Ancient Automatic Organ
By Stephen Bicknell, forwarded by Karl Petersen
I have waited a bit to forward this lest it prove to be merely a brainfahrt of the illustrious historian and sometime spoof-spinner, Stephen Bicknell, but he claims it is not without documentable sources. --Karl P.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 10:50:17 +0100
From: Stephen Bicknell <oneskull@dircon.co.uk>
Subject: Thomas Dallam's Turkish Organ
[Travels of a 16thC Organ Builder - Dallam's diary is British Museum Additional Ms. 17480. It was published in 1893 by the Hakluyt Society in a volume called Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant. The account I quoted was taken from a delightful (though now rare) modern popular version, 'An Organ for the Sultan' by Stanley Mayes (Putnam, London 1956).]
Nothing is known of how Thomas Dallam learnt the craft of organ building, but in 1599 he springs to our notice as the hero of a notable adventure.
Here is a great and curious present going to the great Turk which no doubt wil be much talked of, and be very scandalous among other nations specially the Germans.
The present, sent by Queen Elizabeth to Sultan Mehmet III (but paid for by the Levant Company) was a combined clock and organ; the organ was operated either by a barrel mechanism set in operation by the clock, or from its own keyboard. It also sported an array of complex automata and mechanical toys, described in Dallam's own words later.
Dallam, sent to Constantinople with the organ, wrote a remarkable diary of his journey, and it is from this that we know he was the maker. We learn a good deal about Dallam: fluent in prose, modest, sharp witted and good humoured, he is on several occasions able to turn difficult situations to his own account and still has time to entertain his fellow travellers on a pair of virginals bought specially for the trip. Any such journey would have been eventful four hundred years ago; Dallam's is no exception. He weathers 'a marvalus greate storme' in the Channel, encounters a squadron of seven pirate ships, is unexpectedly interrogated by the King of Algiers, enjoys the hospitable ceremonies traditional in Greece at Easter, narrowly escapes arrest in Rhodes and marvels at the remains of Troy before he finally arrives at his destination. His ability to describe the various wonders he meets is quite remarkable: in a thunderstorm he sees lightning 'lyke a verrie hote iron taken out of a smythe's forge, sometimes in liknes of a roninge worme, another time lyke a horsshow, and agine lyke a lege and a foute'. When the organ is unpacked it proves to be damaged and mildewed, and Dallam and his assistants spend ten days on repairs before moving it to the Seraglio and re-erecting it. Dallam describes the ceremony at which the organ is presented to the Sultan; at the appointed hour the clockwork sets the instrument going:
All being quiett, and no noyes at all, the presente began to salute the Grand Sinyor; for when I left it I did alow a quarter of an hour for his coming thether. Firste the clocke strouke 22; than The chime of 16 bels went of, and played a songe of 4 partes. That beinge done, tow personagis which stood upon to corners of the seconde storie, houldinge tow silver trumpetes in there handes, did lift them to their heades, and sounded a tantarra. Than the muzicke went of, and the orgon played a song of 5 partes twyse over. In the tope of the orgon, being 16 foute hie, did stande a holly bushe full of blacke birds and thrushis, which at the end of the musick did singe and shake their wynges. Divers other motions thare was which the Grand Sinyor wondered at.
Seeing the keyboard move as the organ sounded, the Sultan asked if any man present could play it. Sure enough, the nervous Dallam was ushered into his presence, and 'stoude thar playinge suche thinge as I coulde'.
Dallam's diary leaves us completely in the dark about the organ itself or about his work as its builder; we would know nothing more if it was not for the fact that a contemporary description of what is clearly the same instrument (or at least a proposal for it) surfaced in 1860. Though the account of the movements set off by the clock is different from Dallam's description of the finished instrument, this document notes that it is to cost =A3550 (the large price accounted for by the unusual complexity of the mechanism and elaborate decoration in silver and gold) and gives us the earliest surviving specification of an English organ (spelling and punctuation probably of 1860).
There shall be placed in the lower part of the instrument three several strong, forcible and artificial bellows, with a very strong, sufficient motion of wheels and pinions, very well wrought, and sufficient to drive and move the bellows at all times from time to time, for the space of six hours together, whensoever the wheels and pinions shall be applied to such purpose; and that there shall be contained within the said instrument a board called a sound-board, with certain instruments or engines called his barrels and keys, and five [sic] whole stops of pipes, viz. one open principal, unison recorder, octavo principal, and a flute, besides a shaking stop, a drum and a nightingale.
Stephen Bicknell |
(Message sent Wed 3 Apr 1996, 03:35:47 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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