The Recent Revolution in Organ Building Part 11

The influence of the work already done by the aforenamed pioneers in this country is being manifested in a general improvement in organ tone and mechanism throughout the United States.

Musical men, hearing the new tones and musical effects now produced, realize for the first time the grandeur and refinement and amazing variety of musical effects that the organ is capable of yielding; on returning to their own churches they are filled with "divine discontent," and they do not rest until a movement for obtaining a new organ, or at least modernizing the old one, is set on foot. The abandonment of old ideas as to the limitations of the organ is begun, new ideals are being set up, and a revolution which will sweep the whole country has now obtained firm foothold.

Until recently England unquestionably led in the development of the organ, and Hope-Jones led England. Now that his genius is at work in this country, who shall set limit to our progress? Even when expressing himself through other firms, his influence entirely altered the standard practice of the leading builders, and now, since direct expression has been obtained, improvements have appeared with even greater rapidity.

It is the author's opinion (based on a wide knowledge of the instruments in both countries) that in the course of the last ten years this country has made such great strides in the art that it may now claim ability to produce organs that are quite equal to the best of these built in England. And he ventures to prophesy that in less than another ten years, American-built organs will be accepted as the world's highest standard.

At a banquet given in his honor in New York in 1906, the late Alexandre Guilmant complained that no organ that he had played in this country possessed majesty of effect. The advent of Hope-Jones has entirely changed the situation. Tertius n.o.ble, late of York Minster, England, who has just come to this country, a.s.serts that organs can be found here equal to or superior to any built in England, and the celebrated English organist, Edwin Lemare, p.r.o.nounced the reeds at Ocean Grove, N.

J., the finest he had ever heard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARISTIDE CAVAILLE-COLL.]

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CHIEF ACTORS IN THE DRAMA.

We now purpose to give a brief account of the leaders in revolutionizing the King of Instruments, the men whose genius and indomitable perseverance in the face of prejudice, discouragement and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, financial and otherwise, have made the modern organ possible. First of all these comes

CHARLES s.p.a.cHMAN BARKER,

who was born at Bath, England, on Oct. 10, 1806. Left an orphan when five years old, he was brought up by his G.o.dfather, who gave him such an education as would fit him for the medical profession, and he was in due time apprenticed to an apothecary and druggist in Bath. This apothecary used to draw teeth, and it was Barker's duty to hold the heads of the patients, whose howls and screams unnerved him so that he refused to learn the business and left before his term of apprentices.h.i.+p expired.

Dr. Hinton does not credit the story that Barker, accidentally witnessing the operations of an eminent organ-builder (Bishop, of London) who was erecting an organ in his neighborhood, determined on following that occupation, and placed himself under that builder for instruction in the art. It seems to be admitted, however, that after spending most of the intervening time in London, he returned to Bath two years afterwards and established himself as an organ-builder there.

About 1832 the newly built large organ in York Minster attracted general attention, and Barker, impressed by the immense labor occasioned to the player by the extreme hardness of touch of the keys, turned his thoughts toward devising some means of overcoming the resistance offered by the keys to the fingers. The result was the invention of the pneumatic lever by which ingenious contrivance the pressure of the wind which occasioned the resistance to the touch was skilfully applied to lessen it. He wrote to Dr. Camidge, then the organist of the Cathedral, begging to be allowed to attach one of his levers in a temporary way to one of the heaviest notes of his organ.

Dr. Camidge admitted that the touch of his instrument was "sufficient to paralyze the efforts of most men," but financial difficulties stood in the way of the remedy being applied. Barker offered his invention to several English organ-builders, but finding them indisposed to adopt it, he went to Paris, in 1837, where he arrived about the time that Cavaille-Coll was building a large organ for the Church of St. Denis.

M. Cavaille-Coll had adopted the practice of making his flue and reed pipes produce harmonic tones by means of wind of heavy pressure; but he encountered difficulty as the touch became too heavy for practical use.

Mr. Barker's apparatus, which simply overpowered the resistance that could not be removed, was therefore an opportune presentation; he took out a _brevet d' invention_ for it in 1839, and M. Cavaille-Coll immediately introduced it, together with several harmonic stops, into the St. Denis organ. Besides the organ of St. Denis, Barker's pneumatic lever was applied to those of St. Roch, La Madeleine, and other churches in Paris.

"Barker's connection with Cavaille was not of long duration, and we next find him in the Daublaine & Callinet organ-building company. At this time the company was rebuilding the magnificent organ at St.

Sulpice, the acknowledged masterpiece of Cliquot, the French 'Father Schmidt.' * * *

"During the time this restoration of the organ was in hand, Louis Callinet experienced acute financial difficulties, and, failing to induce Daublaine, his partner, to advance him a relatively small sum, *

* * Callinet became so bitterly incensed that one day, going to the organ on some trifling pretext, he entirely wrecked it with axe and handsaw.

"This act of vengeance or criminal folly involved Daublaine in the same financial ruin as himself, and through this tragic occurrence the firm in which Barker was beginning to be securely established came to an end. Callinet, being absolutely penniless, was not prosecuted, but ended his days in the employ of Cavaille as voicer and tuner.

"Nor was this the only disaster which occurred during the time Barker was with Daublaine & Callinet. In 1844 (December 16th), it was Barker's ill-fortune to kick over a lighted candle while trying to remove a cipher in the organ his firm had recently erected in St.

Eustache, which occasioned the total destruction of the organ. * * *

"The outlook seemed unpromising for Barker when the firm of Daublaine & Callinet came to an end. The good will of that concern was, however, purchased by M. Ducroquet (a capitalist), who entrusted him with its management.

"J. B. Stoltz, Daublaine & Callinet's foreman, a very able man and a splendid workman, feeling aggrieved at Barker's promotion, seceded and set up for himself, his place in the new firm being filled by M.

Verschneider, in whom Barker found efficient support in matters of technical knowledge and skill.

"During the time Barker was with M. Ducroquet the present organ at St.

Eustache was built, to replace that so unfortunately destroyed by fire; also an organ which was exhibited at the great exhibition of London in 1851. * * *

"In the Paris exhibition of 1855 Barker was admitted as an exhibitor, independently of M. Ducroquet (who was in bad health and on the eve of retiring from business), obtaining a first-cla.s.s medal and nomination as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

"At the death of M. Ducroquet, which occurred shortly afterwards, Merklin took over the business carried on by Ducroquet, and Barker remained with him until 1860, when he set up on his own account in partners.h.i.+p with M. Verschneider, before named, and it was during the decade 1860-70 that the electric organ came into being."

The story of Dr. Peschard's invention has been already set forth in this book (see page 37). Barker seems to have been somewhat jealous of him and always described the action as "Pneumato-electrique," objecting to the term "Electro-pneumatic," although this was putting the cart before the horse. Dr. Hinton says: "Though I was much in touch with Barker during part of his brief period of activity in electric work, Peschard's name was rarely mentioned and carried little meaning to me.

I did not know if Peschard were a living or a dead scientist, and if I (a mere youth at the time) ever thought of him, it was as being some kind of bogie Barker had to conciliate."

Bryceson Brothers, of London, exhibited an organ at the Paris Exposition Universelle in the Champ de Mars in 1867, on which daily recitals were given by Mons. A. L. Tamplin, who induced Mr. Henry Bryceson to visit the electric organ then being erected in the Church of St. Augustin. Mr. Bryceson, being convinced that this was the action of the future, lost no time in investigating the system thoroughly, and arranged with Barker for the concession of the sole rights of his invention as soon as he should obtain his English patent, which he got in the following year. Barker, however, repented him of his bargain, and the exclusive rights were eventually waived by the Brycesons, although they retained the right to use the patent themselves. They made considerable improvements on Barker's action, the chief defects of which seem to have been the resistance of the pallets (which had to be plucked from their seats; he did not even use the split pallet) and the cost of maintenance of the batteries, which rapidly deteriorated from the action of the powerful acids employed. A full description and drawing of Peschard's and Barker's action will be found in Dr. Hinton's "Story of the Electric Organ."

This same Paris Exposition of 1867 is also responsible for the introduction of tubular-pneumatic action into England by Henry Willis.

He there saw the organ by Fermis which induced him to take up that mechanism and develop it to its present perfection.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 drove Barker from Paris, his factory was destroyed in the bombardment, and thus at the age of 64 he was again cast adrift. He came to England and found, on attempting to take out a patent for his pneumatic lever, that all the organ-builders were using what they had formerly despised!

He succeeded, however, in obtaining the contract for a new organ for the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, and it was arranged that he should receive a certain sum in advance, and a monthly allowance up to the amount of the estimated cost of the instrument. He seems to have had trouble in obtaining expert workmen and only succeeded in getting a motley crowd of Frenchmen, Germans, Dutch and Americans. They spoke so many different languages that a Babel-like confusion resulted. Hilborne Roosevelt, the great American organ-builder, was at that time in Europe, and in response to Barker's earnest entreaty, came to Dublin _incognito_, so as not to detract from Barker's reputation as the builder. Roosevelt's direction and advice were most invaluable, being moreover given in the most chivalrous and generous spirit; but, notwithstanding this and the excellent material of which the organ was constructed, the result was anything but an artistic or financial success.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES s.p.a.cHMAN BARKER.]

Barker built an organ for the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Cork, which was no better, and this was his last work. These misfortunes culminated in an appeal to his countrymen for subscriptions on his behalf in the musical papers. In his old age he had married the eighteen-year-old daughter of M. Ougby, his late foreman. He died at Maidstone, Eng., November 26, 1879.

This sketch of Barker's career is taken partly from Grove's Dictionary of Music, from Hopkins and Rimbault's History, and from Dr. Hinton's "Story of the Electric Organ." The paragraphs within quotation marks are verbatim from this book by kind permission of Dr. Hinton, whom we have to thank also for the portrait of Barker which appears on another page.

ARISTIDE CAVAILLE-COLL.

The following sketch of the life of this eminent artist is taken from Dr. Bedart's forthcoming book on "Cavaille-Coll and His Times," and from Le Monde Musical, of Paris, October 30, 1899, translated by Mr.

Robert F. Miller, of Boston. The portrait is from the same magazine.

Aristide Cavaille-Coll was born at Montpellier, France, on the 4th day of February, 1811. He was the son of Dominique Cavaille-Coll, who was well known as an organ-builder in Languedoc, and grandson of Jean Pierre Cavaille, the builder of the organs of Saint Catherine and Merci of Barcelona. The name of Coll was that of his grandmother. If we should go back further we find at the commencement of the Eighteenth Century at Gaillac three brothers--Cavaille-Gabriel, the father of Jean Pierre; Pierre, and Joseph, who also was an organ-builder. Aristide Cavaille, therefore, came honestly by his profession and at the age of 18 years was entrusted by his father to direct the construction of the organ at Lerida, in which he introduced for the first time the manual to pedal coupler and the system of counter-balances in the large wind reservoirs.

In 1834 Aristide, realizing the necessity of cultivating his knowledge of physics and mechanics, went to Paris, where he became the pupil of Savart and of Cagnard-Latour. The same year a compet.i.tion was opened for the construction of a large organ in the royal church of St. Denis; Aristide submitted his plan and succeeded in obtaining the contract.

This success decided the Messrs. Cavaille to remove their organ factory to Paris, where they established themselves in the Rue Neuve St.

George. On account of repairs being made to the church building, the organ of St. Denis was not finished until 1841, but it showed improvements of great importance, first and foremost of which was the Barker pneumatic lever (see _ante_, page 120). The wind pressure was on a new system, whereby increased pressure was applied to the upper notes, giving more regularity of tone to each stop. The wind reservoirs were provided with double valves, insuring a more steady supply, whether all the stops were played together or separately. The introduction of Harmonic stops was practically an innovation, as their use hitherto had been almost prohibited by the difficulty of playing on a high wind pressure (see _ante_, page 21). This enriched the organ with a new group of stops of a superior quality on account of the roundness and volume of sound.

In 1840 Cavaille-Coll submitted to the Academie des Sciences the result of his experimental studies of organ pipes; on the normal tone of the organ and its architecture; the length of pipes in regard to intonation and precision in blowing. He made many experiments and improvements in wind supply. He was also the inventor of "Poikilorgue," an expressive organ, which was the origin of the harmonium.

Between 1834 and 1898 he built upward of 700 organs, including Saint Sulpice, Notre Dame, Saint Clotilde, la Madeleine, le Trocadero, Saint Augustin, Saint Vincent de Paul, la Trinite (all in Paris); Saint Ouen at Rouen, Saint Sernin at Toulouse; the Cathedrals at Nancy, Amsterdam, and Moscow; the Town Halls of Sheffield and Manchester, England. The most celebrated of these is Saint Sulpice, which contains 118 stops and was opened in April 29, 1862.[1]

The fine period of Cavaille-Coll was during the Empire, about 1850.

The Emperor Napoleon III, to flatter the clergy and the bishops, ordered the Cathedral organs to be rebuilt, and gave the order to Cavaille-Coll. He in many instances preserved the old soundboards, dividing them on two ventils for reeds and for flues, increased the wind pressures, introduced pneumatic levers, and transformed the small Tenor C Swells into large 15 to 20 stop Swells, _with 16-foot reeds_ included, and so crowned the fine flue work and mixture work of these Cathedral organs.

We all know the fine effect of a large Swell. The French Cathedral organs were deprived of this tonal resonance in 1850, and Cavaille-Coll, by judicious overhauling, use of good materials, and by the addition of large Swells, _transformed the sonority of these large instruments located in splendid positions_ above the grand west entrance doors of these fine Gothic buildings.

Cavaille-Coll, during his long career, received from the Universal Expositions the highest honors. He was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1849, and officer of the same order in 1878. He was also Honorary President of the Chamber of Syndicates of Musical Instruments.

Much enfeebled by age, he in 1898 relinquished the direction of his factories to one of his best pupils, M. Charles Mutin, who has never ceased to maintain the high integrity of the house.