The restoration of the Baroque organ in the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>the Snow, Olomouc (Moravia), Czech Republic

by Francesco Ruffatti

One of the most famous organbuilding "schools" in Italy was founded in Venice during the first part of the eighteenth century by Pietro Nacchini, a monk from Dalmatia.1 He established a factory and built over 300 organs mainly for the territories of the Republic of Venice,2 and for the Vatican State, which at the time comprised the largest portion of central Italy.  Although his designated successor was Francesco Dacci, with no doubt his most famous pupil was Gaetano Callido, born in Este, near Padova, who established his own organ factory in Venice and built well over 430 organs during his lifetime,3 some of which were for very distant countries.4

In manufacturing his instruments Callido basically followed the style of Nacchini, with only a few changes, both from the standpoint of tonal composition and type of construction. He conceived an organ as a one-manual instrument, with a limited pedal division. This is confirmed by the fact that in the original list of his works5 the relatively few two-manual instruments were designated as "double organs" and were given two consecutive opus numbers.

Callido's organs were by no means all alike, but their size was dependent upon the presence or absence of certain stops, all chosen among a limited pallet of stops from which the builder never departed.6 By giving the tonal composition of the Great division of the largest organ by Gaetano Callido, built for the Cathedral of Feltre,7 a good picture of his "selection" of organ stops is given.

The first part of the list includes all Principal-scaled ranks that form the "Ripieno". The stops can be used separately in various combinations or all together, collectively activated by a "Tiratutti" consisting of a rotating handle placed on top of the corresponding stop knobs.

Principale                (8')8 almost invariably divided, bass and treble

Ottava  (4')

Quinta Decima                        (XV - 2')

Decima Nona                           (XIX - 11/3')

Vigesima Seconda             (XXII - 1')

Vigesima Sesta                       (XXVI - 2/3')

Vigesima Nona                       (XXIX - 1/2')

Trigesima Terza                    (XXXIII - 1/3')

Trigesima Sesta                     (XXXVI - 1/4')

The last two ranks are often missing in the smaller instruments and are of full compass only in the larger organs, being normally limited to one or two octaves in the bass. The reason for limiting their compass is quite simple: since the highest pitched pipe in the ripieno of a Callido organ is C at 1/8', all ranks break back by one octave once they reach this limit. By doing so the "mixture" composition appears as in Table 1 (as an example I am considering a four-octave keyboard compass, C1 to C5).9

With this configuration, which is common to the majority of Italian historical organs (although the "breaking-back" points may vary at times), a number of pitch duplications are present from mid-keyboard up, to the point that, starting at F#4, only two different pitches are present while playing five pipes. In order not to extend the duplication of pitches towards the lower register and to avoid increasing the number of duplications at the treble, Callido normally ended the XXXIII and XXXVI ranks at the point where they would start breaking back (at F2 and C2 respectively) or further up the scale only by a few notes.

The "registri da concerto" or "consort" stops, as Callido called them, follow. First the flute scaled stops:

Flauto in Ottava (Flute in VIII - 4') often, but not always, divided, bass and treble. Normally built as a tapered flute, it is also found in the form of a metal stopped flute (with stoppers or caps made of leather-coated cork and inserted into the resonators of the pipes) or even as metal chimney flutes, with soldered-on caps.10

Flauto in Duodecima (Flute in XII - 22/3'), normally not divided in bass and treble (but it is divided for example in the Feltre organ). It was normally built as a tapered flute, although some examples of stopped pipes at the lower register and tapered at the treble do exist.

Cornetta (Flute in XVII - 13/5') - treble only, consisting of tapered flute pipes.

Voce Umana (principal-scaled, 8', treble only, tuned flat)

and finally the reeds:

Tromboncini      (trumpet-like regal at 8') bass and treble

Violoncelli (regal with wooden resonators - 8') bass and treble

Another "consort" stop, not present in the Feltre organ but rather common in Callido's instruments, is the Violetta, usually in the bass only, but also as a complete stop, especially in the later instruments. It is a 4' string stop of narrow cylindrical scale, tuned to the unison.

The Pedal division includes, in the Feltre organ, the following stops:

Contrabassi, Ottava di Contrabassi and Duodecima di Contrabassi.  These are three ranks of open wooden pipes at 16', 8' and 51/3' pitch respectively, which are activated simultaneously. In smaller organs only the first two (16' + 8') are present, or just the 16'. In the smaller instruments the 16' pipes are often found as stopped.

Tromboni ai Pedali (a trumpet-like reed, with 1/2 length resonators at 8' pitch)

Of particular interest are the reed stops, for their unusual shape and sound. The resonators of the Tromboncini are made of tin and consist of a lower four-sided portion and a "bell" on top. Their four-sided lead sockets are inserted into walnut boots. The tuning wires are made of brass, with cow horn sledges to facilitate the sliding over the tongues for tuning. The stop at low C (8' pitch) is of 1/8 length, the resonator approximately one foot long.

The Violoncello is even more unusual and complicated. Its resonators are made of cypress wood in the form of a stopped wooden pipe, the stoppers or caps being made of boxwood. The shallots are also made of hand carved boxwood, while the tuning wires, which go through the resonators and their caps on top, are equipped with cow-horn sledges. Unlike the sound of the Tromboncini, rather "biting" and penetrating, the harpsicord-like sound of the Violoncello is very sweet and gentle.

For many of his instruments Callido left a series of "operational instructions" for the organist, intended to give suggestions on how to best use the organ stops in combinations. Several of them, if strictly followed, show us how different the musical taste of the time was from the present. For example, under the title "Elevazione," or stops to be used during Consecration, for opus # 10 Callido specifies: Principale, Voce Umana, Contrabassi . . . and Tromboni! Not the type of pedal combination that we would consider appropriate for quiet meditation. And under the title "Corni da caccia," or sound to simulate the hunting horns, he suggests: Principale, Contrabassi, full ripieno (tiratutti), Tromboncini and . . . Voce Umana! An off-unison stop used along with the ripieno! (Opus # 5, 7, 9, 12, with the addition of the pedal Tromboni in opus # 10). Other combinations of stops are closer to what a contemporary organist would choose to do.

From the standpoint of construction, the instruments built by Callido are of unsurpassed quality. Each pipe is a true masterpiece, with thin, regular, absolutely perfect solder joints. The windchests and all other parts are manufactured with the highest attention for details. Callido was quite obviously trained in a very strict way and demanded the same perfection from his workers.

The contracts with his customers contain a very meticulous description of materials: pure tin for the façade pipes "without any alloy"11; "the rest of the internal pipes made of lead with a 20% alloy of tin."12 And he goes into detail to the point of stating that "the Contrabassi will be manufactured with spruce and painted inside and outside, and will be made of walnut at the mouth . . . " and also "the windchests will be made with walnut from Feltre13 . . . with metal parts made of brass."

It is certainly worth examining in closer detail some of the manufacturing characteristics of Callido's instruments. I will try to do so by describing the most significant components of the instrument in as much detail as it is possible within the reasonable length of a magazine article.

The keyboards

The most common compass of Callido's keyboards was C1-C5, for a total of 45 keys (with first "short" octave)14 or C1-D5, for a total of 47 keys. For the organs featuring the "counter" octave the compass consisted of four complete octaves, plus an extension at the bass consisting of a short octave, real from F1 as in the case of the Feltre Cathedral organ, whose Great manual has a total of 57 keys. When two keyboards were present, the Great Organ division keyboard was always placed on top and the coupling of manuals (Positiv to Great) was made possible by sliding the Great keyboard towards the back by a very short distance (drawer-type coupling, as it is often called in Italy).

The natural keys were normally covered with boxwood and the sharps were made of walnut painted black, capped with a strip of ebony, simple or with boxwood or bone inlays.

The "breaking point" between bass and treble was normally located between the notes C#3 and D3, except for the instruments featuring the "counter-octave," where it was placed between notes A2 and Bb2 .

The total width of a full octave was practically constant at 167 mm and the length of the keys was considerably smaller than in today's keyboards: 71 mm for the sharps and only 39 mm for the front portion of the naturals.

The pedalboard

It was always made with short, parallel and tilted pedals, common to the vast majority of historical pedalboards in Italy. It featured a first short octave and was always permanently connected to the corresponding keys of the manuals (of the Great, when two manuals were present). Its compass was of 17 notes, C1 to G#2, plus a pedal for the "Rollante," or drum, a device simultaneously activating a number of harmonically unrelated wooden pipes, thus reproducing the sound effect of the rolling of a drum. The compass of the pedal division in essence consisted of a full octave, since the notes of the second octave activated the corresponding pipes of the first.

The pipes

The façade pipes were made of pure or almost pure tin and all internal metal pipes were made of a tin/lead alloy with high lead content (about 80 to 85%). The metal was not poured on the table over cloth or marble, but over sand, and then planed by hand. Both the inside and the outside surfaces of the pipe resonators were made perfectly smooth. For the smaller internal pipes a laminating machine was used to roll cast metal into thinner sheets.

Since a few Callido organs, especially in the former territory of the Vatican State, have been found almost intact,15 it has been possible to identify not only the voicing parameters used by the builder but also, in some instances, the original tuning temperaments and wind pressures.

The flue metal stops were invariably voiced with some kind of wind control at the toe. Toe openings were generous, but the voicing could not be defined of the "open toe" type. Consequently, the flue was rather wide and this determined the need for nicking of the languids in order to avoid an excessive transient at the attack, which was obviously considered not desirable in 1700s Venice. Languids were nicked all the way to the smallest pipe in the ripieno ranks, but the nicks, although numerous, were very lightly marked and in some cases almost invisible. This created a precise, clean attack and still a clear and beautiful sound. This voicing practice has one exception: the languids of the Viola pipes were left totally unnicked. And no tonal bridges or beards, which were unknown to the Venetian tradition of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, were used. Consequently, their sound features a very prominent transient at the start, intended to simulate the "noise" produced by the bow of the orchestral Viola when hitting the strings.

The low wind pressure was also a determining factor for obtaining a rich, unforced sound. It was usually set between 48 and 55 mm at the water column, with only a few verified examples of slightly higher pressure.16

Tuning was strictly done by cutting the pipes to length and adjusting with the cone, except for the façade pipes, which were cut close to length and subsequently fine tuned by further carving the back of the resonator at the top in a curved shape. These cuts are called "lunette", or moon-shaped cuts by Italian organbuilders.

Wooden pipes were always made of spruce, painted with a composition of light hot glue and red clay powder, with lower lip and upper lip made of walnut. The lower lip "cover" was fastened with hand-made iron screws. At 16' pitch these pipes could be stopped or open, depending on the size of the instrument. All open pipes were tuned with the cut-to-length method, with an occasional end correction made by applying small pieces of lead sheet or wood on top of the resonator to "shade" the note.

The windchests

The builder exclusively used the conventional slider chests, with table, top boards and sliders made of walnut. The sliders were all built parallel and of constant thickness.17 They always worked "wood-on-wood," without any form of leather seal or any other device intended to avoid the sticking of sliders. This of course required the use of high quality materials, but also a very clever choice of manufacturing techniques. It must be said, from this standpoint, that the "table" or the portion of the chest located under the sliders, which includes the note channels, was made of a solid board of walnut, 40 to 45 mm thick, on which the note channels were carved. This procedure is quite common in historical Italian slider chest construction, and differs substantially from techniques used at the time in northern Europe. Carving out channels from a single piece requires much more work than building a frame and creating the channels by means of inserting dividers, but this technique has a number of advantages. First, and most important, the whole unit is made from the same piece of wood, and this avoids warping and cracking due to contrasting tensions from different pieces of material. Also, the risk of air bleeding between note channels caused by an imperfect gluing of the different elements (table and dividers) is totally avoided, since gluing is not necessary, the elements being built from the same piece of wood. But since no tree would be wide enough to form a windchest table all in one piece, several portions were joined together for the purpose, with alternating direction of the grain in order to compensate for the tendency of warping all in one direction.18

The channels were always of generous size in order to provide adequate supply of air.19 Wooden dividers were placed inside the channels to avoid interference and wind supply instability between the larger pipes of the façade and the reed stops, which were invariably placed in front of the façade, exposed to facilitate tuning by the organist. The pallets were always made of light, straight-grain spruce from the Alps. Their seal consisted of a double layer of sheepskin leather, and the surface on which they rested was also covered by leather. This provided a very effective seal for the wind and apparently did not affect in any way the precision and sensitivity of the tracker action.

The Pedal division consists of only one windchest, located at the back of the organ case. The stop knobs for the Contrabassi pipes open or close a large valve located inside the windline, which controls the air flow to the chest. The reed, when present, is activated by a slider. In practical terms this means that the Tromboni cannot be played separately from the Contrabassi, because the Contrabassi stop knobs, and consequently the air valve, must be open to feed the whole windchest.

The mechanical action

Callido always used the suspended action, which is the simplest and most direct mechanical transmission mechanism. When a Positiv divison was present, always located at the left side of the keyboards, the corresponding keyboard worked in the same fashion, except that the keys is this case pushed down the trackers istead of pulling them.20

The rollerboards for the manual divisions, for the stop action and for the pedal, were made with forged iron rollers fastened to spruce boards by means of brass wire. The "swords" pulling the windchest sliders were also made of forged iron.

The winding system

The most common winding configuration in Callido organs includes two multiple-fold bellows (consisting of five folds) made entirely of spruce wood. They were normally placed one on top of the other and were activated by ropes through a system of pulleys. Their size was rather standardized: larger size bellows were used for the larger instruments, and smaller size for instruments requiring less wind.

Restorations are conducted in such a way that the original winding system is always preserved and carefully restored and, where not present, in many instances built new as a replica of the old.21 A modern blower is usually connected to the system, in such a way however as to keep the hand pumping system operational. This makes it possible to make a very interesting comparison between the original wind supply, slightly irregular due to the small but detectable differences in pressure caused by the manual pulling of the reservoirs, and the more stable supply furnished by the blower. "Flexible winding" as it is referred to today is a different matter: it has to do with the response of the wind and, in practical terms, the drop in wind pressure at the use of certain combinations of stops or notes. From this standpoint, although the phenomena of the so-called "flexible" wind is present in Callido organs, the design of the wind supply system, starting from the size of the bellows all the way to the generous dimensions of the windchest channels, indicates that Callido was trying to avoid instability in the wind supply.

The tuning system

As far as we know Callido never used equal temperament, already present in other parts of Europe at the time. Already well known for a few centuries, it was considered uninteresting and not desirable, especially due to the unpleasant "wide" tierce intervals which are present even in the most commonly used keys. An interesting statement on this subject is given by Giordano Riccati.22 In his book, "Le leggi del Contrappunto" written in 1754, he states: "Practically speaking, I have never been able to find an organ or an harpsichord tuned with the equal 12 semitones." In 1780 and 1790 he stated the same concepts again. But equal temperament continued to be rejected in Italy well into the 19th century. Giovan Battista de Lorenzi, a very ingenious builder from Vicenza, in 1870 created a "moderate temperament" which, although very close to equal, was intended to reduce the "out of tune" effect of the most used tierce intervals.

We know that Callido's master, Pietro Nacchini, for some of his works used a tuning method which consisted in tuning the 11 quint intervals from Eb to G# flat by 1/6 comma each, a method which was very close to the practice of Gottfried Silbermann.24 Callido may also have used this method, but he departed from it at some point and he adopted a variety of similar systems,25 among which the temperament invented by Francescantonio Vallotti, Music Director at the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padova, and Alessandro Barca in 1779, which avoided the wide G#-Eb interval, making it almost pure.26

A unique example of a non-codified temperament comes from the organ built by Callido's sons Antonio and Agostino in 1813 (the year of Gaetano's death at age 86) for the Parish Church of Tai di Cadore (Belluno). This instrument was restored by Fratelli Ruffatti in 1980-81. Prior to restoration, the pipes were found in almost perfect condition, due to the fact that the organ had been left untouched early in its history when the access stairway to the balcony was removed. After cleaning, the pipes were  almost in tune and it was relatively easy to identify and restore a type of unequal temperament which did not follow codified methods and which represented one of the many "variations" introduced by the tuners at the time for a "sensitive" tuning of the instruments.27

The tonal ideals and manufacturing techniques of the Callido factory were carried on, primarily in the Veneto and Marche regions, by a number of organbuilders: in Venice by Giacomo Bazzani, a former worker in his shop, and by his successors; in Padova and its province, among others, by Gregorio Malvestio, a priest (1760-1845), by his nephew Domenico, by Domenico's son Giuseppe and grandson Domenico. The closing down of this shop originated the beginning of the Ruffatti firm.28

In the Marche region Callido had a number of followers including Vincenzo Montecucchi from Ancona, Sebastiano Vici (Montecarotto, 1755-about 1830), Vincenzo Paci (Ascoli Piceno, 1811-1886) and others, who in some cases produced organs so close to Callido's techniques that sometimes their identification as non-Callido instruments requires an expert examination.29                   

Notes

                        1.                  His real name was Peter Nakic, born in Bulic, near Skradin, north of Sibenik, in present Croatia, a former territory of the Republic of Venice. As was customary during the time, his name was "Italianized" and became Pietro Nacchini.

                        2.                  The Republic of Venice during the eight-eenth century was a large State, including parts of Slovenja and Croatia and the present Italian regions of Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and eastern portions of Lombardy.

                        3.                  See Studi e Documenti di Storia Organaria Veneta by Renato Lunelli. Ed. Olschki, Florence, 1973, and also Gli organi di Callido nelle Marche by Ferrante--Quarchioni, Ed Villa Maina, 1989.

                        4.                  Opus numbers 13, 185 and 393 were built for churches in Istambul and opus number 424 for Izmir, Turkey.

                        5.                  The original list or catalogue of organs built by Gaetano Callido survives. It consists of three panels made of canvas on which the opus number, year of construction and location of the instruments were marked in India ink by the builder. Although water damage washed away the names of 88 of his instruments, between the years 1789-91 and 1794-98, it still gives accurate information about 342 organs manufactured in his factory. The last opus number is 430, built in 1806, after which the list was discontinued. In recent years many of the "lost" instruments have been identified.

                        6.                  Only at the turn of the nineteenth century, when Callido's sons Antonio and Agostino were active in the factory, a limited number of "variations" were introduced, in the form of new reed stops (but still of the commonly used "regal" type) and flutes. Times were changing in Italy and a more "orchestral" style of sound, requiring highly characterized solo stops, was being introduced in churches, in the wave of the predominant influence of opera even in the music composed for organ.

                        7.                  This exceptional instrument, built in 1767 (opus numbers 37 and 38) and restored in 1979-80 by Fratelli Ruffatti of Padova, is practically equal in size to another organ, built for the Parish church of Candide (Belluno).

                        8.                  The Great keyboard of the Feltre organ is extended by one octave at the bass . This "counter-octave" as it is commonly called, consists of a short octave (C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb-B) of which only the notes from F up are real, the preceding ones activating the corresponding notes of the higher octave. In essence therefore the Principal starts in this case at 12'F, the Octave at 6', the Fifteenth at 3', etc.

                        9.                  This is the normal system used in Italy to designate not the pitch but the position on the keyboard. F3 for instance designates the note F of the third octave of the keyboard.

                        10.              Due to the absence of the "beards," which makes tuning adjustments possible when the caps are soldered, it is quite obvious that Callido must have had a very precise scale for cutting the resonators of these flutes to length before soldering the caps. Minimal tuning adjustments were however still possible through cone tuning of the chimneys.

                        11.              i.e.,  without the addition of lead, as reported in the specifications for the new organ to be built for the Madonna della Salute Church in Venice, dated September 19, 1776.

                        12.              Same, as above. In other contracts he chooses different alloy compositions for the internal pipes, as in the case of the contract with the Parish Church of Borgo Valsugana, November 8, 1780, where a 15% tin content is specified.

                        13.              The walnut from Feltre (Belluno) was traditionally of the highest quality, dense, dark and almost redish in colour.

                       14.              The short octave, or "broken" octave as it is often called in Italy, consists of 8 keys: C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb-B. The key arrangement is different from normal: basically, it looks like an octave starting from note E, where E plays C, F# plays D, G# plays E and all other notes are in the right place.

                        15.              This is the case of the organ in the convent Church of S. Anna in Corinaldo (Ancona), where Callido's daughter was a nun. The instrument, which is presently under restoration at the Fratelli Ruffatti shop, was found in remarkably good condition, still with the original hand-pumped bellows in good working condition. Since Callido was rightfully considered a master, his work was highly respected over the years by other organbuilders and for this reason the voicing of his instruments was often never altered in spite of the changes in musical taste.

                        16.              It is the case of the Callido organ at the Chiesa della Croce in Senigallia (Ancona), restored by Fratelli Ruffatti in 1993, where the original hinged bellows and their carved stone weights were found. Probably due to the unusually dry acoustics of the church, whose walls and ceiling are literally covered with elaborate wood ornaments and canvas paintings, the pressure was originally set at 60mm at the water column. Another example is the Callido opus 69, 1771 in the church of the Agostinian Fathers, Civitanova Marche. The instrument, restored in 1987 by Pier Paolo Donati, shows an original wind pressure of 64 mm (information courtesy of Dr. Massimo Nigi, honorary Inspector for the "Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici" of Florence, a governmental agency in charge of supervising the preservation of Italian ancient works of art).

                        17.              This is not an obvious observation, since a great number of slider chests built in the 17th and 18th centuries in central and southern Italy were built with sliders non-parallel and of decreasing thickness. This feature was intended to avoid the sticking of the sliders. When in the "on" position, the sliders were pushed in and no space was left between the sliders and the other wooden surfaces; on the contrary, when pulled out (stop in the "off" position) the sliders, due to the decreasing thickness and width, could move freely.

                        18.              One might say that, during Callido's time, the problem of artificial heating of churches did not exist, thus making this procedure possible. It is to be noted on this subject that the very high number of strictly philological restorations on these organs by Fratelli Ruffatti and other restorers in Italy, performed without the introduction of any non-original elements for the sealing of the sliders, proves that the original system of windchest construction well withstands changes in heat and humidity level of the air.

                        19.              For a scale drawing of a Callido windchest see L'Organo Callido della Cattedrale di Feltre by Oscar Mischiati. Ed. Pàtron, Bologna, 1981.

                        20.              In this case the key pushes down a wooden tracker which in turn pushes down the rollerboard tracker placed under the keyboard. At the opposite end of the roller the pallet is pulled open by means of a brass wire.

                        21.              In some cases, where the original bellows were replaced in the nineteenth century by the more "modern" multi-fold parallel bellow with pumps, activated by means of a wooden lever or a wheel, the local governmental authorities designated to supervise the preservation of ancient instruments may choose not to have the system rebuilt as a replica of the original but to keep the already "historical" substitute.

                        22.              Born in Castelfranco Veneto (Padova) in 1709, he studied at the University of Padova and became a famous mathematician, architect, expert in hydraulics and music. He was the author of an interesting temperament, which became famous at the time, used by many organbuilders especially in the Venetian area. It was surely used in his later works by Nacchini and possibly by Callido as well.

                        23.              See Patrizio Barbieri, Acustica Accordatura e Temperamento nell'Illuminismo Veneto, Ed Torre d'Orfeo, Roma 1987.

                        24.              See Patrizio Barbieri, Acustica Accordatura e Temperamento nell'Illuminismo Veneto, Ed Torre d'Orfeo, Roma 1987.

                        25.              The result of studies conducted during restorations show that a variety of similar temperaments, which can be defined as variations of the above Riccati and Vallotti temperaments, were used in normal practice.

                        26. The Vallotti temperament in the slightly corrected version by the contribution of Barca, was intended to simplify the Riccati, and consists of a series of six consecutive quint intervals, from F-C to E-B tuned flat by 1/6 comma, and the six remaining quint intervals practically pure (flat by an imperceptible 1/66 comma). The value in cents of semitones of its quint and tierce intervals follow:

Quint intervals cents

F - C        698.4                              C - G      698.4      G - D      698.1                              D - A      698.6                              A - E       698.4                              E - B       698.4                              B - F#    701.7                              F# - C#                        701.5                              C# - G#                      701.6                              Ab - Eb                       701.7                              Eb - Bb                       701.6                              Bb - F    701.6                                                     

Tierce intervals                      cents      

C - E       393.5

F - A       393.5

G - B      393.5

Bb - D  396.5

D - F#   397.1

A - C#  400

Eb - G   400

E - G#   403.2

Ab - C  403.3

F# - A#                       406.4

Db - F   406.5

B - D#  406.5

                       

Keeping in mind that the value of the pure quint is 702 cts and the value of the quint in the equal temperament is 700 (narrow by 2 cts), by analysing the quint intervals of this temperament it is easy to see that they are basically divided in two categories, narrow (but more moderate than, for example, in the 1/4 comma mean tone, which shows a value of 696.5 cts.) and almost pure. As to the tierce intervals (pure tierce = 386 cts, tierce in equal temperament = 400 cts) although no pure intervals are present, five of them are "better" or more in tune than the corresponding ones in the equal temperament, and two more show the same value of 400 cts. It is also to be considered that no tierce reaches extreme values. The absence of really unusable keys and the relatively easy application in practical terms by the tuner have determined the success of this temperament during its time.

                        27.              The Tai temperament includes two "wolf" quint intervals, at the opposite ends of the "circle of quints," one wide (G#-Eb) and one narrow (A-E) and six very good tierce intervals. This system is of particular significance primarily because it shows how far from equal temperament this organ was tuned so late in Callido's history.

                        28.              See Renato Lunelli, Studi e Documenti di Storia Organaria Veneta, Ed. Leo Olschki, 1973, p. 200.

                        29.              Information about Callido's followers in the Marche region are the courtesy of Mauro Ferrante, honorary Inspector for the preservation of ancient organs in the Marche region, appointed by the "Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici" of Urbino.

Bradley Rule

Bradley Rule received a Bachelor of Arts in Organ Performance from the University of Tennessee, from which he graduated with high honors in 1982. From 1982 to 1988 he worked for the Andover Organ Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and at this firm he encountered hundreds of different kinds of mechanical-action organs.
After working nearly six years at Andover Organ Co., Mr. Rule returned to his home of East Tennessee and began business for himself. He set up shop in the old St. Luke Presbyterian Church building in New Market, Tennessee, a venerable old brick building which has served admirably as an organ building shop. Mr. Rule has built and restored organs from Alabama to Massachusetts in the years since 1988.
In addition to his lifelong pursuit of organbuilding, Bradley Rule has held various positions as organist or organist/director from 1976 until 1991, at which point his organbuilding business began to demand his undivided attention. During these years, his organist activities included playing concerts and making recordings, in addition to the usual weekly church duties.

While completing the installation of a new organ in the
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in late 1998, I was drawn into a
conversation between Will Dunklin, the organist, and Marian Moffett, a viol da
gamba player who is a member of a local early music ensemble. Marian indicated
an interest in acquiring a small chamber organ for her home, which would be
appropriate as a continuo instrument for early (particularly English) music.
After briefly discussing prices, both Will and myself commented that an early
American organ (pre-1860) would possess many of the tonal characteristics
required for such a use, as well as providing its own historical interest.
Besides, restoration of such an instrument would likely be quite economical
compared to the price of a new organ.

After checking with the Organ Clearing House, we found
nothing small enough for such a use, and the matter got shelved in the back of
my mind. About a year later, I received a message from Marian that Will had
found a small American chamber organ on eBay, for sale by a doctor in Michigan.
After some negotiation, she purchased the organ and went with Will in a rented
van, returning two days later with said instrument. In such a serendipitous
series of events, then, did this enigmatic and charming little instrument fall
into my hands for the purpose of restoration.

Provenance

Establishing the provenance of the instrument was the first
item of interest; since the organ sat in the shop for a year before work could
commence, it gave me some time to pursue the subject. Alas, despite our efforts,
the little instrument still remains anonymous. The following, however, are some
of the identifying characteristics pertinent to its provenance.

The cabinet holds a number of clues, which help us make some
general conclusions. The cabinet (as well as the chest and internal framework)
is made of eastern white pine, with a smattering of cherry and black walnut.
This clearly identifies it as an American-made instrument. The Empire case,
with its ubiquitous crotch mahogany veneer and late Empire styling, seems to
place it between about 1845-1855. According to Barbara Owen, the cabinet looks
like the work of early Connecticut builders. This dovetails nicely with the
oral history we received from the previous owner, who had been told that the
organ was built for the Lockwood family of Norwalk, Connecticut. Apart from
these general observations, the cabinet holds another clue: the ripple
moldings, which appear in several shapes and sizes. According to an article by
Carlyle Lynch in the magazine Fine Woodworking (May/June 1986, pp. 62-64), such
molding was made by only one company in America, the Jonathan Clark Brown clock
company in Bristol, Connecticut. This company made the gew gaw covered clocks
known as steeple clocks, but after the factory burned in 1853, J. C. Brown
clocks no longer were made with the unique ripple moldings. Such moldings
require an elaborate, slow-moving machine for their manufacture, and the
machine was evidently never rebuilt. If the builder purchased his ripple
moldings from the clock company, then it is clear the instrument was built
before 1853.

The hardware found on and in the instrument provides more
tantalizing hints as to the organ's provenance. The mix of early factory-made
components with other hardware which is clearly hand-made seems to place the
organ on the very cusp of the Industrial Revolution. For instance, the lock for
the keydesk lid bears unmistakable marks of being handmade: all parts were hand
filed out of solid brass, and then fitted together with hand-threaded screws. Yet,
the hinges which occur in various places (e.g., swell pedal, main reservoir)
are all of cast iron and bear the name "Clark's Patent." While a bit
crude (they certainly are not interchangeable), they bear all the signs of
early factory production. An additional item of interest is that one leaf of
each hinge was cast around the pin while the pin was inserted into the other
leaf. This makes it impossible for the pin to ever work its way out; it also
makes it impossible to separate one leaf from the other, short of a sledge
hammer.

The most interesting piece of hardware is the square iron
roller for the swell mechanism. Clearly stamped on the bar is the word CLYDACH.
It turns out that Clydach was a Welsh ironworks established in 1793, continuing
in production until about 1858. I'm not sure what this reveals about early
American sources of iron and steel. Of course, it is possible that the builder
recycled the piece of iron from an older apparatus or structure.

Finally, even the humble wood screws give us some
information. They are a mix of the earlier blunt ended screws and the more
modern pointed screws, and all but one or two were clearly made by a machine.
This also seems to point to about 1850-1855, although I am unsure when the more
modern pointed wood screws became available. The E. & G.G. Hook organ of
1847 in Sandwich, Massachusetts, was put together entirely with blunt ended
machine-made screws, so it seems that modern wood screws came along a few years
later.

One intriguing note is written (sometimes scrawled) on
almost every piece of the instrument. The message "No. 2" can be
found on the bellows, keyboard, backboard, knee panel, etc. The inescapable
conclusion is that there must be (or must once have been) a "No. 1"
lurking out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered.

The reader is left to draw his own conclusions about the
provenance of the instrument. Clearly, the Empire style and the handmade
hardware place the instrument no later than about 1855. The wood screws fit
into the time frame of about 1850. The oral history as well as the general
design of the case place the builder in Connecticut. We were unable to find
information about "Clark's Patent" hinges, and CLYDACH presents more
an enigma than it does an answer. Perhaps a reader will recognize one of these
items and shed a bit more light on the history of this little instrument.

Restoration techniques

The following describes the techniques and materials used
for the restoration. An astute reader will occasionally see the tension which occurs
when the desire to restore the organ to its original state is not always in the
best interest of the customer. Ultimately, we did almost nothing to the
instrument which could not be easily reversed later. Additionally, we took
great care to avoid removing any original material (no pipe tops were trimmed,
and even the finish was not entirely removed).

Cabinet

Failing joints were disassembled when practical and re-glued
with hot hide glue. Other joints were simply injected with hot hide glue and
clamped for 24 hours minimum.

The reservoir and feeder assembly share a common 1"
thick horizontal board which is dadoed into the sides of the carcass. This
board was originally glued into the dados and glued and nailed to the front
rail directly above the two pedals (the self-closing swell pedal on the left,
and the single pumping pedal on the right). Mahogany crotch veneer was then
applied over the nails. Someone had previously done a very nice job of sawing
through the nails and sliding the entire assembly out the back of the
instrument in order to patch the bellows. We decided to leave this alteration,
since it is truly the only way to access the bellows for releathering. Maple
cleats were added so that the 1" board could be screwed securely to the sides
of the carcass.

Stabilizing and repairing the veneer became one of the most
time-consuming jobs. Like many Empire pieces, the crotch burl mahogany seemed
to shed little bits of veneer onto the floor every time one walked past. About
half of the veneer was no longer securely glued to the white pine below, and
the ogee-shaped front board of the folding lid was missing about 70% of its
veneer. The ogee crown molding veneer was almost entirely unglued from its
substrate, although miraculously most of the veneer was still there. The
decision was made to remove the remaining tatters of veneer from the ogee
shaped lid front and use the bits to patch veneer on the rest of the piece. The
lid front was then entirely re-veneered with book-matched mahogany crotch burl.

The crown molding presented another challenge; the veneer
was so brittle that even the slightest attempt to lift it in order to work glue
under it caused it to shatter. Clamping was difficult; since the veneer was
glued over a hand-planed ogee, the shape of the contour changed from one end to
the other, and the molding on the sides of the crown were quite different in
shape from each other and from the front. This precluded any possibility of
making precise blocks to fit the shape of the molding. The solution was finally
to inject fish glue through tiny holes in the veneer and clamp a sand-filled
Ziplock bag firmly over the area. The sand conformed perfectly to the contour
of the molding and distributed the clamping pressure evenly. The fish glue,
being a protein-based glue, was compatible with the old hot glue and adhered
well, though it required long clamping times of about 48 hours. Close
inspection reveals the pinpoint size holes through which the glue was injected,
but it seemed the least destructive way to stabilize and re-glue the very
brittle veneer.

Conservation of the finish required a careful approach.
Rather than subject the piece to the humiliation of being entirely stripped and
refinished, we decided instead to conserve what was left of the old shellac
finish. Parts of the case, such as the underside of the lid, retained the
original finish in excellent condition. Other parts had obviously been covered
with an additional layer of low quality shellac. Besides this, someone had
studiously "patched" every missing veneer chip by the application of
red-primer colored latex paint. Paint ended up on the surrounding intact veneer
as much as it did on the offending gap in the veneer. To address these multiple
problems, the course of action was as follows:

The top layer of accreted dirt and crazed finish was sanded
off using 400-grit sandpaper with paint thinner as a lubricant. This required
removing only a very thin film of finish. Then, a pad of wool and cheesecloth
was filled with shellac and applied over the remaining old shellac. This
smoothed out any remaining "alligatored" shellac. This French Polish
technique was repeated about a dozen times until the surface took on an evenly
covered appearance and began to glow. Then, at the request of the customer, the
shellac was sanded lightly and was covered with two coats of high quality
varnish for durability. On parts of the cabinet where extensive veneer patching
was required (such as the crown molding), the resulting surface was too rough
and the old finish too compromised for conservation; it was necessary to sand
the entire surface down to the bare wood. Then, colored pumice was rubbed into
the grain along with residual sanding dust and garnet shellac, after which the
usual french polish technique was used, followed by the two coats of varnish.
The orange colored garnet-lac returned the "old" color to the newly
sanded wood, making a perfect match. The results were visually stunning; the
mahogany crotch burl fairly leaps off the surface of the piece with three-dimensional
fervor. The keydesk itself is veneered with rosewood, and since the lid
evidently was always closed, the finish on the rosewood required little
attention.

The center panel of cloth was originally a very thin silk,
bright turquoise in color. We found well-preserved pieces of it under the wood
half-dummy façade pipes. Marian decided the original color was
remarkably wrong for her house (I had to agree), and chose a silk of subdued
gold instead. The turquoise silk is still under the dummies for future
reference. Behind the cloth panel is a very small swell front, with shades
which open only about 45 degrees. After listening to the instrument, we decided
that omitting the shades made the organ considerably louder, and virtually
perfect in balance to a small consort of viols. Fortunately, there is a large
well behind the crown molding which provided a perfect storage space for the
shades. Reinstalling them would be the work of a few minutes should a future
owner wish to use the organ in its completely original state.

Wind system

The bellows still had its original leather, but every square
inch of it had been secondarily covered years ago with hot glue and rubber
cloth, probably by the same party mentioned earlier who went to such lengths to
remove the bellows plate from the organ. The rubber cloth and hot glue had
ossified into a stiff, inflexible board-like structure which had caused all
bellows hinging to rip itself apart upon inflation of the reservoir; the single
large feeder suffered the same fate. The bellows and feeder were completely
releathered with hot hide glue and goatskin. The bellows and feeder boards were
rather generously filled with splits, cracks and checks; the worst were
reinforced with butterfly-type patches, and all were entirely covered with
rubber cloth to prevent leakage.

The short wooden wind line which conducts wind from the top
of the bellows plate into the chest was originally simply fitted into place by
friction, but the horizontal members of the cabinet frame did not shrink and
expand in the same direction as the vertical boards of which the wind line was
made; in summer, as the cabinet expanded and lifted the entire upper assembly
away from the bellows, the leakage must have been spectacular. The joints
around the wind line had probably received more attention over the years than
any other part of the organ. Numerous layers of patching (leather, glue, rubber
cloth) attested to the trouble which this particular design flaw had visited
upon those who chose to play the instrument in humid weather. It seemed that a
change was necessary, so four small oak cleats were attached to the narrow ends
of the wind line so that it could be screwed securely to both the bellows top
and the bottom board of the pallet box. The cleats are clearly and
intentionally not a part of the original construction.

Chest

The chest was plagued by innumerable runs, and after some
investigation, they all were found to be caused by a joint in the table. The
front five inches or so of the grid is covered with a thin (1/4") mahogany
table. The rest of the chest is covered by one large pine channel block,
13/4" thick and honeycombed with many channels. The joint between the thin
mahogany and the thick pine channel block is naturally a source of some tension;
even though no crack had opened up between the two, the mahogany had almost
imperceptibly lifted along the joint. The problem was solved by screwing down
the mahogany piece with a screw in every rib, and by gluing a piece of thin
leather in each channel to bridge the joint. Should the joint ever move again,
the flexible leather should absorb the movement and prevent leakage. All key
channels, as well as all offset channels, were poured out with sanding sealer.
Shellac could have been used, but since the work was being performed in the
humid summer weather of East Tennessee, I decided to avoid shellac because of
the tendency of its solvent (alcohol) to absorb water from the air.

The bottom of the grid was originally covered in a thick
cotton covered with much shellac. We chose to replace it with rubber cloth.
Pallets were re-covered with two layers of leather, just as they were
originally, and they were installed in the original fashion, glued with hot
glue at the tail and held down by a small pine slat nailed on by tiny cut
nails. The builder evidently thought it was necessary to provide pallet sizes
commensurate to the wind demand, so the already tiny bass pallets (43/4"
long) were made even shorter at middle C (4" long).

Key and stop action

The keys are mounted on a balance pin rail at a ratio of
roughly 2:5. Thus, the pallets open a small, but nonetheless sufficient,
amount. Under the keyboard is mounted an elegant mahogany backfall (ratio 1:1)
which pushes down on very slender (.047") brass wire stickers. The
stickers pass through the 1/4" mahogany table, which also serves as their
register, and push the pallets open. All the stickers are original and the
action is pleasing to play and surprisingly responsive; in spite of the tiny
pallets, a definite pluck can still be felt in the keys. Key bushings are wood
on round brass pins, and the keys are covered in their original ivory. The
pallet springs are brass, clearly factory-made, and were still all perfectly
regulated when I checked them. No spring varied from all the others more than
1/4 ounce. I left them unchanged. The builder solved one problem with the
keyboard in a rather clever way. Since the keyboard is so short, it is not
possible to place the usual 19th-century style lead-weighted floating thumper
rail behind the nameboard. The builder instead installed the nameboard itself
in loose dados in the stop jambs so that its felted bottom edge simply sits on
the keys, keeping them in tension and making it possible to adjust them
perfectly level. When seasonal changes occur, the nameboard itself simply rides
up and down in the dados. (Of course, since this particular nameboard has no
actual name, it must be a nameboard in name only).

The stop action would seem to need no mention, except for
the stop to the left of the keyboards. The single knob to the right pulls on
the tiny slider for the Principal 4', which leaves the knob on the left with no
job to do at all. However, the builder thoughtfully provided a slotted block so
that the knob, which does absolutely nothing, can be pulled out just like its
brother on the right. The disappointing aspect is that the Principal had its
original engraved ivory disc, but the ivory disc on the left was missing. I
glued in a blank ivory disc for appearance's sake, but I will always wonder
what the label on the dummy knob said. Perhaps it might have even been engraved
with the builder's name.

Pipework

The pipework is unusual from the start in that both ranks
are metal: a Dulciana 8' and Principal 4'. The Dulciana has the usual wooden
bass of the period: large scaled, low cut-up and quinty. No identifying marks
were found on any of the pipes, not even on the seven zinc pipes of the
Dulciana (F18-B24). Early zinc often had an embossed stamp identifying the
(often French) manufacturer. The rest of the pipework is common metal. The
wooden basses were labeled in distinctive block lettering, with pencil, very
unlike the elegant old cursive one usually sees on 19th-century pipes. (I have
seen identical lettering on one other set of New England stopped basses which
the OCH found in an 1890s organ. The pipes were basses to a chimney flute, and
the entire stop had been completely reworked and re-scaled for its second use.
Alas, these pipes were also of unknown provenance).

I can find no rhyme or reason for the varying mouth widths
and variable scales. Surely part of the reason is that the common metal
pipework betrays the hand of a somewhat inexperienced pipemaker. While in
general neatly made, the solder seams are not as smooth and perfect as one
usually sees on 19th-century American pipework. It is particularly
disconcerting to see a pinhole of light shining through from the back of the
pipe when one is looking in through the mouth. These pinholes occur where the
back seam of the body meets the back seam of the foot at the languid, and are
present on several pipes. They did not particularly affect the pipes'
performance, so I left them. It does seem likely that scales were made
deliberately small in the tenor range of both ranks simply so that pipes could
be made to fit in the very cramped quarters. The very fat stopped wood basses
take up a huge amount of space, making it necessary to cram the metal pipes
into a very small area. Both ranks increase several scales in size from tenor
to treble: the Dulciana gets four scales larger, and the Principal increases by
three. (See pipe scale chart.)

From the chart, one can see that the cut-ups are all over
the map. The Principal seems to have a fairly even increase in cut-up toward
the treble, but the Dulciana seems to follow no discernible pattern. Mouth
widths are more predictable, generally hovering between 1/4 and 2/9.

The original pitch was fairly easy to ascertain. The pipes
seemed most comfortable speaking at 21/4"; at that pressure at 70 degrees,
the pitch was about A432. Since the whole point of this project was to make the
organ useful to an early music ensemble, the decision was made to fit tuning
sleeves carefully onto the pipes, and lower the pitch as much as possible. This
is a completely reversible procedure, with the added benefit being that it did
not require tampering with the tops of the pipes at all. The organ pitch is now
A421, not as low as the A415 the early music players had hoped for, but still
low enough that the instruments can tune to it easily.

One remarkable aspect of the tuning is that the Dulciana,
which showed no real signs of having been tampered with, was almost completely
in tune with the pipes at dead length and the few errant pipes brought into
regulation. A few chords quickly revealed that the keys of C, D, F and G were
close to pure, while the remote keys (B, F#, Db) were quite out of tune. This
sparked a lively discussion with Marian about temperament, and after some
research into early music temperaments (research done entirely by Marian) we
decided to tune the organ to Erlangen comma, which yields perfect thirds
between c and e, & d and f#. This temperament dates to the 15th century,
and is particularly suited to use with viols, avoiding the tuning conflicts which
mean-tone introduces between keyboard and viols.

Playing the organ is truly like stepping back in time;
voicing from this era demands less from each pipe than our modern ears
ordinarily expect. The gentle metal trebles in conjunction with the quinty wood
bass is a quintessentially early sound; virtually no one was still building
organs with that inimitable sound by 1860. Adding the small Principal 4' to the
Dulciana is an exercise in judicious restraint more than it is an augmentation
of the sound. All in all, it is an instrument from a different time and place,
built for sensibilities and perceptions unique to its milieu. Other than
changing the pitch, we did nothing to the instrument to make it more relevant
or modern. It so happens that leaving things as they were makes the organ
almost perfect for the customer's use. The subtle tone and slightly unsteady
wind work almost seamlessly with a small consort of viols da gamba. Placing the
instrument in a small room brings the sound into context, and music begins to
make sense on it. It is truly a chamber organ, and is at home in that
environment.     

The author wishes to thank Barbara Owen for her gracious and
invaluable assistance in seeking the origins of this instrument; Marian
Moffett, for her research on a multiplicity of subjects; and Will Dunklin, for
his generous help in bringing the organ to Tennessee as well as for insightful
advice during the project.

Pipe scale chart

Principal 4' (labeled "Pr.") TC 42 pipes

Note        Diameter
style='mso-tab-count:1'>                  Mouth
width      Ratio
of mouth width    Cut-up
style='mso-tab-count:1'>  Ratio of cut-up                       
style="mso-spacerun: yes">   Toe size

C13           41m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          29m
        .225
        7.8m
      .190
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.98m

C25           22.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>    18m         .254
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        4.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .200
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.99m

C37           15.8m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>    12m         .241
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.0m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .189
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.28m

C49          10m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          7.2m
      .229
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.1m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .210
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.03m

F54            7.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        6m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            .254
        1.9m
      .253
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        1.77m

 

Dulciana (labeled "Dul") 54 pipes

C1              110x90m
                90m
                                21.8m
  .242

C13          64x52
  52m                                 11.2m
  .215

E17          55x43
  43m                                 10m
        .232

F18           58m
        45m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>          .246
        11.8m
  .203         6.09m

C25          42.7m
  31m         .231
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        7.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .175
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        5m

C37          27.5m
  21m         .243
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.9m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .141
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        3.04m

C49          17m
        13.1m
  .245         3.4m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        .200
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.71m

F54           13.5m
  10m         .235
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.5m
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      .185
style='mso-tab-count:1'>        2.38m

The ratio of the mouth width is in relation to the
circumference: .250 would be 1/4 mw and so on. The ratio of the cut-up is a
simple ratio of the diameter.

by Aldo J. Baggia

Sunday, July 30, 2000 was the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, and throughout Thüringen there were major celebrations to honor the day.  In Arnstadt, where in 1703 a very young Bach took on the post of organist at the Neue Kirche (now known as the Bachkirche), there was a special religious service that featured the organ and Bach's choral music sung by invited choirs from other parts of Germany. Two days before, on the 28th of July, there had been a performance of the B-Minor Mass in the Bachkirche, which was the culmination of the "Orgel Sommer" festivities, a series of concerts of organ and choral music, starting at the end of June and continuing through all of July.  The "Orgel Sommer" started with a concert at the Bachkirche on June 24 and featured the restored Wender organ of 1703. Arnstadt is an interesting, old German city built around the large Marktplatz and, like many sites associated with Bach, features a statue in Bach's honor. The monument of a young, nonchalant Bach was erected in 1985 by Bernd Göbel during the time of the German Democratic Republic, and has raised controversy because of the lackadaisical nature of the pose. (See illustration.)

 

Following Bach's footsteps in the northwestern part of Thüringen proved to be an interesting experience, because it showed how attached he was to the area. The ancestors of his family lived in Wechmar, a very small village forty kilometers from Eisenach. Veit Bach, the great-great-grandfather of Johann Sebastian, established his home there in the sixteenth century after having left Hungary because of religious persecution. Along with his son, Hans, he owned a bakery and a mill; the ancestral home is a half-timbered house, now a museum, with ample cooking space suitable for a baker.  The house is in the heart of the village and is now its focal point as well.

Bach was born in Eisenach, where the large sixteenth-century house attests to the family's comfortable means. Johann Sebastian's parents died when he was ten and he was sent to study in nearby Ordruf for five years at the Latin grammar school. He lived with his brother Johann Christoph, who was his senior by fourteen years, and who was the organist at the Michaeliskirche. It was during these years that he learned to play the organ under the tutelage of his brother.

Afterwards, he was a student of music at the Michaeliskloster in Lüneburg for two years, and that is where he received the foundations of a theoretical background in music. In 1703 after the Lüneburg period, he took on the position of organist at Arnstadt for three years, an important responsibility for a young man. The position was pivotal for him in that he had three years to play the newly installed organ, of two manuals and pedal and 21 stops, built by Johann Friedrich Wender of Mühl-hausen in the Neue Kirche.

Before his appointment as organist, Bach, then eighteen years old, had been asked to evaluate the organ, which he found to his approval. This organ has been completely restored to the specifications of the time and gives a very good idea of what Bach had to deal with.  It is rich in 16', 8', and 4' stops and has the basic characteristics that are associated with a baroque organ. It had been combined with a large Steinmeyer organ in 1913, and the two formed an instrument of a completely different character.  What one sees today in the third gallery is the case of the restored Wender organ, richly decorated in white and gold. After the company of Ostheim/

Rhön had been given the contract to reconstruct the Wender organ and to restore the Steinmeyer in 1997, it was decided to add the third balcony where the Wender had been originally and to move the Steinmeyer to the first balcony. As such, we now have two separate organs, and the upper balcony has a copy of the original Wender organ, including the case, with two manuals and pedal, of which 320 of the 1252 pipes are original. With the excellent acoustics of the church, this organ has an astonishingly full and brilliant sound. 

During his career, Bach was known primarily as an organist and his innovative work was not always appreciated by the more conservative elements of the congregation. Bach had developed considerable skills as an organist and was known to improvise a great deal during a service. The parishioners did not necessarily relish what they were hearing, which contributed to his leaving Arnstadt. He left the Neue Kirche for a position at the Divi Blasii Kirche in Mühlhausen for one year in 1707. This was important because he wrote out the specifications for changes in the organ there during that year, and the repairs were done after he left. The following are the specifications that he submitted.

Disposition of the new repairs of the Organ at the Divi Blasii.

1. The lack of wind production should be resolved by putting in three good bellows so that the Oberwerk, Rückpositiv and the new Brustwerk would have a more sufficient air flow.

2. The four old bellows that exist should have stronger wind production for the new 32' Untersatz and should be adapted for the remaining bass voices.

3. The old bass wind chests should be removed and replaced with new ones that conduct the wind such that a stop can be played alone or all of the stops can be played without a drop in air pressure, which was not possible formerly, but which is very necessary.

4. Then comes the 32' Subbaß or the so-called Untersatz in wood, which will give the entire division the best gravitas. This should have its own wind chest.

5. The Posaune should have more capacity and the shallots should be differently set so that a better gravitas is provided.

6. That the new Glockenspiel, desired by the parishioners, in the pedal division have 26 chimes at 4'; these chimes should be paid for by the parishioners and the organ builder will take care of their installation.   As far as the Obermanual is concerned the Trumpet should be removed and replaced by a

7. Fagotto 16' tone, which is useful for all sorts of new inventiones (ideas) and sounds delicate in playing musical compositions. Further, instead of the Gemshorn (which should be removed) comes a

8. Viol di Gamba 8', that can mesh well with the existing Salicinal 4' of the Rückpositiv. And instead of the Quinta 3' (which should also be removed) there comes a

9. Nassat 3'. The remaining stops in the Upper Manual can stay, as well as the entire Rückpositiv, which should be re-voiced during the repairs.

10. What should be in the new Brustpositiv are the following voices:

three principals, namely:

1. Quinta 3' (from good 14-ounce tin)

2. Octava 2' (from good 14-ounce tin)

3. Schalemoy 8' (from good 14-ounce tin)

4. Mixtur 3 ranks

5. Tertia, with which one can have a beautiful Sesquialtera by pulling another stop.

6. Fleute douce 4' and finally a

7.  Stillgedacht 8', that would harmonize with the music, and that would be made from good wood, sounding much better than a metallic Gedacht.

11. Between this Brustpositiv and the Oberwerk there has to be a coupler. And finally for the complete voicing of the entire organ, the tremulant must be put into its correct rate of flutter.1

 When the Schuke company of Potsdam built a new organ for the church in 1995 they followed the specifications that Bach had given at the time of his stay there. The hand-written document that he prepared at the time, translated above, is on view in the Town Hall. This does give a very good idea of Bach's thoughts insofar as organ specifications are concerned. The primary considerations as noted were the addition of a third manual, a Sesquialtera stop, and at least one wooden 32' Untersatz if not the Posaune in the Pedal division. He mentions adding a new Brustwerk to the Oberwerk and Rückpositiv, and that would represent the third manual that he desired. Today's organ has a Hauptwerk, which would have been Bach's Oberwerk, a Rückpositiv on the second manual, and a Brustwerk on the third.  There is a Sesquialtera II on both the Hauptwerk and the Rückpositiv, and the Pedal division has a 32' Untersatz, and a 16' Posaune.  

Mühlhausen is a most elegant city that is being beautifully restored. The Marienkirche stands high in the pedestrian zone from where the gothic arches are easily seen. It is the second largest church of Thüringen, next to the Mariendom of Erfurt, and is a stunning sight as one approaches it from the Ratsstraße. At the entrance of the Divi Blasii Kirche there is a plaque which indicates that Bach was the organist for the year 1707-1708. While at Mühl-hausen he had numerous difficulties because his virtuosity was not appreciated. The pastor, who was a Pietist, downplayed the use of music in the religious services, and Bach ended up developing a friendly relationship with the pastor of the Marienkirche on the other side of town. Even though he was there for only one year, the importance of that year is underscored by  the amount of attention given to his ideas on organ building.

In 1708 Bach married his cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, at the Dorfkirche of Dornheim, four kilometers to the east of Arnstadt. It is assumed that he chose that church because the minister, Lorenz Stauber, was a friend of his. After his marriage  he went to Weimar  in the capacity of court organist, and held the post of Concert Master to the Court from 1714 to 1717. During his nine years in Weimar he composed many pieces for organ and harpsichord and over thirty cantatas. He had the advantage of knowing and working with Johann Gottfried Walther, a cousin of his and a significant composer in his own right. He spent the next six years as Hofkapellmeister in Köthen, where he served at the will of Prince Leopold von Anhalt Köthen. The fact that the Prince had been musically trained was significant in fostering his occupation. He ended his career with the longest stay of all in Leipzig, which started in 1723 and lasted until his death on July 30, 1750.   

Even including the Leipzig phase, it is clear that Bach travelled very little in comparison with his contemporary, Händel. If one adds up the distances in the area of Eisenach, Ordruf, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, and Weimar, all of which are in Thüringen, one would find that the distances hardly total a few hundred kilometers at most. As such, he was so unlike many other great composers who travelled throughout Germany as well as in other countries. It was rare for a composer not to travel and study in Italy because of the early development of lyrical music in that country. Monteverdi's great operas go back to the beginning of the seventeenth century,  and much was learned from the lyricism of Vivaldi. Mozart is a perfect example of one who learned in this fashion.

The wealth of Bach organs in Thüringen makes this a particularly attractive area to visit. As far as the individual organs are concerned, besides the instrument at the Divi Blasii Kirche in Mühlhausen, the other important ones include:

1. The Wender organ at the Bachkirche in Arnstadt, because it would represent what he had and liked at the time of his appointment. Bach had been asked to evaluate the new organ at the time of its installation in 1703.  Two new recordings which feature the resident Kantor, Gottfried Preller, give ample evidence of the quality of the instrument. The outstanding acoustics of the Bachkirche play a special role in the success of the performances of some of Bach's major pieces.

2. The Hildebrandt organ at the Wenzelskirche in Naumburg is one that Bach had inspected, along with Gott-fried Silbermann, at the time of its installation in 1746, and which he found to his liking. This is an organ of 51 stops on three manuals. Its restoration continued in the fall and a re-dedication of the organ took place in December, 2000.   A recording, that is available at the church, features the restored Rückpositiv. Irene Greulich plays a variety of pieces, but the Partita, Jesu meine Freude by Bach's cousin, Johann Gott-fried Walther (1684-1748), shows off this division to very good effect. What the recording demonstrates in particular are the excellent acoustics of the church.2

3. The Heinrich Gottfried Trost  organ of the Schlosskirche in Altenburg, which Bach knew and appreciated. This organ was installed in 1739. The Hauptwerk and Oberwerk are rich in 8' stops, and the Pedal division has six 16' stops and a 32' Posaune.

4. Another Trost organ at the Stadtkirche in Waltershausen, which was built in 1724-30 but not completed until 1755 by another builder, Johann Heinrich Ruppert, would seem to have the specifications that Bach would have ideally desired. Ewald Kooiman from Amsterdam wrote in the liner notes of his CD "Bach in Waltershausen" that this organ with its combination of gravitas and lovely tone would be the closest to the ideal organ sound that Johann Sebastian Bach was seeking, when compared to all other so-called "Bach Organs," whether from Schnitger or Silbermann.3 Of the 50 stops there are nineteen 8-foot stops in the Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, Brustwerk and Pedal, and three 16-foot stops in the Hauptwerk and four in the Pedal. Of the rest, twelve are 4-foot stops spread out throughout the divisions and these three pitches represent 38 stops of the organ. This is certainly in keeping with the concept of a baroque organ, plus it adds one 32-foot stop in the Pedal division to provide the necessary gravitas.

At Mühlhausen a 32-foot stop for the Pedal was one of the changes that Bach envisioned for the new organ.  The current organ at the Divi Blasii Kirche has 40 stops, rich in 8' and 4' stops in the Hauptwerk, Brustwerk and Rückpositiv, and has three 16' stops and one 32' Untersatz in the Pedal division. Most of the organs in all of Thüringen tend to be between 20+ to 30+ stops--only a few in the entire province are larger. In the city of Erfurt the Mariendom organ has 60 stops, and that of the Prediger-kirche has 56. Both of these organs were built by Schuke of Potsdam and represent installations that were done within the last thirty years.

5. The organ at the Stadtkirche in Bad Berka is important because it was built originally to the specifications that Bach had drawn up. Heinrich Nicolaus Trebs, court organ builder from Wei-mar, built the organ in 1742-43 with 26 stops on Hauptwerk, Oberwerk and Pedal, instead of the 28 stops that Bach had specified, and it is thought that this was done because of lack of space in the west tower. The organ had mainly 8' stops throughout the divisions, and when a new organ was installed in the original case in 1991 by the firm of Gerhard Böhm of Gotha, it pretty much retained the same specifications with the substitution of more 4' stops in the Hauptwerk. There had been alterations and rebuilds over the years for a variety of reasons, and the work in 1991 was intended to put the organ back into its original condition. It does not have a 32' pedal stop. A concert on August 9, 2000,  with the house organist, Bernd Müller, which included music from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, showed the versatility of the organ, and a recording on the Motette label by Weiland Meinhold confirmed its qualities by including music by Bach and Töpfer. The Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C Major, BWV 564, clearly shows how ideal this organ is for Bach's music.   The pedal solos and the clarity of articulation demonstrate the strength of the specifications of the instrument.4

6. The Lukaskirche organ in Mühl-berg, II/26, was originally built and installed in 1729 by Franciscus Volckland of Erfurt. The specifications are very similar to those of the Wender organ at the Bachkirche in Arnstadt, and the organ was fully restored in 1997 by the Fa. Orgelbau Waltershausen. The case is richly decorated in white, blue and gold, and the acoustics of the church are first-rate by any standards, with a sound that is clear and full. At a concert on July 23, Dan Lönnqvist from Finland was outstanding in showing off the qualities of this organ as a Bach instrument. He played the Pièce d'Orgue, BWV 572, and the Fantasy & Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542, and both were outstanding examples of pieces played on an organ of quality in superb acoustics.  The setting could not be better in this church with its magnificent interior of white and gold, including the organ gallery high up in the west tower. A recording available at the church has Jozef Sluys playing a Bach program which features four of the Preludes and Fugues.5

Bach was primarily known as an organ virtuoso and choirmaster during his lifetime and some of his Toccatas and Fugues were written during his early years in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. There is some thought that he might not be the author of the famous Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565.  In 1971 a music scholar first raised this issue, and an article in the Thüringer Allegemeine Zeitung on July 28 quoted the organist of the Bachkirche in Arnstadt, Gottfried Preller, as saying, "I am convinced that the Toccata was not written by Bach. It is not provable by looking at the hand-written notes, but the piece is absolutely untypical of Bach." Preller's thoughts on perceived shortcomings in meter and quality bring him more to the conclusion that the Toccata was written by Bach's student, Johann Peter Kellner, a choirmaster from Gräfenroda, a town not far from Arnstadt. "That the composition comes from Bach's influence is clear. But it does not have Bachian command," he says further. Preller thinks that it would be atypical for Bach to have written a fugue of the type in this composition. The Fugue takes up two thirds of the work, and, in his opinion, is not integrally structured and, in comparison to the dramatic Toccata, is conspicuously bland.6 Preller also said: "We should accept the idea that there will always be a few problematic pieces to deal with . . . as well as the fact that we will never be able to resolve all questions with respect to Bach."7

Similar questions have been raised with respect to the authenticity of a variety of works by recognized masters. This has always been the case and therefore it is hardly surprising that such questions would be raised about some of Bach's works. Nonetheless, there is still no proof that certain works were not his, and with respect to the Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, others would argue that it has everything that one would expect from the pen of a young composer. Karl Geiringer writes that "The theme seems to be inspired by the violinistic technique of playing in quick alternation on two neighboring strings, a device Bach was often to employ in his music for keyboard instruments. The toccata's torrents of sound and dazzling fireworks create a tone poem of passionate subjectivity; yet there is a masterly craftsmanship underlying all this outpouring of emotion. . . . In its intensity and exuberance this is clearly a product of Bach's youth, but there is no groping and uncertainty in it."8

Clearly, if the Toccata & Fugue does not come from the Arnstadt years, it cannot be far removed. There is enough to show that the late works have a consistency about them that really demonstrates the development in the artistic ability of the composer. The contradictory arguments dealing with his works are similar to the ones surrounding his ideas on the organ: it is known that Bach favored having a 32' pedal stop, and yet the specifications that he left for an organ in Bad Berka did not include a 32' stop. When he arrived in Arnstadt,  the newly installed Wender organ did not include a 32' stop, and even when the Steinmeyer was added to the Wender in 1913, the result was a relatively large organ which was rich in 8' and 16' stops but did not include a 32' pedal stop. This is like trying to define exactly what a baroque organ or baroque organ sound should be. A compromise would seem to indicate that the baroque organ should be a three-manual organ of some 30+ stops with a Pedal division that has a 32' Untersatz. The majority of the stops in the Hauptwerk and Oberwerk should be based on 8' and 16' pipes. Without dismissing the need for reed stops, it is clear that they are not prominent. However, one might ask if this is simply for lack of knowledge about them or for a conscious dislike of the reed sound. Did the liturgical needs of the instrument take the lead and therefore obviate the desire for reed stops? Peter Williams picks up this issue in an article in The IAO Millennium Book, which was recently published in England.9 He asserts that there is no concept of "Bach's ideal organ" and that it is incorrect to point to organs that had a direct connection with the composer to address the question.10 He writes "not only would no single organ have shown all of this music at its best but any great composer is likely to work to a platonic ideal that could never exist. In any case, there are problems with giving priority to any of these organs. The first is that Bach never presided over any of the great organs of the day, as his Obituary already reports him as frequently remarking. Furthermore, it is difficult to see how there could be one single ideal instrument, because the repertory itself, from the early chorales and praeludia to the late Leipzig works, spans almost half a century. Not only is this the very period when the organ underwent considerable development and changed as far as it could before nineteenth-century technologies laid out other paths for it, but no great composer is likely to keep the same ideals of sound for half a century."11 In effect Williams is saying that the more we know about the organs of Bach's time, the more questions we have rather than answers as to what the "ideal Bach organ" might be.

We should always remember that Bach's main tasks at Leipzig were to direct the Thomaner Choir School, teach at the school, including Latin, serve as Music Director of the Lutheran churches in Leipzig and to compose and conduct liturgical music on a weekly basis. This represented his job during the last twenty-seven years of his life. Most of the music he wrote was performed during the Sunday services at the Thomaskirche. It is generally assumed that he had the position of organist at the Thomaskirche, but this is simply not true. He was not the organist of either the Thomaskirche or the Nikolaikirche, the other large church in Leipzig, which today contains a restored Ladegast organ of over 90 stops, and he did not have a position specifically related to either one of those churches.

The trip to Thüringen last summer was rich in its discoveries of much of Bach's early surroundings, and underscores once again the quality of genius that one associates with German composers and organ builders over the centuries.

 

Notes

                  1.              A basically literal translation of the liner notes which gave Bach's original specifications in German from the CD Violet LC8900, Vol. 13, Orgellandschaft Thüringen, Die Schuke-Orgel in der Kirche Divi Blasii zu Mühlhausen, Felix Friedrich.  A slightly differently worded translation is given in The New Bach Reader - A life of Johann Sebastian Bach in letters and documents, ed. by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel and revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff, W. W. Norton and Company, 1998, pp. 55 and 56.

                  2,              cf.  CD, LC8418 Tonträger Produktion,  Orgelpunkt Zwölf, Irene Greulich am Rückpositiv der Hildebrandt-Orgel zu St. Wenzel in Naumburg. 

                  3.              cf.  liner notes in the CD "Bach in Waltershausen" as mentioned in a flyer of the Stadtkirche, 3 Lutherstraße, 99880 Waltershausen.

                  4.              CD 11851 Motette, Weimarer Orgelmusik,  Wieland Meinhold an der Böhm-Orgel der Stadtkirche zu Bad Berka.

                  5.              cf. CD 87 148 René Gailly, Johann Sebastian Bach auf den Orgeln seiner Heimat (vol. 4), Jozef Sluys, Domorganist Brüssel spielt die Volckland-Hesse Orgel zu Mühlberg.

                  6.              cf. article by Frauke Adrians in the Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung of July 28th, 2000, p. 3.

                  7.              Ibid.

                  8.              Karl Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach, The Culmination of an Era, Oxford University Press, New York, 1966, p. 218.

                  9.              Article by Peter Williams in The IAO Millennium Book, ed. by Paul Hale, Incorporated Associated Organists 2000, pp. 1-14.

                  10.           Ibid. p. 3

                  11.           Ibid.

Other sources of information.  All translations from the German were done by the author.

1.              Bachstätten--Ein Reiseführer zu Johann Sebastian Bach by Martin Petzoldt, Insel Verlag, Frankfurt-am-Main, 2000.

2.              Johann Sebastian Bach, the Learned Musician, by Christoph Wolff, W. W. Norton and Company, New York and London, 2000.

3.              The New Bach Reader - a life of Johann Sebastian Bach in letters and documents, ed. by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel and revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff, W. W. Norton and Company,  New York and London, 1998.

4.              Oxford Composer Companions, J. S. Bach, ed. by Malcolm Boyd, Oxford University Press, 1999.

5.              Bach by Malcolm Boyd, in the Master Musicians Series, ed. by Stanley Sadie, Schirmer Books, New York 1997.

6.              The IAO Millennium Book, ed. by Paul Hale, Incorporated Association of Organists 2000.

7.              Festchrift zur Wiedereinweihung, Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Kirche zu Arnstadt, Herausgegeben zum Einweihungstag am 16. Januar 2000 vom Kuratorium Bachkirche Arnstadt 2000 und der Evang.-Luth. Kirchgemeinde Arnstadt.

8.              CD, Bach in Arnstadt, 4/2000 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirchgemeinde Arnstadt, Gottfried Preller spielt an der Wender Orgel (1703) der J.-S.-Bach-Kirche.

9.              CD, Johann Sebastian Bach in Arnstadt,  2000 Orgelbau-Hoffman, Ostheim/Rhön, Gottfried Preller spielt an der Wender-Hoffman-Orgel Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

Aldo J. Baggia is Chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Instructor in French, Spanish, German and Italian at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire. He holds a bachelor's degree from Iona College and the MA from Middlebury College, and has completed graduate work at Laval University and Duke University. He has pursued postgraduate studies in France, Germany, Austria and Spain, and has travelled extensively in Europe. He has written numerous opera reviews for Quarterly Opera Review, Opera, Opera News, Orpheus and Monsalvat. He has written articles and reviews for The Diapason.

Tradition and Development

by Francesco Ruffatti

A concert by Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini and Gustav Leonhardt at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, held on October 27, 2000, provided the inspiration for  writing an article on the historical Italian organ, its tradition and development. My goal is to give a panoramic view of the subject, and anyone knows that when looking at a panoramic view much of the detail is lost. Still, such an attempt is worth carrying out because some general guidelines can in any case be drawn. To do so, it is necessary to go back a number of centuries and try to understand the original role of the organ in the musical world of Italian churches.

 

The Basilica of San Petronio is no ordinary place from the standpoint of organbuilding history. It enjoys the presence of two unique instruments: the oldest Italian organ in existence, built by Lorenzo da Prato between 1471 and 1475, roughly 20 years prior to the discovery of America by Columbus,1 and a later organ, built by Baldassarre Malamini in 1596. The instruments are located face to face in the area traditionally reserved for the choristers, behind the high altar.

The program notes for the Tagliavini-Leonhardt concert, written by Marc Vanscheevwijck, well explain the use for which organs of medieval and renaissance times were intended:

Alternatim performance practice, i.e., the performance of liturgical pieces alternating contrasting musical forces in the various versets of the sacred texts, originates in the old antiphonal singing of psalms of the first centuries A.D. In responsorial music a soloist or a small group of singers alternated with the larger choir. Sometimes they alternated plainchant with polyphonic settings of the text. Probably as early as the organ began to be used in church, the organist already improvised "versets," alternating with the choir singing the counter versets in Gregorian chant. Obviously, the schola never repeated the texts of the versets played by the organist, who improvised (and later composed) on the relative Gregorian melodies. The earliest source of such a practice is the Faenza Codex, compiled c.1420. During the following century this alternatim practice spread throughout Italy. Many alternatim settings, particularly of the mass proper, have been preserved, some of the most famous of which were composed by Girolamo Cavazzoni, Claudio Merulo, Andrea Gabrieli, and (in the 17th century) the Fiori Musicali of Girolamo Frescobaldi.2

 

Two aspects immediately come to mind:

1. The organ location, which for effective responsorial use had to be near the choir and not necessarily in a favorable position for the congregation,

2. A tonal structure suitable for dialogue with a small group of singers.

There was no need for a sound big enough to accompany the choir, simply because the organ was intended as a soloist. And accompanying the congregation was certainly not in the agenda, since people did not sing during liturgy in Italian Catholic churches until very recently.3

What effect did all of this have on the sound? Since power was not the issue, early Italian organbuilders developed their talents in other areas, and tonal quality became the priority. They created relatively small instruments, mostly with only one manual, with gentle, beautifully voiced stops. Wind pressures were in most cases quite low, down to 42-45 mm. at the water column, and the voicing techniques as well as the tonal design in general reflected such an approach.

Listening to music by Antegnati (also a famous Italian organbuilder), Segni, Veggio, Gabrieli and others performed on the beautiful organs of San Petronio gave me and the entire audience (a few hundred people all gathered in the large space behind the high altar, to be able to best hear the organs) a good perspective of the musical experience which was originally expected from such instruments.

It is my belief that the original DNA of ancient Italian pipe organs, as defined by their original use in the liturgy, played a decisive role in the subsequent evolution of the instruments. This was due to a strong sense of tradition among the vast majority of builders and to their reluctance to introduce changes to a practice which was considered successful. Examples to the contrary do exist, but any effort of generalizing, or extracting general rules from a complex reality, always ends up sacrificing notable exceptions.

In post-Renaissance times, organ use became widespread. All Italian churches had at least one organ and often one or two Positivo4  instruments in addition to the main organ. And a very significant change took place: in addition to being used as a solo instrument for improvisations and for the performance of written music, the organ also became an accompanimental instrument for the choir. Its location within the building also changed in most cases, taking into greater consideration the congregation as the beneficiary of musical performances: the preferred location for new instruments became a balcony facing the nave, which is still considered by many to be the ideal location for the best possible diffusion of sound within a building. Naturally, broader tonal resources had to be made available in order to accommodate this new function, but this did not cause a significant change in the original voicing practices. In other words, more stops were introduced and a Pedal division was added (normally consisting of one or two stops), but the basic tonal structure remained the same and no major changes took place in the sound: still low pressures and gentle voicing. After all, organs still did not need to be big or powerful, because they were not intended to support an entire congregation, just a choir.5

A further, major evolution took place as a result of the greater demands by the repertoire of the Romantic period. A great number of new stops were introduced: reeds of various types, more flutes, strings, even percussion: drums, cymbals, bells and the like. The organs built by the Serassi family of Bergamo towards the end of the eighteenth century and during the following century are a good example of the romantic Italian organ. The occupation of Bergamo by the troops of Napoleon (1796-1813) and subsequently by the Austrians (1814-1859) influenced organbuilding practices by introducing new musical models and, as a consequence, by contributing to the development of new devices and new sounds that would improve the performance of the music inspired by the teaching of Simon Mayr (1763-1845), by his pupil Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) and by Gioacchino Rossini.6 The famous composer Felice Moretti (also known as Father Davide da Bergamo), a Franciscan monk and a family friend of the Serassi, composed music that was deeply influenced by opera. Also, Giuseppe II Serassi, the most innovative member of the family, introduced new devices aimed at facilitating the dynamic control of sound: the third hand, or mechanical super coupler, the fourth hand, or sub coupler, the expression shades, pedals for pre-set combinations of stops, an easier system for the coupling of the manuals (by means of a pedal and no longer by the sliding of the upper manual into position), settable combinations of stops, and the Tiratutti or Tutti for the Ripieno ranks.7

In spite of all of this, the ancient core of the instrument and the basic tonal concept behind it remained virtually unchanged for a good part of the nineteenth century. Low wind pressures were still the rule, as well as unforced voicing, fairly open pipe toes, and few nicks at the languids. As a consequence,   there was a broad harmonic development in the sound, allowing a very effective use of each stop in combination with others and forming an ensemble of rare cohesion and beauty. Pressures of sometimes less than 50 mm. at the water column naturally presented a real challenge, particularly for the voicing of reed stops, but this had the effect of encouraging builders to find original design and voicing methods to overcome the difficulties.8

At this point, it is necessary to define the tonal core of the organ which I have indicated as an element of continuity in Italian organbuilding throughout the centuries. Its main component is the Ripieno. The term does not translate to Mixture, but rather it defines a series of individual Principal scaled ranks of pipes at various pitches, creating a system of sounds at harmonic intervals, normally beginning with 8' pitch as the foundation of the manual.

The composition of a typical Ripieno with its traditional nomenclature follows:

Principale (I) 8'

Ottava (VIII) 4'

Decimaquinta (XV) 2'

Decimanona (XIX) 11/3'

Vigesima seconda (XXII) 1'

Vigesima sesta (XXVI) 2/3'

Vigesima nona (XXIX) 1/2'

Trigesima terza (XXXIII) 1/3'

Trigesima sesta (XXXVI) 1/4'

And occasionally:

Quadragesima (XL) 1/6'

Quadragesima Terza (XLIII) 1/8'

The highest pitch in the entire Ripieno is in most cases the note C at 1/8'. Beyond this limit a ritornello or break begins with pipes double the length, or one full octave lower in pitch.9

Table 1 is intended to give a clear and comprehensive idea of the tonal composition of the Ripieno. The method I am utilizing is unconventional and it consists of identifying each pipe by a number corresponding to its place in an ideal succession of notes starting with number 1 as low C of the 8' Principal. Low C at 4' will consequently be numbered as 13, low C at 2' will be numbered as 25 and so on. The highest pitch pipe in the Ripieno will be number 73, corresponding to the pitch limit of 1/8'. Once a rank reaches note number 73 it will break back and start a ritornello with note C#62 (or one full octave lower). To simplify matters, I am showing the first octave as complete (12 notes). The most common arrangement in Italian historical organs calls for a short first octave (8 notes, with C#, D#, F# and G# missing). Notes are identified by octave number, according to the Italian system, by which C1 corresponds to note C of the first octave, F3 to note F of the third octave, and so on. The chosen compass for our example is of 49 keys, C1 to C5. This system, by numbers rather than by footage, is intended to provide a more immediate idea of the repetition of equal size pipes throughout the compass for the entire Ripieno. Equal number means equal size pipe.

The conventional method is shown in Table 2. The Ripieno here is comparable, in pure terms of number of pipes, to a Principal chorus with 8', 4' and 2' stops plus a six-rank mixture. But by looking at Table 2 one can immediately appreciate the vast difference from such an arrangement. At note C#2 the first doubling or double pitch appears: pipes from the 1/2' rank (XXIX) and 1/4' rank (XXXVI) become of identical size. Consequently, between notes C#2 and F2 the tonal effect is not that of a six-rank mixture but rather of a five-rank mixture with one of the ranks doubled. This aspect becomes more and more prominent as we move up the keyboard, to the point that at note C#4 (key number 38) with all ranks from Decimaquinta (2') up drawn, only two pitches can be heard: 2', repeated 4 times, and 11/3', repeated three times. As one can easily appreciate, such tonal structure cannot be compared with that of a Mixture, or Fourniture or any other multiple-rank stop designed as a single entity. The Ripieno is simply different. It is conceived as a sum of individual ranks at different pitches, each separately usable in combinations with any other rank and all usable at once as a pleno.10

Obviously, this feature provides a great deal of flexibility in the tonal palette. From an organbuilder"s practical standpoint, it has two effects:

1. It forces the voicer to be extremely scrupulous as to the tonal balance, regulation and speech adjustment of each pipe even in the highest pitched ranks, since each can be separately used;

2. It makes tuning more difficult, due to the drawing effect on the equal pitched pipes when they play together. Only a tuner who knows how to deal with such a problem can obtain a stable tuning of the Ripieno.11

Tuning with double pitches was nothing new to ancient builders. In fact, pre-Renaissance and Renaissance organs, in Italy as well as in other European countries, often had double or even triple notes of equal length in the treble of the Principal, the Octave and sometimes the Fifteenth, to enhance the singing qualities of the instrument in the treble. This practice strangely survived, in some areas of Italy, all the way to the beginning of the 19th century. This proves that the difficulties connected with the tuning of multiple equal-pitched pipes never bothered Italian organbuilders too much.12

Other traditional stops forming the original core of the historical Italian organ include the following:

Flauto in Ottava (4'), normally tapered or cylindrical, sometimes stopped

Flauto in Decimaquinta (2') in the earlier instruments

Flauto in Duodecima (22/3')

The Terzino, or Tierce flute (13/5') was later added and, in the nineteenth century, the Flauto Traverso or Fluta (8', normally in the treble only).

Early strings appeared in the eighteenth century, at 4' in the bass and occasionally over the entire compass, but such stops were vastly different from what we think of as a string today. They had no ears, no beards, no nicks at the languids. These characteristics, combined with a very narrow scale, contributed to produce a sound with a very prominent transient at the attach and a cutting sustained tone, strongly imitative of early string instruments.

The Voce Umana or Fiffaro, a Principal-scaled stop at 8' pitch (treble only) was also used in the Renaissance and became increasingly more common in the Baroque and later periods. Its pipes were normally tuned sharp against the 8' Principal, except in the Venetian tradition and among a few builders in the south of Italy, where flat tuning was preferred.

The above description, as I have said earlier, represents a simplification of a much more complicated subject, and many examples exist that do not follow the rule.13 Also, all of those who are familiar with ancient Italian organs will agree that the tonal experience that comes from a Callido or a Nacchini organ is vastly different from that of an Agati or a Catarinozzi. They were expressions of very different artistic environments and the builders were very faithful to their own local traditions.

What happened in nineteenth-century Italian organbuilding is worth investigating a bit more closely. Early signs of rejection of the Italian romantic organ appeared. In 1824 the Cardinal Vicar of Rome promulgated an edict stating: "Organists may not play on the organ music written for theater, or with profane character, but only music that can encourage meditation and devotion . . . "14 Still, many of the major builders in the north, as well as many in other parts of the country, continued in their tradition of building instruments without changing their style.15 But at some point, foreign influence became a strong factor16 and the "new inventions," the Barker lever first and then pneumatic and electric action, came into the picture.17 Pneumatic action in particular and the new sounds, such as the "modern strings" and harmonic stops demanded higher wind pressures, and the organ sound became stronger and aggressive. But, as we all know, pneumatic action represented only a relatively short transition period in organbuilding history, and a further evolution of the instrument was soon marked in the following century by a perfected electric action and by the rediscovery, in the mid 1960s, of tracker action. This movement was immediately promoted by some of the major Italian builders18 and it became stronger and stronger over the years. The neoclassical instrument was created, based on mechanical action and on the re-discovery of the traditional sounds and voicing techniques. But, as it is often the case, the intent was not that of copying the past but rather of preserving the best of tradition within a new context which was calling for a new use of the organ: the support of congregational singing.

One may get the impression that it is impossible to extract a general trend from this entire process of evolution. Still, I believe that one common denominator can be found: the unforced, pleasing singing quality that has survived unchanged for over five centuries, and which effectively represents, in musical form, the character of the Italian language.

 

Notes

                  1.              The instrument consists of one manual and short pedalboard, as follows. Manual: F1-A4 without F#1, G#1; divided keys G#1/Ab1, G#2/Ab2, G#3/Ab3; Pedal: F1-D2 directly connected to the corresponding manual keys. The stoplist follows:

Principale contrabasso (24', façade) - doubled from C#3

Principale (12', rear façade - doubled from C#3, triple from Bb3)

Flauto in VIII

Flauto in XII

Ottava (doubled from Bb3)

XII

XV

XIX

XXII

XXVI-XXIX

Spring windchest, A = 470 Hz, meantone temperament; restoration by Tamburini, 1974-1982. The above information is the courtesy of Liuwe Tamminga, recitalist and organist at the Basilica of San Petronio.

                  2.              Concerning earlier use of the organ in western world churches, see Peter Williams (Duke University, Durham, NC) in his essay "The origin of the Christian organ with some particular reference to Italy," Acts of the International Symposium on "I Serassi--L"arte organaria fra sette e ottocento," Ed. Carrara, Bergamo, 1999, p. 12. Referring to the early Middle Ages, he writes: "I don"t know any evidence that organs were brought into church in order to accompany singing--whether it was the celebrant singing at mass, the lay people responding with their own acclamations, or the monks chanting their daily office in private or in public. All that one can be certain about is that organs were there to provide sound, and whatever later music historians may have assumed, it is seldom if ever clear what kind of sound they made, or for what purpose and at what point they made it. Only from the thirteenth century onwards the picture is clear . . ."

                  3.              While the practice of congregational singing at celebrations in Italian churches may have had its first examples at the end of the nineteenth century, it was during the Second Vatican Council that this practice was actually encouraged.

                  4.              A Positivo can be described as a smaller size "cabinet" organ, self-contained, whose casework is normally divided in two sections: the lower case, containing the bellows (normally two multi-fold hinged bellows activated by levers), and the upper case, which sits on top and which holds the keyboard, the windchest and pipes. It was almost invariably built without independent pedal stops,  and its pedalboard, when present, consisted normally of one short octave, whose keys were connected to the corresponding keys of the first octave at the manual by means of strings or wires. Although easily movable (sometimes large handles on the sides of the two sections of the case indicate this possibility), it is different from a Portativo, an even smaller instrument whose primary function was that of providing music during outdoor processions.

                  5.              Larger instruments are not unknown to historical Italian organbuilding. I will mention two examples of rare complexity:

a.) The instrument at the church of San Nicolo L"Arena in Catania, by Donato del Piano (1698-1785), with a total of five keyboards, divided between three consoles attached to the case (1 manual - 3 manuals - 1 manual) with the larger console in the center and one pedalboard for the center console, plus a separate small automatic pipe instrument activated by a rotating drum. This enormous, beautiful instrument, now in a poor state of disrepair (among other things, the pipes have all been removed and stored), includes pipework of extremely unusual shape.

b.) The great organ at the Church of the Cavalieri di S. Stefano in Pisa, built between 1733 and 1738 by Azzolino Bernardino della Ciaia (1671-1755) with the help of other organbuilders from different parts of Italy, with four manuals plus a fifth manual activating a harpsichord. This organ was later converted into a pneumatic instrument and subsequently electrified. Only a portion of the original pipework survives.

                  6.              See Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, "Le risorse dell"organo Serassiano e il loro sfruttamento nella prassi organistica dell"epoca," in Acts of the International Symposium on "I Serassi--L"arte organaria fra sette e ottocento", Ed. Carrara, Bergamo, 1999, pp. 80-84.

                  7.              See Giosue Berbenni, Acts of the International Symposium on "I Serassi--L"arte organaria fra sette e ottocento," Ed. Carrara, Bergamo, 1999, pp. 22-24.

                  8.              The lower the wind pressure, the thinner the tongues must be to obtain promptness of speech. But thin tongues also produce undesirable side effects, notably:  a) A thinner timbre in general, with greater development of overtones and less fundamental; b) Uncontrollable sound at the bass register, where any reed naturally tends to become louder; c) Very weak trebles. To overcome these problems, a series of interesting methods were developed. I will mention a few:

a.) Wide and deep shallots to increase the volume of air excited by the tongue, with the effect of increasing the prominence of the fundamental in the tone;

b.) Double or even triple tongues at the low register, to control volume, timbre and stability;

c.) Variable tongue thickness at the treble, with the filing of the tip to obtain promptness while retaining a good volume of sound.

For a more complete description of voicing methods on low pressure reeds, with specific reference to the reeds of Serassi organs, see Francesco Ruffatti in "I registri ad ancia negli organi Serassi," Acts of the International Symposium on "I Serassi--L"arte organaria fra sette e ottocento," Ed. Carrara, Bergamo, 1999 pp. 144-150.

                  9.              When the lowest pitched stop on the manual is the Principal 16' the nomenclature remains the same, although all stops start one octave lower in pitch. The stoplist becomes:

Principale (16')

Ottava (8')

Decimaquinta (4')

Decimanona (22/3')

and so on. In essence, the organ is still seen as based on the 8' Principal, with the extension of a counter octave towards the bass (see my article on Gaetano Callido, December, 1999 issue of The Diapason, p. 17, Note 8).

                  10.           Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini in his article "Il ripieno," L"organo, Year 1, No. 2, July-December, 1960, Ed. Patron, Bologna, points out the difference between the Italian Ripieno and the northern European mixtures as follows:

"a) The classical Italian ripieno is divided into its constitutive elements, corresponding to separate stops, while the foreign mixtures, starting from a certain pitch (from 4', from 22/3', from 2', from 11/3' etc.) are condensed into one stop;

b) Both in the ripieno and in the northern mixtures a gradual "compression" towards the treble takes place, a compression which is more limited in the German and northern European organ, greater in the Italian organ. In fact a ripieno will have a "compressed" extension in the treble, reduced from 8' to 2', while in the Mixtur-Scharf scheme the treble is extended between 8' and 1';

c) The "masking" of the jumps produced by the breaks is done differently in Italy from abroad; in Italy, by the division of breaks into two different points, one for the octave stops and one for the quint stops; abroad by the partial or complete substitution of the break in quint and fourth with the one in octave.

The northern European mixtures, through a particular interpretation of the break and without any fear of going beyond the pitch limits in the bass and the treble as imposed by the Italian ripieno, tend to make the tonal "density" more uniform, by reducing the difference between the tonal richness of the bass and the treble. Part of such uniformity is sacrificed by the Italian organbuilder in favor of tonal beauty. This is why the use of the Italian ripieno is mostly chordal and for toccatas, while the northern European organum plenum, especially the German, can also perform a polyphonic role."

In c) Tagliavini refers to alternation of quint and unison breaks within the same rank in all ranks of the mixture.

The pitch limit of northern European mixtures and related stops is often C at 1/16', close to the limit of human hearing, one full octave higher than the Ripieno and this factor alone determines a dramatic difference in the sound from the Ripieno.

                  11.           Drawing is an acoustical phenomena by which the sound of a pipe is drawn or pulled into tune by the sound of a second pipe which is playing an interval close to being pure or in tune. This effect is stronger between unison pipes; when tuning the second pipe to the first, its sound will slide into tune as soon as its frequency approaches that of the first pipe, but before it actually reaches the same value, thus determining an apparent tuning condition. Adding a third pipe and trying to tune it to the two previous sounds becomes impossible if the first two pipes are in a status of apparent unison, because each of the two sounds will react to the third pipe differently, according to their real frequency value. The difficulties increase exponentially from note C#4 up in the example shown, where two groups of 4 and 3 equal size pipes respectively play at once. The procedure to tune the Ripieno is consequently different and definitely more complicated than that of a regular mixture stop, as it must take into account the drawing of equal length pipes.

                  12.           I am here mentioning two organs, built in Tuscany by the Paoli family of Campi Bisenzio at the beginning of the 19th century, both restored by Fratelli Ruffatti in recent years:

a.) the organ in the Church of S. Francesco in Pontassieve, near Florence, built by Giacobbe Paoli, which includes doublings at the Principale starting with note Bb3, at the Ottava from note F3 and at the Decimaquinta also from note F3;

b.) the organ built by Michelangelo Paoli in the Basilica of S. Maria, Impruneta - Firenze, utilizing the pipes of a previous instrument by Bernardo d"Argenta, 1535, which has doublings at the Principale starting from note F#3, at the Ottava from note B3 and at the Decimaquinta from C4. Having re-built the windchest entirely, the builder could have easily eliminated the doublings had he not believed in the validity of such tonal approach.

                  13.           As an example, Sicilian organs in the 18th century were often built with multiple Ripieno ranks activated by a single stop control.

                  14.           See "La riforma dell"Organo Italiano" by Baggiani, Picchi, Tarrini, Ed. Pacini, Ospedaletto (Pisa), 1990, pp. 9-10.

                  15.           The largest instrument built by the Serassi family, the "Organum maximum" with three keyboards and over three thousand pipes, was built in the romantic style as late as in 1882. This instrument was restored by Fratelli Ruffatti between 1983 and 1985. It includes many of the effects which were rejected by liturgists, such as the drum, a bell and other percussion.

                  16.           Ferdinando Casamorata (1807-1881), musician and music scholar, introduced the work of Cavaillé-Coll to the Italian musical scene by making public the work of J. A. De La Fage "Orgue de l"Église Royale de Saint Dénis, construit par MM Cavaillé-Coll père et fils, Facteur d"orgues du Roi." Rapport. II edition, Paris, 1846. See "La riforma dell"Organo Italiano" by Baggiani, Picchi, Tarrini, Ed. Pacini, Ospedaletto (Pisa), 1990, p. 12. He gave explanations and favorable comments on some of the most remarkable characteristics of the instrument, notably the variety of wind pressures, the Barker lever, the "strength" of the upper registers, especially the reed stops, etc., and presenting them as valuable innovations worth imitating.

                  17.           An important role in this process was played by George William Trice (1848-1920), a British merchant who became an organbuilder and established a factory in Italy. He built the first electric action organ in 1888 for the Church of S. Andrea, Genoa. Other notable instruments followed, among which the three-manual instrument for the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Genoa, inaugurated in 1890 with concerts by Alexander Guilmant and Filippo Capocci.

18.               

Tamburini and Ruffatti were the first major Italian companies, in the early 1960s, to resume building mechanical action instruments.

 

Francesco Ruffatti has been a partner since 1968 of Fratelli Ruffatti, builders and restorers of pipe organs, in Padova, Italy. Besides being the tonal director of the firm, he is actively involved in the research on historical Italian organs and the supervision of the many historical restorations performed by the firm.

by Robert Huestis

Introduction

The modern "orgelbewegung" organ revival has cultivated as a norm the German neo-Baroque organ, using stopped or partly stopped flutes as foundations at 8' and 16' pitch in small instruments. This practice has been given such authority that many organists do not question it; but this type of organ is only one style among many. Neither it nor any other design ought to be raised to the level of dogmatic acceptance. The multiple foundation stops found in the best nineteenth-century organs  represent the continuation of a tradition which had been already established in the Baroque period. A perception of the history of the organ which does not ignore the nineteenth century should lead us to see that multiple foundation stops in the manuals are consistent with eighteenth-century practice and not the exception.

In this paper, the presence of such stops in important examples is noted and described. It is observed that some organs of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century have an extraordinarily cohesive blend of stops in various combinations. An acoustic theory is put forward to explain the reason for this blend or its absence. This theory states that stops are able to blend when harmonics are present in the unison tone which duplicate the fundamentals of the upper pitches. It is also observed that stopped pipes used as foundations cannot provide these harmonics.

A most important application of this point of view is that the pedal of a small organ may be based upon a 16' open subbass, not the traditional stopped bourdon. Several organs are cited which demonstrate this practice, from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. It is noted that in the manual divisions the Italian organs used 8' open pipes as foundations through their entire history; however, the Italian organ has generally been ignored as a model for small instruments. It is concluded that the exclusive use of stopped pipes as fundamentals in small organs should be reconsidered. The extensive use of stopped flutes represents a restricted, national style which ought not assume the role of a universal model. Open pipes blend better and make the tone more cohesive. We should question accepted norms of "organ design" and revise them in favor of those traditions which include the use of open pipes to provide the fundamental tone. This will allow organs in churches to be most effective at their primary role, to provide a foundation for congregational singing.

Historical Background

With the neo-Baroque organ revival, organ scholarship blossomed and has resulted in the construction of new instruments re-creating stop lists that belong to specific national or regional styles of organ building. These instruments reflect earlier times and their respective literatures. These trends were transmitted remarkably quickly to North America. This was accomplished primarily by North American scholars studying abroad and by European specialists teaching in North America. Some years later these same trends appeared in other English-speaking countries such as Australia. This organ revival filled a particularly heartfelt need resulting from a discontinuity of the traditions of organ building which was most evident in the "orchestral" and theatre organs of the 1920s.

It is not a simple matter to establish exactly why traditional concepts of organ building were abandoned, but if any one cause is to singled out, it must be that certain types of electric action made possible the use of the same pipes at two or more pitches (unification) or on two or more keyboards (duplexing)1. These purely technical devices of organ design, made in the interests of a certain type of economy, made it impossible to voice the organ so that its stops could blend. This break with the traditional concepts of organ voicing set the stage for rediscovery of older traditions, rather than allowing a normal evolution of organ design. When it became obvious that something had been lost through neglect, there had to be a "revival" so that whatever it was that had been lost could be reinstated.

Unification and duplexing destroyed the blending ensemble so thoroughly that, despite the effects of the organ revival movement, we have not yet recovered the consciousness that the stops of an organ must truly blend together. The result is a genuine anachronism: the separate stops of many modern organs refuse to blend, while there still exist a few forgotten nineteenth-century instruments, the best from their time, which preserve the ability of every one of their stops to blend with every other. While the "revival" organs do not have unification or duplexing, often they show an indifference to blend that can be traced to the disastrous lapse of sensitivity in voicing that unification and duplexing have left as their aftermath.

New Organs in North American and Australia

One result of the organ revival has been the crystallization of the neo-Baroque stoplist into a norm for the construction of new organs. But because a "revival" resurrects an older stratum of the culture which has already passed away, the organ revival reflects the specific requirements of a style of organ playing which is no longer in an active phase of development. The "revival" organ often reflects the general requirements of eighteenth-century organ playing and the specific demands of German Lutheran organ literature. It is now customarily imposed upon English-speaking regions of the world, regions which possess traditions and literatures vastly different from those of an eighteenth-century culture. This neo-eighteenth-century norm presents itself virtually as a doctrinal system, often assuming a degree of authority that is insisted upon in the same way that a theological principle may be insisted upon.

The North American adoption of the neo-Baroque organ design was a "marriage of convenience" to aid the recovery from the theatre organ debacle and its after-effects. It has persisted quite a bit too long. Now we are being called to take up once again the historical evolution of the instrument.

The objective of the author is to develop a theory of organ registration and specification that does not reflect the demands of any national or regional style. Instead, it is a theory of organ specification which proceeds from an acoustic basis. It is intended to fulfill the needs which we find in English-speaking churches at the end of the twentieth century. Like the ancient eclectic philosopher, we have selected such doctrines as please us from every school. Our music borrows freely from many sources, and is not exclusive to any one tradition.

The Nineteenth-Century Contribution

In Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Europe, there still exist nineteenth-century organs virtually untouched or relatively intact, preserving a tradition of organ building which has largely been lost in the major population centers. A number of these organs are being rehabilitated and it is no longer fashionable to take away their original characteristics. Restorations, not rebuilds, are becoming more common. An example is the organ formerly of St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Brisbane, built about 1880.2 This old instrument survived the rebuilders because of the happy circumstances of benign neglect. Fortunately, there was not enough money available to replace or "modernize" it.

This organ features tracker action, low wind pressure, bright reeds, and clear but not loud upper work. Everything rests upon a foundation of several unison stops and all reasonable combinations of two or more stops can be depended upon to combine into a blend of great cohesion. These factors suggest that this organ represents an evolution of the traditions of organ building which had been current during the century before. Though the sound is quite different from a Baroque organ, there is no radical departure from the eighteenth-century traditions, but rather a continuity with them. The result is that the music of both Bach and Brahms sounds very comfortable on this instrument.

The Great manual of this organ corresponds almost exactly to the Baroque ideal in the plan of the stops and their assignment at various pitches. The character of the stops has changed according to the styles of the period, but the essential design of the ensemble is preserved. As a model for comparison the specification of the Great manual is given from the Löfsta Bruk organ of 1728 by the Swedish builder Cahman,3

It is apparent from nineteenth-century examples (for instance, by E.&G.G. Hook and others in Canada and the United States), that tracker action, low wind pressure, bright reeds, upper work and mixtures were all elements of organ building that had been carried over into the nineteenth century from the eighteenth century. What about the multiple unison stops? Do these represent a "Romantic" tradition only, or are they an element that was being carried over from the Baroque period into the Romantic era? In both organs cited above, there is an open 8' to serve as the foundation for the ensemble, a wide-scaled flute to give it depth, and a third 8' stop to contribute the harmonics necessary to bind the ensemble together. In the eighteenth century, these harmonics were provided by the Quintadena, meant to act together with the Principal 8'. In the nineteenth century the Diapason had a wider scale than the eighteenth-century Principal. Therefore the third 8' stop, which must contribute the binding harmonics to the ensemble, is the Gamba, a string-toned stop of such wide scale in this organ that it is very much like a narrow-scaled Violin Diapason.

If we emphasize the similarity of the two stop lists rather than their differences, we can obtain a better view looking back at the eighteenth century and also looking forward to the twentieth century. It is possible to theorize on specifications which can accommodate not only the music of Buxtehude and Bach, but also the other portions of the literature, such as that by Dupré or the French symphonists, which have grown out of the traditions of the nineteenth century.

The Difference between "Registration" and "Specification"

Organ specification is not the same thing as organ registration. A specification is a list of the various stops of which a particular instrument is composed. Registration is the setting down of certain combinations of stops in order to produce a desired effect. In a given organ, there is a specification of stops which should combine together to give the instrument a distinctive musical formulation, which we call "ensemble", all the parts of which match together and harmonize. From this specification, an indeterminate number of registrations may be drawn, which express various facets of that distinctive musical ensemble. The full organ registration should be equivalent to the specification of the instrument less certain stops intended for special effects.

The specification of an organ should be built up, not to make combinations, but rather to provide for maximum blending of stops. Blending stops may be pursued in two directions--vertically (8', 4,' 22/3', 2' etc.) and horizontally (8' + 8', 4' + 4'). The 8' and 4' accompaniment stops, which are flutes, should blend horizontally with the principal chorus. How often have students been admonished not to combine stops of the same pitch, because of tuning problems! In nineteenth-century organs, the 4' flute was usually open or harmonic and combined naturally with a 4' principal, rather than beating against it. Both the Brisbane organ and the Löfsta Bruk organ present an open 4' flute capable of combining with a 4' principal. This is not a new characteristic making its first appearance in the nineteenth century.

The reed stops should blend horizontally with both flutes and principals. There ought to be maximum harmonic reinforcement between the reeds and flues--that is, there should be no sour off-harmonics in the reeds. Therefore, full-length reeds are to be preferred to half-length reeds, which have a peculiar harmonic series with flat ninths and so on.

Finally, at least one mixture stop may contain a tierce, in order to assist in the blend with the reeds. This characteristic occurs in both the Brisbane and the Löfsta Bruk organs. We can see from the above, that specification is the organ builder's art. Specifications should not be made up to encompass the most possible registrations. Rather, the various registrations should be derived from each organ's individual specification. The specification of a particular instrument should be set up to secure the maximum possible blend, both in the horizontal and vertical directions. From a specification may be derived two contrasting types of classes of registrations: blending registrations and non-blending registrations. These are defined and discussed below.

The Harmonic Overtones of Open and Stopped Pipes

It is well known that all organ pipes produce composite tones consisting of various harmonic partials.4 The partials of 8' open pipes which concern the present theory of registration are these:

First partial = Fundamental

Second partial = Octave = Fundamental of 4' stops

Third partial = Quint = Fundamental of 22/3' stop

Fourth partial = Double octave = Fundamental of 2' stop

Fifth partial = Tierce = Fundamental of 13/5' stop

The fundamentals of the 4', 22/3', 2' and 13/5' stops all reinforce harmonics already present in tone of the open 8' stops. Therefore the 4', 22/3', 2' or 13/5' stops will blend acoustically with the open 8' stops.

The stopped pipes, in contrast, behave very differently. They emphasize only the odd partials. Those partials of stopped pipes which characterize their tone are these:

First partial = Fundamental

Third partial = Quint = Fundamental of 22/3'stop

Fifth partial = Tierce = Fundamental of 13/5' stop

These stopped pipes form strong blends with mutation stops, but not with the octave-sounding registers of the principal chorus.

"Blending "and "Non-Blending" Registrations

"Blending" registrations are defined here as those registrations which consist of stops arranged in such a manner that the harmonic overtones of the lower stops duplicate the fundamental tones of the higher stops.

Examples:          Open 8' (Principal)        +              open or stopped 4'

                  Open or stopped 8' (Principal or Quintadena)                  +             22/3' Quint

"Non-blending" registrations may be defined as combinations of stops arranged in such a manner that the harmonic overtones of the lower stops do not duplicate the fundamentals of the higher stops.

Examples:          Stopped 8'         +               stopped 2' or open 2'

                  Stopped 8'         +              stopped 4' or open 4'

Blending registrations are used for music which demands the full chorus attribute of the organ. Non-blending registrations should be used where the music is to stress the maximum independence of line, such as in the typical bicinium type of chorale prelude.5

Some compositions may feasibly use either a chorus type of registration or a contrasting non-blending registration which stresses independence of line. Hence the dividing line between the two types is not clear. To express this ambiguity of intention, hybrid registrations are useful. Some of the stops blend with each other, while some do not.

Examples:           Open 8'                +              stopped 4'          +              open 2'

                  Stopped 8'         +              open 4'                 +              open 2'

In the first example, the open 8' combines with both the stopped 4' and open 2,' but the open 2' cannot combine with the stopped 4' because there is no 2' partial in the stopped 4'. In the second example, the stopped 8' can combine with the open 4', but not with the open 2'; also the open 4' and open 2' can combine with each other. For both examples, the character is not clearly either "blending" or "non-blending." Registrations with this property might be best used in music which has three or four voices where both the cohesion of the lines and their independence are to be stressed simultaneously.

These observations lead to the conclusion that successively higher pitches in a registration should be more open acoustically.

Example: Stopped 8' + partially open 4' (Koppelflute or Rohrflute) + open 2.

Single stops can also exhibit this hybrid characteristic. For example, the bottom octave may be stopped, the next octave partially stopped, and the treble fully open.

Composite Solo Registrations

The foundation 8' flutes should contain the 4,' 22/3', 2' and 13/5' partials, so that the mutation stops can join with them acoustically. The 4' flutes should contain prominent quint partials, if there is a Larigot or quint at 11/3' above. A conclusion which follows from this type of design is that the stop which determines the musical quality of a Cornet V is the 8' flute that supports it, rather than the mutations of which the Cornet itself is composed.

Solo registrations involving reed stops may be either blending or non-blending. It is interesting to contrast the combination Oboe 8' + flute 4' with the combination Clarinet 8' + flute 4'. The action of the flute in each case is different. There is, however, a little of every harmonic to be found even in the hollow-sounding reeds such as the Clarinet and the Krummhorn, because the reed itself produces a full series of partials.

If we contrast the registration Oboe 8' + quint 22/3' with Clarinet 8' + quint 22/3' we find that the adhesion of the quint to the Clarinet is stronger than the cohesion of the quint with the Oboe. This happens because the quint harmonic (22/3') is much stronger in the Clarinet than it is in the Oboe. A composite solo registration may be used with either a blending or a non-blending accompaniment registration, depending upon the character of the accompanying voices.

Conclusive Statement of Theory

This present theory of registration is easy to apply. If a stop at a lower pitch contains a harmonic that can bind with the fundamental of a stop at a higher pitch, then those two stops are capable of a good blend. If not, they will be limited in their capability of blending, or prevented from it altogether. An ensemble composed from a "non-blending" specification (such as is found in small neo-Baroque "revival" organs) comes out in layers, rather than producing a blended, cohesive, and "blooming" sound.

Specification of Foundation Stops at 8' and 16' Pitches

A practice which flows from the acoustic analysis of specification is the placement of open and partially stopped flutes at the 8' pitch in the manuals and at the 16' pitch in the pedal organ. This is much in contrast to the idea of placing them exclusively at the 4' pitch and higher in the manuals and only from the 8' pitch upward in the pedal. In the manual divisions, the economy of the organ and the space it requires are not greatly affected, since in most cases the bottom octave of open flutes at the 8' pitch is stopped and made of wood to assure quickness of speech. The provision of a narrow-scale open subbass in the pedal requires room overhead and this stop is expensive; but this expense should be more than offset by the fact that such a pedal division is more versatile and blends so much better than the alternative. The organ can be made a stop or two smaller than might otherwise be planned. The expense of the open 16' stop is more than recovered because a smaller pedal organ will actually sound better and more compelling.

When the pedal is based upon a 16' open flue, producing a relatively quiet tone--about the same intensity as a normally stopped Subbass 16'--there is an exquisite blend of harmonics. The upper partials of the soft open 16' are able to combine with the fundamental tone of the various members of the chorus above, particularly the 8' Principal.

This is the design of the pedal organ specification which is found in the Cahman organ of Löfsta Bruk.

Öppen Subbas 16'

Principal 8'

Gedackt 8'

Kvinta 51/3'

Oktava 4'

Rauschkvint II

Mixtur IV

Basun 16'

Trumpet 8'

Trumpet 4'

It is exceedingly rare. Cahman also did another interesting thing. The combination Gedackt 8' , Quintadena 8' and Quint 22/3' is repeated both in the Great and Positive organs. Are we to realize from this repetition that Cahman provided the Quintadena 8' in each case to secure an acoustical, harmonic "locking in" with the quint 22/3' above it? Most modern specifications would have omitted the Quintadena, probably on both manuals, and supplied a stopped 16' to the pedal, substituting for the Open Subbass 16' a louder Principal 16'. The particular quality which sets this Cahman organ apart as a gem among artistic instruments would be destroyed.

The Open Subbass of the Löfsta Bruk organ is made of wood and has a fairly narrow scale. In the published photographs of the organ, the end of the largest pipe can be seen behind the 8' Prestant of the pedal organ. The lowest pipe is approximately seven inches square. If this principle of specification and voicing is to be retained in an organ large enough to offer both an open and stopped 16' flue in the pedal, it is important that the open stop be of narrow scale and voiced quietly so as to support the chorus above. When 16' open flues are scaled and voiced loudly, so as to "add power", their harmonic development is much reduced and their ability to contribute to a unified chorus ensemble is lost. Therefore the 16' open flue stop should be planned to be no louder than any stopped 16' open flue which may accompany it in the pedal.

An Example of the 16' Open as the Only Pedal Foundation Stop in a Modern Organ

The Casavant organ at the Dordt College chapel at Sioux Center, IA, was built under the supervision of the late Gerhard Brunzema. It is a 37-stop instrument which contains only principals and reeds in the pedal according to this disposition.6

Praestant 16'

Octaaf 8'

Octaaf 4'

Mixtuur VI

Bazuin 32'

Bazuin 16'

Trompet 8'

Cornet 2'

Since there is only one 16' flue stop, this stop also has to be able to fulfill the role normally taken by a stopped 16'. Therefore it must not be loud. But if the 16' foundation cannot be loud, how is power to be built up? The Sioux Center organ relies on its reeds rather than its flue stops for power in the pedal organ. This also happens in the Löfsta Bruk organ.

The Use of Mutation Stops to Support a Pedal 16' Flue Stop

The Löfsta Bruk organ builds power for its 16' flue both through its reeds and through a 51/3' pedal quint. This method of building power and clarity without overvoicing the 16' flue stop was followed regularly by the late Nils Hammarberg, a modern Swedish organbuilder of Göteborg. A stopped 8' pipe acquires definition though the reinforcement of its third partial, the 22/3' Quint. The Quint's fundamental is the same as the third partial. Cahman specified a Quint 51/3' in the pedal organ to complete the same harmonic function that the 22/3' Quint fulfills in the manual divisions. The combination of a soft open 16' together with a quint supporting its third partial gives the pedal organ a firmer foundation than any loud, wide-scaled diapason could ever provide.

The mutation stop must be narrowly scaled and gently voiced, and a true principal rather than a flute. This is also a prominent characteristic of the 22/3' and 2' stops in the Great organ of the nineteenth-century Brisbane instrument in Australia. Blending tone is aided by conservative scaling and gentle voicing, both of the fundamental tone and its corroborating harmonic.

Hammarberg continued this tradition with the provision of a pedal stop called "Aliqvot," a name which simply means "harmonics." It can refer to any useful combination of supporting harmonic partials. In his most recent work it consisted of the following 16' partials:

51/3' quint = third partial

31/5' tierce = fifth partial

22/3' quint = sixth partial

2' fifteenth = eighth partial

Hammarberg developed this idea because in Sweden, organs are placed in the gallery at the western end of the church and there is no headroom for open 16' pipes. It substitutes for the open 16' sound a resultant:

                  Alikvot                  51/3' C                  96 Hz

                  Principal               8' C        64 Hz

                  difference                               32 Hz = 16' C

He also provided the 32' resultant in the same way:

                  Kvinta 102/3' C               48 Hz

                  Principal               16' C     32 Hz

                  difference                               16 Hz = 32' C

Sometimes the Alikvot mixture has less than four ranks and sometimes more; Hammarberg sometimes built it in the following way:

51/3' quint = third partial sounding G

31/5' tierce = fifth partial E

22/7' flat seventh = seventh partial flat A#

17/9' ninth = ninth partial D

A typical specification for such a pedal organ is:

1. Subbas (wood, stopped) 16'

2. Kvinta 102/3'

3. Principalbas 8'

4. Gedacktbas 8'

5. Alikvot 51/3' + 31/5' + 22/3' + 2'

6. Bombard 16'

7. Trumpet 8'

8. Rörskalmeja 4'

9. Koralbas 4'

Hammarberg built this plan in conditions where headroom was restricted, from about 1981, and used the Alikvot mixture as well as the 102/3' plus 16' resultant in various instruments dating from the 1960s and 1970s. Examples of this work may be found in Mora, Boras, Göteborg, Falkenberg and Grebbestad, all in Sweden. In all of these organs, the presence of the Alikvot stop relieves the 16' from any obligation to attempt to produce power through volume, with the attendant deterioration of its tone.

Hammarberg's plan of pedal specification works well with gently voiced open 16' flue pipes, to develop a pedal organ of considerable power, while allowing the open 16' flue to remain as the only 16' flue stop in the division. Hammarberg's ideas combine well with Brunzema's plan (above) to give the following:

1. Subbass 16' wood, open narrow scale, about 7≤ CCC as at Löfsta Bruk

2. Quint 102/3'

3. Principal 8'

4. Gedacktbass 8'

5. Quint 51/3'

6. Coralbass 4'

7. Alikvot, composition as appropriate

8. Basun 16'

9. Trumpet 8'

10. Rohrshalmey 4'

Summary

The modern organ reform movement has given strong support to the exclusive use of gedackts and other stopped pipes at 16' and 8' pitch in small organs. This type of specification is derived from a "Neo-Baroque" Germanic tradition of organ building. Although these stopped pipes sometimes have narrow chimneys as in the Rohrflute, they nevertheless act as stopped pipes in the ensemble. This practice of specification leads to a form of non-blending registrations.

It is curious that the Italian organ, in which one always finds open pipes for foundation tone, is hardly built today, while the typical "reform movement" type of instrument, with a high percentage of stopped pipes, is commonly built. This is not merely a result of economic considerations, but rather a question of style and fashion.

Derived from this background is the practice of specifying a stopped Subbass as the pedal foundation stop. It provides the fundamental pitch in an undefined sound that blends with difficulty; and when pushed to provide greater volume, its tone deteriorates very quickly. A stopped Subbass has little blending power because it has no harmonic at the octave. This defeats the purpose for which it is intended. A 16' pedal stop should do more than supply a fundamental pitch; it should provide a harmonic series to support the chorus above.

We have examined pedal organ designs by builders who have not frozen their thinking into traditionally accepted ideas. The contemporary organs of Brunzema and Hammarberg take much of their design from the organ reform ideals, but also demonstrate innovative ideas which reinforce the true acoustical nature of the instrument. Let us turn to models such as these, rather than the typical "organ reform" prototypes, in order to construct organs of moderate size that do not lose our public for want of a good foundation for singing.

If we emphasize gently voiced open pipes as the natural source of fundamental tone, and obtain the power of the organ by means of harmonic reinforcement, we will assure that its sound has that live-giving warmth which will appeal to the musical public.8                

Appendix

The Löfsta Bruk Organ

by John Hamilton7

The sumptuous Löfsta Bruk organ was built in 1728 by Johan Niclas Cahman, a North German builder who had emigrated to Sweden. Of twenty-eight registers (two manuals, pedal), it was conservatively conceived; it is today Scandinavia's finest example of the sort of instrument known to the Praetorius/Scheidemann/Scheidt/Buxtehude school. The lavishness of conception is indicated in, for instance, the pedal's two full-compass full-length sixteen-foot registers, a Principal and a Posaune--in a church seating barely three hundred. The organ has largely escaped the periodic "modernizations" which have plagued many important old instruments. When nineteenth-century tastes called for a different sort of churchly music-making, the Ryggpositiv windchest and pipes were carefully removed and stored in the church's attic; Romantic tastes were satisfied by the two-manual-and-pedal reed organ which replaced the Ryggpositiv. A restoration in the early 1960s, by a Danish firm, was in the tradition of the best obtaining taste of that decade; it was well carried out but, alas, today's wind-supply is the mercilessly steady nineteenth-century norm, today's temperament is nineteenth-century equal, today's reed tongues are modern (the restorer discarded the old tongues without making measurements or metal analysis), and today's key action possibly is overly spring-loaded. Plans are afoot to correct these modern intrusions.

Tone is big, noble, unforced, in the north European historic tradition. Plenums admirably support the ardent congregational singing known to have characterized the eighteenth century: today's listener readily envisions vigorous hymn singing from strong-lunged Walloon ironwrights, who sat together in the church's most prestigious area. Of particular interest are the organ's mixtures, all of which contain third-sounding pipes contributing strength and color to the plenums. Individual Principal registers are among the most gloriously singing known to this listener.

Today's organists at Löfsta Bruk are Birgitta Olsson, the excellent parish organist, and Göran Blomberg of Uppsala University, who with a background in musicology, organ performance, and classical archaeology, is a strong summer presence. Blomberg's personal involvement with the instrument coincides with the period of its modern international reputation starting around 1980; his tireless, knowledgeable commitment to its becoming known have resulted in the organ's having become widely recognized even earlier than was the village itself. He has recorded an excellent selection of material by Buxtehude and Bach on an LP released by Bluebell-of-Sweden and is preparing digital recordings. Birgitta Olsson and Blomberg have organized a succession of summer "Cahman Days" forming an annual framework for presentation of the instrument; these included an international festival in August 1987, during the Buxtehude anniversary. And Blomberg offers numerous demonstration recitals on the instrument for groups of both lay and professional visitors.

by Benjamin K. Williams

Knowlton Organ Company of Davidson, NC, has completed the restoration of the 1845 Henry Erben organ at the French Huguenot Church in Charleston, SC. All work was directed toward restoring the organ to the original intent of its builder, utilizing the same materials, hand tools, and work methods used in 1845 whenever possible. This organ is the most historically intact working instrument of its period in Charleston.

Original pressure and voicing restored

Over the years, there had been many attempts to solve the
tonal problems  caused by the
20th-century addition of carpet to the Huguenot Church. Generally speaking,
Erben's organs were voiced in a gentle and refined manner and the
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  carpet, of course, had the effect of
making the organ "too small" for the sanctuary. The
"solution" had been to raise the pressure of the organ and "push" the pipes to play louder. Unfortunately, this altered the character of tone as well, thus many pipes had a "forced" sound, were made unstable, or could not be tuned accurately. At the urging of their organist, David Woolsey, the church decided to return the organ to its original wind pressure, restore the original double-rise bellows (which had been converted to single-rise), and restore the hand pump and feeder bellows, allowing for the restoration of the original voicing and tone of the pipes. (Also, at Mr. Woolsey's behest, the carpet was removed from the church and the original heart pine floors were completely refinished, restoring the orgininal acoustic environment of the building.) To reconstruct the second rise, the massive 9' x 5'  bellows was disassembled completely and the original ribs were used as patterns for the new ones, which were made from perfect antique poplar. Erben made this double-rise bellows with two inward folds, rather than  the more common inverted fold on the top, as evidenced by the early traces of glue and leather. The original pump handle and dual feeder bellows were intact, though in need of new leather and a few replacement wooden parts which were made from 150-year-old maple and walnut from builder's stock. The organ may now either be hand-pumped or run from the blower by opening a butterfly valve. A period-stye wind indicator was also made and installed.

Fortunately, the original voicing of the pipes is
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  completely intact, as there had never
been an attempt to cut the mouths, alter the nicking of the languids, or
significantly alter the settings placed by Mr. Erben. Though some metal flue
pipes in the 4' range had been replaced (due certainly to excessive tuning
damage) these replacement pipes were made and voiced quite properly.
Determining the original pitch of the pipes was integral to the process of
finding the original wind pressure, and a key indicator in this process is the
position of the tuning ears on the two sets of chimney flutes with soldered-on
tops. It is known that hand-pumped organs rarely  exceeded 3" of pressure, so we began there as our
benchmark. With the chimney flutes in the voicing room at 72 degrees F, we
gradually lowered the pressure with the ears in a "neutral"
perpendicular position. When the speech, timbre, and tuning of the flutes and
Great Principal C pipes reclaimed the refined qualities one would expect to
hear from Erben pipes of the period, it became evident that A=430hz on
2-7/8" of wind pressure was likely the original setting! The replacement
of the unsatisfactory 1969 Great Trumpet pipes required an accurate historical
reproduction of Erben's work and these pipes, made by Eastern Organ Pipes of
Hagerstown MD using the same metal composition, scaling, and shallot shapes
taken from historical samples of Erben's reeds, yielded superb results. The
firm also reconditioned the original Erben 8' Oboe pipes, and both projects
have exceeded our highest expectations.

Pedal compass expanded

Originally, 20 pedals pulled down from the Great manual, and
there was no 16' pedal stop. John Baker, a former Erben employee, added a 15-note Bourdon 16' to the rear of the case sometime between 1859 and 1876, while a
resident of Charleston. In 1969, a 27-note pedalboard was installed with an
aluminum coupler rollerboard, but the pedal compass was never actually
completed to 27 notes. However, the Erben pedal coupler rollerboard, originally
made to actuate the pull-downs, was still stored with the organ, and by
installing exact reproductions of the Erben rollers, the original rollerboard
was expanded to 27 notes, supplanting the 1969 aluminum substitute. The pedals
and Great manual were then connected to the rollerboard with new 1/4"
walnut pulls made to period style with wrapped wire ends and adjustable nuts,
and 27 new birch pedal jacks were installed to pull the horizontal trackers.
With Baker's 16' Bourdon pipes #1-15 along the back of the organ case,
"new" 100-year-old 16' Bourdon pipes for pedals #16-27 were installed
inside the upper case, mounted on a new pallet windchest constructed of
hand-planed antique pine. A complete new pedal tracker action was constructed
to incorporate the old and new pipes, and also to provide a pedal action that
would emulate the high quality of Erben's work. A horizontal 27-note
rollerboard was laid out on a new floor frame, and pine reproductions of the Baker pedal rollers with tapered walnut roller arms were installed. The new basswood pedal trackers were then linked to the original Baker square rail to play Bourdon pipes #1-15. The pedal rollers extend to the C-side case, with roller arms to pull down the pallets for Bourdon pipes #1627, elevated inside the case. The entire pedal action lies flat on the floor underneath the bellows and hand-pump feeders providing a fitting and elegant solution. Over the years,
many trackers in the manual action had been repaired or replaced with various
materials, leaving inconsistent results. The trackers for the Swell and the
Great key actions were completely replaced, using new basswood trackers with
wooden tops and wire ends with adjustable links. All of the organ's windchests
were disassembled, cleaned, and the grids recovered in fine leather. The
mahogany chest tables were found in perfect condition, minor repairs to cracks
in the sliders, toeboards, and sponsals were made, and new wire pulldowns with
weighted seals were installed to complete the restoration of the windchests.

Shellac finish restored

The shellac finish on the beautiful and ornate mahogany case
of this organ was found in varying conditions--the sides were bleached by
direct UV radiation from the windows, the upper front casework and carvings
were coal-black from benign neglect, and the lower front case had been wiped
with a variety of furniture polishes over the years. Preservation of the
original shellac finish was imperative, but a non-invasive restoration of the
uniformity and original luster of the finish was very important. All of the
casework was damp-wiped with an oil soap solution known to be shellac-friendly,
and hand-dried. Although the sun-bleached sides had lost the dark patina of the
front case, staining such a large area simply would violate the historical
integrity of the finish. However, shellac is a natural substance, refined from
the secretions of a tiny Asian insect, the Laccifer Lacca, and in its raw form,
is the same material used by organ builders and furniture craftsmen for
hundreds of years. Using the rawest, darkest, unrefined dry shellac flakes
available, processed by hand into liquid form with alcohol, new dark shellac
was painstakingly hand-applied, melting into the original shellac until the
patina matched the rest of the case. The entire finish was then hand-waxed and
buffed using an antique furniture polish composed of natural oils and beeswax.

Organ dedication

The organ is to be dedicated in Spring of 1998, and the
recitalist is yet to be announced.

GREAT (58 notes, GG-F3)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Open
Diapason (58 notes)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stop'd
Diapason Treble (37)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stop'd
Diapason Bass (21)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal

                  22/3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>      Twelfth (from C)
(54)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Fifteenth
(from C) (54)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Trumpet
(TC) (42)

SWELL & CHOIR BASS (58 notes)

        Swell treble stops from
Tenor F

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stop'd
Diapason (37)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Dulciana
(37)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal
(37)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Flute
(37)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Hautboy
(37)

       Choir bass stops

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Stop'd
Diapason (21)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Principal
(21)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>             Bassoon
(21)

PEDAL

Twenty* notes pulling down from the Great (*there is some
evidence that there were only 19 notes originally). The Bourdon 16' was added
later.