This is a question which may be a daft one, but it’s a thing I’d really like to know, as a pianist with a fascination with Bach’s music coming to the organ relatively recently.
The Well-Tempered Clavier (Books 1 & 2) is sometimes played on the organ rather than the piano (or harpsichord, clavichord etc), and there are a few recordings of it thus. Some critics think it’s better on the organ.
Seeing as Bach did not write the work to require pedals, when organists play it, do they play it on the manuals as if on an instrument with no pedalboard? Or do they completely re-think the execution from how it would be done on piano? For example, would they probably play a 3-voice fugue on Swell for top voice, Great for middle voice and Pedal for bottom voice, so as to clearly separate the voices by timbre (though that might create a difficult pedal part)? What might they do in the case of a 4 or 5-voice fugue? Would they adapt a prelude somehow to incorporate the pedals?
Thanks for any knowledge or insights.
David
The Well-Tempered Clavier (Books 1 & 2) is sometimes played on the organ rather than the piano (or harpsichord, clavichord etc), and there are a few recordings of it thus. Some critics think it’s better on the organ.
Seeing as Bach did not write the work to require pedals, when organists play it, do they play it on the manuals as if on an instrument with no pedalboard? Or do they completely re-think the execution from how it would be done on piano? For example, would they probably play a 3-voice fugue on Swell for top voice, Great for middle voice and Pedal for bottom voice, so as to clearly separate the voices by timbre (though that might create a difficult pedal part)? What might they do in the case of a 4 or 5-voice fugue? Would they adapt a prelude somehow to incorporate the pedals?
Thanks for any knowledge or insights.
David
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