FACING THE MUSICSTEPHEN BICKNELL A question from a correspondent in France has set me wondering about the origins of reversed and detached consoles. Southern Germany is of course the home of this idea. Peter Williams suggests that Egedacher's organ of 1706 in Salzburg Cathedral was probably the first example of this device (1); the organ case was pierced by windows, and the player sat between two halves of the organ facing the church, although he was still connected to the instrument on either side. Later and more famous examples were free-standing: Weingarten is probably the best known. In Britain there were probably a number of examples of Chair Organs played from their own keyboard in the back of the case. It is probable that Thomas Dallam's rebuild in 1609 of the organs in St. George's Chapel, Windsor left just such an arrangement (2), and Thomas Thamar's organ at Peterborough was also of this type (3). Two of the organs built in Brittany by Thomas Dallam de la Tour after the rest of the family had returned to England were played from behind (/*). But for the introduction of the genuinely detached console, the credit must go to Abraham Jordan. The following advertisement appeared in the London Journal February 7th 1729/30 (5): N.B. - This organ was play'd and approv'd by several masters, in publick, the latter end of November, and is fit for any small church or chapel. And so this modest pioneer paved the way for the various experiments with long movements and remote consoles through the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, eventually leading to Henry Willis's unhappy discovery that the link between musician and instrument could be made through a pneumatic tube. Manual (GG, no GG sharp, to f" ') The organ stands in the 'north' gallery of the church, with the reversed console built into a dummy chair case in front of it. The organ is remarkable in other ways. The front pipes extend round three sides of the organ and belong to no less than four stops. As Dr. Kent says, "musically and acoustically the outcome of this arrangement is admirable", though, of course, it flies in the face of the 'rules' of classical organ building concocted in the twentieth century by proponents of the Orgelbewegung. The open metal Flute of 4' pitch is a distinctive voice. I maintain that it is this type of stop that is usually referred to by the name 'German Flute' in eighteenth century specifications, and that the stop of this name put into the Kings Lynn organ by Snetzler in 1754 was not the highly improb- able stopped harmonic flute that modern writers have suggested (7). The same stop appeared as a 'Flute Almain' in the Harris & Byfield organ at St. Mary Redciiffe in Bristol in 1726 (8), and also in Robert Dallam's ambitious proposal for a 'trench' organ at New College, Oxford in 1662 (9). Jordan's pedal is indeed the first of its kind in Britain; other claimants to the title do not bear close examination. Hopkins claimed that Dallam's organ in St. George's Chapel, Windsor (this being the new organ of 1661) had two shifting movements (10): in fact, the specification he quoted was of the organ in St. Peter's Church, St. Albans, as it stood in the early nineteenth century (11). This organ had come from St. Martin in the Fields, had been rebuilt on several occasions, and' is not known to have had any definite link with Windsor. The organ in Framlingham, Suffolk, has a shifting movement: this too is of mid-eighteenth century date, and is not contemporary with Thomas Thamar's work of 1674 (13) The eighteenth century produced other innovations, both mechanical and tonal, apart from those described above. As part of a further exploration of these, I would be very grateful if readers could tell me of any examples of eighteenth century string stops, apart from the ubiquitous Dulciana, and a few examples of Salicionals and Viole da Gamba made by Snetzler. (1) Williams, The European Organ, p.70 |