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Just about everybody else, in fact

Posted by John Marks on May 17, 2007 at 17:00:37

In Reply to: Besides the French composers, who else does pipe organ music well? posted by vacuous on May 17, 2007 at 15:00:25:

It's a wonderful world.

I sure would not want to be without Swedish organist and composer Otto Olsson's Op. 36 Lutheran hymn paraphrases or improvisations. There's a robust organ composition and building heritage not only in Scandinavia but also the Baltic countries. Iceland, too.

England has a rich and continuing organ composition heritage; Elgar wrote for organ, 100 years earlier Samuel Wesley did. Herbert Howells wrote great stuff, see Stereophile's Show Reports blog for kind words about the recording I recently made of James Busby playing Howells' "Master Tallis's Testament."

Italians--Enrico Bossi wrote lots of great stuff.

Germans--Rhineberger. Also Karg-Elert and Schmidt.

My suggestion is that you check out www.ohscatalog.com and Hyperion's "Organ Fireworks" CD series and www.arkivmusic.com

Now, about France. One could just as easily ask why no French composer wrote ANY worthwhile chamber or symphonic music for more than 100 years before Cesar Franck!

My personal theory is that French organ culture was an example of the Freudian theory of "The Return of the Repressed." During the Revolution, there was coercion and even genocide (about 180,000 killed in the Vendee alone) against orthodox Catholics, and many churches were turned into museums or secular buildings. Things went back and forth in French society in general for quite some time. The USA has had one Republic in 225 or so years. How many has France had?

The on-again off-again response to the Church led to organs in France being built in concert halls or civic buildings, and there was both synergy and critical mass. Not Mass. "Mass" with a lower-case "c."

Yes, France's 19th-century position in organ building and technique was dominant. But for most of that time, the orchestral music being turned out was really ballet music, and there was (brace yourself) an overall lack of seriousness in French music life until Franck hit his stride.

Not that I can blame anyone for wanting a little frivolity after decades of horror.

OK?

JM

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