John Burge

Premiere: The dedicatees of these two chorale preludes presented the premiere performances in Toronto on Thanksgiving Sunday, October 9, 1994.  William Wright played Nun Danket at Dear Park United Church and Patricia Wright played Lord of the Dance at Metropolitan Uniterd Church.

Program note: These two chorale preludes were written for two Toronto organists, Patricia Phillips Wright and William Wright in celebration of their marriage in 1994.  The folksong melody used in Lord of the Dance (also known as 'Tis a Gift to be Simple) is given a Trio Sonata-like treatment with the tune surrounded by a walking bass line in the pedals and a fast moving counter-melody in another manual.  In Nun Danket, the hymn tune enters in the pedals in long note values after an introduction on the manuals that makes considerable use of repeated chord figuration.

The personal story behind these two pieces is that John Burge actually studied harmony with William at the University of Toronto, and eventually sang for many years in William's choir at Deer Park United Church.  William was kind enough to program some of Burge's early choral works at Deer Park.  William loved the music of Bach and Buxtehude and using a familiar Lutheran melody seemed appropriate for his chorale prelude.  Patricia presented the premiere performance of Burge's Dance, which was commissioned by the Royal College of Canadian Organists.  It seemed only fitting to pay acknowledgement to her brilliant playing of this work with the tune that is familiarly known in Canada as Lord of the Dance.

Please note that this work was published by Jaymar Music Limited in 1996 but as this company subsequently went out of business, the copyright has reverted back to the John Burge and can only be purchased as a pdf through this website.  The cover page of the pdf indicates that the work was purchased legally.

Aaron Tan gave a wonderful performance of "Lord of the Dance" as part of his Yale University's Masters of Music recital program at Woolsey Hall in February 2020.  So glad he shared this link with me.