Two Ballades for organ Op2
No1 - The First Ballade was composed between
June 1984 and March 1985, with a romantic instrument in mind,
and inscribed in memoriam Fr. Theodore Cunningham-Burley. Its
theme, in four phrases, is not so much stated as insinuated in
the right-hand part against the meandering left-hand quavers;
then the process is reversed, with the pedals and left-hand in
canon. A recitative-like passage leads to a more tranquil section,
using harmonies and melodic lines derived from the theme. A fugal
passage is well under way when the main theme enters above it:
its clearest appearance in the piece. Its last phrase is entended
and reiterated. There follows a toccata-like section with irregular
rhythms. The pedals, answered by the right-hand, allude to the
theme's first phrase, before the music subsides into low chords
below two solo lines. Then, like the eye of a storm, before the
return of the toccata, a quiet sequence of chords and tremolos
reminisces wistfully. The return of the toccata brings references
to the theme's fourth phrase, gradually coming to rest in E, the
key in which the piece began. Duration: c10mins
No2 - The Second Ballade, like the first,
explores the colours of the romantic organ. It is prefaced, as
it were, by a sentence of nine bars in which the right-hand states
a bare theme - Theme I - the essence of the whole piece. Then
begins the main theme - Theme II - actually an elaborated and
lengthened version of the initial theme, using exclusively the
notes of the mode, or scale, outlined by Theme I. Theme II is
characterised by the augmented seconds of the mode. A new section,
marked Piu Vivo, brings Theme I in three-four time against detached
chords in two-four. The music rises, before chords descend to
below the pitch of the pedal parts, resting there to await the
return of Theme II. Its further extended second statement is echoed
and answered by related phrases in the pedals and left-hand. The
music then becomes more contrapuntal, and phrases from Theme II
are heard in combination at difference speeds, with a gradual
increase in volume and momentum. Swell reeds are added when Themes
I and II combine. Newly united, these go on to form the climax
of the whole piece. Subsiding and fragmenting, the music returns
to the initial mode with a passage that reflects on the just-passed
central climax and on the imminent return of the opening. A full
statement of Theme II is followed, as before, by a Piu Vivo section
based on Theme I, with the same detached chords. Once again, the
music rises and falls, but the left-hand phrases increase in speed,
and a triplet figure develops under the detached right-hand chords.
With the start of the sustained harmonies on Swell Voix Céleste,
angular outlines soften into a more opaque texture. Against its
held right-hand chords and weaving left-hand quavers, Theme II
enters canonically in two pedal voices, the lower strangely reshaped
by the formation of the mode. Gradually slowing down, the quavers
transfer to the Voix Céleste, and the piece dies away to
its pianissimo end on a chord of G sharp minor. Duration: c10mins
Buy the music! Publisher:
Music Sales/Novello - price £9.95
Recording:
CD DTR 8706 played by the composer at Trenton Cathedral
NJ
