Organ Trio sonata no. 2 mvt. 1 - Vivace by J.S. Bach BWV 526 played on recorders, arr. Emily O’Brien

Bach’s six organ sonatas are written in three independent parts (right hand, left hand, and feet), so they work wonderfully well as recorder trios. In this video, I’m playing an alto by Vincent Bernolin, a Mollenhauer Helder tenor, a Yamaha great bass, and a contrabass by Friedrich von Huene. By doubling the bass line with both a C bass and an F contrabass I was able to preserve more of the continuity of the original, which has a somewhat larger range than that of any one recorder. The extended range of the Helder tenor also allowed for slightly fewer alterations to the original line. I recorded this for a virtual concert for the Society for Historically Informed Performance () series in the summer of 2021.