Martin Stacey
NOTES
ON THE MUSIC
The
German Romantic Tradition
Influences
from outside the Church made a major impact on the development of organ style
and repertoire in nineteenth century Germany. An increasing reassessment of the
work of J.S. Bach, combined with musical influence from popular opera and the
dominance of orchestral symphonic forms, resulted in the nineteenth century
organ being lead into new and colourful areas of expression. The organ could
never be expected to exactly imitate the flexibility of sounds, accents and
dynamics of the classical/romantic orchestra. But, as we can hear in the First
Sonata from Mendelssohn's collection of Six
Organ Sonatas of 1845, a new richness of sound is created as imaginative
textures and imitations of many instrumental tones and colours are developed.
Listen out for Mendelssohn's dramatic use of the famous Chorale melody Our God our Help on Ages Past in the first movement of this splendid
work which was published just two years before the composer died.
Schumann
composed his Six Studies in Canon form in
the same year as Mendelssohn wrote his Sonata.
Robert Schumann and his wife Clara were staying in Dresden where they found
the atmosphere musically dull. Schumann spent much of his time teaching Clara
musical counterpoint, and procured a pedal piano (an instrument with a
pedal-board attachment) in order to practice and demonstrate the complexities of
organ fugues and canons. These highly original six pieces are no doubt the
result of many hours spent at the keyboard of this unique instrument.
Max
Reger (1873-1917) was born in Bavaria, and was a contemporary of Strauss and
Mahler. It has been said that in Max Reger the cult of the monumental in
romantic organ writing reaches a climax! Certainly we see in Reger's distinctly
original style a form which seems to combine the virtuosity of Liszt with the
neo-classical beauty of Brahms. His compositions (many for piano as well as for
organ) often bear baroque titles: 'Prelude' or 'Toccata and Fugue', 'Passacaglia',
and 'Chorale Prelude'. To organists, Reger is not only known for contributing
some of the most dynamically powerful compositions for the instrument, but for
encouraging and influencing another tour-de-force of the organ: Sigfid
Karg-Elert.
Hear
Reger's wonderful treatment of the theme of the English national anthem in his Variations
and Fugue on "Heil dir im Siegerkranz".
J.S.Bach
In
1739 Bach finally finished his largest collection of keyboard works, the Clavier-Ubung
('Keybord Studies') for organ. The collection as a whole, written when Bach
was employed in Leipzig, employs a free use of chorale melodies, and contains
large-scale woks for church organ alongside smaller-scale ones for domestic
purposes.
Bach's
famous C minor Fantasia and Fugue has
become all the more familiar since the publication in 1922 of a splendidly
full-blooded arrangement for orchestra by Sir Edward Elgar.
Mozart
- Andante in F major
All
that is known of Mozart's little Andante
in F major is that it written in Vienna and dated 1791, the year that Mozart
died. It was composed for the once
immensely popular Mechanical Organ. These highly prized and decorated
instruments graced many of the courts of Europe and had their origin in the era
of the Byzantium Empire.
(The
endeavour to create sound by mechanical means, without the intervention of man,
can be traced to the remote past.) But by the middle of the eighteenth century,
flute-playing organs, and musical clocks with intricate and exquisite cases,
were extremely popular. Composers of the day, including Haydn, Mozart, and CPE
Bach, were called on to write for them.
Moszkowski
- Spanish Dances
German
pianist and composer, Moritz Moszkowski, was born in 1854, and is almost
exclusively known for his highly characteristic Spanische
Tanze for piano duet. In two volumes, these suitably exotic pieces were
eventually arranged also for solo piano. Tonight we shall hear six of these
picturesque dances arranged for the organ by Martin Stacey.