Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/904

Rh 838 ORGAN Avery s The organ in St Stephen s, Coleman Street, is probably old Eng- nearly in its original condition. It was built by Avery in 1775. At all events the following arrangements might very well have been the original ones. The pedal clavier without pipes is no doubt a subsequent addition, and is omitted. Great. Sesquialtera in ranks. Open diapason. Stopped diapason. Principal. Twelfth. Fifteenth. Stopped diapason. Principal. Flute. Mixture n ranks. Trumpet. Clarion. Cornet to middle c V ranks. Choir. Fifteenth. Cremona to tenor c. Swell. Open diapason. Cornet in ranks. Stopped diapason. Trumpet. Principal. | Hautboy. Compass. Great and choir G T to c &quot;, Swell fiddle rj to c&quot;. no G, ft. i This gives an excellent idea of the old English organ. There are several different accounts of the introduction of Pedals in pedals into England. It took place certainly before the England. en d O f the 18th century, but only in a few instances. And, for long after, the usual arrangement was simply to provide a pedal clavier, usually from Fj or G : to tenor c or d, which took down the notes of the great organ. Unison diapason pipes (12 -foot) were occasionally used. In one or two cases, as in the transition states of the old organ at St George s, Windsor, a 24-foot open diapason was employed as well as the unison stop. But a more usual arrangement, of a most objectionable character, was to combine the G l c pedal -board with a single octave of so-called pedal -pipes, extending from the 16 -foot to the 8 -foot C ; so that, instead of a uniform progression in ascending the scale, there was always a break or repetition in passing C. About the middle of the present century it began to be generally admitted that the German arrangement of the pedal was the better, and the practice gradually became general of providing a complete pedal-board of 2| octaves (C / ), with at least one stop of 16-foot tone throughout, even on the smallest organs that pretended to be of any real use. The study of the classical works of Bach and Mendelssohn went hand in hand with this change; for that study was impossible without the change, and yet the desire for the study was one of the principal motives for it. In the meantime Bishop, an English builder, had invented composition pedals, which so greatly facilitate dealing with groups of stops. About the same time (1850) the mechanics of the organ were advanced by the general introduction of the pneumatic lever into large in struments ; the whole mechanism of the organ was revolu tionized by Willis s improvements ; and the organ-builders of England, having obtained from the Continent the funda mental ideas necessary for completeness, advanced to a point at which they appear to be decidedly ahead. The English organ is now probably superior to that of any other country. GENERAL REMARKS ON ORGAN TREATMENT. The organ probably presents more difficulties than any other instrument in the way of a sound elementary mastery. A person of ordinary capacity may work at it for years before being able to play passages of moderate difficulty with confidence and correctness. Element- The special difficulty appears to be chiefly mental, and arises from the culties. does not lie in the execution at least not chiefly ; for to play a hymn-tune correctly, the bass being taken with the pedals, the tenor with the left hand, and the two upper parts with the right, is a matter in which there is no execution required ; but it is of great difficulty to an inexperienced player. Other distributions of parts such as bass with pedals, treble with right hand on a solo stop (e.g., clarionet), two inner parts with a soft open diapason, or something of the kind are of much greater difficulty in the first instance. Another distribution is bass with pedals, melody with reed or solo combination in the tenor with left hand (an octave below its true pitch), inner parts with right hand on a soft open diapason, or something that balances. This is of far greater difficulty. All this can be practised with common hymn-tunes ; but the performer who can do these things with ease is in some respects an advanced player. What has been said above has much bearing on the arrangement Balance of the different departments of the organ. It is one of the first of tone. requisites that as many balances of tone as possible should be avail able between the different manuals and the pedal. How many large organs there are on which such a balance can hardly be obtained ! It would be difficult to lay too much stress on the above observa tions with respect to balance between the manuals. This is all- important in the performance of organ trios, such as the organ Trios, sonatas of Bach. In these compositions there are generally three notes sounding, which may be regarded as belonging to three dif ferent voices, of nearly equal strength, but different mean pitch, and, if possible, different quality ; of these one is appropriated by each hand and one by the pedal. They are written in three lines, and are intended to be played on two manuals and the pedal. If there is a good choir organ, not too weak in tone, the clearest way is to play these things with a medium strength open diapason on the great organ for the right hand, the full 8-foot choir with or with out the 4-foot flute with the left, and a metal 16-foot and 8-foot bass flute on the pedal. A usual course in England is to play the treble on a swell reed (oboe) with open swell, tenor on great diapason, and pedal as before ; or treble great diapason, tenor oboe, pedal as be fore. Here there is some risk of the reed in the tenor being un pleasant. We may also suggest harmonic flute solo treble, open diapason great tenor, pedal as before. These compositions, how ever, admit of infinite variety in treatment. It appears probable that they were written for harpsichords, and in any case the inten tions of the composer have not come down to us. As a matter of fact they are rarely successful on large English organs, on account of the want of balance between the manuals. And nothing could point the direction in which improvement is needed more than this observation. The fugues of Bach are the classical organ music par excellence. Bach s As to these it is also true that nothing has come down to us as organ to the composer s intentions, except that he generally played the fugues, fugues on the full organ with doubles. It does not seem clear that this was the case with the preludes ; and, any way, the modern organ, with its facilities for managing the stops, appears to coun tenance a different treatment. The effect of doubles when a subject or tune is given out in solo is very bad. They may be drawn with advantage when the parts are moving in massive chords. The usual practice is perhaps to employ various manual effects of a light char acter until the pedal enters, and then to produce full organ in its various modifications, but always to aim at variety of tone. If a prelude begins with heavy chords and pedal, then produce full organ at once. If it then passes to lighter matter, reduce to some extent. Some begin a fugue on the stopped diapason of the great organ, add more as the parts enter, and continue working up throughout. But perhaps it is the better practice to throw in loud organ during the pedal parts, and soften between times. One of the greatest requisites in organ-playing is dignity of treat- Dignity ment. This is continually competing with clearness. The chief and mode of keeping the different parts distinct, where that is neces- clear- sary, is by using reeds of a pronounced character. These reeds ness, almost invariably verge on the comic, and anything more tlmn the most sparing and careful employment of them is undesirable. Expression is not possible unless the stops are enclosed in a swell box, a most desirable arrangement. In all cases hurry is to be avoided. A calm steadiness, a minute finish of all the phrasing, forms most of the difference between first and second rate players. With reference to the general treatment of modern music we Modern quote the preface to Mendelssohn s Organ Sonatas: &quot;In these music, sonatas very much depends on the correct choice of the stops ; but, since every organ with which I am acquainted requires in this respect special treatment, the stops of given names not producing the same effect in different instruments, I have only indicated cer tain limits, without specifying the names of the stops. By for tissimo I mean the full organ ; by piamitttfio, usually one soft . 8-foot stop alone ; by forte, full organ without some of the most powerful stops ; by piano, several soft 8-foot stops together ; and so on. In the pedal I wish everywhere, even in pianissimo, 8-foot and 16-foot (tone) together, except where the contrary is expressly in dicated, as in the sixth sonata [this refers to a passage where an 8-foot pedal is used without 16]. It is therefore left to the player to combine the stops suitably for the different pieces, but particu larly to see that, in the simultaneous use of two manuals, the one keyboard is distinguished from the other by its quality, without forming a glaring contrast.&quot;
 * ry diffi- number of things that have to be thought of simultaneously. It