Description
A Celebration of Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) based on themes from his Eighth Organ Sonata for organ
This work was written in answer to a request from Dr Martin Weyer, Director of Music at Philipps University at Marburg and an authority on Rheinberger, for a recital piece to commemorate the 150th anniversary of that composer’s birth. The Eighth Sonata, a masterpiece of the organ repertory, furnished the inspiration; the subject of the Fugue was the primary source of my material as, it would seem, that of the original sonata. This theme contains not only the rising scales which permeate Rheinberger’s piece, but also the falling fifths which ultimately produce the ground of the Passacaglia. (One curiosity of my re-working of this theme is its introduction in the elaborate form of one of the variations: it proceeds gradually to assume the simple shape of Rheinberger’s original thought.) I hope the result of my re-creation will be found a substantial piece in its own right, with its own 20th Century voice: a pastiche of the 19th Century sonata would have been a poor sort of tribute. In programme-building, it should follow rather than precede the sonata, perhaps at a respectful distance. Alan Gibbs
