Practical Organ Building

by W. E. Dickson

CHAPTER XIII.

VILLAGE CHURCH ORGANS.

Our labours have hitherto been exclusively directed towards the production, in private workshops and by young workmen, of small organs adapted for domestic use. That such organs should be of varied character, and that they should represent the differing musical tastes and unequal mechanical ingenuity and adroitness of their unprofessional or self-taught constructors, is the legitimate outcome of the circumstances assumed.

The case of organs for churches must be regarded from a different stand-point. Designed for public use, and consecrated to lofty purposes, they should reflect no private fancies or peculiar tastes; should admit of no experiments or eccentricities; should be distinguished by excellence of material, finished perfection of workmanship, and solid stability of structure. We cannot, therefore, recommend the construction of any church-organ in a private workshop. The aim and object of this volume would be entirely misconceived by any reader who should imagine that we encourage such an ambitious attempt. However humble as to style of architecture the church may be, however unpretending the scheme for the organ may be, we must strenuously advocate the placing the order for its erection in the hands of a well-established firm of professional builders.

Guarding ourselves thus, we trust, against all possibility of misconception, we shall endeavour in the following pages to offer some suggestions on the subject of village organs, which may tend to smooth away perplexities from the path of those who, without any previous acquaintance with such matters, find themselves called upon to exercise discretion, and pronounce decisive judgment on estimates and specifications submitted to them by builders and by musicians.

In using the term "Village," we refer less to locality than to condition. We desire to be of service to the promoters of the erection of an organ in those very numerous cases in which no skilled player is resident in the place, and in which the new instrument will inevitably be left to the modest efforts of a schoolmistress or of a young beginner, on whose ability, moreover, no greater demand will be made than that which is involved in the accompaniment of simple chanting and psalmody. It is to the dwellers in such quiet corners of the country that we would offer a few rules or maxims, based, we hope, on principles, the soundness of which will commend itself to their good sense.

Let us bring together, in a compressed form, a few of these maxims, afterwards examining them in detail.

A village organ should be of simple construction, containing no mechanism liable to sudden derangement. It should stand well in tune, without attention, even though placed in a building exposed to alternations of temperature and perhaps not free from dampness. Its musical effects should be readily and obviously producible by any person sitting down to it for the first time, and guided only by experience gained at the harmonium or pianoforte. It should present no facilities for ambitious attempts at executive display by thoughtless aspirants. Its power, or volume, should be sufficient to assert itself unmistakably in a full congregational chorus; and its tone, or quality, should be that which long experience has shown to be impressive and pleasing to the vast majority of listeners. Hence, it will be capable of emitting no sounds which might be described by any uneducated hearer as odd or curious. Lastly, let us add that its case should be shapely, even if destitute of ornamentation.

Whole pages of disquisition may be saved if we proceed at once to apply these maxims to the specification of the smallest and least costly organ which we shall recommend for a village church: an organ, namely, with four stops only.

1. Organ No. 1. The manual will be from CC to E in alt, 53 notes.