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Herbert Bielawa earned his degrees in piano and composition at the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculties of Bethany College and San Francisco State University where he founded Pro Music Nova, a contemporary music performing group, and the Electronic Music Studio. His works include music for instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band, and orchestra. He was composer-in-residence for a Houston school system as part of a Ford Foundation/Music Educators National Conference project, for the San Francisco Symphony's Summer Music Workshop, and for the Choral Artists of San Francisco. Since 1991 he has been a free-lance composer and pianist. His most recent music commissions were from Meet the Composer, the Minneapolis Convention Center, the San Francisco School of the Arts, the American Guild of Organists, Earplay, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He is a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo and founding director of Sounds New, a San Francisco area new music ensemble.
Of all my organ music Four Pipe Organ Adventures are probably the easiest to play. In fact, with a little practice, a good pianist could play them. Adventures are always challenges. In Adventures, other than finding the right notes in the manuals and pedals, the challenge is to accommodate the maverick nature of the work's forms and style. In Adventuresthere is also a measure of fun — such as creating a massive sonic wall, an otherworldly soundscape, a bit of Rock and Jazz.
Monophonies is, as the title indicates, a piece whose texture has only one musical line; there is no harmony or counterpoint. The trick here is to give the illusion of polyphony, the opposite of monophony. With the exception of a few soliloquies, the possibilities of monophonic music have not been exploited since the middle ages. Without the help of harmony of any kind or tonal concurrences a composer's attention has to be focused on other elements. In Flourish, which is a fanfare, the focus is on extreme contrasts of speed differentials and octave doublings. Canto has the rather straightforward form of a medieval song, with verses and refrains. The focus here is on a subtle tonal interaction. The movement is based on a simple, though original, medieval-like melody in a church mode. A deliberately distant transposition of the melody was selected as the tune's “alter ego,” so to speak, its notes intermingling with those of the original. This gives the melody, at first, an atonal character, but as each new verse returns, less and less of the transposed melody is in evidence until the final rendition is in its purest form. Branle is a dance and is related to our contemporary word “brawl.” It therefore focuses on general bawdiness. For that purpose, some form of jazz reference seemed appropriate. Tenore takes its cue from ancient chant in which the tenor is a reciting tone. It focuses on an attempt to give the sustained tones of the organ a sonic decay pattern similar to that of a harp or lute. Such a decay is impossible on the organ ordinarily. In Tenore, however, the tenors are a laminate of short synchronized bursts of crisp flutes and soft sustained flute notes. Battaglia, meaning “battle,” focuses on the general roughness of combat. Repeated notes, ricocheting at break-neck speeds from pipe chamber to pipe chamber might even suggest wild crossfire of flying projectiles.
The movements in my Organ Booklet are essentially etudes modeled upon the various “Organbooks” in history. It was from Bach's term Orgelbüchlein that I drew my own title for these organ etudes. In Booklet, I set myself the task of moving classical major and minor chords in parallel streams. The triads are from antiquity but their combinations are from the present. It is dedicated to William Albright. Organ Booklet was premiered by Delbert Disselhorst.
The Preludes on Lobe den Herren have a double purpose: to serve as concert pieces and as service music. In Canon the tune appears in three voices, all at different speeds. The tune in the Pedal is in augmentation; on the Great it is at normal tempo; on the Swell it is in diminution. The tonalities change to accommodate the demands for good counterpoint. The piece has a dance-like character. In Meditation the tune is either in the soprano or alto voice in a treble duet with a free voice. Left-hand chords and pedal are freely accompanimental. In Scherzo the tune appears at different intervals canonically between the left and right hands. Interlaced with the tune are swirls of 32nd arpeggiations. In Toccata the rhythmically altered tune appears in two places: in the pedals in diminution and in the left hand part. The right hand accompanies with crisply marked chords.
Sandra Soderlund is organist at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley and teaches harpsichord and organ at Mills College in Oakland, California. She is on the National Council of The American Guild of Organists. Dr. Soderlund holds degrees from Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. She is the editor of scholarly editions of keyboard works and the author of many articles on performance practices and two books: Organ Technique: An Historical Approach, and A Young Person's Guide to the Pipe Organ. She performs under the auspices of Phyllis Stringham Concert Management of Waukesha, Wisconsin.
The Charles W. Spofford and Beulah Merville Spofford Memorial Organ
at the Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University
The Charles W. Spofford and Beulah Merville Spofford Organ was built by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and is situated in the rear gallery of the chapel. The organ case was designed by Edward Halstead, architect of the chapel.
There are 70 independent stops and 100 ranks of pipes in five divisions: Great, Récit, Rückpositiv, Brustwerk and Pedal. The Rückpositiv is placed on the gallery rail. The Brustwerk in the classic position is enclosed in its own case with shutters on the front operable from the console. The main body of the organ conforms to the classic placement of divisions, each in its own case. The pedal towers frame the manual divisions stacked vertically in order: Brustwerk, Great, Récit. The specification of stops is as follows. (The number of pipes in each is listed opposite the stop name.)
Ruckpositiv Organ: Manual I
Brustwerk Organ: Manual IV
(Mounted in the center front of
the main case with hooded resonators)
Photograph courtesy of the Northwestern University Archive
Recorded by Richard Krueger; Recording Assistant:Robert Krueger
Produced and edited by H. Bielawa
The Charles W. Spofford and Beulah Merville Spofford Memorial
Aeolian-Skinner Organ at the Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University
performed by Sandra Soderlund
Preludes on Lobe den Herren
Recorded on the Aeolian-Skinner Organ
Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University
Recorded by Richard Krueger; Recording Assistant Robert Krueger
Produced & edited by H. Bielawa
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