REMEMBRANCER

Continuing our re-publication of the ORGANO-H1STORICA articles on English organs which appeared originally in The Christian Remembrancer in 1833-6.

THE ORGAN AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY

This instrument was built by a German of the name of Schrider, son-in-law to Father Schmidt, the builder of the organ at St. Paul's Cathedral. Schrider succeeded Schmidt in his business and appointments, in 1710. The organ at Westminster Abbey appears to be the first instrument he built on his own account: but after the death of Schmidt, he became celebrated as an organ-builder, and finished some very fine instruments, which are in existence at this time, and will be noticed in future numbers of this publication.

Although bred and brought up under Schmidt, his organs are of quite an opposite cast to his master's. His Diapasons are distinguished by being voiced stronger in the treble than Schmidt's, and partaking somewhat of the quality of the Principal. Upon examination, Schmidt's diapasons appear to have very few nicks on the languid, which is the cause of that fine round quality of tone that characterises his dia- pasons; on the contrary, Schrider's diapasons have more nicks, and consequently, are more reedy.

The instrument under notice has lately undergone an extensive repair and improv ment, by the late Mr. Elliott, who added a set of double diapason pipes. The following is a description of its stops: -
GREAT ORGAN
1 Open Diapason.
2 Open ditto.
3 Stop ditto.
4 Principal.
5 Flute.
6 Twelfth.
7 Fifteenth.
8 Sexqialtra.
9 Mixture.
10 Trumpet.
11 Clarion.
12 Cornet.
13 Pedal pipes.
14 Double Diapason.
East front West front
3 ranks. 2 ditto.
940 pipes
CHOIR ORGAN
1 Stop Diapason.
2 Flute.
3 Principal.
4 Fifteenth.
5 Cremona.
SWELL
1 Stop Diapason.
2 Open ditto.
3 Hautboy.
4 Trumpet.
280 pipes
Swell, Choir, Great organ,
128 pipes 128 pipes. 280 ditto. 940 ditto.
Total of pipes 1348
The compass of the great and choir organs, is from G G to D in alt ; - 56 notes :
that of the swell, from fiddle G to D in ait ; - 32 notes. The pedal pipes (stop 13) were added to the organ, during the time Dr. Arnold was organist, by that celebrated artist, Avery ; and, although on a small scale, they are very fine in quality of tone. Of the double diapason pedal pipes, added by Elliott in 1828,* the effect is not good, as they do not blend with the other parts of the instru- ment: the scale, in ail probability, not agreeing with that of the other stops ;

or, perhaps, there is not a sufficient quantity of wind, as to weight, since only one pair of bellows supplies the whole organ. The wind in this organ is remarkably unsteady, although a new pair of horizontal bellows were inserted by Elliott, after the coronation of George the Fourth. The unsteadiness of wind did not exist with the Id diagonal bellows. A new trumpet and clarion were added at the same time, but they are voiced so soft, that the ear can scarcely discern whether such stops ar in the organ, or not. The only good parts of this instrument are the diapasons of the great organ, which are very fine; and the pedal pipes by Avery.

The chorus of the great organ is harsh : and the choir organ and swell are both worn out. It has an octave of German pedals for the feet. For the last two months the choir service has been performed without the help of the organ, as it is at this time undergoing some repairs and alterations, with the addition of a most splendid gothic case to the great organ. This case was made at Peterborough, and exceeds in elegance, beauty, and chastity of style, any thing of the kind in England, not ex- cepting that at St. George's, Windsor. If half its cost were expended in adding a new choir organ and swell to the instrument, it would have been of the utmost ad- vantage to the choral service, as at present the instrument does not possess a suff- icient variety of fancy stops for accompanying the voices. Although the liberality of the Dean has been thus far extended, we would still plead for the further improve- ment of a new choir and swell organ of greater compass.

* See The TIMES, Nov. 10th, 1828.
The Christian Remembrancer 1833, pp 498-9
As a post-script to the last issue's transcription of an article from The Christian Remembrancer dealing with the organ in St. Paul's Cathedral, we reproduce the
following letter.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

Mr. Frank Atkinson, the Librarian of St. Paul's, kindly shewed me last year a copy of The English Musical Gazette or Monthly Intelligencer dated January 1 1819 which contained a description of the St. Paul's organ. I have compared the notes I made of this description with the Remembrancer description in the BIOS Repor ter. It would appear that the Clarion that Bishop added replaced a Nason and that his two 8 foot stops on the Choir replaced a three-rank Mixture and a Voxhumaine. Also, that he extended all the keyboards upwards: they all ran to C in alt. in 1819. The 1819 description says that the Great had no CCC sharp and the Choir no FF sharp or GG sharp ; the Remembrancer says nothing on this subject. I find some difficulty in reconciling the numbers of pipes quoted by the Remembrancer with the stop-lists and range of the keyboards. The 1819 description says there were 1976 pipes in all: this includes only 120 for the Great Cornet (5 ranks) but 54 for the Choir Cremona (full compass). The Remembrancer says the pedals had two octaves but only 13 pipes; no doubt "two" is wrong, or did half the pedal keys have no pipes ?

I hope these observations may be of interest. Other issues of the Monthly Intellitel1igencer might also contain descriptions of organs, but I think Mr. Atkinson had only the one number.

Yours sincerely
Ronald Johnson

P.S. Comparison may also be made with what Cecil Clutton says on pp. 73-74 of the British Organ (original edition) and at the beginning of his booklet on the 1977 rebuild.

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