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DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS. 103
testimony to the fact that, instead of being sung, the Mass music was
frequently vicariously performed on the organ. Whilst the situation was
such, it was not embarrassed by the need of large organs. But the
introduction of metrical hymns entirely reversed the state of affairs.
There has been some difference of opinion as to whether the organ at
first accompanied throughout the chorale or merely performed interludes
between the verses, the tradition of which still survives in the customary
pause (o>) marks. But, in any case, the use of the organ for the accompaniment
of congregational singing may be said to date from the time
of the Lutheran chorale. It was soon found that for the support of such
large bodies of lusty and untrained singers, inspired, as they were, by their
devotional instincts, the existing organs were totally inadequate. The
natural remedy would have been to augment the foundation, or sustaining,
tone of the organ. But, unhappily, the adoption of this policy was not
possible. Any perceptible addition of large-scaled foundation work was
rendered impossible owing to the increase in size of the pallets, and hence
in the weight of the touch, necessitated thereby. In this exigency it was
empirically discovered that the addition of a very few ranks of Mixture
work was sufficient to cause the organ to overpower large bodies of singers.
This result is due, of course, to the acuteness of pitch of the Mixture
work, for, as Dr. Hopkins has pointed out, the largest pedal Open
Diapason will not drown the most delicate boy's voice, although one
Mixture stop may do so.
Thus did mere mechanical limitations contrive to divert the true
course of tonal development. For, the pattern once defined, a vast
superstructure was reared on a very slender foundation. The tendency to
exaggerate the "upper work" of the organ reached a climax in the in-
strument built by Gabler, in 1750, for the Monastic Church at Weingarten,
near Ravensburg. This organ comprised no less than ninety-five ranks
of Mixture, including two stops of twenty-one and twenty ranks, respect-
ively. * Towards the close of the XVIIIth Century, the Abt f Vogler
(1749-1814) came forward with his "Simplification System,'' one feature
of which consisted in the abolition of excessive Mixture work.J The
worthy Abbd, who was a capable theorist and a gifted player, and
possessed of an eccentric, and therefore attractive, personality, secured
* In our own country there is a XIV rank Mixture, still extant, in the organ at
Edinburgh University.
t Immortalized by Browning. Abt (Fr. Abbe) is a term used to denote, amongbt
other connotations, a cleric without a charge or cure of souls.
X The other features of this system of organ building were (1) the substitution of
Acoustic basses for 32 ft. stops ; (2) the semitonal plantation of pipes ; (3) the introduction
of free reed stops, exploited by Vogler in conjunction with a St. Petersburg builder named
Kratzenstein (see Free Reed).