Max Gulbins, Sonata No. 5 (War Sonata) Op. 98, Third Movement - James Garratt скачать в хорошем качестве

Max Gulbins, Sonata No. 5 (War Sonata) Op. 98, Third Movement - James Garratt

The War Sonata (Kriegssonate) by Max Gulbins (1862-1932) is one of the most substantial responses to World War One in the field of organ music. It was composed in 1915-16, when German triumph in the war still seemed assured, and dedicated to Oberstleutnant Bernhard Heinrich Schwerdtfeger, one of the victorious commanders at the Battle of Tannenberg (26-30 August 1914). Like several other German instrumental works from the early years of the war, Gulbins' War Sonata makes extensive use of German patriotic songs and chorales. Featured heavily in this Finale is the chorale 'Nun danket alle Gott', a hymn associated in Germany since the mid eighteenth century with military victory. On its initial publication in 1916, the score of Gulbins' sonata included an introduction by the organist Paul Hielscher, which signal the function of this movement as a victory celebration: 'The finale is ... clear and transparent, presenting an imposingly built up arrangement of the chorale “Nun danket alle Gott”. At the conclusion Gulbins adds [optional] trumpets, trombones, timpani and also a boys’ choir in order to strengthen the cantus firmus and enable the work to culminate with this incomparable hymn of thanksgiving. Although cannons still thunder in the East as well as the West, we nonetheless have every reason to thank our Lord God for what has already been achieved in the war, so that even now this sonata should and will legitimately ring out and bring forth gratitude and enthusiasm.' The music is accompanied by German postcards from the war, which I've used to signal the appearance of the patriotic tunes and chorales at the work's heart. The postcards are from Sabine Giesbrecht's marvellous online collection (www.bildpostkarten.uni-osnabrueck.de).