The second volume of organ works by Seth Bingham has been recorded by Christopher Marks. Produced on the Raven label, the CD was released on February 20 in New York City at a concert given by Marks at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Bingham was organist 1913–1951.
Organ Music of Seth Bingham, Vol. 2: Memories of France is available from www.RavenCD.com for $14.98, with free delivery worldwide, and also from the Organ Historical Society. Volume 1, Unto the Hills, released in 2008, remains available from all sources.
At least three CD volumes are anticipated in an integral set of Bingham’s organ works recorded by Marks and released on the Raven label.
Marks lectured on Seth Bingham’s life and works at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on February 20, and delivered a further presentation on Bingham on February 21 at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church as part of the annual Presidents Day Conference of the New York City AGO chapter.
Among several works recorded for the first time, Volume 2 includes Memories of France, op. 16, an early and little-known suite, after which the new CD is named. The work appears to have been conceived circa 1920 for piano duet as well as for orchestra. Two of its four pieces were published separately as organ compositions in 1936 and 1943. A third movement of the suite as set for organ was found by Marks in the New York Public Library’s Performing Arts Research Collection, and the three are reunited as a suite in the new recording.
A five-movement suite, Harmonies of Florence, op. 27, is recorded in its entirety for the first time. Another early work, Sailing over Jordan, is a setting of the African-American spiritual. Marks gathered three independent works, Annunciation, Nativity Song, and At the Cradle of Jesus, into a seasonal grouping. Two other works, Hymn Fantasy on Riverton and Ut Queant Laxis, op. 61, dedicated to Frederick Swann, complete the program.
Marks recorded these works, and those of the first volume, on the four-manual, 110-rank Schoenstein organ at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. The organ reflects tonal capabilities similar to those prevalent at the time of Bingham’s compositions and as had been incorporated into the 1923 Casavant organ Bingham designed for his church.
Christopher Marks became assistant professor of organ at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 2006, having served in a similar post at Syracuse University since 1999. He is an elected member of the National Council of the Organ Historical Society and is director of the Lincoln Organ Showcase.
For information: 804/355-6386;
www.ravencd.com.
