Trilogy on B-A-C-H
for Organ

Details:

"Trilogy on B-A-C-H" (2017) uses as its musical material a familiar four-note theme: the letters B-A-C-H (the last name of Johann Sebastian Bach) treated as a musical motive: B-flat, A, C, B-natural ("H" in German note naming). Starting with Bach himself, this theme has been used by a truly enormous number of composers over the centuries. Most B-A-C-H themed works (at least those for organ), tend to be extremely contrapuntal, likely taking their cue from much of Bach’s own organ music. This piece explicitly goes in the other direction and use the theme primarily motivically/melodically and as a generating force for the kind of mixed modality that is typical of Cooman's music. The first movement is an energetic march. The second movement is a lyric meditation containing both an arioso and a short quasi-passacaglia, in which the B-A-C-H motive repeats slowly in the pedals. The last movement is a free fantasia: the motive appears both in chorale-like long notes and as a fast, turning figure.

Instrumentation: Organ
Duration: 12'
Composed: 2017
Published by: Zimbel Press