This is a guest post by Jessica Ozon from W2024. Her plan was to write a work for choir and organ, and she started by doing research on works for this medium, looking to see what other composers have done, and perhaps finding some useable/inspiring ideas along the way.
She included many links, so please check these out if you have a chance!
Thanks, Jessica!
Some research/thoughts/questions for my organ and choir composition:
Lots of french organists of the 20th century were excellent improvisers because they considered this a very important skill. Some of Messiaen’s compositional techniques can also be heard in his improvising. https://youtu.be/SY7g0ULVl2I?si=zIlzLbCsP5uAr9S1 I think this is why many French composers like Messiaen, Dupre, and Duruflé have an improvisatory quality to a lot of their music.
Tournemire and Liszt - using chant to inform solo instrumental music, however, one is intended as a concert piece while the other is for liturgical use. How does this affect the way they express the meaning of the text without words?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU2mmgpI3EopTB1sCxZX5Ujg_clTssl6P&si=a09Q9CLIIY34ZTUl
Messiaen again: https://youtu.be/x0__tgrjTkc?si=6yhrJo6IWpI34pbo O Sacrum Convivium is a very early Messian piece, and the only work he ever published for liturgical use, although much of his work had religious themes. Both musical similarities and differences exist between this and his later organ music. Messiaen’s music really plays with time in an interesting way, which probably had implications for its spiritual/meditative quality. Notice the incredibly slow sections juxtaposed with incredibly lively passages in the organ work, and the unusually slow pace in the choral work
https://youtu.be/-0QqEbWubcQ?si=5I7e-TcYQpnxmjYY
Durufle: I plan on setting the same text used here, I think it’s very beautiful and the chant has a simple, recognizable melody that makes it more accessible. I also think it shows some of the value in retaining use of Latin in music as Duruflé and Messiaen have done; “caritas” can translate to either “charity” or “love” yet does not exactly mean either of these things, and the exact meaning is thus lost in translations of this text. I think the consideration of the particular text being used for choral compositions is very important as small details such as this may change what we want to convey in the music.
Durufle tries to maintain the feeling of plainchant in this piece, with the harmony simply embellishing on the main melody. I want to explore other ways of doing this with a less traditionally tonal sound.
https://youtu.be/qJDH186eGZg?si=YfJuuazFVlsR2UnW
This is awesome, and shows some beautiful and unconventional ways of using the organ. Saariaho is great in general at showing new ways of creating expression and meaning in music, outside of the typical idioms used for these instruments.
https://youtu.be/-ndaiPGDFaU?si=QvPJ_6pZEgtKHMKr
Other composes to explore: Many English composers in the 20th century like Vaughn Williams and his contemporaries wrote organ and choral music, though not much of it can be called post-tonal. Nonetheless I think there’s interesting and uniquely modern harmonies to explore in works by these people, as well as learning from the “classical canon” composers who wrote for choir or organ, like Bach, Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vespers, etc.
Some more listening:
https://youtu.be/wbLcI9-Js0U?si=sE0O-n9Q62HUhjVz
https://youtu.be/vAUkPFqEc2c?si=zd84SGoGj9LmXKH0
https://youtu.be/0G41KmDsN5s?si=W5su73Xv3W6Il6sJ
https://youtu.be/Qm7D_nRtHPg?si=aVYbCYTS2J93bgXZ
https://youtu.be/t7Oxd6z2aDU?si=aFhMUBJfYi6mccok
To conclude: Organ repertoire and choral repertoire are both very varied. I think it’s near impossible to separate these mediums from the religious traditions they’ve been apart of, so it’s important to consider how composers in the past have expressed particular themes/emotions when writing for them. Much of the music above shows different ways of using time, timbre and register to create different effects and convey the meaning of texts. Composers also choose different methods of making their music suitable for different settings, whether that be a concert or for a church service of some kind.
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4 comments:
Love in interest in modern church music and composing music for church using modern composition idioms.
Some incredible church music was written in the 20th century and the tradition provides many opportunities to fuse sometimes very old texts and musical ideas with more modern compositional ideas (i.e. setting old texts in modern style and writing chant-like melodies like with modern harmonies to name a few).
Here are a few more great examples of 20th century church music:
Benjamin Britten's "Jubilate Deo in C": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29pAn36lfY
"Like as the Hart" by Herbert Howells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=___rIGFkAnc
"A Spotless Rose" by Herbert Howells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQnApR9PNV8
Ralph Vaughan-Williams' "Mass in G Minor": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf4vTsH16CU
Ralph Vaughan-Williams' "Benedicite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5st_NqgiW0
Interesting. I was introduced to organ music in the context of religion as well. In my home country there is barely any organs so when I heard a live organ for the first time at the age of 20 at the Basilica, and it immediately formed a strong connection with religion, choirs, a specific type of harmony (primarily the harmony from the tunes found in hymn books written in England), etc.
Having said that, the organ is an incredibly versatile instrument, and even though I don't play it at all, I think the only reason we Tink of religion every time we hear an organ is because that is just the place where it is most often performed in. Before I ever heard a live organ I recall listening to Bach's Toccata and Fuga in D minor and I remember vividly thinking about the universe and a sense of grandiosity and space rather than religion. If I hear that piece now a days, basically no matter where I am I will have the connection with churches just because I now live in a place where organ is (almost) only used there.
I think because the organ is such a versatile instrument it could really fit in almost any type of music, of any era (as long as you are ready to somehow make it blend with other instruments that are 10x quieter.)!
(Hopefully commenting on my own post still counts for a blog post point)
Thanks Eric for the suggestions! Interesting to point out the age of texts used, I think the historical value of these things can often be intertwined with what we view as a sacred or important text, so I think this is definitely something to consider when using text in compositions as well; not just the overt meaning but what the identity of the writer and the time it was written in also say to us today.
Thanks to David as well for a perspective on this kind of music. I agree that the organ is incredibly versatile and could have a variety of musical uses. I hope my post didn't imply that organ or choral music ought to be sacred in nature because I believe quite the opposite. I think the separation between sacred and secular music is pretty useless and prevents us from viewing all of what a piece of music can be. Bach has something of value to offer even the most staunch atheist, and likewise religious people can find deep spiritual meaning even in "worldly" music about relationships, politics, etc. If we really look at much of this "religious" music it is more about culture than spirituality; Ecuador is as much a Christian country as France, or England, yet only by coming to Canada did you actually hear organ music in a church. I don't believe the cultural influence takes away from the spiritual meaning though, it is simply the means a group of people have chosen to convey it.
I really appreciate the amount of research Jess put into learning about how composers have written church music for organ and choir to help her with this piece and the ambition to write for such a hard instrument! On that note, I think it is a very wise move to write within a genre of music where the organ is commonly used. Also, the techniques that they used are very interesting, specifically those that allow them to have an improvisatory sound which I don’t associate with any kind of church music but it does a great job of keeping my attention.
Writing for organ is such a learning experience for composers regardless of their instrument and I would love to try it sometime in the near future, however, I wouldn’t write for it with the intention of it being used for religious purposes. I think it would be especially good for me to try, as a pianist because I have a headstart for knowing a significant amount of keyboard music (obviously) which includes some works for organ (most of them are by Bach). My only concern with writing for organ are the different limitations from one instrument to the next, i.e.; the organ at the Basilica is massive with three or more manuals and a two maybe three-octave range for the foot pedals but there are organs that have as little as two manuals and two foot pedals to supply consistent air motion which likely means that what is playable on one organ is no playable on another organ, adding to the complexity of writing for the instrument.
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