Organ Concerts

The organ concert was great. Every July 28 around 9pm they have a Bach organ concert at this church to commemorate the life and death of Bach (who died on July 28 at around 9pm). Albert Schweitzer first started these organ concerts and they’ve been happening every year at the same time since. The organ is a Silbermann organ and it’s still largely (70% ??) still authentic Silbermann. So it’s still one of the organs that’s much like it would have been in Bach’s time. The organist played a variety of fugues and chorales. Before playing the chorales he would sing the verse in German. It was a beautiful chant line that ribboned through the church. The church with its high Gothic ceilings and lit Gothic columns had a bit of an eerie feel, though it was a comfortable eeriness -if that makes sense. The high ceilings that architecturally point heavenward were doing their job as they were being filled with music. The shadow the organ threw on to the ceiling just above looked like a person bending over us with arms outstretched in blessing. I noticed this right at the end during the last number which was the last piece that Bach wrote on his deathbed. Everyone stood for it, like for the Hallelujah Chorus and then everyone silently left. No applause. Only from some tourists who didn’t understand the routine.


The day before, we were in Strasbourg at a Bach lecture at St Pierre-le-Jeune. The organist of that church had prepared a very interesting lecture on the spirituality of Bach using mostly chorales from his Little Organ book. It was so interesting to hear about how his music represents different spiritual aspects both for Bach and the organist. Several of the pieces represented the Trinity for example, where the different motifs represent Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That came up again in Saturday’s organ concert too. There was one piece, I think one about the suffering of Jesus during the Passion that the organist explained was particularly hard to play. In order to be able to play it the organist must bow over the keyboard. I found this all very cool.