SNC:AGO RECITALISTS
Paul S. Hesselink: March 20, 2015
and April 15, 2007
An adjunct faculty member at UNLV since 1993, Paul S. Hesselink played a major role in securing the university's Maurine Jackson Smith Organ in Doc Rando Hall, completed in 2004 by Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau of Hamburg, Germany.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in organ at Hope College. He studied musicology under a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship at University of Michigan, completed the Master of Arts in organ pedagogy at The Ohio State University and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in organ performance at University of Colorado, Boulder. He studied harpsichord in Paris with Davitt Moroney.
For 26 years, Hesselink was on the faculty of Longwood University. He received two National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowships for postgraduate study: in music theory (Yale), and Schoenberg studies (USC). His extensive article, Correspondence from the Schoenberg legacy: 'Variations on a Recitative for Organ, Op. 40' was published in the Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute and again in The American Organist.
Dr. Hesselink was affiliated with Nevada School of the Arts, serving as its Dean for twelve years. In April 1996, he was the harpsichordist for the world premiere of Nevett Bartow's Concerto for Harpsichord ana Chamber Orchestra with Nevada Chamber Orchestra. In June of that year he recorded the work with the Slovak Radio Orchestra in Bratislava (MCC Recording 2060, The Works of Nevett Bartow).
He is a member of College Music Society, American Musicological Society, Organ Historical Society, and American Guild of Organists. He serves on the boards of Friends of the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras and Nevada School of the Arts. He is currently the organist at Christ Church Episcopal in Las Vegas.
Program: March 20, 2015
A Celebration of the 330th Birthday
of Johann Sebastian Bach
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565
Concerto in A Minor, BWV 593
(Allegro) - Adagio - Allegro
This concerto is Bach's own transcription of Antonio Vivaldi's String Concerto, Op. 3/8
An Wasserflussen Babylon, BWV 653b (double pedal)
THREE ORGAN CHORALES:
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645
Schubler Chorale Preludes
Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659: Eighteen Chorale Preludes
Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten, BWV 642
Orgelbuchlein
Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 "The Little"
Taylorann Evans, Malik Gray,
Kaitlyn Marcus, Kalie McLaughlin, Dannii Moore and Laura Schaffer
UNLV Dancers under the direction of Margot Mink Colbert, Choreographer
UNLV DANCERS
Choreographer: Margot Mink Colbert
The Department of Dance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas strives to provide the highest caliber of academic research and professional training for the dance artist. The advanced training program has been created, with the intent to attract students from across the globe. By studying with highly respected faculty in a world-class environment, these students are able to immerse themselves in the rich art of dance. The Department of Dance seeks to become one of the top training schools in the nation.
Program: April 15, 2007
Commemorations
The year 2007 marks the 300th anniversary of the death of the great North German composer and church musician at the Marienkirche in Lubeck, Dieterich Buxtehude. Organizer of the famous Abendmusiken, presented during the Sundays of Advent, Buxtehude had a reputation sufficient to attract the young J. S. Bach to make a 280 mile journey on foot to "hear for himself” what made Buxtehude famous across Germany. Bach stayed in Lubeck for four months. He was supposed to be gone from his church position only one month, so he was in a bit of trouble when he returned! Style characteristics of Buxtehude's writing are easily traceable in subsequent compositions by Bach.
Praeludium in G Minor, BuxWV 149: Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Two Chorale Preludes: Dieterich Buxtehude
Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist, Bux WV 208
We Pray Now to the Holy Spirit
Ein Feste Burg, BuxWV 184
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
"Jean Langlais (1907-1991) was one of the glories of twentieth-century French music, uniting two great traditions. As organist at the church of Sainte-Clothilde in Paris for more than forty years, he maintained the deeply spiritual musical legacy established there by César Franck and continued by Charles Toumemire; as a blind man, he was his generation's foremost successor to the great blind virtuosos Louis Vieme and André Marchal." (Langlais: The Man and His Music - Ann Labounsky). Langlais wrote more music for the organ than any other composer except for J.S. Bach. As a salute to Langlais' 100th birthday, tonight's program includes his setting of the well-known "Passion Chorale," written between 1942 and 1943 in a collection of "Neuf Pièces," a set of short works for the organ showing the composer's continuing response to the war. The Parisian publisher Bournemann commissioned the work, asking Langlais to include pieces based on Lutheran chorales and Gregorian chants. Miniature (1959) was commissioned by the American organist Marilyn Mason. The short toccata, in A B A form with a slow middle section, was the revision of a piece with the same title, originally written in 1935.
Mon âme cherche une fin paisible: Jean Langlais (1907-1991) My soul longeth to depart in peace
Miniature, Op. 108: Jean Langlais
American composer Daniel Pinkham died this past December. Longtime organist and music director at Kings Chapel in Boston, Pinkham has created an extensive and inventive body of organ literature, but never deviates from the practical. The Versets, published in 1988, are representative of his style.
These short compositions use readily identifiable "methods" for the organizing of each piece. Pinkham creates a mood suggestive of the title of each Verset:
Let us be patient and watch. Slowly changing chords consistently employ the interval of a ninth between the tenor voice in the left hand and the pedal bass.
Rise up now and be merry. Numerous three- and four-note rising figures at a brisk and lively tempo create the mood.
Where you go, I will go. The famous Biblical statement of devotion by Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi is appropriately cast as a canon (the left hand "follows" the right hand) at the interval of a fourth and at the space of four beats; the third voice in the pedal represents the "trudging along" to complete the trio texture. Three peaceful concluding chords signal completion of the journey.
Ponder this in your heart. A mystical atmosphere is created by slowly moving chords above a static C-major triad, held from the beginning to the end of the piece by use of key weights or pencils.
My laments have been turned into dancing. The 8/8 meter, expressed in groupings of eighth notes in patterns of 3+3+2, are interrupted by measures of 3 /4 and 6/8 meters; the result is a dance-like rhythmic effect.
As it was foretold. In this second of the mystical Versets, the composer directs the performer to hold notes in the left hand until a large stretch makes it necessary for a finger to be released. Against this background of shifting sound, the right hand presents parallel fourths, slowly moving up and down the keyboard in a detached.manner.
And all the bells rang out the good news. Over a static low "C" pedal, a pattern of four pitches is presented in the left hand -- C - D-- F# and G-in all possible 24 permutations or orders. This mimics the practice of change ringing for tower bells. Above in the right hand, a rhythmically vigorous fantasy unfolds.
Versets: Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006)
Let us be patient and watch
Rise up now and be merry
Where you go, I will go
Ponder this in your heart
My laments have been turned into dancing
As it was foretold
And all the bells rang out the good news
Elegy was commissioned for "Celebrating the Organ," a conference held in Tucson, Arizona in March, 2005 in tribute to the late University of Arizona professor and organist, Roy Andrew Johnson Jr., (1936-1995). On February 28, 1995, Professor Johnson became the victim of a random, violent homicide as he returned home from a University School of Music Faculty Showcase performance. Elegy is a reflective and elegant passacaglia based on a theme composed to accompany a single closing statement of the much-beloved Swedish tune Tryggare Kan lngen Varn (Children of the Heavenly Father). The work is intended to be a reflection on Johnson's life and legacy, his ethnic heritage, and his abiding faith.
Elegy (2004): James Biery (b. 1956)
This performance is dedicated to the memory of Raymond J. Barnes
Oskar Lindberg served as the organist of Stockholm's Engelbrektskyrkan from 1914 until his death in 1955. He was also on the faculty of the State Academy of Music where he pursued his interests in folksong; some of his compositions are simple settings of Scandinavian folk melodies. This gem is perhaps the best-known piece of Swedish organ music, both in and outside Sweden. If you know only one piece of Swedish organ music, this is probably it!
Gammal Fäbodpsalm från Dalarna: Oskar Lindberg (1887-1955)
Schönberg is a present-day Swedish composer for the organ. He was a student of Flor Peeters in Belgium and is the former organist at St. Gorants Church in Stockholm. This work, the first in a series of five compositions by the same title, opens forcefully. A calmer middle section evokes the style of Hindemith. The concluding section is energetic in contrast and leads to the return of the opening theme amid manual and pedal trills and a dramatic resolution.
Toccata Concertante (1954): Stig Gustav Schönberg (b. 1932)