Organ-Stops and Their Artistic Registration (Dover Books on Music)
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This 1921 classic by a renowned organ builder provides ...)
This 1921 classic by a renowned organ builder provides organists and all those interested in the instrument with a guide to its numerous stops, among them bassoon, bass tuba, cymbal, double trumpet, oboe, piccolo, viola da gamba, and xylophone. The text supplies various names of each stop in different languages, traces their origins, and describes their construction, tonal characteristics, and value in artistic combination and registration. A fascinating book about the "Monarch of all Instruments" for students, teachers, and professional musicians. A "must-have" for the organist's library. Introduction by Rollin Smith. 5 plates of illustrations.
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Profusely illustrated classic of musicology describes i...)
Profusely illustrated classic of musicology describes in thorough scope and detail the divisional tonal apportionment that has become fundamental to modern organ-building. A survey of the artistic treatment of the organ case in different ages and lands is followed by chapters on tonal composition and appointment, the console, pedal clavier, construction of the swell-box, organs used in churches, concert-rooms, and chambers; and the forms and construction of metal, wood, and lingual pipes. A fascinating volume for anyone interested in the structural splendors of the "king of instruments." 32 plates and 106 figures.
Victorian Sourcebook of Medieval Decoration: With 166 Full-Color Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive)
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Compiled by two noted British architects and designers,...)
Compiled by two noted British architects and designers, this magnificent volume was intended to provide Victorian artists and crafters with a rich source of ornamentation adapted from the decoration of medieval buildings.
Meticulously reproduced motifs from rare 1882 edition, this volume contains all the original 166 full-color designs as well as the informative introduction and notes on the original plates. Among the designs are elaborate and richly colored diaper patterns, medallions for ornamental devices, pillars and arch moldings, bands and borders, floral and foliated designs, alphabets, illuminated initials, and much more. As in Victorian England, today's artists, designers, and crafters will find these beautiful royalty-free designs ideal for visual inspiration or immediate practical use. Students, art historians, and lovers of fine design will also welcome this collection for its splendid examples of medieval artistry.
Organ-Stops and Their Artistic Registration: Names, Forms, Construction, Tonalities, and Offices in Scientific Combination (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Organ-Stops and Their Artistic Registration:...)
Excerpt from Organ-Stops and Their Artistic Registration: Names, Forms, Construction, Tonalities, and Offices in Scientific Combination
An attempt has been made in the present work to furnish the organist, and especially the organ student, with a work of ready reference respecting the numerous Stops which have been and now are introduced in the Organ: giving, so far as is practicable in a necessarily brief and condensed form, their various names in different languages, peculiarities of formation, tonal characteristics, and value and office in scientific and artistic combination and artistic registration.
It is hoped that the work will be accepted as a text-book in Organ Schools and Conservatories of Music, leading toward, and lending help to, a branch of study of the greatest value and importance to the organ student; but one which, in too many quarters, has been seriously neglected. That a thorough knowledge of the tonal forces of the Organ and their varied powers in scientific and artistic combination and registration, for the production of special and expressive qualities of both compound, unimitative organ, and imitative orchestral tones, is essential to the accomplished organist, admits of no question. Accordingly, it is highly desirable that the student should leave the organ school with, at least, a foundation laid for that thorough knowledge. It is with the earnest desire to contribute effectively to the laying of that foundation that the present work is placed at the command of both teachers and pupils.
In another direction, and one of great importance at the present time, this work, if properly understood, will prove of considerable value; namely, in giving reliable advice and assistance in the preparation of stop appointments and apportionments for new Organs.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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Volume 2 of the fullest repository on organ building an...)
Volume 2 of the fullest repository on organ building and history in English language. Includes outline of organ history, external design and decoration, internal arrangement and mechanical systems, acoustics and theories of sound-production in organ pipes, tonal structure and appointment, compound stops of the organ, more. Complete with illustrations, tables, and specifications. "...the most significant republication in our field for the past twenty years...an incomparable, invaluable book." — American Guild of Organists Quarterly.
George Audsley was an American accomplished architect, artist, illustrator, writer, decorator and pipe organ designer.
Background
George Ashdown Audsley was born on September 6, 1838 in Elgin, Moray, Scotland. He was the son of John James Audsley and Frances Ashdown. At the age of eighteen he followed his brother William James Audsley and went to Liverpool, England.
Education
Audsley received his architectural education in his birthplace, being apprenticed at an early age to A. & W. Reid, who had a considerable reputation in Scotland at that time.
Career
In 1856 he was employed by architect John Weightman and worked as the borough surveyor in Liverpool. Then George had the practise of architecture in the heyday of the Gothic Revival, and at a time of much building throughout Great Britain, he established an early reputation that brought him and his brother many important commissions, among which may be mentioned the Welsh Church, St. Margaret's Church, Christ Church, and the Racquet Club in Liverpool, and, in association with N. S. Joseph, the West End Synagogue in London.
Later, Audsley moved to London, and lived there, confining himself to writing.
In New York he and his brother opened offices for the active practise of architecture.
During his latter years Audsley became enthralled by an interest in organ building, which had begun in his apprentice days, and which had grown rapidly through constant attendance at W. T. Best's recitals on the great organ of St. George's Hall in Liverpool.
This interest culminated in the construction of an organ for his own home, built with his own hands over a period of seven years, which included many innovations in the usual practise of the time. This organ, though of only nineteen registers, sold at auction, when their English home was broken up, for 5, 000 guineas; it is now, slightly altered, the property of Lord Dysart, at Ham House, Petersham.
Audsley's reputation as an expert in organ construction led to his selection as designer of the great organ in the Festival Hall of the St. Louis Exposition, an organ now in the John Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia. As with so many artists and architects, particularly in England, the enthusiasm of the Gothic Revival led Audsley to a careful study of ornament, and especially of polychrome ornament.
This study found expression in a long list of scholarly and lavishly produced books on ornament and illumination which form, even more than his work as practising architect, the foundation of his wide reputation.
Color interested him particularly, as is evident in the polychrome marble treatment of the chancel of his Philadelphia church, or the organ case designed by himself for the Church of Our Lady of Grace, in Hoboken.
Strongly under the influence of Ruskin, his fullest interest lay in ornament, in craftsmanship, in a loving care of detail, that made him, at enormous expense of time and money, supervise every process in the making of the color plates for his books, and made even his manuscripts, handwritten in pencil, works of art.
At the time of his death he had not yet completed a valuable work on the Pointed Architecture of England, to be illustrated with many photographs taken by himself.
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Volume 2 of the fullest repository on organ building an...)
Views
In architecture he followed the teachings of John Ruskin and rejected "sham architecture" such as "miserable inch-thick plaster" imitating stone vaulting and iron columns finished to look like marble. Audsley strongly insisted on quality materials both in buildings and pipe organs.
Personality
Audsley was dogmatic by nature and generally unwilling to compromise his ideals. In architecture he followed the teachings of John Ruskin.
Interests
Artists
John Ruskin
Connections
George was married to Mary McLellan, they had six children.