Noël Suite 2

Michel Corrette (1709--1795) was born in Rouen, where his father Gaspard was an organist. Sadly, little is known about his early life, but we know he held positions as organist in several churches in Paris. For many years his reputation rested on his teaching methods and educational works, and he can claim to have written and published more teaching methods than any other composer. Correte composed four "Noël Suites", the "Nouveau Livre de noëls pour le Clavecin ou l'Orgue." All of them are lengthy when taken as a whole, but it's really the best way to listen to them. If you're doing emails or computer work, they make ideal listening material. All of them are very colorful, and I've tried to use the St. Max organ to the max... ;-) While remaining faithful to the principles and ornaementation of the French baroque style, I've taken a few liberties in the registrations (like using contrasting Grand Jeuxs) since the organ is so large and has such variety. All registrations could be executed on the real organ! The music is "heavily ornamented" - meaning that I've tried to make it as "interesting" as possible.

I've posted the pieces as entire suites, so as to not hog space on the board. I've given the "start times" of the individual noëls in the first "response post" below, as well as a general indication of the registrations and any other unusual features in my interpretation. ALL of these pieces are largely played "unprepared" by me. I wanted them to feel "loose and improvisatory," and I hope you like what I've done. Each Noël took a few takes to get it right, and I did it "differently" each time.