Practical Organ Building

by W. E. Dickson

Some of our readers may very naturally wish to understand the construction of an organ with two or more manuals and a pedal with separate pipes; and this implies a description of coupling movements and of the swell-box and its appliances.

In the first place, let us remark that as the swell-organ is a modern invention, innumerable examples of organs with more than one manual and with numerous stops, but entirely without the swell, were in existence in England up to a recent period, and are still to be found in every part of the continent of Europe. A great number of the most renowned organs of Germany and of Holland, organs furnished with four manuals and an immense aggregate of pipes, are without the swell to this day.

This is not the place to discuss the question whether the introduction of the swell, as the second division of an organ with only two manuals, has been an unmixed advantage, and whether it has or has not tended to raise the standard of organ music and organ-playing in England. But some few musicians may agree with the present writer that it is quite possible to sacrifice sound principles of organ-building to the prevailing worship of the pretty and fanciful effects of the swell, and may even go so far as to regret, with him, the supersession of the old "choir organ," with its sweet tranquil tone and quiet cheerful brightness. We ourselves make no secret of our wish that in the design and erection of organs with only two manuals, the second manual should act upon a choir organ, while the swell should be reserved for those instruments in which a third manual is introduced. But we are quite aware that these views will be received with derision by a great majority of persons, who have become accustomed to the constant use of the swell and of the pedal Bourdons which characterizes the playing of many English organists on modern English organs.

Quite apart, however, from these views, which must be taken for what they are worth, there are reasons why any reader, resolving from the first to construct a small organ with two manuals for chamber use, will do well to resist the temptation to introduce the swell. These reasons will become apparent if we sketch out one or two plans for such chamber organs, and we should only occupy space needlessly by stating them in advance.

Resolving, then, to indulge ourselves with two manuals, but compelled to be economical of space and of pecuniary outlay, we decide at once to plant all the pipes, belonging to both manuals alike, upon a single sound-board, and by the system of borrowing to avoid the reduplication of large pipes in the bass octave.

To our original design of five stops on a single manual, let us suppose that we have added three, played by a second key-board. We must assume that the five stops belonging to the first manual (the lower), will be all throughout, and may be something like this, viz.: an open Diapason with wood bass octave; a Clarabella, with stopped bass octave; a Principal, Flute, and 2-feet stop as before. Then the second or upper manual should have some such stops as these: Stopped Diapason, the bass octave borrowed from that of the Clarabella; Dulciana to Tenor C; Gems-horn, or some other light 4-feet stop, the bass octave borrowed from that of the Flute or Principal.

As the sound-board will have two grooves for each note throughout its whole extent, namely 108 grooves if the manuals are of the usual compass, its length might be unwieldy and inconvenient, ill adapted to the size of ordinary rooms. We must strongly recommend, therefore, that the arrangement shown in Fig. 39 [(see p. 112)] be adopted. On the front portion, b c, containing eighty-four grooves, and carrying eight sliders, all the stops from Tenor C to top F may be planted. On the back portion, a b, which will have twenty-four grooves only, all the bass pipes will be placed, unless, indeed, we assume that the large open 8-feet pipes are conveyanced off. This back portion will carry one slider for this open bass, one for each of the 4-feet and 2-feet stops, and two pairs of twin sliders, placed close together, for the borrowed stopped bass and borrowed 4-feet bass.

Our readers may feel confidence in the directions now given if we say that we are describing an organ built by ourselves and now in our possession.[3] The sound-board, admitting of eighty-four grooves in its front division, is 5 feet 3 inches long, and its seven sliders (we have no stopped Flute), with the bearers, occupy a width of 16 inches; but the 4-feet octave of the Open Diapason, and six pipes of the Dulciana, are brought into sight as a "speaking front," and therefore fill no space on the board itself. The back part of the board, with four sliders (two of them twin), has also a width of about 16 inches, our large open wood bass being on a board at a lower level, as in Fig. 10. Thus the whole board, carrying practically eight stops (one of our stops is of two ranks, viz. a Twelfth and Fifteenth) throughout, is 5 feet 3 inches long and 32 inches wide.

[3] This organ is sketched in the frontispiece.