The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-07

Now listen" the builder said after a pause. as if he had waited for the rum ble of the open Hapason to subside. He laid the back of his forehnger upon the lowest manual, and then ran it simply across the white keys far into the tre- ble. He had set the flute stop. and the succession Of sounds was so rapid that the resultant was not unlike the sudden. accelerated rending of a piece of cloth.
 A TEST OF RESPONSE.
 There said the organ maker, that's what we call an achievement in organ .construction. The response of the pipes to the depression of the keys wasinstan- taneous. Some years ago it would have beer. practically impossible to make the pipes speak in answer to such motion as that. The player had to press the keys well down to obtain the notes, and the more stops he coupled the greater was the pressure required. Now we make organs with. key action as light as that of the standard grand piano. You know with what Iightness of touch a piano may be played: well, it has now become possible to give the big church organ as delicate 3. mechanism. A five ounce touch is that of the concert piano, which means. that only that much weight is required to produce a note. Here's one of the weights we use in ad- justing the levers" He drew from his pocket a small. leather-bound weight and placed it upon a key The key sank so slowly that the weight almost made balance. The man at the wheel gave two or three vigorous turns, and from somewhere in the towering struc- ture as from great distance. came a sweet. poignant eontralto note.
 THE vox HUMANA STOP.
 "one of the most delicate and beauti- .ful stops on the organ. the yox huma- na," the builder said softly. inclining bis head and swelling the note to it's full power. Tt Isn't quite in tune yet, because we haven't nearly finished work on this instrument" Removing the weight he ran his fingers through se- ries of chords on one of the manuals, while from another he called the sur prisingly lifelike tones of the human voice in lingering solo. 'Yes. it's a beautiful stop. and so delicate. The ' metal, pure tin generally. and the set of pipes is very expensive if well voiced. It is difficult to make good vox humana reeds, and then they have to be manip- 1 ulated with the utmost care and skill to make them effective Now, the vox ce- lestis is another effect, a sort of ceies- tial choir, and, strange to say, we ob- i tain it by the use of two sets of pipes, ' one tuned just one beat sharper than ! the other. To be sure, this produces | discord but one beat makes only l enough difference i'll the character of the sounds to give soft and not at all unmusical nor unpleasant throbbing The vox humana will probably always be very expensive stop on the organ l Again the builder ran a quick finger 1 across the keys as if he could not avoid one more comment upon the delicate i perfection of his instrument. ''No," he said, somewhat pityingly. people for 1 get all about the organ itself in their praise of the organist. In the last five years more improvements have been made in the organ than during the pre- ceding one hundred years. Study, ex pertinent and genius have now com bined to place before the organist an al- most perfect instrument, one which en- 1 ables him to give music and shading, any effect he desires, to make any com blnation of stops with the very least ef- l fort and distraction from his music. l He may set a combination, or two or three of them, for use during a certain passage, and upon reaching that pas sage throw the combination into use by pressure upon one button alone, al- though the combination may involve 1 the employment of ten or fifteen stops. 1 MECHANISM NOT APPRECIATED T am sorry people do not know more about the mechanism of the oragan, be- cause if they did they would be able to appreciate. twofold, the brilliancy of the organist. This is not meant to detract in the least from the superb skill oe the ofganist it is simply to say that the or