SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, AT 7 PM — $10

ORGAN AND CLASSICAL SAXOPHONE CONCERT

William Powers/Classical Saxophone Jonathan B. Hall/Organ

The Powers and Hall saxophone/organ duo was founded in 2001 at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

They have performed throughout the U.S. and abroad, appearing at such diverse locales as Queen’s College Oxford, Oklahoma City University, the Huntington Church Music Festival in Ontario, and Grenada. The duo is featured on the compact disc In Perfect Peace; A Brooklyn Pastorale, which features an historic 1880 Odell pipe organ.

Jonathan B. Hall (organ) and William Powers (saxophone) will perform with the church's new Konzelman Pipe Organ. Hall is organist of both Temple Beth Or, Washington Township, NJ, and Grace Episcopal Church, Rutherford, NJ, and Dean of the Brooklyn chapter of the AGO. He earned the MA degree in English literature at the University of Chicago and a doctorate in music from the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University and he has concertized extensively as an organ soloist in the US and abroad. Bill Powers, a graduate of Indiana University's School of Music and a student of distinguished professor Eugene Rousseau, has achieved respect for elegant tone and virtuoso technique.

The duo is interested in original compositions for saxophone and organ, as well as transcriptions and arrangements of organ works for saxophone and organ. Upcoming projects include several saxophone/organ recordings, one of which will include an historic 1877 Jardine organ.

PROGRAM

*****

Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):  Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV 541 (organ)

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937): Adagio from Symphony No. 4 (duet)

 Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749): Récit de nazard (duet)

 Herman Berlinski (1910-2001): The Burning Bush (1957) (organ)

INTERMISSION

 Denis Bédard (b. 1950): Sonata (1994) (duet)

i. invention

ii. barcarolle

iii. humoresque

Alexander MacFadyen (1879-1936): Country Dance  (duet)

Calvin Hampton (1938-1984): Suite I (organ)

i.  Fanfares

ii. Antiphon

iii. Toccata

Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967), arr. Alec Wyton (1921-2007): Lotus Blossom (organ)

Wine and cheese reception to follow concert

Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):  Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV 541

Bach cut his musical teeth, as it were, on the North German school of organ playing. His heroes were Bohm and Buxtehude. Later, he became aware of the music of Vivaldi. This was a transformative influence on his own composing.

The Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541, owes a great deal to the style of Vivaldi. It has a motoric rhythm, infectious good spirits, harmonic simplicity, and easily “followable” motivic development. It is from Vivaldi that Bach learned that “toe-tapping” quality that we so often associate with him.

For the theoretically-minded: the end of the fugue is one of Bach’s all-time greatest contrapuntal moments. He pits the fugue theme against itself at the distance of a ninth, in close canon–a device called stretto–while accompanying it with more of the “spinning” that has delighted us from the first measure.

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937): Adagio from Symphony No. 4 (with William Powers)

Widor spent over sixty years at the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris. He composed ten symphonies for organ—not sonatas, but full symphonies! —all before the year 1900. He proceeded to live another thirty-seven years, and composed a great deal of other music in that time.

His early symphonies tend to be light and colorful works, full of marches, scherzos, pastorales, and ruminative slow movements. This slow movement, from his fourth symphony, seems especially adapted to the lyrical voice of the saxophone. We have accordingly arranged it from its original organ solo form.

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749): Récit de nazard  (with William Powers)

The French organ tradition is ancient; the major watershed moment is the French Revolution. Widor represents the post-Revolutionary, Romantic style of composition. Clerambault represents the pre-Revolutionary or French Classic style. Most of the organ music of his age was designed explicitly to alternate with the plainchants of the Mass. Still, composers worked in a great deal of stylistic diversity, coupling their chant versets with dance rhythms, operatic recitative, and the like.

This “recit de nazard” (literally translated as “recitative on a registration that includes a stop that sounds the twelfth”) is clearly based on the gigue or jig, a popular French dance. The French Classic composers favored titles that simply prescribed the registration—hence the awkward title of this piece! We like to envision the ancient relationship of dance and worship when we play this piece.

Herman Berlinski (1910-2001): The Burning Bush

A leading Jewish composer, Berlinski escaped from Germany just in time before World War II began, and settled in Washington DC, where he died in 2001. This toccata was composed in 1957 and is replete with imagery from the Book of Exodus. Key to its meaning is an obsessive rhythm which occurs throughout. It echoes the Hebrew cadences of the phrase, "I Am Who Am."

Denis Bédard (b. 1950): Sonata (1994) (with William Powers)

Denis Bédard was born in Quebec, trained in Montreal, Paris, and Amsterdam, and has made his career in Vancouver, British Columbia. His Sonata (1994) is an instantly likeable piece in three movements. It really needs no further introduction; it is ready to hear and enjoy.

Alexander MacFadyen (1879-1936): Country Dance (with William Powers)

The MacFadyen family came to North Carolina from the Hebrides–the Gaelic-speaking island communities off the west coast of Scotland–before the American Revolution. Over the years, the family would include Presbyterian ministers, medical missionaries, musicians and writers. His close relative, Virginia MacFadyen, was the grandmother of today’s organist, making this piece a kind of family affair. Another uncle of Jonathan’s, Henry Richard McFadyen (who confusingly used “Mc”), authored the popular hymn “The Lone, Wild Bird.” Grandmother Virginia herself published three novels and acted on Broadway, before marrying Frank B. Hall.

Alexander MacFadyen was a pianist and parlor composer of note. He cut piano rolls for Welte, and those that survive reveal an excellent technique. His piano and vocal compositions were very popular in their day. There was even a MacFadyen Music Club, with chapters as far away as Milwaukee.

Hopefully, today’s arrangement of “Country Dance” will win this obscure American composer some new fans!

Calvin Hampton (1938-1984): Suite I

This amazing contemporary genius, who lived less than forty-six years, spent his entire professional career at Calvary Episcopal Church, Gramercy Park, New York. His first suite, made up of three colorful movements, evolved over the course of several years of work there. Its movements, "Fanfares," "Antiphon," and "Toccata," echo film scores, popular pieces by Resphighi, and the delicate organ music of Olivier Messiaen. Despite enough influences to fuel master's theses for decades, these pieces are delightful, immediately enjoyable, and have won a place in the canon of contemporary organ music.

Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967), arr. Alec Wyton (1921-2007): Lotus Blossom

Billy Strayhorn and Alec Wyton were unlikely collaborators on this remarkable piece. Bill Strayhorn was Duke Ellington’s “right hand man” for many years. He composed “Take the A Train” and many other standards. One of his best pieces was “Lotus Blossom,” which was the Duke’s favorite of all time.

Strayhorn didn’t take the best care of himself, and died at a young age, breaking Ellington’s heart. Later, at Ellington’s own funeral at Saint John the Divine in New York, Ruth Ellington Boatwright asked organist Alec Wyton to play “Lotus Blossom” as the prelude. He did, improvising the sweet and disarming version you hear today. It was published separately as “Lotus” and is a uniquely appropriate way to end an organ recital. The organ can roar, but it can also purr.