Recorded today, one of the powerful chorales from the Clavier Ubung III. This is marked in Organo pleno con pedale so I have all stops drawn except the Unda Maris and Tremolo which I never use anyway. Give that wind machine something to do Some slips and a hairy moment in the last bars but nothing too distracting I hope. The title means "We all believe in one God". I'll probably get back to this one in half a year or so but for now it will have to do. Comments welcome.

Bach - BWV 680 - Clavier Übung III - Wir gläuben all an einem Gott

Did you know Bach had some 10-14 children? They say there were no stops on his organ.

I know I said I wouldn't reply to Bach and organ posts, but I thought of this old joke. And since I'm here, I listened to your playing. I see it's another one of Bach's 'light-hearted' pieces The left-hand part was very busy - so good job in that because i didn't hear any bad sounds.

Ok, I'm off to church now. God knows I need it. I hope we get to sing the "Ode to Joy' hymn.

Another bad joke on behalf of Ms. Pianolady


Was this recorded at the same church you have always been recording in? The acustics sound different today. Perhaps it is because of the setting on the organ.

Actually he had 23. But about half of them died in infancy or at birth. Those were dire times... I am sure JS had no time at night to pound outunresolved chords on his keyboard.


Yes, same oldvenue. Edirol was a little further in the back as I had forgooten my extension power chord. And the full plenum, which I do not use often, could make it sound a bit different.

From the top of my head...He had 20 children, 9 daughters and 11 sons. He was married twice where his first wife died giving birth to his 9:th and he re-married his cousin about a year later (she 24, he 40). Some says for practical reasons but she delivered another 11 so there must been something else too . But as Chris said, many died in young age from different kind of diseases.

Bach was very early in his career about to loose his position and is that has happened, we might never known his music at all. When he was 17, he secretly invited a girl up the organ late in the evening but they were both caught making out by the janitor and reported to the priest. By that time in Germany, women were not even allowed up to the organ and doing a lot worse thing in the house of God was perhaps not the smartest move ever by Johann. Only because his obvious talent and that the head of the church defended him, he kept his position. Many thanks to him...whoever he was.

And yeah, to your recording Chris . High quality stuff as usual and I have nothing to add or niggle about. I just leaned back and enjoyed.

I like the sound even though I know nothing about the organ. It sounds good to me.

Wow, Robert. I never heard that before. Makes me feel a little differently about Bach.

Good thing it wasn't about Chopin, your Prince in shining armor, otherwise we'll be hearing your fantasies for another two days

Mr Breemer, this may be a stupid question, but in the immortal words of Forrest Gump--Stupid is as Stupid does--, can you control the volume of the organ with the manuals, like you do with the piano?

No. A tone either sounds or it doesn't, there is nothing in between. And it is terribly important, far more so than on the piano, to leave a key just in time. Some organs have one or more swell pedals to achieve a crescendo, which I consider a romantic device only to be used with the more reoamtic/french oriented registers. My organ doen't have one and I don't think I would be using it anyway. Seems to me like the dynamics follow from the note density, and some volume increase can be achieved by keeping notes longer than usual, though it quickly gets messy.

Ah, but that is too much praise really. As usual this was recorded much too soon, I don't feel totally comfortable with the pedal parts yet and it seems like I speed up once they're done and there is an easy stretch of manualiter playing ahead. Also the playing is not sufficiently detached yet to cope with the added reverb.
But I thought it could be enjoyed nonetheless. It is amazing what cumulative power Bach can achieve with such simple means. A very short, insistent, and not even very interesting snippet of a Martin Luther chorale, a continuously running LH, and a purely figurative pedal motif every couple of bars. Somehow it all adds up to a sum which is so much more than the parts. I think it's an awesome piece.

Very well played, although I have to admit that the piece itself don't say too much to me. Probably needs a more repetitive listening to enjoy more the musical content.

Also not just the easiest piece - however the pedal part seems to fit well with the alternating feet playing habbit. And it is always more or less the same pedal part, only in different keys if I see it right. But the combination with hands together seems to be a pretty complex matter.

Even for the danger to repeat myself, but for those full plenum pieces, recorded with lots of unavoidable reverb (maybe also with avoidable additional artificial reverb), the articulation could be stronger. Maybe if you accent every quarter note through all voices (played the notes before the beat notes more towards staccato), you would get a more audible structure, combined with that typical baroque groove. I don't know whether really every note should be played detached, but maybe the main beat could come out more destinctively. At least that is what my organ teacher demands all the time, or what says your organ teacher? You articulate, but it could come even stronger and also more consistent.

The pedal part itself is not too difficult, but indeed in some places really goes against what the hands are doing, and as such it's very difficult in places. Yeah, it should be articulated better, I know, still working on that in lesson. But as usual I could not resist already recording it