Berceuse (Suite Bretonne)

Exposed to instruments in England and America through his concerts abroad, Dupré (1886-1971) began to compose for organs with extended compass (61/32) not seen on Cavaillé-Coll organs in France. Berceuse takes advantage of the extra notes on the modern pedalboard by using up to top G. The only way he could have played this on a Cavaillé-Coll, like the organ in his home church of St. Sulpice, was to couple a 2’ stop from another division to the pedal to be played an octave lower.

The sample set that I use for this recording takes the Cavaillé-Coll pedal samples (Metz and Caen) and extends them to top G allowing one to hear the middle section of the work, which calls for a pedal 4’ Flûte, as Dupré specified. The Positif division is also placed under expression, which was not the norm for most Cavaillé-Coll organs, but which helps create a more subtle interpretation.