Jeanne Demessieux – Variations on "O Filii" | Katherine Webb, organ скачать в хорошем качестве

Jeanne Demessieux – Variations on "O Filii" | Katherine Webb, organ

Organist Katie Webb plays French virtuoso organist Jeanne Demessieux's Variations on the Easter hymn "O filii et filiae," or "O Sons and daughters, let us sing." Demessieux (1921-1968) was renowned the world over for her dazzling technique. She also composed prolifically for the organ, and one of the her most important contributions to the repertoire was a set of Twelve Choral-Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes (1947), intended especially for organists in the United States. Organized by liturgical season and hailed as a modern Orgelbüchlein (J.S. Bach’s collection of chorale preludes for the church year), these pieces encapsulate the richness of the French post-Romantic style of composition, but on a more bite-sized scale. This set of variations on the Easter hymn "O filii et filiae'" comes from this collection, a set of variations on the twelve-verse hymn “O Sons and daughters, let us sing.” After an opening statement of the theme on bold reed stops, a series of successive variations musically render the story told in the hymn, a combination of Luke and John’s accounts that spans the Resurrection to the exchange between Jesus and Thomas. The first variation is in the style of a danse macabre, and the second uses falling scales in succession. The much quieter third variation features a metric displacement that might depict the mystery and fundamental world-changing of Jesus appearing to the disciples in the locked room, but the final set of variations is the most dramatic. Doubting Thomas, represented by the player’s left hand, insistently tries to undo that metric displacement in his disbelief; however, as the piece comes to its conclusion, Thomas’ theme is gathered into the whole texture, no longer set apart in stubbornness but boldly proclaiming “My Lord and my God!”