Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
4i8
THI
ITS DEVELOPMENT UP TO DATE.
ARTICLE I.
THE ORGAN AT HOME AND ABROAD—MORE
APPRECIATED IN EUROPE—UNPATENTED IN-
VENTIONS—E. P. NEEDHAM—ORIGIN OF
THE ORGAN—RECALLING SOME CON-
TROVERSIAL POINTS—IS THE
" FREE REED " AMERICAN?
PRECURSORY INSTRU-
MENTS.
CARHART & NEEDIIAM—EMMONS IIAMIJN—MIS-
CELLANEOUS REMARKS.
v|K|ANUFACTURERS of American parlor
-*-*J- organs are justly proud of their art. And
yet the musical possibilities of some of these
instruments are not yet appreciated in this
country of their invention and development, as
they are abroad. While they have attained
wide popularity and sale, high-class American
musicians—with a few exceptions—have paid
comparatively little attention to the study of
their artistic features. In Europe, however,
especially in England, composers and organists
of the highest rank have discovered in them
elements of intrinsic musical value as solo in-
struments and as an adjunct to the ensemble of
the full orchestra. The late Sir Julius Benedict
and Franz Liszt were extremely partial to the
American organ, while Saint-Saens is said to
prefer it to the piano, under certain circum-
stances while composing and seeking after in-
spirations. In fact, all the principal organists
abroad use an American organ in their homes,
recognizing its sheer musical worth.
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Apart from the growth of the instrument in
popular esteem, and its importance as the pro-
duct of a prosperous national industry, a com-
parison of the organ as we know it, with its pre-
cursors, will serve to bring to view the leading
systems of construction at present in adoption
in the various principal establishments, and the
chief improvements brought forward from time
to time. These include patented and unpatent-
ed inventions relating to the reed and its depo-
sition, also to the wind department and the
general extension of the tone resources of the
instrument, through stops, larger manual facili-
ties and an improved arrangement of pedals.
An illustration of the " Estey " system of con-
struction, given in the accompanying figure,
will serve to give readers a general idea of the
chief features of a parlor organ of modern charac-
ter, although it represents many mechanical and
acoustic principles peculiar to these instruments
exclusively.
To give an exemplification of the various parts
indicated in the foregoing, they are as follows :
Case (A), lid to key-board (A"), bellows reser-
voir (B), escapement (b), treadle (D), tape con-
necting D with C (d), wind-chest (E), reed-
socket (e), reeds (rr), dampers (e), swells 0), oc-
tave coupler levers (H), tracker-pin (h), key (F),
name-board (G), stop-knob (I), stop-rod (i), lever
and link for swells (J), slide for opening damp-
ers (M), grand-organ roll (n), vox hurnana
tremolo (T), float-wheel of tremolo (t), fan (f),
music support (m), lamp-stool (L,), and knee-
swell lever (S).
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Unlike the piano, the basic source of sound
production in the organ—the "free reed "—has
through development, admitted of the wonder-
ful things so far accomplished in the domain of
tone, and while there seems to be a barrier to
progress in the art of piano making, that of the
organ maker is yet capable of considerable ex-
pansion.
Fifteen years ago Needham, the inventor, in
an interview with a New York Sun correspond-
ent declared that the reed organ seemed to him
incapable of much more improvement than that
which had been reached at that period (1877).
Whether he merely put forward that opinion to
give emphasis to what had been accomplished—
to which he contributed no small share—up to
the date of which I write, or not, cannot be said.
Anyway, Carhart, Needham, Jacob Estey, Rtn-
mons Hamlin, or any of the inventors whose
names figure prominently in the development
of the instrument would be—in an analogous
sense—somewhat in the position of Columbus
discovering America, were they to come back
and "discover" some of the organs now in
in use; such is the degree of improvement
visible in the organs of to-day when compared
with their predecessors of—say—twenty years
ago.
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The origin of the American organ has been
frequently the subject of considerable music
trade journalistic correspondence, special articles
and general paragraphing. Some writers of
eminence have gone so far as to claim for
America the credit of the invention of the '' free
reed " in toto—passing over the various other
claims regarding the• invention of the suction
bellows, and the accepted method of reed voic-
ing for the present—but the foolishness of such
an assertion is made plain by a glance at any
standard work on acoustics. This unpopular
and touchy point, however, shall be passed over
lightly. Suffice it to say that the " free reed "
has a history going back into the most remote
ums produced in Europe. The '' free reed,'' as
it was first applied in American accordions and
seraphines was, notwithstanding opinions to
the contrary, used by European pipe-organ
builders for stop effects, and in a separate key-
board instrument prior to 1800. The "free
reed " is so named to distinguish it from the
'' beating reed '' of the clarionet and the '' double
reed " of the oboe and bassoon. It consists of a
strip of flexible metal, adjusted on a pan over a
slot, in which it vibrates, on being set in motion
by a current of air, thus producing a musical
sound. Pitch is regulated by the size and struc-
ture of the reed and pan, the smaller reeds pro-
ducing the sharpest, and the larger the gravest
tones, while timbre or quality is influenced by
the structure of the reed, the nature of the metal
used and other incidental conditions.
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The seraphine is supposed to have been the
first instrument of the class produced in America.
It was merely a slight advance on its precursor,
the accordion, which was also a key board in-
strument. The melodeon appeared about 1840,
and differed little from French harmoniums until
it was found that if the tongue of the reed were
slightly twisted, or bent, a better quality of tone
could be produced. This discovery is said to
have been made about 1846. Subsequent ex-
periments yielded remarkable results and a new
instrument was practically introduced.
Meanwhile the discovery of the method of reed
structure referred to has been a subject of dispute
for} T ears. In 1847 the two leading American firms
devoted to the manufacture of the melodeon
were Prince & Co., and Carhart & Needham,
both located in Buffalo. Emmons Hamlin, pre-
viously a workman with the former, entered the
employ of Carhart & Needham in the latter end
of that year, and here ensues a most interesting
question which shall be touched upon in another
paper of the series.
DANIEL SPILLANE.
Strips for /T\usi<;al Instru-
ments.
VIEW OF INTERIOR OF PARLOR ORGAN.
(ESTEY SYSTEM.)
method of twisting strings by elec-
tricity for musical instruments is being
utilized in producing strings for banjos, guitars,
violins, harps, bass viols and many other musi-
cal instruments. The work is done by electric
motors, one machine being used exclusively for
making banjo fourth strings, which are only
.0023" thick when finished. It will make a
string forty inches long in forty-five seconds,
the wire used for winding the silk being .003"
thick. This fine wire is carried and directed by
hand, and two wires can be worked at once. On
such a string there are no fewer than 13,333
coils along 40'' length. The motor used for this
purpose runs at 2,100 revolutions per minute,
driving the string machine by means of fiber
gearing at 18,000 revolutions. Another small
electric motor, which runs at 2,200 revolutions,
used for the making of violin G strings, covered
with copper wire silver plated and only .006"
thick. By this machine a man can make 108
strings an hour.—New York Telegram.
ages, though of course adapted in modern dress
to the intrinsic and distinct constructive princi-
ples of the reed organ.
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The individuality of the American parlor
organ rests largely upon the exhaust or suction
method of applying air, and on the system of
reed structure invented in this country, upon
which a tone distinguishable from that produced
by the reed instruments made abroad has been
evolved. Several other features in its interior
construction and exterior finish, however, separ-
ate it from the reed instruments called harmoni-
BAUS & Co. find trade exceedingly good at
present, and the orders from their numerous
agents are coming in at a brisk rate.
THE Chicago branch of Roth & Engelhardt's
piano factory will be removed to St. Johnsville,
N. Y. Many St. Johnsville families who moved
to Chicago are returning.
AN order has been placed with a Cambridge,
Mass., firm fora pipe organ to cost $1,500 for
the new First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, N.
Y. Prof. H. D. Wilkins, of Rochester, will give
a recital February 10.