FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 32/6

Editions Henry Lemoine (26567 H.L.). The French Classical

livre d'orgue, or suite of pieces organized around

characteristic timbres and textures, remains a useful prod

to the composers imagination so long as it is a

starting point and not an endpoint. This work proudly

eschews any attempt to recreate period music, and speaks a

fully contemporary language within the a priori scheme.

What is essential to the esthetic of such a work, however,

is that the composer depart from classical models when the

musical idea so demands. The first movement, Plain chant en

Taille, sets a cantus in the Pedal Trumpet against a "Grand

Plein Jeu de 16'" in the manuals. But while the motific

figuration in the 17th–18th-century plein jeu is often

merely generic, Rogg places particular insistence upon a

four-note chromatic motif that recurs through many

measures. The second movement is a Duo en canon, where the

use of canon itself would have been unusual in the old

style. The canon is maintained fairly strictly, at the

twelfth, the ninth, and in inversion. The third movement is

a Trio in which a continual shifting of hierarchy between

the voices is here an attractive and necessary feature. The

center movement is a Récit en Taille (for Tierce or

Cromorne), where the récit ultimately rises well above the

accompaniment, and the accompaniment, uncharacteristically,

often consists of simple half-note chords. But these chords

affect a wonderful ambiance within which the heightened

tessitura of the récit becomes downright dramatic. A Fugue

sur les jeux d'anches, for the manuals, follows; it is

marked "hardiment," and the subject contains a tricky

whole-tone run, which the composer suggests can be divided

between the hands. The last chord is an oddly out-of-place

major triad&msadh;a misprint, perhaps? The Récit de Nasard

that follows is certainly far from its classical antecedent,

in that the accompaniment consists only of a succession of

long-sustained chords. The effect is strictly that of a

modern mood piece, but the solo line remains exquisite

nonetheless. The concluding Grand jeu contains a

high-spirited free fugue for the manuals, framed by

boisterous, episodic fanfares. Whether this work would be

apt to sound well given less than the ideally prescribed

French Classical registrations is an interesting question,

and it is possible that some of the pieces might tend to

take on a somewhat more Germanic character thereby.