Jordan Prescott, Organ

Three Impromptus, Op. 78 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) I II III

Fifth Symphonie pour Orgue, Op. 47 Louis Vierne (1879-1937) IV. Larghetto

Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 636 J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Vater unser im Himmelreich Georg Böhm (1661-1733) Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 682 J.S. Bach Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 683 J.S. Bach

Prélude et Fugue en Ut, Op. 13 Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)

Rhapsody in D-flat Major, Op. 17, No. 1 Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Improvisation sur le ‘Te Deum’ Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) Reconstructed by Maurice Duruflé (1902-198)

Friday, October 9, 2020 7:30 PM

This recital is offered in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts. Program Notes Jordan Prescott, MM

Three Impromptus, Op. 78 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

Born in 1875 to an English mother and a descendant of African-American slaves, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor entered the Royal College of Music in London at age 15, where he went on to study composition with the great Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. He also found a mentor in Sir Edward Elgar who advocated for his music and secured the premiere of Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Ballade in a minor’ at the famed Three Choirs Festival. Coleridge-Taylor found great success in the United States following his seminal cantatas on the poem Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 1904, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor made his first tour to the United States and was received at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt, a rare honor in those days for men of African descent.

The Three Impromptus, Op. 78 were written in 1911, the penultimate year of Coleridge-Taylor’s life. The first is divided into three sections. Section one is in binary form with the principal melody in F Major and the secondary melody in d minor. The quieter middle section is a quasi- saraband (a triple-meter dance emphasizing beat two) in A Major. The third section is a return to the opening material, this time without repeats and followed by a rousing coda. The second impromptu is a subdued passacaglia in C Major featuring a gently flowing melody over a repeated bass line. The middle section, in a minor, opens with a brass fanfare before the full tonal resources of the organ are unleashed. A rapid diminuendo leads back into a repeat of the opening passacaglia before ending with a coda. The third and final movement is a rousing march which playfully alternates between a duple and triple meter. Typical in a march, the opening two strains are followed by a third strain known as the trio. This quieter trio in F Major is followed by a return to the opening material which barrels through to the final chords on full organ.

Fifth Symphonie pour orgue, Op. 47 Louis Vierne (1870-1937) IV. Larghetto

2020 marks the sesquicentennial of the birth of Louis Vierne. Born legally blind from congenital cataracts, Vierne studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Charles Marie Widor and assisted Widor for eight years at the church of St. Sulpice in Paris. In 1900, Vierne was appointed titular organist of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, a position which he held until his death in 1937. Though described by his students and colleagues as a warm and patient man, Vierne’s life was fraught with difficulty. A divorce from his wife, the loss of both his brother and his son on the battlefield in World War I, and a street accident which broke his leg and forced him to relearn his pedal technique all exhausted and physically drained him. While playing his 1,750th concert on the Grand-Orgue of Notre Dame, Vierne had a heart attack and collapsed at the organ, thereby fulfilling his oft-stated dream of dying on the organ bench at Notre Dame.

© Jordan Prescott, 2020 Published in 1925 and dedicated to his friend Joseph Bonnet, the Fifth Symphonie pour orgue, Op. 47 is the penultimate in Vierne’s revered set of six symphonies. The highly chromatic fourth movement, marked Larghetto, opens with the principal theme harmonized over a bass ostinato. An unadorned solo voice leads into a second section which pours forward with added sonority and more intricate rhythms in the accompaniment. A second, even more chromatic theme is introduced here. The third section is written in a quintessential texture for Vierne’s slow movements: pedal solo accompanied by undulating chords on the string stops. Reaching a climax of intense chromaticism, the movement begins to subside with a return to the harmonized theme. One last brief pedal solo is followed by a rising and falling four-measure passage on the softest flute stop of the organ as the piece winds to a peaceful close.

Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 636 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

Born in Eisenach and dying in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach enjoyed an extremely varied and prolific career including tenures as court musician in Weimar, Kapellmeister (director of music) in Köthen, and most notably as Cantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. In addition to at least two hundred cantatas, and several large-scale works for choir and orchestra, Bach’s solo organ repertoire numbers over three hundred pieces. Though there is no shortage of free pieces (non- chorale-based works) in his output such as the Preludes and Fugues, a preponderance of his music for the instrument involves settings of Lutheran chorales. Vater unser im Himmelreich is the Lutheran setting of The Lord’s Prayer, with both text and melody having been written by Martin Luther in 1539. A devout Lutheran, Bach set this melody no fewer than nine times.

J.S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein is a collection of 45 chorale preludes written mostly between 1708 and 1717 while Bach was living in Weimar. His Orgelbüchelin setting of Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 636 is a standard cantus firmus chorale, meaning the melody is played unadorned in the soprano voice. In this setting, the cantus firmus (chorale melody) is accompanied by three-voice counterpoint employing the suspirans figure, which always begins with a rest. The result of these repeated susprians motifs is the near-constant arpeggios we hear, which also outline the harmonic structure of the chorale.

Vater unser im Himmelreich Georg Böhm (1661-1733)

Georg Böhm was appointed organist at the Johanneskirche in Lüneburg, Germany in 1698. Two years later, in 1700, the young Johann Sebastian Bach arrived in Lüneburg to study at the Michaelisschule. It is now believed that during his two years there, Bach studied with Böhm and there is evidence that the two remained lifelong friends. Böhm is remembered for his development of the keyboard partita.

Böhm’s setting of Vater unser im Himmelreich is squarely in the French tradition using abundant ornaments to embellish the chorale melody. Before moving to Lüneburg, Böhm lived in Hamburg and would have been influenced by the French operas which were performed there during that time. The cantus firmus is heard on a solo stop in the soprano and is accompanied by three-voice continuo below.

Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 682, 683 J.S. Bach

Published in 1739, Clavierübung III is sometimes referred to as the “German Organ Mass.” A massive prelude and fugue bookend this collection of paired chorale settings: one larger and one smaller corresponding to the Greater and Lesser catechism in contemporaneous Lutheran theology. BWV 682 and 683 are the large and small settings of Vater unser im Himmelreich. The larger of the two, BWV 682, is written in trio-sonata texture plus the cantus firmus in canon at the octave. Deeply fascinated by numerology and representation, Bach made Clavierübung III replete with references to Christian doctrine. BWV 682 is ninety-one measures long, which is the product of thirteen (the number of sin) and seven (the number of prayer). The Lombard rhythm in the trio voices (short-long) may represent the sighing sinner in need of the Lord’s protection while the chorale in canon may represent the strict rigidity of the Law.

Much simpler than the larger setting, BWV 683 is written for just the manuals of the organ without pedal, as are all of the small settings in Clavierübung III. The cantus firmus is heard uninterrupted in the soprano voice accompanied by three-voice counterpoint below. The principal motif of the counterpoint is five descending stepwise notes which are derived from the fourth line of the cantus firmus. This motif is also heard in inversion. Evocative of a quiet prayer, this harmonious setting ends gently in the lower register of the keyboard.

Prélude et Fugue en Ut, Op. 13 Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)

Revered as a pedagogue, recording artist, and performer, Jeanne Demessieux cemented her place among the greatest French organ virtuosos of the twentieth century. Demessieux began her studies with Marcel Dupré in 1936 before entering his organ class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1939. She earned first prizes in organ performance and improvisation in 1941 and continued to study privately with Dupré for five more years before her debut recital at the Salle Pleyel in 1946. This was the start of an international concert career which totaled over 700 performances in seven countries and over 2,500 memorized works for solo organ. Demessieux served as titular organist at Saint-Esprit in Paris from 1933 to 1962 and at La Madeleine in Paris from 1962 until her untimely death from cancer in 1968 at the age of 47.

The Prélude et Fugue en ut pour orgue, Op. 13 was written in 1964 in memory of Jean Gallon, who was Demessieux’s harmony professor at the Conservatoire. Written firmly in her unique harmonic style, the piece makes use of polytonality and modal harmony. The theme of the prelude is heard on the Principal stops of the organ and is accompanied by perpetual quintuplets on a light and whimsical gap registration of 8’ and 2’ stops. These quintuplets often appear in polyrhythm against groups of two creating a mischievous feel. The prelude ends with the ornamented theme accompanied by dense sustained chords. The highly inventive fugue is exposed in five-voice counterpoint and it employs a similar polyrhythm to the prelude: this time three against two. The subject is heard direct, as a double entry at the tritone, and in stretto against itself in inversion and augmentation. The piece was published in 1965 as the one of the competition pieces for the Paris Conservatoire.

Rhapsody in D-flat Major, Op. 17, No. 1 Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Born in Gloucestershire to a relatively poor family, in 1892, Herbert Howells eventually came to define and typify Anglican church music in twentieth century Britain. After serving as Herbert Brewer’s articled pupil at Gloucester Cathedral, Howells moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music where his teachers included Charles Villiers Stanford, Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, and Charles Wood. Howells’ Three Rhapsodies for Organ, Op. 17 were written during the first World War and published in 1919. The First Rhapsody in D-flat Major is dedicated to Harold Darke. It is a quintessential example of Howells’ signature arch form. The piece begins quietly with a simple melody played above gently undulating chords. Harmonic tension is coupled with added sonority as the piece steadily builds to a restatement of the principal theme at fortissimo with a soaring countermelody in the top foot of the double-pedal writing. A passage of marcato chords in the hands accompanies a brilliant ascending pedal scale reaching to the climax of the piece: a blazing unison D-sharp before the organ thunders out a series of passionately dissonant chords. A gradual diminuendo leads back to the opening quiet dynamic and a return of the principal material. As the piece subsides to the bottom of the arch, more and more stops are removed until the final chord disappears into silence.

Improvisation sur le ‘Te Deum’ Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) Reconstructed by Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

The second in the famed trilogy of organists at St. Clotilde Church in Paris, Charles Tournemire was born in 1870. Thus we celebrate his sesquicentennial this year. Tournemire was appointed as titular organist of St. Clotilde in 1898 and held the post until his death. A deeply spiritual person, many of Tournmiere’s compositions for organ are based on Gregorian chant tunes. His most significant contribution to the repertoire is L’Orgue Mystique, a cycle of 51 suites for organ designated for each Sunday of the year. Also revered as an improviser, his five recorded improvisations were later transcribed by Maurice Duruflé.

Improvisation sur le ‘Te Deum’ is the third in the collection of Duruflé’s transcriptions. The flamboyance of the improvisation is doubtless related to the panache of the text of the Te Deum, dated 387 A.D. The main theme of the improvisation comes from the opening notes of the Gregorian chant for the Te Deum. Unmistakable, this theme is thundered out in octaves on full organ in the opening measures of the piece. Each time the theme is heard, it is harmonized with increasing harmonic tension. Following a double trill, a favorite technique of Tournemire, the theme is heard accompanied by rapidly oscillating chords. The center section begins with a short-lived moment of respite from the full organ, but it quickly builds back to a roaring tutti as the theme is stated in augmentation in the pedal. A dazzling whirl of sixteenth notes leads to a quasi-reprise of the opening section, but with copious embellishments and flourishes. A barrage of homorhythmic chords marked “triple forte” brings the improvisation to a close.