A Second Chance: Rebuild cathedral (or church) organs which you dislike

[pcnd5584]

A number of friends have, at various times, mentioned certain English cathedral organs which they do not like - either because of the specification (and therefore, the voicing) or due to such things as an uncomfortable console or an unhelpful layout.

Now here is your chance to redesign these instruments in a way which is more practical - or in a style which you would consider to be more tonally appropriate.

Or, if you prefer, you can simply go back in time and rescue an organ from certain transformation. There are but three stipulations:

1) You must return to the point immediately before the rebuild which you consider to have spoiled the organ - but obviously, it cannot be an exact re-incarnation of its previous specification.
2) The upperboards cannot be re-worked to increase the number of stops (save in the Pedal Organ); so, apart from the odd extra Solo reed, the departments must have the same number of speaking stops as before.
3) It should make sense (on paper, at least) as a viable musical instrument, equally suitable for choral accompaniment and solo playing.

With this in mind, I am going to start off with the organ of Gloucester Cathedral. My starting-point is 1969-70 - Ralph Downes is on holiday and so he missed the invitation to re-design the FHW / H&H instrument....

PEDAL ORGAN

Double Open Wood (Ext.) 32
Open Wood 16
Open Diapason (M) 16
Sub Bass 16
Quintatön (Solo) 16
Principal (M) 8
Violoncello (M) 8
Flute 8
Fifteenth (M) 4
MIxture (15-19-22) III
Contra Posaune (Ext.) 32
Ophicleide 16
Posaune 16
Clarion (Ext. Oph.) 8
Choir to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Solo to Pedal

CHOIR ORGAN
(Unenclosed)

Viola da Gamba 8
Claribel Flute 8
Gemshorn (conical) 4
Suabe Flöte 4
Flageolet 2
Mixture (15-19-22) III
Swell to Choir
Solo to Choir

GREAT ORGAN

Double Open Diapason 16
Open Diapason I 8
Open Diapason II 8
Stopped Diapason 8
Octave 4
Flûte Harmonique 4
Octave Quint 2 2/3
Super Octave 2
Sesquialtera (17-19-22) III
Furniture (15-19-22-26-29) V
Double Trumpet 16
Trumpet 8
Clarion
Great Reeds on Pedal
Great Reeds on Choir
Choir to Great
Swell to Great
Solo to Great

SWELL ORGAN

Open Diapason 8
Lieblich Gedeckt 8
Salicional 8
Vox Angelica (AA) 8
Principal 4
Lieblich Flöte 4
Fifteenth 2
Mixture (22-26-29) III
Hautboy 8
Vox Humana 8
Tremulant
Contra Posaune 16
Cornopean 8
Clarion 4
Sub Octave
Unison Off
Octave
Solo to Swell

SOLO ORGAN
(Enclosed)

Quintatön 16  (70 pipes)
Viole de Gambe 8
Viole Céleste (CC) 8
Flûte Harmonique 8
Flauto Traverso 4
Orchestral Bassoon 16  (70 pipes)
Corno di Bassetto 8
Tremulant
(Unenclosed)
Tuba Mirabilis 8
Trompette Harmonique 8
Sub Octave
Unison Off
Octave

COMBINATIONS

Pedal and Great Pistons Coupled
Pedal to Swell Pistons
Generals on Swell Foot Pistons

[pcnd5584]

In order to clarify: the above post, the scheme for the organ of Gloucester Cathedral represents the way I might have re-designed the scheme, taking its state in 1967 as a starting point. The claviers retain the same number of stops as that which obtained after the H&H rebuild of 1920. The Pedal Organ has been given some additional ranks, according to the criteria listed above. However, I have only allowed those additions which would fit within the well of the Pulpitum on the north side.

[David Pinnegar]

Dear PCND

I'm sorry to be very boring but I'm still confused.

It would be helpful for the purposes of this exercise to have the spec as left by Harrisons in the 1920s, - presumably your start for 1967, and to have your suggestions separately.

Is the spec above as you "found" the instrument or the spec as you would like to see it?

One observation on the above is
Sesquialtera (17-19-22) III . . .

I'm sure that the term Sesquialtera has been used for such a mixture but normally as a purist one might possibly refer to it as a two rank mixture of the interval of a Sixth in the upper harmonics . . . thus Sesqui Altera? Or have I a wrong assumption or idea of the translation? It would normally be a nasard and a tierce for use as a Jeu de Tierce or with 4ft Principal and 2ft Doublette as a Cornet . . . Would it have other uses?

Best wishes

David P

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

The pre-1971 Downes rebuild stop list is here:- http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N07431
(and the history of the organ can be traced as well).

Every Blessing

Tony

[Jonathan Lane]

Hi David,

While you are strictly correct about the Sesquialtera and most of them these days are like that, different traditions had different ways of employing the term.  Northern Europe generally employed the term as you understand it, whilst France would often either just have them as separate ranks or only use the combination within the Cornet.  However, in England, for several centuries it was used as a generic name for a mixture stop, often of three or four ranks, which included the Tierce rank.  See this: http://www.organstops.org/s/Sesquialtera.html

Jonathan

[pcnd5584]

Dear PCND

I'm sorry to be very boring but I'm still confused.

It would be helpful for the purposes of this exercise to have the spec as left by Harrisons in the 1920s, - presumably your start for 1967, and to have your suggestions separately.

Is the spec above as you "found" the instrument or the spec as you would like to see it?

One observation on the above is
Sesquialtera (17-19-22) III . . .

I'm sure that the term Sesquialtera has been used for such a mixture but normally as a purist one might possibly refer to it as a two rank mixture of the interval of a Sixth in the upper harmonics . . . thus Sesqui Altera? Or have I a wrong assumption or idea of the translation? It would normally be a nasard and a tierce for use as a Jeu de Tierce or with 4ft Principal and 2ft Doublette as a Cornet . . . Would it have other uses?

Best wishes

David P

Further to replies by Tony (thank you for posting the link to the Gloucester stop-list) and Jonathan: indeed, in England, the name Sesquialt[e]ra was used as a generic term for a compound stop. Interestingly, it did not necessarily need to contain a third-sounding rank. There are a number of examples of older English instruments with stops of this name, which commenced as 15-19-22 at C1 - and did not in fact introduce a tierce at any pitch throughout the compass.

[Brian Daniels]

It's very interesting to contemplate the use of the Sesquialtera  II (say) with other pitches to synthesise tone colours. This would have been appeciated by musicians and organ builders at least 3 centuries prior to Fourier's mathematical model of complex wave forms.
This only to be exploited in a roundabout way by Hammond and others in the 20th c.
This is rather like the advent of the steam engine occurring first followed by theoretical justification later.
Funny old world but an interesting one all the same.

Brian Daniels.