| Travelling around Europe in the 1770s to collect material for his History of Music, Charles Burney, who had trained as an organist, wondered at the organs he saw, heard and played on the Continent. He generally found them too large, noisy, and coarse, and did not see the point of them having pedals which he thought only rendered it cumbersome for the player to display a fine taste. Concerning the celebrated Haarlem organ built by Christian Müller in 1734, he wrote:
[The organist, Mr. Binder] played three or four fugues in a very full and masterly manner, making great use of the pedals. I did not indeed find him possessed of much fancy; but in the German manner of playing, there is not much opportunity of shewing it. To use the pedals of these huge instruments much, at the same time as two hands are fully employed on the stiff and heavy manuals, is a very laborious business. The multiplicity of stops in this organ, amounting to 54, only augments noise, and adds to the weight of the touch. […] [Mr. Binder], when he had done, was in as violent a heat with fatigue and exertion, as if he had run eight or ten miles, full-speed, over ploughed lands in the dog-days. |
|
|
|