Lying Down Organ

An organist was complaining to me after an almost non-stop 9 hour organisation that his lower back hurt because of the strain put on it from sitting at the organ while pedalling and playing. This was further a problem because his rather long legs forced his posterior further away from the console, while his arms were trying to reach to the top of a 5 manual instrument.

I propose the console is redesigned to allow it to be easily played in the prone position.

Most obvious of the modifications is to rotate the pedalboard into a vertical position and provide an adjustment for leg length, probably mounting it on some screw thread. I will remind bakers that most modern pedalboards are slightly curved already so that all pedals can be reached easily. Most organists do not need to look at the pedals, however they might encounter problems with finding the preset stop combination foot pistons - perhaps the position of these could be standardised?

As well as this, the manuals will need to be moved down to about the same position as is already customary relative to the organist (so they will move so that they are slightly higher than vertically downwards - it is also important to allow gravity to keep the hands on the keyboards. We might take the opportunity of a drastic redesign to curve the keyboard upwards (relative to the keys) in the same way as is common on pedalboards. The stops can also be moved with the keyboard to be on either side as usual.

The bench can be designed with lumps and bumps in the right sorts of places to be extremely comfortable for an average organist, and a simple headrest will be needed.

Another bonus is that a window can be installed in the floor of the organ loft rather than the usual systems of mirrors and TV cameras in use at the moment to see the conductor.