Gregorian Chant Roots in the Music of J.S. Bach

Gregorian Chant was a well-known musical genre to J.S. Bach; he used at least thirty-one plainchant melodies in organ and choral compositions. Bach used chant motifs from two Missals with which he was familiar: Missale Hildensemense and Augustanum  Some stay close to modality, while others modify to tonality. Perhaps the most intriguing is the Gregorian Communio for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (in the “old missal”), Acceptabis sacrificium justitiae, which Bach uses in the Passacaglia in C minor. This presentation, with handouts, includes several pertinent examples, both visual and audio.

William Tortolano

William Tortolano, DSM, is a graduate of Boston University, New England Conservatory, and L’Université de Montréal. An authority on Gregorian chant, he is the author of two books: Beginning Studies in Gregorian Chant (translator) and A Gregorian Chant Handbook, published by G.I.A. He is professor emeritus at St. Michael’s College in Vermont; was a visiting fellow at Cambridge University (Trinity and King’s colleges); held a fellowship in medieval studies at Yale; and was a conducting fellow at Tanglewood.

Church Music As Somaesthetic Praxis

Handout

Singing, hearing, speaking, practicing, and performing are all bodily actions that shape the self. Church music perceived as a form of meliorative praxis that can contribute to a prosperity of life can be described as Somaesthetics. Carrying traces of specific meaning, this music unfolds and calls for an ethic that arises from the discourse of the embodied human soul and the revelation of the neighbor within his alterity?it obtains concrete meaning through the thematic thinking of the entirely Other. The transformative power of this thinking enables rich meaning of this music and relevantly articulates the church musician.

Christoph Schlütter

Christoph Schlütter received the Diploma A in Church Music from the Protestant School for Church Music in Halle/Saale, Germany. During his studies, he was an intern at Old South Church in Boston. Masterclasses with Quentin Faulkner, Ludger Lohmann, and Almut Rößler added to his education as an organist. Studies in art song and oratorio complemented his further formation. He performed numerous concerts in Germany as an organist, conductor, and singer, including the International Händel-Festspiele in Halle and the Bachfest Leipzig, amongst others. Concert tours brought him to France and the United States. Between 2007 and 2011, he was a research associate for the faculty of theology at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg and, from 2005 through 2012, assistant organist at St. Nikolai in Leipzig. He currently lives in Brussels, working on his graduate thesis, entitled “Church Music Somaesthetics”.

Jean-Louis Florentz: Hommage à Messiaen

French composer Jean-Louis Florentz (1947–2004) was an unusually innovative successor to his teacher, Olivier Messiaen. Like Messiaen, Florentz developed a unique set of modes and a thorough grammar to govern movement through them. His approach to harmony is drawn from an unorthodox understanding of the implications of the overtone series, the series being impacted not only Florentz’s compositional techniques, but also by his ideas about organ construction. This paper examines the intersection of harmony, instrument, and philosophy in Debout sur le Soleil: Chant de résurrection pour orgue (1990).

Margaret Harper

Margaret Harper is a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with David Higgs. She teaches secondary organ lessons at Eastman, and for three years was the teaching assistant of William Porter. She has also served as a teaching assistant for music history, music theory, organ literature, and sacred music courses. She received a Bachelor of Music from Wheaton College under Edward Zimmerman, and her Master of Music at Eastman under William Porter. Other teachers include Michel Bouvard and Edoardo Bellotti. She is organist at Penfield United Methodist Church. During summers, she also serves as organist at Lake Delaware Boys Camp. In 2012, she presented a paper on the intersection of theology and composition in the Clavierübung, Part III at the annual conference of the American Bach Society. She is on the board of the Rochester chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Recovering the Spirit of Adaptation: Lessons from the Iberian Renaissance

Recent recordings of sacred Renaissance vocal polyphony, especially projects that feature Iberian works, have tended to present an ever-expanding palette of supporting continuo forces: both organs and instruments have been used to double, gloss, or even substitute for voice parts. This paper surveys recent findings related to Iberian performance practices and proposes ways in which present-day conductors can, through the lens of the Renaissance, adapt otherwise improbable repertoire, in terms of performing forces and ability, for both liturgical and concert contexts.

Chad Fothergill

Chad Fothergill, a native of southwest Wisconsin, holds a Master of Arts in organ performance from the University of Iowa, where he has also completed residency requirements toward a Ph.D. in musicology. Principal teachers and mentors for his studies in organ, choral conducting, liturgy, and improvisation have included Gregory Aune, William Beckstrand, Delbert Disselhorst, David Fienen, Christine Getz, and Patricia Kazarow. He has previously served as dean of the University of Iowa chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and Education chair of the Sioux Trails AGO chapter AGO, and has taught on the staffs of both the Iowa Summer Music Camps and the Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival. From 2010 to 2012, he was vice president for Region III of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM). He now serves as cantor at University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, Philadelphia.

Bach’s Leipzig Chorales: New Thoughts on Their Development and Function

The Leipzig Chorales are an anomaly among Bach’s keyboard works, because a clear and exact purpose for this collection is unknown. This paper contextualizes the possible function of the chorales in the service at St. Thomas Church in order to find their liturgical use. It looks at their most plausible function, as chorale settings played in alternation with congregational singing of chorales during communion, specifically on feast days. It also explores their compositional development in light of other musical publications at the time, namely Georg Friedrich Kauffmann’s Harmonische Seelenlust, and pietistic theological writings appearing in Leipzig.

Daniel Aune

Daniel Aune is director of music and organist at Christ Lutheran Church, Baltimore. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with David
Higgs. Other degrees from Eastman include a Master of Music in organ with David Higgs, a Master of Music in harpsichord with William Porter, and the Sacred Music Diploma. Additional studies included improvisation with William Porter and a doctoral minor in composition. He has been published in the Eastman Organbook, and has also composed choral anthems and hymn arrangements for organ, brass, and choir. His competition
credits include first prize in both the Rodland Memorial Scholarship Competition and the San Marino Competition, second place in the Arthur Poister Competition, and semi-finalist in the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. He also was the recipient of Eastman’s first-ever Lecture-Recital Prize.

Extemporaneous Sublime: Indeterminacy and Transience of the Improvised Moment

The qualities of spontaneity, irrationality, and indeterminacy have been hallmarks of musical improvisation, while often largely neglected as attributes of the musical sublime. The connection between musical improvisation and the experience of the musical sublime represents an oft-concealed thread between the very acts of music production and listening. This paper explores analogies between the sense of indeterminacy and transiency in improvised music, concepts of the aesthetics of the musical sublime, and the extemporaneous act of music performance. It examines the notion of the sublime as an attribute of musical experience that can be evoked through the performative act of organ improvisation.

Zvonimir Nagy

Zvonimir Nagy, a native of Croatia, holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in music from the Academy of Music-University of Zagreb, Texas Christian University, and Northwestern University, respectively. He is the recent recipient of the Swan Music Prize in Choral Composition and the Seattle Symphony Composition Prize. His compositions and scholarship are inspired by the intersection of aesthetics and spirituality on one end, and music perception and philosophy on the other. Paraclete Press and World Library Publications publish his music. He has taught on the faculties of Northwestern and St. Xavier University, and currently serves as assistant professor of music studies at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He is also the cathedral and diocesan organist at St. Joseph Cathedral in Wheeling, West Virginia. He continues to perform as a solo and collaborative organist and pianist.

Ancient Materials, Modern Techniques: New Compositional Trends in Interwar France

During the compositionally fertile interwar period, the reclothing of ancient source material with contemporary compositional techniques emerged as a defining characteristic of modern French organ music. The new treatment of modes, rhythms, and forms derived from ancient sources such as plainchant, early modal compositions, and non-Western musics enabled a modern style that both renewed tradition and broke with Romanticism. The characteristics and complexities of this new synthesis of ancient and modern are illustrated with examples from the works and writings of Tournemire, Messiaen, and Alain.

Ruth Draper

Ruth Draper’s scholarly focus is exoticism in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music, with a focus on the cultural ideologies and compositional mechanisms surrounding the shift away from the representational. Currently a DMA student at the University of Washington, she is writing her dissertation on the music of Jehan Alain. She holds master’s degrees in organ and music theory pedagogy from the Eastman School of Music, and completed her bachelor’s work at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Also successful as a performer, she is an international competition laureate and regular recitalist. She is currently organist at Seattle First Baptist Church and accompanist and theory teacher for the Seattle Girls’ Choir touring ensemble.

Pescado, Paella, Piripiri: Contrasts of Taste in Seventeenth-Century Iberia

Until partway into the seventeenth century, there existed three sub-styles of organs on the Iberian Peninsula: 1) Castilian; 2) Catalunyan/Aragonese; and 3) Portuguese. Differences were slight and gradually amalgamated into a broadly recognizable style, but resulted in subtle influences on compositions from each of their environs. This presentation highlights slight regional variants among these three strands. Life travels of some organ builders working on the Peninsula are traced, sample stop lists facilitate comparisons, and musical examples from the three regions are examined.

Andre Lash

André Lash studied Spanish baroque organ music with José-Luis Gonzalez Uriol in Zaragoza, Spain. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, studio of Russell Saunders; his dissertation topic was “The Facultad Orgánica of Francisco Correa de Arauxo: Certain Aspects of Theory and Performance.” Earlier studies were at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Pittsburg State University (Kansas), and privately with Arthur Poister. An American Guild of Organists Fellow, he has contributed a list of editions of early Iberian organ music for the Guild’s website and been active as chapter, state, and regional officer. He is adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and organist at Christ United Methodist Church, Greensboro. He has performed at solo venues in the United States, Russia, and Korea, and has presented for Guild regional conventions, Music Teachers National Association, and Festival Internacional de Música de Tecla Española.

The Liturgical Organist: Strategies for Supportive and Creative Service Playing

Handout

As organists, we are invited to enter the lives of our churches and synagogues as worship leaders. This workshop explores the many of the avenues to enriching both our personal musical skills and the musical components of our communal worship experiences. Using figured bass and hymnody as a basis for developing our improvisatory skills, we look at ways in which those same skills can be used to enliven our musical liturgies through registration, re-harmonization, chordal re-voicing, and improvised organ solos.

Bruce Neswick

Bruce Neswick is associate professor of organ at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, having come to that post from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, where he served as director of music and conducted the Choir of Girls, Boys and Adults. He is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University and of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and holds Fellow certificates from both the American Guild of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music. His teachers included David Dahl, Margaret Irwin-Brandon, Gerre Hancock, Robert Baker, and Lionel Rogg. A winner of three improvisation competitions (including the Guild’s first National Competition in Organ Improvisation, held at the 1990 national convention in Boston), he is also a published composer of organ and choral music. He has performed and taught at many regional and national conventions of the Guild and is represented by Truckenbrod Concert Artists.

The Clavichord: The Organ Teacher You Wish You Had

This workshop generously sponsored by the Greater Hartford Chapter of the AGO

Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, claimed the clavichord was Bach’s favorite keyboard instrument. Certainly his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann were well-trained on the instrument, and composed extensively for it. It is an ideal practice instrument, a revelatory teaching instrument, and an exquisite performance instrument. This workshop, in the format of a lecture-recital, demonstrates the versatility of the clavichord, using an instrument of two manuals and pedal. The program features organ works, including Bach’s Trio Sonatas, works of the generation after Bach, and yes, even the Widor Toccata.

Henry Lebedinsky

Henry Lebedinsky performs on historical keyboards across the United States and the United Kingdom. He currently plays with Consortium Carissimi, The Minnesota Bach Ensemble, The Vivaldi Project (Washington, D.C.), Quince (Boston), and Ensemble Vermillian (Berkeley), and directs the period instrument ensemble The Seicento String Band. He has also performed with The Charlotte Symphony, The Oratorio Society of Minnesota, Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, Boston Revels, and the Harvard Baroque Orchestra. He is the founder of the Music @ St. Alban’s concert series in Davidson, North Carolina, and served as interim artistic director of Charlotte Chamber Music, Inc. and director of Rochester’s The Publick Musick. His sacred music is published by Carus-Verlag Stuttgart. He holds degrees from Bowdoin College and the Longy School of Music. He serves as music minister at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church and directs the WaterMusic Concert Series.

Christa Rakich

Concert and recording artist Christa Rakich directs the music program at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in West Hartford. She is also artist-in-residence at the Congregational Church of Somers, Connecticut, home to a new organ by Richards-Fowkes. She has served on the faculties of New England Conservatory, Westminster Choir College, Brandeis University, and the University of Connecticut, and as assistant university organist at The Memorial Church, Harvard University. With keyboardist Peter Sykes, she performed a complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works in a series of thirty-four concerts between 2003 and 2005, aptly named Tuesdays With Sebastian. The concerts raised a total of $20,000 for Boston-area charities. The series repeats in 2013–2015. With keyboardist Susan Ferré, Ms. Rakich is a founding performer of the Big Moose Bach Festival in Berlin, New Hampshire. Her recordings include Bach’s Clavierübung, Part III, Leipzig Chorales, and Trio Sonatas.