"Mine's
bigger than yours," boasted the Mayor of Birmingham (England)
to his opposite number from Leeds.
At
a Mayoral convention in the USA, the Mayor of Detroit was saying
these precise words to the Mayor of Pittsburgh; in South Africa,
the Mayor of Pietermaritzburg poured scorn on the inadequacies of
Bloemfontein, probably using the Afrikaans language to do so.
It is possible,
though unlikely given the exquisite courtesy for which those cities
are renowned, that the Mayors of Wellington and Auckland exchanged
a similar pleasantry.
Pic. 1 Birmingham Town Hall
[Click image to see larger version]
The topic that absorbed these worthies was, of course, organs: the large, state-of-the-art musical instruments that adorned the concert halls in their cities. This municipal rivalry was centuries old: the great churches of Germany and the Netherlands housed (and still house) organs that belong to town councils.
In
the English ~ and, as we have seen Afrikaans ~ speaking world, the
civic organ is found in the City or Town Hall. The grandfather of
these instruments is surely that at Birmingham. built by Hill in
1834 and known to Mendelssohn. It has been rebuilt and enlarged
several times since, most recently by Mander, who brought it up
to a 5-manual instrument of 93 speaking stops. Mander also restored
the case, of 1890 to its original condition, as may be seen in picture
1.
Problems in
designing cases for a generation of new technology instruments hadn't
been solved in 1890. The 32' pipes in the front towers are of a
scale only made practicable by new methods in producing and controlling
wind, and they are broad to the point of ungainliness. Horizontal
banding adds to this effect; if only emphasis had been placed on
vertical lines, instead!
Picture 2. [click image
to see larger version]
False length might have been introduced with advantage, though a better effect could have been produced if the lengths of the pipe feet had been considerably increased and the drums on which the towers stand reduced correspondingly. Here the feet look stubby - like pencils in need of sharpening.
This case contains
the seeds of what, by classical standards, became a most regrettable
Victorian habit. Observe the lower flats on either side of the central
tower. These appear to consist of pipes of very nearly equal length
- a musical unlikelihood and one that deprives the composition of
life and movement. This was taken to its extreme in the later case,
of an organ that shall remain anonymous, shown in picture 2.
picture
3 [click image
to see larger version]
If these criticisms
seem carping, look at the case of St Laurens church, Rotterdam -
picture 3. The slender and undecorated 32' front emphasises
vertical lines while the pipe mouths and shades create lively movement.
This digital realisation is one of a series by Lubbert Schenk (http://home.hetnet.nl/~l2003/orgels),
that, in many instances, gives a clearer view than photographs.
It is
interesting that the combination of polished tin pipes in a red
case has again become fashionable. Christchurch Town Hall uses this
scheme as does the new Mander instrument at St Ignatius Loyola,
New York, that may be seen at the site
www.mander-organs.com/html/company_profile.html
Picture
credits:
1: Mander Organs;
2: The Laycock archive;
3: Lubbert Schenk at SoftART
DESIGN.
(all by permission).
