Christopher Keady, organ Grace Cathedral San Francisco, California Sunday, 7 February 2021, 4:00p

Three English Romantics

Plymouth Suite (1937) Percy Whitlock (1903 – 1946) I. Allegro risoluto II. Lantana III. Chanty IV. Salix V. Toccata

Short Chorale Preludes (1882 – 1884) Ethel Smyth (1858 – 1944) III. Schwing dich auf zu deinem Gott (“Raise yourself up to your God”) V. Prelude and Fugue on O Traurigkeit (“O sorrow deep!”)

Organ Sonata No. 1, Op. 5 Basil Harwood (1859 – 1949) I. Allegro appassionato II. Andante III. Maestoso – Con moto

Percy Whitlock’s Plymouth Suite is named for the large port city on England’s southwest coast. In several of the suite’s movements we can hear sea-faring motifs, such as ocean waves, horns, and that fluty piping that instantly conjures sailors (the naval reason for which is unknown to this land-lubber!). About the names: Whitlock defined “Lantana” as “the wayfaring tree,” appropriate for this gently moving piece, while “Salix” is the genus of the weeping willow. The folksong-like melody and melancholic harmonies of Salix seem to hearken to an earlier time. Composed in 1937, Plymouth Suite is the latest of the works on this program by about forty years. That period was not only a tumultuous one with its two world wars, but also one of intense rupture and experimentation in the arts. As the city of Bournemouth’s municipal organist during this time, however, Whitlock developed a decidedly populist musical language of the highest level of craft. He would be considered neither modernist nor experimental, but we enjoy the growing sense of freedom from the strictures of 19th century Romanticism in the by-turns lush, jazzy, and folksy harmonies, and in his cinematic expression of the suite’s coastal setting. Ethel Smyth, DBE*, composer and women’s suffrage activist, studied music in Leipzig and connected with major Romantic musical figures such as , , and . She composed in all major genres, including a small set of solo organ preludes based on German hymns. In the two preludes you will hear today, the elaborate counterpoint echoes the renewed interest in J. S. Bach initiated by Felix Mendelssohn earlier in

* Dame of the British Empire, equivalent to Knighthood. In 1922, Smyth became the first female composer to be so honored. the 19th century. Smyth, along with Brahms and others, extended Mendelssohn’s musical language further, while remaining “conservative” relative to other European experimenters such as Claude Debussy or . Within this conservative language, Smyth allows the solo melody in Schwing dich auf zu deinem Gott—played on a trumpet stop—to wander high and low, as if searching. Meanwhile the intricate accompaniment in left hand and pedal shows extraordinary rhythmic invention, worthy of Bach’s works in the same genre. The Prelude and Fugue is based on a more familiar chorale, which sings of Jesus’s crucifixion; it illustrates the cataclysms, melancholies, and moments of contemplation in the Passion narrative. The final hushed statement of the chorale is heard on the vox humana stop, named after the human voice, and echoes the chorales interspersed throughout Bach’s musical settings of the Passion. A contemporary of Ethel Smyth, Basil Harwood was an Anglican church musician and composer. For much of his career he was organist of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, and for a time held the delightful title of choragus: assistant to the university’s Professor of Music. His hymns and choral works are regularly sung in English cathedrals and churches; here at Grace Cathedral we make use of his Evening Service in A (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis) during summer, as it is written for low-voice choir without treble choristers. Harwood wrote many solo organ works in various forms; this early sonata for organ is firmly situated in the same conservative Romantic tradition as Smyth and Brahms, but it adds a theatrical drama worthy of Whitlock, particularly in the stormy first movement. Moments of peace break through the clouds, heard on an ensemble of the English horn, clarinet, and flute stops of the organ. At the central climax of the movement, a slow-moving melody can be heard that will return near the sonata’s end. A placid middle movement follows, making use of the organ’s strings and echo effects. The final movement is a solemn fugue that transitions to a jubilant major key near its end, but there is one surprise left: the slow-moving melody returns and is revealed to be a plainchant melody belonging to Vespers on Pentecost Sunday.

Round roll the weeks our hearts to greet, With blissful joy returning; For lo! The Holy Paraclete On twelve bright brows sits burning…

The chant melody is revealed to be a unifying musical theme of the entire sonata, and the work concludes with a thrilling end appropriate to the blazing fire of Pentecost.

– Christopher Keady