J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

elieve) in German, the compleatly well tempered Clavier, which you know is alike
applicable to Clavichord, Harpsichord, Piano Forte, or Organ but there is no Question
that it is only on the Organ their sublime & beautiful Effects can be truly heard’. 97 For
the English organists of this time: William Russell, Thomas Adams, and Wesley
himself, a performance on the organ of a Bach prelude and fugue almost always refers
to one from the WTC. W. T. Best, the first of the modern recital organists, spoke of
how Thomas Adams ‘would regale us with one of the “48”, supplying a droning pedal
when his bunions were propitious.’ 98 Wesley may have been correct about their non
keyboard-specific nature; J. S. Bach kept these pieces within the standard range of the
organ of his time (C-c'''), at times recomposing material in order to do so. The main
reason for this English practice, however, was the difficulty involved in performing his
pedaliter works. The English organ had very little in common with its Germanic
counterpart, lacking both a full secondary manual 99 and a pedal division. Samuel
Wesley and his associates solved the latter problem by treating these pieces as duets.
One of the impressive aspects of Wesley’s devotion to Bach was his refusal to limit
himself to the relative convenience of the WTC—he was not about to let a mere
technical difficulty prevent him from making the organ works known. Wesley’s
instruments and performance opportunities were very different from those of J. S.
Bach, and he had no inhibitions about presenting Bach’s music in what he felt was the
best possible light: ‘we are to have some Sebastian [twelve fugues, all except two from
the WTC], arranged by Horn for 2 Violins, Tenor & Bass, & a glorious Effect they
97 Letter to William Crotch, 25 November 1808, ibid., p.89. This firm association in Wesley’s mind
between J. S. Bach and the organ makes it all the more more curious that, as we have seen, there is
so little sign of Bach’s style in his own organ music.
98 Letter from Best to the (anonymous) author, quoted in: ‘The organ recital: A contribution towards its
history’, The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular 40/679 (September 1, 1899), 603. On the
other hand Samuel Wesley spoke very highly of Adams’ pedal technique (Olleson, Wesley, p.306).
Is this a case of how expectations had changed between the beginning and the end of the century?
Or had Adams’ technique declined by the time Best heard him (perhaps when he was living in
London between 1852 and 1855)?
99 The contemporary English swell often had only a partial compass, and lacked the assertive character
of the German Rückpositiv or Oberwerk.
178