George Ashdown Audsley - Pipe Organs

Pipe Organs

George Ashdown Audsley's interest in the pipe organ was largely fueled by early experiences hearing W. T. Best at St. George's Hall, Liverpool. Audsley wrote numerous magazine articles on the organ early in his career and as early as the 1880s was envisioning huge instruments with numerous divisions each under separate expression, in imitation of the symphony orchestra. The Los Angeles Art Organ Co. (successors to the Murray M. Harris Organ Company) had Audsley design the world's largest organ they were building for the St. Louis Exposition of 1904. This instrument eventually was purchased for the John Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia, PA, where it is today known as the Wanamaker Organ. In 1905, Audsley published the monumental two-volume The Art of Organ-Building as an attempt to position himself as the pre-eminent organ designer in the US. The lavish work includes numerous superb drawings done by Audsley and is still consulted today although organ fashions have evolved in many directions in the ever-fluid, passion-driven world of music. He was an early advocate of console standardization and radiating concave pedal keyboards to accommodate the natural movement of human legs. Unfortunately, his plan to develop the profession of "organ architect" as a consultant to work in consultation with major builders in achieving a high-art product was short-lived. Few commissions for pipe organs or buildings came his way. In subsequent years, he wrote several works, one of which was published posthumously, that were essentially shortened forms of his 1905 organ building book, updated to comment on controversies of the day and the rapid advances in applying electro-pneumatic actions and playing aids to the craft. The National Association of Organists (now defunct) bestowed an Audsley medal in his honor.