Chapter XV: The Early Organ Masters (2)

Far more important than Marchand as a musician was Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). While his chief fame rests on his operas, theoretical works, and claveçin music, he won a great reputation as an organist (in Clermont, Lille, and Paris), especially as an extempore player, and was considered the greatest French organist of his time. He published no music written especially for organ, however.

Dom Jean François Bedos de Celles (about 1714-1797), a Benedictine monk, deserves mention here, not as an organist, but as a builder. His book _L’Art du Facteur d’Orgues_ contains much valuable information about the condition of French organs in the eighteenth century and indicates that a great advance in organ-building was taking place. The author gives much advice for effective combinations of registers suitable for certain kinds of pieces; he finally says: ‘The more an organist understands how to exhibit the resources of his organ, the more will he please the public and himself.’

French keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries showed a marked preference for instruments of the harpsichord and clavichord type. During the eighteenth century French composers for, and performers on, these instruments were supreme in Europe, but organ-music west of the Rhine has been, on the whole, quite unimportant from early times until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century.

Organ-music in Spain and Portugal followed Italian and French models and until about 1700 maintained a place of equal importance and worth with that of Italy. It is worthy of mention that the first musician to raise the standard of revolt against the mediæval system of tuning and to advocate a system of ‘temperament’ was a Spaniard, Ramis de Pareja, born in Andalusia about 1440. There are a few prominent names among Spanish organists, such as Félix Antonio Cabezón (1510-1566), Thomas de Santa Maria (died 1570), and Pablo Nassare (born 1664), but no noteworthy progress was made here, organ music exhibiting the same state of lethargy that was apparent in all Catholic countries during the period from Frescobaldi until the middle of the nineteenth century.

With the Reformation the Netherlands divided along the line of religious sympathies. Belgium remained true to the Roman Church and her organ-music developed, as in France, according to the needs of the Roman ritual. Holland, however, embraced Lutheranism and Calvinism, and, as soon as Spanish rule was overthrown in 1581, took a prominent lead, through her great organists, Sweelinck (whose work has been already noted) and Anthony van Noordt (middle of seventeenth century), in developing an organ style responsive to the needs of the Protestant ritual.

V

In England peculiar conditions have prevailed from very early times in respect to organ-music. Early English musicians were easily the peers of those of any continental country. Some of the oldest and most famous organs were built in England and the house organ was cultivated there with as much zeal and artistic energy as in any other country. But, even after the Reformation, the choir has always dominated English church-music and until very recent years the organ has been regarded as wholly secondary in importance. All great English church-music up to the present generation has been vocal. We find in the Anglican service no counterpart of the chorale-prelude in the Lutheran service or the canzona and toccata in the Roman. The organ in the Anglican service has been employed consistently and primarily as accompaniment for the highly-trained choirs and its independent use has been confined almost exclusively to playing before and after the services.

Handicapped as it was by lack of appreciation within the Church, organ-music was further retarded in its development by the curious reluctance of English builders to adopt pedals and to give up the old system of tuning. Until well into the nineteenth century very few English organs possessed pedals and in these few the pedal-board rarely exceeded an octave and a half in compass. In the matter of tuning, the system of ‘equal temperament’ was not adopted for English organs until more than a century after it had been firmly established in practical use on the continent. Here again the domination of the voices in the service is apparent. Whether this mechanical inferiority of the organ was related to its secondary position in English church-music as cause or effect, is not germane to our purpose to discuss.

So unimportant was the organ considered in early English church-music that no cathedrals maintained organists until the time of the Reformation, the singers taking turns at playing the instrument. Henry Abington, a priest who died in 1497, is the first Englishman mentioned as having possessed proficiency as an organist (at Wells in 1447 and Master of the Chapel Royal after 1465), and his fame in this respect rests wholly on his epitaph at Stonyhurst: ‘He was the best singer amongst thousands, and besides this, he was the best organist.’

But organ music flourished in the palaces of kings and wealthy noblemen, where organists and organ-makers were installed as regular members of the households. The greatest epoch of English music was also the most brilliant of English organ-playing. Prepared during the reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Mary, it reached its culminating point in Queen Elizabeth’s long reign (1558-1603). No examples of organ-music prior to Elizabeth’s time have been preserved. The organ compositions of the great Elizabethan organists were written for the house organ rather than the church organ and are, therefore, scattered through the numerous collections of music for the virginal,[107] for they were playable on either instrument. Collections of music written for the church organ, so common on the Continent, were unknown in England until recent times.

When England espoused the cause of Protestantism, many of her Catholic musicians escaped to the Continent, but many remained and were protected by the Court from being molested as long as they kept their private religious views to themselves. Among the latter were some of the most famous organists and musicians of Elizabeth’s reign--Tye, Tallis, Blitheman, Byrd, and Bull.

Dr. Christopher Tye (about 1515-1572) was organist at Ely from 1541, and later became organist of the Chapel Royal. He was highly respected for his great musical ability and brilliant education, and his style of writing was scholarly, though singularly unaffected. According to Anthony Wood he was ‘a peevish and humorsome man, especially in his later days,’ and it is related that while he was playing one day in the chapel of Queen Elizabeth, with whom he was a great favorite, ‘she sent the verger to tell him that he played out of tune; whereupon he sent word that her ears were out of tune.’ With him the most brilliant epoch of English music begins.

Thomas Redford (died before 1559) was organist and choir-master at St. Paul’s, London, about 1535. He had the reputation of being one of the ablest instrumental writers of his time and left many organ-pieces.

Thomas Tallis (about 1510-1585) received his first appointment as organist at Waltham Abbey. At the Dissolution he became one of the organists of the Chapel Royal, which position he held until 1577 through the shifting religious changes of the troublous reigns of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. He faithfully served the church of his adoption by writing some of its finest early anthems, canticles, and hymn-tunes. Though a famous organist, but few of his organ works have remained.

William Byrd (1543-1623), one of the foremost composers of his period and distinguished in all the forms then current, was a pupil of, and worthy successor to, Thomas Tallis, whom he surpassed in everything ‘except in happy speculations.’ He served as organist of Lincoln Cathedral from 1563 and became Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1569, dividing with Tallis the duties of organist. The excellence of his art is attested by his numerous church compositions and the instrumental pieces, many of which are for organ, contained in the ‘Fitzwilliam Virginal Book,’ the ‘Virginal Book of Queen Elizabeth,’ and ‘Lady Nevill’s Virginal Book.’

Dr. John Bull (1563-1628) was the most famous virtuoso on the organ and virginal of the latter part of the Elizabethan era. He was organist at Hereford in 1582 and in 1591 followed his master Blitheman as organist of the Chapel Royal. On Queen Elizabeth’s recommendation he was appointed professor of music at Gresham College in 1596, which position he held for eleven years. In 1613 he was compelled to ‘go beyond the seas without license,’ as was the euphonious phrase for running away. He became the Archduke’s organist at Brussels and four years later went to Antwerp where he was cathedral organist until his death. He was a curious personality, but a most excellent artist, exhibiting marvellous contrapuntal skill and originality. In his preludes and fantasias, notably in a Fantasia on the hexachord, his modulations and complicated rhythms display a strong modern feeling.

One of the greatest names in the history of English church-music is that of Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), the last of the early school of English church composers. In 1623 he became organist at Westminster Abbey and was one of the most renowned organists of his time, but published only a few pieces for keyed instruments--some dances and a fantasia. All the great English composers of this period were also great organists, for the chief musicians at the cathedral and Chapel Royal were all organists. All excelled as extempore performers, and, when solo work was required, they exercised their skill in improvisation and felt small necessity for writing what they played.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the musical art of the English Church received a staggering blow from the fanatical ideas and iconoclastic acts of the Puritans. Their misdirected zeal was aimed at all art; choirs were abolished, paintings and organs were destroyed, and priceless treasures were wantonly burned. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 more liberal views prevailed and there quickly followed a revival of musical activity. But only a few musicians survived the years of artistic darkness under Puritan domination--they had either emigrated or chosen other professions. The destroyed organs were rebuilt with utmost haste and foreign organ-builders were summoned to give aid. Among these were two Germans by the name of Schmidt, one of whom became famous as Father Smith. These organs were still in a primitive form, the pedal not being considered necessary and, indeed, not being added until Handel in his concertos insisted on their use. With the new era came also an influx of new ideas from the Continent. Pelham Humfrey infused a more modern style into the music of the cathedral service and the organ for a time was permitted to assume the importance of a solo instrument.[108] Furthermore, the organ soon became a feature of theatre and concert performances and the area of its influence was thus widened.

John Blow (1648-1708) was one of the first of the noted musicians of the ‘new school.’ He was chosen organist of Westminster Abbey at the age of twenty-one. Eleven years later his pupil, Purcell, was appointed to this office at Blow’s request, but at Purcell’s death Blow was reinstated. He also held the post of organist and composer to the king. He was a voluminous composer, writing a vast amount of church-music and also a considerable number of voluntaries for the organ, of which relatively little has been published. His style is strong, healthy, and, in harmonic progression, frequently in advance of his time. One of his organ pieces is a ‘Voluntary for ye Cornet stop,’ beginning with a short fugal passage which introduces the solo. It is dignified and effective, but the popularity of such solo effects led in the next century to a style that brought about a debasement of organ-music that was far-reaching in its effects.

William Croft (1677-1727), though a distinguished composer and organist, did not exert as wide an influence on organ-music as some of his contemporaries. He was a pupil of Blow and after his master’s death succeeded him as organist of Westminster Abbey. He wrote twelve organ voluntaries, but they are not published.

Maurice Greene (1696-1755) was organist at St. Paul’s, London, in 1718, and succeeded Croft as organist and composer to the Chapel Royal in 1727. In 1730 he was appointed professor of music at Cambridge University. He was a prolific and able composer and rendered most valuable service to English cathedral music. He also published several organ voluntaries, in which he departed from the serious and fugal style of his choral music and employed such ear-tickling solo stops as the Cornet and Vox Humana to an excess that brought into existence a host of tawdry and vulgar imitations.

VI

There remain to be mentioned the two most distinguished names in English music--Purcell and Handel--the one, who undoubtedly would have founded a school of real English music had not his life been cut off at so untimely an age, the other, who, though a German, actually did found a great English school a half-century later on the lines so brilliantly suggested by his English predecessor. The year 1658 may be said to mark the beginning of a new era in English music; in it occurred the death of Cromwell, who, with all his greatness, stood for Puritan ideas of artistic repression, and the birth of Henry Purcell (1658-1695), who raised the musical fame of England to a height it had never before attained. Though he died at the age of only thirty-seven, like Mozart and Schubert he wrote with amazing swiftness and produced an astonishing quantity of music in every form, far in advance of his English, and most of his continental, contemporaries in quality and workmanship. His music that falls within the scope of the present inquiry consists of some four-part sonatas and suites for organ or harpsichord. One of the most excellent of these is a Toccata in A, which possesses such unusual musical qualities for that period that it was for a long time considered to be one of Sebastian Bach’s earlier works. The modern feeling for key seems to be fully established in Purcell’s music. In this respect and in the fluency and expressional power of his counterpoint he anticipated Bach by fully three decades. Purcell was organist of Westminster Abbey in 1680 and of the Chapel Royal in 1682.

George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) was the greatest representative of English music in the eighteenth century and one of the most brilliant organists of his time; his influence in both choral and organ fields was supreme in England until the advent of Mendelssohn. Handel’s organ-playing brought him fame earlier than did his operas. In 1703 he visited Lübeck with his friend Mattheson and listened with deep respect to Buxtehude at the _Marienkirche_. One purpose of the visit was to look into the possibilities of succeeding the venerable organist, but one condition of the succession was that the person who accepted the appointment should also marry the daughter of the retiring organist. After looking over the situation both Handel and Mattheson declined the honor. During his Italian visit (1706-1709) he met Domenico Scarlatti, who was only two years his senior, and together they journeyed from Florence to Rome, forming a friendship that lasted throughout their long careers. In Rome Cardinal Ottoboni arranged a sort of competition between them. The contest was undecided on the harpsichord, but when Handel had played on the organ, Scarlatti was the first to acknowledge his friend’s superiority, saying that he had not believed such playing as Handel’s was possible. His London experience began in 1711, when he created a great sensation by the production of his opera _Rinaldo_, written in fourteen days by piecing together arias and choruses of earlier composition. The _Utrecht Te Deum_ in 1713 further increased his fame in England and in 1719 he was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Music, which became the scene of his operatic triumphs and trials. Later in life he turned his attention wholly to the composition of religious works and produced in quick succession the sublime oratorios that brought him immortality. It was in connection with these oratorios that his organ concertos came into existence. Handel had a great reputation as an organist, especially as an extempore player. This reputation he was wise enough to capitalize and, as a means of attracting larger audiences to hear his oratorios, he exhibited his skill as performer between the acts, to the great delight of his listeners. He was not always in a mood for extemporizing, however, and his thirty-three concertos for organ (most of them with orchestra) were written for such occasions, many being merely transcriptions of his concertos for various other instruments. They are cast in the form of either the Italian concerto or the French overture. Since they were not written for use in church, but in the theatre, they are for the most part in light and flowing vein, brilliant in character but free from triviality, and serve as excellent display pieces. They contain fine music and must be regarded as good works of art. The most important are No. 1 in G minor, No. 4 in F major, and No. 10 in D minor. These works became so popular that Burney says,[109] ‘public players on keyed instruments totally subsisted on these concertos for nearly thirty years.’

Sir John Hawkins[110] gives a glowing account of Handel’s organ-playing. ‘As to his performance on the organ,’ he says, ‘the powers of speech are so limited that it is almost a vain attempt to describe it otherwise than by its effects. A firm and delicate touch, a volant finger, and a ready delivery of passages the most difficult, are the praise of inferior artists; they were not noticed in Handel, whose excellences were of a far superior kind, and his amazing command of the instrument, the fullness of his harmony, the grandeur and dignity of his style, the fertility of his invention, were qualities that absorbed every inferior attainment. When he gave a concerto, his method in general was to introduce it with a voluntary movement on the Diapasons, which stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the harmony close-wrought and as full as could possibly be expressed; the passages concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the time being perfectly intelligible and carrying the appearance of great simplicity. This kind of prelude was succeeded by the concerto itself, which he executed with a degree of spirit and firmness that no one could pretend to equal. Such, in general, was the manner of his performance; but who shall describe its effects upon the enraptured auditory? Silence, the truest applause, succeeded the instant that he addressed himself to the instrument, and that so profound that it checked respiration and seemed to control the functions of nature, while the magic of his touch kept the attention of his hearers awake only to those enchanting sounds to which it gave utterance.’

FOOTNOTES:

[96] Quoted in _Sammelbände der Intern. Mus. Gesellschaft_, Vol. III, page 614.

[97] For example, Merulo published many _ricercari da cantore_.

[98] When Willaert, who had previously occupied several important positions, became _maestro_ at St. Mark’s, his annual salary was only seventy ducats or about $88. This was gradually increased to two hundred ducats ($250), which was continued to his successor.

[99] _Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik_, p. 123.

[100] Franz Commer’s _Sammlung der besten Meisterwerke des 17 und 18 Jahrhunderts_ and Ritter’s _Geschichte des Orgelspiels_. Also Haberl’s selections from Frescobaldi’s organ pieces.

[101] C. F. Abdy Williams: ‘The Story of Organ Music,’ p. 120.

[102] Among his famous pupils were Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) of Halle, Jacob Prætorius (1586-1651) of Hamburg, Heinrich Scheidemann of Hamburg, Melchior Schildt (about 1592-1667) of Hanover, Paul Seifert (died 1666) of Danzig, and Johann Adam Reinken of Hamburg.

[103] In a letter to his family dated September 3, 1831, at Sargans, Switzerland.

[104] Chiefly organ works transcribed for the piano by Liszt, Tausig, Busoni, and d’Albert; but also the ‘Two-part Inventions’ transcribed for organ with a third part by Max Reger, and the Chaconne for violin alone transcribed for organ by Wilhelm Middelschulte.

[105] See Vol. II of his edition of ‘Well-tempered Clavichord’--article, ‘Transcriptions.’

[106] In Guilmant’s _Maîtres de l’Orgue_ there is a charming ‘Noël’ by him.

[107] Then the chief representative of keyed instruments in England, as the organ was in Germany and Italy, and the claveçin in France.

[108] A voluntary ‘upon the organ alone’ was permitted after the Psalm and after the blessing.

[109] Vol. IV, p. 429.

[110] History of Music, p. 912 (Reprint: London, 1853).