Day of Light

Day 5: Pipedreams Tour in Switzerland

The overcast days went away in western Switzerland. Skies were blue with high rounded puffs of fair weather clouds. The sun, so welcome, brought marvelous light. In the Abbey at Payerne shafts of light outlined the dust of the ancient building that housed the first organ of the day, an Ahrend built in 1999.

From the old space of the Abbey we walked across the courtyard to Eglisse Paroissale where a 1993 Ahrend, a sister to the first organ, is housed in a sister church building close by. The morning light moved in streams through the stained glass windows, creating lovely patterns on the stone walls of the church.

Mid afternoon light formed shadows and sunspots inside the Fribourg Cathedral as we listened to a magnificent organ in a majestic setting. Here one could feel the heartbeat of the organ. It was like a pulse that would rise and fall, a living movement of sound.

Late afternoon light illuminated the vineyards along the shore of Lake Geneva as we arrived in the Lausanne area. Distant mountains, white with snow cover, glowed in the evening sun.

It was a day of light and sounds in Switzerland with the Pipedreams tour. I'm struck again, at the end of another fine day. with how easy it is for me to show through photography what can be seen. What I can only attempt to describe in words is the luscious sounds of the organs that we are hearing. It is a sound that surrounds you with an indescribable aura and lifts your soul.

I can't put that feeling into a photo, but I can tell you that it is uplifting and satisfying beyond measure.