Jacquet's Ghost

Jacquet’s Ghost Stephen Farr The Organ of Trinity College, Cambridge RES10111 Jacquet’s Ghost The Metzler organ of Trinity College, Cambridge Huw Watkins (b. 1976) Lionel Rogg (b. 1936) 1. Pièce d’Orgue * [5:19] 10. Ricercare Cromatico * (from Omaggio a Frescobaldi) [5:11] Alexandre P. F. Boëly (1785-1858) Stephen Farr organ 2. Kyrie (from Messe solennelle pour l’orgue Hugo Distler (1908-1942) extraite de plusieurs auteurs anciens) [8:46] 9. Partita und Satz “Jesu Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den with Jehan Alain (1911-1940) Gotteszorn wandt” [7:06] 3. Variations sur un thème de Members of Sidney Sussex College Chapel Choir 2 Clément Jannequin, AWV 99 [6:03] Jon Laukvik (b. 1952) David Skinner (director) 8. Monody with Variations * [5:56] Judith Bingham (b. 1952) Jacquet’s Ghost (2012) * Bernard Foccroulle (b. 1953) 4. Tombeau [2:09] 12. Spiegel * [10:16] 5. Labyrinthe [2:11] 6. Pastorelle somnambule [1:24] About Stephen Farr: 7. Envoi [1:50] Total playing time [67:12] ‘[... Farr] brought an inventive flair to his choice of registers, William Albright (1944-1998) offering a reading of notable light and shade’ Tempo 8. Chorale-Partita in an Old Style on “Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten” [10:53] ‘ [...] superbly crafted, invigorating performances, combining youthful vigour and enthusiasm with profound musical insight and technical fluency’ Gramophone * world premiere recording Jacquet’s Ghost functional bass line. The extended fugato that follows takes this process of complication ‘It should be possible for a musician of the further, interleaving a secondary idea of twentieth century to retain the spirit of this increasing angularity and chromatic intensity earlier music. Idiom does not matter [...] by between the fugal treatments of the theme the simple game of ‘musical spelling’ one and moving rapidly through a series of keys. should be able to pass imperceptibly from The concluding ‘Grave’ follows a similar process one to the other [...]’ in microcosm, re-emphasising the tonal centres of the home key before recapitulating These remarks of Jehan Alain, written in fragments of the theme in triple, rather than an autograph source of the Variations sur duple time. un thème de Clément Jannequin, are far from a manifesto: there are few composers Alain (whose performance markings here, as for the instrument less likely to wield such in other works, are often contradictory and a blunt instrument. But their fundamental inconsistent) specifies throughout the work message – that old and modern idioms the use of sonorities typical of the French can be close, not distant, relations – is Classical school, a preoccupation with tone one explored by all the music in this colour which links the Variations to the work programme. of Hugo Distler. The more general aesthetic resemblances between Distler and Alain have The catalyst for Alain’s work is a sixteenth- sometimes been overstated; indeed, one study century chanson, L’espoir que j’ay d’acquerir by François Sabatier suggests that they share vostre grâce, erroneously attributed to Clément little common ground beyond an interest in Jannequin by the anthologist Jean-Baptiste early music and in writing for organ and voice. Weckerlin, who was also responsible for Distler, inspired by the range of sonorities numerous editorial modifications to the available on the historic Stellwagen instrument original chanson. Alain adheres closely to of the Jakobikirche in Lübeck where he was Weckerlin’s altered version of the theme, organist, drew heavily on the influence of but the second variation, curiously entitled Buxtehude and the North German Baroque ‘Maggiore’ – it is anything but – sees the idiom. Deploring the cosmopolitan cultural process of alteration begin; the theme is influences so enthusiastically embraced by re-stated a perfect fifth higher, and intervals Alain, and eschewing the Romantic symphonic become more complex over a less simply tradition, he left an oeuvre notable for its The Metzler organ of Trinity College, Cambridge (1975) intellectual rigour, firmly rooted in the something of a manifesto; it was published at procedures and preoccupations of an a time when, in his own words, ‘more and earlier generation of German composers more composers [were] rejecting the necessity and characterised by intensive use of motivic of a linear progression of musical language’. and figurative development. The Partita und In keeping with Albright’s stated intention Satz “Jesus Christus unser Heiland, der von of recapturing a past idiom, the music is uns den Gotteszorn wandt” displays these characterised by both a sense of austerity aspects of Distler’s aesthetic clearly; more and notable motivic integrity. Albright’s choice an extended fantasia than a simple set of of the same tonality as Bach’s setting of variations, it consists of a contrapuntal the chorale, C minor, may be construed as a chorale setting, bicinium (two part invention) further layer of allusion to earlier models. and intricately worked ricercare. Appended The characteristic dactyl rhythms of the Bach to the whole is a virtuosic peroration owing work are not used, but the texture and much to models from the seventeenth century. figuration of his final variation are closely related to the final variation of Bach’s partita The figural devices of the German Baroque on ‘Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig’, BWV 768. also constitute an important element in William Albright’s Chorale Partita in an Old Alexandre Boëly’s Messe Solennelle does not Style. It is an early work, but the composer explore earlier idioms by means of allusion; drew on the musical procedures of the instead, it offers a fresh perspective on them period elsewhere in his organ music; the by juxtaposing them in an unaccustomed, Basse de Trompette in Organ Book III, for indeed unintended, context. The Messe, from example, is inspired by the forms, if not which the ‘Kyrie’ is performed here, adheres to the musical language, of the French Classical the alternatim principle, a liturgical practice school of organ composition. Unlike that widespread in seventeenth and eightennth work, this partita, based on the chorale century France in which organ interludes ‘Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten’ (a (often improvised) alternated with sung melody familiar from its inclusion in plainsong. Notable publications in this form J.S .Bach’s ‘Schübler’ chorales) is a sustained included those of Nicolas de Grigny and homage to earlier models, not only in terms François Couperin, whose two alternatim of formal design, but also in aspects of settings of the Mass Boëly himself copied rhythmic figuration, scoring, and registration. out. Boëly – organist of St Germain l’Auxerrois In his maturity Albright viewed this work as in Paris – was an admirer of earlier music at a time when it was wildly unfashionable to realising in expansive manner the original be so, and incorporates his own transcriptions prélude (from the Premiere Suite by Elisabeth of works by J.S. Bach, Johann Kirnberger, Claude Jacquet de la Guerre). The seventeenth François Couperin and G.F. Handel into his century original is treated as a both a harmonic compilation. His own brief contributions are resource and a repertory of melodic fragments of characteristic contrapuntal fluency and whose response to subtle chromatic inflection harmonic charm, even if the works by Bach – the game of musical spelling, again – results and Handel seem, to modern sensibilities, in a composition which is rich in allusion to curious choices for the penitential liturgical a range of contemporary keyboard practices. context. In the process of compiling this The titles of the movements – ‘Tombeau’, unique collection, Boëly offers an idiosyncratic ‘Labyrinthe’, ‘Pastorelle somnambule’ and nineteenth century perspective on older ‘Envoi’ – draw on numerous stimuli, some practice, which one commentator has simply pictorial (the grotesquerie of the happily characterised as a ‘gallery [...] filled ‘buffo’ passages in ‘Labyrinthe’), others with ghosts’. more subtly allusive (including moments of self-quotation). The form of the original work The ‘ghost’ of the French Classical school – albeit greatly expanded – is adopted as a so greatly admired by Boëly, and more structural template, a strategy which gives specifically its highly stylised musical the work a satisfying sense of formal gestures, are also a driving force in Judith proportion. Bingham’s new work, Jacquet’s Ghost. The inspiration for the piece is that most elusive Bingham’s work is both a homage to earlier of keyboard forms, the harpsichord prelude compositional practice and an exploration non mesuré (a genre to which, incidentally, of the unique tonal qualities of the Metzler Jehan Alain referred in remarks about the organ in Trinity College; Bernard Foucroulle’s Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin). Spiegel offers a further example of a In préludes of this type, the player assumes composer’s response to such stimuli in a a doubly creative role; while the composer work which also makes extensive use of the indicates approximate note durations and fragmentation and inflection of pre-existing groupings by means of slurs, many more thematic material. A double tribute to the precise details of rhythm and phrase structure medieval organist and theorist Arnolt von are left to the judgement of the performer. Schlick (whose treatise Spiegel der Judith Bingham extends this tradition by Orgelmeister und Orgelmachen provides the title of the piece) and to the remarkable music of J.S. Bach, and the Ricercare Cromatico 1511 van Covelens organ of the Laurenskerk from the Omaggio a Frescobaldi occupies in Alkmaar, Foucroulle’s work, a set of itself, perhaps unsurprisingly, with intricate variations on the plainsong Salve Regina, contrapuntal matters. Treating a chromatic opposes contemporary musical language theme reminiscent of Ligeti’s homage to the of notable rhythmic complexity with the Italian composer, it employs stretto, performance possibilities (or limitations?) of augmentation and diminution, and inversion early instruments. The work develops (in a to generate increasing rhythmic tension.

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