Organ - Advanced
SKU:
MN.12-128
Composed by
Harold Stover. Non
Hymn-Based, Recital
Music. General.
Instrumental part.
MorningStar Music
Publishers #12-128.
Published by MorningStar
Music Publishers
(MN.12-128).
UPC:
688670121289.
The
three movements that make
up Nocturnes, Book I are
programmatic pieces that
take as their points of
departure a painting, the
rhythms of a great city,
and a poem. 1. The Starry
Night is a written down
improvisation based on
Vincent van Goghs famous
picture of the same name.
The tonal material is a
quite literal
transformation of the
visual elements of the
painting: the melismatic
cadenzas mirror van Goghs
swirling starlight, and
the powerful chords were
suggested by the sinister
trees that shoot upward
to puncture the skys
patterns. 2. Stovers Rag
is a product of the
ragtime revival of the
early 1970s, when many
composers tried their
hand at writing concert
rags. The New York night,
which was not without its
sinister element in those
days, is expressed in an
updating of the classic
ragtime format. The piece
looks backward as well,
with the old French
Baroque basse de
trompette making an
appearance in the trio
section. 3. The Song of
Shadows taps the
nostalgic mood typical of
the poetry of Walter de
la Mare. The poem of the
same name pictures a lone
musician on a winter
night, an dog sleeping
before a sinking fire,
and, at the end, the
spirits that are summoned
by music. The opening
melody, played on an 8
flute with tremulant,
suggests the blues-tinged
sound of an alto
saxophone, and throughout
the movement the organs
capacity for sustained
tone is used to suggest
and atmosphere of dreamy
timelessness. The pieces
were written in 1971 and
first performed on July
2, 1972 at the National
Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception in Washington,
DC, with the composer at
the console.
