I don't know, Noel. Tying repeated pedal notes is just something one learns, much the way one has to cope with English spelling instead of learning to read with fawnetiklee reespelt books. More useful to a beginner playing manualiter would be the distribution of hands in "Hail Holy Queen en-throned above". And the simplified right hand alto of "Immort-, invisible" is surely a mistake.

Maybe, Noel, the problem is that the conservatory programs haven't improved since my days annexed to one. One of my organ teachers said then that the churches were telling the conservatories that the organists they were graduating could play 40 minute recitals from memory, but couldn't accompany a simple hymn.

I've been an amateur organist for under three years, receiving about twenty lessons in total under a scholarship. The number of liturgies I have personally accompanied as an organist is under ten. I was able to intuitively do what I described above on the pianoforte before I even received formal organ lessons.

Division between the hands is much, much harder than the (IMO) very basic task of deciding what should be tied. If you wish to market a book towards beginner organists, that would seem to be a more helpful task.

Oh, but the Pianoforte (I have one right here beside me) is the IDEAL instrument to learn on since the technique is so different from playing the modern piano. I mean, dealing with the hammers and all that you have to do to play the pianoforte is exactly what you have to do to play the organ!

Does yours have two strings per key, giving you a true una corda pedal?

The simplified HYFERDOL is obviously designed to be compatible with the choir voicing rather than an optimized 3-part harmonization (a rationale also followed by some OUP novice organist book). But why re-articulate bass notes here, as at "sceptre" or "every nation" (where the 'alto' could well add a third to the triad)?

Most colleges have the same issue with their harpsichords. I had to beg and sneak to get access to them. I always found it ironic too, because as an organ major Id get keys to million dollar instruments and yet they wouldn’t let me touch the harpsichords...

Noel,

How long ago did that report about Oberlin students come out?
{I'm an alum}

Chris - the report was a survey, the comment was bandied about in clergy circles in the 1970’s when I hired John Bishop [organ clearing house] to take over my very sweet position at a church on Euclid Avenue. Now he could play hymns!

No, Haskell was at Church of the Covenant on the A/S, and John and I were at Calvary Pres on the 4 manual Austin donated by John Severance (Severance Hall, home to the Cleveland Orchestra) in memory of his wife.

I believe that Haskell was one of the panel that I played the FAGO exam for, and the Peter Principle is right, and as an AAGO I have truly reached the level of my incompetence.

Aha, now that makes sense. The survey was by an ago member, as I recall. I used to go to the coop in Oberlin - the back room was a fantastic music store of scholarly editions. Long before you were there. Excellent school.

The hymns are not simplified just made readable for an organist who prefers an organ score.

Simplified edition IS in final editing. Soprano & Bass with a middle part to preserve the tonality is on the way. All of us, we can’t forget beginners, because we all were beginners at one time.

No one was born playing the organ, but many of us were born wanting to!

Everyone has a personal feeling as to where articulations belong. A musical score is like a road map. You can follow the map or not, the notes and all do not make music, you do. Not the day goes by that someone decides not to play the notes as indicated.

Very true, and while I know the purists want every note and nuance to be exactly as the composer wrote it, but my feeling is the composer is long dead and not only no longer cares, but he or she has no say whatsoever in how the music is played!

If I have a lot of difficulty with certain parts, notes, or "ornamentation" I just omit them.

With that in mind and your booklet sample that you linked to, the pages have a nice "clean" look to them with no distractions.

Here's a page from my 1936 Slovakian Catholic hymn book "Jednotny Katholicky Spevnik" (translated roughly to English it is the "Uniform Catholic songbook" ) by Spolok Vojtecha, 565 pages.

This is the organist edition, there is a pew edition which has only the melody lines which I'm told is pretty common over there and the organist is expected to improvise a bass line on the fly for it, but the JKS is available in both editions.

It can be seen in the music for JKS 48 "Dnesny den sa radujme" (Let's rejoice today) that the composer/author made free use of ties and slurs, in fact, to my eyes its too much and is distracting and I don't pay any attention to them. Some ties are ok.
Of the approx 600 hymns in the book, about half of them were composed by the author and others taken from very old works.

I have a video of JKS 48, I omit several notes because of the rather awkward fingering needed to do it in measure 11 and 12 which I don't feel adds to the overall if played, I also omit a note or two in the last measure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWaNI4JP61U

I like having the words with the music, JKS has them, I find it helpful to find/keep my place in the music if I know the words, not all the scores for instruments have the words, others find the words there of use to phrase the music to the words better, so they belong in the score whether it's for the organist edition or not.