ENGAGE * Subscribe to my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/durufl?sub_confirmation=1 * Please thumbs up the video and leave a comment! Tell me what you would like to hear me play on the Garbiel Kney organ of St. Thomas’ Church in Belleville. * Support my work by purchasing my CD: http://amzn.to/2meZQG9 CONNECT * Facebook (Duo Pergulæ): https://www.facebook.com/Matt.Francine/ * Facebook (Matthieu): https://www.facebook.com/matthieu.latreille * Twitter: https://twitter.com/matLatreille * Google+: https://plus.google.com/+MatthieuLATREILLE * Website: http://duopergulae.com The chorale prelude “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland” comes from the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes collection. Its title can be translated to “Jesus Christ, Our Saviour.” The original hymn was written by Luther to be sung during communion. Bach wrote four choral preludes on this theme. This version is for manual only (a part from a low E to be played on the pedalboard in the end.) Bach reworked on those chorale preludes all his life long. There is one to three earlier versions for most of them. He copied them during the last phase of his life. He was then losing his vision. Above the title of the first chorale prelude, he wrote J.J., which means “May Jesus help us!” Most of them were originally written between 1710 and 1714. He was then employed by Wilhelm Ernst, Duke of Saxe Weimar, who was a pious Lutheran, and a music lover. The chapel organ was rather small. It had 12 stops. Therefore, it was a little smaller than the organ on the video. A chorale prelude for organ is a composition based on a hymn tune. Some musicologists think that the chorale preludes were used to introduce the hymns; some others think that they were a solo piece that could be play, for instance, during communion. Those chorale preludes fit into the German tradition of the 17th century (as composed by Böhm, Buxtehude and Pachelbel), but are more elaborate. The organ at St. Thomas' Anglican Church in Belleville, Ontario (Canada) is one of the finest pipe organs of the Quinte area. The instrument was built by Gabriel Kney in 1977, to replace the large Casavant organ that had been destroyed with the church by fire in 1975. The instrument of 19 ranks (about 1,000 pipes) has 14 stops and its action is entirely mechanical. Matthieu Latreille is a Canadian choirmaster and organist. After two years spent in Los Angeles, he presently lives with his wife, Francine Nguyen-Savaria, in Belleville, Ontario. They both hold the position of Director of Music at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church where they started Saint Thomas’ Choral Academy. He has performed in Canada, U.S.A and France, at venues including Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, the Church of Saint Germain des Prés in Paris, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. The Canadian newspaper La Presse described his performances as “brilliant” and “confirming his qualities as a virtuoso, orchestrator and performer.”