Description
Featuring:
Geoffrey Atkinson
Stephen Burtonwood
Paul Edwards
Norman Harper
Gary Higginson
Evelyn Stell
Ronald Watson
Philip Wilby
Carson Cooman is Research Associate in Music and Composer-in-Residence at the Harvard University Memorial Church. He has organized a project to bring about new works for organ conceived in the form of Pavane and Galliard. The goals are two-fold:
1) to see how different composers explore reimagining this Renaissance genre within their own contemporary styles,
2) to continue to encourage freely-composed, ‘secular’ literature for the organ outside of the context of traditional sacred music. The pieces have indeed shown the rich variety of compositional languages employed today, and despite the designation ‘secular’ would still be admirably suited for use as voluntaries.
The Pavane and Galliard are Renaissance dances that were popular throughout all of Europe during the 16th century. The Pavane is a dance of slow, processional-like character. The Galliard is vigorous and fast. These two dances became a common pairing: the slow Pavane serving as a kind of prelude to the fast Galliard; or, from the alternate view, the Galliard being a release of energy in response to the Pavane. Like many historical dances, the musical forms stayed in use even after the popularity of the actual dancing had ended.
He has commissioned and invited over 125 composers worldwide to contribute to the project. He has given permission for Fagus to issue a volume of compositions by our own composers (as above). Even this relatively brief collection shows that it is possible to produce music fully in accord with Carson’s instructions, but music in widely ranging styles.
Please visit Carson’s website above to hear performances of these works
