DURHAM CATHEDRAL.
A fine organ of Father Smith’s usual pattern formerly stood, with its Choir Organ in front, on the Choir Screen. Some years ago it was removed and placed on the north side of the Choir; and, in 1876, has given place to a new divided organ, by Willis, half standing on each side of the Choir. The arrangements of the old organ loft were very comfortable; I mention this, as but too often the loft is so cramped and inconvenient that the player can never be quite at ease.
YORK MINSTER.
One of our largest cathedral organs stands on the magnificent Choir Screen. It is a huge, square mass of painted pipes and Gothic carving. The most picturesque part of the instrument is the tuba, the pipes of which are arranged horizontally, pointing down the nave. This stop is the best of its kind I know.
This is but a meagre account of English organs, as it only includes those which I have had the means of studying: I ought to have written about the Temple organ, that in Westminster Abbey, the huge instrument in the Albert Hall, and the one in the Crystal Palace. That in the Temple has been described, much better than I can do it, by Edmund Macrory, in his “Few Notes on the Temple Organ.” I hope that some day the Abbey authorities will see how poor, not in tone, but in appearance, their present organ is. They have ample space to erect a magnificent case. The Albert Hall organ is an attempt at a new style of case, which I think is a failure; and the Handel organ has a very ordinary (except for its size) façade, with four towers, and the usual painted pipes.
NOTES ON FRENCH ORGANS.
ABBEVILLE.
ST. WOLFRAM.—A fine organ stands in a gallery which fills the first compartment of the nave, so that the case stands well away from the west window. The great case has five towers, of five pipes each, the smallest in the centre, on the top of which is a winged angel, with a sword in one hand and a scroll in the other. On each side is a flat of five pipes, then a middling-sized tower, beyond these are flats of four pipes each, and then two great towers, which overhang the sides of the case. The Choir Organ, which stands in front, consists of two flats, of ten pipes each, and three towers, the largest in the centre, each containing seven pipes. The Accompaniment Organ (by this term I mean an organ standing in the Choir, to accompany the Priests’ voices) stands on the north side of the Choir, in a plain modern flat-topped case, with a little Gothic work about it. It is played from a reverse key-board in the Stalls. Tone fair. 1875.
