Communion

According to wikipedia: Édouard Batiste was a French composer and organist born in Paris on 28 March 1820, and studied at the Imperial Conservatoire as a teenager, winning prizes in solfège, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and organ. In 1840, he won the Prix de Rome together with François Bazin.

In 1842, he became the organist at Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs church in Paris, where he remained for 12 years, before becoming organist at Saint-Eustache Church. While at Saint-Eustache, he performed the organ in the premiere of Hector Berlioz's Te Deum in April 1855, conducted by the composer. He died in Paris on 9 November 1876.

I first came across Batiste in early 2007. My parents bought me a CD from Bayeux Cathedral in France and it had a selection of French music from the 17th century onwards. The CD made me fall in love with French music early on my organ playing days. A couple of years later I found a selection of 50 pieces of his in a charity shop. I never really did much with it and gave it away when I moved several years later. Fortunately, the same book was on IMSLP.

Here is a nice atmospheric communion. Following the registration suggestions of the score it uses the Voix Humaine and Flute of the Recit, (with added Tremolo). The Positif uses the Saliconal and Cor de nuit. The Great, which appears for all of three bars, uses the the Flute Harmonique. The pedal is Soubasse coupled to the recit. Another version (probably the original) uses just a single manual of Voix Humaine, Flute Harmonique and Bourdon against Pedal 16 and 8 foot with no coupler but I think the registraiton changes enhance the piece.

The speed says andante con moto, but I suppose it depends how long your communion session takes!

The score(s) can be found here

https://imslp.org/wiki/50_Pi%C3%A8ces_d'orgue%2C_Opp.24%2C_25_(Batiste%2C_Edouard)

The communion is piece 4. The version I used is the top collection revised and edited by John White.

Hope you enjoy.
John