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.

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.

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.

Lower Manual, or Choir Organ.

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).

Choir Organ (Lower or Upper).

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.