SUITE for organ: VOLUNTARY, INTERLUDE, TOCCATA
The three movements of the Suite for Organ were written between Autumn 2002 and Spring 2003, and were premièred one by one by Clive Driskill-Smith over the course of 2003.
The Voluntary was written first, intended as a free-standing but open-ended movement. The Toccata was then added to make a complementary yet contrasting pair, before finally the Interlude was inserted between the two, giving the work more of a continuous overall shape.
All three pieces begin with the emergence and variation of an initial gesture and texture, before building through progressions of much slower-moving harmonic paragraphs towards endings which either retreat into ambiguity (Voluntary), spill over into the next movement (Interlude), or accelerate towards a sort of self-destruction (Toccata)!
SOUND CLIP AVAILABLE:
(Performer: Clive Driskill-Smith)
All programme notes ©Jonathan Pitkin
