Wednesday, November 4, 2015 @ 12:00, Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall

 

Rodney Gehrke, Organist

 

 

P R O G R A M

 

 

Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne in C major, BuxWV 137

前奏曲、フーガ、シャコンヌ　ハ長調

Dieterich Buxtehude (1637 – 1707)

ディートリッヒ・ブクステフーデ

 

 

Variations on “Onder een Linde Groen”

「緑の菩提樹の下」による変奏曲

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 1621)

ヤン・ピーステルスゾーン・スウェーリンク

 

 

Contrapunctus I from “Die Kunst der Fuge,” BWV 1080

「フーガの技法」よりコントラプンクトゥス I

Prelude, Largo and Fugue in C major, BWV 545

前奏曲、ラルゴ、フーガ　ハ長調

Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, BWV 658

我は御神より離れず

Trio super: Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr, BWV 664

いと高きところには神にのみ栄光あれ

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)

ヨハン・セバスチャン・バッハ

 

 

Veni Creator: Dialogue sur les Grands Jeux

来り給え、創造主なる精霊よ

Nicolas de Grigny (1672 – 1703)

ニコラ・ド・グリニー

 

 

Prelude and Fugue in G Major, Opus 37, No. 2

前奏曲とフーガ　ト長調　作品37-2

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 – 1847)

フェリックス・メンデルスゾーン＝バルトルディ

 

 

Six Variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

「きらきら星」の主題による変奏曲

Takeshi Kondo [ 近藤岳 ]  (b 1973)

 

 

 

Program Notes

 

Dieterich Buxtehude’s C Major Praeludium is perhaps the most popular example of a genre of organ works Buxtehude perfected. These pieces in the “fantasy style” alternate sections of free, toccata-like figurations (including pedal solos) with strictly fugal sections. Many, like the C Major, have five sections—free, fugal, free, fugal, free—with brilliant openings and conclusions. The C Major substitutes a powerful ground-bass ciacona for the second fugal section. The concluding toccata section is one of Buxtehude’s most fabulous.

 

Sweelinck was called the “Father of German Organists.” Numerous German city-states and churches sent their organists to Amsterdam to study with him. Sweelinck composed fine examples of organ works in numerous styles, including highly sophisticated imitative works, brilliant toccatas, echo fantasies, and chorale-based pieces. Today’s work is one of numerous delightful variation sets on secular tunes, perfect for showing off the Fisk organ’s many “chamber-music” registrations.

 

de Grigny’s Livre d’Orgue (Organ Book), published in 1699, is one of the finest collections of French Classic organ music, with an entire mass setting—23 organ pieces to alternate with sung Gregorian chant—and five hymn variation sets. J.S. Bach thought highly enough of de Grigny’s music to copy the entire book. The Veni Creator Dialogue is the final movement in a five-movement setting of the great Pentecost Vespers hymn. We hear the Fisk organ’s brilliant French trumpets, clairons, cromorne, and cornets: in alternation with solos in the treble and bass and, at the beginning and end, all together.

 

One of the great works of musical art ever composed is Bach’s Art of Fugue, compiled in the last decade of his life, preserved in two primary sources emanating from Bach himself—an early manuscript version and a posthumous print. Much controversy and confusion has accompanied the work over the centuries, mainly due to two issues: the printed form of the work is in “open score” (individual staves for each voice part), meaning the performing forces are not clearly indicated. Also, a massive Fuga a 3 soggietti (fugue with three subjects, none of which is the main theme of the set) was left incomplete. Scholar Davitt Moroney has published a definitive edition, asserting that the harpsichord is the ideal instrument, and he includes a compelling con­clusion of the great final fugue (others have offered conclusions as well) incorporating the main subject of the collection. Today’s movement, the first in the collection, while displaying Bach’s characteristic didactic intensity, is also extremely beautiful and includes two unexpected, dramatic silences before the end. A final pedal point begs the question: Did Bach perhaps see the organ as the ideal instrument for the collection?

 

Bach composed several C Major prelude-and-fugue sets. BWV 545 went through a particularly rich develop­ment process. To the original prelude, Bach added several opening and concluding toccata measures. In another source the piece is found in B-flat Major. He also in one source added the slow largo movement from his fifth trio sonata (BWV 529), the version heard today in the form prelude-trio-fugue, though it is possible he intended the trio to follow the fugue. The fugue itself is a concise alla breve movement of great power.