DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGAN
Church organ building has undergone many changes since the first introduction: it is of a very intricate nature. The progress of technical invention has been so rapid with the adoption of entirely new principles within the last twenty five years, that the construction of a modern organ demands the exercise of the highest scientific attainments. An organ of any musical dimensions, is necessarily of such variety and multiplicity of parts, requiring to be made conformable to the structural needs of every individual building, that the work of construction and erection require the practice of much patience and the expenditure of much time and money. It is to the credit of Australia that the St Andrew's new organ has been entirely manufactured and put together within the Commonwealth and is one of the most up-to-date on this side of the line. The contract was entrusted to the Austral Organ Works of Sydney, Mr W. G. Rendall, principal. Messrs Baker and Ladegast, of London and Leipzig have been the skilled experts under whose care the work has been largely done on the spot, the ladies' parlour and the church itself having been converted into an organ manufactory.
The case of the instrument, in silky oak, from the design of the architect, has been put together by Messrs J. D. Campbell and Sons, of this city.
There are several important features that have been adopted for the first time in Australia. The old draw stop arrangements, with its familiar rows of knobs that so tried the energies of the player and often required the manipulation of an assistant as many of us remember in the recitals in the Sydney Town Hall when Weigand was the exponent, have been superseded by "stop keys" in the ingenious form of an additional manual on the console. These particular keys, which are extremely sensitive to the touch, form the highest range, the choir, swell, and great organ, following below in order, with the combination pistons and couplers arranged above and below and between the manuals in such close proximity that the organist need never raise his hands from the keys.
The latest development is in the motoring direction. After the "passing hence" of the primitive hand-power, gas, steam, hydraulic, all found more or less wanting, we have now another power, the electric. The "Kinetic" electric blower in St Andrew's is the first installation in Australia. It is gradually replacing all other methods in England, having been approved by the Royal College of Organists, and it will be adopted shortly for the Town Hall organ in Sydney, which has undergone many alterations. The blower is rotary in its action, combining a series of induct fans, working up to any number of revolutions or power required to preserve its silent character – in the present instance 930 per minute – driven by a 3-1/2 horse-power electric motor, producing 1200 cubic feet of compressed air per minute.
The organist is no longer the man of impotence he was, when his blower peradventure might dream, sleep, or get cranky: he has become his own blower, and has but to switch on the current at his hand and individually to govern his entire instrument as well as his choir, as by the detached console he has all his singers in view and under control.
There are four manuals, or keyboards – great organ, swell, and choir organ, the fourth, or upper manual, being devoted to stop-keys, as already explained; and in addition there is the usual independent pedal organ. The organ has also seven couplers and eighteen combination pneumatic pistons, all contained in a polished silky oak case, or what is familiarly known in modern organs as the "console." The stops, embracing the couplers, are thirty-eight in number; thirty-one sounding stops grouped in the usual manner, according to volume, power, sonority, and character of tone. The swell enclosed in a chamber with louver shutters to produce the special effects of that organ. It is controlled at will by a pneumatic balance pedal.
Each sounding stop consists of 58 notes (30 on the pedal), corresponding with the number of notes on the keyboard. Altogether there are 1656 single-tone producing pipes: 1370 are of the finest spotted metal, imported from the best London and German makers; 132 of zinc, and 154 of wood. The largest and heavy zinc front case pipes were manufactured at the Sydney works, finished and lacquered in the church.
It may here be explained for the benefit of the non-professional that the diapasons are the fundamental exclusive organ stops that are without parallel in the musical sense, while the other stops are more or less imitations of orchestral instruments, or at least bear a resemblance in the nuance of tone to the designated name.
The following is the complete specification of stops:-
GREAT ORGAN
1. Double open diapason
2. Open diapason
3. Stopped diapason claribel
4. Keraulophon
5. Principal
6. Twelfth
7. Fifteenth
8. Trumpet
SWELL ORGAN
1. Lieblich Gedacht
2. Open diapason
3. Stopped diapason
4. Viola di Gamba
5. Voix Celeste
6. Harmonic flute
7. Piccolo
8. Mixture
9. Cornopean
10. Oboe
11. Vox humana
12. Tremulant
CHOIR ORGAN
1. Open diapason
2. Rohr Gedacht
3. Viol d'orchestra
4. Lieblich flute
5. Flautino
6. Clarionet
PEDAL ORGAN
1. Open diapason
2. Violone
3. Bourdon
4. Violoncello
5. Contra Fagotto
16ft.
8ft.
8ft.
8ft.
4ft.
2-2/3ft.
2ft.
8ft.
16ft
8ft
8ft
8ft
8ft
4ft
2ft
2 ranks
8ft
8ft
8ft
8ft
8ft
8ft
4ft
2ft
8ft
16ft
16ft
16ft
8ft
16ft
(CC to A3 in Alt.)
metal
metal
wood
metal
metal
metal
metal
metal
(CC to A3 in Alt.)
wood and metal
metal
wood and metal
metal metecholic
metal
metal
metal
metal
metal
metal
(CC to A3 in Alt.)
metal
wood and metal
metal metecholic
metal
metal
metal
(CCC to Tenor F)
wood and meta
wood and meta
full scale wood
wood and metal
The action throughout is compound tubular pneumatic, which has rendered the old fashioned tracker action obsolete.
The sound boards or windchests are membraneous, a 3in. wind pressure operating on the one side, and a 6in. on the other side of the membrane, to admit or shut off to the feet of speaking pipes, governed in turn by a system of valves, representing in combination with the keys, what is known as the 'action.' The circulation, or connection of compressed air analogous to the arterial circulation of the human anatomy, is conveyed by an apparently endless reticulation of special tubing.
The mechanism of the organ deserves a passing reference: it is here where success or failure operates. While to the uninitiated so complex, it is clear in principle, and in reality designed to reduce the working and combination to the simplest forms and limit.
The couplers are:- 1, swell to great; 2, great to suboctave; 3, swell to pedal; 4, great to pedal; 5, choir to great; 6, choir to pedal; 7, swell to choir.
They serve to combine or put into conjunction the keyboards in a varied manner: for instance, when swell to great is applied the organist is enabled by playing on the great organ manual to sound all or certain stops of the swell organ. Swell to great sub-octave sounds all music played on the great organ, an octave lower on the swell organ. Great organ to pedal attaches the thirty lowest notes of the great organ to the pedal key and so forth.
The combination pistons act singly; there are six for the swell, each button by pressing brings instantaneously into play a certain group of stops, graduated to volume of tone to impart the musical crescendo or diminuendo, or an instantaneous change from full swell to a combination, say, vox humana and stopped diapason. Four similar pistons act on the great and pedal organs combined; three on the choir, and four on the pedals only. There is also one piston which brings all sounding stops into play, and one which operates on the tremulant.
It will be seen by thirty-one sounding stops, seven couplers, and eighteen combination pistons, the possibilities of change in tone, volume and tone colour are practically endless. An immense task is set to the organ builder to make them all thoroughly effective and unfailingly respond to the instant touch of the gifted player.
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