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The casavant Organ of
St. Joan of Arc church,
St. Clair Shores, Michigan
Fantasy and Toccata, the first and briefest of my eight organ works, is an heirloom. Composed in 1946 as a gift to my erstwhile mentor, Leo Sowerby, it sank without a trace. I had quite forgotten the piece when in the summer of 1987 Eileen Hunt, hunting through the archives of E. Power Biggs, recovered a copy. The following May, Leonard Raver performed the world premiere at New York's Church of Saint Matthew & Saint Timothy.
Organbook I was commissioned by Leslie Spelman; Organbook II and Organbook III by Eileen Hunt, specifically to be premiered on the 150-year-old Goodrich instrument of Nantucket's Unitarian Church, the only organ by that maker still existing on its original site. Together the Organbooks contain 16 pieces, and their object, I suppose, is simplicity. The previous works have all been complex and hard; it seemed time to write something more technically plain. These pieces are nonetheless gradated from very easy to quite thorny. Played consecutively they form a sort of Pilgrim's Progress of 40-odd minutes. But the three books can be dipped into as well, like jewel boxes, offering what's useful for this or that occasion.
In a little more than three weeks, beginning 22 December 1949 and ending on 17 January 1950, I composed and orchestrated and copied my Symphony No. 1. The second movement was an Andantino in the lilting 6/8 meter I was overexploiting at the time. I made a transcription of the Andantino movement for organ solo and called it Pastorale for Organ.
Six Pieces for Organ was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for Eileen Hunt to launch at the national convention in Denver. The semi-programmatic titles can mean — as with all non-vocal music — whatever you wish them to mean. For me they served as a sort of poetic ictus. The premiere took place on June 29 of 1998.
The Fantasy and Toccata is based on the Kyrie from Mass X, a Gregorian Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Following a brief introduction, the complete chant tune appears in the thoughtful and reflective Fantasy; the more rhythmic and exciting Toccata opens with the ascending minor triad from the chant. Modality, quartal harmony and compelling rhythms work together to create a collage of musical ideas.
After a two measure introduction of the opening motive with full-voiced chords, the inversion of this motive begins the 13 measure pedal solo of section A. The pedal solo, utilizing the full 32 note range of the pedal's compass, is not merely a virtuosic display but with intensely expressive lyricism builds to an exciting climax gradually subsiding into section B.
Section B begins with a development of the originally stated motive, this time in the right hand with a syncopated pattern in the left-hand accompaniment. The soaring, arch-like melody, rises and falls over a two octave range.
In section C, the quarter note triplets introduced in the opening pedal solo are developed more fully in diminution in the right hand. This second contrasting theme consists of a persistent rhythmic figure winding around itself, played against an ostinato accompaniment of four eighth notes and a quarter note in the left hand.
The crescendo at the end of this section brings the piece to a return of section B, an octave higher at a fortissimo level, with the same syncopated accompaniment. All three sections are then summarized; the final four measure coda reiterates the two principal motivic ideas once again simply and quietly.
Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?
While Ned Rorem has used retrograde quite extensively in some of his organ and non-organ works, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? is the only organ piece to contain a literal palindrome. Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? is a quote from the beginning of Psalm 22, spoken by Christ from the cross. (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
Rorem reveals his predisposition for symmetry in his Nantucket Diary entry of November 8, 1979. Here he writes about finding the center of symmetrical phenomena. “Once I asked (in Paris Diary apropos of Balanchine's sometimes symmetrical choreography) if art were odd- or even-numbered. Rorschach's inkblot would seem to be even-numbered, yet does not the separating line — that point where your nose meets the mirror, the…moth's body 'twixt his…identical wings, the palindromic “r”…[the letter in the center of the crab canon]…(Able was I ere I saw Elba) — does not that line, of itself, make symmetry paradoxically odd-numbered?”
A palindrome results when the final section of Eli, Eli mirrors the opening section. But a middle contrasting section of some 40 measures makes this ternary palindrome also “paradoxically odd-numbered.” The middle B section must be the moth's body “'twixt his identical wings,” or is it rather Christ's body 'twixt His outstretched arms?
Rondo from Organbook III consists of a sixteenth note driving rhythm that carries us from beginning to end. Rondo also demonstrates Rorem's use of irregular note groupings. The opening phrase consists of two repeating note patterns which are rhythmically displaced. In the right hand, a seven note pattern repeats in groupings of four sixteenth notes (with an occasional rest replacing a note), while the left hand contains a five note pattern repeating in groupings of two eighth notes. An augmentation of the opening 16th note motive is played in quarter notes in the pedal at the end as the hands continue their persistent driving rhythm.
Two contrasting sections alternate throughout Impromptu: the first section, expressive and lyrical; the second section employing a contrasting hemiola rhythm. A chain of descending thirds, a favorite device of Ned Rorem, ends this short reflective piece.
Passacaglia is an anomaly of sorts. Although Ned Rorem spent most of his career protesting the use of the serial technique, the manipulation of a tone row provides the basis of this piece. The Passacaglia theme is the tone row from which the other two parts of the trio texture are generated. Thus the tone row is played out in all three parts of the trio texture at different pitch levels using different rhythms. Ned Rorem, however, hears all music tonally and in the case of serial music, often hears a pedal tone throughout the piece. In this case the implied pedal tone would be a “d,” the first and last pitch of the theme and of the piece.
A gradual increase of rhythmic values from eighth notes to thirty-second notes heightens the intensity and excitement of the work. Conversely, the decrease of rhythmic activity relaxes the tension to the end of the piece.
Fanfare, number four from Organbook III, is written in a ternary form; the aggressive outer sections contrast with the more reflective sequential pattern of the middle section. The opening motive will be employed again in the fugue as a counter subject.
While Rorem employs the use of imitation, particularly canonic imitation, quite extensively, fugal writing is almost non-existent. The second section of Rain Over the Quaker Graveyard from Views From the Oldest House, has the beginnings of a fugal exposition, but does not continue as a fugue. Movement five in Organbook III, Fugue, is actually the only fugue Rorem has written for organ, an instrument so frequently associated with this form.
The subject of this fugue employs the tritone as the predominant interval. The counter subject, however, is taken from the previous movement, Fanfare. Rorem writes a three-voice fugue for hands alone until the end where the pedal enters with the subject in augmentation. This technique is also employed by J.S. Bach in his Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547.
Pastorale is Ned Rorem's own transcription of Andantino from his Symphony No. 1. This charming work provides an opportunity to show off many of the beautiful solo stops of the Casavant organ at St. Joan of Arc Church, including the strings, the flute stops and the Krummhorn.
The first piece, To Tallis, is marked “Bright and Dry” and a Satiesque note in parenthesis states — “a lion's tail twitching.” The opening section outlines the upcoming theme using octave displacement in a cascade of pitches. The theme, based on a choral work by Thomas Tallis, is then played using soft foundation stops. Appearing next in the pedal, the theme is combined with the opening idea in the hands. The moment of repose which follows is broken off once again by a sparse single note outline of the opening gesture which reenters with intermittent trills and a cadenza descending to the bottom of the keyboard. The theme is then restated. The ending employs the same device used in Impromptu from Organbook III — a chain of descending thirds resting on an E major chord with a flight of notes whispered from the bottom to the top of the keyboard.
The Why posed in the opening section, marked “Casual and Lilting,” remains unresolved ending on a dominant triad. The second section is marked “strict” and indeed impresses the listener with its loud dogmatic Because! The inquirer, however, is not satisfied and simply repeats the question. Like the Unanswered Question of Charles Ives, an attempt to answer is made but the question remains.
Like Why and Because, The Flight Into Egypt employs the ternary form. The 6/8 section depicts the flight of Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of Bethlehem escaping the slaying of innocent children at the hand of Herod's soldiers. The slower 3/4 section may be the struggle of the Holy Family through the desert and the blazing sun. The 6/8 section returns as the flight into Egypt succeeds.
This incidental contemplative piece, lasting just over one minute, begins on an E minor seventh chord and, employing once again a chain of falling thirds, ends a tritone away on a B-flat major chord, spelled enharmonically on A-sharp. Subtle harmonic changes occur throughout the piece, always maintaining a sense of repose.
Opening with an expressive pedal solo, Cortège settles down to a set of variations on a lyrical theme. The strict underlying accompaniment in the left hand and pedal is maintained throughout while the right hand improvises on a given theme. Like most of Rorem's theme and variations, Cortège changes the key area with each variation; indeed eight variations are played in eight different key areas. Furthermore, Cortège, similar to Passacaglia in Organbook III accelerates the rhythmic activity up through the middle variation and then reverses the process to the end. As in number three of the Quaker Reader, Evidence of of things unseen, Rorem also increases and decreases the dynamic level in Cortège.
Touch and Go begins with loud dissonant rhythmic chords. This opening rhythmic idea alternates with a flurry of notes as in the opening and closing sections of Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani?. These two ideas alternate back and forth building to a climactic chord followed by quiet distant chord clusters. The finale contains a strong rhythmic theme in the pedal with a wild flourish of notes in the hands ending with rising chords to a final climactic goal.
Ned Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana on October 23, 1923. As a child he moved to Chicago with his family and at age 17 he entered the Music School of Northwestern University, two years later receiving a scholarship to The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He studied composition under Bernard Wagenaar at Juilliard, taking his B.A. in 1946 and his M.A. degree in 1948. In New York he worked as Virgil Thomson's copyist in return for $20 a week and orchestration lessons. In 1949 Rorem moved to France, and lived there until 1958. His years as a young composer among the leading figures of the artistic and social milieu of post-war Europe are absorbingly portrayed in The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem.
Ned Rorem has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including three ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards, the 1976 Pulitzer Prize, as well as commissions for works from the Ford Foundation, the Atlanta and Chicago Symphonies, and Carnegie Hall, to name a few.
Ned Rorem has composed three symphonies, four piano concertos, and an array of other orchestral works, including music for numerous combinations of chamber forces, six operas, choral works of every description, ballets and other music for the theater, and hundreds of songs and song cycles. He is the author of 14 books, including five volumes of diaries and collections of lectures and criticisms.
Ronald Prowse studied under the direction of Pierre Toucheque (a former student of Flor Peeters), Gale Kramer, Ray Ferguson, James Kibbie and Marilyn Mason, completing his Doctorate in Organ Performance at the University of Michigan in 1992. In 1983 he was appointed Director of Music at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in St. Clair Shores, Michigan where he presently serves. Dr. Prowse is an Instructor of Organ at Wayne State University in Detroit, Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and Macomb County Community College in Mount Clemens, Michigan.
As a concert organist, Ronald Prowse has performed in both the United States and Europe. In 1987 the Archdiocese of Detroit selected him to be the organist for the Papal Mass in the Pontiac Silverdome, which concluded the historic second visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States.
As a part of his dissertation at the University of Michigan, Dr. Prowse presented a lecture-recital on the organ works of Ned Rorem. This lecture has been published in article form, appearing in the February, 1995 issue of The American Organist. Ronald Prowse has continued lecturing on the organ works of Ned Rorem; in July of 1998 he spoke at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Denver, Colorado where Ned Rorem was honored with a Rorem Retrospective celebrating his 75th birthday.
1965 Casavant Organ Specifications
Console renovated 1997 by Richard Houghten using SSL Capture, MIDI and MultiSystems.
Recorded at St. Joan of Arc Church in St. Clair Shores, Michigan on December 21, 1999. Recorded and mastered by David Lau, The Brookwood Studio, Ann Arbor, Michigan; www.brookwoodstudio.com.
Photography by Rick Dinoian Photography, 29114 Five Mile Road, Livonia, Michigan.
Liner notes for the seven pieces from Organbook I, Organbook II and Organbook III are taken from “Ned Rorem's Organbooks: Style and Technique” by Ronald Prowse, The American Organist, February, 1995.
Fantasy and Toccata, Fantasy from Organbook I, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? from Organbook II, Organbook III, and Six Pieces for Organ are published by Boosey and Hawkes. Pastorale for Organ is published by Southern Music Company.
Dedicated to my wife, Catherine Odom Prowse.
Cover Design: Bates Miyamoto Design Service
3 Fantasy from Organbook I [4:37]
4 Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?
10 Pastorale for Organ* [6:17]
12 Why and Because [3:47]
13 The Flight Into Egypt [2:26]
*world premiere recording
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