Corona Session #27
A Pipe Organ, Harpsichord, and Lute cover of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale"

The saxophonist, Paul Winter, had a video of Gary Brooker, the singer and pianist of Procul Harum, on his "Winter Solstice 2020 Concert". This was one of the two pieces he performed. Since these are performed at St. John the Divine in NY City, a church with an enormous pipe organ, I was hoping that they would use it for the famous organ part. Sadly, they didn't. But it inspired me to give it a shot using a pipe organ sample set of an Aeolian-Skinner organ. Since I was edging toward the acoustic sound, I decided to try harpsichord instead of piano and lute instead of electric guitar to round out the band. I didn't need a bass since that was covered by the pedals on the organ and the left hand of the "continuo" part! And after getting these 3 parts recorded, I felt like the crisp attack of the harpsichord and lute were providing all of the rhythmic elements necessary, so I omitted the drums (even though I'd started to work on a drum part!). So, here is the Bach inspired rock tune performed just as Bach and his sons would have played it at home!

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