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ELGAR
COMPLETE ORIGINAL ORGAN MUSIC AT THE GRAND ORGAN OF LEEDS CATHEDRAL
Daniel Justin
Elgar and the Organ
Cantique Op.3 No.1
In the days of his youth, Elgar assisted his father with the music at St George’s Catholic Church in Worcester, with a number of his early liturgical pieces such as Ave verum corpus and Ecce, sacerdos magnus evincing clearly an early understanding of the potential of the ‘king of instruments’. His mature orchestral and choral works are brimful of notable organ parts, often sparingly scored but yielding a special impact within the context of a frequently effulgent instrumental sonority. The Sonata in G of 1895 shows Elgar’s remarkable depth of understanding of the organ’s potential. Increasingly, though, it is transcriptions and arrangements of music conceived for other media that are used most frequently in concerts and recitals. Whilst organists bemoan just one substantial work, the Op.28 Sonata, it has to be acknowledged that the quality of so much arranged music played as organ solos provides players with a rich corpus of romantic music from the latter years of the 19th and the early decades of the 20th century. Our gratitude to those who undertook such work – figures of the calibre of Herbert Brewer, Hugh Blair, Edwin Lemare and others – and, in our own day, master-transcribers such as Liverpool’s Dr Noel Rawsthorne – remains profound.
Inscribed to the composer’s friend Hugh Blair, of whom more anon, Elgar’s expressive Cantique is a very early work and comprises an organ arrangement of a piece composed originally for wind quintet. This gloriously lyrical piece is disposed in ABACABA form. Theme B is an extension of A, and the heart of the piece is to be found in the more reposeful C segment at the work’s centre. The music is enhanced by the gentle ‘sighing’ of many phrase-ends; since the inclusion of the work in the first of two Elgar Organ Albums issued from Novello, the Cantique has achieved far wider performance and appreciation.
Imperial March Op.32 Devised specifically for the celebrations accompanying Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, Elgar’s Imperial March – together with the Triumphal March from Caractacus composed in the following year – demonstrates clearly the quality of its composer’s musical rhetoric. Catchy rhythms and swirling harmonies vie for the listener’s attention and the central melody of the trio soars aloft. Ultimately, the infectious rejoicing of the bustling opening figuration returns triumphant in the final coda. The superb arrangement for organ is by Sir George Martin (1844-1916), Stainer’s successor as Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral. Both the Imperial March and the Triumphal March look forward clearly to the glories of Elgar’s set of Pomp and Circumstance marches. 2
Sonata in G Op.28 Composed to be played to a group of American organists visiting Worcester Cathedral in 1895, Elgar’s G major Organ Sonata took time to become established in the repertory. The first performance, by Cathedral Organist Hugh Blair, was not a success. The score was delivered late in the day giving Blair insufficient time to study it and there was some question as to whether the performer was in a fit state to deliver the musical goods. The four surely-crafted movements are each wonderfully contrasted and the opening Allegro maestoso is often played on its own. Master orchestrator Dr Gordon Jacob transcribed this orchestrally-conceived sonata as an orchestral work. It was LP recordings by players of the calibre of Dr Herbert Sumsion, Dr Donald Hunt and Simon Preston in the 1960s and 70s that did much to establish the work’s reputation. Interestingly, the Sonata was first played on the larger of the two historic Hill organs at Worcester, not on the romantically conceived instrument by Robert Hope-Jones that replaced them in 1896. The structure of the work is of interest in that the slow movement follows the Scherzo rather than precedes it. Elgar’s Sonata is inscribed to the famous Midlands choral trainer, Dr Charles Swinnerton Heap, whose sudden death in the period leading up to the premiere of The Dream of Gerontius was to prove so challenging for those charged 3
with presenting the work at the 1900 Birmingham Festival. Soaring melodies abound in this superb sonata, and the relationship of much of the music to the cantata The Black Knight of the same year is clearly discernible.
Nimrod Op.36 The ninth of Elgar’s orchestral Variations on an original theme, Op.36 of 1899, the so-called Enigma Variations is a portrait of A J Jaeger, Musical Editor of Novello, Elgar’s publishers. In British national life Nimrod has assumed almost iconic status as the memorial piece par excellence. Sir William Harris’s superb organ arrangement does an excellent job in portraying the essential inner warmth, brooding passion even, of this noble fragment – an intensely personal essay.
prominence by its inclusion as a main movement in its composer’s Coronation Ode first performed in 1902. The D major march sets off with a spectacular ‘off-beat’ syncopated start unfolding in the tonality of E flat, as far away from the home key of D as could be imagined. Elgar was full of such deft shots of humour – ‘japes’ he called them. The vividly-etched organ version is by the great English organ virtuoso, Edwin Henry Lemare (1865-1934), one of the finest players this country as ever produced and father of celebrated erstwhile Yorkshire resident, Iris Lemare, one of Britain’s very earliest and most successful female conductors. In his early career, Lemare honed his very considerable playing skills on the organs of Sheffield Parish Church (now the Cathedral) and Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, before achieving great fame and stardom at St Margaret’s, Westminster. © Simon Lindley
Vesper Voluntaries Op.14 These gloriously intimate and expressive miniatures date from the months following their composer’s marriage to Caroline Alice Roberts in 1889, being published in 1890. Originally devised for harmonium with one of the movements coming from a string quartet that Elgar never completed, the scheme of the components achieves a neat symmetry by virtue of the use of two motto themes congruent to each of the Introduction, Intermezzo and Coda movements.
Pomp and Circumstance March Op.39 No.1 The first of what was to be a set of five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, the D major includes as its trio theme what the composer described to a friend as ‘a damned fine tune…a tune that will knock ’em flat’. At the London premiere of the piece, just a few days after the March’s first performance in Liverpool, Sir Henry Wood was compelled to repeat the march twice (his only instance of a double encore) before the audience would let him proceed with the remainder of the concert. The melody, indelibly linked with A C Benson’s stanza Land of hope and glory achieved further 4
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Daniel Justin was born in Bristol in 1990. He obtained a music scholarship to Downside School in Somerset aged 10, and began studying the organ with Christopher Tambling and Dr David Bednall. He continued his studies at The University of Huddersfield with Dr Graham Cummings, graduating in 2011 with a BMus (First Class honours), and in 2012 with a MMus (Merit). Daniel focussed his postgraduate study towards improvisation, returning to study with Dr Bednall. During his time at Huddersfield, Daniel held the Organ Scholarship at Wakefield Cathedral, working for a year as Assistant Director of Music. He moved to Leeds Cathedral as Assistant Organist in 2011, becoming Cathedral Organist in 2013. Daniel conducted Morley Music Society and Ecclesia, a Leeds based chamber choir. In early 2015, he moved to be Director of Music for the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia, and Master of Music at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Norwich. Daniel has played live on national television, and on BBC Radio 2, 3, and 4, and has performed regularly on the Radio 4 LW Daily Service. His playing can be heard on CDs from Wakefield and Leeds Cathedrals, more recently as an accompanist on the Brilliant Classics release of the complete choral works of Maurice Duruflé.
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Daniel would like to acknowledge the assistance of Daniel Mills and Thomas Leech in the production of this recording, Simon Lindley for the programme notes, and Dom Cyprian Stockford (1922-2012) of Downside Abbey for introducing him to the Organ music of Elgar.
Recording: 18 May 2014, Leeds Cathedral, UK Recording Engineers: Craig Golding and Bhupinder Chaggar Publishers: 1 Cramer Music (1994); 7 Novello (1932); 17 Boosey & Co. (1902); 2-6, 8-16 Novello ‘Elgar Complete Edition’ (1987) p & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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