FROM
EDINBURGH TO DUNEDIN via CHRISTCHURCH
All players
know the problems associated with performing on large and unfamiliar
organs. Alfred Hollins(1865-1942) compensated for the additional
handicap of blindness by the most thorough preparation. Only once
did he think that he might have to withdraw from giving a concert.
This was on an instrument provided with "light touches".
These discs - similar to the controls found in some lifts - operated
stops when they were touched - but did not themselves move. Indication
of whether a register was "on" or "off" was
by a small bulb that lit within the disc when a stop was "drawn".
This seemed
an impossible arrangement for a player who relied entirely on memory
aided by "feel". Fortunately, Hollins found that the bulb,
when lit, gave out a small degree of warmth that his fingers could
detect and was able to give his planned programme. The nearest he
came to breaking down was when, during a several bar rest in the
score, an audible voice remarked "There, he's beat: I knew
he'd never remember it." Always one to see the funny side of
his own predicaments, AH had to extend the rest while he recovered
his composure.
He knew many
of the great organs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
in their original condition. Some, such as Sydney's famous five-manual
Hill he saw (his own word) in the builder's shops before it was
dispatched and he derived great pleasure from playing in its permanent
home some years later. He drew up the specification for the Johannesburg
Town Hall instrument and oversaw its construction by Norman and
Beard. Hollins gives some interesting statistics about the contract
- not least that the skins of 520 sheep were used in making the
bellows, reservoirs and motors!
He recalled
the great Kimball instruments at the Wanamaker stores in New York
and - more famously - Philadelphia, though the latter had "only"
five manuals at the time of his visit. He remarked that at that
time (the mid 1920s) the younger school of American organists "had
no use for any music save that of Bach and the modern French composers,
especially Cesar Frank".
Alfred Hollins
rarely expressed any critical opinion of any organ he played, seeing
it as his duty to make the best of every instrument and to entertain
his audience, though he praises some more than others. His own favourite
instrument was the 1911 four-manual Harrison in St Mary Redcliffe,
Bristol - an organ that is little altered to-day.
His memoirs
are full of impressions and comment on the town and cities he visited.
Chimes on large bells he found fascinating and gives the notation
of numerous chiming clocks that he thought attractive. His favourite
seems to have been Dunedin Town Hall, the chimes of which were "unlike
any I ever heard before or since" and appear in musical notation
in his book. The single bell that impressed him most was that used
for striking the hour at Sydney Post Office. It is sad that, to-day,
the background noise of traffic makes bell- spotting difficult in
most towns.
Asides about
places occur on nearly every page. Winnipeg suffered from the severest
cold he had ever encountered: by contrast, Cape Town had the most
agreeable climate. His pleasure in South Africa was somewhat lessened
by the discovery of the immense damage that rats and mice did to
the country's organs, sometimes putting complete divisions out of
action overnight. In Christchurch (NZ) he found the roadside gutters
were covered by wooden walkways, enabling pedestrians to cross dry-shod
and thought the arrangement should be widely copied elsewhere (These
walkways were not in evidence 50 years after Hollins' visit: victims
of motor traffic?)
He was able
to build his international career only through the understanding
of the Church Session of St George's West, Edinburgh, where he was
organist from 1895 until the end of his life. The church still contains
the TC Lewis / Rushworth and Dreaper organ on the specification
of which Hollins advised. The church is one of the Scottish capital's
lesser-known architectural gems and well worth a visit.
His Autobiography
A Blind Musician Looks Back, long unobtainable, is again
available in an excellently produced and well-bound hardback edition
from Bardon Enterprises (www.bardon-music.com).
It is well worth reading especially now his compositions are returning
to the repertoire.
D.Bridgeman-Sutton, 2002.
