Pièce variée (Chaconne)

Again a fine piece by Thomas Babou, the third piece I recorded. Thomas Babou was a composer and organist who lived and worked in Liège. Unfortunately we know very little about him. He was organist at the Collégiale Saint-Jean-l'Évangéliste de Liège, at least from 1687 until 1726. Thanks to his son Jean-François-Pascal Babou many pieces of father Thomas survived. Babou's music contain French and Italian influences.

I love playing Babou's compositions from the extensive edition of keyboard pieces, edited by Pierre Gouin, just for my own fun. Especially on an instrument like the Andreas Silbermann organ of Ebersmünster, it really comes to life.

With a Chaconne, basically variations on a theme, I always doubt to just go for one registration or various registrations. Mostly constantly changing registrations sounds unnatural and disturbs tempo and rhythm. So I went for the most beautiful stop available on this organ model: the Bourdon 8' of the Grand Orgue.