London
St. Paul's I
|
As an example of English organ dispositions after 1650, we can
take a look at the 1697 organ built for the new Cathedral of St. Paul: 138
| Great
| Chayre
| Echo
|
| Open Diapason |
| Quinta Dena Diapason |
| Diapason |
|
| Open Diapason |
| Stop Diapason |
| Principal |
|
| Stop Diapason |
| Principall |
| Nason |
|
| Hol fleut |
| Hol fleut |
| Fifteenth |
|
| Principal |
| Great Twelfth |
| Cornet |
|
| Great Twelfth |
| Fifteenth |
| Trumpet |
|
| Fifteenth |
| Cimball |
|
| Small Twelfth |
| Voice Humaine |
|
| Cornet |
| Crum horne |
|
| Mixture |
|
| Sesquialtera |
|
| Trumpet |
|
Some traditional English traits can still be seen:
- Designation of the second manual as the "Chair" division.
- Use of the term "Diapason" as the name of the unison principal.
- Two Open Diapasons on the Great, one for each façade of the case.
- The term "Stop[ped] Diapason" for the stop named Bourdon in France
and Gedeckt in Germany.
- Identification of the Fifteenth and Twelfth by pitch, in the Italian
manner. 139
Elements new to England include:
- The third manual division, called an Echo as it was in France.
- The presence of chorus mixtures, as they are found on many national
types of organ on the continent: Mixture on the Great and Cimball on the
Great.
- A Cornet (the result of French influence) and a Sesquialtera (from the
Lowlands)
- Reeds (Two Trumpets, a Crumhorne and a Voice Humaine).
- Two stops called "Hol fleut," a direct import from Father Smith's Dutch
background.
Three other details need to be pointed out:
- The Case. The case was not designed by Smith, but by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect
of
the "new" St. Paul's, built after the Great Fire. The case did not have the double central towers
characteristic of Smith's organs.
- Placement. The organ was
originally placed on a screen, in much the same position that you see when you go to King's College
Chapel
or Trinity College Chapel. The screen has been removed, but if you go to St. Paul's today, you can
still
see the fronts of the case, divided on either side of the chancel, as you see in the photograph to the
right.
- Keyboard compass. The range of the Great keyboard was to CC, an
octave below the low C in common use today. The Chair extended down to FF,
a range that was one step lower than GG, which became the English standard
from this time until the middle of the nineteenth century.
Photographs
You can see an enlargement of the photograph of one face of the case. You
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© 1999 James H. Cook