Interpretive Suggestions for Modern Swedish Organ Works, Part 1

by Earl Holt

Part 1 was published in the January, 1996 issue of The Diapason.

es ist genug... by Sten Hanson
Background

Sten Hanson, born in 1936 in Klövsjö, Sweden, has been chairman of the Society of Swedish Composers since 1984. Although self-taught as a composer, he has been chairman of the Fylkingen language group, and an executive committee member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), and Electronic Music Studio (EMS). For the last thirty years he has worked in experimental music, literature, and art, producing instrumental, vocal, and electro-acoustic music for radio and television performances. The premiere of Hanson's Wiener-Lieder for soprano, piano, and recorded tape, took place at the 1987 Swedish Music Spring Festival. Hanson tours internationally as a lecturer and artist.30

Music journalist Göran Bergendal writes that "the initial point of departure for Sten Hanson's art is literature--with underlying associations with popular and oral traditions of poetry."31 Hanson has treated historical and political subjects in his compositions, and even used the science fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs in a 1982 work, The John Carter Song Book.

Hanson has composed two organ works: Extrasensory Conceptions III for organ solo (1964) and es ist genug... for organ solo (1985), the work selected for this article.32 Extrasensory Conceptions III, however, was written for the late organ virtuoso Karl-Erik Welin, who was recognized for creativity in graphic score interpretation. Hanson writes that the work is "so closely related to this now deceased performer that it hardly can be used again." Hanson is currently composing a new work for organ and tape, "with the loudspeaker placed in the opposite side of the room in relation to the organ," for well-known Swedish organ virtuoso Hans-Ola Ericsson.33

Swedish National Radio produced a live broadcast of the premiere of es ist genug... (it is enough...) on February 8, 1986, as performed by Ericsson at the Jacob's Church in Stockholm. The piece, which is dedicated to Ericsson, has received approximately 150 European performances and has been broadcast in several countries, according to the composer. It was published in 1988, al-though the score lists no publication date. The title of the piece is correctly written in lower-case letters and is followed by three ellipsis points.34

Although es ist genug... is based on J.S. Bach's setting of the Lutheran chorale, the piece is not the expected chorale prelude, intended for a church service. Moreover, Hanson has always expressed extreme criticism of the Church and its tenets. Ericsson writes: "In this scherzandolike piece he [Hanson] drives his own criticism in absurdum, and the end gesture, a great cluster in diminuendo which concludes in major/minor tonality, says 'Enough of that now!'"35 es ist genug... is therefore Hanson's commentary by double entendre on religious dogma, and is not a church work based on the chorale text.

Structure

As a musical allusion to the four-syllable title of es ist genug..., the primary motivic material is taken from three four-pitch fragments of the chorale melody: (1) A, B, C-sharp, D-sharp--the distinctive, ascending whole-tone phrase that begins the chorale; (2) C-sharp, B, D, C-sharp--taken from the penultimate phrase of the chorale; and (3) E, C-sharp, B, A--the descending final notes of the chorale. The three fragments are treated individually in sections linked by clusters or extended rests. As pointed out by Ericsson, the rapid repetition in absurdum of the motivic fragments is the predominant compositional technique used in the piece. Table 3 shows the structural organization of es ist genug... .

es ist genug... is primarily a tonal piece, since it is based on the original Bach harmonization of the chorale in the key of A major. Non-tonal elements do occur, however: (1) dissonant harmonizations of the chorale in mm. 14, 20-21, and 50-56; (2) clusters, which serve to accompany the figuration in mm. 57-64, and to punctuate areas of rapidly repeated motives throughout the piece; and (3) the graphic notation and A-major/minor chord at the end of the piece (m. 71).

Registration

A three-manual instrument is necessary to perform the piece, since extended sections of rapid changes are divided among three different manuals. It is not feasible to make quick registration changes on a two-manual instrument, even with the help of a console assistant. Also, since these changes contribute greatly to timbral variety, and occur at irregular intervals, it is unacceptable merely to alternate between two manuals.

Dynamic changes in the piece require significant use of the Swell expression pedal, although stop changes can be made by an assistant if the instrument has no expressive divisions. The piece requires 56-key manuals and a 29-key pedal clavier, and thus can be performed on instruments with short upper octaves or limited pedal ranges.

Registration is outlined in the score. Table 4 lists the individual registrations specifically indicated for each manual.

Interpretation

As outlined in Table 3, note values of the motivic figuration decrease steadily throughout the piece, from eighth notes to sixteenth notes to thirty-second notes. Therefore, the beginning tempo must be slow enough to accommodate both the accelerando in mm. 51-56 and the thirty-second notes in the final pages. No tempo is printed in the score. The tempos in Ericsson's compact disc recording are useful as a guideline, however: the initial quarter note tempo of 44 has increased to 68 by the end of the accelerando in mm. 51-56.

With the exception of the final arm cluster in m. 71, all manual clusters are played as chromatic palm clusters, performed by playing as many black and white keys as possible within the range outlined. Each palm cluster is held the length of a quarter note, unless tied to another cluster. Tied clusters occur in mm. 47, 49, and 65; they follow the customary rules for tied notes.

Although the left hand can sustain both black and white keys in the long palm cluster in mm. 57-64, the feet will be able to cover only the white pedal keys in the accompanying pedal cluster. A console assistant, if available, can play the lower part of the pedal cluster and the left-hand palm cluster on the Swell manual. This assistance makes it possible for the performer to position one hand on each manual for the quick changes. It will also enable the performer to close the Swell expression pedal with the right foot. If the pedal dynamic has to be reduced to balance the manuals, the assistant can remove stops. As the cluster sound diminishes, the manual figuration emerges gradually from the cacophony.

During each section of rapid motive repetition, a form of staccato articulation is printed in the score: (1) stacc., mm. 24-34; (2) molto stacc., mm. 36-46; and (3) staccatissimo, mm. 50-64. The increasingly detached articulation maintains clarity as the note values decrease throughout the piece.

Almost all dynamic changes in the piece are accomplished by stop changes. Nevertheless, the Swell expression pedal is used in mm. 14-15, 21, 51-64, 67-69, and 71. These dynamic changes made with the Swell pedal are structural and must not be arbitrarily omitted if the instrument has no expressive divisions. A console assistant can make the changes by gradually adding or removing stops.

The first recording of es ist genug... was a compact disc recording by Ericsson on January 19, 1986, three weeks before the premiere, at the Jacob's Church in Stockholm. In 1989, a Russian organist, Alexander Fiseisky, made another recording on the Melodya label. Hanson writes: "I have heard his [Fiseisky's] version in a concert in the chapel of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, but I have never received a copy of the record, not even before the present Russian chaos."36

On the Ericsson recording, the final ffff cluster (m. 71) takes sixty seconds for the resolution to the A major/minor chord and for the diminuendo to ppp. The cluster is struck initially with both arms, reduced gradually to palm clusters, and then resolved poco a poco to the final A-major/minor chord. For the diminuendo, the expression pedal is gradually closed, or stops are removed by an assistant.

The Ericsson recording, made from a preliminary version of the score, differs somewhat from the 1988 published score, as shown in Table 5.

In mm. 1-12 and 16-19, Ericsson plays five repeated notes per measure, instead of six, taking advantage of the vast tonal resources of the five-manual instrument in the Jacob's Church in Stockholm. He plays each of the five notes on a separate manual, using five different timbres in the process.

Ericsson's omission of m. 9 is logical, since the measure appears to be an erroneously printed duplicate of the preceding two measures. Because the pitch b' occurs twice at this point in the original chorale melody, only two corresponding measures are correct in the score, and not three. Measure 9 is therefore included in the list of errors in Table 6.

In a recent letter, Hanson explained the difference between Ericsson's recorded version and the 1988 score:

After this [Ericsson's] first performance I was a little unhappy with the beginning of the piece, where the desired quality of "boredom" does not come out properly. I have later corrected that by adding a sixth note in each of the bars where a single note is played, as well as by rejecting the performers' frequent jumps from one registration to another in the beginning of the piece. Ericsson's recording follows correctly the first version of the score and the changes in the score vis-a-vis the record[ing] are the results of the later revision. The recording was made in connection with the first performance without my presence or assistance, [otherwise] I would have asked the performer to wait for my revised score.37

The 1988 published score, not the recorded version, is therefore definitive. The score has a number of errors, however. (See Table 6.) Hanson has reviewed the errata and writes that they are identical to the errors he has found. A forthcoming reprint of the score will have the necessary corrections.

The performance time on Ericsson's compact disc recording is five minutes and nineteen seconds. As indicated in Table 5, however, the early version of the score used for the recording omits mm. 27-34 and 38-46, thus shortening its length. If the 1988 printed version is performed in its entirety, therefore, the piece will be approximately forty-five seconds longer, or six minutes and four seconds.

Gesänge der Toten by Hans-Ola Ericsson
Background

Hans-Ola Ericsson was born in 1958 in Stockholm where, as a child, he sang in the Stockholm Boys' Choir. His first counterpoint, composition, and organ performance teacher was innovative Swedish composer Torsten Nilsson (b. 1920), to whom Gesänge der Toten is dedicated. Ericsson's first public organ recitals began in 1974, the same year his first organ compositions were written. In 1977 he was admitted to the State Academy of Music in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied composition with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough, and organ with Zsigmond Szathmáry. Further composition study was with Luigi Nono in Venice in 1984.38

Ericsson has performed at many European festivals, and on French, Japanese, and American radio. Since 1986 Ericsson has been principal instructor of organ performance at Piteå College in Piteå, Sweden. At present, he also teaches solo organ performance and courses in interpretation of modern organ music at the State Colleges of Music in Stockholm, Malmö, and Göteborg. As a virtuoso organist, he is well-known from tours of Europe and the United States, and from recordings for radio and compact disc. He has recently recorded the complete works of Olivier Messiaen on seven compact discs for the BIS label.39

Ericsson's works for organ are Gesänge der Toten for organ and percussion (1977), J'Ecris Ton Nom for organ, percussion and electronic tape, Niemandsland for organ and electronic tape, Orgelsymphonie in tre Satzer for organ solo (1975-76), Via Dolorosa for organ solo, and Melody to the Memory of a Lost Friend XIII for organ and electronic tape (1985).40

The work selected for this article, Gesänge der Toten (Songs of the Dead), was composed in January 1977 and published the same year. The score is a legible photocopy of the manuscript.

Structure

Gesänge der Toten is based on a chorale of unknown origin that occurs monophonically (mm. 10-16), as a jazz variation (mm. 23-40), as the pedal line during the climax (m. 51), and in a four-voice harmonization (mm. 53-62). The chorale is present sporadically; thematically unrelated sections of arpeggios, improvisation, and graphically notated clusters constitute most of the piece. Meter is either 3/4 or 4/4, except for four instances of free meter (mm. 8-9, 41-44, 51, and 68-69), measured in clock seconds. Although the piece contains areas of chromaticism and extreme dissonance, it centers on the key of the chorale, F minor.

Despite areas of tonality and the presence of the chorale, the piece has no conventional form. The chorale serves chiefly to unify the piece by providing a recurring theme; its treatment and occurrences, however, are irregular. Table 7 is a structural outline of the work.

Registration

The manual compass for Gesänge der Toten is C to g''' and the pedal compass is C to f'. The manuals must therefore have at least fifty-six keys. The note g''' only occurs four times, however, in ten-voice dissonant arpeggios over triple pedal (m. 7); it can be omitted, virtually unnoticed, on fifty-four-key manuals.

The score specifies a three-manual instrument, but the piece can be performed on two manuals. Only one instance of rapid interplay among all three manuals occurs--improvisatory figuration and a sequence of twenty-four palm clusters in mm. 8-9; a console assistant can alternate stops to produce the three distinct timbres. An assistant is necessary, anyway, to manipulate percussion stops: the Röhrenglockenton (tubular bells), Xylophon 4', and Cymbelstern. The assistant must add and remove the Röhrenglockenton at specific points indicated in the score in mm. 60-65, and must stop the Cymbelstern in m. 64. If an adjustable combination action is unavailable, an assistant will also be indispensable for stop changes.

Besides the organ percussion stops, a bass drum ostinato occurs in mm. 51-63; the drum can be played by a second assistant or by a percussionist. The ostinato is simple and does not require a trained drummer. If the available organ does not have the necessary percussion stops, a percussionist can produce most of the percussive timbres--the Cymbelstern in mm. 51-63 and the tubular bells in mm. 60-65, for example. To heighten the dramatic intensity, the organist screams ffff in m. 8, before beginning a "wild outburst" on the manuals--an improvisatory section with palm clusters.41

The Swell expression pedal is used in mm. 2-7, 9-16, 39-40, and 51, although the console assistant can make gradual stop changes if no expression pedal is available. Table 8 lists a complete registration, based on the score, for a three-manual instrument.

Interpretation

Gesänge der Toten is a dramatic, violent, macabre work, characterized by extremes in dynamics, pitch, note values, and dissonance. A number of similarities--coincidental or not--to American composer William Bolcom's Black Host (1967) suggest his influence: (1) the use of percussion, including tubular chimes and bass drum; (2) a centrally placed dirge, accompanied by a jazz background at a slow tempo; (3) the use of a chorale, or psalm tune, especially at the end of the work; (4) graphically notated arm clusters used at the climax; and (5) a deliberate, brutal style. Obvious differences exist, too; Ericsson's piece is much shorter and does not incorporate an electronic tape. As illustrated in Table 8, the quarter note tempo increases steadily at major structural posts--from quarter note = 46 at the beginning of the piece to 112-126 at the end. That the piece is a kind of procession is emphasized in the score at the outset: "In the tempo of a very slow march."42

At the beginning, twenty-eight successive, ascending arpeggios--one per beat--are played in exact rhythm. Each hand must play and sustain five notes from each ten-voice arpeggio, spanning intervals of a ninth or tenth. Because of the difficulty in spanning these wide intervals, it will be impossible for some performers to play the piece. The arpeggios increase dynamically and rise in pitch until m. 8, where the performer suddenly screams ffff (using the vowel A, as in "father"). The scream appears on a separate staff with a speaking clef (talklav); it begins as loudly and as high in pitch as possible, and then slides downward in pitch. A footnote in Swedish in the score allows a substitute screamer: "A scream, executed by the performer or by someone in his place."43

Before the scream ends, a "wild outburst" of graphically notated improvisation in free meter begins. The first six seconds of improvisation have swirling figuration and occasional clusters that are distributed among three manuals (m. 8). In a commentary at the end of the piece, Ericsson describes the figuration as "rapidly vibrating movements of the fingers and the palm within the indicated range."44

In m. 9 the improvisation continues with ten seconds of palm clusters divided at random among the manuals. The first six palm clusters are notated as 2048th notes (with nine ligatures); the note values then increase gradually to eighth notes. This exaggerated notation produces, in effect, the indicated ritardando. The improvisation concludes with an eleven-voice chord that becomes arm clusters, and then gradually decreases in texture and dynamic over twenty seconds.

The monophonic statement of the chorale in mm. 10-16 begins tranquilly and ends with a crescendo to fff. A section of ascending arpeggios, similar to those at the beginning of the piece, begins in m. 16. This time, however, the arpeggios in the last measure of the section (m. 21) are changed to two cluster arpeggios and a cluster glissando that embellishes an arm cluster. Those clusters and the three arm clusters in m. 22 are played precisely in the march rhythm; both black and white keys are struck.

The jazz section in mm. 23-40 is loosely based on the chorale theme, which is treated as a highly embellished solo against a blues accompaniment; the section contains two tremolos (mm. 27-28), two tied trills (mm. 26 and 29), and a few other basic licks. The subsequent pedal solo begins with a low-register cluster glissando (m. 41) that can be played by the right foot on the black keys and by the left foot on the white ones. The graphic notation in m. 44 represents a fast improvisation, with toes and heels rapidly striking pedal notes at random within the range indicated. The 32' reed, added at the beginning of the measure, is unlikely to speak during the random figuration because of the fast tempo; the stop is probably added in anticipation of the three long notes that follow the improvisation. The pedal solo ends with a white-key glissando played by the left foot (m. 47).

The rhythm of the pedal solo in mm. 45-47 is repeated for the palm clusters in mm. 48-50. Then the Cymbelstern sounds, unaccompanied, for four seconds at the beginning of m. 51, before the organist and drummer begin the climactic crescendo. The bass drummer begins a five-note ostinato, accenting the note-heads that have an "X" superimposed on them. At the same time, the organist begins a slow, eighteen-second crescendo by using both arms in a cluster glissando that covers the entire Great manual. The glissando starts with the left elbow sustaining a few low notes. Gradually the entire left forearm is lowered onto the manual; the right wrist is added near the center of the manual and the right forearm is gradually lowered onto the manual until the elbow is completely down. Meanwhile, the Swell expression pedal, if available, has been opened halfway at this point; alternatively, the console assistant could have gradually added stops. The manuals are silent for four seconds while two more notes of the chorale are played in the pedal. The organist then improvises rapid manual figuration with fingers, palms, and elbows for eighteen seconds more--until maximum cacophony is reached, the expression pedal is fully opened, and the chorale in the pedal has been completed.

After the climax, the manuals are silent and the pedal sustains a perfect fourth, C-F, on soft 32' and 16' flues; the Cymbelstern continues to sound, and the bass drum begins a diminuendo. The organist plays the first seven measures of the harmonized chorale (mm. 53-59); when m. 60 is reached, the console assistant begins to add and remove the Röhrenglockenton stop four times, at locations in mm. 60-65. The Cymbelstern and bass drum are tacet at the first beat of m. 64, where the pedal takes over the ostinato from the bass drum. Stops and couplers are added at m. 67 for the end of the piece. In m. 68 the half notes with arrows through the stems are sustained while the unstemmed notes are played during a fifteen-second period of free meter.

The score contains several errors. (See Table 9.) No commercial recording of the work was located. The performance time is approximately six minutes.

Notes

                  30.           Peterson, s.v. "Hanson, Sten." by Stig Jacobson.

                  31.           Roth, 52.

                  32.           Sten Hanson, es ist genug . . . (Stockholm: Svensk Musik, [1988]).

                  33.           Hanson, Letter to this writer, October 18, 1993.

                  34.           Ibid.

                  35.           Ericsson, brochure notes for Organo con Forza, 4.

                  36.           Hanson, Letter to this writer, October 18, 1993.

                  37.           Ibid.

                  38.           Anders Ekenberg, brochure notes for Olivier Messiaen: the Complete Organ Music, vol.1, BIS CD 409,26.

                  39.           Ibid.

                  40.           Walter A. Frankel and Nancy K. Nardone, eds., Organ Music in Print; 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Musicdata, 1984), 89; Ericsson, Organo con Forza.

                  41.           Hans-Ola Ericsson, Gesänge der Toten, (Munich: Edition Modern, 1977), 4.

                  42.           Ibid., 2.

                  43.           Ibid., 4.

                  44.           Ibid., 12.

by Earl Holt

Earl Holt is a graduate of Elon College, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University, where he recently completed the D.M.A. degree in organ performance with Robert Clark. Dr. Holt served on the music faculty of San Jacinto College North in Houston from 1982-90, and is currently Director of Music at the First United Methodist Church of Gilbert, Arizona.

Introduction

In Organ Technique: Modern and Early, George Ritchie and George Stauffer summarize the contribution of American composers to organ music of this century:

If the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries belonged to Europe as far as organ building and composition are concerned, the twentieth century belongs to the United States. For it has been America, with its extraordinarily eclectic culture, that has set the standard for the Modern Era.1

Organ building in the United States since the late 1960s has returned, more and more, to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century principles of design and construction; the interest in the tonal resources of these instruments may account, in part, for some American composers' renewed interest in the organ. Another contributory reason for interest in organ scoring is the possibility of early public performances, in comparison to the relative improbability of having large-scale modern orchestral works performed. Logistical difficulty and expense of paying multiple performers, combined with a lack of acceptance of modern art music by aging concert audiences, make orchestral conductors reluctant to program such works. In contrast, compositions for solo instruments or small ensembles are more likely to receive an early hearing. Some composers have written works for organ in combination with other instruments, particularly percussion; an important example of the genre is William Bolcom's 1967 work, Black Host for organ, percussion, and electronic tape.

In her book, Survey of Organ Literature and Editions, Marilou Kratzenstein attributes renewed interest in American organ composition to the Hartt College Annual Contemporary Organ Music Festival, held during the 1970s and early 1980s. She writes that "it is at least partly due to the efforts of this festival that an impressive number of composers not formerly associated with the organ have begun to view the organ as a viable vehicle for expressing contemporary ideas."2 Commissions have undoubtedly played a major role in the creation of new organ works, too. In particular, all four of the American compositions examined in this article resulted from commissions.

Viktor Lukas writes in A Guide to Organ Music that modern American composers "have recognized and been encouraged by the organ's diversity today, but that diversity along with, in the minds of some, the instrument's association with liturgical functions seems to have discouraged many gifted composers from writing on a scale similar to their output for other instruments."3 Lukas cites only Igor Stravinsky and Norman Dello Joio as examples, however, and his observation is more characteristic of the first sixty years of this century than of the last several decades. Lukas's comment has validity, nevertheless; it is questionable, for example, whether the sole organ works of George Crumb or Ellen Taaffe Zwilich would have been composed without commissions.

Major American organ composers of the past two decades have turned increasingly to programmatic, secular subjects. They have also incorporated modern performance techniques into their writing (tone clusters and cluster glissandos, for example), most of which are unassociated with past or present church usage. As a result, works that display these techniques are often inappropriate for church services. Even Bolcom's Gospel Preludes, based on church hymns, are at present more suitable for concerts than for church services. If western-European trends in organ composition are a paradigm, the secularization of the organ is likely to continue in the United States.

This article surveys four selected secular organ works by modern American composers and compiles relevant performance information in an attempt to make the compositions more comprehensible and accessible to recitalists, teachers, and students.

Mysteries by William Bolcom

Background

William Bolcom, born in Seattle, Washington in 1938, attended Mills College, the University of Washington, and Stanford University. At Stanford, he studied composition with Leland Smith; Bolcom also studied composition at the Paris Conservatory with Olivier Messiaen, Darius Milhaud, and Jean Rivier in the 1960s. Bolcom's career has included piano performance and composition; he has written organ, piano, choral, vocal, and orchestral works. In the 1980s he completed his fifth symphony and a violin concerto. The premiere of his first opera, McTeague, was at Chicago's Lyric Opera in October, 1992. Since 1973 Bolcom has taught at the University of Michigan, where he is a professor of music composition.4

Bolcom's organ works are Black Host for organ, percussion, and tape (1967), Praeludium for vibraphone and organ (1969), Chorale Prelude on "Abide with Me" for organ solo (1970), Hydraulis for organ solo (1971), Mysteries for organ solo (1976-77), Humoresque for organ and orchestra (1979), Three Gospel Preludes for organ solo (1979), Gospel Preludes, Book Two for organ solo (1980-81), Gospel Preludes, Book Three for organ solo (1981), and Gospel Preludes, Book Four for organ solo (1984). In all, the Gospel Preludes comprise four books of three pieces each. The third and fourth books, previously available only in manuscript, were published in 1994. The publication of the third book of Gospel Preludes also includes the 1970 Chorale Prelude on "Abide with Me" as an extra piece.5

The work selected for this article is Mysteries.6 Organist and composer William Albright, professor of music composition and associate director of the electronic music studio at the University of Michigan, played the premiere. The performance took place at the University of Hartford's Hartt International Contemporary Organ Music Festival, held July 21-25, 1980.7 Walter Holtkamp Jr. commissioned the work for the festival; it was subsequently published in 1981.8

Structure

Mysteries is a suite of four through-composed movements that are unrelated in motivic material. The movements are "The Endless Corridor," "Eternal Flight," "La lugubre gondola," and "Dying Star." In a note to the player, Bolcom states his preference that "the four movements be played together as a set, for cumulative effect."9

"The Endless Corridor" is a trio, and is the only movement with changing meters. Little stepwise motion occurs in the three voices of the trio, which move almost entirely by leaps of fourths, fifths, sixths, or sevenths. The voices are not imitative and the rhythm of individual beats is varied, so the same rhythm rarely appears simultaneously in two voices. This compositional technique makes each voice appear to move independently. Although the form of the movement is not ABA in the traditional sense of repeated motivic material, the registration does create that impression; one registration in mm. 1-9 and 20-32 flanks a differently colored registration in mm. 10-19, the central one-third of the movement.

"Eternal Flight" is a pointillistic movement with spatial rhythmic notation. It is in three continuous sections: (1) staccato figures and clusters that increase in frequency, tempo, and dynamic; (2) whole-note clusters that increase in texture and dynamic to full organ, and then reverse the process; and (3) staccato chords and short figures that decrease in frequency, tempo, and dynamic.

Viktor Lukas writes that the third movement, "La lugubre gondola," "suggests a gently rocking gondola through soft dynamics and an emphasis on lower registers and gently moving chord changes."10 Except for one short section (11/2-11/3), the movement is unmetered; that section is marked "all values relative," however.11 As in "Eternal Flight," this movement has three continuous sections: (1) low-pitched arpeggios with long note values; (2) overlapping, ascending melodic figures that lead to a few seconds of eighth-note figuration; and (3) another (abbreviated) section of long note values to end the work. Characteristic of this movement is the frequent use of pauses of various lengths that serve as sound objects.

"Dying Star" begins with rapid, scherzo-like figuration in spatial rhythmic notation. A pedal citation of the chorale melody An Wasserflüssen Babylon then joins the texture. Later, a fragmented version of J.S. Bach's harmonization of the same chorale, in 3/4 meter, alternates with the spatially notated figuration, which gradually becomes more widely dispersed. To heighten the effect of disintegration, which Bolcom describes as "floating in and out, like a radio signal from a distant star," he uses dramatic pauses ranging from seven to thirteen seconds.12 The movement ends with a pppp chorale fragment, and a final pause.

Registration

In a note to the player, Bolcom writes about the desired instrument for Mysteries: "The object is that this music should be equally effective on any type of organ, large or small, Romantic or Baroque--even on electronic organs."13 Each movement can be performed on a two-manual instrument, although a three-manual instrument is optimum. Because the score rarely indicates crescendos or diminuendos that require expression shades, the work can be performed adequately on an instrument without expressive divisions.

Although a large list of specific stops is not required, two movements recommend registrations that are often unavailable on small instruments. First, "La lugubre gondola" requires a 32' pedal Bourdon, but a footnote indicates that a 16' stop may be substituted if a suitable 32' stop is unavailable. Second, "Dying Star" requires a pp 16' and 2'  stop combination for the Bach chorale harmonization.

Bolcom writes that "registration is largely left to the organist, except for a few suggestions here and there."14 Because of the wide latitude given to the performer, and the variety of acceptable instruments, there are many possible registrations. Table 1 has an appropriate registration for a three-manual instrument.

The beginning of "The Endless Corridor" requires a "cool-sounding" 8' pp stop for each manual and a pp 16' pedal stop.15 The upper voice (right hand) requires a "different color" in m. 10 and the middle voice (left hand) requires a similar substitution in m. 14. The change in timbre can result from substituting a different 8' stop, adding a soft mutation, or substituting a 4' stop and playing an octave lower. It is important to maintain the pp dynamic; therefore stops of significant dynamic contrast should be avoided. The two manual voices return to their original registrations in mm. 18-19, and continue to the end of the movement.

No specific stops are indicated in "Eternal Flight." The opening section (5/1-7/2) requires at least two manuals, one with a pp registration, and the other somewhat louder for the sf material. If three manuals are available, the pp material is divided at random between two of the manuals, as indicated in the score.16 The pedal has to alternate between pp and sf dynamics in the opening section; this switch can be accomplished by quickly coupling soft pedal stops to the Great manual for the sf spots only. The middle section (7/2-8/2) is played on the Great manual alone. For the crescendo to fff and the subsequent diminuendo to pp, the crescendo pedal and other expression pedals may be used; if neither is available, a console assistant can add or remove stops. Registration for the final section (8/2-9/4) is the same as at the beginning, with the exception that the Great manual is not used.

The registration shown in Table 1 for "La lugubre gondola" is specified in the score. For the two manuals, Bolcom wants stops of "different but related color."17 In the pedal, a 32' flue is best, although the piece can be performed with a 16' pedal stop.

"Dying Star" requires an "8' soft flute with much 'chiff'''  for the flute figuration that continues throughout the movement.18 On a large instrument, a combination of 8' flute stops, instead of a single stop, is often necessary for sufficient dynamic. Registration for the harmonization of An Wasserflüssen Babylon (16/1), is "2' and 16' only--with a distant, otherworldly registration."19 Because of the ppp dynamic, there is often little choice of stops, however. On a large instrument it may be possible to couple manuals together for the desired pitch combination and timbre. The same chorale registration is coupled to the pedal, because the chorale cannot be played on manuals alone. The 4' pedal stop that was added for the "subliminal" chorale melody at the beginning of the movement (13/1-15/1) is removed before the chorale harmonization begins.

Double pedal technique is necessary for all movements except the first. In addition, pedal clusters are in "Eternal Flight" and "La lugubre gondola." Because of the slow tempos, however, the clusters are easy to play. The pedal clusters in "Eternal Flight" have to be carefully practiced, nevertheless; some require awkward positions--the C to E-flat interval played by the left foot in 8/4, for example.

Interpretation

Because of the programmatic theme of Mysteries, each movement should be interpreted in a way that is consistent with the text associations. For example, in the trio "The Endless Corridor," Bolcom creates the aural impression of three slowly moving, endlessly drifting voices. No tonal, motivic, or rhythmic relationships exist between the voices, no suggestion of cadence or phrase structure occurs, and the angularity of the voices discourages melodic perception.

The rhythm of "The Endless Corridor" is played precisely as written; because the irregular motion of the voices has been created rhythmically, further rubato is unnecessary and contrary to the character of the movement. Legato articulation further enhances the intentional monotony. Selection of thinly voiced, distant-sounding stops is consistent with the "cool-sounding" stops mentioned in the score. Slight shading with expression pedals is appropriate at locations indicated in the score.

In contrast to the precisely notated rhythm of the first movement, the spatial rhythmic notation in "Eternal Flight" allows considerable freedom in rhythmic interpretation. Creating a sense of immense space is important at the beginning, with a certain unpredictability when the pointillistic staccato clusters are played. Near the end of the opening section (6/3-7/1), the clusters and figuration become more densely packed, as if drifting closer and closer in space; the increased density should not be perceived by the listener as an increase in tempo, however. Bolcom indicates short accelerandos at irregular intervals by using arrows (----> ).

A series of ritardando arrows ( <----) reduce the tempo at the beginning of the middle section of "Eternal Flight" (7/2). The middle section has the broadest tempo, the thickest texture, the longest note values, and the loudest dynamic of the movement. The legato, parallel clusters in this section require a considerable amount of finger substitution, but the long note values allow sufficient time.

The third section of the movement (8/2-9/4) reverses the motion of the first section in a gradual process of disintegration: (1) clusters that are at first close together become spaced farther and farther apart; (2) the dynamic decreases; (3) pitch becomes gradually lower; and (4) texture thins to single notes. The performer helps to communicate the disintegration by allowing playing gestures to become gradually slower, to the point that notes in the final few systems are gently pressed down. If the console is in view of the audience, it is vital that the performer not relax his/her body posture, so that intensity is maintained during the increasingly longer periods of silence between the final notes.

"La lugubre gondola" has a stifling, airless quality created by the long note values, low pitches, and pauses of various lengths. Although the movement is almost entirely unmetered, the note values are relative, and must be played precisely in rhythm. Because of the difficulty in counting the long note values, the performer can count quarter notes, at the rate of one per second, as a basic pulse, and write the number of quarter-note pulses over each note in the score as listed in Table 2.20

The comma symbols used for the long pauses of varying lengths are unexplained in the score. The same symbols appear, however, in a previous Bolcom work, Hydraulis, and are defined in a foreword as "pauses, ranging from long to very short, depending mainly on context of the passage." In a recent letter, Bolcom confirmed that the Hydraulis pauses also apply to Mysteries.21

The eighth-note figuration that appears in the metered middle section of the movement (11/2-11/3) is played with light, elegant articulation. In the unmetered final section (11/3-11/4), playing gestures become increasingly slower; intensity must be maintained during the pauses, though.

The title "La lugubre gondola" is from an 1882 piano piece of the same name by Franz Liszt. Liszt had the inspiration for the piece while watching funeral processions by gondola through the Venetian canals, when he was staying with Richard Wagner and Cosima (Liszt's daughter, who had married Wagner) in Venice. Anecdotally, Liszt abruptly quit working on his final oratorio and wrote two versions of La lugubre gondola in December 1882, after he had a strange presentiment--presumably of Wagner's impending death. Irrespectively, Wag-ner died in Venice two months later, and his body was borne by gondola in the funeral procession.22 Although not widely performed, several pianists have recorded the piano piece La lugubre gondola, No. 1; listening to such recordings is helpful in establishing the mood of the Bolcom movement, because the central, metered section of the Bolcom movement quotes the Liszt work.

"Dying Star" begins with thirty-second-note flute figuration marked "legato, even throughout."23 A more detached articulation is appropriate, however, if the room is acoustically live or if the selected flute does not have enough chiff for articulative clarity. Nevertheless, the articulation should not be a mechanical staccato.

The thirty-second-note figuration in the right-hand part continues to the end of the movement, and it is impossible to play all four voices of the An Wasserflüssen Babylon chorale fragments (beginning at 16/1) in the left hand alone. It is therefore necessary for the pedal, coupled to the manual, to play the tenor and bass voices of the chorale. Articulation for the chorale is molto legato for both manual and pedal parts. Bolcom commented on the significance of An Wasserflüssen Babylon to this movement: "That chorale prelude always gave a chilling intimation of eternity; I could imagine a dead Earth with some eternal record[ing] of it [An Wasserflüssen Babylon] playing (or a ghostly organist)."24

During the long blocks of silence (beginning at 16/4 and continuing to the end of the movement) it is important to follow Bolcom's instructions: "These pauses are exactly timed--be sure to remain physically suspended during them so that the tension is not lost."25 As in the second and third movements, the fourth also ends with a gradual disintegration of musical texture in space and time.

No errata were discovered in the score, and Bolcom confirms that he knows of none. Mysteries has not been commercially recorded. Bolcom lists a performance time of seventeen minutes and ten seconds for the entire work, broken down by movement as follows:

The Endless Corridor  [3:35]

Eternal Flight   [2:40]

La lugubre gondola     [5:45]

Dying Star       [5:10]26

Pastoral Drone by George Crumb

Background

George Crumb, born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1929, studied composition at Mason College of Music and Fine Arts (B.M., 1950), the University of Illinois (M.M., 1953), and the University of Michigan (D.M.A., 1959), where his principal composition teacher was Ross Lee Finney. His compositions include chamber, orchestral, vocal, and instrumental works, and he has received many honors, including the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for the orchestral work Echoes of Time and the River. Since 1965 Crumb has been professor of music and composer-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania.27

The work selected for this article, Pastoral Drone, is Crumb's only solo organ work.28 David Craighead, professor emeritus of organ at the Eastman School of Music, played the official premiere at First Unitarian Church in San Francisco on June 27, 1984, at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, which had commissioned the work for the occasion.29

Structure

Crumb wrote the following notes about Pastoral Drone in Don Gillespie's book, George Crumb: Profile of a Composer:

Pastoral Drone, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists and composed in the summer of 1982, represents my first essay in the solo organ genre (my Star Child of 1977 included organ as an addition to the orchestral resources).

Pastoral Drone, cast in one continuous movement, was conceived as an evocation of an ancient "open-air" music. The underpinning of the work is provided by relentless drones executed on the organ pedals. The periodical "bending" of the basic drone sound (a lower D-sharp and a higher G-sharp, spaced as an interval of the 11th) announces the principal structural articulations of the work. The drone is overlaid by strident, sharply etched rhythms in the manual parts and the dynamic throughout is sempre fortissimo ("boldly resounding"). The characteristic sound of Pastoral Drone will suggest a kind of colossal musette.30

In the Gillespie book, theorist David Cope writes about Crumb's works from the early 1980s, including Pastoral Drone:

These later works show a progressively more inclusive use of tonality and interesting new approaches to formal organization. Although Crumb's stylistic "fingerprints" are indelibly impressed on every page, one also perceives an ongoing tendency toward new modes of expression.31

Two drones are in Pastoral Drone: a pedal drone based on a perfect eleventh (D-sharp to g-sharp), and a manual drone based on the perfect fifth. The pedal drone continues from beginning to end, interrupted at times by chromatic movement, but always returning to the same interval. The manual drone changes pitch six times, however. These pitch changes delineate the seven main sections of the work.

Each section contains the same three parts: (1) simultaneous pedal and manual drones with ff chromatic clusters constructed from neighboring tones to the drone; (2) a double pedal solo during which the feet move chromatically; and (3) a freely composed part, consisting of rapid manual figuration over the drone bass in the pedal. In sections 2-6 the three parts are presented exactly in that order. In section 1, however, the pedal solo is delayed, occurring in the middle of the manual figuration part. Section 7 is differently ordered, too; it begins with alternating pedal solos and manual figuration, and then concludes with a ff chromatic cluster in both manuals and pedal. Table 3 is a structural outline of the work.

As shown in Table 3, the manual drones, built on the pitches G-sharp, B, D, and F, outline a diminished-seventh chord. The symmetrical structure outlined by these tonal areas forms an arched rondo, with the distinctive manual drone, punctuated by clusters, serving as a ritornello. Besides using the tonal shifts of the manual drone, Crumb emphasizes the symmetrical structure in other ways: (1) quasi danza triplets in sections 3 and 5 flank the central section; (2) the parallel pedal movement from the first section returns, expanded, in the last section; and (3) the order of the parts is skewed in sections 1 and 7, as noted above.

The freely composed parts of each section are improvisatory in character. Each part is based on a unifying rhythm, headmotive, or harmony, and the end of each phrase is dovetailed. For structural material, Crumb uses tritones, perfect fourths in parallel motion, pentatonic sequences and clusters, and both whole-tone scales in simultaneous parallel motion.

The work is in changing compound meter, with only two exceptions to regular compound beats: (1) a single simple beat at m. 44, beat 2; and (2) pedal stop additions that occur on the second half of the simple beat in m. 72, beats 2 and 3, and m. 75, beats 2 and 3. Crumb uses traditional notation for the work, except in mm. 68-69, where a single enlarged accidental affects all five notes of each pentatonic cluster.

Registration

A three-manual instrument is necessary to perform Pastoral Drone. Because the manual compass is F-sharp to c'''', 61-key manuals are recommended. The score indicates three ossia passages (mm. 40-48, 56-58, and 78-84), marked come sopra, that are intended to make the work playable on an instrument with 56-key manuals by playing the passages an octave lower. A 56-key instrument's top key is g''', however, and the pitch a'''--requiring a 58-key compass--occurs in m. 66. In a recent letter, Crumb acknowledges that the pitch a''' was overlooked. He writes: "I was unaware that one note was outside the 56-key range. Perhaps the 56-key notion should be abandoned!"32 Although less common than 56-key instruments, 58-key organs can encompass all pitches, if the performer follows the octave displacement directions in the score.

The same ff registration, listed in the score at the beginning of the work, is needed each time the manual drone ritornello occurs:

            Gt.--full

            Sw.--full with 16'

            Pos.--full

            Ped.--32'16' 8'4'

            No couplers--Sw., Pos./Gt.

At the ritornello, a 16' reed plenum with mixtures is appropriate for the Great manual, with full registrations on the Swell and Positive manuals, too. The pedal drone is marked f sempre. Because the same pedal registration sounds, unaltered, through the first seventy-one measures, it should balance the Swell and Positive manuals, and must not be oppressively loud.

The registration direction "No couplers--Sw., Pos./Gt." is ambiguous at first glance, but apparently refers to the continuous alternation between coupled and uncoupled manuals: the Swell and Positive manuals are coupled to the Great manual during the ff introduction to each section, and then uncoupled for the rest of the time.

Manual changes are clearly marked and should be followed exactly. Additions to the pedal in mm. 72 and 75 are on simple divisions of the compound beat. Table 4 lists an appropriate registration for each section.

If the ossia passages are taken (on an instrument with manuals of fewer than sixty-one keys), the registration must be adjusted to mask the jump to one octave lower (mm. 40-48, 56-58, and 78-84). A footnote in the score that gives directions for this adjustment is unclear, however: "Ossia: play this passage (concluding at *) down one octave without 16' or 8' (come sopra)."33 What it should state is that (1) if 16' stops and couplers are the lowest-pitched stops used in the measure before the ossia, those 16' stops and couplers are removed for the duration of the ossia; or (2) if 8' stops and couplers are the lowest-pitched stops used in the measure before the ossia, those 8' stops and couplers are removed for the duration of the ossia.

Because of the large number of registration changes within the work, an instrument with an adjustable combination action is optimal. Otherwise, the performer will need a console assistant for stop changes.

Interpretation

Clean articulation clearly aids the "precise and sharply etched rhythm" that Crumb prescribes.34 Crisp articulation is particularly necessary in the rapid thirty-second-note figuration that occurs throughout the work. Furthermore, the dynamic, which is never less than f, creates a level of sound that takes time to disperse, particularly in a room that is acoustically live.

Except for the quasi danza parts, the freely composed parts are always introduced by an articulative element that imitates the percussive attack of bagpipes or musettes. Grace notes serve this purpose in sections 1 and 4, mordents in section 2, quintuplets in section 6, and arpeggios in section 7. The grace notes are played before the beat of the principal note; all other figures are played as written. In section 3, a distinction exists, and should be observed, between the dotted and triplet rhythms.

In the final cluster that ends the work, the right thumb has to play three notes at once: f-double-sharp, g-sharp, and a. The tip of the thumb plays the g-sharp, and the base of the thumb plays the two white keys. This maneuver is made more difficult by the position of the hand that is necessary to play seven notes at once.

A tenuto marking occurs at the pentatonic clusters in section 6 (mm. 68-69) and at the arpeggios in section 7 (mm. 73, 76, and 78). The tenuto causes a temporary broadening, and not a dramatic slowing, of the tempo; the passages that flank the tenuto passages are a tempo.

The pedal part is simple; throughout most of the piece, the organist merely holds down the two-note drone. Nevertheless, because of the wide distance between the two notes (a perfect eleventh), the length of time that they must be sounded, and the fact that they must be played by the toes, it is imperative that the organ bench be low enough that relaxed leg weight can be used to maintain the drone. Chromatic movement in the pedal part is marked legatiss. sempre, as opposed to the articulative clarity that is necessary in the manual parts.

C.F. Peters has published two versions of Pastoral Drone. The earlier version is an excellent-quality manuscript reproduction and the later version is typeset. Both are dated 1984, and both have the same cover, title page, and catalog number. Nevertheless, minor revisions in pitch, notation, registration, performance directions, dynamics, and scoring were made for the typeset version.35 Asked about the differences in the two versions, Crumb writes: "The typeset version is the definitive version. I checked the typesetting very carefully (I prepared it myself!)--so I hope there are no errata."36 Table 5 contains a comparison of differences in the two versions.

At the beginning of the manuscript version there are also two short instructions that are not in the typeset version: (1) the beginning registration has the direction "Sw. and Pos. balanced dynamically;" and (2) a footnote on the first page states "All long notes should be full value!"37

Pastoral Drone has not been commercially recorded. Gillespie lists a performance time of eight minutes, but the work is actually only six minutes and twenty seconds in length when played at the tempo indicated in the score.38

Praeludium by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Background

Violinist and composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, born in Miami, Florida in 1939, graduated from Florida State University and the Juilliard School. Her composition teachers were John Boda, Elliott Carter, and Roger Sessions. Besides becoming the first woman to take a composition D.M.A. degree at Juilliard, Zwilich was also the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music, which was awarded in 1983 for Symphony No. 1. Most of her compositions are chamber and orchestral works, including two symphonies. She has accepted numerous commissions from major orchestras.39

The work selected for this article, Praeludium, is Zwilich's only solo organ work.40 It was commissioned by the Boston chapter of the American Guild of Organists and published in 1987. Organist James David Christie played the premiere at the Church of the Advent in Boston, Massachusetts on May 1, 1988.

Asked in 1993 if she were planning any other organ compositions, Zwilich wrote: "YES! I will be writing a work for chorus and organ for next season, and I'd love to write more--I love the instrument."41 The work, A Simple Magnificat for SATB chorus and organ (1994), has now been completed and published. The premiere was recently performed at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which commissioned the work.42

Structure

In the preface to the score of her first symphony, Zwilich describes her approach to composition:

First, I have long been interested in the elaboration of large-scale works from the initial material. This "organic" approach to musical form fascinates me both in the development of the material and in the fashioning of a musical idea that contains the "seeds" of the work to follow.

Second, in my recent works I have been developing techniques that combine modern principles of continuous variation with older (but still immensely satisfying) principles, such as melodic recurrence and clearly defined areas of contrast.43

This organic approach to the composition of Symphony No.1, whose premiere was in 1982, is similar to the organization of Praeludium, published five years later. The opening Maestoso of Praeludium contains the compositional techniques that shape the work: (1) complex harmonies and dense textures that result from piling up thirds; (2) distinctive articulative elements, or headmotives, used to begin melodic lines; and (3) frequent changes in texture.

Brochure notes in a 1986 recording of Zwilich's Symphony No.1 describe the first movement of the symphony, but they also accurately describe the genesis of Praeludium:

Everything in the work arises from the melodic and harmonic implications of the first fifteen bars, music Zwilich says she felt compelled to write. These [evolutions] work up to a sustained allegro that ultimately subsides into an ending as quiet as the beginning. All the most complex harmonies come from piling third upon third upon third.44

Praeludium develops according to the same construct. It contains four continuous sections: Maestoso, Più mosso, Allegro moderato, and Tempo I. Material from the Maestoso is later developed in both the Più mosso and the Allegro moderato. Both the tempo and dynamic increase gradually until the climax (mm. 168-73). The final section, Tempo I, has the tempo and dynamic of the Maestoso. The structural organization of the four sections of Praeludium is illustrated in Table 6.

Registration

In a note to the player, Bolcom writes about the desired instrument for Mysteries: "The object is that this music should be equally effective on any type of organ, large or small, Romantic or Baroque--even on electronic organs."13 Each movement can be performed on a two-manual instrument, although a three-manual instrument is optimum. Because the score rarely indicates crescendos or diminuendos that require expression shades, the work can be performed adequately on an instrument without expressive divisions.

Although a large list of specific stops is not required, two movements recommend registrations that are often unavailable on small instruments. First, "La lugubre gondola" requires a 32' pedal Bourdon, but a footnote indicates that a 16' stop may be substituted if a suitable 32' stop is unavailable. Second, "Dying Star" requires a pp 16' and 2'  stop combination for the Bach chorale harmonization.

Bolcom writes that "registration is largely left to the organist, except for a few suggestions here and there."14 Because of the wide latitude given to the performer, and the variety of acceptable instruments, there are many possible registrations. Table 1 has an appropriate registration for a three-manual instrument.

The beginning of "The Endless Corridor" requires a "cool-sounding" 8' pp stop for each manual and a pp 16' pedal stop.15 The upper voice (right hand) requires a "different color" in m. 10 and the middle voice (left hand) requires a similar substitution in m. 14. The change in timbre can result from substituting a different 8' stop, adding a soft mutation, or substituting a 4' stop and playing an octave lower. It is important to maintain the pp dynamic; therefore stops of significant dynamic contrast should be avoided. The two manual voices return to their original registrations in mm. 18-19, and continue to the end of the movement.

No specific stops are indicated in "Eternal Flight." The opening section (5/1-7/2) requires at least two manuals, one with a pp registration, and the other somewhat louder for the sf material. If three manuals are available, the pp material is divided at random between two of the manuals, as indicated in the score.16 The pedal has to alternate between pp and sf dynamics in the opening section; this switch can be accomplished by quickly coupling soft pedal stops to the Great manual for the sf spots only. The middle section (7/2-8/2) is played on the Great manual alone. For the crescendo to fff and the subsequent diminuendo to pp, the crescendo pedal and other expression pedals may be used; if neither is available, a console assistant can add or remove stops. Registration for the final section (8/2-9/4) is the same as at the beginning, with the exception that the Great manual is not used.

The registration shown in Table 1 for "La lugubre gondola" is specified in the score. For the two manuals, Bolcom wants stops of "different but related color."17 In the pedal, a 32' flue is best, although the piece can be performed with a 16' pedal stop.

"Dying Star" requires an "8' soft flute with much 'chiff' for the flute figuration that continues throughout the movement.18 On a large instrument, a combination of 8' flute stops, instead of a single stop, is often necessary for sufficient dynamic. Registration for the harmonization of An Wasserflüssen Babylon (16/1), is "2' and 16' only--with a distant, otherworldly registration."19 Because of the ppp dynamic, there is often little choice of stops, however. On a large instrument it may be possible to couple manuals together for the desired pitch combination and timbre. The same chorale registration is coupled to the pedal, because the chorale cannot be played on manuals alone. The 4' pedal stop that was added for the "subliminal" chorale melody at the beginning of the movement (13/1-15/1) is removed before the chorale harmonization begins.

Double pedal technique is necessary for all movements except the first. In addition, pedal clusters are in "Eternal Flight" and "La lugubre gondola." Because of the slow tempos, however, the clusters are easy to play. The pedal clusters in "Eternal Flight" have to be carefully practiced, nevertheless; some require awkward positions--the C to E-flat interval played by the left foot in 8/4, for example.

Interpretation

Because of the programmatic theme of Mysteries, each movement should be interpreted in a way that is consistent with the text associations. For example, in the trio "The Endless Corridor," Bolcom creates the aural impression of three slowly moving, endlessly drifting voices. No tonal, motivic, or rhythmic relationships exist between the voices, no suggestion of cadence or phrase structure occurs, and the angularity of the voices discourages melodic perception.

The rhythm of "The Endless Corridor" is played precisely as written; because the irregular motion of the voices has been created rhythmically, further rubato is unnecessary and contrary to the character of the movement. Legato articulation further enhances the intentional monotony. Selection of thinly voiced, distant-sounding stops is consistent with the "cool-sounding" stops mentioned in the score. Slight shading with expression pedals is appropriate at locations indicated in the score.

In contrast to the precisely notated rhythm of the first movement, the spatial rhythmic notation in "Eternal Flight" allows considerable freedom in rhythmic interpretation. Creating a sense of immense space is important at the beginning, with a certain unpredictability when the pointillistic staccato clusters are played. Near the end of the opening section (6/3-7/1), the clusters and figuration become more densely packed, as if drifting closer and closer in space; the increased density should not be perceived by the listener as an increase in tempo, however. Bolcom indicates short accelerandos at irregular intervals by using arrows (----> ).

A series of ritardando arrows ( <----) reduce the tempo at the beginning of the middle section of "Eternal Flight" (7/2). The middle section has the broadest tempo, the thickest texture, the longest note values, and the loudest dynamic of the movement. The legato, parallel clusters in this section require a considerable amount of finger substitution, but the long note values allow sufficient time.

The third section of the movement (8/2-9/4) reverses the motion of the first section in a gradual process of disintegration: (1) clusters that are at first close together become spaced farther and farther apart; (2) the dynamic decreases; (3) pitch becomes gradually lower; and (4) texture thins to single notes. The performer helps to communicate the disintegration by allowing playing gestures to become gradually slower, to the point that notes in the final few systems are gently pressed down. If the console is in view of the audience, it is vital that the performer not relax his/her body posture, so that intensity is maintained during the increasingly longer periods of silence between the final notes.

"La lugubre gondola" has a stifling, airless quality created by the long note values, low pitches, and pauses of various lengths. Although the movement is almost entirely unmetered, the note values are relative, and must be played precisely in rhythm. Because of the difficulty in counting the long note values, the performer can count quarter notes, at the rate of one per second, as a basic pulse, and write the number of quarter-note pulses over each note in the score as listed in Table 2.20

The comma symbols used for the long pauses of varying lengths are unexplained in the score. The same symbols appear, however, in a previous Bolcom work, Hydraulis, and are defined in a foreword as "pauses, ranging from long to very short, depending mainly on context of the passage." In a recent letter, Bolcom confirmed that the Hydraulis pauses also apply to Mysteries.21

The eighth-note figuration that appears in the metered middle section of the movement (11/2-11/3) is played with light, elegant articulation. In the unmetered final section (11/3-11/4), playing gestures become increasingly slower; intensity must be maintained during the pauses, though.

The title "La lugubre gondola" is from an 1882 piano piece of the same name by Franz Liszt. Liszt had the inspiration for the piece while watching funeral processions by gondola through the Venetian canals, when he was staying with Richard Wagner and Cosima (Liszt's daughter, who had married Wagner) in Venice. Anecdotally, Liszt abruptly quit working on his final oratorio and wrote two versions of La lugubre gondola in December 1882, after he had a strange presentiment--presumably of Wagner's impending death. Irrespectively, Wag-ner died in Venice two months later, and his body was borne by gondola in the funeral procession.22 Although not widely performed, several pianists have recorded the piano piece La lugubre gondola, No. 1; listening to such recordings is helpful in establishing the mood of the Bolcom movement, because the central, metered section of the Bolcom movement quotes the Liszt work.

"Dying Star" begins with thirty-second-note flute figuration marked "legato, even throughout."23 A more detached articulation is appropriate, however, if the room is acoustically live or if the selected flute does not have enough chiff for articulative clarity. Nevertheless, the articulation should not be a mechanical staccato.

The thirty-second-note figuration in the right-hand part continues to the end of the movement, and it is impossible to play all four voices of the An Wasserflüssen Babylon chorale fragments (beginning at 16/1) in the left hand alone. It is therefore necessary for the pedal, coupled to the manual, to play the tenor and bass voices of the chorale. Articulation for the chorale is molto legato for both manual and pedal parts. Bolcom commented on the significance of An Wasserflüssen Babylon to this movement: "That chorale prelude always gave a chilling intimation of eternity; I could imagine a dead Earth with some eternal record[ing] of it [An Wasserflüssen Babylon] playing (or a ghostly organist)."24

During the long blocks of silence (beginning at 16/4 and continuing to the end of the movement) it is important to follow Bolcom's instructions: "These pauses are exactly timed--be sure to remain physically suspended during them so that the tension is not lost."25 As in the second and third movements, the fourth also ends with a gradual disintegration of musical texture in space and time.

No errata were discovered in the score, and Bolcom confirms that he knows of none. Mysteries has not been commercially recorded. Bolcom lists a performance time of seventeen minutes and ten seconds for the entire work, broken down by movement as follows:

The Endless Corridor  [3:35]

Eternal Flight   [2:40]

La lugubre gondola     [5:45]

Dying Star       [5:10]26

lists stops suggested in the score for a three-manual organ.

Because the Trompette en chamade 8' is used as a solo stop against the full Great manual, the stop is most convenient on a secondary manual or floating division. If a chamade is unavailable, another loud trumpet or combination of reeds can be substituted. For the last pedal notes in the work, a 32' Bourdon is effective, although a footnote in the score indicates that a 16' Bourdon may be substituted, if necessary.46

Interpretation

 

In the preface to the score, Christie writes: "Praeludium was conceived in the spirit of the 17th-century North German 'Stylus phantasticus' and is to be performed as a fantasia with interpretive spontaneity and much freedom. The articulations are indicated to encourage clarity in all lines and textures."47 Besides working for clarity, the performer should observe the tempo markings in the score. As illustrated in Table 6, the tempo increases at major structural posts until the climax of the work (mm. 168-72).

A vocal 16' principal is specified in the score for the short pedal solo at the beginning of the Maestoso; if the principal is unavailable, 16' and 8' flutes are substituted. The pedal voices should be articulated cleanly, with attention paid to agogic accents that are marked above or below some of the notes. The molto legato marking in m. 3 applies to stepwise movement in m. 3 and mm. 8-10. Because of the wide leaps in double- and triple-pedal textures, an entirely legato articulation is impossible.

The pedal solo is followed by a section of densely textured harmonies that arise gradually out of piled-up thirds. The aural effect of piling up thirds is one of individual melodic lines coalescing into a chord; this recurrent compositional technique serves as a unifying characteristic of the work. During the process, the gradual change from Choir manual to Great manual in mm. 15-18 requires the left hand to "thumb up" to the Great manual while simultaneously holding three notes on the Choir manual. Depending on the instrument and the location of the manuals, it may be possible during this section to "thumb down" to the Great manual from the manual above, thus making this manual change less difficult.

The pedal motive at the beginning of the Più mosso is marked non legato, but the sixteenth notes should be given sufficient length for the pedal reeds to speak. The low pedal thirds in mm. 34-47 can be played by the left foot alone. In mm. 50-55, the accel. poco a poco increases the tempo to 112; restraint is necessary, however, because of a natural tendency to accelerate too much during the long note values. The right-hand part in mm. 62-64 is played one octave lower if the instrument has a short upper octave.

The climactic section, Allegro moderato, is a fugato that contrapuntally combines its subject with motives from the first two sections of Praeludium. Articulation of the staccatos and slurs in this section should be observed exactly as marked in the score. At m. 153 the Trompette en chamade may be coupled to the Great manual to achieve the fff dynamic. Alternatively, additional intramanual couplers or a sfz mechanism can be used.

Three short passages in the third section (mm. 131-34, 153-56, and 160-63) are marked: "Omit upper notes if not available."48 Even if the upper notes are available, though, it may be necessary to omit them if the sound is too overbearing. The extreme dissonance, in combination with full organ and high register, is excessively loud on some instruments.

At the climax in mm. 168-72 it is necessary for the left thumb to take the top two notes of the left-hand chord, because of the thirteen-voice texture at that point. Also, a meter change from 4/2 to 4/4 occurs in mm. 171-74; the note values remain constant, however. At m. 174 the pedal has to be reduced quickly from fff to subito mp.

Finally, the short closing section, Tempo I, serves as a soft codetta to Praeludium. In m. 185 the final pedal interval, a perfect octave, has the instruction: "32' Bd. alone or play the lowest 'A' on Bd. 16' only."49 Another possibility, however, is to play the pitches A and e on the 16' Bourdon; the resultant harmonic produces the desired 32' tone.

The score has one error: Page 6, Measure 81, Beat 2: the sharp in the bass clef should precede the F, not the A.

Praeludium has not been commercially recorded. The performance time is approximately eight minutes, if played at the score tempos.   

Notes

 

            1.         George Ritchie and George Stauffer, Organ Technique: Modern and Early (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1992), 304.

            2.         Marilou Kratzenstein, Survey of Organ Literature and Editions (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1980), 190.

            3.         Viktor Lukas, A Guide to Organ Music, 5th ed., ed. Reinhard G. Pauly, trans. Anne Wyburd (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1989), 229.

            4.         John Woodford, "His Night at the Opera," Michigan Today 24, no. 4 (December 1992): 1-3.

            5.         Michael Lawrence Mazzatenta, "The Gospel Preludes of William Bolcom" (D.M.A. diss., Arizona State University, 1991), 95; William Bolcom, Letter to this writer, October 20, 1993; Id., Gospel Preludes, Book Three (New York: Edward B. Marks, 1994).

            6.         William Bolcom, Mysteries (New York: Edward B. Marks, 1981).

            7.         "Hartt Contemporary Organ Music Festival," The American Organist 14, no. 7 (July 1980): 22.

            8.         Bolcom, Mysteries, 1.

            9.         Ibid., 2.

            10.       Lukas, 238.

            11.       The symbol 11/2-11/3 refers to page 11, system 2 and page 11, system 3 of the score. All score references to movements 2, 3, and 4 of Mysteries, which are unmetered, will use this system.

            12.       Bolcom, Mysteries, 16.

            13.       Ibid., 2.

            14.       Ibid.

            15.       Ibid.

            16.       Ibid., 5-6.

            17.       Ibid, 10.

            18.       Ibid., 12.

            19.       Ibid., 15.

            20.       A footnote on page ten of the score defines a stemmed double whole note as two times as long as a double whole note.

            21.       William Bolcom, Hydraulis (New York: Edward B. Marks, 1976), 2; Id., Letter to this writer, October 20, 1993.

            22.       Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan and Co., 1980), s.v. "Liszt, Franz," §4: Rome and the last years, by Humphrey Searle.

            23.       Bolcom, Mysteries, 12.

            24.       Bolcom, Letter to this writer, October 20, 1993.

            25.       Bolcom, Mysteries, 16.

            26.       Ibid., 2.

            27.       H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (London: Macmillan Press, 1986), s.v. "Crumb, George," by Edith Borroff.

            28.       George Crumb, Pastoral Drone (New York: C.F. Peters, 1984).

            29.       Byron Belt, "AGO National Convention San Francisco 1984," TAO 18, no. 8 (August 1984): 29.

            30.       George Crumb, "Annotated Chronological List of Works," in George Crumb: Profile of a Composer, ed. Don Gillespie (New York: C. F. Peters, 1986), 112.

            31.       David Cope, "Biography," in George Crumb: Profile of a Composer, 14-15.

            32.       Crumb, Letter to this writer, Oct. 14, 1993.

            33.       Crumb, Pastoral Drone, 9.

            34.       Crumb, Pastoral Drone, 4.

            35.       References to the score in the text of this article are to the later, typeset version.

            36.       Crumb, Letter to this writer, Oct. 14, 1993.

            37.       Crumb, Pastoral Drone (manuscript version), 3.

            38.       George Crumb, "Annotated Chronological List of Works," in George Crumb: Profile of a Composer, 112; Two hundred seventy-nine total beats divided by forty-four beats per minute equals 6.34 minutes.

            39.       Hitchcock, s.v. "Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe."

            40.       Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Praeludium (Hillsdale, New York: Mobart Music Publications, 1987).

            41.       Zwilich, Letter to this writer, October 21, 1993.          

            42.       Zwilich, Telephone conversation with this writer, April 24, 1995.

            43.       Richard Dyer, brochure notes for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 1, New World Records NW336-2, 4.

            44.       Ibid., 5.

            45.       Zwilich, Praeludium, 2.

            46.       Ibid., 11.

            47.       Ibid., 2.

            48.       Ibid., 9-10.

            49.       Ibid., 11.

This article will be continued.

by Earl Holt

Earl Holt is a graduate of Elon College, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University, where he recently completed the D.M.A. degree in organ performance with Robert Clark. Dr. Holt served on the music faculty of San Jacinto College North in Houston from 1982-90, and is currently a full-time Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory at ASU. His article, "Interpretive Suggestions for Four American Organ Works," appeared in the August and September 1995 issues of The Diapason; and his article, "Interpretive Suggestions for Modern Swedish Organ Works," appeared in the January and February 1996 issues of The Diapason.

Subjugated by the Soviet Union after World War II, Czechoslovakia became a socialist state in 1948; Czech arts organizations were systematically dismantled by the Communist government. Music was subject to the Doctrine of Socialist Realism, whose tenets dictated socialist content and readily comprehensible language, to achieve the ideological goals of the government. Late Romantic and folk styles were encouraged; Western avant-garde styles were deemed morally decadent. In addition, the atheistic stance of the Czech government made artistic association with the Church a liability, as summarized in The New Grove: "Along with the musical societies and their network, the function of church music in the life of society was destroyed."4

Despite the restrictions, Czech composers sought renewed international contact in the early 1960s, and were allowed to attend international music festivals. Active organ composers of this period were Petr Eben, Karel Janecek, Miloslav Kabelác, Otmar Mácha, Karel Reiner, Klement Slavicky, and Milos Sokola. The Czech government, reflecting the Soviet Union's relaxation in the enforcement of the socialist realism doctrine, began to encourage the composition of contemporary organ music by providing state subsidies, encouraging composition and interpretation competitions, and allowing international publication and dissemination of the most successful works. Nevertheless, the official atheism of the communist party government undoubtedly influenced the composition of secular organ compositions by its continuing authority to prevent publication of liturgical works. Historian Marilou Kratzenstein writes:

With the exception of Eben, none of these [composers] has written extensively for the organ, but each has written at least one or two very fine works. All of them, excepting Kabelác, have relied heavily on folk melodies and rhythms and have worked in a style which is an outgrowth of post-Romanticism. In general, Czech organ compositions are meant for concert, not liturgical, use. They are often virtuoso pieces, often symphonic, and can best be realized on an organ which is able to accommodate Romantic literature.5

Since the end of the Soviet Union's domination of eastern Europe in the late 1980s, and the Soviet Union's subsequent disintegration in 1991, Czechoslovakia has separated into two autonomous regions, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 1993.

An important outlet for international distribution of Czech organ works during the last two decades has been Panton's series, Nuove Composizioni per Organo, a six-volume set of contemporary organ works. The pieces included in the set were all prize-winning compositions at the annual Prague Spring International Music Festival.6 Of the four Czech works selected for this article, three are published in the sixth volume of Nuove Composizioni.

 Editors of the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes stated Panton's editorial policy toward registration data in the respective prefaces. The editor of the fourth volume, Alena Veselá, writes:

In revising this miscellany I first of all respected the registration data of the composers. As far as an author has not written his composition with a completely real conception of sound, I thought it right to leave inventive freedom to the interpreter and not to add registration suggestions of my own.7

Otomar Kvech, the composer of Prazské Panorama, one of the selected works in this article, served as editor of the fifth volume of Nuove Composizioni. In its preface, he writes:

All these compositions require a modern instrument with rich possibilities of registration. Their scores contain only such registration data that have been mentioned in the authors' manuscripts. An interpreter may use all his creative freedom in application [of] the rich scale of colour possibilities of [the] organ.8

In volume six, editor Václav Rabas comments further on registration, and the desired instrument:

Having revised the particular works I therefore respected composers' datas [sic] of manuals and registration that however are mostly general. For this reason it is above all the task of every interpreter to register and interpret the work in a creative way, according to his possibilities and possibilities of particular instrument. As far as an indication of manuals is mentioned, the organ under discussion is a three-manual instrument, the type most common today.

I. manual--great organ

II. manual--choir organ

III. manual--swell organ9

This article surveys four selected secular organ works by modern Czech composers and compiles relevant performance information in an attempt to make the compositions more comprehensible and accessible to recitalists, teachers, and students.

Fantasia by Jozka Matej

Background

Jozka Matej, born in Brusperk, Moravia in 1922, had his first music studies with Frantisek Míta Hradil in Ostrava at the Masaryk Institute of Music and Singing. He then studied organ with J.B. Krajs and composition with Emil Hlobil and Zdenek Hula at the Prague Conservatory from 1942 to 1947. Further composition study was with Jaroslav Rídky at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts from 1947 to 1951. He taught courses in music for drama students at the academy from 1952 to 1954, but retired from teaching to become a full-time composer.10

Matej has composed two symphonies, orchestral and chamber works, a fully orchestrated cantata, and widely known educational music for winds. His composition is heavily influenced by Moravian folk music of his native Lach region. Liner notes to a recording of the Concerto for Trumpet, French Horn, and Trombone describe Matej as "experienced in all types of music, with a firm, definitely established niche in Czech music."11

Besides the work selected for this article, Fantasia (Fantasy), no other organ works of Matej were found. The premiere of Fantasia took place at the Prague Spring International Music Festival in 1984.12

Structure

Mid-twentieth-century Czech composers often used the names of traditional polyphonic forms, including the chaconne, toccata, and fantasy, as carriages for their works.13 Such titles usually bear only a superficial relation to formal structure, however, and might have been arbitrarily selected for their ability to earn government imprimaturs as secular works appropriate for publication.

Fantasia exhibits a modern harmonic idiom, as other arbitrarily titled modern Czech works do. The work is comprised of five continuous sections, delineated by rhythm, tempo, and dynamic changes. The main rhythmic figure in sections 1, 3, and 5 contains continuous, four-voice triplets. Sections 2 and 4 have simple beats, primarily, although a few supertriplets occur in section 4. Passages at the ends of sections 2 and 4 are related motivically, but the two sections begin differently: section 2 begins contrapuntally, with two rhythmically imitative voices, whereas section 4 (religioso) begins as a four-voice, atonal chorale.

Matej uses simple meter, despite the extended sections of triplets that could be more easily scored in compound meter. Sections 1, 3, and 5 are in 2/2 meter, except for a few measures of 3/2 and 4/2 in sections 1 and 5. Sections 2 and 4 are in 4/4 meter, except for two measures of 5/4 in section 4.

Tempo changes also occur between sections. Sections 1, 3, and 5 are fast, and sections 2 and 4 are comparatively slower. Within each section, however, the tempo does vary slightly. Sharp dynamic changes occur between sections, except between sections 2 and 3, where the change is from pp to p. Table 1 is a structural outline of the piece.

Registration

The score is marked for a three-manual organ, although a two-manual instrument is adequate. The manual compass is Eb to f''', and the pedal compass is C# to c', so the work is accessible on virtually any instrument. Expressive divisions are not required. The frequent dynamic changes can be made by an adjustable combination action or with the help of a console assistant. The numerous stop changes make it difficult for the performer to handle registration and maintain continuity at the same time.

The score names only one specific stop--a 16' Pedal Bombarde in m. 35. All other registration changes are indicated by numerous dynamic markings that range from ppp to fff, a practice that permits the performer considerable freedom in stop selection. Table 2 presents registration suggestions based on the dynamic markings indicated for each manual in the score.

Interpretation

The most difficult interpretive challenge in Fantasia is to accommodate the constant rhythmic change that creates the molto drammatico character of the work. Changes in tempo, for example, occur thirty-eight times. Most of the changes in tempo within each of the five main sections are small, subito adjustments of four to six beats per minute. Larger tempo changes occur between the five main sections. A note at the beginning of the score addresses tempo: "Resulting tempo will be dependent on possibilities of particular instruments. Only the quick passages can be slowed down, however by not more than 4 speeds of [the] metronome."14 Exactly what constitutes a "quick passage" is unclear, but the fastest tempos occur in the first, third, and fifth sections of the work (mm. 1-47, 94-143, and 177-235).

Besides changing tempo frequently, Matej uses arrows of varying lengths to indicate gradual accelerandos ( ----------> ) and gradual ritardandos ( <---------- ). While the use of such arrows is not unique, they occur ubiquitously, effectively eliminating the perception of a regular pulse in many passages. Besides the ritardando arrows, allargando and ritardando markings occur at the ends of many phrases. Although distorted by the various compositional techniques presented above, the rhythmic pulse should reflect the composer's choice of meter: the half note gets the beat in sections 1, 3, and 5, and the quarter note gets the beat in sections 2 and 4, as shown in Table 1.

Matej precisely marks articulation, too. Slurs indicate phrasing, and accents (agogic and dynamic) are used liberally. Staccato articulation is not marked anywhere in the score, although some passages must be played detached, either for acoustic clarity or because of fingering in dense textures. Traditional Italian terms are used at tempo changes and might also suggest the character of the articulation--sostenuto, amabile, giocoso, agitato, pesante, leggierissimo, and marcato, for example.

Optional cuts, or vide passages, occur at mm. 42, 62-93, and 218. The cuts at mm. 42 and 218 are, in each case, a single chord held for four beats. Although the long chords serve as cadences, their omission creates a heightened dramatic effect, and those two cuts are recommended. The long optional cut in mm. 62-93, however, would reduce the second section of the work from forty-six to only fourteen measures, leaving it significantly shorter than, and thus out of balance with, the other four sections. Such a large cut is recommended only if time considerations are paramount.

No commercial recordings of Fantasia were found. The performance time is nine minutes and thirty seconds, if no optional cuts are made.

Improvviso by Jirí Dvorácek

Background

Jirí Dvorácek was born in 1928 in Vamberk, eastern Bohemia. He studied organ at the Prague Conservatory from 1943 to 1947. After graduation, and two years as an organist and music teacher, he began studies in composition with Jaroslav Rídky and Václav Dobiás at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts from 1949 to 1953. In 1953 Dvorácek was appointed as a professor of composition at the academy, and he became head of the composition department in 1979. The Czech government named him an Artist of Merit in 1983. He also served as president of the Union of Czech Composers and Concert Artists from 1987 to 1989.15

Dvorácek has composed a large number of works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, and voice. His vocal works often have patriotic or political themes. For example, Male Choirs, sung often at Czech public concerts, was composed in 1955 for the tenth-anniversary celebration of the World War II liberation of Czechoslovakia. Another work, From the Diary of a Prisoner (1960) for mixed choir, is set to Vietnamese poems by Ho Chi Minh.16 The chamber music and instrumental music form the largest body of Dvorácek's works. Although his compositions require modern performance techniques, most are tonally based; even his dodecaphonic compositions are constructed to avoid atonality.17

Besides the work selected for this article, Improvviso (1982), Dvorácek has composed a Sonata for Organ (1979), performed at the Prague Spring International Music Festival in 1980, and Violin and Organ Play (1984). The premiere of Improvviso took place in the Prague Rudolfinum by organist Milan Slechta on March 19, 1983.18

Structure

Improvviso (Improvisation), as the title suggests, is a free work. Dvorácek writes: "By the title Improvviso I wanted to express spontaneity of the music development and non-complicated image in accordance with the thematic material."19 The work, which lacks an identifiable formal structure, has four continuous sections that are delineated by tempo changes. Structural unity is primarily created by rhythm--the use of a constant metronomic pulse of eighty beats per minute--and by repetition of specific compositional techniques (gradually piling up notes into clusters, or the extensive use of trio texture, for example).

Compound meter occurs throughout the work--all 6/8, except for four measures of 9/8 (mm. 145 and 187-89). The basic pulse of eighty beats per minute applies to the dotted quarter note in sections 1 and 3, and to the dotted half note in sections 2 and 4. The tempo therefore doubles in sections 2 and 4, but nevertheless retains the basic pulse. There is no discernible tonal center in the work. Large chords are often based on intervals of a perfect fourth, perfect fifth, or tritone. Table 3 is a structural outline of the work.

Registration

Improvviso is written for a three-manual instrument, labeled I--Great, II--Choir, and III--Swell, although it can be played on two manuals, if quick stop changes are made. The manual compass for the work is C to bb.''' The pitches a''' and bb.''' occur only in the right-hand part in mm. 269-72, however. Those four measures could be played an octave lower, allowing the work to be performed on a 56-key instrument. The pedal compass is C to g', requiring a 32-note pedal clavier. The highest pedal note, g', only occurs in m. 315, but there does not appear to be an acceptable way to alter the pedal part to eliminate the g'.

No expression pedal markings occur in the score. The performer or a console assistant can make all stop changes; an assistant would be especially helpful if no adjustable combination action is available. The score lists no specific stops or traditional ensemble registrations. Stop changes are primarily indicated by numerous dynamic markings that range from pp to ff. Occasionally, though, an organ stop pitch designation is given. Table 4 presents registration suggestions based on organ stop pitch designations and dynamic markings in the score.

Interpretation

The chief interpretive challenge for the performer of Improvviso is to maintain rhythmic pulse and dramatic intensity throughout. During passages with long note-values, constant internal counting of eighth notes will be necessary (mm. 269-81, for example).

Sections 2 and 4 are technically challenging because of trills in the manuals, and occasional pedal trills. All trills in the work begin on the principal note, as indicated by a footnote in the score.20 The pedal solo in mm. 289-318 is marked tutti, but 32' stops should be omitted because of the fast tempo. The long trill at the end of the pedal solo (mm. 319-35) must be played by the right foot, because of the double-pedal part. If the performer cannot sustain the trill, however, the ossia--which has manual and pedal parts, but does not require the extended pedal trill--may be substituted. Pedal trills elsewhere must be played by a single foot, because the pedal part is so active and the feet are so far apart.

Not only do the bar lines in Improvviso serve as an organizational convenience but they also imply regular rhythmic accents on strong beats. Phrasing is meticulously indicated by slurs. Staccato dots (pp. 6, 8, 12, and 15) and agogic accents (pp. 5, 7, and 8) indicate articulation. The term pesante occurs in mm. 73, 288, and 385; besides emphasis on each note, Dvorácek also uses the term to imply a ritardando, since the following measures are marked a tempo.

Dynamic changes occur often and are carefully marked. The final dynamic marking in the work occurs in m. 282; because this ff dynamic lasts for 119 measures, however, the registration must not be overbearing.

Dvorácek confirms that there are no notation errors in the Panton score. He also writes that Panton produced a live recording of the first performance (stereo 8111 0357).21 The work has a performance time of six minutes.

 

 

Notes

                        1.                  Marilou Kratzenstein, Survey of Organ Literature and Editions (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1980), 164.

                        2.                  Corliss R. Arnold, Organ Literature: A Comprehensive Survey, 2d ed., vol. 1 (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1984), 251.

                        3.                  Felix Aprahamian, brochure notes for Concert Pieces for Organ, Hyperion Records, CDA66265, 2.

                        4.                  Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan and Co., 1980), s.v. "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, §IX, 1: Russian SFSR, Russian art music, (iv) The political background to the Soviet period," by Rita McAllister; Ibid., s.v. "Czechoslovakia, §I, 1: Art Music, Bohemia and Moravia, (v) Since 1945," by Oldrich Pukl.

                        5.                  Kratzenstein, 165.

                        6.                  Václav Rabas, ed., Nuove Composizioni per Organo, vol. 6, trans. Jana Kuhnová (Prague: Panton, 1983), preface.

                        7.                  Alena Veselá, ed., Nuove Composizioni per Organo, vol. 4, trans. Jan Machac (Prague: Panton, 1974), preface, 7.

                        8.                  Otomar Kvech, ed., Nuove Composizioni per Organo, vol. 5, trans. Jana Hanusová (Prague: Panton, 1979), preface, 6.

                        9.                  Rabas, preface.

                        10.              Sadie, s.v. "Matej, Josef;" Cenek Gardavsky, ed., Contemporary Czechoslovak Composers (Prague: Panton, 1965), s.v. "Matej, Josef," by Cenek Gardavsky; Nicolas Slonimsky, ed., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1992), s.v. "Matej, Josef.

                        11.              Gardavsky, s.v. "Matej, Josef;" Milan Kuna, liner notes to Josef Matoj: Concerto for Trumpet, French Horn, and Trombone, Panton 110456-F.

                        12.              Rabas, preface.

                        13.              Arnold, vol. 1, 251.

                        14.              Josef Matej, Fantasia, ed. Václav Rabas, in Nuove Composizioni per Organo, vol. 6 (Prague: Panton, 1983), 2.

                        15.              Gardavsky, s.v. "Dvorácek, Jirí;" Slonimsky, s.v. "Dvorácek, Jirí."

                        16.              Gardavsky, s.v. "Dvorácek, Jirí."

                        17.              Sadie, s.v. "Dvorácek, Jirí."

                        18.              Jirí Dvorácek, Improvviso, ed. Václav Rabas, in Nuove Composizioni per Organo, vol. 6 (Prague: Panton, 1983); Id., Letter to this writer, November 9, 1993.

                        19.              Dvorácek, Letter to this writer, November 9, 1993.

                        20.              Dvorácek, Improvviso, 4.

                        21.              Dvorácek, Letter to this writer, November 9, 1993.

by Earl Holt

Background

William Albright, born in Gary, Indiana in 1944, attended the Juilliard Preparatory Department, the University of Michigan, and the Paris Conservatory. He studied composition with Ross Lee Finney, Olivier Messiaen, and George Rochberg; organ study was with Marilyn Mason at the University of Michigan, where he joined the faculty in 1970. At present, he is professor of music composition and associate director of the electronic music studio.50

Albright's compositions include works for organ, piano, harpsichord, chamber orchestra, theater, and chorus. As a performing organist, he champions late twentieth-century organ repertoire, including his own compositions and those of other composers. A 1972 article in The Diapason reviewed an organ recital in which Albright performed his own Organbook I and Organbook II, and works of William Bolcom and Charles Ives:

The American Guild of Organists has never been known for its adventurousness. Cautious and conservative, the guild is comprised of organists and choirmasters who are more concerned with service playing and church music, than with the avant-garde. Thus it was uncharacteristic but admirable that the local AGO chapter last night presented the Cleveland debut of William Albright, leading young composer-performer of radical new organ music.51

Albright's improvisatory style of writing has tongue-in-cheek humor, lively rhythm, and inventive registrations. Albright was named 1993 Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists, which published articles on his organ compositions in its journal throughout 1993.52

Albright's organ works are Chorale-Partita in an Old Style on "Wer nur" for organ solo (1963), Juba for organ solo (1965), Pneuma for organ solo (1966), Organbook I for organ solo (1967), Organbook II for organ and tape (1971), Stipendium peccati for organ, piano, and percussion (1973), Gothic Suite for organ, strings, and percussion (1973), Dream and Dance for organ and percussion (1974), Sweet Sixteenths: Concert Rag for organ solo (1975-76), Jericho: Battle Music for organ and trumpet (1976), Organbook III for organ solo (1977-78), The King of Instruments for organ and narration (1978), Halo for organ and metal instruments (1980), De spiritum for organ and two assistants (1980-81), Bacchanal for organ and orchestra (1981), That Sinking Feeling for organ solo (1982), David's Songs for organ and mixed choir or SATB solo voices (1982), Enigma Syncopations for organ, flute, and percussion (1982), Romance for French horn and organ (1982), David's Songs for organ and antiphonal choirs (1982), In memoriam for organ solo (1983), 1732: In memoriam Johannes Albrecht for organ solo and optional narration (1984), Carillon-Bombarde for organ solo (1985), Chasm for organ and optional "echo instrument" or tape (1985), Symphony for Organ for organ and percussion (1986), Deum de Deo for organ and mixed choir (1989), Valley of Fire for organ and saxophone quartet (1989), Whistler Nocturnes for organ solo (1989), and Flights of Fancy: Ballet for organ (1992). Albright's latest work, Flights of Fancy: Ballet for organ has eight movements; it was commissioned by the 1992 AGO National Convention in Atlanta.53

The work selected for this article is 1732: In memoriam Johannes Albrecht.54 Robert Anderson, professor of organ at Southern Methodist University, commissioned the work and played the premiere, which was at the St. Nikolai Church in Leipzig, Germany, during the Church Music Festival Bach Tercentenary in 1985. An Evening Dance, the last movement of 1732, was published separately in The AGO 90th-Anniversary Anthology of American Organ Music in 1988.55 C.F. Peters subsequently published the complete work; although copyrighted in 1986, it was unavailable until 1990.

Structure

Albright describes 1732 as "a program sonata in the style of Bach's Capriccio 'on the Departure of his Beloved Brother' and of the Biblical Stories of Johann Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor at Leipzig."56 The sonata traces events surrounding the emigration of Albright's ancestor, Johannes Albrecht and family, to the New World from early eighteenth-century Germany. Albright recommends either that a narrator read short lines of historical material from the score, or that program notes be distributed.

1732 has seven movements: (1) Introduction; (2) The Family Albrecht in Germany; (3) William Penn Invites the German Farmers to Buy Land in the New Colony that Bears his Name; (4) Exodus of the Palatines, 1683-1754; (5) Settlement of the Land: on the Schuylkill River in Berks County; (6) Frank to the point of Rudeness, the Albright Clan Guards Honesty as a Cardinal Virtue; and (7) An Evening Dance: the Thanks of the Family for their Divine Providence. Individual movements are unrelated in motivic material, except for a few instances of reminiscence music. The work has numerous citations from existent music and parodies of past composers' styles. Table 8 lists the citations and parodies in 1732.

A sequence of five perfect fifths, C-G, A-E, F-sharp-C-sharp, G-D, and B-F-sharp, is repeated five times in the "Introduction," with rhythmic and ornamentational alterations in each repetition. This movement is similar to the opening movement of Organbook III, "Fanfare/Echo," which has the same registration and the same compositional basis--accented, staccato, open fifths in both manuals and pedal.57 The "Introduction" to 1732 is considerably shorter, however, and ends abruptly with two sets of three chromatically descending perfect fifths.

The second movement, "The Family Albrecht," begins with dissonant ff flourishes (mm. 1-12) and repeated staccato clusters (mm. 12-14). Then, additional ff flourishes and "nasty" minor seconds return to interrupt the citation of Bach's Kantate 82 (mm. 15-50).58 After the citation, more flourishes (mm. 51-56) and staccato clusters (mm. 56-58) follow. The movement ends with a citation of Psalm 118: Lobwasser Psalter.

The first nine measures of the third movement, "William Penn's Invitation," are "slow and pompous," and in dotted rhythm. Notes are repeated in manuals and pedal at three different dynamic levels. In the following section (mm. 10-21), back-to-back citations illustrate the coincidental similarity between Bach's Kaffee Kantate and Moussorgsky's Market Place at Limoges.

The fourth movement, "Exodus of the Palatines," musically depicts the ocean voyage of the Albright clan and their subsequent arrival at the port of Philadelphia. The gently rocking motion in the citation from Bach's Kantate 56 represents calm seas (mm. 1-14). Against that background are ascending B-flat arpeggios, played canonically in the right hand and pedal parts. Then, rapid tremolos, glissandos, and scherzo-like flute figuration depict the "danger of storm and pirates" (mm. 15-36).

A stylized toccata (mm. 37-45) illustrates "the hardship of passage, the steadfastness of Anna Barbara, the stinking water and meager rations."59 The toccata consists of a descending figure in nonuplets repeated in the manuals against a pedal line that descends by perfect fifths. The suffering of the passengers ("the stinking water and meager rations") is represented by a descending chromatic motive from Bach's Capriccio "on the departure of his beloved brother." The motive is developed in the styles of both Busoni and Schönberg (mm. 46-62). Bach's Kantate 56 is then cited a second time to represent the voyagers' arrival in the New World; this time the citation is accompanied by descending B-flat arpeggios, again played canonically in the right hand and pedal parts. The movement ends with a Pennsylvania "Dutch" (Deutsch) folk song melody, played in high register and accompanied by the left-hand figuration from Kantate 56.

A "Franckian Chorale" introduces the fifth movement, "Settlement of the Land." After patriotic-sounding themes, harp "strums," the suggestion of a waltz, and a comically extended dominant preparation (mm. 26-34), the music depicts the action and gunfire of a Revolutionary War battle. The "Franckian Chorale" then returns for the triumphant conclusion of the war.

The sixth movement in the suite, "Frank to the Point of Rudeness," is the only one that has a consistent meter, 4/2, throughout. Staccato figuration, "de la manière 'Beethoven'," is interrupted by sffz minor seconds on the 32' pedal reed, and by "duck-like" quacks on the Krummhorn. The movement concludes with a two-measure reminiscence of the "Introduction," and a final quack.

The seventh movement, "An Evening Dance," is a molto vivo two-step in 2/2 meter. Various Appalachian "stomps," banjo and fiddle music, and folk harmonic progressions represent a barn dance celebration.

Registration

Because of the large number of registration changes, an instrument with three manuals is recommended. The work requires 58-key manuals and a 32-key pedal clavier; an instrument with 56-key manuals and a 30-key pedal clavier can be used, however, by making two adjustments in the second movement: (1) changing the 4' pedal stop to a 2' stop and playing the pedal line an octave lower in mm. 42-45; and (2) playing the right-hand part an octave lower in mm. 59-60. If a 2' pedal stop is not available for mm. 42-45 (on a 30-key pedal clavier), Albright suggests an alternative: "Play the right-foot part of m. 44 (only) with the left hand; mm. 43 and 45 are to be played as written."60 If this alternative is necessary, (1) the left hand should omit the c''-e'' interval on the second and third beats of m. 44 in favor of the melody transferred from the pedal, and (2) the pedal should remain at 4' pitch, with the ossia (8va bassa) not taken. Expression pedal markings in 1732 are infrequent; the work can be performed on an instrument with no expressive divisions.

Albright sometimes specifies particular tonal colors but more often uses dynamic markings to indicate ensemble registrations. Table 9 lists specific stops and tonal colors required.

Besides the stops listed in Table 9, the instrument needs both a 16' reed plenum and a 16' principal plenum with mixtures for the necessary timbral and dynamic variety. On some instruments it is possible to overcome stop limitations with intramanual couplers.

Interpretation

In a 1980 lecture on "Creativity and Expressivity" at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Albright stated his view that "expressive performance is possible on the organ, an instrument capable of unending sound, primarily through the skillful use of time or duration."61 A report in The American Organist summarized his lecture:

Albright stressed the need to think of personality in each line, to think of action and reaction within the composition, to sense the direction of the music in order to heighten its activity or to spread the tempo slightly as needed. He said that this can be done in passages that are notated in equal values. To play in this manner helps the listener avoid a kind of "grayness" in which the sounds are undistinguished and run together. In his own recent works, Albright has included words and phrases to assist the performer to characterize lines and sounds, to express personality in the music.62

The programmatic character of 1732 suggests an adventure story, told against a background of musical sound effects. Dry wit and humor are evident in both music and narration, although organist Douglas Reed, who has performed and written about many Albright works, deemphasizes that aspect of the work:

The format of the work is similar to Albright's earlier The King of Instruments (1978) as both works employ a text, a narrator, and various musical styles. The spirit of 1732, however, is somewhat more serious and personal than the humorous, sometimes irreverent The King of Instruments. 63

Asked to comment on how solemn, or how tongue-in-cheek, 1732 is intended to be, Albright writes: "I have done it relatively seriously, with dramatic inflection [in the narration] when appropriate. The humor, somewhat ambiguously, will come through. Satire it is not, and it's not exactly tongue-in-cheek."64 A narrator is clearly preferred for performances of the work, but lengthy program notes from the score may be substituted.

Except for the sixth movement, which is entirely in 4/2 meter, Albright uses simple or irregular changing meters throughout the work. There is an idiosyncrasy, however; a single measure of compound meter, 9/8, is in the fifth movement (m. 6). Note values are relative throughout the constantly changing meters.

The notation in the "Introduction" is complex in order to achieve the effect of the manual and pedal parts moving slightly out of synchronization. Rhythm, therefore, must be precise, especially the irregularly timed releases of the perfect fifths. This short, Coplandesque movement suggests open frontier, and is played without rubato.

The ff flourishes at the beginning of "The Family Albrecht" are dramatic and turbulent. A ritardando is specifically not included at the end of m. 14, thereby producing maximum contrast between the violent staccato clusters and the ppp entrance of Kantate 82. Furthermore, the ff flourishes that interrupt the chorale are intended to be shocking; the performer does not telegraph his intentions either by body movement or by excessive rounding of phrases. The final section of the movement (mm. 61-66) is the Lobwasser Psalter, which represents the enduring faith of the farmers. It is registered and played semplice. In mm. 63-64 the hands are deliberately out of synchronization, as indicated by the complex notation. Those two measures produce a blurred effect, with one hand moving slightly ahead, or behind, the other.

The beginning of "William Penn's Invitation" has an exaggerated, pompous character. The Kaffee Kantate citation (mm. 10-16) that follows is marked with intentionally passé "Baroque" articulation--two slurred notes followed by two staccato notes--which should be carefully observed. The Moussorgsky citation in m. 17, a whimsical comparison to the Bach citation, is played with the indicated articulation.

"Exodus of the Palatines" begins with a Kantate 56 citation and gentle, ascending arpeggios. Articulation is legato. The marking senza rit. in m. 14 indicates an abrupt shift into the "storm and pirates" section (mm. 15-36). The coloristic effects suggest a dramatic theatre organ accompaniment to a silent movie adventure. The white-key glissando in m. 30 is performed with the nails of the index and middle fingers of the right hand.

The toccata with "strange and contrasting sounds" in mm. 38-45 is a stylized imitation of late nineteenth-century French grand orgue toccatas. The chromatic lines in the citation of Bach's Capriccio "on the departure of his beloved brother" (mm. 46-62) are played movendo ma espressivo and legato, perhaps suggesting an overly sentimental phrasing.

The music must be allowed to "breathe" during the pause between mm. 62 and 63. The melody in the folk song that ends the movement (mm. 69-81) may be phrased at the punctuation marks in the accompanying text.

The performer has to adapt quickly to frequent, abrupt changes in style in "Settlement of the Land." For example, the change in style from maestoso Franckian chorale in mm. 15-16 to Viennese waltz in mm. 17-18 must be instantaneous, because the waltz is only a few beats long. The performer must also evince the playfulness of the exaggerated dominant preparation in mm. 27-34 as a cadential second-inversion chord, accompanied by florid thirty-second-note scale runs, arpeggios, and broken chords, raises the expectation of a cadence; instead, another long, florid passage begins.

The Revolutionary War battle scene in mm. 37-46 is marked violent, but the tempo should not increase. Moreover, the tempo does not vacillate anywhere in the movement; at the two spots that most tempt the performer to change the tempo, l'istesso tempo is marked. The last section in "Settlement of the Land" (mm. 47-54) represents the triumphant conclusion of the battle. The B-C-sharp long trill that begins in m. 47 should be played as fast as possible.

"Frank to the Point of Rudeness" is a scherzo that is played on as many manuals as possible, with "registration constantly shifting, ad lib." The dynamic also changes, therefore, depending upon the stops chosen. The entrance of the 32' or 16' pedal reed in m. 10 must be sudden and unexpected. Articulation in this movement is clearly marked and should be followed exactly. During the pauses in m. 18 and m. 20 the performer remains suspended in mid-gesture.

In "An Evening Dance," the fastest and most technically difficult movement, "the composer is imagining the bluegrass music his forebears might have preferred."65 The pedaling is done almost entirely by the left foot, which swings back and forth in the manner of a theatre organist. The pedal line in mm. 65-72 may be whistled or sung by the narrator, according to the score.66 A footnote to the "Fingerbreaker" section, ff with gusto, in mm. 93-116 states that "during this difficult solo a small amount of 'gloss' and approximation may be necessary."67 Nevertheless, it is quite possible, with practice, to play the section accurately, even at the rapid tempo. Another difficult segment is the vide passage (mm. 129-32); despite the technical difficulty, the molto vivo two-against-three rhythm is exciting, and should be included, if possible.68 The right-hand part in the final section, mm. 135-54, is suggestive of swing jazz, and is effective when played in a swing rhythm. Asked if such an interpretation is appropriate, Albright commented that it is "probably OK, but at that tempo, it probably doesn't matter much."69

Table 10 lists score errata, as confirmed by Albright.70 1732, which has not been commercially recorded, is approximately fifteen minutes in length.

Notes

                  50.           Hitchcock, s.v. "Albright, William."

                  51.           Wilma Salisbury, "William Albright," The Diapason, no. 748 (March 1972): 17.

                  52.           Philip Brunelle, "William Albright: 1993 AGO Composer of the Year," TAO 27, no. 1 (January 1993): 10.

                  53.           Douglas Reed, "William Albright: Organ Music of the 80s," TAO 27, no. 4 (April 1993): 60-63; Hitchcock, s.v. "Albright, William;" Brian Morton and Pamela Collins, eds., Contemporary Composers (Chicago: St. James Press, 1992), s.v. "Albright, William;"  Corliss R. Arnold, Organ Literature: A Comprehensive Survey, 2d ed., vol. 2, (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1984), s.v. "Albright, William;" Kratzenstein, 190; Marilyn Mason, "Forty Years Commissioning Organ Music," TAO 20, no. 4 (April 1986): 101, 103; Albright, E-mail communication with this writer, April 24, 1995.

                  54.           William Albright, 1732: In memoriam Johannes Albrecht (New York: C.F. Peters, 1985).

                  55.           Philip Brunelle, ed., The AGO 90th-Anniversary Anthology of American Organ Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 3.

                  56.           Albright, preface, i.

                  57.           William Albright, Organbook III (New York: C.F. Peters, 1980), 1-7.

                  58.           Albright characteristically uses colorful performance directions in his works.

                  59.           Albright, 1732, 13.

                  60.           Albright, Letter to this writer, June 25, 1994.

                  61.           Delores Bruch, "Creativity and the New Organ," TAO 14, no. 1 (January 1980): 33.

                  62.           Ibid.

                  63.           Reed, 60.

                  64.           Albright, Letter to this writer, November 15, 1993.

                  65.           Reed.

                  66.           Albright, 1732, 27.

                  67.           Ibid., 29.

                  68.           A vide passage is an optional cut.

                  69.           Albright, Letter to this writer, November 15, 1993.

                  70.           Albright, Letter to this writer, June 25, 1994.

Marta Szoka

For more than three decades, since the appearance of very radical organ compositions such as those by Bengt Hambraeus (Constellations) and György Ligeti (Volumina), the language of organ music has developed considerably. Although organ sound is often perceived through its religious connotations, many composers have tried to use the organ as a modern concert instrument, as a viable medium for communication today. In Poland, as well as in other European countries, organ music has developed in two directions: as functional, and as independent of liturgical function. This distinction is especially pronounced in Poland. With the Catholic Church playing such a dominant role, the place of music in the liturgy has been strongly limited ever since Vatican II. Therefore, the more interesting Polish composers' production of independent concert organ music has presented itself. Although the most internationally-known composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Mikolaj Górecki have not been interested in writing organ music (with the exception of H. M. Górecki's early Kantata for organ, 1968), the group of Polish organ music composers constantly expands.

After the time of searching for new sound and technical possibilities (in the 1960's and 70's), from the very beginning of the 80's we observe the conversion of the previous relation between aesthetic and technological problems in the process of composing music, resulting in a stylistic synthesis. Different elements have been linked up together: simple and complex, old and new, conservative and radically innovative. Tonality has been combined with cluster technique, monumentalism with intimacy, harmonic principles with sonorous ones. Composers use different techniques and different conceptions, but there is at least one feature in common: they have reinstated the primary role of the expressive factor.

The inauguration of an organ festival which focused entirely on contemporary music (Legnica, October 1986) can be considered--in a certain sense--as the culmination of the decade of the 80's in the province of new organ music. Each year during Conversatorium, as the festival is named, groups of composers, organists and musicologists get together to listen to new organ music and to discuss its problems. In Legnica, several new compositions have been performed for the first time, including those commissioned by the festival's Director, composer and organist, Stanislaw Moryto. Several experimental works for organ and other instruments were premiered, far from the organ in terms of an aesthetic and historical point of view (such as accordions, percussion or saxophone). In 1987 four works for organ and two accordions were presented: Trigonos by Zbigniew Wiszniewski, Conductus by Stanislaw Moryto, Por Dia De Anos by Wieslaw Rentowski, and Intervals by Krzysztof Olczak.1 In 1988, pieces for organ and saxophone: Ordines for saxophone, violoncello and organ by Piotr Grella, Trio for saxophone, organ and timpani by Norbert Mateusz Kuznik, Ab Ovo for saxophone and organ by W. Rentowski and The Painfull Remembrance for saxophone and organ by Wladyslaw Slowinski. The work by Tadeusz Wielecki, The Gestures of Soul, presented in 1989 in Legnica and during the Warsaw Autumn Festival as well, calls for organ, synthesizer, accordion, guitar and percussion. It may be questionable whether this piece still can be classified among organ compositions in the strict meaning, but certainly it is a good example of the new direction in music for organ.

Wieslaw Rentowski, born in Poland in 1953, represents that group of contemporary composers who place equal emphasis on both the traditional and novel aspects of music. He received degrees in psychology (University of Lodz), organ performance (Conservatory of Music, Lodz) and composition (Frederick Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw). He has participated in the Darmstadt International Summer Courses in New Music in 1984 and in master organ classes in Bayreuth, Germany in 1985. He is the winner of several composers' competitions (including the first prize in the 1988 National Competition for Young Composers in Poland for his Wayang for chamber orchestra), as well as a recipient of grants from the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts in 1988 and 1989, the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada in 1989, and the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York in 1990. Since 1990 he has lived in the U.S.A. (recently Dallas, Texas), and in 1996 he received his D.M.A. degree in composition at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Rentowski has appeared as soloist at concerts, lectures and organ recitals in Poland, Germany, Canada and the U.S. His other compositions have been performed many times in Europe and North America (including Carnegie Hall: Lagniappe for 8 instruments, 1991, commissioned by the LSU New Music Ensemble).

As Rentowski is also a concertizing organist, he has a special interest in writing music for organ idiomatically. That makes his organ works extremely difficult and very complex in the technical sense, demanding top virtuosity as well as big concert instruments with rich sound qualities. Previously his organ music (Albebragen, Chorea minor, Ab ovo--see the catalogue of the principal works) brought some interesting innovations such as tremolo of pentatonic clusters moving in opposite directions, fast short strikes with the register "Tutti" while the cluster moves from low to high, and specific changes of registration.2 All these innovations served to enrich the sound, which the composer liked to compare with the sound of electronic music (but not electronic organ!).

But Rentowski is also keenly aware of the historical and aesthetic position of the organ. Although he is very progressive, all his organ compositions contain some traditional elements. In his earliest organ piece, Ekleipsis, written during the last year spent in the composition class of Wlodzimierz Kotonski in Warsaw, a short quotation of the Lacrimosa motif from Mozart's Requiem and the very general tendency towards D-minor tonality were the only signs of the musical tradition. But the work delivers also a specific catalogue of new ideas, cultivated by the composer later, including, for instance a fast change of the manuals with so called "cascade" effect. (See Example 1.)

In the next work, Albebragen, Rentowski used the twelve-tone row of Alban Berg's Violin Concerto as a harmonic and motivic disposition. The row, which in spite of the strict rules of dodecaphony contains several minor and major chords, served as a structural model for different figurative passages or glissando tone-strands. The presence of the row then is noticeable mainly inside of clusters or complex progressions, since it doesn't follow typical dodecaphonic linear texture. The row appears only twice in a linear form, as a quotation in the pedal part. The imitation of the flageolet sound of the violin can be realized through using the 2¢ flute (or octave) coupled from the manual to the pedal part. (See Example 2.)

Albebragen begins with a very fast (Prestissimo) and loud (fff) pulsation of the octaves: d-d, d-e, a-flat-b-flat, followed by the short pedal cadenza. (See Example 3.) Later, this repetitive phrase returns twice, separating longer phases of contrasting pp or p figuration.

Albebragen had its first performance in Legnica, in 1986, by organist Marta Szoka. The piece was also presented by the composer during the 26th Annual Conference of the Society of Composers in Alabama, 1992.

The next work, Piffero, dedicated to Marta Szoka, was performed by her for the first time in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1985. The title is derived from Italian: Piffero (or piffaro), a wind instrument thought to be a thousand years old. The unique sound of the Pan pipe inspired the composer in two ways: first for using a variety of flute organ stops (including 2¢ in the pedal part); secondly for exploring modality. Since the Pan pipe as an instrument is typical of the folk music of Mediterranean countries, the main melodic theme of Piffero is based on the D-minor scale with two augmented seconds: f-g-sharp and b-flat-c-sharp. (See Example 4.) The dreamy-like atmosphere and purely lyrical style of the piece brings us something new after the strongly contrasted Albebragen and its forceful expression. However, both works through their quasi-improvisatory character demand from the organist creative involvement, especially in terms of the sound color (registration) and time organization (approximate duration in some phases). In 1995, Piffero was choreographed as the dance Rivers of Life by Anne Marks and Betty Wooddy.

In the next three works Rentowski took up the very specific problem of combining organ sound with other instruments. The combination of the organ and brass is one of the few in which the organ may fully assert its sound without being compelled to limit its scope to a few, or subdued, registers. Chorea Minor for trumpet and organ, premiered by the composer and Jozef Dejnowicz (trumpet) in 1986 in Lodz, partially hinted at baroque trumpet sonatas. But on the other hand, Rentowski has loaded the parts of both instruments with new technical means, as for instance, a variety of clusters (static and moving) and tremolos or rhythmic manipulations with the "Tutti" piston in the middle of sustained clusters etc. (in the organ part). The trumpet part contains both traditional melodic lines and some motifs typical of baroque style (See Example 5) as well as glissandi, very fast pulsation on one tone, and a chromatic ascending course of figuration, based on the ostinato pattern.

The title of the work refers to the Latin term for St. Vitus's dance, that as the disease syndrome was described for the first time in 1686, exactly 300 years before the piece was composed. But the designation "minor" could be perceived also as a suggestion of the presence of the minor scale. As a matter of fact, the tonality D-minor has a dominant role in the piece, framing all its phases. Two main parts of Chorea Minor symbolize two psychological conditions, typical of the course of the disease.

The first part (Largo) is very slow, static and quiet, with an atmosphere of deep dejection; the second part (Presto), following the trumpet glissando from pianissimo to fortissimo, expanded from F-sharp to the highest possible tone, is full of impetuosity, quick changes and special sound effects. At the end, the short reminiscence of the Largo brings a final stabilization of the D-minor tonality.

The dynamic and coloristic relation between trumpet and organ is perfectly complementary. Although the density of the organ texture (chords, clusters, trills, tremoli) is sizeable, the organ sound never overdominates the trumpet. On the contrary, the sound of the trumpet and organ correlate, especially in those phases where three sound strands are horizontally simultaneous. (See Example 6.) In Chorea Minor Rentowski tried to achieve a synthesis of avant-garde techniques and traditional elements, such as a tonal center and baroque melodic features. But, quite unexpectedly, the strongly emotional and expressive character of the piece indicates also a new area of the composer's inspiration: late Romanticism, with special reference to the music of Gustav Mahler.

Although Chorea Minor is linked with the musical past in some ways, the works for organ and accordions, as well as for organ and alto saxophone, seemed to be unique at the time of their composition. It must be emphasized here that in the last decades in Poland the accordion has been emancipated from a typical folk-dance music instrument to a modern one. For a long time a synonym for musical triviality, recently it has found a place in the conservatory of music education, as well as in contemporary concert life.

The saxophone, on the other hand, is perceived mostly through its jazz associations. So, both the accordion and saxophone are fairly far from the classical organ tradition, especially distant from the religious context of organ sound, so fundamental in the European tradition. Rentowski was perfectly aware of all these implications, although, above all, he tried to shape his new sound ideas.

Por Dia De Anos for organ solo and two accordions, was premiered in 1987 in Legnica by the composer--as organist--and Zbigniew Kozlik and Krzysztof Olczak playing accordions. Since the accordion and organ possess the same abilities to produce unlimited sustained sound, and they can similarly play chords and polyphony, the combination of their sounds can be shaped in a layered manner. Rentowski gets at the effect of dynamic intensity flow through different types of texture, including a variety of performing techniques. Some of these appear already at the very beginning of the piece; e.g. moving diatonic clusters, and a structure of fast extension of interval size: from a half-tone to the ninth. The traditional category of motif or theme, as a fundamental structure for organizing musical form, does not exist here. Instead, the composer  has built the sound texture of flowing layers with changing density and contours, one overleaping the other, sometimes vanishing, sometimes returning. This sort of technique results in form without breaks or distinct demarcations between successive phrases. Therefore, Por Dia De Anos seems to be a continuum of loosely connected musical ideas.

The material for building clusters, chord structures, and sound layers is derived from three scales: diatonic, pentatonic, and whole-tone. The lack of both strong contrasts and aggressive dissonant sounds is matched by the playful, serene character of the piece. This character has as its other source a combination of the static, solemn sound of the organ and the lightness and mobility of the accordion part. Certainly, after the very emotional expressivity of Albebragen and Chorea minor, Por Dia De Anos presents a new stage in Rentowski's organ music.

The continuation of this stage is set in the next piece, Ab Ovo for alto saxophone and organ (two performers), premiered in 1988 in Legnica by Krzysztof Herder (saxophone), Marta Szoka and Wieslaw Rentowski. The exploration of new sound and performance techniques in the organ part here provide ways to improve the unique possibilities of playing with four hands. Both organists have the pitch range (low and high) and one manual assigned. Therefore Ab Ovo is playable even on a small tracker organ with two manuals and without any registration aids. The composer has expanded several forms of  simultaneous play on two manuals, linking together chords, clusters, figuration, and even polyphony. (See Example 7.) Quite often one of the sound layers is a compound of static structure, while the other one is of ostinato motion. (See Example 8.)

The organ part does not exceed conventional keyboard technique. In contrast, the saxophone appears richly. The most interesting is using its natural technical possibilities, such as fast scale courses, extended figurations, extremely high and low tones (indeterminate pitch), very fast repetition, glissandi, and so-called "combination tones," which means non-harmonic "unmusical" sound. (See Example 9.) But the saxophone is used also for its lyrical and melodic qualities. Then the alliance with a jazz idiom is the most distinct. (See Example 10.) Of course, it is not simple pastiche, since the idea of Ab Ovo is much more complex. But numerous sequences with syncopation, free, quasi-improvisatory form of the piece, and the very characteristic sound color of the saxophone, with typical "entry" solo cadenza, are a manifestation of jazz influence.

Another source of inspiration is revealed in quasi-baroque motifs and polyphony in the organ part (See Example 7). The repetition of a single tone A in the pedal part that opened the piece, returns  after the climax (See Example  9). This makes the whole form more clear and similar to a ternary form. Ab Ovo has an atmosphere of its own; lyrical rather than dramatic, with the soft sound of the saxophone, and harmonic language subdued through the several tonal and modal sings. Five years passed before Rentowski composed his next organ piece, and eight years since his last piece for organ solo. New Orleans Magnificat (1993) was premiered in 1994 by the composer himself in Montreal, during a concert sponsored by the Faculty of Music at McGill University and the Department of Music at Concordia University. (First European performance was given in 1994 by Prof. Andrzej Chorosinski--who also commissioned the piece--at the  XIX Internationale Studientage für Neue Geistliche Musik, Sinzig, Germany.)

The work is based on the opposition of modal, tonal and chromatic features. Modality is represented by the Gregorian theme that opens the composition. Since the latter returns several times, the form of the piece resembles a rondo form, although without classical regularity. Tonality marks a presence of tonal centers: first it is A-flat major in a trill sequence, later F-minor that determinates the climax section (Presto possibile and Prestissimo). (See Example 11.) The tonal element plus ostinato technique and some rhythmic patterns are common in New Orleans Magnificat and Ab ovo. But there are also many differences. New Orleans Magnificat brings some idiomatic organ sound obtained through trills, tremolo, pedal glissando, fast chromatic passages, and so-called "cascade" cluster glissandi, done across three manuals from up to down (compare Example 12 and Example 1). In terms of  pedal technique, Rentowski requires here also double play in extended intervals above two octaves (C-sharp-g1). With regard to technical innovations, New Orleans Magnificat refers to earlier works of Rentowski, as for instance Ekleipsis and Albebragen. Moreover, this is also music of high contrasts and powerful expression. However, New Orleans Magnificat is the first organ piece written by the composer in America, as a special "hommage à Louisiana." The question arises immediately of whether there are any noticeable signs of something new, of the influence of American music or New Orleans tradition on the compositional style of Rentowski. But before anyone can answer, let us examine Rentowski's newest organ work, In Nomine, for organ and orchestra. It was written in 1996 and has not yet been performed.

The work is in three movements: Allegro - Largo - Fugue, and resembles the classical concerto. Both the organ part and orchestra have been handled conventionally in terms of instrumental technique and notation. There is no further exploration for new effects or unusual sound combinations. On the contrary, the organ part has been written moderately and it does not demand extraordinary virtuosity.

In Nomine is based on an original scale, called by the composer, Gamma. The scale resources are related to the concept of "open tonality" which in general reverses the function of the traditional dominant and tonic. As the composer explained, "In traditional tonal system, the dominant functions as a single channel that leads to only one predetermined resolution (tonic). This concept assumes the existence of an open channel (open Tonic) that leads to many different resolutions (predominants). Because "predominants" are related to and based on different representative scales (not on chords), the system creates an open universe of equally important tonal levels that have a freedom of coexistence."3

It is not my purpose to present a detailed analysis, but let us state here that the first part, Allegro, introduces the main melodic theme, based on Gamma (See Example 13), and then transposed from f, g, a, a-flat, and later from d, e-flat and f. Fugue has its own theme. (See Example 14.) In the middle section of the fugue it appears in a stretto with the theme of Allegro. Another melodic line is the basis for Largo, where the organ solo creates a mysterious atmosphere with only tympani and chimes.

Certainly, In Nomine shows attributes of a classical composer's technique to an extent never before seen in Rentowski's production. Using classical forms and textures, as well as recalling the dominant role of the melodic factor and well-tried harmonic and orchestral principles, the composer consciously accomplished a radical simplification of his style. It is difficult to say if now it is more "his own" style than before. Probably, American audience expectations and quite different views of organ music history and aesthetics could bring Rentowski to propose something new. He has come a long way from Ekleipsis to In Nomine, and it seems to be a very consistent journey. I hope that my short review will stimulate readers to get acquainted with the very interesting organ music of Wieslaw Rentowski.

Wieslaw Rentowski's Organ Works

Ekleipsis for organ (1984), recorded by Polskie Nagrania and West Deutsche Rundfunk.

Albebragen for organ (1985), recorded by Polonia Records 1994 (CD 020), score available from Astra, Lodz (Poland) and Conners Publications, Baton Rouge, LA.

Piffero for organ (1985), published by Conners Publications.

Chorea Minor for trumpet and organ (1986), commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Society, Lodz, Poland; published by Agencja Autorska, Warsaw, Poland.

Por Dia De Anos for 2 accordions and organ (1987), recorded by Sonoton, Germany; published by Pro Nova Sonoton, Munich, Germany and Pomorze, Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Ab Ovo for alto saxophone and two organists (1988), awarded a prize at Polish National Composers' Competition, Warsaw 1989.

New Orleans Magnificat for organ (1993), recorded by Polonia Records 1995 (CD 057), published by Conners Publications.

In Nomine for organ and orchestra (1996), published by Conners Publications.

by Marta Szoka

In my article "Current Streams in Polish Organ Music"  (The Diapason, May 1995) I mentioned the Organ Sonata of Aleksander Glinkowski as one of the most interesting contemporary compositions written for organ in Poland in the 1980s. Indeed, comparing the Sonata with contemporary organ music in Europe, one can consider it an outstanding piece belonging to the concert repertoire and challenging to every virtuoso of the organ. So why is this piece unknown and relatively seldom performed even in Poland? The answer is simple: the Organ Sonata of Glinkowski, written in the very difficult--for Poland--time of 1981, is still not published. The composer, Aleksander Glinkowski (1941-1991), studied composition at the Music Academy in Katowice and later in Paris. His professor in Katowice, Boleslaw Szabelski (1896-1979), represented the generation of neoclassically oriented composers, but made a spectacular turn to dodecaphony in his last works. In Paris in 1972-1973 Glinkowski studied with Iannis Xenakis. Until his premature death he lived in Katowice, teaching composition at the Music Academy. Very modest, introverted and diffident, he didn't publicize his compositions, so his name is not widely known although Glinkowski represented the best values of Polish contemporary music: intensity, modern technique, fertile sonoristic invention, and sense of form. His Koncert wenecki (Venetian Concert) for oboe and orchestra was awarded a prize in the Artur Malawski Competition in Cracow in 1972.

The organ is constantly present in music of Glinkowski. As a
first attempt he composed Inicjacje
(Initiations) for string quartet, organ and percussion (1966); later, his Passacaglia for organ solo (1968) and Aisthesis for organ and orchestra (1969) appeared. Only the Passacaglia
style='font-style:normal'> was published as Polska wspólczesna
miniatura organowa (Contemporary Polish
Organ Miniatures, PWM Cracow 1975), together with other compositions that
received awards in the Organ Music Competition in Kamien Pomorski in 1968. The Organ Sonata of Glinkowski was performed for the first time in 1983 in Katowice by Zygmunt Antonik, and later, several times it was played in Poland, Germany and Switzerland by both Zygmunt Antonik and Marta Szoka. Everywhere, the audience was strongly impressed by the monumental architecture and unusual character of this music.

For a long time the form of the sonata was strictly
connected with tonality and the rules of tonal harmony. In the 19th century an
intensive expansion of harmony in the romantic sonata had its basis in the
development of instrumental texture--especially in the area of piano music. The
situation of the sonata in the 20th century is much more complicated. But among
so many types of contemporary sonatas at least two ideas still hold: one is the
principle of the transformation of thematic material, and the second concerns
the development of an idiomatic (for any instrument) instrumental texture. The Sonata of Glinkowski demonstrates that even with the most modern musical language (aleatorism, sonorism etc.) it is possible to respect both principles. In this piece the composer examined all specific organ attributes. There are so many organ compositions written recently by composers who are used to thinking about organ technique as the synthesis of a highly developed pianism with the addition of some elements of pedal technique. Glinkowski took the idea of his Sonata just from the organ console--both manual and pedal techniques are inextricably intertwined--considering not only the variety of dynamic and color levels, but also the phenomenon of echo in the church interior--the natural environment for the organ. His Sonata was written for a large tracker organ, the "cathedral" type. Moreover, the composer displayed a real mastery of using rests.

The Sonata is a real
challenge for every concert organist. The highest virtuosity consists of a
variety of manual and pedal techniques, including linear and figurative
configurations as well as many types of chords and clusters. The figurative
element is for Glinkowski not only a part of manual technique, but also a type
of texture. Thanks to this special texture he could obtain new sound qualities.
In general, in the whole Sonata
there are many examples of an extremely fast figurative motion and ostinato
technique. As a result, we have here an impression of a static sound-stream,
although the shape of the figurations varies. These so-called sound-streams, or
sound-strands, make the organ sound similar to the sound quality of electronic
music. The strong influence of the aesthetics of electronic music in
contemporary composition is observed not only in organ music, but the organ,
with its idiomatic attributes, is an especially convenient instrument for these
kinds of experimental ideas.

The two most obvious signs of the influence of electronic
music include: first, the extreme extensions of singular static sound (one
tone, singular chord, or a sound-strand) with no equivalent of the metric or
rhythmic factors; and second, the transformation of sound by adding or
subtracting sound colors (in the organ: registers). The typical electronic
sound-strand that modulates by inducing or by putting out overtones, could be
easily imitated with organ sound and varying registration and articulation. Volumina by György Ligeti is one of the best examples here. In the Sonata of Glinkowski the interior pitches of the sustained sound-strands are changeable; the varying sound color and pitch are a source of internal vibration. Let's examine the beginning of the Sonata. (See Example 1.)

There are here five different figurative models. By very
fast movement--all models are repeated or changed freely--the perception of
individual pitches is nearly impossible. Also, the perception of changes
between models is very difficult, especially since the recommended registration
(upperwork without 8' registers) transfers the whole sound-strand very high.
One can say about this as a special "textural convention" that pure
motion becomes the main tectonic and expressive factor. The term "textural
convention" was introduced by Boguslaw Schäffer, a prominent Polish
composer and theoretician from Cracow, in his fundamental work,
"Introduction to composition" (Cracow 1976). But in the Sonata of Glinkowski the fast, aleatoric figuration, although dominant , is not the only type of texture.

Since elements such as melody and harmony are strongly
limited, dynamics and textural changes serve as the basis for form building.
The three parts of the Sonata are
unified by one fundamental motif. So we have here another example of formal
development. The motivic cell is built of two perfect fifths separated by a
half-tone. For instance: G/D + A-flat /E-flat. This serves as the main material
for all important themes, linear figures, chords, structures etc. It is used as
follows:

1. In its elementary form as a linear structure (Example 2);

2. As a strongly dissonant chord: (Example 3). This
syncopated chordal structure is set against linear configurations. Although
both of the structures are built with the same material, the contrast of
rhythm, dynamics and texture is very emphatic. The half-tone and perfect fifth
are also used for other types of chords (Example 4) and for clusters. The
diatonic, or pentatonic cluster with the ambitus of a perfect fifth displacing
the half-tone steps appears in Part III of the Sonata
style='font-style:normal'> (Example 5).

3. As model of figuration, also in parallel fifths or
doubled in fifths and octaves (Example 6).

4. As an ornament--for instance as a trill (See Example 6).
Two principal structures based on the motif of the fifth-half-tone--vertical
(chords, clusters) and horizontal (for instance: figuration)--organize the form
of the Sonata. They contrast strongly,
especially in Part I; somehow we can find here the reflection of the classical
rule of thematic dualism. In Part II the motif appears only in the line of the
figuration. The whole Part II is unique, a long pedal solo cadenza which
contains three sections. The first and third sections, symmetrically, are
filled by a continuous chromatic course of figuration (See Example 7). This
kind of figuration is typical of the toccata or etude; to this writer, it is reminiscent also of the Final of Chopin's B-flat minor Sonata
style='font-style:normal'> (See Example 8). There, too, the extremely fast
stream of tones is perceived as pure motion. But besides the textural
similarity, both fragments of the Chopin and Glinkowski Sonatas present the same
type of expression: dark and dramatic, if not tragic.

The second section of Part II is very slow, soft and quiet.
The motion stops; instead of a single line of figuration, the static
tone-strand occurs. The 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 tone harmony appears, but also in the
pedal solo. The composer requires here strict legato playing and a very special
registration (4' or 2' flute solo) (Example 9). In this episode the tension is
much lower thanks to the strong dynamic and tectonic contrasts with the first
and third sections, but soon the course of figuration returns.

The very beginning of Part III of the Sonata
style='font-style:normal'> is reminiscent of the character of the slow part in
classical sonata construction. The diatonic cluster d1-a1
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  accompanies the linear theme with a
special rhythmic pattern (See Example 10). Part I refers to the classical
sonata-form, Part II is simply an ABA' scheme (a ternary form), and Part III
develops gradually. The permanent expansion of dynamics, of structural density,
the growing level of textural complication and speed, finally culminate in a
spacious cluster of tutti. This is also the climax of the whole Sonata. At the
ending coda the diatonic cluster and the main motif return again (See Example
10).

Though the Sonata is
a rather long piece (ca. 25 minutes), thanks to its symmetrical form the
listener has the impression of a very coherent, monolithic work. The
contemplative character of the slow parts alternates with the dramatic dynamism
of fast, figurative or chordal sequences. In these ways, the Organ
Sonata of Glinkowski demonstrates the
vitality and attractiveness of sonata principles even for contemporary
composers.

Finally, the notation of the Sonata
style='font-style:normal'> is partly traditional and partly modern. The
pitch--except some clusters--is strictly definite, as are the dynamics. The
duration of individual musical elements is approximate, however. The composer
used some rhythmic patterns, but also the proportional graphic intervals of
space/time and simple indications of duration. Glinkowski did not belong to that
group of composers who precisely specify the registration of their organ
compositions. On the contrary, he left a fairly large sphere of interpretation
up to the organist. He only indicated registration in a few places of the Sonata (e.g. in the slow episode of Part II, as mentioned above). The free choice of registration should be, however, considered together with tempo, dynamics, structural density and, last but not least, with the kind of organ and its disposition. Obviously, the aleatoric and cluster techniques and the notation result in a quasi-improvisatory piece, so any concert organist may create his own interpretation of the Sonata.