Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Triosonate, c moll

This is my entry for the Secrets of Organ Playing contest, week 20.

For my entry of this week I chose to play a trio. Trio playing is my favorite style of organ playing. It means that you play one melody with each hand, and a bass line with the feet. Though there are variants possible, in wich the bass line is played with the left hand, the middle melody with the feet and the upper melody with the right hand. It is even possible (by chosing a suitable registration) to play the upper melody with the feet and the lower two melodies with the hand. Hoever, playhing the bass line with the feet is the most common form of trio playting for the organ.

As is has just three melodies and generally no chords, the music is very transparant. That makes it easy to follow as a listener. It also means that every mistake you make as a player is easily spotted. As the music is so transparant there is nowhere to hide mistakes.

This trio is the first part of a triosonate by Gotfried Heinrich Stölzel. Stölzel wrote at least two Triosonatas specifically for organ. He wrote other triosonatas for other instruments, or did not specify the instruments for which he wrote the sonata. Several of Stölzel's other triosonatas lend themselves very well for adaptation for the organ. The triosonata in c minor, of which this is the first part, is one of them. Originally written for two violins and basso continuo, the musical material is easily adapted for two hands and feet.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Voxus, of the Müller organ in the Sint Bavokerk, Haarlem (http://www.voxusorgans.com/en/product/haarlem).

For anyone interested, the score of the complete triosonata is available on my website: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-gottfried-stolzel-triosonate-c-moll/