A sizeable proportion of Bach’s oeuvre was written for the organ, and this in itself is a good enough reason for us to familiarise ourselves with the instrument. Playing an organ in a church can also be a great personal project if you have the chance.
Unfortunately it’s rare these days to enter a church and hear the organ in use, except during church services. Organ music is one of the least known genres of classical music. Most people associate the organ with church hymns, the big echoing sound of an English Cathedral organ with all the stops out, or the single button marked “organ” on an electronic keyboard. But there is an infinite subtlety and beauty of organ registration to relish. Some familiarity with organ playing can certainly increase appreciation of the supreme works for this instrument over the last four centuries. Take for example some of the really exhilarating fugues by Bach. Knowing how difficult pedal playing is adds to the excitement when the pedal makes its dramatic entry. I’m thinking of the fugues from the “Fantasia & Fugue in G minor” (BWV542), the “Prelude and Fugue in A Minor” (BWV543), the “Toccata and Fugue in C major” (BWV564), and the “Fugue in G minor” (BWV578).
The organ console
I recently watched Richard Taylor’s BBC series “Churches: how to read them”. A fascinating account of the English church but not a single mention of the organ, which is the first thing I look for! Unfortunately, this lack of interest in the king of instruments is typical. Organs come in all shapes and sizes. The console can include anything from one keyboard to six, and one pedal board. Two keyboards (also known as “manuals” or “divisions”) should be enough for baroque music – the swell and the great. A third keyboard known as the choir can also help out, as shown in the picture below:
The pedals in the baroque period were straight and flat. “Straight” meaning the pedals were parallel, as opposed to radiating. And “flat” meaning that the “black notes” were all of equal length, as opposed to a “concave” pedal board with longer black notes at the low and high end.
Later organs have more stops or other devices at foot level, including the swell pedal.
The pipes
The basic mechanism of the pipe organ is that wind – in the past generated by the poor choir boy manually exercising the bellows – is blown through pipes of different lengths. The basic length of a pipe is 8’ (8 feet). A pipe of 4’ will be an octave higher, and 2’ will be an octave above that. A long 16’ pipe would be an octave deeper, available only for the pedals. These are all “foundation stops”, with a single pitch emitted when one depresses a key with the finger or a pedal with the foot. “Mutation stops” introduce other pitches for more colour. A 2 2/3’ (a twelth) stop adds a voice an octave and a half above, so playing a C on the keyboard would sound a G higher up, and a 1 3/5’ (a tierce) would sound a very high ‘F’. Some stops represent combinations of pipes, notated in roman numerals so a “III” stop would be a combination of three stops – although it won’t always be clear what they are.
Different timbres are achieved by different types of pipes. The organist has the following range at his disposal:
Flue pipes
The air is forced out of a narrow slot at the base of the pipe:
- flutes – these are the widest pipes. They are either open at the top or are “closed” with a cap, making them sound an octave higher. Names include flute, clarabelle, spitzflute, piccollo, bourdon, gedeckt, stopped diapason… depending on the organ. Flute pipes make the purest softest sound.
- principals (diapasons) – these are the visible front pipes, of medium width and generate that typical organ sound most people think of. Names include octave, prestant, montre, contrebasse and octavebasse. They have a bit more depth and bite compared with the flutes.
- strings – the same mechanism as above (there are no actual strings inside the pipes!), but they are very thin and are known by such names as violone, viola, gamba, salicional, voix celeste, dulciana etc depending on the organ.
Reed pipes
A brass “tongue” is made to vibrate inside the pipe. The stops are thus named after reed instruments – trumpet, trombone, horn, cornopean, oboe, clarinet, clarion, bombarde, cromorne, hautbois, fagotto, basson, claron. One stop is even called the ‘vox humana’ since it is supposed to imitate a choir!
A “tremulant” make the voice wobble – although it should be used sparingly. Otherwise there’s a distinct danger of sounding like an old cinema organ! A “swell pedal” (“expression pedal”) is a lever operated by the foot to vary the volume of the swell manual as you play, not appropriate for baroque music.
You can also ‘couple’ divisions to make the stops selected on an upper division also apply to a lower one. Hence a “swell to great” (or “CF” – cantus firmus) lever would couple the great to the swell. You might also have “great to pedal” and “swell to pedal” couplers. There is even a couple, sometimes called the manual bass (MB) whereby the lowest key on the great is also played with the pedal stops. Not advisable unless you feel emphasising the base note all the way through the piece is really appropriate.
Registration
The wonderfully unique aspect of organ playing, and little understood by the general public, is the question of registration. This is the selection of stops chosen for a given piece. Each organ will have its own stoplist (the “disposition” of the organ). The specifications of different organs, the acoustics of the church in which the organ is housed and the actual choice of stops selected make the potential range of sounds incredibly wide. The same piece can feel completely different depending on the organ and the registration chosen.
The first question is whether to play on a single manual or several manuals. Bach’s four-part chorales, for example, would be played on a single manual, and the big preludes played with “organo pleno” (ie with many stops pulled out, making a very rich loud sound) might be played entirely on the great. But if you wish to contrast the voices by playing on two manuals, as you would with the quieter trio sonatas or chorale preludes, then you might start with the following basic plan:
- Great (left hand) – a basic flute combination of 8’+4’
- Swell (right hand) – flutes 8’, 4’, and a 2’ or 11/3 for a fresher lighter sound, and perhaps also a reed stop like an oboe (hautbois) 8’
- Pedal – a selection of flue stops (eg soubasse 16’, montre 8’, flute 4’) possibly coupled with the great manual for a fuller sound; adding a reed stop like a trumpet 8’ might sometimes work well
Further stops can be added to broaden out the sound.
Experimenting with registration is a central part of the organist’s task. Some of Bach’s pieces are marked for 2 manuals and pedal, some are marked for organo pleno but usually there are no indications. In “Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier” he specifies that the right hand is “forte” and the left is “piano”. In the St Anne Prelude in E flat major there are clearly manual changes for the echo sections, marked by “forte” and “piano”. There are also some comments in Bach’s own hand in his Schübler chorales. The only piece I’m aware of with specific registration marks is “Gott, durch deine Güte” from the Orgelbüchlein where he specifies a “Man. Princip. 8F” (principal 8’ for the right hand) and “Ped Tromp. 8F” (a trompete 8’ in the pedal); the left hand is not specified. Some of his organ pieces are derived from his cantatas, so for these pieces we can have an idea of the intended effect.
But if only we had an exact record of how Bach registered his own works! The few comments by contemporaries only make us dream what it would have been like to witness him in action:
- Obituary: “He…understood the art of playing the organ, of combining the various stops of the instrument in the most skilful manner, and of displaying each stop according to its character in the greatest perfection… “
- Agricola: “the late Capellmeister Bach was a great friend of the reeds; he for one must have known what could be played on them, and how”
- CPE Bach to Forkel: “No one understood registration at the organ as well as he. Organists were often terrified when he sat down to play on their organs and drew the stops in his own manner, for they thought that the effect could not be good as he was planning it; but then they gradually heard an effect that astounded them. These sciences perished with him…”
Keyboard technique
One quickly gets accustomed to the relative heaviness of the keys on an organ compared with the piano. What is more difficult is that fact that, as with the harpsichord, the force with which a key is depressed does not affect the volume of the sound. An “ff” (very loud) or “pp” (very quiet, or ‘piano’) can only be achieved by switching to a different manual with heavier or lighter stops pre-selected. A note will therefore sound only depending on whether a key is depressed or not. No fudging is possible, so any inaccuracies will ring out for all to hear. Good fingering is therefore of the essence, including finger substitution in order not to interrupt the line. Another challenge is to respect the duration long notes should be held on for. On the piano, notes gradually die away and therefore the precise moment one releases the note is not always so critical.
Pedal technique
I concede that interest in pedal technique is a rather recherché topic and not of any interest to most people. But for some strange reason it does holds a fascination for me, and my library of books includes titles such as “Bach’s feet”.
Pedals can be depressed either by the toes (ie the soul of the shoe) or the heel. When the pedalling is written in, “^” indicates a toe, and “o” indicates the heel. Placing the symbol above the note means the right foot, and the symbol below the note means the left.
We don’t have any record of Bach’s own pedalling practice and techniques have changed significantly over time, so there is still today much guesswork regarding how Bach’s pieces should actually be pedalled. There is no equivalent to the “Applicato” that we have for the fingers. Take for example the splendid slow-moving base of “Nun komm’, der Heiden Heiland” (BWV 659). A quick check on YouTube will show that one organist plays the whole of the opening bar with the toe of the left foot, the next organist will play legato just with toes – left, right, left, right, and a third organist will choose yet another combination.
There are two distinct styles of pedalwork – slow and fast:
- With fast pedal work, as in the show-off pedal solos, and pieces such as the “Prelude in B Minor” or the solo pedalwork of the “Toccata and Fugue in C Major”, everything can be played with the toes. Since the feet play adjacent notes in quick succession, it’s important to place one foot quite a bit in front of the other to avoid clashing. Balance on the bench can also be a challenge when both feet are very high up or low down on the pedalboard.
- With slow pedal work, most can still be played with the toes, but the heels can help out with a legato style. There are plenty of pieces where two contrapuntal lines are played on the pedals – we can call these “double pedal works” such as “Aus tiefer Noth schrei’ ich zu dir” (volume 16/page 68 of Novello), “An Wasserflüssen Babylon” (v18/p13) and “Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, Vater” (v19/p30), and these surely confirm that toes are not always enough and that the heel was definitely part of pedalling practice at the time.
And for sure Bach would have crossed his feet too on some occasions. Consider the start of the “Prelude and Fugue in D major”, BWV 532 (book 6/pg10) – a quick upwards scale on the pedals! This would be completely impossible without crossing feet over. It’s usually played with the toes: left, right, left, right, left, right moving up the pedalboard. And the fugue of the same piece when the pedals come in is probably played the same way, which I find almost impossible.
Other considerations
As a rough rule of thumb, we can say that Bach should be played with the toes whenever possible. To facilitate this, it’s important to position the bench high enough, and not too far back. Thus, one can play with the ball of the foot, or even pointing down and playing with the toe of the shoe.
You should sit with your feet at rest on middle C and middle E. The ideal is not to look down at the pedals when playing. Bach seems to help us here – when the pedal returns after a long rest, it will almost invariably return where it left off.
Choice of footwear is important too. If not proper organ shoes, the next best thing for men are narrow office shoes with a bit of a heel. It might be tempting to play in socks since it’s easier to feel for the notes, but then you can’t play rapidly or use your heel.
I mention all these details because even if you don’t take up the organ, it’s nice to know a minimum about the instrument that decks almost every religious building in Europe.
There is nothing like sitting in the organ loft, smelling the dust and the damp, pulling out the stops and hearing the sound echo through the church! However, it can be rather daunting to try out an organ in a church when people can just wander in. I purchased an electric liturgical organ to get round this problem. Not a Hammond or a Moog synthesizer, but a proper church console (I chose the Johannus Opus 250) as next best thing to a pipe organ. I could then get used to the sensation of playing an organ, the pedalling (the hardest thing) and registration in the comfort of my own home.
Books to buy
Every aspiring organist should equip himself with the “Novello” series of Bach’s collected organ works. The notes are rather opinionated and they don’t hold back from stating where Bach went wrong, and pointing out “clumsy” or “commonplace” passages! I also picked up a volume from Marcel Dupré’s series of 12 books of Bach organ works (in order to have the partitas, for some reason not included in Novello), and it’s interesting to study the musical notation that Dupré invented for the organ – for example when 2 notes are played, the first one might be cut short to allow it to breathe, and a staccato dot would be placed above the note. This series of books is probably also worth purchasing, with their very detailed fingering and pedalling indications.
As far as reference books are concerned, I would recommend Peter Hurford’s “Making music on the organ” and Arthur Wills’ “Organ”. And for an organ repertoire I can’t do better than recommend “Arts and Ideas” (by me).