Bellows Treaders

[Praetorius]

I have a pretty good idea of how organs work--certainly the concepts,
anyway.
I've gathered, however, that the air can be supplied by various methods
of pumping a bellows. It appears that on smaller organs, actual
treading was not necessary. Someone could just continually press a
lever up and down. However, on larger instruments, the Paulinerkirche,
for example...

There is a drawing made in 1361 of bellows treading on the organ in
Halberstadt which depicts a set of 20 bellows operated by 10 treaders.
The treaders would apparently use footholds built into each bellows and
then march up and down in place gripping a bar with their hands to give
extra leverage and power.

But this drawing is three and a half centuries before Bach, yet bellows
treading was still essential in his day. Had it improved since the
Halberstadt drawing? E. Power Biggs in his liner notes to "Bach on the
Pedal Harpsichord" says "...since the necessity of paying a man to pump
the organ bellows in cold churches made extensive practice in church a
luxury."

'A' man? or, 'men'? I found one website which referred to having 'a'
choirboy do the job. It would seem that someone of greater mass than a
choirboy would be required, certainly for larger instruments; and
probably more than just one.

I've seen some pictures which make it appear that someone (or more than
one), rather than walking in place, might have a 'circuit' of several
bellows to walk across. In other words, by the time the treader
completed a circuit, the first bellows would have 're-inflated' and be
ready for the treader's circuit to start again.

Bellows treading has always come across as this thankless, labor
intensive job. But, I am interested in knowing how labor intensive it
was in Bach's day.


(As something of a sidebar, I noticed this article in the London Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2091756.html which details
the problems organ builders are running into as a result of lead/tin
restrictions imposed by the EU)

[Dirk]

Some of my older family members in Belgium often talked about how they
supplied air to the bellows in pairs. They would be treading a pair of
bellows facing each other. I always assumed that when one was going
downwards, the other would be going up ... thereby supplying a constant
flow of air.
As an aside, Bach was often asked to test (and tune) organs. The first
thing he would do is pull out all the stops and check if the bellows
could handle it. He would refer to this as 'testing the organ's lungs'.

[Praetorius]

Post by Dirk
Some of my older family members in Belgium often talked about how they
supplied air to the bellows in pairs. They would be treading a pair of
bellows facing each other. I always assumed that when one was going
downwards, the other would be going up ... thereby supplying a constant
flow of air.
As an aside, Bach was often asked to test (and tune) organs. The first
thing he would do is pull out all the stops and check if the bellows
could handle it. He would refer to this as 'testing the organ's lungs'.

Thanks, Dirk, that was most interesting.
Opening all of the stops--that is the 'pleno', is that correct?

Specific facts about bellows treading, tho an integral part of Bach's
organ playing,
seems to be largely unknown and/or ignored.

Thanks again.