FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 32/9

sole selling agent. $10.25. This work recalls the style of

Paul Hindemith so closely that it could almost be mistaken

for an outplaced Hindemith. Boleslaw Szabelski (1896-1979)

exploited classical forms extensively, and his catalog

includes five symphonies and other orchestral works. This

piece was composed in 1943, and is now in its second

printing. If it had been composed more recently, one could

only wonder as to the composer's intent, but as a "period

piece," the work raises definite questions as to the

inherent directions, possibilities, and limitations posed to

serious composition in the mid-20th century. If today, we

consider the most diverse tendencies to be best represented

in the works of Bartok, Hindemith, Messiaen, or Schoenberg,

then how do we treat the works of lesser-known composers

whose output just happens to fall squarely into one or

another of these camps? Hindemith laid down his theoretical

tenets in 1937, but it is to many previous and subsequent

masterworks that his true historical significance lies. In

the best of these works, craft and style become secondary to

the distinct human and humanistic attributes that emanate

from a unique artistic personality, and it is precisely from

this perspective that the Szabelski sonata cannot be viewed

as more than a period piece. The technique is solid, and

the organ-writing generally idiomatic, but at almost every

turn, one can imagine Hindemith writing something stronger,

deeper, or wittier. For example, each of the three

movements ends with a reposeful major triad, but in the

outer movements, one gets the feeling that any triad would

have sufficed as well as any other, since the architectonic

scheme is so openended. The first movement contains several

points at which contrasting subsidiary subjects ought to

have been introduced, but in these cases, the new subjects

are barely distinguishable from counterpoints heard

elsewhere. In the slow movement, a middle section aspires

to a dramatic buildup, but is hampered by unison writing and

ill-motivated sequences. The finale is a fugue on a

vigorous subject, but the momentum is lost in block-chordal

writing and unison passagework.