The Docile Organ

When one thinks of Pipe Organs now, the common image is that of loud and massive instruments. This isn’t the whole picture though. There are many that are compact and some even portable. The whole idea of a massive instrument is a relatively modern concept. Organs have always been fairly loud, but when one looks at the instruments that followed the destruction of anything excessive in Puritan revolution in England, one finds quaint organs. These are the kind of organs that the great composer Handel would have had at his disposal even for masterworks like his oratorio, ‘Messiah’.

We’re sticking with Handel for the listening assignment for the day, with a tiny instrument as part of an organ concerto, just as Handel himself could have used. It is a window into performance practice in Baroque era England, before the great English cathedrals and churches advanced as much as they have now. It's cute to think of the music that represents these diminutive organs, cuckoos and nightingales. An organ in birdsong.