Musical Contribution - January 2013

Theme with Variations in a-minor, George William Henry Faulkes (1863-1933) - We would like to start off with wishing you all a fantastic and musical 2013. We also hope we’ll be able to meet each other on Johannus Orgelbouw’s website every month.

All the Christmas music has undoubtedly been put away again and perhaps you are now on the look out for some new repertoire to get stuck into. In that case I have some good news for you. We will be starting this year off with somewhat of a bigger arrangement than you have grown accustomed to from us.

We don’t know a great deal about the composer. We know when he was born. He has worked and lived in Liverpool throughout his entire life. He was taught by William Dawson. He composed/arranged over 100 organ pieces and died at the age of 59.

The composition in front of you is based on a theme. A beautiful (and typically English) melody, which could have come straight out of a Hymn book. Very rich vocals.

The piece has 3 different sections with a forte registration: the introduction, variation 2 and the finale. I have tried to find 3 different registrations for this myself too. The introduction with a dark colour, variation 2 without 16-foot and with a little more clarity. And the full organ only in the finale.

Faulkes suggested a Clarinet in the theme. But another reed would naturally work fine too. Variation 1 requires flutes, whilst variation 3 really comes into its own with strings.

The composer is certainly very clear where legato, staccato etc are concerned. Do not miss the beautiful voice leading to the centre parties. We are dealing with someone who truly understood his profession here.

I have worked on this with great enthusiasm myself and hope to also programme this piece into my concerts next season.

Your reactions are naturally always welcome. Any other questions, comments and/or suggestions: please do let us know.

Until next time,

André van Vliet