Organ of the church of St.-Pierre-ès-liens, Ménestérol The idea of this channel is mainly to offer performances of organ music that you are not so very likely to find elsewhere. These two pieces, then, in a way do not fit, since they are famous. You will find many other renderings of them on Youtube. However, not only are more, and rather less well-known works by the same composer meant to follow. It is also the case that many of the other performances of these pieces that you will find are actually arrangements, with a pedal part added. I have so far been unable to ascertain reliably by whom these are, but it seems that John Ebenezer West published arrangements of these two pieces in 1905. In the original edition of the Twelve Short Pieces of 1817 they are simply labelled number 8 and number 9. It was, apparently, West who gave them the titles by which they are now universally known, "Air" and "Gavotte".

Some of those other renderings on Youtube belong in a cabinet of organ horrors. The "Air" is often played in a rather too Romantic manner, with liberal use being made of tremulants (which the classical English organ for which Wesley wrote lacked). And there is an odd tradition to play the "Gavotte" at very high speed. Wesley himself (or his printer) is possibly somewhat to blame here, since the original 1817 edition indicates a tempo of MM = 104 for the minim (half note). (1817, not 1815 as stated at the beginning of the video: in fact the autograph is dated 10 July 1816, and the publisher, Muzio Clementi, entered the published volume at Stationer's Hall, London, on 7 June 1817.) Taken at face value that would justify playing the crotchets as quavers, as often happens. However, I am quite sure that the minim symbol is a misprint and that MM 104 is really meant for the quarter note, not the half note.

What you hear in this video are the original manualiter versions. Regarding registration, in the score as printed in 1817 the beginning and end of no. 8 are simply marked "Swell", with the two middle passages respectively marked "Cremona or Vox Humana" and "Flute" (which on a classical English organ meant a four-foot stop). I have followed these suggestions (with the Ménestérol Dulzian a good stand-in for the type of reed recommended by Wesley, and with the "Swell" part actually played on the Great). Regarding no. 9, the score says "Diapason and Principal" (i.e. the eight- and four-foot flues). Wesley apparently intended no manual or stop changes here. These are often introduced, but having experimented with them in the end I decided that the charm (and indeed the genius) of this music is in its simplicity. It is relatively tolerant of attempts to puff it up but at best does not need them and at worst is diminished by them. On the Ménestérol organ it seemed a good idea to employ the rather wonderful Montre (the French word for the Diapason stop) alone.

Here is a complete list of all works by either Samuel or Charles Wesley on my channel: [ Ссылка ]

The (unfinished) portrait of Samuel Wesley used in the video was painted by John Jackson probably around 1815 or a little later. It is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

a_osiander(at)gmx.net / www.andreas-osiander.net

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