JOHN T. FESPERMAN 

DIVISION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

A SNETZLER 

CHAMBER ORGAN 

OF 1761 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS 

CITY OF WASHINGTON 

1970 
Cover: The Smithsonian Institution's Snetzler organ after restoration 

SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY: NUMBER 8 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 Price jo cents 
CONTENTS 

Page 

Eighteenth-Century Chamber Organs and Their Music 6 

Chamber Organs: An English Musical Vogue n 

Imported Organs in Colonial America 17 

English Influences on American Makers 22 

German Influences 23 

Lost Treasures 24 

John Snetzler's Exports to North America 26 

Snetzler Organs Now in the United States 28 

Dr. Samuel Bard's Chamber Organ in New York 30 

Restoration of the Bard Organ 34 

Postscript 44 

Notes 44 

Appendix 47 

Glossary 5° 

List of Illustrations 52 

Bibliography 53 
i. The Smithsonian's Snetzler organ after restoration. 
A SNETZLER CHAMBER ORGAN OF 1761 

The chamber organ described in this booklet was acquired by 

the Division of Musical Instruments in 1968 from descendants of 

the original owner, Dr. Samuel Bard (1742-1821) of New York 

and Hyde Park. Signed and dated "John Snetzler fecit Londini 

1761," it is both a fine example of the work of England's most 

famous eighteenth-century maker and a splendid musical artifact associated with one of New York's leading citizens of the 

Revolutionary period. Despite its age and travels, the instrument 

retained its original pipes, wind-chest and bellows, mechanical 

action, and mahagony case. Alterations by earlier repairers were 

for the most part minimal, making restoration relatively uncomplicated. 

Of the five Snetzler organs known to have found their way to 

North America before the Revolution, this one, belonging to Dr. 

Bard, surgeon to George Washington and founder of the Medical 

School at King's College, New York, in 1767, is the only one 

still in existence with a traceable history. 

After an introductory discussion of chamber organs and their 

uses, there follows a description of the Bard organ, its restoration 

to playing condition, and its historical context. 
Eighteenth-Century Chamber Organs and 

Their Music 

The terms chamber organ, cabinet organ, desk organ, and bureau 

organ all refer to mildly voiced instruments of some half a dozen 

stops, usually suitable for use in the music room of a private 

house. The latter two terms refer to instruments giving the appearance of a desk or bureau, when the keyboard lid is closed. 

English chamber organs, especially those made by John Snetzler, 

were often housed in handsome cases closely resembling the 

secretary-bookcases of Thomas Chippendale, topped by a cornice 

with a broken pediment. (See Figures 2-4.) Glazed or solid 

wooden doors screened the gilded front pipes, and delicately 

carved pipe shades decorated the tops of the openings. 

The most common method of construction provided for the 

wind supply (or bellows) at floor level, with the wind-chest at 

about keyboard height or slightly below. An iron pedal (see 

Figure 5) was provided for pumping, either by the player himself, or by an assistant at the side of the case. 

These organs usually contained from four to six stops, with 

one or more divided between bass and treble. Samuel Bard's 

organ is an ideal prototype, with five stops disposed as follows: 

8' Open Diapason (treble) 

8' Stopped Diapason 

4' Flute 

2' Fifteenth 

II Sesquialtera (bass), Cornet (treble) 

Machine Stop; swell shutter (in top of case) 

Chamber organs normally did not have pedals and, for that 

matter, English organs in general were distinguished by lack of 

pedal boards until well into the nineteenth century. Despite 
2. The carved pipe shades for the Smithsonian restoration were copied from this Snetzler 

chamber organ, signed and dated 1775-6, now at the Birmingham University. 

(Photograph courtesy of Noel Mander, Esq.) 

Left 

3. Chamber organ by John Snetzler (1767) now in the Museum of the City of Liverpool. It is similar to 

the Smithsonian instrument not only in appearance, but also originally had an identical disposition 

of stops. 

4. "A Desk and Bookcase" from the third edition of Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, London, 1762. Although John Snetzler was not among the listed subscribers to 

the first edition of the Chippendale book, the affinity between his chamber-organ cases and the Chippendale desk-bookcases is evidence of his acquaintance with the prevailing fashion in English furniture. 

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Bellows, weighted and moved by iron pedal. 

Outline of wind trunk, conveying wind to 

wind-chest. 

Keyboard. 

Mechanism connecting stop knob to slider 

at top of wind-chest. 

Wind-chest, showing pallet valve, connected to key. 

Sounding board or top of wind-chest. 

Sliders, one for each stop. (The front 

slider on the lower level controls wind for 

all three front sets of pipes, so that they 

may be silenced simultaneously, usually for 

quick antiphonal effects.) 

Pipes, shown for pitch of low C: 

a. 2-foot Fifteenth (metal) 

b. 4-foot Flute (wood, stopped) 

c. 2%-foot Twelfth (metal) 

d. 4-foot Principal (metal) 

e. 8-foot Stopped Diapason (wood, stopped) 

f. 8-foot Open Diapason for tenor c (metal) 

g. Lowest pipes of Stopped Diapason, 

"stood off" the chest and supplied by 

metal tubes from the main chest. The 

largest pipes for Open Diapason would 

also be "stood off" the chest, to conserve 

space. 

Nonspeaking display pipes. (The display 

pipes often contained speaking, low-pitched pipes from the Open Diapason, mixed 

with nonspeakers to fill in architectural 

space.) 

5. Section through a late eighteenth-century chamber organ (from treble end) from 

The English Chamber Organ by Michael Wilson. (Courtesy of Faber and Faber, Ltd.) 
their mild sound, chamber instruments in early America were 

frequently lent to churches (as in the case of the Bard organ) to 

provide music until a larger church organ could be afforded. 

They were favorite ensemble instruments, much popularized 

by Handel, who intended his organ concerti for such small 

organs. His own performances became legendary because of his 

brilliant improvisations between movements of oratorios. The 

following advertisement, which appeared in Faulkner's Journal 

(in Dublin) for 27 March 1742, announced "... on Monday the 

12 th of April will be performed at the Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, Mr. Handel's Grand Oratorio, called The Messiah, 

in which the Gentlemen of the Choirs of both Cathedrals will 

assist, with some Concertos on the Organ by Mr. Handell [sic]." 

Legend, at least, holds that for these performances Handel took 

with him to Dublin a portable Snetzler bureau organ (as in 

Figure 6). 

The remainder of the repertoire for chamber organs consisted 

largely of the Fugues and Voluntaries, or sets of Variations, 

which were turned out by the dozens not only by Handel, but 

by native English composers (who often imitated him) such as 

William Boyce, John Stanley, Maurice Green, and William 

Walond. Undoubtedly, it is to such music that Dr. Bard referred, 

when he wrote his daughter to practice "the most delicate and 

best set." 

Chamber Organs: An English Musical Vogue 

Chamber organs of the type owned by Dr. Bard in New York 

enjoyed an amazing vogue in mid-eighteenth-century England. 

They appeared not only in the music rooms of private houses, 
12 

6. Snetzler bureau organ, signed and dated London, 1752, now privately owned in London. (Photograph courtesy of Noel Mander, Esq.) 
but also as continuo instruments for cantata and oratorio performances, as well as for organ concerti. They also formed part 

of the orchestra for the fashionable pleasure gardens of London. 

By 1750, the gardens of Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone 

all boasted chamber organs, often featuring famous players of 

the day, not the least of whom was "the celebrated and astonishing Master Mozart" (when he was eight years old!) at Ranelagh 

in 1764. * 

Michael Wilson has properly related the popularity of chamber organs after 1750 in England to the architectural fashion for 

including a music room in great houses. The architects themselves (including Chippendale and Adam) sometimes designed 

the organ cases. Photographs of two Snetzler organs in cases designed by Robert Adam are shown in Figures 7 and 8. These 

examples avoided the extraneous rococo detail that characterized the more exuberant architectural fancies of the time. 

Examples of these extravagantly ornamented designs may be 

seen in the third edition of Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director (London, 1762), which included drawings for six organs in both the "modern" (i.e., 

Georgian) and "Gothick" styles. 

Doubtless some chamber organs stood in the music rooms of 

English houses, closed and unused, either as necessary pieces of 

musical furniture or as symbols of the proprietor's musical 

patronage. This must have been the case with the elegant instrument now at Colonial Williamsburg, for its keyboard, 

apparently completely original, shows no evidence of wear and 

its pipes must have been rarely tuned, since their tops show 

little evidence of mutilation. Such may also have been the case 

with the Snetzler organ, presumably in Samuel Bard's mansion 

house at Hyde Park. Although Dr. Bard's organ was regularly 

used when it was lent to St. James' Church in Hyde Park in 
14 

T 

7. Chamber organ by John Snetzler, made for Sir Watkin WilliamsWynne, with the case designed by Robert Adam. The original design 

was published in volume 2 of R. and J. Adam, The Works in Architecture, a three-volume work printed in London 1788-1822. The organ 

is now at Wynnstay, near Ruabon, Wales. (Photograph courtesy of 

Michael Wilson.) 

Right 

8. Organ by John Snetzler (1761) in a case designed by Robert Adam, 

for Lord Scarsdale, Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, where it still stands. 

(Photograph courtesy of Michael Wilson.) 

16 the nineteenth century, there is no record of its having been of 

great importance in the family's domestic life. 

So popular were these instruments that, considering the strong 

influence exerted by England on the flourishing colonial towns 

of the American east coast, it is not surprising to find a number 

of them in North America, as contemporary records abundantly 

prove. Most of the eighteenth-century instruments are gone. 

Of the relatively large number now in the United States, all 

but a handful were imported in the present century by collectors. There is the famous chamber organ of Thomas Brattle in 

Boston which is mentioned in a diary by the Reverend Joseph 

Green, when he made the following entry for 29 May 1711: 

"I was at Mr. Thomas Brattle's; heard ye organs and saw 

strange things in a microscope." 

In Williamsburg, Lord Dunmore had in the Governor's Palace "3 Organs, a Harpsichord, a Piano-Forte and other Musical 

Instruments," while Robert Carter had in his Williamsburg 

townhouse and at Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County many 

instruments, including "a good organ." It was this instrument 

"of two stops" which was offered for sale to William A. Washington in 1788 for fifty guineas. The public sale of John Greenhow's effects in Williamsburg in 1787 included "a beautiful keyed chamber organ."

 2 

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, writing from Paris, not only 

asked the advice of the venerable Dr. Burney "in the matter of a 

harpsichord" being made for him by Kirckman in London, but 

also solicited the doctor's opinion about the merits and cost of 

English versus French chamber organs. Dr. Burney's reply that 

"abt £ 100 wd I think supply all that is wanting in such an 

instrument" is probably a good measure of what a moderatesize chamber organ might have cost from a London builder 
such as Snetzler, who was well known to Burney. With char- 17 

acteristic chauvinism, Burney also informed Jefferson that the 

English chamber instruments were better than the French: 

"Give us a principle to work on, & we are sure of leaving an 

invention better than we find it."

 3 

r 

Imported Organs in Colonial America 

Although the craft of organ building started remarkably 

early in New England and in Pennsylvania, musical instruments, like fine furniture, were regularly imported from England. Samuel Bard, during his student days in Edinburgh and 

London, might well have known of the work of the already 

celebrated John Snetzler. He also had called upon a London 

factor or agent named William Neate for help both enroute to 

England in 1762 and after his arrival there.4 Bard had taken 

passage on a ship which was captured by the French, and he 

was imprisoned 2 November 1761. He finally arrived in London 

in April 1762. These events are described in letters to his 

parents dated 28 November 1761 (from Bayonne Castle at St. 

Jean de Luz) and 27 April 1762. 

So far, no link has been found between Neate and the importation of the organ, although some such agent must have 

negotiated the purchase and shipment of the instrument, perhaps to Bard, perhaps to some other colonist. American buyers 

were advised by their London agents—as in the case of St. 

Michael's Vestry in Charleston—that the most elegant instruments were to be obtained from John Snetzler, "who is now the 

most considerable and the most reputable Organ Builder in 

England."5 (See Figure 11.) 
J 8 9. Samuel Bard as a Young Man. On 19 September 1764, Dr. John 

Bard wrote to his son in Edinburgh, thanking him for a portrait, which 

the family had just received in New York: "We have received from you 

two very agreeable letters, together with the prints, [and] your picture 

. . . We think your picture very like, and well executed; it was a most 

agreeable present to us all." 

It is quite possible that the portrait was painted by Benjamin West, 

the American painter who had moved to London, and with whom John 

Bard was acquainted. In a letter written from New York on 24 December 1763, the elder Bard encouraged his son ". . . to write to my old 

friend Mr. West, who, I am informed is settled in London, in very 

high business; his friendship may be of service to you . . . ." 

The portrait at Bard College is a copy, signed "Miriam Sandys, 

pinxit." The date of 1871 is suggested by the Bard College Library. On 

the back of the copy is written "Portrait of Samuel Bard, M.D., L.L. D. 

son of John Bard, of Hyde Park in Dutchess Co. N. York by his wife, 

Magdalena Valleau." John Bard's wife was not Magdalena but Suzanne, although her mother's name was Madeleine Fauconnier Valleau. 

The original portrait's location is at present unknown. Whether it 

was in fact painted by Benjamin West in London in 1764, and sent 

home by the young student to his family, remains a mystery. (Photograph courtesy of the Bard College Library.) 

10. Hyde Park mansion. Samuel Bard built this house about 1795, probably on the same site as the present Vanderbilt mansion in Hyde 

Park. The painting, unsigned and undated, is attributed to David 

McNeely Stauffer (1845-1913) and is probably a copy of an early view 

of the house before it was altered by Dr. David Hosack in 1829. 

(Courtesy of the Prints Division, New York Public Library, Stauffer 

Collection.) 
19 
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One of the earliest imported organs, first mentioned in 1708 21 

in the diary of Samuel Sewell, came to light again in 1713, when 

King's Chapel in Boston accepted a gift of a small English 

chamber organ from the estate of Thoma s Brattle, after the 

instrument had been summarily turned down by the Brattle 

Street Church, whose puritan congregation associated it with 

popery. Th e maker of the Brattle organ is unknown, and all 

that remains of it are its wind-chest and two (of the original 

four) sets of pipes, which were installed in a new case in the 

nineteenth century. Th e instrument was acquired in 1836 and 

is still in St. John's Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

Thre e exquisitely carved panels from the original Brattle organ 

survive in the case of a new organ built in 1964 for King's 

Chapel in Boston by Charles B. Fisk, who also restored what 

remained of the original instrument. 

In 1756, King's Chapel acquired an organ by Richard Bridge 

of London. Of this instrument, there now remain only two 

wind-chests and partial pipework for four stops which were 

incorporated into the organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church 

of Schuylerville, New York.6 

In 1733, another imported organ, also made in London by 

Richard Bridge, was acquired by Trinity Church in Newport, 

Rhode Island. It was the gift of George Berkeley, Bishop of 

Cloyne, who (having failed in his attempt to set up a college in 

Bermuda) gave his library to Yale College and sent the organ to 

Newport, as a token of appreciation for hospitality extended by 

Left 

11. The letter dated 16 June 1768, as copied into the vestry book of 

of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, in which John Nutt gives the 

cost of the organ Snetzler made for the church and requests speedy 

payment. (Courtesy of the South Carolina Historical Society and the 

archivist, St. Michael's Parish.) 
22 parishioners. Charles Theodore Pachelbel, son of the famous 

German composer, Johann Pachelbel, was then living in Boston, and the church employed him to set up the new instrument and serve as organist.7 

English Influences on American Makers 

When American craftsmen began to make organs, they turned for the most part to English prototypes, of which there were 

many imported examples. When Boston's "Old North" Church 

ordered an organ from Thomas Johnston, the Vestry minutes 

for 11 August 1752 directed "That Mr. Johnston make for the 

church called Christ Church a New Organ with the Echo equal 

to that [imported, English organ] of Trinity Church of this 

Town ' Johnston apparently took the case of the 1756 

Bridge organ in King's Chapel as a model for his "Old North'' 

organ which was completed in 1759. American organs reflected 

a sometimes sophisticated, sometimes provincial dependence on 

English styles long after the days of importation were over. As 

late as 1821, when the same Christ Church replaced its Johnston 

organ with another American one by William Goodrich of 

Boston, the new instrument was also judged by English standards. Marsdon Naddock, "Being called upon to accompany 

Doctr. Jackson to pass judgement on your Church Organ," 

wrote in his report to the vestry, on 27 April 1821, "I further 

observe that I saw the work in its infancy which appeared to 

me to be as well executed as any I ever saw in London." 

The same kind of comparison can be applied to a desk organ, 

now at the Smithsonian, made in Boston about 1815 by William 

Goodrich's brother, Ebenezer. In both tonal quality and tech-
nical design, it is English from start to finish. In fact, the 23 

eighteenth-century English style prevailed in New England 

well into the nineteenth century, even after it had been superceded in England. 

German Influences 

An important exception to the prevalence of the English 

styles occurred in Lutheran and Moravian Pennsylvania, where 

there was a steady demand for both instruments and music in 

the German manner. Because the German organ repertoire was 

more extensive than the English, and because the instruments 

were generally larger and more complicated (incorporating 

fully developed pedal divisions, unknown in England), the 

Pennsylvania instruments bore a quite different personality 

than those of English design. 

As early as 1741, John Clemm, who was probably the first 

truly professional Germanic organ maker in North America, 

made a sizable instrument for Trinity Church in New York.8 It 

had, according to an advertisement in the New York Gazette for 

3 January 1763 (when it was offered for sale), " 26 stops 

three Sets of Keys, with a Frontispiece of gilt Pipes, and 

otherwise neatly adorned 

By the late eighteenth century, David Tannenberg (1728-

1804) emerged as the most distinguished of the German-American builders, and his work, despite minor English influences, 

bears an indelible Germanic stamp. Three of his smaller organs 

made before 1800 still exist in reasonably original condition, 

but the better part of his large output has disappeared, with 

the exception of a few sadly mutilated examples.9 
2

4 Lost Treasures 

T h e fate of nearly all eighteenth-century organs, imported or made in North America, has been that they were gradually replaced by modern instruments, frequently of inferior quality. As fashion changed, the smaller ones—especially cabinet 

organs in private hands—were frequently altered beyond recognition if not discarded altogether. John Snetzler's instruments, 

despite their elegance, fared no better. Of Snetzler's organ made 

for St. Michael's Church in Charleston, the large Feyring organs 

in Christ Church and St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, Richard 

Bridge's organ for Trinity Church in Newport, and Thoma s 

Johnston's for Christ Church in Boston, only the case remains, 

screening a modern instrument of quite different character 

than the original. Th e little Brattle organ now has a nineteenth-century case and only half its original pipes. 

T h e 1762 Snetzler organ in the Congregational Church at 

South Dennis, Massachusetts, was quite possibly in North America before 1800, but its history prior to 1858 is still unknown. 

Of twenty-seven eighteenth-century organs now in this country,10

 nearly all have arrived within the present century, primarily as collector's items. 

John Snetzler's chamber instrument at the Smithsonian is 

his only surviving organ with a believable history in America 

in the eighteenth century. Together with a handful of the works 

Right 

12. Snetzler organ, signed and dated London, 1762, now at the Congregational Church, South Dennis, Massachusetts. The keyboard measurements for the Smithsonian restoration were taken from this instrument. (Photograph courtesy of Charles B. Fisk.) 
25 
26 of Tannenberg, one by John Dieffenbach, and three or four 

other English chamber organs,11 it comprises the total legacy 

remaining to remind us of a lively and elegant aspect of colonial music making. 

John Snetzler's Exports to North America 

In view of Snetzler's fame, information about his life 

and business activities is surprisingly sparse. It has only recently 

been established by William Sumner that he was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1710 and that he died there in 1782, 

having spent the better part of his life in England. This disproves a series of legends propagated by the London historian 

Charles Burney. It has not yet been discovered when he arrived 

in England, although his earliest instrument, signed and dated 

London, 1742, is now in the United States in the Belle Skinner 

Collection at Yale University. This signature and date are still 

controversial as will be explained in the following section. To 

date, few records which document his business and exporting 

activities have been found in England. 

He was, in any case, a very prolific builder and W. L. 

Sumner, in The Organ (page 158), has been able to assemble a 

list of seventy-five organs made or repaired by Snetzler. This 

list does not include the Smithsonian instrument or several 

others which have since been discovered. In total, approximately a dozen Snetzler instruments in reasonably original condition 

still exist in England today, plus three in the United States. 

That he was highly regarded is indicated by his being asked to 

construct two instruments for Buckingham Palace,12 as well as 

one for St. George's Chapel Royal. For the redoubtable Dr. 

Burney, in 1754, he made an organ for St. Margaret's, King's 

Lynn, in which " . he gave such a specimen of his abilities that 
he was soon called to almost every quarter of the kingdom."

 13

 27 

In North America, the five Snetzler organs known to have 

arrived during the eighteenth century were for Christ Church, 

Cambridge; for "Concert Hall," Hanover and Court Streets, 

Boston (maintained by Lewis and Stephen DeBlois); for Trinity Church, New York; for St. Michael's Church, Charleston; 

and the instrument owned by Dr. Samuel Bard of Hyde Park 

and New York. 

The Cambridge organ, having arrived in 1764, was badly 

damaged during the Revolution, and finally replaced in the 

nineteenth century. Although it may have been seen by President George Washington when he attended services in the 

church on 31 December 1775, it was certainly in no condition to 

be heard, as a contemporary letter states: "Unfortunately the 

Organ could not be used. Some of the leaden pipes had been 

taken out to furnish ammunition for our men at the fight in 

Charleston last June, and it was quite out of order, but a bass 

viola and clarinet played by some musical soldiers led the singing, which was very good."14

 This instrument, according to 

vestry records, was acquired with the help of Barlow Trecothick, later Lord Mayor of London, who was the brother-in-law 

of the Reverend Mr. Apthorp, rector of Christ Church. This 

organ was probably dated 1761 by Snetzler, giving rise to the 

belief that it was a duplicate of the Bard instrument. Since it 

apparently had two keyboards,15 this could hardly be true. 

The Trinity Church instrument was destroyed by fire in 1776 

and of the Charleston instrument, only the altered case remains, 

with a modern organ behind it. The "Concert Hall" organ in 

Boston has disappeared—unless it could be the organ now at 

South Dennis, Massachusetts. That Dr. Bard's organ survived 

can probably be credited to its being the property of a well-todo private family rather than a church, and therefore less subject to replacement by a larger instrument. 
28

 Snetzler Organs Now in the United States 

At present, there are two other Snetzler organs in the United 

States, although so far, neither has been documented prior to 

the mid-nineteenth century. One, signed and dated 1762 (Figure 

12) , was acquired by the Congregational Church of South Dennis, Massachusetts, on 22 September 1858, for $600. This information, together with the fact that it arrived on the packet 

North (as recorded in the church records), is all that is known 

of its origin. Of its nine stops, at least two are partly or wholly 

later work, although it is clearly a Snetzler instrument, authentically signed and dated. It could very well have an earlier 

American history, since it arrived in South Dennis well after 

the time when organs (especially used ones) were normally imported, and during a period of great activity among New 

England organ builders. 

The second Snetzler instrument, signed and dated London, 

1742, was brought to the United States sometime in the early 

years of this century for the Belle Skinner Collection, now at 

Yale University. Presumably, it arrived before 1928, the year 

of Miss Skinner's death. Structural details including the pipework, keyboard and hardware authenticate it as the work of 

Snetzler, although originally it probably was a bureau organ, 

altered to its present form sometime in the eighteenth century. 

It now has a curiously painted case, not at all typical of Snetzler's other instruments. 

One convincing proof that the Yale instrument is a Snetzler 

is that the pipe scales are as nearly identical as they could possibly be to two other Snetzler chamber instruments of unquestionable authenticity. The Yale pipes were measured, apparently for the first time, by the writer in 1968 (see comparisons in 

Appendix III). Douglas Brown has also inspected this instru-
ment and allowing for changes made after Snetzler's work was 29 

completed finds it authentic. 

Another very fine instrument once thought to have been 

made by Snetzler and now in the United States, is unsigned 

and undated. Inspection of pipe faces, action, and other details 

by Douglas Brown and Charles Fisk suggests that it is not the 

work of Snetzler; however, Noel Mander, who restored it, feels 

that this organ is an early Snetzler of about 1745. It remained 

in its original home, Kimberly Hall, Norwich, until it was purchased by Noel Mander, restored, and sold to Colonial Williamsburg in 1954. It retains its original pipes, a fine keyboard 

with "sandwich" sharps, and is housed in a case of elegant proportions. 

There may or may not be reason to doubt the signature, 

dated 1742, for the Belle Skinner organ now at Yale. The spelling "Schnetzler" is unique. No other instrument of Snetzler's 

prior to 1745 is known to exist. The earliest one, signed and 

dated London, 1745, is part of a claviorganum for which Jacob 

Kirckman made the harpsichord. This instrument belongs to 

the Earl of Wemyss, and is among those inspected recently by 

Douglas Brown.16 Should the date 1742 turn out to be incorrect 

for the Yale organ, the only reason for a falsification might be 

that 1742 was substituted for the original date to substantiate 

the legend that Handel took a Snetzler bureau organ with him 

to Dublin for the first performance of the Messiah in that year. 

Otherwise, 1745 may well be the year in which Snetzler actually 

arrived in England, although there is still a general confusion 

about this among English historians. 

Since there are probably more organs said to have been played by Handel than beds slept in by George Washington, the 

prospect that Yale actually owns the altered continuo instrument 

used at the premiere of The Messiah is unfortunately dim. 
3° Dr. Samuel Bard's Chamber Organ in New York 

A good deal of specific but undocumented information on 

the whereabouts of Samuel Bard's chamber organ has been handed down through the Bard family. We do not know through what 

agent Dr. Bard got the organ, and we cannot prove precisely 

when. He attended medical school in Edinburgh, and made 

several visits to London between 1761 and 1766, when he 

returned to New York and joined his father, Dr. John Bard, in 

practice. In 1770 he married his cousin, Mary Bard, and set up 

a household on the east side of Broad Street, near Wall. Samuel 

Bard opposed the revolutionists, and consequently was for a 

time persona non grata in New York, and spent little time there. 

By 1784, however, he had refurbished his house on Broad 

Street17 and, according to the family account, gave the organ 

to his daughter, Susan. 

There is every reason to believe the date, 1761, and signature 

inside the organ. These are in precisely the normal style and 

location, inside the pallet box, and have been compared in 

detail with other Snetzler signatures. The traditional information about the organ, as given in the catalog for the "Historical 

Musical Exhibition," sponsored by Chickering and Sons in 

1902 in Horticultural Hall, Boston, where the instrument was 

exhibited, is as follows: "[Item] 1027: It was brought to 

this country before the Revolution and stored in a building in 

South Amboy until after the end of hostilities. The gilded pipes 

have been removed and a piece of silk is now used as a cover. 

The doors also have been removed and the keyboard has been 

changed from black and white to white and black . " Shreds 

of green silk still remained behind the facade, when the organ 

was acquired by the Smithsonian. 
It is doubtful that Dr. Bard acquired the organ while a 31 

student in Scotland and England for it would have been an 

expensive purchase, and his father had borrowed money (which 

Bard repaid with his first income after setting up an office) to 

enable him to finish his studies abroad. The only document 

indicating special musical interest on Bard's part is a letter 

describing the purchase of "a German flute," with which he 

entertained himself enroute to London in 1762.18 Quite likely, 

but unproven, is the possibility that the instrument was consigned to some other loyalist in or near New York, who could 

no longer afford it after the war, or who perhaps had returned 

to England. Research so far has revealed neither customs nor 

tax records mentioning the organ, and, the family propensity 

for giving the organ to younger relatives seems to have prevented its showing up in early wills, including Samuel Bard's which 

exists at Bard College. 

The earliest document, which at least suggests the existence of 

an organ, is a letter from Samuel Bard to his daughter written 

from New York, 25 August 1789, while President Washington 

was recuperating from the famous carbuncle operation performed by Bard and his father. The letter—now in the collection of the Bard College Library—encourages Susan to work at 

her "playing and singing," adding "among the productions 

complimentary to the President, I wish you would select the 

most delicate and best set, and make yourself mistress of it, as 

he is my patron as well as patient. I should choose to hear you 

sing his praises, the more particularly as his virtue and merit 

set flattery at defiance.' There exists, however, only "traditional" support for the belief, mentioned in an article about the 

organ in the Windham County Observer (Putnam, Connecticut) for 26 July 1933, that Washington ever heard the organ. 
32 This legend is not to be discounted, since reports persist that 

Washington visited the Bard family frequently in New York. 

The following summary of the Bard-Johnstone

 20

 family information about the organ's history is taken from an unsigned 

paper, probably written by Mary M. Johnstone, about 1900. It 

came to the files of the New-York Historical Association when 

they acquired the organ on loan in 1940. 

The organ was given by Samuel Bard to his daughter, Susan, 

in 1784, on the occasion of her twelfth birthday. She later married John Johnstone (who became Presiding Judge of the 

Court of Common Pleas of Dutchess County, New York) and 

eventually gave the organ to her daughter, Mary E. Johnstone 

(1798-1875). About 1816 the organ was lent by Mary Johnstone to St. James church in Hyde Park, which had been consecrated in 1811, and for which her grandfather, Samuel Bard, 

had given the land. She was the organist for some twenty years. 

Parish records at St. James are scanty, since the church for 

many years was regarded almost as a private chapel by the Bard, 

Johnstone, and, later, Roosevelt families. A perusal of the vestry 

minutes from 9 July 1802 through 12 April 1852, turns up only 

two references to an organ. For 12 June 1842, there is a resolution " . that the rector be authorized to employ a suitable person to repair the organ now in the church." On 1 May 1845,

 o n 

the motion of a Mr. Cowman, " It was ordered unanimously that the organ belonging to Miss Johnstone which has been 

so long used in the service of the church be put up and repaired 

for use at the expense of the Vestry.' Since the original building 

was demolished in 1844, this suggests that the organ was about 

to be reinstalled in the new church. 

The family information states that when the organ was returned by the church to Mary Johnstone, about 1845,

 tn e

 front 

pipes were removed and replaced by cloth and the keyboard 
colors were reversed, there having presumably been black nat- 33 

urals and ivory-capped sharps. 

Since the keyboard of the organ as found in 1968 is a nineteenth-century replacement, and since Snetzler is known to have 

employed the reversed color scheme, especially for small organs, 

there is good reason to believe this family report. There is also 

clear evidence that the front of the instrument originally contained pipe shades in the center arch and at the sides, decorations 

which would have been removed to make way for a cloth screen. 

Mary Johnstone took the organ with her when she moved to 

Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York, in 1858, and at her 

death in 1875 l^ 1 it to her niece, Mary M. Johnstone. It was 

moved to Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1885, by 

the second Miss Mary Johnstone, where it was set up by a Mr. 

Flagler. It was during this ownership that it appeared in the 1902 

Historical Musical Exhibition sponsored by the Chickering Company. The second Miss Johnstone died in 1912, leaving the organ 

to her sister, Alice Johnstone Sumner, in Delavan, Wisconsin. 

Apparently the organ never was shipped to Wisconsin, but was 

sent in 1914 from Salisbury to Woodstock, Windham County, 

Connecticut (in custody of Francis Upton Johnstone, Mrs. Sumner's cousin), where it is said to have been put together by 

George Ryder, a retired Boston organ builder then living in 

Putnam. In 1922 Mrs. Sumner gave the organ to her daughter, 

Alice W. Parker, and it was set up in Villa Nova, Pennsylvania, 

by George W. Till, who had worked with the organ-building 

firm of Odell. Till was later curator of the famous Wanamaker 

Store organ in Philadelphia. About 1930, the organ came into the 

possession of the great-great-grandson of Samuel Bard, Francis 

Upton Johnstone, and was shipped back to Woodstock, Connecticut. His daughter, Mrs. Susan Johnstone Milliken, from 

whom the Smithsonian Institution acquired the organ in 1968, 
34 became its owner upon the death of her mother, Mrs. Francis 

Upton Johnstone, who had lent the organ to Fenimore House, 

the Museum of the New York State Historical Association in 

Cooperstown. 

It arrived there on 20 May 1940, was set up by Walter E. 

Dodge of Clark's Corner, Putnam, Connecticut, and remained 

there until the Smithsonian acquired it on 20 June 1968, when 

it was shipped off to the restorer. 

Restoration of the Bard Organ 

The restoration of a rare instrument is expensive both in time 

and money. It demands a relentless attention to detail and a 

careful eye for any suspicious features not the work of the 

original maker. From the beginning, when the Bard organ was 

dismantled for shipment to the restoration shop, every part of the 

mechanism, pipework, and case was scrutinized for evidences of 

the original maker s work and for later alterations. Dozens of 

photographs were taken of the organ in its unrestored condition 

for reference while work was in progress. 

Then began the enlightening process of comparing the organ 

to other existing English instruments by the same maker or of 

approximately the same date. Of the two Snetzlers available in 

the United States, the one at South Dennis, Massachusetts, was 

inspected and measured by Douglas Brown, to whom Charles 

Fisk assigned a major part of the restoration work. The English 

instrument at Colonial Williamsburg, was also photographed 

and partially dismantled by the writer and Scott Odell, who 

also made drawings of its keyboard. The Yale Snetzler was inspected by the writer and Scott Odell of the Smithsonian restoration staff. Even the remaining Snetzler casework in St. Michael's 

Church, Charleston, was investigated and photographs were 
35 

13. Snetzler chamber organ, signed and dated London, 1748, 

now at Norwich Cathedral. 
36 

14. Chamber organ by John Snetzler, 1761, now in John Wesley's Chapel, Horsefair, 

Bristol, England. Doors were copied from this instrument for the Smithsonian organ. 

(Photograph courtesy Michael Wilson^—Escj^ 
made of the original signature still existing for that organ. 37 

The writer was able to inspect and play the eighteenth-century 

instrument (unsigned, but similar to the work of Snetzler), in 

St. Cecelia's Hall at the Reed College of Music, Edinburgh; a 

1752 Snetzler bureau organ privately owned in London, in remarkably original condition; and the 1769 Snetzler chamber organ in the church of St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. 

At this time it developed that the instrument dated 1755-6, 

now at the University of Birmingham, although somewhat larger, 

was similar to the Bard organ. It has the same type of "pin" 

action, a comparable disposition of stops and an almost identical 

case with doors. While in England in February 1969, Douglas 

Brown was able to measure and photograph this instrument. He 

also investigated the Snetzler instruments at Norwich Cathedral 

(Figure 13); Mason's Hall in Edinburgh; St. Andrews-by-theWardrobe in London; the bureau organ privately owned in London; and the claviorganum belonging to the Earl of Wemyss. In 

addition, photographs—and as detailed information as their owners could be induced to provide—were obtained of organs at 

Picton Castle, Wales; in the former Rushworh and Dreaper Collection (now at the Liverpool Museum) ; and Cambridge University. 

It was decided to replace the nineteenth-century keyboard on 

the organ with one having ebony naturals and ivory-capped 

sharps, for which measurements were taken from the organs at 

South Dennis and Norwich Cathedral. The nosings and other 

details are patterned after original keyboards from the Norwich 

organ and the privately owned bureau organ of 1752. The glazed 

doors were copied from the organ signed and dated 1761 at John 

Wesley's chapel, Horsefair, Bristol, (Figure 14) and the pipe 

shades are copies of the carvings on the Birmingham University 

instrument of 1755-6 (Figure 2) . 
38 Fortunately, only sixteen pipes (from a total of 299) were missing. These were replaced by Mr. Fisk's pipe maker, R. V. Anderson of Brattleboro, Vermont, to the same scales and in the same 

style for mouth, cut up, and toe-hole openings of their neighbors. 

Many of the original metal pipes were badly bent and dented, 

and these were straightened by the usual process of carefully 

inserting mandrels of various sizes suited to the diameters of 

the pipes. A number of wooden pipes were taken apart to be 

completely reglued, and missing caps (forming the lower lip) 

were replaced in a few instances. 

During the course of work on the pipes, it was conclusively 

proven that the original pitch of the organ had been approximately a half step below modern pitch (A 440), a development 

very much in line with known facts about mid-eighteenth-century pitch for nonchurch instruments in England. The main evidence for the original pitch came from marks inside the wooden 

pipes, indicating that stoppers had at one time been considerably 

nearer the top of the pipes—enough to lower their pitch by a 

half step. The metal pipes had clearly been trimmed at some 

point in the fairly recent past (perhaps when the organ was repaired by A. Leroy Conkey, before being displayed in the celebrated Chickering Exhibition of 1902

 19) making it possible to 

tune the organ to modern pitch. 

Although this pitch alteration is a negative factor in retaining 

the complete authenticity sought by such a total restoration, it 

does make the organ a much more usable ensemble instrument 

in the present day. It was both for this reason and the fact that 

returning the metal pipes to their original pitch would require 

the soldering of new metal around the top of each pipe to 

lengthen it, that it was decided to leave the organ at modern 

pitch. In any event, the effect on the tone quality is so slight that 

no measurable difference results. 
39 

15. Front view of Smithsonian Snetzler organ before restoration. 
above, left 

16. Pipework of the Smithsonian Snetzler 

organ (front panels removed) before restoration. 

below, left 

17. Pipework of the Smithsonian organ after 

restoration (case pipes removed). 

below, right 

18. Parts of the wind-chest and bellows disassembled for regluing by Douglas van Dyck 

Brown in the workshop of Charles B. Fisk. 

right 

19. Smithsonian restorer Scott Odell covered 

display pipes with gold leaf, using eighteenth-century water-gilding technique, and repaired damaged moldings on the organ case. 

42 One of the most delicate and time-consuming aspects of the 

restoration of any early organ involves the wind-chest. Because 

of decades of existence in an unhumidified environment with 

high, winter, indoor temperatures, glue joints had separated, and 

cracks—causing serious air leaks—occurred. This made it mandatory to take the wind-chest apart completely (along with the 

bellows and wind conductors), clean away all the old glue, and 

then reglue each of the parts, including fifty-four thin dividers, separating each channel on the chest from its neighbor. The 

pallet valves for each of fifty-four keys were refaced with leather, 

while springs and guide pins were adjusted to make the key 

action even. This having been done, the chest was reassembled 

with all of its original parts and remains almost precisely as it 

was when it left Snetzler's shop in 1761. 

The voicing and regulation of the pipes in the style of the 

original builder is the most important artistic aspect of an organ 

restoration. Information gathered by Douglas Brown in England 

from other signed Snetzler organs showed that the nicking of 

the wooden and metal pipes was about normal for Snetzler in 

the 1760s. The mouths of many wooden pipes had been arched 

in the nineteenth century, however, and this required meticulous 

gluing of extensions to the upper lip of those which had been 

altered. Mr. Fisk then went over the "voicing" of each pipe, a 

painstaking procedure, which involves regulation of loudness, 

quality, and speech characteristics. Since voicing is a major factor 

in determining authenticity of a restored organ's sound, the competence, taste, and experience of the voicer are paramount in assuring the success of the restoration. Mr. Fisk's previous work 

with the Thomas Avery organ (London, 1792) at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the South Dennis Snetzler organ, two chamber 

instruments by Ebenezer Goodrich, and the Brattle organ, gave 

him the experience essential for the Smithsonian restoration. 
2o. Signature for the Smithsonian's Snetzler organ is glued to the wind-bar inside the 

pallet box. The German sentences, written under the signature in a different hand, are: 

Ein Leben wie in Paradeis haben wir's auf dieser Weld. 

Herr Adam un Frau Eva die hatten auch kein Geld. 

The writing was deciphered and translated by Rodney Dennis, curator of manuscripts 

at the Houghton Library, and Eugene Weber, Associate Professor of German, Harvard 

University: 

A life as in paradise have we on this earth. 

Adam and Eve also had no money. 
44 POSTSCRIPT 

The author is indebted to Barbara Owen, who provided information especially about the South Dennis organ and the Brattle 

organ, and to Noel Mander, whose fund of knowledge is based 

on his experience as a restorer of at least five Snetzler organs. 

Michael Wilson of the Victoria and Albert Museum also provided 

invaluable help. Charles Fisk and Douglas Van Dyck Brown, 

restorers of the Smithsonian Institution instrument, have patiently provided data as it came to light during the restoration. 

Mr. Brown spent two weeks in England, measuring and photographing Snetzler instruments, making drawings for the reproduction of the carvings and doors for the case, and recording 

characteristic details of Snetzler's pipework and action. 

NOTES 

1

 Betty Matthews in "The Organs of the London Pleasure Gardens," The 

Organ, volume 48, number 189 (July 1968) , quoting the Public Advertiser. 

2

 As quoted by H. Bullock, On Music in Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, 1938 (manuscript) . 

3

 Burney to Jefferson, 20 January 1787. Quoted in R. Russell, The Harpsichord and the Clavichord, page 181. 

* William Neate was the factor to whom Bard wrote in London, to obtain 

financial help and advice while he was imprisoned in France in 1761-62. 

Neat's kindness to Bard is mentioned at length in a letter to his parents, 

dated London, 27 April 1762, and quoted in McVickar's Narrative. At the 

same time, Bard wrote to Benjamin Franklin (as mentioned in a letter from 

Bayonne Castle to his parents, dated 28 November 1761) , to ask him to intercede for his release. 

5

 Letter dated 16 June 1768 from John Nutt, London, to Thomas Savage 

and Thomas Smith, Minutes of the Vestry of St. Michael's Church, South 

Carolina Historical Society. 
" The King's Chapel organs are described in detail in Barbara Owen, 45 

Organs and Music of King's Chapel. 

'Virginia Larkin Redway, "Charles Theodore Pachelbel, Musical Immigrant." 

8

 Vestry records of Trinity Church, New York, as cited by John Dix, History 

of the Parish of Trinity Church in New York, volume 1 page 222. 

9

 See Armstrong, David, Organs for America. Extant Tannenberg organs 

made before 1800 and in reasonably original condition may be found in 

Pennsylvania at Moselem (Zion Lutheran Church) ; and Lititz (a restored 

organ in the Single Brethren's House) . Other Tannenberg organs (including the one made in 1804 for Christ Lutheran Church, York, Pennsylvania) 

made after 1800 and in reasonably original condition are not included above. 

"According to the list compiled by Barbara Owen and mentioned in footnote 11. 

"According to a list prepared by Barbara Owen, the Dieffenbach organ, 

dated 1776, is at the Reading, Pennsylvania, Historical Society. According to 

Miss Owen's list, English instruments, thought to have been in North 

America and in reasonably original condition (aside from the Brattle organ 

and the Bard organ at the Smithsonian) are: Samuel Green (circa 1775), 

in the Kent-de Lord House, Plattsburgh, New York; G. Astor (1788) in the 

Old State House, Boston. The Samuel Green organ in Bruton Parish church 

Williamsburg, is not in original condition and is not the organ that was 

originally there. It was purchased in 1937. 

" The Buckingham Palace Snetzler organs are described by Betty Matthews 

in "The Organs of Buckingham Palace." 

" Charles Burney, A General History of Music. 

14

 From a letter, dated 1 January 1776, from Miss Lydia Biddle to Mrs. 

Sarah Morris Mifflin in Philadelphia, printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser 

for 1 January 1876. 

" I n an unsigned article printed in the New England Magazine for March 

1834, the organ from "The Episcopal Church at Cambridge" is described as 

"originally an English instrument with two rows of keys." The article also 

says that Josiah Leavitt reduced the organ (severely damaged in the Revolution) to one keyboard, presumably because not enough pipes remained to 

retain two keyboards. Hence, it appeared to nineteenth-century observers as 

a single manual instrument, enhancing the legend that it was a duplicate of 

the Bard instrument. 

"Mr. Douglas Brown's authentication of 1745 as the date for the Earl of 

Wemyss" claviorganum invalidates the statement in the supplement to Groves 

Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1961) to the effect that Snetzler's "first 

organ was that built for the Moravian Church in Fetter Lane (1747)." Raymond Russell, in The Harpsichord and Clavichord, page 83, also cites the 

signature and date, "Johan Snetzler fecit Londini 1745." 
46 "J. B. Langstaff, Dr. Bard of Hyde Park, page 151, cites a letter (describing 

difficulties of putting the East Broad Street house in order) dated 12 June 

1784. He adds that in 1784 the New York Packet carried an advertisement, 

asking for the return to Samuel Bard of books dispersed from the Medical 

Society Library during the Revolution. The biographical information on Dr. 

Bard comes from the Langstaff book. 

18

 This letter dated London, 27 April 1762, is quoted in John McVickar's 

Domestic Narrative of the Life of Samuel Bard, MT>., L.L.D. 

1BA paper found in the wind reservoir during restoration states: "Completely overhauled by A. Leroy Conkey, New Milford, Connecticut, 1901." 

20

 The family name was spelled "Johnstone" and "Johnston" at various 

times, but the current family spelling "Johnstone" has been used in this 

booklet. 
APPENDIX I 47 

Disposition for the Smithsonian Instrument 

Chamber organ by John Snetzler, London, 1761 

Division of Musical Instruments, catalog number 69.5 

Signature on paper glued to wind-bar inside pallet box: 

John Snetzler fecit Londini 

176 1 

Disposition (no labels by stop knobs) 

Pipes 

8' Stopped Diapason (stopped wood) 54 

8' Open Diapason (treble only, from middle C) 

(open metal) 29 

4' Flute (stopped wood) 54 

2' Fifteenth (open metal) 54 

II Sesquialtera (bass to b) (open metal) 50 

II Cornet (treble from middle c) (open metal) 58 

Tota l 299 

Range: GG/ B to e3, short octave (omitting G-sharp, A-sharp, 

B, and C-sharp) 

Machine Stop (silences Fifteenth and Sesquialtera-Cornet) 

Swell Pedal (opens hinged lid behind cornice at top of case) 

See section on "Restoration" for further details. 

For pipe scales, see Appendix III. 
4 8 APPENDIX II 

Anatomy of an Organ Pipe 

o 

UPPER LIP 

MOUTH 

BODY OF PIPE 

sA 

TONGUE 

FLUE 

TOE HOLE 
APPENDIX III 

Scalings Compared 

49 

Comparison of pipe scales for the Smithsonian Institution's Snetzler organ 

(1761), the Snetzler organ in Norwich Cathedral (1748), and the Yale organ 

(1742?). Measurements are in inches, and indicate practically identical scaling 

for pipes of the same pitch. The figures for the 1761 and 1748 organs were 

provided by Douglas Brown, who suggests that they indicate that Snetzler may 

have used identical scaling for his chamber organs. This could be a factor of 

great importance in authenticating Snetzler instruments, if the original signature 

has been removed or lost. The Yale organ scales were taken by the author. (Pipes 

not thought to be original have been omitted.) The Yale measurements were 

in 32ds and then converted to the decimal system. 

Principal 4' 

Fifteenth 2' 

Ope n Diapason 8' 

Flute 4' 

Sesquialtera 1I/3' 

1' 

Stopped Diapason 

Stopped Diapason 

(1748) 

(1748) 

(Yale) 

(1761) 

(1761) 

(Yale) 

(1761) 

(Yale) 

(1761) 

(Yale) 

(1761) 

(Yale) 

8' (1748) 

(Yale) 

8'(1761) 

(E) 

(E) 

292 5 

1.69 

1.69 

1.66 

2.io x i 

2.19 X 1 

.98 

1.22 

•75 

•94 

3.69 X 2 

•55 

•5 

-.69 

1.650 

.960 

•937 

•940 

1.25 x .84 

1.28 x 1.0 

.67 

.72 

.58 

.56 

2.125x1.55 

2.09 x 1.5 

2.10 x 1.48 

.960 

.561 

.562 

•550 

1.65 

1.66 

.75 x .53 

.78 x .56 

(22/3) -7o 

(18/5) 4 6 

1-275 x.9 0 

1.25 x.844 

1.25 x.8 5 

•559 

b

1

 -375 

.366 

.340 

•92 

•937 

•55

 x -39 

.50 x.31 2 

.40 

• 3 1 

•775

 x -575 

.81 x .562 

•75

 x - 5 4 

•335 

•225 

.250 

.250 

.58 

•563 

•43

 x .30 

.36 x .28 

•

2

9 

•23 

.550x41 4 

•53i

 x -344 

•53

 x ' 3 8 
50 GLOSSARY 

Claviorganum. An instrument with two keyboards, one controlling a harpsichord and the other controlling a small organ of 

one to five stops. 

Machine stop. A mechanism which causes one or more stops to 

be silenced, by moving their sliders to the "off" position, when 

the machine stop pedal is depressed. 

Mechanical action. The mechanical connection between the keys 

and the valves underneath the pipes. 

Pedal division. A separate division of an organ, with its own 

pipes, played by a pedal keyboard of two or more octaves, 

usually from C to d' (in the eighteenth century). Whereas 

eighteenth-century German organs usually had pedal divisions, 

English organs did not, until well into the nineteenth century. 

"Pin" action. A mechanical connection between the keys and the 

valves under the pipes, which utilizes a metal pin directly 

under each key. The key depresses the pin, which opens the 

valve located beneath it. 

Scaling (of organ pipes). This is the term for the measurement 

of the inside diameter of an organ pipe. 

Short octave. The lowest octave of the keyboard, from which 

several chromatic notes have been omitted. The range of the 

Snetzler is shown as GG/B to e'" because the apparent low 

BB sounds GG. (C-sharp sounds AA, and GG-sharp, AAsharp, BB, and C-sharp have been omited.) 

Slider. A wooden board with one opening for each key. The 

slider, located in the top of the wind-chest, just below the 

pipes, may be moved to an "on" or "off" position by the stop 

knob, thus causing a given set of pipes to sound or be silent, 

when keys are depressed. (See Figure 5.) 
Stop. A set of pipes, one for each key. A chamber organ usually 51 

has from four to six stops. 

Stop action. The mechanism whereby any given stop (or set of 

pipes) is made to sound or be silent. (See Figure 5.) 

Swell shutter. A hinged section of the top of the organ case, controlled by a pedal which allows it to open and shut, thus 

making the organ sound louder or softer. 

Wind-chest. The airtight box on top of which the pipes stand. 

The key action is connected to valves in the wind-chest, so 

that, when a key is depressed, air is admitted to the pipe. 
5

2

 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

i. Chamber organ by John Snetzler (1761) after restoration. 

2. Snetzler chamber organ at the Birmingham University. 

3. Snetzler chamber organ in the Museum of the City of Liverpool. 

4. Design for a desk and bookcase by Thomas Chippendale. 

5. Section through a late eighteenth-century chamber organ. 

6. Snetzler bureau organ. 

7 and 8. Two chamber organs by Snetzler, with cases designed 

by Robert Adam. 

9. Samuel Bard as a young man. 

10. Hyde Park Mansion. 

11. Letter from John Nutt to vestry of St. Michael's Church, 

Charleston. 

12. Snetzler organ at South Dennis, Massachusetts. 

13. Snetzler chamber organ in Norwich Cathedral. 

14. Snetzler chamber organ in John Wesley's chapel, Horsefair, 

Bristol. 

15. Front view of Smithsonian Snetzler organ before restoration. 

16. View of pipework of Smithsonian Snetzler organ before 

restoration. 

17. View of pipework of Smithsonian Snetzler organ after restoration. 

18. Parts of wind-chest and bellows, disassembled for regluing. 

19. Gold leafing of pipes. 

20. Signature for the Smithsonian Institution chamber organ. 
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 53 

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Chapel, 1966. 

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