In Italy and Spain, there are often two Great organs, one on each side of the Choir or Nave, which arrangement, conjointly with a double Choir of Singers, is capable of the grandest effects of antiphonal music. As good examples in Italy, may be mentioned the organs in Milan Cathedral on each side of the Choir, and those in Como Cathedral on each side of the Nave. Those in Milan are externally alike, and those in Como differ in appearance. In Spain, two organs are usual in Cathedrals and large churches, and the two organs in Seville Cathedral have magnificent cases.

ClassI.—A. Filling the entire end of the building.
B. With a window or rose over.
C. Divided and exceptional cases.
„II.—No subdivision.
„III.—A. Single cases, or with choir in front.
B. Divided cases.
„IV.—A. Against wall of nave or choir.
B. Standing in a corner, or in aisle of nave.
C. In organ chambers.
D. In organ chapels.
E. Under arches of choir.
F. Divided instruments.

CHAPTER III.
WHAT A GOOD CASE SHOULD BE.

Style not necessarily Gothic.—Renaissance Style.—Tin Pipes now seldom used.—An Organ Case need not correspond with the Style of Architecture of the Building.—English Cases during the last hundred years.—An Organ Case should be good.—Unequal Number of Towers.—Ponts.—Oak and other Woods.—Culs-de-Lampe.—Ornaments.—Arrangement of Pipes.—Arrangement of Towers.

Before I proceed any further with this Chapter, I may as well mention that I fear I may a little shock some persons with my views of what is a good organ case. I have long ceased to think that nothing but Gothic is correct, and feel pleasure in looking at any style of architecture (excepting the modern ultra-Gothic, and even this affords me a certain amount of amusement). I have, when the Gothic fit was upon me, passed many a fine organ with a mere glance, at which I should now look with delight. When I see some of our modern Norman and Gothic cases, I wonder what the men of the date which these make-believe cases pretend to be would think of them. I suspect that they would look at them with amazement. The illuminations in manuscripts do not give us much help, and the drawings which they hand down to us are those of very small instruments. Some few cases in the later period of Gothic are in existence at Perpignan, Strasburg, Gonesse, New Radnor, and in some few places in Germany, but with the exception of the one at Strasburg, I have not been so fortunate as to get a sight of any. With the advent of the Renaissance Style, organs began to increase in size, so that larger and more architectural cases were requisite, and we do not even now excel in design and workmanship many of the old Flemish, Dutch, and French organs. Carved oak is now an expensive luxury, and pipes of tin, with their silver-like lustre, are things of the past. The price of tin, and the cheap contract system, have a good deal to do with this state of things; and town atmosphere seems to tarnish tin work in a very short time: about Manchester it cannot be used, and at Rouen I have seen bright pipe-work, which had been up but a few years, look as tarnished as if it had been up for fifty years at least. I like an organ to have a really good case; it is a large and necessary piece of furniture in both church and concert-room; and I can see no reason why it should not be in keeping with the building in which it stands. By this I do not intend that its architectural style should be the same, but that there should be a certain agreement together, and a fitness one for the other. Viollet le Duc, I think, was wise in retaining the old Renaissance case of the organ in Notre Dame (Paris), when the whole of its contents were taken away, and an entirely new organ erected in it. No man in France could have better designed a Gothic case, but he preferred leaving the old work, which well suited its position. In general all fittings of a later date than the building in which they stand, if they are really good of their kind, should be respected. Much new work, intended to be quite in keeping with the building, and following precedent, is but little more than guesswork. In an old Norman church, it would be I think foolish to erect a Norman case: we have nothing to guide us as to what an organ was like in outward appearance at that date, but we do know that it was a rather rudely made affair, from “Theophilus’s Treatise on Organ Building;” and we are equally at sea for any precedent for an early Gothic organ. Late cases are here and there to be seen, and many of them are handsome, but it was the builders of the Renaissance Period who first erected those structures of carved wood, for the abode of the noblest of instruments. For many years good cases continued to be built; they never quite ceased erecting them in France and Belgium; but I have nothing to say in favour of our English cases for the last hundred years. We do better now, but I look upon caseless organs, with their rows of painted pipes, as something horrid. A good piano always has a good case; we do not dream of buying, or the vendor of selling, a first-class instrument in a paltry one; and why a really well-built and good-toned organ is put into a plain deal varnished case, like a common cheap schoolroom piano, is a puzzle to me. Father Smith appears to have had a pattern case, which is excellent in outline, and suitable to all his organs, large or small, except his chamber instruments, and Harris also rarely departed from his one design, a very pretty one. The old French builders appeared to have followed a few general rules, viz., that an organ should have an unequal number of towers, say three, five, or seven; and if, as was usual, the Choir case stood in front, it should have a smaller number of towers, say the Great case had five, the Choir had three; that if the centre tower of the Great was the tallest, the centre tower of the Choir should be the least, and vice versâ; and very good rules these are. It was also their practice to form the mouths of the pipes in the towers, different to those in the flats, and the pipes in the towers stood on square blocks of wood (ponts), whilst the pipes in the flats stood on plinths. These little niceties add much to the appearance of an organ. Renatus Harris used to finish his pipes in the French manner. I prefer oak to any wood for case work. Polished ebonised wood with ormolu mouldings (as at the Foundling) looks well, and good cabinet work has been done in mahogany. Walnut and rosewood may do for chamber instruments, but would have rather a harmonium look about them. If I were building a drawing-room organ, I should certainly use oak, with plenty of carving and no varnish; wax polish would perhaps be advisable to tone down the new look, but with very fine sharp work the wood should be left as it comes fresh from the carver’s hands. In a cheap instrument plain deal with good varnish looks better than painted wood, with or without stencilled patterns, and where the large wood pipes are shown, they are best plain. The upper part of the case being wider than the base (a very common arrangement in old French instruments), is an improvement to its outline. Another French usage, to support the large outer towers on giants, is good, especially for their large cases; and “the culs-de-lampe,” or consoles of the towers, are improved by sculptured heads, paniers of flowers, or intricate open-work. I do not object to what I have heard called a “covey” of plump cherubim. With respect to the mouldings, a little departure from strict rules does not hurt, and it is best not to err on the side of shallowness: bold projections and deep curves look well, and circular towers should project rather more than half their diameter; the cornices should certainly project boldly—recollect they are wood, and rules for stone cornices need not be closely adhered to, but they must not overhang each other (Chevaucher is the French term), as that does not look well. Statues on the summits of the towers I like to see, although of course they are a useless expense; and there is a wide choice as to what they should be. Angels with trumpets or harps are excellent. King David with his harp, St. Cecilia with her organ, are very usual. Winged angels with lutes are not uncommon on Flemish organs: the patron saint of the church is correct. Pope Gregory, as the founder of the Catholic chant; St. Ambrose, the writer of the “Te Deum;” Guido D’Arezzo, the inventor of the gamut, and several others may be mentioned as fit subjects for statuary work. Crowns and mitres for Church and State are good terminals for an English organ, and the arms of the reigning sovereign can well be introduced in the carving: for a good example, see the old organ in St. Paul’s. The shades (claires voies) of an organ should be well carved, and in some designs the introduction of winged angel heads is very suitable: in general they should be left plain; gilding clashes with bright tin, and offers no contrast with gilt pipes. In the north of Europe the tops of the pipes are concealed by the shades, but in Italy they are free, and it is an open question which mode is the best. Either of these arrangements is better than the tops of the pipes shewing above the case with fanciful crowns on them. The northern mode saves a little in height, which sometimes is an advantage. Carved open-work or wings at the sides of the organ, though useless, are often picturesque; occasionally they hide large wood pipes posted outside the case, which are, in general, additions to the original contents, and then they are useful.

For effect, the wood-work should not fill the entire breadth of the space in which the organ stands, but shew itself as a case, and not as a screen to hide the internal arrangements. The case at Lucerne, good as the work is, fails in this particular: it is a screen at the west end of the church, to hide the organ, not a case for it. English organs often err in the reverse manner, and look like square boxes. A broader and shallower form is preferable, but English feeling is, I am afraid, in favour of the square form. The case at Haarlem has been quoted as spoiling the tone of the instrument, and on the other hand, a French writer on the organ, C. M. Philbert, states, “Un artiste habitant Paris nous disait, ces jours derniers, qu’en payant le prix fixé pour les auditions particulières de l’orgue de Haarlem, on ne payait pas trop cher, ne fût-ce que le seul plaisir d’en admirer la magnificence extérieure.” I tried at Haarlem to detect if the tone were smothered by the case, but could not in the least perceive any such defect. The quality is very mellow, which is very pleasing to the ear, and is without the harshness which now-a-days is called boldness of tone. Towers boldly projecting, either half circular or pointed, are an improvement to the design of a case. Flat towers, which in general are flush with the flats, or only project slightly, although used in some few cases, do not give that play of light and shade which is so effective in a design. Where shutters, curtains, or blinds, are used, projecting towers are in the way; but in Holland are to be seen small cases with shutters, which follow all the ins-and-outs of cases much broken in plan. They must be difficult to make and to keep from warping, and when large must be troublesome to open or close. Opinions are divided as to the usefulness of these appendages to an organ, no doubt they are often most picturesque.

CHAPTER IV.
THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE PIPES.

Number of the Pipes.—Not all of the Same Height.—Two Tiers of Pipes.—Oval and Circular Openings.—Pipes arranged in Perspective.—Carved Panels.—Inverted Pipes.—Double Pipes.—Projecting Mouths.—Fancy Mouldings on Pipes.—Pipes, gilt—diapered—painted—tin—bronzed.—Tubes of Reed Stops projecting horizontally.—Tuba at York.