Toccata and Lament was composed on commission in 2008 to inaugurate the large new organ in the Christ Church Cathedral Rochester NY USA. This instrument is a detailed reconstruction of a late Baroque organ of 1776 from Vilnius in Lithuania. The point of departure a clash of contrasting eras and musical cultures on two continents already bodes excitement. Martin Herchenröder a composer and professor of music theory has incorporated these contrasts in his roughly eight-minute composition. The result is a musical idiom of rare distinction universal in its musical resources and alternating between tonal triads and extremely dissonant clusters. The heart of the pieceis a dirge which using the Baroque doctrine of the affections relates to Eastern European cultural history in and around Vilnius a history marked by the predations of 20th-Century war.Expressive and effective contemporary organ musicAmalgam of musical traditions from the 18th to 21st CenturyExplanatory foreword by the composer (Ger/Eng)
