Indeed, although I don’t fault the OP for guessing the way they did. To my mind it is a “fingering for the feet” so to speak. No different than a harp pedaling, recorder finger diagram, or traditional fingering number to my mind.
As an aside, there are some old editions that use ‘O’ instead of ‘U’ for the heel. This would be nice addition. I saw it a long time ago (don’t remember where) and adopted the practice myself since sloppily written U’s turn into V’s and then you have v vs ^ which can be harder to distinguish in the heat of the moment. At any rate, low priority to be sure lol.
You could quibble that it’s not a playing technique, since pressing a pedal with different parts of your anatomy makes no difference to the sound produced.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I did alter the playing techniques for one score, but it definitely took some fiddling to get it right. It really does make a difference having the O’s though…
I don’t know if you are an organist, but one of the joys of playing an unfamiliar organ is suddenly realizing you need to figure out how to visually look at the assorted foot-operated controls apart from the pedals, to find where one of your feet needs to be, without disrupting what you are playing.
I once saw (and heard!) a 15-year-old boy who is now an internationally famous organist literally slide off the bench and finish up in a heap on top of the pedal board, attempting that feat.
I still recall stories of a world-class organist who was rather short using his toe to tap a pull knob stop closed at approximately his elbow height, quite a feat (feet?) of flexibility in his fifties or sixties.
(I can’t help wondering how he’d have managed on an organ with tab stops.)
I love the big grin on his face at 8:20 when the stop-changer gets the timing spot on. That’s six runs out of the middle of the bat straight over the bowler’s head, for cricket lovers …
Cameron Carpenter is quite something, but this was the then organist at the Cathedral who gave concerts around the country and abroad.
Incidentally, I enjoyed the video: one (talented) organist but multiple stop pullers. I suppose the tracker action (no combination pistons) and difficult to reach stop knobs probably made the additional assistants helpful.