When I visited Copenhagen some time ago I stumbled on Niels Gade´s tomb in the Holmens Kirke and was surprised to learn that he had been organist of this church for thirty-two years. In fact he played his last service on the day of his death, 21 December 1890 (Sunday, 4th Advent). That led me to enquire whether he actually wrote anything for the organ -- when you hear his name you think of symphonies and chamber music, not organ music. But he did. Indeed, the chorale prelude on How Brightly Beams the Morning Star is clearly somewhat popular, despite (or perhaps precisely because of) its apparent simplicity. Unusually, the cantus firmus is of course assigned to a solo stop (the autograph says trumpet, but with the Cappel organ the sesquialtera sounds better) yet at the beginning of the final section the c.f. is switched to the accompaniment, with the solo stop coming back in only for the last few bars. The piece is so beautiful I could cry when I hear or play it. It may seem odd to play it on a baroque organ but that was what Gade had at the Copenhagen Garrison Church, where he was organist when he wrote this in 1852. -- I have also uploaded a straight harmonisation of this (rather wonderful) hymn tune. https://youtube/watch?v=Kd4by1m8kQo
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 16:24:12 +0000
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