Prelude and Toccata No. 1 (2016)
| Published by the Royal Canadian College of Organists |
Samples
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| Instrumentation: | Organ |
| Genre: | Organ Music |
Commissioner: Commissioned by the Kingston, Ontario Centre of the Royal Canadian College of Organists with funding provided by the Ontario Arts Council for the RCCO's 2017 Conference in Kingston.
Premiere: Organist Patrick Wedd premiered Prelude and Toccata No. 1 at St. George's Cathedral, Kingston, ON as part of the 2017 RCCO Conference on July 14, 2016.
Duration: 11 minutes
Program Note: Prelude and Toccata No. 1 was commissioned in 2015 by the Kingston, Ontario Centre of the Royal College of Canadian Organists with funding generously provided by the Ontario Arts Council. The impetus for the commission was the desire to premiere a new organ work at the RCCO conference in Kingston scheduled for July 2016 with Patrick Wedd as the invited soloist. John Burge was approached with this project as he had already composed a significant number of works for organ including the rather monumental Cathedral Architecture, a five-movement work scored for both organ and brass band or organ and full orchestra. Additionally, being a long-time Kingston resident also made Burge an obvious choice for this opportunity. As an added connection, Burge had sung in the choir at Vancouver’s Christ Church Anglican Cathedral during Wedd’s final year as the Music Director at this church thereby providing an additional dovetailing of the participants.
The two contrasting movements of Prelude and Toccata No. 1 have been subtitled, “Oboe Aria” and “Foot Race” respectively in part to give the listener an immediate reference point. In the Prelude, the slightly faster middle section treats the motivic material of the opening oboe aria in a quirky fashion with a number of unexpected turns before sliding into a reprise of the opening oboe melody. As would be expected by the Toccata’s subtitle, this movement has a very vigorous pedal part and at times really makes the feet dance. The bright harmonic vocabulary employed in this movement (often emphasizing many added seventh and ninth chords) is coupled with many rhythmic synchopations that continually build in volume and energy until arriving at the final flourish in the pedals.