Pipe Organ Adventures - Music of Herbert Bielawa

 

 

Pipe Organ Adventures

 

 

 

Music by

 

Herbert Bielawa

 

 

 

Performed by

 

Sandra Soderlund

 

 

 

 

 

Herbert Bielawa

 

Herbert Bielawa earned his degrees in piano and composition at the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculties of Bethany College and San Francisco State University where he founded Pro Music Nova, a contemporary music performing group, and the Electronic Music Studio. His works include music for instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band, and orchestra. He was composer-in-residence for a Houston school system as part of a Ford Foundation/Music Educators National Conference project, for the San Francisco Symphony's Summer Music Workshop, and for the Choral Artists of San Francisco. Since 1991 he has been a free-lance composer and pianist. His most recent music commissions were from Meet the Composer, the Minneapolis Convention Center, the San Francisco School of the Arts, the American Guild of Organists, Earplay, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He is a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo and founding director of Sounds New, a San Francisco area new music ensemble.

 

 

 

About the music

 

Of all my organ music Four Pipe Organ Adventures are probably the easiest to play. In fact, with a little practice, a good pianist could play them. Adventures are always challenges. In Adventures, other than finding the right notes in the manuals and pedals, the challenge is to accommodate the maverick nature of the work's forms and style. In Adventuresthere is also a measure of fun — such as creating a massive sonic wall, an otherworldly soundscape, a bit of Rock and Jazz.

 

Monophonies is, as the title indicates, a piece whose texture has only one musical line; there is no harmony or counterpoint. The trick here is to give the illusion of polyphony, the opposite of monophony. With the exception of a few soliloquies, the possibilities of monophonic music have not been exploited since the middle ages. Without the help of harmony of any kind or tonal concurrences a composer's attention has to be focused on other elements. In Flourish, which is a fanfare, the focus is on extreme contrasts of speed differentials and octave doublings. Canto has the rather straightforward form of a medieval song, with verses and refrains. The focus here is on a subtle tonal interaction. The movement is based on a simple, though original, medieval-like melody in a church mode. A deliberately distant transposition of the melody was selected as the tune's “alter ego,” so to speak, its notes intermingling with those of the original. This gives the melody, at first, an atonal character, but as each new verse returns, less and less of the transposed melody is in evidence until the final rendition is in its purest form. Branle is a dance and is related to our contemporary word “brawl.” It therefore focuses on general bawdiness. For that purpose, some form of jazz reference seemed appropriate. Tenore takes its cue from ancient chant in which the tenor is a reciting tone. It focuses on an attempt to give the sustained tones of the organ a sonic decay pattern similar to that of a harp or lute. Such a decay is impossible on the organ ordinarily. In Tenore, however, the tenors are a laminate of short synchronized bursts of crisp flutes and soft sustained flute notes. Battaglia, meaning “battle,” focuses on the general roughness of combat. Repeated notes, ricocheting at break-neck speeds from pipe chamber to pipe chamber might even suggest wild crossfire of flying projectiles.

 

The movements in my Organ Booklet are essentially etudes modeled upon the various “Organbooks” in history. It was from Bach's term Orgelbüchlein that I drew my own title for these organ etudes. In Booklet, I set myself the task of moving classical major and minor chords in parallel streams. The triads are from antiquity but their combinations are from the present. It is dedicated to William Albright. Organ Booklet was premiered by Delbert Disselhorst.

 

The Preludes on Lobe den Herren have a double purpose: to serve as concert pieces and as service music. In Canon the tune appears in three voices, all at different speeds. The tune in the Pedal is in augmentation; on the Great it is at normal tempo; on the Swell it is in diminution. The tonalities change to accommodate the demands for good counterpoint. The piece has a dance-like character. In Meditation the tune is either in the soprano or alto voice in a treble duet with a free voice. Left-hand chords and pedal are freely accompanimental. In Scherzo the tune appears at different intervals canonically between the left and right hands. Interlaced with the tune are swirls of 32nd arpeggiations. In Toccata the rhythmically altered tune appears in two places: in the pedals in diminution and in the left hand part. The right hand accompanies with crisply marked chords.

 

— Herbert Bielawa

 

 

 

Sandra Soderlund

 

Sandra Soderlund is organist at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley and teaches harpsichord and organ at Mills College in Oakland, California. She is on the National Council of The American Guild of Organists. Dr. Soderlund holds degrees from Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. She is the editor of scholarly editions of keyboard works and the author of many articles on performance practices and two books: Organ Technique: An Historical Approach, and A Young Person's Guide to the Pipe Organ. She performs under the auspices of Phyllis Stringham Concert Management of Waukesha, Wisconsin.

 

The Charles W. Spofford and Beulah Merville Spofford Memorial Organ

 

at the Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University

 

The Charles W. Spofford and Beulah Merville Spofford Organ was built by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and is situated in the rear gallery of the chapel. The organ case was designed by Edward Halstead, architect of the chapel.

 

There are 70 independent stops and 100 ranks of pipes in five divisions: Great, Récit, Rückpositiv, Brustwerk and Pedal. The Rückpositiv is placed on the gallery rail. The Brustwerk in the classic position is enclosed in its own case with shutters on the front operable from the console. The main body of the organ conforms to the classic placement of divisions, each in its own case. The pedal towers frame the manual divisions stacked vertically in order: Brustwerk, Great, Récit. The specification of stops is as follows. (The number of pipes in each is listed opposite the stop name.)

 

 

 

Great Organ: Manual II

 

3 1/4" windpressure

 

16 Violone 61

 

8 Principal 61

 

8 Bourdon 61

 

8 Open Flute 61

 

4 Octave 61

 

4 Spindle Flute 61

 

2 2/3 Twelfth 61

 

2 Fifteenth 61

 

IV-VI Mixture 300

 

III Sharp Mixture 183

 

III-V Cornet 274

 

16 Fagotto 61

 

8 Trumpet 61

 

Ruckpositiv Organ: Manual I

 

2 1/2" wind pressure

 

8 Stillgedeckt 61

 

8 Gemshorn 61

 

4 Prinzipal 61

 

4 Rohrflöte 61

 

2 2/3 Nazat 61

 

2 Spitzprinzipal 61

 

2 Zauberflöte 61

 

1 3/5 Octavquinte 61

 

III-V Mixtur 220

 

II Glockenton 122

 

16 Rankett 61

 

8 Krummhorn 61

 

Tremulant

 

Zymbelstern 8 bells

 

Récit Organ: Manual III

 

3 3/4 wind pressure

 

16 Quintaton 61

 

8 Principal 61

 

8 Viole de Gambe 61

 

8 Viole Celeste 61

 

8 Flûte á Cheminée 61

 

4 Octave 61

 

4 Flûte Harmonicus 61

 

2 Doublette 61

 

IV Fourniture 244

 

III Cymbale 183

 

II Sequialtera 108

 

16 Bombarde 61

 

8 Trompette 61

 

8 Hautbois 61

 

8 Voix Humaine 61

 

4 Clairon 61

 

Tremulant

 

Brustwerk Organ: Manual IV

 

2 1/2” wind pressure

 

8 Quintflöte 61

 

8 Spitzflöte 61

 

8 Schwebung 49

 

4 Koppelflöte 61

 

4 Gemshorn 61

 

2 Kleinprinzipal 61

 

1 Sifflöte 61

 

III-IV Zimbel 208

 

8 Regal 61

 

Tremulant

 

8 Fanfare Trumpet 61

 

(Mounted in the center front of

 

the main case with hooded resonators)

 

Pedal Organ:

 

4" wind pressure

 

32 Kontrabass 32

 

16 Principal 32

 

16 Subbass 32

 

16 Quintadena 32

 

16 Violone (Gt.)

 

16 Quintaton (Rec.)

 

8 Octave 32

 

8 Spire Flute 32

 

8 Gedeckt 32

 

8 Quintaton (Rec.)

 

4 Choralbass 32

 

4 Blockflöte 32

 

4 Quintaton (Rec.)

 

2 Kleinprinzipal 32

 

III Mixtur 96

 

IV Scharff 128

 

II Sesquialtera 64

 

32 Kontraposaune 32

 

16 Posaune 32

 

16 Dulzian 32

 

8 Trompete 32

 

4 Schalmei 32

 

Couplers:

 

Positiv - Great

 

Récit - Great

 

Brustwerk - Great

 

Brustwerk - Récit

 

Brustwerk - Positiv

 

Récit - Positiv

 

Positiv - Pedal

 

Great - Pedal

 

Récit - Pedal

 

Récit - Pedal 4

 

Brustwerk - Pedal

 

Brustwerk - Pedal 4

 

 

 

Pistons:

 

General 1-12

 

Great 1-6

 

Récit 1-8

 

Rückpositiv 1-6

 

Brustwerk 1-6

 

Pedal 1-6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph courtesy of the Northwestern University Archive

 

Recorded by Richard Krueger; Recording Assistant:Robert Krueger

 

Produced and edited by H. Bielawa

 

 

 

The Charles W. Spofford and Beulah Merville Spofford Memorial

 

Aeolian-Skinner Organ at the Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pipe Organ Adventures

 

Music by Herbert Bielawa

 

performed by Sandra Soderlund

 

Pipe Organ Adventures

 

1 Walls of Sound [3:23]

 

2 Pulsar [1:59]

 

3 Mobile [4:02]

 

4 Swing [1:56]

 

Monophonies

 

5 Flourish [3:03]

 

6 Canto [4:22]

 

7 Branle [2:51]

 

8 Tenore [5:14]

 

9 Battaglia [5:03]

 

Organ Booklet

 

10 Ouverture [3:04]

 

11 For Mood [2:24]

 

12 For Touch [2:03]

 

13 For Pedalling [2:47]

 

14 For Arpeggios [2:44]

 

15 For Endurance [4:11]

 

Preludes on Lobe den Herren

 

16 Canon [2:17]

 

17 Meditation [4:35]

 

18 Scherzo [3:29]

 

19 Toccata [3:28]

 

Total Time = 63:06

 

Recorded on the Aeolian-Skinner Organ

 

Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University

 

Recorded by Richard Krueger; Recording Assistant Robert Krueger

 

Produced & edited by H. Bielawa