Pastorale

Georges (Armand Paul) Jacob was born in Paris on August 19, 1877, in Paris, and died there on December 28, 1950. He began his first musical studies at the École Niedermeyer in Paris, and entered the Conservatoire in 1896. He won first prize for organ in 1900, in the class of Alexandre Guilmant. He wrote and published many works, with a large output for the organ. In addition, he edited the great organ works of Bach. From 1902 to 1914, he was Professor of piano at the Schola Cantorum, and Organist and choirmaster of Notre-Dame-de-la-Gare from 1897 to 1903, organist of the great organ of Saint-Louis D'Antin from 1903 to 1906, and organist and choirmaster of St. Ferdinand des Ternes, from 1907 until his death in 1950. In 1922, he succeeded Joseph Bonnet as organist at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.

I had read that his works were very sophisticated and significant, and there are many large items on the Petrucci Library available for free download: http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Jacob,_Georges

The "12 Pieces for Organ", date from 1909, but I have to confess that I was a little disappointed in them... :-(

The real reason I recorded the "Alleluia", which is number 10 in the collection, is that I have a guest coming to the church this weekend, who likes "obscure" 19th century French works. I had no time to learn anything, and this one is pretty easy. With the organ still in the process of being finished, I didn't want to get into anything involved, so, I guess this one will fit the bill! There's not much to it, but it sounds grand enough on the Salisbury Willis. I "Englished" it up a bit, by using the Tuber in the tenor register... ;-)

Just to provide a second piece from the collection, I chose the "Pastorale", which is number 1 in the collection. It's rather uneventful, but does have some colorful harmonic cadences and twists!