organ works vol. II
The Frobenius Organ at Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh
Johann Pachelbel
Matthew Owens
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
organ works vol. II
Matthew Owens
The Frobenius Organ at Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh
1 Toccata in G minor [1.43]
2 Nun komm der Heiden Heiland [2.56]
3 Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn [4.16]
4 Wir glauben all an einen Gott [4.29]
5 Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern [3.10]
6 Aria Prima in D minor [10.15]
7 Fugue in A minor [2.18]
8 Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns [3.14]
9 Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot [2.04]
10 Fugue in C major [0.45]
11 Vater unser im Himmelreich [3.12]
12 Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ [3.40]
13 Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren [2.07]
14 An Wasserflüssen Babylon [5.48]
15 Fugue in D minor [1.22]
16 An Wasserflüssen Babylon [4.40]
17 Magnificat tertii toni [15.56]
Total playing time [72.01]
Recorded on 13-14 October 2005
at Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh
Producer & Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Photography: Raymond Parks
Photography © Delphian Records
Design: Drew Padrutt
Booklet editor: John Fallas
Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK
www.delphianrecords.co.uk
With thanks to Mrs Alison Robertson and Dr John Willmett
Recent years have been kind to the reputation of Johann Pachelbel as a south German baroque composer. For many years following his death in 1706 he was mainly accepted as a significant contributor to the keyboard genre, and notably as a composer of organ works generally intended for use in the church. However, this long-held and admirable standing has now blossomed to the point that he is widely regarded as one of the principal and pioneering composers of his day – not just of keyboard forms, but also of chamber and vocal music, both sacred and secular.
While Pachelbel has never commanded the same respect and stature as some of his near contemporaries and successors – Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Sebastian Bach in particular – he was without doubt a prolific and innovative composer of great intellect. In his own lifetime his hard-earned reputation as both composer and teacher went far and wide, and he was fortunate enough, unlike J.S. Bach, not to be almost totally neglected following his death.
There were a number of venerable influences on Pachelbel’s musical style. Following a wide education that saw him pull out of the university in Altdorf due to a shortfall in financial support from his father, Pachelbel attended the Gymnasium Poeticum in Regensburg as a scholarship student from around 1670. Here he was to study extracurricular music with Kaspar Prentz, who would have pointed
him clearly in the direction of a number of the greatest Italian composers of the day. Prentz was himself a pupil of Johann Kaspar Kerll, who was in turn a pupil of Italian composer Giacomo Carissimi, and perhaps even the illustrious Girolamo Frescobaldi. Pachelbel’s south German predecessors included Samuel Scheidt (who had studied in Amsterdam under Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck) and Johann Jakob Froberger (who was possibly a pupil of Scheidt). The composers of the Nuremberg School also had some influence on Pachelbel; they included such names as Johann Erasmus Kindermann, Georg Caspar Wecker and Heinrich Schwemmer, the latter of whom gave Pachelbel some of his earliest musical tuition.
Following the completion of his studies, Pachelbel was appointed assistant organist at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna in 1673, possibly through Prentz, allowing him to have contact with Kerll, who was cathedral organist. While Pachelbel was not necessarily a pupil of Kerll, the older composer’s Italianate influence becomes apparent through Pachelbel’s own music, in which he was to develop and encourage a combination of German and Italian baroque forms and practices.
the following year and the period of mourning that followed considerably stunted the regular pursuits of the court and its musicians. Pachelbel left Eisenach in 1678 to become the organist of Predigerkirche in the central German town of Erfurt – his longest tenure in any one place. By the time Pachelbel left the church at Erfurt in 1690, his renown as a composer and teacher had become widespread and he took up the post of court musician and organist, this time at the Württemburg court in Stuttgart. Misfortune prevailed again, however, and two years later he left the court and Stuttgart in order to escape an invasion by the French, becoming the town organist at Gotha in Thuringia from 1692.
In 1695 Pachelbel returned to the town of his birth, Nuremberg, to succeed Georg Caspar Wecker, who had died in service as the organist of the church of St Sebaldus. This was to be his final post; Pachelbel remained at St Sebaldus until his death eleven years later, and it was here that he cemented his position of prominence as a leading composer of his time.
Protestant churches of the time, and the contract made it clear that the prelude was to be composed beforehand and not to be extemporised at the organ. It was this body of works – and in particular the chorale preludes –that Pachelbel composed at Erfurt that propelled him into the front rank of German composers of the time. In his subsequent and final post at St Sebaldus in Nuremberg, Pachelbel also wrote a great number of Magnificat fugues to precede the singing of the Magnificat text at Vespers, which served to further augment his by then considerable recognition.
Pachelbel’s stay at St Stephen’s was relatively short and in 1677 he moved to Eisenach to become organist at the court of the Duke of Saxe-Eisenach. His employment here was to be even shorter, as the Duke’s brother died
It was partly due to the particular circumstances of Pachelbel’s employment at different churches that he began to compose specific works. His appointment at Erfurt was significant in this respect, as his contract detailed that he was to compose a prelude to be played before the singing of each chorale by the congregation and to be based on the chorale melody itself. This was becoming a regular practice in
Pachelbel’s style when composing for the organ was one of great lyricism and predominantly clear writing. The holding-in-check of musical flamboyance in the more reserved South dictated that musical line – particularly in the case of chorale melodies used within Pachelbel’s music – was clear and little decorated. In his vocal and chamber music, however, which like his organ music was composed throughout his career, there was a degree of virtuosity and flamboyance as well as a more vibrant richness of texture.
Pachelbel’s influence on his successors was significant. As a prolific teacher he had many pupils, although much of his influence came through consequent knowledge of his works rather than directly as a pedagogue. Printing at this time was uncommon and expensive, and, typically, only a relatively small amount
of Pachelbel’s music was published during his lifetime, notably the Acht Choräle zum Præambulieren from 1693 and the Hexachordum Apollinis published in 1699. In conjunction with these there were many manuscript copies of his work that circulated among his pupils and beyond. One of the most significant of his pupils was Johann Sebastian Bach’s elder brother Johann Christoph, who was to become in turn the teacher of Johann Sebastian himself. Pachelbel had had a close association with Ambrosius Bach and his family while in Thuringia, and was godfather to Johann Sebastian’s sister Johanna Juditha as well as teacher to Johann Christoph, thus exerting an indirect influence on one of the most important composers of the baroque era.
As an innovator, Pachelbel’s contribution to works based on Lutheran chorales is perhaps his most significant, although he also composed a considerable corpus of non-liturgical keyboard works that include toccatas, ricercares, fantasias, preludes, fugues and ciaconne. The ricercare and ciaconne were typically Italian forms, while works based on the chorale reflected the tastes and recent customs of German Protestant composers.
There are eleven chorale-based works on this recording and a wide representation of texts and melodies for various times of the church’s liturgical year are employed. Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (Come, now, Saviour of the heathen), Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn (Lord Christ, the only Son of God) and Wie
schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautiful shines the morning-star) all make use of Advent chorales, although the latter of these was also used at Whitsuntide, Annunciation and on Sundays after Trinity Sunday. While many Protestant chorales presented completely new texts, established texts were also employed and are represented by no fewer than six of the chorale preludes here: Wir glauben all an einen Gott (We believe in one God) is a setting of the Nicene Creed, sung both as a Trinity hymn and following the Gospel each Sunday, Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot is Luther’s version of the Ten Commandments, and Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father in Heaven) is Luther’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren (Now praise the Lord, O my soul) and the two settings of An Wasserflüssen Babylon (By the waters of Babylon) are both chorales from the Psalms. The remaining two chorale preludes in this programme use more general texts, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns [den Gottes Zorn wandt] (Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who turned away God’s anger from us) being a hymn for use at Communion or on Maundy Thursday and Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ) traditionally used on the Sundays following Trinity Sunday.
most common were in three or four parts with a clearly presented augmented cantus firmus, or in the form of a chorale fugue. Among the selection here are two chorale preludes unique in Pachelbel’s output. The first of these is Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren, where the augmented chorale is surrounded by the two remaining parts, but still played by the feet using a 4’ stop. (More commonly, Pachelbel presents the cantus firmus in one of the outer parts of the texture.) The second unusual chorale prelude is Wir glauben all an einen Gott, where the chorale melody is highly ornamented. Pachelbel also wrote just three examples of bicinium (a two-part chorale prelude in which the chorale melody is accompanied by an animated bass line), represented here by Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns.
The last of Pachelbel’s specifically liturgical music found in this recording is contained in a set of Magnificat fugues. The Magnificat tertii toni consists of eleven short fugues for the third tone, and they would have been played as a prelude to the Magnificat at Vespers.
larger and more ostentatious instruments that allowed for greater dramatic, virtuosic and improvisatory possibilities, particularly in the pedals. Pachelbel’s non-liturgical pieces mostly stood as separate works – however short –with few pairings of, for example, a fugue following a toccata, prelude or fantasia.
Of the three fugues on this recording – in A minor, D minor and C major – none is particularly extensive. The two fugues in minor keys are strongly suggestive of pedal parts, while the C major fugue is clearly for general keyboard use. The Toccata in G minor is, however, clearly intended for the organ, with its sustained pedal line. It is a predominantly bold statement, the pedal line underpinning the creative interplay between the right and left hands. The Aria Prima is the first of the set of six arias with variations which make up the Hexachordum Apollinis Pachelbel published while in Nuremberg towards the end of his life. Published as works for organ or harpsichord, they demonstrate Pachelbel at his most inventive, and represent one of his greatest accomplishments in the variation form.
Chorale preludes make up around half of Pachelbel’s organ works, and they mostly follow one of a small number of forms. The
Of Pachelbel’s non-liturgical works, many are small in scale and are equally suitable to be played on either harpsichord or organ, often lacking a defined pedal part. In south Germany, organs were generally smaller and less grandiose than their north German counterparts. A composer such as Buxtehude in the north would have been familiar with
© 2008 Adam BinksAdam Binks was recently awarded a PhD in musicology at the University of Edinburgh. The subject of his thesis was the music of Kenneth Leighton.
Specification of the Frobenius & Sønner Organ at Canongate Kirk (1998)
Matthew Owens was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers of Wells Cathedral in June 2004, taking up the post in 2005. He was previously Organist and Master of the Music at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh (from 1999-2004) and Sub-Organist of Manchester Cathedral. He is also Tutor in Organ Studies at Wells Cathedral School (one of the five specialist music schools in the UK), Conductor of the Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society, and Conductor of The Exon Singers, one of the country’s leading chamber choirs.
Choir of Great Britain from 1993-99; he has also conducted the BT Scottish Ensemble, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Mary’s Music School, Wells Cathedral School Chamber Orchestra, Devon Baroque and the Sarum Orchestra. He is increasingly in demand for choral workshops, masterclasses and adjudications in the UK and abroad, and has made over twenty CDs as a conductor or solo organist with Albany, ASV, Black Box, Delphian, Herald, Hyperion, Lammas and Regent record labels.
Also available on Delphian
The Organ in the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling
John Kitchen organ (DCD34064)
Edinburgh’s city organist visits the Mither Kirk of Stirling and Scotland’s largest organ. Never before heard on disc, the 1939 Rushworth & Dreaper represents the zenith of British organ building. Kitchen harnesses this king of instruments in a varied recital, revelling in its sheer magnificence.
‘Kitchen gets to grips with [the instrument’s] full colour potential … warm string stops and the weighty full chorus …’
– The Scotsman, May 2008
Born in 1971, he studied at Chetham’s School of Music and was subsequently Organ Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford. As a postgraduate he received the highest award for performance, the Professional Performance Diploma, with distinction, and the college Bach prize at the Royal Northern College of Music; gained a Master’s Degree from the University of Manchester; won thirteen prizes in the diplomas of the Royal College of Organists and was awarded the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He then studied at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. His major organ studies were with Gordon Stewart, David Sanger, Margaret Phillips and Jacques van Oortmerssen. From 1994-99, he was Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s and worked for BBC Religious Broadcasting.
Matthew worked extensively with Mike Brewer as Assistant Conductor of the National Youth
As an organist, Matthew has given recitals in France, Ireland, Switzerland and throughout the UK, including festival appearances at Carlisle, Lichfield, Newbury, Oxford and Peterborough and at venues such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral and St John’s Smith Square. As a conductor and solo organist he has championed new music, premiering new works by leading composers including Richard Allain, David Bednall, Gavin Bryars, Geoffrey Burgon, Dave Heath, Francis Jackson, Gabriel Jackson, Naji Hakim, Jools Holland, George Lloyd, James MacMillan, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Tarik O’Regan, Arvo Pärt, Howard Skempton and Giles Swayne. He is increasingly active as a composer and some of his works have been recorded for commercial release and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
‘On this stonking disc, wait till you hear Kitchen unleashed on Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1.’
– The Herald, May 2008
Instruments from the Russell Collection Vol II
John Kitchen early keyboard instruments (DCD34039)
Edinburgh University’s Russell Collection is one of the world’s finest collections of early keyboard instruments. The second volume in John Kitchen’s ongoing project to bring its musical exhibits to life matches music by Handel, Purcell, the Scottish composer Robert Bremner and others including Mozart’s son Franz Xaver with a gloriously vigorous menagerie of spinets, virginals, chamber organs, clavichord and harpsichords.
‘a supreme achievement … Every one a gem, as are Kitchen’s stylishly bright performances’
– The Scotsman, March 2006
