George Laing Miller

“ 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. ”

“ As knowledge of the Hope-Jones methods spreads, these coarse and unmusical stops disappear. He is without question right in urging that the chief aim in using heavy pressure should be to increase refinement, not power of tone. Sweet foundation tone produced from heavy wind pressure always possesses satisfactory power. He is also unquestionably right in his contention that when great nobility of foundation tone is required, Diapasons should not be unduly multiplied, but Tibias or large Flutes should be used behind them.
Every epoch-making innovation raises adversaries. ”

“ Joining in sports or games was out of the question for so sensitive and delicate a youth,—what more natural, therefore, than that he should become a dreamer—a thinker? Too ill for any real study, his musical instincts drove him to the organ, and we find him playing for occasional services at Eastham Parish Church at the age of nine. ”

“ On looking at the console of a modern organ the observer will be struck by the fact that the familiar draw-stop knobs 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-knobs 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. ”

“ Unfortunately, unprogressive builders are still adhering to this inartistic plan. It frequently leads to a player upsetting his Pedal combination when he has no desire to do so. It becomes impossible to use the combination pedals without disturbing the stops and couplers of the Pedal department.
The great English organist, W. T. Best, in speaking of this, instanced a well-known organ piece, Rinck's "Flute Concerto," which called for quick changes from the Swell to the Great organ and vice versa, and said that he knew of no instrument in existence on which it could be properly played. ”

“ In the last half-century the art of reed voicing has been entirely revolutionized. Prior to the advent of Willis, organ reeds were poor, thin, buzzy things, with little or no grandeur of effect, and were most unmusical in quality. Testimony to the truth of this fact is to be found in old instruction books for organ students. It is there stated that reeds should never be used alone, but that a Stopped Diapason or other rank of flue pipes must always be drawn with them to improve the tone quality. ”

“ The author's opinion that before long every new large organ will be built upon the Diaphone as a foundation, is shared by all who have had opportunity to judge. By no other means known to-day can anything approaching such grand and dignified Diapason tone be produced. Were twenty large Diapasons added to the instrument in Ocean Grove, N. J., or to that in the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, and were the Diaphone removed, the instrument would suffer most seriously. In the Pedal department no reed or flue pipe can begin to compare with a Diaphone, either in attack or in volume of tone. ”

“ If this plan be resorted to as an effort to make an insufficient number of stops suffice for a large building, it is bound to end in disappointment and cannot be too strongly condemned. On the other hand, if an organ-builder first provides a number stops that furnish sufficient variety of tonal quality and volume that is ample for the building in which the instrument is situated, and then arranges for the transference of a number of the stops to other manuals than their own, he will be adding to the tonal resources of the instrument in a way that is worthy of commendation. ”

“ His work in this direction has exercised a profound influence on organ building throughout the world, and leading builders in all countries are adopting his pressures or are experimenting in that direction.
Like most revolutionary improvements, the use of heavy pressures was at first vigorously opposed, but organists and acousticians are now filled with wonder that the old low-pressure idea should have held sway so long, in view of the fact that very heavy wind is employed for the production of the best tone from the human voice and from the various wind instruments of the orchestra. ”

“ It is safe to say that the art of organ building has advanced more during the last fifty years than in any previous three centuries. We are literally correct in saying that a veritable revolution has already been effected—and the end is not yet. ”

“ The next step would be to combine a set of flutes or shepherd's pipes with the wind reservoir of the bagpipes, placing a little slider under the mouthpiece of each pipe which could be opened or closed at will, so that they would not all speak at once. Then some genius steadied the wind pressure by pumping air into a reservoir partly filled with water. This was the so-called "hydraulic organ," which name has given rise to the impression that the pipes were played by the water passing through them—which is impossible. ”

“ A further and great step in advance appears in recent organs built by the Hope-Jones Organ Company. The position of the swell shutters is brought under the control of the organist's fingers as well as his feet. Each balanced swell pedal is provided with an indicator key fixed on the under side of the ledge of the music desk, where it is most conspicuous to the eye of the performer. As the swell pedal is opened by the organist's foot, the indicator key travels in a downward direction to the extent of perhaps one inch and a quarter. ”

“ The cycle of movement will then be repeated numerous times per second, with the result that a very pure foundation tone musical note will be produced.
The Diaphone is tuned like ordinary flue pipes and will keep in tune with them; the pressure of wind (and consequently the power of the tone) may be varied without affecting the pitch. The form of the pipe or resonator affects the quality of the tone; it may be flue-like or reedy in character, or even imitate a Pedal Violone, a Hard and Smooth Tuba, an Oboe, or a Clarinet. ”

“ In the middle of the last century all organs were voiced on light wind pressure, [3] mostly from an inch and a half to three inches. True, the celebrated builder, William Hill, placed in his organ at Birmingham Town Hall, England, so early as 1833, a Tuba voiced on about eleven inches wind pressure, and Willis, Cavaillé-Coll, Gray and Davison, and others, adopted high pressures for an occasional reed stop in their largest organs; yet ninety-nine per cent. of the organs built throughout the world were voiced on pressures not exceeding three and one-half inches. ”

“ The three-rank Celeste is also to be found in the organs of the Bennett Organ Company.
Apart from the inherent beauty of the tones there is much to be said in favor of the presence of these stops—if the organ is to be used as an adjunct to, or a substitute for, the orchestra. The whole orchestra is one huge and ever-varying "Celeste." Were it not so its music would sound dead and cold. Few of the instrumentalists ever succeed in playing a single bar absolutely in tune with the other components of the band. ”

“ The famous traditions of the firm in the field of reed-voicing and flue tone have been maintained by the present partners, who are both experienced voicers; and in general up-to-date mechanical details the firm is in the forefront of the English organ-building industry; as is evidenced by their recently obtaining the contract for the magnificent divided organ which they have now under construction (1913) for the enormous New Cathedral of Liverpool, the specification of which is here appended. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In 1907 the Hope-Jones Organ Co., Elmira, N. Y., commenced the construction of organs containing all these and other English improvements (Ocean Grove, N. J.; Buffalo Cathedral, N. Y.; New Orleans, La., etc.) .
The influence of the work already done by the aforenamed pioneers in this country is being manifested in a general improvement in organ tone and mechanism throughout the United States.
Musical men, hearing the new tones and musical effects now produced, realize for the first time the grandeur and refinement and amazing variety of musical effects that the organ is capable of yielding ”

“ Already most builders introduce a Celeste into their small organs and two or three into their larger instruments—whilst Hope-Jones' organs are planned with Vox Humana Celestes, Physharmonica Celestes, Kinura Celestes and even Mixture Celestes!
Most modern Celestes are tuned sharp, the effect being more animated than if it were tuned flat; but the aggregate effect and general utility of the stop are greatly enhanced by the use of two ranks of pipes, one being tuned sharp and the other flat to the organ pitch. ”

“ The organs in almost all parts of the world show the Hope-Jones influence. Few builders have failed now to adopt the leathered lip.
Wedgwood, in his "Dictionary of Organ Stops," pp. 44, 45, says:
"Mr. Ernest Skinner, an eminent American organ-builder, [2] likens the discovery of the leathered lip to the invention by Barker of the pneumatic lever, predicting that it will revolutionize organ tone as surely and completely as did the latter organ mechanism, an estimate which is by no means so exaggerated as might be supposed. ”

“ When the organ was a large one with many stops, and the keyboards were coupled together, it required considerable exertion to bring out the full power of the instrument; sometimes the organist had to stand on the pedals and throw the weight of his body on the keys to get a big chord. All kinds of schemes were tried to lighten the "touch," as the required pressure on the keys is called, the most successful of which was dividing the pallet into two parts which admitted a small quantity of wind to enter the groove and release the pressure before the pallet was fully opened ”

“ But the organists of the world have to thank Cavaillé-Coll chiefly for the assistance he gave Barker in developing the pneumatic lever, without which the present tonal system with its heavy wind pressures would have been impossible of attainment.
"Blest be the man," said Sancho Panza, "who first invented sleep! And what a mercy he did not keep the discovery to himself!" Joseph Booth, of Wakefield, England, put what he called a "puff bellows" to assist the Pedal action in the organ of a church at Attercliffe, near Sheffield, in 1827. ”

“ In the year 1894 John Turnell Austin, now of Hartford, Conn., took out a patent for an arrangement known as the "Universal air-chest." In this, the spring as opposed to the weight is adopted. The Universal air-chest forms a perfect solution of the problem of supplying prompt and steady wind-pressure, but as practically the same effect is obtained by the use of a little spring reservoir not one hundredth part of its size, it is questionable whether this Universal air-chest, carrying, as it does, certain disadvantages, will survive. ”

“ 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. ”