JULIAN RHODES' DREAM ORGANS
PART FOUR: THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE ORGAN
Alexandre Guilmant gave a series of concerts on the instrument and said:
The 1904 stoplist was given by Audsley in 'The Organ of the Twentieth Century' (1919) and in
'The Organ', January 1924, with some minor differences of detail.
Audsley wrote:
All these details were incorporated into the Louisiana Purchase organ, which was
larger than any in the Old World. Audsley must have been satisfied that
his instrument was a step in advance of those by the great European masters.
The most famous organ designed by Audsley was the one built by the Los Angeles Art Organ
Company (Murray Harris) for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
or World's Fair. Its construction was so lavish that
building costs climbed to $105,000, and the builder was made bankrupt.
The voicing was wholly the work of John W. Whiteley, who had trained with
William Thynne and worked for Robert Hope-Jones. After the Exposition
it was intended to install the organ in the Convention Hall, Kansas, but as is well
known it was bought by John Wanamaker for his Philadelphia
store where it forms the nucleus of the present organ.
Walter B. Fleming, who had been responsible for the mechanical and
structural design of the instrument, oversaw its rebuilding at Wanamaker's,
and continued to work in the organ shop there until 1927.
The main reason I came to the St. Louis Exposition was to play the great organ,
and I have not been disappointed. It is a magnificent organ.
I FIRST ORGAN
1st subdivision - unexpressive:
32 Sub-Principal
16 Double Open Diapason
16 Contra Gamba
10 2/3 Sub Quint
8 Grand Principal
8 Open Diapason, Major
8 Open Diapason, Minor
8 Diapason wood
8 Grand Flute wood
8 Doppelflöte wood
8 Gamba tin
4 Octave Major
4 Gambette
2nd subdivision, enclosed in box 1:
8 Großgedeckt wood
8 Harmonic Flute
5 1/3 Quint
4 Octave, Minor
4 Harmonic Flute
3 1/5 Tierce
2 2/3 Octave Quint
2 Superoctave
IV Grand Cornet 17.19.21.22
VII Grand Mixture
16 Double Trumpet
8 Harmonic Trumpet
4 Harmonic Clarion
II SECOND ORGAN (enclosed in box 1)
16 Double Dulciana
8 Open Diapason
8 Geigen Principal
8 Salicional
8 Keraulophone
8 Dulciana
8 Vox Angelica
8 Vox Coelestis
8 Quintadena
8 Gedeckt wood
8 Concert Flute wood
4 Salicet tin
4 Flauto d'Amore wood & metal
2 Piccolo
VI Dulciana Cornet
16 Contra Saxophone
8 Saxophone
8 Corno Inglese free-reed
4 Musette free-reed
Carillon 25 tubular bells
Tremolant
III THIRD ORGAN
1st subdivision, enclosed in box 2:
16 Lieblichgedeckt wood
8 Horn Diapason
8 Violin Diapason
8 Grossflöte wood
8 Clarabella wood
8 Doppelrohrgedeckt wood
8 Melodia wood
8 Harmonic Flute
8 Dolce
5 1/3 Gedecktquint
4 Octave
4 Harmonic Flute
2 Harmonic Piccolo
VI Full Mixture wood & metal
16 Contra Fagotto wood
16 Contra Oboe
8 Fagotto
8 Orchestral Oboe
8 Clarinet
8 Corno di Bassetto
8 Horn
8 Vox Humana
4 Octave Oboe
Tremolant
2nd subdivision, enclosed in box 3:
16 Contra-Basso wood
8 Violoncello tin
8 Viola tin
8 Violino tin
8 Violino (tuned sharp) tin
8 Tiercina tin
5 1/3 Quint Viol tin
4 Octave Viol tin
4 Violette tin
IV Viol Cornet tin
12 (muted).15.17.22
V Corroborating Mixture tin
Tremolant
IV FOURTH ORGAN (enclosed in box 4)
16 Double Diapason
8 Flûte à Pavilion
8 Stentorphone
8 Grossgambe tin
8 Doppel Offenflöte wood
8 Grossflöte wood
8 Orchestral Flute wood
4 Octave
4 Harmonic Flute
IV-VI Grand Cornet
16 Bass Trombone
16 Bass Tuba
8 Trombone
8 Ophicleide
8 Orchestral Trumpet
8 Orchestral Clarinet*
4 Harmonic Clarion
Tremolant
Drums
(* 2 ranks, the second a soft Doppelflöte)
V FIFTH ORGAN (enclosed in box 5)
16 Stillgedeckt wood
8 Echo Diapason
8 Nacht Horn
8 Spitzflöte
8 Viola d'Amore
8 Harmonica wood
8 Unda Maris
4 Flauto d'Amore wood
4 Gemshorn
V Echo Cornet
8 Echo Trumpet
8 Vox Humana*
Tremolant
(* 2 ranks, the second a melodia)
PEDAL ORGAN
1st subdivision - unexpressive:
64 Gravissima wood
32 Double Open Diapason wood
16 Open Diapason wood
16 Open Diapason
16 Gamba
16 Contraflauto wood
10 2/3 Quint
8 Octave
8 Bass Flute wood
VI Compensating Mixture
32 Contra-Bombarde wood
2nd subdivision - enclosed:
32 Contra Bourdon wood
16 Violone
16 Bourdon wood
16 Quintaten
16 Dolce
8 Violoncello
8 Weitgedeckt wood
4 Superoctave
4 Offenflöte wood
16 Bombarde
16 Contra Posaune
16 Euphonium free-reed
8 Tromba
8 Fagotto
4 Clarion
3rd subdivision - auxilliary:
32 Double Principal First Organ
16 Dulciana Second Organ
16 Lieblichgedeckt Third Organ
16 Contra Fagotto Third Organ
Couplers include Pedal octave.
The various subdivisions have their own couplers.
Balanced pedals to boxes 1 to 5, and Pedal box.
Console with terraced jambs.
The Second Organ was playable from the keyboard of the
First Organ by double-touch. The 2nd subdivision of the
Third Organ was playable by double-touch. The 6-rank Full Mixture in the Third
Organ was a timbre-creating stop.
It is interesting to try to trace the influences on Audsley's design.
Even before he arrived
in the USA in 1892 he would have known of the 1863 Walcker organ at
Boston Music Hall from
the pages of Hopkins & Rimbault. He would have noted the partially-enclosed
Pedal division; the two-rank Vox Humana; the choruses of soft reeds; the strings
made from pure tin; the rare open Doppelflöte; the two manual 5 1/3ft. quints
and the independent 3 1/5ft. tierce; the free-reed stops; the developed chorus structure
on the Echo manual. We may also imagine him perusing the stoplist of the 100-stop instrument
by Walcker at 'Ulm Cathedral' and approving of the editors' comment that:
The original scheme was carried out just as it was prepared by me with
only one departure. I specified that the stops of the Pedal were to be
divided into two contrasting groups, and that one was to be enclosed in a
Swell-chamber and given powers of tonal flexibilty and expression. Such a
new step in advance was too much for old-fashioned organ-builders, so that
obvious improvement was not carried out. My scheme introduced, for the
first time in the history of organ-building, a complete and expressive
String Organ of eighteen ranks of pipes, practically of all pitches from the
CONTRA BASS, 16ft. Previous to my introduction of this important tonal
Division, it would seem never to have occurred to the mind of any one
that, as the String forces form the foundation of the grand orchestra, a
sufficient representative of that foundation should appear, both flexible
and expressive, in every properly-schemed Concert-room Organ.
As he resolved to correct the two omissions, perhaps he would also
have noted that Cavaillé-Coll had gone one better than Walcker
and Schulze with their stopped 32ft. manual flutes by giving the Grand-Orgue in
the St. Denis instrument a full-length 32ft. Montre.
Among the most striking features of this specification must be classed the
great amount of variety of 16, 8, and 4 feet flue-work therein included. Although
not comprehending everything - the French Harmonic Flute and the English Dulciana
class of stops being absent - yet the double, unison and octave flue stops on the
Manuals present, on the whole, facilities for tone-colouring such as are to be
found scarcely in any other organ in existence.
