I wish I’d met Ralph Downes. His autobographical book Baroque Tricks, subtitled Adventures with the Organ Builders, is difficult to get hold of now* but gives a vivid impression of the man, and his battles with the organ establishment of the 30s and 40s.  Much of the book is taken up with his account of the design and build of the Royal Festival Hall Organ at the Southbank in London, and we will hear the organ tonight in the (sell-out) Inaugural Concert after its extensive rebuild.

Downes’ key gripe against the English organ of the time was that it was not balanced.  With strident trebles, an indistinct tenor and muffled ponderous bass, the performance of a Bach fugue with the normal registration of the time (including the use of Great to Pedal Coupler) resulted in a “loud soprano melody with occasional bursts of alto and various mumblings below.”   The use of octave couplers on reeds and mixtures was deemed sufficiently ‘flashy’ treatment to do justice to the French style, and full Great plus Tuba was distinguished mainly by bulk or even sheer din – the lack of vitality compensated for by high wind pressures – and so “only loud and rather vulgar in actual effect” according to Downes.

His visit to the Cavaille-Coll at Notre Dame de France in Leicester Square London in 1937 was a revelation.  He comments on the “warm but clear, plump, easy speech” of the basses, compared with the sluggish “throttled” sound of English reeds of the time.  He tinkered with the organs at the Brompton Oratory (where he was Organist from 1936-77) and Buckfast Abbey, dropping wind pressures, and removing weights on reed tongues, but didn’t have a chance to implement his theories of voicing and winding properly until 1948, when he was invited to be the consultant for the design of an organ for the new concert hall to be built on the South Bank of the Thames – target date the 1951 Festival of Britain.

Initial design was for an organ banished by the Acoustics team into the roof space over the orchestra – happily the Executive Architect at County Hall, Edwin Williams, suggested that the organ be totally visible and accepted as a decorative feature of the hall.

A long series of vacillations followed regarding the organ specification, not helped by the sudden appearance of a large orchestral canopy.   Even the finished width of the opening into the organ recess was an issue that remained unresolved until 1952. Numerous sketches went backwards and forwards – the Hall’s interior designers didn’t like the “gothic” appearance of all the pipes on show – each change of  aesthetic appearance necessitating a rethink of the organ specification by Downes.

The reactions of the organ building firms asked to tender varied from “enthusiastic desire to co-operate, courteously amused incredulity, and severely admonitory correction”.  Harrison & Harrison were chosen (the most expensive) “not because I liked their recently built organs” said Downes “neither did I foresee they would easily adapt to my tonal conception – I know they would not” but because he had “observed their execution of trivial detail (which nobody but the tuner would ever see) in a manner that plainly spelt Perfectionism, no less”.  Downes’ confidence in Harrison’s as builders for this project was upheld – in the end, he said,  “everything in the new organ was an exemplary model of proud craftsmanship.”

By 1949 the stop list was still conceived largely in a vacuum, since no decision had emerged as to the organ’s front design.   A total grille was even being mooted, so the organ could be constructed on “normal good organ-building lines” behind it.  Luckily the Leader of the Council, Isaac Hayward, was incensed and indignantly remarked “We are paying for all these expensive pipes and we want to see them as a decorative feature of the Hall.”  (The symbolic frontispiece of dummy pipes that then appeared in front of the organ, although approved of by Downes, has been removed in the modern rebuild.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who found it rather twee and unsatisfactory.)  (Update 18 March: They changed their minds! See my next post.)

The first acoustic tests appalled Downes.  The hall had no perceptive ambience whatsoever.  A trial orchestral concert by students from the Guildhall School of Music was “dire” – timpany sounding like biscuit tins – though some of the natural reverberation of the hall was recovered by filling up cavities and removal of absorbents.   Downes glumly concluded that “at its best, dryness would have to remain a characteristic of the hall’s acoustic properties.”

Downes supervised the tuning, insisting on his own methods being used – it was a struggle as the results at first were “like a direct hit by an aerial bomb on a large farmyard” at his own confession.  No one actually said “I told you so” but he knew it was not far off.  He persevered – and gradually the organ sound came together –  but he always found it dispiriting that the “lovely full resonant tones of the pipes” as they were voiced in the reverberant lobby were “transformed into thin astringency” when restored to the hall’s ambience.

On all the controversy and comment that has followed the Royal Festival Hall organ down the years, Downes said that much of people’s criticism was based on prejudice, and I’m sure there’s a strong element of truth there.   He insisted that the Royal Festival Hall organ was not intended by him to set a new fashion – it was a one-off, and he is generous in his praise of everyone involved in a unique project.   He did set a new fashion though, kicking off the Organ Reform Movement of the second half of the twentieth century.

And what has the rebuild done for both the hall and the organ?  We shall see this evening.

My favourite picture, from the back of his book – Downes holds forth about some aspect of tuning, while Harrison’s tuner at the time barely contains his exasperation.

*I’ve quoted Downes here from the book, which is out of print, but occasionally pops up on the secondhand book listings on the Internet.   I borrowed my copy from the RCO library.  The details are:

Baroque Tricks
Adventures with the Organ Builders
Ralph Downes
Positif Press 1999 (first published 1983)
ISBN 0906894263

Update 19 March 2014:  The book is not listed on Amazon, but I noticed Foyles bookshop were selling (new) copies on a stand in the foyer of the Festival Hall at the Gala last night, so perhaps there’s been a welcome reprint.

You can read Downes obituary from The Independent newspaper of January 1994 here

The Southbank’s PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS Festival celebrating the organ rebuild continues until June 2014.

The Royal Festival Hall Organ – one week on

The RFH organ restoration – time for the 32 foot pipes

The RFH organ restoration – last pipe delivered by bicycle

A 50s revival – the London Royal Festival Hall organ

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Sight-Read the Pedals!
Richard Ellis
Published by atticbooks January 2013
Price £9.95 (to be confirmed) including postage.  Discounts to teachers for multiple copies
Will be in stock by major mail-order music shops in due course – in the meantime contact publisher Mark Ellis direct: atticbooks@ntlworld.com

You might also like:

Sight-reading resources

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The authors of this book, Robert Leach and Barry Williams, cheerfully describe it as a dog’s breakfast of law, accounts, science, theology, regulation and received wisdom.  They are being modest – it’s an essential guide to all those aspects of working as a professional organist which they don’t teach you at music school.   Goodwill is not always enough when relationships with the clergy or vestry become strained, when child protection issues get thrown at you, when your understanding of copyright is hazy.  Knowing the Canon Law relating to organists is rather helpful, as is knowing the recommended practice for employing and protecting children, the limits of your Health & Safety responsibilities, and how to respond when someone questions whether the organist should be paid at all.   (It is important to follow scripture in this latter area as in any other suggest the authors, offering Luke 10:7, Romans 4:4, and Matthew 20:1-16 as suitable ammunition.)

Robert Leach is a chartered certified accountant, Barry Williams is a lawyer – they are both organists and choir leaders, and I can’t list here all the church and related bodies they’ve served on, advised, worked for – you’ll just have to read their biogs in the book.  It’s available from their website Organist Publications.  Originally published in 2005, with updates on the website in 2009, it’s likely and inevitable that some details may be out of date, but as long as you are aware of this it’s a valuable addition to the organist’s library.

You can also download an editable organist’s contract of employment from their website, free of charge.

Everything Else an Organist Should Know
Robert Leach & Barry Williams
Organist Publications Ltd 2005
ISBN 0-9550749-0-8
£17.00

www.organistpublications.co.uk

I guess I should point out that the law and accountancy in this book refer to UK practice.

You might also like:

• Psychology books for organists

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The Inner Game of Music Barry Green with W Timothy Gallwey (Pan Books 1986)
The Inner Game idea has been around for a while – this book is a spin off from the original The Inner Game of Tennis  by Timothy Gallway, which I bought and read way back in the 70s. Some people I’ve spoken to find his approach really useful, others less so.
 
Bounce Matthew Syed (Fourth Estate 2010)
Hugely reassuring, this book debunks a lot of the assumptions about the nature of talent and performance, and supports the “it takes ten years hard work to become an overnight success” theory.  Also helpful discussion on what Americans call “choking” – falling apart in performance, and what causes it.
 
Golf is not a Game of Perfect Bob Rotella with Bob Cullen (Pocket Books 2004)
If you know (or care) nothing about golf, then all the golfing stuff here will drive you nuts, but stick with it! – you’ll take away some good ideas on performance strategy, coping under pressure, and general mental toughness, by the end.
 

And here are some others on MST that have been suggested by my tutors but I haven’t got round to reading them yet:

Keeping your Nerve Kate Jones (Faber Music, 2000)
I’m told this is quite a simple book for younger students perhaps, but still solid advice

The next two are quite academic and not such an easy read:

Musical Excellence ed Aaron Williamson (OUP, 2004)

Performance Strategies for Musicians  David Buswell (Virtuoso Coaching, 2006)

If you have a personal recommendation for this list let me know!

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