In keeping with my habit of sending draft writing to the list, here is my
preliminary for an article for the New Grove Dictionary of Music on the
English Organ 1450-1800. As usual I would be delighted to have your
comments and reactions, still more delighted if you spot any mistakes!
Stephen Bicknell
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The English Organ 1450-1800
The purest expressions of English artistic endeavour are often found in
miniatures: the portraits of Nicholas Hilliard; the sonnets of Shakespeare
and Donne; the London churches of Christopher Wren. Until the industrial
expansion of the nineteenth century the English organ also fell into this
pattern of unassuming modesty.
Evidence for the late mediaeval organ in the British Isles is extremely
sketchy, partly because of a protracted period of religious and political
instability (effectively from Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries
in 1536 until the Glorious Revolution of 1688), and partly because small
instruments warranted little in the way of extravagant description or fame.
There is some evidence of connections with the continent of Europe.
Despite Henry VIII's leanings towards things Italian, those connections
seem to exist in greatest number and importance with neighbouring Flanders,
the closest and most influential point of contact with the British Isles.
Most striking are the appearance in England of Flemish organ builders, such
as Michael Langhedul at Salisbury Cathedral in 1530 and Jasper Blancart in
London 1566-1582, both from families of craftsmen well-known on the
continent.
The actual type of organ to be associated with the great age of Tudor
church music has remained completely obscure until very recently. There
may have been isolated large organs in Britain, such as that built by
Laurence Playssher for Exeter Cathedral in 1513 (for which bills survive),
but all the remaining evidence suggests that the standard instrument used
as an accompaniment to the choral liturgy was small. This evidence
consists of large numbers of inventory records made after the dissolution,
a couple of early contracts, and, since 1995, two fragmentary remains of
early sixteenth century instruments preserved by chance. The most
important of these, the Wetheringsett fragment (an entire organ soundboard
of c1520 amazingly preserved as a door in a farm building in Suffolk),
indicates the type of instrument typical of the school, its size and scope
directly confirmed by contemporary contracts at All Hallows-by-the-Tower,
London (Antony Duddyngton 1519-20) and Holy Trinity Coventry (John Howe and
John Clynmowe, 1526).
TABLE XX
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Wetheringsett fragment
Anon c1520 (dated within 5 years either way by dendrochronology)
Speculative reconstruction of original stoplist from evidence of grid,
table, slides and pipe holes.
Key compass: C - a'', fully chromatic, 46 notes
Compass of pipes: F - d''' (i.e. transposing up a fourth)
Diapason (? open wood) 10 (lowest 17 notes only)
(unison, ?open wood) 5
Principal 5
Principal 5
octave 2 1/2
octave 2 1/2
superoctave 1 1/4
superoctave 1 1/4
The pitch standard of five feet, referring to the dead-cut length of the
pipe body, gives an F (played by keyboard C) roughly equivalent to G or G#
at modern pitch of A=440 Hz.
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In large buildings instruments of this type seem usually to have been
multiplied in number, but not in size. At Durham Cathedral before the
dissolution, according to one account, there were five organs in various
parts of the building, one of which at least had pipes of wood, each with
its specific role in the liturgy and in the cycle of the church year. The
largest instruments of this period may have been based on a full-compass
Diapason of ten foot pitch, though the Principal 5 was still regarded as
the unison. The transposition of the keyboard was once familiar across
Europe (organs at C or F pitch are described by Arnold Schlick in his
Spiegel der Orgelmacher of 1511), and the practice is visible in certain
two-manual harpsichords by Ruckers. These were transposing instruments in
the same sense as the modern French horn (in D) and Clarinet (in E flat);
the practice is confirmed in surviving part books by the use of standard
clefs: those for the use of the choir are in F pitch, those to be used by
the organist are in C pitch. The use of a long chromatic keyboard is a
feature of English instruments; the provision of the low accidentals, at a
time when mean-tone tuning was probably universal, is probably explained by
the English love of ornamentation in keyboard music.
Though the Chapels Royal, under the direct administration of the monarch,
may have flourished in the sixteenth century, giving scope to composers
such as Tallis and Byrd, the situation in the country as a whole was deeply
and permanently affected by the Reformation. The religious houses were now
closed and their lands and property appropriated; rapid inflation and
religious insecurity depressed the market for new organs, and waves of
Calvinist-inspired feeling periodically surfaced in the form of calls for
all organs to be silenced and removed from churches.
It seems likely that around 1570 these feelings became more or less
concrete, and there is widespread evidence from all parts of the British
Isles that organs were removed and destroyed. With the revival of a
High-Church party under Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury in the early 17th
century, organs returned to the Cathedrals and Collegiate churches, but not
it seems to the parishes. The great majority of these new instruments were
built by members of the Dallam family; many were now 'double organs', i.e.
of two manuals, ushering in the period of the Double Voluntary.
TABLE XX
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Worcester Cathedral
Thomas Dallam 1613, for the organist Thomas Tomkins, situated on the choir
screen.
Key-compass: C - d''', fully chromatic, 51 notes
Compass of pipes: F - g''' (i.e. transposing up a fourth)
Great Organ
Open diapason 10
Open diapason 10
Principal 5
Principal 5
Recorder (stopped) 5
Twelfth 3 2/3
Small principal or Fifteenth 2 1/2
Small principal or Fifteenth 2 1/2
Chaire Organ (ruckpositif)
Diapason (stopped wood) 10
Principal 5
Flute (wood) 5
Small principal or Fifteenth 2 1/2
Two and twentieth 1 1/4
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The Civil war of 1642 onwards brought an end to this activity, and organs
across the land were again dismantled. The catholic Dallam family sought
refuge in Brittany, in the north-west corner of France, where they
continued to ply their trade, adapting completely to the local style.
At the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 organs were at first restored or
built new on exactly the same pattern as they had existed before the Civil
War. However, foreign influence led quickly to the arrival of a new style
and a further wave of rebuilding and new organs. The post-restoration
English organ was partly the result of rivalry between two organ-building
factions. In the aftermath of the Fire of London in 1666 the city was
opened to all craftsmen in order to speed the rebuilding. One who came was
Bernard Smith, a German organ-builder then resident in the Netherlands, and
later to become known in affectionate recognition as Father Smith. He
established himself and gained a royal connection in the early 1670s, much
to the chagrin of his rivals, the remaining members of the Dallam family
and their in-laws the Harrises. Smith (b c1630) and Renatus Harris (b
c1652) made a public exhibition of their rivalry in 1683-8, both building
new organs for the Temple Church in London. After this 'Battle of the
Organs' Smith's instrument was judged the better (and was later to serve
the organist John Stanley); Harris' organ was removed.
TABLE XX
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London, the Temple Church
Bernard Smith 1683
Key compass FF, GG, AA - c''', with double keys in the upper three octaves
for d-sharp/e-flat and g-sharp/a-flat, 61 notes in all.
Compass of pipes: same as keys (i.e. not transposing)
Great Organ
Prestand 8 (12' at low FF)
Holflute (wood and metal) 8 (12)
Principall 4 (6)
Gedackt (wood) 4 (6)
Quinta 2 2/3 (4)
Super octavo 2 (3)
Sesquialtera III
Mixture III-IV
Trumpet 8 (12)
Cornet (from c#') IV
Chaire Organ (disposed inside the main case, behind the Great Organ)
Gedackt (wood) 8 (12)
Sadt (sc. gemshorn) 4 (6)
Holflute (metal) 4 (6)
Spitts flute 2 (3)
Violl & Violin (sc. krummhorn) 8 (12)
Voice Humaine 8 (12)
Ecchos (probably disposed below the Great Organ, behind the music desk)
Gedackt (wood, from c') 8 (12)
Gedackt (wood, from C) 4 (6)
Flute (metal, from c') 4 (6)
Super octavo (from C) 2 (3)
Sesquialtera (? FF-b') III
Cornett (?c'-c''') III
Trumpet (from c') 8 (12)
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Smith went on to build the new organ for Wren's St Paul's Cathedral,
London, completed in 1697. This also had three manuals, the Great organ
descending to low CC, 16 foot pitch. Pull-down pedals to the Great Organ
were added in 1720.
Despite Smith's success, his rival Harris was ultimately just as busy. His
own instruments showed some influence from the Dallam-Harris clan's period
of exile in France.
TABLE XX
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London, St. Bride Fleet Street
Renatus Harris 1696
Key compass GG, AA, C, D - c''' (50 notes) for the Great and Chaire,
c'-c''' (25 notes) for the Echo.
Compass of pipes: same as keys (i.e. not transposing)
Great Organ
Open Diapason (8)
Stop'd diapason (wood bass) (8)
Principall (4)
Great Twelfth (2 2/3)
Fifteenth (2)
Cart (sc. quarte de nazard) (2)
Tierce (1 3/5)
Sesquialter V
Furniture III
Trumpet (8)
Chaire Organ (ruckpositif)
Stop'd diapason (wood bass) (8)
Principal (4)
Flute (4)
Stop'd twelfth (sc. nazard) (2 2/3)
Fifteenth (2)
Tierce (1 3/5)
Vox humane (8)
Echo (from c')
Open diapason (8)
Stop'd diapason (8)
Principall or flute (4)
Great twelfth (2 2/3)
Cart or fifteenth (2)
Tierce (1 3/5)
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Much has been made of the continental background of these rival builders,
as it were begging the question as to why they did not introduce
conventional European c-compass or even independent pedal organs. In fact
Smith was working in the Netherlands at a time when the independent pedal
was only just becoming a feature of the largest new organs, and the depth
of Harris' debt to France was surely tempered by the fact that he was only
eight years old when the family returned to England in 1660.
Whatever the nature of the rivalry between these two builders, it was, in
effect, the Harris style that succeeded into the eighteenth century,
through the work of his son John Harris and associated craftsmen such as
Richard Bridge and the John Byfields, father and son. The standard
three-manual instrument of the period, with long-compass Great Organ and
(now) Choir Organ (disposed as a ruckpositif in some Cathedral and
collegiate instruments, but otherwise normally behind the Great), was
enlivened by the conversion of the old short-compass Echo into an
expressive Swell organ, the first example of which was introduced by the
Abraham Jordans (father and son) in their instrument at St.
Magnus-the-Martyr, London Bridge, in 1712 (and may have been derived by
them from earlier Iberian examples). The pipes of the Swell were enclosed
in a box fitted with a moveable front, operated by a pedal at the console.
Even fully developed large instruments followed the same general pattern,
supplying stops of familiar name and type in more extravagant numbers.
TABLE XX
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London, Christ Church Spitalfields
Richard Bridge 1753
Key compass: GG - d''' (56 notes)
Great Organ
Open diapason (8)
Open diapason (8)
Stopped diapason (8)
Principal (4)
Principal (4)
Twelfth (2 2/3)
Fifteenth (2)
Tierce (1 3/5)
Larigot (1 1/3)
Sesquialtera IV
Fourniture III
Trumpet (8)
Trumpet (8)
Bassoon (8)
Clarion (4)
Cornet (?from c', mounted) V
Choir Organ (disposed inside the main case, behind the Great Organ)
Stopped diapason (8)
Principal (4)
Flute (4)
Fifteenth (2)
Mixture III
Cremona (8)
Vox humana (8)
French horn (from d) (8)
Hautboy (from d) (8)
Swell Organ (trebles only from g, positioned above the Choir Organ)
Open diapason (8)
Stopped diapason (8)
Principal (4)
Flute (4)
Cornet III
Trumpet (8)
Hautboy (8)
Clarion (4)
Drum Pedal (pedal operating two pipes at once, tuned slightly apart from
each other, to give a 'beating' effect)
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In the instruments of Bridge and the Byfields a superficial resemblance to
the French type remains, right down to the occasional use of wide principal
scales for the mutation stops. However, it is clear that English national
taste exercised itself vigorously in excluding any blatant sounds or gross
pitches, the emphasis being rather on sweetness, delicacy, and the accuracy
of the imitative registers (Trumpet, Hautboy, French horn, Bassoon, Vox
humana and Flute). The extempore players of the eighteenth century,
performing 'voluntaries' perhaps slightly more complex than those which
survive in printed form for the large amateur market, would have exploited
these imitative effects to the full. The Swell divisions, originally
fitted with sliding sash fronts, but by 1800 with 'Venetian' shutters after
the pattern of the familiar window blind, enhanced the expressivity of
these effects.
Registration followed conventional patterns. Solo stops (the reeds, Cornet
and Flute) might be heard on their own. Otherwise the combinations
referred to most frequently are 'Diapasons' (Open diapason plus Stopped
Diapason, used for slow introductory movements) and 'Full Organ' (all Great
Organ stops except the Cornet). The latter combination would be given an
agreeable nasal twang by the Trumpets, Clarions and by the provision of
third-sounding tierce ranks in the mixtures in addition to the more
familiar unisons and quints.
During the eighteenth century organs such as this became universal in
Cathedrals, collegiate churches, and the parish churches of wealthier
towns. In the Cathedrals and Colleges they accompanied the choir; in the
parish churches they accompanied the congregation in singing metrical
versions of the psalms and were used for extempore 'Voluntaries' before,
during , and after the service.
The market for new organs in the eighteenth century was vigorous and
competitive, encouraging indigenous craftsman and also one notable
immigrant, the Swiss-born John Snetzler, who settled in London around 1740
and adapted himself completely to the local style. There was also
considerable demand in the second half of the century for small instruments
for secular use. There had been a tradition of 'chamber' organs in England
since early times, and several examples of small organs, often with pipes
entirely of wood, survive from the second half of the seventeenth century.
There was a considerable revival of interest in chamber organs in the
second half of the eighteenth century, contemporary with (and perhaps
because of) the great popularity of Handel, who seems regularly to have
used small or even portable organs for continuo and for the performance of
organ concerti as interludes to larger works.
Later eighteenth century builders, notably members of the England family
and Samuel Green, continued to refine the basic recipe, adding only the
Dulciana (a delicate string-toned stop first used in Britain by Snetzler)
to the range of available voices, and never exceeding the size of
instrument established by their immediate forebears. The only expansion in
range came in the occasional provision of pull-down pedals to the Great
Organ, in larger and later examples operating a single rank of unison Pedal
Pipes also.
The national taste for subtlety and delicacy, nicely reflected in the
polished wit of Pope and Dryden or the serene neo-classicism of the
brothers Adam and Thomas Chippendale, meant that English organs gradually
became softer and prettier in sound as the century progressed. The art of
voicing had been highlighted by the rivalry of Smith and Harris - even
after the 'Battle of the Organs' had been settled it would have been
possible to compare the merits of their respective work by visiting almost
any two adjacent London churches. The Englands and Samuel Green became
obsessed with tonal beauty. When Green built a new organ for Salisbury
Cathedral in 1792, the building was closed to visitors for two weeks so
that he could attend to the tuning and voicing in near silence.
TABLE XX
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Salisbury Cathedral
Samuel Green 1792, situated on the choir screen
Key Compass: FF, GG - e''' (59 notes)
Great Organ
Open diapason (8)
Open diapason (8)
Principal (4)
Twelfth (2 2/3)
Fifteenth (2)
Sesquialtera III
Furniture II
Trumpet (divided treble and bass) (8)
Cornet (from c') IV
Choir Organ (ruckpositif)
Stopped diapason (8)
Dulciana (from g) (8)
Principal (4)
Flute (4)
Fifteenth (2)
Bassoon (8)
Swell Organ (treble only, from f)
Open diapason (8)
Stopped diapason (8)
Dulciana (8)
Principal (4)
Cornet III
Trumpet (8)
Hautboy (8)
Pull-down pedals to the Great Organ, FF, GG - c (19 notes)
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Green also provided an organ for the Handel Commemoration festival of 1784,
an enormous event held at the west end of Westminster Abbey. The concerts
heard on that occasion involved no less than five hundred performers and
delighted the public. Hoping to address such new demands, Green's
successors would attempt to build much larger organs in the years
immediately following 1800, but still adhering to the insular recipe, until
at last abandoning the English classical organ type in the 1840s in favour
of the 'German System' of uniform c-compass keyboards and independent pedal
organ.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Bicknell: The History of the English Organ (Cambridge 1996)
STEPHEN BICKNELL
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