Music Notes for St. Michael and All Angels — September 29, 2024

Alleluyas – Simon Preston (1938-2022)

English concert organist Simon Preston was a chorister at King’s college, Cambridge, under Boris Ord and the Organ Scholar under David Willcocks. He was appointed sub-organist at Westminster Abbey in 1962, a post he held until 1967. He returned as Organist & Master of the Choristers in 1981, after eleven years at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. His published output is small but contains some very effective short choral works and a handful of pieces for the organ. The earliest of these is Alleluyas, this Sunday’s organ postlude in church, which appeared in an anthology of new organ compositions in 1965. Its extrovert style reflects something of his character as a performer and it is clearly influenced by the music of Olivier Messiaen.

After the initial improvisatory gesture, Alleluyas is built from the juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas—the one fast and spikily rhythmic, the other a series of richly scored jazzy chords. The piece is headed by a quotation from the Liturgy of St James:

At his feet the six-winged Seraph;
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluya, Alleluya, Alleluya, Lord most high.”