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 183
Scan 183
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
12 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 157. See the scan on archive.org.
1great amount of strength was required to play mechanical action instruments. In 1866 an article in Dwight's Journal of Music stated—"in many, indeed in most great organs the pressure required to be brought upon a note is equal to ten pounds, and of course in holding down a chord or series of notes the fatigue is much increased." 52 "The old organ in Trinity Church, New York, one of the first large organs built in this country, required when the full organ was on a pressure of nine pounds on each key in order to open the valves of the pipes. When the organist was using full chords requiring every finger and both feet, the power exerted was sufficient to lift him bodily from his seat." [address hidden] states that he acquired a blister on his thumb from playing one of these old, heavy touch machines for an hour or two, and has seen the gallery floor actually going up and down from the struggles of a muscular performer at the console.
3It should also be noted that only too frequently in the past American organ builders have been handicapped by faulty acoustics in building construction. The average architect seemed to care little for the organ perhaps feeling that it interfered with his plans. 54
5Two organs 55 with some pneumatic action were built by W. B. D. Simmons & Co. in 1859, however, so that in this feature at least one American organ builder was abreast or ahead of the Music Hall Organ. In 1866 after the Messrs. Hook had secured the services of Mr. Sturm, who came from Germany with the Music Hall Organ, they put into their organ at Trinity Church, New Haven, Connecticut, what appears to have been a complete pneumatic action. 56 The first use in this country of tubular action to a limited extent was by E. & G. G. Hook in 1866 57 just after the Music Hall Organ's advent.
753 Lahee, Henry C. "Organs and Organ Building in New England." New England Magazine, December 1897 pp. 502 & 503.
854 Experience of the organ expert from the suburbs of Boston, who repaired in 1910 the oldest (playable) organ in the world, built in 1396? and located in Sion, Switzerland—namely, William Bradford Goodwin of Lowell, Massachusetts.
955 See organs of St. Joseph's Church, Albany, N. Y. and Appleton Chapel Harvard University p. 159.
1056 Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 26, October 13, 1866 p. 323, "New Organ in Trinity Church, New Haven, Conn."
1157 Lahee, Henry C. "Organs and Organ Building in New England." New England Magazine, December 1897 p. 501, Shawmut Congregational Church organ, Boston, Mass.
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