TTheBBoxOOfWWhistles.CHAPTER I.INTRODUCTORY.
T
TheBox of Whistles! what a quaint title! Yes, but a good one, I think, for this book, as the old organ of Father Smith’s in St. Paul’s, “The Box of Whistles,” as Sir Christopher Wren contemptuously called it, was the first organ I ever saw, and which gave me my bent in the liking of things pertaining to the organ. Well do I recollect standing, a very small boy, under the Dome of St. Paul’s, on a dark winter’s afternoon, looking at Grinling Gibbons’ noble case, hearing some grand out-going voluntary, and trying to see the angels put their trumpets to their mouths, when the reeds were drawn, which I could never catch them doing. Now the organ is perhaps the only instrument which gives equal gratification to three separate classes of individuals, who are often very different in other respects, the Musician, the Mechanician, and the Architect. The Musician likes it for its tone and power, giving sounds which no other instrument can give, and imitating the tones of almost every other instrument. The Mechanician likes it as a complicated machine; and the different modes of its action, and the varied ways of supplying it with wind, are sources of pleasure and amusement to him. The Architect admires its noble look, as it stands towering high in Cathedral, Church, or Concert Room, its case covered with carved work, and its pipes bright with gilding, be its style Gothic or Renaissance. Remember that an organ is built, other musical instruments are made. The Musician very likely cares not for its look, so long as the tone pleases him, and possibly knows little, and cares less, how the sound is produced. The Mechanician is pleased to know how and why certain tones and effects are obtained, caring perhaps very little for real music, and as for the case, he never gives it a thought. The Architect may have but small knowledge of music; as for the mechanical part of the instrument, it is not in the least in his line; but he does feel the impress of its grandeur, and admires the complex design of a large and well-built organ case. I am no player, but I much like the sound of an organ, and to hear good music played on it.
Of mechanics I have some knowledge, but it is in general difficult to get a sight of the internal works of an organ. They are well described in Hopkins’s work, “The Organ,” 1870, and the “Encyclopédie Roret,” 1849, which, in its valuable reprint of Dom Bedos, “L’Art du Facteur des Orgues,” gives excellent details and good engravings. To me it seems a pity that this work has not been translated into English, and brought down to the present time, as technical terms in a foreign language are difficult even to good linguists. To the organ builder, it is a more useful work than that of Mr. Hopkins, as the French book is for the practical man, while the English work is for the general reader. I am not an architect, but in my leisure hours architecture and drawing have beenmy amusements. For some years I have sketched and taken notes of the different organs which I have had the good fortune to see either at home or abroad, and I now venture to publish (a small quota to general knowledge) my notes and drawings of organs, the collecting of which has been my recreation for many an hour. I think that the ground on which I now venture has not as yet been occupied by any one.
Mr. Hopkins gives but general information about organ cases, and no engravings. The “Encyclopédie Roret” gives more particulars, and also furnishes a few engravings, and the English edition of “Seidel’s Treatise on the Organ” is very cursory on this subject. Further information can be gleaned from the Rev. F. H. Sutton’s “Short Account of Organs Built in England,” &c., 1847, which gives small woodcuts of the typical cases of the old English builders, and at the end of the work, five designs of the late Mr. Pugin are given, which are worth studying; and from “Some Account of the Mediæval Organ Case,” &c., 1866, and “Church Organs,” 1872, by the Rev. F. H. Sutton, both of which are very good for reference. Mr. Faulkner’s “Designs for Organs,” 1838, is now rather out of date, but C. K. K. Bishop’s “Notes on Church Organs” gives nice suggestive plates. If the very fine and exhaustive work on “Foreign Gothic Organs,” mentioned by the Rev. Mr. Sutton in his “Mediæval Organ Case,” 1866, should ever see light, it would be first-class, as it would contain drawings and details of the best Gothic organs, which are rare, and of which it is difficult to obtain drawings or descriptions. There are many small works which give drawings, &c., to which I do not more particularly refer, out of which useful information may be gleaned.
What I wish to put before my readers in this book, is a short description of the different classes of organ cases, with my remarks and notes of various instruments, illustrated by lithographs and chromo-lithographs, from my own sketches. Having now explained my intention, I have to beg those who read this, my first work, not to be very severe on my errors and shortcomings.