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Improvisation: Evening

Now that school is back in full swing, I have had a few moments to capture another recording.  Since the first six Evening Improvisations were at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery Church and the next three were at Rice, I knew it was time to make a recording on the new Jaeckel Organ at Duquesne’s Chapel.  Installation of the organ was completed last summer but I never really thought to swing by there and make a recording.  It is quite the unique instrument with aesthetics based on the writings of Charles Tournemire.

That all being said, after the visit to Houston, I knew this needed to happen.  The Monastery organ is not the best, though I am very fond of it.  For the exploration of different sorts of effects, having different instruments is necessary.  In the case of this improvisation, only 16′ stops were employed: 16′ Quintaton, 16′ Bourdon, and 16′ Soubasse for the pedals.  Only at the very end is the 32’added (I also use the thud from an earlier improvisation too).  The harmonics from the Quintaton that appear are really cool!