Organ Recital - Linden Innes-Hopkins - Music for Remembrance at 11.15 am - St Mary’s Welwyn.

Organ Recital - Linden Innes-Hopkins - Music for Remembrance at 11.15 am - St Mary’s Welwyn.
RECORDED LIVE PRE-LOCKDOWN - Wednesday 4 November, for broadcast on Saturday 7 November 2020 (following the current lockdown restrictions).
Tiento de 1 ̊ tono de manu derecha
Pablo Bruna (1611 - 1679)
Although this showcase piece for the player’s right hand on the trumpet stop was not composed for any warlike purpose, trumpets (also drums) were used in battle, right up to and including WWI ‘to intimidate the enemy and/or to encourage the combatants’.
Adagio in G minor on 2 thematic ideas and a figured bass
Tomaso Albinoni (1671 - 1750)
Albinoni was born, lived and died in Venice. Despite being a prolific composer, this Adagio is the piece for which he is chiefly remembered. It was used in the 1981 film Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson; the battle of Gallipoli was one of the bloodiest in WWI, particularly for Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
Suite from ‘Henry V’
1. March
2. Passacaglia (Death of Falstaff)
3. Touch her soft lips and part
4. March (Reprise)
William Walton (1902 - 1983), arr. Robert Gower
The Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 must be one of the most famous English victories over the French, led by Henry V. English casualties: 400, French casualties: 6,000. This suite of pieces is comprised of extracts from Walton’s film score, arranged into discrete movements.
The Banks of Green Willow
George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), arr. Christopher Tambling
This folksong-based piece is quintessentially in pastoral mood. However, there is a dark underside to the ballad. A ship gets into difficulty at sea and someone has to be thrown overboard in the hope of ameliorating the situation; the lot, tragically, falls on a young woman and her newborn baby. Butterworth was killed on action at the Battle of the Somme.
Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544
J S Bach (1685 - 1750)
This serious, even solemn, work is imbued with a ‘pathetic and elevated character’ (Frank Bridge). Being deeply melancholic in nature, it is thought to have been played at the funeral - on 17 October 1727 - of Christiane Eberhardine, wife of August II the Strong, King of Poland. The Prelude is full of intense swathes of demisemiquavers, while the fugue is more measured, being founded on a stepwise scalic theme.
Psalm Prelude Set 1 No 1 (composed 1915)
Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983)
Howells composed six Preludes based on verses from the Psalms, most of them during or shortly after WWI. Due to ill health, Howells was not conscripted but he was undoubtedly affected by contemporaries and their experience of war. This piece is based on Psalm 23 verse 4: ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...’ The darkness of death, the triumphant rebuttal of evil and the ensuing peace are clearly portrayed in the music.
‘The peace may be exchanged’ from Rubrics (a liturgical suite for organ)
Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
Locklair is an American organist and composer. This peace exudes tranquillity, with a widely-arching tune played on the Diapason stop; the broad melody soars over a quiet but rich accompaniment which employs.
Litanies
Jehan Alain (1911 - 1940)
double pedalling throughout.
Alain was a motorcycle dispatch rider during WWII and was killed in action, having been surprised by a German patrol. ‘Litanies’ is prefaced by the following words: ‘When a Christian soul cannot find, in its distress, new words to implore the mercy of God, it repeats over and over the same invocation with increasing intensity and vehemence. Reason has reached its limit’.

[@sarakelby6619]

Linden,
I really enjoyed the recital. That was another beautiful selection of music, some of which I knew and some of which was new to me. I spent a quiet hour listening on Remembrance Sunday. Thank-you very much.
Sara