Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 159
Scan 159
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
18 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 137. See the scan on archive.org.
1in Europe, that they start business together making reed organs. Oliver Ditson and Lowell Mason each loaned them five thousand dollars with which to begin.
3Their first product, the Organ-Harmonium, appeared in 1855 and won a gold medal at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association Exhibition in 1856. Their melodeons won a silver medal at the same exhibition.5 The first named had double bellows operated by two foot blow-pedals in alternation, five octaves and a variety of tonal color through its unique feature, voiced reeds. It became so popular that other manufacturers adopted that name for instruments of entirely different construction. Hence in 1861 the name Cabinet Organ was introduced and copyrighted by Mason & Hamlin for their practically new instrument, the case of which enclosed all the space occupied and allowed enlargement of the action. Another improvement was the automatic bellows swell which was later changed to the universally used "Knee-swell."
5A reed organ labelled "Mason & Hamlin Organ Co." the second organ used in the Mormon Tabernacle before the installation in 1867 of the famous pipe organ is now on exhibition in the Mormon Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first organ used in the Salt Lake City Theatre, a "Mason & Hamlin Cabinet Organ," is also on display there.
7The company's largest reed organ made up to 1867 was described in Dwight's Journal of Music6 as "truly a magnificent instrument, whether we consider its tone power, or the completeness of the entire work." It consisted of 16 complete sets of reeds or vibrators, 22 stops, 2 manuals and a complete pedal keyboard (27 note compass) the lowest tone of the 32 ft. being CCCC. The stops were arranged as follows:
9Upper Manual; Viol d'Amour, Hautboy, Flute, Fifteenth, Vox Humana
10Lower Manual; Diapason 16 ft., Diapason 8 ft., Bourdon, Gamba, Cornet Anglais, Bassoon, Euphone, Principal
11Pedals; 8 feet, 16 feet, 32 feet
12Mechanical; Full Organ, Tremulant, Manual Coupler, Pedal Coupler, Forte Coupler, Forte Upper Manual, Forte Lower Manual.
14The compass of each manual was five octaves, every stop in each comprising 61 vibrators and having its own peculiar tone.
165 Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 10, Oct. 25, 1856 p. 31.
176 Ibid Vol. 27, No. 6, June 8, 1867 p. 48. "Great Reed Organ by Mason & Hamlin" from the N. Y. Musical Gazette.
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