The Recent Revolution in Organ Building Part 13

Elliston in his book on Organ Construction devotes considerable s.p.a.ce to a description of the organs built by Hope-Jones in England and Scotland, and says: "The Hope-Jones system embraces many novelties in tone and mechanism."

Matthews, in his "Handbook of the Organ," referring to the Hope-Jones instruments, says:

"In his electric action Mr. Hope-Jones sought not only to obtain a repet.i.tion of the utmost quickness, but also to throw the reeds and other pipes into vibration by a 'percussive blow,' so to speak; being in this way enabled to produce certain qualities of tone un.o.btainable from ordinary actions. Soundness and smoothness of tone from the more powerful reeds, and great body and fullness of tone as well as depth from the pedal stops, are also noticeable features in these organs."

Ernest M. Skinner, of Boston, used the following words: "Your patience, research and experiment have done more than any other one agency to make the modern organ tone what it is. I think your invention of the leathered lip will mean as much to organ tone as the Barker pneumatic lever did to organ action, and will be as far-reaching in its effect.

"I believe you were the first to recognize the importance of a low voltage of electric action, and that the world owes you its thanks for the round wire contact and inverted magnet.

"Since I first became familiar with your work and writing I have found them full of helpful suggestions."

At first Hope-Jones licensed a score of organ-builders to carry out his inventions, but as this proved unsatisfactory, he entered the field as an organ-builder himself, being liberally supported by Mr. Thomas Threlfall, chairman of the Royal Academy of Music; J. Martin White, Member of the British Parliament, and other friends.

It was, perhaps, too much to expect that those who had so far profited from Hope-Jones' contracts and work should remain favorably disposed when he became a rival and a compet.i.tor.

For nearly twenty years he has met concerted opposition that would have crushed any ordinary man--attacks in turn against his electrical knowledge, musical taste, voicing ability, financial standing, and personal character. His greatest admirers remain those who, like the author, have known him for thirty years; his greatest supporters are the men of the town in which he lives; his warmest friends, the a.s.sociates who have followed him to this country after long service under him in England.

Long before Hope-Jones reached his present eminence, and dealing with but one of his inventions, Wedgwood, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a learned student of organ matters, cla.s.sed him with Cavaille-Coll and Willis, as one whose name "will be handed down to posterity"--the author of most valuable improvements.[3]

Early in his organ-building career, Hope-Jones had the good fortune to meet J. Martin White, of Balruddery, Dundee, Scotland. Mr. White, a man of large influence and wealth, not only time and again saved him from financial shipwreck and kept him in the organ-building business, but rendered a far more important service in directing Hope-Jones'

efforts toward the production of orchestral effects from the organ.

Mr. White, in spite of his duties as a member of the British Parliament, and in spite of the calls of his business in Scotland and in this country, has managed to devote much time and thought to the art of organ playing and organ improvement.

Thynne, who did pioneer work in the production of string tone from organ pipes, owes not a little to Martin White; while Hope-Jones a.s.serts that he derived all his inspiration in this field from listening to the large and fine organ in Mr. White's home.

Mr. White argued that the Swell Organ should be full of violin tone and be, as the strings in the orchestra, the foundation of accompaniment as well as complete in themselves. He lent to Hope-Jones some of his "string" pipes to copy in Worcester Cathedral, whence practically all the development of string tone in organs has come. Mr. White further urged that the whole organ should be in swell boxes.

It is extraordinary that an outsider like Mr. White, a man busy in so many other lines of endeavor, should exert such marked influence on the art of organ building, but it remains a fact that but for his artistic discernment and for the encouragement so freely given, the organ would not to-day be supplanting the orchestra in theatres and hotels, nor be what it is in the churches and halls.

Mr. White has for nearly thirty years helped, enthused and encouraged, not only artistic organ-builders like Ca.s.son, Thynne, Hope-Jones and Compton, but also the more progressive of the prominent organists.

All honor to Martin White!

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 embarra.s.sed 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 Inst.i.tute 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 prompt.i.tude 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 a.s.sociation 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 Cavaille-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. Bedart, Professor Agrege a la Universite de Lille, France, under the t.i.tle of "Revolution Recente dans la Facture d'Orgue." Lille: Librairie Generale Tallandier, 5, Rue Faidherbe.

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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 mult.i.tude 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.