livre d

'orgue_, 1665.]

The same combinations are found in Le Bègue, Clairembault, André Raison. The last-named presents a curious example of the contrast of the _plein-jeu_ to the reeds, in the "Kyrie in the first mode for the _plein-jeu_ accompanied on the pedal by a _Trompette en taille_."[156]

[Footnote 156: _Livre d'orgue_, 1688.]

This absence of the reeds from the _volles Werk_, to which other writers also bear witness, is, from a practical point of view, worthy of perpetuation, especially if we consider the very considerable place in certain modern organs occupied by this family, and the intensity of _timbre_ due to their harmonic construction.

These registers were not numerous in organs of that time, at least in Germany, and, it must be added, badly voiced; they were often nothing but antiquated imitations of the thin and shrill _Regal_.

Andreas Werckmeister, known through his works upon the temperament of tones as applied to the organ, wrote (_Orgelprobe_, 1681):

_Schnarrwerk Ist unterweilen Narrwerk; Ist es aber frisch und guth, So erfrischt es Herz und Muth._[157]

[Footnote 157: "Reed-stops are often Fool-stops; but if they be clear and bright, they are refreshing to heart and soul."]

In old-fashioned proverbial guise Werckmeister shows us quite well what was expected from this class of stops; slow of speech, of a sharp, cutting timbre, they would not have blended with the foundation stops combined with the mixtures--an _ensemble_ which lends extraordinary harmonic fulness to the polyphony when the combinations are judiciously made. The reeds were fitted rather to voice a serious and quiet melody, as a solo. Thanks to their sometimes strange tones, which seem, as Goethe said, to herald the advent of past centuries, echoes of supernatural voices, where the human voice, with its individual character, would lose the power of expression--the antique chorale-melody is illuminated, detached from the accompaniment, and comes as from on high; it is the gold and scarlet illumination of the missals, whereon the sacred words are brought into relief, themselves devoid of ornament, in their regular lines, but interlaced by ingenious arabesques of a softer tone, almost effaced by the brightness of the whole.

One direction of Bach's proves that he adopted this usage: in No. 2 of the _Orgelbüchlein_ (_Gottes Sohn ist kommen_) the chorale is played upon the eight-foot trumpet in the pedal; the chorale _In Dulci Jubilo_, composed about the same time, undoubtedly demands the same registration.

It is well known that these two chorales possess a pedal-part extending unusually high (_F_ and _F_ sharp); this was the Cöthen pedal. In playing them upon an ordinary instrument, Bach undoubtedly played the pedal an octave lower, with a four-foot register. The organs of that period usually contained a four-foot reed-stop on the pedal, called a Cornet (which must not be confounded with the mixture of that name), or a _Chalumeau_ (_Schalmey_), sometimes even of two feet. This use of stops of a higher pitch in the pedal was an old tradition; Samuel Scheidt availed himself of them in playing the chorale, and we find them expressly called for in several of six chorales published at Zella by Schübler, with the Bach annotations.[158]

[Footnote 158: _Sechs Choräle von verschiedener Art auf einer Orgel mit 2 Clavieren und Pedal vorzuspielen, verfertiget von Johann Sebastian Bach, königl. Pohln. und Churf. Sächs. Hoff-Compositeur, Capellm. und Direct. Chor. Mus. Lips. In Verlegung Joh. Georg Schüblers zu Zella am Thüringer Wald._

These chorales are taken from the cantatas composed at Leipzig. They are, however, only transcriptions; it is interesting in registrating them to know their orchestration. In the chorale _Ach bleib' bei uns!_ (B.-G. xxv, P. vi, 2) the melody is sung by the soprano, accompanied by a _violoncello piccolo_, the _continuo_ sustaining the harmony. In _Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn_ (_Magnificat_, P. vii, 42), the _continuo_ is played by the pedal, the parts entrusted to the left hand corresponding to the duet between tenor and alto, while the chorale (_dextra forte_) is executed in the score by the first and second oboes and the trumpet.]

Besides the reeds--trumpet, _chalumeau_, clarion, or _vox humana_--other combinations were permitted for the execution upon one manual of an accompanied solo. Mattheson (_Der vollkommene Kapellmeister_) gives us some examples; among others, the _viola da gamba_ played alone, the eight-foot principal, and the cornet, the Flauto traverso, the eight-foot bourdon, and a two-foot _Waldflöte_.

By their particular qualities, these different combinations of registers, now in higher, now in lower relief, were suited to the performance even of the chorales. In fact, it may be said that without doubt the reeds were reserved, within the limits which we have defined, for the joyous chorales of the feast-days; the organists were governed by the necessity of adapting their manner of playing to the joyful or mournful solemnities of the liturgical year. "One plays much stronger at Easter," says Adlung,[159] "than for the funeral service; for Good Friday one must, if possible, use still more discretion." The employment of softer registers for the more serious chorales, and for funeral chants, is also recommended by Christoph Raupach, of Stralsund.[160]

[Footnote 159: _Musica mechanica organoedi_ (Langensalza, 1762).]

[Footnote 160: _Der vollkommene Kapellmeister_,