This
recording was inspired by the desire to trace the works of female
composers within the vast repertoire of the organ. The earliest documented
organist in history was a woman named Thais, the wife of the Greek
engineer Ctesibios who is credited with inventing the hydraulis. Isolated
accounts of female organists exist from Antiquity and the Middle Ages; by
the 17th century reports praise both the performances and compositions of
these women. Some female organists lived in monastic communities, such as
Maria Cattarina Calegari, who is reported to have rendered “all tongues
tired in celebrating her outstanding qualities, acclaimed as a heavenly
singer, a composer of angelic harmonies, and in organ playing a divine
Euterpe.” Euterpe was one of the nine Muses; originally considered to be
the patron of flute playing, her jurisdiction was later extended to
encompass the organ. This colorful reference to a female organist/composer
is an appropriate title to this recording, which presents for the first
time the creations of several divine Euterpes.
Unfortunately,
none of Calegari’s compositions have survived. Most likely she
improvised at the organ, following a long line of female organists who
created music through performance. As early as 1320, a payment in the
Burgundian account books was made to “Joan, who plays the organ.”
Although this reference predates the
earliest
surviving keyboard music by at least thirty years, the later prevalence of
polyphonic writing for the organ implies that female organists were
creating polyphony during the 14th and 15th centuries.
In
this spirit, I have made an intabulation, or instrumental arrangement, of
the famous Agincourt Carole that legend attributes to the soldiers of
Henry V after their phenomenal victory over the French on the field of
Agincourt in 1415. The organ’s sustaining power makes it ideal for
rendering this song, although in the intabulation I have reduced to two
the number of verses telling the story of the battle. The two-part verses
are framed by the refrain, or burden, in a fuller texture. The style of
the second verse is loosely modeled on the music of the Faenza Codex, a
manuscript of polyphonic Italian instrumental music from the early 15th
century. Although we do not know exactly how late-medieval organs sounded,
I have based my registrations on surviving French and Burgundian evidence
for large Blockwerks, low bass pipes, and the presence of reeds.
The
next sets of pieces are taken from a notebook of keyboard music that
belonged to Suzanne van Soldt, the adolescent daughter of a wealthy
merchant from the Netherlands. The title page is signed by Suzanne and
dated 1599. Although all of the pieces are anonymous and most were
probably intended for performance on a stringed keyboard instrument such
as the virginals or clavichord, I have included some excerpts to
demonstrate the type of music that women were playing at the close of the
16th century. Psalm 23 is a setting that may have been used to accompany
singing in the home, reminding us of the important roles women have played
in domestic music making. The rather pedantic scale passages in the
Preludium may have provided formulae which could be varied and transposed
to help Suzanne create an extemporised Prelude in any key. In her
notebook, it serves to introduce a lovely dance tune, the Untitled Piece,
which features the charming Rossignol (nightingale stop) of the Rosales
organ. The notebook concludes with another dance, the Pavane Prymera,
which includes sections in both duple and triple meter.
About
100 years after Suzanne signed her music book, an anonymous French
composer was writing a collection of organ verses to be used in
alternation with the sung verses of Gregorian hymns. These pieces are now
preserved in an anonymous manuscript in the Music Library of the
University California at Berkeley. One set of four verses is based on the
hymn Veni Creator Spiritus; each verse features the chant tune within a
standardized texture of the classical French repertoire. The opening verse
is a Plein jeu, where the full sound of the principal chorus unfolds in
chords over the Veni Creator Spiritus melody in sustained notes in the
lowest voice; the following Trio provides a light counterfoil; the Récit
de Mouvement utilizes the expressive Cornet décomposé for the elaborate
melody; and the work closes in typical French fashion with a Dialogue sur
les Grands jeux, where the massive reed choruses of the Grand Orgue and
Positif alternate with one another. The relatively high pitch upon which
these verses are based suggest that they were conceived for women's
voices, and they are included here to illustrate the type of music a
French nun might have composed for liturgical use in her convent.
The
versatility of the Rosales organ is fully displayed in Elfrida Andrée's
Organ Symphony in b-minor. Organ music during the 19th century was greatly
affected by the increased popularity of the pianoforte and the symphony
orchestra, whose instruments were capable of sudden dynamic changes. In
order to imitate the expressivity of these musical competitors, the organ
was equipped with orchestral sounds such as the oboe and strings,
increased wind power, and pipe divisions enclosed by a case with louvers
that could be opened and closed by the organist from the console. All of
these new features are exploited in the Symphony to achieve violent
contrasts of dynamics and timbre. The music clearly reflects the drive and
determination of its pioneering creator, Elfrida Andrée. She fought
vigilantly against the sexism that barred women from professional work as
composers and organists. While
waiting for employment appropriate to her musical expertise, she trained
to become Sweden's first female telegraphist in 1865. With her appointment
as organist at the Cathedral in Göteborg in 1867, she became the first
woman in Sweden to hold a major church position.
American
music came into its own in the 20th century with the jazz explosion, which
fostered the development of rich new harmonies, intricately decorated
melodies, and snappily syncopated rhythms.
Although the organ was not typically used for jazz, its influence
may be heard in Florence Price's Suite for organ. An African-American
woman, Price was forced to flee her native Little Rock, Arkansas, because
of racial tensions. She relocated in Chicago, where she enjoyed relative
success as a composer, to the point of securing a performance of her
E-minor Symphony by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her Organ Suite opens
with an improvisatory Fantasy, where scale flourishes punctuate dense
harmonic passages. The Fughetta shows Price's contrapuntal skill in
setting a coy subject in compound meter over weaving chromatic lines.
Chromaticism is also exploited in the following Air, a movement of wistful
nostalgia that is reminiscent of Vierne. The Suite closes with a Toccato
(sic) on a traditional American melody. I am indebted to the University of
Arkansas for a photocopy of the autograph score of the piece.
Ethel
Smyth was a British composer whose work was highly respected by such
diverse composers as Clara Schumann, Edvard Grieg, Johannes Brahms, and
Antonin Dvorák. In 1885 she began organ lessons with Sir Walter Parrat,
to whom she later dedicated a set of five Choral Preludes. The last of the
set is based upon “O Trauerigkeit, O Herzeleid” a Passion chorale
known in English as “O Sacred Head now Wounded.” The Prelude is
through-composed with an expressively ornamented soprano line. The Fugue
treats each phrase of the chorale in imitation between the four voices,
building to an impressive climax from which it gradually fades into a
conclusion of gentle piety.
For
centuries, Christian women have used music to elaborate church liturgy.
Margaret Sandresky's L'homme armé Organ Mass is a musical setting
of the Mass Ordinary based on a popular medieval tune known as l'homme armé.
The Introit is in the style of a French overture, with the melody
ornamented in the soprano. The
penitent Kyrie presents the theme in the pedal, sustained by a flute stop.
The Gloria is a passionate outburst of praise to God, with rapid trills
suggesting the fluttering of angels' wings. The tenets of the Creed are
musically rendered in the Credo: a solemn opening on the 8-foot Principal
leads to a descending melody on a 4-foot flute which represents the Holy
Spirit's descent to earth to dwell in human form; a mystical section on
the Vox Humana ends in dissonance to depict the Crucifixion; the
Resurrection and life everlasting are portrayed by a dramatic statement of
“l'homme armé” and chromatically ascending chords over a pedal
ostinato. The Sanctus
superimposes a bright, flowing melody over an augmented statement of the
theme in the pedals. The work closes with a meditative Agnus Dei, where
chords on soft reeds accompany the soaring melody. Margaret Sandresky is
Professor Emerita of Music at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. She has revised the work for publication since this recording
was made. (The Organ Mass is published in Volume 1 of Sandresky’s Organ
Music, ed. Virginia Haisten; Wayne Leupold Editions WL 600031.)
This
recording ends with the only extant organ work by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel,
a divine Euterpe of the nineteenth century. In her Prelude for Organ, full
chords of up to nine parts alternate with passages in a more conservative,
imitative four-part texture. Apparently this piece was written for her own
wedding in 1829, when a request for a processional by her brother Felix
did not materialize in time for the event.
-Kimberly
Marshall
