Remark.—The two stops, (c) and (d), when played together, supply to the organ the important element of softness and tranquil clearness; and when added to (a) and (b), they enhance the fullness and volume of those stops, while correcting a certain crudeness or tendency towards harshness. The Stopped Flute fulfils a further most important office. When added to the two Diapasons (without the Principal), it imparts not only a most pleasing silvery sweetness to the tone, but gives a definiteness of pitch which will correct the tendency of school-children to sing out of tune. This stop should, therefore, on no account be omitted, or cancelled in favour of more showy or conspicuous qualities of tone.
3. Be it carefully observed that the stops (a) and (b) can be made to produce sounds of several gradations of loudness according to the scale of the pipes, the pressure or weight of the wind, and the character of the voicing. Their tone will be further affected by the substance and quality of the pipe-metal. Let us confidently assume that the order for the new organ will be given to no builder who does not hold his art in such esteem as to be incapable of using inferior and perishable materials. The metal should be tin and lead only, in at least equal proportions; still better if the tin be three-fourths, four-fifths, or seven-eighths of the whole alloy. The wind-pressure should be light, as we desire that the feeder should be easily worked by the foot of the player. The scaling and voicing must be left to the judgment of a trustworthy builder, as they will vary with the capacity of the church and the requirements of the singing. Enough if we advise that, even in the case of the smallest church, the two metal stops be of bold, out-speaking character, asserting themselves distinctly, and having no tinge of the muffled or subdued quality proper to chamber-organs.
4. The case of the organ, even if carving be entirely absent, may be of graceful and pleasing outline by making the upper part, above the level of the keys, overhang the lower part, or base, which encloses the bellows.[6] This lower part need not be much wider than the key-board itself, and about three feet in depth, from front to back. If the upper part be five feet in width, it will overhang the base one foot or a little less on each side, obtaining apparent support from a pair of brackets. The total height, if the open bass pipes be set down at the back, will not exceed nine feet; but the speaking front may be well thrown up by the usual expedients if the church be lofty. We strongly advise that these speaking front pipes be left of their natural silver colour, which they will not lose if tin predominates largely over lead in the alloy. For our own part, we are no admirers of the chocolates, dark blues, and sage greens smeared upon front pipes by way of decorating them. Too often, we fear, such diapers are a cloak for very inferior metal, which would soon betray the presence of antimony and other deleterious ingredients by turning black if left unpainted.
[6] See the frontispiece of this book. Some charming but elaborate designs will be found in the Rev. F. H. Sutton's "Church Organs," published by Rivingtons. Folio. 1872.
The draw-stops will be most conveniently handled if arranged above the keys, under the ledge of the book-board, as in the harmonium. It will be well to place the Stopped Diapason and Flute on the left, and the Open Diapason and Principal (which will be more frequently drawn and shut off) on the right, leaving an interval of a foot or so between the two pairs.
The cost of this four-stop organ, made of first-class materials, in a case of stained deal or pitch-pine, should not exceed £80. A provincial builder, who works with his own hands, might undertake it for a smaller sum, but we cannot counsel a diminution of cost by a lowering of the standard of the pipe-metal or by a resort to inferior woods.
A hasty résumé of our design will show a close correspondence with our initial maxims.
The organ is:—
1. Of simple construction, containing no mechanism liable to sudden derangement.