The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments
John Stuart Mill · en
To William Thynne belongs the credit of a great step in advance. The
string tones heard in the Michell and Thynne organ at the Liverpool,
England, exhibition in 1886 were a revelation of the possibilities in
this direction, and many organs subsequently introduced contained
beautiful stops from his hands--notably the orchestral-toned instrument
in the residence of J. Martin White, Dundee, Scotland--an ardent
advocate of string tone. Years later Thynne's partner, Carlton C.
Mitchell, produced much beautiful work in this direction. Hope-Jones
founded his work on the Thynne model and by introducing smaller scales,
bellied pipes and sundry improvements in detail, produced the keen and
refined string stops now finding their way into all organs of
importance. His delicate Viols are of exceedingly small scale (some
examples measuring only 1 1/8 inches in diameter at the 8-foot note).
They are met with under the names of Viol d' Orchestre, Viol Celeste
and Dulcet.[10] These stops have contributed more than anything else
towards the organ suitable for the performance of orchestral music.
Haskell has introduced several beautiful varieties of wood and metal
stops of keen tone, perhaps the best known being the labial Oboe and
Saxophone, commonly found in Estey organs. His work is destined to
exert considerable influence upon the art.
Other string-toned stops found nowadays in organs are the Keraulophon,
Aeoline, Gemshorn, Spitzfloete, Clariana, Fugara, Salicet, Salicional,
and Erzaehler.[11]
REEDS.
As remarked in our opening chapter, pipes with strips of cane or reeds
in the mouthpiece are of great antiquity, being found side by side with
the flutes in the Egyptian tombs. These reeds, as those used at the
present day, were formed of the outer siliceous layer of a tall grass,
_Arundo donax_, or _sativa_, which grows in Egypt and the south of
Europe. They were frequently double, but the prototype of the reed
organ-pipe is to be seen in the clarinet, where the reed is single and
beats against the mouthpiece. Of course, an artificial mouthpiece has
to be provided for our organ-pipe, but this is called the _boot_. See
Figure 19, which shows the construction of a reed organ-pipe. A is the
boot containing a tube called the eschallot B, partly cut away and the
opening closed by a brass _tongue_ C, which vibrates under pressure of
the wind. D is the wire by which the tongue is tuned; E the body of
the pipe which acts as a resonator.
[Illustration: Fig. 18. Haskell's Clarinet Without Reed]