Dear Claudio!


> Am 11.01.2017 um 18:21 schrieb J. Claudio Di Veroli <[log in to unmask]>:
> 
>> Ibo wrote ...  I actually don't see how that would be evidence for an
>> assumption of repertoire playing on an organ.
> 
> We seem to have too many disagreements on this Ibo (in both ideas and
> sources) and I could put forward more arguments, but let us leave it for
> another time and place, except for something I find more obvious …

Which sources? 
Since 2003, when I have started to present the evidence, I have asked again and again for counter evidence. Nothing has come up, that has held up to scrutiny. I always hear, that people want to confront me in the future with the counter-evidence. Then, however, that future apparently never happens. If I ask for evidence, people back from presenting - however always telling me with conviction that I certainly must be wrong.

If repertoire playing was common on organs in Northern and Central Germany, also in the Netherlands (and the Lutheran countries of the North), then there should be quite a lot of evidence from 1450 to ca. 1740.  People tend to write about the like   ("Out of the abundance/fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh”). 
Where are all the reports from thousands of places where people made music every Sunday on the organ, every week, every year, decade, century? 

And, of course the counter evidence must tackle the question, why numerous description of organist’s practice (Werckmeister, Mattheson, Niedt to name a few around 1700 +/- 30 years) consistently talk against the (as they put it) unprofessionalism to play previously composed genuine “organ pieces”. How can all these writers from different places be wrong in their observation and advice?


If you have evidence, please, present it. I at least am eager to learn. 


>>> Claudio wrote: found in small Southern German organs (of which not many
>>> survive AFAIK).
>>> Even a few large scale organ works (such as the Fuga on the Magnificat
>>> BWV 733 and the Pastorale BWV 590) use this restricted pedal range.

>> Ibo wrote: That kind of rather short pedal boards existed in Germany, as
>> you say, in the south. ... The southern organ building tradition is,
>> however, not relevant for Bach … 

> Let me just observe that MOST works by JSBach requiring pedals (and I will
> be glad to hear from you about the exceptions) can be classified as
> belonging to one of three groups:
> 
> 1. Using a full two-octave-plus pedalboard: most of the great solo works
> 
> 2. Using just one or two pedal notes: a few WTC pieces and some Organ
> Chorales
> 
> 3. Using exactly the one-octave-short-octave range I referred to. Both the
> Magnificant Fugue and the Pastorale use 8 of the 9 notes available (the
> Magnificant omits the low C, the other the high c). Statistically, IMHO this
> is too much of a fitting to be a coincidence. 


We agree on the observation. But for what exactly should it be coincidence? That there were different types of organ pedals in Saxony and Thuringia? No. We know that the standard pedal compass of large and small organs in Bach’s area and time was CDEFGA-c1 or CDE-c1. Seldom a chromatic compass and very seldom the compass would exceed above c3 (more in older organs for reason of transposition). And not one single case for Contra-B which is required three times in Bach’s “organ works”.

Best 
Ibo
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