July 1, 2012 - Proper 8

Festival Prelude on "Thaxted" - David Howard Pettit
An American Sonata: "Sostenuto and Meditation"
                                                             - Charles Callahan
Variations on "The Star Spangled Banner": Finale
                                                             - Dudley Buck

Hymns: #9 Morning Song, #482 Slane,
              #705 Forest Green, #719 Materna

This week’s music is, with the exception of the prelude, based on American hymn tunes. The prelude is a festive setting of the “hymntune” Thaxted . This tune is taken from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite  The Planets: “Jupiter.” It was not until Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in his 1926 hymnal,  Songs of Praise. Just as the chorale in the orchestral suite, this setting builds and grows with the theme passed back and forth between the organ and the saxophone with the pedals imitating tympani at the conclusion of the piece.

The communion anthem is taken from An American Sonata by Charles Callahan, one of the leading composers of organ music in the country. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and the American Catholic University. He is a noted expert on church music and organ buildings with two books on the latter to his record which have become standards in the field. The first movement is a setting of Consolation while the second is a meditation on He Leadeth Me. Both present the tunes in a straightforward unadorned fashion in the saxophone. The organ provides smooth, sustained accompaniment which allows the soloist to play with great expressivity and with much freedom.

The postlude is the final variation in Dudley Buck’s Variations on the Star Spangled Banner. Variation sets of this type were common during the late 19^th century in America as organ recitals gained popularity. The recitalists such as Buck, John Knowles Paine, and Edwin H. Lemare would frequently play sets of variations on well-known tunes that showed off their technique. These variations usually had a statement of the theme followed by between three and five variations. There was usually a variation for pedals alone, one in a minor key, and it would frequently end with a big fugue leading to a restatement of the main theme. This piece is no different. Today I am ending the service with the fugue and finale as a way of celebrating the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

June 24, 2012 – Proper 7

Adagio in Eb - Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonatina in c minor - Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata No. 4 in a minor: "Presto"
                                  - Ludwig van Beethoven
Hymns: #429 OLD 113^TH, #564 ST. DUNSTAN’S,       
              #608 MELITA, #LEVAS200 STAND BY ME

This week’s music is written by Ludwig van Beethoven(1770-1827). The three pieces are being played by the rather unusual combination of mandolin and piano. Two of the three pieces are actually written for mandolin while the third is for violin and has been adapted for mandolin. This works well because the mandolin and violin both have four strings (the mandolin has eight which are in four courses) and are tuned the same [GDAE].

In today’s society we tend to think of the mandolin as a bluegrass instrument but it has its origins in classical music. The mandolin is the soprano member of the lute family. It has eight strings tuned in four courses. A course is a set of strings that are tuned to the same pitch. These early mandolins were most commonly found in Italy and had rounded, or “bowl” backs. Vivaldi and Beethoven both wrote solo compositions for the instrument. Mozart, Mahler, and Stravinsky (among others) wrote parts for mandolin in their operas and symphonies.

The two pieces for mandolin and “piano” are both short parlor pieces. During Beethoven’s lifetime the mandolin was a popular instrument for playing at home. The accompaniment was more likely to have been harpsichord or fortepiano even though the piano was taking over in the concert hall it was several years before it became a common instrument in people’s homes. These two little pieces showcase the delicate qualities of the mandolin as well as Beethoven’s ability to write an accessible light melody that has a simple sophistication to it. The sonatina in c minor (played at communion) was later developed into the opus 14 piano pieces.

The postlude is the first movement of the Fourth Violin Sonata in a minor. The movement is in sonata form with the scalar theme passed from mandolin to right hand and then left hand of the piano. The movement in 6/8 time has a great deal of rhythmic excitement with syncopation. The writing is well suited to the mandolin despite being written for violin, the passagework fits well under the hands and sound is still exciting and energetic.

June 17, 2012 - Third Sunday after Pentecost

Symphonie No. 6, Op. 42 No. 2 - Charles-Marie Widor
(Adagio, Cantabile, and Finale)

Hymns:#424 East Acklam, #209 St. Botolph, #525 Aurelia

The prelude, postlude and communion music this week are taken from Charles-Marie Widor’s Sixth Symphonie Op. 42 No. 2 in g minor. Charles-Marie Widor was born in Lyons to a family of organ builders. He began his career as an organist at age 11 and soon sparked the interest of Cavaillé-Coll, the famous organ builder. Cavaillé-Coll made arrangements for Widor to study at the Brussels Conservatory with the renowned organist Nicolas-Jacques Lemmens. Upon completion of his studies he moved to Paris where he was appointed organist of the five manual, 100 stop organ at St. Sulpice in 1870 where he remained for 64 years. Influenced by the organs of Cavaillé-Coll, Widor created a new medium that he called the “organ symphony,” a multi-movement work for organ that borrows its forms from the traditional orchestral symphony which allowed Widor to explore the orchestral capabilities of the Caviellé-Coll organs. Symphonie VI in g minor was composed in 1878 for the inauguration of the organ at the Trocadéro and was premiered there on August 24 by the composer. The overall structure of the symphony alternates slow and fast movements as well as alternating tonal centers. The first and third movements are in g minor while the fifth is in G major.

In 1876 Widor attended the Bayreuth premiere of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The influence that this experience had on Widor is evident in the chromaticism in the Adagio. The composer’s registrations are meant to imitate the full string section of the orchestra. This is followed by a more turbulent section played on the strings, flutes and principals of the organ creating a thicker sound that gives way to soft strings and a solo flute reprising the opening theme.

The Cantabile is the most melodically driven of the five movements. It has been suggested that this movement is a “tip of the hat” to Franck whose Trois Pièces were premiered at the same concert series. This movement varies the melody and accompaniment in such a way that what starts as an accompaniment becomes more of a countermelody than an accompanimental figure. This piece is more evocative of orchestral writing than organ writing lending credibility to Widor’s idea of the “organ symphony.”

The Finale is reminiscent of the first movement opening with large chords on full organ, but contrary to the first movement the Finale is in a major key and has a more active rhythmic drive. This movement moves between staccato accented sections and more flowing melodic sections building to a series of trills over a pedal solo and the close of the symphonie.

June 10, 2012 - Proper 5

Herzlich tut mich erfreuen Op.122 No.4 -
                                                                  Johannes Brahms
Requiem Op.45: "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place" - 
                                                                  Johannes Brahms
Locus Iste - Anton Bruckner
Nachspiel - Anton Bruckner

Hymns: #569 Russia, #394 Wilderness,
              #594 Cwm Rhondda
                                                                                                                                 
The music for this week comes from the pens of two German Romantic “B’s,” Brahms and Bruckner.

The German Requiem Op. 45 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) has enjoyed immense popularity and the fourth movement How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place is a piece that can be found in the repertoire of most college, community and large church choirs. The Brahms Requiem is a piece that was at the time groundbreaking, and looking at the literature which has been written since, trend-setting. This work draws on the text of the Lutheran Bible rather than the Latin Mass for the Dead and is written to comfort the living rather than to pray for those who have died. Indeed, this piece has paved the way for Requiems by composers like Britten, Hindemith, Rutter, Chilcott, and Leavitt that have combined the Latin texts with other Biblical texts or poetry. The German Requiem was premiered at Bremen Cathedral on Good Friday 1868 and was an enormous success which marked a turning point in Brahms’s career. Brahms added the fifth movement in memory of his mother and the piece received its first complete performance in 1869. As with his first symphony, Brahms was very deliberate about the composition of the Requiem. The piece makes use of thematic material that he composed as early as 1854.  The fourth movement, How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place is a setting of Psalm 84: 1,2,4 which opens with a tranquil duet between the clarinet and flute before the choir enters on a first inversion tonic chord which I have always found interesting. The movement grows and becomes more and more imitative first featuring a the tenors answered by the basses and then the women before returning to the homophonic texture of the opening. After an expanded version of the opening theme, the piece breaks into an active fugal section on the text “They praise Thy name evermore” (verse 4 of the Psalm text) before drawing to a close with echoes of the opening material.

The prelude is also from the hand of Brahms. It is the choral prelude Herzlich tut mich erfreuen (I Am Deeply Gladdened) No. 4 from Brahms’s only posthumously published work, the Op. 122 Eleven Chorale Preludes. These chorales are regarded by most organists as Brahms’s final commentary on life and are written with a sense of finality, an interesting commentary on life for a man that was not known to be religious. The text of this chorale (the last written of the first set of seven) reads:

My heart rejoices in the wonderful summertime:
God will make everything beautifully, eternally new.
The heavens and earth will be created anew,
all creatures will become wondrously beautiful and clear.

The piece is very pianistic with arpeggios throughout supporting the chorale tune in the soprano. The piece gives no specific registration but has dynamics that suggest manual changes with the same kinds of stops on each. The setting of this chorale is filled with quiet joy and calm and peaceful energy.

The communion anthem is Locus Iste by Anton Bruckner(1824-1896). Bruckner’s life is not really reflected in his work, and his work is not reflective of his life. Bruckner was a devout Catholic that received much of his early training at St. Florian’s monastery in Austria. It was here that his love for the organ and for music was cultivated. He led a quiet life and enjoyed great success as an organist and composer. His symphonic works are written on a grand scale while his sacred music has a vulnerable innocence to it that makes it instantly accessible and endearing. Written for the dedication of the votive chapel for the cathedral of Linz, this gradual motet is designed for the dedication of a church building. The piece is in ABA form and despite the tradition of church music being more antiquated sounding than its secular counterparts, the harmonies are purely Romantic. The piece is simple and beautiful with rich full bodied harmonies in the A section and haunting imitative writing in the B section.

The postlude, Nachspiel, was written between 1845 and 1856 while Bruckner was organist at the Augustinian Abbey. The piece begins on full organ and then breaks into a fugue before the return of the full organ section. The organ that Bruckner played was the second largest in Austria and despite his limited number of compositions for the instrument; he was renowned throughout the world for his improvisations at the organ. This piece has an improvisatory feel to it. The counterpoint is simple and clean throughout and is gestural in nature – much like an improvisation.  A simple but beautiful end to the service.

June 3, 2012 - Trinity Sunday

Prelude and Variations on OLD HUNDREDTH
                                                                    - Calvin Hampton
In the Year That King Uzziah Died - David McK. Williams
God So Loved the World - John Goss

Hymns: #362 Nicaea, #324 Picardy, #365 Moscow

All of the music for this Sunday is from composers with close ties to the Anglican Choral tradition. Another unifying characteristic is the tie that they have to hymnody. All are known as composers of hymn tunes and one of them, David McKay Williams is best remembered for his hymn playing.

The gradual anthem for Sunday is a setting of Isaiah 6:1-8 by David McKay Williams. In the Year That King Uzziah Died was written in 1935 while Williams was serving at St. Bartholomew’s in NYC. Williams was originally born in Wales but his family moved to Denver before he was a year old. He studied organ and composition in Paris. Upon his return to the US he became the organist at St. Bartholomew’s and chair of the organ department at Julliard and later at Union Seminary. More than any of his other contributions to church music, Williams is remembered for his hymn playing. People would come from across the country to hear him play hymns. He would compose free accompaniments on the spot and he had the largest organ in the city at his disposal. Williams was instrumental in the additions that were made to the organ at St. Bart’s which has five manuals with a gallery organ as well as the front organ and a “celestial organ” placed in the domed ceiling.  This creativity is evident in his use of text painting throughout the anthem. The piece starts strong with the choir singing in unison against a pretty substantial organ part before breaking into their cries of “Holy.” This praise gives way to the mysterious verse 4 with the organ creating the illusion of smoke. Williams asks the organist to sustain the lowest two notes on the organ through this verse on the lowest sounding stops. The choir and organ then “sing” a duet before the brief a cappella section that leads to the return of the opening material. The piece draws to a quiet close with fragments of earlier themes traded between organ and choir.

The communion anthem is Sir John Goss’s(1800-1880) setting of God So Loved the World. Goss was an organist, composer and teacher. He served as professor at the Royal Academy of Music from 1827-1874 where one of his best known pupils was Sir John Stainer. In fact, if one were to compare the two settings of this text (Stainer’s and Goss’s) there are definite similarities to be found not the least of which is the dotted figure on the phrase “to condemn the world.” Goss was known as a benevolent teacher and choirmaster that was constantly striving to raise the slipping standards of church music. He wrote in many mediums but is best remembered for his choral compositions and his hymn tunes including Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven and See, Amid the Winter’s Snow.

The prelude and postlude are excerpts from Calvin Hampton’s(1938-1984) Prelude and Variations on OLD HUNDREDTH. I have programmed three of the twelve variations (in honor of Trinity Sunday.) This piece was written by Calvin Hampton for his “Concerts at Midnight” series at Calvary Episcopal Church. The concert organist Cherry Rhodes was preparing for a performance at the International Organ Festival in St. Albans and want to Hampton in search of a piece. He played her a recording of his performance of the piece and she asked to play it with the proviso that he compose a flashy pedal variation for it. He was only all too happy to answer her request with a challenging pedal solo for the fifth variation which did not appear in the first publication. The variations that I have selected are numbers 3, 10, and 12.  The third and tenth will combine to make up the prelude. The third is a lovely trio with the chorale in the pedals on a 4’reed with the left and right hand playing an intricate two against three figure. Variation ten is a bit freer with the tune being played on an 8’ principal accompanied by the string celestes of the organ. The final variation is a toccata with the tune first presented in long notes in the soprano and then in canon with the pedals. The coda brings back the two against three interplay heard in the third variation and ends with crashing chords that are reminiscent of the opening sections of the work.