Joshua Stafford Maps “Bohemian Rhapsody” Across the Midmer-Losh Organ

Joshua Stafford plays his arrangement of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on the Midmer-Losh pipe organ at Boardwalk Hall. The performance brings the song’s changing musical sections onto one instrument, connecting manual and pedal work within a complete organ rendition.

The Boardwalk Organs upload identifies both Stafford and the instrument directly. Its description credits the arrangement to the organist, providing a clear basis for understanding this recording as his own treatment of Freddie Mercury’s composition rather than an anonymous transcription.

The console’s many keyboards make the scale of the instrument visible. Stafford moves between musical roles at the manuals, while the pedal part supplies another element of the arrangement beneath the material played by his hands throughout the performance.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ offers several contrasting sections to organise. Bringing them onto an organ requires a continuing relationship between melody, accompaniment and changes of texture, so the arrangement has to preserve the song’s direction while redistributing its musical parts.

The recording below shows that work at the console. Following the complete performance makes it possible to connect the visible keyboard and pedal movement with the changing musical material, hearing how the separate sections become part of one organ arrangement.

Watch the performance

The instrument’s tonal resources give the player several ways to shape a phrase. Changes in registration alter the sound surrounding the melody, allowing different musical roles to become prominent as the arrangement moves through the song’s established sequence.

The hands do not simply repeat the same task throughout. Melody and supporting parts can change their positions across the keyboards, making the coordination between them central to how the musical passage remains connected during the performance.

Pedal work adds another layer to that coordination. A bass line beneath the manual parts helps the arrangement maintain harmonic direction, giving the player a way to support the melody while the hands attend to other musical material.

The console view makes these relationships especially useful to follow. The instrument’s size may attract immediate attention, but the musical sequence depends on the connections between its parts, with the player organising those resources around a recognisable composition.

The original song moves between several different kinds of writing. The organ arrangement keeps that changing structure in view, using its own sound palette to connect passages that Queen’s recording presents through voices, guitars, piano and the band.

Those changes give the performance more than one musical pace. A listener can follow how the organ moves from a sustained phrase toward denser material, with the arrangement providing continuity between sections that have different textures and emphases.

Boardwalk Organs presents the video within its work around the hall’s instruments. The upload’s context connects the performance to the organ itself, giving viewers both a musical recording and a view of the console through which that music is played.

A second Boardwalk Organs recording below offers more of Stafford at the Midmer-Losh console. It provides another musical context for the instrument, extending the view of how the performer works with its keyboards, pedalboard and available sounds.

Queen’s official ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video supplies a different companion perspective. Listening to the original arrangement beside the organ performance brings the redistribution of musical roles into focus, while keeping the composition’s recognisable sequence available for comparison.

The organ rendition has its own practical structure. One player coordinates several musical layers in real time, with the instrument’s resources helping him connect the melody and accompaniment rather than reproducing every sound of the band recording directly.

Stafford’s arrangement gives ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a complete instrumental frame at Boardwalk Hall. Its interest lies in the way the song’s contrasts move through the organ, with hands, pedals and changing tone working together around the familiar musical structure.