The third set of William Herschel’s organ music, edited by David Baker and Christopher Bagot, has now been published by Fitzjohn Music Publications. Further details are available at http://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 violin, oboe and organ (having perhaps been taught by Jacob) 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. Herschel became director of concerts in Leeds in 1762. This resulted in further success as a performer, but he decided that having a regular post as organist would give more financial security. He was regularly practising on the organ at Leeds Parish Church by 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. Herschel only stayed for three months, however, leaving on 30 November,1766 to be organist at the newly-established Octagon Chapel in Bath.
Herschel went on to carve out a highly successful career in what was then one of the premier and most fashionable cities in England. The fact that he was now 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. His organist appointments in Halifax and Bath encouraged and indeed necessitated that he should compose and make 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 after 1767. 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. The organ compositions often include detailed registrations that may have been for the organs at Leeds and Halifax. No specification of the former instrument in the 1760s survives, but that for Halifax is given at the end of this editorial note as an aid to registration of the music.
The Present Volume
This edition has been transcribed from the autograph score in Edinburgh University Library. The title page of the autograph score reads: ’Sonate per/L’Organo’. It seems clear that the composer was compiling a volume of pieces for possible publication, with pages set aside for each work. The collection was never finished, however, and Sonatas 11-20 were never added. The extant compositions are as follows:
1 Allegro D major
2 Allegro Assai E flat major
3 Allegro F major
4 Allegro C major
5 Allegro ma non troppo D minor
6 Allegro Assai F major
7 Allegro Assai D major
8 Moderato Assai B flat major
9 Allegro C major
10 Allegro Spiritoso D major
11-20 Missing
21 Allegro Assai F major
22 Allegro A major
23 Allegro Assai D major
24 Allegro Assai F major
Sonata 4 is the same (with only very minor variation) as number 11 of the second set of full voluntaries. All the sonatas have the same two-part format, with each part repeated. Faster-moving sections and phrases are typically written in two parts only; chordal writing is generally reserved for slower sequences. The pieces are arguably more chromatic than in the other volumes (with the exception of some in the book of 32 Voluntarys), as for example the downward sequences in Sonata 2, while in Sonata 20, in F major, we have the kind of enharmonic transition into C flat major, repeated, that Herschel refers to (with relish) in his unfinished Theory of Music, also in the University of Edinburgh Library.
Editorial Approach
The original scores use C clefs in places. Passages noted in this way have been transcribed using either G or F clefs as appropriate. Registration instructions have been regularised where there is inconsistency. Cautionary or suggested accidentals have been added in brackets where appropriate. This has not been reproduced in the present edition. Given the gaps in the original score, Herschel’s numbering of the pieces has not been replicated.
Performance Practice
The pieces were written for a G compass organ with Swell manual but without pedals, though there is occasional evidence that Herschel was imitating the organs of his homeland – with pedals – in his writing for the left hand. 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 of the Octagon Chapel in Bath reconstructed by David Shuker from markings in the performing parts of Herschel’s two organ concertos played during the opening of the Chapel.[1] This might suggest that at least some of the organ music was written with the Bath organ in mind. It should also be noted that Herschel taught private pupils, some of whom might have had chamber organs in their homes. Could some of the music, such as the Sonatas, have been written for secular rather than sacred purposes? However, Herschel’s music often suggests the music was intended for a much larger and more versatile instrument of three manuals such as that at Halifax Parish Church.
Choir
Open Diapason
Stopped Diapason
Principal
Flute
Fifteenth
Cremona
Bassoon (‘up to c’)
Vox Humana
Great
Open Diapason
Open Diapason
Stopped Diapason
Principal
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Sesquialtra IV [with tierce]
Furniture III [without tierce]
Cornet V (from middle c)
Trumpet
Bass Clarion
Swell (enclosed)
Open Diapason
Stopped Diapason
Principal
Cornet III
Hautboy
Trumpet
Compasses: Choir and Great – GG (no GG#) – e3 57 notes; Swell g – e3 34 notes
No couplers
[1] http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=E01258. See also Organists’ Review June 2013 p.36
