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Musical Courier 1895-04-17: Vol 30 Iss 789, 1895
77 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 27. See the scan on archive.org.
1der the manual to which they respectively belong. A radiating pedal board, composed of twenty-seven notes and a balanced swell pedal placed at the extreme right complete the arrangement of the organ console.
3"We take the next city. Here the stops governing the great and pedal organs are placed to the left, and those for the swell and choir to the right. The pedal board is parallel and a balanced swell pedal is placed in the centre directly over middle C. At the same time we discover four combination pedals which hook down.
5"We take the next. Here the pedal board of thirty notes is parallel and with the keys placed so near each other that with difficulty a single one can be pressed down without causing a blur. The swell pedal is a lever and is hooked down to keep the swell box open. The combination pedals, however, do not hook down.
7"We take a fourth city, and while we find here an improvement in the oblique-faced knobs of a different color of wood for each manual, we also find a peculiar system of combinations. The pistons, ten in all, are placed to the left above the draw stops and affect the great swell and pedal organs. Any combination whatever must be drawn by first pressing the piston and then the pedal, which necessitates two movements, that of hand and foot.
9"We reach another organ and find the pistons placed beneath each manual and numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. Each combination is drawn by simply pressing the piston. In all of these organs no uniform manner of grouping the stops has been employed. What can be more confusing to an organist than to find a diapason, then the flute, after this a mixture followed by the dulciana! It is no exaggeration to say that this is frequently the case here instead of grouping each family together so that a gradual crescendo may be obtained through drawing one stop after the other in regular order.
11"But I think I have given you enough examples," said Mr. Carl. "I could multiply them indefinitely. An organist never knows what to expect."
13"And how would you propose to remedy matters?"
15"There is but one way. To have a congress of organ builders meet and arrange a uniform system of construction, which I hope will not be far distant."
17"What about abroad?"
19"Ah, well, abroad, you see, a uniform system is in vogue. True in France or England you may meet occasional old organs which vary, but they are the exceptions, not to be met except in quarters where organists are not ordinarily invited to give recitals.
21"The College of Organists existent in London has established a uniformity which merits to be an example. This forms a rigorous court. Their first step was to regulate the exact width of the pedal board. All over England you will find this exact. In America you will find it from town to town at a variation of from 1 to 1 1/2 inches in width; and not only this, but according to the builder's fancy the distance at which the pedals are placed will vary, so that an organist's expectation as to what he shall have to gauge would without investigation avail him nothing. Perhaps you can fancy a pianist with his two comparatively simple pedals, which in their manipulation conflict with no stops, manuals or other technical contrivances. Let him travel from city to city and find pianos with these same pedals thrust sidewise, stuck backwise or laid for his feet in any other novel and unsuspected fashion, and see the result. But what is this in comparison to the irregularities of organ building? Not only do the pedal boards vary in width and in distance apart, but the stops are set at comparative random, and the laying of the manuals, some fairly apart, some overlapping, is confusing and awkward beyond power to express.
23"There is but one way out of the difficulty here. Let a congress of organ builders meet and arrange a uniform system of construction, or, better still, let a 'Guild of Organists' be established, adopting rules that will be adhered to by all builders. Until this is done," said Mr. Carl, "all we can hope for is perplexing uncertainty.
25"There is a rigor of exactitude in the way organ matters are conducted in France which is a pleasure to look back to," remarked Mr. Carl. "When an organ is there finished to order a jury of from eight to ten, one-half invited by the builders, the other by the church, is present to pass judgment on the instrument. This jury is composed of some of the most prominent organ musicians living. I had the honor to serve on one of these juries in the case of the grand organ now placed in the cathedral of Guadalajara, Mexico. Men like Guilmant, Dubois, Salomé, Dellier, Gigout and Rousseau you will generally find your confrères."
27"And does the organ really get a tell-tale overhauling?"
29"Yes, every individual stop is tested, and it is seen to decisively that the organ is evenly voiced. This jury convention is no sinecure."
31"And about America?"
33"Well, about America, the organ is built and placed where it was ordered without any comments. There is infinite trust in the builder's good faith, and I beg you to understand me there are some good builders in America, whose good faith is well to be relied on. I do not say otherwise. What I urge against is the variety of forms of good faith and the ill effects through this irregularity gained by minor over really prominent organ builders."
35Mr. Carl is an enthusiast, not only over his instrument, but over the study brought to bear upon it. A frequent sigh goes up from him for tested, qualified, musicianly performers, organists who shall be able to improvise in scholarly fashion after the manner expected of a Paris Conservatoire student who hopes to enter the final contest for the premier prix. "It is true," said Mr. Carl, "that we have among us many capable organists who can execute with ease the standard modern works as well as those of Bach, Händel and Mendelssohn, but it must be conceded that the organist is rare who will sit down and improvise with due intellectual regard to form. Go where you will in France, even in slumbering provincial towns, the improvisations heard are scholarly and interesting. The training for this is passed at the Conservatoire, where the final examination is typical. After a severe individual examination of the elect those competent to enter for the premier prix are chosen. In the presence of the most astute musicians and organ critics of France these pupils are called upon among other things to improvise upon a given theme, an organ piece complete, a four part fugue; they are also required to play an organ piece from memory, but it is the improvisations that contain the test of musicianship which is so valuable, and it must be yielded among the home-trained organists here, so rare.
37"What suggestion for remedying this, you ask, and—ah, yes—particularly as the American student is noted as the most assiduous and progressive among organists abroad? We should seek to found a school solely for the study of harmony, counterpoint and improvisation. These subjects are already taught, we are aware of it, in connection with a general musical conservatory scheme. But what we are looking for, is results, and thus far it can hardly be contested that more than a very thin edge of the wedge has managed to enter its way.
39"Yes," said Mr. Carl, "when I find myself here for the first time opening an organ—'inaugurating' I believe it is called—and realize myself to be judge, jury, recital giver, and incidentally explorer for mislaid and hidden portions of mechanism, which it sometimes takes hours to locate, I really believe I ought to feel as though I were accomplishing something more than is usually assigned to one individual."
41"Suppose," Mr. Carl was asked, "that the red letter day were here upon which, in the first place, scholarly organists turned out from thorough training schools were present to play on organs built on a uniform system, what are your ideas relative to the success of recital giving on the organ in America?"
43"There you offer a very pertinent question," said Mr. Carl, "and one I have frequently considered. As things stand in the United States, a taste for high-class organ playing outside church service cannot be cultivated, as 90 per cent. of the homes of organs are in churches, and of these fully 80 object vigorously to opening their doors to any recital for which tickets are sold. There are numerous admirable organs in large cities, too, where the church members eagerly crave a good recital, but the pastors refuse, and these fine organs know nothing beyond the few conventional service pieces played by some provincial hand. Of course if a man could afford to be philanthropic for art's sake a desire for more organ playing might easily be established, for they will give the use of the organ but will not admit sale of tickets. I am not exactly in that position," said Mr. Carl, "and if I travel to Atlanta it must be for something more than was placed before me a week ago in a pleading letter from the South. A lady was the writer, and she is a devotee of the organ. 'Do, do come,' she wrote; 'we are fairly starved for some good organ music, and would owe you a debt of everlasting gratitude. We will guarantee you an overflowing house, and will give you your entertainment over night.'
45"Now the house in many important towns would be quite as overflowing if allowed to be paid for. This I have reason to know. People want organ recitals, but the instrument is in a sacred edifice, which the pastor refuses to sell.
47"Therefore if our red letter day of players and instruments were now at hand, 'tis true that occupation might not be forthcoming in proportion. But we must hope for a simultaneous growth; better organists and a uniform system may also see more organs set up in secular places, and opportunity and encouragement would surely grow in proportion as the performer's and builder's art advanced on this side of the Atlantic to average Old World excellence."
49First Concert of the New York Musical Society.—The New York Musical Society, Frank G. Dossert musical director, will give its first concert, May 4, 1895, under distinguished patronage, at Madison Square Garden Concert Hall, when Dvorák's latest composition, American Flag, will be given its first public production with a chorus of 200 voices, full orchestra, and the following artists: Mary Louise Clary, contralto; Ben Davies, the renowned English tenor; Geo. W. Fergusson, baritone. Maude Powell, violinist, will play the Bruch concerto.
51An Organist for Fifty Years.
53ST. Mark's Episcopal Church of Grand Rapids, Mich., celebrated the remarkable record of its organist, Mrs. T. B. Church, by a special concert given on the evening of February 22. The occasion was marked by the presentation of several gifts, including a purse of money and an album containing the photographs of the ministers and organists of the principal Episcopal churches in the United States. Mrs. Church, who is the mother of Mr. F. S. Church, the well-known artist of this city, has presided at her instrument for fifty years—a record of service which is said to be without precedent in church history, except in the case of Dr. John Stainer, who retired only recently from the post of organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, after fifty years of work. one of two readings
54St. Mark's Episcopal Church of Grand Rapids, Mich., celebrated the remarkable record of its organist, Mrs. T. B. Church, by a special concert given on the evening of February 22. The occasion was marked by the presentation of several gifts, including a purse of money and an album containing the photographs of the ministers and organists of the principal Episcopal churches in the United States. Mrs. Church, who is the mother of Mr. F. S. Church, the well-known artist of this city, has presided at her instrument for fifty years—a record of service which is said to be without precedent in church history, except in the case of Dr. John Stainer, who retired only recently from the post of organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, after fifty years of work. one of two readings
56Mrs. Church has of course seen an interesting development of church music as well as of church life in the long period which her experience covers. In the early days, when St. Mark's Church was a modest little building, her instrument, as she says, was a sort of large accordion about 2 feet long. She blew the bellows with her elbows. Those were the days when an amateur orchestra helped the church choir, and when the flute and violin and double-bass were found in the choir lofts of even country towns. St. Mark's has grown and changed in all these years, and there is no more striking illustration of the growth of church life in this country than the contrast between the church music of to-day and that of half a century ago, when Mrs. Church began her work. In all this time she has been late to service only twice—once when her little boy, whom she had dressed to accompany her, fell into the bathtub just as they were starting for service and had to be redressed, and once when her clock stopped and so misled her.—The Outlook.
58Ellen Beach Yaw.—This youthful American singer with the highest ranged voice is giving concerts in the West before enthusiastic and numerous audiences. The Burlington Gazette says that no greater artistic triumph has been witnessed in that city in a quarter of a century than Miss Yaw's:
60When a Burlington audience breaks into applause during the rendition of musical numbers, and then at the close of the program sits and persistently applauds a singer, it is a sure sign that they have heard a great artist.
62It has been many years since an audience at the Grand Opera House was so thoroughly surprised, delighted, carried away with enthusiasm. The audience recognized the fact before she was half through that they were hearing an artist of surpassing greatness. There were not a dozen people in the house who had ever before heard a voice that compared with this in range or execution or purity. Her method is as wonderful as her compass. She seems to be positively without the ability to utter a falsetto note. As she goes higher and higher, her voice seems to grow purer, sweeter, more flute-like, more superhuman, and always under her perfect control, to do with exactly as she wills, from the earth clear up to heaven and back again. Her voice has those peculiar tone qualities of the purling brook in a quiet glen, or the singing bird on a clear spring morning. When she had finished the Echo Song the audience was completely hers. It is to be remembered also that the audience was composed of the city's most critical and discriminating musical people. There were repeated and enthusiastic encores and flowers and exclamations of open delight in all parts of the house. It was pronounced the greatest artistic triumph witnessed in the city in a quarter of a century. If it is ever the city's good fortune to secure this marvelous singer and her company again the Grand Opera House will not hold all the people who seek admittance.
64The Burlington Hawkeye falls into line to praise Miss Yaw, and gives this account of the raptures of an audience of over 600:
66The advent of the young prima donna, Miss Ellen Beach Yaw, to Burlington was heralded with the most flattering and extravagant announcements and notices, and in consequence the audience which was in attendance to receive her last evening was a critical and exacting one; one which only the highest degree of excellence would appease; it was led to expect something truly artistic, and was content to accept nothing short of that. All expectations and the fondest hopes being realized, the audience was not slow to recognize the fact, and was unstinted in its praise. It is not exaggeration to say that Miss Yaw met last evening with the most flattering reception which has been accorded a singer in this city for twenty years; when an audience time and again bursts into spontaneous applause in the midst of a song, not awaiting the conclusion to express its enthusiasm, the critic may be pardoned the expression of the above opinion. In the Laughing Song, one of Patti's favorites, Miss Yaw exhibited her highest and most artistic qualities, and took the audience by storm; and, as stated before, her enraptured hearers interrupted her several times in the midst of it to applaud. The high notes in which Miss Yaw is known to excel were taken and sustained with the greatest ease, and were full, round tones, without sign of screech or falsetto.
68A Symphonic Poem.—The chief feature of the elaborate Easter music at the Church of All Angels was a symphonic poem, Death and Resurrection, for solo clarinet, trumpets, trombones, tuba, organ and chorus, by Hermann Hans Wetzler, organist for the church. The work made a most profound impression, and will be repeated next Sunday. The beautiful clarinet solo was excellently played by Carl Dienstbach.
70MISS NELLIE EMELINE LORD, of 215 Allen street, Springfield, Mass., a soprano of wide range, of much experience and teacher of voice culture, is ready for engagements. Address, Nellie Emeline Lord.
72OSCAR SAENGER,
73Baritone.
74Vocal Instruction, Concert, Oratorio, Opera.
75Studios: 130 West 59th Street, New York.
761338 Vernon Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
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