Hi Chris,

Bravo!

I found this chorale most unusual with its on-going chromaticisms, crossing polyphonies, wonderful dissonances, ever changing modalities between major and minor, and I absolutely loved the cadence that unfolds bit by bit ending the coda. It sounds as if there are some tricky rhythms and ornaments throughout. You did a superb job in my opinion integrating all the complexities to give this difficult work fine fluidity and coherence for the first-time listener, like me. This work is a masterpiece and sounds as though it were composed just yesterday. I would bet that this chorale is an earlier organ work of Bach. Excellent playing! For me, performance is everything, so I never listen for cuts, mentioned in some of the other responses here, as that is just editing.

David

Thanks David, that is high praise indeed. When I started with this piece every bar was a struggle, and to even get to the end was physically and mentally exhausting. Some passages brought me close to despair and I thought I'd never get the hang of it. But seems like the many months of patiently chipping away at it have paid off. It's a masterpiece of the highest order. Not an early work I think, the Clavier Ubung was published in 1739 and this kind of complexity is not IMO characteristic of early Bach.

Thank you ! I'll continue to bend you good people's ears with organ stuff every now and then. It is my belief that every pianist should try and play the organ. It's character building

Chris, I actually did a bit, in college, come to think of it. We piano majors had to take up a second instrument for a few semesters. And I was so obsessed with the piano, that I figured if chose the organ, I wouldn't lose any precious piano practice time by actually having to learn something new.

It was a great plan til I tried using the pedal! So I do have some inkling of the added dimension of skill you organists have.

Which reminds me. When I was just out of school and needed work, I met a guy who who worked for a very fine organ builder, here in Los Angeles. He used to pay me to go around with him from church to church, sit at the organ, and play one note at a time, so he could tune. So I guess you could say I ended up playing the organ—professionally.

OK—the name of that organ builder miraculously just came to my mind. His name is Manuel Rosales. This was in the 70's. I just googled his name, and what do I see—he ended up building the organ at Disney Hall! Holy cow. I worked for the best.

A few times, I not only helped him tune, but also went to Rosales's home, where he had hundreds of small organ parts laid out on tables where a crew of us had to clean and glue various little valves and things. Geez, if I had just stuck around, I could have had my name on the Disney organ.

And there you have it—my complete repertoire of organ stories.

Update: Rosales was the boss, but my friend (the apprentice) who tuned was Richard Bond. I just google his name and see that he's doing very well too. He talks about his days servicing organs in L.A. in this article. I can't believe he doesn't mention me.

http://www.bondorgans.com/philosphy_interview.html

Haha yes, I had that idea too. A typical pianist's arrogance... "Oh, I can play the piano, so playing the organ will be a breeze." Well, not so - not even if you stick to manualiter pieces. It's pretty confrontational, especially when you take lessons and the first thing they say is "you play like a pianist". That's definitely not what you want. Having taken the (considerable) effort to learn it properly, it has proven to be hugely beneficial to my piano playing too. That is why I can recommend it to anyone.

But, I'm impressed by your organ pedigree