division. All the stops were divided into two groups,
each one acting on half the keyboard, the stops on one side sounding
in the treble half, those on the other in the bass. Thus a Spanish
cathedral organ with 120 stops in reality controlled only 60 sets
of pipes. Compositions for these organs were called _partidas_, one
hand playing full organ with all the reeds, the other using only flue
stops. The part written for full organ was always _glosada_, or rich in
brilliant passage-work and ornamentation. Organ builders in the earlier
days were usually monks and priests, as all creative cultural activity
was then concentrated in the church and especially in the monasteries.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the lay builder, in
contrast to the ecclesiastic, makes his appearance.
Among these builders were, in England: William Wotton, who flourished
in 1487, Chamberlyn (1509), Duddyington (1519), Perrot (1526) and White
(1531); in Germany: Compenius, Schnitzker, Hildebrandt, Schmid, André,
Kranz, Lobsinger, and the Trampeli; in Italy: the Attengnati family,
Lorenzo di Giacomo, Luca Blasi, Vincenzo Columbi. It may be said that
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the organ assumed a form
whose essentials--plurality of keyboards (manuals) and wind-chests,
arrangement of stop action and pedals--have remained unchanged during
succeeding centuries. Interesting as an incident in the development
of the increasing secular use of the instrument is its introduction
(in the smaller form) in the orchestra of Peri’s _Euridice_ (1600),
the first opera, in which _un regalo_ and _Duoi organi di legno_
(portatives with wooden pipes) were employed.
IV
During the seventeenth century many mechanical devices intended to
secure rapidity, ease and precision in organ playing were invented or
perfected. The custom of tuning the organ according to the ‘unequal
temperament,’ which made practicable the use of only sixteen keys,
persisted throughout this century, and did not die out on the Continent
until the next. The wind-gauge, invented in 1675 by Chr. F. Förner,
was important, as it made possible the proper regulation of the
wind-power in the various wind-chests and in the registers above them.
In general, this century as well as that following are notable because
of the addition of many new flute and reed-tone stops, and a general
enrichment of the tone-color of the instrument; as well as the first
general application of a thoroughly modern idea, the union of several
distinct organs, each having a keyboard of its own, into one single
instrument, though more than one manual had been used before this.
Early in the eighteenth century the ‘swell’ is invented to vary the
loudness of the organ tone, by an English organ-builder named Jordans
(1712); and during the course of the century the softest sounding
manual in the majority of English organs (known as the ‘echo’) is
changed into a swell. On the other hand the pedal is practically
unknown in England until the nineteenth century. Father Smith,
Thomas, René Harris and Avery were prominent English organ-builders
of the eighteenth century, as well as Samuel Green, who invented the
horizontal bellows in 1789. The Silbermanns were the great German
builders of the time, and from 1714 to 1817 various members of this
family built remarkably fine organs, renowned for their tone quality
and constructive excellence, in a number of German cities. One of the
finest of the Silbermann organs is that of the Freiberg minster, built
by Gottfried, in 1714; another is that of the Catholic Royal Chapel in
Dresden.
A curious development of the _rococo_ spirit of the age was the
amount of money spent on the tasteless external embellishment of the
instrument--angels posturing on the organ-cases, who by means of a
mechanism beat kettle-drums and cymbals and blew trumpets, and ‘cymbal
stars’ which jingled as they revolved on wires. Yet such errors in
judgment represented no more than a temporary aberration of taste, and
the century as a whole is one of continual mechanical progress with
corresponding musical results.
It is in the nineteenth century, however, that the great advance
in the mechanics of organ-building, which has culminated in the
present perfected instrument of to-day, begins. Cavaillé-Col (b.
1811) introduced separate wind-chests, with varying pressures for the
higher, middle and lower parts of the keyboard, and added _flutes
octaviantes_ to the register. In 1832 C. S. Barker (England) invented
composition pedals, making easier the handling of groups of stops,
and the pneumatic lever. And, finally, with the improvements of H. W.
Willis and the electro-pneumatic action of Péschard (1866) (electricity
had already been applied to the key-action by Dr. Gauntlett in 1850),
the history of the ancient organ comes to an end and that of the modern
instrument begins.
F. H. M.
V
The processes by which the organ has developed from its clumsy
prototypes to the magnificent yet sensitive and delicate instrument
of to-day are parallel to those to be found in other products of
man’s ingenuity. Practical science has contributed step by step to
this evolution, and no one can understand the modern organ who is not
familiar with the latest inventions of electro-pneumatics.
The first step was the introduction of pneumatic mechanism to open the
pallets in the old open slide chests, thus equalizing the touch of the
key-action. This also made it possible to greatly increase the number
of stops served by a single pallet. The next problem was to avoid
increasing the weight of the key-touch when the couplers were drawn,
and this was accomplished by an extension of the pneumatic system in
the key-desk, which in this case was connected by action-tubing to the
chests. The resulting combination of an entirely pneumatic key-action
with the pneumatic operation of the pallets constituted tubular
pneumatic action.
An improved form of chest was at this time constructed in which each
stop was supplied with wind separately and the single pallet for each
note was replaced by a small pneumatic valve for each pipe of each
stop on the chest. Hilborne L. Roosevelt and C. S. Haskell developed
this system (1885) and at first employed it in connection with tracker
key-action. Many an old organ of this type is in perfect condition
to-day. Most American organs contain chests built on this plan, with
countless modifications. Among its advantages are greater steadiness
of wind, and independent control of the wind as it enters each
stop-chamber. The latter feature is closely related in its operation to
the French ventils by which whole sections of stops are cut off from
the wind at the player’s will. Thus the modern organ combines tubular
pneumatic action with pneumatic chests, as practically all chests,
whether open or individual, are pneumatic in their operation.
An important advance must be credited to Mr. Roosevelt, in the
origination of adjustable combination action, which was applied by him
in 1882.
It is impossible to record adequately the revolution which the use of
electricity has wrought in organ building. In 1886 Henry Willis erected
a large four-manual electric organ in Canterbury Cathedral, where the
storage batteries filled a good-sized room (which was the old singing
school room), and their amperage was enormous. The successful audacity
of this achievement deserves recognition. Here was a large key desk
placed behind the choir stalls, and connected only by cables, 120 feet
long, with the organ, which was entirely concealed in the Triforium.
This is exactly what has become a commonplace in the organ of to-day.
The progress of electricity has, however, enabled us to use much
smaller magnets, and to apply their action to the pneumatic chests with
great simplicity. For it must be remembered that so-called electric
organs merely add electrical control to the existing pneumatic action
of the pipe valves. In some organs this element is proportionately
quite small, in others it is very large; but in any case the chest
action is pneumatic.
In one form of chest the action, while electro-pneumatic and designed
to control each stop separately, is exposed and constitutes the
ceiling of a highly developed modern open chest. Though originated
by Randebrock, the chief credit for this combination of the two
fundamental systems of chest structure is due to John T. Austin (1895).
He has named it the ‘Universal Air Chest.’
The separate stop-chest made it possible to operate a stop from
more than one keyboard, or at more than one octave, a process which
is called duplex, multiple or unit stop control. Noted builders
are applying the idea in great variety. The principle is not new.
It was brought out in Belgium by L. Dryvers, and described by H.
V. Couwenbergh in 1887. One of his schemes comprised an organ of
six units, from which a three-manual organ of forty-six registers
was formed. For instance, a Bourdon stop of 104 pipes yielded ten
registers, of the following variety of nomenclature--_Bourdon_,
_Sous-Basse_, _Flûte Bouchée_, _Flûte Douce_, _Flûte Champêtre_. The
ingenious prophet, however, added to this scheme a _Récit_ organ
of eleven absolutely separate solo stops, built on the _système
ordinaire_, and expressive, thereby showing a commendable sense of the
weakness of his own system!
All modern organs employ the principle of duplex mechanism to some
extent, and, legitimately used, it is of enormous value. The example
given above is the _reductio ad absurdam_ of the idea, and also
indicates the deceptive habit of renaming the stops thus derived.
The success of the modern organ has depended in large measure on the
use of really effective swell chambers. Not only are they effective,
but the proportion of stops that are enclosed has been greatly
increased. The organ has thereby been liberated from its old lack of
flexibility. We even find two expressive divisions playable from one
manual. An interesting adaptation of this idea is the grouping of all
the stops of each tone family in separate swell chambers. This has been
done on some large concert organs, as well as on those of the unit
type. Mention must here be made of the conspicuous service rendered by
Robert Hope-Jones both in his insistence on effective expression, with
the stops arranged in ‘families’ of tone, and in his advocacy of the
unit organ. However, he was often obliged to modify his own theories in
practice. He was the first to leather the lips of Diapason pipes.
Tonally, the modern organ has also made great strides. It cannot be
said that voicers are more skillful in their art, nor that the quality
of the materials used is better than in the past. We must, however,
note the great advantage of being able to supply and control wind of
any pressure desired in the modern wind chest. It is quite common to
voice the chorus solo reeds on a wind pressure of twenty-five inches,
for which the scales used, the thickness and weight of the metal, and
the voicing, are greatly modified. The Diapasons and Flutes have not
changed so much as the chorus and solo reeds, and the stops of string
tone. Artistic voicing has completely changed the character of these
stops, and has adjusted itself to the new conditions of expression. A
few men have achieved fame in this direction, though their work has not
always received the recognition it deserves. Among them were George and
Charles Englefried and others, whose work was found on many Roosevelt
organs; John W. Whiteley, of the English family of organ builders;
and W. E. Haskell, whose development of string tones and especially
the allied flue stops of reed character has attracted attention. The
inventions of Robert Hope-Jones have given a great stimulus to the
high-pressure reeds, and he also introduced the Diaphone (1894).
Among American builders the names of George S. Hutchings, Hilborne L.
Roosevelt and Ernest M. Skinner are conspicuous for their high ideals
in artistic voicing, while in Europe the noble instruments constructed
by Henry Willis and Aristide Cavaillé-Coll are most conspicuous.
VI
No account of the modern organ would be complete without reference to
three new developments of the instrument. Its origin and traditions are
ecclesiastical, but our civilization has at first hesitatingly, and
now boldly, appropriated the organ for other uses. It was introduced
into various private residences, and the resulting type is known as
the Chamber Organ. Then, particularly in England, it was employed as a
means of public instruction and entertainment in town halls and other
public buildings. Notable examples are the organs at Liverpool (St.
George’s Hall), London (Albert Hall, etc.), and Sydney, N. S. W. These
instruments are known as Concert Organs. A typical modern concert organ
scheme is as follows:
SPECIFICATION OF A CONCERT ORGAN
By CLIFFORD DEMAREST, F. A. G. O.
_Organist, Church of the Messiah, New York City_
GREAT ORGAN
1. 16 ft. Bourdon 10. 8 ft. Doppel Flute
2. 16 ft. Diapason 11. 4 ft. Harmonic Flute
3. 8 ft. First Diapason 12. 4 ft. Octave
4. 8 ft. Second Diapason 13. 2-2/3 ft. Twelfth
5. 8 ft. Stentorphone (from Solo) 14. 2 ft. Fifteenth
6. 8 ft. Gemshorn 15. V Rks. Mixture
7. 8 ft. Gedeckt 16. 16 ft. Trumpet
8. 8 ft. Gross Flute 17. 8 ft. Trumpet
9. 8 ft. Gamba 18. 4 ft. Trumpet
Stops 4-18 inclusive enclosed in a separate box
SWELL ORGAN
19. 16 ft. Contra Gamba 30. 4 ft. Principal
20. 16 ft. Melodia 31. 4 ft. Violina
21. 8 ft. First Diapason 32. 4 ft. Flute Traverso
22. 8 ft. Second Diapason 33. 2 ft. Flautino
23. 8 ft. Viole d’Orchestre 34. III Rks. Solo Mixture
24. 8 ft. Viol Celeste 35. 16 ft. Contra Fagotto
25. 8 ft. Salicional 36. 8 ft. Oboe
26. 8 ft. Salicional Celeste 37. 8 ft. Cornopean (Horn quality)
27. 8 ft. Æoline 38. 8 ft. French Trumpet
28. 8 ft. Hohl Flute 39. 4 ft. Horn
29. 8 ft. Tibia Clausa
CHOIR ORGAN
40. 16 ft. Dulciana 48. 8 ft. Quintadena
41. 8 ft. English Diapason 49. 4 ft. Chimney Flute
42. 8 ft. Geigen Principal 50. 4 ft. Fugara
43. 8 ft. Muted Viol 51. 2 ft. Piccolo
44. 8 ft. Dulciana 52. 8 ft. Orchestral Oboe
45. 8 ft. Concert Flute 53. 8 ft. Clarinet
46. 8 ft. Melodia 54. 8 ft. Saxophone (wood)
47. 8 ft. Flute Celeste (with Melodia)
Enclosed in a separate box
SOLO ORGAN
55. 8 ft. Stentorphone 59. 4 ft. Philomela
56. 8 ft. Tibia Plena 60. 8 ft. Gross Gamba Celeste
57. 8 ft. Gross Gamba 61. 8 ft. French Horn
58. 4 ft. Clarion 62. 8 ft. Tuba (25 inches)
Enclosed in a separate box
PEDAL ORGAN
63. 32 ft. Open Diapason 72. 8 ft. Octave
(from Second Diapason)
64. 16 ft. First Diapason 73. 8 ft. Violoncello
65. 16 ft. Second Diapason (metal) 74. 8 ft. Dolce Flute
(from Great Bourdon)
66. 16 ft. Bourdon 75. 32 ft. Contra Bombarde
67. 16 ft. Second Bourdon (from Great) 76. 16 ft. Trombone
68. 16 ft. Dulciana (from Choir) 77. 16 ft. Contra Fagotto
(from Swell)
69. 16 ft. Contra Gamba (from Swell) 78. 8 ft. Tromba
70. 16 ft. Violone 79. 4 ft. Clarion
71. 16 ft. Lieblich Gedeckt
ECHO ORGAN
80. 8 ft. Open Diapason 84. 8 ft. Vox Humana
81. 8 ft. Celestina 85. 4 ft. Flute d’Amour
82. 8 ft. Unda Maris 86. Harp.
83. 8 ft. Fern Flute 87. Chimes (also playable on
Great and Pedal)
Enclosed in a separate box
COUPLERS
1. Swell to Pedal 12. Chimes to Great 23. Choir to Choir 4’
2. Swell to Pedal 4 ft. 13. Swell to Choir 24. Choir to Great 16’
3. Choir to Pedal 14. Echo to Choir 25. Choir to Great 4’
4. Great to Pedal 15. Swell to Solo 26. Solo to Solo 16’
5. Solo to Pedal 16. Great to Solo 27. Solo to Solo 4’
6. Echo to Pedal 17. Echo to Swell 28. Solo to Great 16’
7. Chimes to Pedal 18. Swell to Swell 16’ 29. Solo to Great 4’
8. Swell to Great 19. Swell to Swell 4’ 30. Echo to Great 16’
9. Choir to Great 20. Swell to Great 16’ 31. Echo to Great 4’
10. Solo to Great 21. Swell to Great 4’ 32. Echo on, Great off
11. Echo to Great 22. Choir to Choir 16’ 33. Echo on, Solo off
Balanced Great Expression Pedal
Balanced Swell Expression Pedal
Balanced Choir Expression Pedal
Balanced Solo and Echo Expression Pedal
Balanced Crescendo Pedal
Concert halls and assembly halls in public buildings in America are
now being furnished with organs of this type and an immense number of
people derive æsthetic enjoyment from these instruments. Moreover,
astute theatrical managers have seized on this favorite kind of
entertainment and are featuring organs in the theatre. There is no
settled form of theatre scheme, but the process of evolution is going
on, and worthy instruments are being constructed for this purpose.
Unfortunately this development has resulted in the construction
of numerous hybrid instruments. The bewildering possibilities of
duplication have led to the installation of concert instruments with no
independent pedal foundation and with additional manuals which, instead
of preserving their own character, control only a rearrangement of
stops already perfectly accessible. The tendency to let mere mechanism
replace independent tones is most flagrantly displayed in this class of
instruments.
There is no doubt that the organ is now beginning to ‘find itself.’
The organ of the future will be as much like an organ as ever--only
more so, if possible! We shall still regard mechanism as a means to
an end, and not as an end in itself. We shall insist on simplicity
of control, at the key desk, however vast and sonorous the tonal
appointments. Finally, we shall honor and encourage the master voicers
in their efforts to use the best methods of the past, and to adapt them
to the new mechanical conditions. For in the last analysis the sense to
which the organ makes its true appeal is not that of touch, through the
player’s fingers, nor that of sight, through the impressive appearance
of tracery and noble towers of pipes, but that of hearing, for the
ear is the most marvellous acoustic instrument ever conceived and is
capable of appreciating the most refined as well as the noblest organ
tones.
R. L. McA.
FOOTNOTES:
[92] An interesting example of the primitive application of the
hydraulic principle in producing musical sound is afforded by the
‘whistling jug’ of the Peruvian Incas. Here water flowing from one
jar to another, through the medium of a cross-channel, forced the
air through a whistle set over the mouth of the second jar, with a
resulting musical note. The inverse tipping of the jar drew in the air
again through the whistle.
[93] Vitruvius, the Roman engineer and architect, who lived in the
reign of Augustus, has also described the hydraulic organ of Ktesibos
in his _De Arch._ lib. X, cap. II.
[94] Though the first keyboard (of sixteen keys), according to
Prætorius, was introduced into the organ of the Magdeburg Cathedral
toward the close of the eleventh century.
[95] ‘Regals’ from the Italian _rigabello_, an instrument used to
support the plain-chant in the church. Perhaps, also, in allusion to
the quality of ‘the king of instruments.’ The ‘regal’ may be regarded
as the ancestor of the modern harmonium.