ST. JOHN'S PARISH CHURCH
in association with the Jersey Organ and Music Society
present
the Inaugural Recital
on the rebuilt and renovated organ
given by
PAUL HALE
Rector Chori and Organist of
SOUTHWELL MINSTER
and by
MARTIN HOW
formerly of the RSCM and now at Croydon Parish Church
with GWENDA HARRIS
‘cello
Tuesday, 18th March, 2003
a retiring collection will be taken in aid of the
Jenny Clarke Trust
and towards defraying expenses.
Karg-Elert’s Protestant heritage (from his mother - his father was a Catholic) received full rein in his many chorale settings. While Bach may have been his role-model in the chorale preludes (however divergent harmonically they became), in larger-scale pieces he looked to the chorale fantasias of Reger, and made comparable demands on the player to those of Reger and Busoni, both of whom took an interest in his work.
In his early days Karg-Elert had toyed with the idea of becoming a concert pianist, an interest which Busoni of course shared. However it was another composer, Edvard Grieg, who set him on the work for which he is remembered today, his most famous piece being the blockbuster marche triomphale based on the hymn-tune known in translation as "Now Thank We All Our God."
Handel began his career as an organist in Germany (an opportunity to succeed Buxtehude at Lubeck was turned down as it meant marrying Buxtehude’s daughter, a similar deterrent to J S Bach when he considered the post two years later). In his early twenties Handel spent three years in Italy. Then alternating for some years between Germany and England, he finally settled in this country in 1717, eventually becoming a British citizen and being appointed composer to the Chapel Royal.
He was in demand for both operas in the Italian style and religious music in which he could draw on his German forebears and equally his Italian experiences. His vast output in the field of oratorio includes the Occasional Oratorio of 1746 whose Overture falls into four sections: Adagio; Allegro; Adagio; March. It was arranged for organ by Henry Coleman, one-time organist of Peterborough Cathedral, author of an organ tutor and composer of organ and choral music.
For Bach, as for his German contemporaries, a chorale prelude could be anything from a decorated version of the melody the people were singing to a full-scale fantasia.
His setting of Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam BWV 684 comes from the third part of the Clavierübung of 1739, a collection of preludes based on the chorales used during the Lutheran mass. This one tells of Christ’s baptism, the swiftly-flowing Jordan being evoked in the accompaniment (the tune is in the pedal). Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV 731 presents a beautifully decorated melody while Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 is the first of the six Schübler preludes named after their publisher; it presents us with the wise and foolish virgins, the first solemnly intoning their chorale while the second have a sprightly dance. We must choose whether we wish to be with the wise virgins n the light or the foolish virgins n the dark.
Albinoni was born in Venice where he lived the life of a dilettante, a word used here n its true sense of a man of independent means who delighted himself and others through music. Possibly a pupil of Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), Albinoni left an immense output of vocal and instrumental music, including some fifty operas which were staged n Venice and elsewhere.
At the end of the second world war Albinoni’s works were catalogued by the musicologist Remo Giazotto (b. 1910). Once this was completed he was given an twelve-bar fragment of a trio sonata which had surfaced in the State Library in Dresden and which he identified as Albinoni’s work. He proceeded to "dish up" this fragment (as Percy Granger might have said) into a sumptuous Adagio, throwing authenticity to the wind and embracing a much more recent Italian operatic style: that of Pietro Mascagni, who had just died and thus perhaps received this unexpected tribute. Originally scored for strings and organ, the piece has a centrally-placed cadenza; some performances give this to a solo violin, other to the organ: so there is nothing "inauthentic" about assigning this cadenza, along with the rest of the piece, to the king of instruments.
Or, if your prefer:
The Adagio of Albinoni
Is largely a phoney
It's a musical risotto
Cooked up by Giazotto
A chorister at St. Paul’s (where he now lies buried), Boyce became a composer both to the Chapel Royal and the Drury Lane theatre where he had several successes. From 1759, with increasing deafness, he withdraw from the stage but continued to write for the court (he had become Master of the King’s Musick in 1757) and to edit old church music.
A popular mode of organ-writing in the eighteenth century was the two-movement trumpet voluntary; this one comes from the set of ten published after his death.
This is the first performance of this work. which has been written especially for Gwenda Harris to perform on this great occasion, with the composer at the organ.
The first point to note about this item is that the organ is not just simply an accompaniment to the `cello. The work is a Duo with organ and `cello appearing with equal rights: indeed at some moments the `cello tone becomes very much a part of the general ensemble and if the organ seems at times louder than the `cello then that is all part of the musical design - the organ appears in its own right and the `cello may occasionally even be found in an accompanying role.
The Phantasie follows very much the pattern of a series of chamber works presented at the beginning of the last century for a regular competition held in England through the generosity of its benefactor and wealthy businessmen Walter Willson Cobbett (1847-1937). The main idea was that the work submitted should be, as this work is, a Phantasie or Fancy of short duration and performed without a break, but if the composer desires (this one does!) it may consist of different sections varying in tempo and metre.
Synopsίs of Work
A very short introduction (four bars) sets the scene for the launching of the main theme - a long drawn-out tune which gradually increases in tension as it rises and as the harmonies become more intense. This tune, built very much on a series of rising intervals, is central to the whole work. You will hear the tune re-appearing `in majesty’ at the very end of the work and throughout the work’s three main sections or `movements’ there is constant reference to the rising intervals of this main theme.
The three sections or movements (all connected) are:
First Movement: Sonata Form
1st subject: Main `tune’ (see above)
Episodes in reflective style
2nd subject of more vigorous nature
Development - mostly of 1st subject tune Recapitulation
Short `Cello Cadenza (unaccompanied) leads to:
Second Movement: Scherzetto A-B-A Form
Light Dancing style with a lyrical second part
- First part repeated
Third Movement:
After a short reference again to our rising-figure tune (this time presented in more `jolly’ terns) we are launched into a `Fugue’ which carries us to the climax of the whole work.
After a brief reference again to the initial theme (again in jolly - terms} the theme is finally presented in full grandeur before a final CODA.
A native of Liège, Franck came to Paris at an early age intending to become a concert pianist. However his father’s ambitions for him in this direction were greater than his own, and he turned to the organ, being appointed in 1859 to the new church of Ste Clotilde where the Cavaillé-Coll instrument had just been installed. Clearly liberated in this very congenial environment, Franck in 1862 published his Six Pièces, including the massive Grande Pièce Symphonique, held to be the inspiration of Widor’s early symphonies, the Final in B Flat with its Offenbach-inspired opening and its dedication to Lefebure-Wély, and this Prèlude, Fugue et Variation (which was originally composed as a duet for harmonium and piano).
Franz Liszt, hearing them in 1866, declared: "These poetic pieces have a clearly marked place alongside the masterpieces of Johann Sebastian Bach", and it is true that the Prélude unfolds almost like an improvisation, a solemn lento leading into the Fugue. Unity is achieved at the end of the Fugue with a semiquaver passage which will form an accompaniment to the reprise of the Prélude.
Born in Chatham exactly 100 years ago, Whitlock received his musical grounding at Rochester Cathedral where in 1923 he became assistant organist; at this time he studied at the RCM with Stanford and Vaughan Williams for composition, and for the organ Henry Ley, who was astonished by Witlock’s facility for improvisation.
He remained at Rochester Cathedral during the nineteen-twenties but held other organist posts as well; however in late 1928 his frequent ill-health was finally ascribed to TB, and he spent three months in Midhurst Sanatorium. This, combined with his mild nature, probably ruled him out when in 1930, following Hylton Stewart’s resignation, he applied for the Organist’s post at Rochester. Stewart strongly supported him, but as Whitlock noted at the time "He has (apparently) got up the back of the Chapter with his high-handed methods." No risk of high-handedness with Whitlock: but equally he lacked the cunning and / or aggression which might also be required of an organist dealing with a Dean and Chapter. Anyway it was time to move on, and after considering a number of possibilities he moved to Bournemouth in July 1930. It was a blessing in disguise: as he made his reputation in the town he gained both local and national recognition, and he began to publish, the first fruits being his Five Short Pieces which had been composed at the end of the Rochester days. The Fold Tune is the centrally-placed meditation, perhaps a homage to RVW.
Mulet studied the organ with Widor and Guilmant. He held a number of Parisian posts until he left the city in disgust in 1937, in despair by then both with publishers and with tends in organ-building. His fame rests on two works: his ten-piece cycle Esquisses Byzantines (especially Tu Es Petra), and this Carillon-Sortie. It dates from 1911 and is dedicated to Joseph Bonnet, titulaire at St Eustache where Mulet was for a time choir-organist. The Carillon-Sortie is a characteristic bell-inspired piece based on the bold theme heard at the outset.
Ian Wells
PAUL HALE was a Music Scholar at Solihull School, and from 1971-74 Organ Scholar at New College Oxford, where he studied with Sir David Lumsden. He was in September 1975 appointed Assistant Director of Music at Tonbridge School moving in 1982 to Rochester as Assistant Organist of the Cathedral and teaching at King’s School. He was Musical Director of the Rochester Choral Society and designed the new Cathedral organ built by N P Mander Ltd in 1989-1990.
In 1989 Mr Hale moved as Cathedral Organist (Rector Chori) to Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire. His Cathedral Choir appears regularly on television, records for PRIORY, ABBEY and CANTORlS, sings Choral Evensong annually on BBC Radio 3, has sung by invitation before Her Majesty the Queen and was in 2001/2002 featured in acclaimed Christmas and Mothering Sunday editions of BBC 1’s Songs of Praise. Foreign tours include trips to Normandy, the Netherlands, Prague, Switzerland, Italy & Paris.
Mr Hale has many recordings and broadcasts to his credit, including a featured appearance on BBC Radio 2’s popular The Organist Entertains. Whilst an undergraduate he accompanied the Choral Scholars of King’s College Cambridge on tours. In 1988 he undertook a British Council-sponsored lecture and rectal trip to East Germany, returning in 1990 to play the Silbermann organ in Freiberg Dow. Organ recitals in recent years include most major town hall and cathedral venues (three at St Paul’s) and a solo appearance in the Hereford Three Choirs Festival. In April 1994 he was honoured to give the Royal College of Organists Presentation of Diplomas recital. August 1996 saw him in Germany, playing the renowned Klais organ at Altenberg and after Easter 1999 he played by invitation for the Rome Academy of Arts; summer 1999 saw him participating in the Three Choirs Festival at Worcester and the St Albans International Organ Festival. His recent organ CD, Southwell Splendour (on the OxRecs label), in which he shares the playing with Philip Rushforth, was received with critical acclaim in Gramophone and elsewhere. In November 2000 he premiered and recorded The IAO Millennium Organ Book at Southwell. Mr Hale has also conducted choral courses and festivals all over England, in the Netherlands, in Switzerland and twice the RSCM’s Valley Forge Summer School in the USA. Many of his organ pupils have gone on to be Oxbridge Organ Scholars. His schedule of organ concerts is busy: 2002 included a recital tour of Germany, the Channel Islands and a choral workshop in the Netherlands; 2003 sees him abroad twice as well as playing in four British cathedrals anal several churches and concert halls.
Paul Hale is Organ Adviser to the Dioceses of Southwell and Lincoln (south), Conductor of the Nottingham Bach Choir, an Examines, Executive Committee member and Councillor of the Royal College of Organists, a council member of the IA0, a Trustee of the Percy Whitlock Trust, and a consultant and author with twenty-three articles in the new edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music. In 1999 he was honoured to be elected President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association and during 2000 he edited the best-selling ΙΑΟ Millennium Book. He recently became President of the East Midlands Choirs Charitable Trust.
Paul is well-known as Editor of the internationally respected best-selling journal Organists’ Review, and has reviewed organ records for BBC Radio 3’s Record Review. He is currently organ consultant for several projects around the country, including restorations at Leicester Cathedral, Glasgow University, Worksop College, St Margaret’s Priory King’s Lynn, Bridlington Priory, St Peter’s Collegiate Chinch Wolverhampton, and the famous R.C. Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs at Cambridge. He was also the consultant for major organ schemes in Leicester’s De Montfort Hall, Repton Parish Church, and in the cathedrals of Southwell, Birmingham and Rochester, on each of which he gave one of the opening recitals.
In whatever free time he can contrive he and his wife enjoy browsing in antiquarian bookshops and going to the opera in nearby Nottingham. They also take great delight and pride in 11-year old Susannah as she begins to discover the joys to be found in the world of music and drama,
Martin How has spent most of his career with the Royal School of Church Music where he was known principally as a choir trainer specialising in the training and motivation of young singers.
Since his retirement he has thrown himself into the musical life of Croydon Parish Church where he enjoys the worship and the music. This still leaves him sufficient time to play the organ and continue composing.
The organ dates originally from 1884 when Eustace Ingram built it for what was then Great Union Road Methodist Chapel. On the closure of the chapel in or about 1967, the organ was given to St. John’s Church, replacing an electronic instrument. Over the years various improvements have been made, but the passage of time had begun to tell on the action such that a complete rebuild was needed to preserve the instrument.
Most of the pipework dates from 1884. The organ has 26 speaking stops, 6 couplers and a tremulant spread over two manuals and pedals.