Mendelssohn
(1809-1847)
Mendelssohn’s
Six Sonatas for organ mark the first significant compositional efforts
from a major German composer since the death of Bach. Widely traveled and
highly educated, Mendelssohn’s life spanned the end of one era and the
dawning of another: his music has a unique combination of Classical
elegance and clarity of form combined with hints of the heightened emotion
of Romantic music. These six sonatas for organ were the result of a
commission by the Coventry & Hollier publishing firm in England, where
Mendelssohn was particularly well known from numerous concert tours as a
conductor, pianist and organist. The fourth sonata pays particular homage
to Bach, with the highly developed contrapuntal style of the first and
last movements.
Reger
(1873-1916)
Max
Reger is considered by many as the most important German composer for
organ since Bach. A tireless worker, he certainly was the most prolific.
Reger’s music suffers from the misconception that it is overly
chromatic, structurally unwieldy and excessively lengthy. Though this
music certainly can be chromatically complex, it is firmly rooted in the
traditions of functional harmony as a structural basis. His early studies
of the works of Bach resulted in a profound appreciation and mastery of
the art of counterpoint. And although virtuoso organists may revel in the
difficulties and at times almost overwhelming sonorites found in the great
chorale fantasias of Reger, the bulk of his works for organ consist of
smaller works, including over 100 chorale settings and eighty-three
character pieces. Composed in 1901, the twelve pieces that comprise
Reger’s Opus 59 are his first character pieces for the organ, and
contain several of his best-known works. The Melodia and Benedictus, with
their long, soaring melodic lines, benefit in particular from the
Hutchings-Votey organ’s rich flutes, wide dynamic range and the elegant
acoustics of St. James Cathedral.
Karg-Elert
(1877-1933)
Born
in 1877, Karg-Elert spent his childhood years in Leipzig. His father’s
death in 1889 left the family in severe financial straits, and made formal
music study difficult for the gifted boy. He received his first formal
instruction as a member of the choir of the Johanneskirche in Leipzig.
After several years of studies towards becoming a schoolteacher, a
scholarship enabled him to enter the Leipzig Conservatory, where his most
important teachers included Karl Reinecke and the virtuoso pianist Eduard
Reisenauer. He received early encouragement in his efforts towards
composition from Edvard Grieg, whose recommendations led the way to a
long-term contract with Novello. The security of this arrangement allowed
Karg-Elert to compose freely and prolifically throughout the remainder of
his life. Though he wrote for virtually every medium, some of his organ
works have had the most durable reputation and have kept his name known
throughout the past century.
Homage
to Handel was written as a gesture of thanks for the election of
Karg-Elert as an honorary member of the British Royal College of Organists
in 1914. The ground bass, which forms the starting point of this inventive
composition, is from the Pasacaille of Handel’s Suite No. 7 in G Minor.
Karg-Elert wrote in the foreword to this work: “The memory of the great
master, Handel, whom both England and Germany claim as their own, has been
invoked as a symbol of the close ties which bind English and German
music.” Although some variations are directly inspired by Handel’s
writing, most are the product of Karg-Elert's prodigious capacity for
invention. Even more striking is his interest in unorthodox registrations
and quick changes of tone-color. Containing over fifty separate
combinations of stops, the work exceeded the registrational capabilities
of most organs of the early 20th century; it remained virtually unplayable
until the advent of solid-state combination actions.
Gade
(1817-1890)
Niels
Gade must be counted as Denmark’s most important 19th-century musician.
Though no child prodigy, he received his first recognition as a composer
in 1840 when his overture Echoes from Ossian won a composition sponsored
by the Copenhagen Musical Union. More important for Gade was the interest
it captured in Felix Mendelssohn, who performed it with his Gewandhaus
Orchestra in Leipzig. A stipend from the Danish government and King
Christian VIII enabled Gade to continue his studies in Leipzig, where he
became a student, friend and later successor to Mendelssohn as conductor
of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. War between Prussia and Denmark in 1848
prompted Gade’s returned to Copenhagen, where he remained for the rest
of his life. He took a central role in Denmark’s musical development in
a variety of roles and professional posts, including as organist,
conductor, and co-founder and director of the Copenhagen Royal
Conservatory of Music. The Three Tone Pieces date from 1851, a period in
which Gade served as organist at Copenhagen’s Garnisons Church.
Dedicated to his father-in-law, the important Danish musician J. P. E.
Hartmann, they display a noticeable stylistic debt to Mendelssohn,
reminiscent not only of Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas but also the Songs
without Words.
Liszt
(1811-1886)
Written
in 1855 for the inauguration of the new organ at the Merseberg cathedral,
the Präludium and Fugue on B-A-C-H has long held a place as one of the
most popular works written for organ in the 19th century. The work
received extensive revisions, and was completed in its final form only in
1870. The composition takes as its motto the notes corresponding to the
letters of Bach's name (B-flat, A, C, and B-natural, denoted by Germans as
the letter “H”). The work runs the gamut of emotions and textures,
from an exuberant introduction, a somber fugue, riotous passages of
scales, arpeggios and octaves, and a brief moment of serenity before the
final outburst on full organ.