Tag Archives: theme

Nettleton

by

0

NettletonFirst published without any composer listed in Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (1813), this tune has been ascribed to both John Wyeth (1770-1858), pubisher of the collection and Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844), who was a well-known evangelist of the early nineteenth century for whom the tune is named. Nettleton published Village Hymns (1825), but this compilation had no music and there is no indication that Nettleton wrote any tunes at any time. Wyeth, a printer by trade, was known as a compiler and publisher of early shape-note tune books. However there is no evidence that he also wrote music, as he was not himself a musician.

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

Videos:
Timothy Howard – Improvised postlude on NETTLETON – Pasadena Presbyterian Church, California

Beach Spring

by

0

BeachSpringAttributed to B. F. White, the tune BEACH SPRING first appeared in The Sacred Harp published in Philadelphia in 1844. The tune is named after the Beach Spring Baptist Church in Harris County, Georgia, where White lived. It is a strong, pentatonic tune cast into a rounded bar form (AABA).

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

Artwork as Theme

by

0

Improvisation no.III, Wassily Kandinsky, 1911

Improvisation no.III,
Wassily Kandinsky, 1911

Most certainly since the Romantics began to compose programmatic music, there has been a close tie between visual art and music. Perhaps the most famous example is the set of piano pieces Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. It only follows then that organists would then be asked or inspired to improvise music based upon a painting.


Recordings:

Edoardo Bellotti
Promenade: a Musical Procession Through Paintings

Videos:
Jean-Baptiste Dupont – improvisation on the paintings of M.K.Churlionis
Vidas Pinkevicius – Painting: Pieta
Vidas Pinkevicius – Painting: Sleeping Beauty

Aurelia

by

0

AureliaComposed by Samuel S. Wesley, AURELIA (meaning “golden”) was published as a setting for “Jerusalem the Golden” in Selection of Psalms and Hymns, which was compiled by Charles Kemble and Wesley in 1864. Though opinions vary concerning the tune’s merits (Henry J. Gauntlett once condemned it as “secular twaddle”), it has been firmly associated with Samuel John Stone’s text “The Church’s One Foundation” since tune and text first appeared together in the 1868 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern.

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

Hyfrydol

by

0

HyfrydolHyfrydol is a Welsh hymn tune composed by Rowland Prichard in 1844. It was originally published in the composer’s handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion (“The Singers’ Friend”). The best-known arrangement is probably that by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which he originally produced for his revision of the English Hymnal. Popular texts paired with this tune include William Chatterton Dix’s hymn Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!, Charles Wesley’s Love Divine, All Loves Excelling and Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, Francis Harold Rowley’s (1854-1952) I Will Sing the Wondrous Story (1886), John Wilbur Chapman’s Our Great Savior (“Jesus, what a friend for sinners”) (1910), and Philip P. Bliss’ I Will Sing of My Redeemer (1876), as well as many other hymns from a variety of faith traditions.

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

Recordings:

Organ Ovations & Improvisations
Includes an improvised suite on the tune Hyfrydol by Tom Trenney.

Videos:
Kerry Beaumont – Improvisation on ‘Hyfrydol’ – Coventry Cathedral
Wm. Glenn Osborne – Prelude on ‘Hyfrydol’ – Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
Wm. Glenn Osborne – Postlude on ‘Hyfrydol’ – Cathedral of Mary Our Queen

Hymn To Joy

by

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

Victimae paschali laudes

by

0

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

by

0

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

by

0

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

Chant

by

0

Having served as the music of the Roman Catholic Church for hundreds of years, chant has been the subject of improvisations throughout many different stylistic periods and in many different forms.
Some popular chant themes include:

Videos:
Gerre Hancock – Improvised versets on the Magnificat Solemn Tone – April 4, 2004 – St. Thomas
Otto Maria Krämer – Improvisation in Memoriam Marcel Dupré on “Ave maris stella”
Loïc Mallié Improvisation sur deux thèmes grégoriens
Olivier Messiaen – Puer Natus Est – La Trinité
Pierre Pincemaille – Conditor Alme Siderum – St. Denis
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)