Edward Francis Rimbault

“ I do not intend to follow the various steps that were made from time to time to bring nearer to perfection the rude instrument we have just seen; suffice it to say that the organ had its origin from these primitive attempts. If we admit this, which I think we must, what a marvel then, it is, that our glorious organ, with its myriads of pipes, its net-work of mechanical detail, its powerful wind apparatus, its array of stops, and its tiers of key-boards for hands and feet ”

“ It behoves us, then, to take a stand, to raise our voice and to proclaim to the world our right to occupy a certain position in society—a position from which at present we are excluded. And if, in some instances, this exclusion be not quite unjust, so much the more does it become our duty towards our profession and ourselves "to extend our knowledge on all subjects, especially those connected with our art, as the best means of internally strengthening ourselves to resist the external prejudice. ”

“ The more prudent, indeed, judged it but reasonable that the King should enjoy his own form of worship in his own chapel; but then followed a rumour, that the religious vestments and altars were to be forcibly introduced into all the churches, and the purity of religion, so long established in Scotland, for ever defiled. And it required the utmost efforts of the magistrates to restrain the inflamed passions of the common people." [24]
The organ introduced into the Chapel Royal of Edinburgh by James VI must have been a magnificent instrument. ”

“ We must not plead the nature of our forms of religious worship; for the countries I have named bear witness that Protestantism by no means tends to discourage the use or the improvement of the organ. Perhaps the cause of the evil is to be traced to our general indifference as regards musical matters, and more especially when in connection with religious worship. ”

“ Without further preface, I shall commence my subject, which may be considered as an "unwritten chapter" in the history of the organ.
We are sometimes inclined to overrate the progress of our own time in any branch of knowledge, and to believe that no previous age, nation or individual, has ever arrived at the same degree of development as ourselves. ”

“ Our friendship dates far back (some quarter of a century) , and during that time I have watched not only the growth of your talents and intellectual powers, but also your rise in the profession; first as organist of the comparatively humble College of S. Columba, Ireland; second, as organist, precentor and fellow of St. Peter's College, Radley; and finally to your present station as organist and choirmaster of the Cathedral of York—a post beyond which your fondest ambition can scarce advance. ”

“ That he does not do so, at present, is, I think, evident, from the way in which music is spoken of out of doors by our legislators and by many men eminent in literature—men, who, both from position and education, ought certainly to know better. Take, for instance, the late discussion in the House of Commons, in which musicians generally were spoken of as mere buffoons, public toys, little better in the scale of art than the strolling player or the conjuror! ”

“ The early history of the organ, I need scarcely tell you, is involved in great obscurity, and the more we attempt to investigate the facts that have come down to us, and to reconcile conflicting statements, the more perplexed does the subject appear.
As regards the origin of this noble instrument, we may safely assume it to have been the simple series of reeds of various lengths, blown into by the mouth of the performer at the upper ends, and known as the Pipes of Pan. The Greek and Latin shepherds made this primitive instrument of strong reeds, or some other suitable wood. ”

“ It had four hundred pipes, and twenty-six pair of bellows; but as it had no wind-chest this number was required to supply the unusually large number of pipes.
All doubts upon the matter, should any exist, may be set at rest by a perusal of Theophilus' valuable treatise upon the "Art of Organ Building," a work of the latter part of the eleventh century to which I was the first to call attention in my "History of the Organ." No one, after reading the worthy monk's curious directions for organ building, will question the primitive state of the art at this early period. ”

“ We are a body of musicians gathered together for one specific purpose, and bound by one common tie to advance as far as may be the honourable calling of Professor of Music, more especially as relates to the important office of organist, and to claim the proper recognition of his true position in society. ”

“ If each of these excellent artists would set up an organ in one of the halls belonging to either of the societies, they would have erected in their church that which, in the greatest number of excellencies, deserved the preference.
Smith, believing that he had received the order for the organ, felt, of course, much annoyed at the introduction of Harris on the scene. ”

“ A representation of the instrument, of this date, is still existing in York Cathedral; beneath the great niche over the west window, of which there is an organ carved in the pediment; the pipes appear without a case, and it has a single row of keys on which an angel is playing from a music-book held by two small boys or choristers below, while another is behind blowing the organ with a pair of common bellows. ”

“ That they cannot imagine how the Masters of the Inner Temple can pretend any ill Usage or Disrespect offered towards them, either tending to a Breach of Correspondence or Common Civility by the Act of Parliament of the Middle Temple, of the second of this Instant June, for that the Masters of the Middle Temple thereby only on their own parts, with the Concurrence of the Barristers and Students, declare their Judgments and Choise of Smith's Organ (not imposing but requesting) the Concurrence of the Inner Temple therein with all respect. ”

“ Mr. Arthur Ashpitel, a modern writer and archæologist, believes all this, and much more. He thinks it had "forty stops!" and after summing up his opinions, concludes with this remarkable passage:—"The instrument, therefore, would be the size of that magnificent one at St. Sepulchre's, Newgate Street!" [9]
Now I think that this lecture on the Early History of the Organ, is not without its use, if it only clears up some of these important points, about which clever and even scientific men are daily making mistakes. ”

“ Whereas the great organ consists of eight stops, namely, two diapasons, two principals, two fifteenths and two two-and-twentieths, one of which stops, and several pipes in the other, have been spoiled by Preston; finding by experience that when two unisons are together in an organ as two principals, two fifteenths, etc., that they never agree well together in time, and one stop of each sort is in a manner as loud as two of the same name ”

“ A considerable quantity of materials must, however, have been left, since, in the year following, the churchwardens sold off more than one hundred and forty pounds of old tin no doubt supplied by the organ pipes. [19]
In the list of Henry the Eighth's musical establishment, we find, under the date 1526, the name of "John de John, organmaker." Again, in the King's Household Book, May, 1531, a reward is paid to "Sir John the organ-maker": evidently the same person. Contemporary with him was Father Howe, of London, who tuned the organ in the choir in York Minster, in 1531, for twenty pence. ”

“ Ctesibius of Alexandria (who flourished according to the best accounts, about a century before Christ) , a great mechanic, is said to have made many improvements in the wind apparatus of the organ, but the descriptions of his labours that have been handed down to us are scarcely intelligible, and certainly would not repay the time and thought required to elucidate them. ”

“ As to the Price of the Organs, Smith the Organ-Maker, absolutely refuseth to set any Price upon his Organ, but offers to submit the same to the Judgment of the Treasures of both Societyes, or to such Artists as they shall choose, which their mastershippes cannot but think reasonable. ”

“ The slightest investigation into the progress of the science of music would alone aid us materially in drawing our conclusions, even without the valuable assistance of archæology; but when both are combined, we feel that we are treading on sure ground.
The organ described by Wulstan was a most primitive instrument, without registers or stops, of any kind, and unprovided with a key-board. Its compass is uncertain, but the only chromatic note it possessed was the B flat It had a set of rods or levers, in connection with the pipes ”

“ I shall now mention a few of the unrecorded organ builders who flourished in the first half of the seventeenth century. In the books of Magdalen College we find the names of Yorke, Bull, Bishop and Harris. The latter name, which first occurs in 1637, is very important. This builder was the grandfather of the celebrated Renatus Harris, the formidable rival of Father Smith. ”

“ One word more about John Coke, the "organ-player." He made himself useful to the Mayor, when there were no poor laws, in carrying out charitable objects. The Town Account Book of Lyme Regis has this entry, under the date 1553:—"John Coke found [i.e., provided with all necessaries] the poor children and the clerk." Let us hope that this was not a solitary instance of good feeling, and that worthy John Coke's example was not lost upon his brother organists of the neighbouring localities. ”

“ XI. Whether the great Organ-builder will condescend to submit his Organ to the same Scrutiny, which, all Artists of the same Profession do in all Countries? And if it be deny'd whether it will not give the World, and particular the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's reason to fear, that this Noli-me-tangere proceeds from some secret Cause? And to Question—
XII. Whether the Cupolo, or the Organ at St. Paul's, will be first finished? [4]
↑ At what time Smith was appointed royal organ-builder, I have not been able to discover. ”

“ In 1486, William Wotton, "orkyn maker," constructed a "pair of organs" for the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford, for the sum of twenty-eight pounds. Two years afterwards he repaired the organ, at a cost of forty shillings. In 1487 he entered into an agreement with the Warden of Merton College to make an organ "lyke unto the newe payr of organs of the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen," for the same sum. This instrument was to be finished by the vigil of Whitsuntide, 1489, and placed in the new roodloft of the chapel. ”

“ To obviate the fatiguing motion of the head or hands, by inflating the pipes in some other manner, seems to have been the object of desired attainment for centuries. At length this was accomplished. Among the Cicilian antiquities discovered in Syria, and recently brought to this country by Mr. W. B. Barker, is the portion of a figure playing upon a musical instrument of singular curiosity and interest. [1] This instrument, of which I have here a drawing, forms a connecting link between the pipes of Pan and the organ. ”

“ When speaking of a flight of stars we often say a pair of stars. We also have "a pair of steps"; so this ancient form of expression, although obsolete in most cases, is still in use at the present day.
This old expression has been a source of great vexation to archæologists, as well as to musical writers. Albert Way thought that the term had reference to the "double bellows." ”

“ Douce, that it referred to an instrument "with a double row of pipes." Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire, says, "a pair of organs was the term at that time when there were two kinds of organs, the one fixed and the other portable." A more recent writer, Mr. Ashpitel, enlarging upon this passage, adds, "a payre of organs consisted of two organs conjoined, with two sets of keys one above the other; one small, and called the choir, or more probably the chayre organ; and the other the great organ, built, as its name imports, on a large scale, and used in forte passages." ”

“ The relationship between the two Harrises is established by an entry in the Magdalen College books, in 1672, where Renatus Harris, being at Oxford, offers his services to repair the organ, "the rather because his grandfather made it at first, and he was sufficiently known to be as skilful an artist as any in England." ”

“ From this contract we learn that the builder was to include pipes of 5 feet and 8 feet length in his instrument; that he was to use "fyne metall of pure tyn" in their construction; and that he was to have as few "stopped" pipes as "may be convenient." The compass was to be three octaves and five notes, namely, from C below the bass staff to A above the treble staff. The number of stops is not stated, but the builder was to be allowed fifteen months for the completion of his labour, and the price was to be £50. ”

“ To mend all the pipes and conduits in both organs, and perfectly to voice and tune them, which, voicing shall be done after the modern, best and sweetest manner that either the work or proposer is capable of. ”

“ They are the shallowest thinkers, the worst informed on matters of general interest, and the poorest conversationalists the world produces. They are as circumscribed as the actor, and they have not that humoristic tendency which gives to the actor all the emphasis of his character. ”

“ Words are useless; it were better to leave him in the undisturbed possession of his own feelings. We have, however, the satisfaction of believing in the maxim of our immortal poet, that "such a man is not to be trusted;" ”

“ An organ builder flourished at the close of the sixteenth century, who, though his name is now forgotten, seems to have been extensively employed in his day—John Chappington. He appears to have built an organ for Westminster Abbey about 1596; at least we find him in that year selling the old organ of that Collegiate Church to the churchwardens of St. ”

“ As to the Numbering the organ Pipes and Stops, their Mastershippes think it below them to trouble themselves therein, because the Proposal can have no other ground than a Supposition of such Fraud in the Artist as is inconsistent with the credit of his Profession. ”