Bach's Short Prelude and Fugue in C - BWV 553 on a Berlin reed (pump) organ

This piece is played on my foot pumped Berlin Organ Company reed organ. I have just recently restored this organ, and it was my first attempt at doing something like this.

Bach on a reed organ might be questioned by some, but I find it a challenge to convert the pedals to the left hand and "try" to make it work...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bach
• Prelude
• Fugue
• BWV
• 553
• Berlin
• reed
• pump
• Organ
• orgel
• rodney
• jantzi
• orgelmusik

[jkmek99]

Bravo!

[rodneyjantzi]

Thanks!

[bobbell9]

If you want details of hand blowing mechanism you could contact Victorian Reed Organ & Harmonium Museum

Victoria Hall,

Victoria Road

Saltaire

BD18 3LA

Contact

Telephone: 01274 585601 (eve)

Fax: 07976 535980

[rodneyjantzi]

Thanks for the information. Saltaire is a place I would love to visit someday, especially when the festival is on - it looks like a lot of good music...

[youhavegottabejoking]

Wonderful! A truly admirable rendition. Is this a pedal pump? Or a side (handle) pump? If a foot, I'm exceptionally impressed. A friend in Texas.

[rodneyjantzi]

Thanks! This is played with the pedal pump. This particular organ was initially built with both hand lever at the side and foot levers so you would have a choice, but unfortunately the hand lever assembly was removed long ago. One day when I have enough information about the original hand lever assembly, I would like to rebuilt it from scratch, to be exactly the same as a hundred years ago...

Thanks again, my friend in Texas :)

Rodney

[mattvwyk]

@ccoraxfan I will do so. The video's that I have available is of very poor quality and my best recitals were never recorded. But I will try to dig up something...

[ccoraxfan]

@mattvwyk Baroque technique of the '70s? Do you mean the 1970s? Because that was quite far removed from the Baroque era, and the '10s are even further removed in time. There is no correct way to play, because the opinions of today change constantly. Do it the way you like. His playing sounds nice, as I'm sure your playing sounds, if only you would post a video.

[mattvwyk]

16' on the bass side? Well played. A student of mine played it this year. Noticed that you still using the Baroque technique of the 70s (slurring a weaker beat to a stronger beat). An example in this piece is the 4-group eighth note patterns in line two. As you played it you slurred the last chord of a group to the first chord of the next group. This creates emphasis on the last chord of each group. Correct way is to play a tenuto on the first chord and staccato the other three.

[Principal16]

Thank you! It sounds wonderful on a reed organ! As organist,I play this piece on a pipe organ but it sounds very good on a reed organ also! :)

[ShokaLion]

That was awesome :) Really great job on that.

[GerardvanR]

Well done! the restoration as well as the playing of this beautiful piece of Bach.

[ChucklesKeys]

Rodney,

My friend, you amaze me!!!! AWESOME as usual!

[scottjop656]

You have no idea how long it took to find a performance of this piece on youtube.... there are, what? 4 preludes in C? haha nice playing too :)

[whec36]

Beautiful. What a great sound!! Thanks for the performance....

[kuethejunior]

Noch mehr hätte man die Schlusswendung nicht in die Länge ziehen könne :)

Nein, sehr schön gespielt und interpretiert !