Zimbelstern

I’ve been wondering for some time why “worship songs” get such a bad press in this forum. Am I the only organist who likes quite a few of them? Surely worship songs are like any genre in music: there are good ones and bad ones, just as there are lots of good traditional hymns and probably thousands of bad ones, most of which have been forgotten. Where there’s a band, what’s the problem with the organist joining in and making a positive contribution to services that many young members of congregations enjoy greatly?

My understanding was always that in the first half of the last century at least organ music was very popular in this country, with many recitals given in civic buildings, such as town halls. Classical music as a whole suffers in the UK from the free market obsession with reducing or eliminating subsidies or support to cultural and heritage activities. Thus many of our great products and cultural traditions have been allowed to disappear - the centuries old tradition of ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent being an example. A few years ago I visited the State Porcelain Factory in Meissen, Germany - thriving of course.I enquired of the guide whether she had been there some thirty-five years previously on a visit I had paid during the East German regime. O yes, she said, I’ve worked here all my life. Their prize exhibit was an organ whose pipes were made of ceramic.

Consider carefully which edition to use. Widor made a number of revisions to his works during his long lifetime and you will find there are slight differences in articulation markings. I would recommend using the 1918 edition, not that of 1901 (both are available on IMSLP). You find other threads here on other (costly) editions. Listen to the recording Widor himself made, not just for the tempo, but for his articulation: you will notice that in the left hand he carefully emphasises the first chord in each grouping as marked. Indeed this may be the reason for his slow tempo, because it would not be so noticeable at the very fast speeds many organists play this piece. Don’t worry about the metronome markings - Widor didn’t! Play it at the speed you feel is right for you, the piece, the organ and the building. I agree with the advice above about little and often. Once you have learnt this piece, it is a good idea to maintain it by playing it through regularly. I, for one, find that, once learnt, it is best not played every day, certainly not more than once, otherwise one is likely to develop repetitive strain injury, an issue any musician starting out should take very seriously, since an awful lot of professional musicians sadly end up with permanent injuries. What a sensible chap Widor was to take his Toccata at a steady pace! No doubt clambering up the organ loft steps of Saint Sulpice for sixty years did him good as well!

Tom Driberg, the British journalist, politician, High Anglican Churchman, friend of the Kray twins and possible Soviet spy, was married at at St Mary the Virgin, Pimlico on 30 June 1951. The bride entered the church to a chorale arranged from the Labour Party anthem “The Red Flag”. I wonder who the organist was.

“Is the situation reversible?” Yes I believe it is, but only if all the leading organisations and journals concerned with organs, organ building, organ music and organ teaching get together and set up a long-term campaigning umbrella organisation specifically to promote organs and organ music. I keep going on about this issue, but those organisations need to do far, far more in an organised and highly targeted way to interest the wider public, and especially the young. There are some very worthwhile projects at the moment (I just read about one in Salisbury Diocese), but they are very localised and few and far between. I’m afraid that many leaders in our field have never really stepped outside the independent school/ Oxbridge/ cathedral tradition, and have never been near a comprehensive school or local authority music service. Don’t get me wrong: I greatly value and admire what those august insitutions do (I have benefited from some of them myself in the past), but times have changed. It’s no longer enough. As a boy coming from a very poor family, I had a wonderful musical education at my local village (!) parish church between the ages of 8 and 12. The church had a three manual organ and the organist was an FRCO who taught me piano and singing. Every Sunday for four years I sang treble in Matins, Eucharist and Evensong. It was that musical education which later inspired me to take up the organ and get an Oxbridge Organ Scholarship. But that world, once available to children from poor families, has all but disappeared and nothing has been done to replace it. Organs and organ lessons are unavailable to the vast majority of young people. They have no access to organs and most of their parents cannot afford the £40-£60 per hour for lessons. It’s time our leaders got off their backsides and did something.

Sounds pretty much like a lot of British industry. Meanwhile, German organ building has been declared by UNESCO to be part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, following efforts made by the Federation of German Organ Builders: “Organ craftsmanship and music: Germany Inscribed in 2017 (12.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Organ craftsmanship and music has shaped Germany’s musical landscape and instrument-making for centuries, and there are a diverse number of related traditions in the country. Organ craftsmanship and music are closely related since each instrument is created specifically for the architectural space in which it will be played. The highly specialized knowledge and skills related to the practice have been developed by craftspeople, composers and musicians working together throughout history, and the specialized and mostly informally-transmitted knowledge and skills are significant markers of group identity. Transcultural by its very nature, organ music is a universal language that fosters interreligious understanding. Though mostly associated with church services, concerts and modern cultural events, it is also played during important community-building festivities. There are 400 medium-sized craftspeople’s establishments in Germany, which guarantee its viability and transmission, as well as some larger family-owned workshops. Knowledge and skills related to the element are transmitted through a direct teacher-pupil experience, which is complemented by training in vocational schools and universities. Apprentices gain practical experience in organ construction workshops as well as theoretical knowledge in vocational schools, and efforts to safeguard the element also include teaching in universities and music academies, conferences, and presentations via the media.”

The pipe organ is one of the few musical instruments (are there any others?) that is so large and so expensive that it is rarely possible for an individual to own one. Now that churches are low on members and funds, it is hardly surprising that many feel unable to justify spending large sums of money on one. Given this situation, and the lack of public knowledge about, and interest in organs, organ recitals and organ music, quality is surely better than quantity. In the past there were far too many substandard, mass produced organs which deteriorated quickly and not worth maintaining. Organs and organ music is very much a niche market within the niche market of classical music. Towns like Aylesbury would benefit from having one decent, properly maintained instrument that was available to promising young keyboard players to learn how to play, regardless of their family or financial background. Sadly, I can think of no influential organisation in this country which campaigns on a day to day basis for organs and access to them in the wider community. Access to organs and organ teaching is therefore likely to remain the preserve of independent schools with chapels for the foreseeable future, unless someone comes up with a viable national plan for getting organs and organ teachers into state secondary schools and local authority music services.

Recently I read that William Herschel, when auditioning for a post at Halifax Parish Church, placed a small lead weight on the lowest key and another on the key an octave higher (he got the job). I suppose you could try this, although you’d have to be jolly careful. Judging by the number of assistants/ observers hovering around in Parisian organ lofts, I wouldn’t be surprised if some organists don’t resort to a little help from them. Why forgo a brilliant musical effect, just because your hands are too small?

Here is an extract from the guidelines for wedding music from one US Roman Catholic diocese (San Diego): “The so-called “traditional wedding marches” by Wagner and Mendelssohn are not to be used. Both are “theater” pieces which have nothing to do with the Sacred Liturgy. The “Bridal Chorus” from Wagner's opera, Lohengrin, actually accompanies the couple to the bedroom, not the altar! Mendelssohn's incidental music to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream accompanies a farcical wedding (the play is a comedy). More importantly, they have been used to accompany “weddings” in countless movies, TV shows and game shows. The majority of images these pieces conjure in the minds of the congregation may have a lot to do with sentimentality but very little to do with worship. Because of this, even though they are frequently used in the United States in Protestant churches or non-religious wedding settings, they are rarely used in Catholic churches.“

I find that the choice of wedding (and funeral) music these days comes down either to the couple choosing, in which case it seems anything goes, including replacing the organist at various points by a CD or a band, or sometimes the couple have no idea and leave it to the organist to choose or suggest. Of course the officiant may impose their or their church’s own rules (this is the case in the Roman Catholic Church who, I believe, frown officially even on the Wagner and the Mendelssohn because of the pagan/ suggestive references of the original contexts). Unless you depend on playing at weddings to help make a living, you are free as an organist to impose your own rules. This can take the form of a written list of music and guidelines which you can present to the couple and/ or the church in advance. If they are happy with it, fine. If not, you are free to decline to play, giving them full rein to employ their own organist/ band/ CDs, etc. I think this is preferable to a situation where no-one is comfortable with the situation and no-one gets upset and spoils the day.

I found this: “1908 He exported twenty organs to Jamaica after the Kingston earthquake of 1908; his instruments were widely commended for the way in which they stood up to hot and humid climates.” And this: http://www.jamaicamyway.com/jamaican-history/pipe-organ-jamaica-church/

No, you are certainly not, although I prefer to trample on the pedals to create a thunderstorm. You have spurred me into action. I have just edited the Wikipedia page on "Musical Composition" by adding this sentence: "The word "song" is widely misused by people in the popular music industry to describe any musical composition, whether sung or played only by instruments." Let's see if it gets edited out. I'll keep doing this on any relevant Wikipedia page for as long as it takes. It would be great if others would do the same.

Thank you Christine. I would think it to be very encouraging that Kurt Lueders was there. I was present at an excellent session (and lunch) he hosted last year at his church in Paris for an “Orgelreise” organised by a German organisation (Orgelpromotion) which takes around 50 organ fans to Paris around Easter each year. They absolutely adore Cavaillé Coll organs and visit all the leading ones, including Saint Sulpice and Notre Dame. He is an extremely well organised, erudite and enthusiastic campaigner for all he does (he has a great soft spot for harmoniums of which he has several in his church). I would think it to be very helpful to have as many influential French and German organ lovers as possible on your side. i have read through the extensive posts you and others have made on this topic over many years, and can only express my admiration for what you and others have done and are doing for this incredibly important instrument. I hesitate to make any further suggestions as to what can be done, but I imagine you would agree that the more that can be done to keep this issue in the public’s awareness, the better. I would especially like to hear something from the leadership of the Royal College of Organists. If they are listening could they please do something or tell us what they are doing? They are making a lot of videos at the moment and putting them on their website - perhaps one devoted to this instrument could be made. They have influence in very high places.

Looking for any recent news about this organ I found the following in a review of an event held last November: “WHEN Amy Macdonald told a packed Parr Hall audience on Thursday night that they had been the 'loudest' of her tour, it was easy to believe it. Macdonald performed largely with her guitar and it was her high-tempo renditions of Mr Rock and Roll, This is the Life and encore Poisoned Prince that had the crowd at their loudest, on their feet, clapping along. The three members of her band, on guitar, bass (including a double bass) and piano/percussion, were cleverly used to produce a beautiful sound. And the decision to use the historic Cavaille-Coll Organ, one of the few remaining pipe organs of its type, as the backdrop to the staging was inspired. It created a beautiful setting to match the simplicity of the arrangements of the songs. When it is full and bouncing like this, the Parr Hall really shines and it is easy to remember and reflect on its past history.” Does anyone have any more recent, and more encouraging, news regarding this organ?

One absolutely crucial area to get right before you start practising a piece is that of writing into the score the fingering and pedalling. There is a very useful little book called “Organ Practice” by Ann Marsden Thomas that explains how it is vital not to practise “wrong” fingering, because your brain can never completely unlearn what it has already learnt, and so changing fingering already imprinted in your brain requires a great deal of time and effort. Practising using the same fingering and pedalling is obviously many times more efficient than simply hoping that the right fingers and feet will eventually hit the right keys. You will simply get into bad habits, many of which you won’t even realise. On the organ, it is probably even more important than on the piano, firstly because on the piano you can cheat with the sustaining pedal, and secondly because the whole business of articulation on the organ is very closely related to fingering. Few organ scores have the fingering and pedalling already worked out for you. In any case, you need to work out your own, because the articulation is also related to your interpretation of the piece. Also, fingering is dependent on the size of your hand and the length of your fingers. Some organ composers, like Franck, notoriously had very large hands, and his works reflect this. You therefore have to find ways of solving the problems this throws up. The bass part of the manuals only opening section of his Chorale No. 1, for example, can be played with the feet, with the pedals simply coupled to the manuals. To begin with, you will be guided by your organ teacher, who should be informed about different articulations and even fingering systems according to the era in which the piece was written. When Bach began his career, it is likely that he only used the old system, which made little use of the thumb, and often played runs or scales using only two fingers which crossed over each other. Heels were used sparingly, if at all in pedalling. This was possible because generally speaking keyboard pieces were played detaché, rather than legato. By the time he died, however, it appears that he had adopted a fingering system more akin to what we are used to today, although he probably combined the two methods in practice. You don’t need to play with old fingering systems, but you need to be aware of them, because you then understand that it can be perfectly acceptable in a Baroque piece to play two consecutive notes with the same finger or foot, or simply lift your hand and quickly move it along the keyboard. This can actually make playing Bach easier than it was forty or fifty years ago when legato playing was de rigeur. When playing the post Baroque repertoire, which does require a legato touch, your fingering and pedalling will need to reflect this, which requires use of the heel, and finger and foot substitution, as well as other techniques such bridging pedals to play an interval of a third legato, or sliding a finger or foot from a black to a white note to create the impression of legato, or using both sides of your foot. Sometimes you need to be quite inventive, as when playing a legato passage with one foot whilst operating the swell pedal with the other! Sorting out the fingering on the organ can be quite laborious, sometimes involving redistributing the notes as printed from one hand to the other. But the time invested soon pays off if you stick to what you have written and practise it meticulously. In spite of what I have written above, however, don’t be afraid to change the fingering and pedalling you have worked out it you find a better solution. With experience your fingers sometimes find a better solution subconsciously. You need to be aware of this, because your mind can play tricks on you. Sometimes when you think you know a piece, you find your fingers have changed the fingering by themselves without you being conscious of it. In this case you need to ask yourself which is the better fingering. By all means change it, but then stick to your decision.

I would strongly advise against going down the Royal College of Organists (RCO) qualification route before gaining diploma level qualifications in organ playing from the established music examination boards such as the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) for the following reasons: An RCO diploma (CRCO, ARCO and FRCO) is an all round, comprehensive music qualification. The organ pieces are only a small part of this. Whilst the exams are now modular (i.e. you can pass part and bank it for up to four years whilst retaking the other parts), it is a huge undertaking. As others have pointed out, the standard required by the RCO to pass the pieces seems to be far higher than, say, in ABRSM diplomas. There is a pass mark and that’s it. You can’t get a distinction (you can get prizes, but most of these seem to be awarded to only one candidate at each session). Because of the demands and breadth of the exams, it is quite likely that you will fail at least one of the parts of the exam at least once, unless you are an absolutely top-flight musician. This can be very demoralising, even traumatic, especially for a young musician. (Don’t believe anyone who says that’s good for you - it’s not, it’s horrible and can destroy your self-confidence and love of your chosen instrument). I know of organists who have failed parts of an RCO exam again and again over many years, especially the keyboard tests, but also parts of the written papers. Passing the keyboard tests, an excellent thing in itself, requires so much practice and self-discipline that you inevitably have to sacrifice quite a lot of the time other musicians devote to practising the repertoire for several years to reach the standard required by the RCO. Quite a number of leading organists in the UK do not have RCO qualifications. This is either because they never took them or because they failed them. The Royal College of Organists has no premises or students enrolled on diplomas courses, (although it does organise short courses ranging from a few hours to a week in length). It is tiny in comparison to the ABRSM which examines more than half a million candidates for its exams worldwide every year. This compares with around 50 candidates who were awarded an RCO diploma this year. Whilst the leading music colleges (e.g. Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, etc.) are subject to government inspection, and to OFQUAL in relation to their qualifications, as far as I am aware the RCO is only accountable to itself as far as its examinations are concerned. Unless I am mistaken, the RCO is not subject to any external academic inspection regime. The RCO diplomas can only be taken at the RCO specified examination centres (one in Dulwich, one in Huddersfield and one in Edinburgh). Candidates can only practise on the instrument they will be examined on for one or two hours, sometimes many weeks before the exam. In addition, the instrument may be inappropriate for some of the pieces specified in the syllabus. Sometimes you may find that it is impossible to find for a particular piece a registration which will satisfy the examiner, regardless of the fact that it is really not your fault. For ABRSM diplomas, on the other hand, the exam venue has to be arranged by the candidate for organ exams. This means you can be examined on an organ you are totally familiar with, and on which you have practised your pieces for a long period of time. It also means that, when asked to pull out or push in a particular stop in a split second in the sight-reading, you know exactly where it is without having to think. My advice, therefore, to a young person contemplating taking the RCO diploma exams is this: first get your Grade VIII in organ. Then work towards a diploma such as the DipABRSM and then the LRSM. You will then have letters after your name, can hold your head high in the organ world and have plenty to put on your CV. At the same time you should practise your keyboard skills. You will need a great deal of self-discipline for this, but, as has been stated by others above, if you do this for a short time every single day (preferably before you practise your pieces), you will gradually improve, without having to sacrifice too much repertoire time. You also need to work on your harmony and counterpoint. Again, get your Grade VIII theory and then aim for, say the Trinity College, London diplomas in Theory. Now you are ready to take on the RCO.

Certainly no need to apologise. I don’t blame the Nicolaikirche for accepting Porsche’s money. But I do think whoever came up with that dreadfully crass console design (presumably someone at Porsche who had no interest in organs) was doing the extraordinarily beautiful church a disservice. http://www.kulturkompasset.com/st-nicolas-church-leipzig/ Luckily you can’t see the console from the floor of the nave, but if you go into the gallery you will certainly see it. It is totally out of place in this historic church, where the demonstrations that culminated in the end of the GDR began, and where Bach’s St. John Passion was first performed. Interestingly, the church was an important centre of freemasonry in the 18th century - thus the palm tree columns.

Generally speaking I would say that most problems in organ building are caused by rapid changes in fashion and unrealistic demands by people who know little or nothing about the complexity of these amazing machines and the huge range of skills and levels of craftsmanship involved in building an instrument which is suited and adapted to the physical and acoustic environment of the building in which they are placed. Huge amounts of money are often wasted going round in circles as the following case study demonstrates: “The organ in St. Martin’s Church, Dudelange, Luxembourg was built in 1912 by the organbuilder Georg Stahlhuth (1830-1913) and his son Eduard Stahlhuth (1862-1916). As Germans, installed at Aachen, Georg and Eduard Stahlhuth had all the basic knowledge of German romantic organbuilding. As disciples and close friends of Joseph Merklin at Brussels and Lyon, they had a share in the development of French symphonic organbuilding. Their contracts in England and Ireland provided them with good knowledge of English romantic organbuilding. Thus, they were among the rare organbuilders able to incorporate both French and English characteristics into German romantic organbuilding, defending in this way Albert Schweitzer’s «European» ideas in matter of organbuilding, ideas on which the project was founded in 1912. The three-manual organ of 1912 had 45 stops (and 3 transmissions under expression in the pedal) on cone-valve chests with pneumatic note and stop action. Wind was supplied by three English water engines. A further borrowing from English organbuilding was the high-pressure Tuba mirabilis 8‘ in the Positiv-Swell division, voiced on 300 mm. Typical French features were the overblowing stops (typical of Stahlhuth’s organs) and the reeds of French-style construction (with tin-plated shallots), of which at least three were supplied by the Paris firm Veuve Jules Sézerie: Vox humana 8', Tuba 8' and Posaune 16' «octave grave de bombarde 16', grosse taille». Basically, however, the organ was attuned to German romantic style, with plentiful foundation 8‘-stops, differentiation in the manuals according to the various scalings (wide, normal, narrow) and their dynamic gradation (f, mf, p). Besides the high-pressure Tuba mirabilis, the organ had two further „Starkton-Register“ (strong and expressive in tonal design): Seraphon Gedackt 8‘ and Seraphon Flöte 8‘, each with two mouths. With these three loud toned stops, the numerous foundation stops and the two expressive divisions with their sub and superoctave couplers, the organ had an exceptionally broad dynamic spectrum. In 1962, in accordance with the then predominant neobaroque tonal aesthetic, the organ suffered far reaching modifications in total negligence of its stylistic specificity: reduction of the wind pressure, replacement of the pneumatic action by electric action, removal of the original console, changes to the pipework, transfer of stops on to other windchests, addition of high-pitched mixtures and mutations, as well as a fourth manual of neobaroque conception and removal of characteristic Stahlhuth stops. After the organ had become nearly unplayable in the middle of the 1990s, a renovation of the organ had become inescapable. From 2001 to 2002, the following items were carried out by organbuilder Thomas Jann, Laberweinting (Germany) and his craftsmen: restoration and reconstruction of the Stahlhuth pipes and windchests from 1912 - renewal of the swell boxes and the wind supply system - removal of the additional stops from 1962 and reverse of the transfers carried out in 1962 - addition of a Bombarde division in place of the neobaroque Positiv - harmonious extension of the organ up to 78 speaking stops with both German romantic and French symphonic tone colors, notably by : - further development of the string chorus (full-fledged chorus from 16’ through Terzgamba 1 3/5’) - numerous orchestral solo stops, constructed and voiced in both German and French style - extension and differentiation of the numerous reed chorus (23 stops in all) of both German romantic and French symphonic style on all manuals - a strong fundamental tone based on 32’ (Untersatz 32’ from CC, full-length Contrabombarde 32’) - octave mutations 5 1/3’ and 3 1/5’ and low-pitched, partly progressive mixtures - revoicing of the whole organ, carried out without compromise according to romantic voicing techniques - new four-manual console with electronic combination action, MIDI-interface and replay system. Thus, since 2002, the most significant trait of the organ is the stylistically authentic performance not only of German but also of French and English repertoire from the romantic-symphonic era.”

This is what Bach’s Nicolai-Kirche in Leipzig got when they accepted over €2 million from Porsche to restore their Ladegast organ: http://www.die-orgelseite.de/bilder/sample_1.jpg

Didn’t Rick Wakeman used to play the organ with flares during the 1970s?

I see that one of the requirements for the Worcester job is “gravitas”. I’d be interested to see the assessment criteria for this characteristic.

“Of course the downside of printing from the internet is that you end up with reams of loose A4 sheets!” If you have a tablet computer, such as an iPad, it is much better to download the music and keep it there. I use an app called ForScore with my iPad for this purpose. I have hundreds of scores and it is very easy to find what you want quickly. You can annotate the music with an Apple pencil and play from the tablet itself if you want to. Another advantage is that you can keep different versions for different organs that you may play on. There is even a feature called Reflow which converts your music into one continuous line which moves at whatever speed you want it to, so you don’t need to turn pages. Alternatively, just print out the odd score when you want to perform it in public.

After many hours researching this question, here’s where I’ve got to so far: The attribution of the harmonisation of the hymn tune Salzburg to J.S. Bach in all hymn books I have examined, must be wrong. It was extant before Bach was born, being published by Pachelbel in 1683 at the beginning of his choral partita Alle Menschen müssen sterben in Musikalische Sterbensgedanken. It should be noted that the metre of this chorale is 8787. This chorale harmonisation of Alle Menschen müssen sterben, later given the BWV number 262, was included in the collection of 371 Bach chorales published by C.P.E Bach, but there is no extant work of Bach’s in which it features, so it may be assumed his son found it amongst his manuscripts and included it, perhaps thinking the harmonisation was his father’s work. The collection of 371 chorales, republished several times during the 19th century, may have been the source of the choral harmonisation used by the compilers of the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, the musical editor of which was William Henry Monk. As far as the melody is concerned, the website hymnary.org states:”The tune SALZBURG, named after the Austrian city made famous by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was first published anonymously in the nineteenth edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica (1678); in that hymnbook's twenty-fourth edition (1690) the tune was attributed to Jakob Hintze (b. Bernau, Germany, 1622; d. Berlin, Germany, 1702).” The first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern 1861 sets the tune it calls Salzburg to the hymn “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”. This hymn is a translation of the Latin hymn “Ad regias Agni dapes” by the Scottish lawyer Robert Campbell. He published it in his collection of hymns known as The St. Andrews Hymnal in 1850, two years before he became a Roman Catholic. It should be noted that the metre of “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing” is 77 77 D, so the German chorale has to be adapted slightly. Not having access to “The St Andrews Hymnal” it is impossible to know if Robert Campbell set it to the German chorale melody, but it seems unlikely. Zahn, the 19th century cataloguer of German choral tunes, lists Hintze’s tune (Zahn 6778) as having the metre 87878877. There is another hymn tune called Salzburg. It is a tune by Michael Haydn who lived for many years in Salzburg. The metre is 7676 however. To complicate matters even further, the following entry can be found in “Hymn Tune Names: Their Sources and Significance” by Robert McCutchan (Abingdon 1957): “Tantum Ergo [878787 (4:drmf/ s f m r) ; from Samuel Webbe's Antiphons, 1792]. Tantum ergo are the first words of Part II, the last two stanzas, of the Latin hymn beginning, "Pange lingua gloriosi." It is a part of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament of the Roman Church. Also called Alleluia Dulce Carmen, Benediction, Corinth, Dulce Carmen, Gloria Patri, Lebanon, St. Werbergh's, Salzburg, Walpole. Alleluia Dulce Carmen and Dulce Carmen: because used with the eleventh-century Latin hymn beginning, "Alleluia, dulce carmen." In Havergal's Psalmody (1871) it is called Salzburg because Havergal attributed it to John Michael Haydn, who lived in Salzburg for the last forty-four years of his life. In a footnote Havergal states the tune is "wrongly called Benediction or St. Werbergh." [878787 (4: d d d d). Interestingly, Samuel Webbe was organist of the Sardinian Embassy Chapel, a position which he held until 1795. He was also organist and choirmaster of chapel of the Portuguese Embassy in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the only place in London where the Catholic liturgy could be publicly celebrated. Hymns Ancient and Modern was published in 1861 by Novello. Vincent Novello, the founder, was a Roman Catholic. As a boy, Novello was a chorister at the Sardinian Embassy Chapel where he learnt the organ from Samuel Webbe; and from 1796 to 1822 he became in succession organist of the Sardinian, Spanish and Portuguese (in South Street, Grosvenor Square) chapels, and from 1840-43 of St. Mary Moorfields. Novello, a huge admirer of Mozart, and his wife visited Salzburg in 1829 to see Mozart’s widow Constanze and deliver a gift of money. So we have a group of very high churchmen, compiling a high church hymnbook, published by a Roman Catholic publishing firm, looking for a hymn tune for an English translation of a Latin hymn translated by a Roman Catholic. They were looking for a tune with 7777 metre, but knew that 8787 might work with a little adaptation. They had tunes, metres and texts swirling around in their heads, and countless hymnbooks and tunes in front of them, including probably Samuel Webbe’s with its tune for Dulce Carmen composed by Michael Haydn from Salzburg, which also fits Tantum Ergo, and thus Pange Lingua, the tune of which is included in Hymns Ancient and Modern adapted to 8787, although set to the hymn Now my Soul Thy Voice Upraising (including Neale’s translation of Pange Lingua - Of the Glorious Body Telling - itself would have been a step too far, because of its Catholic theology - Neale had already been accused of being a Vatican agent in the Church of England and had even been beaten up by a Protestant mob in Sussex.) The problem is that they need a tune for an 8 line stanza. They have J.S. Bach’s chorales in front of them and realise that the tune of Alle Menschen müssen sterben can be made to fit with a slight adjustment. But what to call it? Giving a Roman Catholic hymn translated from Latin by a Scottish Roman Catholic a German Protestant town name would seem ridiculous. But Salzburg? Perfect!

The naming of hymn tunes seems to be an English practice, rather than a German one. It looks as though the compilers of the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) may have given the tune this name when they matched it to the hymn “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”. Since then the chorale harmonisation has been attributed to J.S. Bach (BWV 262), but it now appears that it was in fact by Pachelbel, who placed it at the beginning of his chorale partita “Alle Menschen müssen Sterben” which was included in his “Musicalische Sterbens-Gedancken” (1683). None of this explains why the compilers of Hymns Ancient and Modern gave the tune the name Salzburg, if, indeed, it was they who did so.

Does anyone know why the hymn tune SALZBURG bears this name? In this country we use Bach’s harmonisation of it for several hymn texts, including “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise” and “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”, but in Germany it is the tune of “Alle Menschen Müssen Sterben”. Apparently it was first published anonymously in the nineteenth edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica (1678); in that hymnbook's twenty-fourth edition (1690) the tune was attributed to Jakob Hintze (b. Bernau, Germany, 1622; d. Berlin, Germany, 1702). I can’t find any explanation for the name or any connection to the city of Salzburg.