ABSTRACT
Ian Spink's description of the typical content of Restoration organ books, quoted above, is a useful summary of the books' main characteristics, but, it is worth considering in more detail how they relate to the surviving full scores of the pieces they transmit. Virtually all the music in the organ books is notated with both right-and left-hand staves. Interesting in this respect is the way in which each organ book's 'skeleton' doubling of the two outermost parts is augmented by selective doubling of one or more of the inner parts in full sections and ensemble verses. The extent to which third, fourth, or even more parts are included in the organ books varies significantly from piece to piece. Inner parts are sometimes included in organ parts as an alternative to figures: they communicate information about unusual harmonic features which could otherwise have been figured. Harmonic, figuring in the organ books can also inform the player about inner melodic lines.
