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PROGRAM Leon W. Couch III, D.M.A., Ph.D Birmingham-Southern College Praeludium in D Minor, BuxWV 155 Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707) Cantabile César Franck (1822–90) Two Settings of “Our Father in Heaven” Vater Unser in Himmelreich, BuxWV 214 Dietrich Buxtehude Vater Unser in Himmelreich, BWV 762 J. S. Bach (1685-1750) Selections from The Nutcracker Suite (1892) Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Overture Miniature (1840–93) Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy Arr. Frederick Hohman Russian Dance — pause — Praeludium in C Major, BuxWV 137 Dieterich Buxtehude Selections from Folk Hymn Sketches for Organ (1987) Emma Lou Diemer “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (b. 1927) “I Think When I Read That Sweet Story of Old” “Praise Our Father” Homage to Dietrich Buxtehude (1987) Petr Eben Con enfasi, ma più Allegro che Buxtehude (1929–2007) Ben ritmico Scherzando Tempo I PROGRAM NOTES Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707) was one of Bach’s most highly regarded predecessors. Buxtehude’s dramatic musical programs, the Abendmusiken, and his arresting style of playing attracted audiences from distant lands to the trade city of Lübeck, Germany. In fact, the young J. S. Bach walked over 200 miles to hear this master; and, to the dismay of his congregation, Bach not only overstayed his leave, but adopted Buxtehude’s elaborate style of chorale playing. The massive Praeludium in D Minor, BuxWV 155, suffered from unreliable transmission. The scribes involved in copying the work introduced many glaring errors into the composition, and there is no way to know how Buxtehude played some passages. All the modern editions involve some conjecture, and this performance puts together some ideas from multiple editions. This dramatic work alternates between free and imitative textures, ending with an extended flourish. Along with the master organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811–1899), César Franck (1822–1890) became the foundation of the French symphonic tradition. Often played, the Cantabile is lyrical and sweet with deep but restrained expression. The chorale prelude Vater Unser im Himmelreich, BuxWV 214, employs some of Buxtehude’s most common textures and procedures: The monodic (solo vocal) melody presents a lightly ornamented chorale tune above a basso-continuo-like accompaniment. Except for the opening phrase, each successive phrase furthermore presages the tune with imitation (vorimitation). In the devout key of D minor, the work employs the stereotypical chromatic line used for laments prior to the third phrase. But, in this case, the passus duriusculus ascends, perhaps appropriately for a prayer to God. The use of stock musical figures, such as the passus duriusculus, pervade vocal and chorale-prelude writing of the seventeenth-century; figures not only embellish musical lines and often paint associated words, they can presumably evoke a host of affections. Towards the end, the figuration becomes more ornate, and the solo line ascends to a more passionate tessitura, reminiscent of Schiedemann’s setting. As previously mentioned, the young J. S. Bach valued Buxtehude’s style of playing chorale preludes. When Bach returned to Hamburg later in 1720 to audition for Reincken’s position, Johann Adam Reincken (1623–1722) even remarked, “I thought that this art [of chorale improvisation] was dead, but I see that it lives in you.” (Early in his career from 1700–1702, J. S. Bach visited Hamburg several times in order to meet this famous organist of St. Catherine’s Church.) Although Vater Unser im Himmelreich, BWV 762, has been attributed to J. S. Bach, faults in voice leading and on-the-beat placement of chorale-tune notes suggest that instead a composer in Bach’s circle was imitating the monodic style of earlier north-German composers such as Dietrich Buxtehude. In this style, the solo line resembles an expressive and colorful soprano melody with the trills, sighs, and other stereotypical vocal gestures. The hymn tune is hidden within the rhapsodic melody and set in the normally devout key of D minor. Stereotypically, each phrase is preceded by prolonged vorimitation in the accompanying voices. The ninth measure incidentally contains chromaticism reminiscent of the passus duriusculus, a figure that seems to resurface in settings of the Vater Unser here. In many ways, this beautiful setting seems to update the harmonic language of an otherwise Buxtehudian approach to preluding on a chorale tune. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) was a Russian composer who wrote some of the most beloved music from the Romantic period. The two-act ballet, the Nutcracker, was not an immediate success. The music extracted from it as the Nutcracker Suite, however, was popular. Indeed, the movements contain many memorable melodies, inventive harmonies, and bright orchestrations that have found their ways in many commercials, video games, and movies (Disney’s Fantasia) as well as households during the Christmas season. Even the group Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, have a five-minute rendition of Tchaikovsky’s famous music (“Nut Rocker”). In today’s arrangement, Fred Hohman stays close to the original suite and masterfully adapts the music to the upper limitations of one player. With the timbral variety of a large organ, these sort of transcriptions can be quite convincing. The famous writer from nearby Hamburg, Johann Mattheson (1681–1764), describes the key of C major as “joyful, rude, and impertinent.” Perhaps embodying these affections (emotional attributes), Buxtehude’s Praeludium in C Major, BuxWV 137, opens with an impressive pedal solo, fast scales, dramatic pauses, and crashing chords. The dotted rhythms of an immediate, imitative digression seems to continue the youthful humor. A more languishing passage in A minor, however, interrupts this cheerful introduction: Mattheson associates plaintive, relaxed, and even “sleep inducing” qualities with the key of A minor. The opening material overcomes this opposing emotion, and the work’s introduction reestablishes the happy affection. With a playful theme and straightforward compositional procedure, the succeeding fugue expresses only the witty affection pervading the introduction. Next, the key of A minor reappears, only to be whisked away by a chaconne this time. This conclusion exhibits a dance- like character and celebrates the triumph of cheerful emotions. At the very end, a dramatic pause recalls the virtuosic scales and the youthful “impertinence” of the opening. Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) studied at Yale School of Music, in Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship, and at Eastman School of Music. She served a music professor at University of Maryland and the University of California in Santa Barbara. As composer-in-residence with the symphony there, she composed several large symphonic works. Organists widely recognize her name for modern but accessible compositions for the church use. The first work from Folk Hymn Sketches heard today is based on a seventeenth-century English melody “All Things Bright and Beautiful”. The “slow movement” in this set is based on a Greek folk song entitled “I Think When I Read That Sweet Story of Old”. The spritely last movement, “Praise Our Father”, is based on a pentatonic Chinese melody. Professor of Composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Petr Eben (1929–2007) was one of the leading contemporary composers of the Czech Republic. The German government commissioned his Homage to Dietrich Buxtehude for Buxtehude’s 350th birthday. The witty opening of Eben’s work presents the pedal solo of BuxWV 137 (Praeludium in C). The subsequent fugue derives its theme from the first fugue of BuxWV 148 (Praeludium in g). In a modern idiom spanning styles from Gershwin to Hindemith to Stravinsky, the Homage presents these two motives in numerous transformations and impressive gestures. In imitation of Buxtehude’s musical forms, the Homage alternates starkly between toccata and fugal sections. Like Buxtehude’s works BuxWV 137 and BuxWV 148, Eben’s homage ends stereotypically with chaconne. PERFORMER’S BIOGRAPHY Leon W. Couch III presents organ recitals, masterclasses, and lecture-recitals throughout the United States, north America, and Asia. He is represented by the Concert Artist Cooperative, as advertised in The Diapason and The American Organist. His recording Hamburger Rhetorik was released on the ProOrgano record label in August 2006, and his three- CD study of musical rhetoric Playing Dieterich Buxtehude’s Music Rhetorically was published in December 2007 by the American Guild of Organists. Dr. Couch currently serves on the faculty at Birmingham-Southern College. More information and links to his recordings and publications may be found at his website: http://ProfCouch.us/ . .