Music by Dennis
Dennis, the Organist
Dennis Fitzpatrick, around the time of this recital.
The following 3 organ selections are taken from actual recordings made at the time of my Master’s Degree recital at age 26 at Sacred Heart Church in Hubbard Woods, Winnetka, Illinois on May 26, 1963. I was happy when afterward Dean Becker of the De Paul University school of music said, “this is one of the cleanest recitals I have heard.”
Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
The French organist and composer, Jehan Alain’s, most famous organ work is Litanies, composed in 1937. It is often heard as an uplifting postlude in churches worldwide.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
The St. Anne Fugue begins with a subject that matches the first line of the hymn tune known as St Anne (O God Our Help in Ages Past). It is the first subject of the most spectacular triple fugue I have ever heard. Albert Schweitzer puts it best:
“The triple fugue … is a symbol of the Trinity. The same theme recurs in three connected fugues, but each time with another personality.
—The first fugue is calm and majestic, with an absolutely uniform movement throughout;
—in the second, the theme seems to be disguised, and is only occasionally recognizable in its true shape, as if to suggest the divine assumption of an earthly form;
—in the third, it is transformed into rushing semiquavers (16th notes), as if the Pentecostal wind were coming roaring from heaven.”
Ralph Vaughan WIlliams (1872-1958)
Rhosymedre (Lovely) by Ralph Vaughn Williams (English composer) is the hymn tune used by Ralph Vaughan Williams as the basis of the second movement of his organ composition Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes (1941). This peaceful and popular prelude has been arranged for many other instruments.