The Octagon Chapel, Bath, where Herschel became organist in 1767
William Herschel’s Two Organ Concertos, edited and arranged for solo instrument by David Baker and Christopher Bagot, have now been published by Fitzjohn Music Publications (https://www.impulse-music.co.uk/fitzjohnmusic/)
Herschel’s life and Career
Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was born in 1738 in Hanover, Germany, one of ten children (only six of whom survived to adulthood) of Isaac and Anna Herschel. Along with his elder brother Jacob and younger brothers Alexander and Dietrich, William (as he later became known in England) received a sound musical education from his father Isaac. At the age of fifteen, Herschel was in the local militia, visiting England in 1756. The following year he resigned and came to London with brother Jacob on a more permanent basis. By this time, he was proficient on the violin and the oboe as well as a good linguist.
By early 1760, William was head of a small band of two oboes and two horns in the North Yorkshire militia. Dr Edward Miller, Organist of Doncaster Parish Church, saw Herschel’s potential and he soon become well known across the region, composing many symphonies and concertos as well as performing on the oboe and violin and directing prestigious concerts. Herschel was also sought out as a teacher of nobility and gentry, often giving up to 40 lessons a week. He became director of concerts in Leeds in 1762. This resulted in further success as a performer, but he later decided that having a post as organist would give greater financial security. He was regularly practising on the organ at Leeds Parish Church by early 1766. In August of that same year, he became organist at Halifax Parish Church, where Johann Snetzler had recently completed a large three-manual organ. He left only three months later to become Organist of the Octagon Chapel in Bath.
The Octagon Chapel
Herschel arrived in Bath (having gone via London) on 9 December 1766. His first performance in his new home was at a benefit concert in the Assembly Rooms on 1 January 1767. A notice which appeared in the European Magazine for January 1785 gives an interesting picture of his life at this time.
‘His situation at the Octagon Chapel proved a very profitable one, as he soon fell into all the public business of the concerts, the Rooms, the Theatre, and the oratorios, besides many scholars and private concerts. This great run of business, instead of lessening his propensity to study, increased it, so that many times, after a fatiguing day of fourteen or sixteen hours spent in his vocation, he would retire at night with the greatest avidity to unbend the mind, if it may be so called, with a few propositions in Maclaurin’s Fluxions, or other books of that sort’.[1]
Herschel went on to carve out a highly successful career as a musician and composer. The fact that he was in lucrative and steady employment meant that he could devote himself increasingly to science and astronomy, which he did on a full-time basis from 1782, when he retired from the Octagon Chapel, moving to Windsor in 1785.
Herschel’s earlier musical career necessitated that he composed and performed music on a substantial scale. Aside from his works for organ, his compositions – mostly written by the late 1760s – included symphonies, concertos, harpsichord sonatas, an opera, an oratorio, instrumental and secular vocal music as well as pieces for the choir of the Octagon Chapel, the latter written from 1767 onwards. John Herschel’s catalogue of his father’s musical output lists over 80 works for organ, including two organ concertos. Until now, little has been published or recorded.
This edition of the two organ concertos, arranged for solo instrument, is intended to complement the five-volume edition of the solo organ music, edited by David Baker and Christopher Bagot and published by Fitzjohn Music Publications.
The Bath Snetzler
It is not clear whether Snetzler had been appointed as organ builder to the Octagon Chapel before Herschel became Organist either there or at Halifax Parish Church. However, the organ had not yet been set up when Herschel started work in Bath and installation by Snetzler did not begin until 29 June 1767. Herschel records in his diary that he was obliged to write to the organ builder to speed things up. The correspondence between the two men does not seem to have survived.
What appears to be Snetzler’s original long-compass keyboard, removed during work on the organ in the early nineteenth century, and a few pipes fixed to a plaque are all that remain of the instrument, now in the Herschel House Museum in New King Street, where William lived (with his sister and then his wife) until he left Bath.[2]
No record of the original stop list survives, though the last page of the autograph score of the 12 Full Organ Pieces (first set) contains the specification of what appears to be a two-manual organ typical of the period:
Gr[eat]
Open Dia[pason]
Stop’d Dia[pason]
Princ[ipal]
Flute
12th
15th
Sesqui[altera] [Bass]
Corn[et] [Treble]
Trump[et] [Bass]
Trump[et] [Treble]
[Swell]
Open D[iapason]
Princ[ipal]
Trump[et]
Hautb[oy]
This matches the stop list – reconstructed by David Shuker from markings in the performing parts of Herschel’s two organ concertos[3] – of the Octagon Chapel organ.
The Two Concertos
The Snetzler organ was in a gallery at the west end of the Chapel. It was opened at two concerts on 28 and 29 October 1767 when, as at the inaugural performances at Halifax Parish Church the year before, William was the leader of the orchestra. Jacob (who had arrived back in Bath on 9 October 1767) played the organ, which included a performance of Handel’s oratorio Messiah (again as at the Halifax organ opening). William took over as solo organist for the performances – which took place in between parts I and II of the oratorio – of the two concertos that he had presumably written for the occasion. Jacob played the harpsichord.[4] The virtuoso keyboard writing – including the cadenza for organ and harpsichord at the end of the second movement of the second concerto – would have allowed the two brothers to show off their technique as performers at a time when they would have been keen to impress the citizens of Bath. The huge chords in the slow movement of the first concerto hark back to Herschel’s experimentation in 1766 at Halifax, when he was auditioning for the post of organist and was aiming to give the impression of pedals by using lead weights to hold down the two lowest Gs on the Great keyboard.[5]
The first concerto is scored for organ, harpsichord (by implication), strings, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets and one timpani (a similar orchestration to the Symphony in C published in 1768). The trumpets and the timpani (tuned to D and A) only play in the middle movement. This seems strange (why not play in the outer two movements?) until one remembers that the main item on the programme – Messiah – had choruses and solos that also required trumpets and drums and the performers would therefore already be on hand. The horns are in G for the first and last movements and in D for the middle movement. The second concerto is for organ, harpsichord (by implication) and strings only. It is interesting to note that at least part of the orchestra plays for much of both concertos; there are few places where the organ is truly playing solo. Even where the orchestral parts are not marked ‘Tutti’ there is typically some instrumental accompaniment supporting the organ.
Other Performances of the Concertos
At the opening of the Halifax Snetzler on 28-29 August 1766, Joah Bates – the prime mover behind the installation of an organ at the Parish Church – played a concerto on the organ each morning between the first and second parts of Messiah.[6] No further information is available about the concerto or concertos that were performed. A reasonable assumption would be that the pieces were by Handel, whose own organ concertos were often performed between the acts of his operas and oratorios. However, it is well known that Herschel had settled in Halifax well before the organ opening at the Parish Church and was already teaching, rehearsing singers and perhaps even practising on the Snetzler organ. Could it be that Bates commissioned Herschel to write one or more concertos for the opening celebrations? As evinced by his 32 Voluntaries, Herschel was obviously composing music to be played at his audition for the post of Organist at the Parish Church and to fulfil his duties once appointed. He had already gained a reputation as a composer in the north of England with many of his symphonies and concertos having been performed, as for example in Leeds at the concerts which he directed. It would not be unreasonable for Bates to ask Herschel to write some music for the opening concerts that would show off the new organ.
If this were to have been the case, and, given the fact that there were only four months between the completion of the Octagon organ and its grand opening on two successive days, it may be that the present concertos built on earlier works that Herschel already had to hand from the Halifax celebrations. Similarly, Herschel again performed Messiah at the Octagon in 1770. Might at least one of the concertos been performed between the two main parts of the oratorio?
Source for the Present Volume
This edition has been transcribed and arranged for solo organ from the autograph orchestral parts and the solo organ scores now in the British Library and catalogued as MSS Mus 88-89. The manuscripts of the two organ concertos were acquired at auction at Sotheby’s on 17 June 1958 from the Herschel Estate by Maggs Bros, Berkeley Square, London. Later that year (letter of 17 October 1958) they were purchased by Lady Susi Jeans, the well-known organist and musicologist, who bequeathed them to the British Library on her death in 1993. The manuscripts had previously been owned by Mrs EC Shorland, niece of Sir John Herschel. The front page of the organ score for the first concerto is dated 28 October 1767 and the second concerto is dated 29 October 1767, the date of their first performances in Bath. At two points in the G major concerto (bars 109 -118 of the first movement and bars 46 – 58 of the last movement) the music of the organ part is repeated on extra pieces of paper to facilitate page turns. The cadenza in the slow movement of the D major concerto is on a separate piece of manuscript from the rest of the organ score. Though in the same hand, it shows evidence of being written in a hurry, perhaps shortly before the performance. At the end of the MSS is a free-standing single movement in G major, scored for organ and strings, as with the D major Concerto. This may be an alternative slow movement to the B minor one of the second concerto or, as David Shuker has surmised,[7] a substitute for the challenging middle movement of the first concerto, whose immense chords may have been too much for the wind system of the Octagon Chapel organ. This movement might also have been used at a later performance of one of the concertos, as for example in 1770, when there may have been fewer resources and no second keyboard player.
Editorial Approach
The organ parts have been transcribed from the original scores as faithfully as possible, though passages notated using C clefs have been transcribed using either G or F clefs as appropriate. The orchestral parts have been transcribed and added into the present organ score at their original pitch as far as is feasible. These notes are in smaller type so that the performer can choose to play them or not, as desired. The aim has been to replicate the orchestral score as fully as possible, alongside the organ solo part. In a small number of places, where the instrumental parts duplicate the organ score, the instrumental version is clearly the more accurate and this has been used in the present edition. No attempt has been made to add a pedal part to simulate the double bass line, though given that the organ part was written for a GG compass organ with Swell manual but without pedals, notes below bottom C on modern instruments have been incorporated.
Other editorial additions are denoted by [ ] or () in the case of added or cautionary accidentals. The original registration instructions have been reproduced and, where appropriate, regularised and expanded where there is inconsistency. Additional dynamic markings, ornamentation and phrasing have been added from the orchestral parts, as necessary. In the last movement of some parts of the first concerto – including the organ part – there is a dal segno instructing the players to return to bar 10 and play to bar 23 to conclude the movement; in other instrumental parts, these bars are repeated rather than a dal segno being inserted. This section has been written out in full in the present edition. The ‘alternative’ slow movement in G major has been included as an appendix.
Performance Practice
The music is best performed on G compass organs, of which there is an increasing number today. On C compass instruments a soft 16’ stop could be coupled to the main manual so that the lower notes GG-BB can sound when required. The performer should feel free to omit the editorially-added instrumental parts, as preferred, though in some passages, the music makes better sense with this ‘filling out’. In some bars, the pedals will need to be coupled to the Great manual for all the notes to be played if the instrumental lines are to be played along with the organ part. Herschel and his contemporaries would no doubt have added more ornaments than marked in the score. There is also scope for double dotting some rhythms.
Concerto in G major
The registration for the first and third movements should alternate between a full registration and a softer combination of stops for organ solo or ‘echo’ effects. It should be noted that while the full orchestra is playing in the sections marked ‘Tutti’, some of the orchestral instruments are also playing in other passages not so marked. Only where the score is marked ‘solo’ is the organ sounding on its own. The player should consider whether imitation of the instrumental solo sections (Hautboy, Horn) should be reproduced in performance on the organ.
The slow movement harks back to Preludium XV of the 32 Voluntaries with its use of lead weights on the lower keys to obtain the effect of pedals. Herschel does not give any indication as to how the movement should be performed, other than to indicate that the top part should be played on the Swell manual. Lead weights could be used for the lower notes, or a third hand borrowed for the occasion (it is possible that Jacob and William played the movement as a duet). A cadenza is suggested in bar 94.
Concerto in D major
The registration for the first and third movements should alternate between a full registration (including the Trumpet stop where indicated, but possibly excluding the Cornet stop, except where noted) and a softer combination of stops tor organ solo or ‘echo’ effects. It should again be noted that the full orchestra is playing in the sections marked ‘Tutti’, and that some instruments are also playing in some other passages not so marked. As with the first concerto, only where the score is marked ‘solo’ is the organ sounding on its own.
The slow movement requires fewer stops. Herschel writes: ‘all in except the top and bottom’ and ‘all in except the lowest’ stops at the end of the first movement in readiness for the Adagio. The cadenza is optional; the held bass note could either be played with the foot or a weight placed on the key, as the composer is likely to have done. The use of the Swell Hautboy and the Great Stopped Diapason are indicated in the solo sections of this movement. It is suggested that the Stopped Diapason would also have been used for the sections where the orchestra is also playing. Only the Great manual on the Octagon organ was of full compass and only quieter passages (or those requiring a crescendo or diminuendo) that were in the upper part of the keyboard range would have been played on the Swell.
‘Alternative’ Slow Movement in G major
The performer should feel free to use the ‘alternative’ slow movement printed here as an Annex as either an alternative or additional movement (preferably in the D major Concerto, given the relative keys) or as a separate piece. The approach to performance should be similar to that adopted in the B minor slow movement of the D major Concerto.
References
[1] Holden, E.S. (1881), Sir William Herschel: his Life and Works. New York: Scribner, p.27.
[2] Barnes, A. and Renshaw, M. (1994), The Life and Work of John Snetzler. Aldershot: Scolar Press, pp.149-50.
[3] http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=E01258. See also Organists’ Review June 2013 p.36
[4] Lubbock, C. (1933), The Herschel Chronicle: The Life-Story of William Herschel and his Sister Caroline Herschel. Cambridge: CUP, p.40.
[5] Preludium number 15 from the 32 Voluntaries (published by Fitzjohn Music Publications). The editorial introduction to this volume discusses Herschel’s use of lead weights at Halifax.
[6] ; Cowgill,R. (2000), ‘The most musical spot for its size in the kingdom’: music in Georgian Halifax’. Early Music 28 (4): 557-576
[7] Shuker, D., (2008) The Development of William Herschel as a Composer and Organist from 1757 to 1767. MA dissertation, Open University, pp.6,31.