The season of Lent affords us exposure to a wealth of choral music composed to be heard by supplicatory ears. Orlande de Lassus (ca. 1530-1594) was one of the most prolific and influential composers of the late Renaissance. Whereas Palestrina, Byrd, and Victoria were primarily church composers, Lassus spent much of his life in the service of dukes of Bavaria, equally at home in secular and sacred genres. Of his 997 surviving works, 352 are motets. Some are brief (such as Miserere mei sung this morning), and some are quite lengthy. Music such as this is not analyzed in conventional terms of "major" and "minor" but in terms of the system of "modes." This piece is in plagal Phrygian (Mode 4) having a final (i.e., final pitch of the melody) of E and a repercussa (most repeated pitch) of A.

The Gospel Acclamation that we're using throughout Lent is also in Phrygian Mode and uses the irregular meter of 7/8. The composer Henk Linker (no relation to John Linker, however, they consider each other as "international brothers") lives in Almelo, The Netherlands, and enjoys a fruitful concert and church music career. He composed this Gospel Acclamation while he was living in Lexington, serving a three-month stint as Visiting Artist in Residence at Good Shepherd in the winter/spring of 2012. 

When most people hear the name Saint-Sa�ns and organ music they may think of his 3rd Symphony also known as the "Organ Symphony". Camille Saint-Sa�ns (1835-1921)did not write a great deal of organ music, but he did leave us six preludes and fugues. Prelude in E-flat major, Op. 99, No. 3, composed in 1894, consists of a fast prelude with expeditious arpeggios for the hands with the melody in the feet. The fugue has a very simple but majestic theme, which Saint-Sa�ns develops in increasingly creative ways, eventually pulling in running sixteenth notes over a long pedal note to create a dramatic entrance of the subject in the pedal and ending very majestically.

C�sar Franck's (1822-1890) Pr�lude, Fugue, et Variation, Op. 18, is dedicated to Camille Saint-Sa�ns, himself a well established organist. Franck's dedication implies a balance and clarity of the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation orientation of Saint-Sa�ns. The Pr�lude features a haunting cantabile melody with three repetitions of asymmetrical five-bar phrases. The fugue is a very like-able subject with and interesting development that moves the subject in odd ways. The Fugue moves right into the Variation, connected with a dominant pedal point. The Variation is a treatment of the Pr�lude's melody, with a sixteenth note accompaniment and suggesting B major at the end of the piece.  

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) holds the title of being the world's longest-serving "provisional organist" in church music history! He was appointed interim organist at the Parisian Church of St. Sulpice in 1832, and stayed interim organist for 63 years! While at St. Sulpice he composed 10 Organ symphonies and other pieces for other instrument. The Toccata from Symphony V (the final movement) is possibly Widor's most famous movement composed for organ. In typical French toccata fashion, the hands have groups of repeated phrases outlining triadic harmonies while the majestic melody is assigned to the feet. 

Organist Joshua Bracken to Perform this Sunday in Good Shepherd