Healey Willan (1880 - 1968)
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue, Op. 149
Benjamin Sheen, organ
Recorded live at the Cathedral of the Madeleine
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Eccles Organ Festival, 26th Season
13 October 2019
ecclesorganfestival.com
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Willan claimed to be English by birth, Canadian by adoption, Irish by descent, and Scottish by absorption! After serving as organist in a handful of London churches, he immigrated to Toronto in 1913 and served as organist at St. Paul’s Anglican Church which housed the largest organ in Canada, a four-manual Casavant. This organ, along with Reger’s Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor, inspired his celebrated 1916 Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E-flat Minor. The key was allegedly chosen because Willan was learning Rheinberger’s Sonata No. 6 in the same key. The Introduction, marked Adagio, begins mysteriously with five, chromatic chords over a ubiquitous descending chromatic bass followed by several declamatory chordal passages, quick improvisatory manual bravuras, and jolting modulations, finishing with the mysterious progression from the beginning as a transition into the Passacaglia. Willan wrote one Passacaglia variation each day while traveling between Toronto and his summer cottage on Lake Simcoe. He described Variations 1-8 as “somber in character,” beginning with the theme in canon. Variations 9 and 10 are “of a scherzo type” including harp-like arpeggio chords. Variations 11-17 present a gradual increase in rhythm and dynamics (Baroque French overture and funeral march with tubas and drums), then a soft 4/4 chorale-like variation in E-flat major acts as a bridge into the Fugue. The fugue subject is derived from the Passacaglia theme. The grandiose finale of the Fugue and, indeed, of the whole work, is an animated passage in E-flat major of contrapuntal virtuosity followed by the triumphant Nobilmente passage-the 19th variation of the Passacaglia-where the theme is played in canon against the pedal and a countermelody sounds on the tubas. (From the concert program notes, by Kenneth Udy)
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