A comprehensive dictionary of organ stops - Allen Organ Studio of ...

PREFACE. V
frame a few constructive principles of tonal design, and at any rate to
indicate the trend of modern thought. There is but scant merit in
destructive criticism, save in so far as it opens the path to a more perfect
and complete apprehension of fundamental truth. These matters, however,
are discussed more specifically—and in a somewhat more dSgage style
than is here fitting—in a brief and informal brochure issued by the
present writer about a year and a half ago, and entitled " Tonal Design
in Modern Organ Building."
In the present book, also, is included for the first time a detailed
description of the many tonal inventions of Mr. Hope-Jones, some of
which have largely influenced modern organ building. It is in the hope
that organists and organ builders will cease to regard these latter as a
mere abracadabra with which to conjure, and will grasp their inner
significance, that they are here described with such detail. My own
attitude towards Mr. Hope-Jones' work is defined elsewhere—in a foot-
note to p. 104. And here I would take the opportunity of protesting
against the habit, which just now seems fashionable, of endeavouring to
disparage his organs in every possible manner. The Worcester Cathedral
organ was recently described to me as the most noisy machine in the
county, by a man, who, as I afterwards discovered, had been among the
first to describe it in a published testimonial, as magnificent. This organ,
which suffers from being badly placed, and from being a pioneer instrument,
certainly has a tremendous reserve of power, but it does not therefore
follow that this reserve is constantly to be drawn upon. No single instru-
ment, I suppose, has of recent years, more influenced the standard and
character of voicing throughout the country than this one. The Hope-
Jones organ, in fine, is based on tonal lines vastly differing from the
conventional, and if the stops be handled like those of any ordinary
instrument, can it be expected that the result will be otherwise than
incongruous? Certainly in accustomed hands, these instruments are pro-
ductive of the most splendid effects, considering their size. It is not
conceivable that any man can form a fair estimate, either good or bad, of
a new system of organ building from, may be, a scratch half-hour's playing
on one single instrument. I plead for a little more knowledge, and a little
less of this shallow and perfunctory opinionizing, which cannot be dignified
by the title of criticism. Having inspected in all some twenty instruments
built on the Hope-Jones tonal system, I am able to vouch for the general
accuracy of such descriptions. And the same policy has been adopted in
the case of other novel stops of value.
Some surprise may possibly be felt, that, contrary to the accustomed
precedent, I have not reiterated the staple stock-in-trade arguments levelled
against Celestes, Tremulants, and Vox Humanas. The reason, a simple
one, is, that I am honest enough to confess (be it a matter for confession