The Nineteenth-Century
England

The Early Nineteenth Century

As might be expected, English organs of the first half of the nineteenth century were very little different from their predecessors of the late eighteenth century.

  • The typical instrument had three manual divisions which had become standard in their stoplists and relative strength or importance.
    • The primary manual division was the Great, which generally contained a chorus based on two 8' Open Diapasons and an 8' Stopped Diapason. Additional stops included a 4' Flute, a Sesquialtera or Cornet, and a Trumpet. The mixture that topped the chorus was perhaps smaller than its eighteenth-century ancestors, and the sound was rounder and more fundamental, less brilliant than it would have been on an eighteenth century organ.
    • The Choir division, a descendant of the older Chair division, was now housed in the main case and relegated to accompanying duties. It most likely included a Stopped Diapason and a Dulciana at 8' pitch, but no Open Diapason. Along with the two unison stops, there would have been a 4' Flute and one or more reeds, usually of the cylindrical, short-resonator type. There might also have been a 4' Principal, and perhaps a third-sounding compound stop, such as a small Cornet.
    • The third manual division was usually mounted high in the case and enclosed in a Swell box. The Swell was based on a pair of 8' Diapasons (one open and one stopped), with a 4' Principal and/or a Fifteenth making up a secondary chorus. With the addition of one or more reeds, usually an Oboe and a Trumpet at 8' pitch, the Swell division was in a position to act as a partner to the Great, overtaking the earlier position held by the Chair/Choir.
  • Pedals were often pull-down keys only, playing stops of the manuals through couplers. During the first half of the nineteenth century in England, independent pedal stops were introduced. On some instruments this was simply a unison stop, scaled and voiced as a rather quiet diapason.
  • The compass of both Great and Choir divisions were wider than the continental norm, beginning often at GG, a fourth below the C that was standard for the lowest key on manuals in France, the Lowlands and Germany. Swell keyboards usually had a narrower compass, often beginning somewhere in the tenor octave, frequently on e, f, or g.

Two of the characteristics described above (extended manual compass and virtually no independent pedal) are related, and they are further connected to another characteristic: the lack of 16' manual stops. The sound that you associate with the first octave of a 16' pedal stop were provided by the extended range of the manual keyboards. In other words, if you played the first note of the Great - - usually GG - - on the Diapasons, you would hear the same pitches you would get by playing G on a typical pedal division today - - assuming you had on two 16' Principals and a 16' Bourdon. The average instrument you see today doesn't have two open pipes at that pitch, so the eighteenth-century English organ actually had more bass sound without 16' stops than a typical organ of the late twentieth-century United States has with 16' stops on either manual or pedal. The thicker texture that results from the use of a true 16' manual stop was not possible on the eighteenth-century English organ, however, and organs of the early nineteenth-century continued that tradition of a clear, refined manual chorus without 16' stops.

The Victorian Organ

By the middle of the century, the organ in England had begun to take on new characteristics, some of them due to influences from the continent, others uniquely English. For organists in the United States, these changes are really quite important. We have an unfortunate tendency to think of the great French and German instruments of the nineteenth century as being most important, simply because our pedagogical history teaches us this literature first. Most of the instruments we play in the United States have a pedigree that can be traced back to London more easily than to Paris or Leipzig. This ancestry makes it important for organ students in the United States to know about the English organ of the second half of the nineteenth century.

One of the first changes that occurred in English organ-building was the gradual replacement of the older English compass with the continental norm, with all keyboards beginning on C, as they do on most organs in the United States today. In the English organ, this meant two things.200

  • The compass of the Great and Choir keyboards were reduced by omitting the keys below C.
  • The compass of the Swell was extended, so that it gained an octave and a half in its lower register.
Along with this change in keyboard compass, we see a comcomitant change in stoplists: for the first time in the history of the English organ, we see 16' stops as a regular and normal part of their disposition. These 16' stops show up in two distinct places on English instruments of the middle of the century.
  • The inclusion of independent stops for the pedal, a practice that had begun early in the century, was now expanded, so that 16' pedal stops of the sort found on continental organs were included as a matter of course. In keeping with the change of compass in the manuals, the new English Pedalboard now began on C and extended to c' or d'.
  • The loss of the lower range of the older compass meant that a true bass sound was lost, in an age when taste demanded more of this sort of sound. In compensation, manual "doubles" began to appear on English organs, and the 16' Double Open Diapason on the Great became a stop that has characterized the English organ ever since.

Given this change in the dimensions of the English organ, it is useful to look at other characteristics in two separate, but related, areas.

Mechanisms

The gradual inclusion of stops of greater power, played on higher wind pressures, was a development that took place not only in England, but in France and Germany as well. In France the problem of designing a key action to control an instrument on high pressure was first solved successfully by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in his instrument for the Abbey of St. Denis (1841) through the use of the Barker Machine.201 English builders as well soon began to use pneumatic assists adapted from the Barker lever, and in their move toward higher pressures and louder individual stops, English organ builders were in the mainstream of development. By the end of the century, English builders were using adaptations of the Barker lever and a related system, tubular pneumatic action, to place different divisions of an instrument at some distance from the console, which was seen as a separable part of the organ for the first time.

Another common characteristic of nineteenth-century organs from England, France and Germany was the adoption of mechanisms to allow rapid changes of stops while the organist was playing. In England the application of pneumatic assists to the stop mechanism lead first to the inclusion of "Composition Pedals" on organs of the middle of the century. These pedals were placed above the actual pedal board, extending from the kneeboard, and at first were set by the builder so that engaging one produced a soft ensemble of stops, another a louder ensemble, and perhaps a third all the stops of the organ. These combination pedals were later adapted so that they were adjustable by the player, and by 1875 Henry Willis had installed the first thumb pistons used in an organ console.202

Along with these applications of pneumatic power to organ actions, changes were also made in the console of the English organ. Today we take for granted some fairly common elements of console design that appeared first in English organs of the second half of the nineteenth century. For example, the concave radiating pedalboard was a development of Henry Willis, one that he used from 1855 on in his instruments.203 In addition, Willis was the first builder to place the stop jambs at a 45-degree angle, so that the knobs could be read and moved more easily by the player.204

We can summarize these developments in the mechanics of the nineteenth-century English organ in this list.

  • Incorporation of pneumatic power in the windchests
  • Incorporation of pneumatic power in the stop actions
  • Introduction of the concave, radiating pedalboard
  • Introduction of composition pedals
  • Introduction of thumb pistons
  • Repositioning the stop jambs at a 45-degree angle

Dispositions

Although the section immediately above might lead you to believe that English developments in mechanisms and console design are the most important elements of their organs in the second half of the nineteenth century, this is not the case. Changes in tonal elements of these organs were also taking place during this period, as they were in other countries as well. A wide-spread change can be found in increased wind pressures and wider scales for chorus stops, just as they are found in French and German instruments. In addition to these fundamental elements of a nineteenth-century sound, however, we can identify several specifically English characteristics in dispositions of the period.

When English builders began to adopt the "German" C-compass keyboards, they began to build 16' manual stops, something they had not needed with the older GG compass. You ahve to remember that the usual practice was to identify stops by name only -- without the pitch designation you are accustomed to. The word "double" was adopted as a part a stop's name to indicate the pitch level. The pipes of these stops were twice -- or double -- the length of other stops, so appending this label to the stops name indicated 16' pitch. The inclusion of one specific stop, the Double Open Diapason at 16' pitch, soon became a standard part of dispositions of Victorian organs. Other "doubles," especially Trumpets, can also be found on organs of the period. The depth these stops give to the chorus of Victorian organs is a characteristic component of their sound.

Another tonal development in English organs of the nineteenth century is seen in a modification of the earlier practice of building two 8' Open Diapasons on the Great. The origin of this practice in seventeenth-century organs was the result of placing the instruments on top of choir screens, so that the cases originally had two fronts, one visible from the choir and one visible from the nave.205 In the nineteenth century, a new taste prevailed, and organs were no longer placed on screens, so the original need for two 8' Open Diapasons no longer existed. The practice of building both stops on a single division continued, but with a new twist. Now a distinction was made in the scaling and voicing of the different stops, a practice that could be extended to include even more 8' Diapasons. Large organs were built that had such stops as First Open Diapason, Second Open Diapason, Third Open Diapason, and so on, all of them at 8' pitch. In these instruments, the First Open Diapason was the largest, the Second smaller, and so on.

A third tonal development in nineteenth-century England can be seen in the construction of new high-pressure reeds. The Cornopean and the Tuba are the two stops of this type that you are most likely to see or hear. Both are reeds with conical resonators, and as such they are descendants of trumpets. In both of these stops, however, the resonators are broader than those of trumpets, and the tongues are thicker. Their tone lacks some of the brilliance associated with trumpets, and later examples are particularly smooth and even dull. The high pressure on which they are voiced gives them a power that is found in very few other stops of the period, however, and the tendency to dullness in no way means that they cannot in most cases completely dominate the rest of the organ.

Perhaps the most important tonal change in the English organ was the development of the full Swell division. Although by the beginning of the century the Swell had developed into a division that was second in importance only to the Great, the stoplists of early Swell divisions give only a hint of what they were to become. By the middle of the century, when a Récit division on an instrument by Cavaillé-Coll had only a few stops under expression, English builders were building organs with Swell divisions that typically had

  • a full chorus of principals (from a 16' Double Open Diapason to a Mixture),
  • flutes and mutations (including a tierce-sounding compound stop),
  • a full battery of trumpet-type reeds,
  • and one or more reeds of a more delicate solo tone.
By the end of the century, this plan had been enlarged to include a pair of strings, one of them being a céleste stop.

The English Swell was at this point secondary only to the Great in its strength and power, relegating the Choir to the third tier of importance, a position from which it never recovered in organs of either England or the United States. As a result of the increased emphasis on the Swell division and its expressive enclosure, many small churches in England have today two-manual instruments of only a few stops on each division. Inevitably, one of these divisions is enclosed.

Here's a summary of changes made in typical English organs of the second half of the nineteenth century.

  • Introduction of manual "doubles" (16' stops)
  • Differentiation between First and Second Open Diapasons on a single division
  • Development of the "Full Swell"
  • Development of high pressure reeds like the Tuba

Appearance

As with other elements of English organs, the appearance of nineteenth-century instruments soon developed a particular pattern. In essence, the traditional organ case disappeared, replaced by pipe displays in which the tops of pipes extended upwards with no visible means of support. In some installations, vertical supporting members (columns, for example) were used, but the superstructure above the pipes - - the part of a case that had traditionally been the crowning element visually - - was omitted. The typical Victorian organ has an appearance that Stephen Bicknell compares to factory chimneys in their unsupported reach upward.206

The photograph to the right is of an organ built in 1864 by Forster & Andrews for All Saint's Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge.207 It can serve as an illustration of several of the characteristics described on this page.

  • First of all, it doesn't really have a case. The base of the instrument looks like earlier English organs in its forthright solidity, but it is notably plain and lacking in decoration. The façade pipes (the 8' Open Diapason) form a fence or hedgerow across the upper portion of the instrument and appear to be standing on their variable length feet without any support for the upper portion of their bodies.
  • The instrument has mechanical action for both keys and stops, so the presence of the keydesk built into the base of the instrument is not unusual.

  • The organ has three combination pedals to the great, visible in the photograph to the left. They look like somewhat over-long hookdown pedals projecting over the top of the pedal sharps from the kneeboard.
  • The broader pedal projecting from the side of the case over the treble end of the pedalboard controls the Swell expression shades.
  • Although the pedal keys do not radiate, they are slightly concave, and their compass extends from C to f'.
    Other features common to small two-manual instruments of the middle of the century can be seen in its stoplist.
    • Great
    C-g'''    		 Swell
    C-g'''    		 Pedal
    C-f'
    Open Diapason 8 Double Diapason* 16 Open Diapason 16
    Stopped Diapason 8 Open Diapason 8 Bourdon* 16
    Dulciana 8 Stopped Diapason 8
    Principal 4 Principal 4
    Harmonic Flute 4 Mixture III
    Twelfth 2 2/3 Cornopean 8
    Fifteenth 2 Oboe 8
    Mixture III
    Trumpet 8
    [Spare]* 8
     
    COUPLERS: Swell to Great
    Great to Pedal
    Swell to Pedal
    ACCESSORIES: Three combinations pedals to Great.
     
    * According to Nicholas Thistlewaite (The Organs of Cambridge, p. 17)
    the Pedal Bourdon and the independent bottom octave of the Swell
    were later additions to the organ.
    He also says that the spare stop on the Great was formerly a Krummhorn.

    © 2000 AD James H. Cook