Chacone for organ

Written at first without a particular instrument in mind (but playable on the piano*) the Chacone only found it's destined instrument in unforeseen circumstances : the cellist Emmanuel Boulanger's was recording the dress rehearsal of the Variations in the Key of G for solo cello (by the same composer) in the church of Chauny (in north-eastern France). At the end of the rehearsal, Stéphane Delplace went on the choir organ, "improvising" a transcription of his newly composed Chacone.

The recording equipment being accidently left on, this improvisation was providentially found on the tape. This instrument seemed fairly well adapted to this work which was later officially adapted for organ with the collaboration of Denis Comtet, for whom it was dedicated.

The theme, essentially harmonic in nature, is presented in very close tonal clusters which form a (super)tonal lupe of eight measures. It is followed by thirty continuous variations (in two sections) and a coda. C minor is obsessionally present (a single variation is in C major, N° 18!), until the coda which leads to a liberating modulation in the dominant key (g minor), before returning to the principal key.

Collection Organ Prestige