Clocks & Cathedrals
Wednesday at the Organ - Online
Wednesday 20th May 2020
Starts: when you are ready
Note: latecomers will be admitted at your personal discretion
Artistes: various
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Our programme is based on a concert given at Leeds Town Hall by City Organist Darius Battiwalla in October 2019. His title:
Clocks & Cathedrals
Clocks & Cathedrals
Programme
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Fantasia & Toccata Op 57 (1894, revised 1917)
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Flötenuhr-Stücke Hob XIX Pieces for Musical Clock
various
Sigfrid Karg-Elert or Sigfrid Theodor Karg (1877-1933)
from the suite Cathedral Windows Op 106 (1923)
2 Ave Maria
6 Lauda Sion
arrangements by Philip Wilby (born Pontefract 1949)
The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Over
Handels' Hallelujah Chorus, from Messiah
Herbert Norman Howells (1892-1983)
Psalm-Prelude Set 1, No 1 (1916)
Psalm 34 V6: The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
from 24 Pièces de Fantaisie Op 54 (1927)
Carillon de Westminster
from 24 Pièces en Style Libre Op 31 (1913-1914)
Carillon de Longpont, Livre II, No 9
Our opening work is performed by Bastian Fuchs on the
4-manual Klais organ in Ingolstadt Minster. It cost 1 million DMarks in 1977. The instrument includes a zinc 32-foot Kontrabombarde among its 70 stops, and it has 5436 pipes in total. The Minster (see left ◄) is also known as Münster Zur Schönen Unserer Lieben Frau or Liebfrauenmünster. (Notre-Dame, or Our Beautiful Lady.) Bastian Fuchs was 18 at the time of this 2012 recording. Now aged 26 he is Asst Choirmaster at Eichstätt Cathedral, Germany. |
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Fantasia & Toccata Op 57 (1894, revised 1917) |
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Flötenuhr-Stücke Hob XIX Pieces for Musical Clock
various
We have a choice of 32 of these little pieces Haydn produced for mechanical clocks.
The first recording is played on the Le Picard choir organ in Groningen's Martinikerk (St Martin's). The organist is Pieter Pilon, Chief Organist of the Protestant Church in Farmsum, Delfzijl, near Groningen, North-East Netherlands.
The next recording (one of the pieces already heard) shows why they are called 'flute-clocks' in German.
Although there are no historical notes on the clock shown, the flute pipes are clearly visible.
Gerard van Reenen plays an 1899 Eertman organ in the church at Adorp, about 6km from Groningen.
The third recording was also made by Gerard van Reenen, this time on the 1841 Lohman organ in the church at Onderdendam, another village close to Groningen.
Flötenuhr-Stücke Hob XIX Pieces for Musical Clock
various
We have a choice of 32 of these little pieces Haydn produced for mechanical clocks.
The first recording is played on the Le Picard choir organ in Groningen's Martinikerk (St Martin's). The organist is Pieter Pilon, Chief Organist of the Protestant Church in Farmsum, Delfzijl, near Groningen, North-East Netherlands.
The next recording (one of the pieces already heard) shows why they are called 'flute-clocks' in German.
Although there are no historical notes on the clock shown, the flute pipes are clearly visible.
Gerard van Reenen plays an 1899 Eertman organ in the church at Adorp, about 6km from Groningen.
The third recording was also made by Gerard van Reenen, this time on the 1841 Lohman organ in the church at Onderdendam, another village close to Groningen.
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Sigfrid Karg-Elert or Sigfrid Theodor Karg (1877-1933)
from the suite Cathedral Windows Op 106 (1923)
2 Ave Maria
6 Lauda Sion
Before each piece in the suite you will hear the plainsong theme on which it is based. If you hear a second section of plainsong it will be followed by the next piece in the suite. If you wish to go straight on to the Lauda Sion, stop the playback and click on the second video:
from the suite Cathedral Windows Op 106 (1923)
2 Ave Maria
6 Lauda Sion
Before each piece in the suite you will hear the plainsong theme on which it is based. If you hear a second section of plainsong it will be followed by the next piece in the suite. If you wish to go straight on to the Lauda Sion, stop the playback and click on the second video:
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arrangements by Philip Wilby (born Pontefract 1949)
The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Over
Handels' Hallelujah Chorus, from Messiah
Philip Wilby is a composer, organist and choir director who, after Leeds Grammar School and Keble College, Oxford, joined the Music Dept of Leeds University in 1972 and never left. His strong faith is reflected in many arrangements and compositions. Wilby is primarily renowned for his extensive writing for brass bands, including many pieces used for band competitions around the world.
As I failed to find good recordings of the two works Darius Battiwalla chose for his concert, I offer these two alternatives for brass band which will give you a flavour of a man whose work merits more recordings than I could find on youtube.
Below you will also find two amateur recordings of the clock in Wells Cathedral, external and internal, the inspiration for the piece Battiwalla included in his concert - Organ Hours: Contrapuntal Exercises after the Medieval Clock at Wells Cathedral.
The performers in The Day Thou Gavest are the Gereformeerde Brassband Groningen, taking part in the 2013 OMF Voorjaarsconcertconcours (spring concert competition). They are also 2019 National Champions, so expect the best! This is the finest recording of Wilby's arrangement. It is pure coincidence that it comes from a band based in Groningen. Below are two amateur recordings of the clock in Wells Cathedral, the inspiration for the piece Battiwalla included in his concert.
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In this recording of the Hallelujah Chorus we meet Philip Wilby, introducing and conducting a highly treasured brass band arrangement. On Sunday, February 26, 2017 members of the Lake Wobegon® Brass Band, Sheldon Theatre Brass Band, Minneapolis Brass, Twin Cities Brass Band and the Lakewood Temple of the Salvation Army Brass Band joined together for A Philip Wilby Hymnfest at St Andrews Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, Minnesota. It was an informal performance of pieces which featured renowned composer Philip Wilby, who was visiting from England. |
Herbert Norman Howells (1892-1983)
Psalm-Prelude Set 1, No 1 (1916)
Psalm 34 V6: The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalm-Prelude Set 1, No 1 (1916)
Psalm 34 V6: The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
This psalm prelude has a wandering melody line, centred around D minor, which sometimes becomes agitated. The piece builds to a central climax, before subsiding again and finishing, hushed, in D major.
Director of Music, Stephen Moore is playing the 2010 (completed 2013) 4-manual Nicholson organ in Llandaff Cathedral. Jacob Epstein's Majestas was added to the cathedral's post-war restoration as the architecture was felt to lack any cathedral-like feature, resembling more a large parish church. On the eve of the rehallowing of the Nave on 10th April 1957, Bob Evans, newly appointed curate of Llandaff, found himself sitting silently in the nave alongside Epstein. At last the sculptor turned to the young priest and said “Well?” “I told him what I could see” was Bob’s reply and later, with the foolishness of youth…he added “Was it difficult for you, a practising Jew, to create a Christ for a Christian congregation?” Epstein replied “All my life I have searched for truth and beauty and, in the end, I discovered that it is in the idea of the Christ that they are to be found.” RIGHT Damage after the bombing raid on Cardiff, 2 Jan 1941. Among UK cathedrals only Coventry suffered worse damage ► |
Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
There is a choice of two endings to this month's organ concert. Battiwalla went for the Carillon de Westminster, alongside which we are offering the less frequently heard, Carillon de Longpont. Of course, you could listen to both performances.
There is a choice of two endings to this month's organ concert. Battiwalla went for the Carillon de Westminster, alongside which we are offering the less frequently heard, Carillon de Longpont. Of course, you could listen to both performances.
from 24 Pièces de Fantaisie Op 54 (1927)
Carillon de Westminster Carillon de Westminster is a fantasia on the Westminster chimes, played from the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster since 1858. The chimes play four notes in the key of E major: G#, F#, E, and B, in various patterns, every fifteen minutes. The Westminster chimes are in 5 4 time, whereas Vierne's piece is in triple time. The story: Vierne's friend Henry Willis hummed the tune at the composer's request. Possibly, either Willis hummed the tune incorrectly or Vierne misheard his friend. On transcription Vierne misquoted the 2nd quarter of the chimes. Instead of jumping up a third from the tonic, dropping down a whole step, and landing on the fifth, Vierne's version moves up in whole steps to the third before moving down to the fifth. Vierne then stays on the fifth, leaps to the second, then third note of the scale and ends on the tonic. There is debate among musicologists as to whether or not this rumour is true, or if Vierne altered the melody to suit his own purpose. At some points in the piece, Vierne uses this 2nd phrase in its correct Westminster version. The recording is by Marie-Agnès Grall-Menet, playing the organ in St-Nicolas-de-Chardonnet, Paris 5e. The 1723 François Thierry instrument was originally installed in the Saints-Innocents Church where Couperin played its opening concert. It was moved to St-Nicolas by Clicquot in 1787. He enlarged it and it was finally inaugurated by Séjan, Charpentier and Balbastre in 1790. Over the centuries the organ has continued to grow, adding the fourth manual in 2009. Despite all these 'adjustments' a fair amount of the original Clicquot work remains. A distinguished graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Mme Grall-Menet won the international Schweizer prize in 1980. She is the organist of St Nicolas and a busy international concert organist. Producer: Peter Steadman
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from 24 Pièces en Style Libre Op 31 (1913-1914)
Carillon de Longpont, Livre II, No 9 Longpont is a village of fewer than 300 people in Northern France. It has a ruined fortified Cistercian abbey church in early Gothic style. French website here Longpont's Notre-Dame abbey church had a carillon of 4 bells which Vierne had heard in 1913. It was destroyed in WW2 and only two bells were saved. There is now a campaign to restore the carillon. The work is dedicated to Louis' brother René who was killed near Longpont in May 1918. In the choir gallery of the restored Church of St Bonifatius, Wiesbaden, Gabriel Dessauer plays the 1985 Mayer organ which is based on the 1954 Seiffert instrument. As the organ's pipes do not appear in the video, I've added the image above. The electronic stops - 32' Bombarde and Kontrabaß, and 16' Violon - were added in 1995. --< >-- You may also be interested in this link to photographs taken in Mayer Orgelbau's workshops. |
We hope you have enjoyed our first
Wednesday at the Organ
Concert Online
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comments welcome: musiconthursdays@gmail.com
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