I uploaded a recording of myself playing the Quatre préludes (Op. 185) by the famous French organist and composer Jean Langlais (1970-1991).
The Quatre préludes were written in 1975 and consist of four short and east preludes for manuals and pedal. Jean Langlais didn't write any registration instruction and thus it's left to the performer to work out their own registrations as they see fit for each of the preludes. This turned out to be quite a bit of fun as there were different types of registrations that worked for each of the pieces.
The registrations chosen are as follows:
Prélude No. 1
Hauptwerk (II)
Flute Harmonique 8'
Schwellwerk (III)
1: Doppelflöte 8, Nazard harmonique 2 2/3', Tierce 1 3/5'
2: Doppelflöte 8, Voix humaine 8'
Pedal (P)
II / Pedal
The left hand plays on the Hauptwerk while the right hand plays on the Schwellwerk, which alternates back and fourth between registrations one and two.
Prélude No. 2
Rückpositiv (I)
Principal 8', Rohrflöte 8', Praestant 4', Waldflöte 2', Quinte 1 1/3', Sesquialtera 2fach, Mixtur 4fach
Pedal (P)
Principalbass 16', Octavbass 8', Choralbass 4', Fagott 16', I / Pedal
Prélude No. 3
Rückpositiv (I)
Principal 8', Rohrflöte 8', Praestant 4', Waldflöte 2', Quinte 1 1/3', Sesquialtera 2fach, Mixtur 4fach
Hauptwerk (II)
Principal 16', Principal major 8', Octave major 8', Octave 2', Cornett 5fach, Mixture major 2', Mixture minor 1' Bombarde 16', Trompete 8', I / II
Pedal (P)
Grand Flute 32', Principalbass 16' Octavbass 8', Choralbass 4', Contrebombarde 32', Posaune 16', Trompetenbass 8', Clarion 4', I / P, II / P
This was one of these preludes which, once I tried a pretty full registration with reeds, no other combination would sound good on it anymore.
Prélude No. 4
Rückpositiv (I)
Rohrflöte 8', Holzflöte 4'
Pedal (P)
Flute 16', Flute 8', I / P
After the stirring harmonies and full organ sound of the third prelude, I conclude the cycle with a soft and quite registration using the lovely flutes on this organ.
I recorded this using Hauptwerk v7 and the sample set of the Fleiter organ at cathedral of Billerbeck in Germany.
I bought the score to this quite early after starting to learn to play the organ around 2014 and it was my first step into the tonal world Jean Langlais' music. I remember corresponding with Marie-Louise Langlais on this music.
While as a listener I was never too sure how much I liked or disliked Langlais' music, I will say that as a performer I quite enjoy delving this tonal world. Certainly starting to play the instrument myself has substantially changed my interest. And that in itself is an interesting observation, how learning to play an instrument can change your interest in specific compositions and styles of music.
I am quite sure I'll play some more music by Jean Langlais in the future again.