From Edinburgh to Dunedin via ChristchurchThe life of a concert organist is anything but dull; and if you're blind, there are extra challenges. David Bridgeman-Sutton has been reading how Alfred Hollins coped.
Alfred Hollins - A Blind Musician Looks Back,
pub. Bardon Enterprises |
Alfred Hollins
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All players know the problems associated with performing on large and unfamiliar organs. Alfred Hollins(1865-1942) compensated for the additional handicap of blindness by the most thorough preparation. Only once did he think that he might have to withdraw from giving a concert. This was on an instrument provided with "light touches". These discs - similar to the controls found in some lifts - operated stops when they were touched - but did not themselves move. Indication of whether a register was "on" or "off" was by a small bulb that lit within the disc when a stop was "drawn".
This seemed an impossible arrangement for a player who relied entirely on memory aided by "feel". Fortunately, Hollins found that the bulb, when lit, gave out a small degree of warmth that his fingers could detect and was able to give his planned programme. The nearest he came to breaking down was when, during a several bar rest in the score, an audible voice remarked "There, he's beat: I knew he'd never remember it." Always one to see the funny side of his own predicaments, AH had to extend the rest while he recovered his composure.
This seemed an impossible arrangement for a player who relied entirely on memory aided by "feel". Fortunately, Hollins found that the bulb, when lit, gave out a small degree of warmth that his fingers could detect and was able to give his planned programme. The nearest he came to breaking down was when, during a several bar rest in the score, an audible voice remarked "There, he's beat: I knew he'd never remember it." Always one to see the funny side of his own predicaments, AH had to extend the rest while he recovered his composure.
He knew many of the great organs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in their original condition. Some, such as Sydney's famous five-manual Hill he saw (his own word) in the builder's shops before it was dispatched and he derived great pleasure from playing in its permanent home some years later. He drew up the specification for the Johannesburg Town Hall instrument and oversaw its construction by Norman and Beard. Hollins gives some interesting statistics about the contract - not least that the skins of 520 sheep were used in making the bellows, reservoirs and motors!
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He recalled the great Kimball instruments at the Wanamaker stores in New York and - more famously - Philadelphia, though the latter had "only" five manuals at the time of his visit. He remarked that at that time (the mid 1920s) the younger school of American organists "had no use for any music save that of Bach and the modern French composers, especially Cesar Franck".
Alfred Hollins rarely expressed any critical opinion of any organ he played, seeing it as his duty to make the best of every instrument and to entertain his audience, though he praises some more than others. His own favourite instrument was the 1911 four-manual Harrison in St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol - an organ that is little altered to-day. |
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His memoirs are full of impressions and comment on the town and cities he visited. Chimes on large bells he found fascinating and gives the notation of numerous chiming clocks that he thought attractive. His favourite seems to have been Dunedin Town Hall, the chimes of which were "unlike any I ever heard before or since" and appear in musical notation in his book. The single bell that impressed him most was that used for striking the hour at Sydney Post Office. It is sad that, to-day, the background noise of traffic makes bell- spotting difficult in most towns.
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Asides about places occur on nearly every page. Winnipeg suffered from the severest cold he had ever encountered: by contrast, Cape Town had the most agreeable climate. His pleasure in South Africa was somewhat lessened by the discovery of the immense damage that rats and mice did to the country's organs, sometimes putting complete divisions out of action overnight. In Christchurch (NZ) he found the roadside gutters were covered by wooden walkways, enabling pedestrians to cross dry-shod and thought the arrangement should be widely copied elsewhere (These walkways were not in evidence 50 years after Hollins' visit: victims of motor traffic?)
He was able to build his international career only through the understanding of the Church Session of St George's West, Edinburgh, where he was organist from 1895 until the end of his life. The church still contains the TC Lewis / Rushworth and Dreaper organ on the specification of which Hollins advised. The church is one of the Scottish capital's lesser-known architectural gems and well worth a visit.
He was able to build his international career only through the understanding of the Church Session of St George's West, Edinburgh, where he was organist from 1895 until the end of his life. The church still contains the TC Lewis / Rushworth and Dreaper organ on the specification of which Hollins advised. The church is one of the Scottish capital's lesser-known architectural gems and well worth a visit.
David Bridgeman-Sutton,
2002
2002
Alfred Hollins - A Blind Musician Looks Back,
pub. Bardon Enterprises
pub. Bardon Enterprises
