Tribe album cover

Tribe: Bach Organ Meditation 3 (2003)

Official Launch: Tuesday 2nd November 2004, Michael’s Music Room, Town Hall Arcade, Sydney.
The Centenary of Australia

Bach Organ Meditation 3

The 1740 Joachim Wagner Organ, Trondheim, Norway

leadership – community – peril – prosperity – reconciliation – millennial eden

Seventeen diverse chorales from Little Organ Book BWV 613-617, 632-644
Concerto in G by Prince Johann Ernst BWV 592
Prelude and Fugue in C major BWV 545
Pedal Exercitium BWV 598
Little Fugue in G minor BWV 578
Prelude and Fugue in D major BWV 532

Running Time 72:28

Designer: Mark Venice
Cover booklet: twenty-four pages in full colour

TRIBE was recorded in Norway during the Millennial Olympic Games in Sydney 2000. The program demonstrates the influence of the great leader Jesus on Sebastian Bach as seen, for instance, in Bach’s piety, creativity and grace. It also illustrates the role of aristocracy as leading caste of the past in schooling Bach’s sense of elegance and dance, and in providing him with stimulating employment through the crucial years from 22 to 38. Such themes relate to basic social realities as experienced today in Australia, a country whose political and judicial institutions, although only one or two centuries old, are amongst the most continuous of any nation.

Harmony amongst the Australian people involves the integration of two cultures peculiarly far apart. One theme of the program is Reconciliation, whether between Man and God, man and nature, or Aborigines and other Australians. The cover booklet repeats the defence of constitutional monarchy staged by the greatest known Aboriginal leader, Neville Bonner, at the 1998 Constitutional Convention – the only speech at the convention to receive a standing ovation.

As usual in this series, novel deductions are made about the date and significance of individual Bach organ works as implied by details of compass, tuning and composition. Tribe also demonstrates the remarkable 1740 Wagner organ of Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, and its appropriateness to Bach’s music.

Registrations

The specification of the Trondheim organ is presented in the TRIBE booklet on page 22.

Hw signifies the Hauptwerk (Great Organ) which is played from the lower manual; Ow the Oberwerk (Positive) on the upper manual; Ped the Pedal. Stops are denoted by pitch in feet as 16, 8, 6 (i.e. 5 1/3 ), 4, 3 (i.e. 2 2/3 ), 2, 1 3/5, 1 1/2 (i.e. 1 1/3) plus type as F for flutes and stopped (‘feminine’) ranks, Q for the Quintedena and Z for reed ranks (Zunge). Indication of type is omitted in the case of principal (‘masculine’) ranks. Pitch preceeds type. S stands for Scharff, M for Mixtur, C for Cornet, Trem for Tremulant. The sign + indicates the addition of a stop en courant (at a rest).

Track

  1. Hw 8 8F 4 – Ow 8F 4F 3 – Ped 8 4
  2. Hw 8 – Ow Q Z Schwebung – Ped 16 8
  3. Hw 8 8F 4 4F 3 2 2F + 8Z Ow Sonne – Ow 8F 4P 3 1 3/5 – Ped 16F 6 4 8Z
  4. Hw 4F Z – Ow 4 4F @8 – Ped 16F 8
  5. Ow 8 4F 1 1/2 – Ped 8 4
  6. Hw 16 8 4 3 2 S – Ped 16F 16Z 8Z 4Z
  7. Hw 4F Trem – Ped 8
  8. Hw 4 3 2 M 8Z – Ped 6 16Z 8Z
  9. Hw 4F 2F 8Z – Ped 4 8Z
  10. Ped 8 6 4 M 16Z 8Z 4Z [i.e. full -16F]
  11. Hw 8F 4F C Trem – Ow 8F Q 4F – Ped 16 8
  12. Ow Q Trem – Ped 8
  13. Hw 8F 4F 3 2F – Ped 16 8 6 4
  14. Hw 8F 4 3 2 M – Ped 8 4
  15. Ow 4F Schwebung – Ped 4
  16. Hw 16 8 8F 4 4F 3 2 M – Ped 6 16Z 8Z
  17. Hw 8 4 3 2 M – Ped 16Z 8Z
  18. Hw 4@8 – Ow 8F 4F 3 1 3/5 Trem – Ped 16 8
  19. Hw 8 – Ped 8
  20. Ow 8F – Ped 8
  21. Hw 8 4F – Ped 8
  22. Hw 8F – Ow 8F 4F Z Trem – Ped 16 8
  23. Hw 8 4F – Ow 4F Schwebung – Ped 16 8
  24. Hw 8 4 3 2 M Ow – Ow 8F 4 2 1 1/2 M – Ped 16Z 8Z
  25. Prelude: Hw 8 4 3 2 M Z – Ped 8 16Z 8Z

Interlude: Ow 8F 4 – Ped 8
Alla breve: Hw 8 Ow – Ow 8F 4 2 – Ped 16 4
Adagio: Hw 8 4 C Ow +S +Z8 – Ped 16 4 8Z +16Z
Fugue: Hw 8F 2F +4 +2 +M – Ped 8Z +4

Bibliography

  • Bonsaksen, Per Fridtjov Die Wagner-Orgel und ein Streifzug durch die Orgelgeschichte des Nidaros Doms (Nidaros Domkirkes Restaureringsarbeider, 1966)
  • Boysen, Bjørn: ‘The Wagner Organ in Trondheim Cathedral, Norway’, Organ Year Book VII, 1976
  • Burger, Angela: Neville Bonner, a Biography (Macmillan, 1979)
  • David, H.T. and Mendel, A.: The Bach Reader (London, 1945, rev. 1966)
  • Edwards, Lynn: ‘The Thuringian Organ 1702-1720: “…ein wohlgerathenes gravitätisches Werk:”‘, Organ Yearbook XXII, 1991, pp.119-139
  • Kilian, Dietrich: Johann Sebastian Bach, Neue Ausgabe Sämtlicher Werke, Serie IV Band 5 und 6, Kritischer Bericht (Bärenreiter, 1979)
  • Kinsela, David: ‘A Taxonomy of Renaissance Keyboard Compass’, Galpin Society Journal LIV, 2001
  • Lohmann, Heinz: Joh. Seb. Bach, Sämtliche Orgelwerke , Band 5, Vorwort (Breikopf & Härtel, 1978)
  • Schmidt, Gernot: ‘Die Orgeln von Joachim Wagner und ihre Restaurierungen’, Organ Year Book XI, 1980
  • Schulze, Hans-Joachim: ‘J.S. Bach’s Concerto Arrangements for Organ – Studies or Commissioned Works?’, Organ Yearbook III, 1972, pp. 4-13
  • Spitta, Philipp: Johann Sebastian Bach , 3 vols (Leipzig, 1873-80; Eng. trans. 1884, R1951)
  • Stauffer, George B.: The Organ Preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach (Michigan, 1980)
  • Williams, Peter: The Organ Music of J.S. Bach , 3 vols (Cambridge, 1984)
  • Wolff, Christoph et al: The New Grove Bach Family (Macmillan, 1980)
  • Wolff, Christoph: Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician (Norton, 2000)
  • Zehnder, Jean-Claude: ‘Zu Bachs Stilentwicklung in der Mühlhäuser und Weimarer Zeit’, in Heller, K. and Schulze, H.-J. (ed.): Das Frühwerk Johann Sebastian Bachs op. cit., pp. 311-338

Acknowledgements

Neville Bonner’s address to the 1998 Constitutional Convention provided by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, GPO Box 9841, Sydney NSW 2001

Proof-reading: Dr Bill Trotter, Jude Sebastien de Angulo, Ewing Wallace, Alec Dingwall, Richard Baker, Robert Parkinson