Walther is very close indeed - in style and in life (only a few years age difference and in neighbouring towns). Good thinking! Tim

Thank you so much! Nice to hear from you again. Tim

Very nice thought. Buxtehude's chorale preludes tend to be a bit more elaborate, though - less chordal, more notes per beat. But certainly in the right area ... Tim

Well done! Tim

Really good reasoning, and not at all far off! And I guessed you would like the instrument ... Tim

Glad you enjoyed it! Tim

Thank you - glad you enjoyed it! Tim

Yes, a wonderful work! Tim

Thank you. I'm very pleased that we're in agreement about the performance style for this piece. I don't like the idea of playing it very slowly and heavily. Often, if the tempo is slowed down very much the pulse of the piece perversely accelerates becase rather than a "crotchet" pulse it sounds like a "quaver" pulse, which then becomes very busy and fussy and does not coincide with the narural harmonic rhythm of the music. And this seems to me to be a gentle and flowing work, so I am not sure that a big full-organ sound quite works. But it's always good to experiment! Tim

@@timrishton5871 Many thanks! A flowing work - that's a good description.

Yes. spot on. And yes, it's a lovely organ! Tim

Well done to get the style; not really surprising that the composer was rather unfamiliar. I'd heard that there was a new Aubertin at the King's Hall. I last played a concert there on 6 March 1985 - but that, of course, was the old Nigel Church organ, which was still very serviceable at that time. I played Buxtehude and Schmidt, I remember. I was surprised to hear that it needed to be replaced, but I'm sure the new organ will be a great asset!

Certainly, there are attractive things about all of these works. I just feel that this one is less accomplished than the others and bears signs of a composer who is struggling a bit to get it all together. But I'm glad to have all these pieces! Tim

Glad you enjoyed it! Tim

Yes, it's textbook "Sturm und Drang" : absolutely right! Tim

You're quite right, it isn't. But it's a good thought! Tim

Thank you Steve - that's really lovely. (Apologies for the belated reply; was away until today!). Tim

Thank you! Tim

More moderato than grave, I think. Tim

Apart from the trumpet on the Hovedverk. Yes, it was a question of priorities and of the profile that was wanted for this small and intimate church: a feeling that one wanted to do certain things well than try to do everything. But the organ functions very well as an entity, even if here (as on any instrument at all) there are always things we might wish we had ... Tim

@@timrishton5871 I missed the Trompet 8' in the specification.

Then take up base jumping or land mine clearing, mate - anything but sitting there telling us how boring your life is

Yes, really difficult one, this! Tim

Very nice idea - I can see that there is something a bit Scandinavian about the feel. Tim

Glad you enjoyed it! Tim

I'll happily give it to you. Drop me a line (use the "contact" link from the appropriate language on www.rishton.eu) and I'll email it to you. Tim

It was a good train of thought! Tim

I'm sure you should ... Tim

Good reasoning:the G# minor bit certainly seems to say 20th century. Tim

Finzi was a good idea, although it's not quite "English" enough, maybe. Tim

More moderato than grave, I think. Tim

@@timrishton5871 Ha ha! Lovely response!😃

Certainly Italian connections. Tim

Really glad you liked it! Tim

Thanks. Yes, I really like it too. Tim

That's an interesting point, thank you. Certainly, pedal boards varied from place to place and from builder to builder rather more than they do in our modern, standardised age. I've not really encountered that problem to any great degree, especially in mid-Germany, but it is true that it can often be more comfortable to play with toes on an 18th-century pedal board. Tim

I'm really glad it was helpful. Would have liked to hear you playing it this morning! Tim

Not surprised. Rather a tricky one, this. Tim

I'm sure that's cheating! But good initiative! Tim

I'll happily give it to you. Drop me a line (use the "contact" link from the appropriate language on www.rishton.eu) and I'll email it to you. Tim

@@timrishton5871Good on you!

Yes, that was a tricky one, but your reasoning was good! The scenery around the church had no particular agenda - I just thought it was more interesting than watching me playing the piece! Tim

@@timrishton5871 Actually, I take great interest in watching others play. It's very instructive.

@@TamsinJones Thanks - I'll bear that in mind in future episodes! Tim

Always fun to experiment a bit - and we need a bit of fun sometimes! Tim

Hi Tasmin. Congratulations on getting such a long way in Orgelbüchlein! Bach had an active and, I think sometimes rather wicked, sense of humour, and it seems to come out in this prelude (and later on, in the one on the 10 Commandments, but that's another story). I do wonder whether the eccentricities of this piece, such as some odd harmonies and those almost demented scales running so widely up and down the keyboard causing the hand crossings, are Bach's comment on the undoubted eccentricities of the hymn's author, who attempts to re-tell the entire Passiontide narrative in the space of a single hymn, as well as drawing attention to himself in the first and last verses (ending up asking us to think of him in his prison cell!) and by "signing" it in the first letter of each verse. Who does that sort of thing in a hymn? In any event, the pedal line here is one of those running bass lines that really does not need (or even want) to be particularly legato. Think of it in terms of an orchestral bass line in a cantata movement. Each quaver, more or less, would tend to be lightly defined. This means that we in most places can freely use the same foot from one note to the next. In bar 13, from the Eb to the C would in any case be separated because it's syncopated. The same from the C to the Bb and the G to the F#, while from the A to the Bb to the A would be in order to highlight the mid-bar beat. So all those notes can in any case use the same toe if need be. That makes it all a lot easier! Tim

@@timrishton5871 Hi Tim, I agree old Sebi had a bit of a sense of humour...but right now I'm not laughing. Hopefully I will get there, though 😊 I guess I was looking for 'permission' to play adjacent notes with the same foot, especially in the right half of the pedal board. It makes me realise that I've probably been torturing myself unnecessarily by trying to play all-toes and legato, instead of a more detached ordinary touch. Also, I was watching Ton Koopman play and he often seems to same-foot scalic passages, so if he's happy to do that, that's good enough authority for me. It would be very interesting and instructive if perhaps you might consider having a pic-in-pic image to show what you're doing with your feet. I'd love to hear you play more Böhm, and if you made a series on him wth the pedalcam then I for one would think that fantastic 😊

@@TamsinJones 'Permission' definitely granted - but it's always worth considering which notes ought to be the most detached (i.e. where you want to place emphases) because it is often an active help to play two notes with the same foot where you're wanting to highlight the second one -- it forces you to articulate. In this piece it also helps to practise those scales in a variety of dotted rhythms, or even (in the trickiest places) playing each note twice. Anything to get those patterns implanted into the brain. But I'm glad the outlook is brighter on this piece. Just grin and enjoy the absurdities! Yes, I'd love to do more Böhm -- wonderful composer -- and will look into the technicalities of filming the pedals. Thanks for the suggestion! Tim

Thank you for that. Yes, it's a lot more fun making that sort of recording, too! Tim

Yes, all organs that I love playing. All tracker action and all of a design that an 18th-century German would have felt comfortable with. Tim

Diolch, Euryn! Mae'na fwy ar y gweill! Tim

You're very welcome. Hope you enjoy them! Tim

Excellent guesses! You know your repertoire very well! Wirklich interessant, Ihre Filme über Orgeln im Norden zu sehen. Vielleicht ist Ihnen aufgefallen, dass die Hälfte meiner Serie „8 Kleine Präludien und Fugen“ (kzbin.info/aero/PLABcWksVExXvcMfZzhf9XLHeXqlSj0QiJ) auf Orgeln in Mecklenburg Vorpommern gedreht wurde. Tim

Thanks for the suggestion. I see where you're coming from, but it seems just a little unlikely. Walther's Lexicon has no entry under halbe*; he uses the more usual Latin term Minima, and I suspect that his cousin Bach would have been even more likely to. Tim

@@timrishton5871 Oh I think you misunderstood me, sorry. I'm German and had some trouble expressing what I meant in English: I meant that what you interpreted as an 'h' isn't a letter at all. Instead it's a half note drawn on the space above the first line (where the B would be!). And thank you a lot for making this series! It's incredibly helpful!

@@nikitademodov3446 Yes, I'm sorry - I misunderstood. But I don't think it can be a note, because nowhere else in the entire manuscript does Bach draw a note with a curved stem like that. His stems sometimes can lean a little (not quite vertical) but are always straight. Aber es wäre eine wirklich gute Idee gewesen, die das Rätsel hätte erklären können! Tim

@@timrishton5871 Interesting! Thank you for sharing your expertly knowledge! Nikita