Manualiter
Direction for organ pieces to be played on the manuals alone, without pedal.
What it means
Manualiter is a performance direction in organ music requiring a piece or section to be played on the manuals alone, without the pedalboard, which would otherwise take the bass line.
Musical use
The marking appears above all in Baroque organ music, for instance in chorale settings or smaller liturgical pieces headed manualiter, giving them a lighter, more chamber-music-like sound without the pedal's supporting bass line. Manualiter should be distinguished from pedaliter, which expressly requires the use of the pedalboard.
Historically, the direction appears above all in older organ music, for instance among North German Baroque composers, where it deliberately reserves the pedal for the continuo group or another register.