Well that's exactly the point: common sense dictates that, if Bach sat at an organ with many stopknobs, he did indeed push and pull them on occasion (just as a person with a full refrigerator would eat more than saltines). Common sense also dictates that, alas, Bach could have made only a conservative amount of stop changes while actually playing. This photo says a thousand words on the topic. (I won't reveal the name of the organist, except to say that he is now only 19 offspring away from Bach's record!)



http://site.pipeorgancds.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSC2927.jpg



Did Bach change stops in the middle of pieces? Sure, and in the same manner as César Franck: write a little passage with one note at a time (like the long D in the soprano in the A-minor chorale) and change the stops with the other hand. This is how Bach played Ein Feste Burg without having to play the final triumphant phrase on the Fagotto alone. Yet organists reject common sense time and time again, such as in the what-used-to-be-glorious interlude between the Adagio and Fugue, now played on one 8' Prinzipal alone. I feel quite certain Bach would have heard that effect and said, "Bitte?" 



------Original Message------

From: Bob Elms

To: Leonardo Ciampa

To: Piporg-L

Subject: RE: "It appears that the idea of changing stops was invented by FRANZ LISZT."

Sent: Jan 28, 2013 00:23



Was Franz Liszt alive and in England in the 15th Century?? Silly question

but my research for a thesis on early organs says that there were "stops" on

the English organs of the period. It is also a fact of history that Snetsler

used a shifting movement in some of his organs. To shift what? Stops of

course.

Bob Elms.



-----Original Message-----



Subject: Re: "It appears that the idea of changing stops was invented by

FRANZ LISZT."

Sent: Jan 26, 2013 09:29









Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®



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