_VILLAGE CHURCH ORGANS._
OUR labours have hitherto been exclusively directed towards the
production, in private workshops and by young workmen, of small
organs adapted for domestic use. That such organs should be of varied
character, and that they should represent the differing musical tastes
and unequal mechanical ingenuity and adroitness of their unprofessional
or self-taught constructors, is the legitimate outcome of the
circumstances assumed.
The case of organs for churches must be regarded from a different
stand-point. Designed for public use, and consecrated to lofty
purposes, they should reflect no private fancies or peculiar
tastes; should admit of no experiments or eccentricities; should
be distinguished by excellence of material, finished perfection of
workmanship, and solid stability of structure. We cannot, therefore,
recommend the construction of any church-organ in a private workshop.
The aim and object of this volume would be entirely misconceived by any
reader who should imagine that we encourage such an ambitious attempt.
However humble as to style of architecture the church may be, however
unpretending the scheme for the organ may be, we must strenuously
advocate the placing the order for its erection in the hands of a
well-established firm of professional builders.
Guarding ourselves thus, we trust, against all possibility of
misconception, we shall endeavour in the following pages to offer
some suggestions on the subject of village organs, which may tend
to smooth away perplexities from the path of those who, without any
previous acquaintance with such matters, find themselves called upon to
exercise discretion, and pronounce decisive judgment on estimates and
specifications submitted to them by builders and by musicians.
In using the term "Village," we refer less to locality than to
condition. We desire to be of service to the promoters of the erection
of an organ in those very numerous cases in which no skilled player is
resident in the place, and in which the new instrument will inevitably
be left to the modest efforts of a schoolmistress or of a young
beginner, on whose ability, moreover, no greater demand will be made
than that which is involved in the accompaniment of simple chanting
and psalmody. It is to the dwellers in such quiet corners of the
country that we would offer a few rules or maxims, based, we hope, on
principles, the soundness of which will commend itself to their good
sense.
Let us bring together, in a compressed form, a few of these maxims,
afterwards examining them in detail.
A village organ should be of simple construction, containing no
mechanism liable to sudden derangement. It should stand well in
tune, without attention, even though placed in a building exposed
to alternations of temperature and perhaps not free from dampness.
Its musical effects should be readily and obviously producible by
any person sitting down to it for the first time, and guided only by
experience gained at the harmonium or pianoforte. It should present no
facilities for ambitious attempts at executive display by thoughtless
aspirants. Its power, or volume, should be sufficient to assert itself
unmistakably in a full congregational chorus; and its tone, or quality,
should be that which long experience has shown to be impressive and
pleasing to the vast majority of listeners. Hence, it will be capable
of emitting no sounds which might be described by any uneducated hearer
as odd or curious. Lastly, let us add that its case should be shapely,
even if destitute of ornamentation.
Whole pages of disquisition may be saved if we proceed at once to apply
these maxims to the specification of the smallest and least costly
organ which we shall recommend for a village church: an organ, namely,
with four stops only.
1. Organ No. 1. The manual will be from CC to E in alt, 53 notes.
_Remark._--The key-board is more sightly when its two extremities
are rendered similar by this omission of the top F. But the further
omission of the four upper notes would still leave a compass of 49
notes, amply sufficient for the accompaniment of voices.
2. Its stops will be these:--
(_a_) Open Diapason, metal throughout, or of metal from Gamut G, with
seven pipes of open wood below.
_Remark._--These open wood pipes, when properly scaled and voiced, have
some advantages over metal for our present purpose, and may be placed
so as to close in the back of the case instead of panelling.
(_b_) Principal of metal throughout, being the octave of the Open
Diapason, to which it will therefore be made to conform as regards
scale and voicing.
_Remark._--The two stops, (_a_) and (_b_), when played together, will
furnish the element of power, or loudness, to the organ.
(_c_) Stopped Diapason of wood throughout, or of metal with chimneys
from middle C to top; but not with a Clarabella of open wood as its
upper part.
_Remark._--The metal Stopped Diapasons which have come down to us from
the days of Harris, and other old builders, are often of exquisite
beauty of tone. Modern builders are apt to neglect the stop, and to
treat it as a mere "Coppel," or vehicle for exhibiting the qualities of
imitative stops. We should be glad to persuade them to make the upper
octaves of oak, after the example of Schmidt.
(_d_) Stopped Flute of wood throughout, or of metal with chimneys as to
its three upper octaves. This stop pretends to no imitation whatever
of the well-known musical instrument, the Flute, but is simply the
octave of the Stopped Diapason, of which it should follow the scale and
voicing.
_Remark._--The two stops, (_c_) and (_d_), when played together, supply
to the organ the important element of softness and tranquil clearness;
and when added to (_a_) and (_b_), they enhance the fullness and volume
of those stops, while correcting a certain crudeness or tendency
towards harshness. The Stopped Flute fulfils a further most important
office. When added to the two Diapasons (without the Principal), it
imparts not only a most pleasing silvery sweetness to the tone, but
gives a definiteness of pitch which will correct the tendency of
school-children to sing out of tune. This stop should, therefore, on no
account be omitted, or cancelled in favour of more showy or conspicuous
qualities of tone.
3. Be it carefully observed that the stops (_a_) and (_b_) can be
made to produce sounds of several gradations of loudness according to
the scale of the pipes, the pressure or weight of the wind, and the
character of the voicing. Their tone will be further affected by the
substance and quality of the pipe-metal. Let us confidently assume
that the order for the new organ will be given to no builder who does
not hold his art in such esteem as to be incapable of using inferior
and perishable materials. The metal should be tin and lead only, in at
least equal proportions; still better if the tin be three-fourths,
four-fifths, or seven-eighths of the whole alloy. The wind-pressure
should be light, as we desire that the feeder should be easily worked
by the foot of the player. The scaling and voicing must be left to the
judgment of a trustworthy builder, as they will vary with the capacity
of the church and the requirements of the singing. Enough if we advise
that, even in the case of the smallest church, the two metal stops
be of bold, out-speaking character, asserting themselves distinctly,
and having no tinge of the muffled or subdued quality proper to
chamber-organs.
4. The case of the organ, even if carving be entirely absent, may be
of graceful and pleasing outline by making the upper part, above the
level of the keys, overhang the lower part, or base, which encloses the
bellows.[6] This lower part need not be much wider than the key-board
itself, and about three feet in depth, from front to back. If the upper
part be five feet in width, it will overhang the base one foot or a
little less on each side, obtaining apparent support from a pair of
brackets. The total height, if the open bass pipes be set down at the
back, will not exceed nine feet; but the speaking front may be well
thrown up by the usual expedients if the church be lofty. We strongly
advise that these speaking front pipes be left of their natural
silver colour, which they will not lose if tin predominates largely
over lead in the alloy. For our own part, we are no admirers of the
chocolates, dark blues, and sage greens smeared upon front pipes by way
of decorating them. Too often, we fear, such diapers are a cloak for
very inferior metal, which would soon betray the presence of antimony
and other deleterious ingredients by turning black if left unpainted.
[6] See the frontispiece of this book. Some charming but elaborate
designs will be found in the Rev. F. H. Sutton's "Church Organs,"
published by Rivingtons. Folio. 1872.
The draw-stops will be most conveniently handled if arranged above the
keys, under the ledge of the book-board, as in the harmonium. It will
be well to place the Stopped Diapason and Flute on the left, and the
Open Diapason and Principal (which will be more frequently drawn and
shut off) on the right, leaving an interval of a foot or so between the
two pairs.
The cost of this four-stop organ, made of first-class materials, in a
case of stained deal or pitch-pine, should not exceed £80. A provincial
builder, who works with his own hands, might undertake it for a smaller
sum, but we cannot counsel a diminution of cost by a lowering of the
standard of the pipe-metal or by a resort to inferior woods.
A hasty _résumé_ of our design will show a close correspondence with
our initial maxims.
The organ is:--
1. Of simple construction, containing no mechanism liable to sudden
derangement.
2. It will stand well in tune, without attention, even for years,
especially if the smaller stopped pipes be of metal with chimneys.
3. A new player will be met by no special difficulty whatever.
4. As there is no "swell," there can be no exhibition, on the part of
the player, of the peculiar forms of bad taste to which that invention
lends fatal facility; and as there are no pedals, there will be no
lumbering and blundering attempts to play grand compositions never
meant for village churches.
5. Its power, or volume, will be ample for the accompaniment of the
ordinary congregational singing of two or three hundred persons, and
more than abundantly sufficient for the support of a rustic choir;
and it emits no sounds which can provoke criticism by singularity of
intonation, and which have not been found, by long years of experience,
to be invariably agreeable to all musical ears.
Organ No. 2. To the four-stop instrument just described, a "Dulciana"
might be added, at a further cost of about £10, less or more, according
to quality of pipe-metal, &c. Its compass will be from Tenor C to top,
or, still better, from B flat or a lower note, the remaining sounds
being obtained by grooving to the Stopped Diapason. The Dulciana is of
beautifully delicate tone, slightly nasal; when played with the Stopped
Diapason it gives a charming clearness and sonority to that soft stop.
When the Flute is added, we have a true choir-organ quality, most
useful in the accompaniment of low and solemn music.
_Remark._--Some builders or organists may recommend a "Salicional,"
or "Viola di Gamba," or "Keraulophon," in place of the Dulciana. All
these stops, when properly made, are of beautiful tone, but their
beauty is of a kind which soon satisfies, and then is apt to weary
the listener. They are therefore excluded from our village organ by
one of our maxims. The same sentence of exclusion must be passed
upon the class of stops known as "Lieblich Gedact," and rightly
introduced in large organs as alternatives for the Stopped Diapason
and Stopped Flute. "Their tone in the treble," says Mr. Hayne,[7] "is
so peculiar as to become wearisome, and a little of them goes a very
long way." The imitative Flutes, which have many different names,
as "Flauto Traverso," "Concert Flute," "Oboe Flute," and the like,
find their place in organs of much larger dimensions than our village
organ; and Harmonic stops, of every pitch and quality, are shut out
by their costliness, if not by the character of their tone, which is
unacceptable to some ears.
[7] "Hints, &c.," p. 14.
Organ No. 3. Perhaps greater loudness may be reasonably desired when
the village church is large and the singers numerous. This accession
of power will be gained by adding two more complete ranks of pipes,
namely, a Twelfth of three feet (nominal) and a Fifteenth of two feet,
both in metal. We cannot enter into controversy with modern purists
who object to the Twelfth. Enough that its effect, when duly balanced,
has been accepted as dignified and elevating for centuries past. As it
is never used without the Fifteenth, the pipes of both may be governed
by one slider, and in this case the stop may be called "Mixture, ii.
ranks."
The additional cost of the Twelfth and Fifteenth, with the necessary
enlargement of the sound-board and bellows, may be £20 or £25.
Organ No. 4. The stops which have been enumerated, with one or two
additions, might be distributed between two manuals, with great
advantage to the player, and without a violation of any of our
self-imposed conditions. Instead of suggesting the list of stops
ourselves, we give the names and distribution of those in the beautiful
little organ in the choir of Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, designed
by the late Sir J. Sutton, Bart., and built by the late J. C. Bishop,
some old wooden pipes by Schmidt being worked in.
_Upper Manual, or Great Organ._
1. Open Diapason 8 feet.
2. Stopped Diapason 8 " tone
3. Principal 4 "
4. Twelfth 3 "
5. Fifteenth 2 "
6. Tierce 1-3/5 "
7. Mixture iii. ranks.
_Lower Manual, or Choir Organ._
1. Open Diapason, wood 8 feet.
2. Stopped Diapason " 8 " tone.
3. Open Flute " 4 "
4. Stopped Flute " 4 " tone.
Such an organ could not be costly, as there is no swell-box, and as
large Bourdons or 16-feet Open Diapasons are absent, together with
couplers and all other complications. But perhaps it is luxuriously
large for a village church of average size. It might be somewhat
lessened thus:--
Organ No. 5.
_Great Organ (Upper or Lower, as preferred)._
1. Open Diapason 8 feet.
2. Hohl-flöte, wood 8 "
3. Principal 4 "
4. Stopped Flute 4 "
5. Mixture iii. ranks.
_Choir Organ (Lower or Upper)._
1. Stopped Diapason 8 feet tone
2. Dulciana 8 "
3. Gemshorn, _a light Principal_ 4 " "
_Remark._--The Mixture, No. 5, will be 15th, 19th and 22nd from CC to
middle B, and 8th, 12th and 15th onwards to the top.
* * * * *
Perhaps we should not conclude without noticing one or two objections
to our plans.
First. "Organs cannot be properly played without pedals."
Most unquestionably true classical organ music cannot be played on
instruments with manuals only. But it was on such instruments that the
illustrious HANDEL, with his contemporaries and predecessors, Croft,
Boyce, Worgan, the blind Stanley, and a host of others, delighted their
audiences by their masterly performance. Pedals were not added to
English organs until the latest years of the eighteenth century. The
nineteenth was far advanced before the pedal-board, of full compass,
had come to be considered an essential part of every organ.
Why should the effective management of organs without pedals be among
the lost arts? Why should not the clever manipulation of such organs be
practised by ladies, and by the modest players in villages, to whom the
preludes and fugues which echo through the aisles of the cathedral must
ever be a dead language? Why should the cathedral player himself, fresh
from his pedal fugues, deem it beneath his dignity to draw sweet music,
in a totally different style, from an instrument on which Handel would
have willingly displayed his powers?
We were present on a certain occasion, many years ago, when the late
Professor Walmisley, of Cambridge, was asked to play on a small and
old-fashioned organ without pedals. The distinguished pedallist and
renowned interpreter of Bach's compositions did not turn away with
contempt. He seated himself, and charmed all who were present by his
ingenious extemporisation. The skill, and learning, and resource of the
true musician were never more conspicuously displayed.
We see no reason whatever why such a bright example should not be
followed; and, while we yield to no one in appreciation of the
pedal-organ, and of the music proper for it, we hold that the typical
organ of the village church has no concern with these, and that no
greater demand should be made upon the executive powers of its player
than that which is made in the acquirement of a pure _legato_ style at
the pianoforte or harmonium.
Second. "Why omit the Swell, the greatest improvement of modern organs?"
The Swell-organ proper owes its effectiveness to its reed stops, and
these are one and all excluded from our village organ by the fact that
they require the frequent attention of a tuner. We grant, however,
that reedy stops of the Gamba class might take their place in small
organs; and we admit that our organs, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, might be very
easily enclosed in swell boxes, while a "Swell" might take the place of
a "Choir" in No. 5. Such alterations would have many advocates, both
professional and amateur.
In adhering resolutely to our plans, we must express the opinion that
the judicious management of the Swell is a gift rather than an art.
It is but occasionally, we think, that refined taste is made evident
by a sparing use of the tempting contrivance. Too frequently, even in
churches of high class and pretension, the tone of the swell-organ,
with its mechanical rise and fall, prevails from the beginning to the
end of the performance, until the ear longs for relief. If the abuse of
the Swell be thus common even in town churches, is it well to trust
an apparatus which may be so easily misunderstood to the discretion of
players in village churches?
Moreover, our village organ is for the accompaniment of singers.
We believe that many musicians will endorse our opinion that as
an accompaniment for singers the Swell-organ is misleading and
unsatisfactory. An accurate ear will often detect a slight difference
of pitch in the pipes of a small Swell-organ when the shades are closed
or suddenly opened. We have repeatedly heard the voices of the men
and boys, even in very good choirs, thrown out of tune by injudicious
persistence in the use of the Swell as an accompaniment. The sense
of discomfort and uncertainty was removed at once when the player
transferred his hands to the Choir-manual, with its quiet and cheerful
brightness.
It is for these reasons, and not from any want of appreciation of the
effect of the Swell in the hands of an educated and gifted performer,
that we counsel our village friends to turn a deaf ear to the praises
of the Swell which will doubtless reach them from many quarters, and
to rest content with genuine organ-tone produced by means which do not
lend themselves to abuse.
A few words may be added for the guidance of those who find themselves
entrusted with the care of old instruments.
The eighteenth century witnessed the erection, in the churches of many
country towns, of noble organs, honestly constructed by true artists,
men who disdained the use of inferior timber or of base metal. A great
number of these costly and beautiful instruments remained unaltered,
or at least uninjured, within the recollection of the present writer,
but demolition rather than restoration has been at work during the last
thirty or more years, and the plea which we would put forward for the
reverent preservation of the works of old masters may now be opportune
in but few and isolated cases.
Nevertheless, if it should happen to any of our readers to discover in
a village church, or in that of some quiet market-town, an organ by
SNETZLER (1749), by his predecessors, or by his immediate successors,
ending with the ENGLANDS, father and son, we would earnestly counsel a
respectful treatment of the valuable contents.
An old picture may have long lain hidden in a lumber-room, with
its face to the wall; when brought into the light, and its merits
recognised by an expert, its possessor replaces the worm-eaten
stretcher and decayed frame by new wood, but he would indeed act
strangely if he permitted the house-painter to touch the precious
canvas with his brush.
Yet we have known many organs by the builders and of the period
indicated above, taken down and carted away; their pipes (in Snetzler's
case of nearly pure tin) sold for a trifling sum or thrown into the
melting-pot; and this wanton destruction has been justified on the
ground that the time is come for a "better instrument," that the old
organ is "screamy;" above all, that the belauded "Swell" is wanting.
Accordingly the modern builder meets the wishes of his customers
by providing an organ of the common-place type, and the reign of
Swell-coupler and Pedal Bourdon is duly inaugurated.
Surely a wiser course would have been this:--Carefully preserve every
pipe, and round out those which may be bruised by rolling them on
mandrils; insist on the inclusion of all these pipes without any
omission whatever in the new structure which the ravages of the worm
may have rendered inevitable; add to these original contents (if funds
permit) some modern ranks of pipes carefully voiced by an accomplished
artist to the same pressure of wind, and calculated to support and
balance the shrill high tones which the old organ doubtless contains;
repair the old case, and even retain the old key-board if possible.
No doubt, in towns, where a succession of skilled players may be
found, the addition of a Swell-organ and of a pedal-organ, both most
carefully designed, scaled, and voiced, cannot justly be disapproved.
The instrument, thus reinstated, will be a most interesting link with
the past; will supply in itself a history of the progress of the
organ-builder's art, and will possess an individuality of tone which
educated listeners will appreciate, and which they fail to perceive in
many or most of the organs erected in the present day.
INDEX.
Action. (_See_ KEYBOARD, PEDAL.)
Backfalls, 94
Bars of sound-board, 36
Bearers of ditto, 38
Bell-cranks, 129
Bellows, construction of, 73
Blacklead, 57
Blowing pedal and lever, 86
Boards, upper, 39
Borrowing in bass octave, 45, 145
Bourdon, 160
Brass, its employment, 63, 67
Bridge, 94, 157
Building-frame, 81
Buttons, leather, 96
Channels, 29
Choir-organ, 142
Clarabella, 25
Cloths, 96
Compass, of pedals, 135
Combination-manual, 159
Conducting-boards, 48
Conveyances, 51
Counter-balances for bellows, 78
Couplers, various kinds of, 152-157
Cuckoo-feeder, 79
Cummins, his invention, 75
Diapason, open, 44, 121
Diapason, stopped, 10
Dip of keys and of pedals, 103, 139
Drilling, 67
Double sound-boards, 112
Draw-stops, 127
Dulciana, 121
Engines, hydraulic, 79
Fan-frame, 101
Feeders, 79
Fifteenth, Flageolet, Flautina, 125
Flute, 125
Frame, building, 81
Gamba, 149
Gems-horn, 125
Great-organ, 147
Grooving, 45, 145
Key-boards, 102
Key movements, 97
Lathe, 5
Leather for pallets, 61
Manuals, 146
Manual and Pedal, their relation, 136, 139
Manual for combination, 159
Materials for sound-board, 7
Names of notes in scale, 10
Nicking. (_See_ VOICING.)
Organ, Old English, 25, 147
Pallets, 61
Pedal-organ, 136, 160
Pipes, wooden, 14, 23
metal, 117
lengths of, 11, 15
plantation of, 30, 99
Principal, 44, 121
Pull-downs, 69
Rack-boards, pins, 42
Reed-stops, 153
Regulation, 126
Ribs, inverted, 75
Roller-board, 96
Running of wind, 50, 55
Scales for pipes, 16
Sliders, 29
Sound-board, construction of, 39
Spitz-flute, 125
Springs for pallets, 63
Squares, 95
Stickers, 95
Stops, methods of drawing, 127
Sub-bass, 160
Swell-organ, box, 141, 150
Tablature, or nomenclature of notes, 10
Temperament, 125
Terzo Mano, 163
Trackers, 95
Trundles, wooden, iron, 131
Tuning, 126
Valves of bellows, 74, 77
Voicing pipes, metal and wooden, 120
Village Church Organs, 165
Wind-chest, 55
Wind-gauge, 122
Wind-trunks, 80
Wind-valve, or ventil, 162
Workshop, 2
THE END.
PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
Transcriber's Notes:
Bold type is shown as =strong=.
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Small capitals have been capitalised.
Illustrations have been moved out of mid-paragraph.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Punctuation has been retained as published.
'Fig 29.' has been added to the illustration on page 95.
End of Project Gutenberg's Practical Organ Building, by W. E. Dickson