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ML 5290 COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS

Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 65 Widor: Organ Symphony No. 6 in G Minor, Op. 42, No. 2 Albert Schweitzer, Organist

Notes by Albert Schweitzer

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Organ Sonata No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 65.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (born at Hamburg in 1809, died at Leipzig in 1847) is the creator of the modern organ style.

It was significant that at that time a composer of his eminence by occupying him¬ self with the organ works of Bach became so familiar with the style required by the organ that he could undertake to write for it in the spirit of modern music.

The world became acquainted with this organ style for the first time through Mendelssohn’s preludes and fugues pub¬ lished in 1837. They were followed by the six sonatas for organ.

Widor considered the fourth of these the most interesting and most important, be¬ cause in it Mendelssohn was daring enough to write for the organ in a thoroughly orchestral manner.

Allegro con brio In the first movement of this sonata there

are two entirely different rhythms, each moving solemnly in its own fashion. A sec¬ tion in brilliantly animated waves of six¬ teenths constitutes the beginning, which is articulated by the interpolation of eighth- note figures in the bass.

This section is followed by a second, which proceeds in the measured rhythm of solemnity

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In the course of the movement both rhythms combine and thereafter appear together:

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The contrasts in rhythm, in intensity, and in tone color resulting from this disposition of the piece bring out its charm and come olT effectively on the organ.

Andanie religioso This expressive marchlike second move¬

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Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 65

Widor: Organ Symphony No. 6 in G Minor, Op. 42, No. 2 Albert Schweitzer, Organist

{continued from front of jacket)

principal and subsidiary manuals and has a lovely, simple structure.

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Allegro maestoso vivace This finale, like the first movement of the

sonata, is conceived in a thoroughly orches¬ tral style. A proud, pompous section in¬ troduces it.

Adegro maestoso e v/vace

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The middle section of the finale is a fugal fantasy on the theme.

The third movement is a true Mendels- sohnian cantilena. The delightful melody with its lovely lines, played by bright voices, is heard now over, now under the flute ac¬ companying it in the alto. Towards the end it appears as a duet between soprano and tenor.

In it Mendelssohn reaches the limit of what is permissible in transferring the in¬ strumental style to the organ.

With the return of its pompous first sec¬ tion, the finale comes to an end.

Charles Marie Widor: Organ Symphony No. 6 in G Minor, Op. 42, No. 2.

Charles Marie Widor (1845-1937) was organist of the church of St. Sulpice in Paris and professor of the organ and of compo¬ sition at the Paris Conservatory.

His style of writing for the organ exploits the gains of the 19th-century development of the instrument. During this century the organ was improved in the sense that the problem of supplying sufficient and steady wind pressure was more adequately solved than before. Great progress was made also in the construction of the pipes. Through the construction of certain types of pipes (salicionals, gambas, cellos, and violones) organ builders succeeded in producing a sound similar to that of the stringed instru¬ ments. Similarly we now have pipes whose tone, produced with the help of vibrating tongues, resembles oboes, clarinets, bas¬ soons, trumpets, and trombones.

Another important forward step is the technical possibility offered by modern or¬ gans of adding or subtracting whole groups of registers in addition to those which can be drawn by hand, or of replacing one whole group of registers by another preassembled, equally complex group. Thus the modern player can make transitions from one dy¬ namic level to another and from one tone color to another in ways which were im¬ possible on older organs.

The result is that in writing for the modern organ composers can treat the instrument as if it were an orchestra, whose basic tone quality is that of flutes at all pitch levels instead of the string choir of the orchestra, but which nevertheless commands stops re¬ sembling the stringed instruments as well as oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, and trombones.

In exploiting these new possibilities many composers showed themselves to be rather conservative, while others—Widor among the French and Max Reger (1873-1916) among the Germans—developed this orchestral style as far as the nature of the organ would allow.

In his Symphony No. 6 in G Minor, belonging to 1879, which falls in Widor’s middle creative period, he shows complete mastery of this orchestral style which he had attempted in his earlier symphonies. He also displays the full possession of his powers as a creative artist.

This orchestral style was suggested to him by the organ constructed by Cavaill6-Coll in 1862 for the Church of St. Sulpice, an organ of tremendous size and superb tonal quality. Allegro

The Allegro of this symphony has a ma¬ jestic principal theme:

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After the exposition of this broad theme there follows a recitativelike passage ac¬ companied by/or/2ss?’mo chords:

This passage includes tiny motives derived from the majestic main theme. And in the next section, where the main theme is de¬ veloped, these tiny motives recur as accom¬ paniment figures, weaving about the main theme from which they originally derived. It is this which gives this beautifully built movement its unity and vitality. Adagio

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This Adagio was created under the in¬ fluence of Richard Wagner. Widor had been among those French artists who witnessed the first performance of Wagner’s Nibe- lungen Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1876. The deep impression he received shows in this movement, which was written two years later. It is an elegy. Its first section is a noble lament. There follows a short, agitated section, in which the lament swells to a passionate outpouring. And finally, as if this outburst had exhausted all the depths of sorrow, the music soars upward, trans¬ figured by hope, to float at last in flutelike tones above the soft voices of gambas and cellos. Cantabile (Movement III, Intermezzo, omitted)

This theme and the motives associated with it dominate the opening and closing sections of the Finale. In addition the follow¬ ing characteristic figure appears:

A contrapuntal fantasia on this figure constitutes the middle section of the Finale. Beginning pianissimo, its cascading line dips and vaults, high and low, and swells to a fortissimo:

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The Cantabile is the counterpart to the Adagio. Here a cantilena of the oboe, over gently weaving eighth-note patterns of flute voices, sings of peaceful joy. A short inter¬ mezzo of the flutes, now in sixteenth-note motion, leads to the return of the cantilena under which the sixteenth-note pattern per¬ sists as an accompaniment figure. A closing section in which a flute, with string accom¬ paniment, sings reminiscently of the can¬ tilena, brings this movement to a peaceful end. Finale

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finally fading away again to a pianissimo end. In a corresponding pianissimo the re¬ turn of the pompous main theme begins, mounting at last ■ to a sonorous fortissimo close for the entire work.

Translated by Nathan Broder

1 Library of Congress catalog card numbers R58-1108 and 1109 apply to this record.

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