Kenneth Leighton Organ Works Volume 1

Kenneth Leighton Organ Works Volume 1 Stephen Farr & John Butt Organ of St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) Organ Works Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes, Op. 72 (1975) Volume 1 1. Helmsley [3:22] 2. Aus der Tiefe (Heinlien) [4:02] 3. Lumetto: Little canonic variations on [2:57] ‘Jesus bids us shine’ Stephen Farr organ 4. St Columba (Erin) [2:58] 5. Veni Emmanuel [6:11] 6. Toccata on Hanover [3:08] with 7. Martyrs: Dialogues on a Scottish Psalm-tune, Op. 73 (1976) [12:21] for organ duet John Butt organ 8. Improvisation in Memoriam Maurice de Sausmarez (1969) [6:50] The Rieger organ of St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh Missa de Gloria (Dublin Festival Mass), Op. 82 9. Kyrie [4:35] 10. Gloria [8:28] 11. Credo [7:57] 12. Sanctus [5:39] 13. Agnus Dei [5:57] About Stephen Farr: 14. Ite, Missa Est [4:32] ‘His approach is refreshingly unfussy and quirk free, and he Total playing time [79:07] draws on an unfailingly interesting palette of tonal colours‘ Gramophone ‘Farr rises to the occasion, turning in performances that are as varied and vital as the music demands, intricate details inked with telling clarity’ Choir and Organ Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) the Op. 41 Prelude, Scherzo and Passacaglia, Organ Works Volume 1 was completed in 1963 following a commission from Bryan Hesford, then ‘Like all great gifts of God, music is a organist of Wymondham Abbey in Norfolk. mysterious and paradoxical thing which Initially, the organ was not an instrument can be used or misused, and which for which Leighton felt particularly compelled encompasses every part of our being, to write, or even with which he felt body, mind and soul’ particularly comfortable, turning to it only Kenneth Leighton in his mid-thirties. He was most concerned overall with the instrument’s architectural As a treble chorister from 1938, many of possibilities, at various times lamenting how Kenneth Leighton’s formative musical the lack of clarity in the organ bothered him, experiences were accompanied by the as late as 1979, in a published interview 1905 Abbott and Smith organ of Wakefield stating how he ‘[...] found the organ Cathedral, in the West Yorkshire city where frustrating, there’s very little good music he was born and educated. As well as to play on it anyway apart from informing his writing for both organ and Bach’. While it seemed to present a choir, Leighton repeatedly stated the significant challenge for him to overcome, importance of his time in the choir stalls however, his solo organ music constitutes throughout his life, stating ‘My whole a significant part of his output as a whole. background is choral church music. I Indeed in the same 1979 article he also think one’s early background is terribly goes on to say how ‘[...] I’ve found writing important’ and ‘[...] my career as a Cathedral for the organ very exciting recently and chorister left some of the most vivid I've kept on at it’. impressions in my mind of that time of life [...] what a marvellous musical training.’ The earliest of the four works contained in Given this musical upbringing that left this volume, Improvisation in Memoriam such a mark, it was perhaps inevitable Maurice de Sausmarez was composed that Leighton would go on to write a great during November and early December of deal of choral music, mostly liturgical, 1969 – six years after the Prelude, Scherzo as well as works for the organ. and Passacaglia, and during his second, and final, academic year as a Fellow of Most of Leighton’s solo organ works were Worcester College, Oxford. It was some written to commission, the first of which, years earlier, while a Gregory Fellow in music The Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes, Op. 72 at the University of Leeds in the mid-1950s, were written during August 1975 and that Leighton had first met the artist Lionel dedicated to Herrick Bunney (1915-1997), a Maurice de Sausmarez (1915-1969), who close friend and the organist of St Giles held the post of Head of Fine Art at the Cathedral in Edinburgh for an incredible same university from 1951-1959. In 1964, fifty years from 1946 to 1996. Written de Sausmarez commissioned Leighton to some five years following Leighton’s write his Seven Variations for String Quartet, appointment as the Reid Professor of Op. 43, in memory of the artist’s mother, Edinburgh University’s Faculty of Music, Jessie Rose de Sausmarez. the Six Fantasies are representative of the considerable mellowing of his musical Writing about the Improvisation, Leighton style that occurred during this decade, as states that it ‘[...] was composed towards well as demonstrating Leighton’s interest in the end of the 1969 for the memorial all forms of hymnody. Indeed, Leighton was service [...] for the artist, teacher and one of the music consultants, as well as dear friend, Maurice de Sausmarez, who contributing five hymn tunes, for the third died an early death in the same year.’ The edition of The Church of Scotland’s The organist at the first performance, which Church Hymnary, first published in 1973. took place on 15 December 1969 was Nicholas Cleobury, himself a former This magnificently constructed and contrasted student under Leighton at Worcester collection of hymn Fantasies begins with a College. From the outset the Improvisation strident Fantasy on the Advent hymn tune is a work of great anguish, and is dark ‘Helmsley’ (Lo! he comes with clouds and deeply foreboding. Leighton further descending), marked by the composer as describes the work as expressing ‘[...] a ‘Exultant and fast’. The second Fantasy is mood of mourning and protest symbolised based on the Lutheran chorale ‘Aus der Tiefe’, in the conflict between lyrical counterpoint, from the Nürnbergisches Gesangbuch of 1676 and an ostinato (subject to variation) and mostly associated with the Lenten hymn consisting of three chord clusters which ‘Forty days and forty nights’ in the Anglican persist throughout the piece. The clusters tradition, and is much more chromatic and reach a climax of intensity in a chord searching. The characterful Fantasy on containing all the notes of the chromatic ‘Lumetto’ follows, which is subtitled ‘Little scale’. canonic variations on ‘Jesus bids us shine’’, The organ of St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh which consists of four clear short variations Scottish Psalter of 1615. Leighton was a an austere but robust psalm-tune, and is this influence, each of the remaining of differing textures. frequent visitor to the Scottish Isle of Arran, heard in full at the beginning of the work. movements of the organ mass features and which was also destined to become his final Densely chromatic and inventive variations is based on elements from the twelfth-century Associated with the text ‘The King of love my resting place. It was also a place where he follow, the dialogue taking place between Sarum chant for use on Easter Day. While Shepherd is’, the fourth Fantasy is based on liked to compose and during the winter of the two organ parts beginning with slow Leighton clearly marks where the the Irish hymn tune ‘St Columba’. A 1975-76 he decamped to the island to write and soft counterpoint closely based on representation of each section of text comes decorated version of the tune is heard in the first act of his only full-scale opera, material from the psalm-tune. The work is throughout the score, the chant is not always canon, beginning calmly before growing in Columba, Op. 77, based on the life of the characterised by constantly accumulating overtly obvious in most cases, and is quite intensity before an elated climax. Based on Irish saint and early Christian missionary. tension in the two extended parts of the seamlessly integrated into Leighton’s musical the hymn ‘Veni Emmanuel’ (O come, O The significant organ duet Martyrs was work all leading up to the epic and fully style. come, Emmanuel) the fifth, and most also composed during this period in January harmonised final declaration of the substantial, Fantasy uses the melody of the and February of 1976. psalm-tune, which is interspersed with The opening ‘Kyrie’ contains a brooding Advent hymn adapted from a French triumphant fanfares. atmosphere, described by Leighton as ‘Intense Missal by Thomas Helmore (1811-1890), The influences on Martyrs are inevitably and mainly contrapuntal movement based beginning darkly and chromatically before linked to his other activities through this At some thirty-five minutes in length, on oscillating major and minor thirds’. The going through a series of variations, time, in particular his work on Columba. Missa de Gloria, Op. 82 is Leighton’s ‘Gloria’ is contrasting, beginning optimistically growing once again to a climax, before a In many ways the bleakness of the winter magnum opus for the instrument, and the with '[...] introductory fanfare-like sections’, sudden soft and serene ending. The final on Arran is echoed throughout the duet latest work in this collection. Begun in after which ‘[...] the music closely follows Fantasy is the vigorous ‘Toccata on Hanover’ alongside his interest in hymnody and, in October 1979 and completed on 22 March the plainsong in the manner of a toccata.’ (O worship the King all-glorious above) this case, Scottish metrical psalm-tunes. 1980, it was written for the first Dublin A softer section, representing the text that is reminiscent of the jubilation of the Leighton states how ‘The power of a International Organ Festival; the world ‘Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata’, follows in opening Fantasy on ‘Helmsley’. great hymn tune is immortal – it spans premiere was given in St Patrick’s Cathedral, which the plainsong is more decorated, the centuries and crams into a few Dublin, by the organist Gerard Gillen on before returning to the toccata of the Commissioned by The Organ Club for its notes the spiritual experience of a whole 29 June 1980.

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