Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY ALTERNATIM! 6 DAVID J. SMITH Organ THE FRIDAY SCHOLA
Alan Cooper
06 November 2009
King's College Chapel
Having reached its half-way point, the Alternatim Series achieved a glorious consummation as David J. Smith explored the concept of Alternatim in Improvisation. The freedom that improvisation offers the performers allowed the equilibrium between voices and organ to be nicely balanced, not only in the comparative lengths of the different musical contributions but also in where they fell in the performance. Previous performances have had to rely on how much music has survived down to our time. The techniques of improvisation have a long and honourable history in organ playing and these have developed differently in the various countries of Europe. There is of course a disadvantage in that the music thus played is totally ephemeral and vanishes from the repertoire as soon as the performer stops playing. I am sure I am not the only person who regrets never having heard the organ improvisations of Anton Bruckner for instance. We read in various sources that they were really wonderful.
David Smith nevertheless passed the first test of improvisation with flying colours. That test is that whatever else happens, the music must not sound improvised. It must sound as if it were being read off a printed page. With the opening Kyrie in mode (i) for which Dr Smith chose earlier styles as his model, there was, for example, a hint of Vierne there, in the section that used crumhorn stops. The improvised sections were firmly structured with imitation in the various voices and countermelodies which complemented the main voice.
For the Te Deum, Dr Smith chose more contemporary models. The spiky rhythms of such as Kenneth Leighton marked the opening improvisation. Birdsong in the style of Messiaen decorated the main themes in several guises, Herbert Howells was suggested in a more lush harmonic section and Dr Smith rounded off his performance in heroic style with a splendid Toccata. As it ended, I could not help thinking of all the great improvised music which we can no longer hear today. This concluding improvisation could certainly stand alone as a fine organ recital piece. Is it already too late to get it down on paper Dr Smith?