ABOUT_THE_HAUPTWERK_LE_GRAND

Bach, JS, Organ Concerto #1 - Part 1 (BWV592)	This composition of Bach's is one of my favorites. It just has so much life and enthusiasm.
Bach, JS, Organ Concerto #1 - Presto (BWV592)	And this third part of the Concerto for organ is terrific, just like the first. I held off recording these concerto parts until I had the Le Grand organ with its very big and full sound.
Bach, JS, Prelude and Fugue in G Major (BWV541)	This is a wonderful Bach piece that I have listened to many times. I've tried to choose a registration that brings out all the voices well.
Bach, JS, Prelude and Fugue in Eb Major (BWV552)	I find this music to be very uplifting. I first heard it when played by Prof. Scott of WSU. He had come to Tacoma to visit his daughter and dropped in for a visit. At that time I had a fine, though small, Rodgers 22D organ (two-manual, drawknobs). Scottie played this piece very nicely. He said it was his favorite Bach composition. He felt that it represented Bach at his very best. I love the way the music builds, getting more complex and upbeat as it progresses, first in the prelude, and then again in the fugue. Beautiful!!!
Bach, JS, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor (BWV535)	Here's another spectacular Bach piece. Obviously, I don't stick to the sort of registration that would be used in Bach's time. I love to hear the full Romantic sound with reeds and the 64' pedal reed at the piece's end.
Bach, JS, Prelude in B Minor (BWV544)	This composition was recorded to try the quieter Le Grand sounds.
Bach, JS, Toccata in F Major (BWV540)	Now here is a real winner!!! I can sit back with the headphones on and just float away with this music. WOW. I first heard this played in a faculty recital at WSU by Dr. Scott back in the 1950's. He was a rather short, thin, and intensely energetic fellow. He began playing the toccata incredibly fast and got about three minutes into it and stopped cold. He jumped off the organ bench, whipped off his glasses, and apologized to the audience. Then he sat back down and, again going just as fast, played the whole thing through perfectly. He later told me that he insisted that all his students sight-read with sheet music in front of them. However, he always memorized everything and played without sheet music, with embarrassing results now and then. He had perfect and absolute pitch. He complained that he couldn't listen to most phonograph records of orchestras since they were usually a bit off pitch, which drove him crazy. I used to use this toccata to practice visualizing separate voices. I read that Bach could "hear" or visualize up to five, maybe six, separate parts in real-time in his mind. I am able to visualize the two parts here, one chasing the other. But in the more complex pieces, I tend to concentrate on only one or another voice, with the rest as harmony parts, rather than hearing all of them separate, but together, so to speak. I can visualize at least four objects in my mind and move them in my visual space, keeping focused on each at the same time. But that's different I guess.
Christopherson, LB, Choral - Come, Thou Almighty King	I composed this music for organ many years ago and just found my handwritten score recently. I like it better than ever, now. My music tends to be rather mathematically tight, which is what I want it to be.
Christopherson, LB, Fatsa Bella Fugue	This is the same piece as the one titled "Fugue in Bb Major" on the Hauptwerk Three-Manual page. This faster version in actually the original one I did. It's more toccata-like. I tried a lot of registrations for this and finally settled on a very quite one with just a few flute stops and a quiet reed pedal. This brings out the parts better.
Christopherson, LB, Hymn - Confound All Those Who Bring The Night	A prayer to God to deal with those who would bring war and death to the world. And we pray that God will bring us love, peace and happiness.
Christopherson, LB, Hymn - From God All Inspiration Flows	The hymn is played first with a simple registration of diapasons and flutes. Variation one uses light reeds. Variation two throws in just about every Celeste stop I have for a VERY lush sound. The final variation uses reed and diapason choruses for a BIG sound.
Christopherson, LB, Fugue in D Major	This piece was influenced by my love of French Romantic organ music. In fact I refer to it as the "French Fugue." Along with my Norwegian heritage, I do have some French blood in there somewhere (and German, and Irish, and Scottish, too). I have never been so pleased with the sound of this music as I now am when played on the Hauptwerk Le Grand instrument. The simple fugue melody plays right-side-up and upside-down, major and minor, in a waltz meter (6/8 actually). I begin it with a single 8' PRINCIPAL and end with close to full organ with plenty of reeds and the 16', 32', and 64' pedal stops. I love it!
Christopherson, LB, Toccata in C Major	I guess this was the first recording of this music of mine that I really like. All the others I've tried just didn't sound like I'm used to hearing on my large Rodgers home instrument.
Dixieland: Alexander's Ragtime BandJust A Closer Walk With Thee King George's Stomp The Sheik of Araby Toot, Toot, Tootsie When the Saints Go Marching In Yes Sir, That's My Baby	These Dixieland tunes were done for the fun of it to try out Le Grand's potential for Dixieland. I've always loved this style of music. Note: I have looked into the copyright laws and I believe these pieces are ok for me to use. If you are a copyright holder of any of these tunes and object to their being here please let me know that you wish your composition(s) removed.
Krebs, JL, Prelude in A Minor	All I can say here is WOW!!! I just had to re-record this Krebs piece with the Le Grand Organ. It is also on the three-manual Classical Organ page. But the Le Grand has quite a few more ranks, a lot more versatility, and of course that cool 64' pedal reed. When I listen to this piece, I especially enjoy the spot about half way through where the pedal holds a low C note (8 Hz with the 64' stop). I can even hear the 8 Hz rattle from the 64' stop. I love it. The structure of the composition reminds me of the F Major Toccata by Bach where a few times a pedal note is held while a couple melodies chase each other up and down the keyboards. This is intermingled with pedal solos in both pieces.
LeBegue, Nicholas A., Noel - Les Bourgeoises de Chatre	This is also a re-recording of a composition that is also on the Theater Organ (RTOM) page using my home organ. The Le Grand version does a nice classical organ job with the music. The home organ is very difficult to record since I have to set up microphones in the room with mixers, reverb unit, recording computer, etc. My cheap mikes just never capture the big sound of the home organ with its two 24" woofers and a VERY full pedal down to 16 Hz.
Liszt, Franz, Les Préludes (excerpt)	When I was in high school Spokane finally got TV. I watched an old SciFi series called something like "Flash Gordon and the Claymen." This music of Liszt' was used as the background for the TV series. I had to ask around a lot to find out what its title was. Then I ordered a phonograph recording. The piece became my favorite music for quite a while. So this recording is an attempt to render symphony orchestra music with the Le Grand Organ. At this point, I like some parts better with orchestra and some with Le Grand. I do consider this recording a success.
MacDowell, Edward, To A Wild Rose	This is a very quiet and beautiful composition. It's really for piano, but transferred to organ well, I think. I dedicate it to an online RTOM friend who survived the Florida hurricanes last year. He mentioned it was his favorite piece of music
Pachelbel, Johann, Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her -	This music was recorded to try out some of the softer sounds of the Le Grand.
Patriotic - American Medley	The sound of this piece is rather slow and majestic. It uses a big celeste sound with the 32' Bourdon on the pedal. The reeds provide the melodies. I listen through Sennheiser HD 600 headphones. But I also run an output from my phone pre-amp to a REL subwoofer so I get a very deep room-shaking bass sound that really fills the somewhat thin lows from the phones. The tunes are: America; Battle Hymn of the Republic; and God Bless America.
Patriotic - The Star Spangled Banner	Here's the USA National Anthem sounding pretty darn good on the big Le Grand organ. I always get a thrill when I hear this music. I really think it's one of the world's most beautiful (and so's our flag).
Patriotic - The Stars and Stripes Forever	And this is certainly a big favorite for the Fourth of July. This is quite a snappy arrangement. . . lots of fun.
Polkas: Altkamer Barbara Trumpet Echo Wigel-Wogel Wiggen	This is just about the happiest kind of music I know of. I grew up with this stuff and I really love it! I spent many hours as a kid playing polkas and waltzes on the accordion for my grandmother. She was born on a sailing ship on the way to the US from Norway in 1865. As far as I can tell, these polkas are German, Polish, and Swedish. The folks who put together these midi files really did a fantastic job! (See the Sources and Credits page for some of their names.)
Scheidemann, Heinrich, Christ lag in Todesbanden	And this music also was recorded to try out some of the softer sounds of the Le Grand. Much as I like the big bombastic sound of Le Grand, I guess not all compositions require multi-reeds and deep pedal depths.
Scott, K Lee, Processional On A Mighty Fortress	A friend and former science student in the Tacoma area brought this music to my attention by playing it on my Rodgers organ setup. I borrowed the score and worked up my midi file from it. I think it's hard to beat the Mighty Fortress tune on organ.
Wagner, Richard, Chorus of the Norwegian Sailors - The Flying Dutchman	When shopping around for the Lohengrin Prelude, I noticed this title also. I was intrigued since I had never heard of it before, and also no doubt because of my Norwegian background. It turned out to be a nice little piece that Le Grand rendered just fine.
Wagner, Richard, Prelude to Act III - Lohengrin	Now this and Ride of the Valkyries are my top favorite Wagner music. (Well, there are a number of others from 'The Ring' that are right up there too, I guess.) When I found a general midi file for this Lohengrin prelude on the Classical Music Archives website, I just had to see if Le Grand would do it justice. I'm satisfied that it does.
Webber, Andrew Lloyd, No Matter What	I was watching a PBS music special one evening that celebrated Webber's 50th Birthday. This music was one of a whole lot of beautiful tunes by Webber from that show.
Zip A Dee Doo Daa	The challenge here was to start with a really wonderful piano midi file with one track and expand it into two manuals and pedal for the organ. It took a while, but came out well, sounding to me like a theater organ version without the tremulants.