A looking-glass, which should be a part of the organ, and not a shaving-glass hung up with string and nails, should be fixed so that the player can see down the church; and something better than fastening with a pin to the side of the desk a shabby bit of paper with the list of music, &c., might be arranged. In England, Holland, and Normandy, a clock is occasionally part of the organ case, sometimes on the Great, and sometimes on the Choir case, and it is a useful accessory. Sometimes when there is no Choir Organ, it is inserted in the front of the gallery. In Whitehall Chapel a clock hangs from the ceiling under the organ-loft, a puzzle how any one can get at it to wind it up. In some few organs carved wood-work is introduced between the feet of the pipes, so as to fill up the triangular space. The pipes in the towers of St. Lawrence, Jewry, have a sort of tall leaf between them. From a French work I give the following extract: “A la tribune de l’orgue de la Cathédral de Barcelonne, on voit une tête de Maure suspendue par son turban. Lorsque les jeux les plus doux se font entendre, la figure frémit; mais si les sons augmentent de force, ses yeux roulent dans leurs orbites, ses dents s’entre-choquent, et toute la face est en proie à d’horribles convulsions. Le méchanisme qui produisait ces effets a été supprimé.” This must be the delight or horror of small children, and no one would dream of such an addition to a modern church or concert-room organ, neither would the fox-tail stop be inserted, although a person who was fond of “curios” might put them into a chamber instrument. I do not make more than the passing remark on the electric and pneumatic actions, that they are very valuable adjuncts to a large instrument, and afford great facilities in many ways to the player, as they are well explained and illustrated in the last (1870) edition of Hopkins’s “Organ.”
NOTES ON ORGANS AT HOME AND ABROAD.
NOTES ON ENGLISH ORGANS.
Although English cases cannot in general, in size and carving, compete with their compeers on the continent, many of them are very good, and might be studied by modern architects and builders. The contents of our old instruments are less than those of the same date in France, Germany, and Holland, and the Pedal Organ was for many years neglected. Our modern organs now can vie with any; and if their cases were better, they could hold their own against their foreign rivals. There are some good modern cases, but they are the exception and not the rule.
I now give my notes, which from time to time I have made, of our English instruments.
LONDON.
FATHER SMITH’S ORGAN IN ST. PAUL’S.—This instrument, when it stood where it was originally intended to be, on the Choir Screen, both looked and sounded well. The case, which was a very exceptional one for Father Smith, who hardly ever varied from his four-tower arrangement, had fine carving by Grinling Gibbons, and, with the Choir Organ in front, harmonised well with the handsome oak Stalls. Some years ago it was pulled down and put over the Stalls on the north side of the Choir, where, to my taste, it did not look or sound well, and the Choir case was placed in front of the large transept organ, where it looked small and out of place. The old case is now divided, and placed on each side of the Choir, the old Choir case put in its proper position, before one half of the Great case, and a new Choir case of similar design made to complete the other. The contents are by Willis, and it is a good specimen of a modern cathedral organ.
ALL HALLOWS, LOMBARD STREET.—A pretty case of peculiar design, which used to stand in the gallery at the west end of the Church, but is now placed on the floor in the south-east corner. The case consists of two towers, one on each side of the instrument, with a circular opening between them, filled with pipe-work, above which stands a small tower, with a flat of pipes on each side. There is a quaintness about it which I like.