Two uploads in about two weeks! In fact, I have been sort of sitting on these chorale preludes and postludes for some time. Hence why I have been able to upload two volumes, six pieces in total, in a very short time. I actually have another volume started for some Christmas hymns/chorales, but I may hold off on editing and finishing it until the fall. There is not much need for a toccata on Antioch right now lol.
This particular set is the first “general” hymn volume containing works on general hymns of praise – Lauda Anima, King’s Weston, and St. Denio. I really like all three of these! Small thought from the composer here: I am sometimes ambivalent about the things I compose. In fact, most folks who create art sometimes run into this. Off the top of my head, Tchaikovsky famously didn’t write The Seasons for anything other than money. If you look at my compositional works for organ, I actually have very few compositions based on chorales but recently I have been kind of inspired. Maybe it’s the end of a semester and the desire to FINISH something. Maybe I have been wanting to write down some improvisational ideas. Maybe I have a whole bunch of compositional energy needing to be released!
I think it is all of the above. That being said, I do not want to do the Paul Manz thing where I record myself improvising and then write it down and edit it. Mostly, it’s an avenue to express my thoughts and ideas about a particular tune that I have in the moment I compose the work on it. And here, with King’s Weston, we have something a little different. The outer two pieces, Lauda Anima, a Bach-like piece, and St. Denio, a toccata, are great and would record well but I am always attracted to the introspective pieces.
With the this work on King’s Weston, there is a weird sense of tonality based on the phrases and I attempted to manipulate that as much as possible in this setting. The repeat came generally late in the compositional process but it felt necessary. The way I interpreted that repeat was to change the solo voice by simply add tremolo. I think there is a lot of opportunity for interpretation in that repeat. Read that here: the composer wants you to mess with the repeat in regards to registration! Enjoy my rendition of this work and go download the Chorale Preludes and Postludes V!