Suite for orchestra and organ (Bruch)
The Suite for Orchestra and Organ Op. 88b is the last of a total of 3 suites by the composer Max Bruch .
Emergence
In 1904, Bruch traveled to Capri for health reasons . On Good Friday a procession passed under his hotel window , prompting him to write the following lines to his family:
Nice weather. In the evening between 8-9 procession in the narrow streets and alleys of Capri. In front a mourning herald with a large tuba , on which he blows a kind of signal ...
Not bad at all; you could make a very good funeral march out of it! On it several large, bordered crosses - one is carried by the hermit from Monte Tiberio. A couple of hundred children dressed in white with large burning candles, each also carrying a small black cross in their hand. They sing a kind of lamentation in unison ...
In the course, a chilling Corpus Christi was carried on a stretcher, behind it a canopy carried by four men and the clergy - then again on a stretcher, highly exciting, a huge, magnificently decorated, very horrible doll, representing the Madonna , etc. As the procession emerged again from the nightly darkness of the small alleys, crossed the piazza and then climbed the high flight of stairs to the church (a picturesque sight!), the loud and discordant cries of a donkey suddenly mingled with the drawn out tones of the hundred-voiced lament. Immediately the serious and devout mood of the crowd changed, and everyone laughed loud and hearty. Immediately afterwards the "Holy of Holies" appeared, all heads exposed, the people knelt down and crossed themselves, and followed the procession into the church, where the priests then performed the "Entombment" with many ceremonies. The bells of Capri were silent on Good Friday and Holy Saturday ... Lights burned on all the windows while the procession passed; it was like an illumination at a celebration.
This experience inspired Bruch to write a new composition, Suite No. 3 for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 88b .
The work
It is not a conventional organ concert in which the soloist shines with virtuoso skills. Rather, the organ serves as a sonic support and enrichment of the large orchestra, which is characterized by a massive wind line-up.
The work is in four movements : the corner movements take up the mourning signal of the procession . The Nocturno (3rd movement) stands out from the power of these movements with its lyrical richness of melody. Bruch began composing in 1904; it was not completed until 1909. At the request of two American sisters, Bruch reworked the work into a version for two pianos and orchestra.
Individual evidence
- ^ Fifield, Christopher: Max Bruch, Schweizer Verlagshaus, Zurich 1990, pp. 304f
literature
- Fifield, Christopher: Max Bruch , Schweizer Verlagshaus, Zurich 1990 ISBN 3-7263-6616-4
- Kirchmann, Norbert: Booklet for CD ebs 6049