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)