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  Viaticum

Robert Bates - organ, Alan Wiemann - narrator

LRCD1005-7

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The narration to Viaticum is not intended to serve as program notes in the traditional sense. The following remarks may therefore be of interest.   

The three short movements that comprise the piece Trivium serve as preludes to the three journeys. It is not until Viaticum draws to a close that this three-movement composition, by Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt, is heard as a unit. “Trivium” is the Roman term for a common ground, where three roads intersect. 

Pärt’s Annum per annum is a musical representation of the Roman Catholic Mass, which “year after year” is celebrated throughout the world. The work contains an introduction and coda, each of which contains a single repeating sonority. Between these sections, Pärt placed five variations. Each variation is preceded by a letter-K, G, C, S and A-indicating the five parts of the ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. In Viaticum, an emphasis is placed on the mathematical and neo-Pythagorean characteristics of the work, with its many fifths, fourths and octaves. But a surprising connection between the Roman Mass and Pythagoras is also worth mentioning here. Pythagoras believed that we have an innate understanding of mathematics because we recall knowledge gained in previous lives through the transmigration of souls. At the central moment of Roman Catholic Mass, a not unrelated transference occurs during the transubstantiation, when bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. 

Orpheus and the Winged Creatures was written especially for the Viaticum series and is recorded here for the first time. The premiere of the work took place on the Paul Fritts Organ at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, on March 6, 1999. The piece depicts the flight of birds and mythological creatures controlled by Orpheus at his lyre. The organ outlines the flight paths while a synthesized harp sounds the notes of the lyre. The synthesized harp sounds were produced on a Roland JV-880 synthesizer run with Opcode sequencing software on a Power Macintosh G3 computer. You are invited to follow along in the booklet entitled “Audience Scores.”

Les feux du silence is the second of four movements called Hyperion or The Rhetoric of Fire, published by Wayne Leupold Editions in 1997. Jean Guillou, organist of St. Eustache Church in Paris, preceded the score for this brilliant improvisation with the following words: “Latent fire, insinuating. ‘This heart is like a covered fire.’-P.J. Toulet.” 

After the destruction of World War II, many western composers hoped to create a new and better music based on atomic principles. Although Hungarian composer György Ligeti does not belong to any particular twentieth-century school, his Ricercare of 1953 fits well into this musical development. The work contains two orderings of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale (twelve “atoms”), which are used as subject and counter-subject (the counter-subject is simply a descending chromatic scale). The name of the piece refers to a genre of serious imitative keyboard composition used by Renaissance and early Baroque composers, especially Girolamo Frescobaldi. The early composers of the Ricercare and the twentieth-century composers of twelve-tone serial music employed some of the same musical devices, including augmentation, diminution, inversion and fragmentation. Ligeti cleverly links the early and later styles and techniques to form his twentieth-century synthesis. 

Jehan Alain, whose life was cut short in 1940 during action in World War II, described Le jardin suspendu in this way: “The suspended garden is the ideal perpetually pursued by, but always escaping from, the artist. It is a refuge, at once inaccessible and indestructible.” 

Birthday Tribute was premiered at Southern Methodist University on Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday, March 21, 1994. It is based on the motive B-A-C-H (equivalent in English musical terminology to B-flat, A, C, B-natural), which is repeated hundreds of times in prime, inversion, retrograde and retrograde-inversion forms, as well as in countless combinations of these. The composition carries us on an ascent leading to the mystical Bach, the Platonic Idea of artistic perfection. The work is based on visual images (visual networks) that determine the orderings and combinations of the BACH motive in the composition. The images function purely as a compositional device, however, and are not intended as graphics for the audience to follow (as is the case with three other pieces in the Viaticum series). A Roland JV-880 synthesizer, run from Opcode sequencing software on a Power Macintosh G3 computer, produced the pitched percussive sounds.

Coulée, written by Ligeti in 1969, is the second of two etudes for organ. Concerning tempo, the instructions in the score state: “This Etude must be played extremely fast, so that the individual tones are hardly perceptible as such; the motion almost blends into a continuum.... The listener must be able to hear that what is happening is not a sustained chord but rather an internal motion (even if it is insanely fast).” Ligeti avoids the traditional uses of rhythm, melody, counterpoint and harmony, while substituting a new sense of internal wave motion, which from time to time gives us the impression that higher levels of organization have been attained. The sense that crescendos and diminuendos have taken place is also not achieved through unusual means (not, as usual, by varying the number of sounding stops or by moving the swell box open or shut). Instead, Ligeti achieves the effect by varying the number of pitches used in his lightening-fast figurations. 

Jeanne Demessieux astonished the musical world as a child prodigy when she won the highest recognition at the Conservatory in Montpellier and then became organist at the church of St. Esprit in Paris at the age of twelve. Perhaps it was her extraordinary gifts as a virtuoso performer-and also her ability to write and flawlessly execute works of extraordinary difficulty (like her Six Etudes of 1946)-that led most organists to shun her complex and demanding works. Nevertheless, Lumière (the last of seven meditations for Pentecost) shows her to be a composer of great inspiration, innovation and craft. 

Coalescence is recorded here for the first time. The work is performed while another layer of pre-recorded music is played over loud speakers. The pre-recorded tracks underwent subtle

digital modifications (equalization, panning, volume, etc.) using a Power Macintosh G3 computer. In addition to these two layers of live and pre-recorded organ, a synthesized organ flute is heard at the beginning and end of the work. The flute was tuned to the same temperament and pitch as the Fisk Organ used in the performance. A Roland JV-880 synthesizer with an added PCM1-06 “Baroque” card produced the flute sounds. 

Gavotte Primitive, written in 1994 and revised in 1999 especially for the Viaticum series, is recorded here for the first time. The pitched percussive sounds, such as marimba and wood drums, were produced on a Roland JV-880 synthesizer tuned to the same temperament used on the Fisk Organ. The synthesizer was run using Opcode sequencing software on a Power Macintosh G3 computer. Like Birthday Tribute and Last Judgment, the work is based on visual images not intended as audience graphics. 

In Les oiseaux et les sources from Messe de la Pentecôte of 1950, Messiaen imitates the sounds of nightingale, cuckoo and blackbird in a miniature of great beauty. In the middle of the piece he adds staccato “drops of water,” which are heard against the birds in two-part counterpoint. This incomparable mood piece concludes at the extreme ranges of the organ: 32' pedal against a 1' piccolo.

Ikarus is a transcription of an improvisation by Jean Guillou, originally recorded along with other improvisations and released by Philips under the title “Visions cosmiques.” The work is based on the mythical flight of Ikarus as told in the narration. 

Time Machine was originally written in 1989 for two organists at one organ: David Yearsley of Cornell University and Robert Bates of Stanford University. The first and only performance of that version of the work was on the four-manual Fisk organ in Stanford’s Memorial Church. Almost ten years later, the work was revised for one organist performing while a pre-recorded part is played over loud speakers (the same technique was used in Coalescence). The recorded layer underwent some digital modifications using a Power Macintosh G3 computer and Opcode software before being played back over the speakers. 

Robert Bates studied Harmonies (from Zwei Etüden für Orgel) with György Ligeti in preparation for a concert given by Kimberly Marshall on the Fisk Organ of Stanford’s Memorial Church. To achieve the “de-natured” effects heard in the recording, Ligeti insisted that the wind pressure be greatly reduced by opening panels on the side of the organ to allow air to escape before reaching the pipes. During the performance, two assistants gently move stop knobs in and out, which further vary the amount of wind reaching the pipes. This creates a gradual change in volume and pitch throughout the piece. Until the end, all ten fingers are held down on the keyboard. But because the organ is so thoroughly “de-natured,” the notes played by the performer have little to do with the pitches actually heard on the recording! 

“Danse funèbre” is the second movement of Alain’s most elaborate composition, Trois Danses. The trilogy embraces three stages of human existence: joy, mourning and struggle. When played as a group, the title of the second movement is “Deuils” (“Mourning”). But Alain suggested that the title of the second movement be changed to “Funeral Dance” when played as a separate work. The piece is dedicated to his sister, Odile, who died in a mountain accident. It bears the inscription, “Funeral Dance in honor of an heroic memory.” 

Charon's Oar and Hades’ Realm are recorded here for the first time. Their first performances took place at the premiere of “Life after Life” at the Redlands Organ Festival in southern California on January 20, 1998. During the performance, you are encouraged to follow along in the booklet entitled, “Audience Scores.” The vertical positions of the dots indicate the exact pitches of the notes. Each piece, however, is limited to a scale of only six pitches: C, Db, E, F, G# and A in Charon's Oar, and C, Db, E, F#, G and Bb in Hades’ Realm. The horizontal position of each dot indicates exactly when it is played. Visual lines connect the dots into individual melodies or voices. Like a traditional score, what one sees is an exact indication of what is performed. But you will probably find that you can follow along even if you are not a musician. 

Last Judgment is recorded here for the first time. Its first performance was at Southern Methodist University on March 21, 1994. The piece was revised in 1995. The pitched percussive sounds (such as marimba, harpsichord, harp and wood drums) were produced on a Roland JV-880 synthesizer, tuned to the same temperament and pitch used on the Fisk Organ. The synthesizer was run using Opcode sequencing software on a Power Macintosh G3 computer. Like Birthday Tribute and Gavotte Primitive, the work is based on visual images (visual networks) that helped to determine the notes heard in the composition. But the images function purely as a compositional device and are not intended as graphics for the audience to follow (as is the case in three other Viaticum compositions). 

Cherry Rhodes performed the premier of Ascent at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in New York City in 1996. The composer, Joan Tower, explained to Robert Bates how surprised she was when she first heard her music played on the organ (this is her first composition for the instrument). Yet the work-with its many spiraling, upwardly twisting octatonic scales, its long pedal points and contrasting virtuosic pedal writing, its terraced dynamics, its sustained dissonant chords, and its moments of building tension-seems so completely natural on the instrument! Robert Bates is grateful to both Joan Tower and Cherry Rhodes for their permission to record this work, which so perfectly matches the moment in Viaticum when the soul makes its ascent to the heavens. 

“In Paradisum,” from Three Pieces for Organ, was written at the request of publisher Wayne Leupold. Each of the three pieces in the set is inspired by the style of another composer, with “In Paradisum” influenced by the young Olivier Messiaen. Registrations also equal Messiaen's colorful palette: note the haunting 32', 16, and 2' combination played in the pedals. Calvin Hampton was widely recognized as a gifted performer and composer of organ music. Before his early death in 1984, he became famous for his Friday Midnight concerts at Calvary Church in New York City.

 

 

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