Church organ

“ Our old country churches were not built to contain a large organ ; there is no place for one, and therefore a chapel, often the only chapel, has been taken, to the destruction of the church's beauty and the great detriment of the organ's power. If the little Positive Organ, charming in appearance and excellent in tone, had been in vented earlier, many a lovely old church would have been spared from hideous defacement. In larger churches some kind of organ-loft should be built. Organ-pipes should be left their natural colour. ”

“ It is hardly necessary to remark that, during the performance on the organ, the wind-chest is filled by means of the bellows.
6. The structure of the organ is lofty, elegant, and majestic; and its solemnity, grandeur, and volume of tone, have obtained for it a pre-eminence over every other instrument for the sacred purposes to which it has been applied. The largest organ known is in St. Peter's Church, at Rome. It has one hundred stops.
7. The church organ was probably suggested by the water organ of the Greeks, which was invented [15] five or six hundred years before our era. ”

“ The organ rolls through them as solemnly as ever it did in the Abbey Church; but in mediaeval art so much more depends on the mass than on the measure—on the dignity than on the detail—that equivalents are impossible. ”

“ The Organ.—The present organ when first built in 1862 was placed in the north arm of the transept, where the previously used organ had stood; in 1877 it was moved to the north-east corner of the nave; and was again moved in 1882, being then placed where it now is. In 1885 it was enlarged by Lord Grimthorpe, and the key-board was placed at the south end, so that the organist might command a view of the choristers, whether they were singing in the nave or in the choir. It is considered a fine and powerful instrument, and no better position in the church could be found for it. ”

“ The organ blower may work in the organ loft of his parish church till the perspiration streams from his brow—no serious voice checks his labour, but should he dare take his accordion into the green fields, and there, with lighter labour, beguile away his Sunday morning or afternoon, immediately the reverend pastor, the pious churchwarden, the devout and stately beadle, the meek and humble pew opener, with a thunder-like chorus-voice shout after him, 'Sabbath-breaker, thy doom is hell.' This sentence is printed in small capitals on a little tract—this tract does great good. ”

“ The organ is finding its way rapidly into the Scottish kirks (how can the shade of John Knox endure a 'kist o' whistles' in good St. Giles?) , but it is not used yet in some of those we attend most frequently. There is a certain quaint solemnity, a beautiful austerity, in the unaccompanied singing of hymns, that touches me profoundly. I am often carried very high on the waves of splendid church music, when the organ's thunder rolls 'through vaulted aisles,' and the angelic voices of a trained choir chant the aspirations of my soul for me ”

“ The choir and chancel are ample in dimensions, the former being furnished with high cathedral-backed stalls, and the former ornamented with neatly-illuminated texts, the Ten commandments, &c., and over the communion-table the words—which it may be hoped, will be a faithful index to the ministry ever to be exercised in the church, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to him that believeth.” The organ is a borrowed instrument of very inferior quality, and which is shortly to be supplanted by one more adapted to the beautiful and spacious edifice. ”

“ A formal publication of the decree of the council, by laying-on of hands, in connection with prayer, is the last of the duties of this advisory body, which serves as the organ and assistant of the church. The laying-on of hands is appointed to be the regular accompaniment of ordination, as baptism is appointed to be the regular accompaniment of regeneration; while yet the laying-on of hands is no more the substance of ordination, than baptism is the substance of regeneration. ”

“ To the organ screen he gave back its original plainness, which made it rather an eyesore, as there was now no further screen in front of it, on the other side of the transept, as there had been when St. Nicholas’ altar stood at the east end of the nave. For the organ a new case was made after his design, which, without any removal of the instrument or parts of it, preserves the vista of the choir. In making a tunnel to connect the organ with its bellows in the crypt, many interesting discoveries were made. ”

“ Even when you know the precise locality of the church wherein is a quaint epitaph, it is not always easy to find the latter, as on one occasion I actually learnt from the clerk that an inscription that I had come a long way specially to{193} see for myself and to copy, had been covered over and hidden by a brand new organ! Matting you may move, even a harmonium, and I always do on principle, as I once made an interesting discovery by so doing; but an organ is a very different matter: not that I should have any scruples under the circumstances in moving an organ, if I could! ”

“ In church music, the organ is perhaps the first instrument to be considered. In 951, Elfeg, the Bishop of Winchester had built in his cathedral a great organ which had four hundred pipes and twenty-six pairs of bellows, to manage which seventy strong men were necessary. ”

“ Some to church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
Probably they do; but nobody goes to All Saints' for that purpose. No genuine hearty interest seems to be taken in the singing by anybody particularly. The choir move through their notes as if some of them were either fastened up hopelessly in barrels, or in a state of musical syncope; the organist works his hands and feet as well as he can with a poor organ; the members of the congregation follow, lowly and contentedly, doing their best against long odds and the parson sits still, all in one grand piece, and looks on. ”

“ Of all the parts of the body, the head is the principal organ. Hence the beginning of a thing is called the head. As the human nature of Jesus Christ is hypostatically united to the Divinity, He possesses the fulness of grace and communicates it to all the members of his mystic Body. Hence the Apostle says, "He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall also vivify your mortal bodies on account of the Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. viii. 1.) The Church is Christ's mystical Body, and his complement or perfection, the head being incomplete without the body ”

“ And what should hinder us from singing without an organ? When there were soldiers encamped near our town, they had neither church nor organ, and yet the service of the church was performed to them: we have a good minister, and that is the principal thing. ”

“ An organ has been given to the church, thanks to a generous layman; the choir march in procession to their places in the chancel, they do a respectable choral service, and of course turn eastward for their Creed. The parson looks thoroughly well after them, and loves them. There are regular week-day services, and a fair attendance on holy days, and the Sunday congregation is steadily increasing. ”

“ The notion of making the organ play pretty tunes and tickle the ear with the imitative sound of fancy stops never entered the heads of the German church musicians. The gravity and disciplined intelligence proper to the exercise of an ecclesiastical office must pervade every contribution of the organist. ”

“ Meantime, the big organ is booming and crashing and thundering away, doing its best to prove that it is the biggest and best organ in Europe, and that a tight little box of a church is the most favorable place to average and appreciate its powers in. ”

“ There [34] was a grand organ in the gallery at one end of the dining-hall, over the doorway; there was an organist, Mr. Glen, to accompany the hymn or psalm during the daily services before meat, consisting of a bit of Bible and a thanksgiving, the Grecians being pro-chaplains. There was a form of prayer read by any boy in the wards who was handy at bed-time, and a chapter selected at his option; but no teaching of the Scriptures or of the Church dogmas, if we may except the services at Christ Church on Sundays. There may have been such an appointment as chaplain to Christ’s Hospital ”

“ And in inventories of church furniture in the Middle Ages we find organs enumerated: [339] Not only the organ, but all instruments in common use, were probably also used in the celebration of divine worship. We meet with repeated instances in which David singing the psalms is accompanied by a band of musicians, as in the Saxon illumination on p. 272, and again in the initial letter of this chapter, which is taken from a psalter [Pg 286] of early thirteenth-century date in the British Museum (Harl. 5,102) . ”

“ The organ in public worship was, in truth, an “innovation.” The case against it was completely stated by J. W. McGarvey in the Millennial Harbinger for November, 1864: The organ is not merely an aid to singing, like hymnbooks or a tuning fork, or a convenient accessory to the church building, like a stove, but is a distinct and novel element in worship; no element in public worship is legitimate unless it is explicitly authorized in the New Testament; instrumental music is not so authorized ”

“ But again difficulties and objections became evident. An organ ought not to be on the damp floor, and it ought to be well elevated. Moreover, planted at the east end of an aisle, it did not support the congregation in their singing. ”

“ In the Catholic Church solo organ playing is less intrinsic; in fact it has no real historic or liturgic authorization and gives the impression rather of an embellishment, like elaborately carved choir-screens and rose windows, very ornamental and impressive, but not indispensable. But in the German system organ playing had become established by a sort of logic, first as an accompaniment to the people’s hymn—a function it assumed about 1600—and afterwards in the practice of extemporization upon choral themes. ”

“ The organ is blown by two small engines, driven by water; so that its music literally resolves itself into a question of wind and water. The tones of the instrument are good, and they are very fairly brought out by the present organist. The services are well got through, and whilst Puritanism is on the one hand avoided in them, Ritualism is on the other distinctly discarded. A medium course, which is the best, is observed in the church, and so long as Mr. ”

“ This organ was put up in Christ Church, in October, 1736.
Besides these four church organs, if that in Christ Church may be considered one, there were two large chamber organs, of English construction, one in Dr. Kirkland's church in Summer-street, and one in the Old Brick, Mr. Emerson's church, which stood where " Joy's Building" now stands. The former was imported by a respectable merchant of Boston, Mr. Nathan Frazier, for his own use. It had two rows of keys, and was, therefore, what we should consider a very large instrument for individual use. The organist was Mr. ”

“ The regular singers have their quarters at the north-eastern end, on the ground floor, and they acquit themselves with a very good grace. Near them is a small, poor-looking organ; it is played well, but its music is not very consolatory, and its tame, infantile appearance throws it quite out of keeping with the general excellence of the church. Some money has, we believe, been promised towards a new organ, and if somebody else would promise some more, a seemly-looking instrument might be obtained. ”

“ The sermon was preached by a visiting clergyman; who possessed a very good voice, but which, from some unfortunate peculiarity in its use, did not succeed in conveying to us at the other end of the church one single intelligible sentence. Apart from sundry not unmusical modulations—alternating with whispers—the whole was a blank even to our somewhat practised ear. The church has very grave acoustic defects, or the preacher equally grave defects in the management of his vocal organ. Accommodation is here provided for 1,000 persons. ”

“ XXXI. I believe, that the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is a true Sacrament, and I look upon it as one of the greatest Mysteries of Faith. And what gives me the more Veneration for it is, that the Heretics themselves are persuaded, that it was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe with St. Augustin and the whole Church, that this Sacrament consists of Two Things, viz. The visible Elements of Bread and Wine, and the invisible Flesh and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. For this Reason I adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist. By this Sacrament I understand the Body and Blood of our Lord. ”

“ As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me."
And so we pray in the Holy Eucharist: "Grant us, ... gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh, of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us."
It all speaks of a foretaste here, in a Sacrament, of what heaven shall give in its fullness.
The sanctuary tells us of heaven in another way. ”

“ The pope regarded as a man, irrespective of his office, is no more infallible than he is impeccable, or than is any Christian believer.
But the church as a body has her organs, and as a visible body she has visible organs, through which she teaches the truth she has received and expresses the life she lives. These organs are the bishops or pastors in communion with their visible head, the successor in the See of Rome of Blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. ”

“ As princes have themselves interred, just as they also reside, in several places at once, so would I, too--but only in this way, and no other: my stomach must be deposited in the Episcopal Church--my liver, with its bitter bladder, in a Court Church--the thick intestines in a Jewish oratory--the lungs in a mixed, [20] or, at least, a University Church--the heart in the church triumphant, and the spleen in a Dissenting Chapel. But if I were first funeral preacher of a crowned abdomen, I should take another course ”