Category Archives: Themes

Duke Street

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DukeStreetFirst published anonymously in Henry Boyd’s Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1793), DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton (c. 1710 – 1793) in William Dixon’s Euphonia (1805). Not much is known about Hat­ton, except, it is said that he lived on Duke Street in the village of Win­dle, near St Helens in Lancashire, UK, from where his famous tune gets its name. He was most likely a Presbyterian and it was at the Presbyterian Cha­pel in St. He­lens that his funeral sermon was preached. The story is told that he was killed in a stagecoach accident.

See a list of other popular hymn and chorale themes here.

Videos:
Tom Trenney – “Duke Street”, April 28, 2013 at First-Plymouth Church

Hymn To Joy

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HymntoJoy The melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s final symphony, Symphony No. 9, is often associated with the English text “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” written by Henry van Dyke in 1907. Beethoven originally used portions of a poem by Friedrich Schiller (“Ode an die Freude”, first line: “Freude, schöner Götterfunken”). Beethoven’s tune (without Schiller’s words) was adopted as the Anthem of Europe by the Council of Europe in 1972, and subsequently the European Union.

See a list of other popular hymn and chorale themes here.

Videos:
Vincent Dubois – Improvisation on Ode to Joy by BEETHOVEN – Reims Basilique St Remy

Attende Domine

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AttendeDomineThis penitential chant hymn is based on a 10th century Mozarabic Litany for the Lenten Season. It is considered to be in the Lydian mode.

See a list of other popular chant themes here.


Videos:
Lorenzo Bonoldi – Intermezzo on Attende Domine – Basilica di San Carlo, Milano
Lorenzo Bonoldi – Toccata, Adagio e Finale on Attende Domine – Basilica di San Carlo, Milano

Ave Maris Stella

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AveMarisStellaThis is the chant hymn for vespers for the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption.
The name Mary is said to mean “Star of the Sea” = stella maris.


See a list of other popular chant themes here.

Videos:
Charles Tournemire – Ave Maris Stella – Ste. Clotilde, Paris, France *original audio recorded by Tournemire with slide show of pictures for video

Lorenzo Bonoldi – 5 Versetti on Ave Maris Stella – Basilica di San Carlo, Milano

Victimae paschali laudes

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VictimaePaschaliLaudesVictimae paschali laudes is the Sequence chant for Easter Day. Charles Tournemire recorded an improvisation on the chant which was later transcribed be Maurice Duruflé. This transcription has become a popular piece of organ literature.

See a list of other popular chant themes here.


Videos:
Charles Tournemire (Philippe Lefebvre plays) – Victimae paschali laudes – Chartres Cathedral, France
Lorenzo Bonoldi – Versetti on Victimae Paschali Laudes – Basilica di San Carlo, Milano
Sergio Militello – Victimae paschali laudes
Daniel Roth with Eric Lebrun – Victimae paschali laudes – St. Sulpice, Paris, France

Salve Regina

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Salve Regina - Solemn Tone

Salve Regina –
Solemn Tone

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

Salve Regina, also known as Hail Holy Queen, is one of four Marian chant antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. It is traditionally sung at compline in the time from the Saturday before Trinity Sunday until the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. It is also the final prayer of the rosary. There are two typical chant versions referred to as the solemn tone (above) and the simple tone (below). The solemn chant is in the Dorian mode while the simple chant is in the Lydian mode.

See a list of other popular chant themes here.

Salve Regina - Simple Tone

Salve Regina –
Simple Tone




Videos:
Nigel Allcoat – Symphonie Improvisée on ‘Salve Regina’ – St Nicolas du Chardonnet, Paris
Wm. Glenn Osborne – Postlude on ‘Salve Regina’ – Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Baltimore
William Porter – Improvisation: Four Modal Variations on Salve Regina: I (Theme and Plein jeu)
William Porter – Improvisation: Four Modal Variations on Salve Regina: II (Scherzo)
William Porter – Improvisation: Four Modal Variations on Salve Regina: III (Meditation)
William Porter – Improvisation: Four Modal Variations on Salve Regina: IV (Introduction and Passacaglia)

Themes by Bruckner

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Three themes, used by Bruckner for an improvisation at Kremsmünster on August 21, 1884, one day after he composed the “Perger Präludium”, were ublished on page 61 in Anton Bruckner: Bausteine zu seiner Lebensgeschichte (München: R. Piper & Co., 1911). These are not in Bruckner’s work list, but are available through imslp.org via the link below:

http://imslp.org/wiki/3_Themes_for_an_Organ_Improvisation_%28Bruckner,_Anton%29

Literary texts

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Passages from works of literature also can provide inspiration for spontaneous musical composition. As the traditional home of the organ has been the church, passages from the Bible are probably the most frequent literary texts chosen as themes for improvisations. For example, the Stations of the Cross provided not just a theme for the composition of Marcel Dupré, but many other organists have chosen to improvise music for the same or very similar sets of readings.

Videos:
Thierry Escaich Improv sur le “Chemin de la Croix” de Claudel – Notre Dame de Paris
Thierry Escaich- Improvisation on a text from Saint Paul

Richard Grayson

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Richard Grayson
Website:
http://faculty.oxy.edu/rgrayson/

Professor of Music, Emeritus, Occidental College
Music Faculty, Crossroads School
Richard Grayson (born 1941) is an American composer and pianist. He is best known as an improvisor of classical music, most often with live-electronics. By the 1980s, he was regarded as one of the best non-jazz improvisers (Shulgold 1985). He was also organist at St. Martin of Tours Church, West Los Angeles until his retirement on May 31, 2009, after having served in that position for 28 years.

He offers an improvisation handbook for free download on his website here.

YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/improvelectronic/videos
While not improvisations at the organ, the collection of videos present wonderful demonstrations of different composer’s styles and how themes from one era can be treated in the style of a completely different composer.
Examples include:
“Singin’ in the Rain” in the style of Wagner
“Singin’ in the Rain” in the style of a Chopin Waltz
Moonlight Sonata in the Style of Khachaturian
Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” in the style of Mozart
Can Can in the style of Stravinsky
And this is only a sample!!!

Free Themes

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For our purposes here, free themes will be considered musical material written by someone else that is not associated with any lyrics. It may be a theme from another musical composition or newly written material.
For example:

Other examples from improvisation competitions are shown below.

2005improvisation1


2005improvisation2


thema 1 website


thema 2 website


See also the themes from the 1953 Haarlem Improvisation Competition. There are also links to hear the performance of each of the competitors.