Description
While some phrases in this ‘Toccata Festiva’ inevitably are quotations from Mendelssohn’s much-loved Christmas hymn, the tendency here is to shy away from recalling too overtly the famous melody.
Essentially, this seasonal piece reflects a more fanciful, personal response to the original melody, so that snippets of the original tune are periodically heard disguised and recast. The moto perpetuo is unrelenting and highly charged, composed in the French organ tradition associated with Boëllmann, Dubois, Gigout, Vierne and others.
The celebratory mood of this piece is epitomised throughout by heroic triads coupled with use of the octatonic scale. Both these elements serve to add a jubilant glitter to the texture and the harmonies.
