Robert Bates Plays Titelouze

After all we've shared here on the blog about our recording project in Bolbec, France, we can't believe we didn't share the video we uploaded onto YouTube of Robert Bates playing a hymn-verse by Titelouze on the 1630 organ! Today we're remedying that, and posting it, so make sure to watch and share this exciting video and project information with your fellow organ and musicology enthusiasts!



Video taken on location by our very own Roger Sherman!

Robert Bates

Since we've been telling you about our new recording of the complete works of Titelouze in Bolbec, France, we thought we should tell you a little more about the organist that has taken on this huge project.

Robert Bates

Robert Bates is Associate Professor of Organ at the Moores School of Music, the University of Houston. Previously he was University Organist at Stanford University, where he received a Ph.D. in musicology. Dr. Bates is a specialist in early Spanish and French organ music, the history of theory, and early tuning systems; his articles have appeared in the Organ Yearbook, Music and Letters, Histoire des Sciences and Performance Practice Review. He has won prizes for organ performance in Fort Wayne, San Antonio, Detroit and Bruges, and has also been awarded the Prix d'Excellence and the Prix de Virtuosité from the class of Marie-Claire Alain. Other teachers of performance and improvisation include Robert Anderson, Ray Ferguson and Daniel Roth.

He is frequently invited to appear at conferences sponsored by organizations such as the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the American Organ Academy, the American Musicological Society, the Westfield Center and the American Institute of Organ Builders. He has performed solo recitals at Stanford University, Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, Westminster Choir College, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music, Duke University, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Vassar College, Princeton Seminary and the University of Michigan, where he participated in a seminar on Early French Organ Music as both a recitalist and lecturer.

Dr. Bates was invited to give a paper and perform at the Colloque International Dom Bedos in Bordeaux, France in May 2004, where he also presented the final paper of the conference on a previously unknown 18th-century French music manuscript. Also in 2004 he judged the semi-final round of the NYACOP and final round of the Miami International Competitions and led workshops at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles and at the National Pedagogy Conference of the American Guild of Organists in Denton, Texas. More recently he was invited to perform at the Oaxaca Organ and Early Music Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico and the Westfield Center’s symposium on the dual temperament organ by Martin Pasi in the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha, Nebraska. He was also invited to perform a recital on the new organ by Paul Fritts at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana as part of it’s inaugural year of concerts and the first of a special series of concerts by American organists on the Fisk organ in Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, Japan.

Check out all of Robert Bates' recordings on The Gothic Catalog!

New Loft Recordings Project!

This past week, our very own Roger Sherman has been in Bolbec, France (Normandy) to record the complete organ works of Jean Titelouze (1562/3 - 1633). Robert Bates is the organist, and the project inolves three CDs total — 95 tracks! There are eight settings of the Magnificat (one for each psalm tone) and a dozen hymns (3-4 versets each). Titelouze was the first French composer to publish organ works, and is thus considered to be the founder of the French school of organ music. His style, however, is quite different than the French Classical composers', such as Couperin and d'Grigny. It is modelled more closely on vocal polyphonic models.

The core of the organ in Bobec was made in the 1630's by Lesselier. A Choer organ was added in the 18th century (the case of pipes on the gallery rail), which makes the instrument quite versatile at playing both early and Classical French music. A restoration by Bertrand Gattiaux in 1997 gave the instrument its current disposition, with both a Recit and Echo organs (four manuals). it is quite possible, even likely, that Titelouze played this organ. Titelouze was organist at the nearby Rouen Cathedral from 1585 until his death.

There or no recordings of the complete works of Titelouze that we are aware of.

Pictures of the organ follow... Note the closeup of the organ pedals in the last photo....