The-Bach-Project-Volume-1-Organ-Works-of-Johann-Sebastian-Bach--Schnitger-Organ-St-Michaelskerk-Zwolle-The-Net

When I decided to launch The Bach Project to perform and record all of Johann Sebastian Bach s organ music there had not been a complete cycle in the Washington, D.C. area in nearly a quarter century. My primary goal was to come to terms with each work. With more than 15 years of performing experience with the Washington Bach Consort, a period instrument ensemble founded by Bach specialist J. Reilly Lewis, I felt ready to begin such a monumental undertaking. Each program is being planned deliberately according to the principle of variety Bach used when improvising on a given theme. Forkel, Bach s first biographer, explained the principle this way: First, he used this theme for a prelude and a fugue, with the full organ. Then he showed his art of using the stops for a trio, a quartet, etc., always upon the same subject. Afterwards followed a chorale.... Finally, the conclusion was made by a fugue, with the full organ.... The existing catalog of Bach organ music recordings is already full of excellent cycles on historic and historically inspired instruments. Consequently, it seemed to me that a new cycle would benefit from a decidedly different perspective. Enter the revolutionary new Hauptwerk technology.

Hauptwerk is a computer program into which one can load highly detailed pre-recordings of a variety of organs. Each pipe is recorded in different ways, often multiple times depending on the velocity of a key attack. Similarly, each pipe is recorded following the key release in order to capture the natural sound decay and hall acoustic. Again, each key release is recorded several times, depending on the length of the preceding note. Consequently, the completed organ sets are enormous, often in excess of 20 GB. The entire set is loaded, via Hauptwerk, into the RAM of a computer, after which the recorded organ can be accessed instantaneously for performing or recording from a suitable organ console. The revolutionary feature of this technology is that every sound is the unaltered sound of the actual instrument: nothing simulated, nothing derived, nothing added. It is a real, natural recording of the total organ, which appeals to the purist in me. The fascinating twist is that the organ is recorded before the performance!

Needless to say the implications are enormous, the most obvious being that historic instruments all over the world become readily available to organists and students. However, there is an amazing clarity to the recording allowing the most intricate counterpoint to be distinctly heard in ways that often surpass that which is experienced through the traditional recording method. Each pipe sample is individually cleaned and de-noised, and finally the whole organ is voiced specifically to the recording listener's perspective. The sounds are put through no further processing, but rather are simply assembled in real time as the organist plays. My goal is to record each program of the The Bach Project on a different Hauptwerk-based organ.

For this first volume, I have selected the large four-manual Schnitger organ of 1721 located The Netherlands. While this instrument has been renovated and restored several times over the centuries, it still stands as an example of an organ that would have been extremely familiar to Bach. The Zwolle Schnitger was recorded at a distance of 32 feet to the front of the organ giving a fairly close and articulate sound-picture yet allowing the sumptuous five second reverb to be heard. The listener should note that although the Hauptwerk system allows for extensive digital manipulation of sample sets (such as changing the temperament, pitch and reverb), none of these virtual options were used in this recording.