Writing in 1784–5 in his Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst, Carl Friedrich Daniel Schubart(1739–91) stated, with reference to the Sechs Trio für die Orgel mit dem obligaten Pedale:

'Playing these [sonatas] … is the preserve of great masters; they are so difficult that there are scarcely two or three people living in Germany who can play them without fault.'

It is therefore hardly surprising that eighteenth-century sources relating to their performance, and in particular their registration, are so rare. The methodology of this article, by John Scott Whiteley, is therefore to seek to collate historiographical and analytical evidence, and thereby both examine the validity of existing concepts and present revised theories on the registration of the sonatas.

The article originally appeared in the RCO Journal for 2018.

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