Fantasia on ‘Agur Jesus en Ama’ - DJB (commissioned by the San Sebastián International Organ Festival, Spain, August 2022), performed on the 1868 Aristide Cavaillé-Coll organ at the church of San Vicente, San Sebastián, Spain.
It was a colossal pleasure and honor to be invited to take part in the 2022 San Sebastián International Organ Festival this week, and to be invited to write a 14-minute commissioned work, based on the Basque hymn tune 'Agur Jesus en Ama’. This well-established Festival enjoys sell-out concerts, partly due to the fantastic publicity machine (flags, larger posters, adverts on the sides of buses, free admission and also that the organ concerts are part of the larger two-week Summer Musical Fortnight). It’s an astonishing feeling, playing a concert in which there are simply no more seats left, 10 minutes before the concert. The stunning organ, in a tribune high-up at the west end and built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1868 (the same year as Notre-Dame), adds up to something far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not a large instrument - only 36 stops - but the sheer range of color and the consummate mélange is nothing short of miraculous. There are dozens of Cavaillé-Coll’s in this part of Spain - he clearly enjoyed something of a monopoly, perhaps a bit like Henry Willis in Cornwall. Some of these instruments are sizable - probably each church wanted a better and larger instrument than their neighbors. Magnificently-restored by Denis Lacorre, it was a marvelous experience to get to know the St Vicente instrument quite intimately this week. No computer can get anywhere close to replicating the feel of the Barker lever action, or indeed the way the pipes resonate with each other in the acoustic. The organ sings in a completely compelling way. My new piece endeavors to show off all the colors of this lovely instrument: Fonds, Récit de Trompette (in which the main theme is wrapped up in a type of homage to Cesar Franck, the great protagonist of Cavaillé-Coll), a Tutti (again inspired by Franck, but through a C21st harmonic prism). There is a Fugue with a big crescendo which leads to an ecstatic climax on the tutti, before subsiding into a bed of Undulants, gently sizzled up by Voix Humaine/Tremulant with extremely naughty chords, before a coda featuring the G.O. Basson 16’, down in the chalumeau register. Every organ should have a 16ft Clarinette. And at the end of the video, a little bit of footage of the amazing things which happen on the San Sebastián beach, when it’s 35c and 80% humidity!
I hope you enjoy my little piece 😎. It’s available, for those who are intrigued, directly from www.david-briggs.org
