instruments.(284) I cannot judge the effect of this composition, for I have never been able to get together the four instruments and four performers it requires. But that it is admirably written can be seen from the parts. III. Compositions For The Organ The pedal is the distinctive feature of the Organ which places it above all other instruments, and gives it its magnificence, sonority, and majesty. Deprive it of the pedal and you take from it the solemn and imposing tones which are its distinctive utterance, reducing it to the level of a “positiv,” or Chamber-organ, an instrument relatively insignificant. But an Organ equipped with a pedal must be able to employ it in its full compass,(285) and both composer and organist must know the proper use of it. No one excelled Bach in this knowledge. Not only is his rich harmony and melody singularly adapted to the instrument, but he gave the pedal a part of its own, even in his early compositions. Yet it was only gradually that he mastered its technique; for his Organ masterpieces belong to the period in which those for the Clavier began to be classics. His early and immature Organ works are widely dispersed; for as soon as a composer begins to be distinguished everybody is anxious to possess a specimen of his art. Public curiosity, however, generally dies down long before a composer comes to maturity, particularly if his work is over the heads of the public. And this seems to have been Bach’s fortune. Consequently his mature Organ works are less familiar than his early efforts. The latter, however, cannot possibly be admitted to a “correct and critical” edition of his works, and I mention here only those whose merit is as incontestable as that of the Clavier works enumerated in the preceding paragraphs. Bach’s finest Organ music falls into three groups: