A chapter of don’ts

[myorgan]

Found this when reading recently:

• Don't slide back and forth on the seat when playing a pedal passage. To easily reach the extreme notes of the pedal board, turn the body slightly toward those notes.
• Don't go through any contortions of the body when about to remove the hands from the keys at the end of a composition which terminates with the full organ. The audience forget all about your playing in sympathizing with you in your apparent agony.
• Don't sway back and forth when playing. An easy, graceful appearance at the organ requires but little motion of the body.
• Don't improvise all the time on the Salicional and Violin with Tremulant. The combination is effective when properly used, but becomes tiresome with an overdose.
• Don't think that because the Vox Humana (without Tremulant), combined with the Mixtures in the swell, sound “novel,” they are pleasing. A dish-pan and poker would sound just as “novel” and about as agreeable.
• Don't improvise every prelude and postlude which you play. You cannot stand Beethoven's music all the time. How can your congregation stand your music all the time?
• Don t use the Tremulant very often in accompanying singers.
• Don't hold one chord or note a minute and a half while you change the stops and arrange your music. Remember that those who are listening to you have nerves.
• Don't turn on the water for your motor too suddenly. It wrenches the motor and bellow's action.
• Don't complain all the time that your present position is beneath you. He who looks up to himself must first lower himself to look up, and then only sees his former position, not the occupant.
• Don't think that you know it all. Even the greatest organist can learn something new every week.

Source: The Organ, October 1892

[tbeck]

I think I know the intent of the penultimate point, but I can't quite parse it. The rest of those are good advice. I certainly agree about swaying back and forth. I can't stand theatrical soloists on any instrument. Let the music speak for itself.

[myorgan]

I think I know the intent of the penultimate point, but I can't quite parse it. The rest of those are good advice. I certainly agree about swaying back and forth. I can't stand theatrical soloists on any instrument. Let the music speak for itself.

I've just been sharing things I found in this publication from the years 1892 & 1893 as I come across them. After all, they were published ~130 years ago, before AGO standards, before the Baroque revival, Before Marcel Dupré (and others like E. Power Biggs) were ever considered "organists," and before the likes of Cameron Carpenter, Virgil Fox, the Scott Brothers, and many organists were even born.

The point, to me, is to compare what we know about organ music and organs now with what was intellectual thought regarding the organ then. For history buffs, the articles stand on their own for interest. This magazine/publication also included advice columns (i.e. how to pronounce various names and terms), humor sections, recitals given, and new music (like movements from the Widor Symphonies or Mendelssohn's Sonatas).

We have to remember, this was a time where the majority of people had never heard an organ unless they went to church, and even then, they probably saw it only from a distance (i.e. balcony, altar, etc.). Recordings had just been invented, but were not widespread. Radio & TV did not exist. The only way to hear an organ was to attend a recital, concert, or church service. Some organs used water motors due to lack of electricity, or lack of people to pump the bellows.

To sum it up, I'm sharing historic information about the organ from a primary source so people who are interested in the history of our instrument can take the time to read about it.:-B

Michael

[tbeck]

Thank you, Michael. I quite enjoy such things. I have both Audsley volumes, as well as Barnes. The Barnes edition I have was issued with the pages bound upside down in the cover. It must be worth at least $3.75 as a collector's item now!

I pick up one of the Audsley books every now and then and just read at random. I get a kick out of his precise, not to say, finicky, language. He is extremely opinionated. "After many years of observation we have come to the conclusion that many couplers lead, under the hands of the average organist, to the production of noise rather than perfect tone." Note the use of the imperial "we."

"Blundering rule-of-thumb methods will never answer, and should be condemned by every one who has the welfare and advancement of the art of organ-building at heart."

"There are two schools of voicing : one that may be designated the normal or legitimate school ... and the other, which may very properly be called the abnormal or illegitimate school of voicing, followed much too generally in the organ-building world at the present time."

The book is peppered with these types of judgments. I laugh out loud at some of his pronouncements.

Barnes on the other hand is much less charming.

[Silken Path]

It's interesting that the word "overdose" existed back then.

[jbird604]

• Don't improvise every prelude and postlude which you play. You cannot stand Beethoven's music all the time. How can your congregation stand your music all the time?

This one makes me smile. After 8+ years in this church where I "improvise" for various portions of the service almost every Sunday (prelude, communion, and postlude), I'm sure that everybody recognizes all my little "tricks" and chord changes and favorite tone colors and such that I use to gussy up my melodic improvisations. It's long past time for me to try using somebody else's music from time to time. (But that would require me to practice...)

[AllenAnalog]

Found this when reading recently: * Don't turn on the water for your motor too suddenly. It wrenches the motor and bellow's action.

Dang, I knew I was doing something wrong all these years! :'(

[AllenAnalog]

I can't help myself here so it's story time to follow up on the water theme.

Many years ago I stood in line for 3 hours to get a seat for a George Wright concert at the famed Chicago Theater. It was a memorable occasion for many reasons - my first time in that beautiful movie palace, the amazing sound of the Wurlitzer and the incomparable Wright artistry.

After the traditional rousing console riser he spoke to the audience, mentioning that the console was on a hydraulic lift that used city water pressure and every time someone flushed a toilet in the dressing rooms the console would dip down a bit and then bob back up again.

[jbird604]

That's funny! GW must have been a hoot.

[myorgan]

For me, I couldn't resist the temptation!;-)

Michael