WHAT A GOOD CASE SHOULD BE.
Style not necessarily Gothic.--Renaissance Style.--Tin Pipes
now seldom used.--An Organ Case need not correspond with
the Style of Architecture of the Building.--English Cases
during the last hundred years.--An Organ Case should
be good.--Unequal Number of Towers.--Ponts.--Oak and
other Woods.--Culs-de-Lampe.--Ornaments.--Arrangement of
Pipes.--Arrangement of Towers.
Before I proceed any further with this Chapter, I may as well mention
that I fear I may a little shock some persons with my views of what is
a good organ case. I have long ceased to think that nothing but Gothic
is correct, and feel pleasure in looking at any style of architecture
(excepting the modern ultra-Gothic, and even this affords me a certain
amount of amusement). I have, when the Gothic fit was upon me, passed
many a fine organ with a mere glance, at which I should now look with
delight. When I see some of our modern Norman and Gothic cases, I
wonder what the men of the date which these make-believe cases pretend
to be would think of them. I suspect that they would look at them
with amazement. The illuminations in manuscripts do not give us much
help, and the drawings which they hand down to us are those of very
small instruments. Some few cases in the later period of Gothic are in
existence at Perpignan, Strasburg, Gonesse, New Radnor, and in some few
places in Germany, but with the exception of the one at Strasburg, I
have not been so fortunate as to get a sight of any. With the advent
of the Renaissance Style, organs began to increase in size, so that
larger and more architectural cases were requisite, and we do not even
now excel in design and workmanship many of the old Flemish, Dutch,
and French organs. Carved oak is now an expensive luxury, and pipes of
tin, with their silver-like lustre, are things of the past. The price
of tin, and the cheap contract system, have a good deal to do with
this state of things; and town atmosphere seems to tarnish tin work in
a very short time: about Manchester it cannot be used, and at Rouen
I have seen bright pipe-work, which had been up but a few years, look
as tarnished as if it had been up for fifty years at least. I like an
organ to have a really good case; it is a large and necessary piece of
furniture in both church and concert-room; and I can see no reason why
it should not be in keeping with the building in which it stands. By
this I do not intend that its architectural style should be the same,
but that there should be a certain agreement together, and a fitness
one for the other. Viollet le Duc, I think, was wise in retaining the
old Renaissance case of the organ in Notre Dame (Paris), when the whole
of its contents were taken away, and an entirely new organ erected in
it. No man in France could have better designed a Gothic case, but he
preferred leaving the old work, which well suited its position. In
general all fittings of a later date than the building in which they
stand, if they are really good of their kind, should be respected.
Much new work, intended to be quite in keeping with the building, and
following precedent, is but little more than guesswork. In an old
Norman church, it would be I think foolish to erect a Norman case:
we have nothing to guide us as to what an organ was like in outward
appearance at that date, but we do know that it was a rather rudely
made affair, from “Theophilus’s Treatise on Organ Building;” and we
are equally at sea for any precedent for an early Gothic organ. Late
cases are here and there to be seen, and many of them are handsome, but
it was the builders of the Renaissance Period who first erected those
structures of carved wood, for the abode of the noblest of instruments.
For many years good cases continued to be built; they never quite
ceased erecting them in France and Belgium; but I have nothing to say
in favour of our English cases for the last hundred years. We do better
now, but I look upon caseless organs, with their rows of painted pipes,
as something horrid. A good piano always has a good case; we do not
dream of buying, or the vendor of selling, a first-class instrument
in a paltry one; and why a really well-built and good-toned organ is
put into a plain deal varnished case, like a common cheap schoolroom
piano, is a puzzle to me. Father Smith appears to have had a pattern
case, which is excellent in outline, and suitable to all his organs,
large or small, except his chamber instruments, and Harris also rarely
departed from his one design, a very pretty one. The old French
builders appeared to have followed a few general rules, viz., that an
organ should have an unequal number of towers, say three, five, or
seven; and if, as was usual, the Choir case stood in front, it should
have a smaller number of towers, say the Great case had five, the Choir
had three; that if the centre tower of the Great was the tallest, the
centre tower of the Choir should be the least, and _vice versâ_; and
very good rules these are. It was also their practice to form the
mouths of the pipes in the towers, different to those in the flats, and
the pipes in the towers stood on square blocks of wood (ponts), whilst
the pipes in the flats stood on plinths. These little niceties add much
to the appearance of an organ. Renatus Harris used to finish his pipes
in the French manner. I prefer oak to any wood for case work. Polished
ebonised wood with ormolu mouldings (as at the Foundling) looks well,
and good cabinet work has been done in mahogany. Walnut and rosewood
may do for chamber instruments, but would have rather a harmonium look
about them. If I were building a drawing-room organ, I should certainly
use oak, with plenty of carving and no varnish; wax polish would
perhaps be advisable to tone down the new look, but with very fine
sharp work the wood should be left as it comes fresh from the carver’s
hands. In a cheap instrument plain deal with good varnish looks better
than painted wood, with or without stencilled patterns, and where
the large wood pipes are shown, they are best plain. The upper part
of the case being wider than the base (a very common arrangement in
old French instruments), is an improvement to its outline. Another
French usage, to support the large outer towers on giants, is good,
especially for their large cases; and “the culs-de-lampe,” or consoles
of the towers, are improved by sculptured heads, paniers of flowers,
or intricate open-work. I do not object to what I have heard called
a “covey” of plump cherubim. With respect to the mouldings, a little
departure from strict rules does not hurt, and it is best not to err
on the side of shallowness: bold projections and deep curves look
well, and circular towers should project rather more than half their
diameter; the cornices should certainly project boldly--recollect they
are wood, and rules for stone cornices need not be closely adhered to,
but they must not overhang each other (Chevaucher is the French term),
as that does not look well. Statues on the summits of the towers I like
to see, although of course they are a useless expense; and there is a
wide choice as to what they should be. Angels with trumpets or harps
are excellent. King David with his harp, St. Cecilia with her organ,
are very usual. Winged angels with lutes are not uncommon on Flemish
organs: the patron saint of the church is correct. Pope Gregory, as
the founder of the Catholic chant; St. Ambrose, the writer of the
“Te Deum;” Guido D’Arezzo, the inventor of the gamut, and several
others may be mentioned as fit subjects for statuary work. Crowns and
mitres for Church and State are good terminals for an English organ,
and the arms of the reigning sovereign can well be introduced in the
carving: for a good example, see the old organ in St. Paul’s. The
shades (claires voies) of an organ should be well carved, and in some
designs the introduction of winged angel heads is very suitable: in
general they should be left plain; gilding clashes with bright tin, and
offers no contrast with gilt pipes. In the north of Europe the tops
of the pipes are concealed by the shades, but in Italy they are free,
and it is an open question which mode is the best. Either of these
arrangements is better than the tops of the pipes shewing above the
case with fanciful crowns on them. The northern mode saves a little
in height, which sometimes is an advantage. Carved open-work or wings
at the sides of the organ, though useless, are often picturesque;
occasionally they hide large wood pipes posted outside the case, which
are, in general, additions to the original contents, and then they are
useful.
For effect, the wood-work should not fill the entire breadth of the
space in which the organ stands, but shew itself as a case, and not
as a screen to hide the internal arrangements. The case at Lucerne,
good as the work is, fails in this particular: it is a screen at the
west end of the church, to hide the organ, not a case for it. English
organs often err in the reverse manner, and look like square boxes. A
broader and shallower form is preferable, but English feeling is, I
am afraid, in favour of the square form. The case at Haarlem has been
quoted as spoiling the tone of the instrument, and on the other hand,
a French writer on the organ, C. M. Philbert, states, “Un artiste
habitant Paris nous disait, ces jours derniers, qu’en payant le prix
fixé pour les auditions particulières de l’orgue de Haarlem, on ne
payait pas trop cher, ne fût-ce que le seul plaisir d’en admirer la
magnificence extérieure.” I tried at Haarlem to detect if the tone
were smothered by the case, but could not in the least perceive any
such defect. The quality is very mellow, which is very pleasing to the
ear, and is without the harshness which now-a-days is called boldness
of tone. Towers boldly projecting, either half circular or pointed,
are an improvement to the design of a case. Flat towers, which in
general are flush with the flats, or only project slightly, although
used in some few cases, do not give that play of light and shade which
is so effective in a design. Where shutters, curtains, or blinds, are
used, projecting towers are in the way; but in Holland are to be seen
small cases with shutters, which follow all the ins-and-outs of cases
much broken in plan. They must be difficult to make and to keep from
warping, and when large must be troublesome to open or close. Opinions
are divided as to the usefulness of these appendages to an organ, no
doubt they are often most picturesque.