Meditation No. 1

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Instrumentation

Organ
1

Additional Information

Meditation No. 1 was originally written in 1975 and revised in 2013.  It lasts around 10 minutes and is in one movement.

The work was inspired by some aspects of Olivier Messiaen’s organ music of the experimental period, such as Livre d’Orgue and Neuf Meditations sur le Mystére de la Sainte Trinité. In the case of my Meditation, unlike Messiaen, I use a non-symmetrical mode; although based on a whole-tone scale, I add a semitone to upset the symmetry. The work opens with a series of short motives which gradually expand, interspersed with a solo melody on reeds. This is terminated by a powerful chord which gradually decays.

A middle section develops a threefold counterpoint which continues for much of the piece. After the lower voices descend to the lowest registers, elements from the first section begin to appear in developed form. The work finishes with a chord building up to a powerful chord on full organ.

Details

Year
Publisher
BMIC / Composer
Score file
Minutes
10

Recordings

Performers
A.Hill.
Recording format id
4
Record company
APO