How to Choose the Best Fingering in Early Organ Music?

Playing early organ music requires much knowledge in registration, articulation, fingering, and other aspects of organ performance. Fingering, in particular, is an area where correct choices can facilitate the execution of articulation, phrasing, and ornamentation. The right way of fingering can even help to feel the pulse and the meter easier. If the organist plays a Baroque or Renaissance organ piece with the correct fingering, chances of performing it in style are much higher. Although there are many different national schools of early organ music, and each of them has its own tradition of fingering practices, it is possible to outline some general ideas about fingering. In this article, I would like to give you my advice on how to choose the best fingering in music composed before 1800 which will help you to achieve the correct articulation.

Paired Fingering. The most famous of all kinds of early fingerings, paired fingering is used primarily for one voice passages in one hand. It can help to emphasize the meter and the pulse if used correctly. Paired fingering is based on the idea that the notes on the stronger beats should be played with stronger fingers. Authors of treatises from different national schools had their own ideas about strong fingers. They even referred to them as good and bad fingers.

It is best to play with early fingering scale based passages written in quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. Try this exercise: play the ascending C major scale with the right hand using 3-4-3-4-3-4-3-4 fingering. Try to achieve some articulation between each note which should not be played legato. This type of articulation is called the ordinary touch or the articulate legato. Notice how notes C, E, G, and B start with the strong finger 3 which emphasizes the pulse very well. Try to achieve the slight pulsation while shortening the notes which you play with finger 4.

Try the same exercise in descending scale with 3-2-3-2-3-2-3-2. You can play with the left hand the same exercise using 3-2-3-2-3-2-3-2 (ascending) and 3-4-3-4-3-4-3-4 (descending). Do not cross the fingers but shift the position with the entire hand. In other words, move both fingers together as a unit.

Position Fingering. This type of fingering means that we choose the fingers which would allow playing the most number of notes without changing position. Like paired fingering, position fingering is also used for solo passages. Try this exercise:

Play a passage like C D E F G F E D E F G A B A G F G A B C D C B A in sixteenth notes with the right hand using a pattern of 12345432 12345432 12345432. Notice how it is possible to play 8 notes in one position. Putting the thumb under and switching to the new position is very efficient way to play such passages.

Interval Fingering. While paired and position fingering are best suited for solo passages, interval fingering is used to play two notes in one hand. Thirds are best played with 2-4 or 1-3, fourths – with 2-5 or 1-4, fifths, sixths, sevenths, and octaves – with 1-5. The succession of the same kind of intervals is played with the same fingers. Therefore, such common passages of successive thirds, for example in music of Sweelinck, are best played with 2-4. The passages in sixths are played with 1-5.

Chord Fingering. Because of narrower keys in the 16th and 17th century organs, the chords (and solo passages) in early music are often played without the thumb. For example, first inversion major chord E G C can be played with 2 3 5 in the right hand). The left hand chords are often wider, as in C G C and played with 1 2 5.

The general rule for the Renaissance and early Baroque music is to avoid using thumb (especially in sharp keys). However, there are many instances where the thumb cannot be avoided, such as in music written in G minor, or F major. Quite often composers use excursions into the B flat major area where B flat is the primary note of the key. Therefore, the thumb is definitely used in such cases, though it is not exactly comfortable for the hand.

Because of the chromatic nature of the music of J.S.Bach and complicated keys used in his works, playing with the thumb and using finger crossing is quite comfortable. However, try to avoid finger substitution and glissando which are best suited for the legato manner of playing used in organ music written about after 1800.

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