Professor of music David Yearsley has been testing the new baroque pipe organ in Anabel Taylor Chapel with Midday Music performances of J.S. Bach's Trio Sonatas.

Yearsley will reprise some of the sonatas in a program March 8 at 8 p.m. with professor of music Annette Richards, to kick off a six-day organ inaugural and dedication celebration on campus. The March 8 recital is free; tickets are required and available at 101 Lincoln Hall.

Bach's sonatas were composed for organs like the one in the chapel, which was designed to replicate the sound of an instrument built 300 years ago in Berlin.

"They were the first pieces of this kind written for organ," Yearsley said. "Since their composition in the 18th century, they have been the benchmark for organ technique. You're playing what three instruments play -- a cello line with your feet and a violin part with each hand. It requires some real acrobatics -- you have to be very fleet. Any slip is very obvious."

Dividing the six Bach sonatas among three free midday concerts, Yearsley covered the first four works Feb. 9 and Feb. 23. He is slated to perform the fifth and sixth of the Bach sonatas on May 4 at 12:30 p.m.

The baroque organ was commissioned by the Department of Music and will enhance the study and performance of organ music at Cornell as well as provide opportunities for scientific and cultural research.

It was handcrafted by a team led by master organ builder and designer Munetaka Yokota, who is now completing the voicing of the instrument's more than 1,800 pipes.

The $2 million organ re-creates the tonal design of an instrument built in 1706 at the Charlottenburg-Schlosskapelle in Berlin and destroyed by Allied bombers during World War II.

The Cornell organ features several flute stops as well as sets of pipes imitating other instruments of Bach's day, such as the viola da gamba and baroque oboe.

"This organ has a wonderful chamber quality," Yearsley said. "What these Bach pieces do is bring out the chamber aspect. I want to record these pieces, so this is a good exercise for me technically."

Yearsley has also summoned the organ's "big sound" by performing preludes and fugues at the midday concerts. He said that one of the disadvantages from the organist's perspective is not experiencing the full effect of the organ as heard in the chapel. Yokota commented that he has been gauging his work on fine-tuning the pipes by going into the chapel while organists are practicing.

"The organ speaks into the room, and some subtle things like balance are not as obvious" to the organist seated at the keyboard, Yearsley said.

The Cornell organ was premiered at a public concert in November and is the result of an eight-year collaborative research project between Cornell and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The inaugural festival is March 8-13, with concerts and a conference, "Keyboard Culture in 18th-Century Berlin and the German Sense of History," from March 10-13 with international scholars and musicians, and a presentation by Yokota March 12. Festival performances will highlight 17th- and 18th-century keyboard repertoire, as well as new works composed by assistant professor of music Kevin Ernste and doctoral student Zachary Wadsworth.

The festival is co-sponsored by Cornell's Institute for German Cultural Studies, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies and the Department of Music, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, Cornell Council for the Arts and University Lectures Committee.