| JACOB AND THE ANGEL | ||
| New Music for Orchestra by Robert Hugill a short prelude, toccata and a kind of fugue Percy Grainger Molly on the Shore Mock Morris
Franz Josef Haydn Symphony 97 |
a short prelude, toccata and a kind of fugue (fantasia on veni sancte spiritus) In the mid 90's I wrote a mass setting for two part choir (women and men) with organ accompaniment. The musical material was based on the plainchant hymn 'Veni Sancte Spiritus', particularly the 8 note scale-like passage which opens the chant. The organ accompaniment was quite substantial and so much musical material was generated that I decided to write a concluding organ voluntary. I cast this in a traditional sort of form - Prelude, Toccata and Fugue, but when writing in traditional closed forms, I usually become distracted from the form and rarely stick to the rules. So it proved in this case. In fact, the musical material in the voluntary seemed to cry out for greater resources than were offered by a pair of hands and a pair of feet, no matter how talented. I orchestrated the work, making a few changes along the way, and this piece is the result. The prelude opens with the 8-note 'Veni Sancte Spiritus' theme played slowly on low instruments. It is then taken up by other instruments and repeated faster and faster until the theme is transformed into the running figure of the toccata. Below this the two horns add another theme, which has a distant origin in the chant from 'Veni Sancte Spiritus'. The 'Fugue' opens with a syncopated subject based again on the 8-note 'Veni Sancte Spiritus' theme. This is played with in a fugal manner by the horns and bassoons, with a little help from other instruments. Gradually more of the orchestra is drawn in, but soon what started as a counter melody takes over and any pretence of fugue is abandoned in an exciting and rhythmical conclusion. The piece finishes with a short coda, based on the 8-note figure but this time accompanied by chords in the orchestra with cover most of the notes of the scale, a re-imagining of the original conclusion of the voluntary in which the organist was called upon to lay their forearm on the keyboard. |
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| Sunday 21st September2003, 7.30pm The Salomon Orchestra Malcolm Cottle - conductor
Tabernacle Arts Centre | ||