Memorial music - (1) Holocaust Memorial Day & (2) ANZAC Day

[Martin Cooke]

I feel very ignorant asking about this, and it's too late for this year now, anyway... but can anyone offer some pointers towards some Jewish organ music that would be suitable to play on this day next year, or close to it? I have been doing a little bit of 'looking online' but not really found something yet - well, nothing that is either free on IMSLP or is not in a rather expensive album. 

And then I find In will be playing for a service on ANZAC memorial day and I haven't found 'la pièce juste' to play at this. I'm very grateful to Martin Setchell who has scanned me a copy of the ANZAC day hymn, but I would like to find a nice Adagio written by a composer from that part of the world to play as a solo item at this service. If there are any suggestions, I'd be grateful. In the meantime, I am going to raid my Kevin Mayhew albums for music by Rosalie Bonighton and June Nixon, some of which would undoubtedly do. I suppose I can always play the Thalben-Ball Elegy and/or the William McKie Romance.

[Colin Pykett]

Malcolm Williamson perhaps?  He seems to have been quite prolific as a composer.  Some of his solo organ works are listed here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Malcolm_Williamson#Works_for_solo_instruments

Not quite sure whether any of it falls into your 'Adagio' category, but the 'Elegy for JFK' might be a possibility (says he without having heard it).

There's also a link to Tom Winpenny's CD here where you can sample all the tracks:

https://toccataclassics.com/product/williamson-organ-music/

'Fantasy on O Paradise' might fit the bill?

[Damian Beasley-Suffolk]

Charles-Valentin Alkan was Jewish. His 12 Études pour les Pieds seulement contain a couple of adagios, which may sound nice played with the hands. His 25 preludes Op 31 contain a couple of expressly Jewish pieces,  "Ancienne mélodie de la synagogue", and "J'étais endormie, mais mon coeur veillait... (Cantique des cantiques)" which may also fit the bill and be playable on an organ. Some of the Prieres Op 64 have specifically Jewish themes. And they're on IMSLP. I do hope you find something suitable, beyond simply knowing of Alkan's faith, I am completely ignorant.

[Martin Cooke]

Many thanks Colin and Damien. I shall look up Alkan, and I know there are some organ pieces by him on IMSLP. Williamson - gosh! What an amazing project by Tom Winpenny. He clearly likes a challenge. I remember singing his 'Dignus est Agnus' as a boy and also the 'Procession of Palms' which were both a bit on the Light Programme spectrum harmonically. Imagine my shock when I confidently placed an order for some of his organ music including the JFK piece and found them to be from a totally different sonic landscape - all completely beyond my ability, too, I think. Frustratingly, I can't find any of my copies of his music and fear that they must have gone, long ago, into my 'reserve stock (attic), as opposed to 'reserve stock (other bookshelf).' It called for State Trumpets 16, 8 and 4, I remember. When I next need to tackle a wasps nest up yonder I shall look them out. 

Meanwhile, what I have discovered is that there is very little indigenous Australian organ music from earlier times of any quality, in print. 

[Martin Cooke]

Alkan - Cripes! re those pedal studies of yours, Damien! 😧 Passing on those in favour of a Prière that is eminently playable (even if it requires a bottom B beyond the pedal board), and also looking at your "J'étais endormie" suggestion that might work well on the organ. 

[sjf1967]

This might be worth a look? https://www.laflutedepan.com/partition/2087036/jehan-alain-l-annee-liturgique-israelite-partition-orgue.html

Transcribed from this recording

 

[Damian Beasley-Suffolk]

I did suggest playing the Alkan pedal studies with your hands! (who would know?). I've only tried the simple ones, on a straight flat pedalboard - beyond me, as an enthusiastic amateur, but nevertheless rewarding.

How does one deal with the occasional B below bottom C of a pedal board, if it's not available? In the middle section of BWV572, for example. Just for that one note, quinting on the pedal seems to work on my instrument, though not so well with reeds.

[innate]

2 hours ago, Damian Beasley-Suffolk said:

I did suggest playing the Alkan pedal studies with your hands! (who would know?). I've only tried the simple ones, on a straight flat pedalboard - beyond me, as an enthusiastic amateur, but nevertheless rewarding.

How does one deal with the occasional B below bottom C of a pedal board, if it's not available? In the middle section of BWV572, for example. Just for that one note, quinting on the pedal seems to work on my instrument, though not so well with reeds.

I either repeat the previous note or play an octave higher than that. I’d like to know the latest musicological thinking on this moment of madness from JSB.

[sjf1967]

Not sure there has been any advance on this from Peter Williams - whose answer is that there is no clear answer. He suggests an 'ideal' note, or a French allusion to ravalement pedalboards, or that it was written for harpsichord with the lowest C# tuned down a tone (pedals are not necessary for the central section, which can be managed completely manualiter). And it's not unique - the note appears in copies of BWV 564 and 566. And ultimately in the absence of an autograph, who knows whether Bach wrote it? One copyist puts it up an octave.

[AndrewG]

A former Kings organ scholar said he transposes the BWV 572 up a semitone into A flat purely to allow that one note.  (Not sure if he was joking!)  

[Martin Cooke]

6 hours ago, AndrewG said:

A former Kings organ scholar said he transposes the BWV 572 up a semitone into A flat purely to allow that one note.  (Not sure if he was joking!)  

Yes, well... eek!! It This reminds me of an article I happened to read in the Exeter and District Organists' Association newsletter of, I think, January 2021. James Lancelot recalls his Organ Scholar interview...

I found myself in the organ loft at King’s itself under the eye of David Willcocks, who put us through a series of keyboard tests (amongst them, improvising with a right-hand solo on Nazard, transposing down a twelfth; sight-reading Brahms’ Schmücke dich with the treble part played on the pedals on a 4’ reed, playing the final verse of a hymn and continuing an improvisation while David mimicked the motions of an old-fashioned television cameraman under one’s nose).

[innate]

9 hours ago, AndrewG said:

A former Kings organ scholar said he transposes the BWV 572 up a semitone into A flat purely to allow that one note.  (Not sure if he was joking!)  

That would equate to Leipzig Chorton, c. A=465. An excellent solution unless there’s a non-equal temperament involved.

[Dafydd y Garreg Wen]

12 hours ago, sjf1967 said:

or that it was written for harpsichord with the lowest C# tuned down a tone (pedals are not necessary for the central section, which can be managed completely manualiter)

I suppose one could play the movement manualiter apart from playing the low B on a 16’ pedal stop!

[Damian Beasley-Suffolk]

Back to the topic (mea culpa), I suppose you've come across the book "German-Jewish Organ Music, An Anthology of Works from the 1820s to the 1960s" Edited by Tina Frühauf, from German-Jewish Organ Music (areditions.com), which does indeed come at a cost. However it seems that you may be able to pay for and download individual pieces, e.g. the Passacaglia und Fuge über Kol nidre by Siegfried Würzburger is available singly for $4.95, although I have not explored it further.

There appears to be a fair amount of sacred and secular German-Jewish music from the mid-late 19th century until the mid 1930s, for obvious reasons, which I've only found out about in the last few days simply because of this request. Mindful of history, nevertheless rewarding.

[Martin Cooke]

On 01/02/2024 at 14:34, Damian Beasley-Suffolk said:

However it seems that you may be able to pay for and download individual pieces, e.g. the Passacaglia und Fuge über Kol nidre by Siegfried Würzburger is available singly for $4.95, although I have not explored it further.

Thanks Damian - I'm not going to buy that volume. I've recently spent a lot of money on organ music and one must draw the line somewhere especially as OUP have some new volumes on the horizon.

But...how did you discover that single pieces are available separately? (Edit - please don't feel the need to reply, Damian - that was a lazy response of mine. I can see what to do!!) (Edit 2 - I have taken a punt on the Beyer piece on Synagogue melodies.)

[Damian Beasley-Suffolk]

Martin - I discovered this accidentally. Being fond of passacaglias I must have highlighted it and clicked "search" out of habit and it took me to the link, so I bought it. Serendipity is wonderful 🙂 Reading on WIkipedia about the "liturgical", if that's the right word, meaning of the piece, it seems that the Kol nidre theme is repeated because, although not formally part of a synagogue service, this introduction is repeated for the benefit of latecomers who may have missed it! Now that's something which is probably generally applicable.

[sjf1967]

I knew I'd seen something relevant, and found it in a review I wrote for Choir and Organ a couple of years back. Music by Jewish composers, arranged for viola or cello and organ.  I don't have the copy anymore, alas.

B Kalinowska and S Kalinowsky (eds.) From Jewish Life (Bärenreiter BA11252, £22.50 )

[Martin Cooke]

Many thanks, Stephen, for this and your earlier suggestion.