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Organ organist
The Battle of the Organs
In February 1683, the treasurers of the two Societies of the Temple commissioned an organ from each of the two leading organ builders of the time, Bernhard Smith (1630-1708) and Renatus Harris (1652-1708). The organs were to be installed in the halls of the Middle and Inner Temple, to enable them to be played and judged. The successful instrument would be the one that possessed ‘the Greatest number of excellencies'.
The two builders could not have been more different: Smith was young and determined to make his way to the top of his profession; Harris was in the ‘prime of life and maturity of genius’ and his instruments displayed a distinctive French tonal bias.
Smith was annoyed to discover that Harris was also invited to compete for the contract. Smith was under the impression that the job had already been offered to him and he sent a memorandum to the treasurers claiming that he and five of the Temple’s tradesmen had heard the two treasurers
…give full ordre and directions unto Mr. Bernard Smith, the King’s Organ Maker, to make an organ for the Tempell Church, and then also gave ordres to to the said Smith to take care of and give directions for the setting up of the Organ Loft in the Tempell Church as the said Smith should judg most convenient, and accordingly the said Smith did give directions how and in what manner the said Organ Loft should be made, and the same was made and sett upp accordingly, and that neither Reny Harriss, nor any other Person whatsoever, was ever mentioned to have any Ordres or Directions to make any Organ for the Tempell Church, or in the least maentioned to stand in competicion with the said Smith for or about making of the same.
Smith won permission to erect his instrument in the church instead of in one of the halls. It was set on a screen which divided the round from the quire. This advantage was short-lived as Harris sought and obtained approval from the treasurers to place his organ at the opposite end of the church, to the south side of the communion table. It is thought that both organs were completed by May 1684.
Harris and Smith engaged the finest organists to show off their respective instruments and were put to great expense as the competition intensified and each instrument became more elaborate: the Battle of the Organs had begun. At Harris’s suggestion, reed stops (Vox Humana, Cremorne, and Double Courtel) were added to both organs and, before the last trial of these ranks, it is reported in the Honourable Roger North’s Memoirs of Musick that Harris’s friends even cut the bellows of Smith’s instrument.
…assured by old Roseingrave that the partizans for each candidate, in the fury of their zeal, proceeded to the most mischievous and unwarrantable acts of hostilities; and that, in the night preceding the last trial of the reed stops, the friends of Harris cut the bellows of Smith’s organ in such a manner that when the time came for playing upon it no wind could be convaeyed into the windchest.
The contest was brought to a close in 1688. Charles Burney reported that :
…the decision was left to Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, afterwards King James the Second’s pliant Chancellor, who was of that Society (The Inner Temple) and he terminated the controversy in favour of ‘Father’ Smith; so that Harris’s organ was taken away without loss of reputation, having so long pleased and puzzled better judges than Jeffreys…
The deed of sale bears the date June 20, 1688 and the price, for not the largest of instruments, was the considerable sum of £1000 (however, it did include ‘the curtaine rods and curtaines’!). In spite of defeat, Harris’s reputation was Greatly enhanced; he used the materials from his Temple organ in two instruments which were made for St Andrew, Holborn and Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
The Smith Organ as given in the contract of June 21, 1688:
Smith’s instrument at the Temple contained the first Echo Organ in this country, which was placed in a separate and permanently closed box. The compass of all three manuals was from FFF to C (54 notes) with no FFF sharp or GG sharp, and it is interesting to note that stops 17 and 18 of the Echo were playable down to the lowest note, FFF. Above gamut G on the Great and Chair manuals, the keys for the notes of G sharp and E flat were divided across the middle in order that the evils of unequal temperament tuning could be overcome. The back portions of these keys were raised to serve as separate keys for the sounds of A flat and D sharp respectively, thus accounting for the number of pipes being 61 and not 54 (this technique was further used by Harris who evolved some extraordinary examples of divided notes).
The 1688 Specfication:
2 Hohlflute of mettle 61
3 Principall of wood and mettle 61
4 Quinta of mettle 61
5 Super octavo 61
6 Cornett of mettle 112
7 Sesquialtera of mettle 183
8 Gedackt of wainescott 61
9 Mixture of mettle 226
10 Trompette of mettle 61
Total: 948
12 Hohlflute of mettle 61
13 A sadt of mettle 61
14 Spitts flute of mettle 61
15 A Violl and Violin of mettle 61
16 Voice humane of mettle 61
Total: 366
18 Sup. Octavo of mettle 61
19 Gedackt of wood 29
20 Flute of mettle 29
21 Cornett of mettle 87
22 Sesquialtera 105
23 Trumpett 29
Total: 401
The Inner Temple Library houses an anonymously authored manuscript notebook which provides an account of the organ at this time.
The Organ in the Temple hath quarter notes, which no organ in England hath, and can play any tune; as for instance, ye tune of ye 119 Psalm, and severall other services by excellent musicians, which no other organ will do. It hath several excellent stops, as the Cremona stop, ye Trumpet stop, the Voice humane, which last stop is set to Mr. Gascell’s voice, who can reach one of the deepest basses in England. These three stops, tho’ pleasant to the ear, are of no duration, and must be tuned two or three times a month, which is chargeable, and cannot be performed by an organ maker; but commonly the organists beyond sea are better skill’d in the art of tuning their instruments, which few or none in England do understand. Mr Smith’s metall for his pipes is composed of tin, lead and copper. The pipes that are made of wainescott are better and more durable than those that are made of deal. Mr Smith says that he can make metall pipes speak like those of wood, and those of wood to speak like those of metall. The Humane stop is made with tongues of brass.
The case of the Smith organ contained four towers and three flats, with the display pipes adopting the earlier English characteristic of a decorated mouth (half round at the top with an embossed dot over the apex).