rose

Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Paris


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choir organ communicate by a spring:
the third row of keys is for the reed stops,
and the upper for the echoes. This in-
strument has a very good effect below;
but above, the keys are intolerably noisy.
M. Balbastre took a great deal of pains
to entertain me; he performed in all
styles in accompanying the choir. When
the Magnificat was sung, he played like-
wise between each verse several minutes,
fugues, imitations, and every species of
music, even to hunting pieces and jigs,
without surprising or offending the con-
gregation, as far as I was able to discover.
In prosing, I perceived he performed the
chant on the pedals, which he doubled
with the lowest part of the left hand,
and upon this basis played with learning
and fancy. The base part was written in
semibreves, like our old psalmody. What
was sung in the choir, without the organ,
was inserted in the Gregorian character.

After church M. Balbastre invited me
to his house, to see a fine Rucker harp-

sichord