The box of whistles — Edition Insights

A Traveler's Eye for Detail

Norbury's notes are anchored by specific dates—1866, 1868, 1869, 1875—and by precise observations of case structure. At Troyes Cathedral, he describes a five-tower case with a central tower containing the five largest pipes, surmounted by King David with his harp. He notes the angels holding festoons of flowers, the giants supporting the end towers, and a sitting angel playing a violin. The Choir Organ has three towers, the smallest carrying a shield. Such detail is typical: Norbury records the number of pipes per tower, the presence of carved panels, and the use of materials like oak, gilding, or natural wood. He also notes when pipes are left 'their natural colour,' a default for foreign organs unless stated otherwise.

Judgments of Quality and Tone

Norbury does not merely describe; he evaluates. At St. Lo, he finds the organ 'noisy and bad.' At Strasburg Cathedral, Silberman's instrument is 'sweet, but a little muffled.' He notes that a lady had presided at the Strasburg organ for some years, and that it received damage during the siege. At St. Lawrence, Jewry, he praises one of Harris's organs as 'of nearly perfect design.' These judgments are terse but revealing: Norbury values clarity, balance, and appropriate power. He also comments on practical matters, such as the proposal at Troyes to remove a stone vault and replace it with iron girders to better reveal a rose window. His eye is as much on the building as on the instrument.

The Organ Case as Architecture

Norbury's classification of organ cases into four classes, with subdivisions, suggests a systematic approach. He discusses style—Gothic, Renaissance, modern Gothic—and argues that a case need not correspond with the architecture of the building. He notes that tin pipes are seldom used, and that English cases over the last hundred years have varied widely. He describes the arrangement of towers, the use of 'ponts' (bridges), and the role of carving between pipes. The Choir Organ, he observes, can serve as a screen to the player. His illustrations, though not reproduced in the excerpts, are clearly integral: the frontispiece shows St. Paul's, and larger images are available by clicking. Norbury's work is as much a visual record as a textual one.

Readers should approach The Box of Whistles as a period document, not a comprehensive history. Norbury's judgments are personal and his coverage uneven—he saw what he could, when he could. The value lies in the specificity: the dates, the pipe counts, the descriptions of carving and gilding. For those interested in organ architecture, this is a primary source of observations made on the ground in the 1860s and 1870s. The illustrations, though not fully represented here, are essential to the work's purpose.

Flipping through Norbury's organ cases, I often pause on his quiet joy in how a wooden shell shapes the breath within. That fondness for hidden structure echoes, strangely, in the pages of Musical Studies — Text and Context, where the same patient curiosity lingers. Both feel less like lectures and more like a friend pointing softly at something lovely.