Noël Huron - Denis Bédard | Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 49

This is my entry for the Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 49.

I'm playing Noël Huron by Denis Bédard. Noël Huron is a Canadian Christmas Hymn (cc: @klye, @drakos, @shadowspub!), "Twas in the Moon of Wintertime". It's believed to be written in 1642 by a Jesuit missionary by the name of Jean de Brébeuf. The tune is based on a French carol and because of Bédard's French-Canadian heritage—an educated guess would indicate this is why he composed an organ piece based on this tune.

In the French classical period of organ music, French Noël's were also very popular pieces of repertoire. Composers such as Balbastre, Lebègue, Dandrieu and Daquin all composed famous works based on variations of Christmas carols. Marcel Dupré, a 20th century French composer, also composed Variations sur un Noël, Op. 20. This masterpiece is not for the faint hearted...it's a very difficult work and I am so lucky to have heard it live twice played by controversial organist, Cameron Carpenter. Back in 2015, I heard him play it on his touring organ in Melbourne and Sydney. Unfortunately, I missed Olivier Latry's visit to Melbourne in 2013!

As we are now in the season of Advent and leading up to Christmas, I'm going to continue recording this seasonal repertoire as best I can. Fellow organist, @partitura, is doing the same by the looks of it too 😉

Yours truly,
@contrabourdon