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

148 DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS.
normal basis of tonal design would to the author seem to be entirely
subversive of all true principles thereof. At the very outset we are
confronted with the fact that not only would an entire revolution in the
music written and arranged for the organ be rendered necessary, but that
a fair-sized instrument constructed on such a system would be entirely
beyond the control of any single performer. Nor can stops be en-
closed in a swell box without suffering some deterioration of tone.
The box acts as a kind of "wet blanket" on the tone of the pipes it
encloses. Although this may to some extent be obviated by the employment
of increased wind pressure, it nevertheless remains undesirable that
enclosure be recognized as the normal practice; the fresh tone of the
unenclosed Great organ should always dominate the instrument. Another
flaw in the scheme rests in the nature of the crescendo itself. In the
orchestra the crescendo involves not merely augmented power, but also,
owing to the increased development of the upper partials, a very material
change of timbre. In the swell crescendo we find certainly a fine increase
of power, and- ('tis true) a slight variation of timbre, or "clang-tint" as
Tyndall called it, for the swell shutters do influence the upper partials to
a marked extent,* but not by any means sufficiently to free the crescendo
of its all too dynamic attributes. It is curious to notice how this striving
after true expression has unconsciously manifested itself in the introduction
into the Swell organ of string-toned stops—stops rich in upper partials.
It is on this account that the 4 ft. Geigen Principal, and the Quintaton
family constitute such valuable Swell stops.
But even if this catena of evidence be deemed insufficient, there
remains the crowning objection that no facility exists for accentuating
individual notes of a chord. Obviously, the swell crescendo increases the
power of the whole chord. When it be recalled how objectionable is this
drawback—only partially surmounted—in the case of the various mechani-
cal pianoforte-playing attachments, it will at once be realized that the
objection is fatal. " I do not depreciate the Swell-box ; as a matter of fact
it is an excellent thing that an organ is not expressive in the sense referred
to, for much of its dignity and sublimity would vanish. But I have
invariably found that in acoustically magnificent edifices, such as at York,
Ulm, Strassburg, Einsiedeln, above all Haarlem, the finest crescendo effects
are obtained, not with swell boxes, but by the building up of stop upon
stop in rapid succession."f In a building of unfavourable acoustical
* This theory finds strong confirmation in the behaviour of the 8 ft. Solo Harmonic
Flute in the new instrument at York Minster (Walker, 1903). With the box closed the
stop appears tolerably free from overtones, but on opening the shutters the fifth upper
partial (sounding a twelfth above the note speaking) is brought out most prominently.
t Ibid, p. 21.