Issue 30 - Maundy Thursday & Good Friday

Since this Friday, March 21st, happens to be the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, I couldn't let Maundy Thursday and Good Friday go without playing Bach. The prelude for Maundy Thursday is Bach's "Lamb of God, Most Holy". I wrote about it last year in [Bookends]; you may read about it here: http://bookends-sjlc.blogspot.com/2007/03/palm-sunday-and-maundy-thursday.html.

For Good Friday, I thought it fitting to play Bach's monumental Passacaglia in C Minor. A passacaglia (from the Spanish passa-calle, as in 'walking on the street') refers to a series of variations in triple meter, set over an ostinato (repeated) bass. Over the years, scholars have desperately tried to assign a definitive meaning to the progression of the variations in this towering work - the most Romantic assertion being that the tonal architecture of the Passacaglia mirrors a Christian cross. And while such claims are nearly impossible to validate without Bach's own testimony, we do know that Bach was a deeply spiritual person whose music is riddled with hidden numerical construction pointing to his favorite numbers, musical spellings of names, and other cryptic, Christian symbolism - so much so that Swedish theologian Nathan Söderblom deemed Bach "the fifth evangelist".

The Passacaglia in C Minor opens with a single statement of the theme in the pedal upon which builds the first variation in the manuals - the harmony suspends on over the bass and resolves after the first beat, creating a sighing effect which the great Bach biographer Philipp Spitta described as the affekt of "painful longing." After 10 variations over the pedal, the theme migrates to the manuals and stays there for 5 variations before returning to the pedal. These final 5 variations gradually increase in texture to reaching its pinnacle in the a grand C-minor chord which concludes the passacaglia. (The 21st variation is a lengthy fugue on the theme, but since the passacaglia alone is over 8 minutes, the fugue will be omitted on Friday).

There is indeed a sort of solemn and resolute progression to the Passsacaglia in C Minor which makes it a perfect fit for prayerful preparation to the Good Friday service. While we have no indication that the piece was intended for such an occasion, we do have glimpse into the intent in Bach's compositions from his existing manuscripts on which he wrote Soli Deo Gloria (to the Glory of God alone).

(Image: manuscript copy of the Passacaglia in C Minor by J. S. Bach)

Issue 29 - Ralph Vaughan-Williams

It seems like a shame to go through Lent without playing Rhosymedre (My Song is Love Unknown) by Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958). Since I played all-Brahms for last year's Lent, I couldn't let this Lent go by without playing it as a prelude. It's one of the more recognized pieces in the repertoire and people seem to really love hearing it. It's specifically appropriate to play during this Lent because we've been singing the hymn Rhosymedre immediately following the sermon every week. In the prelude by Vaughan-Williams, the hymn melody is first presented in the left hand, accompanied by a moving bass line and a treble obligato of sixths. The melody then moves to the soprano voice, with the churning sixths still accompanying in the inner voices until it finally descends back to the tenor voice as a coda to close the piece.

More fantastic in character is Vaughan-Williams' setting of Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor, the postlude for this Sunday. The opening and closing sections are improvisatory and surround an inner, imitative setting of the tune. Both the prelude and postlude are taken from Vaughan-Williams' Three Preludes on Welsh Hymntunes, published in 1920.

Born in Gloucestershire, Vaughan-Williams studied at the Royal College of Music under monumental English composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford and Hubert Parry. However, he also traveled abroad and studied composition with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. Vaughan-Williams didn't come back from abroad to merely live in England - he ended up writing music that actually embodies the English countryside and song. Through his travels of England, he was responsible for preserving much of the folk songs of his native land by notating carols and songs that might have otherwise become extinct. He also composed several hymns, the most beloved in our congregation probably being "For All the Saints".

An interesting piece of trivia I learned today: Charles Darwin was Ralph Vaughan-Williams' great uncle!

(Image: Ralph Vaughan-Williams, age 4)

Issue 28 - Bridge and Bach

For Lent II, the prelude will be Frank Bridge's "Adagio in E Major" for organ. This is one of those pieces that I've wanted to play for a long time and am glad it's now officially in my repertoire. Frank Bridge (1879-1941) was an English musician and composer, chiefly employed as a violin and viola player in many of London's symphonies and string quartets. However, he did write a handful of music for the organ - most of which I've never heard. This Adagio is well loved and often played by organists, so one might surmise that it's one of his better compositions for organ. While its melody leans toward schmaltzy (I hate to admit), it still has a very poignant and "typical" English, Romantic organ style to it. Opening on the softest of stops, Bridge plays with the melody in every voice with different accompanying figures, all the while dictating a crescendo until the melody's culmination. The denouement that follows brings the organ back to its quieter resources and Bridge ends the piece as it opened: with a simple statement of the melody.

The Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543 is among the many of Bach's famous organ works. The fugue is really quite long (but wonderful), so I'll only play the prelude to close the service. The prelude shows a solid relationship to the North-German heritage of praeludia: the opening right hand solo which eventually gives way to a toccata, the dominant pedal tone underneath the fantastic figuration in the hands and, finally, the use of stile brisé (outlining chords by breaking them up in a falling, improvisatory fashion). It's easy to imagine the young Bach improvising a postlude like this on any given Sunday at one of his posts. The opening, impromptu figurations eventually give way to a more structured repartee between the manual (keyboard) and pedal based upon the opening toccata figure. The conversation gradually escalates until its summit is reached.

(Image: Frank Bridge)

Issue 27 - Mendelssohn's Sixth Sonata, Op. 65

I'm particularly excited about the prelude and postlude music for Lent this year. Some of it is music I've played and loved for a long time - others are pieces that I've been yearning to play and finally am getting a chance to learn. For Lent I, I'll be playing the first movement (which is actually a chorale and four variations) from Mendelssohn's Sixth Sonata for Organ, Opus 65. (For some history on Mendelssohn's role in the revival of organ music in the Nineteenth Century, see Bookends Issue 8.)

Initially commissioned as Voluntaries (a shorter composition in a Classical style), Mendelssohn revised these compositions into the eventual "Six Sonatas, Opus 65" published in 1845. There's nothing consistent about these Sonatas - they range in length from eight to fifteen minutes and have anywhere from two to four movements. William Little writes in his forward to the Organ Sonatas, published by Novello, "In musical terms the Six Sonatas are neither sacred nor secular, if one could ever reasonably argue such a distinction. More to the point, however, Opus 65 is Mendelssohn's final statement for the organ, and in it he sums up all that which had gone before and simultaneously formulates a whole new genre for the nineteenth century and thereafter."

The Sixth Sonata is particularly true of the above statement. It opens with the chorale "Vater unser im Himmelreich" which is a sung version of the Lord's Prayer (ELW 746). The first three variations on the chorale will be played as the prelude and the final variation (a fiery toccata) will close the service. The second movement is a fugue and the third movement closes the sonata with tranquil and sweet Andante (a striking departure from the Classical sonata of the previous era which typically had the movements Allegro - Andante - Rondo). In this sonata, we see Mendelssohn's respect and admiration for the past (most importantly the works of J. S. Bach) by electing to base the work on a sacred Lutheran chorale as well as including a Fugue (which reached its compositional height during Bach's era) as an entire movement within the Sonata. Yet he moves the organ repertoire forward into Nineteenth Century Romanticism through his compositional style and harmonic language as well as his subtle, Romantic sensibility.

(Image: Felix Mendelssohn)