A lot of you contacted me about a music book I was using while taking organ lessons and still use today.

This little music compilation was created in the mid 70's with the help of my teacher of the time, l'Abbé Antoine Bouchard; it was used extensively in that time as a teaching tool and also as a book for church organists to renew the repertoire played during services.

This book contains a selection of easy organ pieces, with playing annotations, fingering and registrations (registrations for some pieces can be found on separate pages). Lately I had a lot of fun playing these pieces, especially with the St-Maximin organ and the Rabstenjn. For many of us, amateur organist, we often lack easy, nice sounding pieces, some guidance about playing and registering them.

This music compilation was published by a little company in Quebec City during the 70's, company that since that time closed its doors (closed mid-80's). I tried to contact them a while ago only to find out that it no longer exist since 25 years.

The book was created and published by musicians living in Quebec City, highly involved at that time into the "organ life" of the city. Since that time, many churches closed, organs put to rest or sold and disassembled. In the last 30 years the organ scene changed a lot and the few wonderful organs remaining are in need of restoration.

In Quebec City, one of the great organ, then St-Jean Baptiste's organ that became "cultural asset" in 1979, is about to be restore; right now a lot of fund raising activities are taking place. The organ was last restored in 1976 and the inaugural concert was given by my teacher of the time and the one who selected the pieces and annotated this music book, l'Abbé Antoine Bouchard.

So, the book being out of publication for more than 25 years, and finding that it a wonderful tool for us amateur I had the following idea.

I know a lot of you are interested into that book; I could easily send you a pdf copy of it, but instead I decided to try to raise some money for the restoration of the St-Jean Baptiste organ (more than 1 million dollars are needed). This book can't be bought anymore (more than 25 years out of print/company closed), but thanks to it and your generosity, can help to restore this wonderful instrument... in a way, I'm trying to give it a second life, a second purpose!

So here is the deal: first you download the book and if you like it, you click on the donate button... giving whatever you want for it. If you don't like it, destroy the copy you downloaded. If you have some friends that you know that would like this book, don't send them your PDF file, ask them instead to come to this website to get it and donate something.

Now, I know that some might be afraid that this could be an opportunity for me to make some money... to keep the money. I think that I'm well enough known in the Hauptwerk community and I wouldn't want to tarnish my reputation by keeping the money. What I promise to do is to accumulate the donations for a while (till February) then give a check to the Bishop in the name of the Hauptwerk donator; at that moment, I will ask to take a picture of me giving the check to the Bishop and will post this picture on the Hauptwerk forum as a proof of the donation. Btw, this Déry/Casavant organ is (even before restoration), a beautiful sounding organ, à la Cavaillé-Coll with a great acoustic... might be a very interesting organ to sample and your money might help me convince the parish to let me sample it... (just a thought :-) )

If 100 of us give $10.00 (the cost of 2 coffees at Starbuck!), or 50 x $20.00, this is $1000 that will be truly appreciated by the parish. I'm sure that many of you will appreciate this book. For everyone making a donation, I will send you a translation of the notes and annotations so you can better use the book. (Please give me a bit of time for that, haven't started yet...) THE TRANSLATION IS NOW DONE. THIS VERSION WAS TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH.(01/07/2010)

Not trying to do any piracy here... and so are you I'm sure! This book can now have a second life, bringing funds for an organ in the city where their artisans lived.

Enjoy, and thanks for your generosity.

* All money donated using with this button will be used for the restoration of the St-Jean-Baptiste Organ

MARCH 12 2010

A check was issued March 12 2010, totaling $1500, in the name of the Hauptwerk users donators. In this picture you see the Rector/Curé, Mr Pierre Gingras, Ms Carole Jacques-Savary, President of the Heritage Legacy committee, Mr Sylvain Doyon Head organist and myself holding the check. Many thanks to all the generous contributors.