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

176 DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS.
them has to be enlarged to an extent tending to marr the satisfactory
effect of the undulation. A really satisfactory Celeste is a triumph of the
empirical. There is no royal road to success, no arcane secret of treatment.
A sharp Celeste is indubitably more effective than a flat Celeste, by reason
of its greater animation, although it is apt to cause soft and dull-toned stops,
like the Gedeckt, to sound rather flat by contrast. Most modern Celestes
are tuned sharp, the tone quality of some demanding greater differentiation
of pitch than that of others. The ordinary Celeste should, be- used in
combination with other soft stops on the rarest occasions only. It can
sometimes be drawn with a 4
ft. stop, or a Dulciana, or soft Gedeckt, but
the effect, when the discordant rank is unduly overmatched, yet not
sufficiently so to be overpowered, is positively excruciating. The aggregate
effect and general utility of the stop has been conspicuously enhanced by
the introduction of the two rank Celeste, the discord being divided by one
rank beating sharp, and the other flat, to the unison pitch. The orchestral
strings owe much of their vivacity to the fact that some are always a trifle
sharp, others a trifle flat, to the central pitch. In this may be found some
analogy for the organ Celeste. The first recorded theoretical basis for
such a scheme occurs apparently in a paper on " Variations of Pitch in
Beats," by Mr. Sedley Taylor, of Trinity College, Cambridge, published in
The Philosophical Magazine, July, 1872.* The scheme was first carried
into effect by Mr. Thos. Casson. The plan was also adopted by Mr. Hope-
Jones, who has freely utilized Celestes so constructed in his organs, the
flat rank, in some instances, being further under the control of the second
touch (see Double Touch). A three rank Celeste (sharp, flat, unison)
also formed one of the novel features introduced into the organ at St. Paul's
Cathedral, as finally reconstructed by the late Mr. Henry Willis, in 1901.
Not only is the general effect of the Cdleste so vastly improved by this
balancing of the discord, but the stop can, in addition, more extensively
and advantageously be set to combinational use. So superior, indeed,
to the older system, is the flat and sharp Celeste that it may be justly
asserted, without incurring the charge of undue dogmatism, that no large
modern organ is complete without it. It will be obvious that the effects
can be varied in character, according as the various ranks are combined.
Thus either discordant rank may be used alone with the unison stop, or
together with or without the latter. The most animated effect is secured
by the conjunct employment of all three stops, provided that the pulsating
Celeste ranks do not deviate widely from the central pitch. In addition to
the keen Viole Celeste, a large instrument situated,' let us suppose, in a
building of favourable acoustical properties, might well comprise another
variety of Celeste. By enclosure in different swell boxes the former type
* No. CCXC. pp. 56-64.