You can manage bookmarks using lists, please log in to your user account for this.
Media type:
Book
Title:
Bach's feet
:
the organ pedals in European culture
Contains:
Inventing the organist's feet -- Harmonies of the feet, visions of the body -- Walking towards perfection : pedal solos and cycles -- The pedal in the cosmopolitan age of travel -- Treading the globe : the world-wide expansion of the German pedal ideal -- Bach's feet.
Description:
The organist seated at the king of instruments with thousands of pipes rising all around him, his hands busy at the manuals and his feet patrolling the pedalboard, is a symbol of musical self-sufficiency yielding musical possibilities beyond that of any other mode of solo performance. A new interpretation of the significance of the oldest and richest of European instruments is explored through investigating the German origins of the uniquely independent use of the feet in organ playing. By delving into a range of musical, literary, and visual sources, the cultural importance of this physically demanding mode of music-making is uncovered, from the blind German organists of the 15th c., through the central contribution of Bach's music and legacy, to the newly pedaling organists of the British Empire and the sinister visions of Nazi propagandists.