I have invited our special guest, distinguished Canadian organist Christopher Dawes, to write the blog accompanying the concluding concert of our Consortium Aurora Borealis 45th Season. He will perform the programme “The Brilliance of Baroque Organ: Bach and Buxtehude”, which ties in perfectly with our organization’s desire to promote this particular period. His blog post will give us an interesting overview of what will be heard, with fascinating insights into the composers and the music which will be presented. You may find his bio under “About: Artists” on our website.
He is delighted to be playing on the fine Casavant organ of St. Paul’s United Church, and in fact memorably played a recital on it under the auspices of the Royal Canadian College of Organists many years ago. When I first approached Christopher about performing in our series, he replied that it was a joy to be invited, that he would love nothing better than to come up and play, and that he was very excited at the prospect!
His special passion is discovering and sharing all that is interesting and inspirational in music. Chris impresses audiences “not only by his technical skills but by his musical sensitivity as well.” (Fredericton, NB). He is a “master of the instrument and the music.” (Toronto) Of his performances, it has been said: “Christopher Dawes sparkled with crystalline delicacy” (Hamilton, ON), and “Dawes gave a stunning rendition of Bach’s Toccata in F major. One has to have the nimbleness of a Fred Astaire to cope with this showpiece.” (Belleville, ON). It is this work which will dramatically open his Thunder Bay concert.
We are most honoured to welcome him! And now, here’s Christopher!
1705, autumn in northern Germany: a young 20-year-old composer sets out from the city of Arnstadt to make the gruelling journey on foot to Lübeck, almost 400 km to the north on the Baltic coast. His reason? To hear some music by an organist – a 68-year-old organist, in fact, who is nearing the end of his career. But this isn’t just any organist, and the steadfast walker isn’t just any young composer.
Dieterich Buxtehude may not be the biggest name in Baroque music in our time, but during the late 17th century and early 18th centuries he was renowned throughout Germany. As organist at St Mary’s Church in Lübeck, he held one of the most coveted musical positions in the land. He travelled, taught and had time to develop his skills as a keyboard virtuoso, in addition to his official duties as town organist. With this artistic freedom grew his reputation, and the likes of Handel and Telemann travelled to Lübeck with the express purpose of visiting Buxtehude. His compositional output is dominated by choral works of varying forms, and of course, organ music.
In October 1705, Bach applied to his superiors for permission to leave his post for a month to hear the music of Dieterich Buxtehude (“to comprehend one thing and another about his art”, as Bach put it). The older composer was due to give a series of concerts under the title of “Abendmusik” (evening music) on Sundays throughout Advent. They must have been a mouth-watering prospect to the young Bach. Large ensembles were required to play Buxtehude’s music, with one performance using multiple organs, several choirs, drums, trumpets and other brass instruments and a 25-strong violin section. Later that fall, Bach left his post in the hands of his assistant and set off ON FOOT on the 400 km journey – that’s the distance from Thunder Bay along Highway 17 clear to White River, and well on the way to Wawa!
Consortium Artistic Director Elizabeth Ganiatsos and I have planned a program that shares many of Bach’s familiar and magnificent works alongside some of the Buxtehude works that may have inspired them.
A member of my Toronto congregation, who is a huge fan of the music of Buxtehude and who has been a decades-long supporter and sometime Board member of the National Ballet of Canada, once observed (and asked me why) ballets were frequently set to the music of Bach, but as far as either of us knew, not a single one had been set to the music of Buxtehude. There are a range of answers to this question, but one of the most important ones is that despite his famous Lutheran faith and piety, Bach was a prolific composer of secular music as well as sacred – a claim his less famous idol Buxtehude could not make. One of the most important elements of 17th-century secular music was the influence of dance. Whether explicit dance forms such as we see in the instrumental and orchestral suites, or simple driving dancelike rhythms such as we see in tonight’s opening work, the organ Toccata in F, BWV 540, a sense of dance pervades much of Bach’s work.
This leads us naturally into our first work of Buxtehude, the Präludium in G minor, BuxWV 148. Buxtehude’s compositional references to dance are much rarer than Bach’s, but the closing section of this work introduces a giveaway, a repeating bass line (which we first hear alone) over which florid variations are composed – a hallmark of many traditional dance forms with names like Ciacona and Passacaglia from Italy, and from England simply ‘Ground’ (from which comes the term ‘Ground Bass.’) This device leads us in turn into what is perhaps the same composer’s finest working out of a dance form at the organ, his Ciacona in E minor, BuxWV 160, and then the Bach work thought to have been inspired by it, the monumental Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582 (which, because it’s Bach, ends after numerous variations with an incredible Fugue).
Lest we end the first half with Buxtehude hopelessly “one-upped” by Bach’s Passacaglia, we close with the delightful and exuberant Präludium BuxWV 139, in D major. Buxtehude is regarded as perhaps the foremost exponent of the so-called Stylus Fantasticus (Fantasia style), a form that alternates free-rhythm, virtuosic passages with majestic harmonic ones, and imitative sections that would ultimately become the formal Fugues so loved, and so perfected, by Bach.
Our second half opens with what is sometimes-called the Prelude and ‘Fiddle’ Fugue in D minor, BWV 539, usually attributed to Bach. Its Fugue is definitely based on the second movement from Bach’s Sonata for solo violin BWV 1001 (from whence comes its nickname), but scholars are less sure that Bach himself created either the simple Prelude that precedes it, or indeed this fugal arrangement of the earlier tune. Truly, as Bach Fugues go this one is much less formally constructed than for example the one you heard close the Passacaglia in the first half – but it has always been a favourite of mine, and I love playing it quietly and intimately, like a piece of chamber music.
No program of the organ music of either of tonight’s composers would be complete without some reference to the art of Preludes founded on the great hymns of the Lutheran faith, known as Chorales. I have included here Bach’s famous Lenten Prelude of the sobering title ‘O Man, thy grievous sins bemoan,’ and also Buxtehude’s cheerier Ascensiontide setting ‘I thank thee, beloved God.’ Befitting its serious subject material, Bach sets a touching accompaniment to a long, languishing ornamented form of the hymn tune, whereas Buxtehude offers a freely shifting and joyous setting of gratitude in which the hymn tune is much more clearly audible, appearing throughout the keyboard and pedal textures.
Dieterich Buxtehude died in 1707 at the age of 70, two years after the visit of the young Bach. As in the case of similar visits from both Georg Handel and Telemann, Buxtehude was unsuccessful in convincing Bach to become his successor as Kapellmeister to the Marienkirche in Lübeck (a deal which hinged on agreement to marry his eldest daughter Anna Margareta, as indeed had Buxtehude’s own acceptance of the position had hinged on marrying the daughter of his predecessor Franz Tunder). Buxtehude did, incidentally, live to see a successor at the organ of the Marienkirche, the now mostly-forgotten Johann Christian Schieferdecker, who also wed Anna Margareta in the year of her father’s death.
Bach, meanwhile, returned to Arnstadt after not one month, but four months’ absence, much to the consternation of his employers. Within a few months (possibly related to his absence without leave) he was on his way to his next posting at Mühlhausen, already on the long road of his career that would end at the centre of Lutheran theology and politics, Leipzig. He certainly came away from his visit with the ‘Alte Meister’ Dieterich Buxtehude thoroughly inspired, and having copied and preserved several scores of Buxtehude’s music that might now otherwise be lost to us.
We close with two Bach works – not to dispense with Buxtehude, but rather to pay tribute to his influence on his promising young 1705 visitor: the unique Fantasia in G major (also sometimes given the French title ‘Pièce d’Orgue’), BWV 572 and the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, heralded by many as the absolute pinnacle of Bach’s art. Both mature works exhibit the clear influence of Buxtehude’s ‘Stylus Fantasticus’ and yet also Bach’s unparalleled genius with harmony, counterpoint, dance rhythm, and the ineffable.
– Christopher Dawes
This concert is co-sponsored by three aficionados of the pipe organ, in particular, of the splendid Casavant instrument which St. Paul’s United Church is most fortunate to have. Organists Susan Marrier, Bert Rowson, and Elizabeth Ganiatsos are delighted to play a part in making this concert possible.
My heartfelt thanks to all who have supported Consortium Aurora Borealis, both financially and by your presence. We must keep the music sounding! I would like to encourage people to continue supporting us, so that we may survive and grow! I am very happy to say that the programming for our 2024-2025 season has fallen nicely into place. Energized by the enormous success of our recent all-Vivaldi concert, we are preparing another dynamic concert on Italian Baroque themes for March 2025, and this time our fine string ensemble and harpsichord will be joined by soprano Irina Medvedeva, who will sing a variety of Baroque arias with Italian and Latin texts, many of them flashy and virtuosic, including works by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Handel.
Our 46th season opens on Saturday, September 14th, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity United Church just down the road from St. Paul’s United, with Thunder Bay-born violinist Gregory Lewis, accompanied by pianist Paul Williamson, in a beautiful programme of music by Mozart, Ravel, Smetana, and Richard Strauss, performed on his newly-acquired “Miller” Gagliano violin of 1768, on generous loan by the Canada Council for the Arts. The ever-popular Martin Blanchet Jazz Quintet will return on January 11, 2025, and there will be lots more musical treasures coming your way!
More good news for our 46th: We are keeping our season passes at the same price of 7 concerts for only $150, $90 for students. Please check out our website for more information. Subscriptions are on sale as of now, at concerts, and also online. We would love to see you, and encourage you to sign up now!
As a special perk for those who purchase their season pass by June 30, there will be an Early Bird Draw for a gift card for fine dining in the impressive amount of $100, generously provided by Bight Restaurant and Bar.
Now for a plea for assistance: We are in special need of a person or persons with technical skills to take over our website and to help us with a variety of other tasks, both technical, photographic, and otherwise, and for volunteers in general. We must keep our ship sailing, and we now face the challenge of preparing everything well for our upcoming season and beyond.
We are most grateful for the expert and tireless help that we have had up until now. After four years of dedicated service, the person we were fortunate to have filling a multitude of crucial roles, especially technical ones, is stepping down. He is kindly leaving many helpful instructions which may be followed by his successor. We thank him, but we are sad to see him go. Nevertheless, we must quickly move on with a plan, which is the reason for this urgent appeal. Technical support is crucial. We owe it to our audiences not to let the ship sink
Our fine Board of Directors is doing as much as they can, but this is a very earnest request at this time. Many thanks for considering it. Volunteers are so important in our type of organization, and we really appreciate any help that can be offered!
If you are able to help us, or have any suggestions as to anyone who could possibly lend a hand, please contact our President, Hilda Postenka by emailing her: hpostenka@consortiumab.org.
Thanks to everyone for a most glorious 45th Season! Wishing you all the very best, and may you have a most wonderful summer. We look forward to welcoming everyone at our concerts in the Fall!
Warmly, Elizabeth