St. Stephen’s Organ
When St. Stephen's church building was enlarged in 1950 to a design of Philip Hubert Frohman, a new organ was built and installed in 1951 by the Æolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston. It was designed and finished by G. Donald Harrison in what had come to be known by then as the American Classic style. This style was favored by Harrison because it did not try to artificially recreate any one particular retrospective style of organ building. Rather, it aimed at a satisfying musical approach in creating a truly American style of organ capable of playing the entire literature for the organ, keeping in mind the all-important accompanimental functions required of a church organ. In this regard, St. Stephen’s instrument has few peers, and it is an outstanding example of this style of organ building.
The main portion of the organ is located behind the façade on the Gospel side of the chancel. In 1968, Æolian-Skinner built additions in the main organ, a four-manual console, the Antiphonal Organ flanking the Patriot’s Window on the west wall, and the Positiv Organ on the Epistle side of the chancel.
Video Mini Recitals
During the pandemic when we were not able to worship indoors and hear this magnificent instrument, our organists, Brent te Velde and Greg Vick, recorded organ pieces. Brent's recordings are embedded below. Greg has since left his part-time position here, and at his request, we have removed his recordings from this page. Greg works full-time at St. Christopher's School, and while he is no longer on our staff, he will not be a stranger to St. Stephen's!
Herzlich tut mich verlangen (I do desire dearly a blessed end) by Johannes Brahms, played by Brent te Velde
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a dedicated student of Bach through his life-long study of Bach’s music. Bach’s complete works were first published as a collection beginning in 1851 when Brahms was 18, and the final volume was published three years after Brahms’ death. As each volume was published, Brahms would work through the music in detail, marking, among other things, each time an “error” in musical grammar was made. This was not to “correct” Bach or find errors that Bach had overlooked, but to learn from the ways that Bach had creatively and intentionally “broken” the rules. Brahms would likewise push the boundaries of musical science in his own works.
This chorale prelude on “Herzlich tut mich verlangen,” the chorale used for the hymn we know as O sacred head, sore wounded (Hymnal 1982 number 168), is from a collection of small chorale preludes for organ that were the final compositions of Brahms’ life. Brahms had, like Bach, aspired to be an organist in his early years, but had opted instead to be primarily a composer and pianist. In his final years, Brahms returned to composing for the organ by setting eleven beloved Lutheran chorales. Of these, the preludes on Lenten chorales are taken to be poignant statements on Brahms’ own mortality.
Deuxieme fantasie (Second fantasy) by Jehan Alain, played by Brent te Velde
After earning high honors at the Paris Conservatory and beginning a brilliant composing and performing career, Jehan Alain (1911-1940) was mobilized by the French army in 1939. At the age of 29, he died tragically in the defense of Saumur. Similar to his contemporary Olivier Messiaen, Alain looked to new sources for musical material and inspiration, part of a wider movement of “exoticism.” In his Second Fantasy (1936), for example, he incorporates Middle Eastern melodies and rhythms. He also uses the octatonic scale in several ways, something that would become one of Messiaen's signatures.
The piece begins introspectively, introducing the two main themes. The tension builds to an eruptive crescendo and unleashes an aggressive toccata, during which the transformed main theme returns with colossal force. Its violence is gradually extinguished, leaving only the exposed recitative-like theme, punctuated by aftershocks of the toccata. The introspection of the opening is recalled, and the piece ends on Alain’s favored, “cold” sound of a single flute. It is difficult not to liken the tension of this piece to the foreboding felt in Europe before the outbreak of World War II, and it unavoidably takes on added significance in light of Alain's premature death.
Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot (These are the holy ten commandments), BWV 678 by J.S. Bach (1685-1750), played by Brent te Velde
This chorale prelude sets Luther's lesser-known chorale on the ten commandments, and is one of two settings of the chorale in the third volume of Bach's Clavierübung, or "Keyboard Practice," one of Bach's last publications in his lifetime for organ. The piece employs the contrapuntal technique of canon, connecting the two German meanings of the word "Kanon" as musical canon and law. Each of the five phrases of the chorale, heard on a solo stop, is set in canon, or exact melodic imitation, providing for ten chorale phrases. Surrounding the chorale canon are accompanimental lines, which are also in canon. Supporting everything is a continuo-style pedal line. While a double canon might seem like a severe and rigid structure, Bach's mastery of counterpart and melodic invention suffuses the piece with just as much beauty and grace as one would find in his cantatas or chamber music, projecting the underlying belief that God's law, while demanding and severe, holds creation in perfect order and peace.
Prelude and Fugue in B major, opus 99, number 2 by Camille Saint-Saëns, played by Brent te Velde
Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) began his career as a piano prodigy, making his concert debut at age 10. Following his studies at the Paris Conservatory, he took the post of organist at La Madeleine in Paris, whose neo-classical architecture complements the pristine proportions and elegant phrase structure of much of his music. While Saint-Saëns tends to be known for his third "organ" symphony and its final movement's triumphant dialogue between organ and orchestra, this prelude and fugue show a very different side of Saint-Saëns. The prelude is a delicate character piece, floating as though lost in a daydream. The fugue, in contrast, is of a playful character, which in an unassuming way carries off its finely crafted contrapuntal structure.
Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 536 by J.S. Bach, played by Brent te Velde
This prelude and fugue is typically counted among Bach's youthful preludes and fugues, likely dating from his early twenties. The prelude's playful arpeggiated figures show Bach's assimilation of the style of Buxtehude, and both the prelude and the fugue radiate a singing and charming spirit. The fugue shows Bach's early mastery of the form, and includes many contrapuntal tricks including stretto, in which two entries of the fugue subject are layered upon one another. Another Bach trademark occurs when the fugue is in three parts, without pedal, and all three voices gradually draw together until they are, for only half a beat, separated only by a step. This beautiful moment of dissonance occurs three times. Bach's most youthful fugues tend to end with improvisatory flourishes, and while this fugue is more disciplined, he can't resist ending with dramatic gestures of thirds moving in contrary motion in both hands, and the briefest of solo pedal cadenzas. Most importantly, the fugue subject and other contrapuntal material transcend learned counterpoint, becoming nothing less than an invitation to a dance. Each successive fugue subject entry passes the role of the dance leader, while the other voices perform different, but complementary steps, forming all together a harmonious whole.
Prelude in G major, op. 37 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy played by Brent te Velde
Although Mendelssohn's organ sonatas have come to be favored in performance, Mendelssohn's first publication for organ was a collection of three preludes and fugues (op. 37), published at the turn of the year 1837/1838. Mendelssohn (1809-1847) had at first intended only to publish three stand-alone fugues, but upon receiving the manuscript, his Leipzig publisher, Breitkopf and Härtel, requested that he also compose three preludes in order to respect the traditional pairing established by J.S. Bach. Mendelssohn received this request just after his wedding to Cécile Jeanrenaud, and composed the three preludes over five days of his honeymoon. Of his organ works, these preludes and fugues show most directly Mendelssohn's study and assimilation of the music of Bach, and, like Bach, Mendelssohn shows his ability to use counterpoint and formal structure to create music of compelling character and interest. The prelude in G major is defined by a gentle, pastoral character, and moves gracefully from G major through the keys of D major and B-flat major before resting at its midpoint in the darker key of C minor. Mendelssohn quickly and effortlessly returns to G major to prepare a return of the opening material, this time masterfully transformed to rest in the home key of G major with a short codetta.
Movement from Suite for the Sunday after Epiphany by Charles Tournemire, played by Brent te Velde
Suite for the Sunday after Epiphany, from L'orgue mystique III. Communion
Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) was a student of Charles-Marie Widor and, most importantly, César Franck, at the Paris Conservatory, eventually becoming a successor to Franck at the church of St. Clotilde in Paris. Like Franck, Tournemire was renowned as an improviser, and while his music was initially informed by the romanticism of Franck, he eventually became interested in mysticism and impressionist harmony. This, and his exploration of colorful, orchestral registrations, came to define his style and that of his students, such as Maurice Duruflé, Jehan Alain, and Olivier Messiaen. Between 1928 and 1932, Tournemire composed his enormous cycle L'orgue mystique, which is made up of 51 suites of five pieces each, one suite for every Sunday of the year. The movement recorded here is from the suite for the first Sunday after Epiphany.
In dulci jubilo, BWV 729, by J.S. Bach, played by Brent te Velde
This fantasy on the Christmas carol “Good Christian friends, rejoice” dates from Bach’s early years, likely from his early teenage years. Bach was a fifth-generation musician, and had worked extraordinarily hard from his childhood to become, by the time he was a teenager, not only the finest musician that his family had ever produced, but the best musician in the southern half of his country. This piece reflects the exuberant confidence of Bach’s discovery of his talents and the rewards of his hard work. He would later travel north to Hamburg, where he learned much from the North German school of organ playing. This fantasy is also traditionally the first closing voluntary for the service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, a service that was first introduced in 1918. I traditionally play it as the closing voluntary for Christmas Eve services.
Nun komm’, der Heiden Heiland BWV 659 by J.S. Bach, played by Brent te Velde
This setting of the chorale Nun komm', der Heiden Heiland (Savior of the nations come, Hymn 54 in the Hymnal 1982) is one of three settings of it in the collection known as the Great Eighteen chorales. First composed in Weimar, and later revised in Leipzig, these preludes represent some of Bach's highest art in the form of the chorale prelude. This first setting of Nun komm is of the type called an "ornamented" chorale, in which the chorale is played using a solo sound and given heavy elaboration and decoration for heightened expression. At the end of the final phrase of the chorale melody, the piece concludes with a completely free coda, entirely unrelated to the chorale. This personal outpouring, unbidden by the musical form, serves to convey the depth of longing for the arrival of Christ in the world.
Earlier recordings may be found here.
Many thanks to Bill Van Pelt of the Organ Historical Society for the 2017 photos of the organ (top right, and above left).
Contact
Brent te Velde, Director of Music