Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
John Challenger
(Salisbury Cathedral, UK)
John Challenger
(Salisbury Cathedral, UK)
Program
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Offertoire sur les Grands Jeux, from Messe pour les Paroisses
Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
Trois Pièces
i. Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin
ii. Le Jardin Suspendu
iii. Litanies
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 682
Rachel Laurin (1961-2023)
Three Impressions on Kingsfold
i. Prélude en Canon
ii. Berceuse
iii. Cloches
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983)
Nocturne
Gaston Litaize (1909-1991)
Allegretto, from 24 Pièces
Healey Willan (1880-1968)
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Offertoire sur les Grands Jeux, from Messe pour les Paroisses
Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
Trois Pièces
i. Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin
ii. Le Jardin Suspendu
iii. Litanies
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 682
Rachel Laurin (1961-2023)
Three Impressions on Kingsfold
i. Prélude en Canon
ii. Berceuse
iii. Cloches
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983)
Nocturne
Gaston Litaize (1909-1991)
Allegretto, from 24 Pièces
Healey Willan (1880-1968)
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue
British organist John Challenger has been Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, UK, since September 2012. In this role, he accompanies Salisbury Cathedral Choir in daily worship on the Cathedral’s famous organ built by Henry Willis in 1877. John is also Assistant Conductor of Salisbury Musical Society, and a freelance organ recitalist. Recent invitations to perform have come from across the UK, as well as Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the United States.
He received his musical education as a chorister at Hereford Cathedral, and as an Organ Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge. At St John’s College, under the directorship of Andrew Nethsingha, John accompanied the world-famous chapel choir, playing the organ for services, concerts, recordings, broadcasts, tours, and four critically-acclaimed recordings on the Chandos label. In early 2017, John acted as Director of Music of St John’s College, during the sabbatical of Andrew Nethsingha.
John studied the organ with David Briggs, Jeremy Filsell, Mark Williams, and the late David Sanger, and he obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists in 2008.
Deeply interested in sharing the benefits of cathedral as widely as possible, John’s recent projects at Salisbury have included the establishment of the cathedral’s own record label, the annual Organ Prom which draws around 1,000 audience members, pipe organ days for young people, and work with schoolchildren.
John has released four critically-acclaimed solo recordings on the organ of Salisbury Cathedral: Elgar from Salisbury, César Franck Organ Works, the best-selling album Organ Prom, and most recently, Salisbury Meditation, an album which raises funds for the UK’s National Health Service charities.
On 18 September 2024, John’s own organ arrangement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets from Salisbury Cathedral will be released as an audio album (The Planets, available as a CD, and on digital platforms), alongside an hour-long film in 4K (The Planets – Out of Darkness) which premieres at 8pm on Salisbury Cathedral’s YouTube channel.
He received his musical education as a chorister at Hereford Cathedral, and as an Organ Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge. At St John’s College, under the directorship of Andrew Nethsingha, John accompanied the world-famous chapel choir, playing the organ for services, concerts, recordings, broadcasts, tours, and four critically-acclaimed recordings on the Chandos label. In early 2017, John acted as Director of Music of St John’s College, during the sabbatical of Andrew Nethsingha.
John studied the organ with David Briggs, Jeremy Filsell, Mark Williams, and the late David Sanger, and he obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists in 2008.
Deeply interested in sharing the benefits of cathedral as widely as possible, John’s recent projects at Salisbury have included the establishment of the cathedral’s own record label, the annual Organ Prom which draws around 1,000 audience members, pipe organ days for young people, and work with schoolchildren.
John has released four critically-acclaimed solo recordings on the organ of Salisbury Cathedral: Elgar from Salisbury, César Franck Organ Works, the best-selling album Organ Prom, and most recently, Salisbury Meditation, an album which raises funds for the UK’s National Health Service charities.
On 18 September 2024, John’s own organ arrangement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets from Salisbury Cathedral will be released as an audio album (The Planets, available as a CD, and on digital platforms), alongside an hour-long film in 4K (The Planets – Out of Darkness) which premieres at 8pm on Salisbury Cathedral’s YouTube channel.
Program Notes
by Dr. Kenneth Udy, University of Utah
Although François Couperin was the greatest of the Couperin dynasty who reigned over the organ at the Church of Saint-Gervais in Paris for over 200 years, he composed only two organ works: Mass for the Parishes and Mass for the Convents. They were published in 1690 when Couperin was just 22 years old. The longest movement is the stunning Offertoire sur les Grands Jeux which marries the French overture style and the Italian sinfonia. Rooted in Trinitarian symbolism, the piece is in three sections. The first is an overture in the brilliant key of C major, filled with sumptuous dotted rhythms. The second chromatic fugal section, not unlike a ricercare of Frescobaldi, approaches C minor and constitutes the architectural and spiritual peak of the mass. The final section returns to C major from which a joyful and gigue-like fugue emerges.
The 3 Pieces of Jehan Alain were published in 1939 and are the only organ works which he saw published, as he was killed in action during World War II. Fortunately, prior to being conscripted in August 1939, Alain entrusted his wife with his other manuscripts, which were published posthumously. In the brief Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin Alain treats a melody attributed to Jannequin with a statement and only two variations. He found the theme in a book of old French songs arranged for piano and solo voice; however, the melody turned out not to be by Jannequin at all, but an anonymous love song from 1529. The first variation is a modal re-statement of the theme; the second is a fugato treatment. The dreamy Le jardin suspendu [The Hanging Garden] is subtitled “chaconne,” in which style a harmonic/melodic passage is repeated several times, paired with varied material around it. The piece begins its four-bar ostinato not in the bass as expected, but in a very high register and varies little during its several repetitions, except for a thicker, more animated section just past the midpoint. Before long, the piece reverts to its opening mood. Litanies is certainly Alain’s best-known piece. Alain created a highly original theme composed of the rhythmic pattern 3+5 then 2+4+2 repeated obsessively to create an ecstatic state. He finished composing the piece in the Alpine resort of Argentières on August 15, 1937. Fourteen days later, he received news of the fatal mountain accident of his younger sister Marie-Odile. Following her death, he changed the title from “Supplications” to “Litanies” and added the text: “When the Christian soul, in its despair, finds no new words to implore the mercy of God, it unceasingly repeats the same supplication, and reason reaches its limit, faith alone continues its climb.”
Published in 1739 when Bach was at the peak of his creative powers, the Third Part of the Clavierübung [Keyboard Practice] is his first and most extensive printed collection of organ music. At the heart of the collection are arrangements of the six chorale melodies of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. The third, Vater unser im Himmelreich [Our Father which Art in Heaven], was used to sing the Lord’s Prayer. Bach’s arrangement stands as one of his most complex and densely contrapuntal organ masterworks renowned for its cosmopolitan nature. Written in five-part texture, each hand is assigned to a separate manual playing two parts. The chorale appears in canon at the octave, assigned to the upper voice in the right hand and the lower voice in the left hand. The other two manual parts are devoted to an Italianate ritornello theme derived from the chorale but dressed in the garb of an ornamented French instrumental line, complete with fashionable short-long Lombardic rhythms. The pedal acts as a continuo bass providing harmonic support.
A native of Quebec, the late Rachel Laurin was a prolific composer and organ virtuoso. She was assistant organist at Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal (1986–2002) and titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa (2002–2006). Her 3 Impressions on KINGSFOLD was commissioned a decade ago by Ottawa organists Donald and Suzanne Marjerrison. The beloved folk tune is thought to date back to the Middle Ages. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal in 1906. It gained traction locally in 1985 when it was added to the LDS hymnal. Laurin quips that the first movement, marked Andante tranquillo, senza rigore, is her very first canon for the organ! The second movement is a lullaby in 6/8 time with the theme treated in a major key, providing a totally different color to the tune. The last movement, in a soft-loud-soft arch, evokes the effect of bells and was somewhat inspired by Vierne’s Les Cloches de Hinckley.
Germaine Tailleferre was a mainstream French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six. She studied piano with her mother at home, composing short works of her own, after which she began studying at the Paris Conservatory. Nocturne dates from 1977 and is her only organ work. In reality, the one-page piece is a transcription she created in collaboration with Thomas Daniel Schlee of a movement from her Serenade in A Minor for wind instruments and piano composed the previous year.
Gaston Litaize was born blind and studied with Adolphe Marty at the Institute of the Young Blind and later with Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatory. Following Marty’s death in 1942, Litaize not only succeeded him at the Institute but also as organist at Saint-François-Xavier for the remainder of his life. His compositional style combines the earlier French symphonic sound with a fresh neo-classical transparency and harmony. Among his post-war compositions were the rich and diverse 24 Préludes Liturgiques published in 1954. These short, untitled pieces were specifically written for use during the mass. Prelude Nº 4 is in C-sharp minor and marked Allegretto. Frolicking and modulating through several keys, it is a scherzo loosely constructed in ABA form, culminating with three grand chords on full organ. The piece is dedicated to Litaize’s close colleague Arsène Muzerelle, who was the organist at the cathedral in Reims from 1943–1997.
Healey Willan claimed to be English by birth, Canadian by adoption, Irish by descent, and Scottish by absorption! After serving as organist in a handful of London churches, he immigrated to Toronto in 1913 and served as organist at St. Paul’s Anglican Church which housed the largest organ in Canada, a four-manual Casavant. This organ, along with Reger’s Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor, inspired his celebrated 1916 Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E-flat Minor. The key was allegedly chosen because Willan was learning Rheinberger’s Sonata Nº 6 in the same key. The Introduction, marked Adagio, begins mysteriously with five, chromatic chords over a ubiquitous descending chromatic bass followed by several declamatory chordal passages, quick improvisatory manual bravuras, and jolting modulations, finishing with the mysterious progression from the beginning as a transition into the Passacaglia. Willan wrote one Passacaglia variation each day while traveling between Toronto and his summer cottage on Lake Simcoe. He described Variations 1-8 as “somber in character,” beginning with the theme in canon. Variations 9 and 10 are “of a scherzo type” including harp-like arpeggio chords. Variations 11-17 present a gradual increase in rhythm and dynamics, then a soft 4/4 chorale-like variation in E-flat major acts as a bridge into the Fugue. The fugue subject is derived from the Passacaglia theme. The grandiose finale of the Fugue and, indeed, of the whole work, is an animated passage in E-flat major of contrapuntal virtuosity followed by the triumphant Nobilmente passage—the 19th variation of the Passacaglia—where the theme is played in canon against the pedal and a countermelody sounded on the tubas.
by Dr. Kenneth Udy, University of Utah
Although François Couperin was the greatest of the Couperin dynasty who reigned over the organ at the Church of Saint-Gervais in Paris for over 200 years, he composed only two organ works: Mass for the Parishes and Mass for the Convents. They were published in 1690 when Couperin was just 22 years old. The longest movement is the stunning Offertoire sur les Grands Jeux which marries the French overture style and the Italian sinfonia. Rooted in Trinitarian symbolism, the piece is in three sections. The first is an overture in the brilliant key of C major, filled with sumptuous dotted rhythms. The second chromatic fugal section, not unlike a ricercare of Frescobaldi, approaches C minor and constitutes the architectural and spiritual peak of the mass. The final section returns to C major from which a joyful and gigue-like fugue emerges.
The 3 Pieces of Jehan Alain were published in 1939 and are the only organ works which he saw published, as he was killed in action during World War II. Fortunately, prior to being conscripted in August 1939, Alain entrusted his wife with his other manuscripts, which were published posthumously. In the brief Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin Alain treats a melody attributed to Jannequin with a statement and only two variations. He found the theme in a book of old French songs arranged for piano and solo voice; however, the melody turned out not to be by Jannequin at all, but an anonymous love song from 1529. The first variation is a modal re-statement of the theme; the second is a fugato treatment. The dreamy Le jardin suspendu [The Hanging Garden] is subtitled “chaconne,” in which style a harmonic/melodic passage is repeated several times, paired with varied material around it. The piece begins its four-bar ostinato not in the bass as expected, but in a very high register and varies little during its several repetitions, except for a thicker, more animated section just past the midpoint. Before long, the piece reverts to its opening mood. Litanies is certainly Alain’s best-known piece. Alain created a highly original theme composed of the rhythmic pattern 3+5 then 2+4+2 repeated obsessively to create an ecstatic state. He finished composing the piece in the Alpine resort of Argentières on August 15, 1937. Fourteen days later, he received news of the fatal mountain accident of his younger sister Marie-Odile. Following her death, he changed the title from “Supplications” to “Litanies” and added the text: “When the Christian soul, in its despair, finds no new words to implore the mercy of God, it unceasingly repeats the same supplication, and reason reaches its limit, faith alone continues its climb.”
Published in 1739 when Bach was at the peak of his creative powers, the Third Part of the Clavierübung [Keyboard Practice] is his first and most extensive printed collection of organ music. At the heart of the collection are arrangements of the six chorale melodies of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. The third, Vater unser im Himmelreich [Our Father which Art in Heaven], was used to sing the Lord’s Prayer. Bach’s arrangement stands as one of his most complex and densely contrapuntal organ masterworks renowned for its cosmopolitan nature. Written in five-part texture, each hand is assigned to a separate manual playing two parts. The chorale appears in canon at the octave, assigned to the upper voice in the right hand and the lower voice in the left hand. The other two manual parts are devoted to an Italianate ritornello theme derived from the chorale but dressed in the garb of an ornamented French instrumental line, complete with fashionable short-long Lombardic rhythms. The pedal acts as a continuo bass providing harmonic support.
A native of Quebec, the late Rachel Laurin was a prolific composer and organ virtuoso. She was assistant organist at Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal (1986–2002) and titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa (2002–2006). Her 3 Impressions on KINGSFOLD was commissioned a decade ago by Ottawa organists Donald and Suzanne Marjerrison. The beloved folk tune is thought to date back to the Middle Ages. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal in 1906. It gained traction locally in 1985 when it was added to the LDS hymnal. Laurin quips that the first movement, marked Andante tranquillo, senza rigore, is her very first canon for the organ! The second movement is a lullaby in 6/8 time with the theme treated in a major key, providing a totally different color to the tune. The last movement, in a soft-loud-soft arch, evokes the effect of bells and was somewhat inspired by Vierne’s Les Cloches de Hinckley.
Germaine Tailleferre was a mainstream French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six. She studied piano with her mother at home, composing short works of her own, after which she began studying at the Paris Conservatory. Nocturne dates from 1977 and is her only organ work. In reality, the one-page piece is a transcription she created in collaboration with Thomas Daniel Schlee of a movement from her Serenade in A Minor for wind instruments and piano composed the previous year.
Gaston Litaize was born blind and studied with Adolphe Marty at the Institute of the Young Blind and later with Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatory. Following Marty’s death in 1942, Litaize not only succeeded him at the Institute but also as organist at Saint-François-Xavier for the remainder of his life. His compositional style combines the earlier French symphonic sound with a fresh neo-classical transparency and harmony. Among his post-war compositions were the rich and diverse 24 Préludes Liturgiques published in 1954. These short, untitled pieces were specifically written for use during the mass. Prelude Nº 4 is in C-sharp minor and marked Allegretto. Frolicking and modulating through several keys, it is a scherzo loosely constructed in ABA form, culminating with three grand chords on full organ. The piece is dedicated to Litaize’s close colleague Arsène Muzerelle, who was the organist at the cathedral in Reims from 1943–1997.
Healey Willan claimed to be English by birth, Canadian by adoption, Irish by descent, and Scottish by absorption! After serving as organist in a handful of London churches, he immigrated to Toronto in 1913 and served as organist at St. Paul’s Anglican Church which housed the largest organ in Canada, a four-manual Casavant. This organ, along with Reger’s Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor, inspired his celebrated 1916 Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E-flat Minor. The key was allegedly chosen because Willan was learning Rheinberger’s Sonata Nº 6 in the same key. The Introduction, marked Adagio, begins mysteriously with five, chromatic chords over a ubiquitous descending chromatic bass followed by several declamatory chordal passages, quick improvisatory manual bravuras, and jolting modulations, finishing with the mysterious progression from the beginning as a transition into the Passacaglia. Willan wrote one Passacaglia variation each day while traveling between Toronto and his summer cottage on Lake Simcoe. He described Variations 1-8 as “somber in character,” beginning with the theme in canon. Variations 9 and 10 are “of a scherzo type” including harp-like arpeggio chords. Variations 11-17 present a gradual increase in rhythm and dynamics, then a soft 4/4 chorale-like variation in E-flat major acts as a bridge into the Fugue. The fugue subject is derived from the Passacaglia theme. The grandiose finale of the Fugue and, indeed, of the whole work, is an animated passage in E-flat major of contrapuntal virtuosity followed by the triumphant Nobilmente passage—the 19th variation of the Passacaglia—where the theme is played in canon against the pedal and a countermelody sounded on the tubas.
