FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 33/7

Selah Publishing Co. (160-513). For the benefit of the

contextually minded reader, it should be noted that this

piece is a three-page excerpt from an oratorio, The Glories

of God's Grace, commissioned as a memorial by David Schaap

for performance by the Hymn Society of America at its 1997

convention in Savannah, Georgia. The oratorio is written

for organ, harp, brass quintet, choir, vocal octet, and

congregation, and the present piece plays the role of a

boisterous praeludium to an unaccompanied chant setting of

a Pentecostal biblical text. As a self-standing organ piece,

a similar sequitur (such as the ancient plainchant itself)

will probably be desirable, since the tonal effect at the

conclusion is really that of a half-cadence. Easy to play,

but impressive to hear, each successive phrase of the Veni

Creator appears in the pedal, interspersed with whole-tone

runs (and later, chromatic arpeggios) divided between the

hands. Except at the beginning, the writing is fortissimo

throughout. As for the title, the term "improvisation" is

used here only as a character name, since the piece was

composed in regular fashion, and is not an instance of

l'improvisation écrite. But it could well serve as a bold

starting point for improvisors, who might wish to follow

through (for Pentecost Sunday, of course) with additional

variations of their own, taking the final half-cadence (on

an E-flat chord) as a springboard. Should the composer himself

elect to do likewise in his subsequent writing, then this would

make for an excellent first movement of a suite.