Thinking of a new piece

I could see the title driving the three movements:

1. Eritis sicut Deus...
2. ...scientes bonum...
3. ...et malum.
I think I must keep the Organ Sonata simple to a degree. I made a point to write a challenging organ work, in the Toccata, a piece which has in effect gone nowhere.

In fact, Mark Engelhardt (whom I originally had in mind when writing the piece) considered (yet again) preparing the Toccata for his recital this past fall, but (I am paraphrasing here) it was again just too much effort.

If an organist asked me to write a heavens-storming organ sonata, I'd lay to like a butcher. (And the fact is, I wrote the Viola Sonata at such a high technical level, because Dana pretty much invited me to, and we both agreed upon that goal for the piece.) If I were to write such an organ sonata, it might never get performed; not that this means I should never write such a piece, but there's no reason for that to be a priority this year.

So I take the cue both from the contemporary pieces which Mark did select for his program (written by organists in both cases), and from the few pieces of mine which Paul Cienniwa has (flatteringly) kept in his ready repertoire . . . and in this instance, I shall write on the model of the "church sonata," three movements of modest scale and only mid-throttle technique, which can either serve easily to interleave a sacred service, or be fairly readily folded into a recital.