For more than three decades, since the appearance of very radical organ compositions such as those by Bengt Hambraeus (Constellations) and György Ligeti (Volumina), the language of organ music has developed considerably. Although organ sound is often perceived through its religious connotations, many composers have tried to use the organ as a modern concert instrument, as a viable medium for communication today. In Poland, as well as in other European countries, organ music has developed in two directions: as functional, and as independent of liturgical function. This distinction is especially pronounced in Poland. With the Catholic Church playing such a dominant role, the place of music in the liturgy has been strongly limited ever since Vatican II. Therefore, the more interesting Polish composers' production of independent concert organ music has presented itself. Although the most internationally-known composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Mikolaj Górecki have not been interested in writing organ music (with the exception of H. M. Górecki's early Kantata for organ, 1968), the group of Polish organ music composers constantly expands.
After the time of searching for new sound and technical possibilities (in the 1960's and 70's), from the very beginning of the 80's we observe the conversion of the previous relation between aesthetic and technological problems in the process of composing music, resulting in a stylistic synthesis. Different elements have been linked up together: simple and complex, old and new, conservative and radically innovative. Tonality has been combined with cluster technique, monumentalism with intimacy, harmonic principles with sonorous ones. Composers use different techniques and different conceptions, but there is at least one feature in common: they have reinstated the primary role of the expressive factor.
The inauguration of an organ festival which focused entirely on contemporary music (Legnica, October 1986) can be considered--in a certain sense--as the culmination of the decade of the 80's in the province of new organ music. Each year during Conversatorium, as the festival is named, groups of composers, organists and musicologists get together to listen to new organ music and to discuss its problems. In Legnica, several new compositions have been performed for the first time, including those commissioned by the festival's Director, composer and organist, Stanislaw Moryto. Several experimental works for organ and other instruments were premiered, far from the organ in terms of an aesthetic and historical point of view (such as accordions, percussion or saxophone). In 1987 four works for organ and two accordions were presented: Trigonos by Zbigniew Wiszniewski, Conductus by Stanislaw Moryto, Por Dia De Anos by Wieslaw Rentowski, and Intervals by Krzysztof Olczak.1 In 1988, pieces for organ and saxophone: Ordines for saxophone, violoncello and organ by Piotr Grella, Trio for saxophone, organ and timpani by Norbert Mateusz Kuznik, Ab Ovo for saxophone and organ by W. Rentowski and The Painfull Remembrance for saxophone and organ by Wladyslaw Slowinski. The work by Tadeusz Wielecki, The Gestures of Soul, presented in 1989 in Legnica and during the Warsaw Autumn Festival as well, calls for organ, synthesizer, accordion, guitar and percussion. It may be questionable whether this piece still can be classified among organ compositions in the strict meaning, but certainly it is a good example of the new direction in music for organ.
Wieslaw Rentowski, born in Poland in 1953, represents that group of contemporary composers who place equal emphasis on both the traditional and novel aspects of music. He received degrees in psychology (University of Lodz), organ performance (Conservatory of Music, Lodz) and composition (Frederick Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw). He has participated in the Darmstadt International Summer Courses in New Music in 1984 and in master organ classes in Bayreuth, Germany in 1985. He is the winner of several composers' competitions (including the first prize in the 1988 National Competition for Young Composers in Poland for his Wayang for chamber orchestra), as well as a recipient of grants from the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts in 1988 and 1989, the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada in 1989, and the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York in 1990. Since 1990 he has lived in the U.S.A. (recently Dallas, Texas), and in 1996 he received his D.M.A. degree in composition at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Rentowski has appeared as soloist at concerts, lectures and organ recitals in Poland, Germany, Canada and the U.S. His other compositions have been performed many times in Europe and North America (including Carnegie Hall: Lagniappe for 8 instruments, 1991, commissioned by the LSU New Music Ensemble).
As Rentowski is also a concertizing organist, he has a special interest in writing music for organ idiomatically. That makes his organ works extremely difficult and very complex in the technical sense, demanding top virtuosity as well as big concert instruments with rich sound qualities. Previously his organ music (Albebragen, Chorea minor, Ab ovo--see the catalogue of the principal works) brought some interesting innovations such as tremolo of pentatonic clusters moving in opposite directions, fast short strikes with the register "Tutti" while the cluster moves from low to high, and specific changes of registration.2 All these innovations served to enrich the sound, which the composer liked to compare with the sound of electronic music (but not electronic organ!).
But Rentowski is also keenly aware of the historical and aesthetic position of the organ. Although he is very progressive, all his organ compositions contain some traditional elements. In his earliest organ piece, Ekleipsis, written during the last year spent in the composition class of Wlodzimierz Kotonski in Warsaw, a short quotation of the Lacrimosa motif from Mozart's Requiem and the very general tendency towards D-minor tonality were the only signs of the musical tradition. But the work delivers also a specific catalogue of new ideas, cultivated by the composer later, including, for instance a fast change of the manuals with so called "cascade" effect. (See Example 1.)
In the next work, Albebragen, Rentowski used the twelve-tone row of Alban Berg's Violin Concerto as a harmonic and motivic disposition. The row, which in spite of the strict rules of dodecaphony contains several minor and major chords, served as a structural model for different figurative passages or glissando tone-strands. The presence of the row then is noticeable mainly inside of clusters or complex progressions, since it doesn't follow typical dodecaphonic linear texture. The row appears only twice in a linear form, as a quotation in the pedal part. The imitation of the flageolet sound of the violin can be realized through using the 2¢ flute (or octave) coupled from the manual to the pedal part. (See Example 2.)
Albebragen begins with a very fast (Prestissimo) and loud (fff) pulsation of the octaves: d-d, d-e, a-flat-b-flat, followed by the short pedal cadenza. (See Example 3.) Later, this repetitive phrase returns twice, separating longer phases of contrasting pp or p figuration.
Albebragen had its first performance in Legnica, in 1986, by organist Marta Szoka. The piece was also presented by the composer during the 26th Annual Conference of the Society of Composers in Alabama, 1992.
The next work, Piffero, dedicated to Marta Szoka, was performed by her for the first time in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1985. The title is derived from Italian: Piffero (or piffaro), a wind instrument thought to be a thousand years old. The unique sound of the Pan pipe inspired the composer in two ways: first for using a variety of flute organ stops (including 2¢ in the pedal part); secondly for exploring modality. Since the Pan pipe as an instrument is typical of the folk music of Mediterranean countries, the main melodic theme of Piffero is based on the D-minor scale with two augmented seconds: f-g-sharp and b-flat-c-sharp. (See Example 4.) The dreamy-like atmosphere and purely lyrical style of the piece brings us something new after the strongly contrasted Albebragen and its forceful expression. However, both works through their quasi-improvisatory character demand from the organist creative involvement, especially in terms of the sound color (registration) and time organization (approximate duration in some phases). In 1995, Piffero was choreographed as the dance Rivers of Life by Anne Marks and Betty Wooddy.
In the next three works Rentowski took up the very specific problem of combining organ sound with other instruments. The combination of the organ and brass is one of the few in which the organ may fully assert its sound without being compelled to limit its scope to a few, or subdued, registers. Chorea Minor for trumpet and organ, premiered by the composer and Jozef Dejnowicz (trumpet) in 1986 in Lodz, partially hinted at baroque trumpet sonatas. But on the other hand, Rentowski has loaded the parts of both instruments with new technical means, as for instance, a variety of clusters (static and moving) and tremolos or rhythmic manipulations with the "Tutti" piston in the middle of sustained clusters etc. (in the organ part). The trumpet part contains both traditional melodic lines and some motifs typical of baroque style (See Example 5) as well as glissandi, very fast pulsation on one tone, and a chromatic ascending course of figuration, based on the ostinato pattern.
The title of the work refers to the Latin term for St. Vitus's dance, that as the disease syndrome was described for the first time in 1686, exactly 300 years before the piece was composed. But the designation "minor" could be perceived also as a suggestion of the presence of the minor scale. As a matter of fact, the tonality D-minor has a dominant role in the piece, framing all its phases. Two main parts of Chorea Minor symbolize two psychological conditions, typical of the course of the disease.
The first part (Largo) is very slow, static and quiet, with an atmosphere of deep dejection; the second part (Presto), following the trumpet glissando from pianissimo to fortissimo, expanded from F-sharp to the highest possible tone, is full of impetuosity, quick changes and special sound effects. At the end, the short reminiscence of the Largo brings a final stabilization of the D-minor tonality.
The dynamic and coloristic relation between trumpet and organ is perfectly complementary. Although the density of the organ texture (chords, clusters, trills, tremoli) is sizeable, the organ sound never overdominates the trumpet. On the contrary, the sound of the trumpet and organ correlate, especially in those phases where three sound strands are horizontally simultaneous. (See Example 6.) In Chorea Minor Rentowski tried to achieve a synthesis of avant-garde techniques and traditional elements, such as a tonal center and baroque melodic features. But, quite unexpectedly, the strongly emotional and expressive character of the piece indicates also a new area of the composer's inspiration: late Romanticism, with special reference to the music of Gustav Mahler.
Although Chorea Minor is linked with the musical past in some ways, the works for organ and accordions, as well as for organ and alto saxophone, seemed to be unique at the time of their composition. It must be emphasized here that in the last decades in Poland the accordion has been emancipated from a typical folk-dance music instrument to a modern one. For a long time a synonym for musical triviality, recently it has found a place in the conservatory of music education, as well as in contemporary concert life.
The saxophone, on the other hand, is perceived mostly through its jazz associations. So, both the accordion and saxophone are fairly far from the classical organ tradition, especially distant from the religious context of organ sound, so fundamental in the European tradition. Rentowski was perfectly aware of all these implications, although, above all, he tried to shape his new sound ideas.
Por Dia De Anos for organ solo and two accordions, was premiered in 1987 in Legnica by the composer--as organist--and Zbigniew Kozlik and Krzysztof Olczak playing accordions. Since the accordion and organ possess the same abilities to produce unlimited sustained sound, and they can similarly play chords and polyphony, the combination of their sounds can be shaped in a layered manner. Rentowski gets at the effect of dynamic intensity flow through different types of texture, including a variety of performing techniques. Some of these appear already at the very beginning of the piece; e.g. moving diatonic clusters, and a structure of fast extension of interval size: from a half-tone to the ninth. The traditional category of motif or theme, as a fundamental structure for organizing musical form, does not exist here. Instead, the composer has built the sound texture of flowing layers with changing density and contours, one overleaping the other, sometimes vanishing, sometimes returning. This sort of technique results in form without breaks or distinct demarcations between successive phrases. Therefore, Por Dia De Anos seems to be a continuum of loosely connected musical ideas.
The material for building clusters, chord structures, and sound layers is derived from three scales: diatonic, pentatonic, and whole-tone. The lack of both strong contrasts and aggressive dissonant sounds is matched by the playful, serene character of the piece. This character has as its other source a combination of the static, solemn sound of the organ and the lightness and mobility of the accordion part. Certainly, after the very emotional expressivity of Albebragen and Chorea minor, Por Dia De Anos presents a new stage in Rentowski's organ music.
The continuation of this stage is set in the next piece, Ab Ovo for alto saxophone and organ (two performers), premiered in 1988 in Legnica by Krzysztof Herder (saxophone), Marta Szoka and Wieslaw Rentowski. The exploration of new sound and performance techniques in the organ part here provide ways to improve the unique possibilities of playing with four hands. Both organists have the pitch range (low and high) and one manual assigned. Therefore Ab Ovo is playable even on a small tracker organ with two manuals and without any registration aids. The composer has expanded several forms of simultaneous play on two manuals, linking together chords, clusters, figuration, and even polyphony. (See Example 7.) Quite often one of the sound layers is a compound of static structure, while the other one is of ostinato motion. (See Example 8.)
The organ part does not exceed conventional keyboard technique. In contrast, the saxophone appears richly. The most interesting is using its natural technical possibilities, such as fast scale courses, extended figurations, extremely high and low tones (indeterminate pitch), very fast repetition, glissandi, and so-called "combination tones," which means non-harmonic "unmusical" sound. (See Example 9.) But the saxophone is used also for its lyrical and melodic qualities. Then the alliance with a jazz idiom is the most distinct. (See Example 10.) Of course, it is not simple pastiche, since the idea of Ab Ovo is much more complex. But numerous sequences with syncopation, free, quasi-improvisatory form of the piece, and the very characteristic sound color of the saxophone, with typical "entry" solo cadenza, are a manifestation of jazz influence.
Another source of inspiration is revealed in quasi-baroque motifs and polyphony in the organ part (See Example 7). The repetition of a single tone A in the pedal part that opened the piece, returns after the climax (See Example 9). This makes the whole form more clear and similar to a ternary form. Ab Ovo has an atmosphere of its own; lyrical rather than dramatic, with the soft sound of the saxophone, and harmonic language subdued through the several tonal and modal sings. Five years passed before Rentowski composed his next organ piece, and eight years since his last piece for organ solo. New Orleans Magnificat (1993) was premiered in 1994 by the composer himself in Montreal, during a concert sponsored by the Faculty of Music at McGill University and the Department of Music at Concordia University. (First European performance was given in 1994 by Prof. Andrzej Chorosinski--who also commissioned the piece--at the XIX Internationale Studientage für Neue Geistliche Musik, Sinzig, Germany.)
The work is based on the opposition of modal, tonal and chromatic features. Modality is represented by the Gregorian theme that opens the composition. Since the latter returns several times, the form of the piece resembles a rondo form, although without classical regularity. Tonality marks a presence of tonal centers: first it is A-flat major in a trill sequence, later F-minor that determinates the climax section (Presto possibile and Prestissimo). (See Example 11.) The tonal element plus ostinato technique and some rhythmic patterns are common in New Orleans Magnificat and Ab ovo. But there are also many differences. New Orleans Magnificat brings some idiomatic organ sound obtained through trills, tremolo, pedal glissando, fast chromatic passages, and so-called "cascade" cluster glissandi, done across three manuals from up to down (compare Example 12 and Example 1). In terms of pedal technique, Rentowski requires here also double play in extended intervals above two octaves (C-sharp-g1). With regard to technical innovations, New Orleans Magnificat refers to earlier works of Rentowski, as for instance Ekleipsis and Albebragen. Moreover, this is also music of high contrasts and powerful expression. However, New Orleans Magnificat is the first organ piece written by the composer in America, as a special "hommage à Louisiana." The question arises immediately of whether there are any noticeable signs of something new, of the influence of American music or New Orleans tradition on the compositional style of Rentowski. But before anyone can answer, let us examine Rentowski's newest organ work, In Nomine, for organ and orchestra. It was written in 1996 and has not yet been performed.
The work is in three movements: Allegro - Largo - Fugue, and resembles the classical concerto. Both the organ part and orchestra have been handled conventionally in terms of instrumental technique and notation. There is no further exploration for new effects or unusual sound combinations. On the contrary, the organ part has been written moderately and it does not demand extraordinary virtuosity.
In Nomine is based on an original scale, called by the composer, Gamma. The scale resources are related to the concept of "open tonality" which in general reverses the function of the traditional dominant and tonic. As the composer explained, "In traditional tonal system, the dominant functions as a single channel that leads to only one predetermined resolution (tonic). This concept assumes the existence of an open channel (open Tonic) that leads to many different resolutions (predominants). Because "predominants" are related to and based on different representative scales (not on chords), the system creates an open universe of equally important tonal levels that have a freedom of coexistence."3
It is not my purpose to present a detailed analysis, but let us state here that the first part, Allegro, introduces the main melodic theme, based on Gamma (See Example 13), and then transposed from f, g, a, a-flat, and later from d, e-flat and f. Fugue has its own theme. (See Example 14.) In the middle section of the fugue it appears in a stretto with the theme of Allegro. Another melodic line is the basis for Largo, where the organ solo creates a mysterious atmosphere with only tympani and chimes.
Certainly, In Nomine shows attributes of a classical composer's technique to an extent never before seen in Rentowski's production. Using classical forms and textures, as well as recalling the dominant role of the melodic factor and well-tried harmonic and orchestral principles, the composer consciously accomplished a radical simplification of his style. It is difficult to say if now it is more "his own" style than before. Probably, American audience expectations and quite different views of organ music history and aesthetics could bring Rentowski to propose something new. He has come a long way from Ekleipsis to In Nomine, and it seems to be a very consistent journey. I hope that my short review will stimulate readers to get acquainted with the very interesting organ music of Wieslaw Rentowski.
Wieslaw Rentowski's Organ Works
Ekleipsis for organ (1984), recorded by Polskie Nagrania and West Deutsche Rundfunk.
Albebragen for organ (1985), recorded by Polonia Records 1994 (CD 020), score available from Astra, Lodz (Poland) and Conners Publications, Baton Rouge, LA.
Piffero for organ (1985), published by Conners Publications.
Chorea Minor for trumpet and organ (1986), commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Society, Lodz, Poland; published by Agencja Autorska, Warsaw, Poland.
Por Dia De Anos for 2 accordions and organ (1987), recorded by Sonoton, Germany; published by Pro Nova Sonoton, Munich, Germany and Pomorze, Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Ab Ovo for alto saxophone and two organists (1988), awarded a prize at Polish National Composers' Competition, Warsaw 1989.
New Orleans Magnificat for organ (1993), recorded by Polonia Records 1995 (CD 057), published by Conners Publications.
In Nomine for organ and orchestra (1996), published by Conners Publications.
