AGO BOSTON 2014 COMMISSIONS
EIGHT LITTLE HARMONIES AND COUNTERPOINTS James Woodman
Commission For the AGO’s 2014 National Con-
vention in Boston, I have been com- missioned to write a collection of organ pieces titled “Eight Little Har- monies and Counterpoints.” Like the “Eight Little Preludes and Fugues” that almost all organists encounter early in their training, it will consist of eight paired worksmodestly scaled in terms of both technical difficulty and duration. The newer collection will stand in contrast chiefly in its embrace of an expanded vocabulary of form and harmonic language. For a number of years, I had been
pondering what a new “Eight Little” might consist of, and I was delighted when the AGO New Music Commit- tee’s acceptance of my proposal gave me the chance to make a dream into reality. While I have thoroughly en- joyed the challenge, it has been a daunting one, and one I could never have begun if I believed the first “Eight Little” were actually com- posed by J.S. Bach himself. (Every artist needs a fairly robust ego, but I hope mine is not so robust that I would presume to step onto that stage.) However, I have come to ac- cept the reasoning of many modern Bach scholars: whoever wrote BWV 553–560, it was almost certainly not J.S. Bach. In discussing the author- ship of that collection, Peter Williams writes: “Rather, the combination of stylistic elements . . . suggests a widely read but only mildly talented composer of the 1730–50 period, even perhaps later.” Now that would be someone with whom I might feel it reasonable to go head to head.
The first “Eight Little” The first “Eight Little” may or may
not have been created for use by stu- dents, and indeed, more mature mu- sicians will still find much to enjoy. Similarly, my collection is not in- tended as a pedagogical text, method, or anthology of technique. It is simply a set of modestly scaled organ works that I believe might be learned by any- one with enough keyboard facility to perform, say, an early Mozart piano sonata.
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grettable in its baselessness, but what a blessed relief to the young psyche to be able to demonstrate his worthy ac- complishments without apology or explanation. Third, the “Eight Little” are just
plain fun to play. The basso-continuo bass lines of the C major, the exciting manual changes of D minor, the solemn beauty of the seventh chord, cycle-of-fifths sequences in the E mi- nor, the dashing pedal solo of the G major—mastery of these small chal- lenges is indeed something to savor.
A second “Eight Little” With the merits of the first “Eight
Nevertheless, I undertook this pro-
ject with all youthful organists and their teachers foremost in my mind. I have also reflected on what made en- countering the first “Eight Little” so delightful tomeand tomany others as we started our exploration of the or- gan. I will mention just three themes that arose time and again in compar- ing experiences with my colleagues. First, tackling the “Eight Little” rep- resents a generous stride toward mu- sical adulthood. For many students, adolescence is a time of finally leav- ing behind those colored or num- bered volumes with their engravings of bewigged, pantalooned composers, one-page spoon-feedings of music history, and other similar indignities. Learning the “Eight Little” is a first step toward being accepted into a grown-up world of real music played by real artists for real audiences. Second, the style of the first “Eight
Little” is on the whole extroverted, full of life and drama. This is impor- tant because the young organist may already be put in a defensive position by devoting himself to an instrument that may be seen by his peers as church-y. This stereotype is most re-
Little” as a model, the problem for me was to discern which aspects of the original to retain and where to break new ground. The overall organization of my collection is the same as its model: eight paired works (the first of each pair built on harmonic ideas, the second on contrapuntal); modest in duration and technical demand (each pair about 4'15", pedal difficulty ranging from very easy to moderately challenging); and perhaps rather sur- prisingly, complete absence of any dynamics or registration. This is be- cause I believe the notational spare- ness of the first set is a real gift to both the young organist and the teacher. It is never too soon to begin the de- velopment of ear and taste in matters of registration. In the case of my own collection, experimentation isn’t just healthy, it’s essential. Try a piece on 8' and 4', then on a full principal chorus. Which suits the work better? Or do they both work? How does registration affect touch? Do those gradually built-up tone clusters sound better on the Voix céleste or a Krummhorn? I cherish the invitation to creativity that the openness of an organ score by Bach or Frescobaldi gives; I hope others will find the same opportunity in this score. (In a seem- ing self-contradiction, I have indi- cated metronome markings for all pieces. I found I am unable to resist giving the performer clear guidance on that point from the outset.) Ways in which the newer collec- tion stands in contrast to its earlier
THE AMERICAN ORGANIST
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