Organ Recitals 2005

5th August 2005 - Recital at St Martin's Stamford

Buxtehude	Prelude, Fugue & Chaconne
Petr Eben	Toccata from Hommage à Buxtehude
Gavin Bryars	The Black River
Arvo Part	Annum per Annum
INTERVAL
Scheidt	Magnificat
Songs by Meade, Sowerbutts and Reger
Buxtehude	Chaconne
Daniel Roth	Joie, Douleur et Gloire de Marie
Estellet-Brun	Stabat Mater
Boellman	Suite Gothique

download programme notes for this concert

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17th August 2005 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)	Onder een linde groen
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)	Praeludium in C, BuxWV 137
Petr Eben b.1929	Toccata No.1 from Hommage à Buxtehude (1987)
Samuel Scheidt (1587 - 1654)	Magnificat Secundi Toni (from the Third Part of Tabulatura Nova)
Arvo Part b.1935	Annum per Annum
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)	Ciacona in e minor
Léon Boëllmann (1862-97)	Suite Gothique

PROGRAMME NOTES

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
Onder een linde groen

Sweelinck, the ‘Orpheus of Amsterdam’, exerted an enormous influence, both locally and internationally: his friends included poets, scholars and businessmen, as well as other distinguished musicians. When he died several newspapers, which generally only concerned themselves with commercial matters, carried tributes to him, yet he rarely left Amsterdam. His organ compositions include sets of variations on sacred as well as secular tunes, as well as free-form pieces

Onder een linde groen was originally an English tune, where it was known as ‘Gathering Peascods’ There are four variations.


Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Praeludium in C, BuxWV 137

Buxtehude lived and worked in Lübeck, Germany, giving him the opportunity to absorb the dramatic vocal music presented at the nearby Hamburg opera. This dramatic style can be seen in his Praeludium in C. In reference to its overall three-part structure, this work is sometimes referred to as “Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne.” The work begins with dramatic statements in the pedal followed by a series of theatrical gestures and rhetorical pauses. The fugal section in a lighter style follows. As is typical of the period, this fugue is created entirely by the subject entering voice by voice, coming to a cadence, and then entering voice by voice again. A short free section concludes the fugue, and the praeludium ends with a chaconne constructed with a three-bar repeating pedal line.


Petr Eben b.1929
Toccata No.1
from Hommage à Buxtehude (1987)

“When the great honour was bestowed upon me of composing a work to mark the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the birth of Dietrich Buxtehude, I was faced with a completely new challenge. Some of the distinctive features in my works for organ, such as stark dynamic contrasts and unusual and bizarre timbres, now had to take second place. On the other hand I had at my disposal a range of inspiring ideas from Buxtehude himself, such as original flashes of inspiration and rich contrasted expressions which at the same time form a unified whole through related motifs, virtuoso pedal technique and a unique form. I therefore chose two specific quotations from Buxtehude’s organ works as themes - the expressive pedal fanfare from the Prelude in C major (BuxWV137) and the theme from the Fugue in G minor (BuxWV148) with the characteristic repeated quavers. In addition, I decided to use the now forgotten North German toccata form.”

Notes by PETR EBEN ©2000 Translated into English by Hal Sutcliffe

Samuel Scheidt (1587 - 1654)
Magnificat Secundi Toni (from the Third Part of Tabulatura Nova)

Scheidt was one of Germany’s most distinguished composers of the early Baroque period, especially in the field of keyboard music. His three volumes of Tabulatura Nova (1624) are a monumental compendium of fantasies, echo compositions, various liturgical pieces, Latin hymns, Magnificats, variations on German chorales, and variations on secular songs. The publication was overseen by the composer himself.

	Magnificat anima mea Dominum.	My soul glorifies the Lord,
(Organ)	Et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo.	My spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.
	Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes.	He looks on his servant in her nothingness; henceforth all ages will call me blessed.
(Organ: Choralis in cantu)	Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: et sanctum nomen ejus.	The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy his name!
	Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.	His mercy is from age to age, on those who fear him.
(Organ: Choralis in cantu, Bicinium)	Fecit potentiam in brachio quo: dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.	He puts forth his arm in strength and scatter the proudhearted.
	Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles	He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.
(Organ: Choralis in tenore)	Esurientes implevit bonds: et divites dimisit inanes.	He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty.
	Suscepit Israel puerum suum, recordatus misereicordiae suae.	He protects Israel, his servant remembering his mercy,
(Organ: Choralis in basso)	Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini ejus in saecula.	the mercy promised to our fathers, for Abraham and his sons for ever.
	Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.	Praise the Father, the Son and Holy spirit,
(Organ: Choralis in cantu)	Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.	both now and for ever, world without end. Amen (Gelineau translation)

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Ciacona in e minor

A chaconne (ciacona is the Italian form of the word) is a set of variations in triple time upon a characteristic recurring harmonic pattern four or eight bars (in this piece, four bars). Chaconnes were popular during the baroque period, but this example has something unusual about it. Recent research indicates that each of the thirty-one variations corresponds to an element of the rosary, including the twenty mysteries: the five JOYFUL MYSTERIES, the five LUMINOUS MYSTERIES, the five SORROWFUL MYSTERIES, and the five GLORIOUS MYSTERIES.

Léon Boëllmann (1862-97)
Suite Gothique

		Introduction – Choral
		Menuet Gothique
		Prière a Notre-Dame
		Toccata

Best known today for his Suite Gothique composed in 1895, Léon Boëllmann’s highly promising career was terminated by his untimely death. A pupil of Eugène Gigout at the École Niedermeyer, he became organist at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris in 1896. Other published works include some fine chamber music, Symphonic Variations for cello and orchestra, a Symphony in F, and the Deuxième Suite for organ.

The opening chorale alternates between fff and p sections, and leads directly into the Menuet Gothique in the relative major. If the menuet seems secular, there is no doubting the devoutness of the Prière à Notre Dame (A flat major). The opening of the final Toccata is straight out of a creepy horror film! The brilliant manual figuration above a broad theme in the pedals seems like Widor’s famous example at first; but the chromatic inflections, and indeed the minor key, give it an altogether different atmosphere, that even the pomposo ending cannot utterly dispel.

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Fergus Black is the organist at St Martin’s, Stamford, and at St. Mary’s on the other side of the river. In addition, he works as a music teacher, accompanist and conductor - of Boston Choral Society and Peterborough Children’s Choir. He is Head of Voice at Deacon’s School in Peterborough. His web site is at www.fergusblack.com

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REVIEW

from the Stamford Mercury

An organ recital at St Martin’s Church, Stamford, last Friday, contained quite a few surprises.   Given by Fergus Black, resident organist, and soprano Anna Belson, the programme, with the enigmatic title ‘Shattered Refraction and Ethereal Beauty’, featured works by many modern composers, including the dramatic Annum per Annum by Arvo Part, where the organ could be heard to be doing some unusual tricks, in this case, creating a diminuendo by being turned off!  
Novelty aside, this concert entertained and informed, with a fresh sound, in which the organ seemed to acquire a different personality to its usual churchy self – perhaps most of all in the pieces for soprano and organ where the ‘voices’ combined in a very attractive way.  A memorable concert with many highlights, moments of high drama, quiet reflection, and even, at times, ethereal beauty.