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.