Pulling all the stops: the old parlor organ | The Islander

A PUMP ORGAN like those that were found in parlors of homes in the late 1800?s is currently on display at the Syracuse Museum. Photo by Sue Warren/The Islander

BY SUE WARREN
Islander Columnist

SYRACUSE ? It?s winter 1883 and a cold, early evening in Syracuse.

Walking along the road if you listen carefully, your ear can make out the faint strains of organ music. It must be that new parlor organ the family in the corner house just had shipped across the country by train.

Once the railroad linked the country in 1869, and families started having more disposable income as life became a bit easier, luxuries like fancy parlor furniture sets and pump organs started making their way by rail into homes on the prairies and the far west.

What would have been unthinkable just 25 years earlier when Conestoga wagons and handcarts brought pioneers and their meager possessions across the plains, was now a common reality.
Not surprisingly, among a people who cherished singing and music, musical instruments, both small and large, became almost necessities for an up and coming family. Musical entertainment was paramount and young ladies were encouraged, whenever possible, to learn to play an instrument as part of their education.

In the days before electricity, a foot-powered pump organ, which replaced the earlier melodeon, was a popular choice for music lessons.

The Syracuse Museum and Cultural Center has just such a pump organ as a centerpiece in its parlor exhibit area. This organ, made by the J. Estey Organ Co. of Brattleboro, VT. is a beauty.

Founded by Jacob Estey when he bought out a local manufacturing business in 1852, his company went on to become the largest manufacturer of organs in the United States.

Also known as reed or pump organs, close to a half million had been made by 1955 and sold around the world.

The museum?s organ has a mahogany veneer and carved decorations. Two foot pedals, slowly pumped alternately and continuously, filled a system of bellows with air and forced the air through shaved wood (and later, tuned metal) reeds, which produced the music.

Our model has eight push-pull stops just above the keyboard which can be selectively set to create different musical effects, depending on the piece being played.

If the Viola or Violetta stops were pulled, or opened, the organ could be set to sound like violins of different pitches, the viola being lower in sound and more mellow.

The Diapason or principal stop is necessary to help make the organ sound have the swelling impact of a large church organ.

As a nod to the past, the Melodia stop recreates the sound of the melodeon, a favorite early bellows instrument and smaller forerunner of the pump organ, in the pre-Civil War era.

If the organist used the Forte stop, then the sound became more powerful and louder, very useful for a grand flourish. Creating a reed instrument sound, the Flute stop is pretty self-explanatory and one of the more successful sound imitations on the organ.

Then there are two stops in the Vox, or voice, category. The Vox Jubilante is just what its name implies: it offers the organist a way to create a brilliant, joyful edge to the music. The Vox Demana remains a mystery as to what sound it produces.

The variety of stops are not limited to the eight on the Estey Organ. In fact, on larger church and concert hall organs there may be hundreds of choices ranging from tubas and cornets to harps to cymbals and drums and everything in between. Truly, some organs contain entire orchestras within.

The organ is silent now, but I?m sure if it could speak again, it would have tales to tell of the glorious music it once produced and the countless hours of enjoyment it provided for a pioneer family.

The Syracuse Museum and Cultural Center?s hours are Tuesdays -Thursdays from 2?5 p.m. and by appointment by calling 801-825-3633.

The museum is located at 1700 South (Antelope Drive) just before 2000 West, Syracuse.

Source: http://www.utahislander.com/2012/11/27/pulling-all-the-stops-the-old-parlor-organ/

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