Organ mini-recitals

Brent te Velde and Greg Vick are videorecording organ pieces during our time away from church so that you can hear this magnificent instrument played by our talented music staff even when we cannot worship together.

Chorale-Improvisation on “Now thank we all our God” by Sigfrid Karg-Elert, played by Brent te Velde
Although his music is less often performed than that of his teacher, Max Reger, Sigfrid Karg-Elert's (1877-1933) improvisation on "Now thank we all our God" is a favorite of organists around the world. Karg-Elert succeeded his teacher Reger in 1916 as professor of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory, and as a composer was a successor of the late German Romantics, such as Wagner and Strauss. Unlike his predecessors, however, his style became more cosmopolitan, embracing French Impressionism and receiving encouragement from Grieg. While this piece is titled an improvisation on "Now thank we all our God" (Hymn 397 in our hymnal), it is a free improvisation; the hymn tune is never heard as such.

Cantabile à deux, op. 99 by Rachel Laurin, played by Beth and Ray Chenault
Rachel Laurin is one of today's most highly sought-after performers, composers, and teachers for the organ. She was born in 1961 in St. Benoit, Quebec, studied at the Montreal Conservatory, and first became Associate Organist at St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal before becoming Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. She is now a free-lance composer, performer, and teacher. 

The Cantabile à deux is the second organ duet commissioned from Rachel Laurin by the Chenault Duo, following their premiere of her Fantaisie à deux in 2019. The Cantabile à deux was given its world premiere on Tuesday, November 10 as part of this year's East Texas Pipe Organ Festival. The festival was held virtually this year, enabling recitals to be featured that were recorded around the country. The Chenaults recorded their festival recital at St. Stephen's and later made this recording to share with us, as well. We thank them again for this recording. 

Cantabile, meaning song-like, indicates a piece of instrumental music that features melodies to imitate the human voice. Laurin's light-hearted melodies also showcase the organ in an orchestral way, highlighting individual solo voices and colorful orchestral textures. The piece builds through inner turmoil to a triumphant climax before yielding again to the idyllic melody of its opening.

Cortège et Litanie, op. 19, no. 2 by Marcel Dupré, played by Brent te Velde
One of Dupré's most beloved works, the Cortège et Litanie consists of two sections. The Cortège, or solemn procession, introduces the soft, primary theme, followed by the introduction of the second theme of the Litanie, or repeated prayer. The litany persists as the texture and dynamic of the music build around it, gradually leading to a triumphant combination of it and the Cortège theme. The piece concludes with joyful chords alternating between the hands, a toccata texture characteristic of Dupré. 

Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) was the preeminent performer, improviser, and pedagogue for the organ in 20th century France, and his pedagogy and standards of excellence established the tradition that persists in the 21st century, represented by his third-generation students. Dupré also was active as a performer in North America, and premiered a version of his Cortège et Litanie for organ and orchestra at the famous Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.

Berceuse, from 24 Pièces en style libre by Louis Vierne, played by Brent te Velde
This month we celebrate Louis Vierne's 150th birthday. Vierne (1870-1937) was born nearly blind, and after study at the Paris Conservatory was appointed organist of Notre Dame in Paris in 1900. His organ works, and especially his monumental six symphonies, represent a pinnacle of the French Romantic repertoire. Vierne died at the organ console just before the closing improvisation of his 1,750th recital with his student Maurice Duruflé at his side.

Vierne's 24 Pièces en style libre, or "Pieces in free style" are a collection of miniature character pieces written for either the harmonium or organ. This Berceuse, or lullaby, is one of the most beloved of the collection, and is dedicated to his daughter Colette. When it seems as though the lullaby has ended, it is concluded with a short coda, which seems to depict a child's peaceful sleep.

Come Home: An Organ Duet on Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling, Charles Callahan (b. 1951); played by Ray and Beth Chenault
This shimmering setting of the tune THOMPSON (Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling) wonderfully showcases the gentle and delicate colors that we are lucky to have in our Aeolian Skinner organ. These include the real tubular chimes that are mounted inside the organ chambers with the pipes. Charles Callahan, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a well-known and award-winning composer and organist, and his music is especially at home on our organ given his expertise in Aeolian Skinner organs; his two volumes on American organ building history, The American Classic Organ, and Aeolian-Skinner Remembered have become standard reference works. 

We are again very grateful to Ray and Beth Chenault for providing this recording. It was a privilege to witness the collaborative musicianship that they have mastered through decades of performing together.

Prelude in C major, BWV 547i by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) played by Brent te Velde
This prelude is likely one of Bach's mature free works, dating from his time as Kantor of St. Thomas' church in Leipzig (1723-1750). It shows influence of orchestral textures and an accommodation of the new galant style, both influences from his cantatas for choir and orchestra. While the popular galant style favored simple harmonies and attractive melodies, Bach showed time and again that this style was not obscured by sophisticated application of counterpoint and harmony, but, in fact, enhanced. Bach uses for this prelude just three deceptively simple ideas from the scale and the arpeggio, but spins them out in increasingly sophisticated ways. It's also possible that its compound triple meter of 9/8 with three groups of three eighth notes per measure is symbolic of the Trinity. Bach shows the organ to be equal to the orchestra, and unites the mundane with the sublime, the earthly with the heavenly, in a true micro-cosmos.

I. Choral, from Sonate à deux (1991) by Gaston Litaize (1909-1991), played by Ray and Beth Chenault
Gaston Litaize was one of the leading French organists of the 20th century, known for his colorful and modern harmonic language and improvisational flair. Born blind, Litaize studied with Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatory, and privately with Louis Vierne, another blind master of the organ. Litaize toured Europe and North America as a concert organist, and taught harmony at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, the first school in the world designated for blind students. The Sonate à deux was commissioned and premiered by Ray and Beth Chenault and was Litaize's final work; this is the first of its three movements. 

It is an honor to be able to feature Ray and Beth Chenault as guest organists in this performance on the Aeolian-Skinner at St. Stephen's, and two other recordings to come. Named "the World's Premiere Duo-Organ Team" by The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Elizabeth and Raymond Chenault, duo-organists, have concertized extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Specializing in works written for two performers, the Chenaults have commissioned, arranged and premiered over 60 organ duets, thereby making "organ music for four hands, four feet" synonymous with "The Chenaults." Because of their unique and refreshing repertoire, combined with their exciting and sensitive artistry, the Chenaults are in demand as recitalists and recording artists. They have performed at Association of Anglican Musicians, the Atlanta Summer Organ Festival, the International Summer Organ Festival at the Spreckels Organ Pavillion in San Diego, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO, as well as the Crystal Cathedral, the Mormon Tabernacle, Washington National Cathedral, St. Paul's Cathedral (London) and Woolsey Hall (Yale University) to name a few (chenaultduo.com). Many thanks to Ray and Beth for this recording!

Sonata No. 4 in B-flat major, op. 65: IV. Allegro maestoso e vivace by Felix Mendelssohn, played by Brent te Velde
Mendelssohn's Sonatas and Preludes and Fugues for the organ represent arguably the first great collection of German organ music after the death of J.S. Bach. Ironically, it was a commission from the English publisher Charles Coventry that brought about the composition of the pieces that would form the six sonatas. Initially asked to write a collection of Voluntaries, an English term for free liturgical organ music, Mendelssohn eventually decided to organize his various free movements into suites by key, calling them Sonatas, as he said himself that he did not fully understand what a voluntary was. The sonatas did not simply fulfill a commission, but formed a compendium of the composer’s highest art in organ composition. They also had a pedagogical impetus: in Mendelssohn's various visits to London he had greatly impressed the English organists, who at the time largely did not play with pedals or compose with sophisticated counterpoint. Several of the movements seem to be both exercises in counterpoint and in pedal technique, such as the grand fourth movement of the fourth sonata.

Air by Gerre Hancock, played by Brent te Velde
Gerre Hancock (1934-2012), served as Organist and Master of the Choristers at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in New York City from 1971 to 2004. As an organist, he was one of the most skilled improvisers of his time, and his performance and teaching inspired generations of American organists. His Air was dedicated to his wife, Judith, and was played as the final prelude to his Solemn Requiem at St. Thomas in 2012. The piece is written in arch form, in which a theme is first presented softly, gradually developed while building in dynamic, and eventually dissipated in a return to the opening dynamic and original theme. At the beginning, the melody is first introduced in a higher register, then repeated in a different register to suggest the entrance of a second character. At the return of the original theme, the two registers are overlapped in canon.  

Fugue in E-flat Major by J.S. Bach, BWV 552, played by Brent te Velde
Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552, is one of the greatest musical essays on the Holy Trinity. The fugue, recorded here, is especially rich in trinitarian symbology: with a key signature of three flats, it really consists of three fugues, each with its own fugue subject symbolizing an element of the Trinity. Each new fugue subject is subsequently combined with the original subject, which provides for 27 entries of the original subject (3 x 3 x 3). The three fugues are also carefully proportioned - the length of the first and third fugue combined forms a "golden section" in proportion to the length of the second fugue (72 measures : 45 measures). The original fugue subject first reenters at precisely the midpoint of the piece, dividing it in two equal "golden sections." Not only symbolic of the Trinity, the fugue seeks to unite earth and heaven; while duple patterns symbolize musica humana, or earthly music, triple patterns symbolize musica universalis, or the music of the spheres - heavenly music. The piece begins in duple meter (perhaps symbolizing the Son), and proceeds to a triple meter (Holy Spirit). The Son and Holy Spirit unite in the third fugue with the Father in the divine dance. Furthermore, while there are three unique fugue subjects, only two are ever combined at one time, creating a resonance between earth and heaven. This fugue is simultaneously the summation of Bach's mastery of the science of musical composition and one of the most viscerally joyful pieces ever composed.

Concerto in A minor, mvt. I, BWV 593 - Antonio Vivaldi/J.S. Bach, played by Brent te Velde
The art of transcribing music for the organ tends to be associated with organists of the late 19th century and later, but was of course already in practice much earlier. Bach made one of the greatest contributions to the transcription repertoire with his transcriptions of several concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. These concertos employ a form called ritornello, which involves alternating passages for the full orchestra with passages featuring the soloist and a small group of accompanying instruments. Bach achieves this at the organ by indicating manual changes - a rare instance of such instruction in his organ music. This regular contrast in texture is paired with strikingly contrasting and developing musical ideas that succeed in holding the listener's attention to the final chord. These formal and thematic principles came to inform several of Bach's original solo organ works, and especially movements of his cantatas. Through his study of Vivaldi's music, Bach learned new ways of sustaining interest through ever-growing musical structures. Thanks to David Knight for requesting a recording of this piece!

Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Op. 101: No. 1. Allegretto in F, C.V. Stanford, played by Greg Vick
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was an Irish composer, teacher, and conductor. He served as organist at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was appointed the first professor of music composition/orchestral conducting at the newly formed Royal College of Music in London. His students included Vaughan Williams, Holst, and Bridge.

Stanford’s “Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Set 1, Opus 101” was published in 1907 by Stainer and Bell. These pieces offer a useful entry point to studying the organ works of Stanford as they are somewhat brief but still offer the mature and sometimes challenging style associated with the composer. Prelude No. 1 sets a lovely light-hearted melody in 6/8 time.

Suite Française: II. Nazard by Jean Langlais, played by Greg Vick
French composer and organist Jean Langlais (1907-1991) was a pupil of Dupré, Dukas, and Tournemire. Langlais succeeded Tournemire in 1945 as organist at Ste. Clotilde in Paris, the home to a major organ by the French company Cavaillé-Coll. The instrument was dedicated in 1859 by César Franck. 

Suite Française was composed in 1948 during Langlais’ fascination with the “neo-classical” period. The work is structured as one would expect to see in a French classical suite for organ, a collection of shorter pieces with varying characteristics often named after the stop or combination of stops used on the organ to produce the desired sound or color for the piece. The movement’s title, Nazard, refers to the organ stop used in combination with an 8’ flute to produce the solo voice. According to organ historian William Leslie Sumner, “the word nasard (nazard) is derived from nasal, the quality of tone which the stop was supposed to suggest.” 

Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness) by J.S. Bach, played by Brent te Velde
Schmücke dich is one of the "Great Eighteen" chorale preludes that Bach composed while working in Weimar, Germany. Later, during his final post as Kantor of the St. Thomas Church of Leipzig, he revised the pieces to the versions commonly played today. This piece is an "ornamented" chorale prelude, in which the phrases of the chorale (represented in our hymnal as 339 Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness) are individually elaborated with heavy ornamentation using a solo registration. Bach's ornamented chorales are some of his most soulful, and he interprets "schmücke," or adorn, by adorning the melody with French ornamentation.

Sonata No. 4 in B-flat major, op. 65: IV. Allegro maestoso e vivace by Felix Mendelssohn, played by Brent te Velde
Mendelssohn's Sonatas and Preludes and Fugues for the organ represent arguably the first great collection of German organ music after the death of J.S. Bach. Ironically, it was a commission from the English publisher Charles Coventry that brought about the composition of the pieces that would form the six sonatas. Initially asked to write a collection of Voluntaries, an English term for free liturgical organ music, Mendelssohn eventually decided to organize his various free movements into suites by key, calling them Sonatas, as he said himself that he did not fully understand what a voluntary was. The sonatas did not simply fulfill a commission, but formed a compendium of the composer’s highest art in organ composition. They also had a pedagogical impetus: in Mendelssohn's various visits to London he had greatly impressed the English organists, who at the time largely did not play with pedals or compose with sophisticated counterpoint. Several of the movements seem to be both exercises in counterpoint and in pedal technique, such as the grand fourth movement of the fourth sonata.

I. Choral, from Sonate à deux (1991) by Gaston Litaize (1909-1991), played by Ray and Beth Chenault
Gaston Litaize was one of the leading French organists of the 20th century, known for his colorful and modern harmonic language and improvisational flair. Born blind, Litaize studied with Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatory, and privately with Louis Vierne, another blind master of the organ. Litaize toured Europe and North America as a concert organist, and taught harmony at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, the first school in the world designated for blind students. The Sonate à deux was commissioned and premiered by Ray and Beth Chenault and was Litaize's final work; this is the first of its three movements. 

It is an honor to be able to feature Ray and Beth Chenault as guest organists in this performance on the Aeolian-Skinner at St. Stephen's, and two other recordings to come. Named "the World's Premiere Duo-Organ Team" by The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Elizabeth and Raymond Chenault, duo-organists, have concertized extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Specializing in works written for two performers, the Chenaults have commissioned, arranged and premiered over 60 organ duets, thereby making "organ music for four hands, four feet" synonymous with "The Chenaults." Because of their unique and refreshing repertoire, combined with their exciting and sensitive artistry, the Chenaults are in demand as recitalists and recording artists. They have performed at Association of Anglican Musicians, the Atlanta Summer Organ Festival, the International Summer Organ Festival at the Spreckels Organ Pavillion in San Diego, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO, as well as the Crystal Cathedral, the Mormon Tabernacle, Washington National Cathedral, St. Paul's Cathedral (London) and Woolsey Hall (Yale University) to name a few (chenaultduo.com). Many thanks to Ray and Beth for this recording!

Prelude in C major, BWV 547i by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) played by Brent te Velde
This prelude is likely one of Bach's mature free works, dating from his time as Kantor of St. Thomas' church in Leipzig (1723-1750). It shows influence of orchestral textures and an accommodation of the new galant style, both influences from his cantatas for choir and orchestra. While the popular galant style favored simple harmonies and attractive melodies, Bach showed time and again that this style was not obscured by sophisticated application of counterpoint and harmony, but, in fact, enhanced. Bach uses for this prelude just three deceptively simple ideas from the scale and the arpeggio, but spins them out in increasingly sophisticated ways. It's also possible that its compound triple meter of 9/8 with three groups of three eighth notes per measure is symbolic of the Trinity. Bach shows the organ to be equal to the orchestra, and unites the mundane with the sublime, the earthly with the heavenly, in a true micro-cosmos.

Contact

Brent te Velde, Director of Music