Pastorale

Charles Wesley (8 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement, most widely known for writing more than 6,000 hymns. This charming Pastorale shows off two of the quieter stops in the Poblet sample set.

The work begins on the beautiful sound of the Viola 8 on the Hauptwerk. Next, the right hand moves to the Bourdon on the Ruckpositiv, while the LH remains on the HW with RP coupled. This maintains the Viola in the bass to add definition to the Bourdon for the LH part. Then back to both hands on the Viola uncoupled, before finally both hands are heard on the two ranks coupled.

I have raised the volume on this otherwise very quiet recording so that detail of these two ranks can be clearly heard. In proportion to the rest of the organ they are normally much softer, especially the Viola.

This work is taken from the first volume of "Old English Organ Music for Manuals" edited by C. H. Trevor and published in 1966 by Oxford University Press. There are six volumes in this excellent series. These books are still available in reprint. I discovered these and the many other anthologies edited by Trevor during my earliest days as a young organist during the early to mid 1970's, and they became the staple of my parish service repertoire. It was good to be able to provide a wide variety of pieces with relatively little effort for Sunday services while working away privately on more challenging larger organ works. I'd bring out the bigger stuff only on major occasions. Gradually I acquired just about everything which C. H. Trevor published, and built my Sunday service music around them. At the time I was also limited by the instruments over which I presided - smallish pipe organs and at one stage a single-manual reed organ - so the need for repertoire which didn't overtax the instruments was high.

MIDI file is attached.