The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments
John Stuart Mill · en
The entire instrument is blown by a gas engine, actuating a rotary
blower and high pressure feeders.
There are 24 Couplers; 10 Combination Pedals affecting Great, Swell,
and Pedal stops; 24 Combination Pistons, and 3 Crescendo Pedals.
In 1908-1909 the organ was refitted throughout with William Hill &
Sons' latest type of tubular pneumatic action (excepting the Celestial
organ, for which the electric action was retained), an entirely new
console was provided, a large-scale Open Diapason added to the reed
soundboard of the Great organ, and several additions made to the
couplers and combination pistons.
William Hill & Sons are also the builders of the organ in the Town
Hall, Sydney, Australia, once the largest in the world; it has 126
speaking stops. It may be looked upon as the apotheosis of the old
style of organ-building, with low pressures, duplication, and mixtures.
The highest pressure used is 12 inches and there are no less than 45
ranks of mixtures which were characterized by Sir J. F. Bridge as being
"like streaks of silver." The writer saw this organ in the builder's
factory in London before it was shipped to Sydney. A unique novelty
was the Contra Trombone on the Pedal of 64 feet actual length. The
bottom pipes were doubled up into three sections and the tongue of the
reed of the CCCCC pipe was two feet long. Although almost inaudible
when played alone this stop generated harmonics which powerfully
reinforced the tone of the full organ. The organ is inclosed in a case
designed by Mr. Arthur Hill after old renaissance examples.
ORGAN IN THE MANSION OF J. MARTIN WHITE, ESQ., BALRUDDERY, SCOTLAND
The organs heretofore described have been somewhat on the old lines,
but we come now, in 1894, to "the dawn of a new era," and the star of
Hope-Jones appears on the horizon. With the exception of an instrument
rebuilt by Hope-Jones in Dundee Parish Church, this is the first organ
with electric action in Scotland.
[Illustration: Organ in Hall of Balruddery Mansion, Dundee, Scotland]
Balruddery mansion, the rural residence of Mr. J. Martin White, stands
in a fair country seven miles to the west of Dundee. The grounds of
the mansion are a dream of sylvan beauty, with the broad bosom of the
River Tay within the vision and beyond that the blue line of the Fife
shore.
The organ is the work of three hands. It was originally built by
Casson; the most notable characters in the voicing are due to Thynne;
and it remained for Mr. Hope-Jones to entirely reconstruct it with his
electric action, stop-keys, double touch, pizzicato touch and some of
his new stops. The console is movable, connected with the organ by a
cable about one inch thick, containing about 1,000 wires, enabling the
player to hear the organ as the audience hears it.