Living memory
The Instrument Notebook
Every organ is unique. And every organist who plays it reveals a different facet.
In Chaumes-en-Brie, the organ is not only intended for concerts: it is also conceived as a place of experience, transmission and dialogue.
It is in this spirit that the Instrument Notebook was created.
A space for organists
Guest organists at Chaumes-en-Brie may, if they wish, share their experience of the instrument:
- Works performed
- Registration principles
- Manuals and couplers used
- Tonal balance and organ response
- Interpretative remarks
Pointers, not recipes
These notes reflect a personal experience, at a given moment, on this specific instrument. They do not offer ready-made recipes, but pointers, reference points, and concrete practice feedback.
A useful and living resource
Discovery aid
For organists discovering the instrument
Pedagogical tool
For organ students
Musical memory
Of the venue's musical life
Collective testimony
Of the diversity of approaches
The notebook grows progressively, in step with concerts, residencies and encounters.
An open and respectful approach
Voluntary
Each contribution is freely given
Curated
Reviewed and carefully formatted
Respectful
Usage feedback, not prescriptions
Contributions participate in a collective approach to knowledge, founded on listening, experience and respect for musical plurality.
Why this notebook exists
Because an organ does not live solely through its specification,
but through what musicians make of it.
The Instrument Notebook extends the music beyond the concert, and inscribes each organist's visit in a living history.
To play the organ is also to leave a trace.
1716
L'Art de toucher le clavecin
François Couperin
A direct lineage with the Couperin spirit
The Couperins did not only leave works behind: they transmitted a way of playing, listening and accompanying.
François Couperin did not merely compose: he also transmitted a philosophy of interpretation through his pedagogical writings and prefaces. In L'Art de toucher le clavecin (1716), as well as in his numerous notes to performers, he developed a conception of music founded on listening, discernment and adaptation to the instrument and its acoustic context.
This reflection, widely shared by harpsichordists and organists, constitutes one of the foundations of the French tradition of accompaniment.
The Instrument Notebook follows directly in this tradition: not dictating rules, but sharing practices, transmitting reference points, and circulating a living experience of the organ.
In Chaumes-en-Brie, the Instrument Notebook extends the spirit of François Couperin's writings: music transmitted through experience as much as through the written word.
Organist feedback
Coming soon
The first organist feedback will be published
after the instrument's inauguration.
Are you an organist?
Sign up to be informed when bookings open and to contribute to the Instrument Notebook.