Robert Hope-Jones
There were nine children of the marriage—two girls and seven boys. Robert appeared on the ninth of February, 1859. He inherited in exaggerated degree his mother's highly strung nervous nature. Melancholy, weak and sickly as a child, he was not expected to live. To avoid the damp and cold of English winters he was periodically taken to the south of France. Deemed too delicate for school, a private tutor was provided. 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. After his father's death, when he was about fourteen, he spent a couple of years in irregular attendance at school, and at the time of his confirmation was persuaded that by superhuman effort of will his physical disabilities might be disregarded and a life of some value be worked out. Then began the desperate struggle that gradually overcame every obstruction and resulted in the establishment of an iron will and determination to succeed that no misfortunes have been able to quell. His want of health greatly interfered with his career till he was nearly thirty years of age.
When fifteen he became voluntary organist and choir-master to the Birkenhead School Chapel. Two or three years later he simultaneously held a similar office at St. Luke's Church, Tranmere, where he trained a boy choir that became widely celebrated. For this Church he bought and set up a fine organ. He subsequently served as Churchwarden and was active in many other Church offices. He erected an organ in the Claughton Music Hall and organized and conducted oratorio performances in aid of various Church funds; training a large voluntary chorus and orchestra for the purpose. For Psalms whose verses are arranged in groups of three, he wrote what he called "triple chants"—a form of composition since adopted by other Church writers; he also composed Canticles, Kyries and other music for the services of the Church.
Though St. Luke's Church was situated in a poor neighborhood, the men and boys forming his choir not only gave their services but also gratuitously rang the Church bell, pumped the organ bellows, bought all the music used at the services, paid for the washing of the surplices and helped raise money for the general Church fund. Hope-Jones' enthusiasm knew no bounds and he had the knack of imparting it to those who worked under him.
So earnest and energetic was this young man that in spite of indifferent health and without at once resigning his work at St. Luke's, he became choirmaster and honorary organist of St. John's Church, Birkenhead, doing similar work in connection with that institution. He trained both the latter-named choir together, and the writer (whose son was in St. John's choir) frequently assisted him by playing the organ at the services on Sunday. It was at this Church and in connection with this organ that Hope-Jones did his first great work in connection with organ-building. The improved electric action, movable console and many other matters destined to startle the organ world, were devised and made by him there, after the day's business and the evening's choir rehearsals. He had voluntary help from enthusiastic choirmen and boys, who worked far into the night—on some occasions all night. Certain of these men and boys are to-day occupying responsible positions with the Hope-Jones Organ Company.
All this merely formed occupation for his spare time. About the age of seventeen he began his business career. He was bound apprentice to the large firm of Laird Bros., engineers and shipbuilders, Birkenhead, England. After donning workman's clothes and going through practical training in the various workshops and the drawing office, he secured appointment as chief electrician of the Lancashire and Cheshire (afterwards the National) Telephone Company. In connection with telephony he invented a multitude of improvements, some of which are still in universal use. About this time he devised a method for increasing the power of the human voice, through the application of a "relay" furnished with compressed air. The principle is now utilized in the best phonographs and other voice-producing machines. He also invented the "Diaphone," now being used by the Canadian Government for its fog signal stations and declared to be the most powerful producer of musical sound known (in a modified form also adapted to the church organ).
About 1889 he resigned his connection with the telephone company in order that he might devote a greater part of his attention to the improvement of the church organ, a subject which, as we have seen, was beginning to occupy much of his spare time. He had private practice as a consulting engineer, but gradually his "hobby"—organ building—crowded out all other employment—much to his financial disadvantage and to the gain of the musical world.
His organ at St. John's Church, Birkenhead, became famous. It was visited by thousands of music lovers from all parts of the world. Organs built on the St. John's model were ordered for this country (Taunton, Mass., and Baltimore, Md.), for India, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, France, Germany, Malta, and for numbers of English cathedrals, churches, town halls, etc. Nothing whatever was spent on advertisement. The English musical press for years devoted columns to somewhat heated discussion of Hope-Jones' epoch-making inventions, and echoes appeared in the musical periodicals of this and other countries.
In spite of every form of opposition, and in spite of serious financial difficulties, Hope-Jones built organs that have influenced the art in all parts of the globe. He proved himself a prolific inventor and can justly claim as his work nine-tenths of the improvements made in the organ during the last twenty years. Truly have these words been used concerning him—"the greatest mind engaged in the art of organ-building in this or in any other age."
Every organist fully acquainted with his work endorses it, and upwards of thirty organ-builders have honored themselves by writing similar testimony. The Austin Organ Company, of Hartford, Conn., says: "We have taken considerable pains to study his system and to satisfy ourselves as to the results he has achieved. There is, we find, no doubt whatever that he has effected a complete revolution in the development of tone."
Sir George Grove, in his "Dictionary of Music and Musicians" (p. 551), says: "No reference to this description of action [electric] as set up in recent years would be complete without mentioning the name of Mr. Robert Hope-Jones. * * * The researches in the realm of organ tone by Mr. Hope-Jones and others who are continually striving for excellence and the use of an increased and more varied wind-pressure (ranging from 3 to 25 inches) all combine to produce greater variety and superiority in the quality of organ tone than has ever existed before."
Elliston in his book on Organ Construction devotes considerable space 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 repetition 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 unobtainable 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 competitor.
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 associates 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, classed him with Cavaillé-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 asserts 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 Casson, 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 embarrassed 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 Institute 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 promptitude 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 association 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 Cavaillé-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. Bédart, Professor Agrégé à la Université de Lille, France, under the title of "Révolution Récente dans la Facture d'Orgue." Lille: Librairie Générale Tallandier, 5, Rue Faidherbe. Prix net 4 Fr.
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 multitude 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.
In his "Handbook of the Organ" (page 24), J. Matthews says: "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. The orchestral effects and overwhelming crescendos possible from such organs as those described in this work, 'double touch,' new methods of tone production, such as the Diaphone, the ease with which all the resources of a powerful instrument can now be placed instantaneously at the performer's command are developments of which Bach and Handel never dreamed."
And the modern tendency of the best builders is to make the organ still more orchestral in character, by the addition of carillons and other percussion stops.
The late W. T. Best, one of the finest executants who ever lived, stated to a friend of the writer who asked him why he never played the Overture to Tannhauser, that he considered its adequate rendition upon the organ impossible, "after having had the subject under review for a long time." Nowadays many organists find it possible to play the Overture to Tannhauser; the writer pleads guilty himself. Dr. Peace played it at the opening of Mr. White's organ at Balruddery and stated that he found the fine string tones it contained of peculiar value for Wagnerian orchestral effects. Dr. Gabriel Bédart says that music ought to be specially written for these new instruments.
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. Organs have been installed in some of the palatial hotels in New York and other cities, and one is planned for an ocean pier, where the pipes will actually stand under sea level, the sound being reflected where wanted and an equable temperature maintained by thermostats.
Organists have found it necessary to make special study of these new instruments, and the University of the State of New York has thought the matter of sufficient importance to justify it in chartering the "Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra School" as an educational institution.
Our review would be incomplete without some mention of