Music for St. James’ Day — Sunday July 24 2022

Communion service in G – Francis Jackson (1917-2022)

Kyrie eleison: https://youtu.be/rqBekIM_hU4

Gloria in excelsis: https://youtu.be/KiFV_TF20Nw

Sanctus & Benedictus: https://youtu.be/2KuV6o9PtTQ

Agnus Dei: https://youtu.be/1x0rzrbT9MA

Dr. Francis Jackson CBE (1917-2022) was a British organist and composer. He was born in Malton, Yorkshire and received his early education as a chorister at York Minster under his predecessor, the legendary Sir Edward Bairstow. Jackson succeeded Bairstow as Organist of York Minster in 1946, a post he held until his official retirement in 1982.

His extensive output of sacred and secular music includes canticles, mass settings, anthems, hymn tunes, organ pieces, two acclaimed monodramas, an overture, a concerto, a symphony, and solo songs. Jackson’s creative output continued well past his retirement.

This Sunday’s setting of the mass ordinary in church is Jackson’s Communion service in G, dating from around 1950. The music is in G, but not G major. There is no F sharp in the key signature, creating a sense of the mixolydian mode. This is like a major scale, but with a flattened seventh note, which lends a bluesy tinge to some of the writing. This is colourful, imaginative music by a man who was wholly dedicated to his craft.

Gerald Harder

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Music for Pentecost 6 — Sunday July 17 2022

Trois élévations, Op. 32 – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

Élévation I: https://youtu.be/n55LClgV-sU

Élévation II: https://youtu.be/QKiUaIRy4ec

Élévation III: https://youtu.be/xsw-B__JRXE

Marcel Dupré was the foremost French organ virtuoso of his time and heir to the great tradition of French Romantic organ playing and composing. He traveled widely as a concert artist in North America during the 1920s and 30s and was a hugely influential teacher at the Paris Conservatoire between 1926 and 1956. His music for his instrument, the organ, is brilliant, evocative and is virtuoso writing of the highest order.

This Sunday’s prelude in church, the three short and simple liturgical pieces that make up Dupré’s Trois élévations, Op. 32, date from 1935. The name of this set of pieces comes from its ostensible liturgical function in the French organ mass that came into use during the Baroque era, with organ music playing throughout – part of the so-called alternatim practice. French Baroque composers wrote collections of these pieces, played during the elevation of the sacrament.

The first of Dupré’s set here, in E major, is for flutes, with slow chords in the right hand accompanied by the syncopated bell-like repetitions of a dominant pedal in the left —an effect that was to be developed in greater detail in his setting of the Angélus the following year. The second Élévation in D minor presents a modal melody in canon between right and left hands. In the third, in G major, a pedal flute plays the melodic line, accompanied by a characteristic procession of mysterious, constantly shifting harmonies.

Gerald Harder

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