Virgil Fox's registrations and strategies for the stanzas of a hymn,

summarized by Tom Baker, based on the 1969 Master Classes, nos. 29, 45, and 51.    (Go to main page.)
Introduction:
16' (light!), 8', 4';
No reeds, no mixtures;
On a small organ, Sw. string, w/ Sw>Gt 16';
Complete lift before stanza 1.
 
Singing starts:
Add 2'.
Or:
Add 2', plus mixtures. This gives you Diapasons 16', 8', and 4', plus upper work and mixtures.
On a small organ, Sw. 2-2/3' and 2', w/4' coupler, or Sw>Gt 8' and 4'.
 
Stanza with tune on a solo reed:
Swell reeds 16', 8', 4'.
Accompaniment w/Swell uncoupled.
On a small organ, Swell Cornopean and Oboe, with sub- and supercouplers;
Don’t repeat tune notes on the reed(s), articulate with the accompaniment!
As a final thickener, “I got a right foot!” [Use both feet.]
 
Stanza 3:
IF the tremulants don’t make the pitch wobble, but only contribute to a “certain vagueness:”
  • strings & celestes
  • flutes & flute celestes
  • weak diapasons
  • weak oboe or clarinet
  • no chorus reeds or mixtures
This is the lush sound of “what I call the American Ensemble.”
Especially useful if sopranos are to sing a descant.
The ideal for the tremulant: Kirsten Flagstad, especially her final F#.
 
In email I asked Winston Willis, the engineer of the Master Class CD, about Virgil’s use of the term “American Ensemble”. Mr. Willis replied:
“American Ensemble was anything that did not sound like a tracker/Holtcamp/Baroque, chiffing piece of &^%$%^^%^)(!.  VF referred to that combination of diapasons, flutes, strings, vox humanas, and tremolos as ‘lush.’ ‘Turn on the lush, Honey. Turn off the supers.’ David Ogletree calls it ‘the Riverside sound’. The trick with Lush was to have all those things wiggling and coupled together at 8'. Then, couple it all to the Great at 16', 8', and 4', playing the tune up an octave. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeah!”
Here's a good recent example of the “lush,” Calm as the Night, by Carl Bohm, played by T. Ernest Nichols.
 
Final stanza:
full organ [with diapasons, chorus reeds, mixtures];
 
Show them where the beat is!
If the harmony doesn't change over an important beat, change the harmony slightly (but this can be dangerous!), or change the pedal octave.
Keep the tune and/or pedal legato, and chop the other parts as necessary.
A variant of this (“a nice device”): chords in the left hand with the correct bass and soprano; right hand and pedal can then be broken.
Bottom line: “Any touch device that you can use to show where the beat is, will be wonderful!”
 
A useful full-organ strategy:
Omit pedal, use “quinting” above the bass line.
Pedal enters in the middle of the stanza;
If sound is rich enough (sub- and supercouplers), start the stanza with a bit of tune in unison w/pedal only (Soprano & Bass).
 
Quinting:
In the pedal: play final note with 5th above.
If the pedal is silent and the bass line is in the manual, play the bass notes below tenor C, and add a 5th, 6th, or 4th above the bass notes, according to the chord. 3rd won't work [too close].
 
A related full-organ strategy:
Chorus reeds and mixtures on an enclosed division, boxed closed, weak pedal;
All coupled to Great at 16', 8', and 4'
Start manualiter; quinting is useful here, too.
Slowly open the boxes through the 1st and 2nd lines;
3rd line: entry of the pedal;
then start opening up the crescendo pedal.
 
How to wire a crescendo pedal:
Crescendo pedal starts with 8' couplers: Sw>Gt, Sw>Pd, not Gt>Pd;
First sounds are 8' Dulciana or other quietest stops, soft 16' pedal;
Then celestes on (they will come off later);
Sw>Gt 4' before Great 4' stop (first Great stop);
As you add louder stops, the 4' of a type goes before the 8' of that type.
Weak reeds ca. 1/3 of the way through; at 1/3 you can start to open the box;
Manual 16' come last.
 
Constants:
Don't worry about your fancy pieces, the hymns are much more important.
Don’t go too fast!
Hymns should always be rhythmic but never metronomic. Show where the beat is, with a chord change, or change of pedal octave, etc.
Give the people time to breathe, or they will stop singing.
 
A light 16' is on at all times; it creates a “grave” quality, and gives the sound of the organ enough body to encourage singing.
 
In a 4-line hymn, articulate lines 1 and 3 with a lift in the right hand;
Articulate line 2 with a lift in both hands;
Where it is not silent, the pedal is constantly sounding.
 
Be dynamically active (getting louder/brighter, or softer or darker) between lines, not only within them.
 
Good technique: let your right hand move in the opposite direction to the tune [if the choir and congregation are strong enough]:
Where the tune goes down, go up; where the tune goes up, go down.
 
Another good technique: take one stanza down a major third, to the key of the flat VI, “for those who always say the hymns are too high.”
Prepare the choir and congregation!
 
Keep harmonic structure and pedal line unchanged till last stanza.
Altered harmonies belong only in last stanza; again, prepare choir and congregation.
 
“Acoustic release” is a useful device if the room is dry; works best when you build up to it:
Build up to 8 notes covering 2 octaves, w/quinting in Pedal, to make acoustic release effective.
  • 3rd line, add/play tune in open octaves in right hand;
  • transition to 4th line: fill in the chord between the octave notes of the tune, adding one note per beat;
  • 4th line, continue playing the chord in the highest octave, between the notes of the tune.
  • Cf quinting, which is playing extra notes in the left hand when you are keeping the pedal silent.
Where the service is going to continue, taper the hymn:
Dynamically, get softer and softer;
[Motivically, you can use elements of the hymn;]
Harmonically, descend through successive dominants.
 
“You can’t just sit there and play four notes.”
“Play the building as well as the piece.”
 
Basic principles of registration
Solo in the right hand:
  • Flutes
  • English horn
  • Oboe
Solo in the left hand:
  • French Horn
  • Clarinet
  • Corno di bassetto
  • Bassoon
—w/tremulants
 
Good for accompanying women's voices: strings, celestes, tremulants;
“Mixtures eat sopranos!” [—Don’t use them that way!]
 
Good for accompanying basses, or chordal support for men's voices: 8' diapasons;
or French Horn in the left hand, Clarinet in the right.
 
Orchestral crescendo, if you can arrange it (but there should only be one shoe):
[passes through] flutes, strings, celestes, vox humana, weak diapasons, 8' and 4' couplers;
no ensemble reeds or ensemble diapasons; cf  “American ensemble.”
 
Reprise:
“You can’t just sit there and play four notes.”
“Play the building as well as the piece.”
 
And the most important thing, without which nothing else matters:
Clearly articulated, infectious rhythm
 that comes from the solar plexus.