David
Bridgeman-Sutton
looks for an old song and considers the vital role of those who manned
the lungs of old instruments.
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Welcome to the website of the Rieger
in the Christchurch Town Hall,
New Zealand
Musings & Amusings
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ORGAN
BLOWERS
A
visitor to these pages asks if anyone has the words and music ~
or a recording ~ of a song called The Organ Blower. (Note: he
has since found these. see: Blower verses)
This probably dates from between the wars and reflects the sadness
of someone who has been made redundant by the advent of an electric
blower.
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Pictures
in psalters and other manuscripts from the Middle Ages show small
organs, often of the kind that St Cecilia is usually shown playing,
in windows and on Christmas cards. Sometimes these are blown by
the player's left hand while the right plays a melody on the keys
~ a kind of pipe-concertina. More often, a blower operates a pair
of bellows that seem to be connected directly to the wind-chest
so that some skill would have been needed to ensure a steady wind.
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Larger
instruments, which are small by today's standards, are shown being
pumped by a number of blowers, whose efforts seem to have required
direction and co-ordination by the players. Introduction of wind
reservoirs later reduced the need for this.
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When
German and Dutch builders began to construct really large organs in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, wind production did not
keep pace technically with other aspects of the art. The only solution
was to increase the size and number of bellows. Woodcuts dating from
that period show provision for six or eight blowers, operating handles,
pedals and occasionally mangle-like wheels. Except in organo pleno
passages, these could work in relays and the provision of copious
reservoirs allowed some flexibility in their quickness of response
to varying demands.
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In
a French cathedral, visited soon after the last world war, there were
five or six centrally pivoted walkways, each provided with a handrail
that descended under the weight of the blowers as they walked to and
fro. The reservoir was enormous and, once full, could sustain the
wind supply for several minutes. An indicator, reminiscent of a ship's
engine room telegraph, kept player and blowers in touch.
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Well
into the last century, most churches and concert halls relied on a
single blower - usually male - to work a handle up and down, with
a "tell tale" to regulate their efforts. Reminiscences of
past players show that difficulties often arose. Blowers could be
erratic in attendance, inattentive, with resultant and distressing
failure of the wind supply. Many were downright cussed. Tales abound
of blowers who arbitrarily limited the number of verses sung in each
hymn and who refused to pump for tunes they disliked.
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Friction
was often greatest when the blower, normally hidden from view behind
the organ, slipped out of the vestry door during the sermon and
retired to house or tavern for a refreshing glass of beer. Not infrequently,
this resulted in the last hymn and concluding voluntary having to
be abandoned.
One
church, in a town noted for the dark and nourishing stout brewed
locally, decided to end the nuisance by locking the vestry door
during the service. The organ blower overcame the obstacle by arriving
early and smuggling in a pint bottle of the brew. This he uncorked
beforehand to avoid a giveaway sound disturbing the sermon. The
opened bottle he carefully placed beside his chair.
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Inevitably,
the Sunday came when, during the opening voluntary, he had the misfortune
to knock over his precious bottle. Many hard things have been said
about architects' failures in making provision for organ galleries.
Here, no water - or stout - proof floor covering had been specified
and a shower of dark, alcoholic rain that had collected dust of
ages, descended on to the choir in the vestry below. It was not
until they had reached the choir stalls that the damage to robes
was discovered. The procession immediately retraced its steps, leaving
the congregation wondering if some new record in short services
was being established for the Guinness Book of Records.
An
electric blower was installed soon after. Which brings us back to
the point. Can any one supply a copy of the McGill's song
The Organ Blower? Messages will be willingly
passed on.
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The
story of organ blowers, part II, continued here:
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David
Bridgeman-Sutton, 2002
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