DREAM ORGANS
Jerome (c.347-420) was a monk and scholar who compiled the standard Latin translation of the
Bible, known as the Vulgate. Messina's painting shows him seated in a wooden carrel, in a
Gothic building which seems undecided whether it is palace or cathedral.
Desite the spacious proportions of the room, a modest-sized instrument suitable for
contemplative music-making seems approporiate. The simple stoplist is inspired by 16th-century
Italian models, from which it differs most noticeably in the distribution of its nine stops
on three manuals and pedal. This results in a useful division of tonal families into
principals, flutes and reed.
The case would be some 11ft. high. The manual pipes would stand on a single soundboard with
the principals at the front and the flutes at the back. The regal would be placed where most
accessible for the frequent tuning it would need in Jerome's draughty
study, and the pedal pipes could go either side of the main soundboard. Wind pressure would
not exceed 2 1/4in. A generally useful (but anachronistic) compass would be C, D - d3 for the
manuals (four octaves) and C, D - d1 for the pedals (two octaves).
(January 2000)
This scheme was suggested by 'St. Jerome in his Study' (detail left), painted around 1476 by
Antonello da Messina (d.1479).
An alternative disposition for manuals II and III could be as follows:
I (lower)
8 Principale
4 8a
2 15a
1 1/3 19a
1 22a
II (middle)
8 Flauto chimneys
4 Flauto in 8a stopped
III (upper)
8 Regale
PEDALE
16 Contrabassi stopped
Couplers: III-II, III-I, II-I, III-Pd, II-Pd, I-Pd.
Though this opens up some interesting possibilities, I think that on the whole the first and
simpler disposition is better.
II (middle)
8 Flauto chimneys
2 2/3 Flauto in 12a
III (upper)
4 Flauto in 8a stopped
8 Regal
