I

It is a pity that many small things about an organ are not a little more cared for. The cramped room in the loft is uncomfortable for the player; he is often jammed between the two cases, or his back touches the balustrade of the gallery, rendering it a matter of difficulty for any one who may be in the loft with him, to get from one side of the instrument to the other, which is troublesome if the player requires assistance, as is sometimes wanted; and a loft should have comfortable sitting and kneeling accommodation: an organist and those with him in the loft ought to have the means of following the service, and hearing the sermon, with a certain amount of ease. The organ-loft being used as a singing-gallery is to be avoided, except when it is a spacious gallery, and even then the organist should have plenty of elbow room, and be screened off more or less from the singers. A reversed key-board rather complicates the mechanism, and therefore should be avoided, as the supposed advantage of the player being able to see what is being done in the church is problematical, for with his music before him, it is next to impossible for him to do so. The organist at Exeter Hall used to face the conductor, but some years back the key-board was re-arranged in its usual position. The organist’s place between the Great and Choir of Father Smith’s organ at Durham, when it stood on the north side of the Choir, was as good as could be wished. Black keys for naturals, and white (ivory) for the sharps look well: they are sometimes to be seen in old instruments, and should be retained; the contrast between them and more modern key-boards, which have a strong harmonium or American organ look, is in their favour. Every player has his own views as to whether the old perpendicular rows of stop-handles, or the French horizontal rows, are the best, and no one form of pedals, plain, concave, radiating, or both concave and radiating, gives universal satisfaction. A good music-desk should be fixed to every organ: in general they are ricketty things, and will only hold a little octavo hymn-tune book. The lights, be they candles or gas, should be securely fixed, and not liable to be knocked against by the player.

A looking-glass, which should be a part of the organ, and not a shaving-glass hung up with string and nails, should be fixed so that the player can see down the church; and something better than fastening with a pin to the side of the desk a shabby bit of paper with the list of music, &c., might be arranged. In England, Holland, and Normandy, a clock is occasionally part of the organ case, sometimes on the Great, and sometimes on the Choir case, and it is a useful accessory. Sometimes when there is no Choir Organ, it is inserted in the front of the gallery. In Whitehall Chapel a clock hangs from the ceiling under the organ-loft, a puzzle how any one can get at it to wind it up. In some few organs carved wood-work is introduced between the feet of the pipes, so as to fill up the triangular space. The pipes in the towers of St. Lawrence, Jewry, have a sort of tall leaf between them. From a French work I give the following extract: “A la tribune de l’orgue de la Cathédral de Barcelonne, on voit une tête de Maure suspendue par son turban. Lorsque les jeux les plus doux se font entendre, la figure frémit; mais si les sons augmentent de force, ses yeux roulent dans leurs orbites, ses dents s’entre-choquent, et toute la face est en proie à d’horribles convulsions. Le méchanisme qui produisait ces effets a été supprimé.” This must be the delight or horror of small children, and no one would dream of such an addition to a modern church or concert-room organ, neither would the fox-tail stop be inserted, although a person who was fond of “curios” might put them into a chamber instrument. I do not make more than the passing remark on the electric and pneumatic actions, that they are very valuable adjuncts to a large instrument, and afford great facilities in many ways to the player, as they are well explained and illustrated in the last (1870) edition of Hopkins’s “Organ.”