The Recent Revolution in Organ Building Part 3

OCTAVE COUPLERS.

In the days of mechanical action, couplers of any kind proved a source of trouble and added greatly to the weight of the touch. The natural result was that anything further than unison coupling was seldom attempted.

In some organs hardly any couplers at all were present.

In Schulze's great and celebrated organ in Doncaster, England, it was not possible to couple any of the manuals to the pedals, and (if we remember rightly) there were only two couplers in the whole instrument.

Shortly after the introduction of pneumatic action, an organ with an occasional octave coupler, that is a coupler which depressed a key an octave higher or lower than the one originally struck, was sometimes met with.

In the pioneer organ built by Hope-Jones in Birkenhead, England (about 1887), a sudden advance was made. That organ contains no less than 19 couplers. Not only did he provide sub-octave and super-octave couplers freely, but he even added a Swell Sub-quint to Great coupler!

Octave couplers are now provided by almost all builders.

Though condemned by many theorists, there is no doubt that in practice they greatly add to the resources of the instruments to which they are attached. We know of small organs where the electric action has been introduced for no other reason than that of facilitating the use of octave couplers, which are now a mere matter of wiring and give no additional weight to the touch.

Hope-Jones appears to have led in adding extra pipes to the wind-chest, which were acted upon by the top octave of the octave couplers, thus giving the organist a complete scale to the full extent of the keyboards. He made the practice common in England, and the Austin Company adopted it on his joining them in this country. The plan has since become more or leas common. This is the device we see specified in organ builders' catalogues as the "extended wind-chest," and explains why the stops have 73 pipes to 61 notes on the keyboard. An octave coupler without such extension is incomplete and is no more honest than a stop which only goes down to Tenor C.

[1] The researches of Dr. Gabriel Bedart, Professeur agrege Physiologie in the University of Lille, France, a learned and enthusiastic organ connoisseur, have brought to light the fact that the first tubular pneumatic action was constructed by Moitessier in France in 1835. It was designed upon the exhaust principle.

[2] Dr. Gauntlett's idea was to play _all_ the organs shown in the Great Exhibition in London, in 1851, from one central keyboard. He proposed to place an electro-magnet inside the wind-chest under each pallet, which would have required an enormous amount of electric current. The idea was never carried out. This plan seems also to have occurred to William Wilkinson, the organ-builder of Kendal, as far back as 1862, but, after some experiments, was abandoned. An organ constructed on similar lines was actually built by Karl G. Weigle, of Echterdingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, in 1870, and although not at all a success, he built another on the same principle which was exhibited at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. Owing to the powerful current necessary to open the Pallets, the contacts fused and the organ was nearly destroyed by fire on several occasions.

[3] Sir John Stainer, in the 1889 edition of his "Dictionary of Musical Terms," dismisses the electric action in a paragraph of four lines as of no practical importance. In that same year the writer asked Mr. W.

T. Best to come over and look at the organ in St. John's Church, Birkenhead, which was then beginning to be talked about, and he laughed at the idea that any good could come out of an electric action. He was a man of wide experience who gave recitals all over the country and was thoroughly acquainted with the attempts that had been made up to that time. He did not want to see any more electric organs.

[4] Console--the keyboards, pedals and stop action by which the organ is played; sometimes detached from the instrument.

[5] from Matthews' "Handbook of the Organ," p. 52 _et seq_.

[6] Organ built by the Ernest M. Skinner Co.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DR. ALBERT PESCHARD. Inventor of Electro-Pneumatic Action.]

Dr. Albert Peschard was born in 1836, qualified as an advocate (Docteur en droit), and from 1857 to 1875 was organist of the Church of St. Etienne, Caen, France. He commenced to experiment in electro-pneumatics in the year 1860, and early in 1861 communicated his discoveries to Mr. Barker. From that date until Barker left France, Peschard collaborated with him, reaping no pecuniary benefit therefrom.

Peschard, however, was honored by being publicly awarded the Medal of Merit of the Netherlands; the Medal of a.s.sociation Francaise pour l'Avancement de la Science; Gold Medal, Exhibition of Lyons; and the Gold Medal, Exhibition of Bordeaux. He died at Caen, December 23, 1903. (From Dr. Hinton's "Story of the Electric Organ.")

CHAPTER V.

STOP-KEYS.

On looking at the console of a modern organ the observer will be struck by the fact that the familiar draw-stop k.n.o.bs have disappeared, or, if they are still there, he will most likely find in addition a row of ivory tablets, like dominoes, arranged over the upper manual. If the stop-k.n.o.bs are all gone, he will find an extended row, perhaps two rows of these tablets. These are the _stop-keys_ which, working on a centre, move either the sliders in the wind-chest, or bring the various couplers on manuals and pedals on or off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 8. Console, Showing the Inclined Keyboards First Introduced Into This Country by Robert Hope-Jones]

We learn from Dr. Bedart that as early as 1804 an arrangement suggestive of the stop-key was in use in Avignon Cathedral. William Horatio Clarke, of Reading, Ma.s.s., applied for a patent covering a form of stop-key in 1877. Hope-Jones, however, is generally credited with introducing the first practical stop-keys. He invented the forms most largely used to-day, and led their adoption in England, in this country, and indeed throughout the world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 9. Console on the Bennett System, Showing Indicator Discs]

Our ill.u.s.tration (Fig. 8) gives a good idea of the appearance of a modern Hope-Jones console. The stop-keys will be seen arranged in an inclined semi-circle overhanging and just above the keyboards. Fig. 9 shows a console on the Bennett system. Figs. 10 and 11, hybrids, the tilting tablet form of stop-keys being used for the couplers only.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 10. Console of Organ in Trinity Church, Boston, Ma.s.s. Built by Hutchings Organ Co.]

There is much controversy as to whether stop-keys will eventually displace the older fashioned draw-k.n.o.bs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 11. Console of Organ in College of City of New York. Built by The E. M. Skinner Co.]

A few organists of eminence, notably Edwin H. Lemare, are strongly opposed to the new method of control, but the majority, especially the rising generation of organists, warmly welcome the change. It is significant that whereas Hope-Jones was for years the only advocate of the system, four or five of the builders in this country, and a dozen foreign organ-builders, are now supplying stop-keys either exclusively or for a considerable number of their organs. Austin, Skinner, Norman & Beard, Ingram and others use the Hope-Jones pattern, but Haskell, Bennett, Hele and others have patterns of their own. It is a matter of regret that some one pattern has not been agreed on by all the builders concerned.[1]

CONTROL OF THE STOPS.

In older days all stop-keys were moved by hand, and as a natural consequence few changes in registration could be made during performance.

Pedals for throwing out various combinations of stops were introduced into organs about 1809; it is generally believed that J. C. Bishop was the inventor of this contrivance.

Willis introduced into his organs pneumatic thumb-pistons about the year 1851. These pistons were placed below the keyboard whose stops they affected.

T. C. Lewis, of England, later introduced short key-touches arranged above the rear end of the keys of the manual. Depression of these key-touches brought different combinations of stops into use on the keyboard above which they were placed. Somewhat similar key-touches were used by the Hope-Jones Organ Co. and by the Austin Organ Co.

Metal b.u.t.tons or pistons located on the toe piece of the pedal-board were introduced by the ingenious Casavant of Canada. They are now fitted by various builders and appear likely to be generally adopted.

These toe-pistons form an additional and most convenient means for bringing the stops into and out of action.

At first these various contrivances operated only such combinations as were arranged by the builder beforehand, but now it is the custom to provide means by which the organist can so alter and arrange matters that any combination piston or combination key shall bring out and take in any selection of stops that he may desire. Hilborne Roosevelt of New York, was the first to introduce these adjustable combination movements.

The introduction of the above means of rapidly shifting the stops in an organ has revolutionized organ-playing, and has rendered possible the performance of the orchestral transcriptions that we now so often hear at organ recitals.

In order to economize in cost of manufacture, certain of the organ-builders, chiefly in America and in Germany, have adopted the pernicious practice of making the combination pedals, pistons or keys bring the various ranks of pipes into or out of action without moving the stop-k.n.o.bs.

This unfortunate plan either requires the organist to remember which combination of stops he last brought into operation on each keyboard, or else necessitates the introduction of some indicator displaying a record of the pistons that he last touched. In the organ in the Memorial Church of the 1st Emperor William in Berlin, the builder introduced a series of electric lights for this purpose. This device can be seen in use in this country.

When this plan is adopted the player is compelled to preserve a mental image of the combinations set on every piston or pedal in the organ and identify them instantly by the numbers shown on the indicator--an impossibility in the case of adjustable combinations often changed--impracticable in any case.

Almost all the greatest organists agree in condemning the system of non-moving stop-k.n.o.bs, and we trust and believe that it will soon be finally abandoned.

[1] Organists find, after using them a short time, that a row of stop-keys over the manuals is wonderfully easy to control. It is possible to slide the finger along, and with one sweep either bring on or shut off the whole organ.

CHAPTER VI.