The Recent Revolution in Organ Building / Being an Account of Modern Developments

In the spring of 1903 Hope-Jones visited this country. At the instigation of Mr. R. P. Elliot, the organizer, Vice-President and Secretary of the Austin Organ Company, of Hartford, Conn., he decided to remain here and join that corporation, taking the office of Vice-president. Subsequently a new firm—Hope-Jones & Harrison—was tentatively formed at Bloomfield, N. J., in July, 1904, but as sufficient capital could not be obtained, Hope-Jones and his corps of skilled employees joined the Ernest M. Skinner Company, of Boston, Hope-Jones taking the office of Vice-president, in 1905. Working in connection with the Skinner Company, Hope-Jones constructed and placed a fine organ in Park Church, Elmira, N. Y., erected in memory of the late Thomas K. Beecher. He there met, as chairman of the committee, Mr. Jervis Langdon (Treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce, Elmira). That gentleman secured the industry for his city by organizing a corporation to build exclusively Hope-Jones organs.

This "Hope-Jones Organ Company" was established in February, 1907, the year of the financial panic. It failed to secure the capital it sought and was seriously embarrassed throughout its three years' existence. It built about forty organs, the best known being the one erected in the great auditorium at Ocean Grove, N. J.

The patents and plant of the Elmira concern were acquired by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. in April, 1910, and Mr. Hope-Jones entered its employ, with headquarters at its mammoth factory at North Tonawanda, N. Y., continuing to carry on the business under his own name.

Robert Hope-Jones is a member of the British Institute of Electrical Engineers; of the Royal College of Organists, London, England; of the American Guild of Organists; and of other bodies.

In 1893 he married Cecil Laurence, a musical member of one of the leading families of Maid stone, England. This lady mastered the intricacies of her husband's inventions, and to her help and encouragement in times of difficulty he attributes his success.

We suppose that the reason "history repeats itself" is to be found in the fact that human nature does not vary, but is much the same from generation to generation. From the Bible we learn that one Demetrius, a silversmith of Ephesus, became alarmed at the falling off in demand for silver shrines to Diana, caused by the preaching of the Apostle Paul, and called his fellow craftsmen together with the cry of "Our craft is in danger," and set the whole city in an uproar. (Acts xix-24.)

In the year 1682 a new organ was wanted for the Temple Church in London, England, and "Father" Smith and Renatus Harris, the organ-builders of that day, each brought such powerful influence to bear upon the Benchers that they authorized both builders to erect organs in the church, one at each end. They were alternately played upon certain days, Smith's organ by Purcell and Dr. Blow, and Harris' organ by Baptist Draghi, organist to Queen Catherine. An attempt by the Benchers of the Middle Temple to decide in favor of Smith stirred up violent opposition on the part of the Benchers of the Inner Temple, who favored Harris, and the controversy raged bitterly for nearly five years, when Smith's organ was paid for and Harris' taken away. This is known in history as "The Battle of the Organs." In the thick of the fight one of Harris' partisans, who had more zeal than discretion, made his way inside Smith's organ and cut the bellows to pieces.

In 1875-76 the organ in Chester Cathedral, England, was being rebuilt by the local firm of J. & C. H. Whiteley. The London silversmiths took alarm at the Cathedral job going to a little country builder and got together, with the result that, one by one, Whiteleys' men left their employ, tempted by the offer of work at better wages in London, and had there not been four brothers in the firm, all practical men, they would have been unable to fulfil their contract. The worry was partly responsible for the death of the head of the firm soon after.

All this sounds like a chapter from the dark ages, of long, long ago, and we do not deem such things possible now.

But listen! In the year 1895 what was practically the first Hope-Jones electric organ sold was set up in St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, England.

The furor it created was cut short by a fire, which destroyed the organ and damaged the tower of the church. With curious promptitude attention was directed to the danger of allowing amateurs to make crude efforts at organ-building in valuable and historic churches, and to the great risk of electric actions. Incendiarism being more than suspected, the authorities of the church ordered from Hope-Jones a similar organ to take the place of the one destroyed.

About the same time a gimlet was forced through the electric cable of a Hope-Jones organ at Hendon Parish Church, London, England. Shortly afterwards the cable connecting the console with the Hope-Jones organ at Ormskirk Parish Church, Lancashire, England, was cut through. At Burton-on-Trent Parish Church, sample pipes from each of his special stops were stolen.

At the Auditorium, Ocean Grove, N. J., an effort to cripple the new Hope-Jones organ shortly before one of the opening recitals in 1908 was made. And in the same year, on the Sunday previous to Edwin Lemare's recital on the Hope-Jones organ in the First Universalist Church, Rochester, N. Y., serious damage was done to some of the pipes in almost each stop in the organ.

Robert Hope-Jones died at Rochester, N. Y., on September 13, 1914, aged 55 years, and was interred at Elm Lawn Cemetery, No. Tonawanda, near Niagara Falls, N. Y.

Since his association with the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in April, 1910, they have built under his personal supervision the organs in the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia; the rooms of the Ethical Culture Society, New York; and amongst others the unit orchestras in the Vitagraph Theatre, New York; the Crescent Theatre, Brooklyn; the Paris Theatre, Denver, Colo.; the Imperial Theatre, Montreal; and the Pitt Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pa., which last Hope-Jones considered his chef d'oeuvre.

[1] Dr. W. C. Carl, of New York, who is well acquainted with these instruments, considers the one in Notre Dame to be better than St. Sulpice and more representative of Cavaillé-Coll's work, even if a little smaller. We therefore give that specification, page 157.

[2] Exhaust tubular pneumatic had been practically applied in France as early as 1849 and pressure tubular pneumatic in 1867. See page 23.

[3] "Dictionary of Organ Stops," p. 44 and elsewhere.

NOTE.—This book has been translated into French, and published with annotations by Dr. G. Bédart, Professor Agrégé à la Université de Lille, France, under the title of "Révolution Récente dans la Facture d'Orgue." Lille: Librairie Générale Tallandier, 5, Rue Faidherbe. Prix net 4 Fr.

CHAPTER XIV.

HOW WE STAND TO-DAY.

Looking backward over the field we have traversed we find that the modern organ is an entirely different instrument from that of the Nineteenth Century.

Tracker action, bellows weights, the multitude of weak, drab-toned stops, have disappeared, and in their place we have stops of more musical character, greater volume, under perfect and wide control; new families of string and orchestral tones; great flexibility, through transference of stops; an instrument of smaller bulk than the old one, but yet of infinitely greater resources.

In his "Handbook of the Organ" (page 24), J. Matthews says: "There can be no finality in organ building. Whilst the violin fascinates by its perfection, the organ does so no less by its almost infinite possibilities, and modern science is fast transforming it into a highly sensitive instrument. The orchestral effects and overwhelming crescendos possible from such organs as those described in this work, 'double touch,' new methods of tone production, such as the Diaphone, the ease with which all the resources of a powerful instrument can now be placed instantaneously at the performer's command are developments of which Bach and Handel never dreamed."

And the modern tendency of the best builders is to make the organ still more orchestral in character, by the addition of carillons and other percussion stops.

The late W. T. Best, one of the finest executants who ever lived, stated to a friend of the writer who asked him why he never played the Overture to Tannhauser, that he considered its adequate rendition upon the organ impossible, "after having had the subject under review for a long time." Nowadays many organists find it possible to play the Overture to Tannhauser; the writer pleads guilty himself. Dr. Peace played it at the opening of Mr. White's organ at Balruddery and stated that he found the fine string tones it contained of peculiar value for Wagnerian orchestral effects. Dr. Gabriel Bédart says that music ought to be specially written for these new instruments.

While we associate the organ chiefly with its use in Church services, a new field is opening up for it in Concert Halls, Theatres, Auditoriums, College and School Buildings, Ballrooms of Hotels, Public Parks and Seaside Resorts, not as a mere adjunct to an orchestra but to take the place of the orchestra itself. The Sunday afternoon recitals in the College of the City of New York are attended by upwards of 2,500 people, many hundreds being unable to gain admittance; and the daily recitals at Ocean Grove during July and August, 1909, reaped a harvest of upwards of $4,000 in admission fees. Organs have been installed in some of the palatial hotels in New York and other cities, and one is planned for an ocean pier, where the pipes will actually stand under sea level, the sound being reflected where wanted and an equable temperature maintained by thermostats.

Organists have found it necessary to make special study of these new instruments, and the University of the State of New York has thought the matter of sufficient importance to justify it in chartering the "Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra School" as an educational institution.

Our review would be incomplete without some mention of

AUTOMATIC PLAYERS.

When one listens to the Welte-Mignon Piano Player, it seems difficult to believe that a skilled artist is not at the keyboard performing the music.

The exact instant of striking each note and the duration during which the key is held are faithfuly recorded and reproduced with absolute accuracy, and a pretty close approximation to the power of blow with which each key is struck is obtained.

The first of these, that is, the time and duration of the note, is directly recorded from the artist who plays the piece to be reproduced. The second of these, that is, the power of tone, is subsequently added to the record either by the artist himself or by musicians who have carefully studied his manner of playing.

The result of this is a very faithful reproduction of the original performance.

In the case of the organ, the pressure with which the keys are struck does not need to be recorded or reproduced, but instead of this, we have to operate the various stops or registers and the various swell shades if we would obtain a faithful reproduction mechanically of the piece of music played by an artist on the organ.

Automatic Players are attached to many pipe organs. They, for the most part, consist of ordinary piano players so arranged that they operate the keys, or the mechanism attached to the keys, of an organ.

This is a very poor plan, and the resulting effect is thoroughly mechanical and unsatisfactory. Only one keyboard is played upon at a time as a rule, and neither the stops nor the pedals, nor the expression levers are operated at all.

The Aeolian Company, of New York, effected an improvement some years ago when they introduced what they term the double tracker bar. In this case, the holes in the tracker bar are made smaller than usual and they are staggered--or arranged in two rows. Every evenly numbered hole is kept on the lower row, and the oddly numbered holes are raised up to form a second row.

Provided the paper be tracked very accurately, and be given careful attention, this plan adopted by the Aeolian Company allows of two manuals of an organ being played automatically; but still the stops and expression levers are left to be operated by hand.

More recently a plan has been brought out by Hope-Jones that provides for the simultaneous performance of music upon two manuals and upon the pedals--each quite independent of the other. It also provides for the operation of all the stops individually in a large organ, and for the operation of the expression levers.

A switch is furnished so that when desired the stops and expression levers may be cut off and left to be operated by hand. The Hope-Jones Tracker Bar has no less than ten lines of holes--it is, of course, correspondingly wide.

We look for a great development in the direction of organs played by mechanical means.

The piano player has done a very great deal to popularize the pianoforte and in the same way it is believed that the automatic player will do a very great deal to popularize the organ.

Many people who cannot play the organ will be induced to have them in their homes if they knew that they can operate them at any time desired, even in the absence of a skilled performer.

We now give specifications of some of the most notable organs of the world, all of which have been built or rebuilt since the year 1888, and embody modern ideas in mechanism, wind pressures, and tonal resources. First in the writer's estimation comes the

ORGAN IN ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LIVERPOOL, ENG.

This noble instrument was built by Henry Willis to the specification of Dr. S. S. Wesley, by whom it was opened on the 29th and 30th of May, 1855. The writer made its acquaintance in 1866, when it was tuned on the unequal temperament system. In 1867 Mr. Best succeeded in getting it re-tuned in equal-temperament, several improvements were made, and the wind pressure on four of the reed stops on the Solo organ increased from 9 1/2 inches to 22 inches. In 1898 the organ was thoroughly rebuilt with tubular pneumatic action in place of the Barker levers. The compass of the manuals was changed from GG--a³ to CC--c⁴,[1] five octaves, and the pedals were carried up to g--33 notes. A Swell to Choir coupler was added (!) and various changes made in the stops, the Vox Humana transferred from the Swell to the Solo organ, and two of the Solo wind-chests were enclosed in a Swell-box. We note that the Tubas are still left outside. The cast-iron pipes of the lowest octave of the 32-ft. Double Open Diapason on the Pedal organ were replaced by pipes of stout zinc, and four composition pedals added to control the Swell stops.

Keyboards of Organ in St. George's Hall, Liverpool.
Two Rows of Stops at Left Omitted

The following is the specification of the organ as it now stands, in its revised form:

In addition to these coupling movements there are other accessories, consisting of 36 pneumatic pistons, 6 to each manual, and 12 acting upon the Pedal stops. There are also 6 composition pedals acting upon the "Great" and "Pedal" stops simultaneously, and 4 pedals acting upon the Swell organ pistons. The Swell and Solo organs are each provided with tremulants.

Two large bellows in the basement of the Hall, and blown by two steam engines of 8 h.p. and 1/2 h.p. respectively, supply the wind, which passes from the bellows to 14 reservoirs in various positions in the instrument, the pressure varying from 3 1/2 to 22 inches.

ORGAN IN THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE-DAME, PARIS, FRANCE.

The ancient organ in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris was built in the reign of Louis XV by Thierry Leselope and the best workmen of his time. In the Eighteenth Century repairs and additions were made by the celebrated Cliquot. Further repairs were made by Dalsey from 1832 to 1838, and in 1863 the French Government confided the complete reconstruction of the instrument to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. He spent five years over the work, and the new organ was solemnly inaugurated on the 6th of March, 1868.

Keyboards, Cathedral Notre Dame, Paris

It will be noticed that this illustration is not a photograph, but a wood engraving, drawn by hand, and the artist was evidently not a musician--he only shows 38 keys on each manual; there should be 56.

It stands in a gallery over the west door of the Cathedral. It has five manuals of 56 notes each, CC to g³, pedal of 30 notes, CCC to F; 86 sounding stops "controlled by 110 registers"; 32 combination pedals, and 6,000 pipes, the longest being 32 feet. The action is Cavaillé-Coll's latest improvement on the Barker pneumatic lever. The wind reservoirs contain 35,000 litres of compressed air, fed by 6 pairs of pompes furnishing 600 litres of air per second. Here is the specification:

The printed specification kindly furnished to us by Dr. William C. Carl, of New York, who obtained it specially from Mr. Charles Mutin, of Paris, Cavaillé-Coll's successor in business, is not clear on the matter of couplers. Apparently all the manuals can be coupled to the Grand Choeur; the Grand Orgne and the Grand Choeur to the Pedals; and each manual has a suboctave coupler on itself. One of the combinations to the Pedal organ is designated, "Effets d'orage"--a thunder stop.

The organ was completely overhauled and renovated by Cavaillé-Coll shortly before his death (in 1899) and the stops marked * were inserted in the Swell (Recit Expressif) in place of others. The inauguration announcement states that it is one of the largest and most complete in Europe, and that independently of the perfection of the mechanism it possesses a power and variety of tone hitherto unknown in organ building, and now only realized for the first time. It is undoubtedly Cavaillé-Coll's finest work, and a lasting monument to his genius.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL ORGAN, LONDON, ENG.

The old organ in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on which Sir John Goss played, and which had felt the magic touch of Mendelssohn, had 13 stops on the Great, 7 on the Swell, 8 on the Choir and only one on the Pedal. It stood in a case on the screen between the choir and the nave of the Cathedral. We have noted elsewhere in this book how Willis had this screen removed, and rebuilt the organ on each side in 1872. In 1891 it was rebuilt in its present form as noted below. The writer first saw and heard this organ in 1873, and never failed, on his frequent visits to London in later years, to attend a service in St. Paul's Cathedral, where there are two choral services daily all the year round. No summer vacations here. The effect of the Tuba ringing up into the dome is magnificent. Willis looked upon this organ as his chef d' oeuvre, saying "There is nothing like it in the whole world!"

The Great organ is situated on the north side of the chancel. The Swell and Choir organs are on the south side. The Solo organ and one-third of the Pedal organ are under the first arch on the north side of the chancel. The Altar organ, which can be played through the Solo organ keys, is under the second arch on the north side of the chancel. The remaining two-thirds of the Pedal organ and three Tuba stops occupy the northeast quarter gallery in the dome. The keyboards are on the north side of the chancel, inside the organ case, and can be seen from the "whispering gallery." There are five manuals, CC to c³, 61 notes; pedals CCC to g, 32 notes.

The mechanism is entirely new. The quarter dome portion of the organ is playable by electric agency; the rest being entirely pneumatic. There are one hundred draw-stops. The most novel features are the new Altar and Tuba organs. The former, containing Vox Humana, Vox Angelica (3 ranks), and two Gambas (16 and 8 feet) serves for distant and mysterious effects and to support the priest while intoning at the altar; while the Tuba organ produces effects of striking brilliancy; three of the Tubas being located in the northeast quarter-gallery and speaking well into the body of the building. Among the accessories, also, may be noted the large supply of adjustable combination pistons, which bring the various sections of the instrument well under the player's control. Various wind pressures are employed, from 3 1/2 to 25 inches.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY ORGAN, LONDON, ENG.

All good Americans when they visit London go to Westminster Abbey, and will be interested in the organ there; in fact we believe it was largely built with American money. The house of William Hill & Son, who built this organ, is the oldest firm of organ-builders in England, being descended from the celebrated artist, John Snetzler, whose business, founded in 1755, passed into the possession of Thomas Elliot, and to his son-in-law, William Hill (inventor of the Tuba), in the earlier part of the Nineteenth Century. The business has been in the Hill family nearly a hundred years and is now directed by William Hill's grandson. The firm has built many notable instruments in Great Britain and her colonies (Sydney) celebrated for the refinement and purity of their tone.

The Console, Westminster Abbey

The organ in Westminster Abbey is placed at each side of the choir screen, except the Celestial organ, which is placed in the triforium of the south transept (Poets' Corner) and connected with the console by an electric cable 200 feet long. The form of action used is Messrs. Hill's own, and the "stop-keys" therefor (made to a pattern suggested by Sir Frederick Bridge) will be seen in the picture to the left of the music desk. Note that this organ can be played from two keyboards. The main organ has pneumatic action throughout. It was commenced in 1884, added to as funds were available, and finished in 1895. The specification (containing the additions made in 1908-9) follows:

In 1908-1909 the organ was refitted throughout with William Hill & Sons' latest type of tubular pneumatic action (excepting the Celestial organ, for which the electric action was retained), an entirely new console was provided, a large-scale Open Diapason added to the reed soundboard of the Great organ, and several additions made to the couplers and combination pistons.

William Hill & Sons are also the builders of the organ in the Town Hall, Sydney, Australia, once the largest in the world; it has 126 speaking stops. It may be looked upon as the apotheosis of the old style of organ-building, with low pressures, duplication, and mixtures. The highest pressure used is 12 inches and there are no less than 45 ranks of mixtures which were characterized by Sir J. F. Bridge as being "like streaks of silver." The writer saw this organ in the builder's factory in London before it was shipped to Sydney. A unique novelty was the Contra Trombone on the Pedal of 64 feet actual length. The bottom pipes were doubled up into three sections and the tongue of the reed of the CCCCC pipe was two feet long. Although almost inaudible when played alone this stop generated harmonics which powerfully reinforced the tone of the full organ. The organ is inclosed in a case designed by Mr. Arthur Hill after old renaissance examples.