PROGRAM NOTES by Matthew Glandorf & Diane Meredith Belcher Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) stands out in the 20th-century avante garde for his unique incorporation of birdsong, Hindu rhythmic structures and deep devotion to Catholic mysticism. The third movement of his suite L’Ascension of 1933 is typical in the use of his own modes of limited transposition, which creates an unusual tonal pallet. Messiaen also was endowed with the ability to see colors in various chords, which he claimed shaped his harmonic language. Indeed, Messiaen was one of the greatest of such artists in our own time. As the full title of this movement implies—“Transports of joy of a soul before the glory of Christ which is his own glory”—the music is a cosmic dance of joy. The organ has traditionally occupied a unique place in the Catholic Mass in France, the most important part of which is improvisation at the Grand Orgue in the rear gallery, alternating with the choir’s chanting in the front of the church. Very few examples of French Classic repertoire have remained, precisely because the organist’s art was generally created on the spot. Little is known of the French organist and clavecinist Jean Adam Guilain (1702–1739), who was employed in Paris at Saint-Honoré with the Jesuits and the Cordeliers. His four suites for the Magnificat exploit the first four church modes—loosely, Dorian, Hypo-Dorian, Phrygian and Hypo-Phyrigian—so that the suites would work with the corresponding tones of the Gregorian chants sung by the choir. The tonal palette of the French classical organ was in direct contrast to its contemporary German counterpart: brighter, louder reed stops; more gravitas in the Mixtures; 16’ and 32’ stops in the manuals; and use of the pedals relegated to playing a cantus firmus in the tenor, rather than providing the bass line. The other outstanding feature of this repertoire is what isn’t written on the page; style, ornamentation, embellishment, and a sense of rhythmic flexibility and swing are what give this repertoire its true elegance and panache. While the organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) has its ardent devotees, the orchestral and chamber works are usually better known and loved by the general public. A lovely merging of these two genres is Diane Belcher’s own transcription of the ever-popular Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra in D minor, BWV 1043. In this version, Belcher has arranged the music in a trio texture, as Bach often did himself in his own transcriptions: each hand plays a solo violin part on separate keyboards, while the entire bass line is bravely played in the pedals. The result is a new composition that has been acclaimed by many as Bach’s seventh, and most challenging, organ trio sonata. The vernacular has always found its way into music of the church. Since the 1960s, gospel, jazz and pop have been used in the song repertoire of the modern church. A particularly successful marriage of the traditional and contemporary are to be found in the Choral Preludes of Johannes Matthias Michel (b. 1962), as in his Organ, Timbrel and Dance, Three Jazz Organ Preludes. The composer himself is music director of the Christus Kirche in Mannheim, Germany, where it is still the tradition to improvise preludes on the appointed chorales. Using three traditional Lutheran chorales as the cantus firmus, the daring treatments are in various jazz styles. Swing Five, with its walking bass line, seems inspired by Duke Ellington. The second movement, Bossa Nova, is reminiscent of Antonio Carlos Jobim, whereas the last movement is a boisterous tribute to Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. Posthumous judgment of Hungarian-born Franz Liszt (1811–1886) has not been altogether uncritical. Despite his early reputation as the inventor of the modern piano recital, which elevated him to the status of a 19th-century pop star, his influence as a composer and promotion of great futurists such as Richard Wagner cannot be underestimated. Always adopting a sense of dramatic flair, towards the end of his life he withdrew from the concert stage and donned the costume of the Roman cleric, taking minor orders as an Abbé and composing a rather large body of sacred choral and organ music. The Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” of 1851 is a cyclic sonata that treats a single theme, in the same manner as the Piano Sonata in B minor. The theme itself comes from Giacomo Meyerbeer’s grand opera Le Prophète as the “Prayer of Anabaptists.” One can infer that Liszt was probably familiar with the opera because of further quotations, such as the trumpet calls that occur twice in the organ work. The outstanding feature of Liszt’s magnum opus for the organ is his treatment of sonata form. Although in two movements, there are four distinct sections. Unlike with traditional sonata form, each movement is organically linked to the next and develops a single theme throughout. Despite the traditional term “Fantasy and Fugue,” this is neither a liturgical composition, nor church music by any stretch of the imagination. In this work Liszt created not only a different approach to traditional form, but a completely different ethos of composition. One cannot underestimate the influence Liszt exerted on the music dramas of his protégé and eventual son-in-law Richard Wagner. Indeed, the “Ad nos” was created five years prior to Tristan and Isolde, the opera that is considered to have that ushered in the era of modernism. Thus Liszt was literally and figuratively the father-in-law of an artistic spirit which conceived a new approach to musical form. © 2006 Matthew Glandorf and Diane Meredith Belcher
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