St. Bartholomew's, Armley

In assessing the merits of the Armley Schulze organ, there are several points which must be borne in mind.

The organ was never intended for a church, but was built for private ownership as a concert instrument, only two pedal stops being added when it was brought to Armley. It is therefore all the more remarkable that the organ acquits itself so well in what is, after all, its most important function to lead and to inspire the music of the Anglican service.

This organ was not originally envisaged as a whole, but grew piecemeal. After being enlarged from a small two-manual and pedal organ to a large three-manual and pedal instrument, the important Choir Organ was added at the last stage when, in Schulze's words, "room can be found for the same alongside the Echo, under the Swell."

The Schulze firm built organs in the Romantic style, making it a prime consideration "to obtain the richest possible selection of fine solo stops" - from their letter describing the first specification submitted to Kennedy. Both the relative scaling of the stops and the voicing of the pipes differ radically from those of a typical Baroque organ in which, for example, the flute pipes become wide "tubs" in the treble, whilst the diapason (or "principal") pipes of high pitch are very slender. This contrast in scale-progression gives individuality to the ranks, whereas at Armley they run in parallel, causing a certain similarity between the quiet stops noted by Gilbert Benhamand Ralph Downes.

Although the pipes and soundboards (except certain of the Pedal soundboards) remain almost as Schulze left them, the whole instrument is now (1985) played through a type of action unknown to Schulze which, in its present state, disturbs the speech of the Principal chorus to a considerable extent.

Why is it that this organ is given a place amongst the finest in the land? It is because it has a wonderful clarity and purity of tone which allows the stops to be blended in seemingly endless combinations of great beauty, from the gentle tones of the Echo Organ to the brilliance and power of the Great Organ. Schulze achieved this cohesion through his genius as a voicer and finisher, giving his pipes as Dr. Pearson said "a clear, pleasant, open, forward tone on the pure ah vowel model."²⁵ To this must be added first the favourable position of the organ on its noble gallery in the shallow but lofty north transept, where every pipe has adequate speaking room, with the exception of the Choir Organ, placed in front of the Echo Organ and at a lower level than that of Great or Swell Organs, from which position its tones are rather subdued. Secondly, the magnificent acoustics of the crossing and lofty nave, with a reverberation period of 3¼ seconds in the empty church, greatly enhance the effect of the instrument. As a whole, the organ is best heard from the nave rather than from the console, since there the tones of individual stops are more readily distinguished.

The measurement of 2¹/₈in. diameter for the 2ft. pipes is, however, misleading.
The scale of a pipe should strictly refer to the internal diameter, and this is 1¹⁵/₁₆ in. (49 mm.) for middle C (2ft.) pipe of the Great Organ Major Principal shown here, which, as observed by Boseley, is “of great thickness and weight.” The external circumference of this pipe and of the corresponding pipes of the Sub Principal, Octave and the twelfth rank of the Rausch Quinte are all 6.5 in. (165 mm.), equivalent to an external diameter of 2.07 in. (52.5 mm.) or approximately 2¹/₁₆ in, which is probably the explanation of Bonavia-Hunt’s statement. Since Binns had just fitted tuning slides to the pipes in question, he probably supplied the external diameters (with which he would be concerned at the time) to Bonavia-Hunt. The scale of the 2ft. pipe of the mixture is slightly less, the external circumference being 6.0 in. (152 mm.), the external diameter 1.91 in. (48.5 mm.) and the internal diameter 1¹³/₁₆ in. (46 mm.)
In this Principal chorus, the pipes reach half measure at the sixteenth pipe above that selected for measurement, as recommended by Töpfer, and as generally used by Schulze.

Left: Mouth of Middle C pipe, showing nicking of the languid, and great width of mouth

The two reed stops are both on the same wind pressure of 3¼ in. as the flue stops and not on 4 in. wind as has been stated elsewhere. They are free-toned stops which to some ears suggest roughness when heard at the console, but heard from the nave, they blend admirably with the Principal chorus, adding power and colour, but without in any way dominating the chorus. The 16ft. reed, in spite of its name, is not of Tuba tone!

* [Pending the closure of St. Mary’s Church in 1980 the church authorities, mindful of the importance of the organ, generously donated it to Ellesmere College, Shropshire, where it was installed in 1981.]

The Five-rank Mixtur

This stop has caused much controversy and even adverse criticism because of the great increase in power which results when it is added to Great to Fifteenth. It should be emphasized, however, that this is more evident at the console than when heard from the nave, partly because the Mixtur is at the front of the soundboard.

There is no reason to suppose that there was any change in the specification of the organ on its removal to Harrogate, where the Press Reports clearly defined the Mixtur as having five ranks, and it must therefore be assumed that the stop was so constituted when at Meanwood. There is no evidence that it was modified later, as has been suggested. Since the organ-chamber of the Meanwood "chalet" was evidently rather cramped for the large four-manual instrument, causing Edmund Schulze considerable trouble to re-arrange the soundboards owing to the misunderstanding about the width of space available, it is reasonable to suppose that the Great Mixtur was given five ranks to provide added power and brilliance for special effects. The Rev. J. H. Burn suggested that there were in fact three "Full Greats" (1) fluework and reeds without mixture; (2) flue-work, including mixture, without mixture; (2) flue-work, including mixture, without reeds; (3) flue-work with mixture and reeds.

Dr. T. E. Pearson, when organist of the church, confirmed J.J. Binns' observations by his discovery that treble G, or any higher note, played on the Mixtur with the quint rank silenced, is identical with the same note played on the parent chorus of 8ft., 4ft., 2⅔ft. and 2ft. stops.He considered that there is too great an hiatus between Full Great and Full Great without the mixture, and suggested that the latter should be reduced to 3 ranks from CC to tenor G, 4 ranks from tenor G to treble G, remaining as 5 ranks from treble G upwards, thus removing the higher harmonics over the range of the pedal-board where he found them too prominent, but leaving the full five ranks in the treble where "The effect is magnificent in its gorgeous brilliance."

Fortunately this and other changes suggested, such as the addition of a second Principal chorus to build up to the Mixtur on the lines of Binns' experiment with the added 8ft. rank, were never carried out and the chorus remains as Schulze left it. As at Soest, where the organ was so much admired by Allbutt and Kennedy, Schulze provided a thrilling and powerful Great and Pedal at Meanwood, the other departments of the organ being subsidiary in tonal output. Mr. Arnold Mahon, the present organist, considers that there is too great a difference in power between the major chorus of the Great Organ and the softer ranks of that division.

The Swell Organ is the only "enclosed" division of the instrument and has an effective swell box, giving a good crescendo. The Geigen Principal 8ft. and Octave 4ft. are beautiful stops of cantabile tone, but the jump to the silvery Cymbel is too great, again due to the absence of a separate 2ft. rank. The delicate stops are of excellent quality, including two gentle string-toned ranks and two flutes, together with the substituted Celeste. The reeds lack the all-important 16ft. member, the absence of which probably accounts both for the lack of "body" in the Full Swell to English ears and for the lack of blend with the 4-rank Cymbel noted by Pearson.

The Echo Oboe 8ft. was invented by Edmund Schulze when the Meanwood organ was under discussion, and is a flue stop of wood which Henry Willis I would not believe to be other than a reed stop until he was shown the pipes!

Its construction is fully illustrated by G. A. Audsley in "The Art of Organ-building" and the tone is described as "somewhat plaintive in character and exquisitely sweet." The Nasard 2⅔ft. and Flautino 2ft. are fortunately independent stops, both of tapered open metal pipes.

The early specifications and Binns' record for the rebuild of 1905 all state that the Echo Organ was on only 1½ in. wind. This pressure corresponds with those of the Echo divisions at Doncaster Parish Church (1⅝ in.) and Leeds Parish Church in 1899 (1½ in.), both by Schulze. Mr. J. T. Jackson found the present value of 1⅞ in. inscribed behind the music desk of the present console at Armley and considers that this pressure has existed for at least 25 years. He suggests that the Echo Organ pressure was raised by Binns during the 1905 rebuild because the power motors of his tubular-pneumatic action would not function adequately on 1½ in. wind. Similarly, at Leeds Parish Church, when the Echo Organ was removed to the north-east corner of the chancel during the 1913 rebuild by Harrison & Harrison (to become the Altar Organ), the pressure had reached 3 in., the action then necessarily being electro-pneumatic. If the action of the Armley Echo Organ is restored to tracker operation, an opportunity will arise to restore the original wind pressure.

Tremulants were added to the Choir, Swell and Echo Organs by Binns in 1905, and these three divisions (as also the Great Organ for one stop only) have "grooving" on the soundboards, by which a rather doubtful economy in pipes was effected, the stops in question sharing a common bass octave. In the large Schulze Pedal Organ at Doncaster Parish Church, many of the higher-pitched stops are derived in part from parent stops by the use of this method.

The question may be asked "Why is the Armley Schulze organ unique in England, since Edmund Schulze built several complete organs for churches in this country and inserted stops in organs by other builders, in addition to smaller instruments for private owners and the large Meanwood organ?

A reply to this question, which is fundamental to the perceived importance of the St. Bartholomew’s organ, must first recall the history of the other surviving Schulze organs in the U.K. In two of these instruments, at St. Peter's Church, Hindley, Lancashire,and at Leeds Parish Church,(now Leeds Minster), the Schulze pipes were revoiced by subsequent organ-builders, who were themselves artists, in order to adjust for increased wind pressure required by added pneumatic actions, or to accommodate the stops in an entirely different tonal scheme. Thus the original Schulze tone was lost forever in the case of the fine Open Diapason at Leeds and in the metal pipes of the Diapasons at Hindley.

In the largest Schulze organ in England, at Doncaster Parish Church, the diapasons are of an earlier type,additional stops have been added, the Echo Organ has been enclosed in a swell box and the instrument is in an unfavourable position behind an indifferent "case." The acoustics of the church being unsympathetic to organ tone.

That life-long student and admirer of Schulze's work, the Rev. Noel A. Bonavia-Hunt, considered that at Meanwood (now transferred to Armley) and at St. Mary's Church, Tyne Dock, South Shields, Schulze brought to fruition his ideal of diapason tone, as suited to a building of cathedral proportions, and that at St. Bartholomew's Church, Armley, the most perfect combination of ideal acoustics and beauty of voicing has been realised in an instrument almost untouched by the hands of later voicers - a unique situation which has arisen by a strange series of events.

Thus the St. Bartholomew’s Schulze Organ tone has, uniquely, survived and must be preserved for future generations to hear and enjoy.

This is the end of Kenneth Johnstone’s book -
first published in 1978 and revised by Kenneth for a second edition in 1985.