LEO SOWERBY
b. 1895 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
d. 1968 in Port Clinton, Ohio

Prelude on Deus tuorum militum

Sowerby stands alone as America’s foremost composer of organ and liturgical music, but this prominence tends to obscure the fact that during the 1930s and 1940s he was among our most performed symphonic composers. He served as organist and choirmaster at Chicago’s historic St. James Cathedral for thirty-five years and in 1962 was appointed director of the College of Church Musicians at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Since he lived in Hyde Park for many years, Sowerby frequently played organ recitals here in Rockefeller Chapel.

When the composer first heard the newly rebuilt Skinner organ played in New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1955, he was so impressed that he decided to compose a new work exploiting its outstanding sonic resources, especially its brilliant State Trumpet stop. And now in Rockefeller Chapel, we, too, experience this work performed on our own rebuilt Skinner organ, with its commanding Randel State Trumpet stop. Deus tuorum militum is the tune of a majestic hymn found in the Episcopalian hymnbook with the title “O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High.”

 

 

OLIVIER MESSIAEN
b. 1908 in Avignon
d. 1992 in Paris

Le Banquet Céleste

Composed in 1928 and published in 1934 as Messiaen’s first organ piece, The Celestial Banquet is a meditation on Holy Communion, the central sacrament in the Catholic faith. Messiaen suggests that the piece is to be played especially on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is dedicated to the mystery of the sacramental transformation of bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ. Thus, the “dropping” pedal notes entering halfway through the piece in bright sonic garb are to be interpreted as symbols of Christ’s blood.

This largely atmospheric work unfolds so slowly that there is no strong sense of beat, and the listener is forced to rethink the notion of time in order to hear the logic of harmony and melody without feeling tied to any mundane beat.

 

 

WILLIAM MATHIAS
b. 1934 in Whitland, Wales
d. 1992 in Menai Bridge, Wales

Antiphonies

The composer writes:

Antiphony—at least from the early Christian era—has implied a responsive manner of singing by a divided choir. Its use as the title of this piece extends the meaning to one of heightened contrast in terms both of ideas and textures.

The link with what we understand as the past is strongly pronounced in that the work is based on two archetypal musical ideas: (a) the popular medieval French chanson L’homme armé (“Beware, beware the armed man”), and (b) the plainchant Vexilla Regis (“Forth comes the standard of the King: Hail, O cross, on which the Savior died, and by death our life restored”). A greater metaphysical contrast between sacred and secular can hardly be imagined.

 

 

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

O sacrum convivium!

This exquisite a cappella jewel is Messiaen’s only sacred motet for voices. Here melody reigns, riding above lush harmony.

O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur;

recolitur memoria passionis ejus;

mens impletur gratia;

et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur, alleluia.

 

O sacred banquet, in which Christ is received,

the memorial of his passion is renewed,

the mind is filled with grace,

and a pledge of future glory is given to us, alleluia.

 

 

PETR EBEN
b. 1929 in Zamberk, Bohemia
d. 2007 in Prague

Moto ostinato from Nedelní Hudba (Sunday Music)

Although he was raised as a Catholic in Bohemia, Petr’s father was Jewish, and when the Nazis invaded his homeland in 1943, he was expelled from music school and interned for the duration of the war in Buchenwald. The many unspeakable atrocities that he witnissed influenced his music in later years. Eben also had a strong Catholic faith, which helped him survive forty years of living in communist Czechoslovakia.

Like the two French organist-composers whose work he greatly admired, Olivier Messiaen and Jehan Alain, Petr Eben gave great attention to outlining specific tonal colors in his organ works. The frequent interaction between color and rhythm produces some of the most unique and effective moments in his music. Registrations are often contrasted by the appearance of rapid manual changes, uniting color with articulation and rhythm.

The title of the complete work is translated “Sunday Music,” indicating that the music is to be performed on special occasions. Moto ostinato represents an epic struggle of man against evil. Pictured as a medieval combat, the assailants advance rank upon rank, and in the concluding violent and “stereophonic” moments, the use of repeated manual changes on full organ suggests massive volleys of arrows flying between the combatants.

 

 

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

L’Ascension

Originally composed in 1932–33 as a cycle of four meditations for orchestra, The Ascension was transcribed by the composer in 1933–34 for solo organ. In this latter version, the third orchestral movement, Alleluias on the Trumpet, Alleluias on the Cymbal, was replaced with Ecstasies of a Soul before the Glory of Christ, which Is Its Own Glory. As in the case of each movement in the overall work, the two movements heard this evening were inspired by passages from scripture.

           

 

LILI BOULANGER
b. 1893 in Paris
d. 1918 in Mézy           

Psaume 24

Lili Boulanger, proclaimed by her famous sister, Nadia, to be “the first important woman composer,” suffered from almost permanent ill health, and the awareness that she did not have long to live made her the composer she was. The audacious Psaume 24, originally scored for four-part chorus, brass, timpani, harp, and organ, has often been interpreted more as an act of defiance to her predicament than a hymn of praise to God. In the version performed this evening, the entire accompaniment has been transcribed for organ alone. 

         

La terre appartient à l’Éternel, la terre habitable et ceux qui l’habitent. et tout ce qui s’y trouve, Car il l’a fondée sur les mers, et l’a établie sur les fleuves. Qui est-ce qui montera à la montagne de l’Éternel et qui est-ce qui demeurera au lieu de sa sainteté? Ce sera l’homme qui a les mains pures et le coeur net don’t l’âme n’est point portée à la fausseté et qui ne jure point pour tromper. Il recevra la bénédiction de l’Éternel et la justice de Dieu son sauveur. Telle est la génération de ceux qui le cherchent qui chercent Ta face en Jacob.	The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.

                                            

LEO SOWERBY

Passacaglia (from Symphony in G major)

Sowerby dedicated the monumental Symphony in G major to Lynnwood Farnam, the early twentieth-century virtuoso organist who had played the dedicatory recital for the Rockefeller Chapel E. M. Skinner organ, on November 1, 1928. Sowerby wrote, “It is as much a piece of architecture in sound as any of the works of the masters of the Baroque period, though I do not pretend to make any further comparisons.”

Sowerby often used grand contrapuntal forms in his works, and this last movement of the Symphony is a thirty-three-variation passacaglia of epic proportions. In variations 1–16 the theme is consistently heard in the pedals, with a rich variety of harmonizations played in the manuals. In the remaining variations, Sowerby fascinates the listeners with contrapuntal treatments of the theme. The last three variations are built over a pedal point with clashing harmonies above. Finally, in the last variation, the theme is heard in the right hand and right foot both over and under a tonic pedal on full organ.

Program notes ©2008 by Thomas Weisflog